Don’t Wait Until You See Him
Luke 17:20-37 ·May 5, 2024· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke
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Good morning again, everyone. It's great to see you, great to worship with you. We're in our sermon series on the book of Luke, and it continues today. We are going to keep going through this until the beginning of June, or the middle of June, and then we're going to do a Ruth sermon series, a sermon series on the book of Ruth this summer. I'm looking forward to that. That's a great book. But I think that I can speak for us when I can say the Lord's been bringing us a lot of good fruit and a lot of good things from the Gospel of Luke.
Today is no exception. We've been in our new house for about two years now, and it took us a few months of living there before we realized something that will make at least three of you cringe. We realized there was no smoke alarms. I'm looking at the firefighters in the room. Three of them. So a few months to realize there were no smoke alarms in our house. And then it took another year or so for us to do something about it. Sorry. Sorry, Nate, James.
Sorry, Nick. But in my defense, you know, there were no fires. So why bother, you know? Also, in my defense, we were really busy. We were really busy. I mean, between all the things we're doing, all the life that's happening, who has time to prepare for something that may never happen? Right? Of course, you know, those are ridiculous reasons. Anyone would know that they're ridiculous. I knew that they were ridiculous. I probably didn't actually think them, but I sure lived like they were true.
Right? Today's passage is about being prepared for the return of Jesus. Or rather, about the danger of being unprepared for the return of Jesus. Jesus gives a challenge to us here. A challenge that we all need to pay attention to. And he says, look, people, the kingdom of God seems very unimpressive right now. But will you go after it? Or will you wait until I come back?
I hope this passage encourages us to not be like me with the lack of smoke alarms in our house that I knew about day after day, week after week, and did nothing about.
So let's turn to Luke 17, starting in verse 20. And let's turn our hearts to pay attention to God's word. To listen to it, to receive it, to let him sift us like wheat, and to bear fruit in us. We can trust him. So let's go to God's word together right now.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. Nor will they say, look, here it is, or there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. And he said to the disciples, the days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, look there, or look here. Do not go out or follow them.
For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who was on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away. And likewise, let the one who was in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
I'm going to read that again. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken in the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken in the other left. And they said to him, Where, Lord? He said to them, Where the corpse is. There the vultures will gather. Pray with me.
Lord, there are things we don't like to think about, but we must. And that is that we will all come face to face with you. So, give us, Lord, careful ears and hearts to pay attention to your word, to receive it, and to respond today.
Lord, show us the kingdom, where it is hidden, and help us to pursue it, even when we don't see it. And we pray this, Jesus, in your name. Okay. There's a lot going on here. Don't wait until you see him.
Prepare for the coming king by seeking the kingdom now. The king is coming. Now, listen. Jesus has said a lot about the kingdom of God already in the book of Luke. I looked it up. The word kingdom appears 44 times in the book of Luke. A lot of those have already happened. It's the central element of his teaching and his ministry is the kingdom of God. It stands at the very center of it. So, we need to take a minute just to understand, again, in case we've forgotten, what is the kingdom of God?
Well, way back, way back in Chronicles, David prays this in 1 Chronicles 29. All that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.
So, David was king, and yet he acknowledged that there was a king above him. So, the kingdom of God is the recognition that God is king. Okay? The kingdom of God comes wherever and whenever there is submission to him as king, his reign. That's where the kingdom of God is. Wherever there is submission to his reign as king.
So, in this passage, Jesus is giving us more information about the coming of the kingdom. He's filling us in more on what's happening. Because he wants us to pay attention to this important concept. Listen, don't let this concept of the kingdom of God just wash over you. Like, I don't really understand what that is. Let me just keep reading. Pay attention to it. Jesus is all about it. He's giving us information here that we need to know so that we can respond now.
The kingdom of God comes whenever there is recognition and submission to him as king. Okay. So, let's start with this. The kingdom has already come. The Pharisees are back in this passage here today. They're a group of religious leaders who just don't get it. They just don't understand.
Remember the passage from last week. Ten people with leprosy have just cried out to Jesus for healing. He sent them away to the priests and one of them came back completely healed and falls down at Jesus' feet worshiping. They see all of this and now they turn to Jesus and they say, so, this kingdom of God that you keep talking about, when's it going to get here?
How dense, right? How thick-headed. They just saw a man, one man of ten, come back healed of leprosy and they're like, when is this kingdom going to come that you keep talking about, Jesus? They don't get it. It's coming through him. We can tell what's happening with their question based on Jesus' answer. The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. He says that right off the bat in this passage. Ways that can be observed, that's a little misleading.
He's not saying that you can't ever see it. He's saying, another translation of this would be, it's not coming with signs. Big, dramatic signs in the world. It's not coming that way. When the Pharisees thought of the kingdom of God, they thought of a triumph, a military, political triumph over Rome. They thought of power, finally getting the power back so that they could resist their enemies and that they could bring about the way of life that they envisioned for all of God's people.
They thought about triumph. They thought about power. They thought about authority. They thought of an actual king on an actual throne sitting in Jerusalem.
They thought of this because of their reading of prophets like Obadiah. Listen to this. Obadiah wrote this. For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return on your own head. Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. That's from the prophet Obadiah. Because they don't see that happening literally right in front of their eyes, they start asking Jesus, where is all that?
If you're the guy, where's all the fireworks? We're waiting. What is taking so long? When is this promised kingdom coming? Because we're getting impatient. Put up or shut up, Jesus. Where is your kingdom?
Now right when I'm starting to mock the Pharisees in my head, God reminds me that I'm just like them. The Pharisees are like a mirror, okay? Don't just mock the Pharisees. I know we're all tempted to do that. How ridiculous they are. Look at them as a mirror. Because here's the truth. We also expect God to work in our way. All the time. We expect the coming of his kingdom to conform to our expectations. To fit our agenda. And when it doesn't happen, we start to doubt him.
We start to turn away. Sometimes we want political control and influence just like the Pharisees did. We want it now. We say to God things like, Jesus, don't you see what's happening to our country? Give us the power so that it can be like you want it. When will your kingdom come, Jesus? Other times, we're looking for other kinds of signs that his kingdom is here. Here are the signs that we're looking for. We're looking for an easy life. We're looking for deliverance from all suffering.
We're looking for prayers to be answered exactly the way that we pray them. And when those things don't happen, we start to accuse Jesus like the Pharisees did. Hey, where's this kingdom that you're always talking about, Jesus? Because I don't see it. And I want some answers.
But Jesus said, it's already here. It's in the midst of you. It's here right now. It's among them because he is among them. It's through him that the reign of God is being manifested and realized in people's hearts and in the earth. It's through Jesus. But it's happening differently than they expect.
For one thing, the kingdom is not coming all at once. The rabbis and the scribes, they taught that the coming of the Messiah was one event. One event. He would come and everything that happened before would be done away with and then we would be in the age to come. God's rule it would be one event that would change over from one age to the next. That's what they thought. Jesus and the New Testament reveal that what they thought was one event is actually two events.
There's two comings of the Messiah. That's the first and most important difference that he brings to them. It's not one coming, it's two. Okay? Jesus' first coming is his inauguration of the kingdom and his second coming is his consummation of it. His bringing it to its fullness. He's saying, I've come now to start it and at my return I'm going to bring it to completion. But here's the other thing, the thing that we struggle with, the Pharisees struggle with, that every person who follows Jesus struggles with at some point.
The kingdom of God right now is here but it is quiet. It is humble. You don't see it in big political seismic events, world overturning events. You don't read about it in the news. The kingdom of God right now it's like a mustard seed. Remember this from a few weeks ago? It's like a mustard seed. It's like leaven that gets hidden in dough. Once leaven gets in the dough you can't see it but it's working.
This is extremely important for our Christian life because if we are looking for the kingdom to come in ways that aren't promised yet we're going to be disappointed and we're going to get disillusioned. The kingdom doesn't come that way. It's in the midst of you Jesus says. It's not coming in ways that can be observed in these signs that you're looking for. Stop reading CNN to look for the kingdom of God.
If you want to find the kingdom of God now you've got to look for transformation in the people of God. work that can only be accomplished by Jesus working in someone's heart and the spirit of God transforming them. That's where the kingdom of God is found. Let me give you some examples. Humility in someone who's been arrogant.
Sacrifice in someone who had lived selfishly. Courage in someone who had been fearful. Tenderness from the hard-hearted. Joy from the cynical. Patience in suffering. Love for enemies. Repentance from sinners. That's the kingdom of God now. It is no less real even though it is not a physical kingdom on earth. It is here already. It's here already. We've got to start with that point.
It's here already but it is quiet and it's humble. But someday the kingdom will be revealed. Okay? So let's turn the page now. Now that he's talking about the kingdom Jesus pivots he turns to the disciples. You'll notice in the passage he stops talking to the Pharisees. I'm done with you guys for right now. He turns to the Pharisees and he says now that we're talking about the kingdom I want you to know what's going to happen when I return. Okay?
That's what the rest of this passage is all about. When he says the days of the Son of Man and when the Son of Man is revealed he's talking about his return his second coming. Okay? There's three things that he points out about his second coming and listen it must be important because he told his disciples about it. He pauses and he pivots to tell his disciples about it so let's pay attention to it right now. First thing is this his return will be unmistakable.
He says the days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man they are going to long for his return because the hardship that they face on the earth will be so great. Now many of you many of you have faced situations or are facing situations that are making you long for Jesus' return.
Suffering unfulfilled desires the instability all around us the wars the protests the hostility the ongoing injustice all of these things make us say come Lord Jesus come don't they come Lord Jesus come that's what Jesus is talking about you're going to long to see one of the days of the Son of Man he says but every generation tries to read current events like they're deciphering a code and there is always someone who says that they figured it out I figured it out Jesus is going to come back at this exact time follow me listen to me right here in this passage Jesus says don't don't don't listen to them when he returns it's not going to be a secret you're not going to have to go hunting for it no one's going to be turning to the other is it just me or did Jesus come back no one will say that it's like lightning you know when a big thunderstorm comes through sometimes the windows on your house rattle it's like that his return is not a puzzle that you have to figure out sometimes when someone gives you directions they end with you can't miss it what they're saying is once you see the destination you're going to if that's where you are today Jesus knows how you feel you're not wrong to be feeling that way the second thing is this his return will be sudden he compares his return to two historical events in Genesis Noah and Lot those two times had a lot in common in both situations people were going about ordinary life one day after the next with complete disregard for God total disregard
for God in everything that they did and do you know what happened in both those situations the wickedness and the violence and the injustice just kept multiplying and multiplying and multiplying and God looked at the earth and he said I I I I've got to do something right now because it has gotten so bad and so wicked because people have been living their lives in total disregard for me going their own way listen this is the danger of ordinary life without God it is a false sense of security when our wishes drive things every day every day every day God seems more and more distant we start thinking well maybe maybe he is just a watchmaker that put this whole thing together and wound it up set on the mantel and step back and watched it maybe he is like that next thing we think is maybe I can just do whatever I want to the thought of him showing up in dramatic fashion just seems unimaginable sometimes maybe even impossible that's what the people were thinking in the days of Noah and Lot but then it happened God stepped in decisively and suddenly and it was with judgment the flood waters in one and the fire in heaven from the other and only Noah and Lot were prepared they had been listening to God and obeying in hugely unpopular ways scorned by their neighbors sneered at because they believed him and they were saved friends don't let the routine lull like you're rocking in a hammock on a nice summer day you know how easy sleep comes upon you when you're rocking Monday Tuesday Wednesday
December March January 2020 2025 2030 it's rocking you to sleep it's a danger for all of us Jesus will return it's not going to come with a countdown when I was in school they didn't announce fire drills I think they do now it was just in the middle of class no they don't they don't announce them good just the middle of class this is the third thing his return will be exposing it's going to expose what we all put our trust in what we all take refuge in in verse 31 he says don't try to get your stuff don't turn back when Nikki was expecting with our two daughters we had a hospital bag packed right don't bother packing a hospital bag for Jesus return get it ready now hold on what reaction how do you feel about him how do you feel about him when when the girls were little Bree was about three or four we went somebody had a house at Lake Anna and they invited us to have a nice afternoon and we got there first and we walked down to the pier and we were letting the kids just wander around we were standing right there and Bree walked over to a ladder and grabbed it and leaned over to look in the water but the ladder wasn't attached and so it tipped over and she fell right into the lake I jumped in after her fished her out put her on the dock got out myself and then I realized oh my phone was in my pocket and for a minute I was like why no it I think it's good I think it's good that you just jumped in you didn't think about your phone you thought about your daughter that's exactly what
Jesus is saying here when Jesus comes back how you feel about him in the deep parts of your heart will immediately be exposed will you go back for your stuff will you turn back to your house and say maybe I can hide in the basement or will you turn to him and say my Lord my Lord I've been waiting for you when Jesus returns there's going to be two reactions joy or panic moving towards him or moving away from him this will be the greatest moment of division in human history among all people from every tribe tongue and nations all of the different cultures and languages and ethnicities that we see that we think divide people those things will make no difference whatsoever there will be only two groups those who say Jesus I've been waiting for you and those who say oh no in verse 35 he says that this will happen in the same workplace in verse 34 he says that even in the same bedroom one will be taken and the other left having the same occupation having the same last name it does not ensure the same outcome the only thing that determines the outcome is whether Jesus is your Savior through repentance and faith today the only predictor of how you will respond to Jesus then is how you respond to him now that's the big point of this passage make up your mind now when the kingdom is small and doesn't look all that impressive do you want it now you're not going to get to decide later so let's end with this the kingdom is entered through Christ Jesus wants us to consider the future so we
will know how to live in the present again right now the kingdom of God is not impressive sometimes our old self sneers at it some days you might look around and say you know what the world just seems stronger smarter and more successful why why am I wasting my time with this kingdom of God stuff did I make a mistake that's why verse 33 is so crucial whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it but whoever loses his life will keep it Jesus knows that our eyes will deceive us self preservation is going to backfire friends everything you do everything I do to try to protect ourselves to enrich ourselves to make ourselves secure we think it's a flotation device but really it's lead weights and the waters are rising Jesus is saying something that it just rubs us the wrong way he's saying give up while you still can give up while you still can give up all of your efforts to protect yourselves to make yourself strong to be self sufficient and self reliant give it up while you still can it's far better to lose your life now than to lose it later and when Jesus says lose your life of course he does not mean self harm he does not mean suicide he means giving up on self reliance and on yielding ourselves completely to him he's the only safe hiding place so listen this is the application the first one you have to start with entrusting yourself to Jesus and his reign and then from then on is a lifetime of seeking the kingdom which means putting all the areas of our life underneath his
reign so this is what it means for those of you who are following Christ it means being honest about the places where we're trying to go half season with God all those little negotiations we try to make with him like God I'll give you my Sunday mornings but I get to keep the rest of my time or I'll follow you at work but my home is my castle my space I'm the king there or you control all my decisions God except how I spend my money I make the decisions there do you see how all those things are not really losing your life now here's the truth is that no one who follows Christ is doing this perfectly right but the question is are you trying are you willing to let the spirit examine your heart and point out things that you know what that's really not you're not God's not reigning there and you say you're right you're right Lord please help me please help me come under your reign even in this part of my life that gosh that's going to I've got to let you reign in every part of my life wrestling with God yielding to his word and his will that's where the rubber meets the road so let me encourage us all not to hold back on the reign of God with two closing thoughts first seeking the kingdom is worth it that mustard seed is worth it it's like a mustard seed of the most precious material on earth worth more than the whole world Jesus is not lying to you this is not a trick his kingdom really is better than the world it's more satisfying it's more fulfilling because there's peace with God
there's forgiveness and joy there's purpose purpose by our creator how many people here know how many of you know that the kingdom of God is better than the kingdom of the world you know right you know it's better don't forget remind somebody this week the kingdom of God is better keep going keep at it it's really better don't be tempted don't listen to the false of the world the last thing is this it seems a lot less risky to lose your life for his sake when you remember that he lost his life for yours Jesus did it first my lord lord help us to see where we're like the pharisees doubting your kingdom because it's not coming in the ways that we think and convict us of the ways where we're just not all that interested in seeking the kingdom we like things we like to be our own king we like things to go our way show us again that your kingdom is better remind us of the imminence of your return lord it will happen lord what either by death or by your return we will see you face to face each one of us so lord help us to follow you the one who laid down his life so that we can keep ours help us Jesus we pray this in your name