Friday, September 25, 2020

As a Thief in the Night - Part 1

This last Sunday Pastor Kyle continued in our church’s sermon series through the New Testament book of 2 Peter. He opened by stating that over the years, he has observed something about thieves and that is that they never phone ahead or leave a text message to let you know they are coming. They don’t do that because you’d make all kinds of preparation ahead of time. What’s makes thieves successful in their deeds of darkness is the element of surprise. The Apostle Peter tells us that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.

Jesus is not going to by giving us a heads up of His “Second Coming”, it’s just going to happen one day. With all that is happening in the year of our Lord - 2020, are we living in the last days? Life is short and we are all going to one day meet the Lord, whether through our own death or when Jesus returns. Even if we are not living in the “End Times”, we are supposed to be living here and now as if we are and Judgment Day is just around the next bend in our journey. 

 

2 Peter 3:-1-13 “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 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.” 5 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, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 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. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a housand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 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. 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. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

 

In the Apostle Peter’s last days, he wanted to make sure that all of us understood that we are to live with a sense of expectancy and urgency of the Lord’s return. 1 in 30 Bible verses talks about the “end times”. 216nchapters in the New Testament contain over 300 references to the “End Times”. 23 out of 27 New Testament books talk about the “End Times”. This has been a hot topic since Christ’s first visitation and ascension to Heaven. There are four things that Peter wants every Christian to know about the end times. Keep the predictions and the Commandments of God’s Word fresh in our mind. (1) The Apostle uses the tool of reminding when he says. “I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.” Sincerity in the Christian faith is always a great thing, but reminders are still necessary for all of us. 

 

In our last sermon, we talked about how important it is to remind ourselves about sin and its consequences, no matter how many times we think that we’ve heard it. This week, Peter tells us that it is important to remind ourselves of God’s Word in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible and to keep it fresh in our minds. But specifically, the Apostles mentions two aspects of God’s Word that we need to keep fresh. The first one is the predictions of the holy prophets. The second thing is the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.


Let's continue Pastor continue Pastor's Kylee on the "End Times" in the next post.

In Christ, Brian

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