Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Conclusions, or endings can be very powerful, I’m sure you’d agree. This weekend we’ll experience that as our time with the apostle Peter draws to a close as he writes his final sentences in the second of his two letters which we have in our Bible.
As I’ve told you, Peter was writing during a time very similar to what it is like today living in parts of the world like China or Syria or Afghanistan or Iraq, or a great many other places where the name Jesus Christ is reviled and Christians live in great danger of persecution, torture or even death.
Peter’s first letter was intended to encourage Christians living in fear. Peter’s second letter was to challenge Christians being deluged by false teachings, distortions of truth, and even outright mockery of Jesus and His followers.
Peter ends his first letter with this encouraging phrase: “PEACE to all of you who are in Christ.” (1 Peter 5:14) Both apostles Peter and Paul used that little phrase IN CHRIST to encourage Christians to realize their primary IDENTITY was not Roman citizens but sons or daughters of Almighty, Holy God, purchased by the blood of Christ and citizens of the immortal kingdom of God. Peace was therefore possible even when surrounded by terrifying and unpredictable events as well as very hostile people.
Today I echo Peter’s words, calling all of us who are confident of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, to take great encouragement and find God’s Peace in the reality that no matter what is happening around us, our true and lasting Identity is WHO we are in our relationship with Jesus Christ!
Peter then ends his second letter with this challenging phrase: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To HIM be glory both now and forever! Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18) These days Spring is approaching in much of the agriculture world. Fields will be plowed and planted, fruit trees will bloom, leaves and buds will burst forth on flowers… it’s a wonderful, joyful, hopeful time of new growth. Did you know God loves to watch that very same thing happen in your life and mine? New, fresh spiritual growth as we keep learning new things as the Holy Spirit teaches us more and more about God and God’s truth. New growth as we experience new things in our spiritual journey with Jesus, our Savior and Lord.
Oh, how I appreciate Peter’s frequent use of that phrase “our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ”. I think Peter is calling us to celebrate the rescue, deliverance Jesus Christ achieved for us as we have been saved from our sin condemnation. But Peter is also calling us to reaffirm our allegiance to Jesus Chris as our Lord, our Master, our King!
So, my friends, as we bid farewell to these weeks of study with Peter, are you confident in your identity in Christ? Are you confident Jesus is your Savior and your Lord? Are you content in the pace of spiritual growth you are experiencing? Do you think Jesus is content with the condition of all three of those statements in your life as HE sees the truth in you and me?
As a final statement, Peter calls us once again to align our focus individually and together as God’s people all around the world in every generation. The focus, the purpose of our lives, is to be “the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ both now and forever.” Now that should not be difficult for us each to assess. Is Jesus Christ honored, glorified, praised by our words, our vocabulary, our tone of voice, the way we speak to anyone? In our increasing use of written words and social media, is Jesus Christ honored and glorified? In all our relationships, is Jesus Christ honored? In all our business dealings, is Jesus Christ honored? In our personal and family priorities, is Jesus Christ honored? In the management of our financial resources, our properties, our automobiles and everything we own, is Jesus Christ honored?
In the way we spend our leisure time, in the way we work our jobs or pursue our studies, is Jesus Christ honored? In our parenting and grandparenting, even the care of our elderly, aging parents and grandparents, is Jesus Christ honored? I invite you to keep the list going and personalize it into each and every aspect of your lives asking the same question.
But here’s the challenge, my friends: what will you do when you find some aspect of your life where, if you are honest, the answer is NO! No, Jesus Christ is NOT honored and glorified through that particular aspect of my life! Now, that will leave you facing a choice and what you do with that choice is a TRUE reflection of the AUTHENTICITY of your relationship with Jesus Christ! Peter had been present when Jesus spoke these words to His close friends, just before He left our planet earth and returned to heaven: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) 10 days later Peter had experienced that powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit and Peter was transformed into one of the most courageous proclaimers of the truths of Jesus Christ this world has ever seen. He experienced remarkable anointings of God’s power as he experienced seeing Gentiles experience the salvation of Jesus in the home of Cornelius the Roman Centurion; and cripples healed and even a dead woman raised to life. (Acts 10) But Peter also experienced the horrible pain of persecution, rebuke and ridicule by his fellow Jews and eventual imprisonment in one of the cruelest dungeons of Rome.
Finally, Peter was executed for his refusal to deny Jesus Christ as part of Caesar Nero’s attempt to rid the Roman Empire of Christians. Historians tell us Peter was crucified upside down, but not before the Holy Spirit led him to write these two powerful letters which have now been translated into almost every language known to mankind and have brought tremendous encouragement and spiritual growth challenge to Christians in every generation since ad67, when Peter finally put down the stylus.
Amen is Peter’s final word. It means, ‘so let it be done for God’s glory’! I’d like Peter’s final statement to be the guiding light of the rest of my life, how about you, my friends? “Grow in God’s grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To HIM be all the glory, both now and forever more! Amen.” I urge us to spend some time worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ and I’ll see you again on Monday, as we begin our journey toward Easter 2023. Here’s a wonderful worship song for this weekend my friends, that reminds us that we are a global family of God, united in Jesus Christ!
Today’s Scripture is 2 Peter 3:18.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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