In the Twinkling of an Eye

"In the Twinkling of an Eye" 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 Do you realize that a year ago this week the first case of Covid-19 appeared in the U.S.? We have been at this a whole year, and we probably have a year to go to finally get ahead of it. But right now, we are in the worst of it. Over the past year over 450,000 people have died of Covid. Recently we exceeded over 4000 deaths per day, along with 250,000 new cases per day. Those rates are just now starting to decline, but not by much, yet. Four thousand deaths per day, that’s one death every 22 seconds. Two people have just died in the time it took me to say that opening paragraph. “In the twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed,” says the scripture. Life can come to a screeching halt as we have seen by any number of devastations from wild fires to earthquakes to accidents to a doctor’s diagnosis, and strong people are faced with what is essentially important in life. What is important in life? When life is reduced to its minimum essentials, to the most vital ingredients, what would you say is most important to you? Would political arguments matter? Would economic philosophies make much difference? If you lived your life hoping you could only have tomorrow, what you hold dear today, what would that be? Such questions shake out our priorities and realign our perspectives. We may think of what would keep us secure, such as having enough food, having shelter, being warm and safe, having water and a place to go to the bathroom. We may think of our family and loved ones. We may think of how we would really like to live if we knew we only had a day or week or a month to do so. But what if you were not assured of even these things: family, food, another day, a second chance? What if all you have left was your faith in Jesus, would that be enough? If you desired Jesus above all else ― what would be different about your life? The Good News is also found in the title and scripture for today, "In the twinkling of an eye." Paul says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. He says we will all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, but from what to what? From prosperity to poverty, from industry to ruin, from wealth to homelessness? No! We will translate from perishable to imperishable, from mortal to immortal, from death to life. If the tragedy of this last year or any tragedy we may face, if such times teach us anything, it should be, as 2 Paul says in verses 57-58, “to gives thanks to God for He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, stand firm. Let nothing move you. You know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Job was the classic example of someone suffering tragedy with biblical proportions, yet who stood fast in his confidence of the Lord. From the beginning of his affliction, even his wife and best friends urged him to curse God and die. His wife would say, "Are you still holding on to your integrity?" (Job 2:9) Is our faith that dear to us that whatever the world might throw at us, at any price, we would hold on to the integrity of our faith? I like what Joshua said (24:15) "...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve ...as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." No wandering in the desert, no occupation of foreign powers, no temptations provided by his neighbors could dissuade this man of faith from his confidence in the Lord. Nehemiah the prophet, after returning from exile in Babylon, and seeing with his people the destruction of the Holy City, and pondering the beauty it once held, and the work it would take to rebuild it, paused and proclaimed to the people (8:10) of all things, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." In their context how could he say, “do not grieve,” how could he expect the people to have “joy in the Lord?” He wanted to reinforce their physical security, which lay in ruins, with their spiritual security, which lay in God. All of these examples, from Paul to Job to Joshua to Nehemiah, just to name a few, had their faith secured in the Lord. They had a focus and moved forward. Here’s a thought for you. Do you remember when circuses were popular, and all the animals would be paraded around with various animals like bears and dogs doing tricks? Did you ever wonder why a lion trainer carried a chair into the cage with him when performing with his cats? Do you think it would provide him a physical barrier of protection from the powerful king of the forest? No, it would not! It could be swatted away in an instant. Do you think it was a deterrent or adequate weapon to tame the fearsome lion? No, again. The chair was there to confuse the lion. You may remember that the trainer always held the chair with the legs pointed outward toward the lion. What a lion does in the wild is that he focuses on his prey before he attacks, but with four focal points being thrusted in his face, he never could really focus. The chair was an effective distraction. The moral is, you can't move forward, you can't make an advance, if you can't focus, if you're confused. 3 Neither can the church advance and move forward when she is distracted. We must focus on what is important to us, what is the Lord's will for our lives. A tragedy or a prolonged epidemic can quickly sharpen our sights. But we don't need a calamity to claim the calling. Jesus says in Matthew 6:25-34: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They 29 do not labor or spin. like one of these. 30 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all will be given unto you." In other words, live as though there was no tomorrow and life will immediately become all the richer and fuller today. That which is really important will rise to the fore, and that which is fodder will fall by the wayside where it belongs. Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and strength and your neighbor, as the Lord loves you. Do it today, you may not have time tomorrow. Do it today and tomorrow will take care of itself, filled with blessings from above. Speaking of tomorrow and going in another direction for a minute about the verse, "in the twinkling of an eye;" what are we to understand about its meaning… "In the twinkling of an eye" means there could be a change from today to tomorrow, that is, a change from this life to the next, may be in an instant. This verse is translated from the Greek, which literally means "flicking the eye" and was the ancient reference to "the blink of an eye." The underlying point is that what is to happen will be something so rapid, so instantaneous, that it defies measurement. 4 Paul says it will be accompanied by the blast of a trumpet, something that often accompanied the appearance of God in Scripture. This is the final trumpet blast, because God's people will never be separated from Him again. Someone has said that the average person blinks somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 times a day. In one of those times, bam, Jesus could return! That is an awesome thought. In the twinkling of an eye, Jesus is going to step from His throne in glory at the right hand of the Father in heaven and make His way back to this earth. First Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Christians refer to “being caught up” as the rapture. The Greek word for this means a catching away. The picture of this coming promise reminds me of the metal scrap yard down in Towanda. Now, what does a scrap yard and the rapture have in common? Well, in that scrap yard, there is this really big machine with a really big magnet that would hover over a pile of scrap metal, all kinds, shapes and sizes, and then all of a sudden, like turning on a switch (which the operator did), it would pick up this huge pile of metal. However, not every piece of metal would rise – only that which was made of iron. Why is that? Because the iron has the same nature as the magnet. In the same way, if you have the same nature as Jesus Christ, then when He comes again, you’re going up, whether you’re beneath the ground or on top of the ground. Simply said, if you've been heaven-born you will be heaven-bound. Thank You, Jesus!