THE ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE OF CHRIST'S RETURN [2 PETER 3:8-10]

Introduction

Both the Old and New Testaments are filled with promises of the Second Coming of Christ. There are 1,845 references to it in the Old Testament, and a total of seventeen Old Testament books give it prominence.

Of the 260 chapters in the entire New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming, or one out of 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event. The four missing books include three which are single-chapter letters written to individual persons on a particular subject, and the fourth is Galatians which does imply Christ’s coming again.

For every prophecy on the First Coming of Christ, there are 8 on Christ’s Second Coming.

The prominence of the return of Jesus Christ reveals that this is an event of crucial importance and a settled reality.

The Apostle Peter is writing toward the end of his life with a pastor’s heart as he warns believers of not only increased persecution but also increased diabolical deception. He writes this epistle to call on the people to remember the surety of Christ’s return.

The message to the people of Peter’s day is the message for us today. Jesus wants believers today to remember the surety of His return.

You may be sitting in that pew and wondering, “How am I to remember the surety of Christ’s return? After all, it has been two thousand years.

There are three things Christ wants us to remember as we wait for His return.

We Should Possess Godly Patience (3:8).

Yes, Jesus wants us to be patient as we wait. He knows that it is our nature to become impatient. Therefore, we are told in verse eight in the form of a command, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved.” That is the command. In the Greek structure of this verse, the little negative particle “me” (not). Whenever there is a command in the negative like here, that little particle carries the force of “stop.” Peter is saying, “Stop it! Stop overlooking this one important fact”. What is that fact? It is “that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” This verse is a rebuke of the false teachers and their deceptive lies against the return of Christ. In a nutshell, they were saying that you can live any way you want. There will be no consequences. There is no such thing as a moral standard of living that God requires. Eat, drink and be merry because there is no such thing as Christ’s return.

In response Peter says that it does matter how you live. There is a moral imperative that God requires. Man views time against time, but God views time against eternity. Time only seems long because of man’s finite perspective. God is the everlasting God. He is from everlasting to everlasting. There is no end to how long God could wait to fulfill His word.

We should remember to possess Godly patience while we wait.

We Should Promote Concern for People (3:9).

The question becomes, “Why does God wait?” The answer to this question reveals something about God’s character. God is patient. We better be glad He is patient with us. God is unlike us. God is patient because God is merciful and does not want anyone to perish, but desires all men come to repentance. What kind of patience are we talking about here? When it comes to God, patience means to bear and continue to bear the offenses of others. It is because of His mercy and grace that He continues to bear the offenses of people. That is why Ezekiel 33:11 says, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?’”

Biblical Principle: God is patiently calling people to repentance in these final days of grace.

There are only two days on our calendar of days that are on God’s calendar- “today” and “that day.” That is why the Bible declares that “today” is the day of salvation. The most important day on this earth is one’s spiritual birthday. We believe that, but not really. I am afraid that for some of us that it is the case that we do not really believe what we say we believe. We behave what we really believe rather than behaving what we say we believe. If you do not live it, you do not believe it. If we truly believe that there is a literal fire in a literal hell that burns literally forever where people will spend a literal eternity in, we will behave differently. We have become slow in proclaiming Christ and His salvation. Rather we put our energies into committee meetings and rehashing the same rotten potato into spiritual hash browns over and over again. Jesus has told us to tell the people, “Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

If we say we believe it, then we need to live it. The first century Christians were known as people of the Way. This was a clear reference to Jesus Christ. Today Christians are more like people standing in the way of the Way. Yet the Day of the Lord will come.

We should remember to promote concern for people while we wait.

We Should Be Prepared for the Parousia (3:10).

The word parousia means “coming, advent, or arrival.” Jesus Christ is coming to this earth again. Notice the certainty of it. “But the day of the Lord will come.” In Scripture, the Day of the Lord and the day of His coming go hand in hand. Notice the manner in which Christ will come. He will come “like a thief.” Peter is warning genuine believers concerning that group of scoffers that had infiltrated into the fellowship of believers. These false teachers proclaimed a love without judgment. They claimed Christ would not come back and judge the earth because He loves us. However, Peter affirms the truth of the Bible when he says that Christ is going to return and He is going to judge the earth because of the wickedness of mankind. When He returns three things are going to happen:

The Bible says that the heavens will pass away with a roar.

The roar is the audible sign of the judgment Christ is bringing. It is the sound of crackling fire. It will be loud and undeniable. Jesus promised this would happen when He promised in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Christ promises that He will intervene and part of the promise is the roaring sound accompanying the judgment.

2. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved (ESV).

The word used in the ESV (heavenly bodies) is unfortunate. The term in the Greek is “stoikeion” meaning “element.” The term refers to the basic building blocks or basic structure of something. Thus, the CSB is a much better rendering of this verse: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.”

This will be the visual sign of the destruction of creation. This will also be felt as the heat of the inferno laps around the very ones who rejected the idea of Christ judging the earth. There is the expansion from the sound of judgment to the sight of judgment. Now the judgment will expand even further.

3. The earth and the works done on it will be exposed.

The word exposed here is the Greek term “eurisko” which has the basic meaning “to find.” It carries the sense of being discovered or found out. This sinful earth will be exposed for what it really has become. Mankind does right in their own eyes and in the doing thereof they have been found out. Every invention and arrogant thought of mankind will be laid waste. John MacArthur is spot on when he states, “God’s power will consume everything in the material realm- the entire physical earth-with its civilizations, ecosystems and natural resources.”

Biblical Principle: God’s intervention will be sudden, supernatural, and spectacular.

It will be sudden in that Christ’s return will come as a thief in the night. It will be supernatural in that Christ will be the one returning. He is going to take the barking of the scoffers and their uniformitarian argument that everything will keep on going the way it is and will leave them dumbfounded. It will be spectacular because the loud noise of crackling fire, the sight of the red hot inferno, and the absolute destruction of all that this world holds dear. It will be the greatest fireworks display in history.

We need to remember the need to be prepared for the parousia of Christ because the Day of the Lord is coming.

Conclusion

The absolute assurance of Christ’s return requires we remember three things. We should possess godly patience while we wait. We should promote concern for people while we wait. We should also be prepared for the parousia while we wait. We do these things while we wait for the return of Christ.

One day in 1789, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand.

Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought.”

The day of Christ will come and because it will come we need to be found doing our duty before God. Priorities are never in conflict with each other, but excuses are. People talk about laying down their lives for Jesus. How can they mean that when they refuse to stand for loyalty to Christ here, but are willing to do it over there? Are you willing to go to Afghanistan to defend the faith? You cannot get some people to show up to church to worship together and fellowship with His people.

Someone responds, “Well, God and I have an understanding. God understands me.” Apparently, you do not understand God. That is foolishness, not theology. God demands holiness from His people. God expects you to demonstrate your own personal holiness before a watching world. It is called living blamelessly. Don’t talk about dying for something that you will not even live for. If what you are living for is not worth dying for then you are just wasting your time. Live in the power of kingdom authority and demonstrate that authority by living it.

Christianity has abdicated its responsibility and pushed it onto the world. We have self-righteously pointed our finger at the world and said, “It is all your fault that we are in the mess that we are in. We have forgotten what the Bible says. The Bible declares that judgment must begin at the house of God. 2 Chronicles begins, “If My people.” It does not read, “If those people.” It is us. We are to blame. We are to be salt and light. Yet, our salt is soggy with self-righteousness and presumption, while our light has been doused by our self-will. After soiling the carpet at the altar, we should get up and start singing, “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer!”

Choose this day how you will live in light of eternity. You can live like you want to live and you will one day die like you do not want to die. On the other hand, you can live like Christ wants you to live and when you die you simply wake up in the glorious presence of Jesus Christ. You will then worship and serve Him for all eternity. As me and my house we will continue to worship and serve the Lord as practice down here for all eternity up there. The choice is yours.