Instructions For The End Of The World

This morning, we continue with our study of First Peter. As a reminder, 1 Peter is a general epistle, written in the first century to believers in several Roman provinces, in what today is the country of Turkey. Peter’s main purpose in writing the letter was to encourage them to maintain a Christ-centered and God-honoring way of life, in the midst of a culture that was at best, indifferent, and at worst, openly hostile to their faith.

As we saw last week, as these believers faced the challenges of following Christ in a pagan culture, Peter instructed them not to assimilate completely, by engaging in sinful practices, nor to withdraw, but to engage with their non-Christian neighbors in a humble and respectful way. They were to arm themselves for their battle against sin by adopting the same attitude in their own minds and hearts which was demonstrated by Christ when going to the cross: that is, to be willing to suffer, if that should be God’s will, rather than to sin by disobeying God. They were to choose suffering over sinning. We further saw that doing so was not optional, because sin wages war against our souls, and we will all will stand before the judgement seat of God. However, we are not alone in our struggle, because Christ was made like us in every way, and he himself endured temptation, so that he is able to strengthen us to endure suffering. That is 1 Peter 4:1-6, the Cliff Notes version.

This morning, Peter brings out another way in which our view of the world, and our approach to daily life, differs from that of our culture and our unbelieving neighbors. Here’s it is: We are living in light of eternity. We see this present age as being limited in duration, not just going on forever but having an end point, when human history as we know it will come to a close, the end of this story will be written, and the real story, the eternal story, will begin. I like the way that C. S. Lewis phrases it in the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia:

“All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” ? C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

This morning, we’re going to talk about what that means, and what it means for how we live now. But first, I’d like to pose a question, the same question you considered in the discussion time. If you knew that the world was going to end in thirty days, what would you do? If you knew that in one month all life on earth would come to a sudden and unavoidable end, how would you spend that time?

Hollywood has given us some possible answers to that question; the destruction of the world is a theme that has been treated in dramas, and action films, and even comedies. And in those movies, you have the gamut of human responses. Some people are indifferent or in denial; they decide to go on with their lives just as before, as if nothing was happening. Others run wild, killing, setting fires, looting, destroying property. Some fall into depression. Or they decide to engage in every kind of immorality and self-indulgence. Others are more heroic, doing what they can to maintain their humanity until the end.

But this is not just an academic question, or a plot device for movies. This world really is going to end. Christians know this. Human history will come to a conclusion. And the question for us is: so what? How should we live, as followers of Christ, in light of that sure and certain knowledge, that this world, all of it, is all going to come to a screeching halt?

Let’s start by reading today’s passage, 1 Peter 4:7-11

Peter begins this passage by telling us that “The end of all things is near”. So right off the bat, we have an interpretive issue. What did he mean? If Peter meant this in a strictly chronological sense, that Christ would return in the next few years, then of course he was wrong, because this letter was written almost two thousand years ago. We reject that interpretation, because all Scripture is inspired by God, and God doesn’t make mistakes.

I could go into all of the theological arguments for Biblical inerrancy, but that’s basically what they boil down to. All Scripture is inspired by God, and God doesn’t make mistakes.

But that’s not the only reason. We see throughout the New Testament that the idea of “nearness” does not have an exclusively chronological, or time-based, sense; it has a range of meanings. For example, in the gospels, Jesus proclaimed that “the kingdom of heaven has come near”, meaning that his hearers were in the presence of God’s power; they were witnessing the manifestation of God’s rule and dominion over his creation. When Christ sends out his disciples, he gives them these instructions: