It’s Yours! 2 Peter 1:2-3NKJ
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3. As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. (2 Peter 1:2-3NKJ)
Notice, His divine power...The power of Jesus Christ gives every believer a source of sufficiency and perseverance. In verse 2 &3, Peter is speaking of more than just human knowledge, he’s writing of a strengthened form of knowledge implying a larger, more thorough, and intimate knowledge. This means Christianity isn’t some mystical religion, but Christianity is based in objective, historical, revealed, rational truth from God and intended to be understood and believed.
Knowledge is a key word throughout 2 Peter.
* Be reminded: “Peter believed so strongly in the work of Christ, he died for His name sake.” P.H.
“It’s not a question of, “what you’re willing to die for,’ but, ‘what are you willing to live for.” P.H.
Did you know that over 165,000 Christians died because of their faith in Christ last year! 300 to 400 million were persecuted last year!
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. (Theodore Roosevelt)
Knowledge is love and light and vision. (Helen Keller)
So how is grace and peace multiplied through the believer? Through the knowledge of Jesus Christ!
Author Kathleen Norris used to play a game with elementary-school children in which she would make a deal with them. "First you get to make noise," she would bargain, "and then you’ll make silence." The time of noise was always predictably chaotic -- shouting, pounding and stomping, like a football team exploding out of a locker room. But the period of silence that followed was unexpectedly passionate and creative. When the children were asked to write about it, reflects Norris, "their images often had a depth and maturity that was unlike anything else they wrote." One boy discovered that "Silence is a tree spreading its branches to the sun."
2 Peter 1:2TM Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master.
“The deeper and wider the knowledge of the Lord, the more ‘grace and peace” are multiplied.” P.H.
Eighteen times we hear this exact greeting or a variation of it in the pages of the New Testament "Grace and peace to you ..."
2 Peter 1:3TM Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!
What’s your excuse? You’ve been given everything you need pertaining to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him...
A lady of society was gazing upon an image she had never seen before in the city’s art museum. "My dear fellow," she said to a worker, "I have never seen this painting before. I find the image shallow and rather crude in appearance. What do you call this?" The man answered without giving the slightest expression," That madam, is a mirror." Losing focus on the Jesus of Scripture blurs our own view—not only of Christ—but of ourselves, as well. The Bible is also a great mirror.
Everything pertaining to life and godliness... Jesus’ power is the source of the believer’s sufficiency.
Knowledge of Him brings:
1. Glorious Peace.
2. Presence.
3. Unimaginable Fruit.
4. Great Faith.
5. Abundant Gifts.
6. Total Fullness.
7. Super Stability.
* Knowledge say’s, as often as you come together do this in remembrance of Me. Picture Jesus’ love; take in His New Covenant.
Benediction.
