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THE DAY OF THE LORD

2 Peter 3:1-18
Key verse : 3:11

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.”

By Moses Kang Sr.

I don’t have good eyesight. When I read a book for an hour, I need to close my eyes for 10 minutes for rest for my tired eyes. Once my doctor recommended me not to do that but, instead he suggested me to look at a far distance for ten minutes. Seeing at a far distance is better than closing the eyes to reduce its tiredness. Do you know which country’s people have the best eyesight? The answer is Mongolian. Average people in Mongolia have twice as better eyesight than normal people (eyesight is 20/10 vision). Some of them have 20/5 vision. Do you know why they have such good eyesight? They live on the open fields where there are no mountains, so they always look at a far distance to the horizon.

Why do people wear glasses? Why do people become nearsighted? The reason is that they always see things very near. We can apply this principle to our spiritual life. If we always see the things near us, such as difficulties in our lives, all of our problems, things we have to manage daily, conflicts at the working place, health issues, we become spiritually nearsighted. Sometimes, we need to look far away, to the end point of our lives and see our present life from that point of view. The end point of our Christian life is not death because we already crossed over death by participating in Jesus’ death on the cross. The end point of Christian life on earth is “Jesus’ Second coming”, which is the day of the Lord. On that day, all the promise of God will be fulfilled and our salvation will be completed in glory. Sometimes, we feel like we lost the direction of our lives not knowing exactly what to do or where to go. Viewing our lives from the “day of the Lord” enables us to have the right direction like the sailors who are in the open sea readjust their direction looking at the Poraris (the North Star).. Someone said, “Having a right direction is more important than working hard.”

Viewing our life from the “day of the Lord” gives us different perspectives of our lives. If we are going to be ended up in glory, if we are going to be ended up in eternal life, why should we worry about the present difficulties? Why should we be easily upset or nervous or fall into doubt and discouraged with the small things of this world? If you missed the World Cup soccer game but you know that your team won already, would you worry about the mistakes of your team player when you watch it later, even though he had a suicide goal? No! When we see our lives from the point of Jesus’ second coming, we can enjoy more freedom and peace.
I believe this is the reason that Apostle Peter talked about Jesus’ Second Coming in today’s passage to the audience at his time and to us who live in 21st C.

In this letter, Apostle Peter deals with false teachers. Who are day? They were the insiders of the church, not outside non Christians. Look at verse 4. “They will say, “where is this ‘coming’ he promised?” Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

It simply says, the laws of nature are constant and unchanging. The Sun has come up and gone down, the seasons have followed each other. The tides have risen and fallen for thousands of years in perfect order. Therefore, any thought that the sky might be rolled up like a scroll and the Earth purged fiery judgment by the returning Christ is unimaginable and unwarranted.
These kinds of questions are also in our minds. Is Jesus really coming? How could we believe all these unimaginable events would happen? Early apostles expected that Jesus would come in their own generation. However, almost two thousand years have passed. Why is Jesus’ coming so slowly? We all have the same questions in our hearts. Let’s see how Apostle Peter tried to answer these questions.

I. God Creates and Upholds by His Word

Peter responds to this skepticism in three ways. First Look at verses 5-7. The first thing the false teachers ignore is that the world was made by God and that its order hangs on his word. The course of natural events is no more locked into one pattern than God is. If God is free to speak a new Word, then nature is free to change. Modern Physics describes how the universe is delicately balanced by four fundamental forces. For example, if God changes the Gravitational constant by 0.00000000…1% of its value, present universe wouldn’t exist, and neither would the solar system. If there are no magnetic fields around the Earth, Earth would be already baked by cosmic rays. If God doesn’t uphold the law of nature by his word, everything will be changed instantly.
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God brought judgment on the world in the flood of Noah’s day. God will alter the course of history of judgment. In the past he did it with water. In the future it will be with fire at the coming of Jesus Christ.

The second response to the false teachers comes in verse 8, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends; with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Here Peter is answering the criticism that Christ has delayed for so long that we can’t really believe he is coming back.

Experiencing the time delay is relative to each person. The older we get, the faster it seems to go. How many older people say, “It just seems like yesterday I was in school.””It just seems like yesterday we got married.” “It just seems like yesterday the kids were young.” And not only age, but joy makes us experience time differently. If you are bored at a program, it seems to drag on forever. But if you come to the conference and have a terrific time, you come to the end and say, “It seems like we just got here.” If our lives are packed with joy and meaning with an unforgettable dialogue with our Lord, our waiting will not feel long. Someone might live like it is a thousand years in one day. On the contrary, someone might live like it’s a day for thousand years. It depends on whether we do meaningful work everyday or not. When Jesus comes back and stands on this earth to make it his own, he will say, “It just seems like yesterday that I was here.” God is not bound by time which He created. He sees all history at a glance. God’s experience with time is different from ours.

However, there is a more important reason why Jesus’ coming seems so delayed. That is the third response to the problem of Christ’s delay. Look at verse 9. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting any one to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Apostle Paul speaks in Romans 11:25 of “the full number of the Gentiles” who must come into the kingdom before the end arrives. God is still running history because the minimum number of people was not filled yet in God’s kingdom.

When I look at the verse 9 carefully, two words drew my attention. Those are “any one” and “everyone.” God is patient with you, not wanting any one to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. I thought God wanted to save the “good guys” and punish the “bad guys.” However, the Bible says, God want to save any one, even bad guys, even Kim JeoungIl. God wants to save everyone. I could feel God’s yearning heart like parents who can not give up any of his children. God is patient because of his unending mercy and love. We can not blame God of his loving patience; rather, we need to participate in God’s patience as his children. How dare God intend to save all people, knowing how sinful we are? Isn’t it impossible? Yes, it looks impossible, but at the same time it is possible because there is no condition to enter the kingdom of God except repentance. Any one and everyone can repent. We don’t need to have special talents to repent. We don’t need to be intelligent to repent. We don’t need money to repent. We don’t need to have bountiful time to repent. We don’t need PhD to repent. Any one and everyone can repent and should repent. Not only the bad guys but also seemingly good people should repent. Why?

What if you clean a room and don’t use the room for a year. Do you think the room is kept clean? You will see a layer of dust on the surface of everything in the room. What if you use the room for a week and do not clean. It would be horrible. Sometimes, no places to sit on in the room like my son’s room. Why? Of course, it’s because we are lazy. But in some sense, that is because of the natural law, which we call the “Law of Entropy.” Everything in the Universe goes in the direction of disorder naturally. Our hearts will be corrupted naturally whether we are good or bad. We become self righteous and selfish naturally.
Then, what does it mean that we repent? These days, computers are easily messed up due to the virus attack. Then I bring the computer to M. Andrew Nam and he reformats the computer. Repentance is like reformatting our hearts. Or Repentance is pushing the “Reset” button on the machine. Then we can cancel the mess and start a brand new beginning. When we drive with GPS, sometimes, by mistake we take different route. Then what does the GPS do for us? “Recalculating.” They find the best way from there to the destination again. When we repent, God becomes our GPS. He leads us to the best way from that point no matter how we messed up our past. Repentance brings refreshment to our soul. Repentance enables us to taste the peace that comes from heaven. Repentance has power to bring positive changes in our lives. Praise God who is very very patient in his mercy and accepts us through repentance. One of the great mistakes we can ever make on earth is ignoring God’s patience and not repenting.

II. What will happen on the day of the Lord?

Let’s look at Verse 10. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Three things are implied in the day of the Lord coming like a thief:

1. The day of the Lord includes the coming of our Lord Jesus;
2. It will be sudden and unexpected destruction for unbelievers;
3. But, it will bring deliverance and salvation for those who are awake, doing the work assigned to them by the master

How does the Bible describe that day? V6 says “the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” V10 says. “the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire.”V12 says, “That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and elements will melt in the heat.” Isa34:4 says, “All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll.”

What is the Key word that appears in every verse? That is the “destruction by fire. What things can remain on earth when even basic elements are melted by fire? Scientifically it requires at least million degrees Celsius to melt the elements. In Noah’s time, he was able to survive by riding the Ark. Can we survive on that day by purchasing a ticket for a space shuttle? No. For the heaven will also be disappeared. Then how can we survive? V13 explains. “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” Those who are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth will survive. This promise comes from Isaiah 65:17, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and former things shall not be remembered.” Rev 21:1 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”

Once I looked at the sky to understand the description. “the sky will be rolled up like a scroll.” I could not picture exactly what the Bible describes. But one thing is clear; everything will be destroyed. This gives us a strong message. If you know what will happen tomorrow and you knew that a beautiful beach house would be swept away by a Hurricane, would you be going to buy that house?

People try to build up something on earth, But Peter stresses that every thing will be destroyed. It’s going to be burned up. We should not invest our one and only life for the things that will be destroyed or burned up. Then, is there anything that will not be destroyed on that day? Yes! There is.

Look at verse 11. “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” Verse 14 says, “make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” Verse 18 says, “But grows in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” All these three verses talks about our life style. People in the world focus on the achievement which will be destroyed and forgotten. But God evaluate us through our life style on earth. In order to be evaluated, life style should be remained.

Then, how could we build up our life on the things that will not be destroyed? Apostle Peter admonishes us to live holy and godly lives. The word ‘holy’ doesn’t click in our mind. It’s not about moral achievement as people think. In order to be holy, we should be godly; we can not be godly without holiness. Therefore, holy life is Godly life. Godly life is to live according to Godly principles.” What does it mean to live a life according to Godly principle? When we value what God values, we can live according to Godly principle. For example, the world values money, but God values soul. The world values outward appearance, but God values the heart, pure heart, poor heart, contrite heart and humble heart. The world values the tangible things, but God values the things that have eternal value. The world values how much people accumulate, but God values how much we gave. The world values high position and title, but God values servant ship. When we live according to worldly principle, we will be familiar with the words, envy, hate, greed, anger, dissensions. Etc. , When we live according to Godly principle, we will be familiar with the words, love, joy, peace faithfulness, trust, self-control and hope, etc..
Which life style is cooler, angry life or peaceful life? Empty life or meaningful life? We stand on God’s side because that is better. Let’s live holy and godly lives

What’s Apostle Peter’s last admonishment? Look at the V18 again. “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
How can we grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus? I believe that we need to receive the grace of Jesus constantly. Then, how can we receive his grace? From my experience, I can tell three different ways. First, God gives his grace through the special incidents which we do not expect. Second, God gives his grace when we meditate his words. Third, God gives his grace when we pray daily.

I have lived a law-based life. I don’t know why it happened that way. When I was in second grade, I set one rule that I should not miss school. So I never missed school even one day till I graduated college for 16 years. Setting the rules gave me discipline direction, and discipline gave me strength and the sense of achievement. My motto was “I can do everything if I set the goal.” I tried to reject the words, such as impossible, weak, hurt, or care. I was very independent but very lonely. When I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior June 1 in 1980, through the one to one bible study with M. David Baik. Heavenly peace came into my heart. I could put all the burdens (meaninglessness, emptiness and greed) of my life down before Jesus. After that I worked hard to pay off the debt I had from God. I did not know what God grace is meant. In 1987, just 10 days before my marriage, I had an accident in the factory I worked. I was ended up 40 days of hospitalization, including 8 hours of surgery on my face. I thanked God that I could have rest from my work. One night, Jesus who is bleeding on the cross, appeared to me in a vision. I could hear the voice of Jesus through my mind, “Moses! Do you think that you can pay off the debt you owe me? I realized that God’s grace is a free gift, not a debt. Through this event, I began to grow in the grace of Jesus. God helped me to grow in the grace by marrying M. Grace who is the most graceful woman in the world. In U.S, God placed me to teach the students in East New York, Brooklyn. Everyday I prayed while I was driving to school, “Lord help me not to scream at the students today.” But my grace ran out even before the first period ends. Everyday was survivor game.

From 2006, I started Morning Prayer. Every morning When I kneel down before God’s presence, God gave me his grace like morning dew. Do you know how the plants in the desert survive? It is because of morning dew. God doesn’t give morning dew in the heat of the day when the plants need the moisture the most. God give moisture before dawn before we meet the harsh reality to strengthen us. God moisturized my heart everyday through his grace. Students need discipline but they also need God’s mercy and grace. I don’t struggle with them any more with my own strength but with the grace of God given to me everyday through prayer. I prayed for the student by naming them one by one. This year, I was supersized that 74 % of E.S students passed the state regents exam even though they were repeaters. School’s average passing rate was 40%. I could see God showed his mercy on them.
I am still strict and legalistic. But I thank God who enables me to grow in the grace of Jesus

Everything What God promised was fulfilled except Jesus’ Second coming. Jesus will surely come like a thief because he promised. Rev 22:7 said, “Behold I am coming soon. V12 said, “Behold I am coming soon.” V20 said, “yes, I am coming soon.” On that day, everything will be destroyed by God’s judgment fire. Only the fruits of holiness will remain. Let’s stand on God’s side and live a holy and godly life, seeking Godly principles. Let’s remember that Glory and Victory was already reserved for us when Jesus comes again. May God give us the Joy of growing in His Grace.

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