Most Important Thing

Significant Lessons from Second Letters

Last words. Good words.

Don’t you wish Peter would say, “Above all else, remember this…!”?

The last message of the last chapter of the last letter Peter wrote.

Don’t Burn the House Down

Alyssa came up to visit last weekend.

Brought food, football game, hang out time.

She has bought a fire pit, had friends over, and complained that the bundle of wood she bought only lasted 1.5 hrs.

And, she said she’d like to start having fires inside in her fireplace.

So, dad moment. Lessons on fires.

You’re buying a bundle of soft wood, pine.

Cost at $12/ bundle is probably about $600/cord.

So, take whatever your want from my stack

Hard wood. Hard to start. Burn for hours.

Next, make sure the flue is open. Smoke in the house is bad.

These 2 things are important. Cost of wood, smoke in the house.

But, what’s the most important thing?

Don’t burn down the house!

Why? B/C you might die.

It’s a rental, you’ve got insurance, it’s still bad to lose everything.

If you survive, you’ll have to find a new place to live and buy all new stuff.

W/ that in mind, don’t burn pine in your fireplace.

Why? Resin builds up in the chimney and can catch on fire.

Mary and Barry Wright’s story.

When you clean out the ashes, use an ash can w/ a lid.

Don’t set the can on anything flammable.

On concrete. In gravel or sand.

Not near pine needles or dead palm fronds.

Lid on so the wind won’t blow embers.

Wait at least 48 hours, dump them into a plastic trash bag.

If there’s still an ember it will melt the bag before you put it in your trash.

Outdoor fire pit. My hard wood will burn and smolder for 4 hours. Dowse it w/ water. Don’t leave it smoldering.

Outdoor fire pit. My hard wood will burn and smolder for 4 hours. Dowse it w/ water. Don’t leave it smoldering.

The big problems come when we run out of patience, waiting for the embers to go completely out.

Don’t leave any embers burning and go inside.

Don’t. B/C, you might burn down the house.

Don’t. B/C, you might burn down the house.

Or, if you lose patience wanting a fire indoors and just burn the pine you can buy at the grocery store.

Why?

Or, if you lose patience waiting to deal w/ ashes.

Use the ash can, store it in the right place, wait until all the embers are out.

Why? B/C if you lose patience, you might burn down the house.

About 3 years ago, on a cool Sunday afternoon in the fall, I was doing my chores, taking out the trash.

As soon as I walked out I could smell it.

There is a distinct difference between the smell of firewood burning in the fireplace, pine needles burning in a burn barrel, and a house burning.

I looked for the black smoke. Saw it. I’m the chaplain so I hustled down to see if I could help the owners while our fire fighters worked the fire.

Their house was gone in the matter of minutes.

Their vehicle was packed and ready to head down to the valley for work on Monday. In their haste, they had cleaned out their fireplace, put the ashes in a plastic bucket and left them on the wood deck to cool.

A short time later, the wife looked out and saw the flames.

The deck was fully involved.

There are important lessons, no smoke in the house and the cost of firewood.

This is the most important when building fires around the house. Don’t burn down the house.

There are important lessons for us while we wait for Jesus to return or for us to go to Him.

What’s most important while we wait?

As we wrap up 2 Peter, he gets to his bottom line and what is most important for us to remember.

Wait. Wait patiently. Wait actively.

Typically, we don’t wait well. We get into trouble when we lose patience and stop waiting and try to make something happen. Or, we give up entirely, thinking it’s not going to happen anyway.

God hasn’t forgotten. He hasn’t reneged on His promise.

Patience and persistence are positives for all of us.

Christians may be losing patience w/ Jesus waiting for his return.

Jesus is being patient so more people can be saved.

Jesus is being patient so more people can be saved.

We need t/b patient, and persistent in how we live our lives, b/c there’s a new PL waiting for us.

Peter’s message in ch.3:

Don’t burn down the house.

Live a holy and godly life, making good decisions, so nothing you’re involved in burns up.

God is going to burn down the house when Jesus returns. But, when He does it, He’ll have a new place for us to live ready for us to move into right away.

Patience and persistence are positives for all of us.

This is the most important thing. Above everything else, remember this!

Why did Peter write this letter, and the first one?

Stimulate Wholesome Thinking

2 Peter 3:1–2 NIV

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

He wrote both letters to stimulate us, think thru what’s true and what we believe about it.

Wholesome thinking. A sincere thought process that a strong belief system is built on.

Unscrupulous pottery dealers would try to sell cracked pots as solid pots by filling the cracks w/ wax.

Wholesome thinking. Sincere thought process that a strong belief system is built on.

Solid. No cracks or weaknesses that are vulnerable when tested.

Unscrupulous pottery dealers would try to sell cracked pots as solid pots by filling the cracks w/ wax.

B/C, your thought process and belief system will be tested.

Peter knew we will be tested and it will be possible to stand strong. He does not want us to stumble.

Trials will challenge what you believe. And if you have any weak spots in what you believe they will be exposed and it may cause you to stumble in your faith.

Making a difficult situation even more difficult.

The Latin word for sincere means w/out wax.

Unscrupulous pottery dealers would try to sell cracked pots as solid pots by filling the cracks w/ wax.

So, when a buyer would hold the pot up to sunlight, if it were cracked, light would shine thru. If cracked, it would not hold up to rigorous household use.

When filled w/ water, esp. boiling over a fire, or bumped even slightly while cooking; It would fall apart. You would have paid good money for a bad pot.

It would fail when tested.

Christianity has no weak spot. It will not fail when tested.

Christianity has integrity. No contradictions nor cracks.

The NT, what Jesus and the Apostles taught, built their case based on the OT and what the prophets taught.

But, each of our belief systems might have cracks and fail if we have not thought thru all the truths and implications of our faith.

So, we have to think thru these issues to prevent cracks from appearing that make us vulnerable to stumbling.

This is why he wrote it. To communicate what he thought was the most important thing for us to remember.

Get this to prevent the biggest crack from appearing.

Above Everything Else

:

2 Peter 3:3–7 NIV

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Final, most important thought. Of everything else he wrote about, this is the most important in his mind.

People are going to come along and say Jesus is not coming, ever.

“Why do you still believe this? We’ve been here (some might say billions of years and other maybe thousands) this long and it hasn’t happened. It’s never going to!”

We will be severely tempted to lose patience w/ what we have always believed about the future.

It hasn’t happened, yet. Are we sure it will?

They will deny the facts of the past to make their case about the future.

No God, no Jesus, no judgment.

No Creator. No divine creation. No flood.

These are just religious stories, myths, to help weak ppl who need a crutch.

If there is a Creator, and the universe is a divine creation, then there is a purpose for all this.

An author, sculptor, inventor have a reason for their creation.

Edison and the light bulb. It was dark.

Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone. Communication.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Things are not created ‘just because.’

It may be accidental, but there was a purpose for the process in the first place.

Post-it notes were created when a scientist was researching the process to invent super-glue.

If the creation does not fulfill its intended purpose, then the Creator has the right to destroy it, like in a flood.

Deny a little, then deny it all.

See any evidence in our culture today?

Ben Stein (Jewish) produced a movie, a docudrama, in 2008.

“Expelled” The premise is how Judeo-Christian beliefs, the bible and ppl who believe these are being expelled from science, modern thought and our culture.

University professors are fired or never hired for holding such beliefs.

University students are failed for holding these beliefs making graduation impossible.

Stein went to the concentration camps in Germany and Poland and made the case that the Holocaust could only happen in a godless society.

No culture w/ a godly belief system would devalue any human or entire race to the extent to exterminate them.

The big climax of the movie, Stein is sitting across a desk from the foremost evolutionary physicist of the day and asked him where the stuff came from that became human life.

W/ all seriousness, the brilliant scientist said, “Alien insemination.”

Don’t tell me atheistic evolutionists don’t have faith. They have to have more faith than Christians.

They also have to deny the facts of the past to make their case for what they think will happen in the future and deny our beliefs.

Peter has warned us. He saw it would happen. We see it happening all around us.

He wasn’t there at creation or the flood. But, he was there when Jesus came the first time. He watched him die. And, spent time w/ him after came back to life.

To us, it may seem like it’s been so long maybe Jesus forgot or He really isn’t ever going to show up again.

So, Peter explains the delay.

Patience

2 Peter 3:8–9 NIV

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:8

Jesus was crucified, buried, raised from the dead and ascended to heaven in AD 33.

That’s 1,914 years ago.

If we’re blessed to have the genes, we may live to be nearly 90 years old. So, over 200 lifetimes ago Jesus lived. If forever was defined in any other way than forever, it might be as a lifetime. Forever for us.

So to us, it is forever.

To God, it’s maybe 2 days. God is not bound by time. Time is defined by solar system. The earth rotates and orbits around the sun.

God existed before all this and exists beyond all this. Time is not an issue for Him.

Jesus’ return hasn’t happened, yet; not because He forgot, He’s slow, He’s lazy, He can’t, He won’t, something is making Him wait or delaying HIm like a traffic jam.

He hasn’t returned b/c He’s being patient.

We want Him to hurry back. We’re losing patience.

He’s not coming for purpose of giving more ppl the opportunity to believe and be saved.

In fact, his return is less about when, and more about how many.

Romans 11:25 NIV

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in,

There is a number that God is waiting for. When the expected number of non-Jews come to faith, Jesus will return.

God knows. But, we have no idea what that number is or when it will be met.

That’s why Peter says what he said next.

Don’t be surprise or caught off guard. It’s going to happen when most everyone else is not expecting it.

Surprise!

2 Peter 3:10 NIV

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

2 Peter 3:

When do thieves do their work? at night. Why? B/C it’s dark. Everyone is asleep, the lights are out, so a careful burglar can do his dirty work.

It will be so easy to be surprised by Jesus.

B/C, God is being expelled from our culture. The godly facts of history are being denied. The bible is being set aside as old and irrelevant.

At some point there will be so few ppl w/ so little expectation that nearly everyone will be totally caught off guard by Jesus’ return.

There will always be a believing remnant, but picture a world when nobody believes in God. Nobody remembers what the prophets said, Jesus said, the Apostles said, or anything else in the Bible.

How will they explain the rapture? Alien abduction?

How will they explain Jesus riding to earth from heaven on a war horse?

W/ no biblical, Judeo-Christian, background or knowledge how would they explain the judgments in the tribulation, the Anti-Christ?

Some will be prepared and not surprised at all. But, the vast majority will be totally caught off guard.

And, when Jesus returns, He will burn down the house. B/C so few were ready, so many have denied and disbelieved what Peter and the rest have warned about.

In judgment, everything will be destroyed. And, for at least a minute or two everyone who sees it will be shocked.

But, for those of us who do believe, we cannot let our impatience get the best of us and do something stupid that causes us big problems.

If we doubt it’s going to happen, or question everything, we may end up doing long-term harm to ourselves and those who are paying attention to what we do.

Peter knows. So, next he deals w/ what ought to do while we wait.

Ought

2 Peter 3:

2 Peter 3:11–13 NIV

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 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. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

In English, ought is an interesting word. It’s not need to, or have to, or must. It’s stronger than can or might. But, clearly there’s a choice.

But, in the Greek, it’s the same as necessary, must, needed to, should.

IOW, it’s still a choice, but to choose not to act like this would also mean you’ve chosen not believe this.

So, if you do believe, then this is how you act.

There are 3 Days of the Lord. 2 happened in the past. 1 will happen in the future.

All 3 are characterized by God’s extreme anger toward disobedient ppl who should know better, Jews.

Judged, punished, executed.

But, then, God promised a smaller group of believers survive and get to move into a place that is like paradise.

1st, from Egypt, the disobedient and disbelieving group died wandering in the wilderness and the next generation of believers got to move into the PL.

2nd, Babylon invaded the PL, exiled Israel, most of the nation died, then after 70 years, a believing group got to return.

3rd, the Tribulation, 2nd coming, millennial reign, and Armageddon. Every non-believer dies and many believers. But, all believers get to move in a new PL, the new heaven and new earth that Jesus will create after he destroys everything that’s here now.

So, when God burns down our house, he’s promised he will already have a new place for us to go that will be much better than where we are now.

So, in the mean time, while we wait, we ought to live holy and godly lives.

We’re in the world but we are to live a part from it. Don’t buy in to the message that there is no Creator, that we are not a divine creation, that Jesus never rose from the dead and will never return.

When Jesus returns He will judge everyone’s actions. He’ll do so with mercy and grace for those who believe. But, for those who don’t. It will be an easy evaluation and they will fail.

Be different. Be in the believing minority. And, look forward to living in the New Promised Land when Jesus returns to take us there.

And if you want to do anything to speed up his return, then lead another non-Jew to faith. Add to the number and let’s get there faster.

God does not expect perfection from us. But, He does expect a lot more than what many believers are giving up to this point.

Peter calls us to work hard at this. Get as close to perfection as we can on our own. God will forgive us where we aren’t.

But, where we can put in a lot more work is in knowing the truth of God’s word so we’re not so easily led astray from it.

Put in the Work

2 Peter 3:14–16 NIV

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 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. 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.

Here’s where we put in the work. If we know what the bible says, and what it means, then we’re much more likely to do what it says.

Then, when Jesus shows up to hold us accountable for your behavior, it will go much better for us.

Look forward to this meeting. It’s going to happen.

Thank God Jesus is a very patient person. Not only is His patience allowing more ppl to come to faith, it’s allowing us faithful to get our collective acts together.

It takes effort b/c it’s not all that easy to understand. You remember, in Galatians, Paul wrote about a confrontation he had w/ Peter.

I’m sure Peter apologized, was forgiven and restored. But, he was also quick to admit that much of what Paul wrote was hard for the average believer to understand.

That made it susceptible to being mis-used and distorted by ppl who claimed to know what it means.

Don’t let anyone mislead you, including me. Make sure that you know enough about what I’m talking about to push back on me if I’m missing something.

When I was a kid in school, I never worried about parent/teacher conferences when I was behaving well and passing tests.

But, on those occasions when the wild hair got the best of me, I did not look forward to those meetings.

Paul says we can look forward to this meeting. Jesus does not expect perfection, but He does expect faithful effort to get close.

This is it. This is the most important thing that Peter believes we need to understand.

As he wraps us this last letter he says reminds us we have no excuse. We’ve been warned.

We’ve Been Warned

2 Peter 3:17–18 NIV

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. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

Take this seriously!

Don’t grow impatient. Don’t do anything stupid or don’t stop being wise.

There are pressures all around us to give in and give up.

Negatives are never as powerful as positives.

I can say, your parents can say, your wife can say, “Don’t do that.” But, that’s never as effective in influencing behavior as being positive.

Do this:

Peter said, grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus.

Get to know him better by studying His word and listening to the HS.

Get to know yourself better. Appreciate the grace w/ which Jesus deals w/ you. If you don’t know yourself well, you’ll never know how much grace it will take to save you.

And, if you don’t know how much grace it takes for that, you’ll never be able to be gracious enough w/ others.

You will expect too much of them b/c you expect too little of yourself.

Every day get to know Jesus better and appreciate Him for dying for you while you still rejected Him.

It’s humbling and life-changing.

But, if we can do this together, we will be much better prepared for his return. And, He will return.

We will be much less likely to make dumb decisions that will end up burning our houses down.

We will be much less likely to make dumb decisions that will end up burning our houses down.

We’ll be much less likely to be involved in things that will burn up when Jesus judges our behavior.

We will be much more likely to have the patience and be prepared for either is return to us or our arrival to Him.

Applications

Wholesome thinking

Holy lives

Grow in grace and knowledge

Don’t burn down the house.

Live a holy and godly life, making good decisions, so nothing you’re involved in burns up.

God is going to burn down the house when Jesus returns. But, when He does it, He’ll have a new place for us to live ready for us to move into right away.

This is the most important thing. Above everything else, remember this!