Introduction to 2 Peter
2 Peter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Good morning! It is great to see you all here today. Today is a great day to worship the Lord. Not only because we just got though celebrating Valentines Day.
& Husbands, I hope you took time to remember your wife and did something special for her.
But this morning, we are going to start our new study in the book of 2 Peter. and we are going to begin with a short overview of 2 Peter. 2 Peter is found at page 1215 in your pew Bible.
Big surprise… Second Peter was written by Peter. It tells us that in the first verse. If there was really any question, just 15 verses later in verses 16-18 he tells us that He was that he was an eye witness to the Majesty of our Lord and was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration when He appeared in all His glory.
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16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—
18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
Peter also made reference to 1st Peter in chapter 3.
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1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,
I am telling you this, because some commentaries treat 2 Peter like this was somehow a big question.
Now, I am going to be blunt in this next statement.…
for those who look to some of these so called scholarly commentaries.
Satan has always had his false prophets… who have all sorts of degrees.… who will question the authenticity of every book of the Bible.
You only have to go as far as the 3rd chapter in Genesis to find Satan questioning the Word of God. …
However, the whole church… Protestant and Catholic recognize both 1st and 2nd Peter as scripture and as the inspired word of God.
We need to exercise discernment as to who we listen to. There is a lot of junk and false podcasts that are garbage, and we need to be wise in who we listen to. There are also commentaries written by non-believers (non-Christians) that should be avoided. That is why I have taken the time to steer you to good teachings that you can listen to during the week. and
the best source is to start with your Bible!
2nd Peter was written shortly before Peter was martyred during his Roman imprisonment.
This would have been about the time that Nero blamed the Christians for the fire that ravaged Rome.
Many believe that Nero himself was responsible for the fire, and then blamed the Christians for it. This would have been around 65-67 AD. Paul had already been martyred.
This is confirmed by Peter’s statement in chapter 1 vs 14.
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14 knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
Key themes or the purpose of Peter’s writing a second time to the churches was to remind them of the precious promises God has given to us and
and to warn us of some of the key dangers facing the church.
He left off 1st Peter, by challenging us to stand strong in the faith. 2nd Peter follows up on this and encourages us to continue to stand strong for Jesus.
In chapter 1 he reminds us of the precious and magnificent promises that God has given to us.
He has given us everything pertaining to life and Godliness. (vs 3)
He has given us the ability to become partakers of the divine nature. (vs 4)
He reminds us of our calling and gives us an outline on how we can grow in the Lord. (vs 5-8)
He reminds us that no prophecy of scripture was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God ( vs 20-21). This is important because today people think that they can choose what to believe and what not to believe. They will say....
“Well , I don’t think...”
Quite frankly, when it comes to scripture… it doesn’t matter what you think.
It doesn’t matter what I think…
the only thing that matters is what God thinks and
He has put it down for us in black and white.
Our job is to conform our attitudes and our behavior to the Word of God.
or as Paul wrote to Timothy.
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16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
We need to take every single verse of Scripture seriously. It is the word of God written to us. It is our marching orders.
Now, if you press me, … some parts of the Bible, such as the ceremonial law… and the descriptions of how to offer a sacrifice does not apply to us directly, because Jesus Christ is our sacrifice…
but even those descriptions can teach us the seriousness of sin, the holiness of God, and that we need a perfect Sacrifice… a sacrifice that only Jesus could offer.
However, for us, … today. … Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. This is all explained in Hebrews. As Christians, we accept the teachings of all 66 books of the Bible.
In this book, Peter is warning these early Christians and us that false prophets will arise among them.
Peter could be writing this directly to us today. Welcome to 2026. We have false prophets today. and today’s false prophets are still secretly introducing destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them.
You do not need to go very far today to hear the descendants of these false prophets.
They have sneaky ways of denying the authority of the scripture..
They may claim to teach the Bible, but
will either take away from it or add to it.
There were those in the first century who would say. We are saved by faith.
If you have faith you are good… It doesn’t matter what you do with your body… so if you want to have an affair.. go ahead… after all Jesus paid the price for your sins..
If you want to go out and get drunk and drink all night… go ahead …
Jesus has paid the price for your sins… You have the gift of eternal life and it can’t be taken away from you… so do what you want to do… after all you’re forgiven.
Now they may not have used those exact words… They didn’t speak English.. but the concept was there and Peter warns against these false prophets in chapter 2. He calls them springs without water… for whom the black darkness has been reserved — chapter 2: 17.
In chapter 3 he reminds us to remember the words spoken before-hand by the holy prophets and the commandment of our Lord and savior spoken by the apostles. Here he confirms the trustworthiness of the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Again Peter confirms that all scripture is inspired by God and to be obeyed.
and why should we do that? He reminds us that our time on earth is short. We need to be looking for the return of Christ which will come like a thief in the night. He warns us that judgment day is coming and we need to be ready.
2 Peter contains the verse that gave rise to the movie series “a Thief in the Night” which then gave rise to the series “Left behind.”
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10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
How then should we respond?
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14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
We need to be on guard against Satan and the teachings of his false prophets, and we need to
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18 ... grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
With this in mind, let us turn to opening verses of 2 Peter. [pg 1215 in your pew Bible]
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1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
Peter begins by identifying himself as the author. Simon Peter. This was typical for letters in the first century. Today, we have a greeting at the beginning of a letter “Dear..… so and so” … and then you have to get to the end of the letter to find out who wrote it.
In the first century, they would put their name at the top of the letter. Peter gives his full name.
Simon Peter. Simon or Simeon was his Hebrew name. He was called Simon son of John in many places. He is called Simeon BarJona (or the son of Jona) in Matthew 16:17. This was his Hebrew birth name.
Simon was a very common name in the New Testament. It was the name of another disciple - Simon the Zealot. It was the name of one of the brothers of Jesus. It was the name of the man who the Romans pulled out of the crowd to carry the cross of Jesus. We could go on. Simon was a very common name. It was also the name of one of the tribes of Israel - Simeon.
When Jesus first met Simon, he gave him a new name - Peter (or Cephas). Peter literally means stone, or small rock.
Jesus was describing the future role of Peter when He first saw Him. Jesus pictured Simon as a rock.
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42 He [Andrew] brought him [Peter] to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
Cephas is the Hebrew word for rock. A passage we are more familiar with is
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17 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.
So when Jesus said to Simon … from now on you shall be called Peter (Petros or Cephas) or stone and on this Petra (massive rock, a rock layer) I will build my church. [There is a difference between πετρος — the name Jesus gave Peter, and πετρα the word translated as “rock” that Jesus was going to build his church upon. The Catholic church does not point out that difference.] Jesus was not saying that He would build his church on Peter as the foundation.
Jesus is and always has been the foundation.
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11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Petra.. Peter is a stone (a petros) taken from the massive ledge, taken from the Petra… but don’t underestimate the roll of Peter. Jesus told Peter that after he had turned to strengthen his brothers. Peter would become the de-facto leader of the disciples. He was their spokesman and leader.
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32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
This letter is obviously from Simon Peter , the disciple of Jesus.
He goes on to describe himself as a bond servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.
I do not want us to miss this. The word that is translated as “bond-servant” is actually “δουλος.”
and δουλος means slave. Peter was describing himself as a slave of Jesus Christ.
Our modern English translations do not like to use the term “slave”, because it has a negative connotation to us. We don’t like the term slave. Slaves did not have any rights. They were regarded as a piece of property belonging to their master.
Guess what… that is exactly how Peter viewed himself and that is what he is teaching us. As Christians, we are slaves of Christ. He died for us. We owe our very lives to Him!
On the day we become Christians, we give up all of our rights and become slaves of Christ.
That is what it means to make Jesus.… Lord of your life. He becomes your boss. He becomes our master.
and as His slaves, we listen to Him and obey Him.
We do it because of love Him … not because we have to… but nevertheless we become His slaves.
and this is how Peter chooses to describe himself. He is a slave of Christ.
William Barclay in his commentary on James described it this way.
(i) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that he is inalienably possessed by God. (inalienable means “A possession that can never end.”) In the ancient world a master possessed his slaves in the same sense as he possessed his tools.
A servant can change his master; but a slave cannot. The Christian inalienably belongs to God. I say it again..…
Inalienable means.… this is a possession that can never be broken. We are His possession forever.)
(ii) To call a Christian ... the doulos of God .… means that he is unqualifiedly at the disposal of God.
In the ancient world the master could do what he liked with his slave. He had the same power over his slave as he had over his inanimate possessions.
He had the power of life and death over his slaves.
The Christian belongs to God, for God to send him where He will, and to do with him what He will. The Christian is a man who has no rights of his own, for all of his rights are surrendered to God.
(iii) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that the Christian owes an unquestioning obedience to God.
Ancient law was such that a master’s command was a slave’s only law. Even if a slave was told to do something that actually broke the law, he could not protest, for, ...as far as he was concerned, .… his master’s command was the law.
In any situation the Christian has but one question to ask: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?” The command of God is his only law.
(iv) To call the Christian the doulos of God means that he must be constantly in the service of God.
In the ancient world the slave had literally no time of his own, no holidays, no time off, no working-hours settled by agreement, no leisure. All his time belonged to the master.
When Alice and I were following Christ in His call for us to go to Haiti as missionaries, ... I can not tell you how many people came up and said to us… “Go to Haiti?… I could never do that… They often followed that with .… “Aren’t you afraid?”
That is not an option for a Christian. That is not an option for a slave of Christ. Where ever the Lord wants me to go… I go. When ever He wants me to go.. I go.
As Christians, we are not to question our master. If you or someone you know has the attitude that “well… if God asks me to do this I will do it,… but if He asks me to do that… that’s a different matter… they are probably not a Christian.
They may have a great case of religion.… of churchianity… but by their own testimony, they are the boss of their own life, not Jesus.
Now that is something to think about.
We, like Peter.… are slaves of Christ.
He also describes himself as an apostle. An apostle or ἀπόστολος means one who is sent with a commission. One who fulfills the role of a special messenger. He was a delegate or an envoy from Christ. You could say an ambassador for Christ.
and in this letter He is bringing us a special message from Christ. (for what it is worth… we also are ambassadors for Christ… but I am not going there today.)
and he is writing to those have the same kind of faith as he does. We too are fellow slaves of Christ.
We too are sinners saved by grace.
We too have been saved by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
In verse 1 we are told.… He is writing His letter to “those who have received a faith...”
This implies that their salvation was a gift by God. We are saved by God’s grace through faith. And even our faith is not of ourselves. It is a gift from God.
He goes on to say of the same kind as ours.
The apostle sent this letter to those same believers who received his first letter. They were part of God’s elect scattered in the Gentile regions of “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” throughout what we know as northwest Turkey. (1 Peter 1:1). Those believers were predominantly Gentiles, but certainly Jewish Christians were also among the recipients of the letter.
Peter is pointing out that the faith of the Gentiles is the same as the faith of the Jews. God makes no distinction between Jews and Greeks or.… between Jews and Gentiles.
The Jews are saved by God’s grace through faith and the Gentiles are saved by God’s grace through faith.
The Jews are all guilty of sin, just as the Gentiles.
We are all sinners saved by grace.
It was God who sent His only begotten Son to pay the price for our sin.
It was Jesus who died for us.
and now Peter goes on to affirm that we are saved by the righteousness of
our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
In this passage Peter affirms that Jesus is both our God and Our Savior.
The way Peter words this ..… affirms the Diety of Jesus.
He refers to Jesus as both our God and Our Savior. In this passage, He leaves out the Holy Spirit.. There are other passages that refer to the Holy Spirit as being part of the God-head… but this passage refers to Jesus as God.
We could also go to the Old Testament where God (YAHWEH) is called our only savior or deliverer.
For example
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11 “I, even I, am the Lord; And there is no savior besides Me.
I underlined the word “LORD” because it is in all caps, indicating that the text reads… I, even I, am YAWEH, and there is no savior beside me.
Yet, here in 2 Peter, Jesus is referred to as our God and Savior. This is not a problem if Jesus is a part of the Trinity… and therefore God. It would be really problematic, if Jesus was not God. This is one of the many verses that convinced the early church that Jesus is God.
Of course there were many other convincing proofs. -
All His miracles - He walked on the water… He calmed the wind and the sea with just a word.
He multiplied the loaves of bread
He turned the water into wine
He cast out demons
He healed the sick and raised the dead.
He himself rose from the dead
Jesus Himself told us that if you have seen me you have seen the Father.
How much proof could a person ask for?
So what is our take away?
In this short passage we have
1) Support for the trinity, because Peter refers to Jesus as being God.
2) We also noted that we are saved by faith as a gift from God. We received that faith. It is not something we earned or even disserved.
3) and the main take away that I want us to learn from this passage this morning.
We are slaves of Christ. As Christ’s slaves we willingly and obediently submit to His every wish. He gave His all for us… How can we do less for Him?
Let’s pray
