WHAT TIME IS IT

WHAT TIME I= S IT? Luke 17:20-30

(Tempting to spend all our time talking about the experiences we had in the beautiful country and with the wonderful people o= f N. Ireland—bring greetings from Pastor Lindsay Allen, his wife Lillian, and the congregation of Carrickfergus Bapti= st Church)

Everything about the trip was perfect, except for R= 20;jet lag”—and I can’t blame that on the Irish! There’s a 5-hour time differ= ence --plus, it stays light there until almost midnight; and the sun’s bac= k up at 5:00 AM—so for the whole two weeks we were there, we kept asking e= ach other the question that serves as the title of my message this morning: WHAT TIME IS IT? (CAN’T be right!)

By the way, they insisted that I preach for at least 30 minutes each Sunday—so I’ll have to try and readjust—or YOU’LL be telling ME what time it is!!!

Well, God’s word tells us that knowing what time= it is is important; and it warns us that even when we think we know, we may not really understand what time it is after all. I invite you to hear what Jesus sa= ys about this in Luke 17:20-30:

²⁰Once, having been asked by the Pharisees = when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does= not come with your careful observation, ²¹nor will people say, 'Here= it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

²²Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. ²³Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. <= sup>24For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lig= hts up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. ²⁶"Just as it was i= n the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. ^{27People
were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day N=
oah
entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.}

²⁸"It was the same in the days of Lot. People = were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ^{29But
the day Lot left Sodom,
fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ^=
30"It
will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.}

So, Jesus’ words here make you wonder: “Does anybody really know what = time it is?” And the follow = up question—also very important: “Does anybody really care?”=

Sound familiar? Some of you will remember the band called “Chicago.” They were in their heyday back in = the 1970’s, and they were my favorite group when I was a TEEN. A couple of months ago, in a fit o= f nostalgic excess, I purchased one of their CDs and got re-acquainted with their songs, including “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” Remember how it goes:

“As I was walking down the street

one day / A man came up to me and asked me what the= time was that was on my watch, yeah…And I said…

”Does anybody really know wh= at time it is,
Does anybody really care?

If so I can’t imagine wh= y,
We’ve all got time enough to = cry….”

Background: People running everywhere
Don’t know where to go / Don’t know where I am
Can’t see past the next step
Don’t have time to think past the last mile
Have no time to look around
Just run around, run around…and think why…

CHORUS:

“Does anybody really kno= w what time it is,
Does anybody really care?

If so I can’t imagine wh= y,
We’ve all got time enough to = die.”

Kind of depressing, isn’t it? I wonder what the writer had in mi= nd when he composed this song. I= s he reminding us that time moves swift= ly along no matter what we do—so, make the most of it? Or is he telling us not to be so u= ptight about time—don’t worry: there’s plenty of time to do what= ever you really need to do, even if it’s just crying and dying?

We see both attitudes around us, don’t we? Sometimes they both exist in the s= ame person—there’s not enough time…there’s plenty of time. Both may even exist in us. The problem is, we get co= nfused about when to apply which one.

Folks get so impatient (antsy) about things that really don’t matter; but when it comes to the most important stuff of life, = we think there will always be tomorrow.

We find something like this in the Bible--in this pass= age from Ecclesiastes (3:1-4):

¹ There is a time for everything,
       and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
       a time to plant and a time to uproot, =

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
       a time to tear down and a time to buil= d,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
       a time to mourn and a time to dance= 230;

And so the passage continues. Tim= e goes round and round, and there’s “nothing new under the sun.” Well, that’= s a Greek view of history that time is= a circle: ‘what goes around comes around.’ Don’t get in a hurry. Don’t do anything today if y= ou can put it off until tomorrow.

And if we sort of pick and choose our Scriptures, we may begin to think this wa= y as Christians. If we make the wr= ong decision or simply do nothing at all, there’s always grace.

We’ve heard the story of the thief on the cross with his last second plea, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And= we lean heavily on Jesus’ reply: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Par= adise.” (Luke 23:40-43).

We love that, just like we do the story of the Prodigal Son    who lives foolishly bu= t gets grace at the last—and a robe and     a ring and a pla= ce at the Father’s table!

And how about the man who goes out at dawn and hires workers for his vineyard.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Later in the day, he hires some more. Just before closing tim= e, he hires still more. When the day ends, he calls them all together and pays each one the same amount.

No surprise here—there was some grumbling! Probably coming from those who had worked all day, don’t you think?&nbs= p;

But the master replies, “Do you begrudge my generosity? If I want to pay them a full day&#= 8217;s wage, what’s that to you? It is my money, after all.” L= ots of people like that story Jesus told because it says there’s still time—eleventh hour workers get just as much as those who labor all da= y.

Why trouble ourselves with all that work, and service, and ministry—there’s plenty of time for decisions, changes, homecomings, and the like. There’s always grace for later.

That’s what Jesus means, right? Well= , we might think so…if those were all the parables Jesus told. But there’re those other sto= ries, like the maidens who are invited to a wedding party. Some of them are wise, but others = are foolish.

The foolish maidens all intend to get oil for the lamps, they assume there̵= 7;s plenty of time to do so; but then the bridegroom shows up, the celebration begins, and the door to the party is shut forever! Times up!

“The day of the Lord will be li= ke when Noah built the ark,” Jesus said. ‘People were eating and drin= king, getting married and throwing parties, laughing all the while at old Noah hammering away on that boat; but when the rains came, moving their parties indoors didn’t really help—at all!’

It was the same way back in the days of Lot, Jesus tells us. Lots of party= ing then too, and lots of forgetting about God in the process. But as soon as Lot got his family out of town, lots of fire came down and destroyed them all.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

Nobody else was connected enough with God to know what= time it was. They didn’t see= m to care, until it was too late!

How many thieves have called you up to let you know th= at they would be stopping by that evening?&nb= sp; That’s the way life is—whether we’re talking about= the unexpected tragedies that come our way or the moment when God decides to sh= ut it down, things come at us “like a thief in the night.”

Jesus didn’t have a Greek understanding of history—round and round it goes, “nothing new under the sun.” For Jesus, history was much more of a straight line, with a beginni= ng and an end. We learn of i= ts beginning back in Genesis, and= God points us toward the end in several places, including Revelation. There= is a beginning and end to all things, to my earthly life and to yours. We know the beginning, but not the= end; not yet.

We only know that for all of us, there will be one. Someday there will be no tomorrow.= Life here will be over.

This is why the Bible pleads with us, “Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart!” (Hebrews 3:7) You don’t know what day it is. You have no idea what time it really is.

Be ready…so that when the door opens, you can jo= in the party. The door may close soo= ner than you think.

Now, I realize this is not a popular message today. We like those other stories Jesus = told better—the one about the boy coming back home to his Father who comes running out to embrace him; or the story about the one-hour workers who get just as much pay as those who labored hard all day.

Be honest—don’t you prefer the story of the Prodigal Son to the one about the Foolish Maidens? And wouldn’t you rather hear= about the thief on the cross than those poor souls who perished in the great flood? Me too!

That’s just our old human nature, friends. It was the same in Jesus’ da= y--and in Noah’s--as it is in ours. We know we’ll die SOME day, but we don’t think for a mom= ent it will be THIS day.

We believe that Christ will come again SOME day; but H= is church has been waiting now for nearly 2,000 years—no need to stand on tippy-toes for that today!

So it’s hard not to relax and lose our sense of expectancy—to just settle down into the everydayness of life. But this is what Jesus is warning = us about here. To live like there’ll always be a tomorrow is foolish.

Scripture is clear: tomorrow won’t always be here—not for us individually, and not for this world we’re part of. Someday, both will be over and done.

It’s easy enough to be fooled, though. Look at us. Here we sit in this sanctuary; comfortable and secure, feeling for the world like this could just go on forever—or, at least, for the foreseeable future! But we don’t know.

One day, these walls will no longer be standing. The places we call home will be gone. They won’t last forever. Time may be getting short. Who knows? Not us!

Life is full of reminders, friends. God allows it to function in such = a way that there are many reminders that life is uncertain, and we can’t al= ways count on tomorrow.

There are diseases for which we have no cures, storms = we can’t control, and awful accidents that happen without explanation.

We have a gracious and loving Lord, friends, who want nothing more than to embrace us as His children, and assure us of His prese= nce and care.

But He also warns us that we can choose to live any wa= y we want, we can put off life and important decisions as if there will always b= e a tomorrow…but there won’t be!&n= bsp; What kind of Savior would He be if He didn’t warn us?

So Jesus remi= nds us of Noah and the flood and the fire raining down on So= dom and Gomorrah. He tells us about the foolish maid= ens who miss the party, and the thief who slips in under the cover of darkness. “Keep watch,&= #8221; He says, “Keep watch. Y= ou only think you know what time it is.”

NOTE: may skip to next highlighted area,

&nbs= p; depending on time!!!)

While William Willimon was the Chaplain at Duke University, he told this story one morning during chapel services:

“When I was serving a little church in rural Georgia, one of my members had a relative who died and Patsy and I went to the funer= al as a show of support for the family. The funeral was in a little hot, crowded, off-brand Baptist country church.

Well, I had never seen anything like it. They wheeled the coffin in, the pr= eacher began to preach. He shouted, = fumed, flayed his arms.

“It’s too late for Joe,” he screamed= . “He might have wanted to do = this or that in life, but it’s too late for him now. He’s dead. It’s all over for him. He might have wanted to straighten= his life out, but he can’t now. It’s over.”

What a comfort this must be to the family, I thought.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> (The preacher continues.)

“But it ain’t too late for you! People drop dead every day. So why wait? Now is the day for decision. Now is the time to make your life = count for something. Give your life= to Jesus!”

Well, it was the worst thing I had ever heard. “Can you imagine a preacher = doing that kind of thing to a grieving family?” I asked Patsy on the way home. “I’ve never= heard anything so manipulative, cheap and inappropriate. I would never preach a sermon like that,” I said.

She agreed. She agreed it was tacky, manipulative, calloused. “Of course,” she added, “the worst part of all is that what he said was true.”

“Does a= nybody really know what time it is? = Does anybody really care? If so, I can’t imagine why. We’ve all got time enough to die.” Have we?

So what time is it in your life? …in mine? God knows, but we don’t. This is why Jesus told us to alway= s be ready. Death won’t like= ly come when we’re expecting it; nor will Jesus come when we’re looking for Him.

Just be ready. Live ready. Embrace Ch= rist as Savior. Live for Him as Lord. Then come what may, you’ll be ready.