Category: Devotions

Peter has been reminding his people not to be tempted away like some had by the influence of their world especially in only focusing on their present lives. This is not it. That was the message. There is a day of the Lord coming when Jesus returns when the heart of our world will disappear, those who scoff will be exposed and nothing will be hidden anymore. So how should we live our lives knowing this?

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 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. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3 v 11-13)

So 

• We don’t put our trust in the things of this world because they are not permanent.

• We don’t expect to receive our true happiness from this world because it has no future.

• We are not discouraged by our experiences in this world for there is a new order coming. 

• We filter our decisions through the fact that we will not be in this world but the new heaven and new earth.

• We lift our eyes and radiate a joy simply because we have a strong future where others only face a bleak one.

Peter is speaking of the return of Jesus and is opposing the ‘scoffers’ who doubt He will come. He is reminding God’s people that the return is a promise and it will surely happen. God is not slow but is waiting for us to reach as many people with His love and gospel as we can for He does not want anyone to perish.

“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.” (2 Peter 3 v 10)

The day of the Lord is coming. We find this phrase throughout the Old Testament to indicate the intervention from God into His world. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the day of the Lord, the great move of God where the power of sin and death was defeated as we surrender our lives at the feet of this great act. But there is a further ‘day of the Lord’ to come and that is the ending of all that we know and the beginning of the new. It is the return of Christ.

This day will be like a thief. Even though the promise of the day is throughout the Scriptures it will catch people unaware especially the ‘scoffers’ who are not thinking it will happen at all. Remember that Peter’s intention is to confront the ‘scoffers’ and not to give a detailed account of the return of Jesus. So can you see the 3 things Peter says?

“The heavens will disappear with a roar” – whatever Peter has in mind it is clear that though Jesus’ return will be surprising it will not be hidden. It will be heard!

“the elements will be destroyed by fire” – Peter then says that the very centre of everything will be gone. The matter that holds everything together, the heart of our world, it will be burnt up.

“and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” – with a swipe at those ‘scoffers’ Peter says everything will be exposed. What is hidden will no longer be hidden.

Jesus will come when the world is not expecting it (and that could even be the Church). When He does everything that Christ has held together will be released. Christ sustains everything and when He comes He will stop sustaining. He will take His hand off this world and what we know will change … ready for the new!

I wonder how much the return of Jesus Christ occupies the mind of even the most fervent of Christians. In Peter’s day and so soon after Jesus’ own words of His return it seemed the Church was already taking their attention away this important truth. In fact Peter is attacking those ‘scoffers’ who have risen from within the Church and were teaching that Jesus was not returning, this was not a literal Second Coming but a figurative one.

Today the Church is being tempted to focus so much on life on this earth as if it will remain like it is. Each generation wants to live their best life while they can but that only serves to make every generation more self-centred, following their own desires, being who they are, not surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus. If the children do not believe their parents are actually coming back home for a very long time then the temptation is to run riot and behave badly for they have time to fix it before they do. But what if the parents come back in the next hour in the middle of the mess the children have made?

“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.” (2 Peter 3 v 9

Peter reminds us that the return of Jesus is ‘his promise’.

This is a promise of God. God cannot be God if He breaks His promise. But Peter goes further and says He is not dragging His feet to fulfil this promise either.

Rather it is His patience which makes us feel the return is delayed. He wants every person that you know to change their thinking and come to Him because He does not want anyone to miss eternal life. God doesn’t want anyone in hell.

He is patiently waiting for your loved one to turn to Him? God loves and wants that person with Him even more than you do. Sometimes it takes time for people to see the light and turn away from their sin. God is waiting and in the waiting He gives you and me time also to do all we can to reach the lost with the love of God.

Perhaps this is the point. He is patient with the Church, with you and me. He waits to give us time to reach as many as we can. He waits for us to get out of our church buildings. He waits for us to stop hesitating with the gospel. He waits for us to be compelled by the Spirit to go to the lost, the least and the last. He waits for us to willingly count the cost and pay the price that others may know Jesus.  He is patient with us. He is waiting. And in His waiting He asks whether we will go. For make no mistake Jesus is returning soon.

Last week I was away on holiday in Cumbria surrounded by mountains and hills that have been walked upon for thousands of years. I was also thinking about my last 10 years before retirement and how short a time it feels. The difference between the ancient and the modern seemed vast. Ten years as a child seemed such a long time away. Now it will be gone before I know it! There is so much I want to achieve still. In my present work I know it will take many years to accomplish what my heart desires to see. I have this in mind this morning as I continue with this second letter of Peter thinking about whether I will see the return of Christ in my generation.

In the context of criticising the scoffers who say Jesus hasn’t returned and won’t return he quotes Psalm 90.

“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…” (2 Peter 3 v 8-9)

So people walking on the mountains and hills of Cumbria for thousands of years is actually just days to God.

This is not a formula to work out when He will return because no one knows not even Jesus.

Peter’s quote is from a prayer of Moses in the Wilderness. When you are in that place it can seem like a thousand years and not 40 years. The point is that time for us can at times be very slow and then also be very quick. Our perspective of time is different to God’s.

So just because the scoffers say ‘where is this return of Jesus’ does not mean a thing. Is there a reason for this delay? Peter says there is and we know what that is and it is because of His grace and mercy to mankind.

Peter focuses on a group of people who have been ridiculing in particular the belief in the return of Christ. He calls them scoffers. Having reminded God’s people to hold on to the truth of what the prophets wrote in the Old Testament, the words of Jesus and those of the apostles he now focuses particularly to address those mockers of our faith.

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 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.” ⁵ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. ⁶ By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. ⁷ By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 3 v 3-7)

The last days will contain scoffers as well as the family of God. Since the ascension of Jesus Christ the world moved into the last days. During this last 2,000 years the ‘brothers and sisters’ (1:10) will exist alongside those who ridicule the faith, the ‘scoffers’. It was always going to be. Just because they exist and ridicule this belief doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is returning soon.

Scoffers will follow their own evil desires. These are not just the last days but they are days of evil. Not only do they scoff the Coming King they scoff by their behaviour the Lordship of the King. Look around you and see what is happening to the Church. The scoffers with their behaviour scoff at the Lordship of Jesus and they do it from within the Church.

Scoffers will reject the promise. They won’t accept the promise found in the Old Testament, the Gospels, Acts or what the Apostles Paul, James, Peter and John confirm. They will turn their back on the Communion/Lord’s Supper that we regular partake of until He comes and they will reject the eternal promise which is in the heart of every born-again believer.

Scoffers will say ‘there has been no change’. They will rule out the divine intervention of God through Jesus Christ and they will say God has not intervened since Creation and He does not and He will not bring any change to this world.

Scoffers will forget the story of Noah. There were scoffers in Noah’s day and in Peter’s day and so there is no surprise also in our day. Scoffers may talk of the love of God. “God loves everybody so live how you want”. But they deliberately forget. They choose to forget God’s judgment with the Flood. Ignore the Flood and you don’t have to worry about future judgment nor any return of Jesus.

The promise remains even if the foolish scoffers do.

Do you still remember those words that humiliated you? Those words that honoured you? What words do you remember?

“I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.” (2 Peter 3 v 2)

Remember Bible verses, stories, commands. Learn to recite them. To bring them to the surface of your mind on every occasion. Write them down. Buy the fridge magnets. Do whatever you need to do to recall the words spoken by the prophets and the apostles in the Scriptures.

Remember what you have received and heard. Look back on what has been taught you over the years. Remember the songs, the worship times when you experienced the presence of God. Bring to the surface the shaping of God in your life. Those high moments when the Spirit came on you and the Word directed your life. Don’t let go of the past victories.

Fill your mind with these words and see what happens to your life today!

How many friends do you have? In the world of social media that doesn’t mean much really.

Last night I attended a birthday party and it was lovely to see the friends that the person had around her. Over the years they had gathered true friends.

Friendships is so important. Some have been blessed to keep their childhood friends into adult life and others find a friend in university and they stay friends for the rest of their lives.

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century sought to discover humanity’s original language – thinking it might be Hebrew, Greek or Latin. So he experimented by isolating a few infants. The nurses involved were sworn to absolute silence, and no one ever spoke to or in the presence of the children. The babies heard not a word, not a single sound from a human voice. Tragically, within several months. they all died. A lamentable result of a bizarre search for knowledge gone awry, the Emperor never learned the original language of humankind – but he did prove one thing: people cannot survive without relationships.

“Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.” (2 Peter 3 v 1)

Four times Peter uses the words, ‘dear friends’ in this chapter.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: v8

… dear friends … make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him, v14.

… dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard, v17

If you have a friend who contacts you, v1; or helps you to focus on the important things in life, v8; or wants you to be the very best you can be, v14; or who has your back and doesn’t want you to get hurt, v17; then you have indeed found a dear friend.

You may survive but you cannot thrive without friendships.

Be that friend to someone.

A phrase suggesting it is make-believe and not real. Peter moves into the final part of his letter and reveals why he has written to them.

“Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.” (2 Peter 3 v 1)

He has written to them so that they would think better.

He is not writing to promote himself or to raise their support in his leadership.

He is not solely wanting them to change their behaviour though that is the hoped outcome.

He wants them to think right. He doesn’t want them to be influenced by the thoughts of their world and what is around them. He wants them to have kingdom thinking.

The voices around them are akin to the voices around our world. How will we think? Will our thoughts reflect our society or will they stand out and be different. Will they be wholesome?

^“Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.” (2 Peter 2 v 22)

We know the vomit proverb is in the Bible, Proverbs 26 v 11. The second proverb was obviously known and quite similar to the previous one but we don’t know where it came from.

The dog doesn’t see vomit as we see it, rather it sees and smells food. The pig doesn’t see the mud as we see it, rather it knows it is a place where they can cool down, have a sense of belonging and mark their territory.

Peter is saying that the false teachers were always false; they were never followers of Jesus; they had remained as sinners; dogs will be dogs; pigs will be pigs and fools will be fools; it is the natural thing for a dog to return to its vomit and a pig to her mud. Similarly the Proverb says the fool returns to their foolishness.

Were they ever true believers?

Is it possible for someone to say yes to God; to say yes to the Church; to say yes to Bible College; to say yes to ordination; to say yes to the Pastorate; and then say yes to the vomit and the mud? It is if they were a fool trying to fool everybody but not being able to fool God. It is if they were simply a dog or a pig all along.

“I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction,’ the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.” After announcing his divorce, Joshua Harris, author of “I Kissed Dating Goodbye,” and former pastor of a mega-church in Maryland, renouncing his faith.

“What I really miss is connection with people. What I’ve discovered is that I’m ready to connect again. And I’m kind of ready not to be angry anymore. I love you guys, and I love all the friendships and support I’ve built here. And I think it’s important to say that I’m just not a Christian anymore…” Paul Maxwell who wrote for ‘Desiring God’ website again renouncing his faith.

(these quotes are taken from the website Christian Post)

But why?

Were they ever truly in the faith?

There are more quotes and sadly there will be more to come. I hear of leaders going through a deconstructing of their faith and whatever that actually means it ends with them leaving their position and walking away from Church at least and God at worst.

They were doing the same thing in Peter’s generation. Of the false teachers/preachers Peter says:

“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. (2 Peter 2 v 20-21)

“They are worse off than they were”: If a person has truly been set free then why would they return to being enslaved again? Does that not indicate they were not free in the first place?

“It would have been better not to have known”: What good is it for the person to have preached a lifestyle of freedom and forgiveness only to then turn away from what they have declared? If the truth is that the person was all the while a slave of sin then this Christian life will naturally become too burdensome and they will declare that either you can be a Christian and be whatever you want to be or they will walk away from Christianity altogether.

How is this possible? It is possible if actually the false teachers/preacher are indeed false. They got there under false pretences. They fooled everyone including themselves. But judgment is harder for these people.

For this is a ‘don’t turn back’ faith.