LIke a Thief

2 Peter 3:10-14

2 Peter 3:10–14 ESV

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. 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! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

We start out with a but here so we kind of have to go back and recap the verse before this.

So in 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.” .

We see the God is patient toward you because he does not wish for any of you to perish. This is reiterated in 1 Timothy 2:4 “4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” and Romans 2:4 “4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

This almost sounds like prosperity Gospel preaching right here. Because God is so loving and such a good father that he wants ALL of us to be saved.

BUT!!!

2 Peter 3:10 (ESV)

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

If I would have only known discussion

The return of jesus Christ is compared to a thief in the night.

I wanted to find a better description of what is meant by this. so I looked at a couple other references using similar terminology.

Matthew 24:36–44 ESV

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Working in law enforcement what I heard a lot was I normally locked my doors I must have forgot, or I normally don't leave things like that in my car. But I did last night because I was in a hurry.

Doesn't this sound like what we are talking about here. The thief will come when we least expect it. When we let our guard down. Because we got complacent.

Sinners will be lulled into a false sense of security. and the thought furthest from their mind will be the second coming of Christ.

We as Christians can not be complacent and actually in Thessalonians we see this described.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–5 ESV

1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

In this passage we see that there is no complacency because we have been warned that the thief is coming. And we believe. All of those people that called about being robbed. Would of it made a difference in their complacency if someone told them . Look your are going to get robbed. I am not going to tell you when or what time but you WILL get robbed. Would have been so complacent?

So we now now that the second coming will be sudden and with out expectation if we look further into verse 10 we see what will happen when Christ returns.

2 Peter 3:10 (ESV)

10 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.

This sounds an awful lot like Judgment day. We see in Rev 6:14 “14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”

Side note:

There is some debate here of the exact context of this half of verse 10. As we know the Bible is comprised of many different manuscripts. we find that there are two different greek words used here.

Heurethesetai meaning will be found, found by God

and

katakaesetai meaning will be burned up.

the older manuscripts which are believed to be more accurate uses the first meaning. So there is a debate of weather the cosmos will be annihilated or if there will just be a transforming of the old heavens and earth to the new.

The ESV follows this line of thought be saying the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Either way when Christ comes back, then there is judgment and it will be sudden and unexpected.

2 Peter 3:11 ESV

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,

Well since everything is going to be destroyed you as Christians should live how?

Out of this entire passage I like this verse. It seems short and simple however it says a lot on just a little bit of space.

Peter just said that the entire universe is going to pass away. everything known to man will be destroyed. He could elaborate on this for quite a while I would guess. Knowing that there would be question after question. But he doesn't. He refocuses the readers on the issues at hand. Like look everything things going to be destroyed, don't worry about that but rather worry about how you are living.

Whats important here? What will become of us if we love the things of this world. Because all of these things will be gone, destroyed. Instead make plans to live beyond this word eternally.

This has been a continued theme that we have seen through out both of peters letters. Living holy and godly lives as Christians.

Knowing that the end is coming and we will face judgment should be motivation to strive for godliness.

2 Peter 3:12 “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!”

Believers need to live these holy and godly lives while waiting for the second coming of Christ. We also see another word being used here.

Hastening - Cause (Something) to happen sooner than it otherwise would.

Wait what? We can hurry, or cause a change to the coming of the day of God .

This is where it gets a little confusing.

This scripture suggests that, by living holy lives, Christians can actually affect the time of the Lord’s return. That does not mean, of course, that the Lord has not foreknown and foreordained when Jesus will return Matthew 24:36 “36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” and Acts 17:31 “31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”” But when God set that day, he also ordained that it would happen after all of his purposes for saving believers and building his kingdom in this present age had been accomplished, and those purposes are accomplished when he works through his human agents to bring them about. Therefore, from a human perspective, when Christians share the gospel with others, and pray, and advance the kingdom of God in other ways, they do “hasten”or hurry the fulfillment of God’s purposes, including Christ’s return.

2 Peter 3:13 “13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

The hopes of the believer should not be on their own works, or the hopes of the destruction of the wicked but rather the hope should be in the fulfilment of God’s promise of a new heavens and a new earth. An eternal abode for the believers.

what is this new heaven and earth?

Rev 21:18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

The River of Life

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.