Taking the Long View
I want to begin today by talking about waiting. Many of us are like Inigo Montoya in the movie The Princess Bride, we hate waiting. Christmas is three weeks from today and for young children waiting for Christmas can feel like a long time. For those of us who are older, we may not associate waiting with Christmas since there is so much to do and so little time to get it all done. In contrast to children, people my age and up, are likely to associate waiting not so much with Christmas as with medical appointments or going to see a doctor.
December 4, 2011
2 Peter 3:8-15a, Taking the Long View
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
What I am about to say should not be taken as a criticism of the medical profession, it is merely an observation. First of all, you know you’re in trouble when you go somewhere, like the doctor’s office, and there is a waiting room. They don’t call it “the ready to see you room,” it is “the waiting room,”so you better have your Bible, a book, some kind of e-reader, a cell phone, a crossword, a Sudoku; it’s going to be a while. To make you feel better, at some places they now give you a handheld portable device that buzzes and lights up like you’d get at a busy restaurant only you don’t get a hot meal when you turn it in, you get to go to another room and wait some more. If you have been to a medical appointment lately you may know what I mean. It can take two hours or more and you may spend in actual time less than twenty minutes with staff. This is the way it is and we need to keep in mind doctors, nurses and technicians (and we have plenty at BBC) have it tough – there are so many people to see, so much information to process, time is so tight and every patient wants to feel important and not rushed when they are being seen and we are thankful when we are given that time. It is helpful for everyone to keep a sense of humor and perspective while waiting.
There are many situations in life that require waiting. In the late first century, early Christians found themselves waiting, not for Christmas or the birth of Jesus, but for the second coming of Christ. They were living in between the first appearance of Jesus and his return. They had initially thought it was going to be soon, but years passed, the twelve apostles and the first generation of Jesus’ followers were passing away. There were second and third generation Christians and folks were wondering, “Why hasn’t Jesus returned as he promised? What are we supposed to do while we’re waiting?” For Christians like us almost 2,000 years later, those questions are still relevant. Why hasn’t Jesus returned as he promised? What are we supposed to do while we’re waiting? Listen to how 2 Peter 3:8-15a answers those questions:
“But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.”
The first thing we notice in this passage from 2 Peter is the timelessness of God – God’s sense of time is very different than our own. The last 2,000 years are like a mere couple of days to an eternal God. This is a quote of Psalm 90:4, “For a thousand years in your sight, are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.” Peter answers the question Why hasn’t Jesus returned by speaking of the tenderness of God – because the Lord is patient, not wanting anyone to perish. If Jesus had returned centuries ago, none of us would have existed, so personally, I am grateful he has waited. There should be no question in anybody’s mind whether God wants sinners to be saved. First Timothy 2:3b-4 states that “God our Savior… desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked as the prophet Ezekiel shared centuries before Christ (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11), “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live. As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” This was part of the message that John the Baptist had preached. Turn and live. This passage is the only place where Peter used the word repentance in either of his letters. To repent means “to change one’s mind.” It is not “regret,” which usually means “being sorry I got caught.” Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action. If we honestly change our mind about sin, we will turn from it. If we sincerely change our mind about Jesus, we will turn to Christ, trust him, and be saved. “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21) is God’s recipe for salvation. Repentance is a gift from God (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25), but we must make room for the gift as the well-known Christmas carol sings, “Let every heart, prepare him room.” Jesus hasn’t returned because the Lord “is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”
What are we supposed to do while we’re waiting for Jesus to return?
Because we don’t know the day or the hour of our Lord’s return, we’re to be ready at all times. This attitude ought to make a difference in our personal behavior (2 Peter 3:11). Our lives are to be marked by holiness and godliness as if Jesus could return today. 1 Peter 1:15–16, “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct;for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” The word holy means “to separate,” Israel was a “holy nation” because God called the Jews out from among the peoples around them. Christians are also called out and set apart for God. The word godliness describes a person whose life is devoted to pleasing God. It is the attitude of John the Baptist who said about Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Numerous New Testament passages teach that an eager expectancy of the Lord’s return ought to motivate us to live pure lives (see Romans 13:11–14; 2 Corinthians 5:1–11; Philippians 3:17–21; 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11; Titus 2:11–15; 1 John 2:28–3:3). Perhaps we rarely stop to think that 2 Peter says by how we live our life as we’re waiting, we can be “hastening the coming of the day of God.” Peter says it is possible for us to hasten the return of Jesus Christ.
“Hasten” and “haste” aren’t words we hear a lot anymore. The shepherds “came with haste” (Luke 2:16). Jesus told Zaccheus to “make haste and come down” from the tree he climbed and “he made haste and came down” (Luke 19:5–6). Paul “hasted… to be at Jerusalem” (Acts 20:16); and then the Lord told Paul to “make haste and get… out of Jerusalem” (Acts 22:18). We might say today we can speed up the coming of the day of God by how we live.
When it comes to waiting for the second coming of Jesus there are two extremes to avoid. One is the attitude that we are “locked into” God’s plan in such a way that nothing we do will make any difference because whatever is going to happen is going to happen. As I’ve said before, Christians are not fatalists, nor are we limp, lifeless puppets on a string. Doris Day may have sung, “Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be,” but that is not the Christian approach to life. The other extreme is to think that God can’t get anything done unless we do it. Two illustrations from Old Testament help us understand the relationship between God’s plans and our lives. God delivered Israel from Egypt and told the people He wanted them to go into the land of Canaan. But at Kadesh-Barnea all except Moses, Joshua, and Caleb rebelled against God and refused to enter the land (Numbers 13–14). Did God force them to go in? No. Instead, they wandered in the wilderness for the next forty years while the older generation died off. God adjusted the plan to the people’s response. When the Jonah preached to the people of Nineveh, his message was clear and brief: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:4) It was God’s plan to destroy the wicked city, but when the people repented, from the king on down, God adjusted the plan and spared the city. Neither God nor the Almighty’s principles changed, but the application of those principles changed. God responds when people repent.
Peter says twice in today’s scripture that the things we may regard as most ancient and permanent – the earth we live on and all that we see, the heavens and the elements, will one day pass away. There is a day when the Lord will return or we will go to be with God, in either case, everything we know will be changed and transformed. We are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth that will be different than this one which is filled with so much violence, bloodshed, and selfishness because it will be “where righteousness is at home.”
We’ve all heard the jokes about Florida being for the newly wed and the nearly dead or referring to it as “God’s waiting room.” But there is a sense in which the whole world we live in is God’s waiting room for us. Just like in a doctor’s office we don’t want to waste or squander precious time. If you’re killing time today you’re killing your future tomorrow. So Peter says as we live in the waiting room of the world “strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” We are more likely to be at peace if we are in relationship with God and we’re striving each and every day to live as God’s people. When I’m washing dishes, I’m trying to do is get rid of spots or blemishes. We all do this when we wash dishes or wash our hands. In the same way, repentance, holiness, and godliness are not “one and done” kind of things that we do once or pursue one time in our life. Peter says what we do with dishes or our hands multiple times a day we also are to do in our lives – we want them to be clean and pure without spot or blemish. Just like we use dishes every day and they have to be cleaned, so in our lives, there are things we do that need to be cleaned up each day. Many places including schools, hospitals, the grocery store and our church now have hand sanitizer all over the place so people can clean their hands. The Bible encourages us to have clean hands and clean hearts in a spiritual sense. In other words, as my mother used to say, “Be your best self.” Be your best self every moment of every day so that if Jesus returns he’ll be pleased and if you die before he comes again, you will not be ashamed to stand before him and you’ll be welcomed you as a sheep of God’s own flock.
These verses of 2 Peter 3 teach us that we sit and wait in God’s space and time. They remind us of the importance of taking the long view and keeping the Lord’s perspective on life and what is good and what is truly important and lasting. As a community of faith we wait for God’s judgment and Christ’s return not in fear but with great desire. We are a community waiting and yearning in faithfulness, striving to live at peace with God and one other, without spot or blemish so that we hasten and don’t delay God’s will being done on earth as it is heaven.
Blessing: Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 24-25