2 Peter 3:11-18

2 Peter 3:11-18

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were camping. After a nice meal cooked on the open fire they decided to go bed. A few hours later Sherlock Holmes woke up, nudged his faithful friend Dr. Watson, and said, “Dr. Watson, look up and tell me what you see.” Dr. Watson looked up and said, “I see a fantastic panorama of countless stars.” Holmes then asked, “And what does that tell you?”

Watson thought about his answer because he knew he had to be very deductive with Sherlock Holmes. Finally he said, “It tells me, astronomically, that there are millions of stars and galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Horologically, I can deduce that it’s a quarter past three in the morning. Theologically, I can surmise that our God is infinite and all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect we’re going to have a beautiful day tomorrow. Why, Sherlock Holmes, what does that tell you?”

And after a long pause, Holmes said, “Someone has stolen our tent!”

It’s so elementary, isn’t it? It’s so obvious. If you’re camping and you look up and see stars, somebody took the tent. It’s amazing how we take that which is obvious and dress it up and cover it over with stuff that is superfluous. We do it all the time with our universe. We know that our universe is expanding. The Hubble Telescope revealed that years ago. And, it’s expanding from a single point outward. We also know that our universe is running down. If you don’t believe it, just look in the mirror. We’re getting older. We’re running down like the rest of the universe around us.

Even the sun shows us this. The reason you go outside on a nice day and you can feel its warmth is because the sun is losing 4,200,000 tons of its mass every second. That means that the sun is running down. It had a beginning, and it will have an end. The universe will come to an end.

Turn to 2 Peter 3. We come to the end of Second Peter. Peter was nearing the end of his own life as wrote this letter. Some estimate that he was in his seventies. Peter knew he was going to die soon. He revealed that in the first chapter where he wrote:

2 Peter 1:13-14 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

In the closing chapter of this letter, Peter talks about the end of the world as we know it and the second coming of Jesus. In our passage last week, Peter talked about the certainty of Christ’s return. In our passage this week he asks how we should live as we wait for it to happen.

All true believers hold firmly to the fact that Jesus will come again. They might disagree about what exactly will happen when he returns, but we know that Jesus is coming and when he comes everything will be changed forever. Therefore, in light of Jesus’ certain return, Peter asks this important question: What kind of people ought you to be? In other words, how should our faith in the second coming shape how we live today? Knowing that we will face God one day, what should we be doing in order to live a life that is pleasing to God? Since Peter is the one who asked the question, let’s see how Peter answers it.

2 Peter 3:11-13 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

First, Peter says that we should live expectantly.

Peter says we should look forward to Christ’s second coming. The Greek word means to anticipate and wait expectantly. Because we know that everything around us is going to be destroyed, we should be placing our hope on God and not the things of this world. And, since we don’t know when it’s going to take place, we should always be ready. This expectant attitude will make a difference in our daily lives.

C.S. Lewis said:

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.

And Joseph Stowell wrote:

When we begin to believe the reality of the other side, we start behaving differently on this side.

What we think will happen after we die effects the way we live now. And the more we think about it the more it will affect our daily lives. In his first letter, Peter described us as “strangers and pilgrims” in this world because we are headed to a better world. Because of this expectation we are to live differently. So how should our lives be different? How do we live expectantly? Peter gives four descriptions:

Holy: To be holy doesn’t mean to be perfect or sinless; it means to be set apart for God and for his use. We give our lives to God, not the world. It denotes a separation from evil and dedication to God.

Godly: A godly life has been defined as surrendering to God in everything you do. It describes the person whose life is devoted to pleasing God. Jesus is the prime example. He consistently followed God’s leading for his life and submitted to his Father’s will.

Spotless and blameless. These two should be taken together. Peter used these two terms to describe Jesus in his first letter. Again, Peter is not describing perfection, but a desire to be like Jesus.

At peace with God: Also in his first letter, Peter wrote about having a clear conscience. It comes from knowing that we are right before God. Because of Christ’s death on the cross for our sins we know that we have been forgiven. There is nothing we have to hide from God and be afraid of him knowing because he has offered us forgiveness. As a result, we are at peace with him. It is a summation of the previous three descriptions. Because we are striving to live for God we are at peace with him and look forward to the day when we will stand in his presence.

Since Jesus is coming back, we should eagerly wait for that coming and live lives committed to serving God.

Second, we should be more interested in next world than this one.

The story is told of a minister who visited an elderly woman in the nursing home. The young minister said, “At your age you should be thinking about the hereafter!” The older woman said, “Oh, I do all the time. No matter where I am – in my room, down in the cafeteria, or down in the recreation room, I ask myself ‘What am I here after?’ ”

Considering the fact that this world is temporary and as Peter says in 10 that it will be destroyed by fire, we should be more interested in the next world than this one. That doesn’t mean that we should completely ignore this world. We should always seek the betterment of our community and those who in the world. Many of the great institutions of the world were founded in the by Concerned Christians seeking to help others. Sunday schools were started to helped poor children who were not able to attend school during the week because they had to work. Hospitals were started by churches to help those in need. Many of our country’s first colleges were started to train preachers. Those are just a few of the institutions started by Christians to make this world a better place.

What we need to keep in mind though is that this world is not all there is. As a result, we need to strive for a balance. That is, we should neither be so “heavenly-minded that we are virtually useless on earth nor so occupied with worldly cares that we neglects our higher heavenly calling and priorities.

As I mentioned, Peter calls us “pilgrims and strangers” passing through the earth but on our way to Heaven. This world is not our home, we are citizens of Heaven. As Paul wrote:

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, be concerned for the salvation of the lost.

Peter again reminds us that God is not waiting to keep the promise of Christ’s return because he is slow in keeping promises, but rather so more might come to a saving faith in Jesus. God had every reason to judge the world long ago. If he judged the world in the day of Noah and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Abraham, what more does he need to judge the world today? Instead, in his mercy and desire to see more people turn to him, God has kept from fulfilling the promised return. The Day of Judgment is coming, but until then, we continue to live in the time of the Lord’s patience which results in more people being saved. And that happens as we share the gospel with the lost.

Back in verse 12, Peter mentioned speeding the return of Jesus. How can we speed his coming?

In the Model Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray for it: “Thy kingdom come. . . .” It sounds like we can speed it’s coming through prayer.

If God is delaying the return of Christ so that more can be saved, then it would seem we can speed Christ’s coming through sharing the gospel. If we are busying bringing people to Christ, that will speed his coming.

In Acts 3, Peter preached to the crowd that had gathered after the healing of the lame man at the temple that we should repent and turn to God so that he might our sins might be forgiven and that he might send Jesus back. Therefore, we speed his coming through repentance and obedience.

Since we know that the day of Christ is coming, and since we can speed its coming, we should be diligent to live godly lives and do what we can to win the lost.

However, while we are diligently trying to win the lost the devil is doing all he can to stop us. He has many tricks up his sleeve for keeping the lost from turning to God and keeping them lost.

One way the devil works is through false teachers. Peter wrote about them in chapter 2. False teachers deny the truth of God’s word. They deny that it is God’s word. Note that Peter refers to the writings of Paul as scripture. Paul, he says, wrote with the wisdom of God. In other words, what Paul wrote was inspired by God.

I think Peter’s description of Paul’s writings is funny. He says that some of what Paul writes is difficult to understand. I think that’s an understatement. Peter says some take those difficult passages and twist them to say things Paul never taught. However, they do the same thing with other scripture. Peter warns that doing so is dangerous. Willfully twisting God’s word will only lead to problems, namely their own destruction. It does so because they are rejecting God truth that warns them. That’s why, as Paul wrote to Timothy, it is so important to correctly handle God’s word.

William Barclay emphasized this warning when he wrote:

G.K. Chesterson once said that orthodoxy was like walking along a narrow ridge; one step to either side was a step to disaster. Jesus is God and man; God is love and holiness; Christianity is grace and morality; the Christian lives in this world and lives in the world of eternity. Overstress either side of these great two-sided truths, and at once destructive heresy emerges. One of the most tragic things in life is when a man twists Christian truth and Holy Scripture into an excuse and even a reason for doing what he wants to do instead of taking them as guides for doing what God wants him to do.

We should always pray, asking God to give us wisdom as we read and study his word that we might rightly understand it and apply it to our lives.

And fourth, we should be steadfast in our faith.

We can see Peter’s concern for his readers in this final warning. Four times in this final chapter he refers to them as “dear friends.” The Greek word is ἀγαπητός (agapētós). You can hear the word ἀγαπη in it. Literally, it means “beloved” or “worthy of love.” It’s the word God used of Jesus at his baptism and again after his transfiguration:

Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

This is the same term Peter uses to describe his affection for his readers. Because of his love for them (which he mentions four times in this chapter) he is concerned for their wellbeing.

These last two verses touch on the two main themes of the letter and summarize its contents.

First, there is a reminder that false teachers will try to lead them astray.

Second, there is an encouragement to grow in Christ.

Because we know that Jesus is going to come and because we know that false teachers will try to lead us astray, we need to stand firm in our faith.

Peter says that we need to be one our guard. The word translated “guard” carries the meaning of constantly being on the lookout. Peter knows that his readers know the truth, but just knowing it isn’t enough. They needed to be alert for those who try to lead them away from the truth. If not, there was a chance they would be carried away and fall from their position. Peter is emphasizing the seriousness of the situation. We must always guard ourselves or we may fall and be led astray.

So how can we maintain our steadfastness and avoid being among those who are led astray? Peter says we can do so by growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. We are to constantly be growing in our relationship with Jesus. Someone commented that: “The Christian life is like riding a bicycle, unless you keep moving, you fall off.” Peter says that we must keep on growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus so that we don’t fall away.

There are many ways to grow in the grace of Jesus. We are saved by grace and now we must grow in our understanding and trust in that grace. Growing in grace also has to do with becoming more like Jesus in our character and in the way we treat others. Additionally, we must grow in the knowledge of the Lord. Consider the balance of these two things. Knowledge without grace is a terrible weapon, and grace without knowledge can be very shallow.

Notice though that we are not challenged to grow in the knowledge of the Bible, as good and necessary as that is. Instead, we are challenged to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. It is one thing to know the Bible, but it is another thing to know the Lord. The purpose of the Bible is to point us to God, who is the central theme of the Bible. We should know the Bible so that we can know the Lord, not just the Bible.

We need to understand that nobody accidentally drifts into spiritual growth, but anyone can drift out of spiritual security and strength. That’s why the Hebrew writer wrote:

Hebrews 2:1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Physical and spiritual growth, follow pretty much the same patterns. We grow from the inside out. We need nourishment and exercise to grow strong healthy bodies. We grow best in a loving family environment. These are true spiritually as well. It doesn’t just happen, but must be actively pursued.

On March 22, 2011, a little after midnight, the pilots of two commercial planes were unable to reach the tower at Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Airport where they were trying to land. They were, however, in communication with a regional air traffic control facility about forty miles from the airport. Regional air traffic facilities handle aircraft within roughly a fifty mile radius of an airport, but landings, takeoffs of planes within about three miles of an airport are handled by controllers in the airport tower. The regional air traffic controller was able to get them landed. It was later determined that the air traffic controller had fallen asleep.

A few months earlier a similar incident occurred in Knoxville, when the air traffic controller was found sleeping. That evening the regional controller helped seven planes land when the local air traffic controller was unresponsive.

The last thing we want to do is to be found asleep on the job when Jesus returns. We don’t want to be caught off guard and by surprise. That means we need to be alert and ready at all times. Jesus is coming soon!