A Reminder To Remember That Jesus Is Returning

2 Peter 3:1-7

Transcript

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of
them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should
remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord
and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will
come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires. They
will say, 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.
For they deliberately overlooked this fact, that the heavens existed long ago,
and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and
that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and
perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored
up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the
ungodly. Let's pray. Lord God, again, we thank you for the privilege of
gathering. We thank you that we can assemble in this way and come under your
word. And Lord, I pray that you would build us up as your people and draw us to
yourself. Lord, challenge us and comfort us as we need. Let us be edified by
this. Lord, let us hear and understand and respond to you in faith. In Jesus
name. Amen. Okay. I want you to ask yourself or remember a time where you may
have had to prepare for a debate. Maybe this is just an intense conversation
that you knew you were going to have with someone, or maybe it was more formal,
like you knew you were going to have an argument of some kind. So in advance of
that, you prepared your best responses. Some of you might have been on the
debate team in school, or even in law school, you might have done something like
mock trials. A debate can be pivotally important. Probably what comes to our
mind are the presidential debates that happen in the election cycle every four
years. And sometimes those come and go without really significantly moving the
needle at all. But other times they prove to be absolutely critical. We probably
remember this, the first presidential debate of 2024 was what killed President
Biden's campaign for reelection. If you go further back though in history,
before he became president, Richard Nixon lost a very close election to John F.
Kennedy in 1960. And that was the first debate to be televised. Most people who
listened on the radio believe that Nixon had won. But because that was the first
debate that was televised, 70 million people tuned in and were struck by how
youthful and vigorous Kennedy was in comparison to Nixon. And Kennedy on TV
looked tan and rested and young. And Nixon refused to wear TV makeup and he
looked tired and like he needed a shave. And most historians believe that was a
very key factor that helped JFK win a very narrow election. And I'm giving you
this bit of history because debates are critically important. And when you have
a debate on that level, people will coach you. They will prep you on how to deal
with your opponents. They will say things like, here's what they will say.
Here's how they will attack you. Here's how you will need to know how to
respond. In a debate, everyone has a weakness. It's a question of how you defend
yourself in those situations. And I bring that up because that type of
preparation is what we see in our passage today. The last two weeks, as we
worked through this series in Second Peter, we've seen the Apostle Peter go on
offense and attack the false teachers that were infiltrating the churches that
he was providing leadership to. Chapter two of Second Peter is some of the
strongest, most intense language in the scripture. It helps us realize how
seriously Peter is taking false teaching. But now in chapter three, we see a
change of tone. You see that word in verse one, beloved. This is now the second
letter that I am writing to you, beloved. And we hear there the affection of
Peter for the churches that he's writing to. These are people he loves and he
wants to prepare them for what is ahead, for what they're going to face. But in
chapter three, he's writing as a debate coach, preparing his beloved for the
attacks that he knows are going to come. He knows exactly what the false
teachers are going to say. He knows the arguments that they will use, and he
knows the weak spot that they will attack. And the goal for Peter, for these
churches, is not necessarily that they win the argument, because as he points
out later, their opponents are not necessarily arguing in good faith. But he
wants to strengthen the faith of these believers. And as Christians, we need to
be able to give honest answers to honest questions. There are some questions
that are disingenuous and are not coming from an honest search for the truth.
And yet we still need to be able to answer those questions just for ourselves.
You've probably thought of this sometimes. Sometimes you've had a spirited
argument or a conversation with someone and you walk away thinking, those are
pretty good points they're making. You start to realize, I might need to rethink
my position a little bit. And as we've said multiple times through the sermon
series, the Apostle Peter is writing to churches scattered across Asia Minor,
and as he writes, he knows he will be dying soon. He will be leaving the scene.
So in this final chapter, he writes to these churches to remind them to remember
that Jesus is returning. The passage is broken up into three parts. In verses
one and two, there is a stirring reminder to remember. In verses three through
four, he warns the church of scoffers who will scoff. And then verses five
through seven, we hear Peter's response to these scoffers. All of it instructs
the church, remember, Jesus is returning. Let's look at this stirring reminder
in verses one through two. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to
you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of
reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the
commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Just as he did in 1
Peter, the apostle is reminding his beloved followers of truths that they know
and yet might be tempted to forget or put aside. And a reminder, a reminder can
be a form of love. Sometimes someone reminds you of something that you do know,
but it could easily have slipped from your mind. And when someone reminds you of
something, the inward response is often, I know. It's true, you do know. But
often the case is you weren't actually thinking about it. That's what's going on
here. The issue in question, what's being ridiculed by the false teachers is the
return of Christ and the judgment that is to come. Peter is stirring up his
readers. It's similar language to Hebrews 10 when we're told, let us consider
how to stir up one another to love and good works. It's the idea of agitate or
provoke or instigate. And what they're being reminded to remember is to
strengthen their faith in the certainty of Jesus's return. And the way that
they're to do that, there are really three things working together as one here.
Peter talks about the predictions of the holy prophets, the commandment of the
Lord and Savior, and the preaching of the apostles. So let me give you a couple
examples so we can follow Peter's argument here. First he speaks of the
predictions of the holy prophets. You should remember the predictions of the
holy prophets. And you can look to them and see they predicted a future day of
judgment upon Christ's return. We could go different places here, but for
example, if you look at Isaiah 24, it speaks of coming judgment on the whole
earth. I'll just read the beginning of Isaiah 24, one through three. It's a
future day of judgment. The prophets tell us of a day of judgment. Then during
Jesus's earthly ministry, Jesus himself made it very clear that he was the son
of man and that he was going to come and return and judge. In Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 24, in verses 30 and 31, Jesus says, Then will appear in heaven the sign
of the Son of Man. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they
will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great
glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will
gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. The
return of Jesus was predicted by the prophets. It was foretold by Jesus himself.
And then Peter, the author of this letter, was there with the apostles as
eyewitnesses when Jesus ascended into heaven. And when that happened in Acts
chapter one, the text tells us that while they, the apostles, were gazing into
heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of
Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from
you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. The
return of Christ then became a central part of apostolic preaching. All these
are agreed on a central message. Jesus is going to return and to judge. That's
been predicted by the apostles. Jesus himself said it. It was a core part of the
apostles preaching. So now Peter is exhorting these believers to trust in those
three things. What the prophet said, what Jesus himself said, what the apostles
preach. In other words, it's the same thing as he said back in chapter one,
trust in the word of God. However, as we've repeatedly said during the sermon
series, he knows his time on earth is short. He's an old man and he knows that
the time of his departure is at hand. The Lord's revealed this to him. And there
are people waiting in the wings, eager for that day to come. That's a dynamic
we've probably seen before. Could be a business or nonprofit or even a family
situation. An older person, an original founder is very influential. But as his
life winds down, then there's another generation waiting in the wings and
they're saying to themselves. When the old man dies, we're going to make some
changes around here. He did some good things and we're going to keep those
things, but we're going to get rid of some of the other stuff. And what the
false teachers aim to do upon Peter's departure is to keep the gospel and cut it
loose from any final judgment. Keep the gospel and cut it loose from any idea of
final judgment. That was happening then and it is true of many churches today.
They speak of ideas of love, tolerance and inclusivity and say all these things
characterize who God is. And they speak of a church where all are welcome. And
they're partly right. God is love. And because he is love, he hates all evil.
And in the church, all are welcome. We're all welcome to bow together at the
foot of the cross because it's at the cross that we see the reality of our sin
and the price that Christ paid for our redemption. But when we try to keep the
gospel and disconnect it from sin and judgment and the holiness of God, then it
is no longer gospel at all. It's no longer good news. And this is the reason
that these churches need to be reminded to remember that Jesus is returning to
judge. Peter says scoffers are going to scoff. Look at verses three through
four. Scoffers are going to scoff. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers
will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
They will say, 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. That's the quote. Where's the promise of his coming? For ever since.
Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from
the beginning of creation. So these scoffers or mockers are going to come after
Peter dies. And Peter knows exactly what they're going to say. So he wants to
prepare the church as to how they ought to respond. When he says last days,
that's not some far off time. That is New Testament language for the time in
between Christ's ascension and Christ's return. They were living in the last
days. We are living in the last days. And first of all, Peter says these
scoffers are following their own sinful desires as they scoff. In other words,
let's not pretend they have no agenda as they cast out on Jesus's return. These
are the ones who want to live in a world without any moral judgment. And Peter
says to the church, here's exactly what they're going to say. Here's exactly
what the scoffers are going to say. Remember, if you're going to survive a
debate, you need to know the weakness of your position. You need to know where
you'll be attacked. And what's the weakness of the Christian position? Well,
it's obvious. Jesus hasn't returned yet. That was true in 65 A.D. and it
continues to be true today. And we have to concede that. And the scoffers will
say, where is he? This is ridiculous. The world is just rolling along the same
way as it always has. Everything is just going on the way it always has gone.
They say ever since the fathers fell asleep, meaning like ever since the
patriarchs, everything is just continuing on as it always has been. Sure, there
are ups and downs, but that's just the course of this world. And that
perspective, honestly, it is absolutely prevalent today. People might not put it
in that exact same language, but it's really the perfect description of the
secular evolutionary mindset. Usually we think about evolution in terms of
origins and creation as a scientific theory. That's its own discussion. But it
goes beyond that in terms of its perspective on how the world operates. In other
words, things are happening randomly and by blind chance. The world is going on
as it always has been, according to some very impersonal, unknown algorithm. And
Peter tells us, here's what they're going to say. And how will you respond to
that? That's something we may feel in the back of our own minds. It's
interesting. If you ask most people whether the world as we know it will ever
come to an end, they would probably say yes. It's just that most people think
the world isn't necessarily going to come, it's not going to happen while they
are alive. So it won't really have any tangible effect on their lives. And most
people, I think, also think that when the day comes, when that day comes, it
will be because of some other factor. Like maybe the sun will die out, or maybe
there will be nuclear apocalypse or world war, or maybe the planet will run out
of resources, or there will be global warming will happen to an extent that the
planet's no longer habitable. Every year you probably read about or hear about a
group of atomic scientists that run something called the Doomsday Clock. They
analyze the climate and they analyze the geopolitical situations around the
world. And then they set a clock, they come together and set a clock, a
metaphorical clock each year as a symbol to show us how close we are to the end
of civilization. If the clock ever gets to midnight, that's supposed to
symbolize that the planet is no longer habitable for human life. And according
to the last time the Doomsday Clock scientists got together, we're not in very
good shape. But however you feel about any of that, the Christian position is
not that those concerns about war or the climate or planetary resources are
stupid, but at the same time, the Christian position is that human history will
come to an end by the command of God and when He wills, and not one second
before that. God has made His Son supreme over all things in heaven and on
earth, and Jesus will return as King and as Judge. The Christian position is
that God is Creator and it is His world. He is not beholden to any one of us.
Our timetables, there will be a time, we don't know when it is, but there will
be a time when Jesus will return as King and as Judge and will put an absolute
end to all human rebellion. It's His world. He began it. He has the right to
pull the curtain down when He sees fit. So the responsibility for us as
Christians is don't forget that, but live in light of that. It was not easy for
these believers to live with a belief in the second coming. It wasn't easy for
them and it is not easy for us. It would have been easy to shrug that off and
forget about it. Same thing is true for us. And there are elements related to
Christ's return or the precise timetable of end time events that we might not be
sure of. But Jesus commands us, does not suggest, but commands us to watch and
be ready. When He spoke about His return in Matthew 25, He said, watch therefore
for you know neither the day or the hour. Peter makes it very clear that our
ethics today, in other words, the way that we live and behave flow from our
belief that Jesus will return and judge. Look at 2 Peter 3 11. 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?
So after giving his readers a stirring reminder to remember that Jesus coming
back and after warning them of scoffers who scoff, Peter now responds to the
scoffers. They've said their peace. The world is just going on exactly as it
always has been. Now here's Peter's counterpoint. Look at verses five through
seven. For they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long
ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God
and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water
and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist stored
up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
So Peter told the church what the scoffers are going to say. They're going to
point out the obvious fact that Jesus has not returned yet. But they are
deliberately overlooking the biblical pattern. And Peter says, you think God
never intervenes in human history? You think everything just happens the same
way as it always has before? Let's open up the Old Testament. God created out of
water and by his word. That's the first page of your Bible in Genesis one. When
the psalmist sings about creation, we read this psalm at the beginning of our
worship service. He reiterates this. He says, the earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it
upon the seas and established it upon the waters. And then when human rebellion
mounted up against him, God intervened and judged by water and his word. And
those rebelling against God were judged and they perished in the flood. In other
words, everything does not always continue in the same way that it always has.
God spoke and there was cataclysmic change and judgment. And on a future day,
the heavens and earth that now exist will once again be judged by the word of
God. It will be his decree. The heavens and earth are now stored up by fire.
That's not annihilation, but it means God's purifying judgment. And what these
scoffers do not understand why they reject this idea is they don't see the
biblical precedent for it. Peter says in making their argument, they're
deliberately overlooking what God has done in the past. It's deliberate,
intentional ignorance. When Peter say scoffers will scoff, let's know they're
deliberately ignorant. They're following their own desires. It's a good thing
for us to be aware of in general when we think about people who mock or undercut
the scripture. Let's not pretend that this is a careful reading of scripture.
The same point could be made about people who undercut the authority of
scripture in any number of different issues. Those who are attempting to
undermine Orthodox Christian teaching are not just altruistic people studying
the Bible, trying to be helpful with their novel interpretations. Rather they're
deliberately overlooking, following their own selfish desires. Some of you have
read or heard of the famous author, Algis Huxley. Maybe in school you had to
read Brave New World. And Huxley advocated for something he called a philosophy
of meaninglessness. In other words, the world is always going on exactly the
same way as it always has been before. But in a later book, later on in his
life, he admitted that this philosophy of his was not something he arrived at
through logic or study. It was an appealing philosophy to him as a youth because
he wanted to be free of any moral restraint. He wanted to live however he
pleased. And when he reflected on that time in his life, he wrote a poem and he
said, Is the universe possessed of value and meaning? I took for granted there
was no meaning. I had no motives. I had motives for not wanting the world to
have a meaning. Peter tells us, yes, you're right, that Jesus has not returned
yet. His response to that issue is in verses eight through 10, which we get to
next week. But he says, look at your Bible and recognize the Lord intervenes in
human history. And when he does, he calls people to account. He did that in the
days of Noah. And in that time, people were warned and had an opportunity, a set
time to find refuge. The ark was a means of salvation. It was a means to flee
from the wrath to come. So Peter says to his readers, don't be willfully
ignorant, don't be obtuse, don't be don't overlook the way God has worked in the
past. And some of you, some of you are in business or in retail, or you work in
real estate or in accounting. If that's your background, then you know
eventually there is a bottom line. Eventually a bill comes due. And that is what
will happen when Christ returns. There will be an accounting. So the question as
we look at this text today is really, do you believe that day is coming? And
does it have a place in your thinking? I want to remind you to stir you up to
remember that Jesus is coming. It's a reminder spoken in love. Remember Jesus is
returning. And for those that love him, for those that have received him by
faith, that have turned to him, that will be a glorious day. He will come and
bring justice, make wrong things right, and we will be with him. But he will
also, as the Bible says, separate the sheep from the goats. His return will be a
fearful day of judgment. So remember, Jesus is returning. Let's pray.