Swiftly We’re Turning (Luke 12:13-21)

One Sunday morning, I got a call just before worship that Jerry had suffered a massive heart attack and was on his way to the hospital. Jerry’s wife worshiped with us, but he himself didn’t want anything to do with the Lord or his church. I had encouraged Jerry a few time to consider his soul but to no avail.

After worship, I went to the hospital where Jerry hung between life and death. About an hour later, Jerry left this world. Jerry certainly had plans for that day, but instead he was called to stand before his Maker.

At the funeral’s conclusion, everyone had left the chapel except for me, one of our elders, and Nora—Jerry’s new widow. Nora walked up to Jerry’s lifeless body, kissed it, and to me and our elder said, “You know why this hurts so much.” Of course, we did—either God is a liar or Jerry is in torment. Jerry got up that Sunday morning without a care in all the world, and he ended the day in eternity.

You have surely known people who have suddenly left this world. You might have had a family member die from a heart attack. Perhaps you’ve had a friend who died in a car accident. Maybe you knew a Christian who died in a freak accident—maybe falling and hitting his head. You might have even had a neighbor commit suicide.

Each one of us is just a moment from death. As David fled from Saul, he said, “Truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death” (1 Sam 20:3). Granted, David spoke about his own precarious situation; however, his words echo through the years. The fact of the matter is: “Everyone you meet is swiftly headed for eternity.”

Scripture (Luke 12:13-21)

Someone in a crowd asked Jesus to have his brother divide his inheritance with him. Jesus wanted the man to understand that life is more than stuff, and he told the Parable of the Rich Fool.

The Rich Fool had abundant crops, so he planned to build huge barns and live on easy street. God told him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you” (Lk 12:20). That farmer had so many plans for his life, but he would enter eternity that very night.

“Everyone you meet is swiftly headed for eternity.” In a moment life can be gone:

• Psalm 39:5-6: “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Surely a man goes about as a shadow!”
• Psalm 78:39: “He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.”
• Psalm 144:4: “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”
• Psalm 103:15-16: “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.”

All men die.

• A wise woman of Tekoa said to Absalom: 2 Samuel 14:14: “We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.”
• Psalm 49:10: “He sees that even the wise die; the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.”
• Psalm 89:48: “What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?”
• Ecclesiastes 3:20: “All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.”
• Romans 5:12: “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Judgment follows death: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27). We glimpse that divine judgment in Luke 16:19-31. A rich man cared only for himself and gave no thought to his fellow man or his God, and a poor beggar named Lazarus lay at his gates. When the beggar died, the angels carried him to Paradise, and he was comforted, out of pain, and knew joy. That rich man, however, was in torment. Notice:

• He suffered greatly in the fires of torment: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame” (Lk 16:24).
• He was stuck in torment: Abraham told him, “Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us” (Lk 16:26).
• He remembered: “I beg you, father, to send [Lazarus] to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment” (Lk 16:27-28).

All the saints of all the ages are in Abraham’s bosom—that place of joy and peace—this morning as they wait to enter heaven. However, those outside of Christ suffer in torment as they await an eternal hell—they know pain you and I can’t fathom, they have no way out, and they remember their family, the opportunities they had to do right, and they know they are damned.

Is that the fate you want for your loved ones: Do you want your spouse to know unimaginable pain forever and ever? Do you want your children in torment without any escape? Do you want your neighbor to wake up tomorrow in the flames of torment knowing he is forever damned?

If that’s not what you want, then what are you doing about it?

Application

“Everyone you meet is swiftly headed for eternity.” My neighbor who was just endorsed by President Trump for reelection. The guy who refuses to share a lane with me at the pool. The dentist I’m trying to see for a root canal. The guy who can’t keep up with my cycling group and slows us all down. The motorist who lays on his horn and yells obscenities while I ride. My wife. My children. My parents. My siblings. My nieces and nephews. Everyone is headed for an eternity of either bliss or damnation.

What will you do? What can you do?

One: Shine

Shine and hold forth Jesus’s light: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16). “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil 2:14-15).

Your life must Shine with God’s character; in other words, you must live what you profess to believe. If people see that you do not live what you profess, you can do irreparable harm to the church. How many people have been turned off from Jesus by the actions of God’s children?

What about your light? How brightly does it Shine? Look carefully at your life: Does your life draw people to Jesus or away from Jesus? Do people see Jesus living in you? Do people see you faithful in all circumstances? Do people see you walking in the light? How brightly does your light Shine?

Two: Speak

Your example alone will not bring people to Jesus; you must Speak truth. Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16). The early church understood they needed to Speak God’s truth.

• When the church was dispersed after Stephen’s martyrdom, “those who were scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).
• “Now at Iconium [Paul and Barnabas] entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed” (Acts 14:1)
• When Paul and Silas were brought into the home of the Philippian jailer, “they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house” (Acts 16:32).
• In Ephesus, Paul “entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8)

You must open your mouth and teach God’s truth while living that truth yourself. To whom will you Speak God’s truth? Will you invite your children to worship with you? Will you urge your neighbor to study Scripture with you? Will you mention World Bible School to your neighbor? How will you Speak God’s truth?

But you must live that truth first. Luke opened Acts by saying, “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). Jesus did and then he taught. Are you doing that you might teach?

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This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.