Final Week-Lessons with the Rock Apostle

2 Peter 1:1–12 NET

From Simeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, have been granted a faith just as precious as ours. May grace and peace be lavished on you as you grow in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord! I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love. For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately. But concerning the one who lacks such things—he is blind. That is to say, he is nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing this you will never stumble into sin. For thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you. Therefore, I intend to remind you constantly of these things even though you know them and are well established in the truth that you now have.

SWTRBC - Final Week - Lessons with the Apostle Peter

For many weeks now, under the leading of Holy Spirit, we’ve been on a journey to discover the path of true transformation which can only be found in a relationship with Jesus.

We’ve discussed the conditions of the heart and the ownership that each one of us must take in the renewal process.

I heard it said this week that “God isn’t trying to accommodate your mind, he’s trying to renew it.”

That sure sounds good but it isn’t sound teaching because if God is trying to renew minds he’s not very good at it and that makes God look a lot less like the Father that I know and love.

God doesn’t TRY to do anything!

God accomplishes everything, in complete fullness , all that he determines and desires.

To suggest anything less is a lie, it’s a sly heresy that can creep into our thinking and cause us to not see God for who he truly is.

The Father has always wanted a family, a people that would be partakers in his Divine Nature and would be o-Laborers & Co-Creators with him in His good creation.

The Apostle Paul teaches us that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifice and if you remember, we talked about the the problem of that living sacrifices have with crawling off the Alter.

God invites us in the renewal process and as the Apostle Peter has been teaching us for weeks now, WE must engage, intentionally and cooperatively with Holy Spirit.

Peter, the Rock, the Slave of Jesus and the Apostle of Jesus has shown that we who are in Christ Jesus have been made partakers in Jesus’ Divine Nature.

We are not merely human anymore and if we aren’t merely human, what are we?

We gotta stop looking at ourselves and blaming all our sin and weakness on a human nature that we have been ransomed from by the Blood and Sacrifice of Jesus.

I mean, if Old Things have past away and Behold, all things are new and we are a New Creature, New Creation in Christ Jesus, then why we keep wanting to be merely human?

Peter has taught us that we have been given EVERYTHING needed for real Life and godliness and that we access to this through the rich knowledge of Jesus.

We have been given precious and magnificent promises in Jesus and have been given the power to escape the corruption of this world that is produced by evil desires.

It was for this reason Peter said that, we must take the initiative and make every possible effort, in costly cooperation with Holy Spirit to supplement our faith with excellence, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness and last but certainly not least Brotherly Affection and Unselfish Love.

Lifetimes could be spent discussing the depths of God’s Love and it effects on us and yet the surface would merely be scratched on that subject.

Peter started this list with Faith and he ends it with Love.

Paul, in his famous discussion with the Corinthian believers concerning love, in 1 Cor 13:13 says this

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Apostle John teaches us in 1 John 4:20 that it is impossible to say I love God and not love your brother or sister in Christ.

Jesus himself taught that in John 13:35

That everyone would know that we were truly His disciples, if we loved one another.

When we love one another, we bear each others burdens, we seek to build each other up in faith, we don’t allow cultural norms or racial barriers to dictate how we relate to each other, the world does not define our relationship ...the Gospel does, our relationship with Jesus defines it.

What God expect to be formed in us is what the Apostles called Agape’

Unselfish Love

My Brother Mike Green said

This word agapē is one Christians for all intents and purposes coined, to denote the attitude which God has shown himself to have to us, and requires from us towards himself.

In the friendship (philia) the partners seek mutual solace;

in sexual love (erōs) mutual satisfaction.

In both cases these feelings are aroused because of what the loved one is.

With agapē it is the reverse.

God’s agapē is evoked not by what we are, but by what he is.

It has its origin in the agent, not in the object.

It is not that we are lovable, but that he is love.

agapē might be defined as a deliberate desire for the highest good of the one loved, which shows itself in sacrificial action of the Lover for that person’s good.

That is what God did for us (John 3:16). That is what he wants us to do (1 John 3:16). That is what he is prepared to achieve in us (Rom. 5:5). Thus the Spirit of the God who is love is freely given to us, in order to reproduce in us that same quality.

For men will never believe that God is love unless they see it in the lives of his professed followers.1

1 Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 18, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 90.

As Jesus was preparing his followers, his friends for the days the tough days that were about to come, he says this tom them.

John 15:13

No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends.

In a recent conversation with a close brother, who I have had a pleasure of watching grow in Christ for the past few years, we spoke about this idea.

It would be easier to make a split second decision to take a bullet for a friend or give your life, you last breath to protect and save the life of another, than it is to LIVE a life that was daily marked by an Unselfish, Sacrificial heart thought put other’s ahead of ourselves.

Such a life, one lived for the blessing and benefit of others more than the pursuit of our own dreams and desires is almost frowned upon in today’s culture.

I think it’s important for those who follow after Jesus, to recognize that before he gave his life on a Criminal’s Cross, before suffer the brutal torture, beatings, humiliation and mockery of that day, before he sweat blood in the Garden from the thoughts alone of what he was about to face, before he confessed to our Father, “Not my Will, but yours Be done”,

He lived for us!

He lived a life that was not his own. He did not pursue his own dreams, desires or passions, but instead lived a life in complete obedience to the will and plans of his Father.

Hebrews 10:5

 For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. So when he came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.

“Whole burnt offerings and sin-offerings you took no delight in.

“Then I said, ‘Here I am: I have come—it is written of me in the scroll of the book—to do your will, O God.’ ”

Jesus tells us in

Matt 16:25

 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

I’ll close this series with a passage from Paul’s letter the Philippian Church

Phil 2:1-11

2:1 Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, 2:2 complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. 2:3 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. 2:4 Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. 2:5 You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had,

2:6  who though he existed in the form of God

did not regard equality with God

as something to be grasped,

2:7 but emptied himself

by taking on the form of a slave,

by looking like other men,

and by sharing in human nature.

2:8 He humbled himself,

by becoming obedient to the point of death

—even death on a cross!

2:9 As a result God exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

2:10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow

—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—

2:11 and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

This...Is what the Rock is cooking.

But, the recipe...that came from the Father and was taught to Peter by the Son, Jesus.

Peter witnessed, with his own eyes everything!

One of my favorite movies is The Last Samurai

In the last scene, as Lt. Algren approaches the then Emperor of Japan to present to his Kasamoto’s Sword; the emperor asked Algren to tell him how Kasamoto died.

Algren looks him in the eye and says “I will tell you how he lived”

Peter wants us to know deeply and confidently how Jesus lived and then he wants to know that we expected to live just like Jesus did and that everything we need to accomplish this, has already been given to us.

Now that you sat at this table, you are without excuse.

Please, don’t get trapped in the fog of cultural religion.

Determine today in you heart that you will pursue a the same mind that was in Christ, that you will pursue a life that models his, that you will live as he lived, and know that all you need to accomplish this is already in you..if you are in Christ.

Blessing

Until next week

24 ‘May the Lord bless you

and protect you.

25 May the Lord smile on you

and be gracious to you.

26 May the Lord show you his favor

and give you his peace.