16th February 2014, Passage:
2 Peter 3:11-14
How does the knowledge about Christ’s
coming affect you? What about the eminent end of all things, how does it impact
you? God will soon bring the created order into an end in order to fully do
away with sin and have a eternal community of a people who truly and
spiritually worship Him. Now this should cause us to think clearly about this
awful truth. Yes, we are all apprehensive about such a future.
This is the question
that the Apostle brings to our attention –
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.
This is the most
serious matter. It is something that we must very seriously consider. We must
not be slothful, negligent or careless in these matters. We are to be prepared
for it, so that we are not taken by surprise when it will come. There are
expectations that God has for us in furnishing us with this sort of
information. God will not just give information that has not purpose. He is
giving us this information so that we may be a specific sort of people. So,
what sort of people ought we to be in view of this?
1)
We
must be waiting expectantly for this great Day
2)
We
must be preparing for it!
3)
We
must be hastening its coming!
1.
We must be waiting
expectantly for this great Day
The problem of the
ungodly is that they have great regard for the coming of this great Day. They
wish it away – yes they ignore it. They are not waiting for it. Instead they
think that by burying their heads on the sand, it will never come. They scoff
at it as we have already seen. They listen to the false teachers who scoff at
it. The result is that they will be caught unawares to the peril of their
souls.
However for us as
believers, we must be different. The Lord has revealed these things for our
sake. It is a period of grace so that as we reflect on what will become of us
we may be focused on Christ and not what we can and can’t do because it is all
done on the cross for us. Peter has already told us that the Day will come upon
us suddenly like a thief. This is something that Paul also so emphatically
asserts in 1Thess. 5:2. What shall do in expectation of this unexpected
suddenness?
In expectation, a
very high level of alertness is expected of us. Imagine you are on the track,
just about to take a 100M sprint… the referee says, “On your marks!” and
everyone takes his position. Then he shouts, “Get ready!” At this level being
ready, you are to be on high alert for the next instruction. At this point you
can’t afford to close your eyes… or to lose focus. We are always being told
that the government is on high alert because of the terrorism threat. The
security apparatus are ready for a slight indication of a terrorist. The
government is in great expectation of a possibility of threat. This is what the
Lord is telling us about – be on high alert.
Notice how Peter
repeats that we must be waiting (vv.12, 13 & 14). This word can also be
translated ‘looking’ like the way Peter required the man who was sat at the
beautiful gate with a disability, “Look
at us,” Peter told him. This man, we are told, “Fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.”
(Acts 3:4,5). So we are expected to, be expecting, to be looking, to be waiting
for. Yes we are to live always anticipating that something great and remarkably
wonderful to happen.
Our great problem is
that we are living as if our lives depend on this world! We have put so much
emphasis on the treasures of this world that are transient and have forgotten
the eternal. You are to remember that whatever this world can afford is soon
going to be gone and forever lost. Because this world is passing away with all
its treasures. Not only so but also the heavens will be set on fire and
dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! This is the reality
that all these things that we see and enjoy are soon going to be replaced with
things that are eternal. What sort of a Christian ought you to be in view of
this? You ought not to put any hope in these things because even before the
Lord comes, thieves, moths and rust are working hard to deprive you of their
comfort.
This world will
remain in rebellion and in groaning until that Great Day, at the revelation of
our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. There will not be any permanent social
reforms, there will not be any peace in the world, there will be no joy… the
hope of this world does not rest in human right activists working harder in
securing social order and justice, the police will not make this world a better
place to live in. it is only when Christ will come that a child can play with a
snake and lion can live with a deer in harmony… before then the world remains
at enmity with God. While we believe in human governments and good laws, we are
not to put our faith in it for is will soon disappoint us. All our energies are
to be fixed on this great anticipation of the revelation of the Lord Jesus in
great glory. This is our hope.
2.
We must be preparing
for it! (v.14)
In preparation for
the Great Day we are called upon to be diligent. This is why Peter says,
“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for
these, be diligent to be found by him without
spot or blemish, and at peace.”(v.14)
You notice that the
Apostle is not interested in morality for morality or ethics’ sake. The
expectation to live a godly life of holiness, described in such terms as
without spot or blemish, and at peace, because there is the blessed hope coming
on all those who live in that manner. If you are expecting the new heavens and
the new earth where righteousness dwells, how can you now live a reckless life.
If you are waiting for the revelation of righteousness in future, it means that
righteousness is expected of you now. This is the preparation that we are to
have.
Be diligent. The
greatest problem of Christians is negligence, remember that there is a curse on
the one who does the work of the Lord negligently (Jer. 28:10) and so being full aware of this, we are called upon to
be diligent. What does this mean? What is expected of us here? We are expected
to be found in Christ without spot or
blemish. Here is a call to be so diligent that not a single spot is seen in
us… Christ is coming for a church that is without spot, blemish or wrinkle and
so any spot is an indication that Christ is not coming for you. The preparation
therefore involves working on all these spots and blemishes by the Spirit of
God cleansing us with pure water of God’s Word. Are you pressing on towards
spotless purity? You are to be perfecting holiness by working and laboring that
you are found with no spot or blemish in your thinking, no such thing in your
desires, no pollution in your actions but holiness so that you may be fit to
live where righteousness dwells.
In this period of
waiting we are to pursue godliness and contentment. We are to work out our
salvation with fear and trembling for God is at work in us. Pursuit of
godliness is marked by cultivation of personal holiness – devotion to God’s
Word, prayer, fellowship and breaking of bread shows a Christian who is waiting
expectantly for that Great Day. When you start slacking in these matters, you
have lost sight of the end.
The impetus for this
waiting is that we shall see Him as He is in His glory. Then we shall
understand what it cost Him to ransom us from slavery and bondage of sin. But
if you want this to be a reality, then you will give diligence and hard work
into it and say like Paul, “…by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was
not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than
any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” 1Cor.
15:10. If this will not be true of you then you will be ashamed of having had
Christ give so much to make you His prize and yet live like it meant nothing
for you so that you will be rejected.
3.
We must be hastening
its coming!
Peter simply says, “…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…”
Now, Since these
things have been determined by the omnipotent and foreknowledge of God, how can
you “hasten” them? What can a mortal,
finite man like you and I do to engage in these grandeurs work of the coming of
the day of God? Is it this the same Peter exhorted his hearers at Solomon’s
Portico to do in Acts 3:19-21,
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,
that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he
may send the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the time
for God restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of the prophets
long ago.”
Is it not true to say
that the end will come when the conditions are such that God deems fit to have
the end happen? When God determines is the best time He will send His Son. The
end will not come until all God’s elect have come in into His kingdom. All
Israel of God –i.e. the fullness of Gentiles and the fullness of Jews, has to
enter before the end comes. Right now the Lord is using His people to gather
them in by the preaching of the gospel. Therefore this is the one thing that
the Lord gave as an indication as to the manner we may hasten His second coming
in Matt.24:14:
“And this gospel of the
kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Therefore, let us
hasten Christ’s coming by diligently spreading the gospel, by preaching or by
supporting missionary work, and the work of the church throughout the world –
in fact by everything we can do to hasten the coming. This is an exhortation to not just be content
to be a Christian who lives unconcerned for the conversion of the others. You
have to labour hard in the gospel and encourage others to do the same. It also
means that as a church we cannot just afford to do so little in reaching out
with the gospel.
Applications
v Consider how much
time you give in securing and acquiring things of this world. Things that will
soon be burned up. Consider your subtle unwillingness to look for the eternal
things. Look at how you quickly make an earthly investment and yet so reluctant
to invest more in the eternal things. When you look around in this church, can
you see people that you have invested in, without considering what they can
give in return? If there is none, start today.
v I must point out to
you with great humility that you must not expect to see the glorious Son at the
Day of His appearing if you live a lazy Christian life… if you are a lazy and
idle life, then you push away the glory that is coming. If you want to be the
work that others do then you will be very disappointed that Day. If you are
always the one to be exhorted and rebuked by others… diligence NOT negligence
is what is needed.
v Are you going down in
your pursuit of holiness? What is your reaction to this message of the second
coming of Christ and the end of all things? Are you depressed/distressed or
disappointed that if Christ comes today, He will ‘spoil the party’ so to speak
so that you will not enjoy your career, your marriage, your family, your
retirement, etc. or are you looking forward to it, preparing and even hastening
its coming?
v Brethren, we must
labour hard both as a church and individually (in the contest of this local
church that the Lord has placed us) to proclaim the gospel. Let us not just be
content to proclaim His death until He comes by the Lord’s Supper. We must be
willing to take this great and good news to the world and make Christ known. We
are in this area Donholm, Savanna, Greenfields, Sunrise, Umoja – the people who
live here need to hear the gospel. Why should they not hear it from us? This is
the task that the Lord has given us
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