ResponsiveReiding

2 Peter Part 6

The More Sure Word of Prophecy

2 Peter 1:16-21 / Luke 9:28-36

So far in this passage, Peter has opened up some amazing ideas for his first readers and for us.

Vs. 1 – The average Believer trusting Christ alone for their salvation, has a faith of equal standing with the Apostles.

Vs. 2 – That grace and peace can be multiplied in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It need not remain stagnant but can grow and blossom.

Vs. 3 – That God has called Believers to His own glory & excellence.

Vss. 3 & 4 – That God has already granted Believers what is necessary to enter into His own glory and excellence in making us partakers of the divine nature through the Holy Spirit.

Vs. 8 – That as Believers grow in these things we can have an eternal impact on the souls of others while enjoying more and more fruit of these glories in ourselves.

Vs. 10 – That Believers can gain more and more victory over sin.

Vs. 11 – That the growing Believer can anticipate not just Heaven, but a rich or lavish entrance into the eternal Kingdom.

All this Peter argues – for a group of dispossessed refugees in the hostile backwater of the persecuting and rejecting Roman empire.

All this, for marginalized, troubled and persecuted Christians in every age and under all different circumstances.

All this, for even you and me – if we are truly Christ’s.

And as is often the case with the announcement of grace in the Gospel and the goodness of God toward sinful men – some would think it too good to be true.

And enemies of the Gospel would reinforce that notion – telling us that all these things are mere myths. All bogus and invented by wicked people to gain power and prestige.

To which attacks, Peter feels the need to respond head on – which form the substance then of vss. 16-21.

At that, Peter is especially sensitive to address the last portion he had mentioned – the promise of Heaven.

In our own generation – where philosophical materialism rules the day – where human beings are considered mere cosmic accidents, with no lives of meaning or purpose outside of ourselves, and the assumption that everything and everyone just lives and then dies and that’s it – don’t notions of Heaven smack of infantile fairy tales and uneducated pipedreams?

Worse yet, look at the outworking of radical Islam, where people commit the most heinous and atrocious acts of terrorism and violence, all to try and achieve some sort of orgiastic afterlife? Aren’t all such notions just fuel for the ignorant and imbalanced to excuse their hatred?

To which Peter gives an immediate and emphatic NO!

A 2-fold response which cements the certainty of the Believer in this regard – in a most wonderful foundation.

1. 2 Peter 1:16-18 “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”

“We” – Me and the rest of the Apostles, we didn’t come preaching to you stuff we just heard from someone else – we have 1^st hand experience having spent more than 3 years with Jesus AND, we were eyewitnesses of the coming glory of Christ Jesus when we were with Him on the mount of transfiguration.

Peter, James and John that day saw a glimpse of the glory that is yet to be ours when Jesus returns. And had been forever changed by it!

We had the portion read for us out of Luke 9, and it does not paint the flattering picture of a Peter who would be looking to gain power and prestige in the eyes of others.

In fact, it is noted in each of the accounts – that he was so stunned and overcome, he made the utterly foolish pronouncement: “Let us build 3 tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” At which point, God the Father rebukes him out loud, and even his biographer Luke says Peter didn’t know what he was saying! (Luke 9:33)

We saw this – Peter says. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. We saw the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To which we all must bear in mind that having the Gospels written and circulated in the Churches, would have easily opened up Peter and the rest to charges of fabrication. But none emerge in the literature of the day.

The same way Paul when defending himself before King Agrippa in Acts 26 can appeal to common knowledge about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus by saying “these things weren’t done in a corner.” You can check out the witnesses. Like the more than 500 who saw Jesus post resurrection Paul refers to in 1 Cor. 15.

So let me tell you about the glory to come says Peter – I saw it. You know me. You’ve known my life and my ministry. You know the lives and ministries of James and John too. And we SAW IT! We were eye witnesses.

1. BUT! There is even something better than our eyewitness testimony.

And this is where it gets rich.

Yes, we saw this and you have believed our testimony, but: 2 Peter 1:19–21 “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Yes, we saw and heard that day – but we have something better than our personal experience and eyewitness testimony – We have the “prophetic word” – the Old Testament. And that, more fully confirmed than even our eyewitness account.

And it is THIS – the Word of God which YOU do well to pay attention to as a lamp shining in a dark place, until that day when He returns and you receive the fullness of what has been promised.

Why does Peter place such exceeding stress on the Scriptures, on the Old Testament and its prophecies above even his own experience?

Because it is MORE confirmed.

How so? Because the OT prophecies were not private oracles but public, and affirmed by the entire Jewish nation.

And, those prophecies prove to have come by the Holy Spirit in their fulfillment.

Archdeacon Farrar wrote:  “And still stronger is the surety we have in the prophetic word”…“Why more sure? Because wider in its range, and more varied, and coming from many, and bringing a more intense personal conviction than the testimony to a single fact.”

9. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., 2 Peter, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 9.

One of the marks of true Biblical witness is that we tell people, look, don’t believe me – go to the Scriptures!

Experiences can fade over time. They can be embellished, or even lose detail. But the Word of God abides.

It can be checked and re-checked. Consulted and re-consulted. And, it is actually written so as to be scrutinized this way.

If you want a fun exercise sometime, a true, faith building and faith cementing activity – just scan the Gospels for the number of times the writers note specifically how Jesus in His acts and words fulfills specific prophecy.

Let’s just take Matthew in a very rapid survey this way.

1 – Matthew 1:22–23 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

2 – Matthew 2:5–6 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

3 – Matthew 2:14–15 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

4 – Matthew 2:16–18 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

5 – Matthew 2:23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

6 – Matthew 3:1–3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ”

7 – Matthew 4:12–16 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

8 – Matthew 8:16–17 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

9 – Matthew 11:7–10 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’

10 – Matthew 12:15–21 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

11 – Matthew 13:13–15 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

12 – Matthew 13:34–35 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

13 – Matthew 21:1–5 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

14 – Matthew 26:30–31 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

15 – Matthew 26:53–54 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

16 – Matthew 26:55–56 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

17 – Matthew 27:6–10 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

You read all of these, and haven’t even ventured on passages like Gen. 3 and the prophecy that that Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head; or Psalm 22 with its “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” – “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

Nor have we noted Isaiah 53’s “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”

There are literally hundreds of others we could point to – without yet mentioning all of the types and shadows locked up in the imagery of the High Priest; the prophet like Moses yet to come; all of the sacrifices typifying His atoning death; the promise of Pentecost fulfilled and His resurrection and so on.

Believe or don’t believe my eyewitness account – but believe your Bible and the overwhelming prophecies that demonstrate Jesus was the promised Messiah, and that the Heaven He promised therefore must be an absolute certainty and worthy of all we might suffer here in the meantime.

And so we say all the things mentioned in the first part of the chapter have their root in Christ – who fulfilled all, and cannot lie.

God has provided for an enduring and verifiable and complete record upon which to base our faith.

And might we add here that Peter’s admonition in this regard demonstrates for us why we are to base our knowledge and conclusion about spiritual things on the Word – even above our OWN experiences.

For the very same reasons Peter points us to the Scriptures. Experiences can fade, can lose detail and can be misinterpreted. But the Word – it remains – and can be put to the test and read and studied over and over until misinterpretations fade more than our memories.

All of this then leaves us with this wonderful reality: How great, how stupendous, how glorious is God’s love for His people – that He has prepared and preserved this Word for us throughout the centuries – that we might KNOW, with an absolute knowing the glories and truth of Christ.

Newton: “Let us adore him for his love, that love which has a height, and depth, and length, and breadth, beyond the grasp of our poor conceptions; a love that moved him to empty himself, to take on him the form of a servant, and to be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; a love that pitied us in our lost estate, that found us when we sought him not, that spoke peace to our souls in the day of our distress; a love that bears with all our present weakness, mistakes, backslidings, and shortcomings; a love that is always watchful, always ready to guide, to comfort, and to heal; a love that will not be wearied, cannot be conquered, and is incapable of changes; a love that will in the end prevail over all opposition, will perfect that which concerns us, and will not leave us till it has brought us perfect in holiness and happiness, to rejoice in his presence in glory. The love of Christ: it is the wonder, the joy, the song of angels; and the sense of it shed abroad in our hearts makes life pleasant and death welcome. Alas! what a heart have I that I love him no better! But I hope he has given me a desire to make him my all in all, and to account every thing loss and dross that dares to stand in competition with him.

John Newton and Richard Cecil, The Works of John Newton, vol. 2 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 180–181.

2 Peter Part 4

3 Promise / Problems

7 Pursuits

1 Provision

Part a

As we saw last time, Peter is wanting his readers to get a full grasp of what it means that upon Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to His throne – He sent the Holy Spirit to take up residence in the soul of the Believer.

He mentions this in vss. 3 & 4.

2 Peter 1:3–4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

By His own glory and excellence – because of how wonderful He is and according to the power and authority He possesses, He has fulfilled precious and very great promises to us, which promises, make us partakers of the divine nature.

Believers gain the reality of God’s own Spirit indwelling us and empowering us to live life as He has designed it for us – in godliness. Even in the midst of this fallen, broken world, and the present corruption that surrounds and impacts us.

The indwelling Spirit of Christ is in fact the single great PROVISION He has given to the Believer – but we are so woefully unaware of His presence and the need to consciously depend upon Him in our prayers and daily life – that we can lead lives which barely demonstrate His presence within us at all.

James Moffat, the old Scottish theologian once quipped that a cynic’s view of the Christian’s experience is: ‘an initial spasm followed by chronic inertia.’

Sadly, I can identify with that at times in my own life, and have observed it so in the lives of many others.

This leads us to the 1^st of the 3 PROMISE / PROBLEMS that occur in this text: 2 Peter 1:8 ‘For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

The PROMISE here is, that IF the qualities he just mentioned – and which we hope to unpack in days to come – are fully ours, and are increasing – then we will avoid the dual PROBLEM of being either ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Note the 2 things that can happen here in a Christian life that does not progress – there can be a negative EXTERNAL result: Being INEFFECTIVE, or having no impact for the Kingdom upon others we are brought into contact with –

And there can be a negative INTERNAL result: Being UNFRUITFUL or failing to have any of the fruit in my own soul of knowing Christ.

I neither grow in His image myself, nor contribute to anyone else’s growth in Christ. We can become spiritually inert.

This state of affairs is accompanied by a brand of forgetfulness in the Believer that is spiritually paralyzing.

2 Peter 1:9 ‘For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.’

i.e. What I’ve been saved FROM and saved TO – has lost its impact on me.

My deliverance from the penalty of sin has become ho-hum. It no longer amazes me or fills me with gratitude or awe or wonder.

I’ve clean forgotten that my being born again was no less miraculous and took no less power on God’s part than it did to create the cosmos: 2 Corinthians 4:6 ‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’

The same power it took to raise Jesus from the dead is what it takes to bring a dead soul back from its death in trespasses and sins to new life in Jesus Christ: 1 Peter 1:3 ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,’

When we lose our grip on these things so that they no longer move us, it is because we have fallen into a spiritual malaise and have stopped 2 Peter 1:5–7 ‘mak[ing] every effort to supplement our faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.’

We’re just coasting spiritually. And that is a recipe for disaster. It will make us wholly ineffective in impacting anyone else’s soul for the Gospel, and it will make us fruitless; famished, unsatisfied, emaciated and parched in our own souls.

Maybe that is you today. You’ve been a professing Christian for decades, but you find that in truth, you either contribute little or nothing to the spiritual growth and welfare of any other Believer – nor have you shared the Gospel with any non-Believer.

And in truth, your own soul has dried up so, that consistent Bible reading is a non-productive bore – or even a guilt inducing burden. You haven’t wept in prayer in months or years. Worship is a rote responsibility instead of a refreshing refuge. You’ve lost all interest in or put precious little time or effort into pursuing spiritual matters.

Peter warns us and says: 2 Peter 1:5 ‘For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith…’

Because you HAVE been miraculously born again; because you HAVE been cleansed of your sin and guilt; because you HAVE been given the gift of God’s own Spirit to indwell and empower you to live this amazing life of God here and now – MAKE EVERY EFFORT.

The word ‘supplement’ here is an interesting one. Michael Green notes that it is a metaphor drawn from the ancient ‘Athenian drama festivals.’

These festivals occurred because of rich patrons who would bear the enormous costs of paying the actors and musicians along with the poets and the state. And the word used by Peter here is drawn from the image of that patron and came to mean ‘generous and costly co-operation.’

To which Green adds: ‘The Christian must engage in this sort of co-operation with God in the production of a Christian life which is a credit to him.’

Satirist Tom Lehrer used to say ‘Life is like a sewer, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.’

Well, in his perverse way he said the truth of Peter’s point here – the Christian life that is not attended to and labored over, with be no good to anyone – including oneself.

The 2^nd PROMISE / PROBLEM shows up in vs. 10: 2 Peter 1:10 ‘Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.’

All of us who have walked with Christ for more than 5 minutes have faced the reality that we are exceedingly prone to fall into sin – and especially back into the sinful patterns of thinking and acting that were so ingrained in us before our conversion.

Lying. Self-service and self-protection. Lust. Greed. Fear. Materialism. Anger. Need to control others. Laziness. Self-absorption. Drunkenness and addiction. Neglect of spiritual disciplines. Self-reliance demonstrated in prayerlessness. Selfishness. Pride & Arrogance, Contentiousness. Disrespect. Rivalries. Impurity. Unmindfulness of spiritual matters. You name it.

But our Savior has not cast us to the seas to fend for ourselves in these battles. He has made provision for us in His indwelling Spirit – AND – in the conscious effort to engage the Spirit so as to 2 Peter 1:5–7 ‘supplement our faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.’

And here is an extraordinary revelation: The key to keep from falling back into sin, is to be making every effort to supplement our faith with the qualities he mentions here – by the Spirit.

What is interesting is that Peter – though in a very different way, says the same thing Paul does in Galatians 5:16 ‘But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.’

The way to stop sinning in our problem areas, is not to concentrate on the sins themselves – but to do something else altogether – to walk in the Spirit. And Peter shows us here what exactly Paul meant in Gal. 5.

One walks in the Spirit when they give themselves over to looking to Him while pursuing virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love!

It is the old principle we’ve seen so many times before. If a light switch is off, it can’t be on.

If the Bible said: “Thou shalt not walk south” – then I need to NOT spend all of my time thinking about how NOT to walk south, I need to walk north! And by virtue of walking north, I CAN’T be walking south.

I cannot be sinning against a neighbor I am loving at the same time.

The two are mutually exclusive.

Put all of your costly effort into pursuing the things the Spirit has listed for us here, and in the process, you will NOT be engaging in your former sins – or as Peter says it here:   2 Peter 1:10 ‘Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.’

This is a far cry from our fallen, human intuition. But it IS God’s Word and must be true.

And it is to this PROMISE we must turn, if we are to deal with the PROBLEM of our sins.

Which then leads us to our 3^rd PROMISE / PROBLEM.

2 Peter 1:11 ‘For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’

And Peter’s point here is both subtle and profound, building off of Jesus’ and Paul’s teaching in an area that is all but ignored in our day.

Once again let me cite Michael Green as I think he says it quite well: ‘This passage agrees with several in the Gospels and Epistles in suggesting that while heaven is entirely a gift of grace, it admits of degrees of felicity, and that these are dependent upon how faithfully we have built a structure of character and service upon the foundation of Christ.’ Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 18, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 96.

The PROBLEM is, that many of us have adopted a form of Christianity that in effect says: ‘All I want is to avoid Hell and get to Heaven – I’m not interested in anything deeper than that.’

In other words, there is a complete lack of understanding that God has appointed rewards for our labor and striving, and that those rewards are to be valued by us as worth our effort to obtain, even if they are not enumerated for us or described in detail.

They are worth our effort, simply because He says they are.

This is faith!

We hear echoes of this in Hebrews 11:24–26 ‘By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.’

We see it taught explicitly in 1 Corinthians 3:10–15 ‘According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.’

Jesus taught explicitly on the same theme: Matthew 6:1–6 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

John warns us accordingly in 2 John 8 ‘Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.’

And the risen Jesus again in Revelation 3:11 ‘I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.’

‘Crown’ there being a reference to the victor’s crown awarded in the ancient games – having striven and won.

All of these in opening up: Matthew 6:19–21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The healthy Christian life wants a ‘richly provided’ entrance into the eternal kingdom, and not just some slipping in through the back door!

It is a desire to hear ‘Well done! Good and faithful servant.’

It betrays whether or not we in earnest love pursue those things that bring a smile to our Heavenly Father’s face, or whether or not we just don’t care, as long as we get there.

But the PROMISE here is – that if we give ourselves to the earnest and energetic pursuit of the qualities he has laid out before us – we WILL receive a lavish entrance into that glorious, eternal Kingdom one day.

This theme is so vitally important in considering the Christian life -that Peter tells us how he has given himself over to making sure we get it, and retain it: 2 Peter 1:12–15 ‘Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.’

Knowing that his own death is looming over him and will be soon – this, by the inspiration of Christ’s own Spirit, he is compelled to give his readers and us as of the most vital importance.

How much then ought we to give heed to it, to take it in, understand it and adopt it as essential to our own Christian lives.

Salvation is truly by grace and grace alone.

But we were not saved just to sit fat and happy in a bare pardon from sin. We were created for higher things than these. Things we are by God’s grace and through is Spirit to lay hold of and give our lives to.

We are left with two things at the end of this.

1. If you ARE a Christian here today, how does your current state accord with what we’ve just discovered?

Are you INEFFECTIVE & UNFRUITFUL, or IMPACTING OTHERS FOR THE KINGDOM & GROWING IN GRACE?

Are you facing and overcoming sinful patterns in your life, or falling more than you are walking?

Are you striving for a richly provided entrance into His Kingdom? Or just content to hope you make it?

This may then be a wake-up call for you – a moment of grace whereby God calls you to repent and recover your first love.

2. Maybe you have THOUGHT that you were a Christian, but truth be known, as you consider these things honestly this morning – you really know nothing of the kind of mindset that’s been unfolded here.

In truth, you still need to be born again.

You still need to run to Christ to be your sin-bearer, and to grant you the new birth He gives to all who come to Him for mercy in faith. And you can do that right where you are this very moment – in acknowledging your lost condition, and calling upon God in Jesus name to forgive you and make you a new creature by His power.