Righteous Judgement Part 1
It's not all about you!
You've probably wanted to tell someone that at some point. Well, you probably didn't just want to tell them—you probably wanted to yell it at them. I know I've felt this way.
As I was reflecting and talking with leaders this week, I realized something that we often forget: Not only is it not all about me, but not everyone has my experience and history. As we dove into 2 Peter chapter 2:3–9, Peter highlighted four ways God's righteous judgment was poured out upon sin, and he used two key stories to do it. The stories he shared from the Old Testament—that his audience would have been extremely familiar with—were ones I grew up with as well. But it hit me that just because I've known them doesn't mean you have! Peter didn't just use stories they knew; he made reference to a common book, the book of Enoch, which it appears these false teachers were using to continue teaching their heresy—and his audience would have known it.
Context is so important. So over the next couple of weeks, I want to share some of that context with you! We're going to learn this weekend what the first part of Peter's story is meant to tell us: "It's not all about you."
2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment..."
Now, I can't possibly cover this in an blog. Try an 8-week graduate-level course, but here is the email version.
At some point, there were angels who sinned, leaving their positions of dominion to indulge in their lust. The lust they had was a lust for worship. There is much to go into here throughout the entirety of Scripture. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, references this same thing from 2 Peter here; Ezekiel parallels the fall of the King of Tyre with the fall of Satan here; similarly, Isaiah prophesies about Babylon, giving another glimpse with a parallel here; and Jesus says he saw Satan fall here.
These give us a glimpse into the sin being a lust for worship, but the story Peter references is from Genesis 6, happening right before the flood—which helps to make Peter's point abundantly clear:
Genesis 6:1-4 "1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."
Again, this would be an 8-week course to break down what all of this means. But how crazy is it that these things are in Scripture? One thing I hope you get from reading all of this is that the Bible has tons and tons of amazing, wild, crazy, incomprehensible, sweet, awful, NSFW, and wonderful stories all throughout it. It's the most raw, real, authentic book in history—probably why it's an all-time bestseller—and it happens to be true.
So what is the short version of what we need to know? Well, false teachers, quoting from this moment in Genesis 6, were puffing themselves up by belittling the angels. Through all the available context, we can see that part of these false teachers' messages involved combining Genesis with the Book of Enoch—all to prove that they were amazing, and that even if they had a shortcoming or failure (especially one of sexual sin), well, God forgives. Peter's point?
If God didn't spare the angels, he's not going to spare people who claim God's grace but live in a way that spits in His face.
Peter's letter was one big "IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU" to these false teachers who wanted everything to be all about them, because they wanted worship and adoration rather than to give worship and adoration to God.
In fact, we see more of this as Peter describes their character in verses 10–13, which is exactly what I taught on here. I hope this helps you gain some context on the first part of some amazing stories. I'm looking forward to sharing the rest of the stories in the post to come.
You've probably wanted to tell someone that at some point. Well, you probably didn't just want to tell them—you probably wanted to yell it at them. I know I've felt this way.
As I was reflecting and talking with leaders this week, I realized something that we often forget: Not only is it not all about me, but not everyone has my experience and history. As we dove into 2 Peter chapter 2:3–9, Peter highlighted four ways God's righteous judgment was poured out upon sin, and he used two key stories to do it. The stories he shared from the Old Testament—that his audience would have been extremely familiar with—were ones I grew up with as well. But it hit me that just because I've known them doesn't mean you have! Peter didn't just use stories they knew; he made reference to a common book, the book of Enoch, which it appears these false teachers were using to continue teaching their heresy—and his audience would have known it.
Context is so important. So over the next couple of weeks, I want to share some of that context with you! We're going to learn this weekend what the first part of Peter's story is meant to tell us: "It's not all about you."
2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment..."
Now, I can't possibly cover this in an blog. Try an 8-week graduate-level course, but here is the email version.
At some point, there were angels who sinned, leaving their positions of dominion to indulge in their lust. The lust they had was a lust for worship. There is much to go into here throughout the entirety of Scripture. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, references this same thing from 2 Peter here; Ezekiel parallels the fall of the King of Tyre with the fall of Satan here; similarly, Isaiah prophesies about Babylon, giving another glimpse with a parallel here; and Jesus says he saw Satan fall here.
These give us a glimpse into the sin being a lust for worship, but the story Peter references is from Genesis 6, happening right before the flood—which helps to make Peter's point abundantly clear:
Genesis 6:1-4 "1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown."
Again, this would be an 8-week course to break down what all of this means. But how crazy is it that these things are in Scripture? One thing I hope you get from reading all of this is that the Bible has tons and tons of amazing, wild, crazy, incomprehensible, sweet, awful, NSFW, and wonderful stories all throughout it. It's the most raw, real, authentic book in history—probably why it's an all-time bestseller—and it happens to be true.
So what is the short version of what we need to know? Well, false teachers, quoting from this moment in Genesis 6, were puffing themselves up by belittling the angels. Through all the available context, we can see that part of these false teachers' messages involved combining Genesis with the Book of Enoch—all to prove that they were amazing, and that even if they had a shortcoming or failure (especially one of sexual sin), well, God forgives. Peter's point?
If God didn't spare the angels, he's not going to spare people who claim God's grace but live in a way that spits in His face.
Peter's letter was one big "IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU" to these false teachers who wanted everything to be all about them, because they wanted worship and adoration rather than to give worship and adoration to God.
In fact, we see more of this as Peter describes their character in verses 10–13, which is exactly what I taught on here. I hope this helps you gain some context on the first part of some amazing stories. I'm looking forward to sharing the rest of the stories in the post to come.
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