Second Last Sunday of the Church Year + 2 Peter 3:3-14 + November 19, 2017
Grace and peace be unto
you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1) Christ will return
to judge the living and dead. The Lord promises this numerous times throughout
the four Gospels. Today’s appointed Gospel lesson is one of those promises. Ever
since Jesus ascended into heaven, Christians have lived in eager expectation of
His return in glory. The New Testament even ends with the teaching of Christ’s
return. The final words of Christ to St. John in Revelation 22:20 are, “Surely I am coming quickly.” When Christ returns
He will take those who believe the Gospel to inherit the kingdom prepared for
them from the foundation of the world. On that day, everything you have now by
faith you will have by sight. St. John writes in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved,
now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be,
but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is.” All who believe the Gospel are already sons of God, “for you are all sons of God through faith
in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). But
on that day we will look like sons and daughters of God, no longer bearing the
sinful flesh, but glorified flesh, no longer decaying and dying, but like
Christ, never to die again. All of this He will give those who believe the
Gospel in this life, those whom He justifies not by their works, but by faith
in Christ as He promises in the Gospel.
2) It has been almost two thousand years since
Christ ascended. Nearly two millennia have passed since Christ’s apostles began
proclaiming His promises to the world. It’s no surprise that many have given up
on the idea that Jesus is coming back. But we don’t have to look around to see
scoffers scoffing and mockers mocking Christ’s promise to return. St. Peter
wrote his second epistle thirty years after Christ’s ascension and warns of
scoffers and mockers. He even quotes them! “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they
were from the beginning of creation.” There is
nothing new under the sun. As it was in the first days of the Gospel, so it is
now in our age. The scoffers Peter quotes have their argument and their
motivation. The argument is that Christ promised to return in glory, He has not
returned in glory after nearly thirty years, therefore He will not return to
judge the quick and dead. These mockers choose to believe that time will go on
as they’ve always experienced. Spring, summer, fall, and winter will continue
to cycle through their rhythms as they have done for millennia. “All things continue as they were from the
beginning of creation,” they say. But their motivation is their lust. Peter
says that “scoffers will come in the
last days, walking according to their own lusts.” The denial of Christ’s
return and the desire to walk in lust go hand in hand. The easiest way to
justify one’s sinful actions and desires is to write off the final judgment. If
there’s no final judgment, but only cycles of endless ages, then there is no
need to repent and turn from sinful actions and desires. If there is no
punishment, wickedness will abound. So it was in Peter’s day, thirty years
after the ascension. So it continues in our day, two thousand years later.
3) Peter combats the blasphemous belief that there is no
final judgment by reaching back in history to the first age of the world. “For this they willfully forget,” he
says, “that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by
which the world that then
existed perished, being flooded with water.” To those who deny the return
of Christ in glory to judge the quick and the dead, Peter holds up the Great
Flood during the days of Noah. In those days the Lord saw the great wickedness
of mankind “and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”
(Genesis 6:5). He would judge the sinful world for its rampant and continual
wickedness. He gave mankind one hundred and twenty years to repent of their sin
and get clean hearts through faith in the Seed promised to Adam and Eve in
Genesis 3:15. Yet they did not repent. Only Noah found favor in God’s eyes, for
Noah believed God’s promise. The Lord said in Genesis 7:1, “I have seen that you are righteous
before me in this generation.” Men are only
righteous in God’s sight through faith. This is how the author of Hebrews
writes it: “By faith Noah, being
divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark
for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became
heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Hebrews 11:7). The
world mocked Noah. They laughed his family to scorn. They despised the promised
salvation and chose instead to follow their lusts. For their unbelief they
perished in the flood. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the end
of the age, when Christ returns to judge the quick and dead.
4) Peter
also points out that the scoffers and mockers of Christ’s promise misunderstand
the Lord’s purpose in delaying His return. These unbelievers assumed that
because it had been a mere thirty years since Christ’s ascension, the statute
of limitations had expired on His promise, just as many today claim His promise
is false because He has tarried for two thousand years. The Lord does not work
on our schedule or timetable. Time is irrelevant to God. He is outside of time.
He made time in Genesis “in the
beginning.” Peter writes, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day.” He is not saying that day is a
thousand years as theistic evolutionists imagine. He reminds us time is nothing
to Lord. What seems long to us is but a moment to Him. “The Lord is not slack concerning His
promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not
willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” His
delay, which is only a delay from our perspective, is for the purpose of mercy.
He is “not willing that any should
perish but that all should come to repentance.” He wants men to repent. He
wants sinners to be sorry for their sins and regret doing them. He wants people
to confess their sins so that He might forgive them and remove the guilt of
sin. He has no pleasure in the death of
the wicked but wants everyone to repent, turn from the sin, and believe the
Gospel that in Christ there is mercy and the forgiveness of every sin. Christ does
not dely. He demonstrates His mercy and longsuffering toward us poor sinners.
5) Though He seems to tarry, the Day of the Lord
will come like a thief in the night, and all that we know, the world and its works
shall be burned up in fire. Peter then asks us, “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought you to
be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the
day of God?” In light of there being a final judgment, how ought we
to live? In light of the fact that this world and all its works “will be dissolved, being on fire, and the
elements will melt with fervent heat,” what manner of persons ought we to be?
The scoffers and mockers deny Christ’s promise so that they may more freely
walk according to their sinful desires and lusts. Don’t do that. Instead of
indulging in sin that will only heap wrath upon you on the Last Day, turn from
your sins. “Abstain from fleshly lusts
which war against the soul” (1
Peter 2:11). “Put
off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according
to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you
put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness
and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). Strive against the
sin which so easily entangles your heart, your eyes, and your lips. Sin is best
fought by daily meditation on the Ten Commandments and repentance. This is why
Christ delays returning, so that you might repent of your sins and believe the
Gospel that He “desires all men
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). He promises to forgive our
sins when we confess them to Him, for He is faithful and just to forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is how we fight sign. We
repent of it. We believe the Gospel that our sins are forgiven for Christ’s
sake. Then we fight against that sin when temptation arises from within us or
from the world. Having our sins daily forgiven we strive no only to abstain
from those sins, we also strive towards “holy conduct and godliness”
which means we strive to live according to the commandments both outwardly in
our words and deeds and inwardly in our hearts and minds.
6) And we ought to do so in joy, “looking for and
hastening the coming day of the Lord.” We can’t make Christ come any sooner
by our life of repentance and faith. The text is better translated “looking
for and eagerly awaiting the coming day of the Lord.” The Day of Judgment
is not a day to fear for the Christian. It is the day of salvation when we are
judged not according to our own righteousness, but according to Christ’s
righteousness. The thought of the end of all things shouldn’t cause our hearts
to despair, for on that day the new heavens and new earth shall be made for us,
a world in which there is no sin or death or sadness of any kind. You do not
need to worry whether you will be sheep or a goat on that day, for God
justifies sinners through faith in Christ and not the works of the Law. Works
are simply proof that faith is living. That’s why the sheep in the Gospel text
did not expect to earn their salvation by their good deeds. They were not even
aware of their good deeds. Rather they did those good deeds because they were
righteous by faith. The coming day of the Lord is the Christian’s hope. It is
the day in which the sons of God by faith will be shine with the radiance of
Christ at His transfiguration and our sonship will be finally seen. “Therefore, beloved, looking
forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot
and blameless.” You are made ready for that great and glorious day
through faith in Christ, for only by faith in Christ are sinners reconciled to
God. Only by faith in what Christ’s merits and atoning death are you cleansed
from every spot of sin and blameless in God’s sight. This is the reason that
you can look forward to that Day. It is the Day of your final salvation. Amen.
May
the peace of God, which passes understanding, guard your hearts and minds
through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.