Sermon Tone Analysis

*THRIVING IN THE FACE OF THREAT*

*/Equipped for Spiritual Survival and Growth in a Dangerous World/*

*2 Peter 1:1-4*

*Series: Wide-Awake Living*

*Grace** Community Church*

*November 16, 2008*

* *

I have a couple of stories to tell you this morning.

These are tales of two pilots who experienced the ultimate problem a pilot will ever face - conditions in which continued flight is impossible and a crash is inevitable.

The first is a pilot named Franco.

His accident happened in a Cessna twin on January 17, 1998.

He and a friend, who was piloting the plane, left Reno, Nevada, and crashed for unknown reasons near Carson City.

The aircraft broke into several pieces, and the other pilot with Franco was ejected and died.

The clearing where the aircraft came to rest was covered with several feet of snow.

Franco regained consciousness while upside down, still strapped into the seat, able to touch the snow in front of his face.

He had broken ankles, a severe compound fracture of the femur, and other injuries.

The temperature was about 25 degrees (F), the winds were gusting and he was getting very cold.

He released his restraints, fell into the snow, crawled to the badly damaged fuselage and forced his way inside.

There he put on a ski jacket and additional clothing to stay warm.

He found his own flight bag and retrieved the handheld radio he always carries when he flies.

Fortunately, he makes it a point to always keep the battery charged up.

Finally, a Nevada Air National Guard C-130 heard the weak transmission and began the search-and-rescue.

Just before it got dark and a major storm blew in, he was rescued.

After hours of surgery to repair broken ankles and legs, and sporting multiple steel pins and rods, he eventually made a full recovery.

!! The outcome of the other accident wasn't so positive.

This one involved a Cessna 182 single which was attempting a VFR cross-country flight from Auburn, Washington, to Boise, Idaho, on April 12, 1995.

The private pilot was a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) volunteer and the purpose of the flight was a CAP proficiency training flight.

When he didn’t close his flight plan at the destination airport, the FAA initiated an airport telephone search for the aircraft.

At 8:50, when he still hadn't turned up, the aircraft was declared overdue and an alert notice was issued.

Three days later, they found the wreckage – and the body.

A post-mortem examination of the pilot's body revealed that he had sustained minor injuries including bruises, cuts, and abrasions during the crash.

The cause of death was attributed to hypothermia.

When found, he was wearing a flight suit over dress clothes, a flight jacket, and dress shoes.

There was no survival kit or survival equipment found in the aircraft.

His survival kit was found in the trunk of the car at the airport.

Additional information gathered from the CAP indicated that the pilot was well-acquainted with survival in the field and, in fact, was a survival instructor for the CAP.

What are the lessons to be learned from these two accidents?

First and foremost, both of these people survived the crash.

While Franco was seriously injured, the CAP pilot had only minimal injuries.

/Survival in both cases depended on what the people did, and what they had with them when they crashed./

I’m sharing these stories with you today to help you begin to get a sense of what the apostle Peter was feeling as he sat down to write what might well have been his last letter.

We know that letter as 2 Peter, a brief letter to other followers of Jesus scattered throughout the world of his day.

Peter has a keen sense of what his fellow-believers would face.

He’s a prisoner of the Roman emperor, Nero, a notoriously evil and ill-tempered person, and he knew that his days on earth were numbered.

His last task is to equip his friends to face the monumental challenges his world would throw at the young church he would leave behind and he was helping equip them to avoid a fatal crash.

That’s why he says in 2 Peter 1:12-15: /So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.

I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things./

As the letter develops, Peter makes it obvious that there are clear and present dangers to the church.

Most of us know churches and individual Christians who have impacted some mountainous obstruction that the world throws up and they have not survived as effective Christians.

These obstructions include false teachings, moral traps, and personal circumstances that can bring a high-flying Christian down to earth abruptly.

Are you equipped to not only /survive/ a world and its culture that is increasingly hostile to followers of Jesus, but /thrive/?

It’s been interesting to observe people’s response after last week’s election.

Some of you are euphoric and filled with hope, and others of you are in despair, seriously wondering if Obama is the antichrist.

To hear some people talk, it has now become officially impossible to live the Christian life in this country.

I’d like to point you to Peter, who lived in a world ruled by a chaotic dictator given to whims of cruelty unimagined in any corner of our world today, as far from a God-fearing man as one can get.

But totally apart from political considerations, we live in a dangerous world, and Peter is telling us what we have in our survival pack, so to speak, and urges us to use it.

There are no imperatives, or commands, in the first four verses we’ll look at today.

It’s DESCRIPTIVE of what Christians possess, not PRESCRIPTIVE of what we are to do.

He’s simply telling us /how it is/ for anyone who has come in faith to Jesus and has been born into God’s family through the new life given by God’s Holy Spirit.

The central statement in these four verses is v. 3: /His divine power has given us *everything we need* for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness./

Peter’s thesis is very clear: YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED RIGHT NOW TO FACE WHATEVER LIFE THROWS AT YOU.

God has equipped you to not only survive, but thrive even in an environment that might appear to be inhospitable to following Christ.

In this letter, Peter describes the primary threats we face.

As we go through this letter, you’ll see that not only is there danger to /believing Christians/ from false teaching and moral traps, there is a clear and present danger to the /world/.

There is an ultimate accountability the world and its system will face, and there is an ultimate judgment that will be so complete that nothing of the original creation will remain.

It will all be burned to a powdery ash, and God will re-create it.

That’s where the world is headed, and this letter is a warning to anyone who has not received the gift of eternal life through Jesus.

You can breathe easy on that score if you have received that gift.

You will not be subject to that judgment.

Jesus has taken that judgment on Himself for you on the cross.

You are encouraged to live in that hope.

However, Peter also warns us of the danger that the /corruption/ of our decaying world will rub off on those of us who rely on the name of Christ for our eternal salvation.

You can almost hear some Christians saying, “Well, I’m safe from the ‘big burn.’

So I’m kind of free to dabble in stuff of the world.

It’s kind of appealing.”

That’s the equivalent of leaving the survival bag in the trunk when you take off.

Christians can crash and burn; not in the eternal sense, but in this life.

And it can be very painful and damaging to the person and to the cause of Christ’s kingdom.

Peter longs to equip his readers so they can avoid that fate and live in victory and spiritual health.

So what is it exactly that God provides us in this ‘survival pack’ that Christians receive?

Peter identifies it in v. 1:  /To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received A FAITH as precious as ours:/

 

“The FAITH” here describes the sum total of our relationship with God through believing faith.

This is one of two key words in these four verses; the other is the “PROMISES” of v. 4: …/He has given us his very great and precious promises…/ The promises of God are the guarantee of His provision, which is the faith that we hold in our Lord Jesus Christ.

As I said, these four verses DESCRIBE the privileges we have; they are God’s gift to us, and it’s not until v. 5 where Peter tells us how to respond to this “very great and precious” gift.

THEN he says, …/make every effort to add to your faith…,/ and then he encourages us to move forward.

When I was a child, occasionally I’d go roam around the bottom lands of the Missouri River in South Dakota where our small town was located.

My mom would pack a lunch for me, along with a few other little things she knew I’d probably need.

I learned to live in the assurance that in my little pack was everything necessary for my trek.

In that same way, God has given you everything you need for your trek through this world and beyond.

Let’s look at how Peter describes the FAITH we have received.

And recognize that when Peter describes how we “have received a faith,” he’s not just talking about the act of believing, or trusting, in the Lord Jesus.

He’s talking about the whole body of the gift of our salvation.

First of all …

 

*I.

In our faith, Jesus Christ is CENTRAL, v. 1-2*

 

Man is not central in these first four verses – Jesus Christ is.

It is His righteousness which saves us (v. 1).

It is through knowing Him that grace and peace come to us in abundance (v.

2).

It is His divine power that gives us everything necessary for life and godliness (v.

3).

It is He who called you to Himself.