Sermon Tone Analysis

This month we have been looking at what it means to be the family of God as we look forward to celebrating the birth of Christ.

We saw what it is to belong to the family of God, to live as the family, to multiply as the family, and last week, we arrived at what it is to cherish Christ as the family—we arrived at the coming of Christ: his birth, his life, his death and his resurrection.

So what is there left to do?

Well, it is fortuitous that there is one Sunday left in December—this gives us the opportunity to look forward, to anticipate what comes next.

And as we anticipate what comes next in the story, my prayer is that this will set us up for the year to come.

Because as we’ll see, living in anticipation of Christ’s return is what characterizes the Christian life today: it’s not just about love, or a healthy sense of what Jesus gives us today.

It’s about what’s coming.

What’s Coming

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21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This is what’s coming—it is just a short glimpse into what awaits us.

But it is a remarkably complete glimpse.

3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

A new heaven and a new earth—the renewal of all things.

The eternal presence of God—God who dwells with his people as their God.

Eternal life and eternal joy—no more crying, no more pain, no more death.

Everything we hope for that actually matters finds its culmination in this picture—eternal happiness, eternal joy, eternal life.

This is what we have to look forward to.

Jesus promised that one day he would return to renew the earth, to establish the new heavens and the new earth, and to bring all those who have faith in him to live with him there for all eternity.

I could go on about this for hours—you could do an entire series of sermons on this one passage alone.

But today we want to ask ourselves one pressing question: what difference does it make?

Really, why does it matter where we’re going if right now, we’re here?

What does it matter if we know that one day we will be with Jesus in the New Heavens and the New Earth?

Does it really actually change anything to know what my destination is?

The answer isn’t just that is changes something: it changes everything.

We don’t have time today to get into the multitude of different reasons why this is true—all the things that change when we understand where we are going—so today I’d simply like to conclude this series with a handful of changes, which we see in .

What does it mean to anticipate Christ’s return as a body?

It means:

a greater desire for evangelism.

a greater awareness of what is temporary

a greater desire for holiness

a greater thirst for heaven.

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Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

A Greater Drive for Evangelism

8 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.

9 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.

There’s an old expression in the Southern U.S. when someone is doing something too slowly: “Man, you’re slower than the second coming of Christ!”

It does feel this way, right?

Jesus promised that he would come again—the next-to-last verse of the Bible has Jesus saying, “Surely I am coming soon” ().

Soon?

It doesn’t feel like that.

It feels like he’s taking his sweet time—John wrote his Revelation, at the latest, at the end of the first century A.D. So it’s been more or less 1,900 years since Jesus said that: I am coming soon.

This is why Peter takes the time to tell us that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

I’m going to digress for a moment, because I know what some of you are thinking.

I know some people use this verse to suggest that because God created time, he is “outside of time” somehow, that he is simultaneously in the past and in the present—and they use this to defend or refute all kinds of ideas, including (but not limited to) refuting the doctrine of election.

Now, it could be: that might be true.

But it’s pure speculation—there’s nothing in the Bible that affirms that God is “outside of time.”

What Peter says here is that with the Lord one day is AS a thousand years, and a thousand years AS one day.

Let me put it this way: if you go on a vacation with your kids, and you get in the car, and you have five hours to drive.

A five-hour drive is easy—an afternoon.

But if you’ve got young kids, you know that to them, it feels really long.

Why does it feel long for them, and not so long for us?

Because we’re adults, and we’re used to waiting.

God is eternal.

If you’ve lived eternally, how long do you think a few thousand years is going to feel for you?

Not so long.

Here’s Peter’s point.

He knows that Jesus’s return won’t feel like it’s coming “soon.”

It will feel long to us, because we’re human.

But all that time—these nearly two thousand years so far—seen in the perspective of eternity, is the blink of an eye.

As Peter says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you.

He’s not slow, but he is patient.

He could have come back whenever he wanted.

But he’s waiting.

The question is, why is he waiting?

V. 9 again:

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 is waiting because he is making more time for repentance.

He is waiting so that more may not perish.

People have this idea that the God of the Bible is harsh and unfair, ready to pounce on the smallest sin and punish the slightest indiscretion.

It is true that God is a holy God, and does not—can not—excuse sin or act as if rebellion against his glory is not worthy of the greatest punishment.

But harsh?

Unfair?

Absolutely not.

Already God sent Jesus to live our life and to die our death, in our place, in order that we might live.

And if that were not enough, he shows us patience we can’t even begin to fathom—a patience that has already waited thousands of years, and which will wait only he knows how many more—in order that more may come to Christ, and know him, and love him, and be saved.

So then the question is, if God is waiting to send Christ back in order that more might be saved, and if we know that, what should that knowledge produce in us?

The desire that motivates God’s patience should be our desire as well.

If we know that God is waiting to fulfill his promise in order that more may be saved, then we will feel the drive to accomplish our mission all the more acutely.

Christ gave us a mission:

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

He has given us a mission, and he has given us time to accomplish it.

Living in anticipation of Christ’s return, as a body, means firstly a greater drive to fulfill that mission—to spread the gospel, to speak of Jesus to others, to pray for the salvation of our friends and neighbors and loved ones, to see more and more people come to know Christ and love him and be like him.

This is the first thing.

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

8 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.

9 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.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and 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.

A Greater Awareness of What Is Temporary

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and 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.

When Peter talks about the heavenly bodies being “burned up and dissolved,” and the earth and the works that are done on it “being exposed,” he’s not saying the earth will be totally destroyed.

Rather, he means to say that much of what happens on this earth is only temporary.

Not everything—we see that when Jesus was resurrected, he was raised in a physical body which was changed but still noticeably Jesus, and that he was raised in this body; and speaks of the earth waiting for the day it will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

So some things will remain.

But much of what happens on this earth will be burned up—will pass away—will give way to something entirely new and entirely pure.