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Bible Study from 2 Peter 3:1-9
Expect the Unexpected!
By I Gordon
Introduction
I went to the movies a while back and saw “War
of the World’s”. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It’s a pretty epic story of an
invasion of Earth from outer space. But as big and as epic as that movie is, it
has got nothing on 2nd Peter Chapter 3! 2nd Peter 3 is a
bit of a different kind of invasion if you like. It is about the Second Coming
of Christ and the certainty of that coming. It is also about the destruction of
this earth. It is a pretty full on
passage and this study is going to look at verses 1 – 9. You will remember that
chapter 1 of 2nd Peter is all
about what Is right, what is real and what you should add to your faith. 2nd Peter – Chapter 2 is all about
what is wrong and what you should avoid. But when we get to Chapter 3 it takes
another little turn as Peter wants to remind us to “Expect the Unexpected” - the
certainty of the Lord’s return and the Lord’s judgment at the end
of the Age.
2 Peter 3:1-9 Dear friends, this is now my second letter
to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome
thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy
prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come,
scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this
‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has
since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by
God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by
water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being
kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget
this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and
a thousand years are like a day.The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as
some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance.
How important is the truth concerning the return of Jesus?
When I first became a Christian, I heard someone
say – ‘Major on the majors and minor on the minors’. For a Christian, when you
come to the Bible, there are a lot of things
that you can focus on and lots of different topics. But we should major
on the majors and minor on the minors. We should find out what the Bible majors
on and major on them as well. So as I came to this passage I started thinking
to myself – is the Lord’s return important?
Is it a major or is it a minor?
What do you think? It is probably
not a major or a minor – it’s a massive, it’s huge. Don’t believe me? Check out
some facts in the small print![1]
Now, if it really is an important doctrine, and
the Lord has put His emphasis on it in terms of the number of references that
He has put about it in the Bible, then you would expect it to be mocked, you
would expect it to be attacked by the enemy. You would expect it to be scorned,
and that is what we find in 2nd
Peter – chapter 3
Peter the stirrer!
So it just starts off by saying in verse 1 –
‘Dear
friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as
reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking’
Other versions say that Peter wrote to ‘stir up
your pure mind’. So Peter, I guess you could say, is a bit of a stirrer. He
wanted to stir them up. He wanted them to really, really know, and not just in
their heads – but in their hearts, the certainty of that which he was now going
to discuss. And he wanted it stirred up so it was a passion within them. He was
writing to stir them up, so that through remembering this important truth, they
would have a pure, sincere mind with wholesome thinking. Must be a pretty
powerful thought! Now in verse 2 it talks about what he was reminding them and
what we should remember. It says
I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the
holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your
apostles.
Peter is saying, you should remember what the
Prophets have said, remember what the Lord has said, remember what the Apostles
in the New Testament have said, and especially concerning the last days and the
return of Jesus. If you know anything about Bible prophecy, and the Bible in
general, you know that the Bible is 66 books written by 40 different authors,
but it is has a consistent and integrated message through all these writers. The
message of the Prophets and the message of Jesus, the message of the Apostles
is all just one total message. There is no divergence in what they said. That
is what makes it so fascinating because it yells out to us that it is of divine
origin and inspiration! But not everyone can see this and we know that…
Before the return of the Lord is the return of the mockers!
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come,
scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this
‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has
since the beginning of creation.”
It is saying that it is a certainty that mockers
and scoffers will come – it’s absolutely certain that they will, but just as
certain as they will come, it is even more certain that the Lord will come! And it says that they will be saying ‘where
is the promise of His coming, you know it’s been 2,000 years, you guys have
been going on about this for a long, long time. Where is His coming, where is
this return that you keep talking about’.
And they will say ‘everything just carries on – day in, day out, nothing
ever changes. Where is this judgment of God that you have spoken about and
where is the return of Christ? – rubbish, absolute rubbish.” And in some ways,
the Church or Christian cults have given
reason to mock because of all the dates, “the sure thing” dates that different
people have put out concerning when the Lord is going to return.[2]
The Bible is very clear that you are not going
to know the day or the hour, but it is even clearer that He will come… He
definitely will come. So we look at
verse 3 and it gives us another reason, a more personal reason, why some love
to mock and scoff at the suggestion of His return. It says: They will come with their mocking following
after their own lusts.
Basically they want to mock because they don’t
want to believe. And they don’t want to believe because they don’t want to be
accountable to a Holy God. It is like that quote by Ray Comfort which I have
made several times – ‘An atheist can’t find God
for the same reason that a robber can’t find a policeman – they don’t
want to!’ These people mock because they want to follow their own lusts and enjoy
their sin. So they would far rather not
believe any of this.
Deliberately forgetful!
If you have a look in verse 5 it says:
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word
the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
So the mockers willfully and deliberately choose
to forget. I read something by John McArthur and he said that in the Greek it
literally means that they ‘shut their eyes to the facts’. They would far rather
believe in evolution, that we came from some small organism and it turned into
a fish and grew some legs. They would far rather just believe a lie because if
they believe that they are not accountable to anybody. So they shut their eyes
to the facts.[3] Now, there are a couple of things that they
try to forget about. One – that there is
actually a God who created all of this. And two, it is actually His Word that
upholds the whole earth.
But
this earth has been designed with the ability to destroy itself
By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
God created and upholds this earth by His word.
But He also created this earth with the ability for it to destroy itself[4].
The first time was through water. The next will be by fire.[5] It
says ‘By His Word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire,
kept for the day of judgment for the destruction of ungodly men’. Someone has said that the earth didn’t come in with a big
bang but it is sure going to go out with
one! The world is basically like an egg.
Like a runny egg in that there is a thin crust around the outside of it, but
it’s all liquid in the center. And we know from all the lava that sometimes
spills up from volcanoes that there is fire underneath this thin crust that we
walk on. So God is one day going to judge this world by fire. We will just look
at this time - the Day of the Lord, in the next study, but I just want to look
at Revelation because it just gives us a glimpse of what is going to happen,
and it also shows us that those who mock now won’t be mocking then. In Revelation chapter 6 verse 12 it says:
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great
earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole
moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs
drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a
scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes,
the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in
caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains
and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us
from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For
the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
That is a pretty full on passage. It is
basically saying that all those who had despised the Lord, had rejected the
Lord, had mocked the day of tribulation, suddenly know that when they are in
the midst of it that this is the wrath of Him who sits on the throne and the
wrath of the Lamb. They know that the great day of His wrath has come – the day
that had been prophesied over and over and over, by all the Hebrew prophets,
has finally come. It says ‘The stars of the sky fell to the earth’ and we know
that stars are basically burning suns, huge balls of fire. We can only imagine what it will be like.
But God, abundant in patience, still waits…
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the
Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.The
Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is
patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance.
You may have heard about the little boy who said
to the Lord ‘Is it true that a hundred years is just like a second to you?’ And
God said ‘Yes – a hundred years is just like a second.’ And the boy said ‘Is it
also true that a hundred thousand dollars is just like a dollar to you?’ And God
replied ‘Yes, a hundred thousand is just like a dollar.’ So the boy said ‘Well,
can I have one of your dollars?’ The Lord replied ‘Sure, just wait a second’.
This is basically what Peter is saying in this verse… these people are saying
‘Look, where is His coming - where is His coming, it’s been 2000 years. He’s not going to come, nothing is going to
change, everything just carries on as it did from day one – nothing ever
changes!’. But Peter said first of all,
God was the One who created this world and He is the One that judged this world
and He is the One that will judge it again! If His coming, His judgment delays
longer than you think it’s going to be, it’s for a reason. It’s because God doesn’t want people to perish;
he really doesn’t! If His return takes longer than people expect it’s because
of His kindness, mercy and love. For me personally, I am thankful that the
rapture didn’t occur when people thought it might in ’88. I didn’t get saved
until 1990! So even though Christians want the rapture and the Lord’s return to
occur soon, let’s just remember why God does delay that return. The Lord is
patient towards even those who would mock Him, and mock His coming. He is
patient towards them, because He doesn’t want any to perish but all to come to
repentance. And that should be our heart and motivation as well.
But the end will come…
But the next verse which we will carry on with
next time says: 'But the Day of the Lord
will come.’ The Day of the Lord will come, His return will come, Judgment will
come. The time will come when God will
say ENOUGH!!
So Peter wanted us to be reminded of what the Prophets said, what the Lord said and what the Apostles said concerning the return of Jesus. He wanted us to have the hope of the certainty of the Lord’s coming, to expect the unexpected, even if people mock it. It’s an absolute certainty! But until then, we should use our time wisely remembering that God doesn’t want any to perish but for all to come to repentance.