Hebrews 6:3 Part 6 Bible Teaching

Hebrews 6.3 F
December 1st 2013

COMMUNION

Join with me in our communion with each other and the Lord.

PRAYER
Father, in Spirit and Truth we come to you from the heart. And we remember your son, who becoming flesh revealed you to us. . . . . .

The Holy Spirit overshadowed a good young maid and He was conceived. God incarnate.

For us He walked the earth in an age lacking luxury, in a body lacking greatness, among a people who rejected Him.

For us He controlled Himself, obeyed the Father, died to the will that was in Him as powerfully as it is in us.

He healed, He blessed, He forgave, He fed.
He gave light, hope, and freedom to a world in bondage.

By His miracles He proved He was who He claimed to be; by the life He lived He proved His love for the Father, and by and through His death He proved His love for all – the entire world – sinner and saint.

In the end He took the ignoble body He created for Himself, stepped out of the Garden of Gethsemane, and turned it over to the will and ways of evil men – for us.

In love He bore a crown of thorns – for us.

In love He wore a mock purple robe, and in hands that healed and blessed He held a reed they gave to mock Him as a king.

For us He endured spit, slaps, and punches to His face.

In love He took lash after vicious lash across His back of flesh – for us.

In love, He bore a wooded cross to Calvary.

In love He laid His body down upon it, and allowed them to pound rusty nails through His hands and feet.

In love He allowed them to raise Him above the earth that He may draw all men too Himself.

In love He endured derision – and forgave them that did it all.

For us.

(beat)

I recently heard of a woman, and I cannot tell you if this is true or not, but in an Anderson Cooper report on after death experiences, a woman, like most of the others, described seeing a light in her field of vision that grew bigger and bigger.

And once she was enveloped in that Light, she heard or sensed a voice that said to her:

“In all of your life, have you ever loved like to feel your are loved right now?” and then the voice said: “You can do better.” And she knew she had to come back.

He did it all, in love, for His father and for you and I. And so, in remembrance of this action, we are now taking elements that represent His life given.

Broken unleavened bread and wine, symbolic of His shed blood.

As recipients of his life of love, please come forward, and remember Him this day.

PLAY

COME TO ME ALL YE through then silence.

On signal, play seven statements on the cross here.

PRAY

Several months ago we did a four part teaching on the eternality of punishment for the wicked.

In that teaching we questioned the premise out-loud, and I wondered from the pulpit, in light of all sorts of biblical evidence, if punishment was limited.

I never said it was NOT eternal – I merely suggested that, in light of all the contextual evidence it may not be.

Today we are going to embark on another topic. We are doing this in association with the resurrection. And we are going, as a means to approach this topic ask and answer one question-

Ready? When does the Bible say Jesus is going to come again.

The difference between our topic on eternal punishment and the question of, “When does the Bible say Jesus is going to come again?” is with regard to eternal punishment I merely lean toward the question as to whether it will ever end, but to the question

“When does the Bible say Jesus would come again,” I know. It is indisputable.

This is going to be the topic of our next four to five weeks of study – to answer this question, again, when does the Bible say (NOT when does Shawn McCraney say, or when does Chuck Smith say, or Chuck Missler, or that dude who puts up billboards say), but “when does the Bible say Jesus would come again?”

Have you ever stopped and allowed yourselves to wonder about this topic?

For quite some time preachers and pastors, who are well meaning and very devout have with no shortage of fervor and gusto been preaching that “the time is near.”

Now, I am not basing my resistance to this claim on the fact that it hasn’t happened and I’ve run out of patience. But nevertheless, it HAS been quite some time, hasn’t it?

Mormonism was essentially established as a millinialist religion (among a lot of others) all who were preachin Jesus imminent return.

But he hasn’t show.

Y2K gave some of us pause. Nothing. And yet pastor after pastor after pastor warn that He is coming anytime, or that the anti-Christ is coming round the mountain, or that we need to be rapture ready.

Now hear me clearly again – as a CYA and as an admittance of guilt – I too have taught these things. And I believed them. It’s not because I am super dumb (dumb but not super dumb) nor is it a matter of purposeful deception or manipulation, I was simply taught this world view . . . and, like most pastors and preachers, trusted in my teachers and their assessment or interpretation of eschatology.

And the mechanics of mans eschatological points of view can (and do) make some great sense – which made them all the more easy to buy into and then repeat.

But repeating something over and over – even for nearly two thousand years does NOT make it true.

But these are just arguments mano on mano. There are some other problems that force the seeker of truth to look deeper into the question of Jesus return.

Bible scholars almost unitedly agree – if they are honest – that Jesus himself promised to return during the lives of some of the men who were His comtemporaries.

On top of this, add in the absolute fact that His disciples continued to preach and teach that the Lord’s return was imminent . . . and yet still, today, the majority of the Body of Christ waits his return . . . mostly because the pastors continue to tell us His return “is coming soon!”

Now, here’s the rub. When we are done examining the Bible and all that the Gospels say about His second coming, all that Paul says, and Peter, and the writer of Hebrews, and Revelation, and James, and what the meaning of judgment, and the world’s end – when we are done studying all of these factors we have ONLY two conclusions we can make:

We have been wrong OR
Jesus and His twelve (which then means the Bible) are wrong.

Those are our choices.

So one reason we are embarking on this study is I refuse to believe, for a second, that Jesus, His apostles and therefore the Bible were and are wrong.

I want to defend their honor and am willing to continue to be considered a heretic to do it.

So messed up has been our interpretation of this issue that the very integrity of the LORD has been put into question by otherwise sound believers.

Let me give you one example: CS. Lewis, in his book The World’s Last Night wrote:

“Say what you like, the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proven false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected a second coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they had a reason, and one you will find very embarrassing. Their Master told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words:

“this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.”

“and He was wrong! He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else.”

See, as smart and intellectual as CS. Lewis was as our brother, he had never had the insight shared with him on “when the Bible says Jesus would return.”

Referring to Jesus statement about “this generation shall not pass till all these things be done,” Lewis, in that very same book, reiterated his stance by saying:

“It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible.”

With all due respect to brother Lewis, and in light of what the Bible reveals, I would say his charge is one of the most embarrassing statements from the mouth of a Christian intellectual.

Now, as a means to not say such rude things about the Lord and/or His apostles stance on when they said He would return, many Christians apologists, and theorists, and pastors have worked really hard to contrive possible explanations of what is really being said in scripture.

For instance, when Jesus said, “this generation shall not pass,” they say, “He did NOT mean that generation, He meant an indeterminate length of time – I mean He had to mean something different than an actual generation because obviously he hasn’t returned!” is the current thinking.

Then there are all sorts of gymnastics done with the phrase one thousand years, and a bunch of crazy interpretations that say,

“approaching” does not mean approaching,” and

“drawing near” does not mean drawing near,” and

“being near” does not mean being near,” and

“about to be revealed does not mean about to be revealed,” and

“being at hand,” does not mean being at hand,” and

“happening in a very, very little while,” does not mean (point to them) that’s right, “happening in a very, very little while, and the list goes on and on . . .

“without delay” . . . “this generation,” etc., etc.

So, as questionable, radical, and almost irreverent as this may sound,

“Is Jesus coming or not?”

We have heard for decades that His return is “coming soon!” Does this mean soon . . . or not. And if not, why do people keep saying this?

Perhaps more importantly, when we think about it, what does the preaching of Jesus imminent return do to believers?

What was the result of the millions of believers in the early 1800 who eagerly awaited Jesus imminent return – and died waiting for it in faith?

Some people say God keeps His believers on edge (by and through threatening the imminent return of His Son) as a means to keep us sharp, and ready to roll.

I question this teaching heartily.

Are we better served believing for more than “one thousand nine hundred plus years” that Jesus is coming soon (but never does) or by seeing his return in another (yes even a more biblical) way?

Is our faith and God enhanced and glorified when we have collectively but errantly stated that “Jesus is coming soon?” (but he never does)

How many times are we going to guess (and be wrong) about when His return is appearing, how many times are we going to guess the identity of the anti-Christ . . and be wrong.

NOT one Christian prophecy on the date/time/anti-Christ ID has EVER come to pass. And there have been thousands, hundreds of which were popular, dozens of which have been believed by millions.

Why does God allow this to continue . . . allow us to keep each other in a heightened state of existence?

For starters, the term Second Coming, like the term Trinity or the term eternal punishment do not exist in the Bible.

Nevertheless, His return is unquestionably biblical – it is one of the most frequently discussed messages of the New Testament and estimates are as high as forty percent of the Bible references the subject.

Why have we not clearly parsed all this information out and represented a believable, cohesive, reliable presentation of what God has plainly revealed, but instead have made up excuses (unsubstantiated excuses) to explain away these so-called embarrassing passages.

One response that I have used myself (much to my own embarrassment) is that while Jesus could never have been wrong about things He said and prophesied about, His apostles were, and so this is the reason we have so much evidence of them teaching and believing His return was close back in the day!

This totally destroys the reputation of those Spirit filled men who Jesus placed in charge of both the church AND in writing by the Holy Spirit and simultaneously places the Bible we have in our hands today in question.

I mean, if His apostles were wrong about this, what else were they wrong about? We might ask?

Another twist we have used, myself included, is to rewrite the meaning of certain phrases and passages in order to make them make sense.

So in some verses “near” means “near” but when it comes to His imminent return near could not mean near.

Let me give you one example:

In James 5:8 we read:

“Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

Of course, we cannot believe this means His second coming draws nigh (or is at hand) in a literal sense, so “draweth nigh,” must mean something else here, right?

But when we read in John 11:55

That “the Jews’ passover was nigh at hand,”

Well that, of course means it was “close by, soon to be coming, etc.”

Yes, there are times (which are justifiable) when context will dictate that even if the same Greek terms are used, they can mean something different, but in the cases of Jesus return, and the use of the terms and phrases relative to other things “coming, present, at hand, and soon to be,” they all mean the same thing.

And just to knock the issue right off the table, other believers, in an effort to defend Jesus and the apostles words of His imminent return (against the idea that it has yet to occur) will appeal to the thousand year argument.

This is how it works:

In II Peter 3:8, the Apostle Peter says:

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

I’ve appealed to this – again, without thinking. But my interpretation has been faulty. Let’s take the time to explain why now.

Many Christians will say that the reason Jesus has not appeared is that one day with Jesus is the same as 1,000 years on earth.

So we have been looking for Jesus to come for about 2,000 years, right, but to God, that has only been a couple of days!

So when Jesus (and all the writers of the New Testament) speak with words that sound imminent or soon, they were speaking with spiritual words that get their translations from heaven not earth.

Therefore “soon” in heaven-speak, and “at hand” in heaven-speak, could mean thousands and thousands of years here on earth.

Right? Get the argument?

I find this quite deceptive on God’s part, if you want to know the truth. Almost like a trick He has played on us, and like dummies we have bit on that bait like hungry desperate fish, only to have Him reel us in (at death) and then realize how dumb we have been in understanding His word in this manner.

But my God is not a trickster nor a deceiver. He is clear and plain and true – like light.

So what do we do with the 1000 years passage?

Let’s go to the text.

2nd Peter 3:3 Peter, speaking of the last days, says:

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 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 the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

“Why hasn’t the Lord come?” some will ask?

“Well,” we say matter-of-factly, “our ways are not His ways. In fact, II Peter says:

One day with the Lord is as a thousand years!”

And we hope this will shut the conversation down by getting people to believe the text is saying that a thousand years of ours is but one day to the Lord.

Now while Peter does not tells us much about our “When does the Bible say Jesus will return,” this was the subject he is addressing.

And in verse 3-4 he says:

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 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 the creation.

It would be really easy, actually, to take these passages and apply them to me, calling me a scoffer, because I am questioning how long it has been talked about but nothing seems to ever happen.

We will see in the weeks to come that when Peter writes, “there shall come in the last days scoffers,” he was talking about in the last days of that age, of the dispensation He was part of, and not of ours.

And when Peter says that “there shall come in these last days scoffers,” he is speaking of the PRESENT tense. How do we know.

Read the next verse (5) where he says:

“For this they are willingly ignorant of,”

We can cross reference this statement of Peter’s with Jude, which was written shortly after II Peter by Paul. And in verses 4, 17, 18, and 19 Paul describes, in the present tense, the presence of “mockers” who were roaming and foaming their mockeries at that time.

And in both books these “scoffers and mockers” were posing their questions in the present tense:

“When is Jesus coming back? He promised too so long ago but look! He’s still absent.”

By the time II Peter and Jude were written the apostles had been preaching for about thirty eight years that Jesus was coming back and bringing judgment.

And the mockery and scoffing was getting intense. We note, going back to II Peter that Peter tells the scoffers that the Lord was not “slack concerning His promise” but that He did not want any to perish, and for all to come to repentance.

So we might suggest that Jesus delayed as long as possible and still remain true to His promise of a return in “This generation.”

What does that mean?

In the Gospel of Matthew (24) Luke 21 and Mark (13) Jesus promised

That He would return.
That aweful judgment was going to fall on the Nation of Israel, and
In all three Gospel’s mentioned He said the things He prophesied would happen in “this generation.”

With Jesus making these prophesies around 30 AD, He had forty years to come again in order for all the things He taught to happen (including His coming).

That would time it all out around 70 AD.

So in verse 9 Peter reveals that the Lord is not slack concerning His prophesy (or promise about returning to that generation) but was taking in out as far as possible so as many Jews as were willing would repent, and have faith in Him as their Lord and King.

II Peter was written around 68 AD. Within the next two years or so those who rejected the Lord were destroyed when Jesus, their judge executed a horrific judgment upon the guilty, coming as promised, gathering “His elect” who would “ever be with Him.”

He return at that time came because, as Revelation 10:6 says, “because there should be time (delay) no longer.”

Anyway, we will flesh this whole premise out in the coming weeks. The reason we are here in II Peter 3 is to examine verse 8 which is frequently used to justify the Lord’s apparent delay (even up to this very day and age).

This, again, is the verse, where Peter says:

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Notice first that Peter does not say:

“One day EQUALS a thousand years” but says “is as.” In other words Peter does not say that it might be a thousand years before Jesus returned because God looks at time differently than we do. If he WAS saying this, he would be contradiction EVERYTHING else both His fellow apostles, Jesus, and EVEN HE HIMSELF says in other places (which we will cover in the weeks to come).

Whatever the reason Peter chose to add this here (and by the way, he was quoting from an Old Testament passage which says:

Psalm 90:4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night)

His intention was not to negate everything we will show in the weeks to come.

Just take note that whenever Jesus or his apostles spoke about “when” Jesus was coming back they never spoke in terms of numbers of years or even days. They always used another measurement of time.

For example, Jesus said, “in this generation,”

The concept of one day being as a thousand years has no bearing on these utterances by Jesus and those we will read that come from the twelve.

In fact, they never used days or years either, but always said things like:

“at hand,” “near” and “drawing nigh.”

To suddenly take this single quote from Peter and use it to erase all the other passages that plainly describe an approaching time is unreasonable.

Perhaps more persuasive, however, in the “one day as a thousand years,” argument is the second line in the passage.

Here is the first line that gets all the attention:

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years . . .”

But few people take the time to really look at the second line which says, “and a thousand years as one day.”

From the first line we can say that one day (in earth time) is as a thousand years in heaven time” but the second line says

“AND” (meaning also, for God) “a thousand years (in God’s world) is as one day (in man’s”) (which is the complete reverse!)

This is not a formula to calculate time formulas between heaven and earth. They don’t even agree with each other.

It is simply a passage to show that our time keeping and experience with it is limited and God’s is eternal and has no limitations whatsoever.

However, now stay with me – if you insist on reading it as a formula for time – let’s apply it to the thousand year reign of Christ described in Revelation 20:4, which says (to the literalists who believe 1000 means one thousand in the Bible):

Revelation 20:4 says:

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

This verse is substantive in a number of different eschatological presentations floating around (which are, to me fairly inaccurate – but who cares).

Anyway, let’s use II Peter 3:8 to sketch out Jesus 1000 year reign if we are to take it literally.

First, let’s take “the one day is as a thousand years” approach. This could make Jesus reign last 365 million years.

But let’s take the second line of verse 8 and do the math, which says:

“And a thousand years as one day,” so in this formula, the anticipated millennium could possibly last only one single day (since a day is as a thousand years).

I am doing this to show that using verse eight as a standard for measuring time is unreasonable.

The thousand year reign of Jesus in Revelation are neither 365 million years nor one day. Nor are they literally a thousand years! We know this because all the Revelation passages that mention a thousand years have (or had) to be fulfilled in a certain period of time and could not possibly accomplish this (we’ll understand this better when we get to what Revelation says about “When should Jesus return to earth”).

So why does Peter quote Psalm 90:4 here?

The Psalmist is trying to illustrate or compare God’s existence to man’s. In verse 2 of Psalm 90 the Psalmist writes that God is “from everlasting to everylasting.”

In verse four he is teaching that God is unrestricted by time. His is unlimited. It does not matter if God has “a thousand years, yesterday, or a watch in the night, to Him He has all eternity.

But in Psalm 90 the writer then compares man to God (in terms of time) and says man is like grass that can grow up in the morning and get “cut down and whither” by evening.

Psalm 90 (which Peter does NOT quote out of context but uses it appropriately) are about Gods eternal, unlimited time compared to Man’s.

They are not passages to calculate time in this world. In fact, just like Peter’s use of Psalms does not correlate to a formula, neither does the Psalm passage he borrowed from.

Listen to it:

Psalms 90:4

“For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.”

First the Psalmist says “a thousand years is God’s world is like yesterday” in earth terms. But then he writes that a thousand years in God’s sight is like “a watch in the night” in earth terms. What does this mean?

Is a watch in the night and yesterday synonymous or are they just being used to illustrate the point? (YES)

A watch in the night was a portion of time that Jews (especially in the military) would do their duty.

In the New Testament this would be four hours (due to Roman influence) and in the Old Testament a watch in the night would be three hours.

(or twelve hours divided by three or four watches)

But obviously, the Pslamist was not delivering a formula for calculating time (like the crazies want us to believe). It’s Jew-speak, for goodness sake. Its descriptive, poetic.

The point is grass, yesterday, and watches in the night are of limited duration (as is man) but God is of unlimited duration.

And no matter what we try (or better put, no matter what He tries to say to convey this through a Jewish writer, we are going to have to have symbolism.

Therefore, a thousand years is symbolic for God’s eternal nature and imperviousness to time.

He could have had the writers say, five thousand years, or a billion years, but in the end, there is not a cross over formula because this imagery was never meant to be taken literally.

A thousand mean complete or total when spoken in the Bible.

Let me give you some examples in closing:

In Psalm 50:10 we read:

“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.”

Does God only own the cattle on a thousand hills or all the cattle?

The trick in this is making sure we stick to what is metaphorical when reading scripture (like a thousand) and not making it literal AND, AND, AND making sure we make what it literal always literal when doing the same.

If we don’t, we will have people using numbers like a thousand figuratively (when it’s convenient) and literally when it is not (and vice versa).

Psalm 84:10 says:

“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

Does this mean one day to one thousand. To some who love to think this way it does. But in the passage the Psalmist is saying:

“I would not give up one day in your courts Lord for ALL OF MY DAYS somewhere else.”

It’s representative, hyperbolic if you will.

How about one more? In Psalm 105:8 we read:

“He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.”

Again, a thousand generation means all the generations (or completeness).

So, getting back to II Peter 3:8, the use of the term a thousand is representative of God “having all the time in the world.”

Man may have a day (which is also representative and not literal, like “his day in the sun,”) but God has a thousand (or an unlimited time or number).

We cannot put a literal time on God – He is outside time and space (ever hear that one and then wonder how a thousand of our years was then likened to one of his days?)

Anyway,

II Peter 3:8 cannot be used, in good conscience, to justify the apparent failure for the Lord to appear. It’s not good biblical hermeneutics.

So why does Peter, when talking about the end time, recite or include this picture that he’s taken from Psalm 90?

I think, in context of all the verses we read in chapter 3, it was a warning to the scoffers who were mocking that fact that Jesus said He was going to return and hadn’t.

I know I’ve gone a long time today but let me read II Peter 3:3-10 to help make my case on this singular point. Ready?

He writes

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 (who will say), “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

Then Peter reminds them of their ignorance saying:

5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was (at the time of Noah), being overflowed with water, perished:

So Peter says to the mockers listen, don’t you remember the world which God made stood in the says of Noah too were also wipe out?

And then he says:

7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Now here Peter speaks of what they were surrounded by – “But the heavens and the earth WHICH ARE NOW . . .” (so when we come to reading about the things that will occur in the heavens and the earth at His coming remember this verse) . . . “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

And here Peter establishes the fact that Jesus had not run out of time (this is the purpose of his use of the verse) because while it had been thirty-eight years for them time was not the issue with God. So he says:

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

And then, having noted this adds, as a warning:

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Next week we will start in the Gospel accounts first to answer the question:

When does the Bible say Jesus should return.

Questions
Prayer
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No Thursday Night open mic Bible Study.