Jesus Will Come
Second Peter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Years ago I heard a joke that I still find funny. A pastor of a small town was going to be going on vacation. Of course, the entire town knew it including a nefarious thief who patiently waited for the day to arrive. The pastor and his family packed up and left - the thief waited one extra day just to be sure. Then, late one night he snuck around to the back of the house and was able to jimmy a window open. He waited to be sure there was no alarm.
Hearing nothing he climbed in the window. As he entered he suddenly heard a voice, “Jesus is watching you.” He froze in his tracks. Who was that? Are they calling the police? He stood absolutely still for a moment and nothing. He continued to explore the room and again heard the voice, “Jesus is watching you.” This time he was able to determine the voice was coming from a bird cage where the pastor’s prize parrot sat up proudly. A sense of relief washed over him. No one was coming, he was safe. “Jesus is watching you,” the parrot squawked again.
He turned from the bird cage and said, “You stupid bird, can’t you say anything else,” just as the beam from his flashlight came on a pair of dark brown eyes staring at him. It was the pastor’s Rottweiler.
The bird said, “Sick ‘em Jesus.”
For some people this is how they think of God and the day of judgment, as if God is simply sitting on his throne waiting for the prime opportunity to “sick ‘em”. The truth is a day of judgment is coming. We read in Matthew 25 about the separating of the sheep and the goats. We’re told throughout the prophets, from Jesus Himself, and the other apostles that Jesus will return on a day and we don’t know when.
Still others will say, and it’s easy for Christians to fall into it and ask the question, “Where is the promise of his coming?” We can read the Scriptures and here the stories of “in the last days” and think, “Well, it hasn’t happened yet, it’s probably not going to happen.”
The non-believer sees the delay as a sign of the Bible and God merely being myth, so what is the believer to say? How do we counter their argument?
Peter gives us an argument in verses 8 and 9:
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.
Did you catch that? The Lord’s promise is still a promise, and the Lord is not slow to fulfill as some count slowness. The Lord is patient not wishing that any should perish.
I want to stop there for a moment, because I have heard some say - including Christian leaders I know and respect - this verse points to the fact that God will save everyone. That is not what it says. Let’s read v. 9 again:
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.
God is patient - there’s no surprise there. Anyone who has read through the Old Testament and watched the Israelites loudly proclaim they will do whatever God commands, and then a few verses later be in the throws of doing exactly the opposite. We will worship you and you alone! A few verses later they’re worshipping a golden calf.
Anyone who has read through the Gospels and watched how the disciples would seemingly be in total agreement with Jesus one minute and the next they’re questioning who is this?
God is indeed patient. And then we get to verse 10 in Peter’s letter, 2Pe 3:10
2 Peter 3:10 (ESV)
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,...
The day of the Lord will come, unexpectedly. Perhaps even when we least expect it. We delude ourselves in thinking we can determine when the day will be. How often do we read predictions on the covers of tabloids in the grocery checkout aisle? When I was in seminary there was a van that drove around Pasadena, proclaiming the return of Jesus was to be January 6, 1992. The joke was it was still driving around a month after that date with no sign that Jesus had returned.
For centuries Christians and others have tried to determine the exact time to expect him. It’s not like your thanksgiving dinner when you know what time your guests will arrive! (or at least when they’re expected to). Jesus even said,
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
If the Gospel writers didn’t know, and Jesus doesn’t know, why should we think that the writers of a tabloid somehow has the inside scoop on when Jesus will return? And the real question is, why are we so obsessed with knowing when?
I think the reason is pretty obvious. We want to be ready, but our idea of being ready is not quite so pure. We are sinners after all, but I think the Thanksgiving dinner illustration is instructive.
If you were to drop into my house unexpectedly, I’ll be honest, I’m not the Martha Stewart of housekeepers. I have two dogs, there’s dog hair, and I tend to jump from one thing to another so there’s often dirty dishes in the sink, and piles of papers on the kitchen table, etc. However, if I have a lot of guests coming over I make an effort to clean it up, to get it ready.
We saw this with the visit of President Xi of China to San Francisco or when the All Star Game came to Seattle, city leaders cleaned it up.
How much more would we want to present ourselves as clean, pure, holy?
The challenge is we want to do things our way first, right? We want to be able to just chill until we need to straighten up and fly right.
Jesus warned, Matt 24:43
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.
Or from our story that I began with, perhaps he wouldn’t have gone on vacation.
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Peter says the same thing: 2Pe 3:10
2 Peter 3:10 (ESV)
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.
That’s a statement of judgment. And Peter asks,
2Pe 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,
After laying it out, Peter concludes, 2Pe 3:14
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
We are to be found without spot or blemish - our home should be found clean. We need to be found ready.
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
We know the guest is coming! We know the solid ground, and we ought to be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As we are gearing up for Christmas we will be going through the 4 Sundays of Advent reflecting on the world’s waiting for the Messiah to come and the birth of our Savior. And there is a second layer to that in that we are awaiting the return of Jesus to earth.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Are we ready? How do we get ready?
It’s all about constantly examining oneself and confessing our sins cleaning house - this is not something that you can hire out, like you might hire someone to clean your home. As your pastor I cannot make you blameless, holy or godly. I can help you look at Scripture, I can point to Jesus as our standard and invite you to look to him for comparison.
Throughout the Scriptures Old and New Testament we read from God, “Be Holy, for I am holy.” We read it in Leviticus and in 1 Peter 1:16
since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
That is our call. That is how we are to be ready, and it’s not something we want to wait for, Jesus will come. He’s coming, are you ready? I pray you are working to be so.
To God be the Glory, AMEN.