Reverend Jonathan Waits
Sermon: The End Is Near (2 Peter 3)
Date: July 7, 2024
Have you ever met someone who was so convinced of some future event that they were willing to make dramatic adjustments to their life and the lives of their family members in light of it? One such group of folks are colloquially called “Preppers.” That’s short for Doomsday Preppers. These folks may look normal—or maybe not—but they hide a secret. Everything they do, they do with the idea in mind that the world is going to end sometime soon, and they’re going to be ready for it. And if you choose not to get ready yourself, don’t come crawling to them when you’re out of food and water and the zombie hordes are threatening to bust down your doors and you don’t have sufficient firepower to hold them off. That’s your fault, not theirs.
Now, maybe you think these folks are a little off. Or perhaps you count yourself as one of them. Can you be Doomsday Prepper-adjecent? What would that even look like? Anyway, whether or not you agree with their take on the timing or nature or even belief in the forthcoming end of the world or at the very least civilization as we know it, one thing is for certain: you would be hard pressed to find a group of people more vision-driven than they are. Again: everything they do, they do with their vision of the end in mind.
This idea that the world is going to end someday has had an interesting history. Various religions have predicted one in some form or fashion. Others, though, have held to one version or another of the idea that the world isn’t going to end. In fact, it was once scientifically fashionable to believe the universe was eternal—it had always been and would always be. Christians were ridiculed by the scientific elite of the late-19th and early-20th centuries for believing something so quaint and obviously silly as the idea that the universe had actually begun at some point in the finite past and would end at some point in the finite future. And then science finally caught up with theology; something it has had to do a lot over the years. Whether or not you think the world is going to end someday affects how you live your life now. More than that, the kind of end you think the world is going to have affects how you live your life now.
If the world is going to end one day when the sun finally explodes and that’ll be that, then nothing we do in this life really matters. I mean, sure, we can make up purpose for ourselves but that isn’t ever anything more than that: made up. We make it up anyway because we can’t live without purpose, but that nagging sense that it’s all made up in the end can start to get heavy after a while. If, on the other hand, this world is going to end and then transition to a new one after that, and if the choices we make in this life will have some sort of impact on what our experience of that next world is going to be, then what we do here and now matters a great deal. Christians have tended to hold to the latter idea over the centuries. Still, though, it’s not so popular to believe that kind of thing today. It’s sufficiently unpopular, in fact, that we don’t often really think in those terms even as professed followers of Jesus.
But what if it really is true—not merely true in some hypothetical, theological sort of way, but a right and proper description of reality—that the world as we know it is going to end someday and transition to a new world of some kind? What if it really is true that the decisions we make now will have some sort of an impact on our experience with this new world? Now, is this something for which you are going to find some sort of hard, empirical evidence to support? Of course not. We’re talking about the future. There’s not any kind of empirical evidence to totally support anything that may or may not happen beyond the moment we are in right now. But Jesus was pretty clear that something like this is going to be the case, and He predicted and pulled off His own death and resurrection. Because of that, I tend to just go with what He thought and let the chips fall where they may.
Now, maybe you haven’t given this too much thought. I don’t blame you. It’s not all that comforting of an idea. But do you know who did give it a lot of thought? Jesus’ earliest followers. Paul talked about it several times. James and Jude both mentioned it. The author of Heberws pointed toward it. John wrote a whole book about it. This morning, I would like to look with you at something the apostle Peter had to say about it. We can find this right near the end of his second letter, written not long before his martyrdom that likely came at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero. If Peter’s first letter which we talked about a couple of weeks ago is about standing firm in our faith in the face of a culture that doesn’t like our doing that, the second letter is about standing firm in our faith in the face of the forthcoming end of the world. Of course, we’re rather far removed from anything resembling the timing Peter would have imagined for that end’s arrival, but that doesn’t mean he was wrong. It just means his assumptions about the timing were too small. In any event, in talking about what our response should be to the return of Christ and the world’s end, Peter asks a really important question. It is a question I want to begin exploring with you this morning, and after next week’s special guest, continue exploring for the next few weeks in a new teaching series called, Who Do You Want To Be?
If you have a copy of the Scriptures handy this morning, find your way with me way to the back of the New Testament to the letter we call 2 Peter. We’re going to start right at the beginning of the third chapter. Check this out with me: “Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you; in both letters, I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder, so that you recall the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles.” In other words, Peter’s not making up anything new in any of this. He’s simply pointing by way of reminder to things his audience had already heard so they didn’t forget what matters most.
As for what matters most, look with me at v. 3: “Above all, be aware of this…” And just as a matter of best practices when engaging with the Scriptures, when you see an author say something like that, pay pretty close attention to what comes next. “Above all, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires, saying, ‘Where is his coming that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.’” Remember that thing we said a minute ago about the scientifically fashionable belief about a century ago that the universe had always been and would always be. It’s like Peter knew what he was talking about. When you start talking about something like the end of the world, people who don’t believe in God in the first place are going to think you’re nuts. I don’t blame them. If I believed like they do, I’d probably think I’m nuts too.
Why do we stick with this silly notion then? Look at v. 5 now: “They deliberately overlook this.” In other words, they could know this, but they choose not to. “They deliberately overlook this: By the word of God the heavens came into being long ago and the earth was brought about from water and through water. Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” In other words, the same God who created the world and brought judgment to it once, is going to bring judgment to it again. The first judgment was with water; the second will be with fire. Now, what exactly does that mean? We don’t know for sure. Just how literally exactly we are to take Peter’s comments here isn’t totally clear. What is clear, though, is that there is an end coming. It will be a God-directed end at just the right time. It will be an end marked by judgment against those who have rejected any kind of a resemblance to the God who created them by refusing any sort of an association with Jesus who makes us like Him.
Okay, but when is all this happening? I mean, we’re nearly 2,000 years past Peter’s writing this. Well, believe it or not, Peter had an answer for that. Keep rolling in the text with me: “Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.” If anything, this observation is even more true and relevant today than when Peter first made it. God doesn’t operate on the same timetable that we do. He limits Himself to operating within time because we do, but He’s not bound by that. He operates on the timetable of eternity. When eternity is your timeframe, you move at an entirely different pace than we do with our lifespan of a century or less. The end will come in its time. It’ll come right on time, in fact. If there seems to be a delay at all, that’s because God is graciously exercising patience to allow for as many to embrace Him as will so that no one has to be an object of His judgment when it comes.
Yet make no mistake: That judgment will come. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.” He doubles down on this idea in the second part of v. 12: “Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat.” Again, this is almost certainly not intended to be literal language here. Indeed, how could something be dissolved and disclosed at the same time? Peter’s point is that there is a judgment coming; the end of the world will arrive. When it does, it is going to be disruptive of our lives in a way we can’t even fathom—something like the universe exploding and everything around us melting down—but it is also going to reveal who’s really who.
So, thus far in this little journey, we have confirmation from Peter that, yes, the world is going to end someday. It is going to end in judgment on those who have finally rejected God’s offer of eternal life in Christ. God’s waiting on this as long as He can, but it will indeed arrive when the time is right. Okay, but so what? Well, that’s exactly where Peter goes next in what I submit to you is the most important part of this passage in terms of its implications for our lives. Look at what Peter says next right at the heart of this little chiasm starting in v. 11: “Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming.”
Now, the translation I use makes v. 11 there into a statement. In the original Greek, though, the verse is a question. But the question carries the force of a command, thus the statement form we have here. In other words, Peter considers the answer to the question so patently obvious, and the anticipated answer so abundantly clear that it’s hardly a question at all. It’s a little like asking your children something along the lines of, “When do you think you should have these chores done that I’ve given you to do while I’m gone to the store?” You might as well just say: “Get these chores done while I’m gone to the store.” Nevertheless, Peter really does ask a question here, so let’s put this as a question: Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of people should you be? Since the world is coming to an end, how should you be living between now and then? Or perhaps more simply, to borrow the title of our series, Who do you want to be?
Well, who do you want to be? Do you want to be someone who is going to wind up an object of this judgment that’s coming, or someone who gets to enjoy the new heavens and new earth that are coming on the other side of the cataclysmic, cosmic destruction that Peter mentions in v. 13? “But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” Who do you want to be? Listen, if Jesus is really coming back, then how we live matters.
If guys like Peter are right, then Jesus is coming back one day to bring judgment to all those who persist to the end in rejecting His work on the cross on their behalf, preferring instead to try to stand on their own two moral feet before God’s judgment. Just so we’re clear: that’s a dumb decision to make. No one is going to be able to stand on their own two moral feet before a holy and righteous God. Our best good works are like filthy rags before Him. The prophet Isaiah put it even better than that in Isaiah 64:4-5: “You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right; they remember you in your ways. But we have sinned, and you were angry. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.” If “all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment,” then how does God welcome “the one who joyfully does what is right”? Because Jesus is the one who joyfully did what is right and our welcome is in Him. So then, who do you want to be? If Jesus is coming back, how we live matters.
Just so we’ve seen it, Peter closes the chapter (and the letter) out by answering the question for us again and reminding us of what we are up against—in a sense, he kind of repeats what he said at the beginning of the chapter. That just means the whole chapter is a beautiful chiasm with the haunting question of v. 11 at its heart. Look at this now starting in v. 14: “Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.” Do your best to pursue the path of Christ. If Jesus is coming back, how we live matters.
“Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.” Verse 16 there is way more important than just its context for this sermon. What Peter writes here means that the writings of Paul were already being considered as Scripture on par with everything in the Old Testament in terms of its inspiration and authority within a single generation of the resurrection. This verse completely undercuts the common skeptical argument today that the various New Testament documents weren’t considered as Scripture until much later on in the history of the church.
The other thing Peter says here is pretty important too. Untaught and unstable people are going to take the words of Scripture that we understand fairly clearly through the lens of Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and in the context of a community of committed believers, and twist them in all sorts of ways to argue that they don’t say what they clearly say. They are untaught in that they don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to the Scriptures. Unless you see it through the lens of the Holy Spirit, you aren’t going to make any sense out of it. They are unstable because they are arguing in favor of a view of the world that is disconnected from reality. Peter’s telling us this so we know what to expect. When it happens—and if you spend enough time engaging with people about Jesus who aren’t following Him, or living in an obvious way to be ready for His return, it’s going to happen—you’ll already know to expect it and won’t get blown off course by it. If Jesus is coming back, how we live matters. If someone tells you otherwise, Peter makes clear the reason is that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
“Therefore, dear friends,” verse 17 now, “since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position.” If your life is founded on Christ, if you are living in light of His return, you are standing on solid ground. There’s no good reason to leave that ground no matter how convincing of a case someone seems to make that there is firmer ground to be found somewhere else. The reality is: there’s not. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” If Jesus is coming back, how we live matters.
Okay, but matters how? What does it look like to live like Jesus is really coming back? If the Doomsday Preppers can do everything through the filter of their belief that the world or at least society as we know it will come to a cataclysmic end soon, how do we do something similar? What kind of people should we be? Peter said we should make “every effort” to be found without spot or blemish, but, if we’re being honest, we need more specificity than that. If Jesus is coming back, how we live matters. So, we want to live in such a way that matters.
Let me put this tension a different way. One approach to living in light of Jesus’ forthcoming return would be to separate ourselves off from society and build our own communities that are marked by an abundance of the fruit of the Spirit. These would no doubt be wonderful places to live and work and grow together as we await His return, but does living in that kind of a way actually matter? Would we be actually making a difference in the world around us, encouraging them in the direction of a lifestyle that matters? That’s harder to say. Besides, Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17 was not that God would take us out of the world, but that He would protect us from the evil one while we are in the world. We need to live in such a way that we make a difference in the world. That’s the kind of living in a way that matters we are called to in light of Jesus’ return. Okay, but what does that look like? That’s what we are going to talk about for the next few weeks. If Jesus is coming back, how we live matters. Don’t miss the next few weeks as we talk about some specific ways we can do just that.