The Return of Christ, in God’s perfect time.
2 Peter 3:1-18
I was interviewing new believers from a great movement that led to thousands turning to Christ in areas where prior to this, trees and rocks were worshipped, then there was this great turning to Christ. A place where they never heard about Jesus. The interviews included how they came to Christ. What they believe now about Christ and how did they study the Bible.
Then came a key interview I was looking forward to. I met and interviewed the national Christian leader who, humanly speaking, started this house church movement among this unreached people group. Now hearing testimony after testimony of people who did not previously know about the Lord, who now had turned to Christ, I could find out how the leader got the vision for such a unique calling. The leader said he was previously not interested in working in unreached areas. Now he was seeing one of the largest tribal groups in the world being turned upside down with the gospel.
I asked the leader what happened to redirect his life to reaching the unreached who had never heard of Christ. He told me that it was 2 Peter chapter 3 that influenced him. Specifically, it was 2 Peter 3:9.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3: 9)
This leader was attending a conference challenging Christians to go to the unreached people groups and to unreached places and to start a movement of multiplying disciples and multiplying house churches.
He was not interested and had heard enough in the morning. He went back to his room after lunch to sleep through the afternoon sessions. But something was disturbing him. It was this verse that he now believed told him the purpose of the Lord delaying his return. It was for the spread of the gospel. It was because this is our time now to reach the unreached. It was time for action. Instead of sleeping he went back to learn everything he could about spreading the good news to the unreached.
Peter instills an urgency and gospel movement motivation from this chapter. Peter said the Lord told him he was about to be executed. He is writing from a Roman prison to the scattered Christians. The same scattered Christians he wrote in his first letter.
It was 30 years earlier when Peter pulled Jesus aside on the Mount of Olives and asked him what he meant by saying the temple would be destroyed and no stone left on another. Jesus told the disciples, in what we call the Olivet Discourse, just before his death about staying faithful to God, warning of the false prophets and about his return. Now Peter is about to face execution himself, and Peter tells the scattered Christians the same basic themes as Jesus told him before his own death.
There on the Mount of Olives soon before his death Jesus said to them:
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
Jesus and Peter both told their disciples that we are living in times of urgency. The Gospel is to go to all the nations and then the end shall come.
Peter’s second letter (2 Peter 3:1-2)
Peter was reminding them of what Jesus and the prophets had been saying. He is giving the same message. Both of his letters are keeping to the theme of encouraging the scattered Christians in turbulent times.
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. (2 Peter 3:1-2)
The scattered Christians need to immerse themselves in the Word of God. They need to recall the prophets and they need to recall the words of the Lord Jesus. There are enemies out there ready to persecute them. But as chapter 2 of this second letter brought out there is an enemy from within. They are false prophets in the church trying to make money and they don’t care if they shipwreck the believers in the process. Peter has been giving harsh words and speaking of the coming judgment of these liars inside the church.
Scoffers will scoff. (2 Peter 3:3-6)
Peter told the Christians not to be surprised that people are scoffing about the return of the Lord. It has been so long, and they have not seen him return so they scoff.
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:3-6)
What the scoffers have forgotten is what the Lord has done in the past. He created the heavens and earth. They forgot that. God orchestrated the flood at his right time. The doubters scoffed at Noah for building the ark. But in God’s time the flood came and destroyed them all except Noah and his family. The scoffers forgot that too.
Peter has told the Christians to be aware of the false prophets. Now he is telling them not to get sidetracked by the scoffers. Stay on task. The gospel must be preached to the ends of the earth. The task is urgent.
Urgency of the task (2 Peter 3:8-9)
These scoffers now were asking, where is the return of Christ? They had forgotten about how God created the earth, and they had forgotten about the flood in the time of Noah. They had totally forgotten the power of God. Now don’t let any of you forget the timing of the Lord and how he measures time.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)
The Lord was not slow when Malachi predicted the forerunner of the Messiah would come and then there was 400 years of silence until John the Baptist came and until in the fullness of time the Messiah was born in Bethlehem.
The Lord’s return (2 Peter 3:10)
We began to get messages on the neighborhood chat. First a break-in on our street, then on the next street over and then again on our street. It sent panic to the neighborhood.
I took several measures to be prepared. I bought a new lock for the front gate. We locked the car even though it was parked behind a locked gate. We kept security lights on. My wife kept the car alarm by the bedside so we could press the remote control and sound the alarm if we heard anyone prowling outside. We lived ready for the unexpected to come.
We are to live ready for the return of the Lord. We do not know when, but we do know the Lord came the first time in the “fullness of time” and his second coming will be in God’s perfect time.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:10)
How to live (2 Peter 3:11-13)
Don’t be caught off guard. Live your life in ready preparation for the return of Christ. We are to be motivated by the return of Christ in multiple ways. We are motivated to live a holy life pleasing to God. We are motivated to obey the great commission and to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:11-13)
The return of Christ gives us a hope. We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth. We are looking forward to no more pain, no more tears, we are looking forward to spending eternity in the presence of God.
Paul’s letters (2 Peter 3:14-16)
We are to live pleasing to the Lord as we wait his return. What if this were the day of Christ’s return? Peter mentions that what he is telling us is what you will find in Paul’s letters also. The Lord’s patience in delaying his return means salvation for many who are waiting to hear. It means that the gospel will get to the ends of the earth. Paul was ready to go to Spain, (Romans 15:24) where at that time the gospel had not gone, because his drive was to see the gospel reach as many as possible.
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:14-16)
Add this to your list of those to avoid. Unstable people who distort Paul’s epistles and the rest of scriptures. Peter has warned of false teachers and scoffers and now the unstable.
Be on your Guard (2 Peter 3:17)
Avoid all these, false teachers, scoffers, people who distort the scriptures and avoid the lawless also. We are to grow in grace. We are to continue in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. (2 Peter 3:17)
The fields are white unto harvest. The Lord is delaying his return so that we will share the good news. Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Are you actively witnessing to those who need the good news?
When Peter says that the delay in the return of Christ is for those who have not heard to have time to hear he is following the theme we have in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Bible is the story of first the fall of man and then the redemption of man. Jesus came to seek and save the lost.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14)
There is a short film called The Music Box. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3F5JNdtIgg
In this film a man was miserable with a boring life with no meaning. He comes to Jesus and finds joy with salvation in Christ. His coming to Christ was represented by him finding the music box.
He would go to private places to open the music box and listen to the music, but he would never share the music box with others. He kept this wonderful experience hidden from his wife, his son, his colleagues at work. Finally, the Lord sent angels who rebuked him of his selfish behavior.
His joy was now overflowing. He understood his purpose of salvation was to share the good news. When the gospel reaches the ends of the earth to the satisfaction of the Lord He will come again. It will be in his perfect timing.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)
