2 Peter 3:8-14 -- 2 Advent 2020
Notes
Transcript
Stir-Up Repentance
Stir-Up Repentance
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Oh, how impatient we are! We have instant rice, quick oatmeal, microwave ovens, drive-through hamburgers; computers that can perform 4,000,000,000,000 (that is, four trillion, four million million) instructions per second. TV shows us how to solve any problem in 30 minutes or less: the Food Network channel, for example, used to have a show called, “30-Minute Meals”.
On the other side of the same coin, commercialism begins Christmas weeks, or even months, before Advent. People of our world are so impatient that Christ’s Second Advent is totally discounted. Over the years, for example, some modern day preachers have tried to predicted when Jesus’ return will happen and yet, they have failed to convince the world of His Coming. But, “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.”
Children of God, today the Holy Spirit is calling us back to God’s eternal perspective.
Jesus is Coming Again with Specific Consequences for All People and for the World.
Jesus is Coming Again with Specific Consequences for All People and for the World.
The day of the Lord will come, and His coming will be like a thief in the night. And Scripture asks the question: “What sort of people ought we to be?”, knowing that He is eternal: the same, yesterday, today and forever.
And when He comes Everything will be destroyed (2 Peter 3:10 & 2 Peter 3:12).
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.
12 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!
The ungodly will be destroyed (2 Peter 3:7).
7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
INDEED — Jesus is Coming Again with Specific Consequences for All People and for the World.
BUT...
Jesus is delaying His Coming out of Great Love for People to Give Opportunity for Repentance.
Jesus is delaying His Coming out of Great Love for People to Give Opportunity for Repentance.
The Lord is delaying his return (2 Peter 3:9).
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.
His patience is to give more people time to repent (v 9).
What a demonstration of love, because many claim that God is impotent, or unwilling to act in our world. The world always wants someone to blame for their situation — like today’s current pandemic.
The world says, “If God is truly a god of love then why does He allow this stuff to happen? Why does He allow children to suffer with cancer, only to take them home anyway?”
The world puts God on trial, and when they don’t receive an explanation they like, Christ’s Church is deemed unessential and a dangerous place to assemble during a global pandemic.
But, God is patient toward all sinners: giving them time to REPENT!
He’s also giving believers time to preach the Gospel to all nations (Mt 24:14).
And that includes you and me. God be praised that some of you are sharing your faith with your neighbors, and even bringing them to worship. But we need people need to be reached, which is where you all come in.
And God be praised that we have a wonderful Christian school where children can gather to learn, not only the about reading, writing, and arithmetic, they also learn about Jesus; including gather in this space every Wednesday morning for worship.
In fact, during this pandemic when schools are trying to educate children online, just this week alone, seven (7) new students began their studies here. Seven new children, and their families, now having daily exposure to the Gospel.
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.
Stir-Up Your Heart to Live in Repentance and Holiness, Eagerly Expecting Jesus’ Return.
Stir-Up Your Heart to Live in Repentance and Holiness, Eagerly Expecting Jesus’ Return.
Friends, We look to His coming with eagerness, not dread (2 Peter 3:11-12).
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 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!
We look forward to our new home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).
13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
We make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Christ (2 Peter 3:14).
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
Dear friends in Christ, there is no difference in the Lord’s sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. And it is easy for us to interpret God being slow in keeping His promise to rescue us from this world. As a result, it is easy to become tangled-up with temporal matters of this world. When this happens, the eternal is always neglected.
Instead, REPENT: That is, turn to Christ in faith and to the kind of life he desires from us. The point is that we must now pay attention to the only things that will survive the day of the Lord, which are God, His Word & Sacraments, and Worship. Therefore, we pray: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of your only-begotten Son that at his Second Coming we may worship Him in purity.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.