Home  Sermons February 7, 2010
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Introduction
The relationship between time and eternity is one that stretches my ability to think or imagine beyond my actual, everyday life experience. Just think: four thousand years ago, God promised that Abraham would become a great nation with descendants as numerous as the stars.
The Lord fulfilled that promise a thousand years later when David was King of Israel. It had indeed become a great nation, a major military and political power in the known world at the time. How much time between promise and fulfillment? A thousand years.
Every book of the Old Testament has descriptions and foreshadowing of God’s Messiah/Savior who would redeem Israel and offer eternal life and hope to all people. But again it was hundreds of years before the time was right when Jesus Christ, the Messiah/Savior lived and died and rose again in real human history. Jesus arrived on the scene a thousand years after David and 2,000 years after Abraham. How can we grasp such vast time and space? Psalm 90 expresses it this way: “For a thousand years in your sight, O Lord, are like a day that has just gone by” (Ps. 90:4).
In our reading this morning, St. Peter emphasizes how “the end of all things is near.” Yet, here we are, 2,000 years later believing and trusting in God’s promises for “the Day of the Lord.” I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to wrap my mind around even 100 years of an individual life or world-wide history; let alone a thousand years or the larger concept of eternity.
I. Eternity’s Great Banquet
Yet, it is a good thing to search out the meaning of these words: eternal, eternity, eternal life, eternal glory. This is our most significant hope in Christ. It should also be a person’s greatest dread. The Bible teaches that when this physical, earthly life is over, when we step from time into eternity, there is judgment: either salvation to eternal life or condemnation to eternal death. So, it’s a serious matter when Peter writes, “The end of all things is near.”
Although Jesus had much to say about how to live life now, his focus, his purpose, his mission was aimed at the eternal effect of his life, death and resurrection. The theological term is eschaton, eschatology, eschatological, all having to do with “last things.” In Matthew 24, Jesus said, “This gospel will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come… But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father… Therefore, keep watch… because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Many of his parables point to the Day of Judgment. The wise and foolish virgins, the parable of the talents, the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 so illustrate.
“Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet.” To the others he said, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” And the door was shut. We hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” as well as “throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” To those on his right he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” But to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire.” Folks, that’s Jesus speaking, teaching, warning. Peter reminds the church of this coming reality. “The end of all things is near.”
As we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, a significant part of its meaning is the great banquet in heaven, a meal for those in need, a celebration for those who have received the forgiveness, grace, mercy and new life in Christ.
II. The Feast of Agape Love in Time
This is not just “pie in the sky” as Christianity has been often criticized. Peter writes, “The end of all things is near. Therefore…” And he lists for us the kinds of things we should be pursuing and preserving in the mean time. When you realize the nearness of Jesus Christ and his kingdom, you are bound to commit yourself to a certain kind of life. First, he says, “Be alert and sober of mind.” In other words, preserve your sanity. See things in proper proportion. Know what’s important and what’s not. Life is not meant to be frivolous or irresponsible. When we view life now in light of eternity, everything tends to take its proper place. There is much to live and much to do in the now; faith in the present tense.
Then Peter says, “Be alert and sober of mind so that you may pray.” Preserve your prayer life. My knowledge of astronomy is quite limited. But when I hear the magnitude described of discoveries by astronomers, I find it dizzying. The Ring Nebula is a star in the process of exploding. Through binoculars, it looks like a smoke ring. Light from the explosion first reached the earth in 1054 A.D. It continues to expand at a rate of 70 million miles a day; 70 million miles a day! Yet photographs of the Ring Nebula taken 15 years ago seem identical to ones taken just yesterday.
Huge happenings are not always visible to the naked eye – especially in the spiritual realm. Many times we pray and pray and seemingly see no change in the situation. But that’s only true from our perspective. If we could see from heaven’s standpoint, we would know all that God is doing and intending to do in our lives. We would see God working in hearts in ways we just can’t know. We would see a galaxy of details being set in place for the moment when the Lord brings his answer, his will to fulfillment.
A hundred years ago, American pastor-evangelist R.A. Torrey wrote this: “Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power: All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer.”
So Peter says, “Preserve your prayer life.” Learn to pray. Use God’s word with all of its wisdom to formulate your prayers. Pray with others. In prayer we can get a glimpse of some of the astronomical, amazing things the Lord has done, is doing, and will do.
Then “above all,” Peter writes, “love each other deeply.” Preserve your love. The word Peter uses here to describe this love for one another is the same word used to describe a runner at full stride, strenuous and sustained effort, stretching out for the finish line. Christian love is not an easy, sentimental feeling. It’s love that “covers over a multitude of sins.” God’s love for us in Christ and our love for one another offers forgiveness day in and day out, right into eternity. It often means loving the unlovable, loving in spite of insult or injury, loving even when love is not returned. This is the kind of love that every person needs because we are fallen, sinful creatures. Every one of us will make mistakes, offend, mess up, just plain sin against God and against each other again and again and again. The love of God in Christ “covers a multitude of sins.” And Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Above all, love each other deeply.
“The end of all things is near. Therefore…” preserve your sanity, preserve your prayer life, preserve your love.”
Conclusion
As we come to the Lord’s Supper this morning, we acknowledge this is a meal for those in need. That’s us. We are in need: in need of God’s eternal perspective on life; in need of faith in Christ that promotes living now with love for the Lord and love for each other. So, come to the Table with a view to the vast, eternal purposes of God as well as the right-here, right-now life of faith in Christ.
Let us pray together. |
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