“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." 2 Peter 3:11-13
This is our first gathering here in 2022 - it’s a new year. Is this of significance? It may be but, equally, it may not be. It is like when we travel on a long journey, perhaps in the car on a motorway. I have noticed that when I travel northwards on the M1, my local city of Wakefield appears on the signs about 70 miles from home. Then, several minutes later, I will see the next sign, telling me that it is now 60 miles away. Does this mean that, at that point, a whole ten miles just instantly dropped off my journey? No, it doesn’t. The road sign just makes the reduction in distance more immediately apparent. In reality, this distance has been slowly reducing with every turn of the car wheels; metre by metre.
It is the same with our lives. Each second that passes is one second less in the short lived ‘mist’ that life is, ‘that appears for a little while and then vanishes’ (James 4:14). Most of the time, we are unconscious of this. But then, we have a signpost - it’s the New Year! One more year has passed. This often leads people to pause for reflection and approach life with renewed resolve. We may actually make New Year’s resolutions, and document changes which we intend to make.
Peter, in his letter, wants us to reflect. He wants to ‘stimulate (us) to wholesome thinking’, as verse 1 of our chapter says, and to ask questions of our ‘lives’, as verse 11 does. His reason for this is certain ‘new’ things. His general argument, in this letter, is based on the principle of new life, which believers are called to when they put their faith in Jesus Christ. It is like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, ‘… if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!’ But, in this final chapter, Peter is dealing with something specific. He is reminding believers of the reality of what is still to come, and the present relevance of that future reality. It is also something ‘new’ that is promised – ‘a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells’ (v.13).
Peter reminds us of the basis for this belief. It is God’s word, the Bible. It is, as he says in verse 13, ‘in keeping with his promise’. Peter has already told us how important he believes the Old Testament prophecies are. Here, he appears to be quoting from Isaiah 65:17, or 66:72. God has promised therefore God will do, is Peter’s message.
But, why did Peter need to remind the church of these truths? It was because of error. The devil was using false teachers, and false teaching, in his ongoing attempt to undermine the faith of believers in their Lord and Saviour. There are two main ways of attack that Peter describes. Last time, when we looked at 2 Peter 2, we considered one of these. This was the false teaching that believers can just live their lives exactly as they please. People were saying that, in effect, because believers have been set free from sin, by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, they now had a ‘freedom licence’. Sin and its consequence has gone - now you can just do as you like, was their suggestion.
This is so dangerous. One, because it is at odds with God’s word, and two, because it has a certain appeal. There is something attractive about this proposition. That is a big problem. If it was unattractive then it would carry very little threat. The problem is that often the Christian life is not easy. There will be many temptations that cross our path. Saying ‘no’ can be difficult. So, a message which tells us that we don’t ever have to say no, would make things so much easier. Don’t resist temptation, just give in – how hard is that? But this message isn’t just appealing – it’s also downright dangerous. Peter uses the word ‘appealing’ in 2 Peter 2:18. He says, that this false teaching was ‘appealing to lustful desires.’ But he also uses another word, ‘empty’. ‘Appealing’, but ‘empty.’
Let’s consider something that many of us find appealing. Who fancies a Big Mac meal? I do. “I’m Lovin’ It”, as the slogan goes. So, if I like them so much, why don’t I eat them for every meal or, at least, partake more regularly. The main reason is that I know something else about them. Yes, they are appealing, but they are also empty. As a food, they don’t contain a great deal of nutritional value. They don’t carry the nutrients that my body really needs. If I ate them for every meal, my taste buds would be satisfied, but the whole of me would not. Over time, I would start to suffer physically, with even my good looks (joke) perhaps starting to fade away!
That is what Peter is saying about this false, ‘freedom licence’ teaching. It may appeal, but it doesn’t contain anything that is good for your souls – quite the opposite. If you go after this then you will go downhill, not physically but spiritually. Your look will change. You won’t look like someone who is following the Master, you’ll look like someone who just follows the master of their own instinct. The bible tells us that we cannot serve both (Matthew 6 24).
The devil really wants us to look like anything other than Jesus. If successful, he would overthrow our Christian lives, and undermine our Christian witness. Recently, I read an article which contained some thoughts from the professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, Dr Jordan B. Peterson. Professor Peterson struggles with the claims of the Bible, which Christians make. Much of his focus appears to be on nominal Christians, so those that are Christians by name only, without real living faith in Christ. But his conclusions are, nonetheless, sobering. He says, ‘There’s no limit to what would happen if you acted like God existed…’ But what he sees in people’s lives is different to what he expects, given their claims. He says, ‘you aren’t sufficiently transformed for me to believe that you believe in God or that you believe the story that you’re telling me… the way you live isn’t sufficient testament to the truth.’ Professor Peterson isn’t seeing the change of heart that he would expect to see in those that claim to be followers of Jesus. Or, as he words it, ‘the transformation of attitude that enables the outside observer to easily conclude that they believe.’ All too often, the witness of our lives undermines the witness of our words.
This last week, in the Premier League, football competition, Leicester City played Liverpool. On paper, Liverpool are the better side, and they enjoyed the better of the first half of the game. Leicester were really under pressure and looked likely to lose. The way that the team was set-up, and the skill sets of the individuals involved meant that they were defending heavily, with little chance to attack. Their manager, Brendan Rodgers, decided to change things. He altered the formation of the team, and swapped over some players. He brought on a substitute named Ademola Lookman. The strategy worked wonders. Leicester became much more able to successfully attack, and Mr Lookman scored a goal which won the game for Leicester. Everyone seemed to agree that it had been a very shrewd move on the part of Leicester’s manager.
The devil is very shrewd indeed. We see this in Peter’s letter. No sooner has Peter dealt with the false teaching of believers having a ‘freedom (to sin) licence’, than he is forced to move on to dealing with another threat, which comes from those that Peter terms, ‘scoffers’ in v.3. It is as if devil has made a shrewd substitution. If Mr Freedom-to-sin fails in his attacks against the faith of believers, then he will bring on Mr Scoffing as a substitute attacker. We need to be aware of this. In Peter’s first letter, 1 Peter 5:8, he reminds us that ‘Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’ This battle has much more resting on it that a football match, and the devil is determined to win. No wonder Peter instructs us, in the same verse, to ‘Be alert and of sober mind.’
So what is this ‘scoffing’ that Peter mentions? It is the undermining of the ‘promise’ of the Lord’s return. The aim of it is the same as before – to get believers to forsake Christian living. After all, if the Lord isn’t going to return, then there isn’t going to be a time of judgement, and if there isn’t going to be a judgement, then sin really doesn’t matter. Peter presents this gospel opposing argument in verse 4. ‘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.”’ Basically – if the Lord was coming back, he would have come back by now. He hasn’t, therefore he isn’t. Why else would he delay his return? Peter rejects this reasoning. Peter says that, although the Lord appears to be proceeding in a ‘slow’ (v.9) way, it is the way that we may ‘understand slowness’ that is at fault. Our perspective may be faulty. God’s perspective is not. ‘With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.’ His timing is perfect, as are all his ways (see Psalm 18:30). He has good reason to proceed with patience in this matter. Peter tells us. He uses the word ‘you’ in verse 9. I believe this refers to his people, those who are yet to be adopted (Ephesians 1;5) into his believing family. Peter says, ‘he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’
Sometimes I have to wait for my family. We are going on a car journey together. I am waiting by our Toyota at the agreed time. Not everyone is there. I’m not like our Lord. My patience has limits. It is tempting, sometimes, to just drive off. But I don’t. Yes, I might get to where we were going earlier, but we wouldn’t be complete. Some of the family would be missing, and so I wait.
2 Timothy 2:19 tells us that ‘the Lord knows those who are his’. The wonderful message of the gospel teaches us that God’s family of believing people are on a heaven bound journey. There is one vehicle, if you like, that will take them on that journey. We have to be ‘in Christ’, as I quoted earlier from the apostle Paul’s words. Our God is not going to shut down this age early. Not until all his family are ‘in Christ’ will this age end.
Peter repeats an example (v.6) that he has already used, by referring to the great flood of Genesis chapters 6-9. God waited patiently then, before bringing destruction in his own time. Peter previously spoke about destruction, and the accompanying rescue of people, in chapter 2. God ‘protected Noah’ when the flood came, and he ‘rescued Lot’ when Sodom and Gomorrah were ‘condemned’ to ‘burning’ (2 Peter 2:4-10). These men serve as really good examples, I believe, for the point that Peter is making in chapter 3. Noah didn’t knock the ark together one Saturday afternoon when he had a bit of spare time. It took years and years and years. When did the Lord choose to send the earth destroying rains? While Noah was still building it? No. Not until the ark was built, and waterproofed, and all the animals were inside, and Noah and his family had entered the ark, and ‘the Lord (had) shut him in’. Then we read, ‘And rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights’, ‘on that very day…’ (Genesis 7:12-13).
The same is true of Lot. What if the fire from heaven had come just a moment earlier, while Lot was still dilly-dallying at home? Lot really was slow to move. ‘The Lord is not slow’. He is abundantly patient, though. Peter gives us a New Testament example as well. In verse 15 he says, ‘Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom that God gave him.’ What is he referring to? I think that the most likely passage is from our text just last week, from 1 Timothy 1:16, where Paul exclaims, ‘I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.’ Our time to deal with Paul, or Saul as he was otherwise called, would probably be in Acts 7:58, where he was involved in the murder of the Lord’s faithful servant, Stephen. Would we have dealt patiently? Probably not. Would it have been the right time? It wasn’t the Lord’s time, or his way. He would allow Paul’s madness to continue, until the right time, when Paul was travelling to Damascus, with further murderous intent in his heart. Then the Lord’s time came. Then the Lord acted. Then the Lord saved that man.
So, we can believe with confidence that a new heaven and earth is coming, in the Lord’s good time. What should this mean for us? I know that some, particularly young believers, can struggle with the idea of what that future holds. ‘I just find it hard to imagine’, we may say, and this may trouble us. Don’t worry if you are like that. Just remember some really important detail. It will be a place where sin and its consequence have gone and, as Peter tells us, ‘where righteousness dwells’. It will be all-right! Or, as Revelation 21:3-4 tells us, ‘God himself will be with – his people - and be their God. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’
So, what should this mean? Peter asks this question, and gives an answer, in v.11. ‘Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives…’
How? By holding more loosely to the things of this life. My prayer and is that I will be better able to do this in 2022. May God give us the necessary resolve. Everything is going to be replaced with new and better things. Keep this at the forefront of your minds, and also something else. Peter says, ‘…as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.’ What does he mean? How can we speed the coming of this day?
Well, it is a bit like Christmas. When I was a boy it seemed to take forever to finally reach Christmas Day. That day contained such promise, that I really wanted it to come. And that is what made it so slow. I genuinely believe that the whole of my adult life has seemed shorter in length that those three days and nights before Christmas did, when I was nine. But I learnt something then. If I dreamily dwelt on things, everything went slowly. If I was occupied, they went quicker. When I helped my Mum cook some chocolate crumble, the time passed unnoticed.
That is what Peter is telling us. Don’t just sit there dwelling on the future. Get on with the job in hand. Live the Christian life in the intervening period. Take your life and live it for the Good Master (Luke 18:18 (AV)). Because he will return. Jesus is coming back. We know this from his own words.
In John 14:1-4, Jesus was comforting the troubled hearts of his followers in the lead up to his crucifixion. They knew that he was soon to leave them. Before he left, he would go to Calvary to suffer and die for sin. After three days he would prove his victory over death by rising again. Shortly after appearing again to his followers he would leave earth for heaven to prepare a place for his people. Jesus said this – ‘if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’
These words of Jesus have more foundation than the earth itself, and they will outlast it. Jesus also said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’ (Matthew 24:35 & Mark 13:31). What an encouragement this should be for us to serve him. Paul in Philippians 1:6 encourages us to have confidence as we look towards that coming day. He says, of God, ‘he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ We can carry on our work being confident that our Lord will complete his. We can serve, as 1 Peter 4:11, ‘with the strength God provides’.
We can look forward in 2022, and we can move forward in 2022, and we can, through his powerful working, do what Peter encourages us to do at the end of this letter – ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever! Amen.’
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