Scott Wiley here, the Executive Director of Wisdom International. We're celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. What began as a radio programme in a single city has grown into a global ministry now in sixteen languages. We're hosting a banquet to celebrate all that the Lord has done and you're invited. Please visit wisdomonline.org slash twenty-five.
That's wisdomonline.org slash twenty-five. There's a link in the show notes. And now here's Stephen with today's message from Wisdom for the Heart. The false teachers are. Selling this brand.
But I want you to know Peter is a different man. He's bold. But he's not proud. He's not swinging swords. He's quoting scripture.
He's not fighting anymore for his own reputation. I'm the best apostle on the planet. I'm the faithful one. You guys aren't there yet. You'll get there.
Keep at it. I'm there. No more of that. Eighty year old Peter. is a different name.
Now, to just sort of set the stage here as we begin this. 10-year study of 2 Peter. I say that because when it's only three, you're going to feel really good about this, okay? There's an old Jewish proverb that says The Lord has created seven seas. But only one.
the Sea of Galilee. is his delight.
Well that C was the backyard. Where the Apostle Peter grew up as a boy. He was born into a family of Fishermen. They knew the Sea of Galilee like the back of their hand, Peter and his brother Andrew. Would have fished in those waters, played in those waters, swam in those waters.
One day Peter's going to walk on those waters. And they'll never forget it. His hometown was Bethsaida or Bethsaida. Where he will meet the Lord. Bethsada means the house of fish.
It was a fishing Village, I imagine everything, including his clothing, probably smelled like fish. It was close to Capernaum. Which is where Peter will later, with his wife, move and live. Growing up on the seashore, Peter's life would have looked a lot like other Jewish boys in the village. He would have started.
Schooling at age six. taught by the local rabbi. The schools were called In English, the house of the book. They learn to read and write. By studying The Hebrew text.
memorizing the Old Testament. From about the age of Seven to ten, he would have studied the Mishnah. That's a commentary, Jewish commentary, on everything from festivals. to law. From the age of 10 to 15, He would have studied the Talmud.
That was an expansion of the Mishnah. It included rabbinical debates. ethical discussions, laws relating to marriage, and more. I can imagine Peter as a little boy, you know, getting in trouble in school. I'll be talking.
Too much, but he was evidently a Bright student because his preaching and later these letters allude to the Old Testament over and over again. In fact, in 2 Peter, he'll refer to it nearly 20 times.
Now by the time Peter writes This letter He is Around 80. years of age. It's lived a long time. He's passionate. He's more dogmatic in this letter than he is the first.
One author said he seems belligerent. He's angry in that The false teachers are you know, selling this brand. Promising Freedom. And twisting it. into immorality.
As we'll see. He's more committed than ever to protecting the church from error. But I I want you to know Peter is a different man. He's bold. But he's not proud.
He's not swinging swords. He's quoting scripture. He's not fighting anymore for his own reputation. I'm the best apostle on the planet. I'm the faithful one.
You guys aren't there yet. You'll get there. Keep at it. I'm there. No more of that.
Eighty year old Peter. is a different man. That becomes obvious in his opening Phrase. I want to invite your attention to 2 Peter.
Now in these days when you wrote a letter you signed your name first.
So here's his signature. Simeon Peter A servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. That's all we're going to have time for today.
Now we're more familiar with the Greek spelling of his name. Simon. Here you have Simeon, Sumaeon. That's the transliteration of his Hebrew name, his Hebrew spelling. This is the second son of Jacob.
Simeon. Peter is the name Jesus gave up. It means pebble. Little rock, little stone. That's the name he's going to grow into.
But it's interesting to me that Peter gives us both names. Here. And I think it's interesting because Simeon associates us with his fall. His failure. This was the name Jesus reverts back to after his resurrection when he meets Peter on the seashore and he asks him three times, Simon, do you what?
Tell me. Do you love me? Cybed, that hurt. It reminds him and everybody. Of his fall.
That's his old life. Peter is his new life. But now, perhaps because he's facing imminent death, they'll be dead and A few weeks, months? Very soon. Executed by Nero, crucified upside down.
What you have here is perhaps a Peter who is more aware than ever of the patience. And the grace. of God. There is a story, there is a testimony of redemption in the way he says. Simeon.
Peter. It's kind of like the Apostle. Paul reminds us In his great testimony in Romans 7, that he still had that old wretched man dogging his heels. Clinging to them. causing him trouble.
I think Peter's opening signature is a good reminder that the older we get in the Lord, the more we ought to admit we are. We are still having to deal with that old nature. If the Apostle Paul can admit in Philippians Chapter 3 and verse 12, I am not. Perfect. If he could say later in chapter 13, I have not arrived.
What do we do in acting like we have? It doesn't help believe it. at all for us to talk like, you know We've just arrived. We're living from one mountaintop to the other. One victory to another.
Let me tell you, long ago, Peter stopped sticking out his chest. and and strutting around like a peacock. I don't think he ever forgot. That rooster. God would use that to shape him.
Over the decades now, so that now you have him saying, hey, I'm still the old me. But I'm the new me too.
Now he goes on to describe Why he's a different man. He uses two nouns in his signature. Notice the first one. Simeon Peter A servant. A servant.
The word is doulas. It's commonly used for purchased. Slaves. The lowest possible position to hold in any Society. And Peter had already alluded to this attitude when he.
Wrote back in 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19 that he had been bought. with a price. He was no longer His own. He no longer belonged to himself. He was Bought off the auction block, as it were.
He now belonged, body, soul, heart, mind, every. Adam. to Christ. Don't Move too quickly to consider now what this means in his own growth. He is Had an amazing life.
His stature has reached A high position of veneration, even in his day. If he was coming into town, everybody would be racing to see him. The one who had preached the initial. message that launched the dispensation of the church age. He had personally raised the dead.
Peter Who are you? I'm a slave. Of Christ. That word would have brought to the mind of every first century And the vision is just like ours. This was tantamount to saying, I have no will of my own.
Andy Bohr. But to do the will. Of the Lord. I have no personal interests. Of my own, but to devote myself entirely to the interests of.
The Lord.
Now, by the way, when he calls himself a slave, he's not only referring to his station in life, he's referring to his expectation. In line. If you go back earlier, let me quickly just say this, go back decades earlier. A rich young ruler came to Jesus. The other disciples are there listening into that conversation.
And that rich young ruler says to Jesus, Hey, what do I have to do to get into the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus says, well, give all your money away. Jesus touched The nerve In that man's life, like he often did with others. He went right to it. to that idol in that man's life.
Get rid of that idol. And it followed me. He wasn't telling him you gotta buy your way into heaven. But you can't have another idol.
Well, after he leaves Peter says, Peter's the one, hey Lord. We left everything. We gave everything away. To follow you? When's our payday?
What are we going to get back? Because of what we've given up. But not now. Peter understands. A slave doesn't get a paycheck.
A slave isn't compensated. other than that they have satisfaction or fulfillment. purpose Meaning. which comes from fulfilling The will of their master. By the age of 80, Peter no longer has his hand out.
Maybe you're waiting for God to pay you back. for some sacrifice you've made. Hey Lord. What are you gonna pay me for that?
Well, Peter has another noun. Notice, Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle. of Jesus Christ, apostle, apostolos. Simply means one cent fourth. One cent.
Out. It can be used in a broad sense. It's used a couple of times in the New Testament. For all believers, we're all sent out, we're all messengers, we all have the gospel to deliver. We're all commissioned to make disciples of all the nations.
But There is this narrow sense, this restrictive sense, and nobody today can claim that restricted sense of being an apostle holding that office. Peter's using the term that way in the restricted sense which belonged to the twelve. uniquely. They had unique authority. in the church and over the church.
They laid the foundation. For the church. Doctrinally, Ephesians chapter 2. We're not laying the foundation, by the way, of the church. It's 2,000 years old.
We're not working on footings. It's interesting that soon after the Lord ascended, It's the the 11 gathered to choose a man. To fill that twelfth, that vacant seat, so to speak. They'd heard Jesus talk about The fact that Their names would be remembered. We're given the description of heaven.
The twelve foundations have their names inscribed on them. But they had two requirements for an apostle. And let me tell you, these requirements can't be met today. Acts chapter 1, they gathered, the apostles did, and here they were. Number 1.
They had to be personally trained by the Lord. And number two, They had to be an eyewitness to the resurrected. Lord.
Now Paul Is later going to qualify as an apostle. He's going to make sure they understand he was personally trained. By the Spirit of God in Arabia, he was sequestered away for three years, Galatians chapter 1. And he had seen the glory of the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus, right? In fact, a little later on in Acts chapter 22 and then again in Acts chapter 29, he makes it clear it wasn't just the vision of light, he saw the Lord.
Now I'm not saying and Paul never claims to be the 12th. Man, we'll have to wait to see what's chiseled. to settle that debate. But he was qualified. But there are no more apostles in that restricted sense today.
Any man who takes upon himself the title apostle is either full of hot air Trying to expand his authority over the church. Or he hasn't read Acts chapter 1. Or both.
Now, even though Peter was an apostle, that was unique. I want you to notice again the text. He does it right. Simeon Peter. The Apostle.
Yeah. There's this chance. The Apostle. of Christ. He's not claiming primacy.
He's not claiming priority. That's an error. Of the religious system of the Roman Catholic Church continues to teach it to this day that Peter had primacy. Peter had unique authority over the other men. He became the first bishop of Rome, the first pope.
He is, and they still teach today, he is the head of the church. There's not one stitch in the New Testament. That he is the head of the church, that he is the primary apostle. In fact, the Bible clearly says in Colossians chapter 1 that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Peter is writing this second letter to warn the church of false teaching.
And you can't even get past the opening phrase before we're surfacing error. that has captured millions.
Now Peter shifts the spotlight to his master. He writes, Simeon Peter, a servant. and apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter saying by authority My office. My delight By writing It's flowing out of this relationship.
This surrender, this submission. To Jesus Christ. And by the way, Peter loves to combine these two names. In fact, you never hear him use the name Jesus alone. It's interesting in this letter.
He'll write once, Jesus, our Lord. And every other time, Jesus Christ. That's significant. Jesus is the Lord's. Human name.
The name he received before his Birth, it indicates his saving mission. Jesus is the Greek form of the Old Testament name Joshua or Yeshua. It means Jehovah is salvation. But the name Christ Pulls back The veil of deity. Christ is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word for Messiah.
The anointed of God. which we now know is The Son of God, and Daniel talked of that. Christ really isn't. A name. It's a title.
It refers to the Son of God, the anointed. Lord, the anointed Redeemer. Who came to save.
So right away, Peter is declaring that the man he follows. To whom he belongs is the God. Mayor. The man Born at a time in human history, but existing prior to that and for eternity, future, throughout all time as God. The sun.
I want you to get this. Peter is poking every false teacher in the eye. with this introduction. And he's going to go after them. in this letter.
Jesus is not Just another prophet. He is not succeeded by Muhammad. Joseph Smith, whoever else, is in line next. When you say Jesus Christ, you are actually stating perhaps the shortest. statement of our theology.
Jesus Was born a man. He is our divine Savior.
Now, Peter wants to remind the church. of the truth. And I don't have time to overview it today, but I'll give you a few thoughts. Here's some of the reminders. He's going to say, I want you to.
Remember these, I want you to remember these things. In verse 12, I intend to remind you uses three times. Remember, remember, remember. What are they? If I can summarize a few of them, number one, the church needs to be reminded of biblical truth.
That's the real. Truth. It'll never Go on a date, nobody's gonna find out later, ah, it really went true after all. That's most of chapter one. Given the Bible is As the guideline for life and for godliness.
Number two, the church needs to be reminded of false teaching. That's a real danger. That's chapter two and into chapter three. You need to be skeptical. If they needed to be skeptical in the first century, we'd better be skeptical in this century.
I love this story where Billy Graham was visiting a town as a young evangelist early in his life. He was going to preach that night. Sunday night in a church nearby. And He wanted to mail a letter. That's something you used to put in an envelope and put a stamp on it.
The old days.
Well, he didn't know where the post office was.
So he asked the little boy Where the post office was, and the boy gave him very clear directions. And Graham thanked him and then said, Hey, by the way, son, you know, if you come to church tonight, I'm going to tell you how to get to heaven. That boy frowned and he looked Billy Graham up and down, and he said, No, thanks, mister. You don't even know the way to the post office. Yeah.
Nothing wrong with being a little skeptical. By the way, be careful in this world of AI. We're using it for the gospel. I'm my voice, my face. I'm teaching the Bible and it's forming Swahili.
Uh ch uh Hindi. But be careful. I had somebody a few weeks ago send me a sermon by a Well-respected Bible teacher, preacher. And he was condemning a political leader? And 15 seconds in, I knew that it was his voice.
Not his sermon. He didn't preach there. It was AI. And I also knew he didn't believe what that sermon had him saying. Be very careful.
Third, the church needs to be reminded of past judgment. This was a real event. He's going to talk about the global flood. In chapter 3, that event is denied by our world today. That changed the topography of our.
of our planet at Carve the Grand Canyon. It it aged everything. Many of the church don't believe that happened. Peter leaves no doubt. Another, the church needs to be reminded of future judgment.
That's a real promise. He's going to spell out this coming fireball that is going to ignite and burn up the universe, the earth. And then God the Son is going to recreate it all. This time we get to watch it. I have every reason to believe he's going to...
He's going to follow Genesis 1 again and we get to see it this time. Peter is going to spell it out. The world doesn't believe judgment came. the flood, and it doesn't believe judgment's going to come. And Peter will describe why.
They don't believe it. But he didn't have time. to do anything less in this letter with only weeks to live and spell out The true. Two thoughts struck me as I just began digging a little deeper. Number one, the older we get, The more we should delight in simply belonging to Christ.
Not some status or stature.
Some level Some strata. Peter's joy was that he belonged to Christ. He is the property. of the Lord. That was enough.
Secondly, the more Or the older we get, the more we ought to be thankful for the patience of Christ. He knows our past. our present struggles. He knows our simean days. He knows the Peter days we're trying to Pursue.
Over in chapter three, Peter's going to refer to the patience of Christ. in saving him. I came across this from The testimony of Ruth Bell Graham. The wife of that evangelist. She died in 2007, and she decided to use her tombstone.
as a testimony She had this chiseled into her tombstone. Here it is. End of construction. Thank you. for your patience.
Isn't that great? End of construction. My entire life was a construction project. Lord, thank you. for your patience.
She was a missionary kid, you may know that, raised in China. And by the way, the symbol at the top of her tombstone is a Chinese. Symbol. Part of her testament. It's the Chinese symbol For righteousness, the word righteousness, the concept of righteousness.
The symbol has two characters, one on top. What on? the bottom. The one on top refers to a lamb. The one on the bottom is I or me.
A lamb Over me. Righteousness, we know, means being right with God. It's symbolized by a lamb. over me. How do we get right with God?
Having a lamb. Over us. And it's interesting. that this symbol was discovered 3,000 years ago A thousand years before The death of the Lamb of God. That tells you a lot about how the gospel was known.
by early civilizations around the world And it didn't take long for error to creep. In. Could ruin a life. deceive a family, deceive a region deceive A nation. Let's echo.
The commitment of Peter to the truth of Christ. the surrender of Peter. The exaltation of Christ, the gratitude of Christ. Peter and Ruth Graham. Real people.
Real purpose. Real truth. Found. Enjoy. Pursue.
As we are Set ones. of Jesus Christ. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart. A production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline.org.
Mm-hmm.
