If you knew the world was going to end tomorrow, what would you do? Many people believe multiple things must happen before this ending occurs. But regardless of your interpretation of the end times, THIS final end is sure, and Peter speaks as if it could come anytime. We must come to Christ—fully and deeply—and prepare ourselves. We must live in light of the end, in holiness, godliness, peace with God and others, and blameless lives (which can only happen through our dependence upon Christ). 

There is an end to this world. It’s coming. No one knows the day or hour, but it will happen as sure as we are breathing. The Scripture is very clear about this, as was Christ Himself.
The apostle Peter describes it clearly in 2 Peter 3. He tells us what we need to know to realize it is coming and how we should prepare. So, what will happen at the end of time, and what should we do in light of its coming?
1. SCOFFERS WILL DENY IT BECAUSE IT HASN’T HAPPENED YET.
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” (Vs. 3-4)
You may be in that group. But Peter gives the immediate rebuttal to this argument. He reminds them God created the world, God destroyed the world by water (in Noah’s day), and this world is now destined to be destroyed by fire (Verses 5-7). He (and only He) has the power to accomplish this.
God is sovereign over this world. It exists because of Him and will be destroyed by Him, just as He promised. And that destruction will be His judgment upon His enemy, Satan (who has temporary authority in this world), and all men who have rejected Him.
2. GOD’S TIMING IS PERFECT AND PATIENT
Those who deny this ending don’t understand God’s relation to time. He is withholding this judgment for a season in His mercy so that many can come to repentance.
With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (Vs. 8-9)
3. IT WILL COME SUDDENLY AND THE WORLD WILL BE DESTROYED WITH INTENSE HEAT
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Just as light enables genuine objects to be seen, Jesus enables genuine truths to be known. God, eternal life, forgiveness, adoption, the indwelling of the Spirit – these are not just comforting ideas for unstable souls. These are truths as solid at mountains, trees, and boulders – the very truths upon which the universe itself is built.

One of the great dangers of being an adult is feigned competence. After having lived several decades, we slip into thinking that we have the wisdom and strength needed to manage our lives. Without being fully aware of what is going on, the attitude of dependence evaporates and we are left in a hardened state of self-reliance.
One of the ways we can avoid this threat is by meditating on Jesus’ words, “I am the light of the world”. Like a lot of Jesus’ statements, these words have unfathomable depth. We need to avoid the mistake of thinking that, because we may have heard these words countless times before, the meaning of the words has somehow been exhausted. A lot of Biblical truths are like a coat of paint that needs to be reapplied to the heart regularly. Knowing about a truth and living a truth are not the same, and, as many an old Christian will attest, often it is the most simple of truths to understand which are the most difficult ones to put into practice.
To understand Jesus’ words, we need to pause and reflect on the human relationship with ordinary, natural light. Let me quickly make five observations about the way light affects our daily existence. First, light is something outside of us. If we close our eyes, we do not discover there to be an “inner light” that enables sight. Rather, to shut our eyes is to be in darkness. Second, light illuminates the world around us. Although, at times, light can result in a mirage, in most cases what we see around us is real and true. Because of light, we can see objects that – though always present – were invisible in the darkness. Third, light enables safe movement. Anyone who has tried to take a walk in the pitch dark has felt the hazard of not being able to see obstacles. It is only when we have a clear path in front of us, that we can move freely. Fourth, light overcomes darkness. Darkness is nothing in and of itself.
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Thomas had been told by the other disciples that Jesus was raised, and until the end of time every human being stands in exactly the same place as Thomas at that first meeting. We, like Thomas, have heard the eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ disciples: “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas’s absence at that first encounter was not accidental. Jesus arranged it that way, for us. We stand in Thomas’s shoes. We have heard the eye-witnesses. Thomas is us. But unlike Thomas, we do not have opportunity to see the risen Jesus with our own eyes, or to touch him with our own hands. We are “blessed,” therefore, if we do what Thomas did not do, but should have done. We are blessed if we believe the disciples’ reasonable and reliable eyewitness testimony. What’s at stake? Everything.

Easter has long been my top bit of the year. It is the time of crisp autumn weather. It is the time of the delicious Friday-Tuesday break. It is the time of hot cross buns and chocolate eggs. And it is the time when some bishop somewhere writes to the paper to explain why we don’t have to believe in the resurrection.
I lie awake wondering what they think they will accomplish by this. Do they think that we will be impressed with their “courage” and “honesty”? Do they think that the general public, relieved that being a Christian no longer means believing in Jesus’ resurrection, will flock with shouts of joy into our churches?
Does it not occur to these antishepherds that they just confirm the public’s vague hypothesis (false, as a matter of fact), that there is no real problem with staying out of the church?
Does it not occur to them that the truly honest thing, if they can no longer believe what is at the beating heart of Christian thought, would be to give up their fat salaries, oak-lined studies, and grand titles, and walk away from the Christian church? Would not the courageous thing be to cease feeding parasitically on the church, and to start their own organization concordant with their own beliefs?
As depressing as this is, however, unbelief in the physical resurrection of Jesus should never surprise us. The Gospel of John frankly describes, explains it, and challenges it. For, long before the unbelieving bishops of our day, there was Thomas, one of the Twelve.
The Original Doubting Thomas
Listen to John’s description of what happened on the Sunday after Good Friday, when Jesus was falsely condemned, scourged, mocked, stripped naked, nailed to a cross until dead, and then buried.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20:19-20)

Jesus had already appeared to Mary Magdalene, and she had already told the surviving disciples that she had seen Jesus alive. Yet they are cowering behind locked doors. Jesus does not knock and enter, but appears suddenly, his body transformed by resurrection to be able to appear and disappear at will.
Surely they turned white with fear at Jesus’ sudden appearance, partly explaining his “Peace be with you!” He displays to them the nail marks of his crucifixion, and terror dissolves into joy. The Lord is alive! Wonderfully, physically alive!
But Someone Was Missing
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” (John 20:24-25).
Thomas was a twin, for that is the meaning of Ta’oma’ in Aramaic, and didymus in Greek. An interesting detail. Now if you were Thomas, what would you have thought about this report? What would you have said in response? Perhaps something like this:

“Now I know these men. I have lived life with them for three years. They wouldn’t lie about something this important. They can’t all have hallucinated the same thing. And they saw a physical body, not a spectre. Besides, Jesus had foretold on many occasions that he would die, and then rise to life. I should rejoice with them!”

Instead, Thomas did the following:

But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (John 20:25).

On the face of it, Thomas’s conditions seem reasonable: “I just want to see some evidence for myself. I need to know for myself that this is not a ghost or an imposter. This is the standard of evidence I want: not listening to the eyewitness authority of others, but seeing and hearing and touching for myself.”
Notice that though this seems reasonable, this is not the standard that we apply in many crucial areas of our lives.
No court of law operates on this basis.
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