Luke 17:20-37

Transcript

00:00:01:37 – 00:00:26:12
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. Again, we continue through the gospel Luke, where in the 17th chapter today finished a I think a very interesting story yesterday. Today, a little bit more of a little bit of a return to Luke’s kind of all over the place. Style. No, not completely. But this one does wander a little bit.

00:00:26:16 – 00:00:42:42
Clint Loveall
So let me read it here. We’re starting in verse 20, and then we’ll come back and talk through it. Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God was coming and He answered, The Kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is, or there it is.

00:00:42:46 – 00:01:06:18
Clint Loveall
In fact, the Kingdom of God is already among you. Then He said to the disciples, The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the son of man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, Look there or Look here, do not go. Do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and light up the sky from one side to the other.

00:01:06:23 – 00:01:26:15
Clint Loveall
So will the son of man be in his day? But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation, just as it was in the days of Noah. So too it will be in the days of the son of man. They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

00:01:26:20 – 00:01:48:42
Clint Loveall
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 that the lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the heaven and destroyed them all. It will be like that on the day that the son of man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come to take them.

00:01:48:46 – 00:02:07:37
Clint Loveall
And likewise in the field must not run back. Remember Lot’s wife, Those who try to make their life secure will lose it. Those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in a bed and one will be taken. The other left there will be two women grinding meal, one will be taken, the other left.

00:02:07:42 – 00:02:35:44
Clint Loveall
Then they asked where Lord, He said to them, Where the corpse is. There the vultures gather. So Luke is like all of the gospels in that there are moments where Jesus is turns his thoughts and his words toward the idea of the apocalypse or the in breaking of the day of the Lord, as it is most often called that day.

00:02:35:49 – 00:03:00:00
Clint Loveall
It’s a little bit difficult because we have so much history with it, and we have books and series and movies. We have the Book of Revelation. But what Jesus has in mind is the in breaking it. It’s kind of the judgment day. It’s found in the Old Testament, found in the New Testament. And here to begin the conversation, the Pharisees ask, When is it coming now?

00:03:00:01 – 00:03:26:13
Clint Loveall
This is a question that in other gospels the disciples ask. In other places the disciples ask. Here it comes from the Pharisees and Jesus Answer here, Michael, I think is fantastic. It’s not coming with things that can be observed. The Kingdom of God is among you. In other words, you should be seeing it already. The Kingdom of God is present in Christ, is present in what Jesus says and does.

00:03:26:18 – 00:03:46:43
Clint Loveall
It’s not something hanging out there somewhere that has to be discovered. It’s in obvious thing right in front of them that they’re missing. This is a different spin on this than we often see in other places. And maybe this one has gotten a little shortchanged.

00:03:46:48 – 00:04:11:27
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that it’s a really important addition to our understanding of Jesus’s teaching about the end times, the things that accompany the the coming of this, because the text that comes at the end that we’re going to discuss here in a little bit, it’s very much to in a lot of pop culture ideas about what the end of things will look like.

00:04:11:27 – 00:04:33:53
Michael Gewecke
In fact, it’s been recorded in books and movies and all of these kinds of things. But Clint, what’s really, really, I think a helpful note that Jesus begins us with is what would be a shocking turn and the conversation with the Pharisees. Because much like in our own day, the Pharisees were very interested in having conversations about all of the details of what it would be like when the Messiah came.

00:04:33:53 – 00:04:57:31
Michael Gewecke
How would you know? What would be the prophetic signs that one would see concretely? You know, if you were reading the newspaper and you came across this headline, that would be the thing. And here, when Jesus responds directly to this question, his answer is the thing you’re looking for. You’re missing because you’re looking entirely in the wrong place and you’re looking in the wrong way.

00:04:57:36 – 00:05:26:42
Michael Gewecke
You’re never going to find it. It is all ready among you. And Luke has made it clear time and time again, and this is another instance of it, that when Jesus, the revealed son of God, stands in front of you and you still are looking for the kingdom, then you have completely missed it. And there’s actually not a lot of conversion stories from that reality that I can think of in the gospel.

00:05:26:42 – 00:05:52:46
Michael Gewecke
If if you come to Jesus and you completely miss him in front of you, you’re either a character who’s obsessed with the law and obsessed with being right, or you’re a very seldom character who’s able to to see that and be converted and turned. And that does happen in the Gospels. But the Pharisees are very rarely the measure or the people who demonstrate that kind of conversion.

00:05:52:51 – 00:06:29:06
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and I want to be careful not to insert a modern spin on this, but their interest here is to some extent unhealthy, maybe even a barrier. And so Jesus then turns and warns the disciples, you know, don’t don’t chase after them. If they say, look here, this is the kingdom, or look there, this is the kingdom, you should be people who know better for the Kingdom of God is among you.

00:06:29:11 – 00:07:11:45
Clint Loveall
There is a fascination then and now, and at every point in between, in the church with when is the end? What will happen, when is it coming? Every generation of Christians has produced books and predictions and calendar years and secret code, and we’ve never been right. And Jesus point is that sometimes well, one of Jesus points, I think, is that sometimes in the pursuit of trying to decode the mysteries, you miss what is obvious, which is that the kingdom comes in Jesus Christ.

00:07:11:45 – 00:07:41:29
Clint Loveall
And so often we’ve in the church have put such an emphasis on that last day that we disregard the days that lead up to it. And so the first warning here is don’t chase after the don’t chase after the doomsayers. The light will make it clear. Jesus will make it clear. The son of man will be like lightning that lights up the sky.

00:07:41:38 – 00:08:05:49
Clint Loveall
You cannot miss it. However, the first he must endure the suffering of the cross and be rejected by his generation as it was in Noah’s day. People don’t know it’s happening as it was in Lot’s day. People are unaware as it is in our day and in every day there are those who won’t be aware of it until it’s too late.

00:08:05:49 – 00:08:12:02
Clint Loveall
And Jesus, that that becomes then a warning that Jesus leaves with them.

00:08:12:07 – 00:08:34:58
Michael Gewecke
This is where having an understanding of the Old Testament is an important key to understanding what is being taught here in the New Testament. And we shouldn’t make assumptions that we completely missed those images. So I just want to point out no one’s story is fundamentally one where God gives no warning, no one gets advance notice that he uses faithfully to build an ark.

00:08:34:58 – 00:09:00:34
Michael Gewecke
But the idea here in the text is that these people who are living their normal lives, the commentary points out the eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage, these actually don’t have conjunctive words between them. So they’re actually just very much staccato kind of words put back to back. So eating, drinking, marrying, being given the message that you have, the repetition of daily life, they’re doing the thing that they do every day.

00:09:00:39 – 00:09:21:49
Michael Gewecke
And then this storm comes. And when this storm comes, they’re caught unaware. And of course, Nolan, his family are saved because they were faithful. Noah built the ark. They took refuge in that ark. But then the people were wiped out. Those who were just sort of living their life without any attention to God or his revelation or his commands.

00:09:21:54 – 00:09:47:36
Michael Gewecke
That generation of wickedness. Then therefore, they find themselves outside the kingdom that God had ordained or for ordained. And then you know the story, of course, of those who live in Sodom and the idea of Lott being rescued. But then, you know, we continue on with that theme as we get real. Remember Lot’s wife. Remember, don’t don’t be looking back.

00:09:47:36 – 00:10:27:18
Michael Gewecke
Don’t be longing for the things that you could have. Because in the story, she looks back and she’s turned into a pillar of salt. She she looks back. And in that act, she’s frozen in time and she doesn’t participate in the rescue. And I think, Clint, these kind of Old Testament images are going to be taken for granted by Luke, who’s a very well read, very thoughtful, very aware biblical writer and and to reference these in a conversation that deals with the Pharisees makes a whole lot of sense in our reading of the text, because ultimately, so would the people that Jesus was talking to in this context understand these stories, would be able to

00:10:27:18 – 00:10:52:46
Michael Gewecke
talk about them in great detail. We have a lot of opinions and thoughts about them, and for Jesus to, in effect, be putting the Pharisees in the camp of the people who were killed in Noah’s Flood and to put them in the camp of the Sodomites, who were destroyed when Lot’s family was destroyed or sorry, rescued, this is a pretty scandalous interpretation of those tax with the Pharisees in the room.

00:10:52:46 – 00:11:18:04
Michael Gewecke
And yet Jesus is making the claim that when the Son of man, when the Son of God stands directly in front of you, when the revealed kingdom is already at play and you are asking where it is, then you’ve fundamentally missed the boat. You fundamentally risk missed the rescue effort and that I mean, that’s very, very challenging words in the context that Jesus is speaking them.

00:11:18:09 – 00:11:43:12
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And and at that point we tie into a deep and rich biblical theme, the idea of being ready. Right? So when when the day arrives, when the son of man arrives, don’t don’t look back. Don’t turn back yet it is then time. And and then we have this imagery, you know, there’ll be two people in bed and one will be in and one will be out.

00:11:43:12 – 00:12:19:33
Clint Loveall
There’ll be two people grinding, working and one will be in and one will be out, one will be gathered and and one will be judged. And that is scary language. Sometimes the church has misused it, trying to do good things, but using fear and fear based rhetoric. But the theme that is consistent in the New Testament is the idea of being ready, not of predicting the day and being prepared, but of being ready every day, of being on guard, of being alert.

00:12:19:33 – 00:12:47:47
Clint Loveall
And there’s so much of that language in these texts. In each of the gospels, there’s at least one section where Jesus teaches this kind of thing that we see it clearly in the Book of Revelation, maybe some a few other parts of the New Testament as well that we would call apocalyptic. A book like Jude. But we have these texts and sometimes the church has missed the forest for the trees.

00:12:47:47 – 00:13:15:12
Clint Loveall
We’ve made them about doing the very thing that Jesus says don’t do. We’ve made them about making predictions and hearing prophecy and figuring out timelines. And I think by and large they’re not about that at all. They are about the challenge to live in such a way and be expectant for Jesus in such a way that you are always ready, that you don’t need somebody to tell you.

00:13:15:12 – 00:13:48:16
Clint Loveall
It’s it’s, you know, it’s April 12th or it’s May or it’s whatever, it’s coming next year, that kind of language. I find not only not helpful, I often find it unbiblical and I’m tempered by how many hundreds and thousands of times the church has given in to that language and remains zero for every single effort.

00:13:48:21 – 00:14:07:40
Michael Gewecke
I want to make a direct biblical connection to that, because I think you’re exactly right, Chris. I want to point our attention here to verse 33. Jesus explicitly says, This is in red. Jesus is saying this Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. And I think that this is the inverted kingdom that Jesus teaches consistently.

00:14:07:40 – 00:14:30:27
Michael Gewecke
And why this is so important is because the times the church has claimed a date like you’re describing, the times when we become most obsessed with being able to identify the time and the hour or the times that we are under our own power trying to control our fate. We’re trying to do that exact thing. We’re trying to make our life secure.

00:14:30:27 – 00:14:50:28
Michael Gewecke
And the only security that will ever be given is trust and faith in Jesus Christ. The reality that he holds us, that his strength is enough to cover for our weakness, that his faithfulness is enough to cover for our unfaithfulness. His righteousness is enough to cover for our unrighteousness. And that list goes on and on and on it.

00:14:50:33 – 00:15:21:50
Michael Gewecke
The the equation of the Gospel. And let’s be clear about that. The equation of the good news, that’s what gospel means. The good news is that Jesus is what we can’t be. Jesus has done what we couldn’t do. And so I just think the security that we long for in our lives, the assurance that we long for and and stretch for and desire can only be found in the giving up of our own seeking.

00:15:21:50 – 00:15:59:58
Michael Gewecke
After when we are willing to allow Jesus Christ to be the center of our hope. When we say I’m unable, but I trust that he is able, then that is the gateway to the kingdom, and living in that truth will then make it possible for you to do as Jesus teaches here and to live day by day in the hope and promise of the Gospel instead of, you know, just living in a almost like a living zombie without any awareness or agency to live our lives with gratitude, with compassion, with trust in hope and faith in Jesus Christ.

00:15:59:58 – 00:16:12:38
Michael Gewecke
And that that’s a daily task. And if we realize that we’re not the center of it, if then we lose our life in one sense and in the other, we finally find it.

00:16:12:43 – 00:16:34:39
Clint Loveall
The text ends, and all of this is fairly cryptic. Most of these kind of passages are all are symbolic and difficult to get, but it ends with maybe the most cryptic line. They asked him where and he said where the corpse is. The vultures will gather. So on one hand, this is Jesus saying it will be obvious. This is a thing you can’t miss.

00:16:34:39 – 00:17:06:16
Clint Loveall
Just as when you see vultures, you know that there is, there is carrion, there is flesh, there’s dead things. That’s what vultures do. Just as you see that it will be that obvious when the kingdom arrives. However, I think this is also subtle in Luke, where the corpse is. And I hear in that the possibility that Jesus is talking about his own death, that the vultures will gather.

00:17:06:21 – 00:17:34:52
Clint Loveall
So what do we have here? We have the idea of people being separated. Some will be in, some will be out. And when they ask him where this happens, he says, at the corpse, where the vultures will gather and I can’t prove this. I don’t know if this is backed up by language or Bible scholars, but I wonder if in part Luke wants us to think of the corpse of Jesus, where the cross is.

00:17:34:57 – 00:17:54:42
Clint Loveall
There we find the division there, we find the decision, and there we find the Kingdom of God coming in an obvious way to those who know what they’re seeing. And so I think this may be Luke being poetic and it may be a beautiful piece of foreshadowing by Jesus. Here.

00:17:54:46 – 00:18:19:26
Michael Gewecke
I just want to say something that might sound overly obvious. Clint, I know this. How I’m not going to say unclear. I don’t think that this is an unclear teaching, but but it’s certainly not practical. And it’s certainly not just broken down into easy to step or easy to follow steps. And and I think that there’s something actually to learn from that.

00:18:19:26 – 00:18:47:29
Michael Gewecke
When Jesus begins talking about the kingdom, he he shifts gears into a different level of discourse, which by definition pushes against simplicity, and it pushes against easy categorization. And it it begins to move into that stage of spiritual language that stretches language. It pushes language at its edges. And the thing that has to teach us, I think, is that the kingdom is mysterious.

00:18:47:29 – 00:19:11:15
Michael Gewecke
The kingdom is not a simple thing that can be grasped and held and written in a step by step kind of playbook. No, it’s bigger than what we imagine. It’s divine, it’s spiritual. It lives beyond our senses and ability to perfectly communicate. Jesus sees it, He knows it, He’s talking about it, and he’s pushing language to get it across to us.

00:19:11:16 – 00:19:48:10
Michael Gewecke
And I just think we try so hard to contain it and to, you know, sort of describe exactly what it is. And we’re trying to do a thing that I think pushes against what Jesus is doing. He’s trying to expand our minds while we’re trying to condense what he taught. And I think if you will allow yourself a little bit of flexibility here, just look and see in the mystery and the metaphor and the images that Jesus is using here, the biblical references that he’s pulling from all of this complex ofis this story teaching us the kingdom is bigger than what we think.

00:19:48:10 – 00:20:01:41
Michael Gewecke
And and that should be the humility that we understand the kingdom. Let’s not try to lock it down, nail it down, get all buttoned up. Let’s recognize there’s more than what we can describe. And that’s exactly as it is intended. That’s exactly how it’s going to be.

00:20:01:46 – 00:20:13:01
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I think maybe even to go so far as to say when you look for the kingdom, don’t look beyond Jesus, that the kingdom is present in Christ.

00:20:13:06 – 00:20:39:46
Michael Gewecke
That’s enough. Absolutely. Thank you for being with us today. Hope that Christ has been present in this conversation for you. Hope has been encouraging and edifying. We certainly hope that you will join us for our study as we continue on. We’re taking a break. If you’re with the live group, we’ll be back on Thursday. We’re off tomorrow. I certainly hope you’ll join us then, like this video so others can find it in their own study and subscribe so you can stick out along with us in the study until Thursday.

00:20:39:57 – 00:20:40:31
Michael Gewecke
Be blessed.

00:20:40:35 – 00:20:41:15
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.