Sermon: Sunday, 1st March, 2026
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 2 Peter 1:12-15
People need reminders. If a child starts walking to school and needs to negotiate a busy road, Mum or Dad will say again and again, ‘Be careful when you are crossing the road.’ We don’t just say it once, or even once a year, but repeatedly. Why? Because it’s important. It’s because we love our children. We might give someone the expert financial advice: ‘Never spend more than you earn.’ Some people need to hear this message more than once. During Covid, because of the deadly nature of the virus, I lost count of the number of times we were told to stay indoors, to wash our hands and to wear our masks. Sometimes a reminder is given and we ignore it. At each stop, Scotrail always announce that we should mind the gap and remember to collect all our belongings. Why I left my laptop on the train, I don’t know! Clearly, I wasn’t paying attention. We get the point: important things need to be repeated as they are so important and because we can be careless and forgetful.
In this letter, Peter mentions that he will soon die. (See 2 Peter 1:14) He speaks about his body as a tent which will soon be put aside. What a beautiful reminder than our current bodies are only temporary and that one day in Heaven we will receive our ‘forever bodies’ which will be perfect. How will Peter choose to use his last words? He is an apostle of Jesus Christ and so we know he will not waste them. Will he bring us some new stories about Jesus that we have never heard before, or additional theological teachings? No! He wants to spend time reminding God’s people of core truths: ‘So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.’ (2 Peter 1:12) In verse 13, he speaks of ‘refreshing our memories’ and in verse 15 that we will ‘be able to remember these things’. Peter clearly has a ‘reminding ministry’.
What does Peter remind us about? He says he will remind us about ‘these things’ which I think includes all that he has told us thus far in this letter. Two weeks ago, we focused on the wonderful truth that God has given us his divine power which supplies us with ‘everything we need for a godly life’. Last week we were reminded of the responsibility all Christians have to grow more like Jesus. We need to work hard at that: ‘For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control…’ (2 Peter1:5-6) He reminds us (verse 9) that we must look back to the cross – we have been cleansed from past sins. He reminds us to look ahead to the future and to the welcome Jesus will give us in Heaven. He reminds us of glorious gospel truths – the most important things.
1. We need to be continually reminded of the core teachings of the faith
‘So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.’ (2 Peter 1:12) Peter is deliberately repeating things the church family already know. Why? Because it is the primary things of the faith which bring us spiritual stability and rootedness. We all need to be firmly established and confirmed in the Christian faith. Think of a tree in extreme winds. If the tree has shallow and weak roots, then the wind will knock it down. However, trees that are well rooted have much more chance of withstanding a storm. The same is truth of the Christian faith. We need to have deep roots going into the ground so that when we hear false teaching we are able to recognise it for the evil it is and stay strong in the faith. Peter’s hearers had been repeatedly exposed to false teachers. All the more reason for them to ‘know their stuff’ when it comes to the truths of Christ.
If we want to spot a fake banknote then we should spend our time studying real notes, knowing their special marks and designs; then we will be spot a false note. In Christianity, we concentrate on grace and faith and sin and salvation, so that we will not be knocked of course by false teaching. In our church, we gladly repeat that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Some Christian truths are more important than others. Repeat them!
In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes, ‘I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again…’ (Romans 15:14-15)
And to the church in Corinth he writes, ‘Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.’ (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)
The importance of receiving continual reminders is well-illustrated by the golfing great Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers of all time. What did this exceptional golfer do at the start of each season? Year after year, he went back to his first ever coach, Jack Grout, and said to him, ‘Coach, teach me to play golf.’ and Jack Grout would go over the basics of his stance and his putting and his grip and so on. That’s exactly what we need to do, spiritually speaking. For example, if we want to grow more like Jesus, we need to memorise the list we worked through last time: faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love. These are the primary things we need to focus on, in terms of Christian character. Are you doing that?
Peter wants to remind us of core truths. He wants us to go back to the basics. So does Paul. Jude also gets in on the act: ‘Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.’ (Jude 5)
As a minister, what is my job? Is it to bring new teachings to you which you have never heard of before, or is it, more often than not to remind you of things you already know? Often, we need to be reminded of what we already know. Because there is all the difference in the world between knowing what is good and actually doing it. I knew that I needed to grab all my belongings before alighting from a train, but I did not do it. We need to be stirred up by the core truths of Jesus. ‘I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder…’ (2 Peter 1:13 ESV) It is the death and resurrection and coming again of Jesus which stirs us up to a life of holiness and love and evangelism and service and worship more than anything else. Peter knows this, and that is why he brings these reminders to us. When the apostle John was in his 80s and was too frail to preach, he was carried to the front of his church in Ephesus and on numerous occasions would give a mini sermon saying: ‘Little children, love one another. Why? Because this is the Lord’s command.’ Should we ever get bored of hearing such a sermon?
I think that there’s a great danger in listening to sermons and just thinking ‘I didn’t learn anything new today’ and going home disappointed. Of course, pastor-teachers ought to make an effort to preach in a fresh way; however, much of what we do is a ministry of reminders. For example, you hear a sermon on ‘husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church’. You might already know that but perhaps the Lord wants you to hear this message again and then go home and put it into practice. Living out the core truths is what godliness is all about, not trying to increase our speculative knowledge.
2. God knows just how forgetful we are
All through the Bible, God want to help us to remember the crucial things. For example, in Deuteronomy we read: ‘Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.’ (See Deuteronomy 5:12-15) So, part of the reason we rest each Sunday, each Lord’s Day, is to remember that we were once slaves to sin, but have been set free by Jesus Christ at a high cost – his death on the cross. We are so prone to forget this foundational fact, and so God, in his wisdom, has given a whole day each week to focus on such truths. In the Psalms, there is great emphasis placed on remembering the mighty work of the LORD in the past. ‘I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.’ (Psalm 77:11)
It can be scary just how quickly we forget things and take things for granted. When I have travelled to countries where you cannot drink the tap water, I am always so thankful when I get home to be able to turn on the tap and have a cool glass of Scottish water. But how long does that last for? Just a day or two! Then I take it for granted again and don’t even think about it. When we do this spiritually it is a disaster. ‘The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.’ (Judges 3:7) In Deuteronomy, the LORD speaks to the Israelites who have just been set free from slavery in Egypt. It does not take them very long at all to pine for Egypt, to complain and to forget the goodness of God: ‘You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.’ (Deuteronomy 32:18)
That’s also why the Lord has given us the Lord’s Supper. ‘And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ (Luke 22:19) One massive truth we tend to forget is the second coming of Christ, when he comes to judge the world and usher in a perfect world. The Lord’s Supper also reminds is of this. ‘For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’ (1 Corinthians 11:26)
God knows all about us. He knows we forget, sometimes without meaning to and he knows we conveniently forget things because we want to go our own way. Friends, this makes the act of remembering core truths all the more important. Remember them at home on your own, in family worship, and by coming to church. I regularly run CCleaner on my PC. What is it? It is a system utility cleaning and optimisation software for computers and mobile devices. It removes junk files and temporary files, leftover installer files, and cookies. It frees up disk space by clearing unnecessary data. It helps to improve performance and can make a slow PC feel snappier by reducing clutter. In order to help us remember the most important things we need to learn to clear unnecessary information from our brains. Perhaps if we scrolled less on our phones and watched less TV, and instead focused on gospel truths a bit more, we would make more progress in godliness.
3. We need to be reminded of the truth
‘Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.’ (2 Peter 1:12) We need a good diet of the truth of God, and we need to digest it each day. We don’t need to gorge ourselves on trivia or on things which don’t really matter. Notice that there is such a thing as ‘truth’. The things we are remembering are not opinions, but rather God-given truths which will massively impact our lives.
For example, we must live in the light of the fact that Jesus is coming back again to judge the world and renew the earth. This is not some made up fact but is the truth. ‘For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty.’ (2 Peter 1:16) Peter saw Jesus being transfigured on earth. He saw Jesus’ face shining like the sun. This was a preview of the day when Jesus’ glory will be revealed once more – the Second Coming. Peter has seen Christ’s glory with his own eyes and so he knows Jesus is coming back! And Peter wants us to live each day in the light of that great day, living for the glory of God.