Hope Has A Name | 2 Peter 3:2-14 | Libby Talbot

Shall we pray? Loving God, we just thank you

that we get to gather together to worship you

and to just sit under your word and to hear what

you have to say to us today. Speak to us and

set our hearts aflame again with love for you.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to

be thinking a little bit about hope you'll see

on the screen. Our city needs hope. I wonder

what you are personally hoping for today. Perhaps

a breakthrough, a change in a medical issue.

Maybe you're praying for peace. Maybe you're

hoping for sleep, to feel less anxious, to get

that essay done, to have some certainty about

the future. Hope and uncertainty nearly always

go hand in hand, don't they? And yet the hope

that we have as Christians is different. Because

it's based on the truth of scripture, the promises

of God, the certainty of following God who was

before the earth existed, as we read in 2 Peter,

and the guarantee of the resurrection, that the

resurrection of Jesus springs. And so our hope

as followers of Jesus is twofold. It's eschatological.

It's about the now and the not yet. We have a

hope. of the glorious future, that promise of

heaven, eternal life. At some point, God's redemptive

plan for you and me and the whole of creation

will come to completion. Jesus will return like

a thief in the night. The heavens will disappear

with a roar, we read in verse 10. The elements

will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything

in it will be laid bare. And all that's wrong

and evil in the world will be exposed. There'll

be a new heaven and a new earth. Verse 13, and

when that happens, scripture tells us that all

who love the Lord Jesus will be renewed and restored

and invited to this eternal banquet with the

King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Isn't that

brilliant news? What a great expectation and

promise we have. But as Christians, our hope

is also a present reality. The hope we have as

Christians is now. Yes, we get to live with the

hope of eternity with God when we die. But as

whole life disciples of Jesus, we also get to

live in the now. We get to live out the reality

and the promises of God now. We have a hope now

of the now and the not yet. And that's what we're

going to explore further as we dig a little deeper

into this passage. So firstly, we have hope for

the future, the not yet. I wonder whether sometimes

it's Christmas, Christmas, it's on my mind already,

Vicarland. I wonder whether as Christians, we

sometimes focus a little bit too much on this.

Controversial, maybe. When our oldest son, Zach,

was a baby, I, like many of you who might have

children, went through days and months where

I just couldn't wait for him to push on to the

next stage, whether it was sleeping through the

night or... being potty trained or feeding himself

or learning to read or not screaming when we

dropped him off at school. And then suddenly

in the space of about two minutes, he's 21 and

he has a beard and he's a beast of a man. And

I go, wow, where did that time go? I'm guilty,

like maybe some of you are, of rushing through

things, powering on to the next stage, always

looking forward to the what next. And sometimes,

therefore, I miss out on the present. And I enjoy

what's happening now. In his second letter to

the Christians in Asia Minor, Peter speaks into

this. Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he'd said,

hadn't he, that he would return to judge the

living and the dead. And so people were looking

forward, waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.

Many expected Jesus to return imminently and

unexpectedly. And yet there were at least 40

years from that moment and still no Jesus. And

this had become great fodder for the sceptics.

Look at verses three and four. Where is this

coming that he promised, they're asking? Jesus

said he was going to return and he hasn't turned

up yet. And how does Peter respond to this? By

reminding them not to second guess God, to not

rush through the present, verse 8. Do not forget

this one thing, dear friends, with the Lord,

a day is like a thousand years and a thousand

years is like a day. Who knows the timing of

the Lord, Peter is saying. We don't need to stress

over when Jesus will return, but let us keep

hold of that big picture that God does keep his

promises. We can put our hope in him and he will

do what he will do in his timing. And isn't that

something that many of us need to be reminded

of time and again as we journey through life

as Jesus' disciples? As we sit hoping. waiting

for God to answer the prayer, for our friend

or our family member to be healed or to come

to faith. As we pound in frustration on God's

door saying, come on, why are you not changing

this situation I'm in? Where is the breakthrough?

We need to remember this truth that God isn't

slowing keeping his promises, but he will do

what he will do in his timing and for his bigger

purposes. And what are these bigger purposes?

Look at verse 9. Instead, Peter writes, he is

patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish

but everyone to come to repentance. God is patient.

Why? Because he loves us. He loves his creation.

He doesn't want anybody to perish. He wants everyone

to have the chance to respond to Jesus's invitation,

follow me. And that's where we get to join in,

isn't it? Matthew 28 is explicitly clear that

if we are disciples of Jesus, our job is to go.

To so overflow with the love of Jesus to those

around us that everyone gets the chance to hear

and to respond. Some of us will do that by preaching

or being evangelists or being youth workers.

But we don't have to stand and preach everywhere

we are. We just have to be God's people to take

opportunities when they appear to share the love

of God, sometimes in very practical ways or by

sharing our story. of how jesus has changed our

lives back to the passage we're at verse 10 and

this is where it gets a little apocalyptic Now,

I was a teenager in the 80s and 90s. And for

those who missed out on this spectacular era,

which is most of you, you will have sadly missed

out on a whole genre of Christian films about

the end times. You can probably find them on

YouTube or somewhere. If you imagine, think fire.

coming down to burn up the earth, teenagers hanging

around together and suddenly the Christians are

taken and everybody else is left behind. Think

Marvel Endgame, if that's your bag. I think these

films were basically designed to petrify us as

teenagers into following Jesus. Funnily enough,

I'm not quite sure they achieve their aim. But

here in verse 10, Peter brings clarity. The day

of the Lord will happen when we least expect

it. Like a thief, he uses Jesus's words, who

comes unannounced. But rather than a complete

annihilation of the earth, Peter chooses his

words very carefully. Everything will be found

out, or as the NIV translates it, will be laid

bare before God. And this... Phrase translated

as laid bare implies that God will peel back

the curtain and will reveal everything for what

it really is. Everything will be laid bare. I

really love N .T. Wright or Tom Wright. I'm a

bit of a creepy. I once sat at a seminar with

him and. I was just hanging on his every word.

So I do know his books pretty well. And in his

book on heaven, Surprised by Hope, Tom Wright

says this. The point of redemption is that it

doesn't mean scrapping what's there and starting

again from a clean slate, but rather liberating

what has been enslaved. When everything is laid

bare, evil and injustice will be exposed and

removed. And as we see in verse 13, a new heaven

and a new earth will emerge. It will be filled

with justice where those who are right with God

will dwell. So hope is not an ethereal concept.

Hope has a name and his name is Jesus. Those

of us who have salvation in Jesus do not need

to fear, do we? We can look forward, we can hope

for this day of the Lord when goodness and beauty

and redemption and joy will be made complete,

when righteousness will flow like a never -ending

stream. But what does that mean for us now? I

wonder whether one of the most prolific distortions

of Christianity over the ages is that it's all

about being saved so that we can go to heaven

when we die. I'm sure I'm not the only person

here who has thought at some point in their life,

well, I've given my life to Jesus, I've repented,

I've been baptised, so now I get to live how

I want because I know Jesus will forgive me and

my place in heaven is guaranteed. In his first

letter, Peter encourages us that God has given

us, and it says this in 1 Peter 1, 3 to 4, God

has given us a new birth into a living hope through

the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

and into an inheritance that can never perish,

spoil or fade. We have living hope now and for

eternity, the now and the not yet. It's also

certainly and wonderfully true, says John Ortberg

in his book Eternity Now. He says it's also certainly

and wonderfully true that the message of Jesus

and his early followers is not just, even though

it is, about forgiveness of sins that allows

us to escape that bad place and go to a good

place. It's a newness of life. To be sure, this

new life includes forgiveness, but it includes

so much more. Let's not miss out on the so much

more of the gospel. Jesus is good news for you

and for me and for this world we live in. The

work of the cross is good news now. But do you

know that Jesus spent most of his time on earth

not teaching people how to get a pass to heaven

for the future, but how to be disciples now,

to build the kingdom of God and bring in the

kingdom of heaven now. He demonstrated and taught

what it looks like to love God and to love the

other, how to actually live in the fullness of

life that the cross has bought for us now. Yes,

we have a future safe with God for eternity.

But as Christians, we get to live in hope and

get to be hope now. And doesn't this world need

it? And so there's hope for the present. Eternity,

if you like, is now. So this life is not a heavenly

waiting room, as we know, which we have to patiently

endure until we're called to step into what we've

been waiting for, heaven. In the words of Dallas

Willard, eternity is now in session. Are we living

like it is? We get to live in. And we get to

live out eternity, the hope and joy and peace

of the gospel of Jesus now. And how do we do

that? Verse 11 tells us, by living holy and godly

lives. And that is the call on our lives as disciples

of Jesus, to be holy and godly. That means living

lives that are orientated towards God, with Jesus

at the centre. Lives where God is our hope. God

is our rock and our fortress and salvation. Lives

that point every day in every part of who we

are to Jesus. Lives where the Holy Spirit is

daily renewing and restoring us because we cannot

do holy and godly living on our own. Lives which

bring in God's kingly rule now of love and joy

and peace and justice and hope to the communities

God sends us to be in. Lives which are distinctly

different and counter -cultural. Lives where

we take risks for God. So eternity is now. The

call on our lives is to live for Jesus now and

proclaim forgiveness, freedom and fullness of

life now. And all of us, whatever our age, whatever

our gender, whether we're struggling in some

way, none of us are too inexperienced or too

broken. to live out this hope in Jesus in good

times and in the waiting times and in the suffering

times. A few months ago, I was away at a conference

with a church leader, a mate of mine, Tim, and

he came to that conference completely exhausted.

He'd come from the bedside of his severely disabled

son who had been in hospital for weeks and weeks.

And during that particular period of time, it

was about four months, from one day to the other,

they hadn't known if their son was going to live

or die. And as we stood next to each other during

the time of worship, I was bowled over by the

hope and the faith that Tim had in Jesus. as

in the midst of this waiting, the hopelessness,

the suffering. He was worshipping Jesus. He had

his hand raised and he had tears streaming down

his face as he sang with boldness and confidence

these words, Alleluia, praise the one who set

me free. Hallelujah, death has lost its grip

on me. You've broken every chain. There's salvation

in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. And

so in this short passage of scripture, Peter

has given us a snapshot, hasn't he, of the big

picture. That our hope is in a future spent with

God in eternity. but also a reminder that eternity

is now. And because of Jesus, together as the

people of God, we get to join in with what God's

doing in this world. We get to join in and bringing

in his kingly rule through our lives, through

our work, through his church today. Hope has

a name and his name is Jesus. And that is the

name that we take out into this world. Good news

for the present. Good news for the future. Let's

pray. God, we give you all the glory. We give

you all the praise and we give you all the honour

that you are the one who has set us free. that

you are the one who has redeemed the whole of

your creation through the cross and resurrection

of Jesus. And God, we are broken and vulnerable

people. And we need your Holy Spirit to fill

us every day, to be able to live a life of holiness,

to fulfill the calling that you have put on each

of our lives to be your disciples. to bring eternity

into the present. Give us the honour and privilege

of seeing your will done, your kingdom come on

earth as in heaven. In Jesus' name, amen.