2 Peter 1 - 4/22/12
Turn with me this morning in the end of your bibles to the book of 2 Peter. We want to take the next three or four weeks to look together at the book of 2 Peter. Today, I want you to answer two questions about yourself:
• How’s your eyesight? and
• How’s your memory? we’ll get to those questions in just a little bit.
We are already at the end of April, and in just a couple weeks it will be Mother’s Day. Hopefully you can begin to think about how you want to honor your mother this year. The story is told about three sons who left home, went out on their own and prospered? Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.
The first said, "I built a big house for our mother."
The second said, "I sent her a Mercedes with a driver."
The third smiled and said, "I’ve got you both beat. You remember how mom enjoyed reading the Bible? And you know she can’t see very well. I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took elders in the church 12 years to teach him. He’s one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and parrot recites it."
Soon thereafter, mom sent out her letters of thanks:
"Milton", she wrote, "The house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house."
"Gerald", she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!"
"Dearest Donald", she wrote to her third son, "You have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was delicious!" Well, apparently that mom had some problems seeing and remembering.
Speaking of remembering, let me spur on your memory about the book of 1 Peter. We went through it together about four years ago. In that letter, Peter is writing to give practical help to Christians dealing with daily problems.
He starts by reminding us that we all face trials. They come in all shapes and sizes. Peter says we can expect them to come; so don’t be surprised when they do come. They can be very hard to deal with, but with God’s help, we can make it through. Peter says in spite of the trials in our lives, we are to Live in Hope.
Hope is not a futile wishing for a good future, rather hope is the confident expectation that God will work, based upon his character. I can have hope in the midst of trials, Peter tells me, because
• I am chosen of God - God loved me and elected ME!
• I am born of God - God not only loved me, but he made me his child.
• I am destined for good - I have an incorruptible inheritance waiting for me.
• I am shielded by God’s power - I am completely protected as I face these various trials. Therefore, I can have JOY in the midst of the trials, and I can GROW spiritually.
Because we have hope, we are called to Live in Holiness. To do that, Peter calls us to
control our minds, imitate our master, inquire of scripture, anticipate judgment, and confirm our faith.
In living holy lives, we are to Live in Harmony with one another. Peter calls us to holiness - this word holiness is really the idea of being “different” than the world - and then he calls us to live in harmony in response to the holy life we live. We have a fond affection, a brotherly love for one another, but we go on to extend ourselves to sacrificial love, and seek to live in unity, because we are children in the same family, stones in the same building, priests in the same temple, and citizens of the same nation.
We are to Live as a Herald - to live advertising Jesus, wherever we are. And we saw that to do a good job of advertising Jesus, we need to Live Humbly - to live a life of submission, to God, to Government, to Bosses, to Spouses, and to One Another.
Then Peter calls us to Live Honorably, to live redeeming the time. We don’t want to waste our lives. We have wasted enough time already in living like the world. We want to pray more, love more, share more, serve more. We want to control our tongues. We want to control our desires and give and tithe and rejoice.
You may have trials -- we all do -- but in the trials, we gain help from faithful leaders over us, faithful followers alongside us, and by firmly resisting the forces of Satan fighting against us. And when we do, we will stand firm in spite of the trials. That was the lesson of 1 Peter.
Now on to 2 Peter. In Peter’s second epistle, he has a different focus. But once again, he is writing to remind us of things we already know to be true. Over in 2 Peter 3:1 he writes, Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. So Peter writes his books to stimulate our thinking. Far too often we go through life with our minds in neutral. We need to take some time this morning to engage our minds into gear and think about what we are doing.
So, let’s take a moment, and pray, and ask God to help us to focus on what He has to say to us today.
PRAY - 2 Peter 1 - hopefully you have found it by now. I’m going to start reading at verse 1. Read 1:1-11
Here in 2 Peter, we have three calls to the believer: Look At Yourself, Look Around, and Look Ahead. Today we want to consider the first call: Look At Yourself!
Let me give you 2 visual pictures to help frame these verses, before we get to the two questions we want to ask. Now, typically when we look at this passage, we want to take a lot of time to look at the 7 traits mentioned in verses 5-7, but we aren’t going to do that today. We will mention them, but you can take the time to think in depth about each one of them.
The first word picture: think back as a toddler, 4 or 5 years old, and your mom serves up something you didn’t like - maybe broccoli or spinach or brussel sprouts. You don’t like the taste - it’s disgusting, so what does your mom say: “You want to grow up big and strong, don’t you! Eat your vegetables so you’ll be a big boy!” Or she would say, Take your vitamins - you want to be healthy don’t you!”
God lists here for us our spiritual vegetables, our spiritual vitamins - our “one a days” - 7 traits, one for every day, that we take to help us grow strong spiritually.
The second word picture: think about getting a little older, maybe in high school or the years after, and getting ready to go out on a date. Getting ready for some guys is a 30 second routine - sniff the armpits, make sure your hair is okay, and head out the door. But for most girls it might be a 2 hour routine. “Are you ready yet honey? Just 5 more minutes!” When I was dating Ronda, my bed would often be scattered with clothes, because I would try on one outfit, not like it, throw it on the bed, and pull something else out of the closet until finally I found something I wanted to wear.
But getting ready is much more that clothes that you wear. You want to make sure your teeth are brushed and you don’t have clumps of food sticking on them. You want to make sure it’s a “good hair” day and that you don’t have cow licks sticking out. Ladies want to make sure their makeup looks just right - not too heavy, and just enough lipstick. You always want to make sure your breath isn’t bad - keep a mint or piece of gum in your pocket. You want to make sure you have enough cash so if she orders an expensive steak you can pay for it. You want to make sure the car is cleaned out. ALL these things are important - and you can’t overlook any of them or it will create an uneasy situation.
Okay - those are our two examples - take your vitamins! And make sure every aspect of your appearance is ready. Now, with that in mind, let’s consider what Peter has to say.
Peter is writing to Christians, and he reminds us that we have a precious faith. In verse 3, he reminds us that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. We can’t blame our lack of spiritual maturity on God - because he has already given us everything we need. It’s sort of like I talked about pulling clothes out of the closet - God has filled our closet. Or like taking our vitamins - God has a full bottle of spiritual vitamins for us - but WE have to do our part in taking them. God has given us everything we need to grow spiritually. But HOW do we grow spiritually? Through our knowledge of God - by learning more and more about who God is and what He desires for our lives.
God has given us “great and precious promises” verse 4 tells us. If we want to have peace in our hearts, hope for difficult days, joy in the midst of pain - we need to remember the hundreds of promises God has given us in His word.
God has also given us a divine nature - not that we are God - but when we place our faith in Christ, God changes us, and gives us a new nature - one that is not controlled by sinful desires. We still have our sinful tendencies that we are born with - God doesn’t take away our sin nature - that will happen when we go to heaven - but He does give us a new nature, one that is not under the bondage to sin.
Romans 8 tells us, through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. . . You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. . . . Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
So to help us grow spiritually, God has given us His word, and His has placed His spirit inside us and given us a new nature. He says in verse 4 - so that through them you may . . . escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. We don’t have to live our lives constantly giving in to lust and greed and pride and corruption. We are set free from the power of sin over us! So Peter goes on in verse 5 to tell us, For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith. . .
We need to have a faith that grows. There are far too many Christians who are spiritually content. They never grow spiritually. The author of Hebrews says, You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. Like a baby that can only drink a bottle of formula, many Christians say, “I know I’m going to heaven when I die” - but they never experience the full, abundant life that God wants them to experience.
Today, I want you to Look at Yourself! How are you growing spiritually? To grow to be the men and women God wants us to be, we need to focus on our one-a-days - our spiritual vitamins. Seven things we need to work on adding to our faith. Seven things that we need to look at about ourselves to be all that God wants us to be. Here they are: First, we add to our faith
goodness - virtue - moral excellence - in the Greek world something that was virtuous was something that fulfilled the purpose it was designed for. In the Christian life, we often compare ourselves to others - I can’t preach like Chuck Swindoll, or I can’t sing like Sandi Patti. But building goodness, virtue, is being the best ME that I can be. God doesn’t want us to be an imitator of others - he wants us to be the best ME I can be. SO, to look at ourselves, how are we doing at building on the strengths God has given us? We each have an area of strength, a spiritual gift, that God wants to use for His glory. Our second vitamin - add to faith, goodness, then
knowledge - practical, experiential insight. It’s the idea of personal, intimate relationship. Growing spiritually is not a question of learning more “facts” but experiencing more of God in your daily life. Take a look at yourself - are you growing to know your God more - or are things at a standstill in your relationship?
self-control - or temperance - the idea of having a “balanced life” - knowing when to say “no” - sometimes like we talked last week we are either a flash of flame or a cold stick - but God wants us to be a steadily burning fire. Self-control means making wise choices in our lives - not merely going along with the crowd, not making decisions based on feelings, but choosing to do that which we know is the right thing to do.
perseverance - this is the idea of remaining steadfast - never giving up. Too many Christians are like the seed sown on rocky places in the parable of the sower - they spring up quickly, but when trouble comes, they wither away. Take a look at yourself today, is your love for God dependent on circumstances, or can you love God even when you are going through difficult times?
godliness- has the idea of how well do we worship? Are we able to worship God regardless of our circumstances? Perseverance means we don’t give up; godliness means we continue to praise God - just like Job in the OT, who blessed God even when he faced everything that was dear to him.
brotherly kindness - this is the idea of loving others like they were a part of our family. You can choose your friends, but you are stuck with your family. Sometimes we have people in our family that we don’t really like, we don’t really connect with, but we love them because they are family. Brotherly kindness is that same idea - we show love to others because they are part of our spiritual family. Take a look at yourself - how do you do at loving everyone? And finally, the last one,
love - not just loving your brothers and sister in Christ, your spiritual family, but loving even those who hate you and mock you and call you names and cut you down and intentionally are cruel and seek to inflict pain in your life. Yes, God wants us to love them too! WHY!? Because we are to be an example to them of how God loves. And that is the way that God loves. And I am so very thankful that He does!
So Peter writes and says, GROW UP! How? Take your spiritual vitamins! What do we need to do? Look at ourselves and evaluate how we look in these areas:
goodness - knowledge - self-control - perseverance - godliness - brotherly kindness - love
We could work on a different one every day of the week! Notice now what Peter says in verse 8 - if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, - that is, if you are growing in these seven areas - they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To state that another way - if we build these traits into our lives, then we will be useful and fruitful for God.
• Do you want God to use you? Then take your one-a-days!
• Do you want to see fruit in your life? Then take your one-a-days! But what happens if you don’t? Vs 9 -
But if anyone does not have them, he is short-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
Have you ever been around someone who is nearsighted? All they can focus on is themself! They don’t see the things out in the distance. They can only see what is right in front of them. So here is the first question we started with: How is your spiritual eyesight?
Do you live each day only thinking about today? Only thinking about your problems and struggles? Or do you take time to think about how God could do great things through your life? Do you think about how you can play a part in the lives of others? Far too many Christians have spiritual myopia, nearsightedness!
And then How is your memory? I was talking to my mother this week - she turned 84 - and her memory is starting to fail. Last year she got a new dog, a chihuahua - and as I called her to wish her a happy birthday I asked her “What is your dog’s name?” She said, Oh ... uhm ... let me think ... and it was about 30 seconds until she could remember her dog’s name. Fortunately she remembered my name!
But spiritually, we also lose our memory. When we are not taking our spiritual one-a-days, we don’t grow spiritually, we are complacent, and we forget what God has done for us. We are ungrateful and selfish and only turn to God to tell him our list of wishes we want Him to grant us.
As you look at yourself today, how is your memory? Do you take time to think about all that God has done for you?
Peter’s summary is in verse 10 - Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. He is not saying you get saved by growing in these seven areas - but just the opposite - when you grow in these seven areas, when you bear fruit and are useful to God, when you can see God at work and you remember all He has done for you, it CONFIRMS your salvation. It is an indicator that God IS at work in your life.
Today, 2 Peter gives us a call to look at ourselves. When you look in the mirror what do you see? How is your vision? How is your memory? Are you taking your one-a-days? Take some time to reflect on your life and see which of these seven you need to work on:
goodness - knowledge - self-control - perseverance - godliness - brotherly kindness - love
Let’s pray.
