2 Peter: Anticipation - He's Not Slow To Keep His Promises

When you have to wait for something a long time, do you start to believe it will never happen?

• We think God is being slow... ACTUALLY... God is patient
• We question the words of Jesus... ACTUALLY... his words have already been fulfilled
• We believe the teaching of scoffers... ACTUALLY... fire is being stored up for their judgement

What is a scoffer?
 
Read 2 Peter 3:1-4
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, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 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.”

What were the scoffers saying?  How does it relate to our lives in the 21st century?

Our HOPE is not in this world.  So when anyone tries to destroy our confidence in the return of Jesus, they are destroying the foundation of our salvation.  If Jesus said he would return, but doesn't,  how can we believe anything else he said is true.

Have you ever broken a promise and lost the trust of someone?

Read 2 Peter 3:5-7
5 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, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 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.

What are two evidences that God's words can be trusted?

Atheists often try to treat the creation account and the worldwide flood of Noah as myth.  Peter is saying that these two events in history are examples where God spoke and his words were fulfilled.

• God spoke all creation into existence
• God told Noah a hundred years before it happened about the flood.

No one was around to be impatient with God while he created everything, but think about how Noah must have wondered if it was ever going to rain.

THE LORD'S PATIENCE
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. 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.

As we talked about in 1 Thessalonians, Jesus said "I'll be back".  For some people, his return will be like a home invasion.
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.

To be ready, we should live holy and godly lives.  How do we do that?

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 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! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

I went to Walmart last night to get a toothbrush.  While there, a homeless person asked if a I could spare a dollar.  After I gave her a dollar, she asked for another.  When the new heaven and new earth appears, there will no longer be people suffering.  No will suffer because of their own weaknesses, the failings of others, or unfortunate circumstances.

We need to do our part to hasten the day of Jesus' return.

14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 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. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Big Ending
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior so you can show yourself ready for his return.