The Final Word | Week 10
Dayna Street teaches on 2 Peter 3:1-9 in Week 10 of "The Final Word," our Bellevue Women study on the book of 2 Peter.
The Final Word
Week 10 – 2 Peter 3:1-9
The Last Days – The Promise of His Coming
In 2 Peter 3:1-9, as Peter is writing his final words, he is urgently trying to convey his message on how we should live in light of the promise of His coming.
I. Eternal Expectation (vv. 1-7)
If you really want to live life on Earth the way it ought to be lived, you must learn to live it with eternity in mind.
He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
A. Peter’s Reminder (vv.1-2)
We develop an eternal expectation as we live in light of God’s Word. In verses 1-2, Peter says that he is writing this as a reminder to remember to live according to God’s Word. “The words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets” is a reference to the writings of the Old Testament. “The commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles” is a reference to the New Testament that was still being written at the time Peter is writing.
B. The Mockers’ Reasoning (vv. 3-4)
When mockers come, Peter says, they will raise a challenge, ”Where is the promise of His coming?”
In verse 3, Peter explains that the main reason mockers mock Christ’s return is so that they will be free to live any kind of life they want to live. They want to be able to follow “after their own lusts.”
C. Peter’s Rebuttal (vv. 5-7)
In verses 5-6, Peter has a firm rebuttal that shoots down the reasoning of the mockers. He reminds his readers that the sovereignty of God is reflected in creation and in judgment.
- Creation reflects God’s sovereignty.
In the beginning, God emerged the land through the water in order to create the earth. But mockers ignore the power of God that was evidenced in creation.
- Judgment reflects God’s sovereignty.
The uncontainable God who created the world once again intervened in history and destroyed the world by the flood because of sin.
In verses 6-7, Peter says that the earth was different when God first created it and then it was different again after the flood. So no one should scoff at God’s promise that He will make it different once again, judging it not with water but with fire.
II. Eternal Viewpoint (vv. 8-9)
God does not operate by linear time. He transcends time which is why Moses called him the Eternal God in Deuteronomy 33:27.
Exodus 3:14. His name is I AM. Present tense. Always. God only knows now. God is not slow, but there are times we hold Him up by failing to obey.
The Israelites
Abraham and Sarah
III. Eternal Priorities (v. 10a)
Revelation 19:11-16