Time to Shine 4 - Making Faith Move

Focus for 2021

Ephesians 1:17–20 NKJV

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

Focus for 2021

Revelation

Hope

Power

Making Faith Move

2 Peter 1:1–7 NKJV

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

Unlike his opening in 1 Peter, where he identifies himself simply as Peter, here Peter chose to introduce himself with his full name, Simon Peter. In doing so, he suggested the transformation that had occurred in his own life. Simon was his old name before he became a follower of Christ. Peter was his new name, a name given to him by Christ (see Matt. 16:18) and identifying the transformation in Simon’s life. “Peter” means “man of rock.” That is the kind of character God ultimately built into Simon’s life as he followed Christ. He became rock-like—courageous, steady, persistent, and bold for Christ.

The new Peter mentioned two changes in his life when he described himself as a servant and apostle. “Servant” is actually the term “slave” (doulos). Simply put, this means that his desire is to obey Jesus Christ and be his willing follower. It is a description of submission. At the same time, it was often used in the Old Testament of a position of honor or authority. That authority is reinforced in his second term of description, “an apostle.” (see explanation in notes on 1 Pet. 1:1). When Simon first became a disciple, he often bragged that he would serve Christ longer and more zealously than the other disciples. At the same time, he seemed regularly to be looking for a position of authority among the disciples. Writing decades later, he had been transformed into a humble servant and authoritative apostle.

Moving From Hearing to Being

The Name Simon comes from the Hebrew “Shimon” which means “one who has heard.” Jesus had changed his name to Peter, from the Greek, “Petra,” which means “a rock.”

Matthew 16:16–18 NKJV

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Moving from hearing to being involves taking a stand on what you have heard from God and then acting on it.

Peter had heard from the Spirit of God who Jesus was. Then he took a stand and a risk to publically declare it. He stood firm in his conviction and acted on what he had heard.

James 1:22–25 NKJV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Being an ACTIVE hearer rather than a PASSIVE hearer is what James is talking about.

Romans 10:17 NKJV

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

James would also write:

James 2:14–18 NKJV

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

It does no good to hear something different, or to be given the opportunity to do something different and keep doing the same thing.

Albert Einstein is widely credited with saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

“In order to become something different, we have to believe something different, then we have to do something different.”

Illustration:

When Joey Barrow was a teenager, his schoolmates labeled him the class sissy. At eighteen, while the other guys were involved in more “masculine” activities, Joey was taking violin lessons. One day, they called him “sissy” one time too many. Joey smashed the boy who made fun of him smack on the head with (you guessed it) his violin. It didn’t help. The story simply brought another round of laughter from Joey’s classmates.

One boy did not laugh. Big, strapping Thurston McKinney decided it was time Joey got involved in something with a little more muscle. Thurston exercised regularly at a local gym and asked Joey to come along. As always, Joey had his violin with him. “If you want to work out with me,” said Thurston, “you’ll have to rent a locker.” Locker rental was fifty cents. The only money Joey had was what his mom had given him for that week’s violin lesson. So Joey borrowed some gym trunks and some old tennis shoes from Thurston, rented the locker with his violin money, and put the violin inside.

The first time Thurston invited Joey to spar with him, Joey clobbered him. Flattened him. The dazed response of Thurston McKinney, himself already a Detroit Golden Gloves Champion, was, “Boy, throw that violin away!” With the money his mother had intended to finance weekly violin lessons, Joey kept a permanent locker. In five years, Joey Barrow would turn twenty-three and be the heavyweight boxing champion of the world!

The anthologies of athletics say little about Thurston McKinney, but he took Joey Barrow under his wing. Joey dropped his last name, Barrow, so his mother wouldn’t know the newspapers were talking about her son. The world knew for years before she did that sissy Joey Barrow had been transformed into the unbeatable “Brown Bomber,” Joe Louis.

Another transformed man wrote 2 Peter. His name is Simon Peter. His transformation did not produce a fighter, but just the opposite. Peter was transformed from a fighter into a servant of Jesus Christ. So dramatic was the change in Peter’s life that he wrote this letter to remind his readers that Christian faith was never intended to remain unchanged or static. Christian faith always adds something. It is always growing. Christians continually experience change or transformation in their lives.

Second Peter 1 helps us to begin to see the character of this transformation. It reminds us that we do not pursue this change simply on our own, with only our own power. Our transformation is a cooperative venture that unites God’s power with our sincere and positive efforts at change. Furthermore, the direction of our change is not something that we simply pull out of the air, but it is grounded in the unchanging character of the Scriptures.

Making Faith Move

2 Peter 1:5-7

The Passion Translation

Faith’s Ladder of Virtue

5 So devote yourselves[a] to lavishly supplementing[b] your faith with goodness,[c]

and to goodness add understanding,

6 and to understanding add the strength of self-control,

and to self-control add patient endurance,

and to patient endurance add godliness,[d]

7 and to godliness add mercy toward your brothers and sisters,[e]

and to mercy toward others add unending love.[f]

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Footnotes

2 Peter 1:5 Or “integrity, virtues of courage, nobleness, and moral valor.”

2 Peter 1:6 Or “reverence.”

2 Peter 1:7 As translated from the Aramaic and implied in the Greek. This mercy would include forgiveness and forbearance to those who fail.

2 Peter 1:7 It is possible to view this passage like an unfolding of faith. “Out of your faith will emerge goodness, and out of goodness will emerge understanding (of God), and out of understanding (of God) will emerge inner strength (self-control), and out of inner strength will emerge patient endurance, and out of patient endurance will emerge godliness, and out of godliness will emerge mercy toward your brothers and sisters, and out of mercy will emerge love.” It is also possible to view this passage as a mathematical equation.

Faith + goodness = understanding.

Goodness + understanding = inner strength.

Understanding + inner strength = patience.

Inner strength + patience = godliness.

Patience + godliness = mercy.

And godliness + mercy = love.

2 Peter 1:5 Or “by having added your intense effort.” The Aramaic can be translated “by being under the weight of all these gifts.”

It implies both Spritual gifting and human effort are involved.

2 Peter 1:5 The Greek word epichorēgeo means “to fully support the chorus” or “to completely choreograph.”

Under the weight of the gifts and Choreographed gifts

All moving succinctly and in harmony.

A fight choreographer (Zane) trains the actors to move with fluidity and precision so that the fake fight looks real to the audience.

When all the gifts of faith are moving in rhythm, the world will see what genuine faith looks like.

Part of the effectiveness of the choreography is that the actors not only know their part, but they know the other actors part as well. Therefore, they can anticipate the movement of their “enemy” and respond accordingly.

2 Corinthians 2:10–11 NKJV

Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

1 The Devil distracts you with things you need least

This is one of the Devil’s favourite ploys. “Let them have their faith, and cherish it in some corner of their heart, but don't let them pay much attention to it. Keep them busy with worldly problems and pursuits.”

2 The Devil Deprives you of things you want most

The Devil can frustrate and discourage you by taking away things that mean a lot to you, or hindering you from getting things you'd really like to have.

The Devil is cruel in this device. Remember how he treated Job, taking away his farm; his beloved family; his wealth and health? We shouldn't be ignorant of this device, because the Devil will throw it at us time and again in an effort to wear us down.

3 The Devil Distresses you with problems you handle worst

Satan puts on the pressure in circumstance that you are least equipped to handle. It might be financial problems, or quarrels, or lack of sleep, or any of a hundred things where you don't function well.

The Devil will see that you get into such a situation. Having got you into the frying pan, he'll turn up the heat. We should not be ignorant of this device because the Devil will use it every chance he gets. We need to be watchful and keep ourselves out of the trap the Devil sets.

What part in the choreography of faith needs to repond when the enemy swings his sword?

Active Faith is Firm and Fruitful

2 Peter 1:8–11 NKJV

For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.