1 of 8 Good morning! How we doing this morning? We finished our series in Romans 12 last week and today we are starting a new series in 2 Peter called Making Your Calling Sure. Lord willing, this series will take us all the way to mid-august. So open your Bibles or turn them on to 2 Peter chapter 1. When I chose 2 Peter, honestly, I had no idea how hard this first chapter was going to be to preach. It s so deep and, frankly, so complex that it took a lot longer than normal to figure out the main point. It was worth the work though and a testament to why we preach through chapters and books the way we do. It forces us to wrestle with passages we might not otherwise preach. This letter was written about 35 years after Jesus resurrected to Christians all over the Roman Empire who are experiencing heightened persecution under the reign of Nero. People all over the empire are deciding that following Christ is too hard and they re falling away. On top of that, you see at the end of chapter 1 that Jesus has come to Peter and told him he is about to die and it s time to get his things in order. So Peter, knowing the challenges Christians in the Roman Empire face and knowing he is about to die, writes this letter. 2 Peter is to Peter what 2 Timothy is to Paul. A final goodbye. And in the first chapter of this letter, he wants them to know that following Christ is worth it and that they aren t powerless in their struggle. They have access, in fact, to great power that will make them content and fruitful through any trial. He tells them to access this power though, they will need to 1) know something and 2) do something. This week we will look at what they need to know and next week we will look at what we need to do. Let s read the first four verses. Scripture: Simeon (Simeon is just a more Hebrew way of saying Simon) Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 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 you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Sermon Intro:
2 of 8 When I was about 12, my dad told me I was going to start mowing the lawn. $1 for the front yard and 50 cents for the back. Somebody should have reported him. Deep down, I was so excited though. I felt like such a grown man that day. I remember getting about half way through the front yard and I just couldn t do it anymore. It was just too hard to push, I didn t have the strength. About that time, my dad came out and said, Jim, you know if you push that lever down, it goes by itself. Reallly? So when were you going to tell me about that lever? I ve been doing this on my own strength this whole time. My dad said, Sorry, I just thought you knew. I wonder how many of us view Christianity the same way. Do you ever feel defeated? Do you get overwhelmed by life? Do you ever think I can t do this anymore? It s just too hard. Well, this passage is for you! Believers living in different times have had very different crosses to bear. Some bear the cross of governmental persecution, some social persecution, some poverty, but our crosses are very different. And one of the harder crosses I think we have to bear in the Deep South is being surrounded by powerless Christianity. We are faced daily with a culture who sees Christianity as no more than a place you plug your kids in for good moral training. A place where you go so you can promote your business better. A place where you mark milestones in your life like weddings, births and funerals. But, no more than that. But we see in this passage that there IS so much more than that. Peter is telling us about a power we have access to and I want to look at this power from three angles: 1) what the power is, 2) How we access this power and 3) what this power produces. I. What the power is The power Peter is telling us about is the divine power for life and godliness. Look at verse 3: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness Divine power for life and godliness. Let s look at both parts of this. The divine power first and then life and godliness. Divine power. So this isn t some pantheistic power like the force. My boys once told me they had the force and I told them, Yeah, well I have something stronger than the force! To which they said, Not possible dad. Yes, possible! It also isn t some sort of self-help power that we can muster up on our own through eating better, thinking positively and reading books from Walmart. Our power comes from God. That is what makes it divine. And this power is granted to us. Do you see what that implies? On our own, we can do nothing. When it comes to living a content and fruitful life, we are no more able to provide this for ourselves than
3 of 8 my 18 month old is able to provide a meal for himself. It is beyond our natural ability. It must be provided for us. It requires the supernatural and the supernatural is what we get. Now, this doesn t mean that we are passive in this. Paul says to the Philippians (2:13) Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.for God is at work in you. But the clear understanding is that we will live a stagnant and frustrated life if we are striving for something without the power to attain it. And this is where so much of our Southern Christianish culture is! We can so often and so easily forget or maybe never know that the Christian life is one of power. It s not just a set of doctrines to be accepted or verses to be memorized. Demons know more about God than all of us, but that doesn t help their plight any. It isn t just a set of rules to be followed. It isn t just a label to take on. It is a power to be experienced. The Christian life is one of power. Acts 4:33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Sprit you may abound in hope. Col 1:11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.. 1 Thes 1:5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. When the gospel goes forward, it does so with power. Jesus said that we will do works even greater than He did. So what exactly is this divine power Peter is talking about? Here it is: Life and godliness. These verses aren t talking about signs and wonders, but changed hearts, changed perspectives and changed lives. Eternal life and godliness. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.. Total moral and spiritual transformation now and hope for life in the age to come. That s our divine power. We will see in chapter two that Peter has some strong words for those who call themselves Christians, but live very corrupt lives. But Jim, I thought salvation was by grace and not by works? Yes! But by grace, you get both. It s all or nothing. There are some things that just have to go together. Fall Saturdays and football, Scrambled eggs and salsa. Isaac Jenkins and dead turkeys. National Championships and FSU. In the same way, there is this inseparable connection for Peter between godliness now and eternal life later. You can t have one and reject the other. Peter is forbidding us from reducing the grace we have access to some mere fire insurance policy to simply escape
4 of 8 hell while we live totally unchanged lives. The hope of eternal life and the way of godliness stand or fall together! *** And this is all the more important for us to see as we are embroiled in this battle of competing messages all around us. Messages that say do what makes you happy now. It will all work out in the end. This is college God basically gives you a pass on these years. Or..on the other end of the spectrum, messages that say follow these 7 steps to a happier and more fulfilling life apart from all that religious hocus pocus. Do you see what these are? You have promises of eternal life without godliness on one hand and promises of godliness without eternal life on the other. And Peter is emphatically saying, no! The two are inseparable and yours to take hold of. And some of you are thinking, Man, Jim I really want this power you are talking about! This is not my current reality. How do I access this kind of power? I m glad you asked! II. How do we access this power? Imagine that we are lightbulbs intended to illuminate our homes and our businesses and certainly our church. But a lightbulb can t light on its own. It needs power. So there is a divine generator in the distance. Great! But that doesn t do us any good if there is no connection. Our connection, Peter says, is knowledge. Not just knowing the right things about God, but knowing God in a more intimate way. The cable that connects us to our divine power source is this personal knowledge. Look at verse 2 and 3: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Now, some of you might be thinking, Jim, knowledge? I thought our power is the Holy Spirit? Yes! The Holy Spirit is the One who opens our eyes to this knowledge. The Holy Spirit is the One who softens our hearts to this knowledge. The Holy Spirit is the One who enables us to love this knowledge. And, I might add, the Holy Spirit is the One giving us this knowledge, reminding us of this knowledge and comforting us with this knowledge. Outside of the power and moving of the Holy Spirit, we would have nothing but disdain and disregard for this knowledge that brings divine power. And we are given two very specific aspects of this knowledge. It isn t just a general knowledge about God. We ve already said that that won t help anyone. It s a personal knowledge from God. The first part of this knowledge that gives us power for life and godliness is the knowledge that you are called. Look again at verse 3b:.through the knowledge of Him who called us to his own glory and excellence..
5 of 8 We have to know that we are called. And not just called in general, but called by name. Not called to something good, but to someone perfect. Called to His own glory and excellence. We don t deserve to be, but we are. All of us know the power of a calling. Women, many of you know what it s like to have a boy pursue you. You may have to be over 30 for this to work because sadly guys text these days instead of call. But young ladies you can imagine what it would be like back when boys were brave. Being called by a boy. And not just any boy, but one you really like and maybe one you think is kind of out of your league. Do you remember what it was like when he called you and made it clear his affections were on you? It wasn t just a mere piece of knowledge. It was power! The power of hope and fun and joy and acceptance and satisfaction and most of all love surge through your body because YOU are called! And how much greater and more powerful the call when we aren t talking about a zit nosed boy, but the creator of the universe! The One you deeply wronged come back to claim you. The One by whom and for whom we were made. The One whose embrace will make the heights of possible emotion in this world feel bland. To the degree that you see clearly that the God of glory and excellence, the God of all that is good and pleasing in the universe, has set His affections on you, to that degree you will experience the power for godliness now and a sure hope for eternal life in the future. That is the first part of this knowledge that brings power for godliness, the second we see in verse 4a: by which (this word in the Greek is plural referring to the glory and excellence we are called to) he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. So when God sets His affections on you and calls you to into a relationship with Him, then you gain access to precious and very great promises. And knowing these promises brings power into your life. Knowing these promises and believe they are for you is like the carrot dangled in front of your eyes that gives you the power to live a godly life. So I want to ask two questions: 1) Who are these promises for? and 2) What exactly are these precious and great promises? Who are these promises for? Verse 1 tells us: To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the Christian faith. There is nothing you can do to earn these promises. There is nothing you can do to be worthy of God s calling and His promises. The divine power we need is distant and far away because we have rebelled against God. We have decided that we know better. We separated ourselves, but God provides a way.
6 of 8 We can t become good enough. So God came down in the form of Jesus Christ and was perfect in our place. Do you see how Peter describes those who have access to the power? It isn t those who are morally superior. It isn t those who are more spiritual. It isn t those who go to church more. The promises are for those who accept the righteousness of Christ. This is the first and greatest promise that unlocks all the others: You can have the righteousness of Christ. You can take it and put it on. God can look at us not as the messes we are but as His perfect Son who saved humanity. Not as people who deserve punishment, but as children without blemish. But.you can t just believe this is true in general if you want power. You must believe that it is true for you! Think about it this way. If after a week of gloomy weather a child wakes up on Saturday morning and sees the glorious sunshine calling him to play outdoors. The promise of playing outside. New power flows into his spirit. But this only happens if he can actually go and play outside. If he s sick and can t play, the great day and the fun of friends outside might actually make him miserable. The great power that flows from the knowledge of God s promises only has power if you believe they are for you! And if you believe that this first great promise of being accepted on the merits of Jesus instead of you own is for you, God then lavishes you with thousands more. He says Come to me you who are weary, I will give you rest. I will give you a new heart with new desires As far as the East is from the West so shall I separate you from your sin. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. I will be with you until the end of time. I will never leave you or forsake you. Ask me for anything and I will give it to you. No one will snatch you from My hand. You will never be tempted more than you can handle. Where I am, you will be also. I am coming back. I will right every wrong. I will wipe away every tear. I will give you eternal life. These promises have power. But they only have power if you know them and believe they are for you. There are literally thousands of promises in the Bible that offer you power in the Christian life. But it s hard to believe and draw power from promises that we don t know. So here is a challenge. Find three promises a week for the next month to memorize, to think about and to talk with your friends and family about and see if you don t feel less defeated, less overwhelmed and more empowered. And if you do, two things are going to happen in your life.
7 of 8 III. The Result of the Power Verse 4b so that through them (the great promises) you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires. When God s divine power flows into you life, Peter says two things happen. First, you become partakers of the divine nature. He s not saying you become God like the Pharaohs of Egypt of the Caesars of Rome. But it is something more than simple access to divine things. At some level, when the Holy Spirit enters you and you gain access to these promises, you become holy yourself. You begin to want things that God wants. You begin to live more and more the way God wants you to live. Not because you have to, but because something inside you has changed. And when this happens, we are no longer slaves to this world. We can escape the corruption that our old desires brought on. We are no longer trapped by what others think of us. We aren t controlled by what we have or don t have. Our sinful desires no longer control us. We have new divine desires that do. Now, that isn t to say that Christians won t struggle. This is exactly why Peter is writing! He s watching Christians all over the empire struggle. And he s telling them and us that we have access to power that will help us to overcome our struggles. What power do you have to help you in your battle with addiction? What power do you have to battle your lusts and you hurts and your jealousies and insecurities? Is it the power of the knowledge of your calling to and the promises lavished upon you? Or are you trying to conjure up power on your own that really is no power at all? Conclusion: God has promised us everything we need for life and godliness through the power of the knowledge of Him, His calling us to Himself and giving us access to His precious and great promises. Are you experiencing this power? For some of you, maybe you have never had that kind of power in your life. Maybe you are culturally Christian, but not really Christian. Maybe this is the first time this makes sense and you want it! In a moment we are going to take the Lord s Supper and if you aren t a Christian, instead of taking it with us, I want you to talk to God. To ask Him to make His promises precious and great to you and to give you the power of godliness and eternal life. There is a prayer in the bulletin you can read and consider if you like. For many of you, this power is flowing strong. For others, it used to flow, but for various reasons God s promises don t seem as precious and great as they used to. And if we re
8 of 8 honest, there are other things in our life that do seem precious and great. But you know deep down that they have no power. They won t satisfy you. Wherever you are, I can t think of a better way to remind ourselves of the glory and excellence of God and His precious promises toward us and to take hold of that power than to take communion together. In the Lord s Supper we have a physical reminder of God s commitment to the promises He gave us: The broken body and shed blood of the perfect God man who traded His life for ours. The proof of the promise of a resurrected life. Let s corporately remember this promise together and see if we don t experience even more power to help us escape all the corruptions that bog us down. Let s pray. 2 Tim 3:5 Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.