2 Peter 1

Discussion Questions

1. What is the definition of a flourishing life? What does it look like? How can we cultivate it?
2. Peter tells us that he intends to stir us up and diligently remind us of how we should grow in godliness. How can we intentionally connect with those in our sphere of influence to exhort, encourage, point to Jesus, and be a reminder of how he calls us to walk?
3. Our lives should be marked by godly discipline—active lives of forward progress toward holiness instead of idling or aimless drift. When we look at our lives, are we seeing progress toward the kind of heart God wants to develop in us? Are we actively desiring to look more like Jesus, or are we satisfied with stagnation? How can we be stirred to a walk that starts with faith and culminates in love?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel and, indeed, we have a new study today, which I’m very excited about and I hope you are as well. We’re going to continue in a two-part series. We had 1 and 2 Peter together. And we have come now to that place where we’re going to enter into 2 Peter. Before we start, if you would like a Bible, raise your hand up. These guys are so graciously walking through. They’ll drop one off. It’d be good to look at the text.

We send warm greetings to our brothers and sisters in Christ who joined us through TVC online. Last week we heard from folks from Nairobi, Kenya, and two cities in Australia, Adelaide and Sydney. We heard from folks in Singapore and then still others from back here in the USA in places like Springfield, Virginia and Houston, Texas. So glad you could be with us. And welcome again if you happen to be worshipping with us today.

We’re calling this series with 1 and 2 Peter, “Our Living Hope.” So, I’ll put that up on the screen. Today we’re going to look at 2 Peter, Chapter 1, “A Flourishing and Fruitful Faith” will be our text. I will say before we start reading 2 Peter, Chapter 1, no other New Testament book has been more disputed as to canonicity and authorship than 2 Peter. We don’t have time to lay out all of the reasons, but I am persuaded this letter has come to us from Peter. The letter does begin with a clear declaration of having been written by Peter. I realize that could be faked, but the possibility doesn’t prevent the probability. I think that’s important for us. Good history includes an acknowledgement that we don’t have all of the empirical data right in front of us. We can’t hear, see, taste, touch, feel, whatever, all of the elements that might help us come to conviction or conclusion about something. As I say, though, the possibility that somebody else could have written it doesn’t prevent the probability that Peter wrote it.

The author claims. This is his second letter in Chapter 3. Claims of the author include having been an eyewitness to the transfiguration of Jesus Christ. We’ll see that in our chapter today. And just three people can actually make that claim, Peter, James and John. The burden I think falls to the skeptics to prove it is not Petrine. If you are curious and you would like to explore more reasons to believe 2 Peter was written by Peter and belongs in the New Testament canon, I do encourage you to visit either bible.org or tgc.org. There you’ll find some helpful articles about it if you just do a little bit of a search.

2 Peter focuses on faithfulness and truth in the face of falsehood. Peter writes to Christians suffering under increasing persecution, under an avalanche of false teaching that would test and try the faith of any believer. I don’t know if that sounds familiar to you or not. Our text for today, Chapter 1, reminds us that Christianity is not the move from vice to virtue, but rather the move from both vice and virtue to grace. That’s a big difference, isn’t it? Peter’s not shy though about reminding us that we’re not passive in the process and nurturing a flourishing and fruitful faith will look like something. What does that look like? I think we’ll find some meaningful answers here in Chapter 1.

Who is Peter? Well, some of you know a little bit about him. And it might lead you to ask why we should be interested in what he has to say about growing in steadfast faith. After all, wasn’t he the guy who denied Christ three times? That’s true. But ultimately, the object of Peter’s faith wasn’t Peter, it was Jesus. And Jesus came for failed and embarrassed sinners like Peter and like Jim and like you. Besides, at the end of the day, again, the object of our faith is what really matters. Jesus is the object of Peter’s faith, and he encourages us to look to Jesus as you’ll see in Chapter 1. Let’s walk through and look for both the encouragement and the exhortation that flow from one of Jesus’ closest disciples. First, a prayer for illumination:

Lord, it’s been You who has protected us while we slept. It’s been You who provided for our every need. It’s been You, Lord, who’s given us strength for every battle. And it’s been You, Lord, who has made a way through every wilderness. As we end one week and we begin another, have mercy on us, especially those in need, those who suffer injustice. Something inside us, Lord, is longing for more of You. May our souls find peace in Your presence this morning. May our sorrows fall exhausted at the feet of Your joy. Help us remember to rest in Your sovereignty, Your faithfulness, and Your great love for us. Help us to honor Your name, walk in Your ways and praise You with all of our being. Hallelujah. Amen and amen. This is God’s word, unique in its source, timeless in its truth, broad in its reach and transforming in its power.

Chapter 1 reads like this, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” There’s so much right there. We could camp out there. There’s Peter identifying himself by two names and two titles. He’s Simon. The Hebrew version of it would be Simeon. But he’s also Peter, Petros in the Greek. This is the name Jesus gave him meaning rock. And he’s also got two titles. He’s a bond-servant and an apostle. He’s a bond-servant first. I find it interesting that he puts that first. He’s the doulas, he’s the bond-servant, the slave of Jesus. And then he’s the sent one of Jesus because apostles are those who have been sent.

There’s a very broad sense in which we’re all sent by Jesus to go out into the world and preach the Gospel and make disciples. But there’s a very unique thing that happens as well with these original eyewitnesses of Jesus, the original apostles. And so, he’s identifying himself that way. He’s letting his readers know that he understands he came from somewhere. He’s both Simon, before he was called Peter, and he’s Peter. He’s both the slave and the sent one. And he’s letting his readers know.

And who are his readers? Well, they’re just kind of vaguely identified here, those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours. It’s not the same as in 1 Peter where we have this list of places. There’s a lot of folks, who a lot of commentators think it’s probably to the same group of people, but we’re not 100% certain. Here’s one thing I’m certain of. I’ve received a faith that’s of the same kind as his. And if you’ve trusted Christ, you’ve received a faith that’s of the same kind as his. “I did not think this up. It did not originate with me. I didn’t make the first move. God did.” And that’s what “received” reminds me of. God is always the initiator. We were always the responders. Peter knew that, and he’s reminding all of us of that.

Verse 2, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord.” The knowledge of God – knowledge is a word that will be used eight times in these three short chapters. So, this is an important part of the theme of 2 Peter, knowing something. Epignosis is the word. And it’s not merely academic knowledge, it’s experiential knowledge. And that’s so important when he’s speaking to them, and you’ll learn a little bit more about this next week when Ryan walks us through Chapter 2 where we’ll be learning a little bit about some of the false teaching that was going on during the time. But he wants us to have received this faith that’s of the same kind as his and the 12 apostles’ faith. And that he wants us to receive this by this righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ, and he wants us to grow in grace and peace. “May it be multiplied,” he says “to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ.” So, growth is rooted in increasing knowledge of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. That’s interesting.

“Seeing,” verse 3, “that His divine power has granted to us,” again, there’s the initiative of God, granting things to us. “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” Has His divine power granted us some things? No, everything. Pertaining to what? Pertaining to life and godliness. In other words, we look to Him for everything. We look to Him for gravity. We look to Him for air, for water. He holds the whole universe together. He is the grand unified theory. He is it. He’s the creator, sustainer, ruler and judge of all of His creation.

One day he promises to come back and set things right. Yeah, that’s right. And so, we look to Him because His divine power is so great. It blows our mind. “He’s granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness…” Everything through what? “The true knowledge of Him, who’s called us by His own glory and excellence.” Doxa kai arete, those last three words, glory and excellence. This knowledge of Him, right? He’s called us by His praise, His doxology. We get that word doxology from that. We sing it every Sunday here at church. His praise and His excellence, His majesty, His virtue is the highest level of virtue there is, right? “For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent,” that’s not fragile and magnificent. That’s really priceless. There’s a difference.

“He’s granted to us His precious.” Again, that’s His initiative, “And magnificent promises in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” There’s just so much in those first four verses. I love the word excellence that we see there, arete, this virtue. He’s going to use that same word again in just a minute as he talks to us a little bit about our part, our active role in this.

“Now for this very reason also, supplying [or applying] all diligence…” That’s “be diligent. Go after it. Be earnest, be eager in your faith supply. And now here comes a list of seven things. You might go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 in your margin if you would like to. Are these sort of building blocks that start here and it goes on up like that or is it just sort of a cluster of things together? I don’t know his intent; I just know all seven of these things are pretty amazing. And I could use a little bit more of all seven in my life. And I think as I read the list, you may see the same is true for you.

For this very reason, “Applying all diligence, in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge.” There it is again. “And in your knowledge, self-control.” How many of you need just a little more of that? Okay, yeah, me too. Self-control. It’s like the whole list. It’s right in the middle there. It looks like the diamond top of the ring there. It’s just right there for us all to see. “In your self-control, perseverance, in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, Christian love.” I love the lists of the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter here.

Peter, I think, maybe has read enough of Paul that he saw all of those lists that Paul used to come up with and he’s going like, “Well, here’s a little list too. I think it’s a really great list for us to add to our faith, our supply, our faith with these seven things.”

Verse 8, “If these qualities are yours and are increasing,” not just are yours, you got them in this checkbox, no, “if they’re yours and they are increasing,” you’re continuing to move along in those. This is a flourishing and a fruitful faith we’re talking about not a stagnant faith. And how many of us, if we were honest, and I just said raise your hand if you’ve ever felt like your faith just came to a stall, to a stop or stagnant or you were just drifting, just coasting and drifting backwards. This is not what Peter wants for us. Peter wants for us a flourishing and a fruitful faith.

“If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither…” And this is interesting. He says this, it’s actually an incentive in the negative, okay? “If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If these qualities are yours and they’re increasing, they render you, here’s another word to say, they render you neither lazy nor barren in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. “For he who lacks these qualities is blind [or nearsighted] or shortsighted.” In other words, you can see right at what’s right up close, but maybe not so much what’s further on down the road. You’re not really aware of much ahead of you. You’re not thinking that way at all. Shortsighted.

“Having forgotten his purification from his former sins” means you also can’t see what’s behind you. What God has done already for us in space/time history – He has paid the price for your sins, past, present, and future. We ask all of those we are baptizing that question. “Do you understand that Christ when He died, He has paid the price once and for all past, present, future?” And so many of us, we might say we believe it up here in our heads, but we aren’t conscious of it all the time, so he’s reminding us. Peter, he’s a reminder, he may be a doulas, he may be a bond-servant and an apostle. Here’s one other thing, he is a reminder. It’s another title and it’s a great title, I think.

“He who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification form his former sins,” verse 10, “Therefore brethren [and sisteren] be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.” Here’s another incentive, not falling, not stumbling. “For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

And this isn’t about salvation. He’s writing to believers. We already noticed that in verse 1, didn’t we? You’ve received a faith of the same kind as ours, but the roar when we enter the heavenlies, when our journey here on in this life is done, the roar will be great, will be powerful. “Therefore I shall always be ready,” here it is, “to remind you of these things, even though you already know them and have been established in the truth which is present with you. And I consider it right, as long as I’m in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder.” There is his title. He is a reminder, and I feel so often that’s my own role as a pastor/teacher in a church.

It’s not to say something new, I’m not an innovator. I’m a reminder. I’m a reminder of those things that have been handed down to us by the Apostles and the prophets before them. The Good News, the Gospel. “Knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent,” Peter says, he knows he’s coming to the end of his life. “As also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me,” and he’s in deep communion with Jesus. He knows that his time is drawing near. This is probably being written around the middle or late ’60s.

Verse 15, “I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind.” In other words, he’s literally going to remind us over and over and over again till his very last breath because when he gets home in the glory, he wants to be looking down and seeing a church that’s flourishing, that’s faithful and fruitful. And that’s so important. He’s so pastoral in this letter, I think.

Verse 16 through 21, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” How so, Peter? Well, Peter walked with Jesus, didn’t he? Peter walked on dusty roads with Jesus and when a leper approached and said, “If you’re willing, you can make me clean.” Peter may have been throwing stones at the guy and telling him to get away, but when Jesus went up to embrace him, Peter was guffawing. Peter had that sort of ready-fire-aim approach to life. I mean he was always jumping and speaking a little bit too quickly. However, he was an eyewitness of the majesty of Jesus, and he describes it here in verse 17. “For when He [Jesus] received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the majestic glory, ‘This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.’ And we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the Holy mountain.”

Oh, interesting. You remember the event, don’t you? The transfiguration of Jesus. You remember the three disciples that went up the hillside with Jesus that day, Peter, James and John, yeah. “And so we have the prophetic word,” Peter says as he’s writing to these folks and writing to us by extension, “we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in our dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” He’s looking forward. As he looks back, he’s looking forward at the same time.

“We have this prophetic word that’s been handed to us that we were eyewitnesses to and now we’re passing it along to you and we want you to make it more sure and be persuaded by this. Look at it. It’s a lamp shining in a dark place, but know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” It’s really beautiful.

Men moved by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word is “fero,” and we actually get our word ferry, F-E-R-R-Y. We get that word from a same root word, and it’s carried along as the idea. I saw one commentator write about it and he said, “It’s as if each book of the Bible is a car on a ferry boat. And each one of them is being taken to the place where the Lord has decided it should go, which is to the island of Jesus.” We’re going there where everything points to Jesus ultimately. But the cars came on from a lot of different places.”

And that’s fascinating to me as an image. No prophecy though has ever been made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. And it’s not a matter of one’s own interpretation. In other words, Peter, all the way back in the first century there is basically saying, “It’s not God as you imagine God to be. It’s not a gospel just as you want it. This is not build-your-own religion. This is not create-your-own deity. Now this is something that has been handed down to us by the apostles and it’s really beautiful, really wonderful.”

So, if we’re going to study a flourishing and fruitful faith, I have some questions. These questions are a little bit different. I think the answer is the same. Now, what marks those individuals who are habitually successful in business, academics and sports? What quality strengthens security in relationships? What characteristic earns respect over the long haul? What draws you over and over again to the same restaurants? What’s needed most by both parents and children in the home? What promotes growth in my life as a Christian? Now we’re kind of steering it in the direction of what we’ve studied here.

I think at least one of the answers has got to be this word: consistency. How do we develop consistency in our spiritual life or how do we nurture it, if you will? And that’s what I hope to be able to talk about here today. I’m going to give you the outline in advance. A bunch of you will be able to look at all four of these and think about them and then we’ll take each one – one at a time. Rely on the power of God and on His faithful promises. Respond to the exhortation to supply our faith with Christian virtues. Review the evidence of our election. Read the Scriptures and remember, it’s all about Jesus ultimately.

So first, rely on the power of God and His faithful promises. We see this in verses 1 through 4, don’t we? It’s really all about what God has done for us in Christ. We’ve received a faith and it’s by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. And by the way, that combination of words right there, the grammar, there’s not much getting around it. It actually is saying that Jesus is both our God and our Savior. So, the idea that somewhere way down in the fourth or fifth century somebody decided to try and make Jesus out to be God and for the first time to prop up the image of a fallen hero or something, that’s just not true. Here’s Peter in the first century and he’s already seeing the deity of Jesus Christ. And Peter thought of this early on when he said, “You are the Christ.” When Jesus was asking the question, “Who do they say I am? Who do you say that I am?” Peter says, “You are the Christ.” God’s sent anointed one, God’s deliverer.

And so, he recognized something about Jesus, didn’t he? But look at the promises that are being mentioned there. Verse 3, “…seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He’s granted to us His precious and magnificent promises.” I know some of us have questions. I know probably all of us do, but the Christian faith is not all about just answers. It is all about promises. And I think that’s really important for us to be reminded of over and over and over again.

The question is, of course, when you are promised something, do you trust the promise maker? And I would say over and over and over again, whether you’re in 1 Kings, 2 Kings or all the way at the end here, toward the end of the New Testament, 1 and 2 Peter, what you see is a record of the trustworthiness of the God of the Bible who comes in the person and work of Jesus. So, we can rely on the power of God in His faithful promises.

God is powerful. God has already granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, verse 3. He’s trustworthy because He’s been and is faithful to His promises in history. God wants us to become partakers of His divine nature. That’s one of His promises. It’s one of His desires for us. God wants us to walk in the light of His powerful promises so that we can mature, flourish, and be fruitful in this faith that He has given to us.

“The list begins with faith and then we’ll end with love.” And we’ll see that as we go through the next couple of verses here. “That agrees with the rest of the New Testament. Confidence in God’s promises is the way we plug into God’s power. And love even for our enemies is the goal and sum of life, the light of the world that shows others the way into the kingdom.”
John Piper

I think Piper’s onto something there. It is God’s promises. That’s where our confidence lies. It doesn’t lie in ourselves. It’s not about you pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It’s you reminding yourself as you read the Scriptures of the promises of God and asking yourself the question, “Can I rely on the promises of God?” I think when you continue to marinate in the Scriptures, you start to increase in your true knowledge of who Jesus is. And then that true knowledge yields a flourishing and fruitful faith, a proper confidence in God’s promises.

Second, if we want to nurture a flourishing and fruitful faith, we respond to the exhortation to supply our faith with Christian virtues. There they are. We read them in verses 5 through 7. Moral excellence. Moral excellence, knowledge. Knowledge, self-control. Perseverance. Perseverance, godliness. Godliness, brotherly kindness. I love these couplets too. And in your brotherly kindness, Christian love, I like the couplets because it gives me the sense that these are all overlapping, if you will, much like the different facets of a beautiful diamond or a jewel in a ring setting like that. They’re all important, they’re all beautiful. They’re all going to add to the overall beauty of your faith and the way that it shines and serves even as a witness.

He says, here’s this exhortation though, “To supply our faith with these Christian virtues.” Look at that in verse 5. “Applying all diligence in your faith, supply these things.” That means richly add some of your English translations might say or add to your faith it might say. Keep in mind, while grace is opposed to earning, it is not opposed to effort. We say that around here all the time. It’s really important that we all know that, okay? Philippians 2:12-13 though reminds us of this.

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:12-13

Here’s the exhortation, “Work out your salvation.” And yet it’s God who’s at work. Why? Because God is the one that supplies the power. I have no power to change myself. I have no power to even redirect my affections. I have to lift up the empty hands of faith and say, “Lord, I confess my sins. Lord, I’ve been holding onto this. Lord, I’m afraid of that. Lord, I’m having difficulty trusting you for this. Please God give me the power. Change me, transform me. Help me to fix my eyes on Jesus. Help me to redirect my affections in the right direction.” And I need His power to be at work in me, but I have to also be involved. A lot of theologians call this concurrence.

Warren Wiersbie said,

“A holy life isn’t the automatic consequence of reading the right books, listening to the right tapes or attending the right meetings. It’s the result of a living, loving union with Jesus and a life marked by godly discipline.”
Warren Wiersbe, On Being a Servant of God

So, rely on the power of God and His faithful promises, but respond to the exhortation to supply your faith with Christian virtues.

Thirdly, review the evidence of our election. Here we see it in verses 8 through 15. Here’s the evidence. If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful, right? There’s lots of ways of seeing evidence. If these qualities are yours, are these qualities yours? If they are increasing, are they increasing? Can you look over your shoulder in the rearview mirror and see that you’ve made some progress of the Lord? And as your pastor, I never want you to become settled and comfortable. I always want you to be a bit restless, yearning, eager to grow, but not restless in the sense of anxious and afraid.

Listen, we all have a storm rolling in. We all are going to go around a corner soon and there’s going to be a giant there. And we’re not going to like the storm and we’re not going to like the giant and we will need to be looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. He left the comforts of Heaven. And what was the joy set before Him? It’s you. It’s me. We’re the joy that was set before Him. God’s saying, “Here are your people. Go and save them.” And that’s exactly what He did.

Review the evidence of our election. Less stumbling, less falling, less drifting, less being ineffective, less being unfruitful, less being short-sighted, blind and forgetful about our past forgiveness of sins. That’s progress. That’s evidence of our election having been elected. God wants our faith to flourish and become fruitful as we walk in both the light and the freedom of the Gospel of grace. “Does Peter shed any light on the subjects of predestination in election?” I hear some of you out there thinking about that. You heard me say election and you know I’m not talking about the year 2024. Whatever. I’m not doing that 2024 election. That’s not what I’m talking about.

Does Peter shed any light on the doctrines of predestination election? Well, not as much as some might want. But as we say around here, if you even want to be among those who are predestined and elect, go ahead and be one. And then what you’ll find out is, you were. This is a beautiful gift. Don’t argue with the giver of the beautiful gift of salvation by grace through faith. Believe and receive. Don’t try to figure it all out.

Listen, I know that I’m not asking you to set your mind on the shelf and that just become kind of, “I’m a robot. I’m a predestined Presbyterian robot” or whatever. That’s not what that means. We say around here when people say, “What do you think about predestination election?” Hey, listen, the Bible teaches that, but the Bible also teaches that I must respond. Which is it? It’s both – in a beautiful paradox mystery I can’t understand. And all I know is that if you want to be one, be one. All it takes is you responding to Him.

Spurgeon was really great at talking about this. He says,

“If you stop and say, ‘I want to know first whether I am elect,’ you ask what you know not” basically is what he’s saying. “Christ was at the Everlasting Council. He can tell you whether you were chosen or not, but you cannot find it out in any other way. Go, put your trust in Him, and His answer will be, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.’ There will be no doubt about His having chosen you when you have chosen Him.”
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Now, entering Heaven it’s going to be all who will repent and believe. When you get in there it’s going to say, “I have chosen you.” You’re going to look back. You’re going to look back over the doorway. It’s a beautiful mystery, isn’t it? Reviewing the evidence of your election means you can see progress in your faith that shows that you’ve been elected. You have more desire to honor and please God. As a result, you have an increased desire to develop moral excellence in your life. Or is that just gone? Or is it just reserved for some categories? “I want moral excellence in this area because I can be a pretty good Pharisee in this area. But over here, man, that’s the little category I’m going to hold off. That’s for me. Moral excellence. Eh, I’m going to wink. I’m going to kind of look for some wink and nod through that category of my life.”

If we are truly born again, this is what happens to us: We begin to change. We begin to develop moral excellence to gain more knowledge of God’s Word, to exercise greater self-control. And by the way, what is self-control? It defines itself, doesn’t it? Control self. The world we live in says indulge self, worship self. You are the center of the universe, but see, I love modern-day physics. It’s already beginning to prove that there is no center of the universe, therefore you can’t be it. Yeah, I love that kind of stuff.

So, if we are growing and flourishing in a fruitful faith, there’ll be more steadfastness, more godliness, more brotherly kindness, more Christian love. What if we decided this year we’re going to really go for that in our family unit in a household that’s full of strife or anxiety, fear? Or what if we tried to do that on our block, on our city block or our street or maybe in our neighborhood or maybe at the place of work that you are at, or perhaps in our state? Man, what if Christians everywhere in the U.S of A decided to develop more seriously and add this to our faith? That’d be pretty powerful.

“My fear is that we rightly celebrate, and in some quarters rediscover, all that Christ has saved us from, we are giving little thought and making little effort concerning all that Christ has saved us to.”

I think he’s right. He then says,

“Shouldn’t those most passionate about the gospel and God’s glory also be those most dedicated to the pursuit of godliness? I worry there’s an enthusiasm gap and no one seems to mind.”
Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness

That’s a really good book called The Hole in Our Holiness. I highly recommend it to you.

“A holy person’s motivating aim, passion, desire, longing, aspiration, goal and drive is to please God, both by what one does and by what one avoids doing.”
J. I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness

And listen, I’m just coming to the place where I’m starting to wake up once in a while to ask the question, “Is this pleasing to God?” Every single day you’re at a crossroads, about 150,000 choices you’re going to make or actions you’re going to take or words you’re going to say, “Is this pleasing? Will this honor God?” Good question. And I look back over my last week and I go, “Ugh, I wish I’d had asked that. I wish I’d thought to ask that before I said that, or felt that, or entertained that thought.”

Rely on the power of God in His faithful promises. Why? Because I’m a failed Christian. I need Him, His power, not Jim’s power. Respond to the exhortation to supply your faith with Christian virtues. Review the evidence of your election. And finally, read the Scriptures and remember it’s all about Jesus. See, that’s what he says basically in verses 16 through 21, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. But we also have the prophetic word. All the prophets of the Old Testament, Peter would’ve known some of that.

Some commentators try to argue that this 2 Peter, this letter couldn’t be Peter’s because the Greek is so different from the Greek in the first letter. A simple Galilean fisherman surely could not have had the kind of Greek that would be in 2 Peter. And I think “What a chronological snob!” This is 30 years after the time Jesus walked the planet. You’re going to tell me Peter couldn’t have learned anything in 30 years about Greek? Especially living in and around and throughout the Mediterranean like he did during those 30 years. Yeah.

Read the Scriptures and remember it’s all about Jesus. Martin Lloyd-Jones says,

“Ultimately it comes down to this, that the real cause of our trouble is failure to realize our union with Christ. Many seem to think that Christianity means that we are delivered in that sense that our sins are forgiven. But that is only the beginning, but one aspect of it. Essentially salvation means union with Christ, being one with Christ.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones

That happens daily, moment by moment, sentence by sentence that you speak or think, moment by moment that you act and enter the society of other people, whether that’s online or here in this room or in your own family or at work, whatever it might be.

If you’ve ever been one like Peter, who can probably look back on his life and think about being a failure, and yet here he is writing to us about what it takes to have a flourishing and a fruitful faith. You might every now and then, like me, and maybe you do as well, have some of those thoughts that cross your mind about things you’ve said in your life that you wish you hadn’t said. The enemy of our souls reminds Peter over and over again, would’ve reminded him, “Though everyone else forsakes you. I never will.” Here’s Peter. “You’ll never wash my feet. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know the man.” Three times he said that. And the voice of the enemy of our souls is whispering those things in our ears all the time. They’re reminding us of our failures over and over again.

The Scriptures on the other hand, and again this is what Peter wants to get us to do, is look to the Scriptures and see that they’re all about Jesus. The Scriptures and the Holy Spirit speaking through them remind us of the faithfulness of Jesus. And Peter, along the way, would’ve heard the Holy Spirit say, “Remember when Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ Remember when Jesus said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ Remember when Jesus said, ‘Peter, feed my sheep.’ Remember when Jesus said, ‘I’m going to return and I’m going to set all things right’?” May He speak to us. May the Lord whisper to us over and over and over again.

If you’re interested in spiritual growth, I want to close by saying it has nothing to do with your physical age. There are younger saints who are spiritually mature and there are older saints who are spiritually immature, so it’s not about your physical age. You can grow old and not grow up. Don’t do that. Let’s grow up together. Unlike physical growth, you and I can also grow just as much in a spiritual sense. We can grow as much as we want.

Remember when you were little, and you wanted to hurry the growth? You couldn’t wait to be 16 to drive a car. And before that, you couldn’t wait to just be running outside free all by yourself as a little bitty one. You couldn’t wait to grow – the eagerness, the enthusiasm for growth. Do we have that eagerness, that enthusiasm for growth? You and I can be just as holy as we really want to be. Doesn’t it make you mad a little? Oh, but Lord, give us the desire! Again, we need His promises. We need His power at work in our lives. Let’s pray:

Lord, thank You for Peter. In so many ways, he’s such a comfort to us and at the same time such a challenge to us. I thank You for his confidence in You in spite of his own personal failure. I pray that if we were to catch anything from what he says here in 2 Peter 1, it would be that we could have that confidence in You as well. I pray that we would all bow before You, lift up the empty hands of faith and ask You, Holy Spirit, to remind us of these precious, these beautiful and magnificent promises that You have given us, that we would turn to You and trust in You, and that we remember over and over and over again about the gentle and lowly heart of Jesus who welcomes sinners home. We pray this in His name for His sake and His glory, amen and amen.