Christ's Apparent Delay Is Actually Patience So That More Might Repent Before Judgment Comes

2 Peter 3:8-10

Transcript

2 Peter chapter 3 verse 1, 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 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
are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of
the ungodly. 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. This is God's word. Let's
pray. Father God, thank you for your word. Thank you that you give it to us and
that we can read it and understand it and apply it to our lives. Lord, I pray
that you would help us to understand this text and apply it to our lives, Lord.
Thank you for Christ, his work on the cross for us, and in his name I pray,
amen. Why hasn't Christ come back yet? As Christians, we believe that Christ
came, he lived, died on the cross, and rose again. This is what gives us access
to salvation. But we also believe that he's coming back again. He's coming back
a second time to judge the world and usher in a new kingdom, a perfect and new
kingdom. And in a broken world, this is great news, and as believers we're told
to anticipate this coming and to long for it. But a long time has passed. In
Revelation, Jesus said that he would come back soon, and that was 2,000 years
ago. We're still waiting. So what gives? Why the delay? I trust God, I believe
the gospel, but shouldn't Christ have already returned? Has he forgotten us? Has
he changed his mind? So God was silent for 400 years between the Old Testament
and the New Testament, but now it's been five times that long. What if I'm
wrong? Why is he taking so long to return? Am I wasting my time on this? Why
hasn't Christ come back yet? Have you thought about this question before? Maybe
you have, and it's a source of doubt. Maybe you haven't, and you're not sure why
it's relevant. Either way, it's an important question, and it changes our
perspective on how we live. In fact, this question was actually still relevant
2,000 years ago, and that brings us to our text. Peter was worried that this
question would hurt the church. Let's read what he says in 2 Peter 3, verse 3.
We'll start a little bit way through the verse. He says, Scoffers will come in
the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say,
Where is the promise of its coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all
things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Here is the
promise of his coming. That's how the question was asked back then. Giving some
more context here, the church is at its inception. It's vulnerable and
susceptible to false prophets. Peter is writing, trying to preempt any deceitful
arguments that might come their way and damage the church. And so Peter has two
responses for this argument. And last week, Pastor Matt addressed the first part
of Peter's response, and this week we'll address the second part of Peter's
response in verses 8 through 10. Short and sweet, our main point for today is
this. Christ's apparent delay is actually patience, so more might repent before
judgment comes. This should be a hope and encouragement to us as believers and
an urgent warning to those who are not following Christ. To reiterate, Christ's
apparent delay is actually patience, so more might repent before judgment comes.
So we'll work through this text in three sections today. The first, God's
perspective. The second, God's patience. And the third, God's promise. God's
perspective, God's patience, and God's promise. Diving into our first section,
let's look at verse 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. The Lord
is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness. This section starts
out with the phrase, but do not overlook. And if you look back a few verses, we
see the same word, overlook, being used in verse 5 when Peter first responds to
the scoffer's argument. Take a look. He says, they deliberately overlook. Peter
is reusing this phrase as a signpost to indicate that he's still responding to
the scoffer's argument. Given that, let's continue on and see how Peter starts
out in today's text. I'll reread through that section. 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. So this is helpful, but it doesn't seem to answer the question
directly, why hasn't Christ returned yet? And in fact, it might even introduce
more questions. How can one day be as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day? There's a chance that you've heard this said before, but have you ever
really stopped to think about it? It's a wild statement. You and I have
experienced just a handful of decades. Well, maybe some of you, two handfuls.
Okay, kind of landed. Either way, we all agree that some of them go faster than
others. But none of us have ever experienced a thousand years. How can a
thousand years be like one day? And how does that help answer the question at
hand? We actually see a similar concept in Psalm 90, which was read earlier.
Turn there if you will. I'll read the first six verses of chapter 90. Psalm 90.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains
were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from
everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, return,
O children of man. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when
it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood.
They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning
it flourishes and is renewed. In the evening it fades and withers. This is just
a snippet, but this Psalm captures the contrast between our infinite God and
temporal man. And in alluding to it, Peter is reminding his readers that God is
fundamentally different from us. We need to remember that He's infinite. He's
holy. He's perfect. He's all present, all knowing. He's creator of everything.
Who are we to question His timing? If He is fundamentally different from us,
might it also make sense that His perspective of time might be different from
ours? From a human perspective, this feels hard to understand, but it's actually
more relatable than we might think. For a child, waiting five minutes feels like
agony, while for an adult, one hour of alone time feels way too short. And
everyone will tell you that as we grow older, time seems to move more quickly.
For me, as a new parent, I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say,
enjoy it. The time goes so fast. So if we, as temporal beings, can experience
time differently from each other, how much more might it make sense for an
infinite God to experience time differently from us? C.S. Lewis grapples with
this topic in Mere Christianity. This is from his chapter Time and Beyond Time.
If you picture time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you
must picture God as the whole page on which that line is drawn. We come to the
parts of the line one by one. We have to leave A behind to get to B, and we
cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God from above or outside or all around
contains the whole line and sees it all. We can't know exactly how God
experiences time. The Bible doesn't give us the how. But at the very minimum,
these passages do seem to indicate that God's perspective of time passing is
quite different from ours. So before responding to the scoffers question
directly, Peter is setting the tone. He's reminding them and us that God is God
and we are not. It's almost as though he's saying, before you start questioning
God, remember that he's God. Remember that his perspective is so much different
from ours and we are made in his image. He is not made in ours. This isn't just
helpful here, but it's helpful for any time we feel we can't understand God from
our perspective. Questions are okay. Questions are good. But remember, God's
perspective is different from ours. With that in mind, let's move to the next
section, God's patience. God's patience. So this is where Peter gets into things
a little bit more. Even if we recognize God's perspective, how do we think about
the years that continue to pass without Christ returning? Let's pick up in verse
nine. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but as
patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance. Peter reframes the apparent slowness as patience. And this
patience has a purpose that more might reach repentance. Those who don't repent
will perish, and by perish, he means spiritual death, eternal separation from
God. God is delaying his return so that more might join his covenant people. We
might call this redemptive patience. And there's a huge amount of irony here.
The delay that the scoffers are trying to use as evidence against God is
actually the only thing standing between them and God's judgment. The scoffer's
question starts to lose its bite. God's delay is not because of indifference.
It's not because he's forgotten. It's because God is being patient. The apparent
delay has purpose. And at this point, Peter really pushes past the apologetics
of the matter. He makes it personal, and he says that God is being patient
towards you. But who is you? The primary audience of this letter is the
believer. But here, Peter is appealing to the unbeliever. He's saying there are
some in your midst that are not following Christ. You haven't repented, and it's
God's desire that you would. If there are any unbelievers listening today, this
is an appeal to you as well. Perhaps you've been touch and go for years. Maybe
you think, well, everything in my life has been fine so far. I guess I don't
really need God. That's false thinking. God's patience is not meant for you to
feel self-sufficient. It's meant for you to see your need for Christ. For those
of you actively following Christ, you've already seen God's redemptive patience.
You've repented, and you're following Christ. And this patience is probably felt
more deeply by some of you. You've got stories. You know your past life. You
know that if your life had ended early or if Christ had returned, you would not
be seeing those pearly gates. But through God's patience, He drew you in. Praise
God for His patience with you. Praise God for His patience with us. And this
isn't unique to Peter's letter. It's who God always has been. We see God's
redemptive patience all over Scripture. We see it in Romans. Specifically Romans
2, 4 says, God's kindness and patience are meant to lead you to repentance. This
is a restatement of exactly what we're talking about today. We see it in the
book of Jonah that we preached through earlier this year. God is patient with
the Ninevites, and His patience leads the city to repentance. And going way
back, we see it at the flood in Genesis. Peter actually calls us to mind in 1
Peter 3.20. He says God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was
being prepared. This is our God. He's patient so more might repent. God is
holding open the door so that more might join His number before judgment comes.
Have you joined already? Will you? But His patience won't last forever. Romans
2, 4 also warns us, don't presume on God's patience. His promise of judgment
will come. This brings us to our final section, God's promise. We've seen how
remembering God's perspective is important and how Christ's apparent delay is
actually God's patience. We'll now read about God's promise. This is verse 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. Remember the
scoffer's question. Where is the promise of His coming? Well, this is it, the
day of the Lord. This is the promise of His coming. This is what was foretold by
the prophets and foretold by Christ. This is Christ's coming back, judgment. And
when will it arrive? Peter says it will come like a thief. What he means by this
is simply that it will be unexpected. And we'll come back to that in a few
minutes. Peter continues and says the heavens will pass away with a roar, and
the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. By saying this, his primary
purpose is to paint a picture of the totality and the severity of judgment, and
not to speak to the mechanics of how it will happen. Peter closes by saying the
earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. All unrepentant sin
will be exposed by this judgment. It's a purifying judgment that will find all
those who don't repent, just like the flood in Genesis. So this section serves
as an exclamation point to Peter's response. It magnifies the meaning behind
God's patience. Without God's patience, this judgment would have already come
and we would have had no chance. God's patience is holding back his judgment,
and we should all praise him for that. I want to take a moment and go back to
the beginning of this verse. When Peter says the day of the Lord will come like
a thief, this should remind us of what Christ himself said about his second
coming in Matthew 24 37. He starts by calling back to Noah and the flood, and
then he uses the same thief imagery. Let's take a look. This is Matthew 24 37.
Christ gives us an image of just normal, everyday life. Eating, drinking,
marrying, raising families, living life, and then suddenly judgment, the flood
comes. He then goes on and introduces the thief imagery. We'll pick back up in
verse 42. Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day the Lord is
coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of
the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have
let his house be broken into. Therefore, you must also be ready, for the Son of
Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Very similar things to what we see
in 2 Peter. His return will be unexpected. No one knows the hour, and his charge
to us is that we must be ready. What does it look like to be ready? How can we
protect ourselves from this coming judgment? It's Christ. He died on the cross
for the sins of anyone who might come to him. All sins will face judgment. If
you turn and accept Christ and follow him, then your sins have been placed on
him, and they were judged at the cross. If not, the judgment is still looming.
If you haven't turned to Christ, today is the day. Judgment is coming. Accepting
and following Christ is how you get ready. This doesn't just mean agreeing that
God is real. It means repenting, turning to follow Christ, and ordering your
life behind him. Praise God for his patience thus far. There's still time. But
we don't know when it will end. Be ready, like Christ says. Let's move into some
application. So what? What does all of this mean for us today? As an unbeliever,
why is this compelling? And as a believer, how is this helpful? We'll start with
unbelievers. Just one application, and really, we just went through it. Here it
is. You are living in God's patience right now. Don't presume on it. As an
unbeliever, this text is really for you. Just because things seem to be going
fine for you, and you're able to get by, doesn't mean you don't need God. It
means that God has been gracious and patient with you. You need Christ. And I
hope you can see that. He's been so patient. But that patience will come to an
end. The door to the ark is being held open, but it will snap closed, and it
will be too late, and there won't be warning. You will be like a thief in the
night. Are you ready like Christ calls you to be? You're not guaranteed
tomorrow. So please don't presume on his patience. Okay, now two applications
for believers. The first is this. Join God in his patience towards unbelievers.
Join God in his patience towards unbelievers. This world is becoming more and
more impatient, especially with people who are different from us. We have the
tendency to curate our friend groups and our social media circles, removing
anyone who is different from us. And as believers, I fear that we also may do
this with unbelievers. I know there are unbelievers in our lives that we feel
done with. They've offended us one too many times. They exasperate us. Or maybe
they're just really hard to like. Perhaps this is a coworker, a friend, or a
family member. We've lost our patience. And although we may not say it out loud,
our actions may say that we think that they are beyond saving. As people who are
to become more and more like Christ, this is not what we're called to do. We
need to join God in his patience towards unbelievers. If God is delaying
judgment on them, then maybe we should too. And maybe we shouldn't write them
off. God calls us to love our neighbor, and if we are not doing that, this is
sin. Until they pass or Christ returns, there's still time. This means engaging
with your offensive coworker. It means revisiting that friendship that you let
die out. It means loving that one uncle you avoid during the holidays. Remember
that we were once there too. But by God's kindness, he was patient with us. So
let's join God in his patience towards unbelievers. Second application. The
second application is praise God, because Christ's delay means more believers.
Praise God, because Christ's delay means more believers. Revelation 21 gives us
a picture of the future kingdom that will arrive with Christ's return. I'll read
through this. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy
city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they
will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe
away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there
be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.
This is where things are headed. When we see suffering, when we see pain, we
remember that Christ has won. And there will be a day where he will wipe away
every tear and death will be no more. As believers, we should long for this day.
We should long for Christ to come back. But as the days pass and Christ doesn't
come back, we can sometimes find ourselves in despair. Jesus, why haven't you
come back yet? Remember that God is being patient. We all know unbelievers. This
time is for them. Every day that Christ doesn't come back is another day for
more believers to come in. Every day Christ doesn't come back is another day for
more believers to come in. It's another day for your dad or mom, for your
brother or sister, for your grandparents, for your kids, for your spouse, for
your longtime friend that you want so dearly to come to Christ, that person that
you've been praying for for years. There's still time. God's delay is just
another facet of his character. Mercy manifested as patience. We are sitting in
his patient mercy right now. So yes, plead with God to come back, but also
praise him for his mercy towards us and towards those whom we long to know him.
Every day that Christ doesn't come back is another day for more believers to
come in. So don't give up on them. Pray for them. Engage them. Live with urgent
witness. There's still time. So why hasn't Christ come back yet? After reviewing
God's perspective, God's patience, and God's promise, we're left with this.
Christ's apparent delay is actually patience. So more might repent before
judgment comes. It's both hope and a warning. Hope that there's more time for
our loved ones. Hope that there's more time for us if we're not there yet, but
also warning that his patience won't last forever. So turn, repent, and praise
God for his patience. Let's pray. God, you are a merciful God. We sinned. We all
have sinned, but you made a way through Christ. Thank you for doing that. Thank
you for drawing us towards you, and thank you for your patience. There's a
mystery there of how you work and how we respond, but Lord, thank you for your
patience. Thank you for drawing us in. God, I pray that we would meditate on
this text, meditate on your word, and let it change us. You are a good God, and
you love us. Thank you for your work through your spirit, through your people,
and thank you for Christ's work on the cross to make this all possible. In
Christ's name I pray. Amen.