Remember These Things - Renewing Your Mind

Summary

Podcast Summary: Renewing Your Mind – “Remember These Things” (March 29, 2026)

Overview of the Episode

This episode of Renewing Your Mind features a sermon by Dr. R.C. Sproul, focusing on 2 Peter 1:12-18. The central theme is the importance of remembering and repeatedly being reminded of the truths of the Christian faith—truths grounded in eyewitness testimony, not myth. Dr. Sproul explores Peter’s insistence that believers be continually reminded of the gospel, especially as Peter approaches the end of his life. The Mount of Transfiguration is examined as a crucial moment of divine revelation, and the necessity of repetition in spiritual growth is emphasized.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Ministry of Reminding (02:00–05:30)

Repetition in Scripture: Dr. Sproul notes that Peter, even knowing his audience is “established in the present truth,” insists on reminding them “always” about core gospel truths (03:40).
- “I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.” (03:45)
Why Repetition Matters: Learning by repetition is how truths become deeply embedded, akin to waking a deeply sleeping child - repeated, insistent reminders are needed to rouse Christians from spiritual slumber (07:15).
- “We not only have to hear things, but we have to retain the knowledge... through repetition.” (05:55)
- “The force of this is that we are people who fall asleep, and in our slumber we are unconscious to these holy things. So Peter says, I figured... I need to give you a wake up call.” (07:29)

The Imminence of Peter’s Death (08:30–11:00)

Metaphor of the Tent: Peter’s use of “tent” for his body reflects the transient nature of human life and echoes Israel’s nomadic history (09:20).
- “He referred to his body not as a house, but as a tent... always looking for a place where they could have roots” (09:27)
Preparation for Departure: Peter wants to leave a permanent reminder after his death, possibly referencing the epistle itself or, as Irenaeus claimed, the Gospel of Mark (11:31).
- “Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.” (11:00)
- “So maybe that’s what Peter was thinking about. I’m writing this down on paper so that you will have a reminder... even after I’m gone.” (11:32)

Eyewitness Testimony vs. Myth (12:00–16:40)

The Christian Message Is Not a Myth: Peter makes a clear distinction—what apostles taught was not “cunningly devised fables” but facts they witnessed.
- “We did not follow cunningly devised myths or fables... but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (13:00)
- Sproul: “We don’t teach cunning myths, but we declare to you what we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears.” (13:25)
Parallel with Other Apostles: Paul also appealed to eyewitness evidence, not abstract ideas, especially regarding Christ’s resurrection (14:10).

The Mount of Transfiguration (16:41–21:45)

Real Event, Real Glory: Peter points to the transfiguration of Christ as the moment they saw His divine glory firsthand, not as a reflection but as something emanating from His deity (19:40–21:20).
- “On the Mount of Transfiguration, when the countenance of Christ began to shine, it was not shining with a refracted glory or reflected glory... but something bursting out of him from his very deity.” (21:00)
- “We heard the voice of God audibly on that holy mountain. We’re not telling you legends, fables, or myths. We’re telling you the sober truth of what we met in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (22:10)
The Divine Voice: God’s declaration, “This is my beloved Son. Hear him,” was audibly received by Peter, John, and James (21:15).

The Necessity of Constant Reminders (23:15–23:50)

Why Peter Repeats Himself: The truths witnessed are too critical to be left to memory alone—they must be reinforced again and again for the Church’s encouragement and perseverance.
- “These things... are too important, too precious to let you forget. So I’m going to remind them to you. I’m going to tell them to you again and again and again.” (23:35)
Confident Departure: Peter, assured by his experiences and faith, is unafraid of death—his “bags are packed and I’m ready to go” (23:50).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Power of Repeated Reminders:
“If I didn’t repeat it, I would be being negligent. And that’s why we have to hear these truths over and over again.” – Dr. Sproul (06:05)
On the Nature of Christ's Divinity:
“It was not shining with a refracted glory or a reflected glory... It was something bursting out of him from his very deity.” – Dr. Sproul (21:00)
On Eyewitness Testimony:
“We’re not telling you legends, fables, or myths. We’re telling you the sober truth of what we met in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.” – Dr. Sproul (22:10)
On the Assurance in Facing Death:
“My bags are packed and I’m ready to go.” – Dr. Sproul (23:50)

Timestamps for Key Segments

02:00 – Repetition and teaching in Scripture
05:30 – Wake-up call: rousing to spiritual vigilance
08:30 – Peter’s “tent” metaphor and his imminent death
11:00 – Written reminders: the Epistle and the Gospel of Mark
13:00 – Eyewitness testimony versus myths
16:41 – The Mount of Transfiguration and the glory of Christ
21:00 – The voice from heaven: “This is my beloved Son”
23:15 – The persistence of reminders for the Church
23:50 – Readiness for departure and ultimate assurance

Tone and Style

Dr. Sproul’s approach is pastoral, warm, and deeply reverent toward Scripture’s authority. He draws on personal anecdote, biblical analogy, and theological reflection, always returning to the necessity of remembering the gospel’s core, historical truths.

Summary for New Listeners:
This episode serves as both an exposition of Peter’s last words and a charge to all Christians: do not grow weary of repetition. The truths of the faith—rooted in real events witnessed by the apostles—are preserved and passed down because of their central importance. As Peter faced death, he wanted above all to leave these reminders firmly implanted in the Church. Listeners are encouraged to see their faith as anchored in historical, eyewitness testimony and to embrace the regular, loving reminders of the gospel as a source of strength and assurance.

Transcript

A (0:00)

But on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the countenance of Christ began to shine, it was shining not from something bouncing against him from the outside, but it was something bursting out of him, from his very deity. And when that cloud enveloped them, and they were terrified, they heard the voice coming from heaven. This is my beloved Son. Hear him.

B (0:36)

The Bible is not a book of myths, fairy tales, or exaggerations. The stories of the Bible are true. When Peter says that he beheld the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ, he really did. Through his own eyes, in real time and space, the Apostle Peter, along with others, beheld the glory of the God of the universe. Welcome to the Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm glad you're joining us today. These past few Sundays we've been studying two Peter Chapter one, and today we come to the conclusion of our short series. So if you've not yet requested a copy of R.C. sproul's expositional commentary on first and second Peter, be sure to do so at renewingyourmind.org but be quick, as this offer ends at midnight tonight and it will not be repeated next Sunday. Well, Peter beheld the glory of Jesus, but how should that affect our Christian lives today? Here's Dr. Sproul to explain.

A (1:41)

We're going to continue with our study of the second Epistle of Peter. Peter and I will be reading from chapter one, beginning at verse 12 through verse 18. For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, for as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. This passage begins with Peter's giving an explanation for what preceded this statement. The things that we examined most recently of the importance of our making our calling and election, sure that we may be fully enabled to work out our sanctification manifesting the various fruit of the Spirit. And I mentioned to you last week that the way in which Peter emphasizes these things is not at all unlike the similar emphasis found in the writings of the Apostle Paul. And that may give us pause. And we might ask, why does Scripture repeat some of its themes again and again? Why do we have four Gospels and not just one, when much of the material that is contained in the four Gospels is found in all four of them? Well, I think we get something of a clue to that in what Peter says here. He said, for this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always, not to remind you from time to time, but the reminder of which he speaks is one that is consistent and constant. He said, I don't want to be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. I know you know these things, not only that you know them, but you are firmly established in them. So why in the world would he find it necessary to be so repetitive to remind people over and over and over again of these same truths of which they're already aware? On my way to church this morning, I had some anxiety about the sermon I had prepared because I had contained within it two illustrations that I know that I have given before in this church. And my justification for using them was twofold. On the first, I thought, well, this congregation has grown so much in the last few years that probably most of the people who would be here for the morning worship service would not have heard these illustrations. And secondly, I thought even if they have heard them, they've probably forgotten them by now. And I learned long ago as a teacher that if we are going to learn things, we not only have to hear things, but we have to retain the knowledge that we receive. And how does that customarily happen? It usually happens when the things that we study, we study over and over and over again. And I really believe that's how we learn, through repetition. At least that's what Peter is saying here. He says, I, if I didn't repeat it, I would be being negligent. And that's why we have to hear these truths over and over again. And Peter goes on to say, yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you the word that is used here is the word that is used when somebody has to roused somebody from sleep who's deeply in sleep and doesn't want to wake up. You know those situations when your kids don't want to get out of bed. And you have to shake them and shake them and say, get up. And the force of this is that we are people who fall asleep, and in our slumber we are unconscious to these holy things. And so Peter says, I figured that as long as I'm still in this tent, I need to give you a wake up call. I need to rouse you from your slumbers, to call you to vigilance in working out your faith. Now, in this passage, as the Apostle Paul did in his second letter to his beloved Timothy, Peter is announcing his imminent departure from this world. He realized that his days were growing short, that his death was at hand. And he had been ministering to these people through these many years. And now there's this new sense of urgency because he was about to die. But as he's saying to them, before I die, I want to remind you of these things again and again. The metaphor that he uses, I think is somewhat fascinating. He says, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as the Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Isn't it interesting that he referred to his body not as a house, but as a tent? And he's writing to Jewish people who understood the transgency of their history, that they were a semi nomadic people, always looking for a place where they could have roots, where they could have permanence, where they could have stability. And yet in the entire history of Israel, what they call the Pax Israelia, the peace of Israel, had lasted in toto less than a hundred years. They were a nation always in upheaval, always in transit, never being able to send down roots. And so it was fitting that this Jewish man writing to other Jews would look at his body not as a permanent dwelling place, but as a tent. And Peter said, it is time for me to move, to pull up the stakes. He didn't see himself as passing out of existence, but he saw that what was about to happen would be just simply moving from one place to another, packing up his tent and going home, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Now, there are different ways in which that part of the verse has been translated and interpreted historically. One is that Peter is referring to Jesus example, how he showed his disciples not only how to live, but also how to die. But a greater number of exegetes argue that what the force of this text is saying is that not that Jesus showed him how to die so much, but that Jesus had revealed to him that the time of his Death was nigh. In verse 15, he says, Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. Now he keeps talking about reminding them of the things of God and of the truths of the Gospel. And again, some commentators think that this illusion here in verse 15, when he says, I want to do something, that will be a perpetual reminder that maybe he had in mind this very epistle that he wrote. You know, sometimes we act as if the Bible came down from heaven on a parachute and that it wasn't written by real people in real places, in real history. And I've often wondered what Paul thought when he got to heaven, what he thinks now when he was removed from active ministry and thrown into prison, and all he had time to do was write some letters. And the greatest impact on the world that he ever made was not through his missionary journeys, but through his pen. And so maybe that's what Peter was thinking about. I'm writing this down on paper so that you will have a reminder of what I'm teaching you even after I'm gone. Irenaeus. Later on, one of the early church fathers quoted this exact verse and attributed it to Peter. Some skeptics don't believe that Peter wrote this. Irenaeus did. And Irenaeus thought that what Peter was referring to in verse 15 was not this epistle, but the Gospel of Mark, which was written where Mark basically served as a secretary for Peter. We could just as easily call the Gospel of Mark the Gospel of Peter. So perhaps Peter had in mind, at least according to Irenaeus, something even with greater grandeur than this epistle, the entire Gospel of Mark. Whichever it was, he was able in his care to make certain that even to this day, we have a reminder of these things. Now, verse 16 changes the basic thought here in the text, although it's not unrelated to what has gone before it. But Peter makes this declaration that's extremely important. First, by speaking in the way of negation, when he's talking about the message that he has been proclaiming, he wants to explain what that message is not and where it has not come from before he speaks about what it is and where it has come from, he says, for we did not follow cunningly devised myths or fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesties. Other translations say it this way, that we don't teach cunning myths, but we declare to you what we have seen with our eyes and what we have heard with our ears. Some of the other gospel writers make the same declaration that they are passing on to us in their writings. Not folklore, but things of which they had firsthand experience. When Paul gave his case for the resurrection, First Corinthians 15, he showed first of all the biblical evidence which should have been enough for the resurrection, but then went on to recite the appearances of Jesus to the 12, then to 500 people at one time. And then finally he said, as one born out of due time, he appeared unto me. I saw him. I heard his voice. He spoke to me in Hebrew on the road to Damascus. Now, when Peter says that they were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, it's not difficult to discern what specific event in the life and ministry of Jesus to which he was referring. Listen to what he we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when. Well, when such a voice came to him out of the excellent glory, out of the majesty, out of the glory. Do you remember when John writes his prologue to his gospel? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then he goes on and he said, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and we beheld his glory. Is there really any doubt about what John was referring to there and what Peter is referring to here, than that event that took place on the mountain of transfiguration? I've always thought to myself, if I had been blessed to have been alive during the earthly ministry of Jesus and would have been able to have been an eyewitness of the things that he did, the miracles that he performed. I guess the number one thing I would have liked to have seen would have been the resurrected Christ. But very close to that would have been the transfiguration. When on that occasion, after they had withdrawn from Galilee into the mountains and Jesus was preparing himself and his disciples to return to Jerusalem to be handed over and killed, he went aside with the inner circle of the disciples Peter, James and John, and suddenly Christ was transfigured in front of them. The Greek word for that is metamorphosis. This profound change instantly came over the countenance of Jesus, where his face became radiant, effulgent and as bright as the sun. And his clothes were whiter than any fuller could make them. A fuller was a professional cleaner. And before their very eyes they saw this transformation and they saw this radiance of divine glory shining from Christ. Remember that during the Incarnation. The incarnation, in a real sense was a veil of the divine nature of Christ. Go back to the Old Testament when Moses was on the mountain and he asked God for the big one. Lord, let me see your face. You know what happened at the Red Sea was fantastic and witnessing the plagues was remarkable. But please, I know no one has ever seen your face, but I want to see your face. God said, as if to Moses, Moses, you know what you're asking me, don't you remember? No man can see my face and live. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll carve a little cleft in the rock over here and I'll place you in the cleft of the rock. And I will allow my backward parts to pass by just for a second. But my face shall not be seen. And when Moses had that momentary brief view of the back of God, Moses face began to shine with an intensity that no human countenance had ever exhibited. Because before realize that when Moses face shone, it was shining with a reflection of the divine glory that had just walked by him. That God's glory was bouncing off the skin of Moses, as it were. And it took quite a few days for that radiance on his face to fade away. But on the mount of Transfiguration, when the countenance of Christ began to shine, it was not shining with a refracted glory or a reflected glory. It was shining not from something bouncing against him from the outside, but it was something bursting out of him from his very deity. And when that cloud enveloped them and they were terrified, they heard the voice coming from heaven. This is my beloved son. Hear him, listen to him. I'm pleased with him. And Peter is saying, I saw that. John saw that, James saw that. We heard the voice of God audibly on that holy mountain. We're not telling you legends, fables or myths. We're telling you the sober truth of what we met in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember? Peter didn't want to leave. He wanted to build a booth. One for Elijah, one for Moses, one for them. That they could stay there, live on the mountaintop, bask in the ecstasy of this vision of the glory of God. Jesus said, forget about the booth. We have to go to Jerusalem. And there I have to die. At which point Peter uttered his first papal encyclical, betraying his lack of infallibility when he said, this will never happen. It happened. But he saw that glory. He saw it on the mount of Transfiguration. He also saw it on the Mountain of Ascension. These things, what Peter is saying is, are too important, too precious to let you forget. So I'm going to remind them to you. I'm going to tell them to you again and again and again. And because I saw them and because I heard them, I'm not worried about putting off this tent. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go.