Sermon: Sunday, 15th February, 2026
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 2 Peter 1:1-4
How would you like to be remembered when you leave this world? What would you like your eulogy or epitaph to be? Would it be that you were a beloved mother or father or a devoted friend? That would be a good thing, were it true. Or would it be simply ‘A life well lived’? But what is a life that is well lived? Surely, as Christians we should want our epitaph to be something like: ‘Saved by God’s grace, and by God’s strength lived a godly life.’ There’s something which matters much more than what others think of our lives and that is what God thinks of them. After all, we are answerable to God and God alone. He is our Judge and no one else. What does God want for us? He wants us to trust in Jesus and then live a godly life. In other words, he wants us to increasingly think and act as Jesus did. He wants us to live a life of love towards others and towards God. Is that what you are aiming at? If not, it ought to be! God’s plan for Christians is that we should live godly lives. ‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…’ (Romans 8:29)
1. The power available
Now, that’s easy for me to stand up and preach that we should be living in a godly way. But this might feel like an extra crushing burden. Life is hard enough, and now I need to attain some level of godliness that just seems beyond me. Perhaps you feel that there’s no way you can achieve this. Well, in a sense you’re right. You cannot on your own. But God never calls us to something without equipping us for it. ‘His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.’ (2 Peter 1:3) This is a wonderful truth. Everything you could ever need to become a more loving person, do good, obey God, resist temptation and become more like Jesus is freely available to us from God. Such is the generosity of God.
This does not mean God gives us everything we want or that he gives us everything we think we need to follow him. But it does mean that God supplies the power we need to grow in faith and love and to follow Jesus closely. This means that Christians must never say: ‘I cannot change.’ We must not say: ‘I cannot stop this particular sin.’ or ‘I will never be able to forgive this person.’ The power for these things is available. The question is, are we going to receive this power from Jesus, through the channels that he has appointed.
Jerry Bridges: ‘Jesus did not just die to save us from the penalty of sin or even just to make us holy in our standing before God. He died to purify for Himself a people eager to obey him, a people eager to be transformed into his likeness.’
Friends, this is a gradual process. Imagine buying up an old house in poor condition. It is a ‘doer upper’. Room by room we will redecorate, and over time it will become a better place to live. That’s a good picture of the Christian life. It’s as if God provides us with the paint and tools, the wallpaper and new carpets, but he expects us to co-operate and to make the effort to change. We have the resources available. ‘His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life…’ (2 Peter 1:3) We have the Bible and prayer and the church family.
2. Accessing power through knowing Jesus
If you have an electric car, you need to plug in to a charging station, or you need to have a home charger. We recharge our phones on a daily basis. But where do Christians ‘plug into’? We plug into a person. This is not something mechanical- it is about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive power from a person and that person is Jesus. Let’s look again at verse 3: ‘His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him…’ (2 Peter 1:3) The key phrase here is ‘our knowledge of Jesus’. We must understand that this does not just mean knowing facts about Jesus. That is part of it, but it is not enough. Remember that James tells us: ‘You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.’ (James 2:19) Knowing Jesus in this context means knowing Jesus as our Saviour and King or Lord. It moves beyond just knowing facts about Jesus to actually trusting in him and what he has done for the world for ourselves.
For example, we might know the fact that Jesus died on the cross for sinners. But even the Devil knows that. ‘Knowing Jesus’ means believing that he died on the cross for us. It is personal trust. It is believing that Jesus lived a perfect life on earth for us. Being a Christian is trusting what Jesus has done for us. Knowledge of or knowing Jesus is a phrase which occurs 13 times in 2 Peter, so it’s crucial we understand that it means coming to know Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. And those who know him as Saviour and Lord receive power from him.
In verse 1, Peter gives Jesus a glorious title: ‘our God and Saviour Jesus Christ’. This is knowledge we need about Jesus which helps us to trust in him. He is the Creator of all things. He is God. But he is also the Saviour and only Saviour of the world. No one else has died for sinners. Once we have these facts, the question is, are we prepared to trust in them in a personal way. Before we board a plane, we might know that all the pilots of the airline have been highly trained. But if we are going to trust the pilot, then we need to get on the plane. The same is true of Jesus. We can know the core facts about him, but we need to entrust our own lives to him by prayer. We talk to Jesus in prayer and thank him for dying for our wrongdoing and tell him we want to be his loyal subjects. He is a wonderful King.
Something wonderful happens when we trust in Jesus Christ for ourselves. In a spiritual sense, we become united to him through faith. Jesus gives us a beautiful picture of this in John’s gospel: ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’ (John 15:5) Note, without Jesus, we do not have the power to make changes to our hearts. The branches receive power and energy and sap to be fruitful from the vine. Jesus himself is the vine. It is as we depend on him and ask him for help that we receive power to do things which we would never be able to do on our own.
When we become Christians, we come to the point when we realise we cannot cope on our own. We owe God a huge spiritual debt because of our sin and we know we cannot pay this debt. We ask God to forgive, not based on our deserving this, but instead based on his mercy. That is the beginning- going to Jesus and asking for grace – favour which we do not deserve. But the whole of the Christian life carries on like this. Each day we return to Jesus and ask for his help with everything. Let’s think of some concrete examples.
Someone has hurt you and let you down. You are struggling to forgive them in your heart. What should you do? We need to pray. We pray ‘Lord, please soften my heart and enable me to forgive them, just as you have forgiven me’. And Jesus will give us the power to do it. On our own, we cannot.
Or, you keep giving into temptation watching inappropriate things on TV or on your phone. You feel guilty and try to stop, but you seem to give in again and again. Should we give up and say ‘I can’t stop this behaviour’? No, pray for forgiveness and for power to change. He will supply us with ‘his divine power’.
We are trying to grow as a church and are finding it discouraging. There are few conversions and apathy for Christian teaching. We seem so fragile. What should be our perspective to the current weakness of the church. We should press on, trusting that as we continue to be faithful and continue to obey Jesus and continue to witness for him, God will empower us. We specifically ask him in prayer to be at work in our church.
You never feel satisfied, no matter how much you have. And more and more you are falling out with people, even in church. What do you need to do? ‘What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.’ (James 4:1-2) Ask God to find satisfaction in Jesus, the bread of life!
Another wonderful aspect of the power God gives us is seen in Romans: ‘Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.’ (Romans 8:8-9) This means that when we trust in Jesus, in a supernatural way, his Spirit comes to dwell within us, helping us each and every day. ‘… for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.’ (Philippians 2:13)
3. Accessing power through God’s promises
‘Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.’ (2 Peter 1:4)
How does God’s power flow into us as we trust in his promises? We might be anxious about a work problem or a family problem or medical diagnosis. We are scared about what lies ahead. ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 4:6-7) As we pray about our circumstances and entrust them to God, our anxiety is replaced by God’s peace. This is God’s power at work though his promises. This peace ‘surpasses all understanding’ and acts as a guard over the believer’s heart and mind, protecting them from the turmoil around them.
Perhaps you are married but are beginning to become attracted to someone at work. God’s promise is that: ‘No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.’ (1 Corinthians 10:13) What a help! God provides a way of escape, and through his help, you can resist wrong desires and live in victory.
You may feel like a rubbish witness to Jesus and find it hard to invite your neighbours to Meal with a Message. Then you read the promise in Acts: ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ (Acts 1:8) We trust that as we go on witnessing, God will be with us.
When we believe his promises, the power of God flows into our lives. Each promise in the Bible serves to strengthen, encourage, guide, and provide for us. By standing on these promises in faith, we receive God’s limitless power, which transforms our lives, helps us to persevere in hardship, and enables us to walk in his will. When Christians act on God’s promises in the Bible, they are not relying on their own abilities but on his faithful character and mighty power.
As we experience more of God’s power, Peter tells us that we ‘participate in the divine nature’. Of course, this does not mean that we ourselves become divine; there is always the Creator and creature divide in the universe. But it does mean that we come to share in some essential qualities of God himself. We share more in love and faithfulness and gentleness and mercy and joy. What a wonderful thing!
If we’re honest, sometimes we think negatively as Christians. We can become stagnant in our faith. We can get stuck in a rut and no longer even think about growing more like Jesus. That seems a million miles away. God wants to remind us as our heavenly Father that transformation is possible, if we stop looking inwardly or even to others as the prime source of help. Instead, humbly receive the help of God, praying to Jesus for the power to change and trusting in his promises.