Advent: Call to Holiness
Notes
Transcript
Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, is the brightest star in our night sky.
Do you know how long it takes for the light of Sirius to reach us?
9 years!
What is even more incredible, the light from Polaris, which we commonly refer to as the North Star, takes 320 years to reach us!
That means the light that left Polaris in the year 1703 is just now visible to us.
Several years ago, I went to the home of an amateur astronomer to gaze up at the night sky using his sophisticated telescope. One of the most beautiful objects I saw was the Orion Nebula. It is actually visible to the naked eye, but to see it magnified is incredible.
What is even more incredible is that what I was viewing was the distant past - because the light from Orion Nebula takes 1500 years to get here.
Are you starting to get the sense that, not only is the universe vast, but that it is not built around our time schedules?
If we ever need reminding of the greatness of God, we only need to look up at the night sky.
We are but a tiny speck in a vast universe - and yet the Bible tells us that God knows you intimately and care for you.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
Jesus said in
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
As we journey through Advent and soon celebrate Christmas, we are remembering that the God who created all things, including Orion Nebula and all the other Nebulas that are in existence, entered into space and time 2000 some years ago and became one of us - born in a lowly manger.
The unconstrained God constrained himself and became human.
In our reading out of 2 Peter this morning, we hear the words of Peter the apostle addressing the ridiculous comments made by false teachers who were trying to lead the church astray. These were persons who, apparently, had heard and received the knowledge of who Christ is and what he had accomplished, and instead of moving forward in holiness, had gone back to their sensual sin-filled way of living - and promoting their way as being the right way.
Speaking about them, Peter wrote in the previous chapter:
With empty, self-important speech, they use sinful cravings and unrestrained immorality to ensnare people who have only just escaped life with those who have wandered from the truth. These false teachers promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of immorality; whatever overpowers you, enslaves you. If people escape the moral filth of this world through the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, then get tangled up in it again and are overcome by it, they are worse off than they were before. It would be better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having come to know it, to turn back from the holy commandment entrusted to them. They demonstrate the truth of the proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit, and a washed sow wallows in the mud.”
Old Peter told it like it is.
Among the lies that the false teachers were spreading was this one:
That Jesus is not coming back.
Which implies that if Jesus is not really coming back - then there is no judgement so what difference does it make in how you live your life?
There are false teachers peddling the same junk today. Teaching a gospel without any personal accountability and need for repentance.
This is why Peter is writing this letter. He wants to make sure that the Church is not falling for this pile of horse manure and that they are staying true to God’s Word.
My dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both letters to stir up your sincere understanding with a reminder. I want you to recall what the holy prophets foretold as well as what the Lord and savior commanded through your apostles. Most important, know this: in the last days scoffers will come, jeering, living by their own cravings, and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? After all, nothing has changed—not since the beginning of creation, nor even since the ancestors died.”
People were saying this kind of stuff just a few decades after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
Now we are 2000+ years out from Jesus walking on earth. What are we to make of his return? Did the disciples hear it wrong when, after watching Jesus ascend up into heaven, they heard the angelic beings standing among them say:
and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
It does seems like a long time not to return. Has God forgotten?
Or, since we have an average life span of 76.4 years, do we tend to expect God to operate in our time frames?
This is a lesson the Lord has been teaching me lately. I’m a terrible judge of time. What started out as a 2-3 month house remodel is now approaching 5 months. I’ve pushed my timeline for moving in ahead so often that now I just say “when the good Lord is ready.”
I’m thinking in the short term, while the Lord is sending light to the sky above that has taken 1500 years to get here.
Peter sees the folly in the argument the false teachers and responds.
But they fail to notice that, by God’s word, heaven and earth were formed long ago out of water and by means of water. And it was through these that the world of that time was flooded and destroyed. But by the same word, heaven and earth are now held in reserve for fire, kept for the Judgment Day and destruction of ungodly people.
In other words, God’s Word never fails and will come to pass. God spoke long ago and made the earth. He spoke again, and the judgement of the great flood happened. And when He is ready, he will bring an end to this age by means or fire and the dissolution of all things.
But do not miss the Word of Hope found in today’s reading!
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
God’s delay is for our benefit - He wants all people to come to Him. It is not God’s desire to punish people for their sinful rebellion against Him, it is his desire that they would turn toward him and receive His gift of grace.
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
This has been a steady message throughout the scriptures. Repent and return to the Lord and you will be saved.
The prophet Jonah was sent to proclaim God’s judgment to the wicked people of Nineveh - a task he ddi not want to carry out because he hated those people.
He reluctantly made his way there and the people repented - listen to Jonah’s response to the Lord:
And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
As much destruction as our sin has caused - every ailment known to society finds its roots in sin - every war has been fought due to human sin - our polluted waters and skies are tied back to our sin - and yet God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He wants none to perish.
We should be thankful that Jesus has not returned yet - but we also, as Peter put it, “wait and hasten the day of his return.”
Because there will be a day when all this will end. When the old order of things will be no more. When violence, injustice, disease, death will cease.
When Jesus returns and establishes the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Knowing that is before us - how are we to live today? Knowing that there will be a judgement day - in what manner shall we conduct ourselves?
But according to his promise we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
We are to live holy lives now - and in doing so, we are not only pleasing our gracious and merciful Father, but we are showing all others what is to come.
Amen.