[0:00] We've been exploring these letters from Peter. He was Jesus' disciple, and he was a leader of the early church. And last Sunday, we heard from Steve about Peter's cowardly denial of the Lord Jesus Christ, denying Jesus three times.
[0:21] And I wanted to share how Luke records that moment in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus says, Simon, Simon, that's Peter's original name.
[0:36] Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen the brothers.
[0:50] Jesus graciously restored Peter as a friend and as a disciple. And then later, Peter is said to have died defending the faith that he once denied.
[1:03] But in that verse, there's a word in Greek there in verse 32, which is translated for us as strengthen. Strengthen your brothers.
[1:13] That's what Jesus would have Peter do when he is restored. And so at the end of this letter to Peter, in verse 17, there's that same Greek word.
[1:29] Verse 17 says, Peter's hope in his letters for us, for his readers, is that we would receive that same secure position that Jesus promised him.
[1:50] So we would not fall from our strength in Jesus. As Jesus upheld Peter, Jesus will uphold us by his word, promise, and patient grace.
[2:06] It is as if Peter wants to get this big rock and wedge it under us. That's what this chapter is.
[2:20] And this is the rock. The day of the Lord is coming. There really is a new future that Jesus offers us.
[2:31] And for Peter, it's foundational. Jesus is coming back. Steve called it judgment day. Chatswood calls it the end of the world.
[2:45] We try not to think about it too much. But we're going to spend our time right now looking at three things. What is the new future?
[2:57] Is the new future good? And what does it mean to live in light of the new future? Last week, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.
[3:10] It's great every year, but it's true every day. It is still true today. A dead man walked out of a tomb. After Jesus appeared to many, his disciples, and even to Peter, who had disowned him, the risen Lord Jesus did something amazing.
[3:30] He went home. Jesus ascended upward and out of view into heaven, where he sits enthroned at the right hand of God the Father.
[3:40] And before he left, Jesus promised that he would come back. And in verse 10 of our chapter today, keep that open in front of you, Peter calls that day, when Jesus comes back, the day of the Lord.
[3:56] Now, have you ever been to a really good birthday party? Yeah? Remember one recently?
[4:08] Well, the reason why those birthday parties are good, or when they're good, is when the birthday girl or birthday boy, no matter how old, is the focus of everyone's attention.
[4:21] Everyone treats them differently. People say what they mean about how they love that person. They say it out loud. They say it with gifts. They say it in cards. They say it and make that person the point of that special day.
[4:39] It's their day. Well, when Peter talks about the end of the world, he calls it the day of the Lord on purpose, because it's our Lord Jesus' day.
[4:52] Scientists say that there's this big crush coming. You heard of the Big Bang? The big crush is apparently coming. In 100 million years, everything's going to fall in on itself, and there will just be kind of a messed up, destroyed nothingness left.
[5:07] There's no hope in that. But Christians believe that our world will end when our Saviour Jesus comes back. He will rule.
[5:18] He will judge righteously. And he will reorder new heavens and a new earth, new universe. Jesus is the hope that Christians hold to for when the world ends.
[5:34] It will not be this hopeless, empty crush of nothing. The end of the world is the day of the Lord. Peter's confidence that the day of the Lord is coming is in verse 5 of our passage today, where Peter remembers that the world was created with God's words.
[5:55] And then in verse 7 he says, If God can create with words, Peter says we can trust Jesus' words when he says he will come back, and that he will speak an end to our day and utter in this new existence of our new future.
[6:28] It's not Jesus' birthday, but it's in every way. More intense, more special, more holy than we can ever imagine, and none of us are going to miss an invitation.
[6:41] Every human, living or dead, will see Jesus' return. And we'll declare him as Lord on that day, which we declared from Philippians 2 this morning.
[6:55] There will be an undeniable revealing of the end of our lordship of our lives and our dependence on the world that we knew.
[7:08] Here's what I mean. Your life is like a TV show. Anyone watch TV here? The best show ever is on, and you're the star.
[7:20] That's what the world tells us. You are the actor, the director, and the writer, and the main character, all as one.
[7:31] Isn't that amazing? It's your show. Your way. That's what the world says your life is. But on the day of the lord, we lose our starring role.
[7:46] Our screen time stops. The set gets shut down. And it's burnt. Tim Keller says that unless, if Jesus is lord at all, he must be lord of all.
[8:05] For on the day of the lord, Jesus will rightfully take our place in the role of our lives. And he will, we will not be able to deny that he deserves it.
[8:20] For he is our creator and our judge in one. And we don't know when the day of the lord will come.
[8:31] It's on no calendar. No one's got a right to guess. Even Jesus himself, in Matthew 24, 36, you can look it up, even Jesus himself did not know when it would be.
[8:44] Only the father knows. Peter is writing to a people who are desperate for Jesus to come back. But he tells them in verse 10, the day of the lord will come like a thief.
[9:00] A thief arrives when we least expect it. The only way to cope with not knowing when the day of the lord will come is not to know when it's coming.
[9:14] But Peter says is to be sure that when it comes, we are prepared. We are ready. So Peter paints this picture of what the day will be like and it's unfiltered, it's fiery and it's on purpose.
[9:33] It'll feature the perishing in verse 9 and the destruction in verse 7 of the ungodly. fires will roar as the objects of our universe burn.
[9:49] Verse 10 and verse 12 as everything will be laid bare. The day of the lord ends with the removal of all things that humans hold on to.
[10:03] Our autonomy, our possessions, our comforts, our reputations and everything we're hiding from everyone else.
[10:15] The day of the lord is a devastation for all humanity where verse 9 says we will perish unless we're ready and there's only one way to be prepared for the day and it's not knowing when the day is coming and there's no getting away from it.
[10:35] but look at verse 9 again. The one way to be ready for the day of the lord is to repent. To repent means turning from our sin and unbelief and trusting in Jesus alone for forgiveness from God.
[10:59] Turning and trusting. It's a complete apology for how we've unrighteously claimed the starring role of our lives and actively yielding that back to the lord Jesus while we live before the day of the lord arrives.
[11:22] But there would be no value in our repentance if not for Jesus for he is willing to hear from you hear your repentance and your desire for him to take your sin.
[11:43] In exchange he is willing to take the punishment you deserve for playing his role in your life and give to you his place in a perfect relationship with God with the creator and director.
[12:00] Jesus will receive you. Every repentant human will receive this glorious movie ending and he will take on our judgment and punishment under the wrath of God without cost because he loves us.
[12:25] remember how good Easter is. There's so much in Good Friday that is good. The repentant are safe on the day of the Lord.
[12:41] So if you repent and hand over your life to Jesus today if you already have then your safety and joy joy is assured right now only because of Jesus.
[12:59] Peter says in verse 13 he is looking forward to the new creation to the new future to the day of the Lord because Jesus is coming back.
[13:11] That is where the new creation will be where righteousness dwells. It will be where Jesus' righteousness defines this new creation and his complete presence with us those who repent will make that day so very joyous and so very wonderful.
[13:33] But for those who reject Jesus' lordship while they live on earth they will acknowledge it on the day of the Lord but they will be judged for their life as it is now.
[13:46] And their end Peter says is destruction. How does this new future sit with you? Are you looking forward to it?
[13:59] This day of the Lord with fear worry or joy? How can God's judgment day be good?
[14:13] How can we look forward to it? Jesus' apparent slowness to come back was the reason that skeptics mocked the early church back in Peter's day.
[14:25] And we heard Rachel read it before in Psalm 90 and Peter refers to that psalm here in verse 9 that God sees all of time with a perspective we lack but with a focus that we lack.
[14:40] 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.
[14:55] The very heart's desire of our creator God is that more and more and more and more and more people would come to repentance.
[15:07] Every second that God waits for the day of the Lord to bring Jesus' day is a moment of his mercy toward the unrepentant.
[15:20] Imagine if Jesus had returned before you returned to him. If Jesus came 25 years ago I would be unrepentant.
[15:33] I was still trying to live my life on my terms and maybe earn my way into the new future. What about you?
[15:47] Peter says that in verse 15 that our Lord's patience means salvation. Think of all the people over the last 2,000 or so years since Peter wrote this who have been saved.
[16:04] What merciful patience our God has. Think of the promise kept by our Saviour to all nations as the gospel goes across our globe even today.
[16:21] God offers everyone his salvation in their lifetime and that salvation is set against this backdrop of destruction and judgment yet it's on the timeline of his merciful patience.
[16:39] God's patient judgment is good. Tin Keller says that with the day of the Lord and its judgment without it there is no meaning in anything at all.
[16:59] Either the world is a meaningless fluke of uncreated nature with no judgment day and only a big crush coming apparently or God made a universe with a purpose that will be held to account for.
[17:17] Keller says that you can't believe in Jesus or even creative design or even Jesus Christ and then say judgment day is not coming. It's everything or nothing otherwise the how and why you live makes no difference.
[17:38] Judgment day is the right side of a frame. Creation is the left and your life dances across the canvas somewhere in between.
[17:50] Your life means something. Your actions matter to the God who created you and those actions define the outcome of your judgment day and thanks to Jesus we can be confident looking forward to it.
[18:08] God's meaningful judgment is good. We need just judgment in our world too. With far away wars that right now feel pretty near and countless injustices even just in our city and our lives as well.
[18:30] So we need to judge beyond our humanity to bring a real good justice. I want to encourage you to later at some point this week maybe write this down right now I want you to go back and listen to a sermon preached by Steve this time last year called Jesus All About Justice Justice.
[18:54] So in your podcast app look it up we're in there now on Spotify and Apple or go to our website and have a listen to that where Steve gives this topic its due because we long for swift justice in our lives in the lives of the mistreated the abused the enslaved the oppressed and when Peter says in verse 10 everything done will be laid bare he means that all wrong ever done will be exposed and brought to a complete justice on the day of the Lord our Lord Jesus offers humanity a perfect justice but imagine if that day was up to you I imagine you'd be pretty lenient with yourself I would be lenient with myself I like to give myself the benefit of the doubt all the time but what about those who have wronged you would they get that same benefit what we need instead of ourselves or even the best of humanity on that day is we need a truly unbiased perfect judge we need
[20:04] Jesus Christ to once for all judge the world in full transparency that everything we've done as a humanity over all time and in every place you're not going to get that offer from any other religion you're not going to get that hope from atheism you're only going to get a good judgment from Jesus Christ our new future begins on Jesus judgment day and his judgment is good Peter wants us to look forward to the day of the Lord so it becomes a rock under the feet of our every next step following Jesus makes an impact on how we live so Peter says in verse 11 since everything will be destroyed in this way what kind of people ought we be ought you be to live you ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to that day it is as if
[21:10] Peter is saying because your world is momentary and your life belongs to the Lord and live to your Lord living out your future citizenship in this new creation if Jesus is Lord of your life it's like you've already got your passport to that day as we look forward to the day of the Lord and surrender to Jesus our bent to seek moral and good to be moral and good to earn a good name for ourselves in our world gets broken because we continually remember our day the day of the Lord will place our efforts in him rightly efforts for him in its proper place which is our response to his patient salvation of us not in earning his salvation for ourselves as we look towards this new future that is coming
[22:23] Peter expects us to grow in what he calls in verse one have a look there wholesome thinking now there are more ways than this but we're going to look at three ways that the new future changes our thinking our new future grows our confidence for life it is easier to endure even the hardest day knowing that Jesus is coming soon hoping with confidence that he is coming soon and how we are going to be a part of that new future our new future develops our taste for justice we don't give up on justice in our world because we know it will be completely dealt with no matter how fierce or out of control justice is and we know that with that burden on his shoulders the injustice that we see in front of us we can grow a heart to step into that and no matter how difficult it gets or no matter how out of our control and injustice is no matter what we see in our screens we know that we can put all of it into the hands of that he might do justice now but trusting that on the day he will do it completely now a new future fuels our forgiveness take note church whenever two pastors prepare something differently and then share the same thing
[23:59] I think God's got this word for us as a church today because this is what Steve already shared looking forward to the day of the Lord reminds us that we have repented and found forgiveness through Jesus remembering the horror of his judgment without God's forgiveness reminds us that he is forgiving and as we remember Jesus being wronged in our place it pales in comparison to any wrong done to us in our life and we trust him with our hunger for justice freeing us to forgive others and there is even hope for the wrongdoer the one who does wrong to us that they might find that same forgiveness too forgiveness grows as we rely on God's judgment and patient perspective most spectacularly the new future perfects our purpose as a people look look at verse 12
[25:07] Peter says something remarkable look forward to the day of God and speed its coming Peter is not saying that we can make God show up any faster but every time the lordship of Jesus is declared in word in action in love of God or in our neighbor by those who follow Jesus that in a way speeds the coming of the dawn of this day as if it's flickering over the horizon little shafts of light hitting the world on that day every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord but if you live and speak the lordship of Jesus in your life now your new life will attract others to follow him too to join in openly declaring that Jesus is Lord now and receive
[26:15] God's patience salvation before the day there are multiple benefits that life following Jesus offers you new life is true freedom new life is true justice new life is true comfort true identity true power true hope and add to that a new future that's undeniably coming that is good and adds to the many benefits of following Jesus today Peter relied on the patient grace of Jesus to bring him salvation and he trusted all the words of Jesus promises he had faith that Jesus would patiently save people while Peter died before his Lord came back but Peter will be there when Jesus returns and so will you ever since
[27:17] Peter wrote such words that we now call the Bible new life has been found by millions and now it's over to you what's your next step what's your next step in responding to the patient grace of Jesus Christ but we are all here standing in the legacy of Simon yeah that was his name but Jesus called him rock we translate that name Peter explore and trust the words of Jesus and stand firm in your secure position on Jesus new future look forward to his coming again and take your next step as we patiently wait for our Lord