Second Sunday in Advent (2023)

The Goal is for all people to come to repentance and faith before Christ’s Coming on the Last Day, so that His Kingdom will be full.————————

The Waiting God

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Let us pray: These are Thy Words O Lord. Help us and sanctify us in the truth. Thy Word is truth. Amen.

If patience is a virtue, it is one virtue modern man has lost. In this “up-to-the-minute” world there are very few things for which we are willing to wait. Somewhere in our headlong rush into the future we have forgotten how to wait.

In direct contrast to this is the unanimous testimony of Scripture that the Almighty Creator of the universe is a God who waits. For a people who have lost the meaning of the word it is sometimes hard to understand.

So for the next few minutes we are going to think about (1). The Mystery of God’s Patience and (2). The Meaning of God’s Patience.

The Goal is for all people to come to repentance and faith before Christ’s Coming on the Last Day, so that His Kingdom will be full.

The Mystery of God’s Patience

God’s patience was hard for the early church to understand.

God had made certain promises about the future and, as yet, nothing had happened. Scoffers were beginning to arise saying, 2 Peter 3:4 (ESV) “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Some Christians were growing impatient, and some are actually not taking His return seriously, resulting in their falling away from the faith.

Peter writes to correct their mistaken notions about God’s “slowness” to act.

He points out that God does not see time as we do. To Almighty God, “a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8).

God’s patience does not imply His powerlessness. His is a power which intentionally withholds itself for the benefit of humanity.

God’s patience does not imply He has forgotten about His children. The parables of Jesus make it clear that God’s patience has a purpose. Jesus frequently tells stories of a farmer or master who travels to a far country leaving his goods in the hands of servants and who, as often as not, delays his return, waiting to see what His servants will do in His absence.

When we clamor for God to do something and do it now, we need to remember that His perspective on what needs to be done and when may be quite different from our own. So what does God’s patience mean?

The Goal is for all people to come to repentance and faith before Christ’s Coming on the Last Day, so that His Kingdom will be full.

The Meaning of God’s Patience

God waits because He wants all to come to repentance.

If we insist on embracing our sins, how can we receive the one whose very purpose in coming is to take those sins away? Confess them. Let them go. Receive the promise of forgiveness Jesus brings. In his baptism, John applied that forgiveness to the people who came to him. We have received that promise at our baptisms too. Christians relive this preparation every day as they confess their sins and embrace the promise of forgiveness.

This repentance is central to preparation for the Lord's coming. Without it, his coming terrifies. Then, only the destruction he has promised remains. So Peter tells us that the Lord delays his coming hundreds, even thousands, of years. He wants all to repent, and his delay means their opportunity, though it leads some to scoff at his promised return. Those who believe, however, show their repentance by living holy and godly lives as they look forward to the day of the Lord.

God waits because His coming will end all things.

This text is set against a throne of judgment. When He finally comes, He will come to judge. There will be a finality to it which will end all opportunities for repentance, when the time of Grace is over.

Martin Luther could not understand how God could be so patient with men. He said that if he were God and the world had treated him as it treated God, he would have kicked the wretched thing to pieces. I’m glad that Martin Luther was not God.

Or,

George Bernard Shaw was once asked what he would have done if he were in charge when the great flood came and his reply was, “I would have let them all drown!”

Instead of becoming impatient with God’s patience we should rejoice in it. It continues to give us and those we love the opportunity to escape His judgment.

God waits because He loves us and wants us all to repent.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

Martin Luther spoke of repentance as returning to our Baptism. In baptism, we are clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covers all our sin.

Jesus suffered 100% of God’s wrath on our behalf, in order for God to accept us as blameless. When we return to our Baptism through repentance the benefits of Christ’s work upon the cross are applied to us once again.

As we continually gather week after week to hear God’s Word and receive His Sacrament we have peace with God.

With every tick of the clock of eternity that God in His patience allows He is saying, “I love you and I want you to be saved.” He stands at the door and knocks waiting for us to answer. We have made Him wait long enough. And so we pray the prayer the Church has prayed for generations: “Come, Lord Jesus.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.