4 December 2011
2 Peter 3:8-15
We cannot, in this life, determine when our Lord will come and rapture the Church. 2 Peter 3:10 reminds us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief. We discovered last week that even Jesus was not certain when the Father would send him back.
But we can be certain that these words were probably some of the last from Peter before he was crucified upside down in Rome. By the time that Jerusalem had been demolished by the Romans in 70 AD, a lot of the apostles and eyewitnesses to the risen Christ were dying or being martyred. They began to realise that the Lord would not come back in their lifetimes. Some got impatient.
There was a leader of the Early Church, a disciple of John and companion of Polycarp, whose name was Papias. By 130 AD he was Bishop of Hieropolis, and he was looking everywhere for old people who had been young eyewitnesses of the apostles. He wanted people who could remember what the apostles said and did. He writes: “For I supposed that things out of books did not profit me so much as the utterance of a voice which liveth and abideth”. So there was a feeling by impatient souls that the Lord needed to hurry up and get back here before there were no eyewitnesses left. But these words of 2 Peter 3:8 were written to answer the impatient souls. Its as though the Lord says, “you don’t know what you are talking about when you talk about the length of time”. You see, its not such a long time to him. To him, one day is as 1000 years, and 1000 years as one day. Our estimate of time is not the divine standard.
Just think for a moment that time (as we know it) is only measured by the spinning of the earth in relation to the sun. God does not need a clock. He is outside of time. He is eternal, and all time is equally present to him. If something important is going to happen in your life today, then you are very much aware of it. But if an event won’t happen for 1000 years, we don’t give it a second thought, as we will be long gone. But not so with God. It is no more than would be a day to him. With him there is no past, no present and no future. His chosen name is the “I AM”, not the “I was” nor the “I will be”.
Can you picture someone on a river boat cruising downstream. The boat is moving all the time closer to the ocean. On the boat, only that part of the river in view is present to the bloke on the boat. But further over in the distance is the mountain from which the river flows. And climbing up the ocean side is a young woman who turns around to see the river. It begins as a narrow trickle of silver, then she follows it with her keen eyes until its banks widen and it is wide and deep, and she tracks it further until it finally empties out into the ocean. The whole river is equally present to her. She sees the lot, from beginning to end. But the bloke on the boat has shifted from where he was. The boat has moved downstream. He is now closer to the river mouth. He cannot see the whole river, he is locked in to viewing just the bit where he is. God is like the mountain climber, high above all. She sees all of time at the same time, while we are like the bloke in the boat who only sees the bit we are passing at this moment in time. So it is with the events of time.
So to us, the sin of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the sending of his Son to die on the Cross for our sins seem to be huge events tragically separated by many 1000’s of years. But from God’s throne in heaven, he sees the Fall as taking place in the morning and Redemption through his Son before afternoon tea. You see to God, 1000 years are as a day, and a day is as 1000 years.
Can you remember the things you did 30, 40, 50 years ago; attitudes and actions that were offensive to God? I can! “Ahh, that’s a long time ago”, you say. But, unless those sins are forgiven, they are still blocking your relationship with God, right now. So get right with him before you go home today.
Let’s have a look at the other bit: God’s estimate of a day. He can make a day to be so useful for him, that he may achieve many things. He can achieve in a day what it might take 1000 years to do. Since I have been here in 7 months we have not seen many new people come and stay. You say “at this rate, it will take 1000 years to grow our church”. “Ahh! at this rate”. But how do we know what God’s rate is? If God wants to, he could fill this Church overnight.
To a snail, 30 metres is an awful long way. To Harry relying on his walking stick, its a considerable distance. To someone younger its not a problem. To a moving car, its just a moment in time. To a ray of light, its absolutely nothing at all. I heard the other day that scientists had discovered something that travels faster than the speed of light. Light travels 100 million times faster than a snail. Let’s say this new scientific discovery (that is quicker than light) goes 100 million times faster than light, where would distance be? It has vanished completely. So is work and ministry and evangelism to God. Rather than a preacher preaching 3000 sermons to convert one soul, the day may come again when God will make one sermon convert 3000 souls (as Peter did on the day of Pentecost). When all that congregation in an instant be anointed to go forward and share the good news, and each bring 3000 to Christ in one day. God can make the light of the Gospel flash from one end of the earth to the other in no time at all. Oh dear God! Send revival we pray!
Consider this and revolutionise your prayer life. The ratio of 1 day compared with 1000 years is 1:365,000. Consider that a human lifetime is about 85 years. Divide 85 years by 365,000 and you end up with 10 minutes. So 10 minutes is to 85 years, what 1 day is to 1000 years. Its the same ratio. What does that mean for you and me? Spend 10 minutes in God’s presence, and its better than 85 years or a lifetime of sweat, and struggle, and work without God.
My friend, let’s work smarter than others; not work longer and harder, or worse still, for a lifetime for little or no result. Spending time in God’s presence makes a world of difference.
Spend 10 minutes in God’s presence and he will stretch your time, so you can achieve more for him in the day.
Spend 10 minutes in God’s presence and you will connect with the Creator of the world.
Spend 10 minutes in God’s presence and you will be best friends with your Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
My final point is this. Things that are fresh in our experience will impact our lives significantly. Get married, move house, lose a loved one, and you are emotionally charged for a month, two months, six months, a year.
So, I wonder what difference it would make to us if we could see all the events of the Bible unfold in less than a fortnight. Creation, Fall, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Exodus, the 40 years in the wilderness, the land flowing with milk & honey, the 12 tribes, King David, the man after God’s own heart, the wayward kings, the exile, rebuilding the temple, the prophets; then God send his Son, the Messiah is born in Bethlehem, he grows up, he lives a life that is fully obedient to the Father, he is baptised by John, he calls the 12, he is betrayed, he is crucified, he dies, he is buried, he rises from the grave, he ascends to heaven, he sends his Holy Spirit. What if you were an eyewitness of what took place on Friday, your friend and Saviour, Jesus was executed; he hung on that cross just two days ago, the greatest demonstration of God’s love imaginable, and breaking news this morning, before dawn, he has come back to life again. Papias in 130 AD had his finger on the pulse. He wanted to recover the zeal of the eyewitness for the Church in his time, to share their testimony. And we want to see it here, starting in the Glenunga Church today.
