Luke 21:29–38.
29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
Time is ticking away - The Living Message of Christ.
I’ve been thinking about “time” during the past month or so. I’ve been thinking about how I use it, waste it, and what God desires for me to do with the time I have left on this planet. I’ve come to realize that too much of my time has been spent doing things that have no value whatsoever. The time I’m speaking about is time that has been spent on amusement, boredom, and a lack of comfort with “quiet time.” In the day in which we live there are an endless number of things to fill the quiet spaces we have each day. Things like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat, and watching television are creativity killers and rob us of opportunities to grow our relationships with the Lord and others.
Look at your watch or clock. Do you see its second hand ticking? Tick...tick...tick? Whether you realize this or not, your life is tied to its ticking second hand. Every time it ticks off a second, you have lost another second of your life and are one second closer to dying than you were before.
I don’t know how much more time I have and neither do you, but I know that I want whatever amount of time it is to be spent in more meaningful ways than staring at a screen. What could be accomplished if we would simply cut our “screen time” in half? We would have more time to read God’s Word, more time to pray for someone who is sick, depressed, or going through an excruciatingly painful trial. We would have more time to take a friend to lunch, without our phones sitting on the table next to us. We would have more time to volunteer to help someone in need.
Our lives are ticking away. This is so, because we are sinners and the reward for our sins is death. We were born sinners and during our lives we have disobeyed God’s holy commandments. So every tick of the second hand brings us one second closer to that moment we must die for our sins.
And then what will happen? Ecclesiastes 12:7 says: “The dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” “Dust” is a metaphor for our human body. When we die our body returns to the dust it was created from. But our spirit, or soul, does not die. It returns to God who gave it. For what reason does it return to God? Hebrews 9:27 states: “And inasmuch as it is destined for people once to die, and after that to face judgment . . .” Upon our death our soul returns to God for judgment, doesn’t it?
And then what will happen? Jesus informed us what will then happen when he told his story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. Both died. Being a child of God, the beggar Lazarus was carried to heaven by God’s angels. The rich man, however, was cast into hell. In hell he suffered terrible torment in its burning fires. He was in such torment that he became the beggar who begged for a drop of water to cool his burning tongue.
How can you live with an echo of joyful expectancy in your heart, knowing that Jesus might return at any time?
In Jerusalem the clock is ticking. There is a growing sense of urgency about all that Jesus is teaching his followers.
Don’t get so immersed in the everyday that you take your eyes off the big picture, he says (34). And it’s his word to us too. Be expectant. Don’t sleepwalk through life. Be sensitive to every sign of God at work in your life and the world around you. Do everything in the light of his promised and imminent return (36).
This isn’t easy. The busyness, relationships, and responsibilities of life can feel all-consuming. It takes imagination to see new leaves on the fig tree (29–31).
English Puritan church leader Richard Baxter (1615–1691) wrote this in his long work Saints’ Everlasting Rest (1650): “Keep me, while I remain on earth, in daily breathings after thee, and in a believing, affectionate walking with thee! And when thou comest, let me be found so doing; not serving my flesh, nor asleep with my lamp unfurnished; but waiting and longing for my Lord’s return!”
What signs are apparent in your life, in your church, in your community, in your nation, that might point to the kingdom of God being near? Does that make you want to live differently?
Our lives are ticking away a second at a time until we die and must face the judgment. Then we will either be in heaven or hell. Obviously, the former is preferred to the latter. There is only one way for us to end up in heaven and to escape the fires of hell. That way is to believe that Jesus is the Lord, the eternal “I Am.”
The chief purpose for which John wrote his gospel is written in John 20:30,31. “Many other signs Jesus also performed before his disciples, which have not been written in this book. But these signs have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” What was the purpose of John’s gospel? To tell us what Jesus did, so we would believe he is Christ, the Son of God, and by believing in him we would have eternal life, correct? Faith that believes Jesus is Christ, the Son of God and Lord, is the only way to end up in heaven and to escape the fires of hell. So believe Jesus is the Lord.
The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day did not believe he is the Lord. John’s gospel records the Jews’ bitter hatred of Jesus and the hardness of their unbelieving hearts that rejected Jesus’ testimony about himself. In the text for this sermon Jesus addressed those unbelieving Jews, whose hard hearts so hated him that they were seeking to kill him.
Jesus told them. “I am going away and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I am going, you cannot come.” Jesus said he was going away, didn’t he? He is the Lord and Son of God who was looking ahead to his entering heavenly glory through his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. Jesus said those unbelieving Jews would then be looking for him, correct? When they died, they would be looking to see the Lord in heaven. Little did they know as Jesus was speaking to them that the Lord they would be looking for in heaven was none other than Jesus, whom they refused to believe is the Lord. Because they refused to believe he is the Lord, they would die in their sins without his forgiveness. And because they would die in their sins, they could not come into heaven, which was where he was going. They would be condemned to hell.
Consequently the Jews began saying, “Surely he will not kill himself, will he, bescause he says, ‘Where I am going you cannot come?’ ” The Jews knew they were seeking to kill Jesus. Their unbelieving reason wondered whether Jesus intended to kill himself, which would prevent their seeking him out to take his life.
Jesus gave the reason for those Jews not believing he is the Lord when he said, “You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world, I am not from this world.” Those unbelieving Jews were a world apart from Jesus. They were from below and of this world in the worst possible way. They were sinners who came from this wicked world and belonged to this world of darkness that was under the control of the prince of this world--the devil. Jesus, on the other hand, being the Lord and Son of God, was from heaven. He left his heavenly throne to come into this world to save us all. He belonged to God and looked beyond the things of this world to heaven and life there.
Jesus then said to those unbelieving Jews. “Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” Jesus told them they would die in their sins without the forgiveness of their sins, didn’t he? And why? Because they did not believe he was Christ, the Son of God. The original Greek text does not have the word “he.” Literally Jesus said to those unbelieving Jews, “If you do not believe that ‘I Am,’ you will die in your sins.” Jesus used the ‘I Am” words. The words “I Am” identified him as the Lord God who spoke to Moses and identified himself as “I am who I am.” Jesus is the Lord “I Am.” The Jews would die without the forgiveness of their sins and be condemned to hell, unable to come to Jesus in heaven, because they did not believe he is the Lord “I Am.”
So it is to this day. People, like the Jews to whom Jesus spoke, who do not believe Jesus is the Lord “I Am”, die in their sins and are condemned to hell. Their unbelief condemns them.
Surely we don’t want to end up in that fiery place of torment that defies description. We want to end up in heaven where Jesus is, right? To end up there, what should we do? To find out, let’s convert Jesus’ statement to those unbelieving Jews so it reads: “If you do believe that I am, you will not die in your sins.” So what should we do? Believe Jesus is the Lord “I Am.” When we do, we will die with the forgiveness of our sins and enter into eternal life in heaven.
The unbelieving Jews were so blind spiritually, even though Jesus told them he is the Lord, that they asked, “You! Who are you?” Jesus told them he was whom he had been telling them he was from the beginning. But the hardness of their unbelieving hearts prevented them from seeing he is the Lord.
The day would come, however, when they would know Jesus is the Lord. When? Jesus told them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own, but just as the Father taught me, these things I speak.” Again Jesus literally said that they would know he was “I Am,” meaning the Lord.
Jesus said those unbelieving Jews would lift him up one day. Being lifted up was the manner in which the Jews spoke of being crucified on a cross. Jesus knew the day was soon coming when those Jews would crucify him. Their crucifying him would be the final act of their hardened, unbelieving hearts to reject him as Christ the Lord.
Having rejected him, even to the point that their hatred of him crucified him, those unbelieving Jews would die in their sins and face the Lord’s judgment. Then in their day of judgment they would learn too late that the Jesus whom they had crucified was truly the eternal Lord “I Am”. Then they would learn too late that Jesus had not spoken presumptiously when he identified himself as the Son of God, but that he had acted and spoken only as God the Father had instructed him to act and to speak. Those unbelieving Jews would come to know these things too late when Jesus as the Lord condemned them to hell for their unbelief.
Do not learn on the day of your death and judgment, when it is too late, that Jesus is the Lord “I Am.” For the seconds of your life keep ticking away with the second hand on your watch or clock. With each passing second your life grows shorter and the day of your death comes closer when you must face the judgment of God. Surely you do not want to end up in hell. You want to end up in heaven. So by the power of John’s gospel, which has recorded Jesus’ words, now is the time for you to believe Jesus is the Lord “I Am.” Then you will die with the forgiveness of your sins and be received into heaven.
Remember the purpose of John’s gospel: “These signs have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Psalm. 90:12.
There are only 8,760 hours in each year. Nearly half of that time is spent sleeping, eating and commuting to and from work. The average job consumes another 2,080 hours, leaving only a quarter of the year for everything else.
How are you using your time? When your life is coming to an end, how will you see your life in light of moral and spiritual issues? "What good did you receive from the things you did? All you have to show for them is your shame, and they lead to death. Sins pay off with death. But God's gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:21,23). Time is ticking away, don't waste it.
Jesus, teach me how to keep watch for Your return. May I be ever ready to meet You face to face.
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