Good morning, church. Pastor Matthew here on this cold Sunday morning and glad that we can join together in person, even as we're separated.
And as we're coming together, as I often say when we are separated, but we're together virtually,
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We're going to jump right in this morning.
You'll remember that we are studying the book of 2 Peter together.
And the book of 2 Peter is a letter. It's a letter written by a man named Peter.
And he writes it to a church somewhere in the Roman Empire in the 60s AD.
And we're near the end of the letter now. We've been in chapters 2 and 3 and especially in chapter 3.
And as we're in chapter 3, we're continuing to talk about what we started in chapter 2, which is the idea of the false teachers.
And you'll remember that the false teachers are promoting a couple different things.
They're attacking the reality that Jesus is coming back to the earth.
And they're also attacking the authority of scripture.
We've been talking the last two weeks about their objection that we saw in verse 4.
And their objection is that Jesus is not coming back.
And the reason that they claim he's not coming back is because he hasn't come back yet.
In other words, why is it taking so long?
And we saw two answers to that last week.
One, Peter rejects the premise of their question.
He says, God's view of time, God's relationship with time is very different than your view of time, your relationship with time.
And then he also tells them, God is not slow, he's patient.
He's not slow, he's patient.
So that's where we've been.
Here's where we're heading this morning.
We have the same situation we had last week, which is we have got some heavy sledding theologically.
And so I want us to go in with a strategy.
You'll remember I told you last week we were not going to discuss all of verse 10 because we were going to discuss that this week.
So this week, we're starting at verse 10 and we're going to verse 13.
We are going to focus on verse 10, the end of verse 12, and verse 13.
We are not going to look at verse 11 at all.
We're not going to look at the beginning of verse 12.
We will cover those next week.
So there's just a lot going on in these passages.
They're very dense and we don't want to rush through them.
And so it's for that reason that we're taking it slow.
So we didn't cover as much of verse 10 last week.
We'll cover it this week.
We're not covering verse 11 this week.
We'll cover it next week.
And next week, we'll add verse 14.
With that strategy in mind, I want you to think of this question.
Ask yourself this question.
When you think of the end of the world, what comes to mind?
And in addition to that, when you think of what's talked about in Scripture as the new heavens and the new earth,
what comes to mind?
What comes to mind in that situation?
Christians have a variety of ideas about what this is going to look like.
Some Christians believe we're going to have this sort of disembodied existence.
Now, they wouldn't necessarily articulate it that way.
But when they think about the end of the world and the new heavens and the new earth,
they think we're escaping material reality somehow.
Now, some people think that maybe there's an alternate earth that we're going to go to.
There's this alternate universe.
And so I'm not going to give you the answer right away,
but I'm just going to remind you there's all kinds of ideas about what's going to happen.
And I'm sure you have an idea as well.
And so that's the question we're going to be asking this morning as we look at 2 Peter 3.
We're not going to look at everything the Bible has to say about the end of the world.
We're going to look at what this passage has to say about the end of the world.
And so it's with that that we turn now to God's Word.
I invite you to turn with me in your Bible, either a physical Bible like I have here,
or on your phone, or maybe on a web browser.
I do encourage you to have all of chapter 3 opened up because we're going to refer back,
especially to verse 7.
But as we come to this, remember that this is God's Word.
In Proverbs chapter 30, verse 5 tells us,
every word of God proves true.
He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
And so that's why we read now 2 Peter chapter 3, starting at verse 10.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a roar,
and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved,
and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved,
what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
waiting for and hastening the coming day of God,
because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved,
and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
Verse 13.
But according to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens
and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank you again for your Word that you've given to us,
that you haven't left us alone to wander around,
but you speak clearly to us.
And we thank you that you do that,
even when it's cold outside and it's snowing,
and even when we're separated in person
and we have to join through the internet over video.
We ask that you would help us with that this morning,
the many distractions that come as we're watching a screen
rather than looking at a person,
and that you would show your power by still speaking clearly to us in your Word.
We ask these things knowing that you'll help us,
not because of what we've done or how we've performed,
but you'll help us as we ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Now, I didn't plan to preach this sermon from a room in my house,
but it actually proves to be timely and helpful.
And I want you to think for a second,
as you look at this room that I'm in,
what does it say to you?
Now, there's a variety of things it might say.
You might say that there's not a whole lot of things on the wall.
And so you might think, well, that's what it's like to live as a bachelor.
You know, it just doesn't know what to do with this room.
There are other things it might say to you.
I'll tell you what it says to me.
When I look at this room and a variety of places in my house,
it screams the 1990s.
This house was built in 1995.
I only bought it in 2019.
And so I have not had it that whole time.
But if you look at that door right there,
you look at those closet doors,
that is something that happens with 1990s houses.
You would not buy a house today and see those kinds of doors.
You wouldn't necessarily see those colors, right?
There's something dated about it.
And when I first walked into this house with my realtor,
back in the spring of 2019,
one of the first things she pointed out to me was the kitchen floors.
She said, these kitchen floors,
you can tell something's, they're not been treated well.
The owners are using too much water when they clean them.
Because you can see there's a little bit of a bend in some of the pieces.
It's sort of this, I'm not good at describing these materials,
but you know, it's a non-wood material.
Some kind of plastic.
But they said it's been cleaned with too much water.
And so you see the edges start to kind of come up on the different pieces of the floor.
Well, after I purchased the house,
I had a handyman come and take a look at a variety of things.
And he looked at the kitchen floors and he told me,
the problem with these kitchen floors is not that the previous owners
use too much water when they clean it.
The problem is that these floors aren't designed to be in contact with water.
You have the wrong kind of floors for a kitchen.
And unfortunately, those same floors are also in several of the bathrooms.
And so he looked and he said,
these floors are not meant to be in bathrooms.
So over time, regardless of what happens,
water is going to destroy them.
You have the wrong flooring.
Of course, this is what happens when you're a homeowner, right?
And you buy a home that's been in existence for a long time.
You inherit all sorts of decisions made by other people.
And so when it comes to these kitchens,
they have to be replaced.
They don't have to be fixed this year.
They don't have to necessarily have to be fixed next year,
but they must be fixed.
In other words, there is a coming day of judgment and wrath for my kitchen floors.
My kitchen floor has failed.
I might wait for a time.
I will not wait forever.
There will come a day when they will be destroyed.
And of course, there will be a process to it, right?
There's two parts.
First of all, it's going to have to be stripped down,
and then it's going to have to be remade.
That's the same thing we see Peter here talking about
when it comes to the judgment of the world,
the end of the world,
and the new heavens and the new earth.
There are going to be two steps,
just like with my kitchen floors.
When the judgment comes,
when the day of wrath appears,
so it is with the earth.
It is first,
and this is what we're going to look at at the beginning,
it is first going to be stripped down to the studs.
God is going to strip this world down by fire.
We look with me now at verse 10.
We've already looked at the beginning last week,
that the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then we see that the heavens will pass away with a roar.
Now, of course, we have to wonder
what exactly is meant by heavens
when we come up against a passage like this,
and we're going to clarify it by looking back at verse 7.
So I invite you to look back at verse 7 with me.
We looked at this a while ago,
but it says,
but by the same word,
the heavens and earth that now exist
are stored up for fire.
So verse 7 is going to clarify
a lot of what we come up against today,
and we see heavens and earth coming together as a pair,
and we also know they're going to be destroyed by fire.
So when we see heavens and earth as a pair,
what I want you to think of
is everything that God has created.
Now, today is Valentine's Day,
and as one person illustrates it,
when we come against phrases like this,
if you were to say to your spouse,
I love you, body and soul,
what do you mean?
Well, you're not trying to draw out
different distinctions about the human epistemology.
What you're actually trying to say is,
I love all of you.
I love you, body and soul.
You're not trying to make this philosophical statement.
You're making a personal, emotional statement.
I love every part of you.
The heavens and the earth are going to be destroyed.
Everything is going to be destroyed.
Verse 7 is easy because heavens and earth are together.
Verse 10 makes it slightly more challenging
because they're separated,
but the point remains the same.
What God has created will be judged by fire.
The heavens will pass away with a roar,
and this roar here is most likely the sound of fire.
You know that if you're by a bonfire,
there's a sense in which it roars.
Now, we're very careful about bonfires here in Colorado,
but if you're from the East Coast,
you are much more casual about them,
and you know that people love to have them in a large field,
and as they get larger and larger,
the sound increases as well.
The same thing is what we're told here in verse 10.
These heavens are going to burn up,
and there's going to be such a great fire
that you can hear it.
Now, we've been talking here about heaven and earth, right?
So we've covered the heavens,
and then we find out here the heavenly bodies
will be burned up and dissolved.
And if you're like me,
and you're using an ESV translation of the Bible,
you'll see that there's a note at the bottom,
and it says it could be translated heavenly bodies.
It could also be translated elements.
I'm going to argue here that it's translated elements
for a variety of reasons.
A main one is that that matches most closely with verse 7.
Verse 7 tells us about heavens and earth.
Verse 10 is expanding on verse 7,
so we expect to hear about the heavens,
and then we expect to hear about the earth.
The elements then are giving us more detail
about what it means for the earth to burn.
Everything that makes up the earth is going to melt.
And so really what's going on in verse 10
is we're seeing an expansion,
an elaboration of what happened in verse 7.
And so that's essentially summing up for us
this judgment by fire that we've seen.
The heavens will pass away by fire.
It's going to be so loud there's a roar.
It's also going to be so hot that the elements,
here translated heavenly bodies,
will be burned up and dissolved.
So this is going to be a fire
that is incredibly hot.
Now I'll just point out that this is parallel
with verse 12.
In fact, verse 12 is essentially saying the same thing.
So I'm not going to recover all this material.
This will help you understand
why we waited for verse 10 for this week.
But verse 12 tells us,
the heavens will be set on fire.
Exactly what we saw in verse 10.
The heavens have a roar to them, a loud fire.
And the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
Again, we're going to translate heavenly bodies as elements.
So the earth is going to melt as it burns.
And so I've spent a long time just telling you
what verse 7 has already told us,
that the heavens and the earth that now exist
are being stored up for fire.
Now there's a variety of views about these things.
We don't want to get caught up in the details
because we want to understand the main point.
We don't want to get caught up in,
so caught up in the details that we miss the main point.
And the main point is this.
There is a totality to God's judgment.
It will touch everything.
He is coming in judgment for both the heavens and the earth.
Everything that he has created will be remade.
And we have to see also the parallel
that's going on here with the flood
to help us understand how this is going to work.
So we're told about this judgment by fire
in verse 7, verse 10, and verse 12.
And it's compared to the judgment
that has already happened by water.
So remember verse 5,
the heavens existed long ago and the earth,
again, heaven and earth together
for what God has existed, created.
The heaven and the earth,
verse 6, was deluged with water and perished.
So there was a judgment in the flood by water.
That's in the past.
There will be a judgment by fire.
That's in the future.
This raises, of course, for us the question,
what is this exactly going to look like?
What does it look like for the earth
to be judged and destroyed by fire?
What does it mean for the elements to melt
and the heavens to burn?
Well, this is actually a pretty easy question
for us to answer.
And all we have to do to answer it is this.
Think about the last time
that you witnessed a total and complete judgment
of the entire world.
Just think about that.
You know what that looks like.
You know what this will look like.
Of course, I joke, right?
You have never seen an entire and complete judgment
of the world.
And so, of course, there's going to be an element
in which we can't fully understand
or comprehend what this is describing.
This gets back to what we talked about last week.
Remember, I told you,
when we came to the portion
that a thousand years is like a day
and a day is like a thousand years to the Lord,
I reminded you that we have to have humility
when we come to these things
because God is so much higher than us.
He understands and knows things
that we have no frame of reference for.
You have never experienced
a total and entire judgment of the world.
You have no frame of reference for it.
And so, of course, it would be difficult,
in fact, perhaps impossible for us
to fully understand what this will look like.
Thankfully, the point, the goal of this passage
is not for us to know every detail
about the coming judgment,
but to have assurance, as we talked about last week,
that it will, in fact, happen.
God will come and judge the world by fire
even though he delays now.
And these things are outside of our frame of reference.
There's a certain sense in which we won't fully understand
what verse 10, verse 12, verse 7 is talking about
until we experience it.
Remember, we talked about this concept before.
People in the Old Testament had prophecies
about what Jesus' coming would look like
and they were surprised.
We have prophecies about what his second coming will look like
and we will be surprised.
And so there's some humility that comes here
as we think about and look at Jesus' second coming,
his judgment on the world.
What we do know is the main points.
It will be total and complete.
It will consume the heavens and the earth.
It will not be by water, but by fire.
Now, much of the application for this passage
is going to come next week in verses 11 and 12.
We have so much to cover just in terms of the new heavens
and the new earth that we need to split it into two.
And so some of this we just need to wait for next week.
We are laying groundwork right now
that we're going to see the fruit of next Sunday.
But I'll give you one application now.
There's one section you may have noticed in verse 10
that I did not talk about.
And it's at the end.
After the heavens and the earth are burned up,
the works that are done on it will be exposed.
In other words, God is coming with this complete judgment
and as part of his judgment,
everything that's secret will be made known.
In fact, Jesus himself talks about this in Luke chapter 12.
He says,
Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed
or hidden that will not be made known.
Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark
shall be heard in the light
and what you have whispered in private rooms
shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
God will delay his judgment for a time.
He will not delay his judgment forever.
There will be secrets for a time.
There will not be secrets forever.
And so the point that I made last week still stands.
Remember the beginning of verse 10.
The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
When it comes and everything is revealed,
all secrets are made known,
will you be saved or will you be destroyed?
When God's judgment comes,
when everything that is secret is made known,
will you be saved or will you be destroyed?
You'll remember from the last several weeks,
there are only two kinds of people.
Those who have faith in Jesus Christ,
who have repented of their sins
and embraced his offer of salvation
because they know that when Jesus lived,
he lived the perfect life that we should have but didn't.
And when he died,
he received the punishment that we deserve
and saved us from it.
Those who have faith in Jesus Christ will experience that.
They do not need to be afraid of the end of verse 10.
All the works on the earth being exposed.
Those who do not have faith in Jesus Christ
must have great fear.
And as I've been telling you,
the time to repent is now.
God will delay his judgment.
He will not delay it forever.
He is coming like a thief in the night.
When he finally returns,
we will be surprised.
And when he returns,
every secret will be revealed and made known.
And so while we can't imagine or understand
or know every detail,
we know what we need.
We know that he's coming to judge.
And we know that the works that are done on the earth
will be exposed.
Remember,
I told you there's two steps
when the day of judgment and wrath come
for my kitchen floor.
Of course,
the first is that it's going to be stripped.
And that's what we've seen here in this passage.
The first step is this judgment by fire
that's going to strip the earth.
The second step,
however,
it's that it's going to be remade.
It's not just that I remove the old kitchen floor,
right,
but that I'm going to put something
more beautiful,
more wonderful,
more glorious,
more resilient,
something that can actually handle water on it.
And that's the same thing we see here
in this passage.
It's not just that fire comes and destroys,
but that the world is also going to be remade.
And that raises the question here,
right,
what does this fire do?
Does it destroy the world completely?
Is this earth that we live on
going to disappear?
This gets back to the question
I mentioned at the very beginning,
which is that a lot of people
have different ideas
about what's going to happen
at the end of the world.
What does it mean,
in other words,
in verse 13,
when we're told that we're going to have
a new heavens
and a new earth?
In what sense is this world new?
Is it new in the sense that
God's going to create a new earth?
Is he going to create a new universe?
Well,
I'm not going to belabor it,
but I'm going to cut straight to the point
when we talk about
the new heavens
and the new earth,
I would put it in the words
of one theologian
who says this,
the new heavens
and the new earth
will be new in quality.
It will not be new
in time or origin.
It will be new in quality.
It will not be new
in time or origin.
Now,
if that sounds
fancy and technical,
then I just want you
to think about it this way.
If I told you
or someone told you
that they were remodeling
their kitchen,
they might say this.
They might say,
I'm getting a new kitchen.
Right?
And,
that kitchen
is only new
in quality.
In other words,
it's still in the same room.
When I
have
the replacement
of my kitchen floors,
I'm not moving.
I'm not taking
the kitchen
and putting it upstairs.
It's going to stay downstairs.
I will have
the same address
when and if
I have new kitchen floors
and you send me
a Christmas card,
you're going to address
it the same way
that you did
the previous year.
We get a new earth.
In other words,
the address
stays the same.
That is what we mean
when we say
that the new heavens
and the new earth
are new in quality.
We might put it
in a different way.
If I get a new kitchen,
it will be new
in quality,
not new
in location.
God is going
to strip the earth
down to the studs.
That is different
than destroying
or annihilating
the earth.
Okay?
God will make
all things new
here.
When I replace
my kitchen floors,
I will have
new kitchen floors
here
in this house.
The house
that I'm talking
to you from.
The floors
will be new
in quality.
They will not
be new
in location.
Now,
I've stated here
I have to prove
to you that this
is true.
You may think
I'm just playing
fast and loose
with the words here.
Right?
Doesn't new
mean new.
Now,
first of all,
I'm going to call
your attention
to the context
of this chapter
itself.
In this chapter,
we're told
about the flood.
Right?
Verse 6,
the earth
that then
existed was
deluged with
water and
perished.
But what does
it mean that
the world
perished in
the flood?
Well,
we know
that we
still live
on the same
earth that
suffered from
the flood.
So,
it perished
in the sense
that it was
purified.
It perished
in the sense
that the sinful
civilization that
existed was
done away with.
It was that
sense in which
it perished.
It's a related
word that Peter
here uses
in verse 12,
I believe,
or verse 10
to describe
what's going
to happen.
Yeah,
verse 12,
what's going
to happen
to the earth.
And so,
in context,
in the context
of this chapter,
when Peter
talks about
destruction,
he's talking
about new
inequality.
We know
that because
that's the
kind of
destruction
that happened
in the flood.
And so,
why would we
assume that
it's any
different
in this
second judgment?
The judgment
by fire.
So,
in the context
of this passage,
when we compare
verses 6 and 7
with verse 12,
we should assume
that the judgment
by fire is similar
to the judgment
by water.
Both destroy
the earth
in a certain
sense.
Both,
neither one,
I should say,
annihilate the earth.
The earth as we
have it is still
going to be here.
Now,
there are a variety
of other arguments
I could make
to explain to you
that the earth
is going to be new
only in quality.
I'll just give you
a couple more.
If you're familiar
with the Apostle Paul,
you know that in
Romans chapter 8,
he writes about
the creation
and he tells us
this in verse 19,
the creation
has eager longing
for the future.
In other words,
there's a sense
in which
the trees
and the mountains
are looking forward
for Jesus'
second coming.
We don't know
exactly what that
looks like.
We just have to know
that there's a sense
in which that's true
because Paul tells us
the creation
has eager longing
for the future.
And you have to ask,
why would the creation
have any sort of longing
for the future
if the future
involved the creation
being completely annihilated?
Then,
he goes on to tell us
in verse 21,
the creation itself
will be set free
from its bondage
to corruption
and obtain the freedom
of the glory
of the children of God.
And so,
the creation
is going to be set free.
There is a sense
in which
there is a teaching
here by Paul
that the creation
has something
to look forward to.
Our created world
only has something
to look forward to
if God is renewing
and restoring it
rather than
annihilating it.
And so,
we see again,
new means new
in quality.
Finally,
if you think
I'm playing fast and loose
with the English language,
I'll point out
an argument
by a man
who writes
in this book
about the word
new in Scripture
and points out
that the word
new in Scripture
often is used this way.
He says this,
and he's talking about
2 Peter chapter 3,
this is no verbal trick,
rather it conforms
to the nature
of the theme
of eschatological
newness in Scripture.
Eschatological
is just a fancy word
that means
the end of the world.
The redeemed
have undergone
a new birth.
We are already
new creatures
in Christ,
live under
the new covenant
and have new hearts,
but we still remain
what we were before
in the sense
that we retain
all of our
substantial continuity
with the world
that God made
before the fall.
In the act
of regeneration,
God does not perform
open heart surgery
and literally
give us different hearts.
Rather,
our hearts,
a cipher
for the whole person
or seat of thought,
emotion,
and will
are rebuilt,
refurbished,
renewed,
restored,
reconciled,
redeemed,
and regenerated.
Same heart,
new orientation,
new power.
So we see that
the word new
is used this way
throughout Scripture.
I'll just point to
one example.
We're told in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5,
verse 17,
that if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
Well, we understand
what kind of newness
that is.
It's the newness
he speaks of here.
A newness that means
rebuilt,
refurbished,
renewed,
restored,
reconciled,
redeemed.
The same is true
of our world.
It will be new
in the sense
that it is rebuilt,
refurbished,
renewed,
restored,
reconciled,
and redeemed.
It is in that sense
that it will be new.
Now, I'll stop here
in terms of my arguments.
I have not even touched
Jesus' discussion
of the renewal
of the world
or the book
of Revelation.
I'll simply say this.
When it comes to
this category,
the new heavens
and the new earth,
theologians would tell us
it is a restoration
and a renewal,
not an obliteration
or an annihilation.
It is a restoration
and a renewal,
not an obliteration
or an annihilation.
I will install
a floor
that cannot be
penetrated by water.
In that sense,
it will be new.
God is going
to create
a world
untouched by sin.
In that sense,
it will be new.
Now,
as we look
at these concepts
of the new heavens
and the new earth,
there's a variety
of places
I could go with this.
I could talk with you
about the inherent
goodness of creation.
The fact that God
loves it so much,
he's going to redeem it.
I could talk with you
about the wonder
of the material world.
That there's a reason
that we enjoy,
some of us,
snow so much.
Some of us hate it.
There's a reason
we enjoy the beauty
of the mountains
in Colorado.
That's something good
and right.
God designed us
to be that way.
That will not disappear
when Jesus returns.
And we could go
in all those places.
This morning,
I just want you
to think of one thing
that we take away.
One application
that we have,
which is this.
When it comes to Jesus
and his victory,
it is total and complete.
Now,
it's good and right
for us to think
of Jesus' victory
over sin and death
as something
that brings us
salvation from
eternal punishment.
And that is
the most important part
for us
of his victory
over sin and death.
It is not less
than that.
The reality is
that it is much
more than that.
His victory
is so complete
that it eradicates
ultimately
every piece of sin.
It is a complete
retaking of territory.
You know,
when it comes to war,
victory and territory
are intimately connected.
If you win,
you retake
whatever territory
you lost in the war,
right?
If you win,
you might get to take
some of your enemy's territory.
The same is true
of Jesus' victory.
What sort of victory
would it be
if in winning the battle
over sin and death,
he lost the territory
of this earth?
No,
Jesus' victory
is complete.
The surrender of sin
is unconditional.
He loses nothing.
He takes back
everything.
That's how powerful
and complete
Jesus' victory
over sin
and death is.
It is not just
good news,
then,
for us as individuals.
Remember Romans chapter 8,
the creation longs.
It is good news
for the entire world.
God does not negotiate
terms with sin.
He does not
cede territory
to sin.
His victory
is complete.
Sin's surrender
is unconditional.
He gains
all his territory
back.
The earth
is his.
Romans chapter 8,
the whole creation
groans,
the whole creation
will be redeemed.
And of course,
this is made fully
and finally true
in Jesus.
We're told in the New Testament
about his complete victory.
Colossians chapter 2,
verse 15,
tells us this.
He disarmed
the rulers
and authorities
and put them
to open shame
by triumphing
over them
in him.
There's a disarming
of rulers
and authorities,
right?
There's open shame,
there's a triumph.
This is Roman
military language.
He completely
defeats his enemies.
1 Corinthians 15,
verse 24,
again speaking of Jesus.
Then comes the end
when he delivers
the kingdom
to God the Father
after destroying
every rule
and every authority
and power.
Anything and everything
lost to sin
is regained by God,
including the whole world.
Of course,
that doesn't mean
there aren't things
that are lost
in the sense
that they're judged.
But when it comes
to territory,
it means that God
takes it back.
God's victory
is complete.
It's complete
because of Jesus'
victory on the cross.
When he died,
he did not just
take the punishment,
the penalty
for our sins.
He also defeated
sin and death
for all
and forever.
And so we then
see that
when he finally
comes
in his second coming,
stripping the earth
down to the studs
and rebuilding it,
recreating it,
giving us a new heavens
and a new earth.
Remember,
I started by asking you
when it comes
to the end of the world,
what do you think of?
What do you think of
when you think
of the new heavens
and the new earth?
Ronald Reagan,
President Ronald Reagan
liked to talk
about his strategy
in the Cold War
to defeat
the Soviet Union.
And he used this phrase
in various ways
at various times.
One of them was
in one of his
State of the Union addresses.
He described
his strategy
against the Soviet Union.
He said this,
my idea
of American policy
towards the Soviet Union
is simple
and some would say
simplistic.
It is this,
we win
and they lose.
What do you think
of that?
Brothers and sisters,
when we come
to this world,
we know
that Jesus
has won
and sin
has lost.
It is total
and complete.
and so we look
for the total
and complete
reclaiming
of all his territory,
the restoration
of this
entire earth.
That is what we
think of
and see
when we ask
how the world
is going to end
and we think
of the new heavens
and the new earth.
And ultimately,
it is true
because of Jesus
who has conquered
sin and death
and has disarmed
the rulers
and authorities
and put them
to open shame
by triumphing
over them
in him.
Let's pray.
Our Father in Heaven,
we thank you
for the encouragement
and hope we take
that you have
defeated sin
and your defeat
over it
is so great
and so complete
that you will
come back
and reclaim
this earth
once and for all.
We ask that you
would give us
that hope
and that confidence
as we live this week
and you would prepare us
again next week
to hear from your word
as we look to see
what kind of lives
we live
in response
in preparation
for your return.
We ask these things.
I'm grateful
that we ask them
not because of our victory
but because of Jesus' victory
and so we ask them
in his name.
Amen.
As we end our time
together,
we'll have us end
our time together
with a benediction
and you'll remember
that a benediction
is a good word
from God.
God,
it's a word
that is true
in a world
filled with words
that are not true.
It's tradition
for the minister
to hold up
his hand
to send out
God's blessing
on God's people
and it's tradition
for God's people
to hold out
their hands
to receive God's blessing
and so I invite you
even as you're
at your homes
to hold out
your hands
and to hear
God's good word
over you
from Hebrew
chapters 13.
Now may the God
of peace
who brought again
from the dead
our Lord Jesus
the great shepherd
of the sheep
by the blood
of the eternal covenant
equip you with
everything good
that you may do
his will
working in us
that which is pleasing
in his sight
through Jesus Christ
to whom be glory
forever and ever.
Amen.
Thanks for joining us.
Stay warm
and we look forward
to seeing all of you
very soon.
Thanks so much.
And we look forward