02/12/2018
Reading: 2 Peter 3:1-15
I grew up in Athlone and attended the local church of Ireland school which meant I was often at services in the local Church of Ireland. The only thing I can remember from all the sermons I heard was one phrase. The rector said: “We must avoid fundamentalism but get back to the fundamentals”. Fundamentalism is frowned upon these days. Muslim Fundamentalism is behind modern jihadists. Christian Fundamentalism is associated with right wing, bible thumping, sectarian judgementalism that is severely lacking in humility or grace.
It didn’t start out like this. Historically, Christian Fundamentalism originated in the early part of the 20th century as a reaction against Modernism, a form of liberalism which questioned the Bible and traditional Biblical truths. They focussed on 5 fundamentals:
- Biblical inspiration
- Virgin birth of Jesus
- Belief that Christ's death was the atonement for sin
- Bodily resurrection of Jesus
- Historical reality of the miracles of Jesus
By the end
of the 1930s, Modernism was in the ascendency but then the 1970s saw a re-emergence
of conservative Christianity.
Personally,
I believe that there are fundamental Biblical truths that we need to believe in
and attend to. If that makes me a fundamentalist, then so be it, but I’ll try
to be a gracious and humble fundamentalist as I share what I believe is
important for Christian life and witness.
There are
fundamentals in other spheres of life. There are fundamentals in marriage –
things like love, respect & fidelity – if you don’t believe and live out
these fundamentals, then your marriage will most likely fall apart. Likewise, if
you don’t believe and live out certain fundamentals of Christianity, then your
faith will most likely fall apart.
One of the
fundamentals is the resurrection of Jesus. Paul makes it quite clear in 1
Corinthians 15 that if Christ has not been raised from the dead then our faith
is futile!
I believe
another of the fundamentals is our subject this morning - the return of Jesus,
His second coming to the earth. If you don’t believe this is ever going to
happen, then you run the risk of aligning yourself with the scoffers in our
reading and they are not good company to keep. Or, you run the risk of getting
weighed down by the suffering in the world and you start thinking – why doesn’t
God do something? Maybe he doesn’t care, maybe he’s not there at all…
On the
other hand, if you firmly believe that Jesus will return in power and in
justice to end all suffering, then you have the sure and certain hope of God’s
people, who are patiently waiting for Jesus to keep His promise.
So, let’s get
stuck into 2 Peter 3:1-15. The heading in the NIV is “The Day of the Lord” and
it refers to the Second Coming of Christ and the end of this present age. The
phrase “The Day of the Lord” crops up in both Testaments in multiple places.
It’s in OT prophetic literature and it can mean a day when Israel triumphs over
its enemies or indeed when Israel’s enemies triumph over them, because of
Israel’s disobedience and spiritual adultery. Some of the OT references are
prophecies far into the future to the Second Coming of Christ. And of course,
this is the event that the NT references point to, apart from one or two that
refer to Sunday, being the Lord’s Day.
I was going
to look at this passage from 2 Peter from 3 angles. Incidentally, this is a
useful way to approach a passage in a Bible Study.
1. What does it tell us about God?
2. What does it tell us about people?
3. What does it tell us about the interaction between God and
people?
But I
realised that there was a full sermon in the first point, so I’ll have to
finish it on another day!
So,
what does this passage tell us about God?
1. God created the world
Verse 5 “… long ago by God's word the heavens existed and
the earth was formed…”
It was a perfect creation but is now tainted by the Fall.
And not only are we waiting for Jesus to return, but the whole creation is
waiting too!
Romans 8:18-21 says:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
In verses 3 and 4, we find the scoffers I referred to
earlier:
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’
At least they believed that God created the world, many
people today believe it created itself!
2. God will re-create the world
Verse 7 “By the same word the present heavens and earth are
reserved for fire…”
Peter calls this cataclysmic event “the Day of the
Lord”. You may have seen some of the
great disaster movies, like “Deep Impact” and “The day after tomorrow” – this
is much more serious than a meteor or an ice age, even more serious than the
great flood which gets a mention in verse 6. ‘By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.’
Since the original creation, there have been two major events
affecting it. The first was the Fall, which affected nature as well as
humanity. The second was the great flood which destroyed the creatures living
on the earth. We’ll look at these in more detail another time.
Whereas the earth was destroyed by water during the Flood, after which God promised not to do the same
thing again, the re-creation will happen by fire.
We had verse 7 earlier:
“By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved
for fire…”
We see fire mentioned again in verses 10 and 12.
Verse 10: the heavens will disappear with a roar; the
elements will be destroyed by fire,
and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Verse 12: That day will bring about the destruction of the
heavens [skies] by fire, and the
elements will melt in the heat.
Revelation has multiple references to fire coming down from
heaven to scorch the earth.
2 Thessalonians also talks about the Lord Jesus being revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
But as well as the destruction, we have the renewal. Verse 13 “But in keeping with his promise we
are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”
The idea of a new heaven and a new earth is prophesied in
Isaiah 65 and 66, along with Revelation 21.
3. God does not want anyone to perish during the process of destruction and renewal
God’s desire is that everyone will come to repentance and
live with Him in this renewed world. Verses 9 and 15 explain give us some
insight into why Jesus hasn’t come yet.
Verse 9: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
This doesn’t mean everyone will come to repentance, in fact many
choose to reject God.
There’s a similar thought in Verse 15 “Bear in mind that our
Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to
you with the wisdom that God gave him.
See the consistency between Peter & Paul on this point.
(the longer God waits, the more people will be saved).
There’s also a consistency with Jesus in Matthew 24 when he
talks about the end times. In order that everyone has an opportunity to repent
and be saved, Jesus said: this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
As you can imagine, we are getting close to the point where
the gospel has been preached to all nations and people groups, but we’re not
quite there yet.
4. God views time from
the perspective of eternity
Verse 8: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day.
This thought is also expressed in Psalm 90:4.
A thousand years looks different to God than it does to
us. God can accomplish in one day, what
we might expect would take a thousand years, or He can take a thousand years to
accomplish what we would like to see done in a day.
Ever since the day of Pentecost, we’ve been living in “the
last days”.
Christians in every generation since the time of the
apostles believed that they would see Jesus come again in their lifetime. Here are some examples:
Gregory I, pope from 590 to 604 AD, in a letter to a
European monarch, said: "We also wish Your Majesty to know, as we have
learned from the words of Almighty God in Holy Scriptures, that the end of the
present world is already near and that the unending Kingdom of the Saints is
approaching."
As you can imagine the year 1000 was widely believed to be
the year of Christ’s return, probably generating as much speculation as our own
Y2K.
"The Anabaptists of the early Sixteenth Century
believed that the Millennium would occur in 1533."
The great Reformer Martin Luther, predicted that the end was
imminent. According to one authority, he stated: "For my part, I am sure
that the day of judgment is just around the corner."
Our own John Wesley speculated that Christ would return by
1836 based on the writings of Johann Albrecht Bengel, a contemporary Lutheran
Pietist.
William Miller, generally credited with founding the Adventist
Church, is quoted as saying: "I am fully convinced that sometime between
March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844, according to the Jewish mode of computation
of time, Christ will come.
In 1835, Mormon leader Joseph Smith predicted the Coming of
the Lord 56 years later.
Before 1914, C. T. Russell of The Watchtower Society said
Armageddon would be finished not later than 1914, and in fact it had already started
in 1874! The Society then predicted the end would come in 1915, 1918, 1920,
1925, the 1940s, and 1975.
Hal Lindsey wrote the first edition of Late Great Planet
Earth in 1970. In it Lindsey claimed that the world would come to an end by
destruction in thermonuclear war, "within 40 years or so of [May 14,]
1948" — the date of the establishment of the modern nation of Israel.
When it didn’t happen, he kept writing. In a later book, Lindsey
stressed the importance of the 1967 "Six-Day [Arab-Israeli] War."
Although he refuses to set a precise date, he hinted that 2007 would be the
likely year for the Second Coming, with the "Rapture" occurring in
2000. When Lindsay appeared on Art Bell's Radio Program on February 9, 1999, he
insisted that Jesus would definitely come again within the lifetime of those
who witnessed Israel's statehood in 1948. He also speculated that Y2K chaos
would make a particularly good time for the appearance of the Anti-Christ, whom
he believed to be alive and living in Europe. Hal turned 89 last month and he’s still active in ministry
and has a website where he reports current events from the perspective of the End Times.
The lesson from all these failed predictions is that only God best, so we leave the timing to Him. Our
responsibility is to be ready, watchful and thankful.
To be continued…
Let’s Pray
Father we thank you for your Word that tells us about your
wisdom and your ways. We thank you that you sent Jesus to be our Saviour and
that you have commissioned us, as your church, to preach the gospel to all
nations, to give as many as possible an opportunity to repent, for it is your
will that none should perish on the Day of the Lord. We thank you for Jesus’
promise that one day He will return to earth in glory. In some ways it
frightens us because we may not feel ready just yet, and there are people we
know who are definitely not ready. We thank you that you are the God of history
and the God of the future. We thank you for your creation and the re-creation
that will result in the new heaven and the new earth, when all suffering will
cease and you will dwell with your people.
May we be ready and patient, trusting in You all the days of
our lives, for we pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
