3 MOMENTS IN TIME
Lk. 4:5; 2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:51
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: TAKING THE QUEUE
1. When Ruth Rowles husband, James Rowles, was in the seminary, he was invited to preach at a small rural church.
2. However, the man who was to introduce him to the congregation had trouble pronouncing his name. So James offered this verbal clue: “Remember rolls, like hot buttered rolls.”
3. It worked. When it came time for the introduction, the man announced, “We are pleased to have with us the Reverend James Biscuits.”
B. THESIS
1. It is interesting that there are just three "moments" mentioned in the New Testament and that there are three different Greek words so translated, each used one time only in the Bible.
2. Furthermore, each of these three "moments" is used in a context which is anticipatory of the future.
3. So we’re going to look at 3 moments in time and see how they apply to us. Title: “3 Moments in Time.”
I. THE MOMENT OF TEMPTATION
A. SATAN’S TEMPTING OF JESUS
1. “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” Luke 4:5, KJV.
2. First of all, Satan tempted Jesus by flashing before His eyes a vision of the whole world, offering it to Him immediately without His having to endure the cross, if He would rule it for the devil.
3. Here the Greek word for a “moment” is stigme, meaning a "point," like the period after a sentence. In an infinite "timeline," it would be just a dot on the line, a "point" in time.
4. Satan's apparent dominion over this world, though it lasts 6,000 years or so, is only a moment compared to eternity, and Jesus knew this was a poor bargain.
B. IMPLICATIONS FOR US
1. The enemy always tries to get us to choose temporary and transitory pleasures – instant gratification – over future rewards that have to be waited for.
2. It’s the same thing as waiting until getting married to have sex and maintaining our integrity and purity, or not controlling our urges, carnal desires and giving in to temptation.
3. We’re a people who want everything now. We don’t want to have to wait for them. We want to have nice houses and cars now, and don’t want to have to work and save to get them.
4. It’s this same impulse that causes us to cave in and yield to temptation. We need to take a cue from the Lord Jesus.
5. We should consider the temptation from the standpoint of eternity. We shouldn’t sell our eternal inheritance for a few hours of pleasure. That’s what Esau did; he sold his birthright for a single meal!
II. THE MOMENT OF TROUBLES
A. PROPER PERSPECTIVE
1. All of us have problems! From the strain of making enough money to cover the bills, to health problems, from marital relations and raising kids – life is full of challenges.
2. Oftentimes they seem overwhelming! Discouragement, failure, depression and loss are common features of life.
3. Paul gives us a ray of hope in the Book of 2 Corinthians; "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (4:17).
4. Paul says two things about our problems; they are “light” – not severe, and they are “momentary.” The word for “moment” here is parautika, referring specifically to the present moment.
B. ILLUS. OF THE DRESS PROBLEM
1. Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement – not even her parents' nasty divorce.
2. Her mother had found the perfect dress to wear, and would be the best-dressed mother-of-the-bride ever!
A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new, young wife had bought the exact same dress as her mother.
3. Jennifer asked her father's new young wife to exchange it, but she refused. "Absolutely not! I look like a million bucks in this dress, and I'm wearing it," she replied.
4. Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, "Never mind sweetheart. I'll get another dress. After all, it's your special day."
5. A few days later, they went shopping, and did find another gorgeous dress for her mother. When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, "Aren't you going to return the other dress? You really don't have another occasion where you could wear it."
6. Her mother just smiled and replied, "Of course I do, dear. I'm wearing it to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding."
C. WITH ETERNITY IN VIEW
1. But as Paul was saying, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17).
2. Eternity is so long that our minds can’t comprehend it. In comparison, our lives are so short that they will appear, in eternity, as one hour of our long lives.
3. Paul pulls us back to view the big perspective. We all can endure pain for a few moments, as long as we know the pain will cease.
4. What we must endure here and now is so brief compared to eternity that our sufferings aren’t "worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).
III. THE MOMENT OF RAPTURE
A. SPEED OF THE EVENT
1. One day, in fact, Jesus will return to reclaim the world from Satan. At that great day, "we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" (1 Cor. 15:51-52).
2. In this passage, the unique word is atomos, meaning an indivisible particle. That is, in an “atom of time,” too instantaneous to measure.
3. Paul’s reference is also compared to the “twinkle of an eye,” i.e., the flash of light off of an eye. This can be no less than the speed of light, the fastest thing we know of in the universe.
B. NATURE OF THE EVENT
1. Paul is speaking of the Rapture, the translation of living saints up to heaven (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
2. Just as the Great Tribulation is about to start on Earth, Jesus will come back to take His church out of the sphere of judgment (Rev. 2:10). “God has not appointed us to wrath but to receive salvation” (1 Thess. 5:9).
3. But we can’t go to heaven in natural bodies; “corruption can’t inherit incorruption.” So a transformation has to take place -- we must be changed. Only heavenly bodies can live in heaven.
4. So when Christ comes to take us to heaven, He will transform our “vile” bodies to be like "His glorious body" (Phip. 3:21), no more susceptible to sickness or death. So our bodies will be also be clothed with heavenly splendor.
C. WATCHFUL FOR HIS COMING
1. A tourist in Switzerland visited a beautiful mansion surrounded by well-kept gardens. “How long have you been the caretaker here?” he asked the gardener.
2. The answer was twenty years. “How often does the owner of this property come here?” The answer was only four times in the twenty years.
3. “And to think,” said the guest, “you keep this property in superb shape just as though he might come tomorrow.”
4. The caretaker replied, “No, I look after these grounds as if I expected him to come today.”
5. Similarly, we should be watching every day for Christ’s coming & be prepared by doing His will daily.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: SETTING THE BAR
1. One of Track and Field’s more interesting events is the high jump. The high jump and the pole vault are the only events where even the winner finishes in failure.
2. Right after the jumper clears one height, the bar is raised. The bar is raised until the jumper can no longer clear the height.
3. The world high jump record is 2.45 meters (that’s 8 feet ½ inch). That’s the greatest height anyone has ever cleared with their body.
4. One person did it in 1993, and it hasn’t been done again since. It is the standard by which all great jumps are measured. If a jump doesn’t meet or exceed that height, it falls short of being the best that was ever done.
5. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were almost universally respected for their righteous attention to the laws of God. They were, in a sense, “world record holders at law keeping.” Their righteousness was the standard by which everyone else was judged.
6. But the righteousness of the Pharisees was still not good enough to save them. They might have been close to perfection, but close doesn’t count in horseshoes, the high jump, or getting to heaven.
7. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
8. This was to emphasize the sterling, unsurpassed righteousness of Jesus Christ. His life, His death, and His blood alone meet the standards of innocence and virtue.
9. That‘s what we celebrate at communion. Our efforts at clearing the bar are feeble. We can never jump high enough or be perfect enough to enter heaven. But Jesus’ sacrifice makes it possible for us to finish as winners.
B. THE CALL
1. The Lord’s Supper.
2. Prayer to prepare ourselves to participate in this sacred rite and be cleared of known sin.
[The bare outline of this was found torn out of a devotional booklet and only the writer’s initials were left: HMM]
