Title: THE RENEWAL OF ALL THINGS
Focus: The Bible’s teaching on the renewal of all things belongs on our radar screen of daily Christian living.
Function: To stir a longing for renewal in the hearts of the people, characterized by godly living and focused prayers.
Text: II Peter 3:1-13
When the Minnesota Twins begin their baseball season, they will do what most professional athletes do: they will train for, prepare for, and work toward that final game of the season—the championship game. Professional athletes will always set their eyes on the trophy. Their radar screen of daily living has a clear object in sight. Nothing less but the championship and a trophy will satisfy them. What’s on your radar screen of daily living?
No doubt, there are short term goals and long term goals on our radar screen. Some of us, for example, may want to finish their studies and begin a career. Others may be planning for a wedding, or the arrival of a new-born child, or the upcoming graduation ceremony of a grand child. Rosanne and I are looking forward to the end of Elliot’s deployment in Iraq. We long to see him coming home. And so it goes. There are all kinds of targets to shoot for on our radar screens of daily living.
One target that should always be on our radar screen of daily Christian living is the Bible’s teaching on the renewal of all things. I say that in light of the Bible passage that we just read.
THE RENEWAL OF ALL THINGS
Christians embrace and live out of the story of God’s grand rescue mission. We affirm that God has created the heavens and the earth. We lament our fall into sin, when our first parents were tempted by the devil and disobeyed the Lord our God; we acknowledge the struggle of all humanity—the struggle of sin and misery, of sickness and death. We welcome God’s rescue mission.
For God has sent a Redeemer, his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has died; he was raised from the dead; he has ascended into heaven; he lives today as our Lord and Savior. And Jesus will come again to make all things new. He will come as Judge. He will restore all things and thus he will live in our midst on the renewed heaven and earth—forever and ever. That’s the grand story of Creation—Fall—Redemption—New Creation. That story makes up the radar screen of daily Christian living.
Now the renewal of all things
· Takes Place in the Last Days:
The apostle Peter writes in vs. 3: “In the last days….” Peter made reference to this time frame almost 2000 years ago. Then already, the apostle wanted his contemporaries to think about the last days. Human life on earth (as we know it today) will not go on endlessly. Though history may repeat itself, it will not go on endlessly. God has framed time: there is a beginning, there is a center, and there is an end of time. After that, God will introduce eternity to all who belong to him. The renewal of all things takes place in the last days.
The last days, in many ways are hard to tell from the early days, like the days of Noah, for example. Jesus makes reference to that, reminding us that everything seems to be going on as it has always been the case: people marrying, eating, drinking, etc. Yet, the last days are also characterized by increased evil and rebellious mockery of God’s Word. Peter says: “In the last days mockers will come and, following their own desires, will ridicule us.” And elsewhere in Scripture we learn that “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power” (II Tim.3:1-5) .
Clearly, the last days will be an anti-Christian age, where scoffers will make arguments to ridicule any Christian who puts the longing for the renewal of all things on his/her radar screen of daily living. They will use the argument that says; “What happened to God’s promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died, everything continues as it did from the beginning of creation.” Folks, contrary to what we may hear: the renewal of all things takes place in the last days.
And that leads me to my second observation: The renewal of all things
· Must be Taken Seriously:
In other words, don’t take it off your radar screen. Peter underscores our need to ignore the mockers and scoffers of our day by saying: “…they deliberately ignore the fact that long ago the heavens existed and the earth was formed by God’s word out of water and with water, by which the world at that time was deluged with water and destroyed.” That means that we must take seriously God’s dealings with Noah and humanity when he sent the flood waters long ago. In Noah’s days there were plenty of scoffers. But 40 days of incessant rain proved them wrong. So, it will be in the last days. Scoffers will be proved wrong; therefore, we must take seriously the coming renewal of all things. It should be on our radar screen of daily living.
Also, the renewal of all things
· Is Marked by Judgment:
In vs. 7 Peter refers to the time of the renewal of all things as “the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” In vs. 10 Peter uses an Old Testament reference found commonly among the prophets. Peter speaks of the “day of the Lord.” It will come like a thief—unexpectedly. And again, in vs. 12, Peter refers to the renewal of all things as the “day of God.”
These three designations—the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men; the day of the Lord; and the day of God—underscore that the renewal of all things is marked by divine condemnation upon ungodly people. As God poured out judgment upon humanity and the earth in the days of Noah, so God will do again on the day of the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, will come again as Judge over all.
Peter tells us three specific things about the day of Judgment: First of all, it is cosmic (universal) in scope. Peter says that the heavens and the earth are involved. All of creation—that what is visible, but also that what is invisible—will be subject to divine judgment and eligible for complete renewal.
Secondly, the day of Judgment is pyric in nature. Pyric means “pertaining to burning.” Christ the Judge will make use—not of water--but of heat, fire, or sulfur, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter paints a pyric picture of the day when the renewal of all things shall occur.
Thirdly, the day of Judgment is a day of cleansing. Listen to vs. 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.” Some English translations may lead people to think that the destruction by fire means “annihilation” of things, an “obliteration,” a complete wiping out, burning up, a vaporizing into nothingness of things. But that’s not the effect of the fire of judgment. The fire of Judgment has a cleansing, purifying effect, to the extend that everything “will be laid bare.” All that is corrupt, vile, sin-spoiled, disordered, and connected to sin, misery, and death—will be burned up, obliterated. The creation itself, however, will be renewed as part of going through these fires of judgment.
Clearly, divine judgment has cleansing effects, a pyric nature, and is cosmic in scope. All of these factors are part of the renewal of all things. To summarize, then, the renewal of all things (1) takes place in the last days; (2) must be taken seriously; and (3) is marked by divine judgment.
APPLICATION
So, what do we do with these Biblical insights about the renewal of all things? What role do they play on our radar screen of daily Christian living?
The answer is found in the text and can be summarized as follows: the renewal of all things calls for godly living and daily prayers. Listen to the text: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” Note, first of all, that the day of judgment (which leads to the renewal of all things) is not a day to be feared by Christians. “What kind of people ought you to be?” asks Peter: ‘paranoid?’ ‘fearful?’ ‘frightened?’ No, Christians do not have to fear the day of the Lord. Rather, we place it on our radar screen of daily, godly living.
The Bible’s teaching on the renewal of all things is to shape us spiritually. It must form us to live in a certain way—in a way that shows we put our trust in God. Godly living is God-centered living; godly living takes hold of God’s Word, God’s Spirit, God’s Son. And godly living takes a posture or stance in this world that says: “This is our Father’s world. We belong to Him! Our lives shall reflect allegiance to Him!
The renewal of all things calls for godly living and daily prayers. You ask, Pastor, where from the text do you get that notion of prayers? Well, listen: “…what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”
Looking forward to the renewal of all things is about desire, a longing for something that is still far off, distant. That longing within our souls is a longing that translates into prayer.
When children hear that their grandparents from far away plan to come for a visit, children look forward to their visit. What do they do? They pray for that day to come quickly. Their longing for grandma and grandpa to come translates into prayer. Likewise, as parents, Rosanne and I long for our son to come home from Iraq. That longing translates into prayer.
When sickness attacks our bodies, when terrorists blow up our buildings, when criminals corrupt our youth, when greed oppresses the poor, when the mighty ignore the weak, we long for renewal, we long for shalom, we long for God to end the misery and to renew all things. Thus we pray for and work toward the coming of God’s rule in our lives. Thus we put the renewal of all things on our radar screen of daily, godly, prayer filled living.
Why? Because, deep down in our hearts, in the depths of our soul there is a longing to come home, to be at home, to experience shalom, Sabbath, salvation rest. Deep down the crevices of our souls there is the longing to inherit the renewed heavens and earth. Why? Because, says Scripture, the new heavens and new earth is the home of righteousness. And “in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to” that new home.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.