God’s Gifts for Our Transformation

2 Peter 1:1-4

Everyone who meets Jesus is changed by Him. Some are driven further from God. Others are drawn nearer to God. Many of us experience both! One of Jesus’ earliest followers experienced both!

Peter initially was drawn to Jesus. When Jesus said, ‘Follow Me,” Peter and his brother, left everything - family, business, community - and spent the rest of their lives learning what it means to ‘Follow Jesus.’

Peter, in particular, expresses how the call to ‘Follow’ Jesus is so potently transformational.

For example, in Matthew 16 there is an account of Jesus beginning to explain that His role as Messiah/Anointed One would lead Him to suffering and even death. Peter’s initial response was to rebuke Jesus!

Matthew 16:22 (HCSB)

“Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to You!”

The cross was the purpose for which Jesus came. The miracles of healing and feeding were not Jesus’ primary assignment. Yes, multitudes gathered wherever Jesus was to see and experience for themselves this powerful miracles.

To respond to Jesus’ call to ‘Follow’ though is not about performing the miraculous. Rather, as Jesus made explicitly clear this is what it means to respond to His invitation:

Matthew 16:24 HCSB

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

We also read of Peter denying Jesus three times as Jesus was undergoing trial by various groups prior to the crucifixion.

We also know of Jesus’ tender restoration of Peter recorded in John 21.

So, Peter knew of what he wrote in the passage I want to examine this morning:

2 Peter 1:1–4 HCSB

Simeon Peter, a •slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have obtained a faith of equal privilege with ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.

Through knowledge...

Twice in this brief preface to Peter’s letter he mentions God’s gifts that are ours ‘through’ or ‘in’ the knowledge of G0d (vs 2,3).

Many people - some who call themselves believers, or followers of Jesus, have a head knowledge of God. Listening to teachers, reading books by popular authors can give ‘knowledge.’

That’s not the ‘knowledge’ that transforms. Peter is speaking of a head knowledge that is seeping into heart knowledge, information that is working it’s way into the very way we think, the choices we make, and the life we choose to live.

Musicians are often encouraged to make a piece of music ‘their own.’ It doesn’t give the performer the right to change and rearrange the composers intent. Rather it means learning all one can about the composer, the condition of his or her life when writing, trying to discern the purpose of the piece. Then the piece - when performed - becomes ‘owned’ by the performer.

In a similar way the knowledge of which Peter writes is

a). the very source of God’s peace and grace.

We all know people - godly people- who seem unfazed and unaffected by even the most difficult experiences. Like the Apostle Paul, they are able to say -

Philippians 4:11 HCSB

I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

b). through knowledge of God as made real in Jesus, we have everything we need.

It is as we learn about God that we discover the depths of His power, the breadth of His promises, and purpose of conforming us to the image of Christ.

The Power We Need

There is a great deal of discussion about the ‘power’ grid. Politicians and policy makers are constantly reminding us that petroleum/oil can no longer be our primary source for power.

In the western United States we depend upon hydro-electric power - water that is dammed up, turns huge turbines that create electricity.

With the instability of oil prices, with the drought that impacts our water supply, we are being warned that there is coming a time when we can no longer depend on those sources.

Peter reminds his readers that the power on which we rely is as deep and wide as God is in Himself.

This power, as Peter himself experienced, is more than sufficient for ‘everything’ we need.

The original language of the NT uses the word ‘panta’ which means...’everything!’

Peter does, however limit this power of God. The power God grants us is all sufficient for specific things:

life

godliness.

When an individual comes to first ‘knowing’ about Jesus, they experience a new birth - that which Jesus described to Nicodemus, a learned Pharisee and teacher in his own right. Jesus said

John 3:3 HCSB

Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5 HCSB

Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

This ‘knowledge’ that brings life is more than sufficient to sustain life - not just temporarily, but for eternity.

Godliness...

As one scholar notes,

1, 2 Peter, Jude 1. Divine Provision (1:3–4)

Only God can make people godly.

There is nothing you or I can do to ‘create’ godliness in our lives.

There is a powerful illustration of this in Acts 19.

Listen to Acts 19:11-16

Acts 19:11–16 (HCSB)

God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, so that even facecloths or work aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!”

Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul—but who are you?”

Then the man who had the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.

Paul KNEW God! These seven sons of Sceva had NO true knowledge of God, no godliness.

The Purposeful Call

Remember Jesus’ call:

Matthew 4:19 HCSB

“Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!”

When people respond to the presence of Jesus by choosing to follow Him, He begins to work a purpose in their lives.

The call of God as heard in Jesus is truly an expression of God’s own ‘glory’ and ‘goodness.’

The glory of God is biblical shorthand for describing the majestic and overwhelming presence of God.

His goodness is an expression of His unlimited grace.

Have you ever stopped to think where you might be had God not called you to Himself through Jesus?

The purpose of the call of God - the expression of His presence and power - is simple:

Romans 8:29 HCSB

For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

To be ‘conformed’ to the image of His Son. Circumstances often challenge us to wonder what’s going on.

The answer is always: God is at work through the circumstances of our lives that through the circumstances we might more accurately reflect the image of Jesus.

Folks, the world around us is dying and going to hell because far too many Christians are more concerned about being conformed to their favorite athlete, their favorite teacher, their favorite movie/tv star.

The Power of Promises

All of us know the heartbreak of broken promises. Maybe it was a parent who promised something on which they failed to follow through.

Maybe a friend who made one too many unfulfilled promises.

We have even made promises we could not keep.

Peter describes God’s promises with two adjectives:

-’great and precious’ the Greek word is ‘mega’ - in this instance μέγιστα - ‘very great, very magnificent....

Notice though, the purpose of these promises:

-to share in the divine nature.

In other words, to be conformed to the image of Christ!

God’s resources are not given for us to simply use for our own enjoyment. Rather, His promises are the tools and resources He gives by which He conforms us to the image of His Son!

to escape the corruption in the world fueled by evil desires.

Many are trying to escape the powerful pull of sin through all sorts of self-discipline, self-mastery and so on.

They will fail.

Only the Holy Spirit indwelling believers who know Jesus, who are growing in their knowledge of God, who are relying on the powerful promises of God will escape the powerful pull of sin.

TRANSFORMATION

I’ve been amazed as I’m re-reading the gospels how people were drawn to Jesus - and how people were repelled by Him.

In His hometown, after sharing a life-altering message regarding the presence of potential of God’s Kingdom, many tried to stone Him - assuming He was crazy.

Landing on the shores of a Gentile area a demon possessed man - who immediately knew the presence and power of God in Jesus- was dramatically transformed.

Yet when the neighbors heard of the transformation, they begged Jesus to leave their community.

You and I have a choice to make as well.

Jesus is still calling ‘Follow Me.’

Following Jesus may mean going back into a hometown that doesn’t understand - as the man possessed man was instructed to do.

Following Jesus may mean abandoning your current pattern of life and going wherever He leads.

Regardless of the assignment, the resources are the same.

Knowing God - not just having access to facts about Him, but having a daily interaction, a daily relationship that sustains all the rest of life.

Relying on His power - for most of us relying on His power means being overwhelmed by circumstances beyond our control, yet choosing to live purposefully -

2 Corinthians 12:8–10 (HCSB)

Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me.

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.

So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Seeing all of life through the lens of God’s purpose:

In order to follow Jesus, like those early men and women, we must let go of anything or anyone that might hinder God’s purpose of conforming us to the image of Christ.

When a sculptor approaches a piece of stone or marble his or her task is to remove all the stone or marble that doesn’t belong.

The finished work reflects hours of labor, hours of chipping away of all the material that doesn’t belong.

That is exactly what God is doing in our lives today.

Through circumstances God is removing all that doesn’t belong, all that doesn’t conform to the image of His Son.