Untitled Sermon (2)

Therefore I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have. I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder, since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me. And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure. (2 Peter 1: 12-15) Here we see that the man Jesus called to leave his life of fishing at the sea of Galilee so many years ago has heard the call of his Lord once again. This time, Jesus has not called him to leave behind fish; this time, following Jesus will require Peter to leave behind sheep, the sheep Jesus, himself, had told him to feed. The Lord has made it clear that Peter will soon be laying aside his earthly life to depart for home. He knows, with certainty, that death is upon him. But, this pending reality does not mean that Peter is done feeding the Lord’s sheep. The now aged apostle has undoubtedly picked up a number of skills over the years, but it doesn’t appear that quitting was one of them. Because he makes it clear that he is going to use any time and effort he has left to wake up the sheep and make sure that his final words will continue to keep them awake after he has departed. That means, in a very real and applicable sense, Peter wasn’t only addressing the sheep of his day; he was also addressing any others who would follow after. What Peter left behind wasn’t simply for his original readers … it was for you and me as well. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, what is written in the first 11 verses of 2 Peter is a wake up call from a brother who wanted you to experience an abundant joy-filled life that radiated the glory of God, and he knew exactly what we needed to remember in order to live it. So, if you are interested in experiencing an indescribably satisfying life that continually thrives in the riches Christ Jesus has lavished upon you, I invite you to join me in examining what Peter left behind to keep us awake in the light of Jesus Christ. Listen to Peter’s parting words. “Simeon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received a faith equal in value to ours bythe righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you by the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord because, on us, his divine power has bestowed everything necessary for life and godliness throughthe knowledge of the one who called us by means of his own glory and virtue throughwhich, on us, his priceless and great promises he has bestowed so that through these you may become sharers of God’s nature being freed from the moral decomposition that is in this world because of lust. For this very reason, make every effort to supply your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For, if these are yours and are multiplying, they make you neither useless nor unproductive in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the one who does not have these things is blind, being shortsighted, having received forgetfulness of the cleansing of his former sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be even more zealous to validate your calling and election, for if you do these things you will never lose your footing. For, in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Did you hear what Peter said? Are you awake to what our brother is telling you? Are you enjoying a life that is multiplying in grace and peace by knowing and showing God, who has made you and restored you to himself by his own power and glory that you may share abundantly in the liberating excellencies of his very nature?! … or are you asleep in the light that Jesus Christ is shining upon you? The reality is, if you do indeed possess saving faith in Jesus Christ, you probably go back and forth, and Peter knew that would be the case. So, he made it his dying priority to leave behind a reminder that you are meant to walk awake to the reality of who our God is and what he has done. So, wake up and remember that God has given you a full faith. “Simeon Peter, a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received a faith equal in value to ours by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ.” Peter makes it clear that those who have received faith, eyes to see and believe the reality of who God is, have received it in full measure. Faith is a gift from God and God does not give deficient, ineffective or incomplete gifts. If you have received God’s gift of faith, you have received the same faith that Peter received. You have received the same faith all the other apostles received. You have the same faith of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Ruth, David and Mary. You have the same faith of every saint who ever has and ever will receive the grace of God. The same faith that has worked in other believers to make much of our Lord is the very same faith that you have received. Wake up and remember your faith is full and without deficiency! Wake up and remember that you have received this full faith by the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ. “… those who have received a faith equal in value to ours by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ.” This faith is not contingent upon you. It has been provided by the righteousness of Christ. You had nothing to do with receiving it other than the fact that you are the recipient who was in need of it. It did not come by way of what you’ve done and it does not remain because of what you will or will not do. It came and it remains by way of who Jesus is and what he has done. And, because Jesus always has been and always be fully righteous, the source of your faith will always be fully flowing for you to embrace and receive in fullest measure. Wake up and remember that your faith cannot fail because it comes from the righteousness of Christ that can never fade. Wake up and remember that your life can thrive in ever-increasing satisfaction by knowing God and Jesus our Lord. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you by the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord …” Grace and peace to you was a common greeting in the early church. It appears early Christians combined the common Greek greeting, “grace to you,” with the common Jewish greeting, “peace to you,” to form their own hybrid salutation. The sentiment behind the Greek greeting was to wish one prosperity or favor. The sentiment behind the Jewish greeting of “peace” wasn’t simply a wish that one would experience a lack of conflict or turmoil; it was a wish that one would experience the satisfying peace that comes from thriving in what it means to be rightly human according to God’s design … very much in line with the beatitudes you see Jesus offer in the Sermon on the Mount. The wish for peace was a wish that you would flourish in proper humanity. In 1 Peter 1:2 we see that the apostle had already used this greeting to address his audience. However, here it is a little bit different. Instead of simply saying “Grace and peace be multiplied to you,” here he says, “Grace and peace multiplied to you by the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.“ This time Peter doesn’t use it as a mere greeting; this time he uses it as direction. Peter isn’t simply saying “I hope you grow in favor and flourish as a godly human”; he is saying “this is how it happens.” You grow in ever-multiplying satisfaction by knowing God and Jesus our Lord. Though this word is rightly translated in most English translations as “knowledge,” it doesn’t simply mean knowledge in the way you may think. This is a different word for knowledge that emphasizes understanding, recognition, experience. This isn’t knowing the water is cold because you read the thermometer; this is knowing the water is cold because you jumped in the pool. Peter is saying he wants us to thrive in the ever-increasing satisfaction of the life God has given us, and the way to do that is to experience the God who is giving us the life … to search out, see and recognize who he is and then live in such a way that reflects what you see. Wake up and remember that grace and peace abound in life by recognizing, understanding and embracing our God and Jesus our Lord. Wake up and remember that you can grow in knowing God because his divine power has given you everything you need for life and godliness. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you by the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord because, on us, his divine power has bestowed everything necessary for life and godliness …” Peter knows we can grow in knowing God because the power of God, the very power that has created and maintains everything in all of existence has also bestowed upon us every single thing required for true, full, life and godly living. If God has given you faith that means he has bestowed, placed upon you, given you everything you need for eternal life and living in such a way that rightly reflects who he is. That is what Peter is referring to by “life and godliness.” He is talking about the life that Jesus, himself, defined in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” This is true life, that we are redeemed from death and restored to our Creator that we may know him now and forevermore. Peter combines life and godliness, not as though they are separate entities, but as though they are two sides of the same coin. He assumes they are inseparable realities. Because, while “life” is a reference to eternal life, knowing God, “godliness” is a reference to living in full reflection of one’s religious beliefs. A couple of generations ago we may have translated this word godliness as piety, actually living a life that lines up with what you say you believe. Peter says you can absolutely do this! You can live the life God wants you to live just as he wants you to live it because he, himself, has equipped you with everything you need to do so. Do you believe that, Christian? You lack nothing, no requirements are missing. The same power that presently keeps the Sun shinning, keeps your heart beating and controls the gravity that keeps you in your seat is the very same power that continually gives you everything you need to live the exact life God has called you to live. Wake up and remember that God has given you everything you need to know and reflect who he is. Wake up and remember that everything you need for life and godliness came to you by way of God calling you to recognize his own glory and virtue. “… on us, his divine power has bestowed everything necessary for life and godliness through the knowledge of the one who called us by means of his own glory and virtue …” How did God open your ears to his calling? How did he draw you into receiving his precious gift of faith? By opening your eyes to see his glory and virtue. You once were blind and ignorant to God’s greatness. You foolishly lived in rebellion against him thinking you knew what was best, your perspective and judgment was right, you knew how the world should function. But the same God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” lit up your own heart with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So now you see truth … you see the Truth, Jesus Christ, the light of the world. You see his beauty. You see his excellence. You see his worth. You see his goodness, his virtue. And what you see keeps you bound to him just like it did Peter who said, “Lord, to whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed, we have seen, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” Wake up and remember the beauty of Christ, the glory of God that effectively and continually calls you to himself. Wake up and remember that this calling to recognize God’s glory and virtue was accompanied with priceless and great promise that you would share in that very glory and virtue, in God’s very nature. “… on us, his divine power has bestowed everything necessary for life and godliness through the knowledge of the one who called us by means of his own glory and virtue through which, on us, his priceless and great promises he has bestowed so that through these you may become sharers of God’s nature …” What were you made to do? Why do you exist? You exist to image God. You are to represent and reflect who he is. You and I exist for one ultimate purpose, to display the glory of God, to radiate his nature. Any discontentment or lack of fulfillment in your life comes directly from the reality that you are not fulfilling your sole purpose of rightly representing the nature of God. The gift of your faith that has come by the power of God opening your eyes to the beauty of Christ has promised that this lack of fulfillment, this dissatisfaction, will be no more. Why? Because you will be like him. As the Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” The faith that God has given us is an assurance that we will be who God has made us to be. Not because we will achieve it, but because his divine power guarantees it. There is coming a time when you will fail no more. Your deficiency has an expiration date. Your dissatisfaction is doomed to be a memory because there is coming a day when God, himself, will wipe away every tear from your eyes. “Death will be no more; grief, crying and pain will be no more, because the previous things will have passed away.” The one seated on the throne, God Almighty, has said, “Look, I am making everything new … write this down because these words are faithful and true … It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.” Write it down … take it to the bank … the one to whom God gives the gift of faith will overcome by his divine power and become his son, will be like him … in his image, sharing in the glorious soul-satisfying representation of his very nature. Wake up and remember that you have been promised final and everlasting fulfillment. You were made to be his child, to perfectly reflect your Father … and the faith that has been bestowed upon you guarantees this will happen. Wake up and remember that this restoration to God that has been bestowed upon you frees you from the dying of this world. “… so that through these you may become sharers of God’s nature being freed from the moral decomposition that is in this world because of lust.” You are no longer bound to the decay of this fallen and rebellious world. The word translated as “moral decomposition” here is the word that was used to describe a decomposing corpse. You once were dead in your trespasses and sin. You were a corpse living a dead man’s life bound to the decomposing distractions of this world that you desperately pursued out of the lust of your darkened heart. However, you are no longer bound to that rotting death because another death, a glorious and beautiful death, has set you free from your bondage to sin. “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Wake up and remember that you have been freed from death and raised up to walk in newness of life. Wake up and remember what has been given to you and furnish it accordingly. “For this very reason, make every effort to supply your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For, if these are yours and are multiplying, they make you neither useless nor unproductive in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word Peter uses for “supply” or “supplement” here is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. But it would have been known to the original readers as a word describing the actions of wealthy patrons who underwrote the expenses of choirs in theater productions. These people supplied or furnished what was needed in order for the choir to be heard, to be experienced, to be appreciated and enjoyed. They furnished the choir with the means to display it’s glory. Peter says make every effort, not some effort, but every effort … use all diligence, use everything you are and everything you have to furnish your faith in such a way that your acting will display it’s glory. That is what he is emphasizing with this list of what were commonly appreciate values in this culture. He wasn’t saying to build upon or add to your faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness and brotherly affection … there is nothing that can be added to a faith that has already been bestowed upon you in full measure. Peter is saying faith without works is unseen, it goes unappreciated and that is not the kind of faith that you’ve been given. Your faith is immensely valuable, it is a priceless treasure from Almighty God. Use all the effort you have to furnish it with whatever is necessary to make sure it’s glory is seen and experienced. If you don’t furnish it, if you don’t display the faith you have been given, if you don’t put your effort into reflecting the beauty of the one who gave it to you, you will live a useless life. A life that does not produce displays of who God is is a life that will not enjoy knowing the God who gave it. Wake up and remember that your faith is meant to be seen. Wake up and remember that you are supposed to remember. “For the one who does not have these things is blind, being shortsighted, having received forgetfulness of the cleansing of his former sins.” Are the effort, resources, plans and direction of your life focused on displaying the effects of the faith that has been given to you and the beautiful glory of the one who gave it? Or are your efforts being placed elsewhere? Are parts of your life focused on other things? It could be that, after receiving your faith from God, you have also received something from the world … forgetfulness. That is the actual wording Peter uses here. He is making a juxtaposition between receiving from the Lord and receiving from the world. You receive faith by recognizing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; you see him and then you start to act according to what you see. If you aren’t acting in a way that reflects Jesus Christ, it’s probably because you’ve chosen to receive forgetfulness. If you aren’t experiencing the joy of knowing the one who has cleansed you of your sin, it’s probably because you’re not looking to him. You’re not paying attention to him; you’ve diverted your eyes to gaze upon other things. You’ve likely blinded your eyes with the decaying of this world and forgotten just how precious your salvation and your Savior truly are. But, remember, you were not meant to be blind; you were given faith that sees so it can display. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, be even more zealous to validate your calling and election, for if you do these things you will never lose your footing.” With all zeal, embrace your faith and reject your forgetfulness. It does not belong on a child who has been bestowed the favor and peace of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Turn your gaze upon Jesus, live like Jesus and validate that you have indeed been elected and called by Jesus. There are no breaks. There are no days off. Because there is no moment when you will be better served by taking your eyes off Christ. Your blindness is what kept you away from him; do you think that taking your eyes off him, even for the shortest of moments, will now somehow bring about your good? Peter says, “Wake up! Use all your effort, every single ounce, to multiply your life with displays of God’s greatness with ever increasing zeal so that you will validate your calling and election. So that your actions can provide evidence that you are, indeed, guilty of being called by and following Jesus Christ. And, if you do this, if you zealously commit all your effort to displaying who God is and what he has given you, you will not stumble because you won’t have opportunity to trip. If everything in you is fully committed and directed to going right, there is no possible way you can make yourself go left. But, if you take your eyes off your destination, if, even for a moment, your efforts are directed away from where you are headed, you may very well find yourself enduring the pain of a terrible fall. Wake up and remember that you have to live a life that remembers who Jesus is and what he has done. Finally, wake up and remember where you are going. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, be even more zealous to validate your calling and election, for if you do these things you will never lose your footing. For, in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Where does your life say you are headed? Do your efforts and actions look like those of someone who has been freed from the decomposing diversions of this world? Do you look like someone on whom Almighty God has bestowed the victory crown of full faith and consequently runs the victors lap laying aside every hinderance and sin that so easily entangles and spending all your effort rushing to the gates of your Savior’s kingdom all the time with your eyes focused on him, Christ Jesus, the author, perfector and provider of your faith? Is that what your life looks like or are you wasting it living like the dead people? Peter says, “Wake up! Wake up! Look to Jesus, pay attention to him. Know who he is, open your eyes to his greatness. Learn and recognize what he is about and then live a life that looks like you know him … a life that fully looks like you know him … multiplying in displays of him … intentionally planned out and focused with relentless zeal on radiating his glory with every ounce of effort you’ve been given to spend. You want a life of grace and peace? You want to experience favor, true prosperity and satisfaction? You don’t have to hope or long for it because you’ve already received it. You have everything you need; your account is full. All you have to do is spend it … not on vain glory, success, accomplishment or wealth where moth and rust destroy … but on treasures that are stored where you are headed. Wake up and remember that you’ve been granted entrance into the Kingdom of God … Run! Run! After all he had seen, after all he had experienced, when it came time for Peter to leave behind one final message, one final reminder, one last meal for the sheep, he said, “God’s made himself known to you by way of Jesus Christ. Pay attention to his greatness and use everything you are to show everything you see until that day you enter in to where I am going.” (C. T. Studd Poem) Wake up, brothers and sisters, and remember what true life is all about … “knowing the one and only true God and Jesus Christ.” Use every ounce of fuel you have to make your life burn for that. And let us shine the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as we keep one another awake, running together until, finally, we arrive home.

Two little lines I heard one day,

Traveling along life’s busy way;

Bringing conviction to my heart,

And from my mind would not depart;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,

Soon will its fleeting hours be done;

Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,

And stand before His Judgement seat;

Only one life, the still small voice,

Gently pleads for a better choice

Bidding me selfish aims to leave,

And to God’s holy will to cleave;

Only one life, a few brief years,

Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;

Each with its days I must fulfill.

living for self or in His will;

When this bright world would tempt me sore,

When Satan would a victory score;

When self would seek to have its way,

Then help me Lord with joy to say;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Give me Father, a purpose deep,

In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep;

Faithful and true what e’er the strife,

Pleasing Thee in my daily life;

Oh let my love with fervor burn,

And from the world now let me turn;

Living for Thee, and Thee alone,

Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne;

Only one life, yes only one,

Now let me say, “Thy will be done”;

And when at last I’ll hear the call,

I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,

If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.