Key Verse: 2 Peter 3:14 “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.” Here lately with all the wars, and political turmoil I have been hearing people talk a lot about the return of Jesus. People ask me, “pastor are we living in the end times?” My usual response is that we have been living in the end times since the ascension of Jesus. This means that there is nothing holding back our Lord from returning, we are in the final epoch of time. However, all the talk about the details of the Lord’s coming such as the time, and the place, who the antichrist is, what countries are involved, etc. are somewhat concerning to me. I fear that many of us have become far too worried about some of the hidden details of the Christ’s return and have sacrificed our duty while we seek out the mysteries surrounding His return. We would do well to remember and apply what Peter writes about in his second epistle. In V.14, he writes, ‘looking forward to these things,’ this is a direct reference to the coming day of the Lord. The day when Christ returns, and exercises the coming judgment. It is good to look forward to this day because this is the day when we as Christians will truly be free from the effects of sin and death. Evil will face God’s ultimate wrath and be done away with for God. It is good to study end times theology and it’s ok to enjoy it! I do! However, Peter does not tell us that we should get lost in all the details and start guessing about the specifics regarding this day of the Lord. While he does encourage us to look forward to the day, he also exhorts us to ‘be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.’ I believe that the God is far more concerned with the purity of our walk than our understanding of end time theology. When Jesus returns He wants to find us living in peace. He wants us to be peacemakers in our church and in our world. The greatest peacemakers help bring others to peace with God by presenting the gospel. He also desires to find us without spot and blameless. This means that Christ desires that we be found to be Christians of great moral character. Friends these are the things that we should be paying close attention to. It is fun to study the end times, but some of the details surrounding it our hidden from us, because that is how God wants it to be. We need to be concerned with our actions and thoughts. Are we sharing the gospel? Are we growing spiritually, and living for Jesus? I hope that when Christ returns He finds me being the man He wants me to be! We should all pray for Jesus to return quickly, and then allow His imminent return to inspire us to Holy living!!
