"The Day of the Lord Will Come"
II Peter 3:3-14
2nd Last Sunday
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mt. Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, WI

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

If you truly wish to be a Christian in this world, then you will at some point be mocked and ridiculed. There's just no way around it. "You actually believe that the accounts in the Bible are historically true? You actually think that what the Bible says about sexuality and sin and repentance still applies to today? You actually profess faith in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus, that heaven and hell are real, that Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead? How backward and rigid and superstitious of you. You just hold to all that stuff because you're weak-minded. Haven't you moved beyond all those childish beliefs yet?"

Peter reminds us in today's Epistle, "Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?'" "For almost 2000 years you Christians have been talking about Jesus' return. It hasn't happened yet. Why should I believe it ever will?" Notice Peter states that they say this because they walk "according to their own lusts." Their way of life is to follow their own passions and desires and appetites. The notion of a God who might one day judge their behavior doesn't fit in very well with the way they want to live. And so they scoff at the idea, mock it and make fun of it. "You dumb Christians believe in something that isn't even real."

But Peter goes on to point out that they do this by willfully forgetting the truth. They purposely ignore reality in order to justify their way of life. That is why those who object to Christian teaching are becoming increasingly vociferous and hateful in their speech–because it takes a lot of passion and effort to fight against what you know deep down is true. St. Paul speaks in Romans of how the unrighteous "suppress the truth." Unbelief pushes the truth of the command-ments or creation or Christ down and out of the mind so that people can rationalize the way they think and act. We must guard against this ourselves and avoid adopting the mindset of the world which thrives on mockery in general in its entertainment. Hidden beneath the mockery is often an unbelieving heart. Psalm 1 says, "Blessed is the man...who does not sit in the company of mockers."

All of this is not unlike how it was in the days before the flood. Genesis 6 says, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." And so the flood came. But before that it took Noah decades to build the ark. In the meantime the Scriptures say he was a "preacher of righteousness," warning people of the coming judgment. But no one paid attention. They surely mocked him for his building project. Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married . . . until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." As we live in this ungodly and perverse world, Peter reminds us that there is another judgment coming, this time not by water but by fire.

Now it's easy to condemn the world out there. But we dare not think that all of this doesn't ave its effects on us, especially in our media-saturated lives. The temptation for us as we wait is to grow weary in the struggle, to become tired of being made to feel like an outsider, and finally to just give in, to go along with the mindset of the culture, to adopt its self-indulgent way of living, to compromise your beliefs because that's what you've got to do to get by or to get ahead. The daily barrage can entice us all to believe the lies, to question or even give up on God's Word.

And so Peter here offers us some encouragement. He reminds us first of all that the Lord's delay is not a sign that He's forgotten about us or that the promise of His return is empty. Rather, it's a sign of His great mercy. He is patient and longsuffering with us sinners, not wanting anyone to perish eternally. He gives us all time to repent. It is written that the Lord is "slow to anger." He's not like us, with a short fuse when things don't go our way. He's not looking for a reason to let us have it, even though that's exactly what we deserve. Rather, He is "abounding in steadfast love," wanting all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So if you hear someone ridiculing a belief in the second coming, or if you find yourself questioning it, remember that in the Lord's delay is His patient mercy. The only reason the world continues on each day is because of His love for fallen human beings.

Our Lord is longsuffering toward us because He suffered long for us. All of the judgment we have merited He already endured in our place on the cross. The punishment has been meted out. The sentence has been served. It is finished. So the Lord can wait. There is no hurry. For God's wrath has already been appeased. Your redemption is won in Christ through the blood that He shed. You are forgiven and put right with God. You have nothing to fear.

And besides, what seems like a dreadfully long time to us is just a blink of an eye to the Lord. One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day to Him. We must always be careful to look at things from His eternal perspective and be patient, even as He is.

Still, there will come a point when the time of mercy, when the opportunity for repentance will end. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," suddenly and unexpectedly on the world, as did the flood. On that last day it is written here that the whole universe will be incinerated and will pass away with a great noise, the real big bang. The elements of this sin-cursed old creation will melt and fully degrade and expire to make way for the new creation to come. Specifically, Peter says that the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. All of our greatest works and achievements, all that human hands have made will be consumed–the great pyramids, skyscrapers and stadiums, the things and the property that we worked so hard to make payments on–all of it, evaporated, gone.

Therefore, since that is what is going to happen, how should we be conducting ourselves? Should we be setting our hearts on the stuff of this world, or the status and power that comes with being honored by others? Why be completely wrapped up in what doesn't last? This is no time for complacency and spiritual laziness. Rather, says Peter, since the last day is fast approaching, we should be conducting ourselves in holiness and godliness and love toward others. We look for and live for the day of His return.

The Epistle draws this all together when it says, "According to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." This old cursed and deathward creation is not where it's at. Rather we await that place which our Lord Jesus is preparing for us, a world in which righteousness dwells, for He, the Righteous One is there. No more will there be stomach-turning headlines and news reports. No more will we have to deal with our own fallen nature. For all things will be made permanently right and good and new in that Day. This is what is described in the final chapters of Revelation:

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. . . Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men, and they shall be His people. . . And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.' Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.'"

And even, now, the Scriptures say, you are already new in Christ, for you have been baptized into Him who is immortal and incorruptible. Like Noah of old, you are safe in the ark of church. You have been saved from judgment through the water. You are the ones at the Jesus' right hand. To you He will say, "Come, you blessed of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Let us then pray daily for our Lord's return. Let us look for His coming, especially as He comes to us hiddenly even now in the holy supper. Our Lord says in Revelation, "Surely I am coming quickly." We say with all the saints who have gone before us, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit