Week 19 - 1 and 2 Peter - Conclusion

We have watched Peter grow and change.  When we explored the Book of Matthew (From the Mountain to the World) we saw Peter:

• Called – Matthew 4:18-22
• Renamed/Given the Keys – Matthew 16:13-28
• Taught to forgive – Matthew 18

But he continued to argue, like the rest of the disciples, as to who would be first in the kingdom. 

That last argument was immediately following the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:24–27), which escalated to the point that he declared to Jesus his preeminent devotion (Luke 22:31–34).  

This would be the last time we see him stand in his own strength, for he would be soon sifted and found wanting through his denial (Matthew 26).

Graciously, Jesus restored him by reversing that three-fold denial with a three-fold command to care for His sheep (John 21).

Now changed, we saw him in Acts (Unfinished),  take a place of leadership, but act though consensus and then partner with John to lead the young church to fulfill the Great Commission.

• Led the Disciples to replaced Judas – Acts 1:15-26
• Spoke to the crowd – Acts 2:14-41
• Together with John led the Church to bring evangelism back into the temple and out into the streets – Acts 3-5
• Together with John was sent to preached in Samaria – Acts 8:14-25

However, one more flaw in Peter needed to be fixed before work on the remainder of the Great Commission could continue (Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8).  When God was preparing him to participate in the first conversion of a Gentile, Peter rebuffs the command of God in a trance to break the Kosher laws:

Acts 10:12-14
In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 

Once again, God graciously uses the teaching technique that seems to be tailored to Peter’s learning style:

Acts 10:15-16
And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

With this ringing in his ears, he agrees to go with those sent by Cornelious and explains:  

Acts 10:28-29
And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”

He then:

• Leads Cornelious to Christ – Acts 10-12
• Brings the question to the Jerusalem Council of Gentiles and their degree of obligation to the Law, where James is given a lead role (Acts 15-16) and a way forward was found with consensus.
• Steps back and lets Paul take over ministry to Gentiles (Galatians 2:1-14).

So, we have seen from the day Jesus called him to be one of His first disciples, how God has steadily and graciously moved Peter from first to last. This moved him to exactly where the foundation begins, the bottom.  This was necessary for him to truly take his position as the rock (Matthew 16:13-28) on which the church would be built.

So in 1 Peter, we see Peter step back and in the valediction help push forward Mark and Silas, to be the next generation of leaders.  They had been the companions of Paul (Silas) and Barnabas (Mark) on their missionary journeys  (Acts 15:36-41).

And now in 2 Peter, in this his final letter, he steps even further out of the lime-light and enables every believer to be a spotless lamb ready for the daily sacrifice of themselves, while awaiting Christ’s return.  He showed us that we can have a calling and election that is sure (bebaios - 2 Peter 1:10), that we too could be stable (stērigmos - 2 Pet 3:17), that we too could be a rock.

Week 18 - 2 Peter 3:11-18 - What Sort of People?

We have all heard the word “multitudinous” (even the spellchecker knows it).  Shakespeare made up this word, but when he said it in his play “Macbeth”, everyone knew what he was talking about.  Macbeth’s guilt was so vast that it would turn the entire ocean red:

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”

So too, with Peter’s use of “stability” (stērigmos) in this, his last words.  

2 Peter 3:17-18

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Not only is it only used here in the Bible, the only other recorded instance in all of historic literature, is where speaking of the local pagan priests, Diodorus Siculus wrote about 100 years before Peter:

ἀσκήσει δὲ καὶ γυμνασίοις ἐνισχύουσι τὰ σώματα, ἵνα ἐν ὑγίειᾳ καὶ στηριγμῷ διατελῶσιν.

They also strengthen their bodies through exercise and training, so that they may remain in health and firmness.

Peter introduced an exercise program earlier in the letter.

2 Peter 1:5-9
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

That program starts with faith and that faith is in grace.

As we take our eyes off grace we lose our “stability” (stērigmos).  

It is built off the word:

στηρίζω stērízō, stay-rid'-zo; from a presumed derivative of G2476 (like G4731); to set fast, i.e. (literally) to turn resolutely in a certain direction, or (figuratively) to confirm:—fix, (e-)stablish, stedfastly set, strengthen.

We should not for a second forget our former sins.  No, don’t dwell on the guilt.  Focus on God’s grace.