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All throughout the New Testament, the Christian life is compared to walking. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith and not by sight. Galatians 5:16 commands us to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Ephesians 5:2 tells us to walk in love. 5:8 tells us to walk as children of light. 5:15 tells us to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Colossians 1:10 tells us to walk worthy of the Lord and Colossians 2:6 tells us to walk in Him. 1 Thessalonians 4:1 tells us that our walk is to please God. Verse 12 says that we are to walk honestly. 1 John says that we are to walk in the light and we are to walk in the same way that Jesus walked. 2 John 6 says, “And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.” 3 John praises Christians who are walking in the truth. And those are just a few of the references. So, however you might describe the Christian life, the Bible describes it as a walk. The question is, why? Why does the Bible consistently describe the Christian life as a walk? Think about what a walk is. A walk is a slow, steady, consistent movement from one place to another. A walk moves you from the place where you once were, to the place where you’re going. A walk is constant. It is continual. It is consistent. It is a moment-by-moment, day-by-day, willful effort to place one foot in front of the other to get to your destination. It’s interesting that of all the times that the Christian life is described as a walk… it is never described as “having arrived.” That’s encouraging to me. All my life, I’ve looked around and seen people that I’ve thought had it all together. I think, “If I just knew the Bible the way that they do, I’d have arrived.” “If I had their prayer life, I’d have it all together.” “If I had their personality, or upbringing or education, I wouldn’t have all these daily struggles.” The fact is, we’ve all had people we’ve seen like that. But do you know what? Those people are in the middle of a walk just like you are. They might be just a little bit ahead—but they’re walking just like you are. The key is, just keep walking. As soon as Jesus saves you, start walking and don’t stop. Sometimes you’ll take a step or two backwards. Sometimes you might stumble. Sometimes you might trip and fall. But that doesn’t mean you need to quit walking. A stumble or trip or misstep along the way doesn’t stop your walk. Just get up and place one foot in front of the other. Just get up and start walking again. That’s what is so wonderful about the life of Peter. Even with all of the missteps and stumbles along the way, Peter never quit walking.
Peter wrote the passage we just read toward the end of his life. This was during the time of the Emperor Nero’s cruel persecution of Christians. He was probably in prison in Rome when he wrote it. He knew the death sentence was hanging over his head. He remembered Jesus words many years before that are recorded in John 21:18. Jesus prophesied about Peter’s death when He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” Peter knew that he was getting ready to be led to a place that he didn’t want to go. He was going to be led to a place where executioners would stretch forth his hands and nail them to a Roman cross. Peter’s walk was about to be complete. He was about to reach his destination. His journey on earth was almost complete and his prize was waiting. He was about to meet Jesus face to face once again. But this time, he was going to meet Him in all His glory. I’m sure that’s what brought to mind the event he wrote about in verses 16-18. As he thinks about seeing Jesus in His glory, he can’t help but remember the time when he caught a glimpse of that glory on the mount of transfiguration. I’m sure that wasn’t the only memory that came to mind. I’m sure that memories were flooding his mind as he was writing this last letter. That’s why he said what he did in verse 15. He said, “I don’t want to just remember these things for myself. After I’m gone, I want you to remember them.” “Remember my struggles.” “Remember my walk.” “And as you do, remember what it was that sustained me each step along the way.” That’s what we’re going to do this morning. We’re going to remember four things that sustained Peter along his walk. And as we do, we can see how those things will sustain us as well.
The first thing that sustained Peter along his walk was prayer. Week before last, we talked about how Jesus restored Peter after he had denied Him. After the crucifixion and resurrection, Peter had returned to his fishing business. Jesus sought him out and restored him. Three times, Jesus asked him, “Peter, do you love Me?” And three times, Peter responded that he did. After each time that Peter responded to Jesus, Jesus told him to feed His sheep. Finally, after Jesus prophesied Peter’s death to him, He said the same words He had said to him early on. Jesus looked at Peter and renewed His call. He said, “Follow Me.” So Peter started walking again. He had taken a huge step backward. He had publicly denied even knowing Christ. He had stumbled. He had fallen. But Jesus picked him up and got him back on his feet again. And now, Jesus told him, it was time to start walking again. The next time we see Peter in Scripture is in Acts 1. Immediately after Jesus ascended back to heaven, we find Peter in verses 12-14: “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” And that wasn’t just a one-time event. Prayer continually attended Peter’s walk with Christ. Sometimes those prayers were powerfully answered. Sometimes they were answered with miracles of healing. Sometimes they were answered by his miraculous release from prison. Sometimes they were answered with miracles of thousands of people being saved. God answered Peter’s prayers just like He answers your prayers. And those prayers sustained Peter in his Christian walk. Now, notice I said that God answered Peter’s prayers. He did—it’s just that God didn’t always answer them in the way that Peter might have liked. Sometimes Peter got a yes answer. Sometimes he got a no answer. Sometimes he got a “later” answer. But just like anyone who is saved by the blood of Jesus, God heard and answered Peter’s prayers. Prayer sustained Peter in his Christian walk. Prayer will sustain you as well. He was also sustained by proclamation.
The second thing that sustained Peter along his walk was proclamation. Later on in the book of Acts, we get to see one of the things Peter was praying for. Acts 4:29 says, “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.” It was a miracle that led up to this prayer. In Jesus’ name, Peter and John healed a man who had been lame since birth. It was in the temple, so it attracted the attention of the Sadducees who threw them in prison. The next day, the Jews convened the Sanhedrin to put Peter and John on trial. Their ruling was simple. Quit proclaiming the Gospel. Of course they couldn’t do that. They said that they had to obey God rather than man. And rather than stir up the crowd, the Sanhedrin released them. That was what brought on that prayer in Acts 4:29. Did Peter pray that the Lord would stop the persecution? Did he pray that the Lord would make their walk easy? No, he prayed that the Lord would give him boldness to proclaim the Gospel. Prayer sustained Peter and proclamation sustained him. Every step along his walk with Christ, Peter proclaimed the Gospel. Sometimes the Lord gave him amazing results. 3000 people were saved at his first public proclamation. Later on, the total grew to 5000. But even with those incredible results, Peter’s proclamation wasn’t always perfect. Sometimes he stumbled. Sometimes he took a step backwards. Later on in Galatians 2:11-14, we see where Paul confronted Peter to his face. Paul was so upset that he said that Peter stood condemned and accused him of hypocrisy. In verse 14, he said that Peter wasn’t being straightforward about the truth of the Gospel. You see, Peter had begun to withdraw himself from the Gentiles. He had begun to join up with the Judaizers who were demanding that Gentiles needed to follow certain aspects of the Jewish law in order to be saved. His proclamation wasn’t matching his actions. He was adding things to the Gospel he was proclaiming. That was a stumble. It was a step backwards. But after Paul confronted him, Peter got back up. He got back up and started walking again. Even though he messed up and took a step back along the way, proclamation sustained Peter in his Christian walk. Proclamation will sustain you too. You might mess up along the way. You might miss an open door. You might have even messed up your message with your actions. Get back up. Start walking again. Proclamation will sustain you in your Christian walk. So will protection.
The third thing that sustained Peter along his walk was protection. The Lord protected Peter. One of the most dramatic examples of the Lord’s protection is found in Acts 12. You’re familiar with the event. Herod Agrippa I had begun to persecute the church to try to get some political points with the Jews. The high point of his persecution so far was to kill James, the brother of John. That really rallied the Jews behind him, so his next target was Peter. He drug Peter off to prison and was planning on executing him after the Passover. When that happened, you remember what the church did? Acts 12:5 says that they were praying unceasingly for Peter’s protection. And the Lord granted their prayer. He sent an angel into the prison to wake Peter up and lead him out. The chains fell off his hands, the two soldiers he was chained to didn’t wake up, the gates opened in front of them, and the next thing Peter knew, he was standing in the middle of the street as a free man. Verse 11 says, “And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.” The Lord protected Peter. He delivered him from trouble and rescued him. But did it always happen like that? No, it didn’t. Because Peter’s life was ended as a result of persecution. As I said earlier, 2 Peter was written from prison in Rome. The Lord didn’t deliver him from that prison. He didn’t protect him from what awaited him after he wrote 2 Peter. The Lord allowed Peter to be crucified upside down next to his wife. But even in those times. The Lord never left Peter. The Lord never forsook Peter. The Lord’s protection sustained Peter along his Christian walk just as His protection will sustain you. Sometimes His protection will look like a miraculous prison rescue to you. But sometimes His protection will look like grace to enable you to make it through your trials. Keep walking. Don’t allow the trials and troubles to set you back. Walk. One foot in front of the other. The Lord’s protection will sustain you in your Christian walk.
But here’s the difficult thing. We’ve seen how prayer and proclamation and the Lord’s protection will sustain us in our Christian walk. But each one of those things is variable. Like prayer. Sometimes the Lord answers our prayers with a yes. But sometimes He answers us with a no or a not yet. That has the potential to affect our walk, doesn’t it? And proclamation. Sometimes we are faithful to proclaim the Gospel the way we should. But many times we aren’t. We all have times where we aren’t as bold as we should be. We all have times when we miss opportunities. Those times can affect our walk, can’t they? And then there’s the Lord’s protection. We’re never outside of His protection. But sometimes it can feel like it. We can get sick. We can get cancer. We can lose our jobs. We can be persecuted. Sometime, we might even be martyred. Those times can seem like the Lord has stopped protecting us, can’t they? They can affect our walk, can’t they? At times, all of those things sustained Peter’s walk. And at times, they had the potential to cause him to miss a step. That’s why, in this passage in 2 Peter, he doesn’t reflect on any of those things. Peter stumbled and faced setbacks in prayer, in proclamation, and in protection. But even when he might have stumbled in each of those areas, there was one sure rock he held on to. He talks about that in verses 19-21.
2 Peter 1:19-21
As Peter looked back on his Christian walk, he realized that there was one constant. There was one thing that picked him up every time he stumbled. There was one thing that corrected him and pointed him in the right direction every time he took a step backward. That was the Word of God. In verse 19, he called it a “more sure word of prophesy.” In other words, the prophetic Word of God was more sure than anything else. It is more sure than his prayer life. It was more sure than his reliability of proclaiming the Gospel. It was more sure than his perception of the Lord’s protection. Notice the context he puts it in. Peter is even saying that the Word of God is even more sure than his personal experience of seeing Jesus transfigured on the mountain all those years ago. You see, you can doubt your experience. You can stumble in your prayer life. You can trip up in your proclamation of the Gospel. You can falter in the way you see God’s protection in your life. But throughout all of those faltering and stumbles, this Bible will be a light that shines in dark places. It will be the light that sustains you. It will be the lamp unto your feet. It will be the light unto your path. The Word of God will sustain you every step along the way in your Christian walk.
If you knew that you were at the end of your life this morning, what would you be able to look back and remember? What has your walk with Christ looked like? Do you even have a walk with Christ? I can tell you that if you look back and see no evidence of prayer, proclamation, protection and prophesy—you don’t. I can also tell you that you need to. You can begin that walk this morning. If the Spirit of God is telling you that you need to be saved this morning, all you have to do is take that first step. If you take that first step, He’ll walk with you. If you are saved this morning, maybe you need to look back and remember. What does your walk look like right now? Are you stumbling? Are you backtracking? There’s no such thing as standing still. Either you’re walking forward with Christ, or you’re walking away from Him. Do you need to change direction this morning? Do you need to turn back to Him? You can do that today. Just put one foot out in front of the other. Take the first step in His direction. Will you do that today?
