The Parousia & God's Witnesses

Sermon 418 St. Martin’s 172 (Riverway) 2/15/26

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

2 Peter 1:16-21

From the earliest days of Christianity, a question was raised by those who lived across the Mediterranean world, far from the Sea of Galilee or the confines of Jerusalem, and it’s a question that continues to be raised today: Can we trust the testimony that has been given to us?

Anyone who has read the Bible seriously and tried to live out its commands has at some point asked themselves, “Okay, is this thing real? How can I know?” This is a question we begin asking when we’re teenagers and one that likely pops up from time to time throughout our lives. 

But it’s not a new question, like I said, the earliest believers were asking it.  Those first churches were formed because of the missionary journeys of the apostles. These communities were made up of Jews and Gentiles, who brought their different backgrounds, customs, and cultures into this fledgling new family of faith. But that faith was dependent on the preaching and teaching of those who walked with Jesus himself.

It was one thing to entertain a traveling preacher and hear what stories they told from the far east; it was a whole other thing to give your life over to the one this preacher claimed was king of the world.

Understandably, it was a big leap for many people. They were changing their lives in very significant ways merely on the testimony of one or two people who just happened to come through their town.

But the early church faced a problem: most Christians at the time expected Jesus to return any day. Maybe he had gone to heaven to catch his breath, or to rally the heavenly hosts before his return, but they were confident that his return was imminent.

It was a part of the apostles’ teaching as they went from town to town. The return of Jesus (and the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth) was just beyond the horizon, but it was certainly coming soon.

They used the word Parousia to refer to the coming day of the Lord Jesus Christ. These churches around the Mediterranean would have known that word, because it originally meant that a god was coming to visit a city and would judge the faithful and the wicked who dwelt therein. The Parousia was what the Old Testament prophets had called the Day of the Lord.

We all know what happened. The Parousia didn’t happen, and life just continued on.

A delayed return didn’t make any sense, from an early Christian’s perspective. Jesus had conquered Sin, Death, and the Devil on the Cross, and his resurrection was the first sign of this new and glorious age he was ushering in. The end of all things had come because Israel’s long-awaited messiah had arrived, judgment day was near, and the restoration of all things would naturally follow.

A delay was not part of their end-time equation, and the longer the gap grew between Jesus’s ascension and his return, the more it led some to doubt the whole apparatus of the apostles’ teaching and the faith they had put in it.

People began to wonder—like many of us wonder—what’s taking Jesus so long? Can we even trust the testimony that has been passed down to us?

2nd Peter

That’s what Peter was addressing in his letter. He and his fellow apostles were not telling some “cleverly devised stories” when they went around preaching the Good News. They weren’t pawning off “sophisticated myths” as the Greek translation says, or “a bunch of mumbo jumbo,” as I would have translated it.

No, they were not trying to deceive people with strange stories from back east. Far from it! They were eyewitnesses to the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ. They couldn’t have come up with a myth this good if they tried!

We have to give ancient people some credit; they weren’t dumb or easily deceived. We like to think we’re a lot smarter than first-century folks, but this story of a God-man who died a horrible death, only to rise, and would one day come again to make the world right, was a big leap of faith, even for people back then.

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And so you can feel Peter’s earnestness in this letter. “These are not myths or fables I’ve shared with you,” he says, “rather we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” The Gospel writer Luke begins his Gospel by stating that he is writing an “orderly account” of what has taken place. He has done his research and checked his sources.

Peter, too, in this epistle, wants to ensure the members of these churches that the message he preached to them is based on verified events, things that he had personally witnessed. He checked his sources because he was the source!

And what’s amazing is that Peter links the anxiety about the delay of the Parousia to what he saw years ago on a mountain. What we just read is the only time outside of the gospels that Jesus’ transfiguration is mentioned.

And Peter is saying, “I have seen the fullness of Jesus’ glory, the glory that he will be robed in at the end of the age. I am an eyewitness to what is to come at the Parousia, and I have heard the voice of God confirm that Jesus is the Son of the Most High God.”

Peter’s testimony is backed up by what the prophets foretold long ago, and at each moment, Jesus proved again and again he was who he said he was. Peter believed in Jesus and told his congregations to believe what he saw.

What Peter saw on that mountain was more than anyone could fathom. It was a re-enactment of Mount Sinai, when God’s presence covered the mountain, and he gave Moses the Law. It also foretold of the next time Jesus would be high and lifted up, the next time on a cross.

But to Peter’s point, he understood Jesus’ transfiguration indicated what he would be like at the end of the age. No matter how long Jesus was delayed in coming back, Peter had the image of Christ in all his glory on the mountain seared into his mind.

Peter’s words are clear: “What I have told you is the truth, so be attentive, keep the faith, and keep your lamp burning until the morning star returns.”

Inheritors of Faith

I have been thinking a lot about how we are inheritors of the faith we have. We have been given this faith in Christ, first by the Holy Spirit, of course, but someone had to show us the way, to teach us what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

That may have been someone like a pastor, a youth leader, or someone associated with the church, but 9 times out of 10, I would venture to say, the people who have shaped our faith the most are those we are closely connected to, either a family member or friend, a classmate, or a coworker. Likely someone we live life with and see regularly.

The message that Peter and the apostles spread throughout the world is now ours because someone has shared it with us. It has been prayerfully (and lovingly) passed down the generations, and now, by God’s grace, it is ours.

People heard the Good News and, over time, began writing it down repeatedly. Communities collected these manuscripts as if they were precious jewels to pass them down to the next generation. It was a faith worth passing on.

We can be confident in what we believe because it is based on people who knew Jesus, who walked with him, who ate meals with him, who saw him die and rise again—and for three very petrified men—they saw him robed on a mountain in the glory and power that he will be clothed in at the end of the age.

This is not a cleverly devised myth; this is not a bunch of mumbo jumbo. This is the faith that has been entrusted to each of us. Jesus said:

 “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.[i] 

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”[ii]

“[It is] like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

The point being: the gift of the kingdom is precious. It is worth all that we have and more.

We may not have been with Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, but we are still eyewitnesses to God’s kingdom work in our lives, in our community, and in the world. As dark as things get in our country and in our world, Peter reminds us to keep our lamps shining in the present age. It is a faith worth keeping alive.

Even today, in this room, we are all blessed by the witness that we share. Each of us is a link in a chain, a member of Christ’s Body, and an inheritor of a gospel that saints in every generation have passed down to us. And in heaven right now, they are cheering us onward, to keep the faith and believe in their testimony until it is our time to join them.

The Parousia may be a future event, but Jesus consistently spoke about the present reality of the Kingdom of God.

The Church is not a building, it is not a pastor, it is not the programs we offer, it is the collective body of witnesses who, though they have not seen the Lord Jesus with their own eyes, have trusted in the testimony of the apostles and have committed to living as members of Christ’s kingdom—in the here and now—until the Lord brings heaven to earth.

It’s more precious than pearls and treasure, but in whose shade we find our rest.

So, can we trust the testimony that has been given to us? Yes, because you are the testimony.

[i] (Matthew 13:45–46)

[ii] Matthew 13:44