Introduction
One of the greatest promises found in the Bible is the return of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us no man will know that day or time of His return. He will come like a thief in the night- unexpectedly. And it will be so sudden that no one will have time to prepare. If you are not prepared before His arrival, then you are going to be too late. The Bible says His arrival will come in a twinkle of an eye.
Therefore, the Apostle Peter tells us to be ready. In the first part of 2 Peter Chapter 3, he tells the beloved, Christian men and women, to have your head in the game. Live each day thinking that today could be the day that Jesus returns.
Then Peter gave us a warning. There will be people who will try to steal spiritual truth from you. They are the scoffers. They poke fun at God’s Word. They will tell you it is an old book and not much good for this day and time. They will make fun of the promises of God telling you that God’s promises are pie in the sky. They are not going to happen. And then the warning from Peter do not let these scoffers steal from you what God has promised you.
Now, Peter is going to say let me tell you what your life ought to look like when Jesus comes again. And what I want us to do this morning is self-examine our lives and see how close we are living to what God tells us is the way we should be living for His return.
Let us look at it in 2 Peter 3:14.
Scripture Reading
2 Peter 3:14 NKJV
14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.
Background Information
You must know two things before we start. Remember Peter is talking to the Christians, those who gave their heart to the Lord. We know that because Peter starts off Chapter 3 with the word “Beloved”. This chapter is a message to Christian men and women.
Secondly, before Peter tells us the behaviors that we are to exhibit as Christians as we await Christ return, he states to maintain these characteristics, we need to be diligent. In other words, this is not something that is automatic. These are things that we must work on each day. There is a sense that we must be intentional each day about these things or they will not happen.
Point #1
When Jesus returns, will He find us at peace with Him or fighting against Him?
Look what the Scripture tells us: “be diligent to be found by Him in peace.”
The opposite of peace is war and in war you fight. Can Christians be fighting against God? According to James 4:4-5, the answer is yes. Let us look at it.
James 4:4–5 NKJV
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
What does it mean to have friendship with the world? James does not mean that you cannot have friends that are not Christians. That is not what this is saying. If you do not have friends who are not Christian, how are they going to see Christ in you? How are you going to be able to share what Christ did for you?
Friendship with the world is to adopt the world’s values and standards as your values and standards. The world has its own value and standards that are contrary to God’s values and standards found in the Bible. Friendship with the world is when I as a Christian chose those worldly standards as standards to live by rather than God’s standards.
Friendship with the world can be seen in so many areas of our lives. Let me tell you a few to get your mind moving in the right direction, but this is not an exhaustive list. When we think like the world in terms of morality; morally speaking this world is messed up; and if we do not have a problem with that, we are friends with the world and enemies of God. When a Christian’s definition of modesty matches today’s dress code of reveal everything rather than the modesty that God desires, we have become friends with the world. When we have no desire to gather with one another to study or fellowship, but we are quick to gather at a party, or hang out with our friends, we tend to become just like the world. When we lose our filter to what we will go to the movie theater to see or watch on our televisions, we are becoming friends with the world. When the language that comes out of your mouth sounds like you work on the river rather than wholesome speech, you are becoming like the world.
Jesus says when I return do not let me find you looking like the world. Be diligent to keep My standard.
Point 2
When Jesus return, will He find us in fellowship with Him, or will He find us with a whole bunch of unconfessed sins that is limiting our fellowship?
Look at what the Scripture tells us be diligent to be found by Him…without spot.”
The opposite of without spot is stained. Before I became a Christian, I got to admit I was all stained up. And that picture of me all stained up agrees with the Scriptures.
Isaiah 1:18 NKJV
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
Salvation in Jesus Christ made my sin-stained soul white as snow. But let us be honest with ourselves by way of example. Today, I am wearing a white shirt. If we go out to eat after church, chances are I am going to drop something on it, and it will end up with a spot. I will need to take it to the cleanser to get it all white again. There is a way to make it all white again.
As I live in this world and fall to temptation, that soul that God made white as snow through salvation gets stained. There is a way to get that soul back to being all white again and it is called confession of sin.
Let me read it to you: 1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confession of sins removes the spots that sins create. It cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
And Peter says that you are to without spots which tells me that Peter is concerned that Christians are not confessing their sins regularly to God. And by regularly, I mean daily or hourly so that if He returned today, you will be without spot.
A survey by Lifeway Research in 2017 says that nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of Americans disagreed with the idea that even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation. And in that 74% percent, I am sure that there are many Christians. And it seems to me if Christians take that attitude toward sin, then we would unlikely be confessing our sins to God.
And so, if that is true, when Christ returns that He will find many Christians with spot because they did not cleanse themselves by confessing their sins.
I hope we see the value of confessing our sins.
Point #3
When Jesus return, will He find us blameless, or will He find us the cause of someone not knowing Christ or the cause of a fellow Christian faltering in their Christian life?
Look at what the Scripture tells us be diligent to be found by Him…blameless.
The opposite of blameless is having blame.
As I thought about it there is two ways that we might be carrying blame. The first is not sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with those whom God has put in your path and the Holy Spirit tugged at your heart to share with.
2 Corinthians 5:20 NKJV
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
And the second way we can be found having blame is causing a brother or sister in the Lord to stumble. Have you personally experienced someone in your life that caused you to falter momentarily? Do you know someone who quit going to church because they have been hurt by someone in the church? Unfortunately, those two things happen too much.
Luke 17:2 NKJV
2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Peter tells us to conduct our lives in such a way that we do not cause someone else to falter.
Big Question
How will Jesus find you when He returns?
