You Need to Prepare for Christ's Return

There are over 2,400 scriptures about his second coming. Eight times more than his first coming. So why would God give us so much about Jesus' return if it wasn't important? I believe what's happening with Israel, what's happening with the church, and what's happening in the natural world all indicate that we're in the last of the last days. I have been spending weeks, I have been spending literally a month digging, reading Dead Sea Scrolls. I've been reading Church Fathers. I've been reading so much to prepare for this, and I still feel ardent. I've scratched the surface. When it comes to the prophetic scriptures, the second coming of Jesus, the end times, these are truths that are hidden. Here's what I've been wanting to get to the whole podcast. Hey, everybody. We'll get back to the episode in just a moment. But first, I want to thank the patrons who make this podcast possible. I may be the one you hear, but as the Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians, the unseen parts of the body are just as important, if not more important, than the ones we see. Your support behind the scenes is critical to sharing these messages, so thank you. If this podcast has strengthened you and you're not a patron yet, we'd love for you to join the team. Your monthly contribution will help us reach more people with timeless truth. Plus, you get some great insider perks, including private Q&As with me, as well as other exclusive content. To become a patron, just click the link in the show description or go to johnbevere.com backslash patron. Now, let's get back to the show. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the John Bevere Podcast. Here we are, Arden. We finally made it to 2 Peter chapter 3. It only took us almost a full year. It's like six months, right? I know. It did. I know. And there's a side of me that wants it to go faster, and then I realize, no, there's just too much richness. Then I also realize that it's been only two chapters in six months.

And I'm wondering, how much of the Bible are we going to be able to keep going through? I don't know, but chapter 3 is so full that it might take us another six months just to do chapter 3. I'm not saying it will, but it could. But the whole chapter is about the second coming of Jesus. Now, before anybody goes, oh, no, no, no, no, let's just ask some questions here. Is the second coming of Jesus important to think and talk about? We just have to ask this, because this is the thing that comes up with everybody. You got the people that go, oh, no, no, I don't want to hear about it. Then you got the people that go, I want to hear about it. I want to hear about it. And it seems almost like it divides when it shouldn't. And then there's also the third group, I feel like, which is the people that just, I don't understand it. And so I stay away from it. I would love to talk about it, but I don't fully understand it. When someone starts talking about it, it goes way over my head, and I just don't get it. So this is the questions we're going to ask. Are there benefits for talking about the second coming of Jesus? Are there consequences? This is the big one. Are there consequences of not talking about it? And I know there's a lot of people that think, what's just wrong with ignoring it? Won't it just happen? And I think we're going to address this through this chapter. And so we're going to open up 2 Peter 3, verse 1. This is my second letter to you, dear friends. And in both of them, I have tried to stimulate. I love this Greek word. It means to wake up. It means to arouse from a sleep. It means to stir up. It means to think about a sea, an ocean. It means to stir it up all of a sudden, right? So I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking.

Now, I love this Greek word. Wholesome thinking literally means there's one Bible commentary that says it means correct understanding. So if there is correct understanding, that means there's incorrect understanding. So this is why we are staying with the Scripture line upon line, but yet bringing the truth into today. In the sense that the Word of God is timeless. It applies today just as much as it did in the first century church. And today, it addresses so much that we are facing. So many people have questions. So many people are wondering. So many people are concerned about what's coming on the earth, about what's going on in society, about what's going on in our world between nations. And yet, we have peace when we look to the Word of God because the Word of God abides forever and it applies to today. And that's why I believe Art and Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds. It's not the word that proceeded. Even though we're reading a letter that was written 2,000 years ago, the Spirit of God is the one that makes it the word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And that's why people keep listening to the podcast. They listen to other men and women of God that are anointed of the Spirit because God has a word. way of speaking still today. The writer of Hebrews says, see that you do not refuse him who speaks, not him who spoke, him who speaks, he's still speaking to us. And this is a very, very, very important word for us today. So I wanna stimulate, I wanna wake up, arouse your wholesome thinking, your correct understanding by way of refreshing your memory.

Verse two, I want you to remember. Okay, so here we go again, remember in the first book, he said three times, I'm gonna make sure you always are mindful of these things. I'm gonna ensure as long as I'm living, you remember these things. And I'm gonna make sure when I pass and go to heaven, you remember these things. So Peter's really strong about remembering the word of God. And I think that's why we read in the book of Hebrews, exhort one another daily, not weekly. Yeah, daily. Not every Sunday, daily. Why? Because it's so easy to drift from the word of God. Hebrews chapter two, verse one says, we must listen very carefully to the truth we've heard, lest we drift away from it. It's easy to drift away truth when you live in a society that is literally blasting you with information. It's like looking into a mirror. If you just didn't look into a mirror for seven days, you're gonna begin to start forgetting what your face looks like. Even something that you're like, right now I see it every single day. I could tell you exactly how my face is. Like maybe draw a portrait. Me drawing a portrait of my face would look very bad, but I could draw things on my face.

But if I continue to keep going, something that is so familiar to me, I would begin to start losing the memory of it and forgetting what I actually looked like, the changes in my beard, all this stuff. That's why it's so important that we don't just read scripture one time and think, oh yeah, no, I've read the story of Moses. I've read the story of Paul and I've read all this, but we continue to keep dwelling on it, but we go back to it. We ask the teacher to reveal new things to us because we do not wanna drift away. I mean, I think you would ask majority of Christians and ask them, do you wanna drift away from the word of God? They would say no, but drifting, I love you always say this, drifting happens unknowingly. It's not something consciously that's happening. It's unknowingly. Yeah, you don't go, hey, I'm drifting right now. Yeah. You're sitting there doing something else and all of a sudden you look up and you go, whoa, where am I? Yeah, so for everything that we're even talking about, I think this is really important because I see this statistic. So only 40% of Americans believe that we live in the end times right now. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

40%. 40% of Americans. Okay. That we live in the end times right now. 55% of all US adults believe that Jesus will return to the earth one day. 75% of Christians believe that Jesus will return to the earth, so will return just period. So some of these things of looking at end times as we're gonna talk about, even as I was reading it, I was challenged, realizing I don't think about end times that much, but Peter is writing here saying, I've got to remind you. I've got to remind you. I've got to remind you. We have to know these things. We do, we do. And I just look at the Amplified Bible. Peter says this, and this is crazy. He said, I want you to remember, oh, okay, before I go to the Amplified, let me just finish the verse. I want you to remember what the Holy Prophet said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles. Now, this is where it gets really interesting. Hey, everybody, let's be honest. Most believers, they want to know God more intimately. They want to find freedom, discover their calling, and improve their relationships,

but spiritual growth rarely happens by accident. You need to be intentional to equip yourself with the right tools to help you in your journey. So if you haven't done it already, download our free Messenger X app, where you'll get great access to an entire library of courses, audio books, sermons, and short daily videos designed specifically to encourage you in your faith and help you mature as a believer. Download the free Messenger X app today and take your next step in your spiritual journey. There's a reason Peter is wanting to stir up our minds, because the very next verse he says, most importantly, okay, whoa. You don't exaggerate when you're writing scriptures. You know, hey, we exaggerate all the time in our society. People are just used to it. When this apostle says, most importantly, okay, all kinds of lights go off in my spirit. I go, I better pay attention to what he's saying. Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days, scoffers. Okay, now what is a scoffer? He's somebody who makes fun of something important. Yeah, they're mockers. He's a mocker, okay? Mockers will come, mocking the truth, and they will follow their own desires. So in other words, the world has grabbed them. The system of the world has got a hold of them. They are living for the lusts of the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and

for the pride in their achievements, okay? So they will say, so here's what these scoffers, mockers, are going to say. What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? Now what's this promise? When Jesus was assembled on the Mount of Olivets with his disciples, he gave them the command, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, right? Then all of a sudden, the Bible says, he was taken up. He said, you'll receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Then he's received up into heaven before them, into the clouds, and two powerful angels stand there. And the disciples are just looking like, okay, what's happening next? There's a reasonable response, right? And these two angels, God has to send these two angels to say, hey guys, he's gone away and he's going to come back the exact same way he went away. In other words, he's going to come back in the clouds, right? So this is a truth that God reveals to us right from the apostles that he will come back the same way he went up. He's going to come in the clouds. They will say, what happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? For since the fathers fell asleep, that would be our church fathers, all things continue as they were from the beginning. All things continue the way they were right from the start. Nothing's really changed. I mean, come on. We talk about the Red Sea being parted. We talk about Noah's Ark and the world being flooded and all of this, but come on, we live in the 21st century. Nothing happened in the 20th century, let alone the 21st century. I mean, all of a sudden now, what's happening? They're forgetting, making light in their heart, in their mind, even with their words

that he is coming and he's coming soon. That's something so significant. Yes. So most importantly, these people are going to come along and they're either by directly or indirectly saying, where's the promise of his coming? Wow. Which do you feel like there's a people group in there that are just weary of that? Like a lot of Christians are saying like, Jesus isn't going to come back. Like maybe they're believing, even as we're looking about this, the same 25% of Christians don't even believe that Jesus will come back. It's not saying that they're just disbelief of Jesus or disbelief of the word of God. It's just maybe they become weary and they're just, you know, the world's going to keep going or even weary of, let's say a lot of teachers saying, oh, the end times is happening right now. And this was the beginning and COVID was the beginning of the end and all this stuff. And it just feels like what has happened? Is there something happening? And do you feel like even if it's more, not even so much physical, but actually spiritual things that are happening? I believe it's all of it. I believe what's happening with Israel, what's happening with the church and what's happening in the natural world all indicate that we're in the last of the last days. Now I will show this as we go on, but I want to make it very clear. I believe with all my heart, we're in the very, very, very last part of the last days. All right. And so I wrote this down. It's interesting you say it. I said, there are so many people and these would be your scoffers or mockers who roll their eyes at the mention of the second coming of Christ. All right.

People have been talking about this for years, decades, centuries, and nothing's really changed. We keep on just as way, the way we always have been, right? What this talk does is it creates a tension and people don't like tension and that tension in turns causes others who maybe aren't mockers or scoffers to start ignoring because they don't want the attention. Okay. If you see there's a fight going on in a room, right? You don't want to go into that room. I don't want to get in the tension of that fight. I'm not part of that fight. I don't want to be in that fight. And so a lot of human beings, we don't like tension. We don't like conflict. So what happens is they ignore it because they're like, I don't want to go into this area. I don't want people mocking me and making fun of me. But in reality, there's a real important, there's a lot of really important reasons we should be talking about this. And so those that are affected, these people that don't want the attention, they have the attitude. If it's going to happen, it's just going to happen. Wrong attitude. Because here's the- Can I say, I feel like I'm guilty of that. Because there's so much within the end times and Jesus's second coming that I just don't understand that I just think to myself, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. I'm going to just keep preparing. Like I've always grown underneath the mindset of what you said. prepare as if Jesus is coming back a thousand years from now, but then live as if he's coming back today or tomorrow. So, and that's a very

good mindset if you're planning he's coming back today, but you're still planning he's coming back. You're not in your heart saying he's delaying his coming. It's really not gonna happen. Everything's remained the same since the church fathers fell asleep. So the thing is, what people fail to realize is the importance and the benefits of talking about his second coming. Because I'm gonna give five, and there's so many more, but I want to give five on this podcast, and this is where we're gonna major in on for just today's episode. Five of the benefits, five of the five reasons that it's important, why Peter says most importantly, that we should be talking about this. Number one, it is a foundational or an elementary truth of the gospel. If you look at Hebrews chapter 6 verses 1 and 2, it says, therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary. Now, Arden, keep in mind elementary. Leaving the discussion of the elementary teachings of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation. So we hear elementary, we hear foundation of the resurrection, I'm skipping ahead now, of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. Now, what is gonna happen when Jesus returns? That's when you have the resurrection of the dead. That's when those in the grave are going to be raised up and have bodies just like him, and those who are alive are gonna be caught up together with the Lord. So this is actually an elementary teaching. Now, let's think, what do we get in elementary school? We learn how to read, write, add, subtract, multiply, divide, right? Can you imagine trying to build your high school education? Try to graduate from high school as a senior, not knowing how to read, write, add, subtract, multiply, or divide. You can't do it! So how many Christians are building their Christian life not having an elementary or, this is what I really like, a foundational truth? So if you don't have a good foundation, what happens? You crumble. You're not stable. Well, can I go a little further? Yeah. You can have two houses built next to each other. One house is built on very unstable foundation, a no foundation. The other one is built on a really solid foundation. When the sun's shining, they're both gonna stand. If you have a small storm, they're both gonna stand.

You have a big storm, what's gonna happen? One's gonna crumble. One's gonna crumble. Which I think is interesting, because I feel like we have the tendency today to label even people who talk about end times as end time preachers, and you're like, oh, they're just an end time preacher, and if I want to know about the end times, I'll go to the end time preacher. But what this is saying is it's the foundational teaching that you need for your life, which is not just that that should be an end time preacher, but we should all know this. We should all be understanding of this, and not just be, they know so much about the end times, good for them, and that's great. I know those end time preachers. He's just an end time preacher. He writes books about end time. No, this is something we need to know about, and that, I mean, just as you were telling me and sharing all the notes with me, and I was reading through 2 Peter, I was just so challenged by this, because I'm just realizing this is not how I've thought. Well, here's what I believe. If you look at an evangelist, evangelist is gifted by God to go after the lost. But Paul said to Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. So in other words, every Christian should be reconciling people back to God through Jesus Christ, right? There are people, I believe, that God is really anointed to talk about this. I agree, yeah. Yep, and they're good at it, okay? Yeah. But every one of us should be talking about it. Yeah, we should know. Just like every one of us should be evangelizing. Uh-huh, yeah, like there's depth within there that, yes, a preacher could have that you don't have, but I would just go on to say that I feel like the majority of Christians, maybe not majorities, but there's a good chunk of Christians that just don't know hardly any of it. Because we read, I mean, I've been guilty of this. I go through Revelations, and I look at this, and I highlight so much, and I go through it. I'm like, man, there's a lot of great stuff in there. I don't understand it all, but it's really good. And I kind of leave it at that surface level, and I think we can go so much deeper. So, and this is another reason why people don't unpack it. You know, the Bible calls the Word of God, it says, the mysteries, right? So, mysteries doesn't mean it's mysterious as in, whoo-hoo. It means it's

just uncovered truths that God says, you have to seek and search for me diligently, and I uncover these mysteries or these secrets, these truths that are hidden in secret. I uncover them to you. When it comes to the prophetic scriptures, the second coming of Jesus, the end times, these are truths that are hidden. But they're so real when the Holy Spirit opens up to us. And this is why in preparing for this, I have been spending weeks. I've been spending literally a month digging, reading. I've been reading Dead Sea Scrolls. I've been reading Church Fathers. I've been reading so much to prepare for this. And I still feel ardent. I've scratched the surface. And there's so much more I want to read, I want to dive into. Because the more I read, the more I realize, wow, this is important. Because I'm reading the early Church Fathers, people like Clement, Irenaeus, Alexander. And these guys were all discipled by the apostles. I mean, Clement, directly by the Apostle of John. Irenaeus was discipled by Polycarp. Polycarp was directly, Clement and Polycarp were both directly discipled by John. Irenaeus was discipled by them. And these guys talk about it so much. And so, how interesting, John's the one that gets the Book of Revelation. Well, come on, when you see the whole thing playing out in 3D, 4D, 5D, whatever he saw it in. Because we know God's probably got more dimensions than three. John's just like talking, talking, talking about this. And so is Peter. So did Jesus.

So did Paul. I mean, there's five chapters Jesus talks about this in the Gospels. Paul talks about this in the Book of Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, so much. Peter's talking about it. John the Apostle talks about it. So this is something that these guys really majored in. And when you look at the disciples that they taught, they majored in it. Now, remember we said it was foundational? Listen to what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, okay? I love that. We gotta clarify some things here. And how we will be gathered to meet him, meet him where? Meet him in the clouds, right? Next verse, don't be so easily shaken. Now, who's easily shaken? People that don't have foundation. So here we go again. It is a foundational teaching. It brings stability into our lives. So there's a benefit. There's one of your benefits for studying the second coming of Jesus, is it brings stability in your life. Yeah, because I think what we've seen from a lot of Christians is when things start to go awry, we act the same as the world. And what this scripture is promising is that when things go awry, you will not be acting in fear. You will not be acting in a reaction moment.

Yes, and I think so many people, I mean, as we've even navigated COVID, a lot of people felt like, man, this was just such a time of fear. It's such a time of just angst and going through this. And we watched as a lot of the church navigated the same way in the world did. And I mean, I know I had moments of that too. But I love this promise is understanding regardless of what is gonna come, regardless of the end times, you have the promise that you will not be shaken, that you have what you need to be able to stand firm, that you can love people through it, that you can do all the things that you need to and make sure that you are leading people in the way that God wants you to lead through the times of the shaking. You know, I think about 2021, the summer of 2021, your mother and I bought that townhouse in downtown Nashville when we moved here to Nashville. We only lived there for a month because we sold it. I lived in that house more than you did. Yeah, you did. We renovated our place. I remember the realtor, the realtor did not know God. And he said to us, look, I'll never forget this. I can see him sitting on the countertop in the kitchen. And he goes, I literally thought the world was coming to an end last year. I thought, here's an unbeliever. And he shared with us how terrified he was, how shaken he was. When you're a believer and you understand these things, you're not easily shaken. And so let's go to benefit number two. Now we're asking the question, why in the world does Peter say most importantly? Okay, reason number two, this is most important. There is a special blessing that is promised by God for reading, listening to, and obeying the prophetic scriptures, in particularly the book of Revelation, he says.

I'm gonna read it, Revelation 1 verse 3. God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy and he blesses all who listen to its message and, listen to this, obey what it says, for the time is near. Okay, wow, this is really something. First of all, we don't see this in. other epistles. Specifically John writes, by the Spirit of God, there is a special blessing on those who read, listen, obey, because the time is near. So not just read and listen, but also obey. So that means what? There's specific instructions that are given to us prior to the coming of Jesus that we're supposed to obey. So if you just say it's gonna happen when it happens, how do you know what to obey? Yeah. Oh my goodness, we just uncovered why most importantly. Can I say this too? Yeah. We just obviously we just had our second child and I think about this is because even what Peter correlates it down down the road, he correlates it to labor pains of it just coming on like that. I think you look at these things and it's read, listen, obey. I think about if I would have gone into, and of course this is our second labor, but our first labor with our child with zero understanding, zero knowledge, zero help of what I needed to be prepared for because Christian did a natural birth, that would have been a pretty bad day. Like I was like, yeah sure, I know in my mind it's gonna happen when it happens and we couldn't, you know, you don't know what day it was gonna be. And Azariah came on the 39th weekday of, and sure, but we never knew that. Most people were saying it was gonna go long, you'd probably be making it to 41 weeks, all these things, but then it happens. But then I think about I'm so glad I was prepared, that my wife gave me the books, gave me all these things, because that was just going through labor. But can you imagine the end times, not being prepared, not reading, not thinking about this, and having that same mindset. So this is where the ship's going. Alright, I'm just gonna give everybody a little clue here. This whole reason I'm sharing this, you and I are sharing this, is because we want to get to, what do you do to prepare? What do you do to be ready? And we're

not touching it, we're just showing the benefits right now to kind of whet people's appetites. That's gonna be the next podcast. Alright, so a few of the obeys, let me just mention it, living godly lives, consistent lives, living at peace with one another, watching in prayer, not taking advantage of others, being full of the Spirit. That's some of the obeys, but we'll get to it later. Alright, so let's go to number three. Again, we're asking the question, why in the world does Peter write, most importantly? Alright, I want to remind you, most importantly. So he said, remind, remind, remind, but this time he says, most importantly, I want to remind you. Watching for his, this is one I love, watching for his return purifies us. We are empowered when those who are looking for his return at any moment, we are empowered by that expectation of him coming at any moment. We're empowered to live purified lives. Now, I know the Bible says, pursue holiness, chase after holiness, purity, right? It's being set apart, because without it, you're not gonna see God. Wow, okay, let me read this. 1st John chapter 3 verse 1. So here we have John the Beloved, who saw the book of Revelation. John writes, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. We should be called children of God. That right there is mind-blowing. This is the creator of the universe, and yet he chooses to adopt us as sons and daughters. That one, I've been walking with God for 45 years, that one still blows my mind in a good way. Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now, okay, now wait a minute, I gotta stop right there. Now, everybody think now, we are children of God. I'll never forget this. One of my pastor friends, his daughter was at a school, and the teacher, it was a very religious, it was a Christian school, but it was a very religious school, okay? And the teacher was saying, well, you know, we're still unworthy worms, we're all just sinners, that, you know, we've been saved and rescued by grace. Just, oh gosh, just terrible things she's putting into the minds of these kids. And my friend's daughter raises her hand, she says, we're not unworthy worms, we are saints and children of God. Because, teacher, what do you do with the scripture that says, beloved, now we are the sons and

daughters of God? And the teacher just went speechless. The teacher had never seen that before. Now, we are children of God. It's not when we die, it's not when we get our new body. Right now, we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, that's his return, okay, we shall be like him. and for we shall see him as he is. Now listen to verse three. And everyone who has this hope, the hope of what? Him being revealed, right, in the clouds. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies. The Amplified says cleanses himself just as he is pure. So the having the hope of his second coming actually has the power in it to purify us as he is pure. Wow. Okay, that is a wow. Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't think we understand that fully. Because I mean, you're saying, and people who are wrestling and battling with these things, that they're like, I just wanna be free, and they haven't had that understanding of grace and empowerment. Fix your eyes on the second coming of Jesus, and that will sanctify us. That will purify you. That will purify. I think it's just, to me, it's the eternal mindset. It's like a, it's a looking at what God is going to establish. It's seeing beyond just your lifestyle

and what we've even talked about on this podcast is having that eternal mindset. I feel like that does it. Causes you to live different. Causes you to live with more expectations, more urgency. Not just continuing to live your days, just taking the days as they come to you, but living them with purpose. With purpose. And what God has called you. I've come to give you life so that you can have life to the fullest. What does that actually mean? What does that look like? What does that behave? Is that just something that's just realized one day? Or is that something that a moment you may impact? No, it's a consistent lifestyle that you live. Well, for so many people listening to us right now, watching us right now, holiness is very elusive. Now, the Bible doesn't say arrive at holiness without which no man will see the Lord. I'm gonna be chasing after holiness when I'm 85 years old, okay? So in other words, God's giving you a glimpse. This is something you're gonna be doing the rest of your life. However, there's so many people that say, look, I can't even get close to a holy life. Well, is it because maybe you're not paying attention

to the prophetic scriptures? Because the Bible says when you have this hope, this firm expectation of him coming, it actually has the power in it to purify you just as he's pure. I mean, that to me is mind-blowing because Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 7, 1. Actually, you have to look at 2 Corinthians 6. He says, God says, I will dwell in you, I'll walk among you, I'll be your God, you shall be my people, right? Therefore, my beloved, he says, having these promises, the promises that God says, I'm gonna dwell in you and among you, let us cleanse ourselves. Now, he doesn't say the blood of Jesus is gonna cleanse us. Now, I'm not saying the blood of Jesus doesn't cleanse us. I'm not saying that. The blood of Jesus cleanses us. When we receive Jesus Christ, our Lord, he makes us white as snow. What he's talking about here is the work of holiness, the work of sanctification, not the work of justification. Justification, you can't earn your salvation. You can't earn that cleanliness that the blood of Jesus gives you. However, when we're saved, what is done in here begins to work out. That's what Paul meant when he said, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Paul says, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Spirit would be your motives, your intentions, right? Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So, an aspect of being aware, an aspect of what he's saying here is found in studying, meditating, talking about, anticipating his second coming. Now, this we will greatly amplify as we go into further podcasts, but I wanted to make sure that this one was pointed out. This is why I believe his return is called the blessed hope. Remember he says, whoever has this hope in himself or herself purifies himself or herself, even as Jesus is pure. This is why Paul, and that's John writing that. This is why Paul calls it the blessed hope. All right, why? Because he says in Titus, looking for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. Let me read it in its full context from the new NLV. And that was Titus 2.13, but let me read verse 12 now. We are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. So there's your holiness, okay? We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing

of our great God and our savior Jesus Christ. So you're seeing right there looking for or having the hope of that blessed hope, right? Gives you the ability to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures and worldly lusts. Oh my gosh, this is why we wanna talk about this, okay? And you know what? We know from Proverbs 13, verse 12, hope deferred makes the heart sick. So if the heart's sick, guess what? Guard your heart with all diligence because out of it flow the forces of life. So if we have the hope of his return constantly before us, it strengthens our heart. If our heart is strong, now we have the ability to work out our salvation in much. better way. So all is connected. Okay, well can I go to the other side of the spectrum where as you have people who are hoping so much, so even let scripture of hope differ makes the heart go sick. You have people who are hoping so much that the return of God is, or to return of Jesus, the second coming is coming like right now, and it's coming tomorrow, that every single day they wake up and they're disappointed. I mean, how do you feel like that is benefiting them in the way that they're living? Do you feel like that could get to a point where it's unhealthy? Yes, yes it can get unhealthy. The balance of truth is, James says, be patient until the Lord comes. Knowing that the farmer is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, that's people, to receive the rain, the early and the latter rain. The latter rain, the early rain was the outpouring of God's spirit in the book of Acts. The latter rain is the outpouring of his spirit right before his second coming. So they understood this because the beginning of the planting season there was an early rain, and then right before the

harvest there was a latter rain. There are so many people that don't know Jesus right now. So every day that he doesn't come, we get to bring more and more people into the kingdom. Yeah, I love that. So it's a tension. It is a tension. Yeah, and can I ask this too, because I feel like there's a lot of people who utilize the second coming of Jesus as a way to, and almost like a fear mongering of people who are unsaved, where like you see even a lot of street preachers will, you know, whoa, your destruction's coming, Jesus is coming, repent right now. How do we balance that out too? Because I think a lot of people do look at the second coming and end times as it's almost gotten a negative flair because people have used it as this turn or burn type of preaching that goes on. You know, it's all about, does that man have love in his heart for people? Or is he wanting to get in the fight because he likes the fight? There's a big difference. I mean, it's like Peter actually says, knowing that God is being patient. God wants to be with us as much as we want to be with us. He's delaying it because he wants everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. I read that this morning. The Lord is slow, which he's not slow concerning his promises. As some consider slowness, but is patient towards you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. I'm like, that's such love. You think about this day that's coming, you can look at it and be like, wow, that's harsh judgment that's coming upon the earth. But then you look at this and you say, oh no, that's the love. He wants everyone to be saved. Everyone. Well, man, this is really getting good. We're asking again, why does Peter write most importantly? Number four, watching for his return gives us wisdom. We know the proper posture and behavior that keeps us in line with God's will. If you look at Luke's gospel, when Jesus came in his first coming, you've got this guy named Simeon. All right. He's in the temple and I'm going to read about this guy. This guy is amazing to me. At that time, there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout. Devout means he feared God and was eagerly waiting. So here we go. We're talking about Jesus' first coming. He's eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and

rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and it revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Messiah. That day, the Spirit of God led him to the temple. Isn't this interesting? He's being led by the Spirit in what he's doing. You know, it's really funny, Arden. I've been preaching for 40 years, 40 years, and I feel so strong to talk about this. In fact, I feel so strong about it. I'm actually going to be writing about this. Okay. That day, the Spirit, and I believe it's the Holy Spirit because I've cried out to him. I've said, God, if I'm not supposed to talk about this, if I'm not supposed to write about this, I said, please make this really clear. But I feel like the Lord said, no, no, no. Talk about it. Write about it. Okay. That day, the Spirit led him into the temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus, he's 33 days old here. You got to go back to Leviticus and numbers and find out, or Leviticus and find out that when a male child is 33 days, that's when the parents present him, okay, to the Lord. So when Mary and Joseph came in to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, as in Leviticus, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms, praise God, saying, sovereign Lord, now you are letting your servant die in peace as you have promised. I've seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. Jesus, now I'm going to skip to 33. Jesus's parents were amazed at what was being said about him. And we see the same thing's true for Anna. Anna's this lady that's been in the temple praying since she lost her husband at seven years of marriage. She's been in this for decades praying. She says, this child, right? She points to him. Now, what's interesting to me, Arden, is here's a guy named Simeon, a woman named Anna, recognizing Jesus when he's 33 days old. But 30 years later, the religious leaders, here's Jesus casting out demons and healing the sick and raising the dead. They can't even recognize who he is. Now, that means, and I'm gonna say this and I want everybody to listen, putting off the return of Jesus, this is where it gets interesting,

makes us ignorant and insensitive to the proper behavior for the season So Jesus sternly corrected the people for not recognizing his first coming. All right, we're gonna go into this more in next podcast, but let's just briefly talk about it now. There were consequences for them not knowing the timing of his first coming. Luke 19, he's weeping over Jerusalem and he's speaking to the city. And he said, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave in you one stone upon another because, okay, there's a reason this terrible disaster is gonna happen to the city of Jerusalem, which by the way, happened in 70 AD when Titus of Rome came in and literally leveled Jerusalem to the ground. Not one stone was left upon another. Because Jesus said, this is gonna happen because you did not know the time. Listen to this word, the time of your visitation. All right, so the word time means season or time period. Jesus said we wouldn't know the day or the hour of his second coming, but we would know the season. We would know the generation. They didn't know the season of his first visitation. And because they didn't,

they acted in a way that was out of wisdom and it caused them to bring judgment on themselves. So if you look at 1 Chronicles 12, 32, it says the men of Issachar had understanding of the times. Again, a season or time period, a generation. They understood the times to know what Israel ought to do. There is behavior for season. Okay, so in other words, if it's January and I live in Minneapolis and I walk outside with a pair of shorts on and a sleeveless t-shirt, I'm really going to suffer that day because I don't understand the season and therefore now I'm acting incorrectly. I thought it was because you were a Detroit fan. That's why. All right, Detroit. I am a Lions fan. Okay, so again, Jesus states to the leader of Israel, this is over Matthew, hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs. Again, Greek word kairos of the time. So the season, right? So Arden, if Jesus spends so much time and I mean multiple chapters and verses, elaborating on these events with special meetings, that's signs, because that's the meaning of what signs means, then why would we ignore them and say, if it happens, it will just happen? Is that being unwise?

Yes. I think it is. And we've been going a long time. I want to go to number five and then we'll close. Number five, we're asking why Peter says most importantly. Here's what I've been wanting to get to the whole podcast. There we go. There are 300 scriptures that tell of Jesus' first coming. And those people didn't know those scriptures, therefore they didn't recognize the season of his first coming. Yeah, which Jesus fulfilled. Do you know, and you know this because you looked at our notes, there are over 2400 scriptures about his second coming. Yeah. Eight times more than his first coming. Wow. Okay? So why would God give us so much about Jesus' return if it wasn't important? Yeah. The answer, the reason he did give us so many scriptures, so we are properly prepared. Some of the things we can talk about, there's the servant, Jesus said, who says, my master delays his coming. He delays his coming. He gets out of sync with the wisdom of God. You've got the 10 virgins that aren't prepared.

You've got the servant who didn't use his entrusted gifts to build the master's kingdom. You got those who ignored the poor and the imprisoned and the needy because they didn't understand the season of his second coming. We get in trouble when we shout what God whispers and we whisper what he shouts. We gotta remember, if he gives us over 2400 scriptures and only 300 for his first coming, 2400, this is something that's very important. So let's go, let's recap and we'll close. Five reasons why Peter writes most importantly. Number one, it's foundational. It causes us not to be so easily shaken. Number two. There's a special blessing in reading, listening to, and obeying the prophetic scriptures. Number three, watching for his return that actually empowers us to walk a pure and holy life. Number four, watching for his return gives us wisdom to behave properly in the right season. Number five, the frequency. It's found eight times more than his first coming. So in our next podcast, Arden, we're going to discuss this controversial event of the second coming of Jesus. I can't wait. And by the way, before we close, I do like your hat. It's really cool. I do like your sweater. And can people get it? Yes, I believe people can if they go to johnbevere.com. Okay, I don't even know how they do it. They just got to go to johnbevere.com? Yeah, I'm sure we have something that will direct them there or messengerinternational.org. Okay, great. Thanks, Arden. Hey, we'll see you next time.