Imagine Jesus Christ telling you (while you are still a relatively young adult) precisely HOW you are someday going to die! That’s what Jesus did with Peter, one of His closest followers. In John 21:18-19 Jesus informs Peter that when he is older he will die with his arms stretched out (crucified just like Jesus was). Peter goes on to live the rest of his life with this knowledge of HOW he is going to die.
Then, as if this were not enough, through a special revelation given to him years later (probably about 30-35 years later), Jesus tells Peter WHEN he is going to die. Peter says, “I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.” (2 Peter 1:14) So not only does Peter live with the knowledge of how he is going to die, but now knows it is going to happen “soon.”
Well, what Peter did was write a letter. What he did was continue to live his life as he had been living (faithfully serving God as an Apostle and missionary), but now with the heat turned up on helping others learn to walk with God faithfully and fully. And to be sure, this letter which he writes in the final days of his life is markedly different from his first. It’s has an edge of urgency to it – even the language and tone is different. Some scholars even wonder if Peter really wrote it; it’s so different from his first one. But he did. These are the last words from a man who knows his life is running very short. They are “dying words” that contain nothing but LIFE for you and me.
The same churches Peter is writing to now have different circumstances surrounding them as well. A few years earlier they were dealing with persistent persecution and wondering how they should function as small “churches” struggling in a very secular environment. Now they have matured a bit, but strange teaching has infiltrated their ranks, and the real need before them is how to live the Christian life as faithful followers of Jesus. They need to know how to discern truth from error, as well as how to walk with God more deeply on a daily level. If ever they needed words to truly live by – it is now.
This series of messages will follow very closely the thought and flow of Peter’s final words to us in the letter known as “2 Peter.” And by doing this we will find no less than 8 key challenges – 8 challenges that are CORE to our faith in Jesus Christ. These are 8 key truths that a man about die wants followers of Jesus to know. In a very real way, this series will help followers of Jesus take some clear “next steps” in growing deeper in their trust of God, as well as their love for one another.
- May 3: “Who or What Do You Rely on Most?”, 2 Peter 1:1-2
- May 17: “Your All-Sufficient God!”, 2 Peter 1:3-4
- May 24: “The Great Divide”, 2 Peter 1:5-11
- May 31: “Something We All Get to Experience”, 2 Peter 1:12-15
- June 7: “Your Rock-Solid Faith”, 2 Peter 1:16-21
- June 14: “The World of Untruth”, 2 Peter 2:1-22
- July 5: “It Will Happen”, 2 Peter 3:1-13
- June 12: “Above All”, 2 Peter 3:14-18
