Anticipating Christ's Return

Introduction

2 Peter 3:8–13 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 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. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

What is an event that you anticipated for a long time - that did not turn out as you thought it would?

We must not simply defend the Return of Christ, but rather, we must anticipate it.

Theology should always have a spiritual component.

Explanation

2 Peter 3:8 “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Many people use this to prove God ordained evolution. Creation was six days long, but six equals six thousand.

This is an idiom - not a true measurement.

When we use the text this way, we miss what the text

What is the point? God is bigger than time.

He is outside of time.

He is not constrained by time.

2 Peter 3:9 “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.”

We may think that God is slow, but instead, God is actually patient.

God does not wish that any should perish.

God wants all to reach repentance.

This is the primary verse that shows I am not a Calvinist.

2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

The Lord will come quickly. Just because he is patient does not mean that He isn’t coming.

What will happen.

Heavens will pass away.

Heavenly bodies will burn up.

Earth will burn up.

The works done on it will be exposed.

2 Peter 3:11-13 “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

Since we know that everything in heaven and the earth will be burned up, what do we do?

Live in holiness and godliness.

Wait and wish