Sermon Tone Analysis

*Why Hasn't Jesus Returned?*

*/II Peter 3:1-9/*

 

Peter has moved now from that rather severe second chapter where he deals with the false prophets to consider again truths which are precious to the hearts of God's people.

He begins this third chapter by saying, /"This is now, beloved, the second letter…”  /You see the word /“beloved.”

/He's talking about saved people.

Four times in this third chapter he uses the word /"beloved."/

So he has now returned to the people of God.

Having dealt with false teachers, he is back now talking to God's people about precious truths.

He reminds us and wants us to remember why he's writing this letter.

He says to us, /"I'm writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind byway of reminder.”/

He is saying that I want you to remember some things, and I am going to arouse you, I am going to awaken you.

God's people need to be constantly aroused and awakened especially in those places where the Word of God is consistently taught.

It is possible for people who consistently hear the teachings of the Bible to develop a kind of spiritual lethargy.

They can grow so accustomed to hearing the truth that they are not stirred and moved by the truth as much as they should be.

The Bible warns us that it is possible to become so accustomed to the truth that it doesn't stir you, and there is the possibility that the truth will be taken away from you.

In Amos 8:11-12, it says, /"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord; And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."/

If we do not value that which is precious, then God says that we run the danger of it being taken away from us.

So he is saying here, /"My job is to stir you up."/

My job as your pastor is to never, ever let you go to sleep on the truths of God's Word.

I am to arouse you.

I am to awaken you, and I am to keep you stirred up.

There is probably no truth so designed to awaken and arouse God's people as the truth of the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the first truths a young Christian needs to hear is the truth that Jesus Christ is going to come again.

There is nothing that will excite you and there is nothing that will keep you on fire in your faith in the Lord as the truth that one day Jesus Christ is going to come again.

So this is the theme of the verses that we have just read.

It is the theme of the coming again of Jesus.

There are three primary words that are used to refer to the return of our Lord.

One of the words is the word */"appearing."/*/

/ Hebrew 9:28, says, /"And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."/

The second word is the word */"revelation."/*

In II Thessalonians 1 it talks about when He will be revealed from heaven with fire and with His holy angels.

But it is also referred to as a */"coming."/*

That's the word that is used here in verse 4, /"The promise of his coming."/

The word there was used to describe the coming of a king, a king who would come and make a visit.

Emphasis was placed upon his personal presence, that they would get to see him in person.

The Bible talks about the return of the Lord, and it uses the word /"coming."/

It means a personal return.

We are not so much wrapped up in an event as we are wrapped up in a person.

These families when their loved ones have gone out to sea for a period of time and have gone to war for a time, they go out to port; and when the ship comes in, they are there to greet them.

They don't go there and kiss the ship.

They kiss their loved one who has arrived on the ship.

We are not looking for just an event, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are looking for the return of a person.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is going to come again.

That brings up a question, doesn't it?

The question is, "If Jesus Christ is going to come again, then why hasn't He come?"

It's been 2000 plus years now since Jesus came the first time.

These writers of the New Testament, many of them surely believed that Jesus Christ was going to return in their lifetime.

Yet, now 2000 years have passed, and He did not come in their lifetime.

He has not come so far in our lifetime.

So the question arises, "Why has Jesus not returned?"

That's what I'm going to try to answer for you tonight.

*I.

His Coming Is Declared.*

Let's talk about the coming of the Lord as we work through these verses.

I want to talk to you first of all about His coming is declared.

It is the teaching of the Bible that Jesus is going to come again.

Peter says in verses 1 and 2 that this coming of the Lord has been declared by the holy prophets.

They predicted it.

It has also been declared by the apostles.

They proclaimed it.

The holy prophets predicted that Jesus was going to come again.

He says, /"the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets."

/

We are in the book of Isaiah on Wednesday nights.

I would encourage you to come hear these studies in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah and other prophets in the Old Testament predicted the first coming of the Lord, and they also predicted the second coming of the Lord.

In fact, they many times saw those two events as one event.

They talked about the first coming and the second coming virtually in the same sentence and in the same breath.

So the Old Testament prophets said that He is going to come again.

Let me give you a few verses.

In Jude 14 it says, /"And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints."/

Job predicted the coming of the Lord.

Job said, /"For I know that my Redeemer lives and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth."/

Zachariah, the Old Testament prophet, predicted He would come again.

He said, /"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will cleave in the midst thereof, toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, half of the mountain will remove from the north and half toward the south."/

So they predicted that Jesus was going to come again.

Then Peter says the holy apostles, he, and the other apostles predicted that Jesus was going to come again.

John the beloved apostle said in I John 2:28, /"And now, little children, abide in him, that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming."/

The Apostle Paul predicted the coming again of Jesus.

First Corinthians 1:7, says, /"So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."/

So the Old Testament prophets predicted He was going to come.

The New Testament apostles proclaimed Jesus Christ is going to come.

In fact, Jesus Himself promised that He was going to come.

Look at the fourth verse of this chapter.

It says, /"Where is the promise of his coming?"/

That is, Jesus promised He was going to come.

Jesus is a man of sacred honor.

He is going to do what He promised He would do.

He's already done that thus far.

Next Sunday morning we will celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

You may recall that when the Lord Jesus Christ was raised again from the dead, the announcement was made, /"He is not here.

He is risen as He said."/

That means that He kept His promise that He would be raised again from the dead.

He did what He said He would do about His resurrection.

He's going to do what He said He would do about His coming again.

I heard about a little boy who had been on a trip and came to the bus station.

He was sitting and waiting for his father to come and pick him up.

It became nighttime, and it was time to turn off the lights in the bus station, and the father hadn't come.

So the bus manager said to the little boy, "Son, are you sure that your father is going to come again?"

The little boy said, "Yes, sir, I know my daddy's coming for me.