2 Peter 3

Discussion Questions

• Are we aware that we are living in the last days? Are we living in urgent hope, or distracted apathy? How can we stir ourselves up while we wait?

• How do we balance looking forward to the glorious future while also leaning into the work that God has called us to in the here and now? Are we living like our earthly efforts have eternal significance?

• How do we react to scoffers today? Are we meeting them with patience and pointing them to the God of all grace and mercy?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. Today is no different. We are closing out our study of First and Second Peter today, what we called “A Living Hope.” Raise your hand if you’d like a copy of the Bible. We have people wandering around with bright and shining faces that would love to get Bibles to you if you’d like a paper copy to follow along with. And as always, if you want to hop on our Wi-Fi, you can look up at the screen. There’s our Wi-Fi info and password and that QR code if you want to download it to grab our notes and quotes.

Well, happy Memorial Day. It’s a little dark and cloudy, but happy Memorial Day. It’s the unofficial official beginning of summer. Right? I hope you guys have a great day tomorrow. And I say it’s high time for summer – time to roll the windows down, time to fire up the grill, time to go to the beach to do all those things that one doesn’t really care to do in January or February, but now it’s time. And I think our cicada infestation, the volumes coming down outside, I think our little red-eyed harbingers of doom, our little friends. Pastor Tommy, Dr. Bailey, is starting in on the minor prophets next week with Joel and there’s an infestation of locusts, and we’ve been laughing about what perfect timing that all is. Excuse me. So, join us next Sunday as we start that.

Well, welcome to our online congregation. Hello, friends, wherever and whenever you’re joining us, we welcome you and we’re so glad you’re with us. Last week we had people joining us from Singapore, from Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, someplace called Zeeland Charter Township in Michigan, and Nashville, Tennessee. Somebody right down the street was joining us. Welcome. Welcome. So, we’re glad you’re here with us.

Well, you might’ve noticed the title of our message for today, “Living in the Last Days, Warnings, Wisdom and Wonders of the Gospel.” And, well, that might sound either tremendously hopeful or just slightly ominous depending on how you’re wired, but we just have been talking all week in our sermon prep and in our conversations about the return of Christ. This is what all of creation is yearning for and longing for and hoping in. The idea of the end times can be hard, a little scary, hard to understand, and yet the return of Jesus is good news. It is what we’re longing for.

In the conclusion of his second letter, Peter reminds his readers that the day of the Lord will come, and that’s where we’re going to live today in this message, “Living in the Last Days.” Right about now, some of you are thinking, “Man, if I just hitched the boat to the suburban before I left the house for church, we could sneak out the back door and just head for the lake and avoid the end times conversation.” But it’s going to be good. Hang with me. We’ll make it through the passage, and I think we’re going to have some takeaways of things to think about over the weekend.

I would like to talk for just a minute about the idea of the last days and the end times to get a framework for what we’re going to talk about. For some of us, the idea of the end times, of the last days, gosh, it brings to mind Hal Lindsay’s book The Late Great Planet Earth, or if you’re a fan of some sorts of fiction, it might bring to mind the Left Behind series of books and movies. And I’ve got to ask, does anyone here, this will be a select few, I think, remember the Edgar Whisenant book, Eighty-eight Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988? Anybody remember that book?

Here’s a pro-tip, folks: If you’re writing a book about the rapture, don’t include a 48-hour time span when the rapture is going to occur because you’re going to be really sorry that you did that, which he did and had many revisions to that book. Not a good idea. And for some of us, the idea of the last days, the end times, is just utterly foreign. Right? But here’s the thing, we truly are living in the last days, but it has been the last days since the day of Pentecost in Acts, Chapter 2. And if you’ll take a look at our diagram up on the screen, over on the left-hand side, you’re going to see what Scripture refers to as the past age, which was the age between creation and the fall and the first coming of Jesus.

And then between the first and second coming of Christ is this present age, which includes the last days and the end of the ages, plural. This is where we are in the story right now, and it’s so good to know where we are in the story. And it’s also really good to know that the end of the story is glorious, and we have that to look forward to. And then as you’ll see, after the second coming, that’s called the age to come, and that will be the last day, what Peter refers to as the day of eternity, the end of the age. Seems simple. Right? Easy-peasy. Well, here’s where it gets a little sticky and tricky. Apocalyptic literature, as you know, it’s full of extremely dramatic language and vivid images, which we’ll see today in Peter’s passage, and even Jesus Himself used very, very rich, descriptive and dramatic language in Matthew, Chapter 24 when He’s referring to the end days.

And the question remains, so are these passages meant to be understood literally – stars falling, melting, the Earth dissolving – or is it figurative? And that’s where we need to apply what we call Gospel humility and honesty. Right? Meaning, we actually don’t know. And the one thing that I would encourage all of us is that whatever the events look like, whenever they occur, the ending is going to be glorious. This story has a good ending.

Some people, well, and I will say this, the fact that we don’t know the mystery, it obviously sells a lot of books and movies, doesn’t it? And some people will spend so much time on eschatological predictions that they’re forgetting to look at the eschatological promises of Jesus coming back. Some think there’s going to be a total discontinuity between the current Heavens and Earth and the new Heavens and Earth, as if this Gospel bomb is going to fall and blow up everything that currently exists replaced with a new Heavens and a new Earth.

And then some think that there’s going to be an element of continuity between our current creation and the new Heavens and the new Earth. I tend to fall into this category, still have to apply Gospel humility and honesty in that we really don’t know, but I am of the opinion, since God’s original creation was originally holy, unambiguously good, that there’s going to be a continuity between His original creation and the new glorified Heavens and Earth.

The whole goal of that Gospel is restoration, reconciliation. In his book Creation Regained, Al Wolters says it like this. This was one of our seminary professors favorite phrases, and I just love it.

“God doesn’t make junk and He doesn’t junk what He has made.”
Al Wolters, Creation Regained

And aren’t we grateful that that’s the posture that God has towards us, His beloved-yet-broken children. God doesn’t make junk and He doesn’t junk what He made, including us. Well, just in this little, short time we have here this morning, we’re going to pay attention to this because it is what the passage is about.

We don’t have time to do a deep dive. That would take a whole six-month study series or a Sunday school class, but we did compile a list of some resources for further study. So, you might take a look at these, you might either take a picture or grab them off the QR code. These are some really good solid books on eschatology and worth taking a read. I’ve read several of these and they’re just really good.

All right. Let’s pray and dive into our passage: Faithful God, we have awakened to Your new day. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. We turn to You at its threshold because we depend completely on Your strength. We have not made ourselves; we can’t keep ourselves, we could never save ourselves. And so loving God, we give ourselves to You for this day, our creator, keeper and Savior, and it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

So, open up, if you would, with me, Second Peter, Chapter 3. It’s the last chapter in his second letter. And let’s dive in. “This is now the second letter that I’m writing to you, beloved.” Peter’s going to use this phrase, beloved, four times in this chapter, and then a fifth time when he speaks of his brother Paul. He loves this group of young believers that he’s writing to, very pastoral. This is now the second letter that I’m writing to you, beloved. “In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.”

I love that he refers to Jesus as Lord and Savior and that there is a commandment given through Jesus to the apostles. There’s some weight behind what he’s saying. Verse three, “…knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing.” Haters going to hate. “…following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’”

One of the things that Peter talked about in Chapter 1, verse 14 of his second letter, is the brevity of his time on Earth. He is aware that he does not have much time left. He says, “Jesus has revealed to him the eminence of his departure, the time of putting off his body will be soon.” And if you remember pastor Ryan teaching last week from Chapter 2, he warned about false teachers and now he’s picking this up and carrying it further warning about scoffers. They’re called mockers in other translations. And, if you’ll remember, at the time of this writing, people were expecting Jesus to come back any day, the eminent return of Jesus. They would come to intersection of a road, and they’d look left and right expecting to see Jesus return at any time.

So, some of these young believers who are falling prey to the false teachers and to these mockers, they’re beginning to question, “Well, is Jesus ever coming back? I don’t see Him yet.” That’s what Peter is addressing here. So, let’s pick up in verse 5. Peter’s talking about the scoffers who were saying, “Well, same as it ever was, it’s always been this way since the beginning of creation.” And Peter says, “You’re actually kind of sawing off the limb of the tree that you’re sitting on here.”

“They deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. [Referring to the flood.] But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”

Peter has such a good knowledge of Old Testament scripture, and he’s reminding them of the creation accounts in Genesis and of the flood. Picking up in verse 8. “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day.” He’s restating Psalm 90 verse four here.

“For a thousand years in your sight, is but yesterday when it is passed or as a watch in the night.”
Psalm 90:4

And then let’s take a look at verse 9. This is one of the key verses of this whole passage. And I think this should be that something that really excites us both in our lives, and in the lives of our unbelieving neighbors. Verse 9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  Man, that is serious good news, isn’t it? That’s God’s heart for us right there.

Verse 10, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, [No man knows the hour.] and then the heavens [Here is some of this great apocalyptic language in the next couple of verses.] Then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

So, Peter’s reminding us that no man knows the hour, nor the angels in heaven, nor Jesus. Only God the Father knows the day of Jesus’ return. And verse 11 and 12, what’s our response? I’m going to talk about this a little bit later. What’s our response to knowing this? What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? And then verse 13, this is what we are waiting for. This is what Paul tells us that the whole of creation is yearning and groaning for: a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Man, that is something to look forward to.

Pick it up at verse 14. “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, [for the new heavens, the new earth] be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.” What a great thing that is. “…be found at peace and count the patience of our Lord as salvation.” That hearkens back to verse 9, the patience of God is salvation. “…just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.”

And continue on in verse 16, “…as he does [meaning Paul] in all his letters when he speaks of them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other Scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you’re not carried away with the err of lawless people and lose your own stability or your firm foundation in Christ.”

So, these two verses, I don’t think Peter is giving Paul a little dig here when he says that some of his writings are hard to understand. I think he’s just honestly saying, “Hey, some of Paul’s writing is hard to understand, but the issue is some of these scoffers are in their not understanding or twisting what Paul says to their own detriment.” And then he says, “Well, okay, I’m warning you. I warned you of false teachers. I’m warning you of scoffers. I’m warning you again, be on the lookout for these people and don’t let them twist your thinking into losing your firm foundation in Christ.”

And then the last verse, which is instead of that do this, keep your eyes open. Verse 18, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” I love that phrase, the day of eternity, when the now and the not yet are joined and all of a sudden, we are in this glorious new age. Peter’s saying in verse 18, instead of being fooled by these scoffers and false teachers, keep your eyes on Jesus. In the midst of our current culture, in the midst of false teaching, keep your eyes on Jesus. Instead of focusing on all that is broken around us, look to Christ first.

Okay. Well, so what is our “so what?” or “now what?” What can we take from this passage this week as we start our summer, as we’re grilling out, going to the lake, whatever we’re going to do that starts off our summer? I think there are three truths from this passage that really stand out, two statements and a question. And the first is this: God is sovereign over all history. And my question for us is: Do we believe that, that He is sovereign over all history?

Do we live like we believe that? Because if that statement is true, then everything has meaning. Nothing is random or meaningless. We can’t shrug things off. We’ve used this stock quote as a theme for our study of First and Second Kings, but boy, it is just quite right for our passage today.

“History is not a random series of meaningless events. It is rather a succession of periods and happenings which are under the sovereign rule of God, who is the God of history.”
John Stott

The atheist can’t make this statement because for the atheist, nothing has any transcendental or external meaning. No event, good or bad, has any objective meaning. The only meaning for anything is an individual meaning given by a person, hence the phrase “my truth.” But if a sovereign God exists, He gives meaning to all things. He assigns identity, He gives value, He gives purpose. Life and circumstance can be interpreted through a lens of His character and His will, His plan, His purpose. We find ourselves in the midst of a story here that includes us. We have our own little stories in this big story, but the story is His to write, isn’t it? And I don’t mean to imply that we don’t have agency, because we are created as morally significant creatures. We are created with agency.

He has created us to act, to have agency, to be part of His story; but it’s His story and that means that when events happen, especially when they’re difficult to understand, especially when they’re hard, we can trust that they have meaning in God’s story because it is His story. He gets to decide where it is headed, and He gets to decide when major events happen, like the creation, like the flood that Peter referred to.

He gets to decide when He calls Abraham, when He calls Moses, when He appoints David to be king of Israel. He gets to decide when it is just the right time for Jesus to appear in the flesh. He gets to decide the time and the events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. And He alone gets to decide when it is time for Jesus to return to Earth the second time and usher in the day of eternity. All things are under His control. He is sovereign over all of His history.

Leon Morris reminds us of this great truth.

“The Christian view of judgment means that history moves to a goal. Judgment means that evil will be disposed of authoritatively, decisively, finally. Judgment means that in the end God’s will be perfectly done.” So loved ones, history is moving towards a goal, a goal that belongs to the Lord because His will will be perfectly done.”
Leon Morris, The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment

The second truth that we can take away from this passage: Not only is God sovereign over all history, but included in His story is a plan for our salvation. And God is very, very patient in working out His plan. His salvation plan equals patience with purpose. Peter reminds us of this in verses eight and nine, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Man, those are good words, not wishing that any should perish and that all should reach repentance. So, friends, the Lord is not slow in fulfilling this promise, the promise to make all things right. He is not slow. He’s not inattentive. He’s not incapable. He is patient. Why is He so patient? What’s the why behind the methodology? And right here is the heart of God towards us that He does not wish that any should perish. He wishes all to come to repentance. Can I please get an amen for that? So, the scoffers in Peter’s letter, they were brazenly mocking God and asking, “Where’s the promise of His coming?” They totally, totally got this wrong, assuming that because Jesus had not returned yet that he wasn’t going to return at all. Look at how Dane Ortlund responds to the scoffers. He says,

“The real scandal of the universe is not that there is a hell, deserved by all, but that there is a heaven, offered to all.”
Dane Ortlund

Loved ones, the love of God is reckless and wild and unrestrained in the way He pursues every single one of us patiently waiting because His desire is that all should reach repentance. Heaven is offered to all, deserved by none, offered to all. The father in the parable of the Prodigal Son is the perfect example of this. His son said, “Frankly, you’re as good as dead to me. I just want my inheritance.” And he leaves. And the father is waiting and watching patiently every day for the return of his wayward son. And that one morning, he’s up out early on his morning walk wondering, “Oh, man, this might be the day.” And he looks, man, he sees a little cloud of dust on that far hill, and he sees a figure, a lone figure walking over the hill, and just by the way that figure is walking, he knows who it is because he knows that walk. He’s seen that walk and this kid from a little boy to an adult. He knows the way that person is walking, that that’s his son coming home.

He grabs his robe in this awkward and embarrassing manner. He doesn’t care who sees him and he runs as fast as he can, because that’s his son finally coming home. He can’t run fast enough to meet him and throw his arms around the boy and love him and welcome him home. That is the reckless and unrestrained love of God towards all of us. What do we do with this patient love of God? The apostle, Paul, has a similar thought that Peter had in verse nine. In Romans 2:4, Paul says,

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
Romans 2:4

Again, so good.

Friends, what are we doing with the riches of God’s kindness? I think we can easily get this back, or we interpret God’s patience for us as God’s approval rather than his patience is a means to call us to repentance. Ryan talked about this last week when he was talking about Sodom and Gomorrah. They interpreted God’s patience towards them as tacit approval of the horrid way they were living their lives and it led to their downfall. Instead, God’s kindness should have led them to repentance.

I am praying for all of us that we get a glimpse of this wild and reckless unrestrained kindness towards us, that it would lead us to repentance, not instill a fear of getting bopped over the head for poor performance, but instead leading us to repentance and returning to the Lord, and I hope this propels us to further develop relationships with our non-believing family and friends and neighbors and show this same grace and kindness and patience and pursue long relationships with people and look at that as evangelism, allowing the Holy Spirit to work through our lives, drawing those people to repentance. I’m praying that we do that.

This leads us to our last point. So, in light of these truths, God is sovereign over all history, He’s patient in His salvation plan, in light of the truth that Jesus will return. What do we do with that? How should we then live? Peter gives us several examples in this chapter, verse 11. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Did you get that?

Pastor Jim, in our sermon prep meeting earlier this week, we were talking about that verse. And Jim says, “Here we are like little ants in comparison to the magnificence of God, and yet by the way we live our lives, we get to be a part of the kingdom come of the Gospel.” That’s what Peter’s telling us here, little old us, little old me, little old you, we get to be part of the kingdom come by the way we live our lives. Anthony Hoekema says it this way in the Bible and the Future, which is on that resource list, by the way. This is such a good book. “What all this means is that we must indeed be working for a better world now, that our efforts in this life toward bringing the kingdom of Christ to fuller manifestation are of eternal significance.” What we do, how we live, actually matters.

And again, in verse 14, Peter talks about in light of waiting on the promise of the new Heavens and the new Earth, he tells us to be diligent, to be found by Him without spot or blemish and at peace. And I get being called to a life that looks different because of the way we live, but that extra little thing that Peter’s telling us to live at peace, he says we can have an effect on those around us. And frankly, he could have written that this morning, couldn’t he? That would be so helpful in our culture because we are in the midst of a culture gone crazy with anger and vitriol over every perceived slight. And in light of that, in response to that, are we at peace? Are we a non-anxious presence? Just by being a non-anxious presence to people around us, they’re going to look at us and say, “What’s different? Something’s different about you.”

And then lastly, verse 18, Peter gives us this antidote to the false teachers, to the scoffers, to all those that would convince us that God is not sovereign over history. And the idea of Jesus returning and making all things right doesn’t make any sense, that God’s not calling us to repentance. The antidote to all this is growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because if we’re growing in the grace of Jesus, we are going to exude what some people call the aroma of Christ. We’re going to exude grace to those around us. And if we’re growing in the knowledge of Jesus, we’ll have an answer for scoffers, for false teachers. We’ll know what false teaching looks like because we know what Jesus looks like.

So, my final question for us, beloved: What’s our hope? What do we really want in life? What do we yearn for? What are we longing for? Frankly, why do we believe in Christ? Why do we come to church and fellowship with other believers? Why do we weep and why do we pray? And I think it’s because we know the lack in ourselves, and we have a hint that C.S. Lewis talks about this, this beauty of something that lies just beyond us. We know that that exists. We know that it’s found in Jesus.

Kristen and I drive our cars for a long, long time. Man, we wear our cars out. Our newest car is a 10-year-old Infiniti with 220,000 miles on it. And then we have a Honda Pilot, a 2011 Honda Pilot, we bought new, and it’s got a little over 300,000 miles on it. Man, we love that car. But it was an exciting day when it turned 300,000 miles, I got to tell you. But so, when we rent a car or whatever for a trip and we drive a newer car, we’re shocked at the difference, especially in technology in older cars and newer cars, just amazing. So, the other night we were talking about this idea of the difference in the two and we were comparing the driving experience to this passage about how we get so used to our culture, we get desensitized and unaware of the brokenness that’s around us sometimes. It’s become normalized. It’s a new normal or a new abnormal. But when Jesus returns and suddenly, drastically, instantly makes all things right, can you imagine the cataclysmic shift in our reality?

I mean we don’t know how things are going to happen, but even just that right there, it’s going to be so drastic. It will seem like the stars are melting. It’s going to seem like the earth suddenly stopped turning on its axis and everything that is wrong in the world just flies off into the atmosphere and what is right and true and good and beautiful and redeemed of the Lord is what stays, we’re left with a new normal. And I think that, right in that moment we’re standing in the midst of all things, however we got there, whatever the method was in terms of the new Heavens and new Earth coming, it’s going to be so glorious that whatever ceased to be at that moment, we’re not going to think a thing about it because our eyes are going to be on Jesus.

Tish Harrison Warren says it this way.

“If we have any hope, our hope is eschatological that God will at last make this sad, old world new again.”
Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night

And man, on that great day of eternity, as we read in Revelation, Heaven will come down to earth and we’ll realize that whatever momentary suffering we’ve endured in this life, it is nothing in comparison to what lies ahead of us. For all of the newly recreated glorified things that we’ll be able to enjoy; glorified pizza, glorified fish and chips, glorified sunsets and baseball games, none of it, as glorious as that will be, none of that is going to hold a candle to being in the presence of the Lord and knowing that it is His delight to be with us.

And I’ll close with this killer quote,

“Christianity offers not merely a consolation but a restoration, not just of the life we had, but of the life we always wanted but never achieved. And because the joy will be even greater for all that evil, this means the final defeat of all those forces that would have destroyed the purpose of God in creation, namely, to live with His people in glory and delight forever.”
Tim Keller, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering

Amen. That is the beautiful end of the story that we have ahead of us.

Drew, I didn’t ask you this ahead of time, but could you put up the screen that has that memorial acclamation on it? I’d love to see if we could read that together before I pray.

Friends, would you read this with me? Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Let’s read it one more time: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Amen. Such good news. And we have a prayer team at the back. They would love to pray with and for you. If there’s anything you’d like prayer about, feel free to go back now during this last hymn or at the end of the service.

Let’s pray: God, we’re so grateful that You are writing the story of history, that we can trust You, that Your desire is that all should come to repentance, that none should perish, no matter what happens, no matter what people end up choosing. That’s the starting place. Lord, I pray that You would help us all walk in this glorious truth this week: that You love us with wild abandon, and You will pursue us, and that we can give ourselves wholly to You. We lift this up in Your name, amen.