2 Peter 3:8-13 A Thousand Years A Day!

2 Peter 3:8-13  But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.  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.
Before atom bombs and the possibility of nuclear warfare, man could not envision the elements destroyed by fire or everything laid bare.  Now we realize that man can bring about devastating disaster.  With man’s innate inclination towards conflict, this kind of destruction could very well happen.  Since the beginning, man has struggled with his desire to hurt others for his own perceived benefit.  In the advancement of civilization, mankind’s tendency toward evil has motivated him to gain an advantage over others.  Of course as Paul states, this attitude spawns from the sin in man’s heart.  Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; THEY INVENT WAYS OF DOING EVIL.  (Romans 1:28-30)  Mankind chafes under these descriptions in the Bible because people want to believe that there is precious gold and silver in us.  If we bring out the goodness in each of us, then we will do good and not evil; then we will be cooperative and caring with empathy abounding in us.  Almost every cult and wayward religion sees this seeking of the good in mankind as the way to God and righteousness.  Of course that doctrine is antichrist in its foundation, the very opposite of God’s word.  Jesus said you must be born again, claiming that man cannot salvage himself by his own efforts.  A fallen people must have a new life, a different life, a transformed life; and that born-again life comes only from the giver of life: Jesus Christ.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him WAS LIFE, and that life was the light of all mankind.  (John 1:1-3)  Nothing in creation was made or existed outside of God.  Life itself is in God.  IN JESUS CHRIST, the Creator of all things, we have been given a new life that is acceptable to God in his holy state.  As the Bible says, In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  (John 1:4)  For the secular world, this God-centered thinking is foolishness.  They are very troubled to the point they want to ridicule or to destroy the testimony of anyone who holds those thoughts.  Today in many parts of the world, Christians can lose their lives by speaking of Jesus and his transforming power.  Elsewhere, believers are readily persecuted, making their daily lives difficult.  In our progressive and sophisticated first-world countries, the message of Christianity is ridiculed and mocked as Peter predicted.  Where is this Jesus you claim all powerful?  Where is his second coming?  Has he been sleeping or is He too busy to consider the world and its problems?  Because of the language oneness of the computer, people race to replace God in the minds of humans, attempting even to produce life from inanimate elements.  But the internal condition of the civilized, sophisticated man and even the so-called primitive man remains the same: disharmony, disruption, destruction, warfare.  To know fully what mankind is like, look at the world at the present— see what is happening in every country, ethnic group, and race.  You will find approximately the same situation: disharmony, hurt, violence, corruption, and killing.  Mankind has never been able to heal itself.  History is full of the accounts of horrendous, evil acts.  People, nations have been destroyed throughout the millenniums, and now we have the power to wipe out all life on this planet.  Two or three people could make decisions that would annihilate everything on Earth.

In today’s focus, Peter reminds us of the timelessness of God.  He makes this concept understandable by using time: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The idea of time helps us in many ways.  We measure distance, speed, and size by using time.  We orient the sequence and the structure of our lives by using time.  We know if we are young or old by using time.  Time confronts every part of our lives.  Yet God is timeless—without beginning or ending.  This throws our rational ideas out of the window.  We cannot even conceive of such an existence.  So we tend to confront spiritual realities by using time.  The scoffers use time as the basis for their disbelief.  God must not exist or we would find him someplace in the universe or in the galaxies.  But our understanding of the realities of space are based on time: distances and the largeness of space are determined by light-years.  But God does exist and we who are people of faith enter into that dominion, trusting in our God.  In fact there is no other gate to a relationship with God other than faith in Jesus Christ.  As Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)  Christ is our only hope.  Peter is talking about the end times and that God has delayed Jesus’ return because He is not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  Anyone who desires to have eternal life can escape the consequences of sin and death by believing in the One who gives life, who created life: Jesus Christ.  Heaven and Earth will pass away, will face total destruction.  But God is not caught in this construct of existence.  He is timeless and we will be with him.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.  Since this is a real possibility in our lifetime, what kind of lives should we be living: we ought to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  We should live lives of expectancy—looking for his return.  When we are sold out to God; this world will not have much for us.  But if we are in tune with everything in this world, we will live for the world and not be looking for Christ’s soon return.  In fact, his return will destroy the fixations of our lives.  Jesus points out true worship, true dedication to God, when He tells his disciples to observe the widow who has given her last mite to God.  Jesus said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.  (Mark 12:43-44)  Serving God for the wealthy cost them nothing; for the widow, serving God cost everything.  Of the two: the widow and the prosperous, who will be looking for Christ returning?  Who will have set their affections on an eternal existence and not this one?
 
When we consider Jesus and his teachings, even in the beatitudes, we see Jesus talking about our next existence.  He talks about people’s rewards in the next life if they live this life in rightness, goodness and love.  The kingdom, the place of peace, is not yet theirs, but it is promised to them.  The people who mourn will be comforted in the next world.  God will bless the humble.  When?  Later!  The humble, those who desire justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who seek peace, the persecuted, the poor, will all receive their reward when they see God.  These are people who may have lived their lives in expectancy with the idea that God would recompense them at a future date.  (See Matthew 5:3-11)  This concept of delayed rewards was prominent in Jesus’ words and deeds.  This future existence impelled the apostles to look for Jesus’ imminent return.  They taught this idea to all of their followers, for they knew all things will be made right when He returns.  Jesus’ second coming will cause the world and its institutions to be turned upside down, switching everything from evil to goodness, from wrong to right.  But, we must desire that to happen.  Our lives should be lived in such a way that his return is always on our minds.  Most of us because we are not poor or persecuted do not look for Jesus’ imminent return, nor sadly, want him to return soon; for we cannot conceive, except for eternal life, how He can make our lives better.  If we are old or sick, we might be looking steadfastly for him.  But if we are healthy and full of vigor, our minds wander to other places — places that placate our fleshly desires.  But in reality, all Christians whether rich or poor, healthy or sick should be looking for the kingdom where righteousness dwells.  We should desire heaven.  If we do not, we are too much into this world.  Jesus told his disciples a parable about a nobleman who goes away and tells his servants, Occupy till I come.  (Luke 19:13)  Jesus is speaking of his going away and that we must do his work, but we are not to put our tent poles deep into this world’s soil.  At another time, Jesus called a man a fool who considered building another barn to store his grain without considering the temporariness of this world.  Christians should always be ready to move on as the Spirit leads.  In the wilderness, the Israelites were always ready to move, to follow the Holy Spirit.  By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.  (Exodus 13:21)  When we get too comfortable, when the land is green around us and nourishing, when we find a good watering hole, we might long to stay in that camp, but God has a holy place ahead for us where all tears, all anxieties, all questions will exist no more.  We will be at home.  Yes, the world might be destroyed by fire, the elements might be burned up, all that is might disappear, but GOD REMAINS.  HOME REMAINS FOR ALL WHO HAVE PUT THEIR TRUST IN JESUS.  Do not fear breakfast companions: your place of safety in eternity is guaranteed.  Your ticket was paid in full by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.