2 Peter 1

Intro

Good morning and welcome everyone again. Over the last 5 weeks we have broken open the first letter of Peter to the churches in Asia Minor and by extension, and by God’s providence, us. We were reminded that we born again to a new hope and that because of that we were called to live holy lives. The second week continued with this idea of holy living and that we are to build our lives on the cornerstone, jesus christ, the one that the builders rejected. And that through like jesus we are rejected by the world and made living stones that for the sake of God we are to submit to authority and ultimately remember Jesus’ own submission. Week 3 we looked at how wives are to submit and what healthy submisison looks like, as well as the husband’s roll submitting to christ. We will encounter pain and suffering in this world and some of it will be by persecution or by self infliction, but ultimately God has a plan. We learned about what it looks like to suffer as a christian, how to be stewards of God’s grace and how we are to guode and help each other.

These next 3 weeks we will be in the second letter of peter. His audience is the same but at a later time. He is still writing to the dispersed church in asia minor but for a different reason. In the first letter he is specifically writing to encourage and instruct on suffering and holy living. 2 Peter is encouragement and instruction for discerning false teachers and false doctrine. He doesn’t just show us the counterfeit, but he also shows us the real thing. Lets dive in to the first chapter.

What is Ours

2 Peter 1:1–4 NET 2nd ed.

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.

We will be going in a couple sections to try and cover the ground neessary. What ever doesn’t get covered will be discussed on Wednesday nights in our bible study.

But to open we get this beautiful entry showing us who our righteousness is, Jesus. We have this beautiful reminder of our faith and who it’s in, Jesus(look). The word faith here is used in a twofold fashion. One is the fact that we have been granted saving faith in Jesus, the other is that we share in the Doctrinal faith. Meaning, that is the goal is to discourage false teaching, Peter is going to start by encouraging correct thought.

How many of you know of the Secret Service? How many of you know that the Secret Service is in charge of protecting us against counterfeit money and financial frauds? When I learned that I was mind blown. What was interesting is the training method employed for sorting through counterfeit money. As they are training they don’t show them the counterfeits, but only show them the real deal. The idea is this, the more time they spend with the real thing, the more likely they will know a counterfeit without even trying to spot it. I read a subreddit from different bank tellers sharing their stories and the consensus is spot on. Most of them were able to catch a counterfeit on feel, and when the machine caught before them, they would put it back in astack and test themselves to feel it. there are different batches of fakes, just like with our faith, there are different fakes.

Different apostles and different letters combat different heresies and fakes. 1 John came after docetism, that Christ did not have a real or natural body during his life on earth but only an apparent or phantom one. Paul chased out salvation by works in Galatians. There are many more but In this letter it is believed that Peter is combatting an early version of Gnosticism. Gnostics believed that Jesus was a divinity but not the divinity and though he created this earth and assigned to this world, he wasn’t the only one in existence. And if any of you are into apologetics, this will sound similar to another Jesus based religion, that we don’t currently have time for. Another portion of gnoticism is that they throw away the importance of the life in the flesh. Meaning that their goal is only the spiritual gain and the material doesn’t matter. But we see time and time again, that God in scripture tells us otherwise.

In the verses we just read we see that Peter is taking care of the spiritual aspect. He is encouraging and reminding us of the great promises we have because of JEsus christ, who in verse 1 he calls our “God and Savior”. And the beauty is that he is reminding us of the great gift of salvation that only comes from God and ultimately how in that salvation we are given everything we need through for life and godliness.

The Christian’s Work

2 Peter 1:5–11 NET 2nd ed.

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.

Fooooooof…come on now. Do I really have to keep preaching after reading this?? The reason I say that is cause it’s so complete! These beautiful things in this to-do list are gifts. Things that are being added to us little by little. and it is by the showing of these things that we have assurance of our salvation. Meaning this, That we are not saved by these virtues, but because we belong to God and have his indwelling spirit, he gives us these things That we might feel secure. When we think of the old saying, God help me cause this is old now, “show me the receipts” because someone was asking you to prove something. It’s similar to James 2 and how he saying that faith without works is dead and that we are justified by works, not justified before God but before eachother. we prove ourselves justified to ourselves and to each other.

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 1

We grow in our assurance of our election and salvation as we see spiritual fruit in our lives.

And yet another commentary had this to say:

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 1

The order of virtues here (“faith … love”) is not a sequence in time, as if stages of the Christian life were being described (vv. 8, 9). Peter is using a rhetorical figure that builds a series of elements to a climax. The beginning and conclusion of the series are significant, however. Early Christian virtue lists often begin with “faith,” the starting point of the Christian life, and end with “love” (Rom. 5:1–5; 1 Cor. 13), the preeminent fruit of the Christian life. These fruits reflect God’s character

This is where we see God prove gnosticism wrong. All these virtues are experienced externally and for the good of others. The things we do in this world have eternal consequence, because they bring people to the fold of God and help them see his goodness through how we love. I can never stop quoting

John 13:34–35 NET 2nd ed.

“I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”

Some other facts that I love to remind people and myself of. 6 of the 10 commandments are referring to our relationships with one another. Even the deep dive of the law in Leviticus 19 sets up something called the Gleaning Law.

Leviticus 19:9–10 NET 2nd ed.

“ ‘When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the resident foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., is attributed with the quote “Some people are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good.” And I believe that he is referring to “christians” who spend more time separating themselves from the world than being helpful in it. While even christians quote this, I want us to think about what scripture teaches. And If I were to boil down is this. We are to be so heavenly minded that it should affect our worldly relations. Our God, who is far holier than we can ever imagine, so loved the world that he gave his only son. You don’t think that made an earthly impact??

Reminder and prophecy

2 Peter 1:12–21 (NET 2nd ed.)

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. Indeed, as long as I am in this tabernacle, I consider it right to stir you up by way of a reminder, since I know that my tabernacle will soon be removed, because our Lord Jesus Christ revealed this to me. Indeed, I will also make every effort that, after my departure, you have a testimony of these things. (I’M GONNA COME BACK TO THIS)

For we did not follow cleverly concocted fables when we made known to you the power and return of our Lord Jesus Christ; no, we were eyewitnesses of his grandeur. For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: “This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted.” When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain. Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you do well if you recognize this: No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

I’m not going to deep dive this last portion so much but There are somethings I will pint to. First is the allusion to the transfiguration where peter, james and john witnessed firsthand Jesus relationship to the Father and the fact that God the Father verified him by saying

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 17:5.

And in these verses Peter is confirming that as sure as he heard the voice of God and as sure as words from the OT prophets mouth were directed by God’s Spirit, so too these written words are of the same authority.

which is why I wanted to come back to the earlier verses.

2 Peter 1:12–15 NET 2nd ed.

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. Indeed, as long as I am in this tabernacle, I consider it right to stir you up by way of a reminder, since I know that my tabernacle will soon be removed, because our Lord Jesus Christ revealed this to me. Indeed, I will also make every effort that, after my departure, you have a testimony of these things.

This is our Jobs as preachers. It is to remind you and remind ourselves of the the great treasure we have in christ and how to live to heavenly minded that God is glorified through our love for each other and our love for the world.

Charles spurgeon is famously quoted saying:

“The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.”

This includes all leaders in the church. All our activities must be to that end, to make christ known. How is what we’re doing helping Christ be known in our lives, community and all over the world.

Unbeliever, I pray that you heard these things and have heard the voice of God calling you as He has called us. This call is not for us alone, but for the world.

brothers and sister take heart in that we have been called, saved and are being sanctified to reflect christ in this world. His excelleance, perseverance, knowledge, slef-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection and ultimately unselfish love. I struggle with all of these things, but by God’s grace and Spirit, I, Like you, are being carried home by his spirit.

What gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer There is no more for heaven now to give He is my joy, my righteousness, and freedom My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus For my life is wholly bound to His Oh how strange and divine, I can sing, "All is mine" Yet not I, but through Christ in me