Why? Because that is what St. Peter would do as he says in 2 Peter 1:12 through 2 Peter 1:15 12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

I am also going to retell the facts of this event and their significance because maybe there is someone receiving this who is not that well acquainted with this event and because it is vitally important even when we know something to pay attention to what the Bible says. It is through the Word of God that God himself strengthens our faith and our assurance of heaven.

Pay Attention to the Word of the Prophets

1. These are not just Clever Stories.
2. These are the Words of God.

Peter summarizes the Transfiguration of Jesus with these words:
17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” This is a reference to the event recorded in Matthew 17:1-9. On this occasion, just before the sufferings and death of Jesus, we are told that Jesus appeared in radiant glory on a mountain with two key Old Testament people: Moses (the law giver) and Elijah (a great prophet). Jesus talked with them about his upcoming sufferings and death. He appeared in glory to show that he is true God. This was confirmed by the voice of God himself as he confirmed the sonship of Jesus.

How did Peter know what happened on that day? He was one of the three eye witnesses. (John and James were the other two.) He saw firsthand that Jesus is true God and was assured of this.

But not everyone back then believed what he was saying was true. Therefore, Peter emphasized that he did not follow cleverly invented stories (as other religious teachers did or as they were perhaps accused of). He was an eyewitness and simply retold what he had seen.

Appropriation: Through his eyewitness account we too can journey to that sacred mountain and see our Lord transfigured (changed) before us. As we approach the Lenten season and focus on his sufferings, we get a foretaste of the glory which he would receive at his resurrection and which
he has now in heaven. This is the glory he had set aside during his state of humiliation on earth.

But is it true? Did Jesus really appear in radiant white on a mountain with two men who had long since departed from this world? (Moses by death and Elijah by a chariot of fire.) And were the accounts of Moses and his miracles and Elijah and the miracles he did true too? They all seem so fanciful. What makes them different from the stories of Greek and Roman mythology or the modern day fairy tales of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings? In fact, there are many
“theologians” who go to great lengths to discredit, explain away, and flat out deny the miracles of the Bible and the supernatural events in the life of Jesus.
For example: William Barclay, a noted commentator on the Bible, has this to write about the birth of Jesus:
This passage tells us how Jesus was born by the action of the Holy Spirit. It tells
us of what we call the Virgin Birth. This is a doctrine which presents us with many
difficulties: and our Church does not compel us to accept it in the literal and the
physical sense. This is one of the doctrines on which the Church says that we have full liberty to come to our own conclusion.
Maybe you have fallen prey to some of these attacks on the Word of God and have your own doubts as to the veracity of these events?

Well, I can’t prove from my own experience that these things really happened. But I do take the word of someone who was there. Peter reminds us that he was an eyewitness. He also confirms the truthfulness of the Bible when he writes:
19And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay
attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men
spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

St. Paul also refers to the verbal inspiration of Scripture when he writes to Timothy.

2 Timothy 3:16 through 2 Timothy 3:17
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Our belief is that the Bible is inspired by God. His Holy Spirit gave men throughout a 1500 year time span the exact words to write using their own language, vocabulary, and style to tell us about God and what he has done for us as well as his many promises. We are convinced that the Bible is the sole standard for our faith, teaching, and guide to life. We don’t have the right to pick and
choose what is true or false as William Barclay and others do
How do we respond to this Word of God?

Here we find ourselves as conflicted people. For responses to the Word of God are varied–some God pleasing, some sinful. Jesus tells us in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed how people respond to the Word of God:
14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word,accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”

There are those who pay no attention to the Word of God, those who regard it as nothing more than pious myths (cleverly made up stories), those who think they know it all and don’t need to be reminded, those who refuse opportunities to grow in the knowledge of God and to get to know
Jesus better.

On the other hand, there are those who listen to God and who meditate on it day and night,believe that this is true, teach the Word to their children, and do as Peter says by paying close attention to it. What amazes me every now and then is when I talk to “unchurched” people who have a deeper hunger for the Word of God than those who are in church on a regular basis.
Should we not all have a deep hunger for the Word and seek times to hear again that “old, old story”?

What about you? I really don’t know exactly what you are doing in regard to the Word of God? There are some outward signs such as your body language when I am preaching or your attendance at Bible Class or whether or not you have religious literature in your home. But I can’t see what is in your heart and I don’t know to what degree you meditate on God’s Word day and night as the Psalmist encourages us to do.
But I do know what God wants us to do

He wants those who have the Word to share it as Peter did even if we are only “preaching to the choir” .
12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has
made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
Paul also gives this charge to preachers of the Word when he writes to Timothy.
11Command and teach these things. 12Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are
young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not
neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.