Studies in 2 Peter

Studies in 2 Peter Presentation 01

The Foundation of Assurance Chapter 1v1-4 Presentation 01

Introduction Peter wrote this epistle towards the end of his life. He was aware that he did not have much longer to live 1v14. Like his first epistle, this one is pastoral in nature and also written from Rome. This epistle also seems to have been written to the Christians in Asia Minor, the ‘Diaspora’ mentioned in 1Pet.1v1. If the earlier letter mentioned in 3v1 was indeed 1Peter then we may safely assume that he was writing to the same readership. Whoever his readers may have been they were having to withstand pernicious attacks from false, heretical teachers. Rome Asia Minor Ephesus Lystra Jerusalem Presentation 01

Introduction What is the single most important thing we need when we are in danger? If the hull of the ship you are travelling in is breached by an iceberg then you want someone to assure you that it won’t sink. The new house you have bought develops a crack on the wall - you want someone to assure that the house won’t fall down and that it’s only a settlement crack! And so on! The thing we are looking for most is assurance! Presentation 01

Introduction Peter was aware both of the storm clouds of persecution gathering over the church and of the false teaching that was seeping into it. He addresses a besieged church in extreme danger first as its servant and only secondly as an apostle. He takes on a servile footwashing role. He is more concerned for the safety of the church than with his personal safety. He does not lord his apostolic authority over his readership but is down on his knees with a basin of water in his hands - ‘servant and apostle’! Presentation 01

Introduction This epistle is also marked by a sense of tender pastoral care. Jesus, after his resurrection, having given Peter an opportunity to affirm his faltering love spoke these memorable words, “feed my sheep” Jn.21.17. Not ‘protect my sheep’ or ‘lead my sheep’ but ‘feed my sheep’. There is a sense in which all other shepherding functions are met as the flock is fed. The pastor addresses a whole variety of need in the lives of those under his care, principally through his teaching ministry. Presentation 01

Introduction When the church faces danger, be that a threat of external persecution or internal division, one of the most stabilising and comforting doctrines is the ‘doctrine of assurance’. When the storms of life panic us, we need to be enveloped in this truth to enable us to brave the storm. The doctrine of assurance forms the substance of v1-11 and the opening two verses point to the source and ground of that assurance. Presentation 01

Source & Ground Of Assurance Peter reminds his readers that they have, “a faith as precious as ours” v1. Writing mainly to a Gentile audience he is saying we share the same faith. There is not a first class compartment for Jews and a second class one for Gentiles. This is the glory of the gospel, when we stand in God’s presence all of our antecedents; nationality, power, status, wealth, position etc. are utterly irrelevant. There is no deluxe version of Christianity for a chosen few. Presentation 01

Source & Ground Of Assurance The source and ground of the gospel is not the wit or imagination of man but the revelation of God? It is a ‘received’ faith v1. It is not the product of human ideas - “Oh that’s what Peter thought” cf. Gal. 1v12 “the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ”. The gospel reveals God’s way of bringing sinful man into a right relationship with himself, while also satisfying his righteousness. Tamper with that foundation, as some had begun to do, and you have no gospel with which you can confidently face the future. Presentation 01

Source & Ground Of Assurance This faith is dependable for it was secured through the ‘righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ’. In the business of salvation we cannot trust in our own performance. We have all failed the test of righteousness. Even a score of 99% is still a fail! Think of Paul’s courtroom scene in Rom. 3v10 “There is none righteous, no, not one”. Only Jesus has scored 100% and that score qualified him to be the author of our salvation. As our substitute he sacrificed a life that was 100% perfect - he paid the price of our sin and clothes those who put their faith in him with his righteousness. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance Peter provides his readers with a further ground for confident assurance as they face uncertain days. He says, look at your resources and let’s begin with God’s ‘divine power’. When we talk of power today we often talk in terms of ‘capacity’ be it a 1600cc engine or a 2 kilowatt fire. But in order to think about God’s power we need to try and remove all idea of capacity from our thinking. Why? Because God’s power is limitless. There is nothing he cannot do! Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance When Scripture asks, ‘Is there anything too hard for the Lord’ Gen 18v4, it expects a negative answer. Car engines if pushed beyond their limits will blow a gasket or worse! Excessive demands made of the national grid will cause widespread blackouts. God’s power can never be drained or exhausted for it is both limitless and inexhaustible. And it is this self-same power that is made available to his children to equip them for lives of godliness. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance The word ‘power’ would conjure up a variety of ideas in the minds of Peter’s readership. Their world, like ours, was marked power struggles and shifts in the balance of power. People could enjoy the patronage and protection of a leader one day only to find that his power base had been eroded the next. President Mobarak and his staff felt themselves secure in Egypt at the beginning of 2011 and less than 6 weeks later they were powerless. God’s power unlike human power lies beyond challenge. And because of that his children are eternally secure cf. Rom 8v38-39. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance The power we need to live a life of godliness comes through a knowledge of God v3. This knowledge is not to be confused with the ability to learn certain facts, in the way one might learn the 5 times table at school. Instead, it involves understanding and then experiencing who God is and what he has done! Theologians speak of an experimental knowledge. It is a knowledge of encounter, the difference between knowing certain things about a person you have never met and knowing someone because you have met them. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance Paul teases out this experimental knowledge and its benefit to believers: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms” Eph. 1v18-20. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance The word translated ‘given’ in v3 stresses the nature of this gift of power. It carries the idea of being ‘freely given’. It is not a reward or a prize for some special performance. This power is also comprehensive providing ‘everything we need for life and godliness’. We must avoid the kind of thinking which says, “It’s a pity God has not given me the ability to be more patient, more self controlled, or more loving”. Such thinking demeans God’s grace for he has given us everything we need. Sadly, it is often our perception of that provision that is inadequate. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance God has given us ‘great and precious promises’ v4. What are these promises? The book of Hebrews speaks of the ‘better promises’ of the New Covenant Heb.8v6, while in the OT. God says through Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws”. Ezek. 36v26. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance The language Peter uses to explain this indwelling of the Holy Spirit describes the believer as a ‘partaker of the divine nature’ v4. God is not distant he has made his home in the heart of his people. The hymnwriter reflects upon this great truth when he writes: ‘Think what Spirit dwells within you, what a Father’s love is thine.’ And as we do so then we happily agree with another hymnwriter who says, ‘Every virtue I possess, and every victory won, and every thought of holiness are thine alone.’ Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance Do you see where God’s plan of salvation is leading? In calling us to be partakers of his divine nature God is intent on restoring his image in us that was vandalised by the fall. Of course this does not mean that we share God’s divine essence. Calvin explains the matter as follows: “God made himself ours so that all his possessions became in a sense ours in a grace and magnitude which our minds cannot grasp. It is the purpose of the gospel to make us sooner or later like God. The image of God in holiness and righteousness is reborn in us on the condition of our sharing in eternal life and glory so far as is necessary for complete blessedness” Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance Being a partaker of the divine nature means, not only that we empowered to promote godliness of life but also to exclude all that is incompatible with godly living. This is a double deliverance for the people of God. Deliverance from Satan's dominion - we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light but also deliverance from the corruption of our sinful natures. The Christian is not sinless but he is no longer obliged to sin - he is no longer under its authority and dragged along in a direction that he does not want to go. Presentation 01

Means Of Securing Assurance By virtue of his new nature the Christian now has a different relationship to sin. It is no longer an authoritarian bully in his life from which he cannot break free. The Christian can no longer say, “I didn’t mean to do that or say that but something made me do it, I could not help myself”. He is free from the tyranny of sin even although the remnants of his old nature still cling to the folds of the new man that God has made him. But sin’s powerbase has been destroyed by Christ upon the cross. With this in mind Paul tells the Roman Christians, “we are dead to sin” Rom.6v2. Presentation 01

Conclusion As Christians grow in grace, as the new indwelling life of Christ is nurtured, the remnants of sin are subdued, though not annihilated. This is a different kind of escape. Sin is like a prisoner locked up in the dungeon of our lives. No matter how weak it may appear, it awaits any opportunity given it to break free and cause havoc. For this reason we need to remain vigilant. God has placed at our disposal all that we need to live godly lives whatever the pressure from without or within. This truth is just one of the building blocks that Peter lays in his teaching on Christian assurance. Presentation 01

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Studies in 2 Peter