Grace and Peace
KJV Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; {to be...: Heb. to bear}
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; {to refrain from: Heb. to be far from}
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; {get: or, seek}
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
My dear friends, Grace and Peace from God our Father and from His Son Jesus Christ be unto you now and forever.
Solomon recognized very well the ebbs and flows of life and the ups and downs of life as he wrote concerning the changing seasons of life here on earth which we all experience, which are times what we live in the light of the grace and peace of God towards us. We all are quite familiar with the saying that there is a time to come and a time to go. Well, the time to go has come for my wife and I to leave our beloved congregation here in Kingston, where it has been our great great privilege to serve His people for nearly 18 years.
My wife and I are not anxious for that day of departure to come as we have grown to dearly love all the people here and who have been part of our life (such as you are also). But the time for departure is drawing near……Just as it was for Apostle Peter as is evident from this letter he wrote to those whom he had served and whom he had grown to love so dearly. He had been drawn away from his own sufficiency to the sufficiency of Christ and now as he drew near to the time to go, he wrote a letter to his people. He wanted to leave them with assurance of who they were in Christ in grace and in peace (1-4) he encouraged them to keep growing in this knowledge, (5-11) he cautioned them to not forget who God had made them through Christ (12-14) and lastly he pointed them to the necessity of relying on the scriptures as opposed to trusting in their experiences. (15-21)
Of course, we recognize that Peter was pointing to his death, while we are not looking at that eventuality at this point (we hope not), but the principles in the first chapter of his last letter are very similar in nature.
KJV 2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: {Simon: or, Symeon} {God...: Gr. of our God and Saviour}
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: {to: or, by}
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we are a new creation in Christ, the old has passed away and we are new in Christ. Romans 6 reinforces this truth as we have been joined unto Jesus so closely that He is in us and we are in Him. We no longer live in our old self, but He has implanted Himself in us, so that it is no longer we that live, but Christ who lives in us and through us. Galatians 2:20-21. This is the foundation of who we are in Christ, and the past is gone so that our past does not define our future. We are grounded in His Word and we now live for others and their benefit, primarily in an eternal sense.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. {barren: Gr. idle}
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As we grow in this knowledge of God, what He has done for us and who He has made us through Christ, our new life is lived in the imitation of God (Ephesians 5:1) as we serve others in love and in truth. As John the Baptist wrote under the leading of the Holy Spirit, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Phil 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Remember that your identity is in Christ, for by grace we live in peace.
12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.
13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,
14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Peter tells us of that which is ahead of us in glory, and since we tend to want to go back to our old ways, he says something like this. “Even though you know these things, I know that you are forgetful, so I am going to remind you that great is your reward in heaven. You have died to the power of sin (that kills you), you have been freed from the penalty of sin, but the presence of sin still lingers with you. Don’t give in to his lies, but stay connected to what the Word tells you about God and about yourself.
This is reality, not myth!
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,"
18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
He then tells of the great experience that he had in seeing Jesus transformed (He allowed the light of his glory to shine briefly through his earthly body) on the mountain along with James and John, but he (Peter) cautions them/us from putting wrongful emphasis in an experience, however great it might be.
19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
God' speaks to us by His unfailing Word.
Peter goes on to say that there is a sure word, the prophetic word of the Scriptures. The promise of the coming of Jesus was like a light shining in the darkness, waiting for the day to dawn when faith would be ignited in their hearts of the New Testament believers, them, you and I. He pointed to the Word of God as the foundation of truth which we know is not from some human being, but it is the very mouth of God which has spoken through time and which yet speaks today, powerful words of life through the Gospel. This same Word speaks to all today and speaks grace and peace to all, desiring that all who hear it are hearing the very Voice of God as spoken through human being, one in whom the divinity of God lives.
Grace is yours and by trusting in that grace which delivers unto you the forgiveness of all your sins, you have peace with God, you have peace in your heart and you live peaceable with all.
In closing, I will use a farewell greeting that I learned from one of our dear congregational members: He tells people when he is leaving them: “See you later.” I have begun to use that also as it relays tremendous faith in that it is not only saying see you some time later here earth, but it is said based upon one’s living in the grace and peace of God through Christ. So it relays the comforting message that if we do not see each other here on earth, we will certainly see each other in heaven, where never again will have to say, “see you later.”
So, see you later!!!!
Pastor Orval