The Real Thing

From cocaine-laced cola to modern religious deception, false advertising has always promised more than it delivers. In this fascinating exploration of 2 Peter, we discover how an 80-year-old fisherman-turned-apostle delivers his final, urgent warning to the church.

Standing in the shadow of his impending execution by Nero, Peter introduces himself as "Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ." This remarkable opening reveals his spiritual journey—from brash fisherman to humble servant, from denying Christ to dying for Him. By using both his Hebrew name (Simeon) and the nickname Jesus gave him (Peter), he acknowledges the tension between his old and new natures that remained even after decades of faithful ministry.

What strikes us most is Peter's self-identification as a slave before mentioning his apostolic authority. This man who once demanded to know what reward he would receive for following Jesus now finds complete fulfillment in simply belonging to Christ. His transformation offers powerful lessons about humility, authority, and identity that directly challenge the false teachers threatening the church—those selling religious experiences that promised freedom but delivered bondage.

Throughout this letter, Peter reinforces crucial foundations: the reliability of Scripture, the danger of false teaching, the reality of past judgment (the flood), and the certainty of future judgment. These reminders form a powerful antidote to deception, both then and now. Like Ruth Bell Graham, whose tombstone read "End of construction. Thank you for your patience," Peter recognized that spiritual growth is a lifelong process requiring divine patience. Join us as we explore this remarkably relevant message about finding genuine meaning, purpose, and truth as servants of Jesus Christ.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:26

Marcia and I were watching a documentary recently that documented the origin of Coca-Cola. I don't really drink it, I like root beer. If you're wondering, coca-cola was first created in 1886 by a pharmacist in Atlanta, georgia, by the name of John Pemberton. He advertised it as a form of medicine, a medicinal tonic. He sold it, advertising that it could cure headaches, fatigue, help you think better and even get this overcome morphine addiction. Now, the problem was the original formula included extracts from coca leaves, from which we get cocaine, and that was mixed with cola nuts, the source of caffeine. That's where the name Coca-Cola comes from. I'm not starting a lobby. By the way. If you drink it, you can retain your membership. The early version of this drink contained around 60 milligrams of cocaine per serving. No wonder people felt better after drinking it. Over time, the public became aware that they were trading morphine addiction for cocaine addiction for cocaine addiction, and the pressure grew so that in the early 1900s they dropped cocaine from the recipe but kept the name. The one thing they didn't stop doing was advertising its benefits. They advertised that it could cure anxiety. They called it a brain tonic help you think better. Advertising posters back in those early days featured elegantly dressed women sipping Coca-Cola as if with this drink came sophistication. As early as 1888, they created the first coupon in American marketing history in newspapers Get the coupon, get a free drink. The advertising campaign that I can still remember when I was born in 1888. In 1969, I was a kid. I can still remember Coke was the real thing. Anybody else here born in 1888? Oh yeah, maybe you remember the one that really hit pay dirt. I'd like to buy the world a Coke. Today we now know cocaine leads to addiction. Coke as a drink doesn't cure anxiety Makes me wonder what do we think now about some product that we're going to find out later what it was advertised to be? You know, it's one thing to get a soft drink wrong, it's another thing to get life wrong. In fact, one article I read as I was digging into this. They were saying that Coke sort of led the way in understanding they weren't selling soda. They weren't selling soda, they were selling meaning and purpose in life.

False Teachers Selling Religion

Speaker 1 4:12

In the Apostle Peter's day, false teachers were selling their brand of religious experience. It's still being sold today. Religion is the best-selling thing on the planet, calling it freedom, but it would lead to bondage after bondage. John Phillips, now with the Lord. This British expositor, who I enjoy reading, said in his introduction to the letter we're going to start studying today that Peter was moved by the Spirit in his first letter because of what Satan the old lion was doing. Now he's moved by the Spirit to write the second letter because of what the old liar is saying. He goes on to write Peter's first letter dealt with the suffering of God's people. His second letter will deal with the seduction of God's people, seduced by the false advertising of false teachers, false religions in the world today. Now to just sort of set the stage here as we begin this 10-year study of 2 Peter I say that because when it's only three, you're going to feel really good about this.

Peter's Early Life and Education

Speaker 1 5:37

There's an old Jewish proverb that says the Lord has created seven seas, but only one the Sea of Galilee, is his delight. Well, that sea was the backyard where the apostle Peter grew up as a boy. He was born into a family of fishermen. They knew the Sea of Galilee like the back of their hand. Peter and his brother Andrew would have fished in those waters, played in those waters, swam in those waters. One day Peter's going to walk on those waters and he'll never forget it. His hometown was Bethsaida, where he will meet the Lord. Bethsaida means the house of fish. It was a fishing village. I imagine everything, including his clothing, probably smelled like fish. It was close to Capernaum, which is where Peter will later, with his wife, move and live, growing up on the seashore.

Speaker 1 6:44

Peter's life would have looked a lot like other Jewish boys in the village. He would have started schooling at age six, taught by the local rabbi. The schools were called in English the house of the book. They learned to read and write by studying the Hebrew text, memorizing the Old Testament. From about the age of seven to 10, he would have studied the Mishnah. That's a commentary, jewish commentary on everything from festivals to law. From the age of 10 to 15, to law. From the age of 10 to 15, he would have studied the Talmud. That was an expansion of the Mishnah. It included rabbinical debates, ethical discussions, laws relating to marriage and more.

Speaker 1 7:37

I can imagine Peter as a little boy, you know, getting in trouble in school, probably talking too much. But he was evidently a bright student because his preaching and later these letters allude to the Old Testament over and over again. In fact, in 2 Peter he'll around 80 years of age. He's lived a long time. He's passionate. He's more dogmatic in this letter than he is the first. One author said he seems belligerent that the false teachers are selling this brand, promising freedom and twisting it into immorality. As we'll see, he's more committed than ever to protecting the church from error. But I want you to know Peter is a different man. He's bold, but he's not proud. He's not swinging swords, he's quoting scripture. He's not fighting anymore for his own reputation. I'm the best apostle on the planet. I'm the faithful one. You guys aren't there yet. You'll get there. Keep at it. I'm there. No more of that. 80-year-old Peter is a different man. That becomes obvious in his opening phrase. I want to invite your attention to 2 Peter Now, in these days, when you wrote a letter, you signed your name first.

Speaker 1 9:29

So here's his signature Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. That's all we're going to have time for today. Now we're more familiar with the Greek spelling of his name, simon. Here you have Simeon. Simeon. That's the transliteration of his Hebrew name, his Hebrew spelling. This is the second son of Jacob. Simeon Peter is the name Jesus gave him. It means pebble, little rock, little stone. That's the name he's going to grow into.

Speaker 1 10:15

But it's interesting to me that Peter gives us both names here. And I think it's interesting because Simeon associates us with his fall, his failure. This was the name Jesus reverts back to after his resurrection when he meets Peter on the seashore and he asks him three times Simon, do you what? Tell me? Do you love me? Simon, that hurt, it reminds him and everybody of his fall. That's his old life. Peter is his new life. But now, perhaps because he's facing imminent death, he'll be dead in a few weeks, months, very soon, executed by Nero, crucified upside down.

Speaker 1 11:18

What you have here is perhaps a Peter who is more aware than ever of the patience and the grace of God. There is a story, there is a testimony of redemption in the way he says Simeon, peter. It's kind of like the apostle Paul who reminds us in his great testimony in Romans 7 that he still had that old, wretched man dogging his heels, clinging to him, causing him trouble. I think Peter's opening signature is a good reminder that the older we get in the Lord, the more we ought to admit we are still having to deal with that old nature, if the apostle Paul can admit in Philippians, chapter 3 and verse 12,. I am not perfect If he can say later in chapter 13, I have not arrived. What do we do in acting like we have? It doesn't help believe it, young believers, at all for us to talk like you know. We've just arrived. We're living from one mountaintop to the other, one victory to another. Let me tell you, long ago Peter stopped sticking on his chest and then strutting around like a peacock. I don't think he ever forgot that rooster God would use that to shape him over the decades now, so that now you have him saying hey, I'm still the old me, but I'm the new me too.

Speaker 1 13:16

Now he goes on to describe why he's a different man. He uses two nouns in his signature. Notice the first one Simeon, peter a servant. A servant the word is doulos, commonly used for purchased slaves, the lowest possible position to hold in any society. Peter had already alluded to this attitude when he wrote back in 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19 that he had been bought with a price. He was no longer his own, he no longer belonged to himself, he was bought off the auction block, as it were. He now belonged body, soul, heart and mind, every atom, to Christ.

Speaker 1 14:27

But donature has reached a high position of veneration even in his day. If he was coming into town, everybody would be racing to see him. This old man, the one who had preached the initial message that launched the dispensation of the church age. He had personally raised the dead, healed the lame, he was one of the closest disciples to Jesus. He'd been rescued by an angel from prison. I mean, if anybody had even one of those experiences, they'd be writing about it the rest of their lives.

Speaker 1 15:14

One author wrote that if Peter ran to town or came into town, people would run toward him and they'd be full of questions hey, what was it like to be so close to Jesus? You know what did he say to you on that seashore? What was it like to heal somebody? What was it like to raise somebody from the dead? What was it like to, you know, walk on water for a few seconds? Never mind that, what was that like? That had to be amazing. Well, let me tell you no, peter, who are you? I'm a slave of Christ. That word would have brought to the mind of every first century individual, just like ours. To the mind of every first century individuals just like ours. This was tantamount to saying I have no will of my own anymore, but to do the will of the Lord. I have no personal interests of my own, but to devote myself entirely to the interests of the Lord.

Speaker 1 16:25

Now, by the way, when he calls himself a slave, he's not only referring to his station in life, he's referring to his expectation in life. If you go back earlier, let me quickly just say this If you go back decades earlier, a rich young ruler came to Jesus. The other disciples are there listening into that conversation. And that rich young ruler says to Jesus hey, what do I have to do to get into the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus says well, give all your money away. Jesus touched the nerve in that man's life, like he often did with others. He went right to it, to that idol in that man's life. Get rid of that idol and then follow me. He wasn't telling him you got to buy your way into heaven, but you can't have another idol.

Not Apostle, But Servant

Speaker 1 17:11

Well, after he leaves, peter says Peter's the one. Hey, lord, we left everything, we gave everything away to follow you. When's our payday? What are we going to get back because of what we've given up? But not now. Peter understands. A slave doesn't get a paycheck. A slave isn't compensated Other than that they have satisfaction or fulfillment, purpose meaning which comes from fulfilling the will of their master. By the age of 80, peter no longer has his handout. Maybe you're waiting for God to pay you back for some sacrifice you've made. Hey Lord, when are you going to pay me for that? Well, peter has another noun, notice Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 18:28

Apostle apostolos simply means one sent forth, one sent out. It can be used in a broad sense. It's used a couple of times in the New Testament. For all believers, we're all sent out. We're all messengers, we all have the gospel to deliver. We're all commissioned to make disciples of all the nations. But there is this narrow sense, this restrictive sense, and nobody today can claim that restricted sense of being an apostle holding that office. Peter's using the term that way, in the restricted sense, which belonged to the 12 uniquely. They had unique authority in the church and over the church. They laid the foundation for the church doctrinally, ephesians chapter 2. We're not laying the foundation, by the way, of the church. It's 2,000 years old. We're not working on footings.

Speaker 1 19:33

It's interesting that soon after the Lord ascended, the 11 gathered to choose a man to fill that 12th, that vacant seat, so to speak. They'd heard Jesus talk about the fact that their names would be remembered. We're given the description of heaven. The 12 foundations have their names inscribed on them, but they had two requirements for an apostle and let me tell you, these requirements can't be met today. Acts, chapter 1, they gathered, the apostles did, and here they were. Number one they had to be personally trained by the Lord, and number two, they had to be an eyewitness to the resurrected Lord.

Speaker 1 20:22

Now Paul is later going to qualify as an apostle. He's going to make sure they understand. He was personally trained by the Spirit of God in Arabia. He was sequestered away for three years. Galatians, chapter 1. And he had seen the glory of the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus, right In fact, a little later on in Acts, chapter 22, and then again in Acts, chapter 29, he makes it clear it wasn't just a vision of light, he saw the Lord.

Speaker 1 20:51

Now I'm not saying and Paul never claims to be the 12th man, we'll have to wait to see what's chiseled to settle that debate. But he was qualified. But there are no more apostles in that restricted sense today, and any man who takes upon himself the title apostle is either full of hot air, trying to expand his authority over the church, or he hasn't read Acts, chapter 1, or both. Now, even though Peter was an apostle that was unique, I want you to notice again the text. He doesn't write Simeon Peter the apostle yeah, there's this chance the apostle of Christ. He's not claiming primacy, he's not claiming priority. That's an error of the religious system of the Roman Catholic Church Continues to teach it to this day that Peter had primacy.

Speaker 1 21:59

Peter had unique authority over the other men. He became the first bishop of Rome, the first pope. He is, and they still teach today, he is the head of the church. There's not one stitch in the New Testament that he is the head of the church, that he is the primary apostle. In fact, the Bible clearly says in Colossians 1 that Jesus Christ is the head of the church.

Speaker 1 22:26

Peter's writing this second letter to warn the church of false teaching, and you can't even get past the opening phrase before we're surfacing error that has captured millions. Now Peter shifts the spotlight to his master. He writes Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter's saying my authority, my office, my delight, my writing. It's flowing out of this relationship, this surrender, this submission to Jesus Christ. And, by the way, peter loves to combine these two names. In fact, you never hear him use the name Jesus alone. It's interesting in this letter he'll write once Jesus our Lord. Interesting in this letter he'll write once Jesus our Lord and every other time Jesus Christ. That's significant.

Reminders for the Church

Speaker 1 23:28

Jesus is the Lord's human name, the name he received before his birth. It indicates his saving mission. Jesus is the Greek form of the Old Testament name, joshua or Yeshua. It means Jehovah is salvation, but the name Christ pulls back the veil of deity. Christ is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word for Messiah, the anointed of God, which we now know is the Son of God, and Daniel talked of that. Christ really isn't a name, it's a title. It refers to the Son of God, the anointed Lord, the anointed Redeemer, who came to save. So, right away, peter is declaring that the man he follows, to whom he belongs, is the God man, the man born at a time in human history but existing prior to that and for eternity, future, throughout all time, as God, the son.

Speaker 1 24:40

I want you to get this. Peter is poking every false teacher in the eye with this introduction and he's going to go after them in this letter. Jesus is not just another prophet. He is not succeeded by Muhammad, joseph Smith or whoever else is in line next. When you say Jesus Christ, you are actually stating perhaps the shortest creedal statement of our theology Jesus was born a man. He is our divine Savior. It's tragic today, and you've probably noticed just more and more Jesus Christ is profane in the lips of people. It's our favorite expression. You can hardly watch a movie or a show without somebody saying Jesus Christ. In that sense, I've never yet watched a movie where anybody said oh Buddha, oh Confucius, oh Joseph Smith, joseph Smith, the heart of man loves to defy and slur the name of creator. God Jesus, born into our race to redeem us. Christ, the anointed divine God, the Son. Now Peter wants to remind the church the anointed divine God, the Son.

Speaker 1 26:24

Now Peter wants to remind the church of the truth, and I don't have time to overview it today, but I'll give you a few thoughts. Here are some of the reminders he's going to say. I want you to remember these. I want you to remember these things. In verse 12, I intend to remind you, he uses it three times Remember, remember, remember, remember. What are they? Well, if I could summarize a few of them. Number one the church needs to be reminded of biblical truth. That's the real truth. It'll never go out of date. Nobody's going to find out later. It really wasn't true, after all. That's most of chapter one. We're given the Bible as the guideline for life and for godliness. Number two the church needs to be reminded of false teaching. That's a real danger. That's chapter two, and into chapter three, you need to be skeptical. If they needed to be skeptical in the first century, we'd better be skeptical in this century. To be skeptical in the first century, we'd better be skeptical in this century.

Speaker 1 27:27

I love the story where Billy Graham was visiting a town as a young evangelist early in his life. He was going to preach that night, sunday night, in a church nearby and he wanted to mail a letter. That's something you used to put in an envelope and put a stamp on it in the old days. Well, he didn't know where the post office was. So he asked a little boy where the post office was, and the boy gave him very clear directions. And Graham thanked him and then said hey, by the way, son, if you come to church tonight, I'm going to tell you how to get to heaven. That boy frowned and he looked Billy Graham up and down and he said no thanks, mister, you don't even know the way to the post office. Nothing wrong with being a. I'm teaching the Bible and it's forming Swahili Hindi, but be careful. I had somebody a few weeks ago send me a sermon by a well-respected Bible teacher preacher and he was condemning a political leader and 15 seconds in I knew that it was his voice, not his sermon. He didn't preach that, that was AI, and I also knew he didn't believe what that sermon had him saying. Be very careful.

Speaker 1 29:02

Third, the church needs to be reminded of past judgment. This was a real event. He's going to talk about the global flood in chapter 3. That event is denied by our world today. That changed the topography of our planet. It carved the Grand Canyon. It aged everything. Many of the church don't believe that happened. Peter leaves no doubt.

End of Construction: Patient Faith

Speaker 1 29:34

Another the church needs to be reminded of future judgment. That's a real promise. He's going to spell out this coming fireball that is going to ignite and burn up the universe, the earth, and then God, the Son, is going to recreate it all. This time we get to watch it. I have every reason to believe he's going to follow Genesis 1 again and we get to see it. This time Peter is going to spell it out. The world doesn't believe judgment came in the flood and it doesn't believe judgment's going to come, and Peter will describe why they don't believe it. But he didn't have time to do anything less in this letter, with only weeks to live and spell out the truth.

Speaker 1 30:18

Now let me give you two thoughts that struck me, and then we're going to wrap it up, or at least we're getting closer to wrapping it up. Two thoughts struck me as I just began digging a little deeper. Number one the older we get, the more we should delight in simply belonging to Christ, not what we've done, not some status or stature, some level, some strata. Peter's joy was that he belonged to Christ. He is the property of the Lord. That was enough. Secondly, the more or the older we get, the more we ought to be thankful for the patience of Christ. He knows our past, our present struggles. He knows our Simeon days. He knows the Peter days we're trying to pursue Over. In chapter 3, peter's going to refer to the patience of Christ in saving him.

Speaker 1 31:34

I came across this from the testimony of Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of that evangelist. She died in 2007, and she decided to use her tombstone as a testimony. She had this chiseled into her tombstone. Here it is quote end of construction. Thank you for your patience. Isn't that great End of construction. My entire life was a construction project, lord. Thank you for your patience. She was a missionary kid.

Speaker 1 32:13

You may know that raised in China and, by the way, the symbol at the top of her tombstone is a Chinese symbol. Part of her testimony is the Chinese symbol for righteousness the word righteousness, the concept of righteousness. The symbol has two characters one on top, one on the bottom. The one on top refers to a lamb. The one on the bottom is I or me, a lamb over me. Righteousness, we know, means being right with God. It's symbolized by a lamb over me. How do we get right with God having a lamb over us? And it's interesting that this symbol was discovered 3,000 years ago, a thousand years before the death of the Lamb of God.

Speaker 1 33:21

That tells you a lot about how the gospel was known by early civilizations around the world, and it didn't take long for error to creep in. It could ruin a life deceive, a family, deceive a region, deceive a nation. Let's echo the commitment of Peter to the truth of Christ, the surrender of Peter, the exaltation of Christ, the gratitude of Peter and Ruth Graham. The Lord was patient to save you and me. He's patient in having bought us to shape us as we surrender to him, and then he's commissioned us not to go out and promote false advertising for a product that one day we'll have to say I'm sorry, it didn't mean that after all. No, it's the real thing, real meaning, real purpose, real truth found, enjoyed, pursued, as we are slaves and sent ones of Jesus Christ.