Continuing Pastor Kyle’s message on having what you need to succeed as a Christian in this world, he tells us that the third issue that we are going to discuss is the “End Times”. More and more of us are wondering, with all the chaos going on in the world today, are we living in the last days? The Apostle Peter was to the point and sums down what he felt was what we most needed to know about the end of the age, know that his days were numbered.
2 Peter 1:1-2 “Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
Repeatedly remind yourself how far God has brought you. The Apostle opens this letter by identifying himself as Simon Peter. Simon was his Jewish name at birth, before the Lord Jesus called him into ministry. It was a rare self-description to remind where he had come from. Jesus gave him the Greek name “(Πέτρος) Pétros”,which means “the rock”. In Matthew 16:15-18 Jesus asked His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Upon Peter’s confession, Jesus built His church and Peter had that reminded every time he heard his name spoken of who he used to be before Christ (a fisherman), and who he now was in Christ (a fisher of men); a reminder of how far God had brought him.
Take a moment right now to think about how far God has brought you in your life. Remember what God has gotten you through. Some past moments were truly painful, but Pastor Kyle hopes that all of us can look back and see that, even though it was hard, God brought us through to the other side. We can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God gets us through every time. Second insight is that our power comes from our posture before Jesus. Peter states two things in his introduction: (1) that he is a servant, and the Greek word he uses is “Doúlos”, which mean “slave”. Peter wanted all to know that he was honored to be a slave willfully to Jesus. That is the posture that Peter chose to identify himself with in his relationship to the Lord. The only authority he had stemmed from the Master that he served – Jesus.
(2) He was an Apostle of Christ. He mentioned this second, to be a servant/slave to the Lord. Whatever apostolic authority he had, came from being a slave to Christ first. Peter knew that his power came from his posture before the Lord. Wherever we think that we stand in a powerful position, it came be a very dangerous place to be. If we do not remind ourselves where our power comes from. Our power does not come from our winsome charm, our industry, job skills and money-making ability, our position as provider, our education, our speaking ability or influential capability. Only God can make our life and gifts truly powerful and impactful. That is what God multiples and what the Holy Spirit blesses. The moment we start thinking about power and prestige coming before being a servant of Jesus, we are off-track with God and our message won’t bless anyone. Once we live in the “right before God” posture, everything else falls into place and our gifts take off because they are blessed by God.
(3) He decided what got multiplied. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you,” so of all the things that can multiple inside of us, it should be the grace and peace of Jesus. The principle here is that we do not have to let the negative realities happening out in the world beyond our control to get multiplied inside us. Not stress, anxiety, depression, fear, financial uncertainty, unanswerable questions, or disagreements. It is a daily battle to stay in a place of grace and peace. Those negative things are always going to be around us, but those are not the things that God wants multiplied in us. God wants the grace of God and the peace of Christ multiplied inside us.
We shouldn’t live in denial of the negative realities in our live, because we need to be informed to the extent that we know intelligently what action steps to take for our life and our family. But the issue is this, we cannot do anything to change those negative realities. What we need to take hold of today is that those things can multiple around us, but the negative aspects of them do not have to multiple inside us. God has enabled each Believer to have grace and peace multiplied inside, but it is something that we must decide to take hold of in very simple and practical ways. Spend more time in the good news of Jesus, instead of in the bad news out there in the media and on the electronic devices. Take control back of what is being multiplying in your mind. The Apostle Peter’s purpose of writing was to see grace and peace multiplied in the lives of every Believer because of what God has done.
In Christ, Brian
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