Remember the Future • 2 Peter Overview

40:23 Teaching begins

Notes

One of the ways in which we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God is the ability He gave us to learn and then call that to mind again—to remember. The word means literally, to be mindful again.

When you remember, it’s glorious. You know where everything is, you know where you’re at. You can take what you know and apply it, and make new connections. You can grow.

When you forget it’s a disaster. You don’t know where anything is. You can’t make any new connections. You also become uncertain and anxious. Did you do that or is it undone? Am I safe, or am I in danger? When you forget you can’t grow. You can’t retain new information.

Peter is concerned that his readers be able to remember—to call to mind what they already know—so that they keep growing, they stay protected from lies, and be ready when Jesus returns.

He wants them to remember the future.

1. This is an overview so we want to think about the author, the people to whom he was writing, and when it was written.

A. The author is Peter the apostle.

1. The book was fully accepted as Scripture in the fourth century. It was one of the disputed books that took longer to be accepted. Some people think it is not authentic, that it is what is known as a “pious fraud”. You write it under the identity of Peter, and you say things like Peter would say, and the point is to encourage and build up the church like Peter would if he had written it. The only drawback to that is that a pious fraud is still a fraud. If it’s a fraud we shouldn’t have it in the Bible at all.

2. There is lots of internal evidence that it is Peter writing. He calls himself Peter. He says Jesus has made it clear he is about to die—he is in touch with the Risen Lord Jesus. He is an eyewitness to the transfiguration of Jesus when He was briefly revealed in glory with Elijah and Moses. He says this is now the second epistle I have written to you, meaning he also wrote the first. He knows the Apostle Paul and he is on good terms with him. He writes with authority and he completely focuses on Jesus. For Peter, Jesus is the Lord, and He is coming again. That’s Jesus’ own focus.

3. So I accept that the author is Peter.

B. The people to whom he writes are the same as in his first letter. That means followers of Jesus in Asia Minor, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These regions are located in modern-day Turkey.

C. The date of this epistle is around A.D. 64-66. It’s just before his execution in Rome. He knows that his departure will take place soon. You’d think he would be anxious and worried, but he’s not so concerned about himself as he is for his readers. He wants to enable his people to stand and grow until Jesus returns. He’s aiming at his generation and the next generation, and the next, and the next, until Jesus comes.

2. If I had to describe this epistle in one word, I’d use the word “remember”. Let’s look how this comes up.

A. In chapter one.

1. Verse 9 It’s possible to forget you were cleansed from your old sins. If you forget you will be barren, unfruitful, shortsighted, and even blind.

2. So verse 12, Peter won’t be negligent to remind you always of these things, even though you already know them. You have to call them again to your mind.

3. Verse 13 He thinks it’s right to remind them.

4. Verse 15 He wants to make sure they always have a reminder after his decease. 

B. In chapter two

1. He reminds his readers of God’s judgment on angels who sinned, the ancient world that He destroyed by a flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember what happened to the ungodly.

2. He reminds them that God saved Noah and Lot. Remember that He knows how to save the righteous and judge the wicked.

3. So Peter wants his readers to be aware of false teachers and resist being led astray. False teachers attack believers who don’t remember what it says in the Bible. When a false teacher comes along appealing to their sinful nature they think, “Wow, this guy is edgy and cool.” What they ought to say is, “Some of what that guy says is biblical. But there’s other stuff he teaches that’s not in the Bible. He’s dangerous.”

4. Chapter two is about remember your Bible and grow or else you won’t be able to tell false teaching.

C. In chapter three.

1. Verse 1 This is my second epistle, remember my first epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder.

2. Verse 2 That you may be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and all that we, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, commanded. He wants us to remember the whole Bible.

3. Verse 5 These mockers are wilfully forgetting what God has said. It won’t go well with them.

4. In verse 6 he reminds his readers that God destroyed the world with a flood.

5. Remember that the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire.

6. Don’t forget, beloved, that time does not limit God, He isn’t slow like some count slowness, He is patient, not willing that any should perish.

7. Peter wants his readers to remember the future: The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. Remember that’s what Jesus said.

3. Peter ends his epistle with practical application.

A. If we remember that judgment and destruction are coming, what kind of people should we be? Pleasing to God: holy and godly.

B. Remember what Paul has written in his epistles. They are also Scriptures!

C. You know this beforehand—another way of saying remember. Watch out, don’t let anyone lead you away from your steadfastness. That would have to be because you’re forgetting about Jesus.

D. So ultimately, you want to grow in the grace of the Lord and the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

4. So what?

A. That’s a lot of reminders. I count roughly fourteen times Peter is reminding his readers.

B. He runs the risk of being tedious. Boring. I already heard this before.

C. But Peter doesn’t bore us because he brings us face to face with barrenness, fruitlessness, losing the way, being corrupted, judgment, destruction, mud and vomit and the elements melting with fervent heat.

D. If we forget our cleansing, our faith, what God has said, we’ll go right into that.

E. We wouldn’t do that, would we? What’s your attitude to Jesus? Are you into following Jesus, or is it a little on the boring side? The Bible is boring until you realise that you’re in trouble and you don’t know what to do.

F. The writers of the Bible assume we’re going to forget. I’ve always marvelled that the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:8) “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel.” Timothy is a pastor! Why does Paul need to remind him of that? Isn’t that why he’s a pastor? But pastors forget, don’t they? You forget, don’t you?

G. When we remember, it’s glorious. When we forget it’s a disaster. Let’s decide I want to remember Jesus. I want to remember His word. I want to make what I’ve learned before active today.

Let’s pray.