2 Peter: Maintaining Spiritual Momentum

Exegetical Point: Peter’s closing remarks exhort the church to diligently pursue holy life & spiritual growth.

Introduction

I’m guessing many of you have experienced 4x4ing? If not I’m sure you can put yourself in the picture! Out in the bush, winding your way to a secluded destination through the trees, along the ridges and through fresh creeks.

When you’re out on the track trying to get places in your four-wheel-drive you need to manage your momentum, especially when you’re trying to get up a steep slope or negotiate an obstacle.

It’s not easy for tires to grip on gravel and sandy tracks. So if you try and creep up and over obstacles too slowly the tyres will slip and you’ll loose your traction because the weight of the vehicle is pulling you back down the hill. Your tires can’t find their grip to overcome the other forces pulling on the vehicle.

But, if you try to counteract the problem of being too slow by sinking your boot into the floor and just going FULL POWER!!! then you end up with the same problem because your engine is trying to turn your wheels really fast in the gravel, and you just end up spinning your wheels again, going no where.

The solution to this issue is to create momentum. You need to build up a little speed, not too much!! but build up a little speed as you approach the obstacle so that the forward momentum of the car pulls it through while your tires are able to find a little grip on the loose surface.

Too little speed and there’s not enough momentum to roll through. Too much power and there’s no momentum cause you’re spinning your wheels. You need to build up that bit of speed so that the rolling mass of the car carries you through the obstacle safely.

Or another way to think of it - Why does a bowling ball send all the pins flying when you send it down the bowling lane? Because of all the momentum the ball has to knock all the pins down. It’s momentum drives it down there after it has left your hands.

I think Peter’s letter is an encouragement to believers to keep up their momentum so that they can drive forward over any obstacle to their faith.

These are Christians who have heard the gospel, they know the truth, they know how they should live, but they’re coming up against some difficult obstacles where they run the risk of loosing traction and rolling back, or sliding off the track into a tree. So Peter is reminding them of Gospel truth, warning them of the dangers, but then egging them on to get to the destination.

He wants them to make every effort to live holy lives, every effort to confirm their calling and election, every effort to be found blameless at God’s coming. We wants them to be reminded of God’s promises and push on toward that eternal kingdom.

So today, as we close out 2 Peter we will see 4 ways to keep your spiritual momentum (with one aside). Seeing as we’ve been talking about 4 wheel drives, lets think of these four points like the four wheels on a car, where we need to build up that momentum to continue through to reach the goal.

Kids if you have pencil and paper you might like to draw a picture of a car trying to drive up a steep mountain. And as we go along you can draw other pictures of the things I talk about.

1. Be blameless (v14)

Peter is closing off the letter in these last verse today. Peter had written that he was going to die soon, so he wanted to remind the churches of how to live in light of the Gospel.

He has warned and encouraged and reminded them all the way through. Now after spending most Chapter 2 & 3 reminding folks that God’s Judgment is still coming, he’s tying off the letter with

2 Peter 3:14 NIV

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

In light of the End, New Heavens & New earth, we live for God

Every Effort?

Spotless & Blameless - like a sacrificial animal.

At peace with/before who?

How do we find peace with God? How do we become spotless & blameless?

Salvation & living for God

1. Be blameless (v14)

2. Bear in mind God’s patience (v15a)

The New International Version Chapter 3

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation,

Touched on this last week

The longer God waits, the more opportunities for salvation - both for those who’ve never head and those who are “playing with fire” I.e. false teachers, false-converts, & antinomians.

God’s patience is now, the end is nigh.

God knows all who are his own, but the “on the ground” work of bringing them in is through the work of the Spirit and through providential means (think of your own salvation story).

So don’t sit around and just live as if the christian life is like a waiting room - we’re just chilling, reading magazines and flicking through our phones, waiting for God to come out of his office and collect us. No! God’s patience is more opportunity for more people to come into God’s family, and for more people to be warned about the dangers of a life outside God.

1. Be blameless (v14)

2. Bear in mind God’s patience (v15a)

Aside: Listen to Paul (v15b-16)

2 Peter 3:15–16 NIV

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Paul also mentions this kind of stuff - such as Rom 1:28-2:11

Peter takes and aside to commend Paul

In the days before the NT was nailed down, Peter is commending the gospel truth Paul proclaims.

Paul & Peter are not theological enemies

Just like today, there are people who twist (lit. torture) Paul’s words to say what people want them to say.

These people are incompetent and spiritually weak. God’s word is for all to hear and the Gospel in some respects is very simple, but that doesn’t mean that all understand it, nor that all have the ability to teach it faithfully.

Teaching is a spiritual gift - though our tendency can be to look for what is new and exciting, we need to be told the old-old-story, not new creative ideas. (this is one of the dangers of academia).

We need to take the truth on face value, and not twist it to suit as, or recruit teachers that scratch our ears.

1. Be blameless (v14)

2. Bear in mind God’s patience (v15a)

3. Be on your Guard (v17)

2 Peter 3:17 NIV

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.

Knowing the end is nigh, and that there’s false teacher, scripture twisters, etc, be on the look out.

How will you be on guard?

ADF is constantly training their forces, doing exercises, testing their capabilities etc. and they don’t even know what the future holds! You know what’s coming, so you can be ready!

It will be harder to slip off the road and get stuck in a bog if you have momentum to carry you through.

God keeps you faithful via warnings like these - we know people who have fallen from their secure position in Christ (Josh Harris?) - be on guard so that you’re not carried away.

1. Be blameless (v14)

2. Bear in mind God’s patience (v15a)

3. Be on your Guard (v17)

4. Grow in Grace & Knowledge (v18)

2 Peter 3:18 NIV

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

Matching the opening of the letter: 2 Peter 1:2 “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

Grow in grace & knowledge! How?

Grow is a command! We know that Grace and knowledge come from God, we cannot create them our-self, so we must come to God to get them. It’s the only way we can fulfill this command to “Grow”

There’s a key in the great commission: Listen to what he said (teach them…)

Obey (…to obey)

Live with a Godly perspective (this life is short, God’s grace is bigger that our failing and other’s sins for us)

We cannot progress in faith without these things - like plants, we must sink down our roots deep and grow stronger and so that we aren’t susceptible to being knocked over. Keep the momentum to prevent getting stuck spinning the wheels.

Prayer: All for God’s glory!

This is the goal of our growing in grace & peace, and the goal of our lives!

What now?

Maintain momentum by keeping these four wheels going:

1. Be blameless (v14)

2. Bear in mind God’s patience (v15a)

3. Be on your Guard (v17)

4. Grow in Grace (v18)