Let Eternity Shape Today
Luke 13:22-30
Dennis Mullen 

            This week we’ve been reminded of how quickly people can leave this life and enter eternity.  The shooting in Knoxville at the Unitarian church has disrupted lives all over the area and even touched our own congregation.  Who thinks about the fact that when they go to church, they could die?  And yet we each walk the line between time and eternity every day.  Today I want to begin a series on that very subject and I want to begin today by talking about how eternity should shape how we live today.

Have you ever known anyone whose life was shaped by the past?  Here’s a man who made a terrible mistake in the past.  Every day he wakes up and thinks about it and carries it around with him, and he cannot escape it.  Or, here is a woman who every day hears the voice of her mother, telling her that she isn’t good enough (even though her mother passed away years ago) and she lets her life be shaped by that voice from the past.  Here’s a guy who was a star on his basketball team.  When he was seventeen, everyone treated him like a god.  But he wasn’t good enough to play in college, and he really never found anything else that he was really good at, and certainly nothing as satisfying.  So he lives a sad life, hearing the echoes of cheers from the past.  Adults, your life today is shaped by how hard you decided to work in school, or how disciplined you were in learning your trade, and how much godly wisdom you applied in finding a spouse.  We must be careful to choose wisely today, so that we can live with our choices tomorrow.  Sometimes churches are shaped by the past too.  The church that says, “We’ve never done it that way before, so we can’t do it that way now…” is shaped by the past.     

Did you ever know anyone whose life was shaped by the future?  Here’s a man who’s really going to get his life together starting tomorrow.  He’s going to deal with his addictions, and mend fences with his kids, and start talking to his wife.  Not today, while there’s still so much pressure and stress, but tomorrow, when things slow down a bit, and he has a chance to catch his breath, and he gets back on the day shift.  Here’s a young woman, still in high school.  She feels that real life hasn’t yet begun, and her parents and teachers confirm this, telling her she doesn’t know what it’s like in the REAL world.  So she figures that the time to get serious about God, about her character, about life, is in the future, when she finally enters the REAL world.  Her life is shaped by tomorrow.

            There’s something to be said about planning for the future.  If you expect to retire, you’d better save some money ahead of time.  If you plan to be a doctor, it would be a good idea to work hard in your high school biology class.

            But today I want suggest that neither Christians nor their churches ought not to be shaped primarily by yesterday, today or tomorrow.  Of course, we are here because of what Christ did for us in the PAST; and faith demands that we look to the future with confidence and make plans for future generations of Christians, and we must live for Christ in every present moment.  But ultimately, it isn’t good to be shaped either by the past, present or future.  There is something much bigger.  We must be shaped and directed by ETERNITY.  In the movie Gladiator, Maximus rallies his men by telling them:  “What we do in life echoes in eternity!”  But I’m saying that eternity ought to echo in this life as well.

            Look at Luke 13:22-30 - Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"

            He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.  Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, `Sir, open the door for us.'

            "But he will answer, `I don't know you or where you come from.'

            "Then you will say, `We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'

"But he will reply, `I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'

            "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.  People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.  Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last."

            This passage teaches TWO WAYS that eternity ought to shape today.

            1.  Eternity shapes today by reminding us of hell.  There are plenty of passages in the Bible that focus on the joy of being in heaven with the Lord, but here’s a passage that focuses on the sorrow of those who are closed out.  It is a fact that many people will find themselves closed out from heaven on judgment day, and they will then spend eternity separated from God, in hell.  And that is WAY too important to ignore.

            David Noel, a preacher in Columbus, Ohio, tells of a call he received early one Friday morning:

            "Hello. David Noel?"
            "Yes."
            "This is your neighbor, Mrs. Waldron."
            "Who?"
            "Mrs. Waldron, your neighbor."
            He didn’t want to embarrass himself, and he scanned his memory, trying to place a Mrs. Waldron somewhere in his neighborhood.  He drew a blank. 
            She continued, "There's a fire out in back of your house by the fence, close to the gas tanks."       
            He says:  “I don't have a fence, nor are there any gas tanks anywhere near my home.”  But then guess what he did.  He told her to hang on and went out back to see if there was a fire.
            Returning to the phone, he said, ‘Ma'am, I think you have the wrong David Noel.’
            "Aren't you the David Noel that lives on Avery?"
            "No Ma'am."
            "I'm very sorry," she said.
            "That's quite all right,"
            When he hung up the phone, guess what he did.  He looked out the window again just to make sure…Sometimes the stakes are too high to not be sure.

            Some warnings are too important to be ignored, even if at first they don’t seem to make sense.  The Scriptural teachings on hell are that serious.  But it astounds me how many people casually sweep aside the idea of hell by saying:  “That doesn’t make sense.  The God I believe in doesn’t send people to hell!”  Really?  What is your source of information?  Because the Bible teaches that there IS a hell.

            Maybe you grew up in a home where the Bible wasn’t respected, and so you were taught that hell is just a myth.  Now you find yourself interested in Jesus Christ and interested in the moral teachings of the Bible.  But you can’t take the Bible seriously, and you can’t take Jesus seriously without also taking seriously the teachings on hell.  The New Testament speaks of it often, and so does Jesus Christ. 

            Now it may be true that the church in past generations preached nothing but hell, and did it in a way that people were turned off and stopped listening.  I heard about a preacher who was preaching on a street corner, and his message was hellfire and brimstone.  When he got finished he got on a bus and sat down, and then a drunk man stumbled on the bus right after him, and he tripped and nearly fell in the aisle.  The preacher jumped up and pointed a finger in his face and said, “Sir, you are on your way to hell!”  And the drunk man said, “Oh no!  I’m on the wrong bus again!”

            Some have preached nothing but hell and they forgot to preach the wonderful grace of our God.  But we can’t afford to try to correct that mistake by ignoring hell.  In fact, hell is a necessary result of the justice and holiness of our God, and it is the reality of hell that makes the grace of God so wonderful.  And hell is all too real, and people we know are headed there.

            And here’s the part that should really make us pay attention:  Do you know what most of the passages here in Luke 13-14 have in common?  Nearly all of these healing, miracles, parables and teaches that we’re looking at in this series have in common one important theme - Many people who are part of the recognized people of God here on earth will miss out on heaven, because they don’t know the Savior.  A little earlier in this chapter, there’s a synagogue leader who doesn’t know the heart of God.  Before that, Jesus talks about a fig tree that wasn’t bearing any figs, and his point is that the temple leaders, the high priests and the teachers of the law were not living righteous lives, and they were not producing righteous lives in others. 

            And in our text for today, he warns these Jewish people who have been brought up looking forward to sitting down at the heavenly banquet with Abraham and the patriarchs:  “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God” (13:28-29).

            Being part of the right earthly organization has never been the key that unlocks the door to heaven.  You could be an Israelite by birth, and a priest at the temple.  But if you didn’t know God and walk with him, Jesus said that you would be lost, and that you‘d watch as people from other nations (from the east, west…) entered into the Kingdom, even though they weren‘t part of the recognized people of God..  And the same is true of the church.

            Being an active part of a local church is SO VERY important if you are going to stay strong and live your faith in the world.  But in spite of that, being part of a local church isn’t what saves you.  Giving yourself to the Savior IS.

            Many years ago a woman called me:  “You don’t know me or my family, but my mother just died, and we want you to do the funeral.”  That’s not uncommon.  Then she said:  “The reason we called you is that our mother was a member of your church.”  I had never heard the woman’s name before, and I had to talk to several of our charter members before I found someone who remembered her.  This lady had joined our church in the 60s, and then quit coming.  As far as I know, she wasn’t here even once in the 70s, 80s, or 90s.  When I met with her family, it was a somewhat typical story.  “Our mother was a nice lady who believed that there is a God and a Jesus Christ, but who never saw the need for church.” 

            What am I supposed to say at a funeral like that?  To make it more personal, what am I going to say at YOUR funeral someday, if you put me in that position?  Please understand that accepting Christ means taking him as both your Savior and your Ruler.  It means giving your life to him, listening to him, following him.  Sure, we all stumble along the road, but being a Christian means actually moving along the road with Jesus, being his disciple, being shaped by him. 

            It doesn’t mean simply calling yourself a Christian.  It doesn’t mean simply hanging out at church.  It doesn’t mean just having your name on a membership roll somewhere.  It is when you call Jesus Savior but don’t know Him as Lord that you’re in danger of being part of the conversation he describes here:  “Sir, open the door for us!”  "But he will answer, `I don't know you or where you come from.'  “Then (they) will say, `We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'  “But he will reply, `I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’” (13:25-27).

            So the Bible teaches and Jesus taught that on Judgment Day, many people will be closed out of heaven by their own choice - that is, by the life they chose to live in this world.  Elsewhere, we read that they will be assigned to a place of fiery torment, eternally shut-out from the presence of God.  If we really believe that, it ought to shape today.

            Ravi Zacharias tells the story of Charlie Peace, a criminal in England, who, on the day he was being taken to his execution, listened to a minister reading from the Word. And when he found out he was reading about heaven and hell, he looked at the preacher and said, "Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say, and even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that." (Ravi Zacharias, "The Lostness of Humankind," Preaching Today, Tape No. 118 - via PreachingToday.com)

            That brings us to the second way that eternity must shape today for us - not only by reminding us of hell, but by directing our efforts.

            2.  Eternity shapes today by directing our efforts.  I want to put some stress on that word EFFORT, because Jesus does.  He says in v. 24 - “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and not be able to.”  If you took that verse out of context, it might seem that he’s saying that people will try very hard to be good enough to get into heaven, and a few will make it and many will not.  But if you look at the very next verse, it becomes clear that he is saying that many folks will try to enter in after the time of opportunity is over.  V. 25 - “Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading…” but the time will be past.

            When time ends and eternity begins, the day of decision will be over, and some people will be closed out from the presence of the Lord.  That fact about eternity ought to direct our efforts today.  How?

            By pushing us to reach out to the lost, for one thing.  Eternity should remind you and me to intentionally build relationships with lost people, to intentionally live such good lives among them that they might see our good deeds, and see also the grace of God at work within us, and come to God themselves.  Are you doing that?  Is there anyone in your life with whom you COULD be doing that?  Eternity shapes today by spurring us toward lost people.

            And if the Lord has blessed you with a family, with children, eternity should shape today by reminding you to intentionally pass your faith on to them.  Live it diligently, teach them the Scriptures, pray for them and with them, bring them to church and COME to church yourself!  Folks we have a number of parents in our church who let all kinds of things interfere with their family being here, making a commitment to worship with God’s people and study the Scriptures.  And we honestly DO understand when things interfere, but there’s no getting around the fact that your kids are learning that being in church isn’t all that important.  Make every effort to see that your children enter through the narrow door, that your Lord becomes their Lord.  Because eternity reminds us that nothing is more important!

            I could apply this in many other ways - supporting missions, for example, and listening for God’s call to enter into missionary work yourself.  Eternity tells us how important that is.  But the application Jesus seems to make really isn’t to the church and its programs, nor to the family - but to you and me.  Before we can worry about what the church is doing, YOU and I need to make every effort to enter through the narrow door, to strive to make our calling and election sure, to see to it that we don’t wander from the faith and pierce ourselves with many griefs. 

When someone dies, there is always shock and grief – especially so when the death comes too early.  Even so, there is such a thing as being ready to die.  Three years ago I went home from church and turned on the TV to see some shocking news:  Former NFL great Reggie White dead at 43.  Reggie White who played for UT, then the Eagles, Packers and Panthers, died in his sleep.  He was young and seemed to be healthy.  Suddenly he was gone.

            But he was ready to go.  Everyone who talked about him in the tributes that followed his death talked about his faith and character: Terry Bradshaw called him a “man of God.”  Irving Fryar, who played with White in the mid-90s, said:  "Reggie was a seed planter in my life, as far as my Christianity and my belief, and me getting my act together," Cowboys lineman Erik Williams said that he had his share of off-field troubles, but like Fryar, said White guided him without judging. “I love Reggie White” he said, “a great person not only a great football player. I want to raise my kids to be like Reggie White," Williams said.  Former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin said that whenever he talked to Reggie White, Irvin wanted to talk football, but White always turned the conversation to: “Where are you at spiritually?”

            Reggie White let eternity shape his every today.  And his life proves that while death can come suddenly, it need not catch us unprepared.  He was ready to go.

            Listen to this short poem by Robert Louis Stevenson:

The stars shine over the mountains,
the stars shine over the sea,
The stars look up to the mighty God,
the stars look down on me;
The stars shall last for a million years,
a million years and a day,
But God and I will live and love,
when the stars have passed away.  

            So where do you stand with the Lord today?  Are you walking with him? Are you looking to jump out of the lifeboat and try swimming for shore on your own?  Have you ever really entered in through the narrow door, turning your life totally over to Christ?  Is he someone you’re getting to know?  Is he your savior and Lord?

            Let’s close with a time of silent prayer, asking God to show us where we stand, where we need to draw closer, what needs to be repented of, and what needs to be a priority, since eternity is out there, and since it ought to be shaping today.

 Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205