Everything we Need
Notes
Transcript
This is a remarkable time in the history of our world! An invisible enemy (as it’s been described), that has spread across the globe at an alarming rate! And it’s no respecter of colour, ethnicity, gender, social standing, age! At this moment it has brought most of the world to a standstill like none of us would ever have thought possible!
And like other countries we’re entering a period of lockdown, as the government tries to do all within it’s power to stop the further spread of this virus! But the reality is, we have no idea how this is going to play out, we don’t know how effective the measures will be! So what does God say to us in these moments through His Word, what does He want us as a Church to hear and believe as we continue in 2 Peter? Well let’s read v.1-4 this morning...
Peter would have known nothing about this COVID-19, but as he writes to these believers in Asian Minor (modern day Turkey), there was a different type of poison in the air, a virus that was spreading and impacting the people greatly, and the outcome for those infected was much worse than the pandemic we now face! There was a false teaching that was circulating, and we see the danger and damage of it and those who spread it in chapter 2!
And one of the central aspects of it, it’s genetic code if you like, was a denial that Jesus Christ was coming again, and with that denial a licence to live with no regard to the end! But right at the beginning here, Peter wants these believers to hear the truth, because it’s the truth that is the vaccine! And that truth is summed up in these opening verses, God in His grace has given us everything we need for life and godliness! He hasn’t left us without, He hasn’t failed to provide! All that we need, we have in Christ Jesus!!
So let’s split these verses up as follows...
The Power that Grants what we Need
The Beauty that Produces what we Need
The Promises that Enable what we Need
The Power that Grants what we Need
The Power that Grants what we Need
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness...
I’m sure for all of us we’re went through
We saw last week the focus on Jesus Christ in the opening greeting of this letter, and Jesus is again the focus now! The One who Peter has identified as Master, God, Lord in verses 1&2, is now in view as He wields His power in a breathtaking way!
Jesus is the One who has the authority, the ability, the power to grant all things, everything that a believer will ever need to know real life! This granting is an official bestowing, like when someone goes to an authority and ask for permission to do something that only that authority can allow. It’s the word used in after the death of Jesus Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.
Pilate alone had the authority to give Joseph permission to take Christ’s body. And here Christ alone has the authority, has the power to grant, or gift to His people all things that we need!
Now consider that power for just a moment! That word is used so many times through the N.T, and so often in regards to the miracles that Jesus and then the apostles performed. But this reference has to be one of the most incredible in all of Scripture! The same power that Jesus employs to uphold the universe () He also uses to gift to His people all they need for life in Him!
The same power that Jesus employs to uphold the very universe () He also employs to gift to His people all they need for life in Him!
These false teachers were spreading the poison that how you lived was irrelevant, but Peter makes clear that when God’s power is at work in a person, it changes everything! Not only does He give them eternal life, but He also in giving them that life gives them the ability to live in a way that pleases Him! That is incredible power!!
When you think of the O.T and the Lord calling out His people and them commanding them to live in a certain way that He might dwell with them, but time and time again it seems like they just don’t have the power to do it! They’re so unable to live the way God called them to live! But now in Christ, in this new covenant we’re granted all we need, we have this new life, and the new life produces the godliness that God calls us to, even though it won’t be perfect until that final day when Jesus returns!
That is, He gives them eternal life, and in giving them eternal life, He gives them the
The world like never before is being made painfully aware of how little power we really have! Nations have been brought to their knees, world leaders for all their great efforts, have been shown to be powerless to stop this virus. But we have a God who’s power knows no limit! And He wields it in the most incredible way, granting His people all things that we need for life and godliness!