Believers of the Second Coming (2 Peter 3:8–13)
In contrast to the scoffers, we are believers of the Second Coming. In 2 Peter 3:8–13, Peter tells us not to overlook one fact: with the Lord one day is as a thousand years. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise but is patient, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
This sermon explains what Scripture means by the coming—the parousia—of Jesus, the judgment of the day of the Lord in which the heavens will be dissolved and all works exposed, and the glorious promise we await: new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Introduction
In Peter’s “second letter” he wrote to those he called the “beloved” of God the Father” (v. 1). As I mentioned last week, this is the same word the Father used of his eternal Son at the Transfiguration. You are “beloved” in the Son of the Father, loved ones! Amen? Peter wrote that those “beloved” would “remember the predictions of the holy prophets” about the Second Coming and its scoffers, as well as “remember…the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles” concerning their being holy as God is holy in view of the Second Coming (v. 2). More on this next Sunday.
In contrast, in the “last days,” “scoffers” deny the Second Coming as a cover for “following their own sinful desires” (v. 3).
Their scoffing was like the ancient Israelites in the wilderness: “Where is the promise of his coming?” (v. 4). Why’d they scoff like this? “Ever since the fathers [the ancient patriarchs] fell asleep [died and were buried], all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (v. 4). In other words, “the world’s full of injustice and God isn’t doing anything about it to vindicate us in our time of need; so, let’s live in our sinful desires as we please; what does godly living accomplish anyway?” While reasoning this way, “they deliberately overlook [the] fact, that” God has already acted in human history, first in the creation (v. 5). God acted in human history a second time in the Flood (v. 6).
Recall what I said last Sunday. It’s on the basis of how God has already acted in human history that we can have certainty that he’ll act again! Amen? That’s verse 7. These are the actions of God the false teachers and scoffers “deliberately overlook” (v. 5). Now Peter says to us: but do not overlook this one fact, beloved (v. 8).
Theme
Last week we saw scoffers of the Second Coming; today we turn our attention to believers of his Coming.Let’s listen in to what the Holy Spirit has for us.
The Second Coming
Let’s begin by defining and explaining what Peter means by the Second Coming. We say this in the creed, but do we really know what we’re saying? In chapter 1, Peter said the apostles “did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming (parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 16). The power and the parousia. Pay careful attention to that word coming or parousia. This word was used in ancient religious literature to describe the manifestation of a hidden god. It was also used in civil literature to describe an official visit of a high-ranking person, especially a King or Emperor, who would come to a city, and its leading citizens would go out to meet him and escort him the rest of the way. (Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 630; F. F. Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 56–57)
All that is interesting, but how is it used in the New Testament? Hear me loud and clear: every time Jesus, Paul, James, Peter, and John use parousia of Jesus they speak of the once-for-all Second Coming. It’s not used of a secret rapture in distinction from the Second Coming.
Jesus’ Use of Parousia
Most important of all is Jesus’ use of parousia. In Matthew 24 Jesus said the temple would be destroyed (which the Roman General Titus did in AD70). His disciples then asked him two questions:
“When will these things be” (the temple’s destruction)
“What will be the sign of your coming?” (v. 3)
In contrast to false prophets who would speak of the Lord’s coming, Jesus said don’t listen to them because you’ll know when he comes: “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (v. 27). The parousia is as visible and dramatic as lightning. He made a comparison: “as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (v. 37). How? “As in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (vv. 38–39).
Our friends who affirm a secret rapture point to the verses that follow, when Jesus says two men will be working in a field and two women at a mill but one will be taken and one left. They say those “taken” are caught up in the rapture. The problem is that just said those “swept away” in Noah’s day were God’s enemies; those “taken” are taken for judgment!
The Apostles’ Use of Parousia
The apostles’ use of parousia shows the same thing: the once-for-all Second Coming.
Paul says when Jesus was raised from the dead he become the first-fruits of the final resurrection.
Temporally, his resurrection was like the first part of the harvest; later, the rest will be “harvested” or raised.
Representationally, he’s the first-fruits, meaning, because he was made alive in resurrection, therefore “at his coming those who belong to Christ” will also be made alive (1 Cor. 15:23). It’s one resurrection, but two phases: Jesus’ then ours (Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Resurrection and Redemption, 34–36).
Paul used this word most often in his two letters to the Thessalonians.
He called them his joy and crown “before our Lord Jesus at his coming” (1 Thes. 2:19).
He prayed that God would “establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thes. 3:13).
He comforted believers whose loved ones had died, saying, “we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thes. 4:15).
Again, believers would “be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 5:23).
More telling is 2 Thessalonians 2, where Paul speaks of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him” (v. 1). Some might say this is the rapture.
But just a few verses later, he speaks of the revelation of the Antichrist “whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming” (v. 8). Do you see that? Paul uses the same word in verses 1 and 8 to describe Jesus’ “coming” as he did in 1 Thessalonians 4:15.
Even more, when Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians 2:1 of “being gathered,” he uses the same word Jesus used in Matthew 24:31: “[God] 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.” Angels’ trumpet, the coming of the Lord, and our being gathered to Jesus: these are all the same event.
James tells his readers, “Be patient…until the coming of the Lord…for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (5:7, 8).
Peter says in our passage the world mocks believers about the apparent lack of or slowness of his coming (2 Peter 3:4) He goes on to speak of God’s patience with an ungodly world, saying with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (v. 8). Then he says the day of the Lord—his parousia, not secret rapture—will come like a thief and on that day the heavens will pass away (v. 10). Therefore, we are to be holy and godly waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God when he begins a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells (v. 11–13).
Finally, the beloved apostle John tells believers “abide in [Jesus], so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming (1 John 2:28).
To summarize the New Testament use of parousia for Jesus’s Second Coming:
Jesus’s parousia will be as dramatic and visible as lightning (Matt. 24:27; 1 Thes. 4:16)
At his parousia the blessed will be made alive in resurrection just like Jesus the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:23)
The blessed will be be “gathered to him” (2 Thes. 2:1; Matt. 24:31)
The Antichrist will be destroyed (2 Thes. 2:8)
The wicked will be “swept away” like in “the days of Noah” (Matt. 24:37–39)
Then the present heavens will pass away in the fire of judgment and a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells emerges (2 Peter 3:10, 12–13)
Until then, God is establishing our hearts and keeping us blameless in holiness (1 Thes. 3:13; 5:23)
Until then, we are to be patient, holy, and godly as we abide in Christ (Jas. 5:7, 8; Peter 3:11; 1 John 2:28) so that we will be confident and not ashamed at his coming.
Let me say as clearly as I can, with love for the Word of God and for you to know it better: the hope Jesus and his inspired apostles offer us is not of a secret rapture to escape the world. There was nothing secret about the Lord’s coming upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the walls falling down in Jericho, the birth of the Son of God upon earth, or what is going to happen when he comes again. Our hope is for a climactic, dramatic, public, universal, and visible second coming of Christ!
All this is so important to know because it places our hope in the right event. This is so true in life. I read about home insurance rates being so high in Florida that people are just not getting insurance in the hope that if there’s a catastrophic hurricane, the federal government will be there for them. How much more important is it for us to put our hope for the ultimate reality of this world in the Lord? What’s our “blessed hope?” “The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Judgment
Back to 2 Peter, we also learn that at Jesus’ Second Coming will be the final judgment. 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 (v. 10). In verse 11 he says all these things are thus to be dissolved and in verse 12: because of [this coming] the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
Note the dramatic language of the heavens will pass away, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved (v. 10), dissolved again (v. 11), the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved—a third time—and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn (v. 12).
But there’s a problem here. Did you notice as everything in the heavens, meaning, what we can see in the sky or “space,” is set on fire, burns up, melts, and dissolves (three times), we also read the earth (everything down here) and the works that are done on it will be exposed (v. 10).
How do we resolve this problem? The biblical imagery of fire can mean destruction, but it’s also used for purification. That purification imagery is being used here in the sense of distinguishing the good from the evil. This is the last judgment, which we confessed this morning: “He [Jesus] shall come again to judge the living and dead.” Everything done in this world will be exposed. The book of Revelation vividly describes books being opened and judgment is according to what in those books, But’s there’s also a book of life (Rev. 20:12). Here’s the key difference: some will have their works written in those books already forgiven and their names in the book of life, while others will not.
None of us thinks we’re going to die tomorrow, but you’re not guaranteed another day. What’s in those books about your works? What will you say to God about what you’ve done and not done? You have a choice to make: stand on your own and plead your case with the perfect Judge of the universe or come to Jesus by faith, ask for mercy and forgiveness, and ask him, the sinless and righteous Savior, to plead your case for you. I know which choice I’ve made!
New Heavens and Earth
Jesus will return to earth, everyone dead will be raised and those alive transformed (1 Thes. 4:15; 1 Cor. 15), then we read of the final goal of human history: according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (v. 13).
Here is one of the great distinguishing characteristics of Christian hope with that offered today by communist or Marxist ideology. The Marxist world is a world without God; the State is the only almighty, godlike power there is. Thus, this is all there is. The world moves in cycles, a never-ending cycle even, where nothing ever comes to resolution. The Christian hope is that the world and all in it are going somewhere. We’re moving towards a telos, a goal. That goal is a new heavens and a new earth.
Just like the fire imagery doesn’t mean destruction here but purification, out of that final purification of this world when all that is unrighteousness and sinful will be purged once for all, a new heavens and new earth will emerge Like our San Diego wildfires destroy yet renew, with new tress and flora emerging from a seeming wasteland, so too one day we’ll live in on a new earth surrounding by new heavens.
What will it be like? It will be a place in which righteousness dwells. If you read Genesis 2 and think Eden was great, there is something greater! In Eden, Adam was able to sin or not to sin; in the new heavens and new earth all its inhabitants will not be able to sin but only be able to love God and neighbor, obey God’s commands and will, and reflect perfectly his image of true holiness and righteousness. It will be the place God intended for this world but that we’ve caused to fall and be full of futility.
Conclusion
In contrast to scoffers of the Second Coming we are believers in the Second Coming. Amen?