2Peter 1

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0:00 For real here, the next three weeks, we're gonna look at Peter's second letter, second Peter. And it's really because I was like, we have three weeks here before, and three weeks we're doing a series with our sister churches on these shared values that we had been working on together. So what ties us together to the church in Lake Mary and the church in Stanford. And so we're gonna move into a series for several weeks looking at that.

0:30 And I had three weeks between when we finished talking about vocation and when we started that value series. So I was looking at what we should think about together. And what I felt like when I looked at second Peter was it is a very practical application book. It's probably why I haven't spent a lot of time in it because it's very, people say it's almost like Jude. It kind of tells you what to do and has our emphasis on action. And I think that's kind of appropriate coming out of

1:01 the weeks that we spent looking at vocation together, almost 10 weeks thinking about the three arenas of vocation. Now second Peter is trying to describe to people in the first century how they might live and what they should occupy themselves with as they wait for the return of Jesus. Remember who Peter was? We're pretty sure like they have acknowledgement within the first century that this is actually written

1:33 by Peter. So some of the very early church fathers acknowledged that this letter, they call it the second letter of Peter that it was written by Peter. Then later some scholars will debate whether it was written by Peter or not because the syntax and the sentence structure in first Peter, the type of Greek that is used is pretty different from the type of Greek that's used in second Peter. And so people are like, how could these be written by the same people? But the best explanation is first Peter, he mentions that Silas helped him write it.

2:05 So it's probably likely that Peter dictated the first letter to Silas who wrote it. And then the second one, he writes himself. Towards the end of his life, you'll see he makes some comments even in the first chapter about looking forward to the end of his life. And he writes us to a group of churches in general, not to any specific church, but to people. He's trying to build a record of his teaching. It's interesting if you remember who Peter was, probably the oldest of the 12 disciples. He's the one that had to pay the temple tax along with Jesus,

2:36 the rest of them didn't. So he might have been the only disciple who was over the age of 21. He's the one who usually speaks for the disciples, probably because he's the oldest. And so whenever Jesus asks a question to the disciples, it usually is Peter who answers. So when Jesus asks the disciples, who do people say that I am, it's Peter that answers. And when Jesus asks the disciples, who do you say that I am, it's Peter answered on behalf of the 12, he says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then that's when Jesus says, on that truth right there, on that reality,

3:09 it's a miracle that you would know that Peter, on that reality, I'll build the church. It's Peter that you remember when they are on the sea of Galilee and Jesus comes down off the mountain after having prayed by himself and the wind and the waves are buffeting the boat. And it's coming on and he's walking on the water out to them. It's the disciples are terrified. It's Peter who calls out and says, Jesus, if that's you, tell me to come out to you. And Jesus says, well, then come on. And so it's Peter who steps out of the boat and walks on water until he gets afraid, can't believe what he's doing and looks to Jesus

3:41 and asks Jesus to save him. And Jesus reaches down, standing on water yet, pulls Peter up out of the water and carries him to the boat. It's Peter who denied Jesus at the crucifixion. Remember three times before the rooster crows, he got afraid. He was there, everybody else had left, had vanished, Peter kind of followed behind to see what would happen. But then as he saw that all the power was aligned against Jesus, he got too afraid. And he couldn't admit that he knew him, right? And so then it's Peter whom Jesus comes to after the resurrection and says,

4:13 Peter, do you love me? And Peter says, yes, of course I love you. Then feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yes, of course I love you. Then feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yes, you know that I love you. Why do you keep asking me that? And Jesus says, then get to work, buddy, feed my sheep. And so then it's Peter after the ascension and then at Pentecost who stands up in Jerusalem yet. They have not even left Jerusalem since the crucifixion of Jesus. They've been there in the turmoil and the upheaval from the triumphal entry all the way through Passover,

4:46 through the Garden of Gethsemane, through Pentecost, all through the ascension, I mean, through the time between resurrection and ascension. They stay in Jerusalem and then they stay in Jerusalem after the ascension until the Pentecost. And so they've been in there through the whole thing. And then it's Peter who stands up at Pentecost and tells the leaders of the church in Jerusalem that they killed the long-awaited Messiah. And so then it's Peter who gets into debates with Paul

5:16 about how do we live out the faith? And you'll see by the time he's writing these letters, he and Paul have aligned. Peter has the recognition with Cornelius that the way of Jesus is not just for Israelites, but that Jesus is the King of all kings, for all people. And so Peter is this like rock of a leader in the church. Falleable, we see him confused. We see him obstinate and butt heads with Jesus.

5:48 And yet we see Jesus use this one to launch the church to build the church in the first century. And we only have two, these two letters, not a lot. Like Paul was really prolific. Peter was busy and not writing a lot. But this second Peter I think is really interesting. And so I want to just kind of run through the first chapter of second Peter together. I mean, it's pretty incredible if you think about it that we have these primary documents.

6:19 This is a letter that has been saved. So it's cool to look at. All right, at the beginning, this greeting is part of the reason that they're pretty sure this is Peter himself. We wrote it because it's a pretty personal greeting. Simon Peter, a servant of the apostle and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

6:53 Excuse me. A couple of things just real quick here. He says that he is an apostle. That was a big deal. Apostle means one sent by Jesus himself. This is the first marker of deciding what letters will be included in the New Testament canon. Was it actually written by an apostle of Jesus? Peter has a claim to actually be an apostle of Jesus. So he puts that first. But then he says to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with our own. Meaning there's no rank here. I'm an apostle of Jesus, but your faith is of equal importance

7:26 and magnitude as mine. By the righteousness of God our Savior Jesus Christ. Okay. And then go down, excuse me, to verse three. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them

7:57 you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. We finally get a period. The problem or the challenge with the way they wrote in first century in Greek is it's like one clause stacked on top of another. They just keep piling on the subordinate clauses to try and make it as complicated as they can. But there's interesting at the beginning here his divine power has granted to us all things

8:31 that pertain to life and godliness. That's pretty cool. I like the word divine. I like the idea that there is divine power. You know, God power, God-sized power.

9:04 Beyond understanding or explanation or even fully apprehension, divine is the power we would use to describe what creates out of nothing. Divine is the power we would use to describe the power that goes beyond what we could understand, that does things we don't know how they happen. There's not a power higher than divine power, right? And Peter says that he uses his divine power

9:35 to grant us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And one of the things he's gonna pull out for us here is that you don't have anything left to attain. You have attained everything that is needed. You don't need to become something that you're not right now. You already are everything you ever need to be right now. Peter is trying to tell you that the God of the universe

10:07 has leveraged his divine power and authority in order to get you all things for life and godliness. Would you like to live? You have it now. Everything that is needed to live, not some small, he's gonna break it down, but not life that ends, but life that endures as it was intended from the beginning. And not just any sort of hollow, shallow life, but a life filled with godliness,

10:38 with the right sort of energy and momentum and direction. He says, God has leveraged his divine power that you would have all things needed already, right now, done. This hits me the most when I think about it this way. Just as I said to you just a second ago, I don't need to become anything more than I am right now.

11:08 I am all things now that I ever will be. Okay, he's gonna kind of break it down for us a little bit. So his divine power has granted you life and godliness through, how did he grant that to you? How did he give you everything you need for life and godliness? He says through knowledge of him, who called us to his glory and excellence,

11:43 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. This is the key and it's kind of wacky. Peter is saying the fact that you know about Christ, about God through the Christ, he leverages this knowledge to give you everything that you need. That in the understanding of the presence of God in the person of Christ,

12:18 he conveys to you all that you need for life and godliness. I mean, it sounds nice, but it doesn't really... The reason he's writing this letter is because he's trying to give us something to... You know, at the very beginning, maybe we should just stay in Jerusalem because we saw Jesus,

12:48 like he ate meals with us and he said he's coming back. So let's just hold everything and come together. Let's camp out here in Jerusalem and we'll just wait. He'll be back. So we'll just camp. So they're camping out, man, and they share everything they got. Who cares? Jesus is coming back, so they don't hold anything in private. They share everything in common and they all start gathering there in Jerusalem until the church is like, dude, we thought when we killed Jesus,

13:20 his way would die out, but his way is multiplying after his death. Somehow more people are believing in the failure, the crucified Christ, than in the alive Christ. Somehow more people are believing in the risen Jesus than in the pre-dead Jesus. So they start persecuting all the... So the Peter and all the crew that were just simply waiting for Jesus to come back, they flee for Jerusalem, they flee Jerusalem for their life, and they go live in other places and they start to settle up and they go,

13:51 okay, there's not enough of us here, and what we all we had in common is running out, we've got to live. What should we do with ourselves? How should we live? And Peter is trying to give them a handle for how they navigate the world as followers of Jesus, and the first thing he says is, all you need is to remember what you know to be true. That God communicates to you, came to you in the person of Christ,

14:25 and through that he'll get you all that you need for life and godliness. Okay, keep going. By which he has granted us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. He's like, the world ends and is corrupt. You escape through the divine work which comes to you through the knowledge of God. So he's like, you have all things, so then he's like, here's what you should do.

14:56 Since you have all things that pertain to life and godliness through your knowledge of God, verse 5, this is the second sentence. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge. So he's like, this sequence he builds, if you think about like, what would happen if you stop? I feel like he's writing this and he goes like, so you have faith, you believe in the person of Christ because you have the knowledge of God.

15:30 That's great. Supplement your faith. Don't just stop with, oh, I believe that it's true. Supplement your faith with virtue. Meaning, make good choices. Do the right things. Be a person of integrity, honesty, justice, mercy. You can imagine the virtues. Be a person of virtue. Don't stop your faith with virtue. But then he's like, he says, for this reason, and with virtue, with knowledge, don't just be, have integrity just for the sake of it or to be better than the people around you,

16:01 but have integrity and know why. So he's like, supplement your faith with virtue. Supplement your virtue with knowledge. And then he's like, he keeps going. He's like, now you're virtuous and you know why you picked all those virtues. Now supplement your knowledge with self-control. Just be cool. You know, like hold everything. Don't run ahead. Don't be driven by passions or desires or avarice or greed or envy.

16:35 But have self-control. Be cool. So he's like, make every effort to supplement your virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness, like stick to a course and stay on it. You are the people of Christ living in the world, waiting for his return. You have belief that this is true. Supplement your belief with virtue. Now be people of virtue. Now, since you're virtuous people supplement the virtue with knowledge.

17:05 Now, since you are virtuous people who know why you're virtuous, supplement that with self-control. And then be steadfast. Stick to it. We don't know when he's coming, but stick to the self-control and the knowledge and the virtue. Steadfastness. And then steadfastness with godliness and godliness. And then he's like, now you're steadfast. Now just be holy, man. Like when you walk around, be a person who's aware of the God. Chooses the sorts of things the God would choose.

17:37 And then the last one is my favorite. He's like, but don't be a jerk about it. Supplement your godliness with brotherly affection. Just love your neighbor. You know? Like a cool list. And if I take it seriously, like, I mean, sounds awesome. Like I would like to be that person. You know? For if these qualities are yours

18:12 and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's like, if you got these things and you keep increasing, don't just get them. It's not done. Just keep leaning into them. It sounds kind of exhausting, actually. If I were like, it's a nice list and I want to inspire to us-pire to it. But like if I make a checklist of it and I like every morning wake up and go,

18:42 okay, virtuous, okay, knowledge, okay, what's the one after knowledge? Self-control, okay, steadfastness, okay, brotherly love. This is why people don't read 2nd Peter because they feel like he gives him a lot of work to do, actually. 2nd Peter and Jude. You know, like when we studied Luther at seminary, obviously, because I went to a Lutheran seminary and he was the first one to translate the scriptures into what they call the vernacular, the common language.

19:16 Like he had-when he was studying in the 1500s, most priests couldn't read the Bible, you know? Because it was in Latin, usually. And then they certainly didn't all learn Hebrew and Greek, but they picked certain monks to go learn Hebrew and Greek. And so Luther was one of those. And so when he got kicked out of the Catholic church, he was hiding because they wanted to kill him. And he was hiding in this castle. And so he translates from Hebrew and Greek into German.

19:46 It had never been done. And then he, like in Germany, was the printing press. So they started printing out copies of the Bible. It had never really been done before, you know? But it's famous. He took-he didn't put him in the order that we have now. He put some almost in the appendix. And one of them that he put in the appendix was the Book of Jude. He said the Book of Jude was an epistle of straw. We should burn it and take it out of the scriptures. He didn't like it.

20:16 For the same reason a lot of people don't like 2 Peter, because if you read that first, it sounds like it just gives you a bunch of work to do as though your relationship to God is defined on the work that you do. And 2 Peter sounds like that. He's like, hey, you've been giving him his knowledge of the faith, so get to work, man. Virtue. Knowledge. Golliness. Self-control. Steadfastness. Do the things, man. And then he says, like, hey, if you do the things, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffectual or unfruitful in the world. For unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

20:48 Wow. But this, look at this next verse, verse 9. For whoever lacks these qualities is so near-sided that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. He's like, uh, he's like, these things are a result of your memory that God has already fixed everything for you.

21:25 He's like, if you have these things, it's not because you put your nose to the grindstone and worked harder and harder and harder and harder until you figure it out. It's just that you remember the thing that is true, that God has fixed everything for you already. When he says the forgiveness of sins, this is in the broadest sense he can mean. He does mean very narrowly, each of your sins are forgiven. What is the thing for which you feel guilty?

21:56 It is resolved. What is the problem that besets you, that you feel like you can't defeat? It is defeated. What is the error in your past that you wish you could undo? It is undone. Very narrowly, all of your sins are forgiven. But he also means this in the broadest sense he can. Like you and I came into a world with sin woven into the fabric of our bodies, which means that though we have a body that is beautiful, it decays and heads to death. This is not specific to us.

22:28 This is general. It's the problem of sin in the world. And Peter is trying to remind us that if we would live godly, virtuous, knowledgeable, self-disciplined lives, it comes from the reality knowing the reality that God has resolved all sin for you. That the life he gives to you isn't limited to the body that decays but endures beyond it. And as you move around in the world, you live with the full knowledge and reality that God has resolved all sin for you.

23:01 And it bubbles up in this kind of living. Therefore, brothers, he says, be all the more diligent in making your calling and election sure. He's like, what he means is like pay attention to these things. The things of virtue or faith, knowledge, virtue, self-control, steadfastness, godliness.

23:36 Not as a to-do list, but as like dummy lights on your dashboard. You know that's what they're called, dummy lights? Is that what they're called? That's what my dad told me they were called. You know, like when you're driving and the oil light pops on. Warning lights. My dad called them dummy lights.

24:06 They're for the dummy. Hey, check your oil dummy. The temperature, the temperature is high. Hey, your car's running hot, dummy, fix it. Peter's saying, hey, virtue, faith, knowledge, steadfastness, self-control. When these are missing, it's like blinking lights on your dashboard going, hey, there is a place at which you have forgotten what you know is true.

24:37 Somewhere you are operating as though your future depends on you. And so you are getting miserly. And because you are miserly and greedy, you are grumpy. And your virtues are falling away. He's saying that these lists of things are not a to-do list as though your salvation depends on your capacity to work them out. But he is saying that they are a warning, a dummy light, about the state of your salvation.

25:08 Meaning when you know this to be true, these things bear up. So he's like, pay attention. Not so that you can be better, but so that you can apprehend the faith that God has given you, the life that is in you, the godliness that he has deposited within you. He goes on just a little bit further here. For in this way, there will be richly provided for you and entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

25:44 He's like, hey, it's worth paying attention to these dummy lights. And if we are not virtuous or godly or self-disciplined or living with steadfastness to inquire why? To look back at the reality that all of my sin is forgiven, my future is secure. And understand where it has fallen apart because it is the entrance for life eternal.

26:14 Therefore, he said, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, Peter said. I know that you don't need them, but I'm going to remind you of them. Though you know them, you said, and are established in the truth that you have, I think it right as long as I'm in this body to stir you up by way of reminder. Since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon as our Lord Jesus made clear to me and that I will make every effort so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to state these things.

26:47 This is the last part here. Look at the verse 16, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty. Peter is saying, hey, this is worth paying attention to because like the promise of God in the person of Christ wasn't like a clever story someone made up. He's reminding his readers, you and I today, that he was there.

27:18 He's like, I saw the dude. And if he had more time, he'd go deeper. He'd go, I walked on water with the guy. I fed out the loaves and the fishes. I passed him out. Like, I sat in the upper room when he washed my feet, and then again when he came back through the locked doors. The story he does tell is the amount of transfiguration. He says, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power of coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

27:53 For when he received honor and glory from God, the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice, born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

28:25 Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they. He said, you have the testimony of me who was there on the mountain and the Scriptures who light a light in your heart, and that light will burn until the day dawns when Christ comes back and his light overwhelms all of the darkness and we settle in the reality. In this first chapter, Peter is saying, hey, cling to this knowledge that God has given you everything that you need, because in this knowledge you have the, like, seed, the lamp of the light that will overwhelm all darkness in the end.

29:07 And he's like, how do you know your light is there and alive? Look for these things. Virtue, godliness, steadfastness, self-control, brotherly love. Look for these things. And when they are not there, examine. I like the idea that God is so convinced of his divine power for you and I, that this story and testimony has been enough.

29:40 I can't, I don't know how many generations between us and Peter, but it's a lot. And in every generation, the story of Peter, the knowledge of God in the person of Christ has kept alive little lamps of faith, producing godliness, steadfastness, and brotherly love. And it can do it for us as well. I'm praying that we could be people who receive the knowledge of God in such a way that it turns lights on in us.

30:21 And that we notice these places and move forward in brotherly love. Let's pray that together. Hey, Lord, thank you for the knowledge of your son, Jesus. Give us a productive faith towards life eternal. Give us the courage to examine, Lord, these little markers, these dummy lights you give us. And the curiosity to understand why they go out.

30:55 Be with us now, Lord, as we worship you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.