Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00019A
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00:20 Hello and welcome to Books of the Book.
00:22 My name is Devvy Rodriguez and I'm very pleased that you're 00:25 able to join us in this very interesting Bible study. 00:28 We're studying the books of 1 and 2 Peter but today we are 00:32 continuing on our study in the book of 2 Peter. 00:36 With us is Dr. Tom Shepherd. He is a New Testament 00:39 interpretation professor at the theological seminary at Andrews 00:44 University. Dr. Shepherd, welcome. 00:46 Thank you. Good to be with you. 00:47 We have been talking about the first 11 verses of 2 Peter now 00:54 and today we'll be talking about verses 12 and on. Can you give 01:01 us a little review of what we've discussed in our previous 01:04 program? Sure. We noticed that 2 Peter 01:08 has really kind of a different direction than 1 Peter does. 01:11 Where 1 Peter is really focused on helping people face the world 01:15 how they have internal cohesion and how they fit together and 01:19 how they are to interact with people around them, in 2 Peter 01:23 the problem that he is facing is internal. There are false 01:26 teachers who are misleading people. He begins his 01:31 presentation in 2 Peter chapter 1 with a very positive message 01:37 actually about the Divine promises and he has this ladder 01:40 of virtues, a long list of very positive character traits that 01:45 he wants to see developed within the church members because he 01:50 says these will protect them from falling away or faltering 01:56 in their faith. So when we get to verse 12 he's going to start 02:02 talking about why in the world he's actually writing this 02:07 letter. Now in any of these books there's rarely kind of a 02:12 mark, a clear cut where it doesn't have any relationship to 02:17 the past, it just goes into something completely new. 02:19 Usually there's an intertwining of ideas. So what I want to do 02:24 is actually start a little before our passage. 02:26 Our passage for this study is actually verses 12-15 of 02:32 2 Peter 1. But we're going to start back in verse 8 because 02:35 there are certain terms that he uses that kind of tie the ideas 02:39 back together again. So let's start in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 02:43 8 and read all the way through verse 15. 02:47 For these things are yours and abound. You will be neither 02:51 barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 02:55 Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted even to 02:59 blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old 03:03 sins. Therefore brethren be even more diligent to make your call 03:06 and election sure. For if you do these things you will never 03:11 stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly 03:15 into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus 03:19 Christ. And read verses 12-15 as well. 03:22 Okay. For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you 03:26 always of these things that you know and are established in the 03:30 present truth. Yes, I think it is right. As long as I am in 03:33 this tent to stir you up by reminding you knowing that 03:37 shortly I must put off my tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ 03:41 showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you 03:45 always have a reminder of these things after my decease. 03:50 Now Dr. Shepherd I notice here as we begin in verses 12 and 03:54 onward, Peter mentions the word remind three times. I underlined 04:00 it here. And he says, I will not be negligent to remind, verse 04:05 13, reminding you, verse 15 reminding you of these things. 04:11 What is he reminding them of? 04:14 A lot of remembering. Because if I'm reminding someone 04:19 it's because either they have forgotten. They know about it 04:22 but they've forgotten, or they know but I know that they have 04:26 a tendency to forget so I just don't want them to forget; I'm 04:29 just reminding you. Yes. Well, actually the way 04:33 Peter has written this, he says to them that he's sending this 04:38 letter to them because he's going to depart soon and he has 04:44 written this really in the form in the ancient world of what we 04:49 would call a testament. We speak today even of a last will 04:55 and testament. It's something that you leave where it tells 05:00 how to divide up your property and what your wishes are 05:04 concerning maybe if you have children who you would prefer 05:09 that they be raised by and things like that. The testament 05:15 in the literature of his day had two characteristics. There's 05:20 reference that they know they're about to die and then they want 05:26 to teach people to remember the teaching that they have and they 05:31 want them to observe them. So you could almost say three 05:34 things you know; that I'm going to die, and these are the 05:38 teachings that I'm reminding you about and be sure to obey them 05:42 or keep them, right? This is exactly what happens here in 05:46 Peter is that you mentioned one of the characteristics about 05:51 it being reminding, reminding, reminding. And so he reminds 05:55 them of the things that he has already taught them. They have 05:58 been taught as Christians and he doesn't want them to slip away 06:03 from that. This will become also an important characteristic in 06:07 chapter three as he will face off with the false teachers 06:12 and the things he talks about them deliberately forgetting. 06:16 That's interesting because one of the commandments says 06:21 remember and I always wondered why would God begin a 06:26 commandment with remember the Sabbath day, perhaps knowing 06:29 that we might forget about it. 06:30 Might forget and that we should observe it and keep it fresh in 06:34 our minds. Now one of the things there's a phraseology there 06:38 of present truth. One of the important issues to remember 06:44 about truth is that truth is not simply a set of teachings or 06:49 doctrines that you put on a page or that you memorize with your 06:54 mind. In Peter's discussion of the truths he says they have to 06:58 become part of your life, not just in your head but in your 07:01 heart. They have to be expressed in your hands, you're saying 07:05 your actions. They have to be part of your character. Too many 07:10 times we think of doctrines simply as something we believe 07:15 and then they kind of don't have this deep rooted linkage to our 07:21 everyday life. And Peter reminds us that, yes, they are 07:25 to be an important part of our everyday life. It is not to say 07:29 that he is dismissing the idea of the importance of teachings. 07:33 He's going to emphasize in chapter three some very clear 07:38 principles and concepts. You cannot have, how should I say, 07:44 a true experience that simply has the ideas and not the 07:49 practice or on the other hand simply the practice and no 07:55 ideas. Truth has content and God's truth is ever developing. 07:59 He's showing us more things and as he does that he expects our 08:04 characters to grow and to move forward and become more like 08:09 Jesus. Okay. If we read here, Peter 08:14 talks about his or this tent. He says, I think it is right as 08:19 long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you 08:23 and he also says, I must put off my tent. Now when I read this 08:28 I'm thinking okay is that a tent? You know the first thing 08:33 that comes to my mind is a tent we use when we go camping. 08:38 Yeah. So he's writing to these people and after he finishes 08:42 his letter he must put away his tent and move on. What is he 08:46 talking about here? Okay. Peter uses some 08:50 specialized terms that we need to unpack as we look at this. 08:56 Let's just read verses 13 and 14 again. And remember this is 09:01 the testament so he's going to be talking about his death so 09:04 we'll kind of keep that in mind. Let's read verses 13 and 14 one 09:08 more time. Yes, I think it is right as long 09:10 as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you knowing that 09:15 shortly I must put off my tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ 09:19 showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure you always 09:24 have a reminder of these things after my decease. 09:27 Okay. Now I have the English Standard Version. You are using 09:31 the New King James Version. In the English Standard Version it 09:34 translates it a little bit differently. Actually yours is a 09:38 more literal translation. So this one's a little more 09:41 interpretive in verse 13. It says, I think it is right as 09:45 long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminders 09:49 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon as 09:53 our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. Now they have a little 09:59 note down below that helps to explain this. They say that the 10:07 term here for body is the word for tent. The Greek word is tent 10:14 just like yours puts it. But when people hear that 10:18 terminology they say tent; is he going camping and he's about to 10:22 leave and he's been camping out where they are. No. This is a 10:26 term that was used as a metaphoric way of speaking of 10:30 the body, but this term is used to refer to a dwelling or a 10:36 lodging or to the body itself, but it is literally the word 10:40 tent and there are two main places in the New Testament 10:45 that talk about this terminology It's here in 2 Peter chapter 1 10:50 verses 13 and 14 but also over in the book of 2 Corinthians 5 10:54 where we will go in a minute because we want to understand 10:58 what Peter is talking about. But before we go there, there's 11:03 one more term that he uses and that's the term departure. 11:07 I think yours uses the phrase decease in verse 15. 11:10 Yes, after my decease. 11:12 Yeah. So mine in verse 15 says, I will make every effort so that 11:17 after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these 11:24 things. It's interesting; the word in Greek is exodus and it 11:29 means a going out or a departure The term is used over in the 11:35 book of Luke chapter 9 verse 31. Maybe we should just go there 11:39 very quickly, Luke 9 verse 31, because it's the other use of 11:45 this term in the New Testament and just see how Luke makes use 11:50 of the term. This is at the story of the transfiguration, 11:54 which interestingly enough Peter is going to talk about shortly 11:58 in 2 Peter chapter 1. So here we have a parallel story and 12:03 the use of the same phrase. This is Luke 9 and Moses and 12:09 Elijah have come... Why don't you read verse 30 and verse 31. 12:13 And behold two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah 12:17 who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease which he was 12:22 about to accomplish at Jerusalem 12:24 Yeah, it's the same term. 12:26 Decease is the same term meaning Exodus and he's talking about 12:30 his death. His death, yeah. He's going to.. 12:34 And here they say, Behold two men were talking with him, Moses 12:37 and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure 12:41 which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem, and the term is 12:45 exodus. So the decease when Jesus was going to die on the 12:50 cross, that's what they were talking with him about. 12:54 The term exodus was used metaphorically just to refer to 12:57 a death. Most people don't like to say the term death. You know 13:03 they'll say well he passed away or he went to his final rest or 13:07 something like that. So they had different metaphors that they 13:11 would use in this ancient world and this was one of them when 13:15 you would talk about their exodus, their departure, their 13:19 decease which is a fine way to translate it. 13:22 Well Dr. Shepherd I want to keep hearing more about this exodus 13:26 or this departure after we return after a short break. |
Revised 2014-12-17