Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
in to the weekly sermon podcast. We pray this
message encourages you, strengthens your faith,
and helps you to take your next step with Jesus.
If this content blesses you and you'd like to
be a part of helping us continue to bring the
gospel to life, we'd love for you to consider
supporting the ministry of Village. Your generosity
makes it possible for us to keep creating and
sharing resources like this podcast. You can
give safely and easily by visiting sacvillage
.org slash give or by heading to our website
at sacvillage .org. Thanks again for listening.
Now let's dive into this week's message. Amen.
Well, this is the last Sunday of the year. The
last Sunday of 2025, and this time of the year
always invites us to reflect, doesn't it? To
reflect back on the year. What changed in 2025
for you? What didn't change in 2025 for you?
What had you hoped would be different by now,
but is still the same? And what are you still
waiting on? The turning of the calendar has a
way of reminding us that time keeps moving whether
we're ready for it or not, amen? And that's why
Advent is such a gift because every year at the
season of Advent, it invites us to look backward
to a promise made and a promise fulfilled, to
a savior who arrived, a moment in history. when
God stepped into our world in humility. But the
Christian doesn't just look backward, do they?
No, Christians have always looked backward, but
we also look forward. After Jesus' resurrection
from the grave and right after his ascension
to heaven, he had spent some time with the disciples
and the disciples had followed him all the way
to the mountain and he gave him the great commission.
We know it in Matthew 28, where he said, go into
all the world and make disciples, baptizing in
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has
commanded us. And then it says that Jesus was
then taken away. up into the clouds and hidden
by a cloud as he ascended to heaven. And you
can imagine being there as the men and women
who were his disciples followed him to that mountaintop.
And then they had just lost him to the grave,
right? But then he resurrected, he's back. It's
like, we got Jesus back. He's with us for 40
days and he hangs out and teaches them. And then
pretty soon he leads them to this mountaintop
and Jesus ascends back to the Father. And while
they're standing there with their eyes, to the
sky, looking intently at where Jesus had been,
an angel appears to the disciples and says, men
of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into
the heavens? This same Jesus who has been taken
from you into heaven will come again in the same
way that you have seen him go into heaven. This
same Jesus who was taken for you will come again
in the same Wait, so the same scriptures that
told us about Christ's first coming, the advent
of Christ also tell us about his final coming.
And that's why on the last Sunday of every year,
I like to spend time in a sermon that I usually
call either the last advent or the final advent.
And today we're going to turn to a text like
2 Peter chapter 3. So if you have your Bibles,
you can open that up to 2 Peter chapter 3. It'll
also be up here on the board as we move chunk
by chunk through that chapter. But a little back
story on 2 Peter chapter 3. The apostle Peter
is writing to believers who are living in the
space between. The space between, the in -between.
A promise had been given. A promise had been
fulfilled, but there were still promises to come
or a promise still to come. Have you ever been
in the in -between, between a promise and its
fulfillment? That in -between time where you're
waiting for the promise that you heard, that
you knew, that you believed, but you're waiting
for its fulfillment? Well, the believers that
Peter is talking to are in that in -between time.
Jesus had come and he was a promise that was
delivered upon. And he had lived his life, but
now he had gone. But when he had gone, he had
also promised that he would return. And they're
waiting. And they're asking the same questions
you and I might ask if we were in that same situation.
Like, how long will he be, right? What's taking
him so long? Like, what's the delay, right? Or
is God still at work in the world while Jesus
is away? And around the disciples and the folks
that Peter is writing to, around them there are
these voices that also have questions and statements
that they're making. And they're saying things
like, nothing is really ever going to change.
Things have always been this way and things will...
always be this way. If God was going to act,
if God was going to return, he would have done
so already. And so you have this conflict of
believers who are in the in -between, a promise
made but waiting for its fulfillment, and others
who are saying, ah, nothing's going to happen.
If it would have happened, it would have happened
already. We're past the deadline. It's a promise
unfulfilled. And what Peter does is he doesn't
panic. But instead, he helps to reframe time
itself. And he reminds the church of something
we need to hear at the end of a year like this.
The delay of Christ's return is not a failure
of God's promise. It is evidence of his patience.
The delay... of Christ's return is not a failure
of God's promise, but it is an evidence of his
patience. And we'll see that as we walk through
the scripture. Because the first advent tells
us how God came and the last advent tells us
that God will finish what he started. And that
truth doesn't lead us to fear the future. Instead,
if you are in Christ, it should lead us to wait
with hope. So if you're taking notes, I've got
three points today. The first one is a world
that doubts. Number one, a world that doubts.
Second Peter chapter three, we're going to begin
in verse one. Dear friends, this is now the second
letter I've written to you. In both letters,
I want to stir up your sincere understanding
by way of reminder so that you recall the words.
previously spoken by the holy prophets and the
command of our Lord and Savior given through
your apostles. Above all, be aware of this. Scoffers
will come in the last days, scoffing and following
their own evil desires, saying, where is his
coming that he promised? Ever since our ancestors
fell asleep, all things continue as they have
been since the beginning of creation. They deliberately
overlook this. By the word of God, the heavens
came into being long ago and the earth was brought
about from water and through water. And through
these, the world of that time perished when it
was flooded. By the same word, the present heavens
and earth are stored up for fire, being kept
for the day of judgment and destruction of the
ungodly. We're going to stop there for right
now. We'll pick up in verse 8. on the next point,
but Peter begins by inviting his hearers to remember.
He said, I want to stir up your sincere understanding
by way of a reminder so that you recall the words
previously spoken to you by the prophets and
by the apostles of Jesus. And that's because
when faith weakens, It is most often not because
we've learned something new, but oftentimes it's
because we've forgotten something old or something
we already knew. In my time in ministry, in my
time in ministering to people, more often than
not, I'm having to remind them of what they already
know is true than I'm having to argue or fight
against some new thought or new belief that they
have. But it's reminding them of what has already
been spoken. And Peter says that there are scoffers
in their day. Not just doubters, not just people
with questions. We all have questions and we've
all experienced doubt at times. But these are
scoffers, he says. And what is a scoffer? Well,
a scoffer is someone who mocks or ridicules or
shows contempt for God and his wisdom and his
way. They mock or ridicule or show contempt for
God, his wisdom, and his way. And listen to what
he says, or what they say. This is what scoffers
say, Peter says. He says, they'll say, where
is his coming that he promised? Ever since our
ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as
they have been since the beginning of creation.
In other words, nothing ever really changes.
God doesn't intervene. History is just a closed
loop that repeats itself cycle after cycle on
into eternity. This world just keeps going. And
it's the assumption that what we see is all that
there is and what has been will always be. And
Peter says this kind of skepticism, this kind
of scoffing is not morally neutral. He tells
us the scoffers are actually following their
own evil desires. Peter is saying that belief
and behavior are always connected. What we believe
about the future shapes how we live in the present.
You know this, right? You've probably seen a
movie or heard a narrative or maybe even experienced
this in your own life with someone you know or
yourself. If I was to tell you that you had one
year to live and you would die on this day next
year, would that not, and you believed it, would
that not change your behavior for the next year?
You would not live 26 the same way, would you?
If you knew it and you believed it, it would
change. How you behave. And what we believe about
the future shapes how we live in the present.
And Peter is saying there are scoffers who are
standing around saying he'll never come, but
what they're really wanting to do is they want
to feed their evil desire. They want to feed
their desire to do what is wrong. They want to
feed their desire to not do what is right. And
so, if there is no second coming... if there
is no judgment of belief, if there is no judgment
of actions, if there is no judgment of words,
well, then what's the big deal? I can live however
I want. If there is no judgment of beliefs or
actions or words, then there is no urgency to
live a life of holiness, is there? And if there
is no coming renewal, around is just going to
burn and you and I are just worm food, well,
then there's no reason for hope. And Peter says
the scoffers maintain their arrogance by forgetting.
What do they forget? Well, he says they forget
that the world was created by the word of God.
And he says the scoffers forget that the world
was once already judged by the word of God. And
they forget that the world is presently being
sustained by the word of God. You see, the world
is not self -running. It is not self -sustaining.
It is not some closed loop of laws, but instead
it is held together moment by moment by the word
of God. And Peter reminds them of the flood during
Noah's days. Not as some random historical fact
or claim, but as a theological point. There was
a time when people believed that nothing will
ever change. Tomorrow will be just like today.
God won't act. We can live however we desire.
And they were wrong. And Peter's point is not
to frighten the church. His point is to expose.
A false confidence. A confidence that says God
won't intervene. God won't judge. God won't keep
his word. And the danger for us, we may not mock
the promises of Christ's return, but we can live
as though it really won't matter. We can functionally
believe that there's always more time. There's
no urgency. I'll get serious later. I know how
God desires me to live, but I'll just continue
to live however I want because there's time.
I can always change my mind later. And Peter
says, be careful. Be careful because forgetting
God's past, And here's the thing about faithfulness.
We love that fluffy word, don't we? We love it
when people are faithful to us. We love when
people say what they're going to do and then
they do it. But when the Bible talks about faithfulness,
it talks about the rock solid follow through
of God. And you see, faithfulness can be applied
to a lot of things in the Bible. And one of the
things it's applied to is the promise of hope.
God is faithful for his promises of hope. He
will. pull through. He will follow through. He
will bring them to be. But you know what else
God is faithful? He is absolutely faithful to
his promise of judgment. 100%. As faithful as
he is to his promise of hope, he is 100 % faithful
to his promise of judgment because God is faithful.
Promise of hope, promise of judgment. And if
we forget that God's past faithfulness, both
to his promise of hope and to his promise of
judgment, both shown in the Old Testament through
his word, if we forget that, it leads us to doubt
God's future promises. And so we live differently
today than we ought. And when we forget the promise,
we stop waiting, we stop watching, we stop longing.
Which is why Peter, begins here. He exposes the
lie that says nothing is really going to change,
so it doesn't matter how I live. Advent, both
the first Advent and the last and final Advent,
declares the complete opposite. God has acted,
God is acting, and God will act again. If you're
taking notes, number two, A God who is patient.
A world that doubts and a God who is patient.
2 Peter chapter three, verse eight. Dear friends,
don't overlook this one fact. With the Lord,
one day is like a thousand years and a thousand
years like one day. The Lord does not delay his
promise as some understand delay, but is patient
with you. not wanting any to perish, but all
to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord
will come like a thief. On that day, the heavens
will pass away with a loud noise and the elements
will burn and be dissolved and the earth and
the works on it will be disclosed. So after exposing
the scoffers and their false promises, Peter
turns directly to the question that kind of sits
beneath it all, which is why the delay then?
Why the delay? And before Peter explains what
God is doing, he reminds us all of who God is.
And he starts by saying, dear friends, don't
overlook this one fact. And I want you to notice
that. Dear friends, Peter is not rebuking enemies
here. Peter is shepherding a church of people
just like you and me. He's not rebuking enemies,
those people out there. He's talking to you and
me about the day. He's talking to you and me
about the patience of God. He's talking to you
and me about repentance, a life of repentance.
And when he says about the Lord, one day is like
a thousand years and a thousand years is like
one day. And let me just say, Peter's not giving
you some formula or decipher. key or something
to try to figure out when Jesus is coming back.
That's not his point. That's not his point at
all. What Peter's point is in pointing out that
one day is like a thousand years and a thousand
years like one day to the Lord. What he's trying
to say is he's trying to remind us that God is
not trapped inside our experience of time. God
is never rushed. He's never behind and he never
is panicked by the calendar. Anyone ever popped
on your calendar and went, oh my goodness, that's
next week? Never with God, never. We measure
time by clocks and calendars. God measures time
by purpose. What he's trying to accomplish, what
he's doing. And then Peter says this kind of
central claim. The Lord does not delay his promise.
as some understand delay, but is patient with
you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come
to repentance. In other words, what looks like
delay to us is not delay to God. What looks like
absence is not neglect. What looks like silence
is not indifference. This is one of the most
hope -filled verses in all the New Testament.
The delay is not because God has forgotten his
promise. The delay is not because God has forgotten
his promise. Jesus returning is not delayed because
God got busy cleaning the house. The delay of
Jesus' return is because God is still wanting
to extend mercy. That's why he's delayed. God
is still wanting to extend mercy. And that means
the time in between, between the promise and
its fulfillment, between Christ's ascension and
the angel saying he will surely come back this
way and Christ's actual return from glory with
all of the angels of heaven and the glory of
God shining around him. The time in between that
you and I live in, it's a time of mercy. Every
passing year is not evidence that God has failed.
It is evidence that God is still inviting one
more. Every sunrise is grace. I've spent many
sunrises, many times in the morning, cup of coffee,
and just a silent prayer, thanking God for another
day. Thanking God for another day to live. But
this verse reshapes that prayer a little bit.
Now I want to spend every morning remembering.
If I see another sunrise, I want to remember
the grace and mercy of my God. And I want to
remember and catch the next sunrise and remember
that it only came up today again because God
still wants to display his mercy to someone.
Every breath and opportunity, every moment is
repentance still being offered. But yet, even
in light of that, and as wonderful as that sounds,
Peter refuses to let us turn God's patience into
complacency. Because the very next verse, after
he says God is patient with you and he wants
you to come and he wants no one to perish but
everyone to come to repentance, the very next
verse says, but the day of the Lord will come
like a thief. What does he mean? Well, when Peter
talks about the day of the Lord, he's not introducing
some new idea. He's drawing on a phrase that
runs all the way through Scripture, in the prophets,
in the apostles' writing. The Bible talks about
the day of the Lord as not just a date on a calendar.
But it is a moment of divine intervention. And
really, it's a final moment of divine intervention.
It's the day when God finally confronts evil.
It's the day when God exposes every person's
works and words. It's the day when God sets right
what is wrong. And for some, the scripture says
that the day of the Lord will be terrifying.
That's what the scripture says. The day of the
Lord will be terrifying to some. Some will run.
This is the image they use. Some will run to
the hills to escape the glory of the Lord and
his descent to come and judge the world. They'll
run to the hills. and try to find some clave,
and they'll begin to pray that the rocks would
fall in on them to hide them from the glory of
God in his judgment. For some, the day of the
Lord will be terrifying. It will mean judgment
has finally come. It will mean every day that
they spent saying, I've got time. He's not coming.
He doesn't care. He doesn't see. I'll do whatever
I want. All of that will come to its fulfillment.
All of that will fill full and meet judgment.
And the day of the Lord for some will be terrifying.
And then the Bible says, but for God's people,
the day of the Lord will be good news. Because
it means deliverance. It means justice finally.
It means all wrongs right. It means total restoration
of fallen creation. The day of the Lord is of
great joy, even as it is for some a day of judgment.
So when Peter says the day of the Lord comes
like a thief, what he's saying is it comes unexpected,
it's decisive, And it's inescapable for all humanity.
And the hope of the Christian is not that this
day will never come. Oh Lord, please don't ever
bring that day. The hope is the Christian is
that when the day comes, you and I will be found
in Christ. Not found in the cleft of a rock.
hiding from judgment, but found in Christ, the
lamb who was slain for our sin. The day of the
Lord is not the end of the whole story, but it
is the day that God finally brings all of history
to completion. God's patience does not cancel
out his justice. God's mercy does not negate
his holiness. The delay is real, but so is the
day. And Peter holds these together. God delays
because he is merciful, but God will come because
he's faithful. The promise has not expired. It's
not been abandoned. It hasn't been weakened.
It is simply not yet complete. If God has been
patient with the world, then imagine how patient
he has been with us. Patient as we grow slowly.
Patient with our repeated failures. Patient with
our unfinished repentance. The reason that Christ
has not yet returned is because he has not yet
run out of mercy. But we cannot take that for
granted. We cannot live our lives shrugging our
shoulders. But it should lead us to gratitude
and humility, to holiness and hope. Number three,
the final point, a future guarantee of hope.
A world that doubts a God who is patient. and
a future guarantee of hope. 2 Peter 3, beginning
in verse 11. Since all these things are to be
dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort
of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness.
as you wait for the day of God and hasten its
coming, because of that day, the heavens will
be dissolved with fire and the elements will
melt with heat. But based on his promise, we
wait for new heavens and new earth where righteousness
dwells. Therefore, dear friends, while you wait
for these things, make every effort to be found
without spot or blemish in his sight at peace.
Also regard the patience of our Lord as salvation,
just as our dear brother Paul has written to
you according to the wisdom given to him. He
speaks about these things in all his letters.
There are some things that are hard to understand
in them and the untaught and unstable will twist
them to their own destruction as they also do
with the rest of scriptures. Therefore, dear
friends, since you know this in advance, be on
your guard so that you are not led away by the
error of lawless people and fall from your stable
position. But grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be
the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
After walking us through... the doubts and the
scoffers and reframing the delay of Christ's
return as mercy. Peter now gets our eyes on the
future that we are actually waiting for. If you
are in Christ, there is a future we are waiting
for, we are looking to, we are longing for. And
he begins with, since all of these things are
to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what
sort of people you should be in holy conduct
and godliness. And that word sense matters. It
matters because Peter believes all of this is
clarifying for the Christian. It brings our purpose
and our work into focus. And when the future
is secure, the present no longer needs to be
frantic. Christian hope is not passive waiting.
It is active anticipation. But notice what Peter
does not say. He does not say, escape the world,
abandon creation, withdraw in fear. Instead,
he said, we wait. We wait. Based on his promise,
we wait for new heavens and a new earth where
righteousness dwells. The Christian story. does
not end with God throwing the world away. It
ends with God making the world right. It ends
with the promise in Isaiah fulfilled of a new
heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
It ends with the prophet's hope of a restored
creation and the gospel's destination, which
is a new heavens and new earth. A world where
righteousness is no longer resisted, no longer
mocked, no longer set aside or partial, but right
at home. It dwells there. And because that future
is coming, Peter says, we live now in holiness
without panic. And we live in godliness without
terror. And we live in peace rather than anxiety.
And while we wait for these things, we make every
effort. What does every effort mean? How much?
Every effort. All that is within your power.
Make every effort to be found without spot or
blemish in his sight at peace. That's where you
and I want to be when the clouds rend open and
the glory of the Lord shines and the Lord with
10 ,000 times 10 ,000 angels begins to descend
on this earth. You want to be found spotless
and blameless at peace in the presence of Jesus,
I promise you. That's what you want, that's what
I want. And Peter says, make every effort, every
effort to be found there. Peter acknowledges
that scripture can be hard to understand. He
even highlights Paul, which is funny, right?
If some of you have ever read Paul, Galatians
or Romans or whatever, and you went, man, this
guy's weird and I don't understand it, right?
Peter's like, yeah, me neither sometimes. But
it's okay because, you know, just keep reading
it. Let the Spirit speak. Let the Spirit move
in your heart. But whatever you do, you cannot
dismiss it. Not understanding the Scripture does
not give you permission to twist it or drift
away from it. And instead, it actually says,
we should grow in the grace and knowledge of
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And notice
he does not just knowledge, but grace. And not
just grace, but knowledge. Some of us love to
grow in grace, but we don't grow in knowledge
at all. You might call some of us intellectually
lazy. We simply, yeah, that's for someone else.
I just want to sit in the grace of God and just...
And others, man, you grow in knowledge. You got
the newest, best doctrine. You read the book,
right? And you can slam someone and tell them
how incorrect they are, but you have no grace.
Peter says, grow in grace and grow in knowledge.
Growing grace. Well, why growing grace? Because
a growing faith is a stable faith. A growing
faith is a faith whose roots go out and go deep
and stay rooted even when the storms of life
come, even when the scoffers come, even when
those who come to twist the word. If your roots
are deep and settled, if you grow in grace and
you grow in knowledge, you can spot what is false.
You can call it out and you are not blown here
or there by every wind of teaching that comes.
Actually this year, and we'll be talking about
it in a little bit, but this year we're gonna
be launching in a couple months something called
Growth Tracks. And Growth Tracks are just an
opportunity for anyone here at Village to kind
of hop in the stream and begin to grow in grace
and knowledge. And we'll grow together and we'll
keep growing and we'll grow. You never graduate.
You always grow in grace and knowledge. And we're
gonna give an opportunity that's gonna come out.
We'll talk a little bit more about it in January,
January 11th. But growth track's coming up so
that we grow stable in our faith. And where does
Peter close this? Well, he closes it with worship.
To him be the glory both now and to the day of
eternity. where the sermon will end, because
the first advent reminds us that God came in
the flesh. And the last advent, and advent is
just another word for the coming, the arrival.
The last arrival assures us that God will finish
what he started. And that the same Jesus who
entered our world in humility will return in
glory. And the same Jesus who came to forgive
will come again to judge and restore. The same
Jesus who stepped into darkness will one day
remove darkness forever. And so we who are in
Christ, we do not fear the turning of the calendar.
We do not fear another year come. We who are
in Christ do not dread the future. We wait. We
wait not with anxiety. We wait not scoffing,
but we wait in hope. And while we wait, we make
every effort to remain spotless and blameless
at peace in the presence of Jesus.