Power Equipped
TCF Sermon
August 24, 2003
Approach a member of the congregation...
- hand him/her a hammer and ask him or her to build something
When they say they cannot, ask why not?
answer should be something along the lines of
- I don’t have the tools
- I don’t have the materials
- I don’t know how
- I don’t have time
The bottom line - we’re not equipped....that is, we don’t have what we need to do it. That’s often how we feel in life, isn’t it? Sometimes we’re just not equipped for work, for specific tasks. And the truth is, we’re not all equipped for just anything, because we’re not all supposed to do just anything.
For example, when I was in 7th and 8th grade, I wanted to be a pro basketball player. There were just two problems with that. Was I equipped to be a pro basketball player?
1. I wasn’t ever going to be tall enough
2. I wasn’t ever going to have enough skill or talent
Two little things stood between me and NBA stardom, and being a millionaire. Other than that, I could have been a good pro player. Fortunately, I realized that early on I wasn’t equipped to be a pro player, and it’s clear I wasn’t supposed to be.
When Paul Burgard shows up on the jobsite to build something, or sends someone to build something, do you think he shows up one day and says, let’s build this? No, he gets all the materials, he gets all the tools, and he gets the people who know what to do with those materials and tools.
He comes fully equipped for the job at hand...
Fully Equipped: we hear that term related to car sales...what it means is that a vehicle has all the equipment you could want or need...
- a.c.
- CD player
- power everything,
- maybe electronic remote keyless entry
- maybe a video screen
- etc. etc....
Equipping is empowerment....being equipped means you have the power to do something. We like the sound of something that’s Power Equipped.
That’s the title of this morning’s message: Power Equipped. We’ll read a passage of scripture here in a moment which reveals that idea in a fuller way.
Put more simply, I wouldn’t ask someone to go paint a room upstairs, without proper instruction, without giving them paint and brushes!!! Without empowering and equipping them with what they need, to do what I’ve asked them to do.
When we look at the Word of God, we see that God asks or commands us to do many things. God says, "Be holy as I am holy." Jesus says, as Jim preached about last week, "Go and make disciples of all nations." The Word tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. The Word tells us to rejoice in the Lord always.
The Word tells us not to conform to this world. The Word tells us to bless those who persecute us. Scripture tells us to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. The same passage tells us to look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. With many of these things, we might have the same reaction as in our opening illustration.
I can’t.
I don’t know how.
I don’t have the tools, the equipment, the ability, the time.
That is, I’m not equipped to do those things. But here’s the kicker.
God says that, as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are Power Equipped to do all that He has asked us to do.
2 Peter 1:3-11 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
There are about 10 different sermons in this passage, but we’re going to focus on that one idea, found initially in verse 3, and expanded on in subsequent verses:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
He calls us to be godly, and equips us to be godly... He gives us the tools to be godly...
Now, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Yes, we still struggle with sin. We have to learn to use the tools He’s given us to be godly. You could equip me with all the tools and materials I needed to fix my car, and they’d be wasted. Because I don’t know how to use them!!!
What this verse is saying, I believe, is that not only has he given us the tools,
He’s given us the knowledge. We just have to decide to use the tools, and learn how to use the tools...and we can learn.
How unlike God it would be if He didn’t equip us to learn what we need to learn to be godly, or even to cope with life? But here, Peter tells us that God has given us everything we need for life, He has given us everything we need for godliness.
Let’s take a closer look at what this passage tells us about being Power Equipped.
First of all, we’re not just talking about any old power, the kind of power than can fail and bring blackouts to the whole NE U.S. We’re talking about divine power.
Of course, divine means it comes from God. It’s not anything we can develop on our own. It’s not anything we bring to the task naturally. It does not come from within us. It comes from God.
The truth is, we don’t have the resources, we’re not equipped, in and of ourselves, to cope with life, or to live godly lives. That’s something we have to recognize when we come to Christ for salvation. Just as we must say before God at the moment we receive His free gift of salvation through Jesus:
"God, I know I’m a sinner, and I cannot live up to your standards, I cannot save myself."
As believers, no matter how long we’ve been followers of Christ, no matter how much we’ve grown in Him, we’re still in the same state:
We cannot be godly, we cannot live up to His standards in our own strength.
Jesus said, "apart from me you can do nothing." The moment we believe we can go it alone, or try that, we’ve failed. But the good news is that once we’ve recognized that we need Him, we have this divine power source we can tap into.
A divine power source that equips and enables us to live life, and to live godly lives, before Him.
The Life Application Bible puts it this way:
Because we don’t have the resources to be truly godly, God allows us to "participate in the divine nature" in order to keep us from sin and help us live for him. When we are born again, God by his Spirit empowers us with his own moral goodness.
Isn’t that an awesome thing to consider?: God, by His Spirit, empowers us with his own moral goodness.
Listen to these passages of scripture that illustrate this:
John 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
The Spirit, God’s Holy Spirit gives birth to His Spirit in us.
In John 14:17-23 Jesus talks of the: the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you...
In other words, Jesus is saying, I won’t leave you ill-equipped.
I will leave you power-equipped.
19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
2 Cor. 5:21 , writing of Jesus, Paul writes: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 1:22-23 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
How can we do this? How can we be equipped to love like this?
23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
We’re born again, of Him, in Him, by Him...
This power, that gives us everything we need for life and godliness, is His Divine Power.
The word power here in the original language is dunamis (doo na mees). In context, it refers to ability, abundance, and its root word means "to be able."
One Bible dictionary noted that all the words that stem from the root word have the meaning of being able, or capable. So, even simply the words divine power in this context, indicate equipping, being made able, being made capable.
Let’s take a moment to look at this phrase: "has given us:"
The original language here means: to bestow gratuitously :
- give, to make a gift of.
In this verse, the word is used to tell us of the free giving of God’s power, with the result being we have everything we need, we’re Power-Equipped....
for life and godliness.
The verb here indicates that this divine power does not give life and godliness because somebody deserves it, but because it is available to all...it is a free gift.
It’s the same word used in verse 4, where it says that God has given us His great and precious promises. And again, the implication in the language is clear: These are promises of God, given to believers, initiated by God Himself, and therefore, undeserved promises....but promises nonetheless.
Next in this passage, let’s look briefly at the words "life and godliness."
The Greek word here for life is zoe. It can refer to physical life alone, existence, as opposed to death or non-existence.
Here: it means: Of life, i.e., manner of life, conduct, in a moral respect (Rom. 6:4; Eph. 4:18, "the life of God" meaning that which God requires, a godly life; 2 Pet. 1:3).
Because of the context, it’s clear the primary meaning of life here refers to our moral or spiritual life. However, because zoe can be used in a more general sense of life, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that it can deal with the more mundane things of life, those things we don’t often spiritualize.
Work... school... other activities... The circumstances of life that we sometimes find difficult to deal with.
Of course, I also believe God wouldn’t have us separate life into the sacred and secular, the spiritual and non-spiritual, quite as much as we tend to, which says to me that all aspects of our life can be applied here.
Godliness is an interesting word here. The Greek word has to do with devotion to God, or piety toward Him. Let me read an explanation from a Bible Dictionary:
When godliness is applied to the Christian life, it denotes a life that is acceptable
to Christ, indicating the proper attitude of the believer toward Christ who has saved him.
It is both an attitude and a manner of life. It is in this manner that 1 Tim. 4:7 says,
"Train yourself to be godly,: or "discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness." It does not come automatically, but is something into which we must put effort. In 1 Tim. 6:11, we are urged to "follow after righteousness, godliness"
I think we should not ignore the simple word here "through" and I’ll tell you why. It’s because this word indicates cause and effect. It means:
"the channel of an act"
It means "of the mode, manner, state or circumstances through which anything, as it were, passes, that is, takes place or is produced." This is important because of what comes next:
The phrase "knowledge of Him."
In other words, Peter tells us that God has given us everything we need, everything we need for life and godliness, and we’ve just taken a look at what all this implies.
And the way He’s given us this, the means through which God has equipped us with His Power, is through, because of, produced by, our knowledge of Him.
Now, this may be the most important thing you’ll hear all morning, so please don’t miss this. The word here for knowledge is a stronger version of another word for knowledge. It’s epignosis, not gnosis.
The Word Study Bible Dictionary helps us draw some important things from the usage of this word here. It says:
It is more intensive than gnosis, (1108), knowledge, because it expresses a more thorough participation in the acquiring of knowledge on the part of the learner. In the NT, it often refers to knowledge which very powerfully influences the form of religious life, a knowledge laying claim to personal involvement. When used (the way it’s used in this passage) (Eph. 1:17; 4:13; Col. 1:9, 10; 2:2; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1; Heb. 10:26; 2 Pet. 1:2, 3), it shows the relationship of the learner to the object of his knowledge (2 Pet. 1:8). It increases spiritual blessings upon the believer (Eph. 1:17; 2 Pet. 1:2, 3) and determines the manifestations of the religious life (2 Pet. 2:20).
It’s not just knowledge. It’s full knowledge....full discernment. It’s knowing everything we need to know for life and godliness.
It’s not knowing everything, but knowing everything we need to know. And it requires, on our part, participation. It requires cooperation with the Giver of this gift. And, as this dictionary notes, it shows the relationship of the learner to the object of His knowledge.
2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, how do we get this all-important knowledge of Him?
Peter tells us:
1. It’s God’s divine power that does all this.
2. this power has equipped us for everything we need for life and godliness
3. the conduit, the means, through which we can access this divine power, is our knowledge of Him.
Now, I don’t want to discount the value of experiential knowledge. Clearly the Word tells us that we can know Him through what we see, (read Romans 1) and seeing is an experiencing.
So I don’t want to imply that this is the be-all and end-all of knowing Him. I also don’t mean to de-emphasize the importance of communing with God through prayer as a means of knowing Him.
But I think we can agree that the primary means God has given us of knowing Him, is His Word.
I think we could even say that our experience of Him with our senses, and in our prayer, is guided by, enhanced by, driven by, the Word of God.
After all, the Word instructs us to pray. The Word tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God, and we see that with our senses...we experience that.
Now think about what that means here in the context of 2 Peter 1:3.
1. His divine power gives us what we need
2. It gives us everything, it fully equips us, it power-equips us, with all we need for life, with all we need for godliness.
3. the primary way we’re equipped....fully-equipped.
is through our knowledge of Him, and our knowledge of Him is primarily revealed through His Word.
Now, if we believe that...if we really want to be equipped to deal with all of life....
If we really want to have the power to live as godly, God-honoring, Christlike believers in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, how can we get there?
How can we avail ourselves of this equipping? How can we have everything we need for life and godliness?
Through our knowledge of Him.
Through what He’s given us, by His divine power. This passage says He’s given us what we need.
So, if we say, I can’t do it, I don’t know how, I’m not equipped, we’re calling God a liar. Because here it is: The precious Word of God...the primary means of obtaining our knowledge of Him.
It sits on our shelves. It sits there while we read other things. It sits there while we watch TV. It sits there while we do anything but plug into the source of this power. This source of our equipping.
Now, we looked at the beginning this morning of how foolish it would be for me to ask someone to build something, or go upstairs and paint, without giving them the tools to do it. Without giving them any instruction. The opposite of that, is what we face when we look at this passage of scripture. It’s as if I gave someone the paint brushes, I gave them more than enough paint. I sent them to a three-day school to train them in how to paint walls, and how to do it well.
And they even came home from that school with a manual, which reminded them of all the things they were supposed to have learned. After all that, what would you think of the person I asked to paint, if they said, "I can’t." "I don¡¦t have the tools," "I don’t know how."
"I don’t have what I need."
You’d want to say to that person, "sure you do."
"I’ve given it to you." There’s the paint. There’s the brush. There’s your manual they gave you after graduating from painting school. Just use what I’ve given you.
I think that’s why Peter continues in this passage, after recognizing that these things are a gift from God, after recognizing that we’re fully-equipped, not just fully-equipped, but power-equipped. After noting that we can actually, because of what God has given, in a very real sense, participate in the divine nature, escape the corruption in the world.
After pointing out all these truths, Peter writes:
2 Peter 1:5-9 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
If I may be so bold as to paraphrase, to help us understand this better:
Peter says: use what God has given you.
Cooperate with Him. God has acted, now you must cooperate. Get with His program. If you don’t, you’re nearsighted and blind, and you’ve forgotten what God has done for you.
And He might add, you’re foolish for not using what God has already given.
2 Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
KJV: 2 Tim. 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The word translated here as "thoroughly equipped" in the NIV, and "perfect" in the KJV, means to equip, outfit, furnish. One Bible dictionary says that because the sense of the word is causal, that means, it says God is the one who equips, makes perfect, he causes this.
Because of that, this verse could be translated:
"that the man of God may be competent because he has been equipped [outfitted, furnished]" by God to be competent. (a.t.).
The Word of God is just that - His inspired Word, His message, His equipping for our lives, for godliness.
We must apply it to our lives to take advantage of that equipping.
We must read it, know it, study it, memorize it. God has revealed what is true - right here in His Word.
Life Application Bible notes:
In our zeal for the truth of Scripture, we must never forget (one of) its (primary) purposes¡ to equip us to do good. We should not study God"s Word simply to increase our knowledge or to prepare us to win arguments. We should study the Bible so that we will know how to do Christ’s work in the world. Our knowledge of God’s Word is not useful unless it strengthens our faith and leads us to do good.
In other words, what good is it for us to be equipped with all this power, if we don’t use it?
Pray
