SERMON STRUCTURE: Claiming Your Call!
2 Peter 1:3-4,12-21
CIT (Central Idea of the Text): Peter urged his readers to be certain of their calling as God’s people because of their personal experience of God’s glory and because of the promise of Scripture.
SERMON FOCUS: These same evidences are reasons for us also to confirm our calling as God’s people.
Major Objective: Consecrative
SpecificObjective: Be certain of God’s calling because of your present experience of God’s presence in your life and because of God’s promises to you in Scripture.
TITLE: Confirming Your Call!
OUTLINE OF 2 Peter 1:3-4,12-21
God’s power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. (vv. 3,4).
Therefore, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure! (vv. 10,11).
I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. (vv. 12-15).
We were eyewitnesses of God’s majesty in Jesus Christ. (vv.16-18).
And we have the word of the prophets made more certain. (vv. 19-21).
SERMON DEVELOPMENT
Confirming Your Call!
2 Peter 1:3,4,12-21
Today is the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent.
Lent is season of the church year that is still unfamiliar to many Baptists.
Lent is a time of reflection and repentance observed for 40 days before Easter.
The focus of Lent is on our common humanity and our common mortality.
The observance of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday — this Wednesday, the 6th — and following dinner in the Activities Center, our Bible study will focus on these themes of mortality and repentance.
Unfortunately, what most people know about Lent is what traditionally comes before it — the wild and raucous celebrations of Mardi Gras, a French word meaning “Fat Tuesday,” as you probably know.
It’s the last day of celebration and parties before a time of reflection on our common mortality and our common sinfulness.
And Mardi Gras is often a big “blowout” of parties and celebration of all the physical pleasures of life.
Now I don’t know what your Tuesday — your “Mardi Gras” — will be like, but I’d like to invite you to join us for dinner on Ash Wednesday and a time of reflection and Bible study and prayer in preparation for Lent afterwards.
On the last Sunday before Lent, the Gospel reading in many churches is usually Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, (17:1-3; see also Mark 9:2-13, Luke 9:28-36).
The other New Testament reading that accompanies this Gospel reading is usually 2 Peter 1:16-21, which is part of our Scripture reading for today.
The reading from 2 Peter is a kind of comment on the significance of the Transfiguration reported in the Gospels.
That’s the chief reason why I’ve chosen this Scripture for today, but there’s another reason also — our passage from 2 Peter also ties in with my first sermon with you three weeks ago.
You may remember I said then that the foundation for sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone else is simply sharing with him or her the experienced reality of God in your own life.
And our passage from 2 Peter this morning touches on this same point, but with a different purpose.
So let’s turn now to a reading of our Scripture for today.
The passage is 2 Peter 1:3,4,12-21. I’m reading here from the New Revised Standard Version.
[Read here 2 Peter 2:3,4,12-21.]
In these verses, Peter urges his readers to be certain of their calling as God’s people because of their personal experience of God’s glory and because of the promise of Scripture. (CIT)
And these same evidences are reasons for us also to confirm our calling as God’s people. (SERMON FOCUS)
We can be certain of God’s calling because we have already seen God at work in our lives, and because of God’s promises to us through Scripture. (SO)
Peter says first that God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. (vv. 3,4).
We have been called by Christ’s “own glory and goodness,” Peter says, not by an external authority or compulsion. (v. 3).
And it is through Christ’s own glory and goodness that God has given us “his precious and very great promises.” (v. 4).
And through those promises we may accomplish two things:
First, we “escape from the corruption that is in the world,” and
Second, we “become participants in the divine nature.”
Now “becoming participants in the divine nature” is, and has been, God’s purpose for us from the very beginning:
You recall that Genesis tells us that we were created in the image of God from the beginning.
And the book of Romans declares, “those whom God foreknew, [God] also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of [God’s] Son, in order that [Christ] might be the firstborn within a large family” (8:29).
So we see that is God’s purpose that we escape the corruption of this world and become conformed to the likeness of God’s own Son Jesus.
That is the “calling” that God has for each of us. Will we claim it?
In verses 12-15, Peter says he intends “to keep on reminding [his readers] of these things.”
He gives two reasons for these reminders:
First, he says he thinks that is “his right” to do so, since he will not always be with them (v. 13), and
Second, he wants to make sure that after his departure, they “may be able at any time to recall these things.” (v. 15)
To remind God’s people of God’s promises is both the right and the responsibility of every preacher. And I intend to fulfill that responsibility to you as fully and as completely as I am able.
Ephesians 4:12,13 says that the work of the pastor is “to equip the saints” [that is, all the people of God] “for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the full stature of Christ.” And that is part of my task as long as I serve as your pastor.
For 8 years now I have been Chief Judge in my elections precinct. In the oath that I take every two years, as I am sworn in for another term, I pledge to carry out my duties in that office “without fear or favor,” and that too is part of my responsibility as long as I serve as your pastor.
But we are about to overlook something very very important in Peter’s words here.
He says he intends to keep on reminding his readers of God’s important promises, but then he adds these words: “though you already know them and are established in the truth that has come to you.”
And I want you to know how strongly I feel that these words describe this church today! Let me cite two different examples of the ways in which this church knows and acts out the truth of God’s love in our lives:
The love and support this church has demonstrated in this last week in support of the Teer family is not only a testament to the power of prayer, but also a clear example of how the people of this church love and care for each other.
Jesus said, “by this will all people know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35)
This week this church has acted out its love and compassion for one of its families in a way that clearly demonstrates God’s love for each of us.
As another example, for the last two weeks or so the deacons and I have been working out the terms of my service with you through a “Letter of Understanding” between us.
One particular clause in that letter says “we acknowledge that we are all imperfect human beings seeking to serve a perfect God.”
I am impressed by the covenantal quality of this document — it is an agreement in which we mutually acknowledge our common humanity and our common desire to serve the God who has redeemed us all.
I want to affirm in all of you today that as a church, and as individuals, you do know the promises of God, and you are already well established in the love for one another that is the hallmark of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
By acting out the love of God in this personal way, you are already claiming your calling as children of God.
In verses 16-19, Peter cites a personal example of the power of God in his own life. He recalls here his impressions of the Transfiguration of Christ recorded in the Gospels.
This experience was important to Peter for two reasons:
First, it was an unforgettable demonstration of the power and majesty of God.
Peter says, “we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty,” or to put it more plainly, “We saw it with our own eyes!”
Every newspaper and television reporter loves to interview someone who has been an “eyewitness” to some significant event.
What are some significant events to which you have been eyewitness?
My father used to tell of seeing the airship “Hindenburg” burning at Lakehurst, NJ, in 1937. That was before my time!
While serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa, I witnessed the overthrow of the government of the nation of Ghana by the armed forces early on the morning of 24 February 1966. Our school grounds were literally within shooting distance from the presidential residence, and we could clearly hear the gunfire. I will never forget that day!
But the most significant event to which I have been eyewitness is to what God has done, and continues to do, in my own life.
And that is also the most significant event in your own life to which you have been — and continue to be — an eyewitness.
But beyond the fact that the Transfiguration was an unforgettable demonstration of the power and majesty of God, for Peter this event was also a promise of the return of Christ in power and majesty.
From the English translation it seems that Peter may be speaking of seeing the majesty of God during the Transfiguration.
He quotes the words of God to Christ: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17:5).
These words are also used to describe the baptism of Jesus by John in Matthew 3:17.
But in the Greek, the word translated “coming” is the word parousia (“parousia”), and this word is used almost exclusively in the New Testament to refer to the return, or second coming of Christ.
So, Peter, looking back on the Transfiguration, sees that event as the promise of an even greater event to come — the return of Christ in power and glory.
Back in verse 4, Peter had written that God “has given us … his precious and very great promises,” and this is the first of those promises: that Christ will return in power and glory and majesty, in the same way that Peter and James and John had seen at the Transfiguration.
And finally, in verses 19-21, Peter speaks directly of “the prophetic message” (or, in the words of the New International Version, “the word of the prophets”).
This is the second promise that Peter has in mind: the promises of Scripture.
And like the Transfiguration, in Peter’s image the Scriptures are a promise of greater things to come.
He compares the Scriptures to “a light shining in a dark place,” and
He warns us that “you will do well to pay attention to it.”
But notice that this light shines in the darkness only until “the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
So, for Peter, the effective, but relatively weak light of the Scriptures “shining in a dark place” will be replaced by the much more powerful light of the rising sun, and the much more personal light of “the morning star rising” in our hearts, in the same way that the light of the Transfiguration is for Peter and for us a promise of the greater light of Jesus’ return.
Peter wrote to remind us of God’s “precious and very great promises, so that through them [we might] escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.”
Peter saw God’s promises expressed in two different ways: first, by his own experiences that pointed toward what God will do in time to come; and second, by the explicit promises of Scripture, which he compared to “a light shining in a dark place,” but which will be replaced in time to come by a much brighter and more personal light.
In writing this letter, Peter saw himself as one who reminded the people of God of what they already knew and one who encouraged them to keep doing those things.
And that is the way in which I see myself as I begin as your Interim Pastor. My role is to remind you of the things that you already know, and to encourage you in the good things that you are already doing.
And so today I want to affirm the things that you are already doing so well, and also remind you that the promises of God are sufficient for our salvation.
Many are the promises of Scripture that we have no clue about what God has in store for us.
1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,” and
1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
Be certain today, my friends, of God’s calling in your own life, because you have been eyewitnesses of God’s presence and because God has promised you in Scripture that an even greater and more personal light will arise in your heart.
Arise and claim your call!