Sermon for Lord's Day August 21, 2022 Luke 17:20-36 The Certainty of Divine Judgment pt. 2

Today we are going to be reading actually the same passage that we read last week, so it stays fresh upon our minds as we continue to examine the text. Luke chapter 17, we're going to read from verse 20 through verse 37 today.

Stand with us if you would to honor the reading of God's Holy Word. This is the Word of the Living God. 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 His 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 it will 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 of 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 is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is 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 tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed, one will be taken and the other left.

There will be two women grinding together, one will be taken and the other left. Two men, one taken and the other left. And they said to him, Where, Lord? And he said to them, Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather together.

As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together. Our great God and Fathers, we come before your throne now. I come, dear Lord, just to say thank you for your amazing grace, for your goodness, your mercy, your kindness, your long-suffering toward us, God.

I thank you for salvation in and through your Son that you sent to die on the cross for our sins, that he might be the propitiation for our sins, and that believing in him we might have eternal life. Lord, I thank you for the fact that you did not stay dead, Lord, but you rose on the third day, that you ascended upon high, that you led captivity captive, dear Lord, and that now you sit enthroned, seated at the right hand of the Father, where you ever live and make intercession for us as your people.

Today, in and through our time together in the scriptures, my prayer is this, that your church would be edified, that your people would grow in grace and in knowledge, that our hearts and our minds would be enriched together through your Holy Spirit by your holy word, for it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.

In his commentary on Luke, J .C. Ryle states this, The kingdom of God is like no other kingdom. We are taught first in this passage that the kingdom of God is completely different from any other kingdom of this world.

The Lord Jesus told the Pharisees that it does not come with observation. Ryle went on to say, by this he meant that its approach and presence were not to be seen by outward signs. Those who waited to observe these kinds of signs would be disappointed, because the kingdom of God is within you, as Jesus states, or is in your midst.

This describes the start of our Lord's spiritual kingdom. It began in a manger in Bethlehem, without any great, rich, and wise people knowing it. It appeared suddenly in the temple at Jerusalem, and no one other than Simeon and Anna recognized this king.

Thirty years later, it was received only by a few tax collectors and fishermen in Galilee. The rulers and the Pharisees did not have eyes to see it. The king came to his own, and as John states in his gospel, his own did not receive him.

All this time, the Jews professed to be waiting for the kingdom, but they were looking in the wrong direction. They were looking for signs that they had no warrant to expect. As we went through last week, recall that back, the kingdom of God was in their midst, yet they could not see it.

John Gilstead, he answered them concerning this statement when they asked him, when the Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God would come, and he answered, it comes not with observation. John Gill said, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God comes not with observation, or so as to be observed by the eye, or to be distinguished when it comes as the kingdoms of this world.

Remember what Jesus said again, recalling to mind the scriptures. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. For if it were of this world, then would my servants fight. But Gill goes on to state here, he says this, it's not going to be recognized by outward pomp and splendor.

It's not going to be recognized by temporal riches or external honors and worldly power and grandeur, though it so far came with observation that they had eyes to see. They might observe that it was come by what they saw done in Christ.

So Gill basically states the same thing that Ryle states. They did not have eyes to see it. The kingdom of God was set in their midst, and they could not see it. So as we enter in today, upon our text, let's recall to mind the context.

You hear us talk about context a lot. Chris Roseborough says the three keys to proper biblical exegesis, context, context, and context. It cannot be downplayed, or it should not be downplayed, the importance of context, particularly as we read the Bible.

So as we consider context today, I think it's important for us to briefly think about the significance of having a good hermeneutic principle. Now, you may not hear that word in some churches because they're afraid of being considered too academic.

And you may think, we don't need to know what that word means, but I beg to differ with you. We all need to understand and know what hermeneutics are and hermeneutic principles because each of us on a daily basis ought to be in the scriptures reading the word of God.

And so hermeneutic, so in reality, unless you and I as individuals, the church members, understand what hermeneutic principles are, it makes us susceptible to, get ready for this, to making incorrect assumptions about the Bible.

Can we not all say that, yes, I have made one or two incorrect assumptions about the Bible? That's about on the same level as a husband saying, I've been wrong once or twice during my married life, right?

We've all been wrong. So in order to avoid making incorrect assumptions about the Bible and the scripture passages that we look at, what happens when we make incorrect assumptions is that we make wrong applications of the text.

And so it's, we must be very careful because two wrongs never make a right. Never. So you hear us say regularly, it's important for you to test what you hear each week, according to the scriptures. You heard that.

Don't take my word for it. Test what you hear according to the scriptures. If what you hear lines up with the scriptures as a whole, say, amen, we can trust each other. But if what I tell you is that God wants you to be rich, healthy and wealthy and happy all the time, then you need to test that according to the scriptures.

And we know that is a lie. All right. So you hear us say regularly, test what you hear according to the scriptures. Our goal in taking a moment as we enter into this text today, our goal in taking this moment to understand what hermeneutics are is so that you will be able to apply what you learn today to your personal Bible study time throughout the week.

So what are hermeneutics? Very important question here. It's one thing to say a word. It's a whole other thing to understand what the word is, right? So what are hermeneutics? Hermeneutics are principles of biblical interpretation.

Our principles of interpretation is the general definition. Principles of interpretation, but particularly as it relates to the Bible. Now that's from Merriam-Webster's dictionary. So principles of interpretation are what hermeneutics are.

Some principles of biblical interpretation are one and two. I'll list two for you, which is really three. But number two is just two combined. So number one, the first principle when it comes to us rightly understanding and interpreting the text of Scripture is this, that we take just the plain reading of the text.

We take the text at face value. What the text is actually saying. That we don't go into it and say, well, what does this Scripture mean to you, right? The goal is to say, what does this Scripture mean?

What did God mean when he set forth it in his word? So the number one, the plain reading of the text. Number two, principle of biblical interpretation. Told you there were two involved in this. The historical context and the grammatical context.

So when we look at any passage of Scripture, we want to understand what was going on historically during this time. What went on historically in the years previous and in the years following. And we want to understand the grammatical context.

Meaning, how is this being written? Many different genres of literature are used within the pages of God's holy word. We have the poetry books in the Psalms. We have books that speak allegorically. We have books that speak figuratively.

We have books that speak metaphorically. We have books that are just saying the plain sense of the word. They are literally interpreted. But when we look at any text, we must always look at these themes.

The plain reading of the text and the historical and the grammatical context. And our goal today in having communicated this to you is as we look at this passage today, that we apply these principles.

As we apply these basic principles, we don't want to just give you something that you forget about when you leave. But we're trying to give you something today that when you leave, when you go home and you open your Bible this afternoon or tonight or tomorrow and you go to read God's word, you go and you begin to apply these principles to God's word and that you rightly understand the Scriptures.

The Apostle Paul told Timothy, rightly divide the word of God. That means to rightly interpret the Scriptures. There was an online article at Grace Theological Seminary that talked about context and particularly context in light of the literary genre that's being used.

And I'm going to read this. I'm going to quote that for you today. So number one bullet point they said about context is this, that context is king. For example, laughing at a joke is inappropriate. Laughing at a joke during a funeral may not be as appropriate.

Right? The context, knowing the context is key to being able to interpret anything, including the stories from the Bible to everything. Understanding how Jesus' words would have been interpreted by his original audience is an important step to being able to properly apply the truth in our own lives.

Second bullet point they give, define the terms. So when you're first attempting to understand the Bible, knowing the definitions of the word used by the authors is a great first step. But you should also know if you're reading historical narrative, poetry, or a parable, and each literary style comes with its own rules of interpretation.

So undoubtedly understood by the authors who pin them. Philip Melanchthon, for example, followed after Martin Luther in the Reformation there in Germany. Philip Melanchthon stated it this way, the scripture cannot be understood theologically unless it is first understood grammatically.

We must understand what we read. We must understand what we read. So particularly here, let's look now, move into our text. Let's look at the context here. What's going on? What kind of narrative is this?

This is a historical narrative. What we have, remember if you go back to Luke chapter 1, the apostle, or I'm sorry, not the apostle, but Luke tells us why he's writing this. He's writing this to Theophilus, oh most excellent Theophilus, that you might have a greater understanding of what Jesus, who Jesus Christ is, and what Jesus Christ has done.

Luke's gospel is a series of investigative reporting, if you would have it, where Luke literally goes to eyewitnesses who witness the works of Jesus Christ and pins their accounts down. And so we have them preserved for us in the Bible itself.

So there's some important questions that we ask when trying to figure out what context is. You can say, who is speaking? Who is being spoken to? These are good questions to ask. What questions are good?

What is he saying to them? What is he speaking to them about? Three, the third question that we're going to ask about our text today is what made this time so unique as opposed to all other times in history?

Fourth question that we're going to look at is what is the historical context of what's taking place here? Fifthly, how can we be assured? How can we be assured that he is speaking about the soon-to-come judgment on that generation, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, and not about his second coming in glory, which is a reality?

There are some who would teach that the second coming has already happened, that the resurrection is past. My friends, that is not what the scriptures teach. There is certainly coming a day, according to the scriptures as we'll look at them, that Jesus will come again in the skies.

Last of all, the sixth thing we'll look at is where and what does Jesus tell the disciples to look for as evidence of this taking place, what he has told them? All of that is what we are going to take some time to examine this morning.

So, first question, who is Jesus speaking to here? According to our text, he is speaking, first of all, in verse 20 and 21 to the Pharisees, right? He's being asked by the Pharisees a question, and he speaks to them.

In verse 22, who is Jesus speaking to? The disciples. He said to the disciples. See how it's there? He is speaking to the disciples. Now, what is he saying to the disciples? That's the second question.

What is he speaking to them about? So, what Jesus says is, the days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man. Do you remember last week we talked about the significance of Jesus using this term, the Son of Man, in this passage?

And we'll see this demonstrated in the parallel gospel accounts as well. But what Jesus is talking about to them, he goes on and he says, and you will not see it. You will wish to see the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

And they will say to you, look here or look there. Do not go out and follow them. For as the lightning flashes from one side of the sky to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. This is a very particular term that he's using.

And we'll look at the meaning of that again here in a moment as well. But notice what Jesus says in verse 25. This is what he's speaking to them about. But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Jesus says, first, the Son of Man must be rejected by who? This generation. He's not speaking about us in 2022. He's speaking to that particular generation. Again, we'll get to that. But because of the unique context of the things that are taking place.

So he goes through from verse 26 to verse 30, and he recounts, as you remember, the days of Noah. He recounts the days of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah before the Lord destroyed those places. The certainty of divine judgment is a reality.

The specificity of divine judgment is certainly a reality. The Lord flooded the entire world in the days of Noah, and he destroyed just the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in that day, in that time. God is specific in his words.

And so we see as we move along here, verse 25, again, particularly would be our key text there for what is he speaking to them about? That he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Moving forward just a little bit more, let's notice what made this time unique. What made this particular time that we are reading about so unique? What made it so unlike any other time in history? This is where we understand the relevance and the importance of that term, the Son of Man.

John Gill, in his commentary, said this concerning that statement, the Son of Man. The days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man. In other words, the days of the Messiah.

A phrase that was frequently used in Jewish writings, that is, when they should be glad to enjoy one such a day in the personal presence of Christ, as they now did. And instead of looking forward for happy days in a temporal sense, they would look back upon the days they have enjoyed with Christ when he was in person among them.

And they wish that they had one of those days again. That's what Jesus said. You will hope to see one of the days of the Son of Man again. But those days are soon going to be gone away. Again, immediate context there.

And so, as we look at this, as we try to grasp this and get our minds wrapped around this, because it's really and truly quite simple. When Jesus said, you will look to see for one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

And then Jesus makes that statement there about the lightning flashing from one side of the sky to the other. Many times, just taking that one verse out of context, everybody assumes that's talking about the day when Jesus comes back in glory.

But he's speaking about the temporariness of his presence here on the earth. He's saying, don't take for granted the time that you had when the Son of Man is here with you. The kingdom of God literally came to earth in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, what made this time so unique, because there never has been a time in history before. And there never will be a time in history after until he comes in the clouds where Jesus Christ, God, Emmanuel, God with us, actually dwelt among men.

It is amazing when we consider this. It is beautiful when we grasp this truth. So again, verse 30, so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. They were going about their business on the days of Noah.

They were just going about their business in the days of Lot. And guess what? In this day, this day and time that we're reading this, guess what they were doing? They were going about their business. But Jesus came, born of a virgin, born that he might fulfill the law of God for all men, that he might be the propitiation for our sins.

This is good news today. So as we move on, next question that we're going to ask. So there we have what made this time unique in history. The Son of God dwelt with man. The Son of Man was here. That's what makes it so unique.

Fourth question that we're asking, what is the historical context? In other words, what went on during this generation or after this generation? By the way, let's answer this question too. A generation is a period of 30 to 40 years.

This is the scriptural standard. A period of 30 to 40 years is what a generation was. So Jesus was saying that within 30 to 40 years, this generation would give account of their deeds. Just as he told Noah and the people in that day, he told Lot and the people of his day, Jesus is saying now there will be a day of reckoning that will come upon Jerusalem.

And so the historical context here, to understand historical context, this means we have to do a little bit of legwork. Today, you don't have to do the legwork. I've done the legwork for us today. But I'm saying this, as you study the Bible, study context, you are going to have to do some legwork.

You're going to have to put forth some effort. You're going to have to read. You're going to have to call each other, text each other and say, so this is what I figured out. Does this make sense to you?

Does this look right? Is this what history says? So the historical context and the beauty, the beauty, as they say, of hindsight is that hindsight is 20 -20. God has given us the truth of his scriptures, but he has also given us historical texts that, though we don't need them to verify the truth of the scriptures, they do verify the truth of the scriptures, and it reinforces the truth of the scriptures.

So in the year AD 70, we have it according to the historian Josephus, and I want to read you just a little bit of Josephus' account of the destruction of Jerusalem, what literally took place in the year AD 70.

Josephus said this, the rebels shortly after attacked the Romans again, he's speaking about the Jewish zealots that was fighting with the Romans there, and they clashed and they followed between the guards of the sanctuary and the troops were putting out the fire inside the inner court of the tabernacle there.

The latter rallied the Jews and followed in hot pursuit right up to the temple itself. Then one of the soldiers, without awaiting any orders and with no dread of so momentous a deed, but urged on by some supernatural force, snatched a blazing piece of wood and climbing on another soldier's back, hurled the flaming wood brand through a low golden window that gave access on the north side to the rooms that surrounded the sanctuary.

So we're talking about the temple here. Then we're talking about the destruction that was coming upon the temple. As the flames shot up, the Jews let out a shout of dismay that matched the tragedy. They fought to the rescue with no thought of sparing their lives or husbanding their strength.

For the sacred structure that they had constantly guarded with such devotion was vanishing before their very eyes. No exhortation or threat could now restrain the impetuosity of the legions, for passion was in supreme command.

Crowded together around the entrances, many were trampled down by their companions. Others, stumbling on the smoldering and smoke-filled ruins of the porticoes, died as miserably as they were defeated.

As they drew closer to the temple, they pretended not even to hear Caesar's orders, but urged the men in front to throw the more firebrands. The rebels were powerless to help. Carnage and fight spread throughout.

Most of the slain were peaceful citizens, weak and unarmed, and they were butchered where they were caught. The heap of corpses mounted higher and higher about the altar. A stream of blood flowed down the temple steps, and the bodies of those slain at the top slipped to the bottom.

When Caesar failed to restrain the fury of his frenzied soldiers and the fire could not be checked, he entered the building with his generals and looked at the holy place of the sanctuary and all its furnishings, which exceeded by far the accounts current in foreign lands and fully justified their splendid repute in our own.

And Josephus said, as the flames had not yet penetrated to the inner sanctum, but were consuming the chambers that surrounded the sanctuary, Titus, who was the general, assumed correctly that there was still time to save the structure.

He ran out, and by personal appeals, he endeavored to persuade his men to put out the fire, instructing Liberalis, a centurion of his bodyguard of Lancers, to club any of the men who disobeyed his orders.

But their respect for Caesar and their fear of the centurion's staff, who was trying to check them, were overpowered by their rage. What does Jesus say? What do the other gospel accounts tell us of the things that will take place?

How that the destruction of the temple will take place? Turn back to Matthew's gospel, chapter 24. And for this, we're just going to look at some similarities. Some similarities in the gospel accounts in Matthew and in Mark, according to Luke's gospel.

And we'll see the veracity and the truth of the scripture here set before us. In Matthew, chapter 24, notice what the Word of God states. In verse 1, Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple.

But he answered them, You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down. Now, we read Josephus' account of history of the destruction.

We're jumping back to what Jesus said is going to take place within that generation. And notice verse 3 here. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us, when will these things be?

And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name. You see the similarities from Luke there? Many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ.

And they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines, earthquakes in various places. And Jesus said, All these are but the beginning of birth pains. Speaking of literal events that are taking place during that time. Then Jesus makes this statement.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation. Who is he speaking to? Context? The disciples, right? The disciples ask him the question. Jesus answers to the disciples. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation.

And they will put you to death. And you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and will lead many astray.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

And then the end will come. Jesus sets out some time indicators for them in that section of scripture there. And what is beautiful and what's amazing here, remember within 30 to 40 years this is going to take place.

So what do we have? Jesus dies on the cross. He's buried on the third day. He arises, right? He arises. He appears to the disciples. We won't go to the Mark passage. But I encourage you to read Mark 13 in your Bible study time this week.

Examine the scriptures on that. Jesus rises from the dead. 50 days later, the day of Pentecost comes. We have in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 1. And what happened on the day of Pentecost? People from all the nations were gathered in Jerusalem.

And what happened on the day of Pentecost? Anybody remember? The Holy Spirit came, set on men his cloven tongues of fire, and they proclaimed. What did they do? They proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And who heard the gospel? Men of every nation. All the tribes, all the tongues of the world heard the gospel. Not only heard the gospel, but they heard the gospel. And they were added to the church. So you see the truthfulness of scripture, how Jesus set this forth, and how we know by looking back on it that this took place.

One other key thing, if you would, turn over to, in the Old Testament, to the book of Daniel. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Daniel, chapter 7. And again, just as a point of reference, this is how, this is going to our fifth statement, how we can be assured that Jesus is speaking about the soon-to-come judgment and not about his return in the clouds to gather all of the church of Jesus Christ home.

So on the day of Pentecost, Jesus arises from the dead, appears to the disciples, and do you remember, as you hold your spot there, you hold your spot there in Daniel, just so that I don't misquote this to you.

Again, context is so important when we read the text of scripture. If you flip over while holding Daniel's passage to Acts chapter 1 in verse 6, notice what Luke, the gospel writer, states here. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Again, after all that's taking place, they're still looking for a world superpower. They're looking for a natural kingdom to come. When will you again restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and they said this, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Now, what's significant about this? We see two things happening. We see the ascension of Christ, and we hear the news of the coming again of Christ.

Now, we always take these passages and we read them in the sense that everything is happening from our perspective. But Sarah learned something this week. Man, Greg, Susie, she was so proud this week about learning the chief end of man.

Sarah, what is the chief end of man? A man. The scriptures point to the glory of God. We always read this text, and we assume what are assumed many times as second coming passages, as though this is what we're seeing happening, coming to us.

But when Jesus ascended, anybody know where he was headed? Huh? That's right, to the throne, seated at the right hand of the throne on high. If you turn back to Daniel now, chapter 7, we see this set forth in the text.

We see the ascension set forth in the text of scripture. Daniel 7, verse 13. Daniel said, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to who?

The ancient of days, the father. When Jesus ascended, he ascended to the father. What these texts, what many folks say that this text in Daniel says is talking about his coming to us, it's not. It's about his ascension to the throne of God, where he is ever seated at the right hand of the throne of God, where he lives to make intercession.

For the Bible says he came to the ancient of days and was presented to him. That was his coronation. This was the day of Jesus' coronation. Notice what the scripture says. And to him, to Jesus, to him who ascended to the ancient of days, to him was given what?

Dominion and glory and a kingdom, right? That all people, nations, and languages should serve him. Does anybody have Matthew chapter 28, 18 through 20 memorized? Let's turn to that just for a second. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18.

Matthew chapter 28, verse 18. And Jesus came to them after his resurrection. And what did he say? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.