All Things

2 Peter | 2 Peter 1:1-4

Transcript

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All right, well, good morning again. All the kiddos are dismissed to go to their classes at this time. Everyone else, if you have a Bible with you, will be in uh 2 Peter chapter 1 this morning. Uh if you don't have a Bible at all, there should be one somewhere in this room underneath one of the seats, and it's on page uh 957 if you're using those Bibles today. When I was a young man in my early 20s, I worked at a large health and fitness club for a few years. And uh it was the type of place where you had access to anything you could possibly want all under one roof. There were weights, cardio equipment, group fitness classes, basketball courts, racquetball courts, swimming pools, hot tubs, you name it. We had it, and if you were a member, then you had access to all of it. And one part of my job was that sometimes I had to sit down with people who wanted to cancel their membership, and I had to try to convince them maybe to stay, see if there was something we could do to not lose them. And sometimes you could convince people, but most of the time their mind was already made up. They just wanted to cancel and move on. Well, on one particular day, I sat down with a gentleman, and not only was his mind already made up, but in addition to canceling, he was also demanding a full refund for all five years that he was a member. And his argument was this five years ago I came here and I signed up for this membership, but I do a lot of traveling for work, and so I've literally never stepped foot in here since that day that I signed up to be a member. I've been paying for a membership for five years, never been back. I want a full refund for all of it. Now the truth is I didn't have the authority to grant that request anyway, but even if I did, I think most reasonable people could see that this is not a reasonable request. I mean, five years worth of membership payments came out to like $3,500 that he was just demanding we give back to him because he never came in and used the membership. And when I told him I couldn't do that, he was very angry with me. And I said to him, Look, it you signed a contract based on having access to the club, not based on how often you actually use the club. So it's like leasing a car. If you lease a car for three years but it stays parked in your driveway for three years, the dealership is not going to refund your money just because you never chose to drive the car. You have access to the car, you can drive it as much as you want, but it's up to you to make sure that you actually drive it. And he didn't like that response very much. And he jumped up and he called me a not very nice name that I will leave to your imaginations this morning. And he said, This place is a scam and a ripoff. You will be hearing from my lawyer. And he stormed out the door. Now, that was by far the most extreme example that I ever experienced there. That was the worst one for sure, but still, it never ceased to amaze me the things that people would tell themselves to let themselves off the hook. And this example, if you didn't use the club, then somehow that meant the whole thing was a scam. Even though we had hundreds of members that used it all the time, and for them it was great. They had a wonderful experience. But for those who didn't take advantage of it, even though they had access to all the same equipment, they had access to all the same classes, access to all the same amenities, they had access to everything they needed under one roof to stay active and get healthy, but because they chose not to use it, somehow for them it made the whole thing a ripoff. Needless to say, this was not my favorite job that I ever had. But the primary difference in a health club between those who grow and make progress and get healthier and those who don't does not come down to gifting or ability or even genetics. The primary difference is simply that some people choose to lean in and embrace what they have access to and some people don't. And similarly, in the verses that we are exploring this morning, the Apostle Peter makes the point that the primary difference between the Christians who grow and make progress and get healthier as disciples of Jesus and those who don't doesn't come down to gifting or ability or genetics. The primary difference is simply that some Christians choose to lean in and embrace what they have access to, and some Christians don't. But before we officially dive into our passage, it'll be helpful to briefly set the stage with some of the historical background behind this little book. For starters, based on the title that's been given to it, probably goes without saying that this is the second letter written by the Apostle Peter. We actually preached through his first letter a few years ago, which, if you wanted to listen to that, you could find that on our website if you want. But now in letter number two, Peter is writing for a second time to the same people about two to five years later. And his audience at the time was made up of first century Christians who were scattered throughout a region called Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey. And the first time that Peter wrote to them, his primary concern was to remind them to cling to the living hope that they have in Christ in the midst of severe suffering for their faith in a hostile environment like the Roman Empire. And now this time his primary concern is to remind them of the importance of continually growing in their knowledge of Jesus and proper doctrine. See, one of the things that'll become clear as we get deeper into this letter is that there were false teachers who had slowly infiltrated their way into these early churches throughout Asia Minor, and they were confusing a lot of these Christians by teaching things contrary to the apostles' teaching. And as we'll see as we get deeper into the letter, in particular, they were denying the future return of Christ, and they were denying the reality of a future judgment. And so, because of that, they were encouraging these Christians to kind of just go ahead and live however they wanted without any moral or biblical boundaries, because after all, if Jesus isn't coming back, and if there's no future judgment for sinners, then just do whatever you want. Like it doesn't really matter how you live, if Jesus is gone forever, don't worry about it, just live it up. These were the kinds of lies and deceptions being spread by these false teachers. And because of that, Peter is writing to these people for a second time, saying things like this in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 3. He says, This is now the second letter I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. In other words, I don't only want to remind you to cling to that hope that you have in Christ while you're suffering, like I did last time, I also want to remind you to cling to the teaching of the apostles and to your knowledge of the Lord Jesus, so that you're not easily led astray into false teaching. In fact, Peter saw this reminder as being so important that he made sure to do so as the last thing he ever wrote before his death. He tells his audience in verses 13 and 14 of chapter 1, I think it right, as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon. See, we know from history that Peter was put to death for his faith in Jesus under the reign of Emperor Nero in the late 60s AD. And so most scholars believe that he likely wrote this letter from a prison in Rome while he was awaiting his execution. Which means that knowing he would be put to death soon, he wanted to make sure that he got one last letter out to his brothers and sisters in Christ before he died to remind them to hold fast to Jesus and to correct doctrine so that they do not unknowingly embrace errors and lies. So that's a quick overview of kind of what's going on in this little book of 2 Peter. And we're going to kick off our new series today by just looking at the first four verses of this letter, just kind of the introduction. And we'll be doing so in two parts. Part one is our common righteousness, and part two is our common resources. So first, Peter emphasizes the fact that every single Christian, regardless of gifting or background or status, stands on equal ground with one another through the righteousness that's been given to us in Christ. And then, second, he emphasizes the fact that every Christian, regardless of gifting, background, status, anything like that, has equal access to all the same spiritual resources that we need for following Jesus in this life. Our common righteousness and our common resources. So we'll dive in and start with part one, our common righteousness, with verses one and two of chapter one. Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Alright, so he opens this second letter by doing something interesting. He combines his original Hebrew name, Simeon, with the new name that Jesus had given to him, Peter. And it's interesting because this is only the second time in the entire New Testament that we see the name, the Hebrew name Simeon used for him. The only other time is in Acts chapter 15. The vast majority of the time when we see his name in the Bible, he's either just called Peter or he's called Simon Peter, because Simon was the Greek version of his name. But here he combines the original Hebrew Simeon with the new name from Christ, Peter. And the reason he does this is because in the middle section of this letter, he's going to be drawing on a lot of Old Testament imagery to make his arguments against the false teachers. And so he's using this Hebrew name for himself as just a quick reminder to his readers that he is a Jewish man who is very well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures. He knows what he's talking about when he alludes to the Old Testament. But these aren't the only things that he combines in this greeting. He also identifies himself as both a servant and an apostle of Jesus. The Greek term for servant here is the word doulos, which literally means slave or bondservant. And so by combining these two titles, Peter is making the point that even though he has this elevated position of being an apostle of the early church, he still sees himself really as nothing more than just a servant of Christ. He fully recognizes that he is a sinner who's been saved by grace and he owes everything about his life and his ministry to Jesus. He was bought and redeemed by the blood of Christ, which makes him a willing and joyful slave of Christ, even if it means death. But in addition to his servanthood, he's also been given this authoritative position of being an apostle of Jesus, which means that every word that follows this greeting should be given special and careful attention by every single Christian, so that we can make sure our lives and our doctrine are properly aligned with the teaching of Christ and his apostles. So jam-packed into that brief little opening line, he's basically saying this the author of this letter you're about to read is a Jewish man originally named Simeon, highly educated in the Hebrew Scriptures, but he's also given the name Peter directly from the mouth of Jesus himself, and appointed as an apostle by Jesus himself, and has dedicated his whole life to being a servant of Jesus, which means listen up and pay very close attention to every single word that follows this greeting. But here's what's amazing about the first statement that does follow in it, Peter says that every Christian, regardless of who you are, regardless of age, status, background, anything, stands on equal ground with one another. He identifies all of his readers as those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with his. So that means that every Christian who has ever lived, from the apostles themselves all the way down through church history, every single one has a faith of equal standing with one another. There is not a hierarchy in the kingdom of God of different levels of faith. The Apostle Paul in the first century, who was the greatest missionary to ever live and who wrote most of the New Testament. Augustine of Hippo, who lived in the fourth century and is arguably the most influential Christian thinker in history. John Wycliffe in the 14th century, who wanted to make sure that we could get Bibles into the hands of everyday people, and so he spearheaded the first English translation of the Bible from the Latin. Martin Luther in the 16th century, who launched the Protestant Reformation in Europe and helped to rescue the gospel back from Roman errors. Jonathan Edwards in the 18th century, whose preaching sparked the first Great Awakening, resulting in widespread Christian revival throughout the American colonies. Charles Spurgeon in the 19th century, who was nicknamed the Prince of Preachers and led a church of over 10,000 people in the city of London. Billy Graham in the 20th century, who had more than 200 million people attend his gospel rallies in more than 180 countries over a span of 60 years. And now Wes Huff in the 21st century, who in the past 18 months alone has reached nearly 100 million people around the world with the gospel by using podcasts and YouTube. That this is a tiny sample size of influential Christian voices throughout the past 2,000 years. And guess what? As influential as they were, and as much as God used them in unique ways to advance the gospel throughout history, nonetheless, every single Christian sitting in this room has the same faith of equal standing with all of them. There is not an ounce of righteousness in any of these people that came from within themselves. All of them have the exact same righteousness given to them that has been given to us, and it is the righteousness of Christ, which is why Peter specifies that we have all obtained this faith of equal standing in the exact same way, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. See, Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, that on the cross Jesus became our sin, so that by faith in him we get to become righteous. This is the great exchange that is true for everyone who repents and believes the gospel. Jesus takes our sin upon himself so that all of our unrighteousness is applied to him on the cross, and he exchanges it for his purity so that all of his righteousness is applied to us by grace through faith. And that means whether your name is Simeon Peter or Charles Spurgeon or Joe the Plumber or Jane Doe, whether you wrote part of the New Testament or you preached to thousands of people, or you fixed pipes and drains, or you changed dirty diapers all day long. Every single Christian who has ever lived throughout all of history has a faith of equal standing with one another through our common righteousness that has been graciously applied to us by faith in Jesus. And when we know that to be true, then our knowledge of that reality continually supplies us with grace and peace throughout the Christian life. As Peter says in verse 2, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. That word knowledge is going to be very important throughout this series. In his commentary on 2 Peter, David Helm says that the knowledge of God is the central theme of this letter. And that's the case because knowing God and his word is central to protecting yourself from false teaching. Knowing God and his word is central to maintaining proper doctrine. Knowing God and his word is central to multiplying grace and peace in our lives. Knowing God and his word is central to resting in the righteousness of Christ. In short, knowing God and his word is central to all of the Christian life. And so that now that Peter has opened up this second letter by emphasizing our common righteousness that we have as Christians, he goes on to emphasize our common resources for living out the Christian life in verses 3 and 4. Continuing on, he writes this His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Now I could easily preach like three sermons here, but I won't do that to you guys. Instead, I just want to zero in on one keyword and three P words. So the key word is knowledge again. That word will keep coming back up, and the P words are power, promises, and partakers. My guy Peter knows that I love alliteration. He says here that as followers of Jesus, our knowledge of God gives all of us, all of us, access to divine power, precious promises, and makes us partakers of the divine nature. So briefly, just take one of these, one, each of these one at a time. First, our knowledge of God gives us access to divine power. When you believe the gospel and you place your faith in Jesus, you are immediately given a brand new power source. Before you knew the Lord, your entire life was lived only by your power, by human power and human effort alone. But because humanity is fallen, that means that every ounce of human power that we have within ourselves is contaminated by our sin. We cannot do anything through our own effort that is not in some way affected by our fallen nature. That's why, even in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah says that even our most righteous acts, the best things that we do, are nothing but filthy rags, because apart from Jesus, everything is polluted by sin. But with Jesus, with Jesus, we have a brand new power source. With Jesus, we are given access to his perfect, sinless power. We're given the help of the Holy Spirit. With Jesus, we are empowered to pursue godliness and holiness. We are strengthened to resist temptation, and we are enabled to overcome sin and Satan. So we all have access to this divine power. Secondly, our knowledge of God gives us access to his precious promises. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1 that all the promises of God find their yes in Christ, which means that every Christian gets to claim all the promises of Scripture for themselves if you are connected to Jesus. Being connected to Jesus means God promises forgiveness of sins and eternal life and adoption as his children. He promises security and salvation and no condemnation, and that he will never leave us or forsake us. He promises to draw near to those who draw near to him and to comfort those who are hurting and to bind up the wounds of the broken. He promises the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit and freedom from our slavery to sin and to complete the work that he began in us. He promises to hear our prayers and to grant wisdom to those who ask and to guide our path by his word. He promises to provide for his children and to work all things for good for those who love him. He promises a way of escape from temptation and to give sufficient strength in our weakness and to give peace that transcends understanding. He promises that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He promises to be with us till the end and that Jesus will come again and judge the living and the dead. And he promises to give us an eternal inheritance with a new heavens and a new earth, where he will wipe away every tear from our eyes with no more death or sorrow or pain, because the former things will pass away and we will be together with him forever. All the promises of God are. Find their yes in Christ. And knowing him gives us full access to all of them. They are ours. Lastly, our knowledge of God makes us partakers of the divine nature. Now, just to clarify, that does not mean that Christians become little gods or something like that. The term divine nature here is Peter's way of describing the spiritual resurrection that takes place in the heart of every believer. In his first letter, he wrote this: According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the doctrine of regeneration or the new birth. It's when the Holy Spirit takes a person who is spiritually dead and brings them to spiritual life. This is how we are born again with a spiritual resurrection. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. And when that new birth takes place, we become partakers in the divine nature, partakers in resurrection life with Christ. And Peter goes on to say at the end of verse 4 that as such, we have escaped from the corruption that is in the world due to sinful desire. In other words, as partakers in this resurrection life, we are no longer partakers in the life of an unbelieving world that is dictated by sinful desire. Instead, as new creations in Christ, we now have new desires that were not there before. The desires of Jesus become our desires. We desire holiness when we did not use to. We desire godliness when we did not use to. We desire to be obedient when we did not use to. We desire the truth of God's word when we did not use to. We desire the expansion of God's kingdom rather than just our own when we did not use to. We desire to be selfless and self-giving when we did not use to. We become partakers of the desires of Christ. So these are our common resources that we all have through Jesus. Our knowledge of God gives us access to divine power, precious promises, and it makes us partakers of the divine nature. And every Christian, regardless of where you come from, who you are, background, gifting, status, has equal access to all of these same resources in the Christian life. In fact, Peter specifically says in verse 3 that we have been granted all things that pertain to life and godliness. So repeat after me, all things. One more time, all things. Not some of the things, not half of the things, not a few of the things. We've been given all things for faith and life and godliness. Which means, very straightforwardly, if you know Jesus, you lack nothing. If you know Jesus, you lack nothing. And just to clarify, I want to tell you what that doesn't mean, okay? It does not mean that being a disciple of Jesus is easy. It does not mean that everything will go well for you all the time. It does not mean that you'll never make any mistakes, that you'll never fall on your face, that you'll never struggle with sin again, that you'll understand everything perfectly, or that you're supposed to have everything figured out all of the time from here on out. It does not mean any of those things. But it does mean that everyone who knows Jesus has the exact same righteousness applied to them by Christ and the exact same spiritual resources available to them in Christ. So if you know Jesus, you lack nothing. There's a well-known pastor named Paul Washer. I recently saw a video clip of him talking about another well-known pastor named John Piper. And as he was talking in this clip about John Piper, he said this. I once heard Dr. Piper say something that really helped me. He's a brilliant man and a very spiritual man and a very devoted man. And sometimes you see someone like that and you think it must come easy for them because they're special. But one day I heard him say that he has to fight for everything. He has to fight to read the Bible. He has to fight for his joy. He has to fight to pray. And that helped me so much because I have to fight to pray. I have to fight to read my Bible. I have to fight to be pure in this world. It's not easy. And when I learned that even the men and women who seem to have so much success in the Christian life and seem to be so godly, when I heard that for them it isn't easy and that they have to fight for all of it, it was then that I realized they are no different than me. See, there might be a Christian out there that you really look up to. You might have a spiritual mentor, or maybe somebody that you know that's a fellow believer, or maybe someone you don't know, you've never met them, but you've you've admired them from far off. And it can be tempting to put them on a pedestal and think that they are special or that they are somehow different from you, but they're not. They are not different from you at all. I mean, yes, that it is true that some people do have a different kind of gifting that might be unique to them. That does happen. I had a professor in seminary whose brilliance and intellect was utterly astounding to me. He has a literal photographic memory where he can close his eyes and tell you a page number and a paragraph of a sentence that he read in a book. He's a complete sicko. And I will never have that kind of brilliance and intellect, and it doesn't matter. Because he has the exact same righteousness applied to him by Christ that I do, and the exact same spiritual resources available to him in Christ that I do. And just like how the primary difference in a health club between those who grow and make progress and get healthier and those who don't does not come down to gifting or ability or genetics or anything like that. The primary difference is simply that some people choose to lean in and embrace what they have access to and some who don't. Likewise, the primary difference between the Christians who grow and make progress and get healthier as disciples of Jesus and those who don't does not come down to gifting or ability or genetics or anything like that. The primary difference is simply that some Christians choose to lean in and embrace what they have access to, and some Christians don't. So my question this morning is this.

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Are you leaning in to what you have access to in Christ? Are you fighting to grow as a disciple of Christ?

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Are you fighting to have a prayer life? Are you fighting to spend time in Scripture? Are you fighting to gather for corporate worship with the church? Are you fighting for your joy? Are you fighting for holiness? Are you fighting for Christ-likeness? Dallas Willard once said that grace is not opposed to effort, grace is opposed to earning. In other words, we don't earn anything in the Christian life. We don't earn our salvation, we don't earn our progression, we don't earn anything. It is all accomplished by the grace of God. But as disciples of Christ, we do put forth effort. Effort in following Him, effort in obeying Him, Him. It is spirit-empowered effort. It doesn't come from within ourselves, but it is effort nonetheless. So we should be fighting to grow in the Christian life.

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But if you're not, if you have not been doing that, then here's some good news.

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Jesus is still fighting for you. Because not only did he already fight and die, fight and defeat death, sin and death for you, but he is still pursuing you and fighting for you and interceding for you from the throne room of heaven. And every single day, he is supplying you with everything you need, day in and day out, to follow him and grow closer to him until finally at the end of history, he will come back for you. Our knowledge of God gives all of us access to divine power, precious promises, and makes us partakers of resurrection life. So do not believe the lie that if you are a Christian, you are somehow lacking anything. You are not lacking a necessary trait of some kind that is only given to the elite Christians. You're not lacking some kind of special spirituality, you're not lacking a minimum required brilliance and intellect. We are all the same in Christ. We all have a faith of equal standing. We are all undeserving sinners who've been saved by grace, and we have all been granted all things that pertain to life and godliness.

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So lean in.

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Embrace what you have access to in Christ and fight for growth. Because if you know Jesus, you lack nothing.