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2 Peter 1:11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Introduction: The Messianic Kingdom
Are you planning on going to heaven when you die? If so, for what?
Suppose a friend told you, “I’m going to Florida next week.” What would you say? “What are you going there for? Do you have work there? Vacation? What are you going there to do?” You don’t just go somewhere for no reason.
People talk a lot about going to heaven, but have you ever thought about for what? What are you going there to do?
I suppose most people probably think of it like an eternal vacation. Isn’t that why you go to a paradise?
When people try to imagine heaven, it’s not unusual for them to wonder if they will get bored eventually. That’s not surprising, because the best vacation spot you can imagine would eventually get old.
When you ask someone how his vacation was, if it went really well he might say, “It was fun.” Or “It was relaxing.” Maybe even “It was rejuvenating.” You know what answer I’ve never heard? I’ve never asked someone about their vacation and they said, “It was fulfilling.”
No matter how well a vacation goes, why do we never use the word “fulfilling” to describe it? It’s because we reserve the word “fulfilling” to describe something that adds to our lives. We like vacations because they don’t demand anything hard. And that’s fine—it’s good to get rest. But R&R doesn’t fill up your life with meaning. For that you need to have a purpose and you need to do something that fulfills that purpose and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Fulfillment comes from an activity that enriches your life. It comes when you do something that builds your life and makes it deeper and richer and fuller. Fulfillment comes from activity that is meaningful and rewarding according to your values and goals—especially big picture goals. And the bigger the picture, the greater the sense of fulfillment. If you mow the lawn and at the end it looks really great, that gives you a little feeling of fulfillment. If you rescued 100 trafficked children and sent the kidnappers to prison, that would give you a huge feeling of fulfillment.
When people wonder if they’ll get bored in heaven, it may be that they’re thinking about it like an eternal vacation which would get boring eventually. But eternal fulfillment would only get better and better and better. I say all that because of the way Peter describes heaven in verse 11.
Born to Reign
The Positive Promise: Entry into the Kingdom
The first 11 verses of 2 Peter are a mini sermon, and today we look at the final verse of that sermon, where Peter ends on an incredibly positive note. The most positive note imaginable.
2 Peter 1:11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Last time we looked at v.10, where he said we need to make our calling and election sure so we don’t fall. That’s the negative side—avoid falling away. And the negative warning is important. Preachers often say you can’t scare anyone into the kingdom, but I don’t know if that’s true given how much Jesus talked about hell and judgment and punishment and all the rest. The negative warnings are important. And Peter has plenty of negative warnings in his book.
But in this passage, he’s much more interested in giving us a positive motivation. He gives 4 words about not falling in v.10 and then 17 words about entering the kingdom in v.11. That’s where he wants our attention.
Most people are more motivated by avoiding hell than by going to heaven, probably because the torment of hell is easier to imagine than the glories of heaven. But you don’t have to read much of the New Testament to realize that God fully expects us to be strongly motivated by both—both the horror of hell and the rewards and delights of heaven. So let’s take a careful look at verse 11 and see if we can latch on to this amazing hope.
Background of the Kingdom of God
The first thing to notice is that Peter doesn’t call it heaven. He calls it the kingdom.
11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
He doesn’t mention heaven; he mentions the kingdom. And if you’ve ever studied the topic of the kingdom of God, you might wonder: Why does Peter talk to Christians about entering the kingdom of heaven as being in the future? Aren’t we already in the kingdom? In one sense, yes, we are.
Colossians 1:13 He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.
So yes, we are already in an early stage of the kingdom, but that’s not what Peter is talking about. If you wonder where he got the idea entering into the kingdom in the future, it came from Jesus. This comes straight from Jesus’ teaching about Judgement Day in Matthew 25. On that day, Jesus will divide all human beings into two groups.
Matthew 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
That’s the entry into the eternal kingdom that Peter is talking about. If you are put in that group on Jesus’ right, he will look at you and say, “Come, take your inheritance.” And a door will open up, and you will be ushered into the eternal kingdom.
Or if you back up a few verses, he describes it another way.
Matthew 25:23 … Come and share your master's happiness!
Taking your inheritance means entering into the realm of God’s perfect, eternal happiness in his glorious kingdom.
That’s one possibility on Judgment Day. And there’s only one other possibility.
Matthew 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
“Kingdom” instead of “Heaven”
That’s what Peter’s referring to when he says, “Make your calling and election firm so you never fall and you enter into the eternal kingdom.” I think we might do well to use the kingdom terminology when we talk about eternal glory instead of always calling it heaven because we tend to think of heaven as a non-physical place that’s somewhere other than earth.
Right now, that’s exactly what heaven is. But after the resurrection, that won’t be the case anymore. Heaven is the dwelling place of God; earth is the dwelling place of man. After the Second Coming, those will no longer be two different places.
Revelation 21:2 I saw the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men.
In eternity, heaven and earth will be the same place. We will live with God forever on the new earth—this earth, except without the curse. Think mountains and rivers and banana splits and sports and buildings and all the rest. We will live forever on earth with God.
And Peter calls that the kingdom. And one reason the kingdom terminology is important is because it reminds us of what we’re going there to do—to function as kings. If you say, “I’m going to heaven” and someone says, “What for?” you can say, “I’m going there to reign with Christ over his creation.” And I hope that doesn’t sound odd to you because that’s the point of all human history, and you could argue it’s the main theme of the whole Bible.
Man’s Purpose
Go all the way back to page 1 of the Bible. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden paradise, he put them there not to swing in hammocks, but to actively rule over the creation.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule.”
Crystal clear statement about the purpose of mankind and why we were created. Human beings were created for the purpose of ruling over God’s creation.
That’s the beginning of the Bible. And when you fast forward to the end, it’s all about mankind reigning with Christ.
2 Timothy 2:12 If we endure, we will also reign with him.
Revelation 5:10 You have made them to be a kingdom and they will reign on the earth.
Revelation 22:3 [In the New Jerusalem] his servants will serve him. 5 And they will reign for ever and ever."
That’s the hope of heaven. When Jesus told a parable in Luke 19 about rewards in heaven for the faithful, the big climax at the end was not, “Come, sip drinks on a white sand beach forever!” Instead, it was, “Well done, good and faithful servant. .Take charge of ten cities.” Our purpose and our destiny is reigning with Christ.
Daniel 7 describes the whole sweep of human history from Daniel’s time all the way into eternity. The great world empires come one after another—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome—then the Messiah demolishes all those kingdoms and set up his own, glorious, eternal kingdom. That kingdom has been the hope of God’s people ever since. Here’s how God describes that kingdom in Daniel 7.
Daniel 7:14 [The Son of Man] was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
And it wasn’t just about the Messiah. It was also about his people.
22 The Ancient of Days pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.
27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.
What Reigning Looks Like
We exist to rule. Now, you might hear that and think, “That doesn’t sound appealing to me. I don’t want to run ten cities. I don’t want to be an eternal politician.” Reigning over the creation is not about political office.
What is it about? Well, what task did God assign Adam and Eve right after he created them for the purpose of ruling over the creation? Tending the garden. “How is that ruling?” It’s ruling because they were taking dominion over the creation. You rule over the creation every time you take a piece of it and put it into order. Ruling isn’t about political office; it’s about subduing the creation and filling it up with goodness. A farmer does that by taking seeds and dirt and turning it into a bunch of food. A manufacturer might do it by taking a piece of metal that is devoid of meaning and purpose and turning it into something useful and good. Accountants do it by taking numbers and putting them in order. Artists are subduing and ruling over the creation when they take colors and lines that have no order or meaning or purpose and forming them into something beautiful. Photographers do that with light. Musicians do it with sounds. Writers do it with ideas. A software engineer takes meaningless, chaotic ones and zeros, and arranges them in a way to make something useful for creating culture. He’s ruling over that part of creation. A seamstress rules over fabric and thread—taking something from a useless, empty form to create something beautiful. A housewife might take some flour and raw eggs and baking powder and salt and butter and all kinds of things that you’d never eat as they are, and if you threw them into a big pile they would be disgusting, but with some skill and effort, she turns that mess into something incredible that sustains life. Someone stocking shelves takes chaos and puts it into useful order. Those are all examples of ruling over the creation. We take emptiness and chaos and meaninglessness and fill it up with meaning and beauty and goodness.
Fulfilling Work
And whenever we do that, the very action fills our lives with meaning because it’s what we were created to do. To reign with God over his creation. That’s what we were designed for, and when we do it, it feels really good.
And it doesn’t just feel good, it builds us and makes us more than we were before. That’s why we use the word “fulfilling.” Even secular people use that word because it’s so obvious that it’s happening. Subduing and ruling over the creation and setting in greater order fills us fuller than we were.
It’s great to have fun on a vacation. It’s great to get some rest. But when people get depressed, it’s usually not because they are lacking rest or lacking fun. It’s because they’re lacking meaning and fulfillment. They feel like their life is worthless, meaningless, empty—that causes depression because as humans we need to fulfill what we were created for. A vacation might help you forget about how empty your life is, but it can’t fill it with meaning. Ruling over the creation can.
So when you get to heaven and they ask you at the gate, “Business or pleasure?” you answer should be, “Both! I’m here to reign with Christ over his creation which is a business that will give me something better than mere pleasure—fulfillment.” All through eternity, you will be taking portions of God’s creation and subduing them and creating good, beautiful things with them in ways you will find more and more fulfilling because it will be what God designed you for. You will keep making the creation better and better and better forever, and that will never get old.
A Better Resurrection
What are the specifics of how that will work? Well that depends. It depends on what you do now, in this life. In the Luke 19 parable, one servant was given charge of 10 cities and another was given 5 cities based on how faithful they had been.
2 Peter 1:11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
How richly? That word richly is the same word from verse 5 describing how we pile one virtue on another. By using that same word, I think the implication is that the more you grow in the virtues in this life… , the richer and more glorious will be your entrance into the eternal kingdom. So what you do now impacts your situation in eternity.
Revelation 22:12 Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
1 Corinthians 3:15—some Christians will be rewarded handsomely and others will barely make it in as one escaping through the flames. Two very different ways to enter the kingdom.
We should take a lesson from the people in Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11:35 … Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
Not all Christians get the same resurrection. It will depend on what you have done in this life.
And what will all those rewards be good for in eternity? Would I be out on a limb if I said, “Probably for your work of ruling over the creation”? One thing I can tell you for sure, it will most definitely matter to you—a lot. If you have a lackadaisical attitude about those rewards now, I promise you you won’t then. Not when you see them.
How to Imagine Great Reward
But no matter how many times the Bible says that, still, most of us are barely motivated at all by the promise of greater reward in the eternal kingdom. And here’s why: Think for a second about what heaven will be like for you if you receive great reward. Now imagine what heaven will be like for you if you have a lot less reward. Is there any significant difference between the two things you just imagined?
If I’m honest, I have to say that for me, there’s not a lot of difference which is why I struggle so much being with motivated by promises of eternal reward. But those people in Hebrews 11 were so motivated by the prospect of a better resurrection that they willingly suffered torture for it.
You can tell how much God wants those promises of reward to motivate us by how often he offers reward as a motivation.
If You Value It, You’ll Be Motivated by the Promises
People say, “I don’t care about the reward, as long as I make it into heaven.” But they don’t say that about their tax refund or their Christmas bonus. If a distant relative who was a billionaire died and they got a call, “Hey, you’re in the will. Come to the meeting to find out how much he left you,” would they say, “I don’t really care how much it is”? The only way to not care about rewards is to believe they are of no value. If it’s anything you regard as valuable, you care about it.
Use the Earthly Analogies
“How am I supposed to be motivated by them if I can’t even conceive of what they are or what they’re like?” Well, maybe you can conceive of what they’re like. Jesus described them using earthly analogies. But we usually don’t give a lot of thought to those analogies because they are things we’re not supposed to love in this world—like money. When Jesus described heavenly rewards, he used financial terms like “inheritance,” “treasure,” and “riches.”
Why does Jesus want us to think of eternal reward like getting tons of money? Because money is something we can relate to. Could it be that the whole reason money exists in this world is to help us understand something about eternal rewards?
What are all the good reasons you would be happy if someone gave you 100 million dollars? You might be happy for some bad reasons, but what are some good reasons you’d be happy? Those are the kinds of things you can expect more or less of in heaven depending on your reward. Maybe you’ll be excited about reward in heaven because you’ll be able to do more of what you really want to do.
Maybe we don’t get excited about rewards because we assume we’ll just automatically have as much of anything we want in heaven. But the Bible never says that. It sounds more like you’ll have access to a whole lot more resources if you have great reward. And access to those resources will matter a lot to you in eternity. I don’t know any other way to interpret Jesus talking about riches in heaven.
Or look at it from another angle. What if you thought, “Okay, the next time I have an impulse of the flesh to sin, if I say no to it, God will put $100,000 in my checking account.” So a temptation comes up, you say no to it and seek God instead, then imagine yourself pulling up your account online and there’s the 100,000. Pretend you have the money. How would you use it? How would it make you feel? Then remind yourself, “I do have it. Not in this world’s currency, but it is a currency that will bring me far more pleasure than what I just imagined.”
What if we used thoughts about money to train our hearts to value eternal reward? What kinds of feelings would you have if next week your boss calls you in and says your salary is being doubled? Daydream about how you would feel and imagine having more of those same feelings in the eternal kingdom.
And you could do the same thing with the other analogies, like crowns. Crowns were what they gave athletes who won in the Olympics. When you see an Olympian standing on the podium with tears of joy, think hard about what that person is feeling and whether you want lots of that or less of that feeling in eternity.
Other analogies involve achievement, honor, responsibility, approval. What if all those things exist in this life to train us to desire more heavenly reward?
Conclusion
If none of that helps you, then just trust in the kindness and generosity and creativity of the God who is offering a rich entry into the eternal kingdom. There are some people who are really good at throwing a party. There are some who are really good at giving gifts—getting you something you really enjoy. There are some people who are really good at making you feel welcome. Jesus is really good at setting up eternal kingdoms and welcoming his people into his kingdom. Trust him, so that all the energy you need to do all the things he calls you to in the first 10 verses is provided by the motivation of v.11.
2 Peter 1:11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
