[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon THE SECOND MIDWEEK IN ADVENT 10 December 2008 "Don't Let It Escape Your Attention" 2 Peter 3:8-14 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The future is uncertain, to a large degree. We don't know what is going to happen in 2009 or probably even next week. The world's economic condition has made the future vague and somewhat frightening. There are so many things to worry about these days, one hardly knows where to start. If only we knew what is going to happen we could prepare ourselves. Yet, we can't do that when it comes to the current troubles, but there is something for which you absolutely must prepare yourself, and that is the end of the age.

The appointed readings for the first part of the Advent season warn us that the end of the age is coming. "The Day of the Lord" is the way Holy Scripture talks about it. Peter's second letter focuses upon it at length, reminding us that the prophets of old spoke of it as did our Lord Jesus Christ. The end will come suddenly, like a thief in the night, without warning, yet one may discern the signs in the times themselves.

Peter describes what the end will be like:

"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." (2 Peter 3:10, ESV)

When Peter warns us that ". . . with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," (2 Peter 3:8, ESV) he warns us not to get caught spiritually asleep. "Don't Let It Escape Your Attention" is a way we might paraphrase his opening words here. Why does he warn us with these words? Because the day of the Lord has not yet come. He has delayed, and that delay causes some challenges to our faith.

But people have long scoffed at such a cataclysm. Earlier Peter described them:

"They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." (2 Peter 3:4-7, ESV)

Recently, militant atheists have stepped up their drumbeat against Christianity in particular. They have managed to get a display next to a nativity scene in the state capitol building of Washington. The governor feels that this atheistic disclaimer is appropriate. In short it says, "At this season of the Winter Solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds" [FoxNews.com, December 03, 2008]. Just a month ago the British Humanist Association placed this message on London busses: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Or are they simply whistling past the graveyard? "Stop worrying!" Worrying about what? A cataclysmic event which ushers in the judgment of the God they say "probably" doesn't exist? Well, evidently astronomers, many of whom are such atheists, have some worries. On November 29, 2008, a story appeared on the wires that told us that astronomers are worried that a 22 million ton asteroid named Apophis might strike the earth within the next 30 years. It would cause unimagined devastation and just might wipe out life on earth. So, they have undertaken steps to try to steer this asteroid away from earth's orbit. The study merely seems to underscore what St. Peter says is going to happen. Astronomers are scanning the skies for rogue asteroids that might crash into the earth and burn it up.

Yet we dare not get bogged down in such details because they are not given to us so that we may worry. Peter's point is that because of this delay people should not get the wrong idea. Atheists certainly have. They simply say, "See, there's no God. He hasn't done anything. He hasn't kept his promises." Peter advises us not to mistake God's delay for his inability to act. Rather, we are to understand his delay as the expression of his patience with humanity. Peter says:

"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9, ESV)

God waits to deliver his knockout blow so that man has the opportunity to "reach repentance." God does not wish anyone to perish in his sin, so he gives ample time and opportunity for man to repent. Yet, it is certain that not all will repent and turn from their evil to Christ. This delay evidences God's grace, his love for his fallen creatures, not his impotence to do anything about their sin.

Many times the scoffer will ask, "Why does a loving God allow such evil in the world?" and Christians are often hard-put to answer such questions because they know of God's justice. It was the same thing that troubled Job and which many Christians ask themselves when they suffer. Why does God allow it? The answer is simple. It is not that God is uncaring about you or your situation. Rather, he has a much larger agenda at work. He wants the world to repent so that he may forgive all.

What does all of this mean for you? First of all, you must understand what all these things mean, as I have just explained. The Day of the Lord will come! That is not in doubt. It will come with such suddenness and power that no human being will be able to stand against it.

Second, it means that you must trust the promises of God that it will be so and that this Day of the Lord is not to be feared, but that it is the dawn of a new heavens and new earth. All of the ruin and frustration with which man's sin has disfigured God's good work will have passed away. That's also what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8. We wait for the new creation and the splendor of eternity with Christ.

Peter asks: " . . what short of people ought you to be?" In light of all that he has said, the answer is simple: repentant. You are to be repentant. If God wants all people to "reach repentance," then that is where you should be, too. Repentance is the lifeblood of the Christian. You should never get the idea that you have nothing for which you need to repent. When you look into God's Law you see that there is plenty to accuse you. Even though you are redeemed in Holy Baptism, there is still sin sticking to your flesh, and it will stick there until your body dies or the Lord returns first. There must be the continual cleansing of repentance and forgiveness. That was what we heard John preach in Sunday's Holy Gospel, a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" [Mark 1.4]. Peter calls your life a life "of holiness and godliness" as you wait for Christ's return.

Lives of repentance and faith in the redemption won by our Lord Jesus Christ who has promised to return in great glory is what you should concern yourself with. We are looking forward to his return, not in fear and dread like the unbelieving world, but with eager hope and expectation when the original Creation will be restored to its pristine state never to be soiled again with sin and death.

Dear friends, "Don't Let It Escape Your Attention!" This age is passing away and Christ will come again! Be wise! Keep on living a life of repentance so that you may meet him with joy!