SPEAKER_00: Well, our uh our family moved to South Lyon back in 2019.
SPEAKER_00: But about six years before that, in 2013, my wife and I decided to buy into a brand new subdivision about 25 minutes west of here out in Howell.
SPEAKER_00: At that time, we were expecting our first child, and we were kind of excited about the idea of building a brand new house for our growing family to live in.
SPEAKER_00: And so we, after checking out the neighborhood and kind of touring the model home, we decided to just go ahead and go for it and we picked out our lot and we picked out the floor plan that we wanted and we signed the contract with the builder.
SPEAKER_00: And then not too long after that, the process began, which was a pretty fun process overall.
SPEAKER_00: We drove out to their headquarters out in Grand Rapids and we walked around for a few hours and picked out all the different finishes that we wanted, everything from toilets and faucets to cabinets and crown molding.
SPEAKER_00: We just got to hand pick all of the stuff that we wanted in our house.
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, the construction process officially started, which we were told we we were told would take about nine months, but it wound up being about a year total before we actually moved into our house.
SPEAKER_00: And there were definitely moments throughout that year when it felt like time was just kind of standing still.
SPEAKER_00: There were stretches of weeks and days, days and weeks and months when it seemed like the house would just never get finished and we would just be waiting around forever for our home.
SPEAKER_00: But we did try to make the most of that year by visiting that construction site as often as we could.
SPEAKER_00: We were living in Lavonia at the time, so it was like 45 minutes to get out there, but we didn't really care.
SPEAKER_00: We, every opportunity we had, we wanted to drive out there and take a look at the progress of our house.
SPEAKER_00: And I distinctly remember the various transition points throughout that process.
SPEAKER_00: So the first time we drove out there, there was a sold sign on our lot, and we were like, that is our empty field.
SPEAKER_00: That belongs to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we were super excited.
SPEAKER_00: And then a few weeks later, we went back and they had dug a hole in the ground, and we were like, that is our hole, and we were excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: And then a few weeks later, they poured the concrete, and I remember jumping down in there and walking around what was going to be our basement.
SPEAKER_00: And then a few weeks later, they put up the frame of the house, and we went inside and walked around this house that was nothing but wooden studs, but they were our wooden studs, so it was very exciting.
SPEAKER_00: And the process went on like that for an entire year until finally the brand new house was done, and we got to move in as a family of three at the time with our newborn son.
SPEAKER_00: And it probably goes without saying, but the reason it was so much fun to go look at the house throughout that construction process is because every time we did so, we got to envision our life together in our new home.
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't the process itself that was exciting per se.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we were super excited about wooden studs and holes in the ground and concrete or drywall.
SPEAKER_00: It was the fact that every time we went there, we were reminded about our future together.
SPEAKER_00: We were reminded that this room would be the nursery where our baby boy would sleep, and this room would be the kitchen where meals would be prepared, and this room would be our family room where we would gather around the fireplace together.
SPEAKER_00: Envisioning those things is what made that process enjoyable, even when it felt like it was taking forever, even when it felt like the house would never get done.
SPEAKER_00: Or to put it another way, the entire time our house was being built, we were looking forward to the day when it would be finished, because we knew that the end of the construction process marked the beginning of life in our new home.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're wrapping up our series in 2 Peter this morning, which we've been in for the past several weeks now, and in this handful of verses that Peter writes to conclude his second letter, he goes out of his way to emphasize that very idea, our new future home that we have together as followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, last week in the first half of chapter three, we saw Peter take the false teachers of his time to task a little bit, even labeling them as scoffers, because they were mocking Christians for believing in the second coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we've mentioned this in all seven weeks of this series, but Peter's original readers were being deceived by heretical teachers in the first century who were deliberately denying what the Bible calls the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They were denying the fact that Jesus will come again and he will judge the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And so he tells them that in between the first and second coming of Christ, there will be scoffers and mockers who look at you and say, Where is he?
SPEAKER_00: You've been waiting around for him for a very long time.
SPEAKER_00: Things just seem to be continuing on as they always have been.
SPEAKER_00: Where is this Jesus that's coming back?
SPEAKER_00: Peter says that Christians should fully expect that kind of antagonism from false teachers and hostile unbelievers, but it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter because in reality, the Lord is simply being patient.
SPEAKER_00: He is continually drawing more and more people to himself for salvation until finally, on a day that nobody knows and nobody can predict, Jesus will return in power and glory to consummate his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And that being the case, the final eight verses of this letter are meant to point us toward the future in a way that informs how we live in the present.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically in verses 11 through 14, Peter instructs his readers to live with hope-fueled holiness.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verses 15 through 18, he tells us to strive for grace-fueled growth.
SPEAKER_00: So, first by reminding Christians what we are waiting for, Peter emphasizes a holy lifestyle that is motivated by our future home together.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, he underscores one final time, as he has done throughout this letter, the importance of leaning into true and proper doctrine so that we can grow and mature on our way to eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Hope-fueled holiness and grace-fueled growth.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll start with part one of our passage, hope-fueled holiness in verses 11 through 14 of 2 Peter chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: He writes, Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?
SPEAKER_00: Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
SPEAKER_00: But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
SPEAKER_00: Now, remember, last week Andrew dealt with verse 7 of this chapter, which also says that the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
SPEAKER_00: And he briefly mentioned the fact that there's a debate between Bible scholars as to whether or not this language of fire is literal or figurative.
SPEAKER_00: So is Peter saying that the universe as it currently exists is literally going to burn up and disintegrate and melt?
SPEAKER_00: Or is he using figurative and symbolic language to communicate the fact that on the day of the Lord there will be a comprehensive judgment and purification of the universe?
SPEAKER_00: Well, from what I can tell, it seems like the majority view throughout church history is that Peter is using figurative language of fire to describe a very real and literal event in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And that is an important distinction because the use of symbolic language does not mean that the thing being described is not real.
SPEAKER_00: No, he is using there's a real and literal truth that is being communicated, but it's being communicated with symbolism and imagery.
SPEAKER_00: So kind of like if I were to say that you and I had a disagreement and we really locked horns over an issue.
SPEAKER_00: When I say that, I am obviously not saying that you and I literally grew horns in our heads and attacked each other, and those horns got stuck together.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of goes without saying that when I make that statement, I'm communicating a literal truth using symbolic language.
SPEAKER_00: So the literal truth is that you and I had a serious fight or a disagreement and we had a hard time finding a resolution.
SPEAKER_00: The figurative language is the use of locking horns, which puts an image in your mind of fighting.
SPEAKER_00: And likewise, when Peter says that the current heavens and earth will be burned up and that everything will be dissolved and all the planets and the stars, the heavenly bodies, all the things in the universe will melt and burn, most commentators seem to think he's using an image of fire, which was synonymous with the idea of purification and refinement and renewal, to communicate the very real and literal truth that when Jesus brings this current age to an end, there will be a full and comprehensive judgment of sin, and there will be a complete purification and renewal of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And in Revelation 21, when the Apostle John is given this glimpse of the new creation to come, Jesus tells him, Behold, I am making all things new, as opposed to saying, Behold, I am making all new things.
SPEAKER_00: Which probably means he is not remaking everything from scratch after it burns and melts completely, but he's renewing everything to a state of total purity after sin and death are judged and removed forever.
SPEAKER_00: But either way, whether Peter's language is literal or symbolic, okay, regardless, the future event that he is describing will be experienced very differently for those who reject Christ in this life than for those who embrace Christ in this life.
SPEAKER_00: Because for everyone who rejects him, that day will only be a day of final judgment and separation.
SPEAKER_00: But for everyone who embraces him, it will be a day of final salvation and homecoming.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why in verse 13, Peter encourages his readers by reminding them that according to God's promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been a Christian for a long time, if you were raised in the church or you've been around evangelicalism for a while, then depending on the theological tradition that you come from or that you were brought up in, what I am going to say over the next 10 minutes or so, you might disagree with.
SPEAKER_00: And that is totally fine.
SPEAKER_00: We can still be friends, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But it might contradict or challenge some theology that you have always been taught.
SPEAKER_00: And what I am referring to is this the church that I grew up in, which was a wonderful church that I am eternally grateful for.
SPEAKER_00: It's the church where I was discipled and brought up to know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I was baptized, I grew up in the youth group there.
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful church.
SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, that church was part of a theological tradition that had a very specific understanding of eschatology, which is just the fancy word for end times theology.
SPEAKER_00: And so from a pretty young age, I was taught one very specific way of reading the passages in the Bible that deal with the second coming of Christ and God's plans for the end of history.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, if you had approached me when I was a teenager, or even when I was just a young man, and you had asked me the question, John, what do you think we are waiting for as Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Most likely I would have said, We're waiting for the rapture.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting for Jesus to come back and rapture the church out of the world and take us away into heaven with him for seven years, during which time there's going to be a great tribulation on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, if you're wondering, the church I grew up in was big on the left behind books in the Kirk Cameron movies.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably what I would have said.
SPEAKER_00: We're waiting for the rapture.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what Peter says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
SPEAKER_00: And the more that I have studied Scripture for myself as an adult, and the more that I have studied the development of different end times perspectives throughout all 2,000 years of church history, I have become more and more persuaded that the reason Peter says this is because he doesn't actually have a category for the church being raptured out of the world and going away into heaven for seven years.
SPEAKER_00: I'm persuaded the Bible doesn't actually teach that.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that idea was a very late development in church history and has only really been popular for the past 200 years or so.
SPEAKER_00: Now the truth is, proponents of this view have a number of different passages that they point to that they think teach this idea, and we would be here all day if I tried to walk through all of those passages for us today.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do that, but I do just want to look at two passages very briefly.
SPEAKER_00: Just two passages that some Christians believe teach the idea that the church will be raptured out of the world when Christ returns.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is in Matthew 24, where Jesus says this.
SPEAKER_00: But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
SPEAKER_00: For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
SPEAKER_00: So will be the coming of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one left.
SPEAKER_00: Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now when some Christians read these verses, Christians who love the Bible and love the Lord, but they read these verses and they read them this way when Jesus comes back, believers will be raptured and taken away, and non-believers will be left behind.
SPEAKER_00: So there'll be two men in the field, and the one who's a Christian will be taken, and the one who is not will be left, or there'll be two women grinding at the mill, and the one who's a Christian will be taken, and the one who is not will be left.
SPEAKER_00: That's how a lot of people read this passage.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I was a kid, there was a popular but terrible song by DC Talk.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might remember.
SPEAKER_00: It was called I Wish We'd All Been Ready.
SPEAKER_00: That song was based on this understanding of these verses.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to gently suggest to you that that way of reading it completely misses the point of the analogy that Jesus uses here.
SPEAKER_00: He specifically says, they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, but so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: So because Jesus intentionally uses this analogy, we should stop and ask ourselves the question: when the flood took place, who was it that was taken?
SPEAKER_00: And who was it that was left behind?
SPEAKER_00: Again, he says they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
SPEAKER_00: So during that event, it was the unbelievers who were taken away, swept away by the waters of judgment, and it was Noah and his family who were left behind to live together on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Which means the only way to be consistent with this analogy that he uses about the return of Christ is to say that when Jesus says one will be taken and one will be left, he's not saying believers will be raptured and unbelievers will be left behind.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying when he returns, just like during the flood, unbelievers will be taken away in judgment and separated, and believers will be left behind to live together on a recreated earth.
SPEAKER_00: I think reading it any other way than that just misses the point of what Jesus is doing when he compares his second coming to the flood.
SPEAKER_00: Another passage that's used to make the case for the rapture is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where Paul writes this.
SPEAKER_00: And the dead in Christ will rise first.
SPEAKER_00: Then he who are then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to be fair, the English word rapture is derived from the Latin term for being caught up together in the sky.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, Paul very clearly takes states that when Jesus returns, Christians will be caught up together, which means I do believe in a rapture because I believe Paul says that is what is going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, what takes place when the rapture occurs?
SPEAKER_00: Again, some Christians think that we meet Jesus in the clouds and he takes us away with him into heaven, but what Paul actually says is we meet the Lord in the air and then we will always be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So the only thing that's actually specified in these verses is the fact that Jesus will come down and we will be caught up and we will meet with him and be reunited with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's where it stops.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only thing it specifies.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, a very important interpretive key in this passage is a particular word that Paul chooses to use.
SPEAKER_00: So when he says that we will meet Jesus in the air, the the Greek word that he uses for meet is the word appentasis.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone say appentasis.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: In biblical and extra-biblical literature, appentesis is a term that is just used to describe an event where residents of a city go outside the city gates to meet and welcome an arriving king or royal guest of honor so that they can escort them into the city with a proper celebration.
SPEAKER_00: So appentasis does not mean to go meet someone and then depart and leave with them.
SPEAKER_00: It specifically means to meet somebody important and then usher them in with a reception of honor.
SPEAKER_00: Ancient writers like Josephus used it this way all the time when he was writing about kings.
SPEAKER_00: And the biblical authors do this too.
SPEAKER_00: So, for example, in Acts chapter 28, even Paul was welcomed this way as he was arriving to the city of Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Luke writes this.
SPEAKER_00: And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and three taverns to meet us, Apontasis.
SPEAKER_00: On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.
SPEAKER_00: And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.
SPEAKER_00: So as Paul was approaching Rome, fellow believers came out to meet him, treated him like an honored guest, and escorted him into the city.
SPEAKER_00: Also, John chapter 12, which is a pretty important one, during Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we read this.
SPEAKER_00: The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The word that John uses here is Hupentesis, which is a cognate of Apentesis.
SPEAKER_00: And in Koine Greek, that just means it's a different prefect with the same meaning.
SPEAKER_00: So again, as Jesus is entering Jerusalem, swathes of people come out to meet him to give him a royal welcome into the city.
SPEAKER_00: So when Paul uses apentases to describe us meeting the Lord in the air, I do not think he is describing an event where we meet him and then depart and leave with him.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's describing an event where we meet him and then usher him in with the royal welcome he deserves as the king of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might disagree with everything I just said, but totally fine.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you study church history, you will find that for 2,000 years, the Christians have always disagreed on some things about eschatology, but they always at least agree that Jesus wins in the end.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So I don't think this is worth dividing over as believers, but still, you might have more questions now.
SPEAKER_00: I might have created more questions in your mind, which is why it's a good it's good news that the Between Two Pastors podcast is coming back this summer.
SPEAKER_00: So text your questions in and maybe we'll deal with them.
SPEAKER_00: Subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, even if you disagree with me, totally fine.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you think we will be raptured out of the world when Jesus returns, regardless, you still have to admit that Peter seems completely unconcerned with that idea.
SPEAKER_00: He clearly does not see himself as somebody who is waiting to be raptured away into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Or to Andrew's point from last week, Peter doesn't see himself as somebody who's waiting for certain end times signs that he can see and decode and interpret.
SPEAKER_00: Very simply, he sees himself who is waiting for new heavens and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: Which means for Peter, the hope of the Christian life is not that we get to escape and get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: The hope of the Christian life is that Jesus is coming back here to renew and redeem his whole creation.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, his exhortation in these verses is that this very hope should fuel us to live lives of holiness and godliness while we wait for our new home.
SPEAKER_00: He says it should motivate us to be diligent about being found by Jesus in a state of purity and Christ-likeness when he returns, if he returns in our lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, what Peter writes in verses 11 and 12 is actually fascinating to think about it if you really ponder this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?
SPEAKER_00: Hastening.
SPEAKER_00: To hasten means to accelerate or to hurry.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you've never thought about this before, but Peter is actually saying here that followers of Jesus can actually accelerate his return by pursuing holiness and godliness while we wait for him.
SPEAKER_00: Dick Lucas puts it this way: if God is delaying his coming because of sin and salvation, then we can encourage him to come by our obedience.
SPEAKER_00: So Peter is giving Christians an additional reason to obey God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, first and foremost, we obey God's word because he is our sovereign creator and he's in charge and we're not.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we obey God's word because we have gratitude for his grace toward us in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we obey God's word because it is good and right and true, and because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and amen to all of that.
SPEAKER_00: But according to these verses, we also obey God's word because doing so can actually accelerate his return.
SPEAKER_00: Doing so can hasten the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If that is not hope-fueled holiness, then I don't know what is.
SPEAKER_00: This means that when we continually deepen our relationship with Christ, when we continually deny the sinful desires of our flesh and we intentionally embrace the righteous desires of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When we seek to emulate Jesus and we pursue Christ's likeness, when we earnestly pray for God's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, when we evangelize the lost and we baptize new believers into the church, when we obey God's word out of gratitude for God's grace in some mysterious and divine way that is beyond our understanding, the Lord uses these things.
SPEAKER_00: He uses our holy and obedient living to hasten and accelerate the return of Christ and the dawn of a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: So we should be diligent disciples who are found by Jesus if he returns in our lifetime in a state of purity and Christ-likeness when he does return.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we need to keep things moving here.
SPEAKER_00: But similar to the idea of hope-fueled holiness, Peter continues in part two of our passage by also telling us to strive for grace-fueled growth.
SPEAKER_00: In verses 15 through 18, he writes this.
SPEAKER_00: And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all of his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
SPEAKER_00: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so Peter reiterates once again a point that he made in last week's passage that God is not actually slow to fulfill his promise.
SPEAKER_00: He's just being patient so that more and more people can repent and believe the gospel before he returns, which means clearly Peter is holding two realities in tension at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Because on the one hand, the Lord is being patient and he is delaying his return so that more people can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: But on the other hand, as we saw a few minutes ago, Christians can also accelerate his return through our faithful obedience to him.
SPEAKER_00: And apparently both of these things can be true at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, obedient believers who pursue lives of holiness, we can hasten the day of the Lord in such a way where from our vantage point, it happens sooner than it otherwise would.
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, God is still patient and extending this age of gospel proclamation for a lot longer than we would.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, Peter says, count the patience of the Lord as salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that Jesus has not returned yet is not neglect.
SPEAKER_00: It is not indifference.
SPEAKER_00: It is not disregard of his creation, it is an extended period of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And then he leans harder into that by leaning on the writings of Paul to add more weight to this idea.
SPEAKER_00: He says, even our brother Paul in his letters, he talks about God's patience as well.
SPEAKER_00: And there's things in there that are hard to understand, which wicked people twist and distort just like they do all the other scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's three quick things we have to say about Paul's letters, real quickly.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, even Peter had a hard time understanding them.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're ever reading Romans and Colossians and you're like, what in the world is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You are in good company.
SPEAKER_00: Even an apostle of the early church is like, okay, Paul, that's weird.
SPEAKER_00: He has a hard time with Paul's writing sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, just because it is challenging to read them does not mean we get to distort them or rewrite them.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says the people who do that are ignorant and unstable and are headed for destruction.
SPEAKER_00: So hard to understand does not mean open to any interpretation.
SPEAKER_00: And then third, it's also worth noting that the apostles knew they were writing sacred scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Peter affirms the fact that Paul's letters are sacred by saying that people twist his words just like they do with the other scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, of course they distort his writings because that is what they do with the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: They twist and warp and misrepresent the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so that being the case, he tells his readers to take care, your translation might say, be on guard, take care not to get swept up into the distortion of God's word the same way that false teachers and hostile critics do.
SPEAKER_00: Be on guard so that you don't lose your solid footing in the gospel and become ignorant and unstable alongside of them, but instead grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you recall from week one of this series, we talked about the fact that this is a particular concern for Peter in this letter, knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, in his commentary on 2 Peter, David Helms says that the knowledge of God is the central theme of this letter, because knowing God and his word is central to protecting ourselves from false teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing God and his word is central to maintaining proper doctrine, but this is more than just intellectual head knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Head knowledge is important and meaningful, but this is more than that.
SPEAKER_00: This goes deeper than that, which is why Peter says to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because this isn't growth that is fueled just by intelligence.
SPEAKER_00: This is grace-fueled growth.
SPEAKER_00: It is growth that is started by and sustained by and completed by the gospel of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Because the fact that the eternal Son of God entered into creation to sacrifice himself for our sins, but was raised back to life and then ascended into the throne room of heaven where he rules and reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords and will return someday and will make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: That gospel truth is what fuels our growth in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can grow us the way that God's grace grows us.
SPEAKER_00: Because nothing can simultaneously show us both the depth of our sin and the depth of God's love at the very same time.
SPEAKER_00: As Tim Keller once famously put it, the gospel says that we are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe.
SPEAKER_00: Yet at the same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.
SPEAKER_00: And that reality, that glorious, grace-laced reality is what empowers us to grow as followers of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel starts our growth, it sustains our growth, and it will complete our growth on the day when Jesus returns.
SPEAKER_00: See, the closing verses of this letter are meant to point us toward the future in a specific way that informs how we live in the present.
SPEAKER_00: And similar to how the entire time our new house was being built back in 2013, we were looking forward to that day when it would be finished because we knew that the end of the construction process marked the beginning of life in our new home.
SPEAKER_00: Similarly, Peter is telling Christians in every generation to live with the end in mind because the end is really the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Live with the end in mind, because the end is really the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Church, as followers of Jesus, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_00: We're not waiting to just be disembodied souls who float around in the sky for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: We are waiting for a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth, more specifically, one in which righteousness dwells, because the perfect righteousness and purity of God cannot share the same space with the unrighteous sin of mankind, which means a renewed, renewed world where righteousness dwells will be a place where unrighteousness cannot dwell.
SPEAKER_00: It will be a world where sin of every kind, unrighteousness of every kind is completely removed forever.
SPEAKER_00: A world completely free from idolatry, pride, anger, greed, envy, lust, lying, murder, theft, abuse, injustice, gossip, selfishness, hatred.
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, in the book of Revelation, it also tells us it will be free from sickness and sadness and pain and death.
SPEAKER_00: And for those who cling to the gospel and trust in Christ in this life, that world will be our new home forever.
SPEAKER_00: So it only makes sense that we should live with the end in mind because that is actually our beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Nearly two decades ago, there was a sermon clip that went viral that had millions of views all over the world.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you, maybe even most of you in this room, I'm sure, have probably seen it.
SPEAKER_00: The pastor's name was Francis Chan, and he he had this illustration that has been very powerful for people where he had this long rope, and he had the rope going all the way off the stage, and he just said, Imagine this rope just goes on for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: It's never ending.
SPEAKER_00: It just keeps going and going and going.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the very end of the rope, there was like two inches of red tape.
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, This red tape represents our life here and now, and the rest of this rope represents all of eternity and everything that's going to happen after the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: And then, kind of a goofy way, he's like, We obsess over if only I could just save enough money to get there.
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe if I get there, everything will feel better, and maybe if I can be comfortable there, everything will get better.
SPEAKER_00: And we obsess and freak out over all the stuff in the small red tape, and don't ever think about everything after that that goes on forever and ever and ever for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And just to clarify, he wasn't saying that our life in the here and now doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Of course it matters.
SPEAKER_00: He's simply saying that in the context of eternity, the here and now is just not our primary existence.
SPEAKER_00: And I would even add to that that the world in its current state, in the here and now, is not our primary home.
SPEAKER_00: We are just waiting for the builder to finish his work of redemption and return in power and glory so that we can finally move into our forever home as the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have no idea when Jesus is going to come back.
SPEAKER_00: For the past 2,000 years, Christians have attempted to speculate when he will return.
SPEAKER_00: And for 2,000 years, they've been wrong every single time.
SPEAKER_00: And you'd think we would learn from that.
SPEAKER_00: But just this week, I saw another clip on Instagram of some guy claiming Jesus will return in our lifetime, and here's how I know why.
SPEAKER_00: So whenever you hear a pastor or a podcaster or an influencer trying to nail down the timing of Christ's return, immediately disregard whatever they say.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus could not have been more clear that nobody knows the day or the hour.
SPEAKER_00: We have no way of knowing if it will happen during our lifetime or not.
SPEAKER_00: However, while we wait, we do so with lives of hope-fueled holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that our obedience in some mysterious and divine way is used by the Lord to accelerate his return.
SPEAKER_00: And lives of grace-fueled growth that focuses our attention on the gospel from start to finish of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And we should take the advice of the old Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter, who suffered greatly in his life from various illnesses and afflictions and persecutions.
SPEAKER_00: And when he was asked by somebody in his church how he managed to endure all of the hardships that he had in his life, he very simply said, I just think about heaven for 30 minutes every day.
SPEAKER_00: How often do you set aside time to just ponder the new creation to come?
SPEAKER_00: When our house was being built in Howell, we were constantly envisioning our life together in our new home, and we only ended up living there for five years before moving to South Lion.
SPEAKER_00: But the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells is where we will live forever.
SPEAKER_00: How often do you envision that?
SPEAKER_00: The here and now matters.
SPEAKER_00: But rather than only focusing on the here and now and constantly obsessing over getting from this point to this point to this point in the here and now and just over this portion of our life that is not even our primary existence or our primary home, we should devote time every single day to thinking about the rest of the rope.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking about eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And in my opinion, the best way to do that is to regularly revisit breathtaking passages like this one from Revelation 21.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle John wrote the following.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
SPEAKER_00: He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.
SPEAKER_00: And God Himself will be with them as their God, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Neither will there be mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away, and he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the family of God is waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we were actually made for.
SPEAKER_00: We were made to dwell in the presence of our Creator forever without the presence of sin or sickness or pain or death ruining life ever again.
SPEAKER_00: So live with the end in mind because the end is really the beginning.