Holiness, Heresy, and Hope - Part 2
Holiness, Heresy, and Hope – Part 2
An introduction to 2nd Peter
June 17, 2007
Sun Oak Baptist Church
Introduction
A. Please turn with me to 2nd Peter 1:20.
B. I want to wish a very happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers here today, and assure them that a few months ago I was working on some ideas for a Father’s Day message, but over the past few weeks made a decision to wait on that until, Lord willing, next year. This doesn’t mean I think the Bible has nothing to say about honoring fathers, or nothing to say about the importance of being a good father, or anything like that. Also, whether you are a father or not, if you are a man, as you leave today we have a small expression of our appreciation of and for you. So, men, don’t forget to leave church today without your gift.
C. Last Lord’s Day I set out to begin introducing 2nd Peter. I tried to put us on board a make-believe airplane and get a “bird’s eye view,” as it were, of this letter. This is an important step in proper Bible interpretation. It’s critical to have the “big picture” of a paragraph, a chapter, and a book of the Bible when we are interpreting and applying it, because we need to make sure our interpretation is consistent with the whole – we must let Scripture interpret Scripture.
Along these lines my goal was last week was to accomplish two (2) things: first, to familiarize us with the main themes, or the subject of 2nd Peter, and second to crystallize in our minds the crucial importance of embracing the authority of God’s Word. God has spoken, “thus saith the Lord,” and we have His words in the Bible. But tragically, many professing Christians today may say they believe the Bible, may even carry their Bibles to church – but the fact is they don’t know the Bible, have never read it cover-to-cover like countless other books, many don’t even open it except on Sundays, and most importantly clearly do not regard it as authoritative for their lives. What they “think” is truth, what they “believe” is truth, or what someone once told them is truth is more authoritative than “thus saith the Lord.” And the effects of this kind of thinking have far reaching consequences in their lives and in the church.
I can’t really emphasize this enough; I can’t pound this pulpit hard enough; can’t raise my voice loud enough to drive home the critical importance of this point any further: this is supremely serious stuff but it’s not new. Questioning the authority of God’s Word began in the Garden with Adam and Eve and it was a danger facing the very Christians Peter was writing to. Read 1:20-21. Scripture is not relative or subjective truth. It’s not, I repeat not, a matter of private interpretation. One of the gravest warnings that we find in this letter is the danger of arbitrarily deciding to accept one portion of Scripture as truth, while rejecting another portion as “non-truth;” to interpret one passage one way, and a parallel passage another way; to make one verse or passage say what we want it to say; and then reject the balancing truth of another passage. A Christian must be convinced that the Bible is God’s Word, that it is objective truth not subjective, and that it is authoritative or we will find ourselves in the place of Israel at the end of the Book of Judges: each one doing and thinking what is right in their own eyes. And this warning is one of the central messages of 2nd Peter and tragically, church history chillingly proves that the early church did not heed the warning.
Verses 20 & 21 should ring the “Liberty Bell” of warning in our minds: God never intended His Word to mean one thing to one person, another thing to another person, and yet another thing to someone else.
D. As we fly over 2nd Peter we can see three (3) mountains – three (3) key subjects that jut up above the landscape of this letter and are landmarks that let us know what this letter is all about: personal holiness in chapter 1, the danger of heresy in chapter 2, and a Christian’s future hope in chapter 3.
Let’s get settled into our seats this morning, and prepare for take-off by reading through chapter 1. Read and pray.
E. 2nd Peter is a letter about certainty: being certain we are a true Christian by demonstrating holiness; being certain that false teachers will come; and being certain of our future hope. As we fly over this letter today there are two (2) things I want us to see as far as getting the “bird’s eye view” of this short, but nevertheless deeply rich letter.
I. First of all, let’s look at the historical context of 2nd Peter.
And by “historical” I mean things like: who wrote it? What was going when it was written? What was life like? Who was the letter written to?
A. For a variety of reasons that I would just love to get into, we can be pretty certain that 1st Peter was written around AD 63-64 and that 2nd Peter was written a short time later, probably around AD 64-66. They may even have been written within a few months of one another. Flip over to 1st Peter 1:1 for a minute.
1. The emperor Nero ruled over the Roman Empire from AD 54-68, so he was in power when 1st and 2nd Peter were written. Nero was one of history’s worst persecutors of Christians. For example, he had them tied to the top of poles, covered in pitch, and then set on fire to light the gardens that surrounded his palace – literally human torches. There is evidence he set Rome on fire and blamed Christians, in part to arouse public sentiment against them. Read 1:1. And that’s the setting of these letters – they were written to Christians who had fled their homes primarily to save their lives.
2. What’s the historical context of 2nd Peter? It was written somewhere around AD 64-66 during a period in history that was very, very difficult for Christians; it was written about 30 years or so after Christ rose from the dead, and about 30 years before John wrote the Book of Revelation.
B. Secondly, who wrote 2nd Peter and to whom it was written? Read 1:1 and 2nd Peter 1:1.
1. It’s pretty obvious that both letters were written by the same person: the apostle Peter. And since we spent almost a whole Sunday learning about Peter during our study of his first letter I just want to remind us of a couple of things we learned about him back then.
a. If you remember, from the outside looking in, there wasn’t all that much to him. He was a simple fisherman. He was married. He became one of the first disciples, along with his brother “Andrew.” He later became one of the twelve apostles and one of the Lord’s “inner circle” that included James and John.
b. One of the most humbling and profound lessons that we can learn from Peter is that despite warts and countless failures God eventually used him in some incredible ways. Remember it was Peter that suffered from “foot-in-mouth” disease; it was Peter that tried to walk on water; Peter that tried to stop the Lord from washing his feet; Peter that complained to the Lord that they had fished all night and caught nothing; and it was Peter that adamantly said he would never deny the Lord – and yet did just that. And we could go on with examples of his failures.
But in spite of failure after failure after failure the life of Peter dramatically illustrates the love and mercy of the God of all grace. Read 1st Peter 5:10. Peter had personal experience with just how deep God’s grace runs.
One of the glorious truths that hits us square in the face before we ever open 2nd Peter is that it doesn’t matter how much someone has failed God in the past – God is the God of second chances… of third chances, tenth, of twentieth, fiftieth – and on and on.
c. Our age doesn’t matter; our failures don’t matter; our fears don’t matter; our health doesn’t matter: the simple fisherman with “foot-in-mouth” disease became the man that preached a sermon that God used to save over 3,000 people; became a pillar in the early church; and the very man that denied His Lord three (3) times is the man that told his executioners to crucify him upside down because he wasn’t worthy to die in the same way that his Lord died. Peter knew the God of all grace.
2. Look over at 2nd Peter 3:1. Secondly, Peter wrote it, but who did he write it to? Read 3:1.
a. The same Christians he wrote to in 1st Peter – that’s obvious. But what we want to remember here is that even though it’s the same audience, the letters were written for completely different purposes.
b. 1st Peter is a handbook on how the grace of God allows Christians to stand firm in the midst of suffering, whereas 2nd Peter is a handbook on how to be certain: to be certain one is saved; to be certain that false teachers will come; and to be certain of the Christian’s future hope.
C. So the historical context of 2nd Peter is that it was written around AD 65 while the Emperor Nero was in power; it was written by the apostle Peter shortly before he was crucified upside down; and that it was written to the same Christians he was writing to in the first letter.
II. Secondly, let’s compare the two (2) letters.
Two (2) letters – one author: how do they differ? What can we learn about the “big picture” of these two (2) letters by comparing them? There are really quite a number of differences, but I want to call our attention to just three (3) of them that would be immediately apparent if we laid these two (2) letters side-by-side and flew over them.
A. Turn over again to 1st Peter 1:1. One of the major differences between these two (2) letters is that the doctrines of salvation (soteriology) and of Jesus Christ (Christology) are prevalent in 1st Peter, but missing in 2nd Peter. Things Peter says about how one is saved are prevalent in 1st Peter, but missing in 2nd Peter.
1. In his 2nd letter Peter doesn’t develop the gospel; doesn’t get into the death and resurrection of Christ; the atonement; the depravity of man; and so on like he does in the 1st letter. And the reason has to do with why Peter wrote the first letter: his purpose was to encourage Christians that were suffering for their faith and the fundamental doctrines of salvation, of what theologians call “soteriology” or how one is saved, what Christ did and so on are critical to a Christian’s ability to bear up under suffering.
2. But in contrast, the purpose of 2nd Peter is different. Turn over to 2nd Peter 1:2. Whereas the message of 1st Peter is to stand firm in the grace of God the message of 2nd Peter is how to be certain: how to be certain we are saved – read 1:5-11; be certain of the truth of God’s Word – read 1:12; know for certain false teachers will come – read 2:1; be certain that judgment is coming – read 3:5-7. Judgment came once under Noah and be certain it’s coming again; and be certain Jesus is coming again – read 3:13-14.
3. So Peter’s second letter pre-supposes the first one – the doctrinal foundation he laid in his 1st letter didn’t need to be repeated in the second. The same people would have both letters.
B. Next, in comparing the two (2) letters while 1st Peter deals with dangers to Christians that come from outside of the church, 2nd Peter addresses dangers to Christians that come from inside the church. Flip back to 1st Peter 5:12.
1. The message of 1st Peter is summed up right here in verse 12: stand firm in the grace of God in the midst of suffering. Read 5:12.
2. But 2nd Peter is a completely different story. It addresses dangers to Christians that come from inside the church. Instead of false accusations from outside – it’s holiness inside the church; instead of Nero outside – it’s false teachers inside; and instead of defeat from outside – it’s victory in the future.
C. Finally, the third difference I want us to see is the different key word that ties each of these letters together.
Good communicators generally repeat key words, terms, or phrases to keep the message want to communicate unified. Kind of like using a length of rope to get us through a dense forest: just keep your hand on that rope as you walk and you won’t lose your way. In a similar way Peter uses a key word that keeps the message of each letter on track and unified.
1. For example, in 1st Peter, it’s the word “suffering” which is found over fifteen (15) times. The theme of trials and suffering are the glue or the rope that keeps the message of 1st Peter together.
2. And in his 2nd letter Peter uses the word “knowledge.”
a. Read 1:1-4 and comment. And we run into knowledge again – read 1:5; and we see it again in verse 8 – read. Look at 2:20 – read 20-21. And we could go on. The words “knowledge, know, knowing, known, understand” are sprinkled all through it and as we get into our verse-by-verse exposition we’ll see that Peter’s use of this word is the key that unlocks the treasure chest of truth packed into this little letter.
b. So while the word “suffering” keeps the message of 1st Peter together, the word “knowledge” is the thread that keeps 2nd Peter together, and as we will see the word “knowledge” is really the cornerstone that the whole letter is built from.
3. There’s one last point I want to make here and it’s critical to understanding this letter: Peter makes a distinction between having a “true knowledge” of God and having a “false knowledge” of God.
I hope we all caught what I just said. This is very important: if we miss it we miss one of the central points of the letter. Peter makes a unmistakable distinction between having the “true knowledge” of God which leads to salvation and having a “false knowledge” of God which leads to having a false conversion. Knowing about God and knowing Him are two (2) different things.
a. There is such a thing as having a “true” knowledge of God and of having a “false” knowledge of God. For example in chapter 1, the true knowledge of God leads to holiness. In chapter 2, the true knowledge of God enables Christians to discern false teachers. In chapter 3, the true knowledge of God leads to hope.
b. There is a nuclear difference between knowing about God, and actually knowing Him. There’s a false or useless knowledge of God that doesn’t produce fruit, and a true knowledge of God that produces a fruitful and discerning Christian life.
c. It’s kind of like the guy that tells us he knows how to work on our car. Ever had one of those? We take it in to the shop; go in the next day to pick it up; pay the $350; and drive away only to discover the problem we took it in for really wasn’t fixed. A true auto mechanic that has a true working knowledge of cars is a completely different animal than the guy that claims he knows about cars. But listen: they can both have signs on the building that say “auto repair.” As we begin to unpack 2nd Peter we will see that he makes a clear distinction between the “true knowledge” of God and the “false knowledge” of God.
D. What are some of the differences between 1st Peter and 2nd Peter? How do they compare to one another? 1st Peter addresses threats to the church that come from the outside, while 2nd Peter warns against dangers that come from inside – from the enemy within. The key word “suffering” ties 1st Peter together and in 2nd Peter the key word is “knowledge.”
Conclusion
A. One of the things that should grab us by the shoulders about this letter is that it is a deathbed epistle – we have before us the words of a dying man. Read 1:13-14.
Peter writes one final letter and addresses three (3) critical areas in the Christian life. He cuts out of the landscape of the NT two (2) life and death dangers to the church: holiness and false teachers. And then he reminds Christians of all generations about the certainty of their future hope. 2nd Peter is short but pertinent. It may not be the “Grand Canyon” of the NT but we certainly could call it the “Yosemite.”
B. One of the things that I am praying we will see in this study is the atomic importance of being certain we have the true knowledge of God. God doesn’t care what we think is truth, or what we believe is truth. Be certain that judgment is coming. When we come to the Bema Seat it won’t matter if we think we were a good person. The only thing that will matter is if we have the true knowledge of God through Jesus Christ and that we demonstrate that by personal holiness. We won’t be accountable for what we think, what we believe – we will be accountable for our response and obedience to His Word.
C. Be certain of this: as we plum the depths and riches of the knowledge of God as it is revealed in this letter we can be morally and spiritually transformed. Our Lord’s long-suffering transformed Peter and it can transform us. If we saturate our minds and hearts with the glory and excellence of God as it is revealed in Scripture, by His grace we will see a nuclear explosion of worship, love for one another, and a growing passion to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our church.