“What God Gives to Us”
2 Peter 1:1-4
Pastor John Bright
2 Peter 1 “1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 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, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
I’m actually going to be preaching through two books in the next few months. 2 Peter and Jude are together in the New Testament because they both focus on how the Church, then and now, should deal with false teaching. I always start a new book with some basic information: who, what, where, when, and why?
WHO? v. 1
“1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:”
This is Simon who was given the name Peter in Matthew 16:17-18 “17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” This is also “open mouth – insert foot” Simon Peter. In Matthew 16, just a few verses after getting his new name, he rebukes Jesus, and we all know what Jesus said then: “23 But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
We also see in v. 1 to whom it is being sent. This is a letter to Gentile believers. The inclusion of Gentiles into the Early Church was a HUGE controversy, and Peter was at the forefront of it. In Acts 10, Peter receives a vision from God and then is told by the Holy Spirit to go to the home of a Gentile. He obeys and here is what happened: Acts 10:44-46 “44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, 47 “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.”
Now, decades later, Peter is referring to those Gentile Followers of Jesus as having the same faith that the Jewish Jesus Followers had, and even as the faith of the Apostles. He can make this claim because their faith and our faith are gifts from God. “Faith is the avenue or the instrument God uses to bring salvation to His people. God gives faith because of His grace and mercy, because He loves us (Ephesians 4—5). Faith comes from God in the form of a gift (Ephesians 2:8).” https://www.gotquestions.org/where-does-faith-come-from.html Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,”
The Greeting v. 2
“2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,”
Letters from that day usually included a greeting, as we see in v. 2. You can find grace and peace mentioned in many of the New Testament letters, but this is the only one that connects them to “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” We also see this mentioned at the end of the letter: 3:17-18a “17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Today, we tend to think of knowledge as something learned and stored in the brain. It’s all about the head. In the Bible, knowledge refers to a relationship. If we know God, then we have a relationship with Him through the Blood of Jesus Christ. It was God who sought you and me for that relationship. It’s all about the heart. Peter is addressing the real danger of losing the relationship with God if they exchange the TRUTH of God revealed through the Apostles for the lies we call heresies. In the coming weeks, we are going to look at ancient heresies that keep coming back to infect the Body of Christ. Each new generation must reject the lie and hold fast to the TRUTH!
God gives us what is needed for maturity v. 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,”
Not everyone has become mature in Jesus Christ. Not everyone has chosen to progress in the ongoing growth of sanctification (this is the Wesleyan way of stating it). The Bible is clear on this matter: Hebrews 5:12-13 “12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”
The power of God, available to us through the Holy Spirit, can change our desires on the inside (holiness) and our actions on the outside (godliness). I will be able to spend more time on the difference between holiness and godliness as we move through 2 Peter. Since our new movement, The Global Methodist Church, wants to regain Wesley’s vision of Entire Sanctification, it’s essential to understand both holiness and godliness. As I have done in the past, I will ask you to ponder this question: Do you HAVE TO sin? If the answer is “yes”, then the power of the Blood of Christ is not sufficient. If the answer is “no”, then you choose to sin, which means you can also choose not to sin. Like I said, think about it.
In the second half of this verse, Peter returns to the relationship we have through salvation to the one who saved us on the Cross of Calvary. Christ is calling all who would become Jesus' Followers to Himself. We heard this over and over in 1 Peter:
1 Peter 1:15-16 “15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:21 “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
1 Peter 3:9 “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
1 Peter 5:10 “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
We will hear more about our calling in Chapter 1, but for now, I want you to have the assurance that you are saved to the uttermost. I want you to have the assurance that God ain’t done with you yet! The power of the Holy Spirit is available to you every day of the week, not just here on a Sunday morning! Are you sure of this?
Our part in Christ v. 4
“by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Verse 4 is connected to the end of verse 3 – “Him who called us by glory and virtue.” We recently started the book of Hebrews in Monday night Bible Study. You can join us! I was explaining to everyone that today’s church tends to focus on Good Friday and Easter morning. We talk a lot about the crucifixion and the resurrection. In the Early Church, they focused on the glorification and enthronement of the Messiah.
In Acts 1, we read this account of what happened 40 days after the resurrection: Acts 1:6-11 “6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
The Ascension of Jesus is how God glorified Him after Jesus had laid aside that glory to come to earth to become like you and me – human. (Philippians 2:7-9) Then, Jesus was given a place on the throne, “seated at the right hand of God the Father”, as we declare in the Apostles’ Creed. We can see the importance they placed on the enthronement by the abundant use of Psalm 110:1 in the New Testament. The New Testament quotes it five times and alludes to it sixteen times by either referring to Jesus’ position at the Father’s right hand or to Jesus’ waiting to conquer his enemies. That makes Psalm 110:1 the most used Old Testament verse in the New Testament.
Enthronement is foreign to us in the United States. In Bible Study, we discussed all the Hallmark movies featuring a reluctant prince who does not want to be enthroned. In the past and in the present, if you live in a culture where great political intrigue and folks are trying to take the throne by force, enthronement is a big deal. That’s the world of the Early Church living in the Roman Empire. Through the glorification and enthronement of the Messiah, so many promises in God’s Word have been fulfilled. God also makes many wonderful and powerful promises to us, His people, in the world today.
One of those promises is in verse 4: “you may be partakers of the divine nature.” This also leads me to the first heresy we see in the Church today. This one crept in from the New Age movement that started in the 1960s, but its origins lie in the conflict between Christianity and Gnosticism in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. I’m not going into great detail today (talk more about it later), but one belief in Gnosticism is that humans have a divine spark. Here’s a description from an anarchist website that has a bit of Gnostic theology thrown in: “This concept is deeply rooted in the idea that every human being possesses a spark of the divine, which is dormant within each individual. This spark is believed to be the essence of the divine, the source of creation, and the seat of the soul. In other words, it's the spark that makes us truly human. Think of it as a small, glowing ember that burns brightly within, yearning to be fanned into a flame. This spark is not limited to religious or spiritual contexts; it's a universal concept that transcends all forms of spirituality, connecting us to the infinite and the unknowable.” https://disruptarian.com They make it sound so mystical and otherworldly.
Very briefly – We are all made in the image of God, the “imago Dei,” but we are NOT gods or goddesses. This promise is to share in the divine nature. The nature of God is described in terms of Divine Attributes. Some of these are shared with us. God pours out love into us: Romans 5:5 “… God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Question: Does God give us human love? Of course not! God gives us divine love so that we can love and even be reconciled with our enemies. That is a communicable attribute. (See insert for more info: https://www.gotquestions.org/communicable-incommunicable-attributes.html) God gave that love to the Apostles and the Early Church; He also offers that love to you and me. Amen.
Homework:
• Look up all the scriptures in today’s sermon. How strong is your desire to be changed from the inside out?
• We are going to be looking at many false beliefs that have found their way into the Church. Are you willing to have your personal beliefs challenged by the truth of God’s Word?
• Next week: 2 Peter 1:5-11 “Qualities You Possess”
