2 Peter 3:1-10

2 Peter 3:1-10

On Tuesday, Muslim Fulani militants attacked seven predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria killing almost fifty, injuring many more, and destroying over a hundred homes.

You may have heard the story about a preacher who was preaching to a packed church about the second coming of Jesus. He wound up to a fever pitch and quoted Jesus’ promise, “I am coming soon!” He preached some more and said even more loudly, “I am coming soon!” He preached a little longer and threw his arms up in the air and cried out, “I am coming soon!” At that point, he lost his balance and fell off the stage into the lap of a man in the first row. The preacher got up and apologized to the man, but the man replied, “Oh, that’s okay, you warned me three times that you were coming! I should have been expecting you!”

The Bible repeatedly speaks of the promise of Christ’s coming, but how seriously and expectantly are we looking for that coming?

Turn with me to 2 Peter 3. We are starting the final chapter of Peter’s second epistle. In the first half that we’ll be looking at this evening, Peter addresses Christ’s second coming and what it will be like. In the second half he’ll talk about how we should live in light of that promise as we wait. As he writes in verse 11:

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?

2 Peter 3:11a Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?

We’ll get to that later. Tonight we’ll start with verse 1. There are some truths about the second coming that Peter wants to make sure his readers understand.

The first truth is the reliability of God’s word.

2 Peter 3:1-2 1 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.

Notice the reason Peter gives for writing this second letter. Primarily it is for awakening his readers and reminding them of the truths they already knew from God’s word, truths given through God’s prophets, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and through the apostles. What they have said is true because it came from God. Therefore, it wasn’t really their words, but God’s words. Because they are God’s words and because we know that God’s words are true, we must pay attention to it and take its message seriously.

The focus of chapter was warnings about false teachers. Because there will always be those who will seek to lead believers away from the truth, we need to stay grounded in the truth of God’s word. And one important truth that Peter’s readers needed to be reminded of was that of Jesus’ return.

The second truth is the fact of the judgment.

2 Peter 3:3-7 3 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.

The Bible teaches that the final judgment and second coming of Christ was not something invented by the apostles, years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Old Testament prophets taught about them, Jesus talked about them during his ministry, and Jesus’ apostles taught them.

I think it is fascinating to know that a full one-fifth of the entire Bible deals with either the end of days and/or the second coming of Christ. For every one verse that speaks about his first coming, there are eight that speak about his second. For every one verse that speaks about his atonement, there are two verses that speak about his second coming. Twenty-one times Jesus personally referred to it, and fifty times we are told to be ready for it.

One of the great promises that Jesus said was in the upper room, and he said to his disciples:

John 14:1-4 1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.

However, despite all of this, there will be some who deny the truth of the Bible and deny the truth of the second coming. Not only does the Bible predict the coming day of the Lord, but it also predicts the appearance of scoffers who will deny it. In so doing they are denying the truth of the prophets, the teaching of Jesus, and the writings of the apostles. Their very presence is proof that the Word they deny is the true word of God.

Peter says that there will always be those who will ridicule the idea that God is going to destroy the world some day. They will laugh at the idea that Jesus is coming back again. And Peter says the reason they’ll do is simple. Instead of following God they will follow their own sinful desires.

When you think about Peter’s reasoning it really makes a lot sense. If you wanted to be free to do whatever you want to do and ignore every restriction God has set forth, how would you go about doing that? The most logical course would be to get rid of the idea of a second coming and God’s judgment. If you could succeed in convincing people that Jesus isn’t going to come back again, then you would feel free to live however you want to live.

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

1 Corinthians 15:32b If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then he’s not coming back and there’s not going to be a resurrection for those who have placed their faith in. That also means that there will be no eternal life in heaven. So, just go ahead and do whatever you want to do to enjoy life, because after all, what difference does it make? Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

These people Peter talks about are so caught up in their lusts and desires that they have no respect for spiritual truth or any desire to obey God. They live for the moment, pushing aside any thoughts of the future.

Worse though, by denying God’s judgment and Christ’s return, they were calling God a liar. Peter says they ask:

What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything’s going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing’s changed. If Jesus were coming back he would have done so by now.

Peter says they forget all the times when God has judged before. So, things haven’t always been the same. When Peter says they forget it’s not like me when I forget where I put my keys. I don’t purposefully misplace my keys, it’s an accident. But Peter says these people deliberately forget. They don’t want to remember what they know to be true. Just as God judged the world with a flood in the days of Noah, God will bring a final judgment on all of mankind.

In Noah’s day the people could have made comments similar to those made in Peter’s day. “God has never sent a flood before. Things haven’t changed since the beginning so we don’t need to worry.” But the fact that God judged then should be proof that God will judge again.

Peter doesn’t mention, though he could have, God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. He didn’t mention how God judged the ten northern tribes of Israel or the two southern tribes of Judah. Things haven’t always been the same. God has judged before and he will do so again. But even if God had never brought judgment before doesn’t mean he can’t in the future. Jesus will return and then there will be the judgment.

The angel told the apostles after Jesus ascended into heaven that one day he would return.

Acts 1:10-11 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

In the Book of Hebrews we read:

. . . Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (

Hebrews 9:28 . . . so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

The truth is that Jesus is coming back! That fact, that promise, remains at the center of the Christian message. No matter what else we say or think or do about Jesus, we must always remember that he’ll be back. Whether we die before he comes or are alive until that time, one day we will open our eyes and look up into the sky to see the Son of God coming in the clouds. He’ll be back.

The third truth is the reason for the delay.

2 Peter 3:8-9 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.

Peter quotes Psalm 90 which says:

Psalm 90:4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

The psalmist and Peter are telling us that God isn’t thinking about time the same way we do. Even we don’t always think about time the same way all of the time. If we’re having fun time passes quickly. If we’re bored, time passes slowly. But these differences are in our perception of time and have nothing to do with the actual passage of time itself. Time still passes by only one second at a time.

We especially know how quickly time passes as we age. When you’re ten years old and Christmas is six months away, those six months seem like an eternity. But, that’s because at ten years old, six months is a pretty good portion of your life. And when you probably don’t even remember much of the first five years, those six months is an even greater portion of what you do remember. But at fifty, six months isn’t that much. We understand how much faster time seems to go by the older we get. So, try to imagine what time must be like for God who is eternal. Thousands of years may pass on the earth, but their passing only seems to be a day or even a few hours in the night to Almighty God.

Some have taken this verse and tried to work out a formula to calculate the exact day of the second coming. This is not what Peter is trying to do. Peter is simply saying that God doesn’t make his plans according to our timetable. Nor does he tell time like we do by the minutes, hours, days, or even years. God tells time by the centuries.

For the Christians living in the first century, this was important to know. They were expecting Jesus at any moment. After all, Jesus had promised to return quickly. They were expecting it to happen in their lifetimes, but it hadn’t. As a result, some were getting worried. Paul addressed this concern in his letter to the Thessalonians when he wrote:

1 Thessalonians 4:13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

Some were saying that if you were not still alive when Jesus returned you would not go to heaven. Paul is correcting this misunderstanding when he wrote:

1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Paul is telling them that there’s nothing to be concerned about. Those who die in the Lord will not be left behind.

Peter is now telling his readers there’s nothing to worry about because God views time differently than we do. In our limited perspective it seems like the second coming is taking forever, but it’s not that long from God’s perspective.

Plus, the delay is only God showing mercy and patience with those who are lost. God hasn’t forgotten, now is he late in sending Jesus back; he is only allowing more people to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. As Paul told Timothy:

1 Timothy 2:3-4 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Or, as Paul told the Romans:

Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Even in the Old Testament, God said:

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?”

Those who are living in sin need to pay attention to this point. If you die in your sins, it is not because of God but because of your refusal to accept the conditions of God’s salvation. God is giving those who are lost an opportunity right now to be saved.

The story is told of William III, the king of England, who was trying to put down a rebellion in Northern Scotland. He issued a proclamation to all the rebel chiefs to appear at a certain place on or before December 31, 1691 and take an oath of allegiance to the king. Those who did not take that oath were to be treated as outlaws and would be put to death. Because not of the tribal chiefs had many followers, was useless for them to rebel. One by one, they all gave in and signed their names to the paper, except one.

Mac Ian was chief of the smallest but proudest tribe in Scotland. He planned to sign that paper, but it was his intention to be the last of the Scottish chiefs to submit. So, a day or two before the deadline, he started traveling to the designated spot. But a severe snow storm hindered him and he was a week late. As a result, he and his followers were killed as traitors.

How many people do you suppose there are who are like that with God, people who intend to confess the name of Christ and obey him, they intend to repent of their sins and be baptized into Christ, but they want to wait to the last possible moment, only to discover how foolish they were to put it off? God is making a way for them right now, but they don’t have a promise of even a day more.

And the fourth truth is the certainty of the second coming.

2 Peter 3:10 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.

Peter assures is that Jesus is coming again. In the Greek, “will come” is emphatic. We would say, “The second coming of Christ is an absolute certainty.” There is not the slightest bit of doubt concerning it.

Peter tells us that when Christ comes again, his coming will be like a thief. Think about how a thief operates. A thief doesn’t call ahead to let you know he’s coming. In fact, he chooses a time when he hopes you will least expect it. There will be no signals or warnings that a thief is coming to your house. He just suddenly appears. Peter says Jesus will come the same way: no notice, he will just suddenly appear. Talking about his second coming, Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24:

Matthew 24:36 But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Jesus gave his disciples sign after sign to watch for to warn them about the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus then went on to say that there would be no such warnings in regard to his second coming and the end of time.

There are a lot of people who seem to agree that the world is going to end and some believe it will be very soon. However, they don’t all agree on how it’s going to happen. Here are some ideas people have had.

Some believe an asteroid will destroy the Earth. Astrologists say that in 2028 a huge asteroid will come very close to hitting earth. They don’t think it will, but if it did dust from the impact and ash from the forest fires would cloud the Earth’s atmosphere for years, blocking sunlight and destroying plant life, and cause food shortages worldwide.

Others are convinced a worldwide pandemic, a deadly sickness could spread rapidly throughout the whole world and annihilate mankind. After the past year-and-a-half I think we could all believe this has the possibility of occurring.

Others believe solar storms could destroy us. Our sun is a star. Every 11 years there are storms that build up on the sun until they’re unleashed in the form of electromagnetic radiation and huge balls of plasma that shoot out from the sun. If these balls of radiation and plasma shot out in the direction of the earth, the results could be catastrophic. In 1859, a solar storm caused telegraph wires to short out in the U.S. and Europe, and in 1989, a solar storm knocked out all the power in Quebec, Canada.

Some believe global warming will spell the end. According to this theory, as critical greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere the Earth’s climate will become more volatile. Temperatures will rise, food will become scarce, air quality will grow increasingly worse and diseases will spread.

Many believe a nuclear war will be the end of us all. Nuclear warheads would not only cause huge explosions, but there would be years of radiation pollution throughout the atmosphere. This, in turn, would contaminate our food and water supplies, and create a “nuclear winter” across the globe.

But I think my favorite has to be that the Earth will be destroyed by zombies, the dead who have come back to life in a comatose state, roaming the earth killing off the living and turning them into zombies. One university offered a class titled: “Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.”

Of course, according to prediction, the world should have already come to an end several times already.

Climatic doom was predicted in 1999 when it was believed that all computers would stop when the calendar turned to 2000 because none of the computer calendars went past December 31, 1999.

Many thought the world would end in 2012, the last year of the Mayan calendar.

And there have been numerous people who have predicted the end of the world.

While those are all interesting theories, they’re all wrong. In 2 Peter 3, God tells us exactly how the world will end.

2 Peter 3:10 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.

Because of this description, during the Cold War many theologians theorized that God would destroy the world with nuclear weapons during a final conflict between Russia and the U.S. But God doesn’t our help to destroy the world. God can easily do it all by himself. And it will not happen till God is ready for it to happen. There is nothing we can do to speed it along. All we can do is believer and be ready. Peter will discuss what we do while we wait in the closing verses of this letter.