Luke 17 - Duty, Thankfulness and the Kingdom

A. Forgiveness, faith and duty

1. (1-2) The danger of stumbling another
a. Jesus, through the account of Lazarus and the rich man, has made it clear that eternity is for real, and no one from beyond will come back to warn us. It is all the more imperative how we live and show Jesus to others on this side of eternity, because right now counts forever
b. It is impossible: it is inevitable that people be offended; but woe to the person through whom those offenses come. What does Jesus mean when He speaks of offenses?

i. The Greek word used here is skandalon, and it comes from the word for a bent-stick - the stick that springs the trap or sets the bait. It also was used for a stumbling block, something that people trip over
ii. In the Bible, sometimes a skandalon is good - such as the way that people "trip" over Jesus, and are offended at the gospel (Romans 9:33; 1 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 5:11)

iii. But among brothers in Jesus, a skandalon is bad. It can be false counsel (Matthew 16:23); it can be leading a brother into sin by your "liberty" (Romans 14:13). Division and false teaching brings a skandalon among God's people (Romans 16:17)

c. Essentially, Jesus is saying: "People are going to take the bait - but woe to you if you offer the hook. People are going to trip up - but woe to you if you set the stumbling block in their way."
i. It would better for such a one to die a horrible death, such as having a millstone hung around your neck and being thrown into the sea
ii. This is a lesson that the church learned the hard way in trying to help God to curse the Jewish race for their rejection of the Messiah; the curse came back on the church worse than ever. If someone seems ripe for the judgment or discipline of God, let God do it. Get out of the way. God doesn't need you as an instrument of His judgment, only as an instrument of His love

d. 1 John 2:10 explains the solution to being a skandalon to others - love: He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. If we love our brother, we will not be bringing an offense in their life
2. (3-4) Yet, if someone stumbles you, deal with it and forgive them
a. When someone sins against you, you should not pretend that it never happened. You need to rebuke that brother in love
i. Love is the rule here; we obviously can't walk around keep a record of every little offense committed against
us. One aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering (Galatians 5:22); we need to be able to suffer long with the slights and petty offences that come our way in daily living. Ephesians 4:2 says that we should love with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love. Don't be too sensitive; bear with one another
ii. But in love, when we are sinned against in a significant way, we must follow Ephesians 4:15 as the pattern: we need to speak the truth in love. Love isn't going to other people about it; love isn't bottling it up inside of you. Love is getting it straight with the person who sinned against you
b. Jesus challenges us: if he repents, forgive him. There is no option. When the person who offended you repents, you must forgive them
i. What do we do with the person who has never repented? Do we forgive them? In a sense, we can not forgive them without doing violence to the whole idea of what forgiveness is all about. God does not forgive us apart from repentance; and when we are forgiven, all relationship is restored with Him. Are we more forgiving than God?
ii. Even if you can't forgive someone because they won't repent, you also can not harbor the pain and bitterness of the offense in your heart. You must do what Jesus did in Luke 23:34 when He prayed Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do - commit your heart to God in heaven, loving your enemy and praying for them

iii. Joseph is another marvelous example of this; when he told his brothers who had hated him and sold him into slavery you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20), he didn't come to that realization at that moment. That was the state of his heart for a long time; but relationship could only really be restored after the brothers had repented and Joseph spoke healing, forgiving words to them - and backed it up with actions

c. Though real forgiveness can't happen until there is repentance, we are not permitted to judge another's repentance. If someone had sinned against me seven times in a day, and kept asking me to forgive them, I might think that they were not really sincere. Yet Jesus commands me to still forgive them and restore them
3. (5-6) Great faith is needed to get along with people like this
a. On this occasion, the disciples are extremely perceptive; they recognize that great faith in God is needed to get along with people in this forgiving, non-offending way
b. We usually think of faith as being exercised with dramatic, miraculous works. That may be true, but the greatest miracles of faith have to do with the restoring of relationships

i. The roots of the mulberry tree were thought to be extraordinarily strong; it was thought that this tree could stay rooted for six hundred years
ii. You may have unforgiveness and bitterness that is deeply rooted within you; it may be like one of those trees that sends down deep, strong roots. But through faith, Jesus can rip those roots clean out; it can be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea

iii. "No duty required of men and women more grates upon flesh and blood than this of forgiving injuries, nothing that the most of people find harder to put in practice; so as indeed where there is not a root of faith, this fruit will not be found." (Poole)

c. But the faith that we must have is a faith that has more to do with what kind of faith it is than with how much faith there is. A small amount of faith - as much as a mustard seed (a very small seed) - can accomplish great things, if that small amount of faith is placed in a great and mighty God
i. Little faith can accomplish great things; but great faith can accomplish even greater things. What matters most is what our faith is in, the object of our faith. "The eye cannot see itself. Did you ever see your own eye? In a mirror you may have done so, but that was only a reflection of it. And you may, in like manner, see the evidence of your faith, but you cannot look at the faith itself. Faith looks away to itself to the object of faith, even to Christ." (Spurgeon)
4. (7-10) We can't put God into debt to us; anything we do for Him is small repayment for His work in our life
a. The kind of attitude Jesus is speaking about is not a false humility, the kind of attitude that says "I'm no good at anything"; it is not an admission that we do nothing good or pleasing to God
b. It is a realization that we are forever in God's debt; an understanding that our work for Him is never done

i. This is why it is so important for Bible teachers to emphasize what the Bible itself emphasizes - what God has done for us. When we realize all that God has done for us in Jesus, we want to serve Him out of gratitude
ii. When our hearts are right, we live and act as if we are happy to have the privilege of being allowed to serve God

c. This is an all too rare attitude among Christians today; instead, many today often want to project a "super-Christian" image that makes them anything but unprofitable servants. We only think that we are better than others when we are looking to man, not Jesus
i. Every Christian is a "super-Christian" in Jesus; truly spiritually mature believers will not have a pride or an arrogance about their spiritual "level"
ii. If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. (Galatians 6:3-4)

B. The cleansing of ten lepers
1. (11-14) The healing of the lepers
a. It was not unusual for these lepers to congregate with one another; they were outcasts from society at large, and had no company other than other lepers
b. It is remarkable that Jesus asks them to go to the priests while they are still lepers; this was a true stepping out in faith; a putting on of the new man even when you look and feel like the old

i. Of course, this is exactly what we are called to do as followers of Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)
ii. Just as God blessed the faith of the lepers to step out as the new man even when the feel like the old, so will He bless our faith - they were healed!

2. (15-19) Only one out of ten of the lepers return to give thanks
a. Only one came back to give thanks; and he was the unlikely one - a Samaritan. And, though he was only one, at least he was very loud about his thanks!
b. Of the nine who did not return to give thanks, Jesus missed them - He wondered where they were. Jesus also notices our lack of gratitude

i. We would think that everyone who would pray would also praise God; but this is sadly not always the case. What possible excuse is there for this?
ii. We can always find reason for gratitude before God. Matthew Henry, the famous Bible commentator, was robbed of his wallet once. He wrote in his diary that night all the things he was thankful about: first, that he had never been robbed before. Second, that though they took his wallet, they did not take his life. Third, because even though they took it all, it wasn't very much. Finally, because he was the one who was robbed and not the one who was robbing

c. There was an extra healing for this tenth leper; when Jesus said your faith has made you well, He is likely speaking of God's work within the man's heart. The other lepers had whole bodies, but sick hearts
C. The coming of the kingdom
1. (20-21) If you want to know about Jesus' kingdom, get to know the King
a. We can just imagine a hostile Pharisee coming to Jesus, and demanding Him to either "put up" and produce the Kingdom of the Messiah, or to "shut up" and stop claiming He was the Messiah
i. In Jesus' day, just like our own, people were longing for the coming of the Messiah. They knew the prophesies in the Old Testament which spoke of the glory of the coming Messiah; they wanted that kind of life and earth now
b. But Jesus makes it clear to the Pharisee asking the question: you won't find the kingdom of God through a hostile questioning of Jesus. Observation is better translated hostile examination; Jesus is telling the Pharisees that their hostile, doubting eyes are unable to see or receive the kingdom of God
i. The verb from which the word observation comes from is used often in the New Testament and in the LXX; it means "hostile observation"
c. Where will they find the kingdom of God? Jesus tells them that the kingdom is right in their midst! Within you is better translated in your midst or among you; the kingdom of God was among them because the King was among them!
i. This is not some mystical revelation by Jesus that in some seed form, the Kingdom of God is within everyone in a New Age sense (Jesus would not have told Pharisees that the kingdom of God was within them); His statement calls attention to Himself, not to man
ii. Like many today, the Pharisees said they wanted the Kingdom of God to come; but you don't want the Kingdom if you reject the King

2. (22-24) Jesus' kingdom won't come immediately in the disciple's day
a. When Jesus would leave this earth, the days would come when Jesus' disciples - both near and far off - would long for the days when the Messiah would come
b. Satan would know how to take advantage of that longing; there would be many who claimed to be the Messiah who would come before Jesus actually returned; it would be essential that they are not deceived by these false Messiahs

c. David Koresh, Jim Jones, Sun Myung Moon, and many, many others have all claimed to be the Messiah. Many Orthodox Jews thought that a Brooklyn Rabbi named Mendel Schneerson was the Messiah, and Messianic fervor was heating up in Israel. Yellow billboards were erected across Israel with the slogan PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH. Bumper stickers and electric signs on cars said the same thing, and one group took out a full page ad in the New York Times announcing "The Time for Your Redemption Has Arrived."

i. Dr. Charles Fineberg, a noted Jewish-Christian scholar, says that in the course of Israel's history since the time of our Lord, sixty-four different individuals have appeared claiming to be the Messiah
d. The return of Jesus will be seen by all, just as lightning that flashes across the sky is seen by all; this is despite what some groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses say - that Jesus returned "secretly" in 1915
3. (25) Jesus' kingdom cannot come until He finishes His work on earth
a. There is a tendency in all followers of Jesus to skip the cross and go straight to the Kingdom of God; but the Kingdom of God can't come until the King goes to the cross
b. Why should it be Jesus who rules and reigns? Because He has fulfilled His own word; we are called to follow Him in the same way

i. If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all (Mark 9:35)
ii. Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant (Matthew 20:26)

c. Jesus can only come again in glory because He came first in humility and submission unto death
4. (26-30) The coming of the King will be a great surprise
a. By showing the similarity to Noah's day, Jesus describes a world that is functioning in a "business as usual" way when He returns; people ate, drank . . . married wives, they were given in marriage - things are carrying on just as they were
b. In the same way, as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah before the destruction of those cities, so it will be before the coming of Jesus - life will be pretty much business as usual, until sudden destruction and judgment comes

i. Significantly, there are other passages of Scripture that seem to show that Jesus will return to an earth that will be anything but business as usual
ii. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor shall ever be. (Matthew 24:21)

iii. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! (Revelation 6:15-16)

c. Which will it be? Business as usual, or hell-on-earth? The two distinct "phases" of Jesus' coming, separated by some period of time, explains the seemingly contradictory conditions which describe the condition of the world at the return of Jesus
d. Jesus' use of the accounts of Noah and Lot as pictures of His coming shows us something important: in each case, God delivered His people, then He brought down judgment

i. And, in each case, only those who sought after God were ready. Are you ready?
5. (31-33) Prepare for the coming of the King by not being attached to this world
a. When Noah's flood came, you could imagine people trying to vainly keep their possessions safe while they themselves perished; even so, if you are ready for Jesus' coming, you won't be concerned about all the stuff you leave behind. Your heart won't be on what you have in house, but on what you have in heaven
b. Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt as she and her family escaped from Sodom; it was because she looked back (Genesis 19:26). Will you be caught looking back at the what there is in the world?

i. The awesome reality is this: God will give us what we really want. When we really want the things of this world, God will let us have them - for a while. But when we really want the things of God, God will also let us have them - forever.
ii. The good news is that His people do want these things, even though they battle against the flesh regarding them. God will finish what He has begun in you!

6. (34-36) When Jesus comes, some will be taken suddenly and others will be left behind
a. This passage is often applied to the rapture, a term applied to Jesus' coming for His people in the midst of a business as usual world
i. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
b. You won't have time to prepare for the rapture - it will come suddenly and at an unexpected moment. The way to be ready is to be ready now
c. Significantly, Jesus points to the fact that it is day in one part of the world while it is night on another; at the same time some are sleeping at night, others are working in a field. God will come for His people all over the earth at one moment

d. Just as in the days of Noah and Lot, when Jesus comes, some will be taken out of the way and others will remain and be judged

7. (37) All this will happen at the time when judgment is ripe
a. When? What does Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together mean? William Barclay says this was a common proverb meaning that a thing would happen when the necessary conditions were fulfilled
b. Geldenhuys on the saying about the eagles: "where the spiritually dead people are, there the judgment will be executed". "Where that which is ripe for judgment is present, there also will the judgment take place."

c. Are the conditions ripe for judgment in our day?

i. The Bible describes certain political, economic, spiritual, social, and military characteristics regarding what the world will be like before His return - suffice it to say that these conditions are amply set today - the stage is set
ii. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 tells us what the world will be like in the last days: But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! Does this sound like today?

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