Sermon for Saturday
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4
As a small boy on the farm one spring, I had claimed one of the calves as my own. I named her Sally and was delighted to watch her grow and become a fine-looking brown heifer that would bring a good price when sold. When the time came to sell her, my father promised me that he would buy me a new bicycle with the proceeds. I waited. Sally’s absence from the herd was a constant reminder to me that a bicycle was coming. It seemed like months, although it was probably only a few weeks, until the shipment from Simpson’s arrived with a new J.C Higgins bicycle. That bicycle was far more wonderful than I could have imagined! Dad assembled it and, once I learned to ride it, it became a favourite possession and wonderful source of enjoyment. The promise of that bicycle is much like the promises that our Heavenly Father has given us.
Peter speaks of promises that are exceeding great and precious. In a world so wracked with disappointments and sorrows, how good to know that God’s promises are joyous and sure. God is delivering on many of His promises day by day, and has many more that He will continue to deliver on forever. Those promises fill us with hope as we make our way through this world toward our Father’s home.
Just as Sally’s absence was my reminder that the bicycle was coming, so too the fact that the Lord Jesus has not yet returned for His own is our daily reminder of His most joyous promise, ‘I will come again!’ We didn’t see Him when He came the first time. We can only read about an advent that was so wonderful that it brought forth choirs of angels to sing about it, a life that was so different and powerful that it captured the hearts of thousands and angered an entire system of hypocritical leaders, a death so amazing that it shook the foundations of the earth and satisfied God’s claims forever. But we can also read His promises, and appreciate how He has kept them. So the anticipation of His return is precious. As we sing with the children: ‘He gave His promise true, I will come back for you; the countdown’s getting lower every day’.
God’s promises are to us from an infinite supply and a track record of never having broken one promise yet. Great and precious for sure! –Jim MacIntosh