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"Hasten the Coming of the Day of God" The Afterlife #5

2 Peter 3:7-18

by Clancy Nixon

May 4, 2008

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

This is my final message in my series called "The Afterlife," and it is entitled

"Hastening the Coming of the Day of God." Since we are made for Heaven, what does

that mean about how we are to live now?

Phillip Yancey writes of his wife Janet's work with the elderly poor in Chicago.

(Christianity Today, Heaven Can't Wait, June 1, 2003) Half of her clients were white,

and half were black. All lived through tough times: two world wars and the Great

Depression. Janet Yancey has observed a remarkable difference between the way elderly

whites and elderly blacks face their own death. Can you guess which race anticipated

their own deaths better? While there are exceptions, the aging whites that Yancey knew

tended to become increasingly more fearful and uptight, complaining about their lives,

their families, and their deteriorating health. By contrast, Yancey saw her elderly black

clients maintain good humor and a spirit of triumph, even though most of them have

much greater reason for bitterness and despair. They lived most of their lives in the Jim

Crow era, before the Civil Rights bills were passed.

Janet Yancey believes that the difference is hope, a hope that traces directly to the

blacks' bedrock belief in Heaven, in the New Jerusalem, the New Heaven and New

Earth. Witness the old spiritual, "This world is not my home; I'm just passin' through."

While these words come out of the tragic period of legalized slavery, black churches

managed to instill a vivid belief in a home beyond this one. These elderly, neglected

saints manage to anticipate the future with joy in spite of their many hardships. Faith in

Heaven will get you through any trial in life better, not just when you face death.

Let's learn from them. Let's get hungry to see Heaven come to Earth. Let's

hasten the coming of his Kingdom.

How can we do that? Point #1: Preach the gospel. In Matthew 24:14, Jesus

prophesied that "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a

witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." When Jesus said that the gospel

would be preached to the ends of the earth, he knew that he was not going to do it

himself, that we must do it for him. Evidently, Jesus thinks that preaching is pretty

important, particularly to those who have not heard the gospel. According to the Joshua

Project, there are 16,295 people groups on the planet, and 6800 of them, or about 25% of

the world's population, have little access to the good news of God in Christ.

Unfortunately, less than 1% of the money that Christians give to the work of the church

goes to reach that 25% of unreached peoples. The Great Commission is the mission

statement of the Church: Matthew 28:29- to make disciples of every people group, to

baptize them and teach them to obey what Jesus commanded. When we finally get round

to competing the task that our Lord gave us 2,000 years ago, Jesus tells us, "then the end

will come." In our reading from Second Peter, chapter 3 verse 9, it says that God is not

willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Peter says that God

is patient with us, he is longsuffering, and the reason is because he wants to save more

people to be with him forever.

Friends, making disciples in our own culture is our focus at CHS, and praise God

for it. But it's still true if that is all that every church did, we'd never fulfill the Great

Commission. For over 20 years, Ginger and I've supported our missionary friends in a

middle east country. The hope of Heaven and the terrible reality of Hell should be all the

incentive we need to share the gospel of the Kingdom, both near and far.

Look at 2 Peter 3:11-13. "Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what

manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and

hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved,

being on fire...? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and

a new earth, in which his righteousness dwells." Notice, our righteous behavior hastens

the coming of the day of God, and the restoration of all things. Now, you might not desire

to see the end come right now for a variety of reasons. Even so, the Scripture says that

we are to hasten the day through our obedience. It's not because God hates the world

that he inspires Peter to tell us that we are to work to hasten the end, but rather because

God loves his people more than he loves this present age. So should we. God makes us

wait for the day of God (verse 9) the day of resurrection, judgment and restoration -

because he longs that all come to repentance, and because (verse 8) a day is like a

thousand years to God. The sooner the Lord Jesus returns, the sooner our loved ones will

enjoy permanent bliss. Remember that immediately after believers die, they go to

Paradise, which is not our final destination. Rather, paradise is an intermediate state in

the presence of God before the general resurrection and the before the white throne

judgment at the last day. Our hope is not for paradise, but for resurrected bodies in the

new Heaven and the new Earth, which will be better by far. The early church believed in

the soon return of Jesus, and that is our hope as well - amen?

Point #2 Live holy and godly lives. 2 Peter 3, Verse 11 and 14 say,

"Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to

be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of

God.... (verse 12) Therefore, beloved, looking forward to all these things, be diligent to

be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless." Living in light of Heaven

motivates us to live a godly, righteous, and sober life. Several of you were privileged to

know a godly man from Truro named Ed Prichard, who had a wife who struggled with

Alzheimer's so much that she could not carry on a conversation. Though he was elderly,

Ed lovingly brought his wife with him to the many events he attended and cared for his

wife himself. Living in light of heaven enables ordinary people to be extraordinarily self-

sacrificial, because they know that this life is not all there is.

Author Randy Alcorn says, if your wedding date is on the calendar, and you are

thinking of the person you are going to marry, you should not be an easy target for

seduction. In the same way, when you meditate on Heaven, sin is terribly unappealing.

Sin seems attractive only when you forget about Heaven, when you forget about the

future. Following Christ isn't a call to abstain from gratification; it s a call to delay

gratification. When we realize the pleasures that await us in God's presence, we can

forgo lesser pleasures now. (Heaven, p. 471) Godliness will result in rewards in heaven.

Galatians 6:78 says that we will reap in eternity what we've planted in this life. Jesus

said, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, those things that cannot rust or be stolen

or destroyed.

Missionary C. T. Studd said, "Only one life, `twill soon be past, only what's done

for Christ will last." What will last for all eternity? Not your car; not your job; not your

sex life; not your degrees; nor your house; praise God, not even your sins. The

implication of Second Peter is that all these will burn. What will last is your eternal soul

and your resurrected body, every prayer you prayed, every service to the needy, every

relationship with a believer, and every investment in time or money in evangelism and

missions. Seek fruit that will last. This week, why not take some time, either alone or

with your mate, to evaluate your activities in light of this question: "Will this have eternal

significance?"

Point # 3: Be thankful, not complaining. Hebrews 12:28 says, "Therefore,

since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so

worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." Let's thank God for the awesome

destiny he has for each one of us. A thankful heart crowds out complaining. In the many

hours that I've spent with Bob Wright over the last seven years, I've never once heard

him complain. Be like Bob; Don't "awfulize." You know, that's when you say, "Ain't it

awful how ...." When life serves you lemons, be like Bob, or like the elderly black saints

in Chicago: Lift your eyes to Heaven; remember that the best is yet to come; and make

lemonade!

As his aged, Christ-loving father lay dying, a man named H.S. Laird sat at his

bedside and asked him, "Dad, how do you feel?" His father replied, "Son, I feel like a

little boy on Christmas Eve." ... Friends, Christmas is coming, and though we don't

know exactly what we are going to get, we know enough to know that it's going to be

great better than great. When our feet touch gold, we will be in the most magnificent

place in the Universe, with perfect sinless character in healthy bodies, hanging out with

our loved ones and with God as in the Garden of Eden, walking with him in the cool of

the day.

[pause] Are you looking forward to seeing your King face to face? [pause]

Job said, "In my flesh I shall see God." (Job 19:26) The prospect of seeing God

helped Job overcome all his heartaches the death of his family - and his body aches,

boils and more. We live our lives between the first Advent, the first Christmas, and the

second coming of Christ to Earth. Christmas is coming. Let's hasten the day.

[Closing prayer] Amen.