#11 - Sermon
Jesus is Coming Again! – Part 2
2nd Peter1:16
September 2, 2007
Sun Oak Baptist Church
Introduction
A. Please turn with me to Acts 2:41. If you don’t have a Bible with you Acts 2:41 is on page 734 of the pew Bible. I also encourage you to take out the sermon notes inside the bulletin.
B. Since I ran out of time last Sunday there are a couple of loose ends I need to quickly tie up.
1. First of all, I want to thank all of you that were so gracious last week when, right before your very eyes, Noah became Moses; and then Moses became Noah; and then, somehow, he turned into Moses again. Let me just assure you: I am a trained professional; I graduated an accredited Bible College; about half of my master’s degree is done; I am ordained and despite the confusion last Sunday I know perfectly well that it was Moses that built the Ark….
And also that Charlton Heston brought down the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai.
Anyway…just for the record, it’s not uncommon for preachers to mistakenly transpose Biblical names in the heat of preaching a sermon, but I pray it’s never that bad ever again.
2. Secondly, as you left last week we passed out a handout that dealt with the word “doctrine.”
I totally forgot to explain why I took the time to prepare that handout. I don’ have the time each Sunday to preach everything I would like to preach. For example, I could have spent all of last Sunday dealing with the critical importance of doctrine – of knowing and understanding what the Bible teaches. As you can see in your outlines the word “doctrine” is the glue that I’m using to hold this series together.
Biblical doctrine is not emphasized in the many churches today – even though we could compare it to the life-blood of our faith. It’s so important it was a primary emphasis in the early church. Read Acts 2:41-42.
Mark this down: “doctrine” is important – try driving a car without any gas. Doctrine was a priority in the early church; it’s found over 30 times just in the NT; and it’s a word that every Christian needs to know. All it means is “teaching;” knowing and understanding what the Bible teaches: what it teaches about God; about salvation; about heaven; hell; homosexuality; marriage; Jesus Christ; and so on.
So last week I didn’t have time to explain the handout and I encourage you, if you haven’t done so already read through that handout carefully. Read the verses I gave you. And if you have lost it, or didn’t get one, there will be additional copies on the table in the foyer as you leave today.
C. Now let’s turn over to 2nd Peter (pg 817 in pew Bible). As I mentioned last week, understanding the Second Coming of Christ is important to understanding and applying Peter’s second letter because he devotes one-third of this letter to the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ.
In my 25 plus years as a Christian I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon specifically on the doctrine of the Second Coming. I’ve heard sermons about prophecy but never specifically about the Second Coming of Christ, and yet the Second Coming is explicitly mentioned in Scripture 1,845 times – that’s right – the Bible specifically and explicitly refers to the Second Coming of Christ 1,845 times.
There are 381 references to the Second Coming of Christ in twenty-three (23) of the twenty-seven (27) NT books. Jesus Christ Himself refers to His Second Coming twenty-one (21) times and the Bible’s final prophecy in Revelation chapter 22 deals with the Second Coming of Christ. It’s a doctrine every Christian should be familiar with.
Pray.
D. How important is having a working knowledge of what the Bible teaches about the Second Coming of Christ?
As I shared last week ABC News did a report on 1000’s of people that are following and literally worshipping a martini drinking, cigar smoking, ex-convict that claims to be Jesus Christ in His Second Coming. If they only knew what the Bible teaches about Christ’s Second Coming they would know for certain that this man couldn’t possibly be Jesus Christ.
Jesus warns that false Christ’s will come – and they have. The Bible warns us not to be surprised that a martini drinking ex-convict from Puerto Rico would claim to be Jesus Christ and even more tragically, that professing Christians will literally believe his claim and worship him as God. And the reason people can be deceived by such a man is that they don’t know their Bibles – they don’t know what the Bible teaches about the Second Coming.
E. Jesus is coming again and the doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming is so important that Peter devotes over one-third of this letter to it. One-third of a dying man’s last words are devoted to the Second Coming of Christ.
Read 1:16.
We established last week that the word “coming” here refers to Christ’s return and the word “power” describes the manner in which He will return. Christ’s First Coming was as a humble servant-king, but His Second Coming will be as a conquering and ruling King – He’s coming the second time in power.
F. Go with me over to 3:4: read. One of the central issues that Peter addresses in this letter is the activity of scoffers and false teachers that were asking: “Where is the promise of His Second coming?” And one of Peter’s main goals in this letter is to answer that question.
To help us get our arms around what the Bible teaches about the Second Coming I want to make three (3) key statements – establish three (3) truths that I believe drive home the certainty that Jesus Christ is coming again and that will solidify in our minds the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ.
I. First of all, last week, we looked at the doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming questioned.
In Peter’s day scoffers and false teachers questioned this doctrine – and they’re doing it in our day as well. There is nothing new under the sun. God’s Word always has been and always will be attacked. From Gen. 3:1 right up until this very day, the truth and veracity of God’s Word has always been under attack. This is one of the paramount reasons why one of the most important components of living the Christian life is to know God’s Word. If we don’t know the truth then how will we be able to recognize a lie?
Satan and false teachers primarily use two (2) tactics to attack the doctrine of the Second Coming.
A. Tactic #1: they question God’s Word.
1. The primary way Satan undermines and attacks the truth of God’s Word is to question it. It’s the tactic he used in the Garden against Eve and it’s exactly what false teachers today do – they question God’s Word. Read 2nd Peter 3:3-4.
2. Remember we saw last week that the media is constantly doing the same thing and so are scholars: they are constantly calling into question the authority, integrity, reliability, truthfulness, and veracity of God’s Word.
B. Tactic #2: they twist God’s Word.
As we saw last week in Gen. 3:1-4 not only did Satan question God’s Word he also twisted it – when he quoted God he subtlety changed what God said. False teachers today do the same thing. Read 2nd Peter 2:1. Unless we know our Bible we will fall for the subtle or secret tactic of twisting the truth of God’s Word.
C. When it comes to the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ we can be certain that it will be questioned. Adolph Hitler said: “If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough, and often enough, the people will believe it.”
II. Secondly, the doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming misunderstood.
The second truth we need to understand when it comes to the doctrine of the Second Coming is it is very often misunderstood. A few thousand professing Christians believe and worship a martini drinking ex-convict that says he’s Jesus Christ. For them, the question of the Second Coming has been answered – but they are tragically deceived – they misunderstand or don’t know what the Bible teaches about Christ’s Second Coming and there are at least two (2) reasons why this can happen. I’m just going to take the time to unpack two (2) reasons why the doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming can and will be misunderstood.
A. First of all, because Biblical doctrine today, in general, is neglected. Biblical doctrine today, in general, is neglected.
1. Flip over to 1st Tim. 6:13 (pg. 800 in the pew Bible). As we saw in Acts 2:42 one of the main focus’ of the time that the first Christians spent together was doctrine. The apostles’ knew and taught Christians have to know God; they have to know what they believe – and the only way to do this is to know His Word. Introduce and read 1st Tim. 6:13-16.
2. Listen: if we don’t know what the Bible teaches, if we don’t know doctrine, then we don’t really know what we believe, and this condition makes us susceptible to questions about our faith.
How important is doctrine in the Christian life? Let me put it this way: would you rather have your gall bladder removed by a medical school student that is just beginning to learn the doctrine of surgery and has never taken out a gall bladder or would you rather be operated on by someone that has graduated medical school and has done 100’s of gall bladder surgeries?
3. We live in a day when doctrine has become so neglected that countless people attending church don’t know their Bibles – even such basic facts as the name of the disciple that betrayed Christ. There is even a reaction today against doctrine: doctrine is “offensive.” We can’t tell people they are going to hell without Christ because the doctrine of hell it might offend them. The basic mindset today is to teach a “general morality” with respect to life. “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” Try preaching that message to the tens of thousands of Christians that have been martyred for their faith or the Christians meeting in secret in the underground church in Iran. In churches today the Gospel doesn’t save – it helps people learn to be “good;” to know “good” from “bad;” it teaches how to get along with other people – and even though the Gospel does do these things it’s not the essence of the Gospel.
Many church growth “experts” (and I’m using quotes) tell pastors: “Don’t preach doctrine; life’s too busy – it’s too overwhelming. Give people comfort; when they come to church they want to feel good. Give them something to help them along – give them a good laugh.” That’s what’s being taught in seminaries today and we don’t have to go any further than the Gospel of Matthew to see that Jesus wasn’t interested in meeting peoples’ felt needs by giving them a good laugh.
Because of this trend people in church today are woefully ignorant about doctrines such as the Trinity; the Atonement; Redemption; what a church should be and shouldn’t be; and, obviously, the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ.
4. What’s one reason people today know nothing about the Second Coming of Christ? Because doctrine today is at a discount: while the church has been indulging in “moral uplifting’ it has forgotten doctrine altogether – even though the Bible repeatedly emphasizes the critical importance of doctrine.
B. Why is the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ misunderstood? First of all because doctrine in general is neglected in churches today, and secondly, because the study of prophecy is over-emphasized.
And we are out of time. Next week’s point is in your notes just to help us know where we’re headed.
III. The doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming taught.
Conclusion
A. As we close go with me to Matt. 24:32-36 (pg. 668 in Pew Bibles). 1,845 references to the Second Coming of Christ is more than enough to convince me about the importance of understanding the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ
B. Satan knows the importance of this doctrine; false teachers know the importance of this doctrine – as Peter says “Where is the promise of His coming?”; and cults today understand the importance of this doctrine – shouldn’t we? Read Matt. 24:32-36 and Acts 1:6-7.
The doctrine of the Second Coming is incredibly important for a number of reasons and cults today understand that importance. For example, the Jehovah’s Witnesses first predicted the return of Christ in 1914. And when He didn’t appear they later changed this prediction to Christ returning “spiritually” to the earth in 1918 – in other words since there was no evidence He had returned by 1918 they made His return spiritual (something we can’t see) instead of physical which is what the Bible teaches about the Second Coming – Christ will return physically to the earth and we will look at that next week. In the 1950’s the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society (the voice and source of Jehovah Witness false doctrine) issued an internal memo that said this, and remember this is in the 1950’s: “There are millions of professing Christians who are not well grounded in (Biblical truth) and can rather easily be pried loose from Christian churches and led into a new and bigger Jehovah Witness church.” The memo went on to say “that this lack of proper knowledge of God (doctrine) and the widespread acceptance of half-truths in Christendom would yield vast masses of men and women” that would leave their churches and become Jehovah Witnesses.
C. Go with me to 1st Cor. 11:23. This morning we will be celebrating the Lord’s Table.
D. Remind about Second Coming handout and doctrine handout.
Remember I mentioned “The Jesus Seminar” last week? Well listen to this month’s “What in the World?” handout. Read.