But Wait, There's More!

The main event is only about eight hours away now – the spectacle that comes only once per year is almost upon us. Oh, sure, there will be a game and a half time show, but we all know that the high point of today is going to be the advertisements.

Most of them will be funny, some of them may even relate to the product their selling – but the thing that they will all have in common is that they will each cost more money than 90% of us will make in a lifetime. At $3,000,000 for 30 seconds, someone earning $130,000 a year would take more than 40 years to pay for it. It is clearly not within our means to reveal a message in this fashion – but is within theirs.

All of this money, of course, is spent for a single purpose. Madison Avenue wants to highlight a lack of something – They want to you to think that your life just isn’t complete without their beer, their car, or maybe even their internet registration service. I think it’s safe to say that you aren’t going to see anything that says – sit back, relax, and enjoy the fact that you already have everything you need.

And yet, our text this morning comes from a book that is going to make just that point. A backwater fisherman named Peter had 30 seconds of Jesus – and he understood in that moment of magnificent metamorphosis that we already have a power and a promise that propels a life to significance.

Peter is going to start his letter with a pretty bold statement – Jesus Christ has already given you everything you need for life and godliness. Let me say that again – Jesus has already given you what you need. Let me suggest to you quite plainly that if you know how to read, you can read this book – and this book has the power to change you. This book is not a myth – it is the basis by which we are changed into a state where we can be like Christ. It tells us how we can be made completely whole!

And yet, too often, we live as those advertisers hope – wondering if maybe we’re missing out. I think it’s understandable – but Peter wants us to understand that we can be sure that we have everything we need, because we have a prophetic Word made all the more sure by the power of what he himself has seen.

So, this Super Bowl Sunday, as we prepare to be dazzled by what the World says we need, I’d like to take a minute a reveal to you some of the spectacle of what we already have. Our text this morning is going to reveal that because we have had a vision of Christ, we can understand the power and the promise of Christ, and amazingly even know the Will of Christ.

But understand this too – an advertisement wells up want within you in order to make you go out and acquire something. Christ who has already given you all that you need will naturally compel you to an action to. When you understand how much you have been given, you should be compelled to share it. But before we get to the catch, let’s understand what we have.

The Vision of Christ

Peter is going to start with an event that he personally witnessed many years ago. He was out with James and John on a mountain, when all of the sudden, Jesus changed. His face began to glow, and the same Spirit that spoke at his Baptism came through and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I well pleased.”

The Gospel also says that Jesus’ appearance becomes completely changed. The Greek word is ‘metamorphe’ – changed in the same way that a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly. Changed in the same way that this same word promises us that if we are in Christ – We are new a Creation! Peter had a vision of Jesus – a vision of his coming to us and seeing what He would make of us.

You know on Wednesday, we are going to begin Lent, and to start it off, we’re going to take a day to literally wear ashes – the debris that is left after a cremation – symbolizing the death that we so are accustomed to. In one sense, it isn’t normal in the slightest – but the reality that we proclaim is more real than what passes for everyday life.

We do something extraordinary in order to proclaim the reality that the wages of sin is death. But Jesus, who for 30 years had been wearing the ashes of a body, and for one brief moment wore the Kingly Body that was the reality of who He is. It wasn’t normal, but it reflected the reality of who Jesus was.