Please turn with me to 2 Peter 3 - starting at verse 14.  We’ve come to our last Sunday looking at Peter’s second letter.  Last Sunday - as we looked at the first part of chapter 3 - we focused on the judgment and eternal punishment of the ungodly and the return of Jesus Christ for His people.  The Apocalypse.  The end of the world. 

Anyone remember what apocalyptic event took place last Tuesday?

At 5:30 in the afternoon - these guys - Starbucks closed all 7,100 of its stores in the US for 3 hours of employee training in order to foster enthusiasm in its 135,000 U.S. employees and improve the quality of drinks made by Starbucks baristas.

One newscaster in New York actually had fear in her voice as she announced the closing.  Where would people hang out?  How will their coffee needs be met?  It’s the end of civilization as we know it.

Fortunately these guys - Dunkin Donuts - went all out in the crisis - quote - “to ensure that no coffee lover is denied a delicious espresso-based beverage.”  Starting at 1:00 Tuesday Dunkin Donuts offered small lattes, cappuccinos, and espresso drinks for a promotional price of 99 cents.

Signs of the apocalypse.

We live in a world filled with voices - audio - video - printed - texted - broadbanded - all demanding our attention - in how we live and what we focus our lives on.

Peter has been writing about spiritual teachers who deny who Jesus is.  Who’re focused on themselves.  What they gain for themselves - more power - more control - more money - more prestige.  Who lead others away from God.

He’s written about people who may seem sincere in what they say - sharing great spiritual insights - who talk the talk and seem to walk the walk - even appearing to be a sincere Christian.  But in reality they’re inwardly unthinkingly pursuing their own base desires.  They ‘re trapped by the crud and sin of this world that they claim to have risen above.  They wallow in the mire of sin.

We’ve seen that judgment and eternal punishment - while it may not be happening with the timing that might seem logical to us - God’s judgment and punishment is coming.  God will bring the ungodliness and sin of this world to an end.

Peter writes that as believers in Jesus Christ we have a certain hope of eternity with God - where we get to dwell with God forever - living with those that have gone on before.  No more tears or crying or pain or mourning - no more death.  We’re going to get new bodies.  The crud of this world will pass away forever.  We believe that one day Jesus will return and we will be with Him.  We’re really looking forward to that.  Amen?

Peter has been sharing about the intimate personal relationship that the Almighty God of creation desires to have with each one of us today - while we’re waiting for Jesus to come back.  A relationship in which He - God - supplies all that we need to live that life - supplying even the basis of that life - the salvation offered to us in Jesus Christ.  How we live out that life - in the day to day stuff of our lives.

Which brings us to 2 Peter 3 - starting at verse 14 - Peter’s final instructions on how we’re to live while waiting for Jesus to come back.

Were the believers of Peter’s day suppose to run and hide from Nero - with his persecution of believers?  Totally disengage from their communities.  Should we sell everything and move to a commune in Montana?  How separate should we be from the places where we live?  How do we live while evil is increasing around us - while society decays?

Peter gives four specific imperatives - things we must do while we’re waiting for Jesus to come back.

Verse 14:  Therefore - which is everything that Peter has written so far in this letter - and especially the parts about the last days and Jesus returning - Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,

Imperative number one:  Be Diligent.  Say that with me, “Be diligent.”

Diligence is the Greek verb “spoudo” which has the idea of zealousness - commitment - maximum effort - a driving desire - a passionate urge - eating - sleeping - breathing - sacrificing everything - doing whatever it takes to make this happen.

“Be diligent to be found by Jesus.” 

The California State Motto is what?  “Eureka!”  Which means what?  “I’ve found it!”  It refers in part to the success of a miner discovering gold - up in the hills here.  The discovery of gold as Sutter’s Mill.  The joy of finding that valuable nugget.

The same Greek word is used here “eurisko”  To be found.

Jesus, teaching His disciples about His return - Luke 18:8 - Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find - same word - “eurisko” - will He find faith on the earth?”

When Jesus returns will He find us - being diligent - passionately pursuing - faithful in our relationship with Him?  When He returns will He have joy - be ecstatic - at what He finds going on in our lives?  Will Jesus say of us, “These people are giving everything to live out their faith in Me.”

Peter writes that we need to be diligent to be found by Jesus with three things true of our lives - diligently pursuing three things.

First:  Peace.

Paul writes in Romans 5:1  “Therefore - because we have been justified by faith - we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We were enemies of God.  But God - because He is mercy and acts mercifully - took care of the conflict between us - what kept us from God - God reconciled us - took care of through the death of Jesus.  We have peace with God.  We don’t have to earn it or find some mysterious inner spiritual reality or some cosmic greater understanding.  All we need to do is come to God through Jesus - trusting in Him as the Savior.  Peace with God.

Paul writes in Romans 14:19:  “So then - because of what God has done for us - so then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.” 

Because God is the one who justifies us - establishes us - declares our worth - defends and upholds us - we’re free to set aside our prerogatives - our natural tendencies to defend ourselves - to promote ourselves at the expense of others - and to pursue peace with our siblings in Christ.  To live as those who build up one another.

Paul writes - Romans12:18:  “So far as it depends on you, be a peace with all men.”  Don’t be the cause of conflict.  Pursue peace with our friends - co-workers - people at school.  Be the salt and light where God takes you.

Paul writes in Philippians 4:6 - “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by what?  prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Ask God anything.  With thanksgiving - because we know - whatever the circumstance - whatever the conflict - even struggles in our relationship with Him - He’s already in process - already at work - already got us covered.

Rather than stressing out - pour out - our hearts to God.  Peace comes as we learn to trust God regardless of what’s going on around us.  God’s peace comes as we let God guard our minds and hearts. 

Be diligent to pursue peace.  Be diligent to pursue - second - to be found spotless.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 1 - that we are redeemed - God purchased us out of the crud of this world and our sin - paid for our lives with the blood of Jesus - who is the unblemished - spotless - lamb of God.  Since we know that - what God has done for us - Peter writes in 1 Peter 1- starting at verse 14:  “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

We are to be diligent to be above reproach - to live without the stain of sin on our lives - to live obedient to God - to live as His holy people.

Third - be diligent to pursue - to be found blameless.  Which doesn’t mean were suddenly perfect.  But, blameless means that whatever issues we have in our lives - issues of how we’ve behaved or treated other people - those issues have been dealt with.

We’ve asked forgiveness.  We’ve made restitution.  We’ve turned those areas of our lives over to God.  We’ve done whatever God has asked of us so that before God we’re found to be innocent - blameless.

Bottom Line:  Peter writes - if you understand the reality of Jesus returning - then be diligent - never let up on your faith - pursue being at peace - pursue being spotless - pursue being blameless.  Learn to live life at the gut level totally sold out to the living God.

Peter’s second imperative comes in verse 15:  and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Peter’s second imperative:  Regard the patience of our Lord.  Put slightly differently:  Consider God’s patience.  Say that with me.  “Consider God’s patience.”

How long does it take to build an ark?  Four guys - possibly their wives.  One guy is over 500 years old.  Probably the largest thing they’ve ever built is barn.  Certainly not an ark.  How long would it take for them to gather all the gopher wood - the pitch - lay it all out - fit it all together?

Imagine this.  The ark was 25 feet wider than this building.  Take about half the distance of this wall and add it on to the end.  The ark was 15 feet taller than this wall.  Take 1/2 the height of this wall and add on top.  The ark was over 3 times the length of this building.

This is a picture of what Robert Cornuke suggests is the ark.  Its petrified wood - hewn - in the form of a boat - at 13,000 feet on a mountain in Northern Iran.  Unfortunately not Mount Ararat in western occupied Armenia.  But could be this is the ark.  Wood - in the right spot - and  huge.

How long would it take to build that?  I don’t know.  I’ve never built an ark.

Probably took Noah & Sons about 100 years.  While they’re building the ark Noah’s preaching righteousness at the people - people condemned to be wiped out by the flood.  God’s judgment.  They’re drinking and carousing and doing the stuff of life - living in sin and laughing at this 500 year old man and his fool sons who’re building this huge barge in the middle of a dry landlocked region where its inconceivable that there’ll ever be enough water to float the boat.

Noah builds and Noah preaches.  100 years of God’s grace.  Grace to Noah.  God never sent the rain until the ark was done - Noah & Co. - animals - they’re all inside.  100 years of grace for those who mocked Noah - years of hearing the call to turn to God.

When God’s time was up He shut the ark and sent the flood.  God’s judgment on sinful man.

Peter writes that some of the things Paul writes are hard to understand.  Who is he kidding?  Paul’s stuff is hard to chew through.

Some people - who are unqualified to be teachers - who have no understanding of what Paul wrote - have taken Paul’s writings and distorted them - as they do with all of God’s word - twisting the truth - reinforcing error - because it profits them to do so.

Today there are people who say that Paul hijacked Christianity.  Took what Jesus taught and attached his own theology to it.  They say that the apostles really didn’t teach what Jesus taught.  People who say that we can’t trust the source documents we have because the church has destroyed and distorted the truth.  They say that we have to put our faith in documents written hundreds of years after the resurrection by people who had no connection with people who were actually there.  The Gospel of Judas and other distortions.

TV - the media - is full of these so called “scholars” that they unquestioningly put on their programs and try to pass off as experts. Have you ever been frustrated watching that?  Anybody with a second grade understanding of history could poke holes in their distortions.

Peter’s statement here about what Paul wrote - that which Peter’s readers had already received - and his tying Paul’s letters with his letters - tying all that together with Scripture is a clear statement that what these distortionists are messing with is the authoritative word of God.

Like the people of Noah’s day - they’re ignoring what God says in order to be their own authority over their lives.  They fit well within our society which is moving farther and farther away from God - decaying - and in fact becoming anti-God and His people.

The word for patience is the Greek word “makrothumia.”  It means to take a long time before burning.  There’s a long fuse on God’s coming judgment.  But its coming.  

We who know God’s truth about living life with the living God - about what’s coming in the days ahead - we need to see each new day as an act of God’s graciousness - towards us - towards others.  To consider the patience of our Lord as salvation.  Or, as Peter writes back up in verse 9 - God is patient because His desire is not to have people perish but for them to come to repentance.

Bottom line:  Life isn’t about if people laugh at us or think we’re three sandwiches shy of a picnic.  Life isn’t about getting all stressed out over the condition of our society.  If God is patient in these days - desiring people - like us - to come to repentance - so should we.  The patience of God should motivate us to use each day to share Jesus with others.  We’ve got work to do.  Because once the door is shut and the rains come it’ll be too late for them.

Third imperative - verse 17 - Be on your guard.  Say that with me, “Be on your guard.”

Verse 17:  You therefore - knowing that there are people around us who are walking opposite of Godliness - people who are disillusioned - knowing that our society is decaying and moving away from God - beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,

Watch this:   (Video)

In his first letter Peter - 1 Peter 1:13 - Peter writes, “Prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Put another way:  “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”  (Hebrews 12:1b,2a)

There are so many distractions out there - distractions even in here.  Cell phones and text messaging - people sitting around us who keep diverting our attention.  Stuff - attitudes - on and on.  We know the list.  Weapons that the Adversary has in his arsenal to take our eyes off of Jesus.

Imagine a knight in shining armor - glistening in the sun.  His horse is colorful in its raiment.  A tournament - banners - trumpets - spectators.  The glistening knight fights with the favor of the beautiful princess - seated in her pavilion.  He has everything going for him.

The joust.  The knights take their positions.  The favored knight on one side of the field.  The challenger - the dark knight - on the other.

The princess drops her kerchief.  The knights charge.  Horses hooves pound the turf.  Lances are lowered.  At the last second - certain of victory - the favored knight turns to wave to the princess.  He’s knocked flat - unconscious - wounded.  He’s carried off the field of battle.

To fall means loosing our balance.  For some strange reason we allow ourselves to fall from a position of steadiness and security.  To be carried away is in the passive voice.  Others carry us off the field of spiritual battle.

Bottom line - Peter writes - be on your guard.  Never let it down.  Don’t be deceived.  Don’t be distracted.  Keep your eyes on Jesus and what He’s promised you is coming.

Fourth imperative:  Grow.  Say that with me, “Grow.”  Increase.

Verse 18:  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Bob Deffinbaugh is a pastor and teacher down in Texas.  Bob shares about a friend of his who bought himself a new Jaguar..

Early one morning he was driving in a remotely populated part of Oklahoma which, he reasoned, was the perfect place to find out how fast the car could go.  The speedometer was easing its way past 160 as the powerful sports car reached the top of a small rise.  Just beyond, a highway patrolman was waiting.  A law-abiding citizen, my friend slammed on the brakes, slid past the officer at 150 miles per hour, and came to a halt some distance down the road.

Before long, the officer caught up and stood beside the sleek convertible. “Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” he inquired.  “Well, roughly,” was the deliberately evasive reply.  “One hundred sixty-three miles per hour!” the officer specified.  “That’s about what I thought,” my friend confessed, somewhat sheepishly.  Guilt was obvious, and there was no possible excuse to be offered.  My friend could only wait to discover what this fiasco was going to cost.  He meekly waited for the officer to proceed.  To his amazement the patrolman queried, “Would you mind if I took a look at that engine?”

The fine points of high performance automobiles cannot be discussed quickly, so both went on to a coffee shop where they could talk further.  A while later, both of the men shook hands and went their separate ways.  My friend was elated, for the officer had not given him a citation.

That is about as close to grace as one can come on this earth, but it is still not quite up to the standard of biblical grace.  (I say that because biblical grace would be demonstrated only if the patrolman had paid for the coffee.)  (1)

We don’t deserve God’s grace - His loving kindness towards us.  But God is gracious to us.  Grace is not commodity or a substance.  Its an action of God - an outpouring of His character.  Therefore, it has a result - in at least two ways.

First through common grace.  The favor that God gives to all people. Generally, it is seen in the way God takes care of all people by providing for them sunshine, rain, shelter, food, government, laws, general health, etc. Common grace extends to every human alive.

The second way God pours out His grace is through saving grace.  That favor from God expressed upon those whom He has chosen - not what we do - but what God does.  God choosing to save us.  The grace of God that has appeared is the incarnation, the sacrifice, of Christ, the resurrection and the indwelling Spirit.

We have a tremendous privilege that most of us only glimpse.  Only begin to realize is offered to us.  The privilege of growing as people who have been set free from the power of sin - from the demands of the law which says when you sin you die.  We’re set free to grow and experience life with the living God.  We have the joy of living secure in this world knowing its creator.  To be children at play in the fields of our Father - a creation that he graciously and lovingly sustains.

Peter writes, Grow in the grace of Jesus.  Second:  Grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In Greek there are two different words for knowledge.  The one Peter uses here focuses on what we learn from experience.  Not just intellectual - studying God’s word or listening to great sermons.  But what we do with that knowledge in our relationship with Jesus.

As a new Christian we have some understanding that God loves us.  That we need a Savior.  As we go along we learn more of what it means to listen to God.  To be in prayer with Him.  To go deeper in His word and allow the Spirit to apply His word to our lives.  We begin to rely on God for the strength we need - spiritual strength for each day.   

As we grow in our understanding of God we begin to see more of God’s working in this world and how He may be using us in His plan.  We begin to see what life is like in the Church and how we can serve God and our siblings.  As we draw closer to God we begin to gain wisdom - to see life from a more godly perspective.  We begin to know more of what moves the heart of God and how we might please Him.

Bottom Line:  In this incredible environment that God graciously gives us - we can sink our roots deep into Jesus - draw life from Him - and grow.

Finally Peter concludes - verse 18:  To Him - Jesus - be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.  Amen.

There’s a poem that David Roper shares in his sermon on this passage:

The world had a hopeful beginning,
But man spoiled his chances by sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end to God’s glory;
But at present the other side’s winning. (2)

That’s not true.  Is it?  Have you read the end of the book?  Jesus has already won.  We’re on the winning team.  Jesus is coming back.  We’re gonna fly away to be with Him.

There’s a whole lot more here in Peter’s second letter than living in fear of what we see taking place around us.  A whole lot more than disengaging from the people we live with - separating ourselves into little Christian communities - where we might consider ourselves “safe.”  Little fortress churches and communities.

To bring glory to Jesus means testifying of Him with our lives.  The word “amen” means agreement.  “Make it so.”  “Right on.”  A commitment on our parts to live so that what is agreed to may be done in us and through us.  May our lives bring glory to Jesus - now and until the day He returns.  Would you say amen to that?

Peter gives us four imperatives that we may live glorifying Jesus until He comes.  Be diligent in our faith - pursue living as those who know God’s peace - who trust Him with our lives.  Who live those lives holy - spotless - blameless in this world.  Consider His patience as an opportunity to share His Gospel with those who are perishing.  Be on guard so that we do not falter.  So that we stay focused on Jesus.  And, grow - in God’s grace - in our relationship with Him.

_______________

1. Bob Deffinbaugh. “The Grace of God, Part I” (Ephesians 1:5-12; 2:1-10) www.Bible.org
2. David Roper. “Putting Things In Order,” 2 Peter 3, www.pbc.org/files/messages/9767/3257.html