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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Aron Crews

Peter’s Promise

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing us together that we can spend this time to learn something about you from your Word.

So please open our minds and hearts to show us individually.

I have 1 message, but you can tailor that message to each person here.

My talk is entitled Peter's promise Peter's promise There is a promise that Peter makes in his epistle, the second epistle, and it says this.

We're gonna get into these things in a minute, right?

But before we do, let's think about this for a second.

Has Peter said anything like this before in his life?

If you do these things you will never stumble.

Well, if you back up to Matthew 26 verse 31, Jesus had something to say there in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He said, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night.

And then impetuous Peter responded by saying, a few verses later, Peter answered and said to him, even if all are made to stumble because of you, sort of implicating the other side was like, you know, if they mess up, if they just...

Similar language, in fact, exact same phrase.

Can we trust Peter over here when he said, hey do these things and you'll never stumble, when the same Peter a few years earlier said, hey I'll never stumble, but what happened?

Jesus, in Luke's account, tells us He said to him, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail, when you do stumble, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren." There's Peter cussing, swearing, hiding, denying his Lord, and as he's doing this, Jesus is walking by and they lock eyes.

Peter, Jesus, they look and it says, "...and the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me 3 times.

So Peter went out and wept bitterly." This was Peter's biggest blunder, his greatest stumbling, his greatest fall.

No, He was restored and the account of his restoring back to his place as 1 of the leaders, sort of the vocal mouthpiece amongst the disciples, is there at the end of the book of John where Jesus asked Peter in front of many of the disciples and says, Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?

If all of these are made, all of these guys stumble, I won't.

Peter 2.0, do you love me more than these?

Of course, Peter's responses are in between.

I edited it just so you could see the three-peat, right?

And the Greek word used there, you might have heard this before, is the Greek word agape.

It's selfless, selfless, other-centered love.

Do you completely, with all of your life, love me?

Peter responds by saying, yes Lord, but notice the bolded letters...

He says, you know that I love you and the word that he used for love is phileo, alright, which is a sort of lesser love, it's more of like a brotherly, you have Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

So Peter wasn't willing to come and say, oh yes I agape you, he's a bit more humble now and he says, Lord you know that I'm doing the best I can.

You know that in my heart I don't have agape, but I love you with the best that I can.

You know that I love you." Quote here from the Desire of Ages, page 673, it says, "...in their self-confidence they denied the repeated statement of Him who knew.

They were unprepared for the test, speaking of all the disciples, when temptation should overtake them they would understand their own weakness.

When Peter said he would follow his Lord to prison and to death, he was just kidding.

This is why he said, no, no, Lord, you know, because I don't even know what I think I know about anything, but you know.

Hidden in his heart were elements of evil that circumstances would fan into life.

Jesus then responded to each 1 of these refrains, right?

And the first thing he says is, feed my lambs.

A lamb would be like a baby sheep, right?

And now I want you to notice the progression here.

So now the lamb has grown, a process of growth here, and now you're tending to it.

First it's a lamb and you're feeding it, and then it's grown up to a sheep and you're tending it, and then it grows even more, and now you keep feeding it, right?

He says I want you to continue to grow others.

And this is exactly what he said, which we already read, is when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.

He's gone through this experience of being humbled, of recognizing something in himself that he cannot trust, and saying that God is the 1 who knows, I have to utterly forsake and forget about what I know and rely totally upon Him.

And Jesus says, Now I want you to use this lesson and to learn...

You've learned this lesson, I want to use this lesson to strengthen the brethren.

2 Peter 1, here's further context here, Therefore, brethren, right, strengthen the brethren, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure for if you do these things, we still haven't found out what they are yet, you will never stumble for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

An entrance will be supplied to you abundantly, right?

You'll never stumble and you'll have this abundant entrance into heaven.

Anyone here heard of life insurance, right?

I have a job now, I have life insurance, it's kind of cool.

If you do these things, you'll never stumble and look, you'll have an abundant way paid for you to enter into the everlasting kingdom.

He goes on verse 11 or yeah verse 11 verse 12 saying, for this reason, what reason?

The reason that you will have an abundant entrance made for you into the everlasting kingdom.

I'm gonna read this emphatically because I believe that he wrote this emphatically.

I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.

Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent, as long as I'm alive, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent and die, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

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Peter’s Promise

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