“Viewing Time” – FBC Morning Light (11/17/2023)

Well, a good Friday morning to you, wrapping up yet another work week and looking forward to the Lord's Day in a couple of days. I hope you're planning to gather together with God's people on Sunday. Well, today we are reading in our Bible reading plan Ezekiel 39 and 40, and then we're ending Peter's second letter, 2 Peter, reading chapter 3.

The Certainty of Christ’s Return in 2 Peter 3

I want to focus on 2 Peter 3. Let me ask you something. Rhetorical questions here. I'm not expecting you to give me an answer, obviously, in the comments below or anything like that, but how old are you?

Second question, how long have you been a Christian? I don't mind saying I'm 65 years old. I trusted Christ as my Savior when I was seven, so I've been a Christian for almost six decades. You got anything comparable to that?

Been around in the faith around that length of time? Do you remember, if so, do you remember the prophecy preachers back in the 70s who were very adamant claiming that Jesus is going to come before 1980?

That was the era of the apocalyptic films, Thief in the Night and A Distant Thunder, and some of those movies that were designed to scare the pudding out of you and scare you to Jesus, if you will. Remember some of those?

1980 has come and gone a long time ago, 43 years now since 1980 hit, and Jesus didn't come back. Have you ever just had a fleeting thought, just fleeting, ever so swiftly coming in and immediately dismissing it, wondering, is Jesus really coming again?

After all, it's been 2 ,000 years. After all, I thought when I became a Christian 50 years ago, however long it's been since you became a Christian, I thought Jesus was coming soon. I thought I wouldn't make it to age 40 if Jesus had come, or 50, whatever it is, and yet here you are, my age, age 65, I thought Jesus was coming 40 years ago, never did.

Is he coming now? Certainly, if you've got a sensitive conscience at all, as soon as that thought came into your mind, you dismissed it, you said, of course I believe he's coming again, the Bible says he's coming again, and you reaffirmed what you believe, your faith.

The skeptics and the scoffers are not so quick to dismiss the thought. In fact, they're pretty bold in declaring their scoffing. Peter alludes to this in verse 3 of chapter 3. He says, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts or desires, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Nothing has changed. Jesus isn't coming again, this whole thing about Jesus coming again, it's nonsense.

Thousands of years have come and gone, and Jesus hasn't come. They make a huge mistake by alluding back to the time of creation, they're forgetting about the judgment of the great flood, and so forth.

Nevertheless, it has been 2 ,000 years since Jesus ascended, and he promised that he would return. In the book of Revelation, the end of the book, Jesus says, behold, I come quickly. The book was written in the early 90s, A .D. 93-ish, I think.

That's 1 ,900 years have passed since Jesus made that declaration. By the way, I think that could perhaps better be translated, I am coming at any time. So he is. The scoffers say, where is this? This isn't coming.

Where is this coming? He hasn't come. Peter answers that objection, because Peter was living in the last days, ever since Jesus ascended up until the time he returns, it's the last days. Peter answers that, and he says the basic problem with such scoffing is that the scoffer is looking at time from our perspective as human beings.

We look at days that translate into weeks and months and then years and then decades and centuries and millennia. That's not how God looks at things. He says, don't forget this one thing, verse 8, with the Lord, one day is as 1 ,000 years, and 1 ,000 years as a day.

In other words, God, who exists outside of time, is not bound by time. He doesn't look at time the way we look at time. We look at the last two millennia and see 2 ,000 years have passed by. God looks at that and sees it as if it's been two days.

It's been like nothing since that time has passed. God's ways of looking at things are not the way we look at things. God's timetable is not our timetable. What does this mean for us in a practical level?

It means we don't know when Jesus is coming again. We have our notions that with all that's going on in this world and how corrupt the world is and the wars that are going on, especially that which is centering in Israel and the Middle East, Jesus has to be coming soon, any time now.

I can't imagine that we'll be around by 2030. It's exactly the kind of thing I was hearing in 1973. I can't imagine we'll be around by 1980. I think we have to be careful not to come to those kinds of conclusions, but then also dismiss out of hand the entertaining of the thought that maybe this is all wrong.

Maybe Jesus isn't coming again at all. You know, the apostles and the believers in the first century were confident Jesus would come in their lifetime. They were looking for him to return, and they came and went.

They passed off the scene, and so have centuries since. There may be centuries yet to come for all we know. After all, it's just a couple of days, a couple thousand years out into the future, just a couple of days from God's perspective.

So let's be careful that we don't put God in the time box that we live in and insist that he function according to our timetable. Let's allow him to be God and operate according to his perspective and on his timetable.

Trusting God’s Timetable and Looking for Christ’s Return

Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you that you do have the end in mind and you have it set. May we trust you for it. Deliver us from the scoffing attitude that hasn't seen Christ return yet, and therefore question whether or not he ever will.

Oh, let's be confident, Father, that he shall. We look forward to that day, and we pray, even so, come, Lord Jesus. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, listen, have a wonderful rest of your Friday.

Hope you have a great weekend, and especially as you gather together with God's people. Have a good day. God bless.