JMA Missions Mid-Month November 2025
The Great Commission in the New Testament
2 Peter
2 Peter 1:2-4, 2"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
Continuing our series on the Great Commission in the New Testament, let's look at 2 Peter. There are only three chapters in this short letter, but it is packed! We have everything in here except a Great Commission, btw! I've selected three verses from ch1 which represent, imo, our inheritance in the New Covenant, and therefore what we should be teaching as commanded in the Great Commission.
There is much more in this passage, but for the sake of brevity, let's look at the phrase 'exceedingly great and precious promises' from v4. Promises are important because they are what Jesus' ministry and the New Covenant were based upon. Hebrews 8:6, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises."
7 Promises that we can live by
(This is an incomplete list. You should take the challenge to make your own list! You can't know what to believe if you don't know what He promised!)
1. The Promise of His Presence
Hebrews 13:5, "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." And from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:20b, "and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, Amen."
I can testify! I'm a witness! I have walked through valleys, and He was there with me. I have seen seasons of plenty, and seasons of just enough, and seasons of fasting, seasons of pruning, seasons of adversity, and He was there with me. And He has been with you, too.
2. The Promise of Forgiveness and Cleansing
1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The biggest word in this verse is 'if'. Sometimes people have a hard time recognizing their own sin, even when they are confronted with it! But if you will read the remainder of 2 Peter, he plainly declares sin to be sinful! It's powerful!
Proverbs 28:13, "He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy."
3. The Promise of the Holy Spirit
John 14:16-17, 16"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."
On the Day of Pentecost, this same Peter stood and declared, 'This is that", that is the promise of the Holy Spirit, poured out on us. This is not Pentecostalism; this is New Covenant.
4. The Promise of Peace
Philippians 4:7, "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Peter wrote here that grace and peace can be multiplied to us in the knowledge of God. Peace is one of the most underrated promises we have! Peace isn’t the absence of storms; it’s the presence of Christ in the middle of them. Multiplied, y’all. Not added.
5. The Promise of Provision
Philippians 4:19, "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, Jesus said that the 'man' gave to his servants, 'each according to his ability'. The promise of His provision is not about making us rich, especially in the world's way of thinking. But it is our daily bread. It is what we need when we need it, according to our ability or our level of stewardship and our calling. Listen, everybody wants to be a five talent guy, but you got one talent skill level and wonder why you ain't got no money!
6. The Promise of Power over Sin
Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."
It's not a popular teaching, but it's the truth! If you think you have to sin every day, you are wrong. If you do, there is forgiveness, which I just covered. But this is going to a different level now. Sin does not have dominion over you. It used to. It used to rule your life. But now, you belong to another! So the question is, did you get saved, or just get civilized? Paul said, 'put off the old man, and put on the new man'. It's not about perfection, it's about direction.
7. The Promise of Eternal Life
1 John 2:24-25, 24"Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life."
'Eternal life' is not only a future orientated thing that we will step into one day. If we abide in Him, and He abides in us, we are living in eternity right now. The 'zoe' life of God is ours, and we may, as Peter said in this passage, "be partakers of the divine nature".
Because He promised!
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