2 Peter | Chapter 1

2 Peter 1:1-2 

“Making your calling and election sure Part 1” 

Vs. 1a The secret of freedom 

Vs. 1b The basis of fairness 

Vs. 2 The blessing of fellowship 

Intro. 

At the start of any new study, it is always good to review what type of literature we are studying in the bible and what are the keys to our investigation. I do this personally but now do so to you all so you can see how I determined the context as well as the interpretation and application points that prayerfully will be ministering to us throughout our time in 2 Peter. The type of literature is the same as we have just finished a “New Testament letter” known as an epistle! Most of these letters no matter who the author was followed the same four-fold pattern which is made up of: 

“Making your calling and election sure” 

Before we begin our examination of the introduction of this letter, I believe that we need to examine its relationship to 1 Peter. I do not believe that this letter was written after 1 Peter but rather before what is commonly called 1 Peter. First the title of both letters was not something that Peter placed on his letter but what others placed to reference the inspired text. Yes, there is an assumption based upon 2 Peter 3:1 where Peter writes, “Beloved, I write to you the SECOND TIME (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder)” But is this the second letter and 1 Peter the first? Does the evidence point to that or is 2 Peter the second letter to a letter that we no longer have? I believe the evidence suggests the later for several reasons: 

Readers: In 1 Peter he addresses his readers and says that they are Christians both Jews and gentiles of the dispersion from a fivefold region of Asia minor which would be in the region of Northern Turkey today. Peter doesn’t address one church but rather Christians who have in common circumstances that have led them to be on the run. It was written near the end of Peter’s life whereas it seems that 2 Peter was written prior to this. 2 Peter says nothing about suffering and in fact warns against false teachers who will come to dissuade the believer with regards to the 2^nd coming of Christ, who are mainly gentiles familiar with Paul’s writings based upon 3:15-16.      

Content: 1 Peter deals with the attitude in the believer created by severe persecution. 2 Peter is a warning for all believers to be a guard against those false teachers who would rob them from the truth that had grounded them in hope. The use of the word “NOW” in 3:1 in the Greek indicates a short time between these two letters which seems unlikely between the letters that we now have labeled 1 and 2 Peter. It is also clear that in 3:15-16 that the readers had available some of Paul’s letters and they were both sharing correspondence with the same readers and we know that Paul never wrote to Jewish readers exclusively but gentile readers and in this letter so is Peter whereas in 1 Peter he makes many indications that he is addressing primarily Jews. Contextually it makes far more sense that 1 Peter followed 2 Peter in the content, as 2 Peter addresses false teachers who said they had special knowledge and specifically attacked the 2^nd coming of Jesus which left unchecked was robbing the believer of the hope that lies within concerning their great salvation which Peter wrote about in 1 Peter.                

We have in 2 Peter a letter where those that received it were facing serious problems just like we do today. There are two troubles that Christians have always faced: Troubles from without and troubles from within! It seems to me that often if we handle the troubles from within the troubles from without are far less! It’s no wonder that Satan does all he can to increase our troubles from within. If you trace Satan’s work from the beginning you will find that he has always attacked faith and trust in God’s Word as we see in Genesis 3:1 where he craftily engendered the lie, “Has God indeed said…?”  

Satan has always been committed to spreading doubt of God’s love and truth and has done so by creating a world system that is contrary to it as well as infiltrating God’s Church with agents who will sow seeds of doubt. An ineffective Christian is a great tool in his arsenal and there is no better way to accomplish this than to have people who can be used and counted on to disseminate doubt, and no better place for them to do so than the pulpit of God’s Church!  

Some of these instruments spread doubt by passive means by simply not teaching the whole counsel of God’s word and make the church anemic in the essentials of the faith. It isn’t that they are aggressively spreading lies, instead they just aren’t aggressively spreading truth by teaching through the Bible with transformational teaching. 

Then there are others who have secretly crept in and have adopted a more aggressive agenda by actively teaching lies that appeal to the fallen old nature of the Christian. Such lies are that all truth is God’s truth, that God doesn’t want you ever to not get what you want and deserve. That God’s interest isn’t in your maturity in a relationship with Him.   

Peter was aware of this and took the time to write to these mostly gentile believers who were familiar with Paul’s letters. These false teachers were so wicked that they were twisting some of Paul’s words to fit their lies (3:15-16) and the bulk of their lies seems to have been aimed at the soon return of Jesus as 3:3-4 where he calls them “scoffers” who mockingly sow the doubt of “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” A church that is uncertain about the truth about which they believe and has no foundation will be easily moved and ineffective in outreach. Satan knows this. Furthermore, a church that doesn’t seek to continually grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus will also lack the maturity to be effective in its witness.  

Once you have the truth of God you must continue in it but before you can continue you must remember with great conviction the value of the truth which you started with! The bible is not a mathematical book that is concerned with numbers, what the Bible is concerned about is truth! It is unfortunate that the church is more interested at times in numbers than in truth. It cares not so much about how many attend but rather what one transformed by truth can be and do! The bible speaks of a message entrusted to a few for a multitude! Here in this section Peter will set the tone of the letter as it relates to the gospel and to the truth which they must grow in. In so doing he will give the readers three important truths: 

• Vs. 1a The secret of freedom: “A bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ”. 
• Vs. 1b The basis of fairness: “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us”. 
• Vs. 2 The blessing of fellowship: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”.   

2 Peter 1:1-2 

“Making your calling and election sure Part2” 

Vs. 1a The secret of freedom 

Vs. 1b The basis of fairness 

Vs. 2 The blessing of fellowship 

Intro. 

Having discussed the type of literature of 2 Peter being a “New Testament letter” known as an epistle that followed the typical four-fold pattern of: 

• Chp. 1:1-4 Introduction 
• Chp. 1:5-11 Statement of purpose “Making your calling and election sure”  
• Chp. 1:12-3:16 Main body of teaching: Three ways to, “Stir up pure minds (3:1)” 
• Chp. 3:17-18 Closing and benediction: “Grow in grace”  

We begin our examination of the introduction of this letter understanding how our enemy’s tactics move the Christian and the church away from the truth of God’s word. Peter sets the tone of the letter as it relates to the gospel and to the truth which they must grow in while revealing indirectly Satan’s hatred of three important truths and doctrines: 

Vs. 1a The secret of freedom: “A bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ”. 

Vs. 1b The basis of fairness: “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us”. 

Vs. 2 The blessing of fellowship: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”.   

Vs. 1a The secret of freedom 

Vs. 1 “Simon Peter” the writer identifies himself and his glorious privilege in his given name. But it is what Peter says next that gives the readers an important truth that false teachers will always attack when he writes that he is “A bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ”. The Greeks had five words for our English word slave. The word had many meanings and came from the root word to “bind” and was used as “One who is BOUND to another as a slave”. It designated a person who was born into slavery and was used by the Christian as identification of the previous condition by which they were “born into sin” but were now “born again” into a loving servitude to Jesus Christ through their regeneration. It was also used of a person who was swallowed up in the will of another so much so that they were bound with bounds that only death could break. 

 This also describes our former condition to sin and our current condition because of Jesus who broke the bonds of death! It, furthermore, described a person’s service that was so intense that they would disregard all self-interest as it carried the attitude that “Nothing matters about me so long as the Lord is glorified”! This ought to be the attitude of every one of us whose bonds have been cut to sin and bound to Jesus! It is here that Peter gives the reader of this letter the “The secret of freedom” that Satan will continue to seek to destroy: That at the heart of all true and lasting freedom there can only be loving bondage to Christ! We only need to examine personal and historical humanity to see the effect of Satan’s lies. Liberty or freedom without any personal restraint is always self-destructive and in time will suppress other freedoms! The person who will not be bound to anything or anyone is the person who is most enslaved as the greater is never “free to” without being “free from”. Freedom must be limited and have structure to be enjoyed, and every type of freedom has to have its boundaries and chains. But it’s only if such enslavement is to Jesus Christ that a person is set free! Peter says that his service was tethered so much so to Jesus that “Nothing matters about me so long as the Lord is glorified”! In using the name and title of Jesus we see Peter define three doctrines of the faith: 

• The deity of Jesus 
• The humanity of Jesus 
• The sacrificial atonement of Jesus as he is the Christ 

Peter’s statement in verse 1 as to the secret of freedom suggests three things: 

That Peter accepted his position as a bondservant as an acknowledged fact! Peter was Jesus Christ’s salve. He had been bought at a price and was now Jesus’ property who had sole rights to His life!  

Peter allowed that above “FACT” to have an assumptive attitude in his life! It produced humility and paved the way to the right heart in service to Jesus and the Church. Peter was obedient to Jesus based upon the transformation of his attitude to this “FACT”.  

Finally, the “fact that transformed and attitude directed his mission and direction in life” as an apostle he was sent forth to do his master’s will when and where Jesus directed him. Through being bound to Christ Peter experienced perfect freedom orchestrating opportunities in harmony with the will of the Father! 

Vs. 1b The basis of fairness 

Vs. 1b The next thing in this introduction to the letter that Peter says reveals for us the second truth, is that Satan and his false teachers want to disseminate lies in order that Christians will remain ignorant on:  The basis of fairness: “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us”. The word “obtain” in the Greek is a word that means to receive by divine allotment the faith granted the believer is like the winning lottery ticket as without possession on it we cannot receive the prize! The faith is “like precious” and the Greek speaks of like in quantity and quality linked with a word that means “held at great price”. The unity of humanity is that “ALL are equally sinful so that the same treatment can be 100% effective”. Satan peddles “goodness” that some are “good people” while others are not. That God’s acceptance is based upon works and that refinement is all about our effort to get better!  

It may surprise some, but Satan is the most religious person in all of God’s creation. But the truth is faith is a gift of God, and all men are equally as bad off as they can be so that God can transform them all who receive the gift of faith to be as good as He designed them! The passing of over 2000 years has not changed or altered this truth! The problem with the world is that I am the problem and because of me I can’t get along with others and it’s destroying other people who are in the exact same condition as I am. The proof of this is seen in the reality that even with all of humanity’s advancement in sciences, communication and travel we are closer to the brink of extinction than we have ever been, humanity isn’t getting better it is getting worse. As bad as this truth is it means that nothing has changed the prescribed treatment from God. No announcement has made saying God’s gift of faith obsolete. Oh, that the church would get back to the gospel instead of parlor tricks and sideshow gimmicks! Satan and his messengers would have the Christian believe that God’s gift of faith in His Son is NOT ENOUGH to transform us, but the message is that there is STILL only One Way whereby humanity can be right in the sight of God and that is faith in Jesus Christ!             

Vs. 2 The blessing of fellowship 

Vs. 2 That leads Peter to the third and final truth that Satan wishes to cover up by his lies and that is the blessing of fellowship: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”. How do we Christians maintain the above truths of the secret of freedom and the basis of fairness? The answer is through continual and consistent growth (multiplied) found ONLY in appropriating experiential knowledge. It is in this that every believer can experience more grace and peace in their life. Satan has peddled the lie that when the going gets tough pull away from Jesus, put down your Bible and return to your former life because it worked so well that you left it for Christ! Our knowledge of Jesus is not mere facts or tidbits of information about Him but is a heart that experience has driven us into His loving arms time and again to be transformed by His unending love.  

Christian, we leave the start of this incredible book realizing how Satan would attack the church and the truth of God’s word, so that we would be hindered in our application of them causing us to not grow and instead some to become purveyors of the devils lies. Let us guard our hearts and minds that we may grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ!         

2 Peter 1:3-4 

“Objectives and resources of the Christian” 

Vs. 3 What the believer has in the bank? 

Vs. 4 What does the believers wealth purchase? 

Intro. 

Peter started out this letter drawing the reader’s attention to three truths Satan and his delegates seek to keep the Christian from realizing: 

• Vs. 1a The secret of freedom: “A bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ”. 
• Vs. 1b The basis of fairness: “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us”. 

Vs. 2 The blessing of fellowship: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”.   

As we continue in the introduction Peter answers several hypothetical questions that the reader may have. His reason for this is so that the reader would be better protected from false teachers who were attempting to say that there was another layer to their faith that these false teachers and their special knowledge could grant the believer. In Peter’s greeting in verse 2 we read; “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Here we were given the basis of continuation of fellowship with the Lord as well as the location of the supplies that are essential in maintaining it, “The knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” 

 Peter’s statement carries tremendous weight as he states that since the 3 ½ years that he personally witnessed Jesus living life out on earth he had not discovered anything lacking. What Jesus had supplied during his time with him was still all that was necessary. This was not the first time that Peter had shared his personal encounter with Jesus. One of the ones that is mentioned in the Bible is the time he met with Paul told, only in Paul’s letter to the Galatians in 1:17-18 where Paul writes, “Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and stayed with him for 15 days.” Paul writes that after his conversion he spent 3 years studying the First (Old) Testament scriptures and he went from “proclaiming” Jesus as the Lord to “proving” upon his return to Damascus. It was after this that Paul went to talk with Peter. Talk about an “odd couple”, Peter the transformed fisherman whose education had come from being with Jesus and Paul the student of Gamaliel one of the greatest rabbis of his time. It was during those 15 days that Peter no doubt filled in all that he had encountered in his personal encounter with Jesus. I bring this up because Peter mentions the three greatest characteristics that He witnessed in Jesus’ earthly life. Peter answers the hypothetical question: What does a Christian life made up of multiplied grace and peace look like? On a practical level Peter is identifying the unending resources the believer has in the Spirit by answer four questions: 

• What does the believer have in the Bank of Jesus? Verse 3a “Divine Power, Glory and virtue!” 
• How does the believer receive this wealth? Verses 3-4 “In exceeding great and precious promises…given to us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness!”  
• What do our never-ending resources accomplish for us? Verse 4 “That through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust!” 
• What is the location of all our resources? Verse 3 “Through the knowledge of Him!”   

Furthermore, in doing so Peter has answered two of the great mysteries in life: 

What is the object of the Christian life?  

• Pertain to LIFE: To know God And GODLINESS: To be transformed into His likeness  
• What were the most memorable characteristics of Jesus’ life? Of all the things that Peter witnessed of Jesus during those 31/2 years he tells his readers he was most impressed with three specific characteristics.  

Vs. 3a “His divine power”  

Vs. 3d “His glory” 

Vs. 3c “His virtue”      

Vs. 3 What the believer has in the bank? 

Vs. 3 It is good for the believer to realize that our “resources” match our “objectives”. I suppose that we have all experienced in this life that the lack of our “resources” can directly affect our ability to meet our “objectives”, but Peter guarantees that this will never be the case for the Christian! God has seen fit to make certain that what God has called us to will be supplied 100% by him alone. Peter’s purpose of letting his readers know this is so that Satan and his false teachers would not be able to move the believer from their true resources on to that which would never be able to accomplish the objective. Satan has long employed the tactic of distraction to get the Christian away from God’s given objective of knowing God and being transformed into His image. 

 We all ought to be more concerned with the state of our own heart than the state of the union. Revival in the world always starts with the revival of the Christian. Peter’s statement as to the objectives of the Christian life is found in verses 2-3 and starts with the phrase in verse 2 where he wishes “Grace and peace to be multiplied to you”. He then tells the believer the location of those great resources is found only in “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Having given us, the source of Grace and peace Peter moves to the objects of these resources as they are to SUPPLY the essentials for the Christian. Which are revealed to the reader in verse 3: 

The objectives of the Christian life? His divine power has given us ALL THINGS that pertain to two objectives:  

LIFE: The essential objective of the Christian continues and will always be “To know God.” This is what we Christians should desire above everything else and ought to occupy our prayer life. This is the supreme objective of the Christian as Jesus said in John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Jesus elaborated on the heart condition which would enable this in Matt. 5:8 in the “Beatitudes” saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Here where Christians are led away from the truth of the “resources” available to them and Peter acknowledges that it starts with knowledge. It is the only way humanity can get to “LIFE” as the Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God! This reminds the person that knowing God is the only way to experience life and that such a quest can only happen by the Spirit of God illuminating the Word of God to the heart.       

GODLINESS: The first objective primarily deals with the salvation of the human heart but notice that Peter doesn’t stop with “salvation” being the ONLY objective as he goes on to say in verse 3 that the second objective of the Christian is “To be transformed into His likeness”, which deals with our sanctification. We are told that to accomplish this objective that the Christian has been given the continual resources of “exceeding great and precious promises”! Peter’s statement is staggeringly amazing as he proclaims that our objective has received all we need from God to accomplish according to verse 4 to be “partakers of the divine nature”. This is accomplished through “precious promises” that enable the Christian to become “partakers of the divine nature”. Our objective is “Life” and “Godliness”; to be those that manifest to the world the divine nature and characteristics. A Christian is not a person who is born in a certain country or family. They do not describe a person who has gone through certain religious ceremonies. Neither do they describe a “good person” who by works try to uplift their fellow man. While some of these are true of a Christian, we must not forget that a Christian is one who is a “partaker of the divine nature.” Every Christian is called to manifest Jesus’ character and nature to the world we live in.  

The question is: “What does that specifically look like?” Peter has defined it by saying that he witnessed of Jesus during those 31/2 years three specific characteristics that most impressed him even after 30 years; these were still Jesus’ most impressive traits.  

Vs. 3a “His divine power”: Peter doesn’t give us more information with regards to Jesus’ divine power, so we are left to discover the specifics of this seen in the Life of Jesus as described through the eyewitness accounts as to what impressed Peter. The purpose of this examination is to find out what the resources will do when applied to our objectives of life and godliness! Looking out over the gospels I see repeated over and over three areas as to what impressed the eyewitness of “divine power”. These three things ought to be what we and others see in us if we have applied God’s resources to our objectives and have become “partakers of the divine nature”. 

Power over self: Peter had witnessed the amazing power of self-control of Jesus. Time and again Peter would watch the supernatural manifestation of Jesus’ divine power over self. Jesus was never self-distracted, self-absorbed. He exhibited a divine power over what consumed all others…. self!! Jesus was not governed by His desires, not controlled by His desire for pleasure nor by the desire to escape that which would cause him displeasure. His power over himself was seen during His temptation in the wilderness, and the countless times and resources He had to not suffer in any way. Yet He only did that which pleased the Father, His desire was swallowed in obedience to His Fathers will. The precious promises of God supply the resources necessary for the Christian to no longer be people who are consumed by getting our way and instead we will be consumed by a life that only wants God’s will!     

Power over patience: The second area looking at the gospels that is an amazing display of divine power was the power Jesus had over patience! Jesus refused to be in a hurry and rush ahead of God. There is: Waiting ON the Lord and Waiting FOR the Lord. Waiting ON the Lord is where we look to know His will is some area of our lives and it is difficult for us to wait on the Lord for direction and leading. Ah but waiting FOR the Lord requires even more patience as here we are asked to wait FOR the Lord even after we have waited ON the Lord. God may have given us a clear direction, but it will require even more patience to wait on God to do the work. Jesus never moved ahead of the Father and instead said “My hour has not yet come”. Jesus exhibited His patience towards others both those for Him as well as those who were against Him. Everyday Jesus walked this planet His patience was tried and never once do we see Him lose His patience. Christian, God has given us His power over our patience or lack thereof and if we are applying His resources to our objectives we ought to see some progress in this area.    

Power over others: The third area that Peter had witnessed Jesus divine power was over others. There are so many testimonies of Jesus touching someone and they were healed. The rekindling of Mary Magdalene as her dark soul was restored to light. Peter watched as Zacchaeus was transformed from his possessions and lifted where he became generous. Peter was there as Lazarus’ heavy lifeless body lay three days in a tomb and watched Jesus’ power bring him back to a vitalized life again. Peter also witnessed Jesus’ power over others as it related to His releasing the mental bondage of a Nicodemus. And it was Jesus who in the garden of Peter’s impatience after he had pulled out his sword and cut off the servant’s ear that Jesus touched him and gave him what Peter hadn’t himself…his hearing! Yet in every case where Jesus’ power was on display over others it was always for their benefit and furtherance of His Father’s glory! We too will be given divine power over others but not for our benefit but theirs for the glory of God not us. Divine power running coursing through us will not result in our exaltation but in Jesus’ it won’t end in our benefit, but the person God has called us too! We will see the majesty of Jesus returning into lifeless bodies, life’s functioning as designed. And we will bow before the One who so worked in others as He has worked in us!  

Vs. 3b “His glory”: The second characteristic that these precious promises ought to produce in the Christian what Peter witnessed in Jesus during those 3 ½ years and is found in verse 3 as Peter says that the Christian is called to “glory”! The question that the reader needs to ask is just what “Glory” of Jesus is Peter writing about? Peter’s use of this word is to take the reader away from the Gnostic teachers’ starch intellectualism that disregards the reality that Jesus was never safe even though He is our Savior. The word speaks of the whole of His character, the majesty of His grace, the glory that was the spark in His eyes, the holiness that projected from His words when He spoke. The power of His tender touch when took hold of a needy life. Peter is describing what the apostle John described in his gospel in John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

 The radiant earthly robes of His mercy and the splendor of the Godhead bodily shedding Himself abroad in His lavish love! Peter is not writing about what He hasn’t yet witnessed in all eternity but what he witnessed in eternity manifest so that fallen humanity could take notice! Jesus’ nature of tenderness, gentleness, holiness and love that was always on display in our master’s life. That is a resource for us NOW through these precious promises, there are unending resources in the bank of Christ for us to live this way to a world that will marvel at God’s glory reflecting upon our everyday lives.      

Vs. 3c “His virtue”: The third characteristic that these precious promises ought to produce in the Christian that Peter witnessed in Jesus is also found in verse 3 as Peter says the Christian is called to Christ’s “virtue”! The moral goodness of His Master Jesus was always present and visible. Peter has had years to look back at not only what he witnessed in Jesus actions, but he could now lay next to Jesus actions His teaching to see if Jesus was ever a person who could have said, “Do as I say not as I do!” But Jesus’ “virtue” is such that there was never ONE TIME that Jesus didn’t exhibit heavenly virtue in earthly situations and circumstances. Again, I remind the Christian that these amazing characteristics of Christ are what our resources provided by Jesus’ ought to accomplish in each of us!  

Vs. 4 What does the believers wealth purchase? 

Vs. 4 Having witnessed these three amazing characteristics in Jesus, Peter now proclaims them as objectives for every Christian because of the resources of Jesus made available to each of us. We have this “wealth” in the bank of Christ given to us to withdraw His riches so that each of us can manifest these same characteristics to a lost world. How do we withdraw them? Peter explains the process on how we can obtain the funds as “exceedingly great and precious promises”. A promise of Jesus has a three-fold purpose: 

• It reveals an ideal:  
• It kindles an action: 
• It inspires a hope:   

But the Lord has not stopped at only a promise as it “pertains to life and godliness”, which means that Jesus has a “promise with a purpose” as it provides the equipment necessary to: Fulfill the ideal, complete the action and realize the hope! The things that pertain to Life are not the things that people commonly think are necessary but those things that make us partakers of the “divine nature”, as it has enabled us to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. In other words, we can be assured of the ability of the resources to accomplish the objectives because they are the same ones that have already been tested and worked transforming us from death to life! God’s exceedingly great and precious promises enable us: To know God and to be transformed into His likeness. Oh, the possibilities available to us Christians, to be a people who don’t simply ask the question; “Do I like this” directed by their fleshly appetites and desire but to be like Jesus who asked, “Is it good, does it glorify the Father and further His kingdom!”       

Vs. 5 Balance 

Vs. 5 There is no use in telling a man to fish if you haven’t given him what is necessary to fish but there ought to be every expectation that once supplied with everything necessary to fish that the person will indeed…FISH!! This addresses the second error that the Christian Church has made with “extreme passivity”! Yes, God has given “everything necessary” but there is an expectancy that we will use what He has provided. Jesus spoke on this in the parable of the talents in Matt. 25:14-30 as we ought to now put forth the effort to accomplish the objectives. Divine wealth is not given to humanity so we can sleep and waste away the gift of life that God has given us! Consider the extreme cost that God has given so that we are now able to accomplish those two objects! With that said Peter now says the exhortation: “But also for this very reason”. Peter says that it is because God has already supplied everything necessary to know God and be transformed into His likeness, that the Christian needs to be “Active and alive” in their faith…that is redeemed humanity’s part! The English translation of the Greek word “add” doesn’t rightly convey the meaning.  

The Greek word is where we get our English word for chorus which was very important in Greek plays. The word was used to describe the person who bore the expense of all the training and maintenance for the chorus. It meant supply to overflowing beyond what was necessary …. generously! What follows is a threefold description of the Christian faith that we are exhorted to have been abundantly furnished on our behalf that we are now to be diligent in increasing! Peter describes the: 

• Character of our faith: Virtue and knowledge 
• Disposition of our faith: Self-control, perseverance  
• Its relationship to others of our faith: Godliness, brotherly kindness and love 

Peter’s reference to this isn’t meant to be some mechanical exercise; using the word ADD we see that he means that it ought to be a “perfect balance…a chorus of perfectly fitted voices in concert with each other”! This is a perfect list; you cannot add to it as it deals with the whole of the Christian life that is all dependent upon our faith in what God alone has supplied. Of note also is the order of the list in its divisions:  

• The most important thing is that the Christian is right with regards to the “Character of our faith”. 
• Then once corrected with regards to the “Character of our faith” the Christian will need to realize that the world will oppose this faith, and we will need to be open to be the inward disposition of our faith! 
• Finally, the Christian will need to understand the faith’s relationship with others who share our faith as well as those outside it!        

Peter’s take on this section is very “business like” as he describes the Christians pursuit of maturity like business attitudes or strategies. Yes, they are to be done in the energy of the Holy Spirit, but we must not think that God is against order and discipline. Look at Peter’s words here, “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.”  

Peter gives four business attitudes towards our faith: “for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith”: 

•  Method of our faith “add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control”: 
•  Alertness of our faith, “to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness”:  
• Promptness of our faith “to godliness brotherly kindness”:  
• Boldness of our faith “and to brotherly kindness love”:  

Oh, to God that the Christian would be as eager to acquire and spend their spiritual wealth as if they were in their pursuit to obtain and spend their material wealth! Peter enables the reader of this letter to: 

• Define their ambitions  
• Refine their goals  
• Realign their efforts     

This list also enables the reader to analyze why they are not obtaining their desired results of their faith. “What do I lack?” “What do I need to put in harmony with my faith?” Again, I remind you that Peter started this letter with taking the reader into the bank of Christ showing them their heavenly resources to accomplish the objectives of: Knowing God and being transformed into His likeness. Having shown us this, Peter assumes that we would now want to “put into our life” what God has created us to be! Every one of these “virtues” adds, strengthens and transforms every other virtue. Like hues of color one drop of one-color changes the shade of the next color. The principle put forth by Peter in the Greek is that: The composition of our faith is such that everything helps everything else achieve what each is individually called to be. As I allow the Holy Spirit to add to my “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.”  

All are enriched by each other but there is a reverse application of this principle as well as if you take virtue away from knowledge you will impoverish knowledge! It is clear by Peter’s words that the Christian life is to be both “Active” and “efficient” as we see that is the nature of our heavenly Father and Lord whom we are being transformed to be like! The Christian and Church that he is a part of are to be character and moral “health centers,” where each believer is contributing to the health and wellbeing of not only themselves and their direct community but all that they encounter! The church is part of the refinement process of our disposition as the above virtues are “ADDED” to our lives daily. Next, we will examine in greater detail the:  

• Character of our faith: Virtue and knowledge 
• Disposition of our faith: Self-control, perseverance  
• Its relationship to others of our faith: Godliness, brotherly kindness and love 

2 Peter 1:5-7 

“Giving all diligence” 

Vs. 5b Balanced faith 

Vs. 6-7 Five business attitudes towards our faith 

Intro 

Again, we take up chapter 1 verses 5-11 in what is the reason the Holy Spirit had Peter sit down to write this letter. In his introduction Peter wrote the objectives of the Christian life; revealing to the reader in verse 3 what the two objects of the Christian life are only after he reminded them what and where their resources were to accomplish the objects of:   

• Pertain to LIFE: To know God 
• And GODLINESS: To be transformed into His likeness  

Peter indirectly conveys two power truths:  

• First, he dispels the lie that by their own efforts they can make themselves Christians or by adding to their life works, they can add to their own goodness and fitness to be in the presence of God. 

•  Second, he corrects the error of “extreme passivity” that makes it anti-Christian to exhibit any self-discipline in their Christian life.     

It is here that the bulk of Peter’s letter focuses! The reason for this was that these first century Christians were eager to grow in Christ while that is good it made them susceptible to false teachers who claimed that the Apostles lacked truth that could aid them in their quest for maturity. That is a far cry different than how this letter exhorts believers today. What we realize in Peter’s letter is that our: Divine wealth is not given to us so that as Christians we can waste the opportunities to grow and mature the gift of life that God has given us! We Christians need to consider the extreme cost that God has given in His Only Begotten Son so that we are now able to accomplish those two objects! Peter says that it is because God has already supplied everything necessary to know God and be transformed into His likeness that the Christian needs to be “Active and alive” in their faith! The Greek word “add” is where we get our English word for chorus and was used to describe the person who bore the expense of all the training and maintenance for the chorus. What follows is a threefold description of the Christian faith that Peter describes as the: 

• Character of our faith: Virtue and knowledge 
• Disposition of our faith: Self-control, perseverance  
• Its relationship to others of our faith: Godliness, brotherly kindness and love 

This isn’t some mechanical exercise, and it is again the use of the word ADD where we see that our diligence ought to be a “perfect balance…a (CHORUS) perfectly fitted voices in concert with each other”! Peter’s take on this section reveals this diligence as it is very “business like” as he gives five business attitudes towards our faith: 

• Method of our faith: “for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith” 
• Alertness of our faith: “add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control” 
• Promptness of our faith: “to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness” 
• Boldness of our faith: “to godliness brotherly kindness” 
• Persistence of our faith: “and to brotherly kindness love”    

Peter mentioned diligence enables the reader of this letter to do three things in maturity of their faith: 

• Define their ambitions  
• Refine their goals  
• Realign their efforts     

Furthermore, they help the believer to analyze why they are not obtaining their desired results of their faith. “What do I lack?” “What do I need to put in harmony with my faith?” Let’s now examine in detail this perfect list:  

• Character of our faith: Virtue and knowledge 
• Disposition of our faith: Self-control, perseverance  
• Its relationship to others of our faith: Godliness, brotherly kindness and love 

Vs. 5b Balanced faith 

Vs. 5b Peter had taken his readers to the “Bank of Jesus Christ” and showed them “every spiritual blessing in heavenly places” (Eph 1:3) that was necessary for the two objectives of the Christian life. The assumption he makes is, once we have made a withdrawal, we will spend it to purchase these seven aspects of balanced faith! The Greek word “diligence” is one that means 

to: Make haste, be eager, to do one’s best, to exert oneself.  Think of the areas where you “Make haste, be eager, to do one’s best, to exert oneself” and you will discover that our challenge isn’t that we aren’t diligent but rather that we aren’t diligent with the wealth and resources that God has provided for us to add to our faith! Of further importance is the realization that every “ADDED” virtue strengthens and transfigures every other virtue. Every addition we make to our character adds to the enrichment of our life and the effectiveness of our witness of the glory of God!  

Vs. 6-7 Five business attitudes towards our faith 

Method of our faith: “for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue”: To develop one “virtue” is to exercise another as each new grace springs out of another and perfects the other virtue. “In your faith”, Peter says, “supply virtue” and in your “virtue supply knowledge” etc. We exercise our faith in Jesus by yielding to the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts. The Greek word for “virtue” is NOT JUST “moral excellence” but rather the “moral energy” that describes the activity of the soul that is manifested in moral excellence. Peter says, “See to it that your faith is an active living faith”! A “manly faith” that is energetic and alive in every way. The Christians faith is “active” NOT to get something from God but because it has already received everything from God. There ought NOT be any “passivity” in our faith. We shouldn’t witness in the Christian or the church any “lethargy”. Peter’s exhortation is let your faith be energetic, let it be alive, let it stir up other good works in Christ Jesus. The Church of Jesus is NOT called to their “Lazy boy recliners” waiting for something or someone to “stir the waters” of our faith. Our faith ought to have been stirred by Jesus! We are to do our part as we give all “diligence” to make certain that our heart adds to our faith virtue! 

Alertness of our faith: “add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control”: The word “knowledge” here is a word that doesn’t refer to an intellectual understanding but rather a practical or experiential knowledge as it is connected to the next virtue “self-control” or temperance. Peter is not speaking of a knowledge that leads to faith as that is what the believer has already been given by faith. Instead, it is insight or alertness of their faith. It is putting our faith into practice not waiting for things to happen but rather being vigorous to seize the opportunity to put virtue to practice! 

 But notice that this “knowledge” is tempered with “self-control” and the Greek word used is one that describes who yields their life over to their master’s passions instead of their own! One Greek scholar called this virtue as the “trusty dispenser of self-restraint”. Clearly this knowledge was to be practiced in the energy of self-control thus it was harnessed energy like a light bulb instead of lightning. Peter no doubt could have been thinking of this in terms of his own failed past when his passion overcame his temperance. We can all become enslaved to the “tyranny of the urgent” whereby we are overwhelmed by a state of activity that leads us only to more activity! Peter is writing about a spiritual energy that is intelligent, enlightened and controlled to accomplish the purposes and plans for our maturity and spiritual growth.      

 Promptness of our faith: “to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness”: Peter looks directly at inward dispositions having focused our attention to the “trusty dispenser of self-restraint” Peter says that we are to blend in a generous dose of “perseverance” and the Greek word means “to remain under” and is used to describe a person who “remains under” the trials and testings in a way that both honors God and furthers their maturity in the faith. It’s the heroic faith that enables the believer to NOT just bear up under trials and testings, but “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude1:3) This is not earthly stubbornness that Peter writes of but heavenly submission to the will of God. The idea here is the need for the believer to watch themselves to make certain that our “death” is daily. The flesh lusts against the spirit and spirit against the flesh and it is perseverance that has as its aim godliness, that sees the lusts of the flesh to die! This self-discipline enables the believer to “mortify the flesh”. The Christian must not believe the lie of Satan that by mere sitting at church the former lusts will automatically be removed from us. “His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness”. God is NOT asking the believer to discipline and control themselves or do something that they are NOT capable of doing but rather to exercise what God has equipped us to do! There is no place in our Christian faith for great professions of faith and promises to our Lord if we don’t carry them in the power and resources that He has given us. And the Goal is our transformation into His likeness, so let’s not grow weary for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not! 

Boldness of our faith: “to godliness brotherly kindness”: We now see the relationship of our faith to others. We can quickly see if our relationship with God is right by noting how our relationship is with others. While our motivation is our maturity to the glory of God, our diligence has the further blessing and impact upon those who both share our faith and those that don’t! There is no greater witness the Christian can have than a self-disciplined life that manifests itself in love for others! Think how much damage has been done by the church and Christians who think that manifesting “godliness” has been devoid of love! Oh, thank God we have been given the balance and harmony of our faith as so many have rejected the “crippled chorus of the church” that isn’t the “harmony of the Holy Spirit” visible in our love of God and others!      

Persistence of our faith: “and to brotherly kindness love”: Finally, Peter says that to this “brotherly kindness” God’s “agape” love is to be added, above all. “Let this love reign in you”, Peter says. Each of these qualities adds and contributes to the others as each possess an importance that influences the others. There is a perfect balance that is lacking in the world of fallen humanity. We can see highly intelligent people cultured but not moral but self-loving! There are those who have great power, but their life spins out of control. There is no life that can be in balance except the Christian life. It is only in the Christian life that because we start with faith in Him who so loved us that the expectation from God is that we will end up with love. Without faith we can do nothing but given faith and practicing faith we must inevitably end up with love, for God and for what God loves!            

2 Peter 1:8-11 

“Blessed Assurance” 

Vs. 8-10 These things 

Intro 

Peter’s words to the first century church of their resources and objectives of the Christian life was because these first century Christians were so eager to grow in Christ that it made them susceptible to false teachers. Peter’s letter causes us to realize that our Divine wealth is not given to us so that as Christians we can waste away the God given opportunities to grow and mature! Our examination of this letter causes us to understand that God has placed before the believer a “holy expectation” that the Christian will take the resources that have been specifically given us all things that pertain to obtaining the two objectives of: Knowing God and Being transformed into His likeness. The practicality of this passage is apparent as we can measure our maturity by self-examination as we do three things with of our faith: 

• Define our ambitions  
• Refine our goals  
• Realign our efforts     

And if we discover discrepancies in our maturity, we can better analyze why we are not obtaining the desired results of their faith by asking. “What do I lack?” “What do I need to put in harmony with my faith?” It is from these seven characteristics that we learn what maturity in the believer’s life will look like. I’m most challenged by the Greek word translated “diligence” as it means to: Make haste, be eager, to do one’s best, to exert oneself.  My challenge isn’t that I’m not diligent but rather that I’m NOT always diligent with the wealth and resources that God has provided for me to add to my faith! Peter has dealt with “What God has given and done for us” he then exhorted in verses 5-7 what God’s expectations were for those who have both the resources and objectives for the Christian life. To put it plainly we are too: “To finish out our faith by applying what God has furnished”! What follows in verses 8-11 is our response and it all culminates in verse 10 which is the hinge in which this whole letter opens and closes! “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble.”  

Vs. 8-10 These things 

Vs. 8 A careful examination of these verses reveal the three-time repeated phrase “these things” (verse 8, 9 and verse 10). Before we go further in our interpretation of this section, we need to determine what “these things” that Peter is writing of are as he says that by them, we can evaluate three things about our Christian life: 

Vs. 8 “IF” they are ours and abound we will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Simply put we will be maturing in our faith growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.  

Vs. 9 “IF” we lack these things we are shortsighted even to being blind and have forgotten that we were cleansed from our old sins. The lack of “these things” indicate that we can only see what is in front of us and the conditioning is worsening and may even result in our blindness. It also seems that this blindness is spiritual in nature as it affects our mind as we become unaware that our spiritual state was changed by the blood of Jesus! 

Vs. 10 Finally Peter writes a second time to the Christian to be “even more diligent” and links this with “doing these things”. This Peter said is the antidote or vaccine to the “spiritual short sightedness” that may lead to blindness as he says that “doing these things” will keep us from stumbling or falling away from our faith. 

It is clear by verse 10 and the use of the word “all diligence” that the “these things” that Peter writes about are the very seven characteristics of their faith that they were to “add to” in all diligence and more diligence. The question at hand this morning is: What does Peter mean to convey to his readers with this exhortation? At face value it would seem to be contradictory to the doctrine of grace. Some suggest that this is Peter’s “God helps those who help themselves”. These folks say that Peter’s “diligent addition” is proof that by “doing these things” that you can become a “GOOD Christian”. The problem with this position is that it would go against the entire teaching of the Bible and the sacrifice of Jesus would be unnecessary. Peter is NOT here exhorting the Christian to “make their calling and election sure” in an eternal sense for two specific reasons:  

• It is something that the readers of this letter are completely incapable of doing! 
• The certainty of our calling and election is above our pay grade and is from God’s view and action and not ours.  

Peter had already said as much in verse 1 when he said he was writing to those “Who obtained like precious faith”. Our faith is NOT something that we created, generated nor worked hard to receive….NO, it is something that we OBTAINED, the recipients of this letter just like us have received our faith as a GIFT. Since it is a gift, Peter would NOT now, a few verses later, exhort the believer to now “DO THESE THINGS” to obtain what was already given them!  

Peter CAN NOT be telling his readers to “elect, choose or call” themselves. It is God who calls, elects and chooses! So, what is this exhortation? It is for the benefit of the believer that they may under every circumstance and situation enjoy the certainty of God’s election, choosing and calling of us! Works don’t save us, but they are proof to ourselves that we are applying God’s resources to the two objectives of Knowing God and being transformed into His likeness! The apostle John wrote something similar in 1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God.” Such blessed assurance is NOT for a certain few as Peter writes here a letter to the church ordinary Christians NOT certain outstanding “saints”. To common people Peter offers assurance, they can know that they are in the Beloved! If you were to look out at the entirety of church history at times of revival and reformation, the common denominator of the work of the Holy Spirit is that His work of “awakening” always occurred when He assured them of their salvation and realized what they had been given in Christ. No revival was ever started by God telling man that they needed to “earn His love”!               
    What Peter understands by way of the Holy Spirit is that “The Christian will not be able to function as He has created them UNTIL and UNLESS they are certain of His lasting love”. The objections to Peter’s truth have abounded through our generations of the church.  

Some say if you tell Christians that they can be certain of their calling and election then they will become apathetic and cease to grow. Peter’s exhortation is not “presumption” any more than it is “presumption” to say that because of Jesus’ work on the cross we can be certain and assured that our sins have been forgiven!  

Some say that we cannot be certain or assured of this until we are perfect, but the truth is that Peter doesn’t offer this, God does know full well that those he is offering to are far from perfect. It is God that asks me to make my calling and election sure! Am I to say back to God, “No God, I can’t do so until I’m perfect?”      

It is clear that God knows what HE is offering to His children and that I should do so because He says so and second, I should do so because it is part of God’s method and plans in my salvation! To not do so is to be “incomplete” and “under-developed” and “immature” in our faith! Having assurance doesn’t make us less of a witness of the grace of God but a better witness for Christ as the joy of the Lord is our strength. God doesn’t want the believer to be filled with fears and uncertainty in their relationship with Him.  

The next question we need to ask is: “How can this certainty or assurance be obtained?” First it is of necessity that this assurance can NEVER be obtained by glancing into the reflection of their own heart; it can only be obtained by looking into the perfection of Jesus who is the way the truth and the life! If we fall into the trap of looking at our reflection to obtain assurance, then we will fall into one of two pits: 

Our whole focus on life will become nothing more than self-examination, morbidly obsessed with their own efforts to be assured! The result of the Christian who fall into this pit is that they are always checking the pulse of their own heart and will never amount to anything for God’s kingdom.  

The second trap we will fall into is waiting for the “Big Bang” of experience to determine the extraordinary manifestation that ‘proves” our assurance. We will be a slave to our experiences as a scale is to someone on a diet!  

Again, saints we obtain assurance and can be certain of it as we notice His work of adding to our faith these seven qualities. Peter’s exhortation to “Fill out your faith with God has furnished!” Don’t just sit in contemplation of Christ but go out and practice the Christian life and when you do so an amazing thing then happens you become more aware of Him and more certain and assured of His calling and election of you!                 

2 Peter 1:8-11 

“Faith’s motive” 

Vs. 8-11A finished faith 

Vs. 8 Not Idle 

Vs. 9 Not lacking application 

Vs. 11 Home at last  

Intro 

Now we will conclude the reason Peter wrote this letter we call 2 Peter. In this letter Peter addressed his words to a church that was very eager to grow in Christ and it was this that made them susceptible to false teachers. God has placed before the believer a “holy expectation” that the Christian will take His resources and obtain the two objectives of: Knowing God and Being transformed into His likeness. Periodically we will need to do a self-examination as we: 

• Define our ambitions  
• Refine our goals  
• Realign our efforts     

We are to: “Finish out our faith by applying what God has furnished”! What follows is Peter supplying further inducements to further encourage believers to practice his exhortation of “growing in grace” 3:18. The goal for Peter is not just that the believer is saved but that they would both know and act as they are saved. The result of this is that they prove to themselves that their calling and election is assured! God wants the believer to understand that “The Christian will not be able to function as He has created them UNTIL and UNLESS they are certain of His lasting love”.  

Vs. 8-11A finished faith 

Vs. 8-11 There is an appeal by Peter for the believer to make the pursuit of holiness and daily quest and a lifetime goal. Yet with that said we must interpret such a quest in light of the New Testament as it is never an appeal from the position of the law, it is rather an appeal from logic not legalism! “If you claim you have received from God certain things, then you can do something far more than speak about it to others; you can live it out before others!” “You are children of God, “partakers of the divine nature” because of this fact it is reasonable with respect to your holiness that you would want to be diligent and add to your faith, virtue etc.” The opposite is also true…. there is nothing more unbecoming than the professing Christian that claims to have obtained like precious faith but objects to the biblical admonition to be transformed more and more into the image of Jesus! The bible makes NO expectation for fallen humanity to live up to a standard of holiness that they could never in their efforts obtain. God is not surprised that fallen humanity is not interested in such an expectation, that they find such a suggestion confining, boring and generally detestable. It was Martin Luther who said that the Believer should always teach in such a way that, “If people are listening, they will come to hate their sin and if they do not come to hate their sin, they will hate you instead!”  

Ah but God does have an expectation for those who profess His name that if they feel the call to holiness is too stringent while claiming they believe that God has given them everything that pertains to godliness then they are a walking contradiction! There is no better way to test your profession than to examine your life regarding Peter’s exhortation. Peter gives three reasons we should give all diligence to make our calling and election sure to “Finish out our faith by applying what God has furnished”. Two of the reasons are positive and other negative. The negative is found in the middle of the two positives. 

Vs. 8 Not Idle 

Vs. 8 Peter will in verse 10 make the exhortation to the church that “WE” be “even more diligent” to make our calling and election sure. The motivation was so that we could enjoy an active and productive life of faith. Notice that Peter starts verse 8 with the phrase “For if these things be IN YOU and ABOUND”. It is interesting that the word “barren” in the Greek is “IDLE”, so Peter’s words are if these things abound you won’t be idle. The implication in reverse is that: If you are idle, we can be certain that we aren’t being “more diligent to make our calling and election sure”! The state of being IDLE instead of being diligent causes the Christian to be unproductive in their faith! Hey saints, there is no autopilot in the Christian life; it requires the believer to be diligent to add to their faith! I find that often the problems I’m having with my flesh, or old nature is that I’m too idle with regards not just to wasting my time but not active in my faith in spending time in actively pursuing God! We are prone to assessing our maturity based upon what we can recite and remember instead of what we do with what we say we know! Oh, how dedicated and diligent we are when it comes to many parts of our lives, but can we claim that we are as dedicated and diligent in our faith. What if God and Jesus were only as dedicated and diligent in their relationship with us as we are them? Let each of us examine our hunger to be transformed into His likeness every day. Ah but this will require more than mere recognition of our idleness of faith, more than just confession and repentance. Peter’s exhortation is you must make a change. The Bible is not interested in exhorting Christians to be busy just to be busy, it is interested in exhorting the believer to be busy in their faith to be more like Jesus! Notice as well that Peter’s exhortation is not on “church activity” but on holiness as Peter knows that a holy person will be active in the right things for the right reasons! We are to be diligent to cultivate the virtues and graces of Jesus, “If you do these things, you will abound and won’t be idle”. Your activity will be determined by the Holy Spirit and NOT by your fleshly excitement or nervous pressure. Next Peter reveals what “kind of activity” will be fruitful and what we see is that it isn’t “mechanical activity” it is “organic activity”! That is to say that it isn’t to be machined and engineered by our efforts, but it should be natural to who we are! So much today in the church is “mechanical activity” , people running around busy doing the right things but for wrong reasons which always leads to burn out and self-interest. We see in this type of activity that maturity is lacking and that is compensated by looking to external results to justify the activity such as always emphasizing “How many attended the activity”! The only activity the church ought to be continually engaged in is the development of maturity in the life of the believer because when that is the focus then we are manifesting the right reason to be active!  

4. Vs. 9 Not lacking application 

Vs. 9 Here the illustration is in the negative and Peter lets these believers know that what they lack in their maturity wasn’t lack of information or new special insight … .NO what they lacked was application of what they already knew!!! According to Peter the person who isn’t actively engaged in their maturity is ignorant of the fundamentals of their faith. They are short-sighted as they can only see what is in front of them, they can’t see the distance…they are only concerned with the temporal and present. They want to enjoy life here and now as if it is heaven and they aren’t interested in life hereafter! That kind of Christian doesn’t know the objectives of the Christian life of Knowing God and being transformed into His likeness and believes that everything is about their temporal happiness and getting what they want when they want it as much of it as they want! They claim to have set out on a journey of faith but years later they are still in the same place in their spiritual maturity!  Saints, we need to be constantly asking ourselves three things with regards to the journey of our faith. Notice that these directly point us back to the above three questions:  

• Where are we going? Define our ambitions  
• Why we went? Refine our goals 
• What’s the purpose of our going? Realign our efforts     

The objective is to see God and enjoy Him forever and without the pursuit for holiness no person will see God. That is what the Apostle John said in 1 John 3:3 “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” If our goal is to daily see “Him” then we haven’t a moment to waste, a second to spare and if you don’t want to see Him then you can only see the here and now. It is illogical for the Christian to say that they want to go to heaven and be with Jesus for eternity and not want to spend every moment with Him Now! Peter says that person can’t see what is in front of them, but neither can they see what is behind them. He has forgotten the purpose of the Gospel: the whole purpose of our salvation was so we could “see God” which needed our sin to be removed! In Titus 2:14 we are told that Jesus “Gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”   

2 Pet. 1:11 Home at last 

Vs. 11 The last reason Peter lists to give all “diligence to add to your faith” is also positive is that: Not only does it enable you to enjoy a glorious life, it ends in a glorious life that will never end! Again, the logic is why talk of longing for heaven when we do everything to avoid like we are there now? You start the right way; you continue the right way you can be assured that you will end the right way! Another great test of maturity of faith is the way in which we face growing older and eventually the way we face death! We enter the stage that we are losing our fleshly ability to use our own efforts. Do we see that God has everything under control or do we become depressed at the possibility that life isn’t in our control? The word “supplied” in the Greek is the same word used elsewhere for “ministered”. So, the entrance will be “ministered” abundantly into everlasting life. What we wanted and gave our lives over to know God and be transformed into His likeness will finally be at the entrance of the door we have shown was our greatest desire throughout our life. The fear of death is gone then we are truly a victorious people that will “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  

2 Peter 1:12-15 

“Appropriators of truth” 

Vs. 12 Appropriators 

Vs. 13-15 Stirring up our minds 

Intro 

Having concluded last week Peter’s reason for writing the letter in 1:5-11 we now move to the main body of teaching which will support the reason he wrote it.  Peter addressed his words to a church that was very eager to grow in Christ but was susceptible to false teachers. He wanted them to: “Finish out their faith by applying what God had furnished”! Peter understood from his own three and a half years of walking with Jesus on earth as well as his 30 years of walking with Jesus that the “The Christian will not be able to function as He has created them UNTIL and UNLESS they are certain of His lasting love”. Christian maturity is the theme of this little letter and Peter will now write with regards to “Three things” they need to remember through the rest of his letter to them if they are to continue to grow in grace as I’ve outlined this letter:  

• 1:12-21 Confidence in the Word of God 
• 2:1-22 Condemnation of Counterfeits 
• 3:1-16 Certainty of Our Lord’s Return  

Another interesting fact in examining the text before us this morning is Peter’s threefold exhortation in these four verses (either directly or by implication) as he states that what he is about to deliver to them is NOT “NEW INFORMATION” but rather things they needed to be “reminded about”. This statement clearly was placed by Peter to emphasis the antidote and truth to that which the Gnostic’s were peddling: The problem with the first century Christian was not in having “enough” or “up to date or “complete” knowledge it is was rather that they had forgotten what they already had in the “knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (verse 2). This I’m afraid is not just an early church condition but rather a human condition. “Our most difficult challenges to personal growth and spiritual maturity doesn’t come about due to a LACK of INFORMATION but rather from a LACK of APPLICATION!”  

Vs. 12 Appropriators 

Vs. 12 “For this reason” is clearly directional; that requires the reader to ask, “for WHAT reason?” The reason for Peter’s next exhortation and the way in which he will exhort them has to do with the results and consequences of maturity of the lack of it stated in verses 8-11. It is important that the Christian understand that our faith doesn’t make our essential ministry “apologetics” neither does it make us “evangelists” instead we must first and foremost be “appropriators” of the truth that has once for all been delivered to the saints! We will never be of any use as “apologetics” nor “evangelists” to others if we lack the temperament to personally apply that which God has given us for us by His Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that Peter has exhorted the reader of this letter NOT to be passive and instead insisted upon them being active in “giving all diligence and adding to our faith”! The perfecting of our character is what will enable us to be Jesus’ ambassadors and to do so will require us to be diligent in our own maturity! To aid in this Peter utilizes repetitive communication which was first aimed at himself as he states, “I will NOT BE NEGLIGENT to remind you”. In the Greek the word is in the future tense and indicates what Peter is saying, “I shall be prepared to REMIND you in the future because I was prepared to remind you in the past and the present.” This causes the reader to realize the “necessity” of “applying the truths” that were already theirs and delivered instead of looking for something “NEW” that they could chase! They knew the effective nature of Jesus because they had already been “appropriators” of the truth about Jesus as Peter affirms that they had been “established in the PRESENT TRUTH”.  

The Greek word for “established” is one that means to “make stable, place firmly or set fast” and are building terms! These saints were stabilized, placed on firm ground and set fast upon the Rock of Christ. There wasn’t anything nor teaching they needed to grow in grace, they only needed to continue steadfastly in the truth! It is here that we realize our problem in maturity is our “memory” as we are a forgetful people! Even worse is that we tend to forget the very things that are most essential while enjoying recall of worthless information. Some worthless movie line or song lyric will stick with us all our lives but the truth of Jesus that has saved our very souls is quickly forgotten. I believe this to be a direct consequence of our original sin nature as it stands between us and our maturity and is never more prevalent than when it manifests itself in the lack of our own maturity. Furthermore, Peter wants his readers to not only be aware of this but to do something about it. It is a further revelation about our faulty memory that not only are we prone to forget the important things we are equally deceived into believing that if we simply intellectually state something from our memory that this is equally placing the truth into our life. The outcome of this deception is a further erosion of our memory to the truth as we tend to tell ourselves that we needn’t pay attention because we “know this intellectually”! The deception is that “awareness” is the ONLY DUTY for participation! But there is a great gulf between “Awareness” and “Application” James wrote of this in 4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” Our memory according to Peter is something that MUST BE regularly stimulated.  

We cannot trust an inactive memory any more than we can trust our experiences. All must be taken captive to the obedience of Jesus. Our memories also deceive us by telling us that we have no need to listen and apply if at one time we have as we have now received a “vaccine” in this area, and it is good once for all. The mental acknowledgement of truth by affirming “Yes, I hear you and know exactly what you mean and believe every word of it therefore my affirmation to this is all I need.” Is NOT THE SAME as APPLICATION! We must keep the truth ever before our heart and not merely recite the truth but take it into our lives by application! Our flesh, even as Christians doesn’t want to surrender and die to self and is very good at survival. The purpose of the church in teaching is not to present NEW and INTERESTING information but instead it is to remind us of the truths that we are consistently forgetting! Now Peter presents three truths in verse 13-15 that we Christians are prone to forget. 

Vs. 13-15 Stirring up our minds 

Vs. 13-15 “Yes, I think it is right” Peter says, and, in the Greek, this carries the idea that Peter says this was his “solemn duty” to remind them as long as he was in this “tent”, to stir you up by reminding you!  

Vs. 13 The first truth that we forget is the truth about our lives! Several truths are in the words “As long as I’m in this tent”. Here Peter gives three truths as to the precious gift that Life is: 

• It is precious because it has been granted to us by the Living God!  
• It is precious to us because it is “time sensitive”!  
• It is precious to us because it is useful to the glory of God!  

Our life is not as the base of God’s creation as we were created in His likeness! The “dignity of the Divine” has been granted the believer and must not be taken for granted!   

Vs. 14 The second truth that we tend to forget about our lives is the nature of life: Peter says that “Knowing shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.” Here Peter’s point is that continuance in this life is not only a gift it is a deliberate gift with an expectation that it fulfills God’s plans and designs for it! Our bodies are nothing more than a tent which is to say they are temporary. Such truth is to remind the believer not only in the temporary nature of this life but to make certain that we don’t overvalue this life to make it “all there is”! We have been placed in this world where we are by design, and life here and now is a “pilgrimage”. We are mere “travelers” as we traverse life moving in the direction of Him taking as many with us as we go!      

Vs. 15 The third truth that we tend to forget is the whole purpose of life: “I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease”. The Greek word “ensure” means to bend and extend all effort to do one’s very best. Before Peter took the “Road out of town to paradise” he wanted to give every effort to speak again and again about the person and work of Christ. He didn’t waste time talking Roman politics or talking about the Local sports team the Jerusalem Jaguars. He didn’t engage in speculation only in the person and work of Jesus which they already had. Peter knew his purpose was to glorify God and he intended to do so until he was no longer on this earth. He hadn’t a moment to waste. God is the Author and Finisher of our faith. The Bible never is short on reminding us that life is a process where we are being transformed into His image and to do this God often allows situations and circumstances as well as people to form us. Death is only a corridor from captivity to glory! The greatest motivation we possess is not our destination but the reminder of our relationship to Jesus Christ! That fact transforms all other facts and gives a purpose and a living hope!                                                        

2 Peter 1:16-18 

“Ascent to descent” 

Vs. 16 And we beheld His Glory 

Vs. 17-18 “Transfiguration” or “Renunciation” 

Intro 

Peter’s exhortation to this first century church was that their hunger to grow in Christ didn’t need to be fed through a “New Diet” on Gnostic teachings. “The most difficult challenges to personal growth and spiritual maturity didn’t come about due to a LACK of INFORMATION but rather from a LACK of APPLICATION!” In the rest of this letter Peter writes with regards to “Three things” they need to remember:  

• 1:12-21 Confidence in the Word of God 
• 2:1-22 Condemnation of Counterfeits 
• 3:1-16 Certainty of Our Lord’s Return  

Peter addresses the first of these, “Confidence in the Word of God” in 1:16-21 and he does so in two parts. The reason for Peter’s words is something that we are prone to believe and that is that the cause of our lack of progression in knowledge must be due to a lack of “NEW INFORMATION”.   

First in verse 16-18, Peter counters the Gnostics’ lies that Peter’s experiences were old and outdated and didn’t measure up to theirs. It is here that we get an interesting perspective on Peter’s experiences and what he considered the most memorable encounter that he had with Jesus. When you consider everything Peter witnessed of Jesus’ Words and Works recorded in the Bible, it fascinates me on what, he believed, was the one that left the biggest impact. And just so that you know it was the apostle John’s as well! 

Second, in verses 19-21 Peter says that as great as that experience was, these believers had something of a greater continual impact than “New Experiences”, they had “New Encounters” through the Word of God! Peter says that during his Christian life he always sought to confirm the experiences he had come to know through the word of God.  

Peter’s goal was stated in verse 12 where he said that he didn’t want to be “negligent in presenting the truth and to give everyone equal opportunity to grow in grace”. Peter well understood what it was like to fail as he had denied the Lord three times, but he became determined to not do so again to enable others not to fail as he had. What had made the difference to Peter hadn’t come from “New Revelations” as the Gnostics pushed but rather from “Truths confirmed in the word of God.” 

Vs. 16 And we beheld His Glory 

Vs.16 Immediately Peter sets out to counter the Gnostic lies by stating the difference as he writes: “We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” He first addresses the difference between Gnostic revelation and his as well as the difference of their origins and where Peter had received his truths. The Gnostics revelation came from; “cunningly devised fables” and Greek has it “artfully framed by human cleverness”. The origins were from “fables”, and this is the Greek word for our English word myths and there were three prominent myths of that day:  

• Jewish myths from rabbinical embellishments  
• Heathen myths about the god’s descent to earth   
• Gnostic speculations  

What Peter puts forth is an eyewitness account of Jesus Christ in His majesty. To set the story up the reader will need to first determine what is the reference Peter is sighting. Here are the three clues given in the text by Peter: 

• Eyewitness of His majesty: It had to be something that Peter personally witnessed about Jesus’ majesty and the word in the Greek means “visible splendor of divine majesty”.  
• Peter personally witnessed: Jesus receiving honor and glory from the Father honor and glory when Peter heard God the Father audibly say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  
• Finally, Peter gives his readers the location of this event as “on the Holy Mountain”.                        

Vs. 17-18 “Transfiguration” or “Renunciation” 

As we piece all these clues together it only fits “one event” that Peter lists as the greatest “revelation” of Jesus majesty that he ever witnessed. I must confess that I am a bit surprised by Peter’s words and even more surprised when I realize that two of the three disciples who witnessed, and the only one that published an account of it, list it as the single most amazing encounter they had while with Jesus on earth. When I read the gospel accounts and look at all the words and works of Jesus, I feel a bit like a starving man at a smorgasbord of the best foods in all the world…. “Ah, where to begin and which one was my favorite.” But here both disciples, Peter, and John (who along with James were the only three allowed to witness this) list it as the most revealing of Jesus majesty. 

 John does so briefly in his gospel record in 1:14 saying only that, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Both the Apostle John as well as Peter describe the transfiguration and although amazing, I was more thinking in terms of the resurrection or some amazing miracle. This makes me want to investigate what both Peter and John describe as the most amazing event of Jesus Majesty! To do so we will look at the accounts in Mark 9:2-8 and Matthew 17:1-8 We will also look at what preceded this event as that will; also shed light as to why this more than any other even during the earthly life of Jesus revealed His majesty.  

First in Matt. 16:28 – 17:1-13 we have one of those unfortunate chapter breaks. If you stop at verse 28 without going on to chapter 17 you would have a contradiction. Jesus says here that some of these guys would be around at the second coming. This of course is not true. What Jesus was speaking of is fulfilled here in the 17th chapter at the transfiguration and it is what Peter affirms here in 2 Peter 1:16-18. Jesus clearly knew that this event was approaching the timing and 16:21-27 affirms this as the transfiguration event is 6 days and about a week transpires between Jesus’ words about the cross in Matt 16 and His glorification. Jesus had left them with the statement of verse 28 about His glorification and waited a week before answering it. We can gain a little sympathy and understand the mood of these disciples as we travel back a few verses in Matthew’s account to 16:21-27. 

 It is here that we read of Jesus’ emphasis for the “first time” (verse 21) that He began to speak about His death. It hadn’t been spoken about; the crowds were increasing. His popularity was at an all-time high and they were perhaps thinking that what they believed about the prophetic word was going to be fulfilled at any moment and Jerusalem would be the capital of the world! It took Peter by such a surprise that his impulses took over and in verse 22 he says to Jesus whom he recognized as the Messiah, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall NOT HAPPEN to You.” To which Peter hears Jesus speak in love towards him “Get behind me”. It is Jesus recognizing Peter’s love but also his ignorance and Jesus recognizing the insidious nature of Satan who will manipulate that love and friendship to take Jesus off course so he could save himself from destruction. Jesus in verse 24 lets his disciples know that as His followers they too must “give ourselves away” if we are to live, we must die, we find ourselves we must give ourselves away. Jesus was talking to them about the great principle of abiding with Him in a continual relation that requires that we too will need to “take up his cross and follow Him”! That was the mood of these three as they traveled up the mountain, they were under the shadow of Jesus’ death, but they were about to see it unfold as the key to GLORY always involves a climb up the hill of agony. It is only when we do so that we can be “transfigured”! That’s where Matthew takes his readers in 17:1 “Jesus took Peter, James and John”. That word “TOOK” in the Greek is pregnant with significance as it is rendered in Hebrews as “OFFERED”.  

This wasn’t a casual climb or hike with Jesus…Oh no my friend this was an Abraham with Isaac moment as what they believed was being offered on the altar of truth. Jesus offered them as “Jesus took…them up on a high mountain.” The fact that Jesus’ face shone like sun and His clothes became white as the light indicates that this walk up the mount was at evening time or twilight as they stay the night up there and return the next day. As is often the case God’s glory shines the brightest when we make the climb with only Him by us, when the darkness of our understanding has dimmed the brightness of truth, with nobody near in stillness we climb to the summit of discovery! The traditional tourist stop for the mount of transfiguration is Mt. Tabor, but we know according to 16:13 that they were in the region of Caesarea Philippi and that is more than a six-day journey to Mt. Tabor. So, the true place of transfiguration is Mt. Herman which is the mountain right above Caesarea Philippi. Its name means “sacred mountain”. 

Second, Mark 9:2-8 reveals that Peter told Mark four things that he never forgot about the event of Jesus’ “transformation”. 

• Mark 9:2-3 What Jesus looked like: The Greek word Mark uses to describe Jesus’ transformation is “metamorphism” and it is where we get our English word “Metamorphosis”. The word refers to the “act of giving outward expression of one’s inner character.” A full translation of this would be “Jesus’ outward expression was changed before them, and it did so because it was a true representation of His inner nature.” The usual outward expression of Jesus was the “Man of Sorrows, the one acquainted with our grief”. But suddenly He was transformed into the Glory of Son of God, the essence of Deity, which He had always possessed, and it shone through the clay walls of His humanity and even through the garments He wore. It was the same dazzling radiance the angels saw in Jesus’ preincarnate state that Paul describes in Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 where he wrote concerning Jesus that He was, “in the form of God, and did not consider robbery to be equal with God.” Mark says in verse 3 “His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such that no launderer on earth can whiten them.” Matthew adds that “His face shone like the sun” and the point is that in this transfiguration Jesus’ radiant glory was not borrowed like our moon from the sun’s reflection instead His radiant glory came from within, from who He truly was. In fact, the word “shining” in Greek indicates that it was ACTIVE and as such a picture of what He will be like to all who see Him during His millennial reign. This was a momentary glimpse of His eternal glory that shone through the veil of His humanity. It is what Jesus would pray to the Father a year later in John chapter 17:5 that all of us Christians would experience when He said, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” One of the implications of the transfiguration is that Jesus clearly didn’t need to die or pass-through death to receive this glory. He clearly always possessed it and was able to pass back across the boundary of time into eternity without passing through death. That reminds us about two things with regards to His death on the cross: It wasn’t ever about Jesus regaining that which He lost because clearly, He never lost it. Second, it reminds us that Jesus was clearly not afraid to lose His earthly life because it would never change or alter who He essentially was.          

Mark 9:4 Who was with Jesus: Mark records for us that Elijah and Moses appeared and were talking with Jesus. The Greek has it that they were actively engaged in a conversation with Him. I would very much wish that Peter would have had the forethought to write that one down for us but for now we will just have to wait until we see Him face to face. There are several interesting details in this story that indirectly lead us to some interesting conclusions about eternity with Jesus.  

Jesus makes no introductions as to whom these two men are and there were no photographs of them and yet they seemingly know exactly who they are. That tells us that in glory there will be no need for introductions; we will just know each other instantly!  

Why are the two Elijah and Moses? Why not David and Abraham? Well, I believe that they represent several things:  

• They represent the two great sections of the Old Testament scriptures, Moses = the law and Elijah = the prophets. The law according to Paul’s words in Galatians “drove people to Jesus” and the prophets “provided the map and directions as to where to find Him”.  
• They also represent the two ways which believers can enter heaven: Moses = death and Elijah = caught up into heaven or the rapture. Both ways are represented in the transfiguration of Jesus. This was Moses’ first arrival into the land of promise. Moses had been left up on a mountain overlooking the land of promise and was never allowed to enter in for his mis-representation of the character of God. But here in glory Moses gets to come into the land he could only see at a distance. That tells us that there are experiences here in this life that we may never fully understand but that the prohibition will be forever lifted in heaven. Moses finally made it past his failures and so will we! 

Finally, though Mark doesn’t record the conversation, Luke 9:31 tells us that the general theme of the conversation was of “Jesus’ death which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” The conversation centered upon Jesus soon exiting from his earthly tabernacle back to His heavenly one by means of His death upon a cross for our sins. This causes me to wonder if the conversation wasn’t specific with reference to each man: Moses’ conversation would have centered upon how Jesus’ sacrifice as the Lamb of God would be the fulfillment of what the animal sacrifices pointed to in the law. Elijah’s conversation would have centered on how His death and resurrection was to fulfill all those prophecies in the scriptures.  

Mark 9:5-6 The proposal of Peter: The third interesting detail that Mark records is Peter’s reaction to Jesus, Elijah and Moses discussing what Luke has told us was Jesus’ upcoming death in Jerusalem. The Greek doesn’t indicate that Peter had been a part of the discussion at all. In fact, the word “answered” is a compound word that means “to give off one’s judgment without being asked”. Peter then goes on to say that it was “good” for the three of them to be there and uses a word for good that means, “beautiful” or excellent and then suggests that the three of them get started in making three tents for shelter. I’m certain that Peter wanted Mark to include the reason for this outburst was extreme fear. But nonetheless Peter had not been called to say anything, and silence would have been a far better course of action than what he said. The assessment in all accounts where this story is recorded is that Peter spoke foolishly. I wonder if the point of Peter’s words in fear was to suggest headquarters that would set in motion a worldwide movement? There are always two kinds of people in these kinds of situations: Those who have something to say and those who have to say something! And Peter, like many of us at times, falls into the latter category.  

Mark 9:7-8 The voice of God from the cloud: Immediately after this foolish proposal we have the fourth and final recorded detail of the transfiguration. Mark writes of the suddenness of the appearance of the cloud and gives us a better understanding of the cloud as being a specific shape and size and not a vapor thus it speaks of the Shekinah Glory which guided Israel out of Egypt and then resided above the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. Matthew tells us that it was a “bright cloud” that a voice spoke saying, “This is My beloved son. Hear Him!” The emphasis is upon two things: That Jesus is the Messiah God’s Son and that He is the beloved One. They are told to be constantly hearing Him, and the word means more than just listening to be actively obeying what you heard. It appears that this came as a rebuke from the father to Peter’s fear-based response saying in essence, “Peter, don’t put My Son on the same level as Moses and Elijah. Listen to Him!” Jesus was the only One to fulfill all the predictions of the prophets and is the fulfilment of the law, He was no mere man like Moses and Elijah. There were three occasions direct from heaven concerning the work of Jesus: At His baptism, which when He began His ministry, where He was addressed “You are My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Here on the Mount of Transfiguration, where the Father speaks to correct Peter’s mistake. And the final is in John 12:28 where the Father responds to Jesus’ prayer to glorify His name, to which the Father responds, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”                                 

There comes a time when all our searching for answers to the perplexing questions of life end at the feet of Jesus and you look around and He is the only one there. The transfiguration is a confirmation that Jesus had lived a sinless life and could have gone directly into heaven. He didn’t need to leave humanity with any explanation of justification for our sin before His departure to the Father. Instead, Jesus came down from Mount Hermon, to climb Mount Calvary, the Mount of our redemption! Sometimes I think that we ought to rename this event from the “Transfiguration” to the “Renunciation” as Jesus would not claim His natural consummation, He didn’t claim the “Transfiguration” instead He chose the Cross! He left the natural mountain of Glory and came down the mountain so that we could see a new and living way that through Him we would be taking to Glory. He lays His glory and chose the grave that we who were bound to the grave could see glory! Our “ASCENT” to glory is made possible because of Jesus’ “DESCENT” to the grave! And as Jesus turned to make that “descent” Peter records the words of the Father “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” The transfiguration only finds its truest definition at Jesus death and Peter can say as John that they were “eyewitnesses” of Jesus Glory and Majesty! 

2 Peter 1:19 

“Prophetic word confirmed” 

Vs. 19 What is prophecy 

Intro 

When we understand the context of Peter’s second letter, we can see why he wrote this exhortation to combat the “New Diet” of Gnostic teachings. Peter explained that any lack of “spiritual maturity” is due to a LACK of INFORMATION but rather from a LACK of APPLICATION!” He wanted them to be assured in their confidence in God’s word in 1:16-21 and he did so first by reminding them that he too had experiences with Jesus but he was as an eyewitness and not artfully framed stories arranged by human cleverness. Yet with that said in verses 19-21 Peter will remind his readers that as great as that experience was that these believers had something of greater continual impact than “New Experiences”, they had “New Encounters” through the Word of God! Peter understood what it was like to fail as even after being an eyewitness of the Glory of Jesus he only a few months later had denied the Lord three times. What had made the difference to Peter hadn’t come from “New Revelations” as the Gnostics pushed but rather from “Truths confirmed in the word of God.” Now we will examine “the prophetic word confirmed”, to do so we will need to follow Peter’s words closely as he defines for us three important points as it relates to a “prophecy” and a “prophet”. Peter’s outline is in the text we are about to study: 

• Vs. 19 What is prophecy: “A light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts”. 
• Vs. 21 Who is a prophet: “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. 
• Vs. 20 How do I mature from it: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” 

To do this we will take Peter’s words out of their original order as it will be easier for us to follow. First let’s remind ourselves of the context and that is to counter the lies of the false teachers that said that these followers of Jesus need new information in order to become more mature in their faith. To counter this Peter will reveal the uniqueness of the inspired word of God and how it will never become outdated or obsolete! 

Vs. 19 What is prophecy 

Vs. 19 While preparing for this study I was taken by the use of the phrase “prophetic word”. I mean Peter doesn’t say we have great “Bible teaching” instead he says we have the “prophetic word confirmed”! The Greek makes this phrase: “We have the word of prophecy as a surer confirmation of God’s truth than even what we were eyewitnesses of with regards to Jesus’ majesty”. Think of that declaration a moment as Peter says that the “First Testament” was even more convincing than even the heavenly voice of the Father at Jesus’ transfiguration. With the New Testament being under construction (which 2 Peter would later become a part of that construction) the Gnostics were attacking the continual reliability and inspiration of the First Testament. Peter counters this by declaring the reliability of the Prophets and their words as they were fulfilled in the Life of Jesus and because they did, they spoke louder to his heart than even the voice of the Father!  

There was greater evidence and reasons for faith than the “signs and wonders” that he never forgot and that was the very scriptures that these Gnostics wanted to disregard. It was not the miracles of Christ that swayed Peter to follow Jesus to the end, it was the word of God interpreted through the Spirit of God! Furthermore, Peter’s statement in verse 19 is that the “Prophetic word” CONFIRMED all experiences! The Greek word for confirmed means sure or trustworthy as it relates to a building it speaks of the stable foundation. It is here that we would need to ask and answer Peter’s question: 

What is prophecy: “A light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts”. No doubt part of Peter’s words were to offer a contrast to the false teachings so called prophets were peddling to hungry Christians. Today’s Christian population has a preoccupation with those who claim to be “Prophets” so it’s important to set the record straight as it relates to what constitutes prophecy to determine if a person is indeed a prophet. 

First, Prophecy is NOT synonymous with prediction! So much of what constitutes prophecy today is “forecasting the future” “uncovering the secrets of tomorrow”. While forecasting may not be completely absent it is NOT the primary element according to Peter. A true prophet doesn’t just “forecast events” but instead “proclaims principles”. True prophecy is a declaration and not an anticipation, it is vision but not just PRE-vision!  

Second, Prophecy as described by Peter is: “A light that shines in a dark place”. The abiding characteristic of “prophecy” according to Peter is that it is “illuminating” but primarily it shines the brightest upon “dark places”. The word here in the Greek means “dry and murky”. True prophecy always exposes the unpleasantness of what it shines upon and most often the dirtiness that it exposes is due to our own poverty because of neglect! This is true of every true prophet no matter if you read of Elijah or Amos, John the Baptist, or Paul the Apostle; the light of their words shines upon the rottenness and perversity of that time. 

Third, the purpose of its illumination is until the “day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts”. The purpose is for the “removal of the darkness that it exposes”. It is NOT a biblical prophecy if all that it does is “reveal darkness” if it doesn’t offer “removal of darkness”!  

Fourth, true prophecy is progressive! Notice that Peter says that it “shines in a dark place” until “the day dawns” and the “morning star rises in your hearts”. The progression can be personal over our own life or progressive in revelation over human history and God’s church. There are prophetic words that shine upon the heart of the church, that initially shine light into a dark place and those same prophetic words in time cause the day to dawn and the “morning star to rise in our hearts”! 

The answers given by Peter as too, “What is prophecy”:  

• Prophecy is NOT synonymous with prediction: A true prophet doesn’t just “forecast events” but instead “proclaims principles”. 
• Prophecy’s abiding characteristic is “illuminating”: True prophecy always exposes the unpleasantness of what it shines upon and most often the dirtiness that it exposes is due to our own poverty because of neglect! 
• Prophecy is for the “removal of the darkness that it exposes”: It is NOT biblical prophecy if all it does is “reveal darkness”, it must offer “removal of darkness”! 
• Prophecy is progressive! It “shines in a dark place” until “the day dawns” and the “morning star rises in your hearts”. The progression can be personal over our own life or progressive in revelation over human history and God’s church. 

This is a good place to leave our study this week as I again have too much information and too little time to ask, and answer based upon Peter’s words the next two parts of his threefold outline: 

Who is a prophet: “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. 

How do I mature from it: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” 

I believe the answers to these questions given by Peter are as important, if not more so, in our time. Paul warned of our time saying in 2 Timothy 4:3-5 that “The time will come when they (the church) will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.” 

2 Peter 1:20-21 

“Prophetic word confirmed part 2” 

Vs. 21 Who is a prophet 

Vs. 20 How do I mature from it 

Intro 

We continue now with the conclusion of Peter’s words in his second letter where he defines for us three important points as it relates to a “prophecy” and a “prophet”. Last Sunday we focused on the first part of Peter’s outline: 

Vs. 19 What is prophecy: “A light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts”. 

Now we shall take up the last two parts: 

Vs. 21 Who is a prophet: “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. 

Vs. 20 How do I mature from it: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” 

Peter gave his readers a fourfold answer in verse 19 as to “What is prophecy”:  

• Prophecy is NOT synonymous with prediction: A true prophet doesn’t just “forecast events” but instead “proclaims principles”. 
• Prophecy’s abiding characteristic is “illuminating”: True prophecy always exposes the unpleasantness of what it shines upon and most often the dirtiness that it exposes is due to our own poverty because of neglect! 
• Prophecy is for the “removal of the darkness that it exposes”. It is NOT a biblical prophecy if all that it does is “reveal darkness” if it doesn’t offer “removal of darkness”! 
• Prophecy is progressive! It “shines in a dark place” until “the day dawns” and the “morning star rises in your hearts”. The progression can be personal over our own life or progressive in revelation over human history and God’s church. 

Vs. 21 Who is a prophet 

Vs. 21 We will now take up the question answered by Peter in verse 21 Who is a prophet and Peter mentions two specific aspects about the person God uses.     

The first thing we note is the phrase “No prophecy came by the will of man”. Doesn’t originate with man: Peter is NOT warning against personal interpretation of prophecy as the Roman Catholics teach that only the popes are allowed to interpret prophecy. Instead, Peter’s point is that no person can obtain apostolic succession or have their calling passed down, neither can they will themselves or educate themselves to their position.  

The prophets own will has nothing to do with their calling or mission. A prophet’s calling is not something that anyone would prize to obtain through ambition. Their words are given to them by God and they themselves are often lacking their full implication but still are held accountable for their proclamation. The prophetic Word was not produced by human minds of the men who were used to write the words. The Prophets at times didn’t understand the very words they wrote down. The amazing truth about divine inspiration is that it isn’t necessary that the person God used to communicate His truth understand what they were communicating!  

Second, we are told that a prophet’s words come about as they are “moved by the Holy Spirit”. This is the only reference to the Holy Spirit in this letter and it comes in as the connection to the source of prophetic inspiration. “The Holy Spirit is the agency rather than the agent”. The prophet speaks as the Holy Spirit compels them to. Many prophets were only aware of the contemporary political or moral implication of the principles they wrote about and often were ignorant of the full understanding of the meaning of their words over time which is why in verse 20 it wasn’t up to their own private interpretation. The word “moved” in the book of Acts is translated “drive”, when the ship Paul was on was lost to be driven due to adverse weather conditions. Peter’s words are that Prophets are “driven” like the wind suddenly, expectantly. Prophets are “windswept” servants driven by unseen currents that cannot be explained. It is why many times the prophet has no idea where what he has spoken comes from and looks into their own message as any other would do even though it came from their own words. 

 They speak from the original as a master plays through an instrument. The words born of God, driven by God and controlled by God! The King James version inserts that the men God used were “Holy men of God” but in the Greek text the word isn’t there and was added by the translators as it was assumed that such agents of the Holy Spirit had to be “special people,” but the truth of the matter is that it is the Holy Spirit who is special as only He can produce truth through such a flawed instrument. The cooperation that Peter writes of is one that is of nature as the Wind of the Holy Spirit blows through the ship’s sails moving it along as He wills. God in His wisdom has chosen to utilize men in production of His word. They were not passive in the reception of the truth, but they were never the originators of the truth. Furthermore, the personalities of the prophets never violated the control of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16, the source and inspiration of scripture is the breath of God.  

Vs. 20 How do I mature from it 

Vs. 20 How do I mature from it: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” The last subject that Peter covers is found in verse 20 and that is how shall we receive and benefit from the prophet’s message. 

First, in the words “knowing first” the reader of this letter is led back to the phrase in verse 19 “which you do well to heed”. The way to benefit from the prophet’s words Peter writes is that the reader of the word of God needs to give their attention to what the prophet wrote before the text and after the text under consideration. In other words, Peter is giving his readers an important rule of interpretation: CONTEXT! If we are going to benefit from the prophet’s words, then as students of the word we need to read the word in context of what preceded the writing and what follows afterwards as they “frame” the meaning for the reader!      

The second guiding principle is found in the phrase “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation”.  By the use of the word “private” in the Greek we know that Peter is referring to “unique, one’s own”.  We are to understand that we are not at liberty to take our own roads to interpretation. Private paths will never lead a person to biblical truth and personal transformation. The word “interpretation” is a Greek word that means to “unloose or untie” and is used here to define explaining that which is obscure and hard to understand. What is interesting is that Peter is not speaking about the student of the word but the writer of the word as verse 21 gives us the context as that of the prophet. The writer of the prophecy had no more right to interpret what they wrote than the reader. 

 The work of the prophet was not to interpret what the Holy Spirit had them write. No prophecy is of such a nature as to be capable of a particular interpretation. If you want to properly interpret the scripture born by the Spirit, then you will need the same spirit to interpret it correctly and the same Spirit to apply it appropriately. The student of the work can’t take the private way and bend it around what they want it to say or not say. It can only be of use if we rely upon the same Holy Spirit to teach us what the Spirit has to say! That is what Jesus said in His letter to the church at Ephesus in Rev. 2:7 when he said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”