Peter: The Importance of People to God
Lesson 10

Lesson Ten

The Importance of Remembering

Text: 2 Peter 1:12-21

As we age, our "forgetter" works with increasing effectiveness, and our "rememberer" works with decreasing effectiveness! How often do you encounter a subject only to be reminded, "I knew much more about that a few years ago!" How often do you encounter a matter with an emphatic, "I never knew anything about that" only to recall later you knew about the matter sometime in the past. Unfortunately, forgetting gets easier and remembering gets harder.

Spiritually (and in other matters), an important part of wisdom is perspective. An essential part of perspective is remembering. Having experience contributes powerfully to life's lessons if the person remembers. Extreme forgetfulness curses one's life with ignorance. It is as though there were no experiences so there can be no wisdom.

A part of leading people in spiritual development must include reminding. The responsibility of reminding can be quite frustrating to the person leading. There always will need to be a good, effective balance between discovery and recall.

In today's text, Peter did not resent the need to remind his readers. With his previous emphasis, he reminded them of the privileges God gave them in Christ and their responsibility to spiritually develop. He knew they knew the things he said. As long as he lived, he was determined to remind them in motivating ways. Peter knew he would die soon. That was far more than a personal opinion. It was a revelation from none other than Jesus Christ. He considered stimulating their memory an important thing to do with his limited time.

Why? When he died, he wanted them to remember the matters that he stressed to them. It would be impossible for them to remember Peter and fail to remember the matters that he stressed. Bottom line, what did he want them to remember? He wanted them to remember the foundation of their faith was not build on fantasy, but on reality.

Jesus' identity was confirmed to Peter (with James and John) on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36). In the transfiguration, Jesus spoke to Moses and Elijah. Moses represented the law which Israel followed. That law served as the core of the Jews' personal and national behavior. Elijah represented the prophets. The prophets commonly made ethical application of the law to people who misinterpreted and misapplied the law. The point: if one wanted to know God's will, listen to Jesus. Jesus was superior to Moses or Elijah (an incredible statement when it was made!) or to what each person represented (an equally incredible statement!). This was not the declaration that Moses or Elijah were without divine authority or were false witnesses. It was the affirmation that Jesus was superior to law or to the past prophetic voice.

Peter's point was simple: This actually happened! God actually affirmed who Jesus was and His pleasure in what Jesus did! This was not some imaginative tale they created to support their message. God actually spoke! They actually understood what God said! God Himself affirmed Jesus' majestic glory! "We heard the voice!"

It was God affirming the prophetic voice! There could be no doubt concerning Jesus' identity--he was God's son! God himself confirmed that truth! [In the last half of the first century, there was much discussion of Jesus' nature/identity. If Jesus were divine, how did that truth affect his humanity while he was on earth? With their concept of divinity {the physical is evil and the divine is good, the two cannot associate}, many had real difficulty accepting as fact that the divine could be incarnated as the actual physical.] Note in context here, the prophetic voice is associated with God's utterance.

God's utterance was not to be confined to God speaking on the Mount of Transfiguration. God spoke through scripture. People (we) do well to heed scripture. Scripture is compared to light shining in our hearts in the darkness occurring just before dawn.

Peter then pointed to a problem occurring in every age. The problem: An individual human saying that God's word means ... Since scripture contains God's voice, the challenge is to listen to God instead of assigning scripture a human meaning. When people wrote scripture, the Holy Spirit was at work in them speaking from God. Since scripture is God speaking, scripture draws its meaning from God, not from a human. It is challenging to study to listen to God rather than making scripture say what we as humans wish so scripture follows or confirms our human agenda.

God values humans so much that He (a) sent us His son, (b) confirmed the identify of His son, and (c) continues to speak to us through scripture.

For Thought and Discussion

  1. As we age, what works with increasing effectiveness? With decreasing effectiveness?

  2. What is an important part of wisdom?

  3. What is an essential part of perspective?

  4. What is the curse of extreme forgetfulness?

  5. What can be quite frustrating to a person who leads?

  6. In today's text, Peter did not resent what?

  7. What was Peter determined to do as long as he lived?

  8. What did Peter know?

  9. When Peter died, what did Peter want these readers to remember?

  10. In the transfiguration, to whom did Jesus speak?

  11. Jesus was superior to what two things?

  12. What was Peter's point?

  13. There could be no doubt concerning what?

  14. Where else did God speak?

  15. What problem occurs in every age?

  16. Give three facts that confirm how much God cares for humans.


Link to Teacher's Guide Lesson 10

Copyright © 2007
David Chadwell & West-Ark Church of Christ

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