Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] All right. Good morning.
[00:00:08] All right. Daylight savings time has taken a toll. Understandable. That's fine. My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church, and we are jumping into second Peter. So if you have a bible, open up two. Peter, chapter one. And to launch off, I want to just, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever been scapegoated?
[00:00:30] In each of the first services, by the way, there were like palpable head nods when I asked that question.
[00:00:36] Somebody does something bad and then they blame you to cover their tracks. Maybe somebody did this at work.
[00:00:47] Maybe it was your siblings. I have three older brothers. Here's the deal about a scapegoat, though a scapegoat really actually does need to be believable. So go back in time with me. It is the year 64 Ad, and it appears that the evil emperor Nero, as he was clearing out land for a massive building project, something happened that accidentally set the city of Rome on fire.
[00:01:13] This fire raged for six days. It took lives, livelihoods, and destroyed so much of the city, the rumors started to spread that it was Nero's fault. And of course, when people are losing this much, they're looking for someone to blame and to punish. So Nero begins to hear the rumors and tide is turning against him. So Nero comes up with a genius idea. Nero decides that he is going to scapegoat the Christians.
[00:01:44] So of all the subgroups, like in roman society, why the Christians? And the answer is actually pretty simple. The answer is they were the easiest to convince the masses that they were not for the good of Rome. And honestly were kind of weird enough that it might have been them. Let me share with you from a Romans perspective what they thought of christians and why they were such easy targets. I'm gonna give you six different things that help you get in the mind of a first century Romans. So number one, christian monotheism was interpreted as atheism. So Christians believed in one God. The Romans believed in a pantheon of roman and greek gods, and they would also worship the emperor as God. And so they would actually look at the Christians and they'd be like, you don't believe in God? And they're like, yeah, we believe in one God and he's invisible. But you believe in a God that you can't see or touch, and there's only one of them and they didn't have a category for it, so they put them in the bucket of atheists. But number two, communion, or christian communion, was actually seen as cannibalistic. So these people weren't going to their house churches to worship, but they would start hearing things. You know how rumors spread. And it's like they eat the body and they drink the blood of Jesus. It's kind of weird. And so this idea, this rumor that don't go to christian churches, they do these weird cannibalistic rituals. Number three, there's confusing vocabulary that christians would use that would cause people to wonder if they were incestuous. And then this started to grow. So, like, if you come to church, like, imagine you're visiting, right? And every time you bring somebody to church, you always tell them about the weirdest things about that church, right? And you're like, okay, they might have holy kisses, so, like, a dude might come up to you and give you a big kiss, maybe on the lips. So just, you know. And so you might meet somebody, and they would say, oh, this is my wife, my sister in Christ. And you're like, I'm sorry, what is happening? Right? And so, like, these rumors would start to spread. They're not just doing cannibalistic rituals, but they're kind of incestuous.
[00:03:53] Number four, Christianity's appeal to the lower classes. It was seen as a pretty significant threat to the upper classes. Christianity was really popular with slaves, poor people, women, people who were kind of on the lower caste system. And if you were in the upper class, right? What do you not want? You do not want a revolution of the lower class. And so the upper class started to see this as a potential threat to some kind of rebellion. Number five, christian converts were seen often as destroying families. So if you're married, when you got married to this person, you had a certain level of agreements spoken or not. And so if you were a first century roman, here's kind of the agreement. I'm a pagan, you're a pagan. We worship pagan gods. We do pagan things. And this is sort of the agreement. But then imagine now your wife, she becomes a Christian, and she's like, I don't do those pagan things. I don't believe those pagan things. I won't participate in those pagan things. And now my greatest loyalty is not to you, to Nero or Caesar or to the emperor, but to Jesus Christ. And if you're a roman, you're like, yeah, but he's dead. Like, we took care of that a couple decades ago. And so here's what would happen. In fact, the book of first Corinthians addresses this very subject. And so what would happen is a man is married to a woman. She becomes a Christian, and he's like, I didn't sign up for this. This isn't what I want. And so roman men would abandon christian women. And so Paul writes, and they say, well, what do we do if our husband has abandoned us and Paul has specific direction for them? What's interesting, though, is that if the husband came to Christ, almost always the entire family, the wife and all the children's children, children, would come to faith in Christ as well. Number six, there's the refusal to worship was seen as an economic threat. And so the way Rome worked is that, listen, we worship a pantheon of gods, and we worship them, we bless them, we give to them, and in return, they give us protection and prosperity. Well, when you have more and more and more people who are like, yeah, I'm not gonna worship that God now. You're like, listen, you're putting my job and our country in danger. If we go to war, we need to know the gods are gonna support us. And if you don't worship them, and there's enough of you, they actually might be irritated, and they might not support us in war or bless us financially or agriculturally. Number seven, refusal to worship the emperor was seen as insurrection. Again, you have all of these people who used to worship the emperor as a God, and now they are saying, no, we will not worship you. We have one God and one king. His name is Jesus Christ.
[00:06:42] And then, number eight, christian isolation. It was interpreted as deeply suspicious. And so the Christians would. They would meet in these private gatherings around the city on Sunday mornings, and they don't quite know what's happening. Are they eating some dead person? Are they drinking blood? Is it incest? Like, what's going on here? And then they wouldn't show up to the pagan rituals and festivals. They wouldn't eat the pagan food. And now you're like, listen, I don't know what's going on with this crew of people, but they're pretty suspect at best. Now, you put all this together, do you see why christians were an easy target to scapegoat for Nero?
[00:07:22] Bigger picture, they are a danger to roman culture. They are a danger to roman safety. And if you're familiar with kind of first century history, the pax Romana, the roman peace, this sense of, we are in control of the world and everything is stable. They were a threat to the stability of Rome itself.
[00:07:37] There's a historian, his name is Tacitus. And I want to read to you what Tacitus wrote about the events that I'm describing in this time.
[00:07:47] Tacitus, by the way, is not a Christian, and you'll catch that pretty clearly. Tacitus writes therefore, to stop the rumor that he, Nero, had set Rome on fire, Nero falsely charged with guilt and punished with the most fearful tortures. The persons commonly called christians who were generally hated for their. Listen to how he describes white people hated christians who were generally hated for their abnormalities.
[00:08:17] Christus Christ, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator in Judea in the reign of Tiberius.
[00:08:28] But the, again, listen to how he describes Christianity. But the pernicious superstition Christianity, repressed for a time, killed Jesus, was small, broke out yet again, not only through Judea, where the mischief Christianity originated, but through the city of Rome also. And now, Tacitus, you're going to learn a little bit of his hatred, not just for christians, but for the city of Rome, but throughout the city of Rome. This broke out where all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters as to a common receptacle and where they are all encouraged. Oh, okay. Christianity is apparently a part of that. First, he says those who confessed they were christians were arrested.
[00:09:12] Next on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, but for, and I want you to, I want you to hear why they were arrested. This is the charge for hating the human race, end quote.
[00:09:31] In their very deaths, they were made the subjects of sport, for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and torn to death by dogs or nailed to crosses or set fire to. And when the day became night, the Christians were burned to serve for the evening lights, either impaled, put on crosses, lit on fire, so that Nero could have his own little chariot games at night and people could shout and cheer. While all this is happening, this is the backdrop to the writing of the book of two Peter.
[00:10:02] And as Peter writes, he is almost certainly in prison on death row and he himself, we see this later in chapter one, is very confident that there is not going to be released from this prison, but he is going to be tortured and he is going to be murdered like so many other christians.
[00:10:22] This would be the last letter that he writes before his death in 67 AD. He's going to be crucified by Nero upside down, next to his wife.
[00:10:37] Second Peter is written to Peter's friends.
[00:10:42] Second Peter is written to the pastors that he brought to Christ, baptized, discipled, released to start plant new churches, have been pastoring for a while. Second Peter has written to these people. Second, Peter has written to his family members who heard the gospel through him and followed him as he followed Christ.
[00:11:05] Second, Peter has written to the people that Peter baptized, the people he had the privilege to see, come to faith and was able to baptize them and some of them even disciple them. It's written to the souls of everybody that is under his jurisdiction in an area called Asia Minor, modern day Turkey.
[00:11:22] Between 64 and 67 AD, every single church that Peter pastored was under spiritual attack. And they were under attack from two directions. First, the attack from the outside, which is the roman persecution. This, by the way, wasn't just the government, it was also the people as well.
[00:11:40] But also there's attack from the inside, from false teachers. And so men would rise up in the church, twist the doctrine of the apostles and making it false or heretical. Or there would be itinerant preachers or false apostles who would come into town and they would bring in false doctrine. And here's what Peter knew. He knew from the outside and from the inside. There is a demonic spiritual attack against him and all the churches that he pastors, because the demonic realm wants to destroy utterly and totally, not just the church, but local churches.
[00:12:16] So with this context, open up your bibles again. Second, Peter, chapter two, or chapter one, verse one. Let's jump in.
[00:12:24] Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. So we already know Peter is one of the original twelve, but here he identifies himself as an apostle. This is very important because as an apostle, Peter has an unusual amount of authority in all of the local churches. So to be an apostle, there were certain criteria that you had to meet. So criteria number one, Jesus had to personally choose you to be an apostle. Criteria number two, you had to walk with Jesus from his earthly ministry through his death and his resurrection. Criteria three, you had to be given the ability to do supernatural signs, wonders and miracles. This is what would differentiate or separate the false apostles from the true apostles. You would know them because of their ability to do signs, wonders and miracles. Now, all of the apostles met these prerequisites, except for one, and his name is Paul. Paul had all of the prerequisites, except he did not walk with Jesus in his earthly ministry. He did not walk with him through his death and through his resurrection. He didn't become a Christian till after that. Now let's just be candid for a moment. Is Jesus allowed to make an exception to his personal rule about who can and cannot be apostles or messengers of Jesus? The answer is, he can and he did. And so Paul was his exception.
[00:13:55] Holding the apostolic office, particularly for Peter, is a huge deal.
[00:14:03] First, as an apostle, Peter had a target on his back bigger than anybody else. Second to Jesus like, if you find yourself in some kind of spiritual warfare or demonic circumstance, I can tell you that with 99.999% the demon that you are interfacing with in that moment is not Satan himself.
[00:14:27] You are almost always going to be dealing with lesser, less powerful demons.
[00:14:33] But not Peter. I mean, even go back to Jesus, something Jesus said to Peter, very striking. Jesus says to him that Satan approached God and demanded to have you or destroy you to sift you like wheat. Satan himself had his eyes set on Peter. Peter understood this and he has been coming for Peter ever since.
[00:14:57] As an apostle, Peter also has complete authority over the local churches. This is a really big deal because if an apostle comes in, that apostle has the ability to discipline a church, shut down a church, start a church, pastor a church, the buck stops with the apostles.
[00:15:15] But number three and I want to come back to something we said a little bit earlier. To be an apostle is really, really a big deal because you had the ability, supernaturally a gift from God to do signs, wonders and miracles. In fact, the apostles ability to do these signs, wonders and miracles were so significant that when the apostle Paul was with Barnabas in acts 14, he was doing such incredible miracles that the people of the city, here's what they were shouting about Paul and Barnabas. The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. In fact, what happens in acts 14, they were doing such crazy things that the chief priest of the temple of Zeus came to offer offerings and sacrifices to worship Paul and Barnabas as Zeus and Hermes, the greek gods.
[00:16:10] Let's go back to Peter for a moment, and I really do want you to understand the scope of Peter's power. So what I want to show you is the different times in the book of acts that Peter exercises this ability to do crazy signs, wonders and miracles. So here we are. The first one is acts, chapter three.
[00:16:29] Peter heals a man who is lame from birth. And here's what verse six says. Peter said, I have no gold, no silver, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Christ Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong, and leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. How many of you would love that power?
[00:16:59] I would. Acts, chapter five. Peter publicly heals multiple sick people in the city of Jerusalem. Chapter five, verse 15 says, they the sick people. They even carried out the sick into the street, laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
[00:17:20] Acts chapter nine. There's a guy named Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years because of paralysis. Verse 34. Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.
[00:17:31] Rise and make your bed. And immediately he rose. Right after this, in acts nine, Peter raises a girl, Tabitha, from the dead. Verse 40. Peter says, it says that Peter knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body, he said, tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter, she sat up. The scariest of all of them is in acts chapter five. Because what happens is there's a couple, Ananias and Sapphira. They lied to the Holy Spirit by withholding money from their church. And here's what it says.
[00:18:03] Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. Peter oversaw the Holy Spirit's execution of these rebellious. Of this rebellious couple. They died on the spot. Okay, now, if Peter walked into village church, would you want to not be on Peter's bad side? I'd be like, I kind of would like Peter maybe to like me. That might be great. Don't kill me, Peter.
[00:18:32] With power and authority like this, it is almost impossible to not use and abuse people without the help of the Holy Spirit, which is what makes what happens next in verse one, I think just a shocking statement.
[00:18:51] He says, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ. Look at this phrase. A faith of equal standing with ours. Who is ours? The apostles.
[00:19:12] When a person with godlike power and total authority puts themselves as an equal and says, basically, listen, we're not better than you as apostles, we are all sinners, guilty of the same kinds of sins, in need of the same atoning blood of Jesus Christ, needing Jesus to die for our sins in our place, in need of the same Holy Spirit, of the same grace, of the same mercy, heir to the same promises.
[00:19:48] When an apostle with all of this power and all of this authority says, we are equals, this is the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is evidence of servant leadership.
[00:20:01] Powerful people, they keep their power by putting themselves and keeping themselves above you. So Peter, he could have said to get to God, you have to go through me. Or he could have said, I have secret knowledge that only I can give you, or give me your money, and I can release healing and blessing on you and your family, or obey me, and you won't end up like Ananias and Sapphira. Aren't you so glad that the power of the Holy Spirit kept this man humble? Peter was personally trained by Jesus in this kind of humble leadership. Go back to Matthew, chapter 20, verse 25. You know this, but I'm gonna read it to you. Jesus said, you know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the son of man came, by the way, who has all power, authority in the entire universe, over every angel, demon, human being, period. It is Jesus Christ.
[00:21:21] Even he, with all of this power and authority, says, even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve. Serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
[00:21:34] Second Peter, one, one. To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours, no power move. There is no manipulation. There is no lording it over. There is no using his authority, his position, his seat of power to control or influence.
[00:21:52] And just a few words earlier in verse one, he says this Simeon Peter, a servant, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. A servant.
[00:22:06] Did you know that every single time Peter does a miracle, something interesting happens?
[00:22:13] What does not happen is people don't go, oh, Peter, you're the best.
[00:22:18] In fact, every time Peter does a miracle, the text communicates that they worshiped or glorified or believed in Jesus.
[00:22:27] And so what Peter did, it was just so masterful is as he had this unusual ability for signs, wonders and miracles.
[00:22:36] He made sure that every single person who experienced them, the attention was diverted from him to Jesus.
[00:22:44] And it is striking how he used this power and this authority to serve and to be an apostle or a messenger of Jesus Christ, not for the glory of Peter. And this is just the first verse of Peter's introduction. Let's look at verse two. Now, verse two. It's one of those verses that you're going to gloss over very easily. But if you were kind of like the original audience and you had this read to you, there would be one word here that would stick out to you, and let's see what it is. Verse 2. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God. And of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, grace and peace. This is going to be at the beginning of every apostolic letter. For the most part, this is a normal jewish greeting. But the word that would pop out is the word knowledge.
[00:23:35] And this word is going to keep coming up in chapter one. It's going to come up five times.
[00:23:39] The word is not remarkable because there's some unique greek meaning behind it. It's simply the word epic gnosis, which means certain knowledge of something.
[00:23:50] Look what he says, you can have certain knowledge, though, of he says this, you're going to have the knowledge, certain knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So why would this word stick out to them? So in the latter half of the first century, there is a series of really terrible ideas that began to emerge and the early christian church was susceptible uniquely to these. Later it would become its own kind of pseudo religion and it would be called gnosticism.
[00:24:17] But at this time, these early gnostic ideas are beginning to spread and the church is starting to fall for them. And let me, let me give you a simple understanding, maybe, of what gnosticism is.
[00:24:30] Gnosticism says this, that there is a secret spiritual knowledge, or gnosis, that only certain people have.
[00:24:39] And real salvation comes from this secret knowledge.
[00:24:45] If maybe you were a Christian in the first century and you were sitting down with somebody who's trying to convert you to gnosticism, here's kind of a short version of what they might say to you, friend.
[00:24:57] What is done in the physical, it doesn't matter. Indulge yourself. God doesn't care. Eat, drink, be merry. It will have zero consequence on your eternal state. The only thing that matters is the spiritual. So be spiritual, do spiritual things, say spiritual words, join spiritual practices, pursue spiritual experiences. Those who are spiritual will be saved. And Jesus, he was the most spiritual of them all. He came from heaven and he told me his secret wisdom.
[00:25:32] And I can show you these secret words and these secret practices.
[00:25:38] Follow me.
[00:25:40] I'll need your money.
[00:25:42] We should probably sleep together.
[00:25:45] And if so, I will give you spiritual knowledge and experiences that will lead to your certain salvation.
[00:25:55] Now you are thinking to yourself, I would never fall for that and I hope not. But let me illustrate how easy it might be to fall into these dialogues and discussions. I want you to imagine with me for a moment. You are endlessly and mindlessly scrolling on Facebook. Again, you would never do this. But hypothetically, you are doing that. And there is an ad in this ad, here's what it says.
[00:26:18] The secret to making your spouse obsessed with you, the secret guide to making $20,000 a month in just 3 hours a day.
[00:26:29] The secret to guarantee you will lose 20 pounds in one month.
[00:26:35] Do this one thing, and the girl of your dreams will fall for you.
[00:26:41] Two easy steps to make any man love you. Okay? So I am certain, because none of you have ever, ever clicked on any of these ads, you would not know that there are just pages and pages and pages of words where they're just getting ready and they're just about to tell you the secret. And just as they're about to tell you the secret, you need to click. And then when you click, they're like, oh, we're gonna tell you the secret. Just give us your information because we want to help you in this. So you give them the information, and you know that when you click, the secrets are gonna be laid bare before you. And then you click, and guess what? You see credit card information because this is valuable. And then you're like, I got duped. And then you clicked out of it, right? Right.
[00:27:23] Yes. Good. Okay. You're like, no, we didn't even get that far. I saw it and scrolled on. Good. God bless you.
[00:27:30] It's the same principle. It's just 100 times darker. Tapping into people's greatest fears and then doing this in the context of a group of people who are facing very real persecution and very real plausibilities of death. And you can feel their anxiety. Did I do all the right things? Am I secure with God? Did I really believe? Am I going to make it? And then somebody comes along and says, I am an apostle.
[00:27:54] You didn't hear?
[00:27:56] Oh, I have secret knowledge, but this is my job, so you got to pay me. So when you pay me, I'll give you the secret knowledge.
[00:28:05] Listen to verse three. It's a great gift to those deceived by these gnostic ideas. Verse three says, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
[00:28:21] Everything you need, you have.
[00:28:24] There isn't a secret. There's not this secret base of knowledge that if just some guru who had special access to God would give me this stuff, then I could finally, like, I could finally unlock all the secrets to real spiritual growth. And Peter, right at the beginning, he's saying, you have everything you need to live a life that brings God glory and to be a godly man, woman, student, or child, you lack nothing.
[00:28:49] Okay? But, Peter, give me this power. Where do I get it? Are you the guru? Are you the guru? And he's like, knowledge of Jesus.
[00:28:59] It is public knowledge. In fact, it's so public that at the very end of the book of Matthew, you guys remember the great commission? Jesus says, go into the whole world and you tell everybody and you do it for free. You go into every single nation, you go everywhere, and you make sure every single person has access to the knowledge of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And by the way, teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you, because nothing here is secret. In fact, all of this is public information.
[00:29:30] Verse four tells us that this knowledge has been granted to us, not hidden from us, knowledge by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises.
[00:29:42] So, like when you first came to Jesus, I want to be clear with this. Nobody looked at you. And if they did, they shouldn't have. They shouldn't have said, trust in Christ. And then I'm going to tell you all the benefits.
[00:29:54] No, in fact, I can sit down with any person who is not a believer or who is a believer, and I can tell you all of the benefits before you're going to trust in Christ. Here's what I can tell you. I can tell you that the moment you tell God you're sorry and you believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, all of your sins are once for all and forever forgiven. No take backs. You are going to be with God forever. You're gonna be given the Holy Spirit. You're gonna reign after the resurrection on the new earth. You are going to be blessed beyond measure. And also, by the way, it's not always fun because some of you are gonna be persecuted because Jesus said, if they hated me, they're gonna hate you also. And so, like, I'm telling you, not just the blessings, but I'm telling you the hardships as well. Like, no secrets, guys, everything's public. All the promises of God, all the words of Jesus Christ, all of his teachings, it's out there for everybody to see. There's not some spiritual, like, secret knowledge that you're not aware of. But when you believe in Jesus, those promises, they go from public to personal.
[00:30:54] It's not a mystery. It's not hidden. And here's what we see. God wants knowledge of himself, of his gospel, and his word, to fill the entire world. This is his desire. Nothing is hidden. There are no secrets. Let me just read you a few passages of scripture, two from the Old Testament and two from the new, about God's heart and desire for knowledge to fill the earth. Isaiah, eleven nine. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the water covers the sea. Habakkuk 214 for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, also as the water cover the sea. Matthew 20 414 this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Revelation 14 six then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth to every nation and tribe and language and people.
[00:32:03] Why is God so freely distributing the secret sauce?
[00:32:07] Like, do you know how much money the church could raise if we just told people, give us money, and then we'll give you the secret to eternal life?
[00:32:17] And God's like that. That's not how we're gonna do that. We're actually gonna publish it for free. We're gonna publish it everywhere. I want the entire earth filled with the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the gospel, and the knowledge of the word of God. And this is our responsibility to go into the world to make sure that this knowledge is known, that people are taught, and they are not manipulated for money. Verse four goes on to tell us so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Now, I want to be clear. Peter is not saying when you become a christian, you become God or a God. He's not saying you get to become a part of God. Here's what he is saying. The partaker of the divine nature is contrasted with corruption. What he's telling them is when you come to Christ and you believe in him, you are given everything you can to become like Jesus, who is divine, or God in the flesh. And this corruption that you've been experiencing from sin, mental corruption, physical corruption, spiritual corruption, you can become more and more like Jesus when you trust in him. Or go back to verse three. You have everything you need for life and godliness to live for Jesus and to live like Jesus.
[00:33:42] All right, we have three. So whats number one, what pastors teach shouldnt be a secret.
[00:33:51] As a pastor, I don't have secret knowledge.
[00:33:57] We are all working off the same Bible.
[00:34:01] My job is a little bit different. I have more time in my week devoted explicitly to study and to teaching. My job is to dig as deep as I can into this word and to understand some of the cultural nuances around it, to help us better understand this word and to get knowledge of this word with the extra time that I have into as many minds and hearts as humanly possible to help us understand it in a way that we can internalize it, make sense of it and apply it in our everyday life. That's part of the unique responsibility, that's my job that I have as a part of this local body.
[00:34:37] But I'm not getting anything from some secret source that all of you can't find and confirm.
[00:34:44] Number two, I don't like have a secret access to God.
[00:34:48] Some people, you come from backgrounds and you're like, yeah, the senior pastor or whatever, the spiritual leader, like he somehow has secret access and I need him to pray for me. You don't.
[00:35:00] This is why after service we have people who are there praying and they're almost never, I mean, sometimes they're elders and deacons and whatnot, but most of the time it's just regular. People in the church who have believed in Jesus are filled with the Holy Spirit. And guess what? They have the exact same access to God that I do, as do our elders, as do our pastoral staff, as do our deacons. The most famous pastor in the entire world has the same access to God that you and I do through faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:35:28] I am not better than you. Now I am commissioned to pray for you, you are commissioned to pray for me, and we can pray for one another that is good and biblical. But guess what? You right now have the exact same access to God through faith in Christ that I and everyone in history does, period.
[00:35:45] I am also not better than you and I love, I love. From the very beginning of this letter he says, listen, we're in equal standing.
[00:35:54] I'm not better than you. I'm not worse than you. We are all sinners in need equally of the grace of God. So if you end up coming to church, you're going to a church. And a pastor says, God gave me special revelation.
[00:36:09] Run.
[00:36:11] And if you bring tomatoes to church, throw it.
[00:36:16] Number two, know your susceptibilities. So people who are always broke are uniquely susceptible to the prosperity gospel. People who lack self control are uniquely susceptible to pop culture lies. People who are jaded and angry are unique susceptible to atheistic lies. People who are oppositional, maybe by nature, are typically uniquely susceptible to progressive christian lies.
[00:36:47] The believers in Peter's churches, what they were facing with their impending impossible death, with the reality of Peter's impending death, that they are uniquely susceptible to this gnostic lie. Oh, you might actually be arrested. Oh, you didn't hear the secret knowledge. I hope you don't get arrested without paying me enough money to hear the secret knowledge. Because you might die and go to hell.
[00:37:09] You can imagine the insecurity and the anxiety that these people were feeling. And here's what I know. The evil one is happy to send messengers that are going to affirm their anxieties and their worries and their fears, and to make them doubt the gospel and the goodness of God.
[00:37:27] And the devil will happily coordinate a messenger just for you with the exact message that you are uniquely susceptible to.
[00:37:42] And that message will promise you in a subtle way all the things your heart really wants. And you won't even know what hit you unless you are in the word and with God's people.
[00:37:57] Paul says it this way. You might remember this. Second Corinthians, chapter eleven, verse 13. For such men who do this are false apostles, it'd be funny to say to them, do a miracle, do a sign, do a wonder. No, right here. It should be visible.
[00:38:12] Deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
[00:38:17] And no wonder they know what they're doing. By the way, even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. Their deeds have been before destruction, and destruction will be their end finally. So at number three, the way of salvation is public.
[00:38:48] Thank you, Jesus. So this letter, it's gonna be circulated and it's going to be intercepted. It's gonna be intercepted by roman officials. It's why Peter likely did not write the letter to a person or to a city or to a church in a city. It's why the recipients are kind of vague. And when this roman official gets this letter and just even begins to read it, here's what the official is going to become very aware of.
[00:39:15] This isn't a scam. This isn't a money grab. These aren't empty promises.
[00:39:22] But this is a guy who wants his people to know the truth, to have full knowledge here and now. Here is who God is. Here is how you can be saved. This is what is true. This is what is real. This is a man in prison wanting his people to have full and total access to the knowledge of God.
[00:39:43] The gospel is free.
[00:39:46] You don't have to buy it. You can even afford it if you wanted to.
[00:39:51] It is free for every person on the planet.
[00:39:56] It is free for any person who can say, I am sorry for my sins and I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
[00:40:05] I just. I love that we want to get this message out as often and as wide and as far we want the knowledge of the gospel to fill the entire earth, and not just the knowledge of the good news about how somebody can be saved, but knowledge of God and who he is and what he loves and not knowledge of his word. We want the knowledge of God to fill the earth. And this is so good so that everybody who hears this knowledge can know this today, right now, I can be forgiven and saved. And all the promises that God offers, all of them already publicized, they can actually become personal in mind, not by being good enough or going to church or serving or giving away money or anything of the sorts, but through personally trusting in Jesus Christ.
[00:40:43] The gospel is public. The way of salvation is, all of it is public. And I just so appreciate that. God did not make us wonder what is on his mind or how to be saved, but has revealed it all to us. And if you are here and you have never personally trusted in Jesus, I just want to encourage you. I pray today is the day that you're like, I know I'm a sinner, and I need to personally come before God and tell him I believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But maybe you're like, I don't want to be here. I don't like you. I'm sick of hearing you talk. Get this thing over. You're five minutes over on the thing. I see the red numbers. I'm aware, right of. I see that.
[00:41:18] But a year down the road, you might be like, hmm, I remember that. And I do believe, and I don't care where you are or when you are, it could be in your mind, it could be out loud. Wherever you are, the moment you realize that you are a sinner and you want to ask God for forgiveness, his hand is outstretched to you. He is offering it to you today. He will be offering it to you until the moment you close your eyes for the very last time.
[00:41:44] My strong plea and encouragement is trust Christ today.
[00:41:49] Amen. That is our introduction to one Peter. We have so much more to go next week, by the way, Peter's going to publicize. Here's how people grow spiritually. I would like to know more about that. So let's pray together, and then we're going to celebrate communion. Father, thank you. Thank you for making public your word. I think you, even throughout history, inventions like the printing press that took your word and just exponentially brought it to the corners of the globe in a way that people could look at and to study and to dig deeper. And so, God, there are just so many of us in this room. We love you. We love your word. We want to be part of the great commission to bring knowledge of you to the very ends of the earth. Thank you for that joy and that privilege. And we also confess to you, God, that we have failed so miserably. And I thank you that our salvation, it was not gained by being good enough, and it is not lost by our struggles. And so, thank you for the blood of Christ that covers us. Thank you that the same blood that covered us also covered every one of the apostles. We are all of equal standing sinners in need of your grace. So, Lord, we, as we look to communion, as we look back, and we remember your death and your resurrection, fill us with gratitude. And maybe if someone's here who's never trusted in Christ, would you, with overwhelming clarity, reveal yourself to them so that they might confess their sins and believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? We pray all of this, and we do it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
