His Divine Power

Today we begin our new sermon series focusing on the epistle of 2 Peter. We will spend the entire summer in this 3-chapter epistle. So this morning I want to set a foundation for what we will be discussing all summer, and we will begin with Peter’s opening statement in the first four verses of his letter. We know from Peter’s first epistle that he is writing to the church that is experiencing persecution from those outside the church.

As we come to 2 Peter, he is addressing false teachers that come into the church. The church of Jesus Christ at this point in history is still in its early stages. He is writing both 1 Peter and 2 Peter towards the end of his life. We know this because he tells us in v. 14 that “his death will come soon.”  Peter has experienced the ups and downs of faith in Christ Jesus. As his most loyal follower, he regularly spoke up without thinking (anyone guilty of that?), he gave answers to questions without really knowing the answer (anyone guilty of that?), he denied that he would ever forsake Jesus or his teaching and yet refused to say that he was associated with Jesus during his arrest, trial, and ultimate death on the cross. (anyone guilty of that?).

One of the great things about the Bible is that it was entrusted to men who then wrote under the divine inspiration of God. Thus, when we read the Gospel of Matthew, Romans, 1 John, and the epistles of Peter we can identify with these men because they are also fallen, flawed, and sinful individuals, and yet God’s power still worked in and through them. Even Jesus himself we know from the New Testament was completely human tempted in every way that we were, and yet was still without sin. So as Peter is writing 2 Peter please don’t view him as some monk living in an ivory tower writing to Christians who he cannot identify with, instead view him as the flawed, sinful, and fallen individual that he was, and yet believe the words that he writes to us here because they come from the one who is sinless! Let’s read the first four verses together this morning:

 

Grace and Peace is Yours:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. - 2 Peter 1:2

 Grace and Peace is a phrase that we find regularly used among the apostles of the first century. In fact, Romans, 1 and 2 Cor. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, 1 and 2 Peter, 2 John, and Jude. It is a common salutation phrase that we find in the Christian epistles of the first century.

But let’s unpack the meaning of these two terms. What does grace and peace mean to us as believers in Christ?

When theologians unpack the term grace they do so in two ways. They talk about God’s common grace and God’s particular grace. The common grace of God are those blessings in life that come to all of humanity. For instance, God cares for creation. The sun rises and sets every day without any help from man. God has restraint over sin in the world. Even though we are inherently sinful, there are people in this world who set out to do good things even if it isn’t in the name of Christ. Medical and technological advances happen almost on a daily basis, and these are all gifts through God’s common grace. These are the gifts that all mankind benefits from.

The special grace of God is the grace that is bestowed on those who receive faith in Christ Jesus. We understand that the grace of God is evident in all of man’s life, but the special grace of God is reserved for those that trust Christ as savior and Lord. This special grace is not bestowed on all mankind. Hence, it is called special grace. While the gift of salvation is available to all mankind, it is not received by all. So when Peter says “grace to you” I believe he is talking about both common grace and special grace.

We often pray for the peace of God in our lives. Peter and Paul regularly mention peace throughout their epistles. Peace is difficult to define but you know it when you experience it. It is an inner stillness in the deepest parts of our souls that tells us that God is in control and we are not. Emotions fluctuate depending on our circumstances, but peace can remain despite the circumstances. Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:6-7 that the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts in Christ Jesus. You see both Peter and Paul knew that peace is beyond our human comprehension. It can’t be understood or communicated clearly, but when you have the peace of God you just know you have it. It can’t be explained.

• These are my friends Sahadu, Mustafa, and Addu. They are three of the ministry leaders that we partner with in Ghana. Often times when we walk down the streets of Ghana we are the only white people. This doesn’t phase Mustafa, Sahadu, or Addu one bit. It is very obvious to most that we are either tourists or missionaries. While Ghana claims to be a Christian nation, most of the people that we encounter are Muslim. Sohadu and Mustafa especially have endured a lot to be followers of Christ. Much more than you and I will ever have to endure as followers of Christ here in America. Sahadu has lost relationships with family members and friends. Mustafa gave up a life of royalty in his homeland to follow Christ. But you see the peace of God is in these men’s hearts, and when God is sustaining you daily through the peace that he offers nothing can phase you.

Jesus tells us in the sermon on the Mount that blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Friends, as believers in Christ we need to avoid being divisive. Let’s be peacemakers, since we have the ultimate peace living inside of us!

 

Experience His Power:

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, - 2 Peter 1:3

Peter tells us here that God’s power gives us all that we need for living a life of Godliness.

Godliness is a term that we find 15 times in the New Testament. It is behavior reflecting correct religious beliefs and attitudes.

Godliness only happens as a result of God’s divine power in our lives. We are incapable of godliness apart from the God’s power in our lives. It can’t be done. The great hymn of our faith Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing tells us, “prone to wander Lord I Feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” In your own power, you will not be able to overcome the power of sin. You weren’t designed to be able to overcome it apart from the Spirit of God inside of you. Brothers and sisters, quit trying to live this life in your own power! Walk in his power.

Even Jesus himself when tempted in the desert in Matthew 4 quoted Scripture to the Devil as a way to overcome temptation. He was also walking in the power of his Father as he resisted the devils three specific temptations. Jesus modeled walking in the Father’s power for all of us.

Divine power has been given to us through knowledge. The idea of the knowledge of God is an important theme throughout the epistle of 2 Peter. Peter wanted his readers to have knowledge of the truth so that they could combat the false teaching that was so rampant. This idea of knowledge is very practical for us as well.

• I met a friend in Ghana last week by the name of Ibrahem. He is a 28-year-old Muslim man who ran a shop in Accra selling tea, tea pots, and men’s clothing. Sim Diano and I had the opportunity to visit him on 3 separate occasions last week. On our second visit we shared the Gospel with him and we covered the entire story of Scripture from creation through the resurrection using a bandana with different images on it. We explained to him that we desperately hoped he would become a Christian one day, and that we wanted to see him in Heaven with us. But in our conversation that day Ibrahem struck me with a comment that I have been processing now for the last week and half. He said, “have you ever read the Qu’ran?” And I responded, no I have not. And he proceeded to tell me that that many Christians explain to him about the Bible, but that very few if any, actually no what the Qu’ran teaches. He went on to tell me that he reads the Bible and the Qu’ran. I left that day, and I made a promise to Ibrahem that I would read the Qu’ran if he would continue to read the Bible. You see, Ibrahem was exactly right. We go to these foreign places and we share Jesus with people, and we want them to believe, but 9/10 we haven’t done our research about other religions, and we probably don’t even know our Bible as we should either.

There is not a country in the world who has more access to knowledge than those of us in America. We have unlimited access to knowledge on just about every subject the entire world has to offer. And yet, as American Christians, when it comes to our knowledge of the Bible if we were all to be honest this morning we would say yeah my knowledge of the Bible isn’t where it needs to be based on the amount of access I have. Just the book of 2 Peter alone has 100s of commentaries that can be checked out at libraries and purchased on Amazon. The Christians I met last week in Ghana were ecstatic to receive one Bible dictionary that we brought.

• This is a challenge to all of us to not be lazy intellectually. No one has more access to scripture than those of us sitting in this room. I love what one commentator wrote. He said there is a danger of head knowledge that never touches the heart, but there is also a danger of heart knowledge that never touches the head. The biblical writers demand a knowledge of God that unites both the head and the heart.

 

Cling to His Promises:

by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises… - 2 Peter 1:4

The promises of God are throughout the pages of Scripture. We could spend the rest of our time today just focusing on all of the promises that we find fulfilled in Scripture.

But for a moment let’s just look at some of the prophecies that were fulfilled concerning Jesus’ life. I have posted these on the screens for you to look at as well. We don’t have time to go through every passage so I would encourage you to jot down these references and go back and look at them later.

• Psalm 2:7 says that Jesus is the son of God. This is fulfilled in Luke 1:32 and Luke 1:35. Genesis 17:7 says he will be a descendent of Abraham, this is fulfilled in Galatians 3:16. Isaiah 7:14 says he will be born of a virgin, this is fulfilled in Matthew 1:22-23 and Luke 2:7. He will be called Immanuel is also in Isaiah 7:14 and this is fulfilled in Matthew 1:22-23 as well. Micah 5:2 says he will be born in Bethlehem of Judea this is fulfilled in Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:4. Psalm 69:8 and Isaiah 63:3 both speak of Jesus being rejected by his friends. This is fulfilled in John 1:11 and John 7:3. Zechariah 11:12 tells us he will be sold for 30 pieces of silver, we find this fulfilled in Matthew 26:15. Whew! And these are just some of the promises that are fulfilled concerning Jesus.

• I could go on and on but I want you to know this morning that we serve a God who never breaks his promises. If he ever did break his promises, he would not be a God worth serving.

Some people have taken the concept of divine nature to mean that because God’s divine nature is in them that they are now incapable of sinning. This is not true. Peter clearly indicates here that we are now partakers of the divine nature, not that we have God’s entire divine nature. This means that there are some attributes of God that are in us, but certainly this is not saying that we ourselves are divine.

This does mean, however, that the Spirit of God lives in us. Having access to God’s spirit does gives us many things. For instance, we receive:

 

Corruption is Always Near:

The word that Peter uses here for corruption carries with it the idea of decay and rotting with the implication of disintegration. This is what sin can do to us. In the short term, we think it satisfies our soul, and it very well might satisfy us for a season of time but ultimately leads to our destruction. It eats away at us, sometimes slowly causing us to become less and less of what God desires for us to be. The word is only used 9x in the New Testament.

The good news about the corruption in the world, however, is that since we are in fact divine partakers of the divine nature we have been granted the ability to overcome the power of sin and death through what Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

Paul tells in Romans 8:7-11 this: You see even though the Spirit of God is alive in us, this still does not make us immune to sin. We have to consciously decide to follow after the Spirit. Pray to God and ask for his spirit to guide us in every area of our life.

• We had our first Bible study with some of the boys last week while we were in Ghana. They use a Bible called the Action Bible which tells many of the stories of Scripture but is written in comic book form so that the guys can have a visual of what is going on. We read the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. We were not prepared at all for this, Christi literally said Taylor why don’t you lead us. So we began to tell the story, and for the next 1.5 half we talked about this story and its implications for us. The Spirit was bringing to mind illustrations and teaching points. The four of us were feeding off of each other’s comments, and I have to say that it was one of the most powerful Bible studies I have experienced. We had nothing but the Bible and ourselves. No videos, no workbooks, no pens, no computers. Just the word of God and his spirit. We relied completely on the Spirit and God moved.

Peter is not teaching us here that the Spirit of God automatically removes you from corruption in the world. This requires a daily reliance on the Spirit in your life, and even then sin is never going away. It will always be around the corner, seeking to destroy you. We are incapable of conquering sin completely in this world. We are engaged in a spiritual battle every moment of every day. Peter mentions in his first epistle that we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your souls. We are in a war brothers and sisters. I am not trying to overemphasize sin this morning, everything I have said is straight from the word of God.

Action Points:

So we have broken down the text completely, I want to leave you with some action points that you can practically use this week to apply the text to your life.

• Walk in God’s grace, and live in his peace.

• Pursue knowledge of Christ and his word with all of your mind.

• Stand firm in the promises found in Scripture.

• Be aware that we are involved in a spiritual battle every second of every day.