We need to be reminded of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible...

At the church where I serve, we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled reminder. During this series, we are spending the month of November looking at a letter that was written by the Apostle Peter and has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of 2 Peter. The Apostle Peter wrote this letter because he was concerned that the readers of his previous letter would end up forgetting the timeless truths about Jesus and the message and teaching of Jesus that he had written to them in his previous letter as a result of the passage of time and the influence of false teachers in their lives.

And because of the danger that false teachers and the passage of time presented to the readers of his first letter, the Apostle Peter sat down and wrote this letter that we know today as the book of 2 Peter to remind the readers of his letter of several truths about Jesus and the message and teachings of Jesus that were to always be at the forefront of their lives.  And just as it was for the Apostle Peter, as we go through this series, our hope and our prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and minds to remind us of several timeless truths about Jesus and the message and teachings of Jesus that we are to always have at the forefront of our lives in a way that results in us living out those truths so as to reveal and reflect Jesus to those around us.

This week, I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we jump into this next section of this letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of 2 Peter, we will see the Apostle Peter remind us of another timeless truth about Jesus and the message and teachings of Jesus that we are to always have at the forefront of our lives in a way that results in us living out those truths so as to reveal and reflect Jesus to those around us. So let’s discover that timeless reminder together, beginning in 2 Peter 1:12-15:

Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. ¹³ I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, ¹⁴ knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. ¹⁵ And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.

Peter begins this section of his letter by letting the readers of his letter throughout history know that he will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. When Peter uses the phrase “of these things” he is referring to what he had just written and what he was about to write in this letter.

You see, Peter wanted the readers of his letter to clearly understand that his sole intention was to keep reminding them of the reality of the rescue that they had obtained through Jesus. Peter wanted the readers of his letter to clearly understand that his sole intention was to keep reminding them of the reality that the rescue we have obtained through Jesus provides us everything we need spiritually to live a life that represents Jesus well. Peter wanted the readers of his letter to clearly understand that his sole intention was to keep reminding them of the reality that the rescue we have obtained through Jesus should produce a serious effort to strive to grow spiritually. Peter wanted the readers of his letter to clearly understand that his sole intention was to keep reminding them of the reality that the rescue we have obtained through Jesus should produce a serious commitment to confirm God’s choice to rescue us through Jesus.

Now, it wasn’t as though this was new information, as Peter pointed out that they already had heard the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel so as to have the information about the rescue that they had obtained through Jesus. And it wasn’t as though the information about the rescue that they had obtained through Jesus hadn’t impacted the lives of the readers of this letter. After all, when Peter used the phrase have been established, this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, means to cause to be firmly committed to something. The readers of his letter were firmly committed to the truth of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel.

And it wasn’t as though they did not have access to the truth of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, for Peter makes it abundantly clear that the truth of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel was at their disposal.  However, as Peter pointed out in verse 13, he considered it right, as long as he was present on the earth, to stir you up by way of reminder.

In other words, Peter considered himself to be under obligation to awaken and arouse the readers of this letter to all that God had done to rescue them through Jesus by reminding them of all that God had done to rescue them through Jesus. As long as Peter was still on this earth, Peter believed that he was rightly obligated to keep the timeless truth about Jesus and the message and teachings of Jesus at the forefront of their lives in a way that awakened and aroused a desire to live out those truths so as to reveal and reflect Jesus to those around them.

In addition, as Peter pointed out in verse 14, there was an urgency behind his sole intention to keep reminding them of the reality of the rescue that they had obtained through Jesus. And that urgency was that he recognized that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent. In other words, as Peter sat down to write this letter; Peter knew that he was going to die in the very near future. Peter explained that the reason that he knew that he was going to die in the very near future was due to the fact that Jesus had made it clear to him that he was going to die in the very near future.

Now a natural question that arises here is “how did Jesus make it clear to Peter that he was going to die in the very near future?” Most likely, Peter here is referring to a conversation that he had with Jesus after Jesus was raised from the dead that has been preserved and recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John. Let’s take a minute and look at a part of that conversation together, beginning in John 21:18-19:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go." ¹⁹ Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, "Follow Me!"

And as Peter remembered and reflected on this conversation with Jesus; as Peter remembered and reflected on the responsibility that he had been given by Jesus to be a foundational leader in God’s new movement in history called the church; Peter had an urgency to make sure that these early followers of Jesus were reminded of their rescue by Jesus and the mission that they had been given by Jesus before he died.

And, as Peter points out in verse 15, it was that urgency and sense of obligation to awaken and arouse the readers of this letter to all that God had done to rescue them through Jesus that led him to write this letter. By writing this letter, Peter was making sure that, even after he was gone from the earth, the readers of this letter would be able to recall what he was going to write down in this letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible today.

And it is here, that we see Peter reveal for us a timeless reminder about Jesus and the message and teachings of Jesus that we are to always have at the forefront of our lives. And that timeless reminder is this: We need to be reminded of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible. And in 2 Peter 1:12-21, we see Peter reveal three aspects of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible that we need to be reminded of.

First, in 2 Peter 1:12-15, we see that the authority of the letters contained in the Bible is found in their timeless truth. The timeless truth contained in the letters in the Bible was known to the first followers of Jesus. It was the timeless truth contained in the letters in the Bible that caused early followers of Jesus to be firmly committed in their faith.

In addition, the timeless truths contained in the letters in the Bible were communicated by those who felt compelled to arouse followers of Jesus to remember the truth. Those who wrote the letters contained in the Bible often recognized that time was short. And those who wrote the letters contained in the Bible were eager to make sure that the message would be available after their death.

Tomorrow, we will see Peter reveal for us a second aspect of the authority of the letters contained in the Bible that we need to be reminded of...