Happy New Year to your family and you!
We begin a new series for a new year, the 40-Day Challenge. I want to invite each of you to take the 40-Day Challenge with me. As you begin a new year, I challenge you to devote 40 days to grow spiritually. I want you to take a 40-day challenge with me.
40 days of Bible reading.
40 days of prayer
40 days of serving.
40 days of giving.
More details to come in a few moments.
How will you spend your time in 2024? How will you spend the minutes, the seconds, and the hours God gives while here on earth? Let me get serious with you and ask you: what if you knew you had but one year to live? What if you knew that your life on Earth would be done on December 31, 2024, at midnight? What kinds of things would you make sure you did in the next 350-plus days? What kind of words would you say to those around you? How would you spend your money?
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Luke 12 with me.
Let me share with you how one teenager recently spent 38 minutes. I want you to see Willis Gibson, a 13-year-old teenager from Oklahoma. He recently reached level 157 in the Nintendo classic video game, Tetris. I imagine all of you have played Tetris at least once.
Who doesn’t love a good game of Tetris as each level becomes harder and the tiles come even faster? When he reached level 157, the game crashed and Willis said, “I’m going to pass out, I can’t feel my fingers.” His story made the BBC because no one thought it was possible to play past level 29 in Tetris until just a few years ago. But the Oklahoma teenager went way past level 29. He beat the game which no one thought was possible. Willis broke the world record, and he even crashed the game in the process! And did this all in JUST 38 minutes.1 Sky News Jayne Secker reported on the event in recent days. After showing a YouTube clip of Willis beating the game. After the anchor shared the news story and the clip of the teenager’s stunned reaction, she turned to the camera and said, “As a mother, I would just say step away from the screen. Go outside, get some fresh air. Beating Tetris is not a life goal.” Social media called the news anchor’s comments “old fashioned” and “disappointing.”
Nearly all of us love games at some level in our lives whether it board games, video games, or some other kind. Turn your attention to Jesus with me to how He wants us to use our time.
Today’s Scripture
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:38-45).
In the moments to come, I want you to see your life in light of eternity. I want to expand your view beyond just the coming new year. I want you to picture your life here and now in light of eternity.
1. Be Ready
“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40).
1.1 The Second Coming
Jesus nearly always refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” because it was free of any misconceptions the word Messiah was loaded with in His day. Jesus says, in effect, “I’m leaving, but I will come again. I am leaving Earth, but I will return to Earth.” This is known as the Second Coming. The Second Coming is Jesus’ sudden, personal, visible, and physical return from heaven to earth.
If you were to travel to Rome to see Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican City, you would no doubt gaze at the iconic and best-known picture of the Sistine Chapel – the creation of man as it pictures God and Adam reaching toward one another. But, you would also want to turn your attention to see the massive painting that spanned the entire wall behind the altar of the Chapel itself. The painting that took Michelangelo 4 years to complete as he began the work some 20 years later after the more well-known portions of the Sistine Chapel is known as The Last Judgment. Michelangelo was nearly 60 years old when he began the work, and it represents some of the Bible’s main teachings concerning Christ’s Second Coming. And at the center of the painting is Christ Himself overseeing the judgment of all humanity. Surrounding Christ in the painting are numerous bodies (too many to readily count). To Christ’s left are those who He has condemned to hell itself. And to His right are those citizens of heaven alongside the angels.
The Second Coming of Jesus is crucial to the basic message of the Gospel. Few passages picture the Second Coming as well as John does in Revelation. “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Revelation 1:7).
1.2 Your Time on Earth
Jesus teaches that your time is limited on earth. If we could trace your personal timeline, you might live 75-80 years and then enter into eternity. Some of you more and some of you less. While every single one of us will live for eternity, your time is limited on earth. You only have so much time. While each person lives for eternity, the Bible says that time on earth will stop for every single one of us when Christ returns.
There is not an infinite amount of time.
1.3 Earth’s Time Is Limited
Beyond your mortality, all of our time on earth is limited. Jesus teaches us that the earth’s time is limited. There will be a time when Christ returns to the earth to end time as we know it. “But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:7).
When Jesus returns, He will destroy this earth and remake a New Heaven and New Earth for His followers. Your view of the end of time can have a profound effect on how you live your life in the present. Because Jesus will one day return, Jesus gives His followers this command: “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40).
1.4 The Day is Fixed
The Bible says, “he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed…” (Acts 17:31a). The Bible says God has fixed a Day when the entire world will be judged. Some future day has already been contractually set for all of humanity to appear in God’s courtroom of justice.2
1.5 How Will You Use Your Time on Earth?
This makes me think of our teenage friend, Willis from Oklahoma, and the controversy from the mother, who was also a news anchor. While he beat Tetris in 38 minutes, I wonder just how much time he spent on the game prior to this. I don’t want to be too hard on this young man, as we all love playing games at some level. There are all kinds of personality types here this morning. You’re the person who puts batteries in the flashlight just in case of an emergency. You’re the person who makes sure you have jumper cables for the car. You make sure the garage doors are down each night and you make sure the doors are locked. Others of you are more like Willis from Oklahoma, and you’re into fun.
Jesus sums how we should view our lives in light of eternity: “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes” (Luke 12:43). When Jesus says my time is limited on this earth, it should get us all to thinking, seriously thinking.
1.6 How You View Time Matters
If you believe in reincarnation, then perhaps you’ll view the disabled as Glen Hoddle, an English soccer coach. Hoddle believed that the sins you committed in a former life were punished by disabilities in the next life. Hoddle lost his job as a soccer coach when groups representing the disabled protested his public comments. Closer to home is the story of a daughter who refused to discuss forgiving with her mother. When she knew her mother wanted to talk to her about one year before she died, she said something to the effect, “I will think about forgiving her in the next life.” How you view time matters.
I want you to begin 2024 by thinking of living in light of eternity.
1.6 2024
If this year operates like the year before it, you will be given 366 days in 2024 (it’s a leap year): 52 weeks, 8,784 hours, 527,040 minutes, and 31,522,400 seconds. How will you spend your time in 2024? If this year operates like the year before it, you will be given 262 weekdays and 104 weekend days. How will you spend your time in 2024?
You could spend many hours and minutes like Willis Gibson. You could be the best gamer on your phone at Fortnight, Minecraft, or even Candy Crush. How will you spend your time in 2024 in light of eternity?
1. Be Ready
2. Stay Ready
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning” (Luke 12:38).
Again, I want to expand your view beyond just the coming new year.
I want you to picture yourself before God on the day of your judgment. The Marines talk about “Semper Fi,” or “Always Faithful.” The Boy Scouts’ motto is “Be Prepared.” Jesus tells us to be ready and to stay ready.
2.1 Gird Up Your Loins
Jesus offers us a picture in the first part of verse 38: “Stay dressed for action…”
There is an ancient expression behind this. The ancient Hebrews would have an image of preparation where they would tuck their cloaks into their belts. You cannot run well with a long flowing robe. You have to pull it up, tuck the end of the robe into your belt, and then run. Today, we might say to roll up our sleeves. Jesus wants you to adopt a mindset, a perspective. He wants you to live your life in light of eternity.
2.2 Keep Your Lamps Burning
Secondly, Jesus tells us to keep our lamps burning. Even in the darkest hour of the night, be ready. Remember there are no streetlamps in Jesus’ day. When you expected a guest late into the night, you’d keep your oil light burning in anticipation of their coming. Even today, we’ll turn the front porch light on when we’re expecting someone.
2.3 The Imagery of Jesus in Luke 12:35-48
Jesus will go on to talk about staying ready using gritty imagery: slavery in verses 36 and 37, burglary in verse 39, drunkenness in verse 45, and even experiencing a beating in verse 47. None of us like to think about such things but these were the ugly realities of everyday life in Jesus’ day.3
Jesus isn’t saying God is into “severe beatings,” instead, Jesus is using everyday examples of Roman and Jewish life of His day to make us adopt a perspective of living life in light of eternity.
In all of these situations, everyday people needed to remain vigilant. In verse 36, Jesus talks about being ready no matter when the master comes home. When the master was away at a wedding feast, the slave would guard the property. When the master comes home unannounced and finds his servant vigilant, the master himself will dress himself to serve his servant (verse 37). The word “service” in verse 37 is the same word that will be used to describe deacons in the early church and in churches down through time.
Jesus talks about watches of the night in verse 38. I won’t get into the details here but Jesus is saying when the master pops back home unannounced in the dead middle of the night. Again, Jesus says, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning” (Luke 12:38). Jesus says blessed are those servants who are ready no matter what time of the night the master comes. Jesus moves from masters, slaves, and weddings to thievery and breaking into homes. Jesus tells us the obvious: thieves don’t tell you what time they are going to break into your home. “But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into” (Luke 12:39).
2.4 You Cannot Predict the Timing
“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40).
The number of people who’ve predicted the precise time of the end of the world is tragically funny. Allow me to give you just a brief sampling of the wrecked lives of people who thought they knew better than Jesus. Melchior Hoffman (1495-1543) announced the end of the world would come in 1533 and the city of Strasbourg was to be the New Jerusalem. Charles Taze Russell, the leader of the movement known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, predicted the of the world would come in 1914. His successor, Joseph Rutherford, changed the date to 1918 and then again in 1925.
Harold Camping, a controversial Christian broadcaster, made three wrong predictions concerning the return of Jesus Christ in 2011.4 He has a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and has made the Bible his “university” for the last 50 years. His prediction for Christ’s return, May 21, 2011, because he used a unique mathematical approach to crack “the code” of the Bible. One man, Robert Fitzpatrick of New York, spent more than $140,000 of his own savings to advertise for Christ’s return. More than 5,000 billboards posted the message of Christ’s return in anticipation of this wrong prediction.
“But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into” (Luke 12:39).
2.5 Pop Quiz or Scheduled Quiz?
If we are all in a class together, and the professor tells us the entire class grade will be based on one test, and it will be three months from now. You and I would go home and kick back for at least a month. But if the professor says the entire course grade will depend on one test and it could be any week. Everything changes, doesn’t it? The professor says, “I’m not going to tell you when the quiz is.” Suddenly, there’s an urgency about your life. The smart ones would be prepared for the pop quiz every week.
2.6 A Model
You’re a model, and you want to break in so you’re “seen.” You happen to know that somewhere in a particular neighborhood (you don’t know exactly where) is a person that if they see you and like you can make your career. You don’t know exactly where he/she is. You may not even know exactly who that person is. So what do you do? How do you dress every day?6
“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40).
2.7 Pack a Go Bag
Certain personalities might see the need to pack a go bag. A common go-bag might include: 3 days’ supply of non-perishable food, your prescriptions, a hand crank radio, flashlights, and first aid kits. Jesus doesn’t tell us to pack a bag to be prepared. Instead, He tells us we are the bag. YOU ARE THE GO BAG. We are to be prepared.
2.8 Make-Up Mirror vs. Sunlight
You know the old makeup mirror approach? I’ve never used one, but I understand that if you’re sitting down in front of a vanity and you’re trying to make yourself up for this sunlight, it’s very possible to be in your bedroom and you make yourself up for the light in the bedroom. It looks fine in the mirror, but if you walk outside in the sunlight, you find the way in which you made yourself up was not adequate. The idea behind a makeup mirror is you simulate, don’t you? You simulate the daylight so that when you find yourself in that actual daylight, you’re ready.7
2.9 Marrying Rich Illustration
You see, the only garment (Christians know this), the only way to be dressed so that we’ll be ready when that irresistible light comes through is to be wearing what? Your own good deeds? No. The Bible tells us that only if you receive Christ as Savior does all of his righteousness, goodness, and record get transferred to your account. It’s as if I have been lazy all of my life, and I marry this hard-working, diligent woman who has through her work, amassed a fortune. And I marry her. I’m now wealthy. It’s immediately part of me, and I’m part of her. The Bible tells us it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, it doesn’t even matter what you try to do. Unless you’re married to Christ through faith, unless you’ve received him as Savior, you will not be ready for that great day.8
The Bible plainly tells us there will be an evaluation of your life at the edge of eternity. Your first level of evaluation is if you have faith in Christ. This determines if your spot is in eternity. At your second level, is how the Christian used their life.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
2.10 Opportunity Costs
Economists have a concept called opportunity cost.9 Opportunity cost is the forgone benefit that would have been derived from an option other than the one that was chosen. Let me give you a rather famous example of opportunity costs. The people at Xero developed the Xerox Alto computer and it’s considered to be one of the first personal computers. Xerox was slow to realize the value of the technology that had been developed at PARC. Xerox was reluctant to get into the computer business. Byte magazine stated in 1981, “It is unlikely that a person outside of the computer-science research community will ever be able to buy an Alto. They are not intended for commercial sale, but rather as development tools for Xerox, and so will not be mass-produced.”10 Around this time, Steve Jobs even came to examine what Xerox did and incorporated some of their elements into his Apple computers. But that’s simply money; let’s talk about opportunity costs for eternity. What is the lost opportunity cost of not touching the Bible over Christmas break? What’s the lost opportunity cost for wasting your teen years? What’s the lost opportunity cost of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars only on your comfort? In light of YOUR eternity, what is God’s opportunity cost for your personal life and the resources He has shared with you?
2.11 40-Day Challenge
Look at the screens with me for a few minutes. To prepare you and to spend our 2024 well, we are preparing a 40-Day Challenge card. This will be in your hands next Sunday, but we preview here. Each of you will be given this 40-Day Challenge Card.
I am asking you to make a 40-day commitment.
40 Days of Reading My Bible - I commit to reading my Bible for 40 days.
40 Days of Prayer - I commit to seeking the Lord for 40 days in prayer for 10 minutes a day.
40 Days of Encouragement - I commit to encouraging 40 people with my words of affirmation and love in 2024.
40 Days of Tithing - I commit to giving 10% of my income to a God-honoring church.
40 Days of Ministry in 2024 - I commit to serving people in the name of Jesus both inside and outside my church for 40 days in 2024.
40 Sundays of Worship in 2024 -I commit to actively participate in worship for 40 Sundays in 2024.
40 Gospel Conversations in 2024 - I commit to sharing the gospel 40 times in 2024.
I commit to intentionally “steward” my life for 40 days before God. My signature here: __________________.
This card is meant to be an altar for your personal spiritual growth.
Place it in your Bible as a reminder of your commitment to God. When you receive it, I want you to place it somewhere where you’ll be reminded daily of your life in light of eternity. “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes” (Luke 12:37).
Endnotes
1 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67871775; accessed January 3, 2024.
2 Eckhard J. Schnabel, Acts, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Expanded Digital Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 740.
3 James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 378-379.
4 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/harold-camping-judgment-day-may-21_n_864507.html; accessed on January 7, 2023.
6 Timothy J. Keller, “When He Comes (Palm Sunday), ”The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
7 Timothy J. Keller, “When He Comes (Palm Sunday), ”The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
8 Timothy J. Keller, “When He Comes (Palm Sunday), ”The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
9 Thanks to fellow staff member, Pastor Stuart Pendell for this concept.
0 https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1981-09/page/n59/mode/2up?view=theater; accessed on January 7, 2023.
