The Wonderful
2 Peter • Sermon • Submitted
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I. Will Jesus return?
I. Will Jesus return?
This is the question that is asked by the wayward Christian, denied by the unbeliever, scoffed at by the cynic, but believed by the devoted follower of Christ.
There are doubts and confusion concerning this doctrine and most of 2 Peter is dedicated to this subject.
The churches and believers had allowed false prophets and teachers to teach that Jesus wouldn’t return.
This is a very dangerous doctrine that must be addressed.
1. Christ return is important because of His promise.
1. Christ return is important because of His promise.
Jesus had said that He would return. If He does not, then it will prove He was not the Son of God.
In John 14:1-3 He said,
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Here we see that Jesus said that He would come again.
In John 10:29-30 He says,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
I and my Father are one.
Jesus was very clear that He claimed to be God.
Titus 1:2 tells us:
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
If the return of Jesus isn’t true then He lied and therefore is not God.
The implications of this are so grave that no sound minded student of the Bible could ever deny it.
If Jesus was not God then the payment for our sin has yet to be paid, our eternal destiny is hopeless, and there is no victory over sin in this life.
However, if He is whom He claimed to be then we have hope; both in this life and the life to come.
2. The claim of His return.
2. The claim of His return.
We have already read of Christ promise to return in John 14 but lets look deeper into the scripture.
The return of Christ is mentioned all throughout the New Testament.
Paul in Hebrews
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Matthew
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Paul
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
Luke, in Acts
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
The doctrine of the return of Christ is fully substantiated through scripture.
Christian keep looking up, for Jesus will come again.
II. When will Jesus return?
II. When will Jesus return?
If we are assured of His return them the next question in a logical thought process, is when will He return.
The scripture is clear that we do not have a specific date but this does not mean that God left us without any clues.
These clues look primarily at four things. 1 The condition of Israel. 2 The condition of the lost.
3 The condition of the church. 4 sign in the earth.
The condition if Israel will be that it will once again be a nation-fulfilled.
The condition of the lost is that that mens hearts will get worse- continual devolution.
The condition of the church, a great falling away- kin progress.
The signs in the earth- possible?
1. The timing of His return.
1. The timing of His return.
There have been many false prophets that have claimed to know the timing of His return. Jehovah Witnesses have predicted the return of Christ on three different dates and yet none have come to pass. Even this last year there where many people calling for His return this past November.
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Peter tells us in verse 8 that a thousand years to man is as one day to God.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
This does not mean, as some have falsely proclaimed that one day to God is a thousand years to man but rather that God does not view time as man does.
The endless suffering that we experience and the time that seems to never come is but a breath of a moment to God.
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
The timing of His return is a mystery but it will come at the time appointed by God.
We should not worry about the timing of His return but rather we should be concerned with the preparation for His return.
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
2. The signs of His return.
2. The signs of His return.
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
The sign of His return are wars, rumors of wars, false-christ, famines, sickness, and earthquakes, hatred, a falling away, and coldness towards biblical morality.
III. Preparation for His return.
III. Preparation for His return.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
Before we look at the peace of God I think we must understand the spotless and blameless.
1. Without spot and blameless.
1. Without spot and blameless.
Peter makes it clear in this verse that the only way we may enter into eternal rest with God is by standing blameless of sin before God.
This is view is substantiated through scripture in Habakkuk 1:13
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, And canst not look on iniquity: Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, And holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
God is so pure that He can not look upon evil. Therefore there is no way in ourselves, to stand before Him.
This is the precept of the Gospel.
Paul explained in Romans 5:6 why Jesus had to come and die for us.
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
The only way that an individual, as wicked as me, could ever stand before a holy, righteous God, is if there was a covering placed upon me that would hide the heinousness of sin.
Thats what Jesus’s blood does and the reason for His death at Calvary.
It is the blood of Jesus that covers my sin and allows me to stand before God, spotless, and blameless.
As the old song goes. “What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
when we have come to a realization that He has paid a debt that we had no ability to pay then we may know the peace of God.
2. The peace.
2. The peace.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
The peace of God comes when we accept that He is not only able and willing but also that He stands ready to impart unto you and I the forgiveness of sins and when we re;y upon the work that He completed at Calvary.
The peace of God can only be imparted by a direct encounter with Jesus.
In John He said,
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
And finally the greatest peace and the greatest story ever told can be summed up in John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
