Book of Luke - Ch. 17, Vs. 1-10 (09/20/2020)

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to start up right now. Let's begin with a quick word of prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all that you provided for us.

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Thank you for bringing those of us together that we can meet in person, and thank you for providing access to the people round about the country that they can join in with us as we seek to worship you by studying your holy word.

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Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit to help us in our understanding. Thank you for giving us your

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Son to provide for us and to give us life eternal. Bless us as we go through the day.

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Be with us through all the services. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to begin this morning with Luke 17.

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And when I first looked at this, I was perplexed because I didn't see how that it joined together.

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And so I did a little background study, and I found that Stephen Langdon, the

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Archbishop of Canterbury for 21 years, is the one that has given credit for dividing the

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English Bible into chapters. And sometimes the divisions are helpful.

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Sometimes they interfere with our understanding, and sometimes they only serve to make the divisions more uniform in size.

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That's to make every chapter about the same size. Well, when I began, I thought that that's all that this set of divisions were about.

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And so I saw pretty quickly that there are five unrelated or barely related lessons in chapter 17.

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The first lesson in chapter 17 is the lesson that I entitled traps.

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Traps or snares. Who's trapped? Who set the trap?

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And what's the consequences to both the trapped and the trapper?

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So let's begin. Then said he unto the disciples, it is impossible but that offenses will come.

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But woe unto him through whom they come. Now that was Luke chapter 17 verse 1.

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And the word offenses literally translated is snares or traps.

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Now it's reasonable to assume that in this fallen world, there'd be many snares or many traps for the believer.

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Things that the believer would stumble into. But in fact, it's more than reasonable.

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It's inevitable. Remember, in the first verse, it is impossible but that offenses will come.

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So it's not just unreasonable to assume that snares will happen to trap believers.

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It is inevitable that they will come. But it's not so reasonable to assume that any of those snares would be set by fellow believers.

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And this is what the Lord is addressing here. When he says, woe unto him who set the trap.

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Well, he didn't say it exactly that way. But essentially, that's what he said.

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Especially if the one who set the snare or the trap is a believer.

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He says in verse 2, it would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than he should offend one of these little ones.

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Everybody takes that to believe that he's talking about children. But he's not really talking about children.

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We'll get to that in just a second. Jesus had already noted that the Pharisees or the non -believers were not only refusing to enter the kingdom themselves, but they were also keeping others from entering.

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Remember back in Luke 11 verse 52 when he said, woe unto you lawyers.

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A lawyer was a special group of a special set of scribes with knowledge particularly about the law.

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For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering you hindered.

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And there is a special application to those who would presume to destroy the faith of children.

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Not children per se, but immature believers. So keep in mind that Jesus is talking about those that interfere with unimmature believers.

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Furthermore, it's important to understand that this parable was intended not only for the

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Pharisees, the non -believers, but for the disciples as well.

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And that would be all of the disciples. That would include Judas. And that begs the question, was

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Judas a believer? He was a follower of Jesus. Was he a believer or was he simply pretending to be one for financial purposes?

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After all, he was the one that is referred to in John as the keeper of the bag.

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Well, what do you think? Was Judas a believer or was he simply pretending to be one?

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It kind of sounds that way to me too. Did he have any choice about whether or not he's going to fall into that trap?

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Just like we don't. But unlike us, Jesus called him for a different reason.

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And he's going to get to that in a moment. I'm going to go to John chapter 13, starting in verse 1.

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John chapter 13, verse 1. And I'm going to begin, and then

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I'm going to interrupt myself several times. John 13, verse 1.

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Now, before the feast of the Passover. Now, this was mere days after the events that are recorded in Luke 17.

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Luke 17 is late in his journey through Samaria and Galilee as he is heading back toward Jerusalem to meet his obligations there.

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That is Jesus. Just days before the events occurred in Luke 17.

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When Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of the world unto the

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Father. So Jesus knows that it's time for him to be in Jerusalem to do all the things that he needs to do in order to complete his earthly mission.

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Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

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The end is not quite yet, but it's well on the way. And supper being ended, the devil having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

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So right now, Judas knows that he is going to betray

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Jesus. Jesus knows that Judas is going to betray him. Jesus always knew that Judas was going to betray him.

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You'll see that in a second. Jesus knowing that the

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Father had given all things into his hand, and that he was come from God and went to God.

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That was awkward for me, and it took a while to figure out what he was saying. But I think I finally have.

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Jesus knows that his earthly mission is coming to an end. Jesus came from eternity past, when and where he was

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God. He came into time where he was both God and man.

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And now, his earthly mission almost completed, he is preparing to depart to be with his

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Father again. But he's got a few loose ends to tie up.

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Verse 4. He, this is Jesus, riseth from supper, and lay aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself.

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After that, he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

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Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, doth thou wash my feet?

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And Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shall know hereafter.

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What he's saying to Peter is, you don't understand now, but you will soon. Now Peter, soon is not yet.

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Peter not yet understanding response, as only

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Peter would. Peter said unto him, this is Peter talking to Jesus.

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This is Peter talking to the God of the world. Thou shalt never wash my feet.

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And Jesus answered him and said, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

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Well, that caught Peter's attention, and Peter said unto him, Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.

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So the feet washing was not enough for Peter. And Jesus said unto him,

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He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean.

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But then he asked a cryptic question or made a cryptic statement, but not all.

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I'm going to read that again. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all.

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Two questions. Who was it that was not clean? Judas.

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And I got another question. Did Jesus wash Judas' feet? You think he did?

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I think he did too. Otherwise, the next series of questions would not be probably appropriate, but I'm not certain that he washed

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Judas' feet. Maybe everybody else just didn't notice that Judas' feet were not washed.

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It just says that he came to Peter. He didn't say he came to Peter first or he came to Peter last. He just came to Peter in the midst of washing the disciples' feet.

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And we don't really know whether Judas' feet were washed or not. It didn't say that explicitly.

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But it did say this, and you're clean, but not all. For he, and that's

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Jesus, for he knew who should betray him. Therefore, he said, ye are not all clean.

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So there was some in the group that he's talking up to, some of the group of the disciples, not the Pharisees, but of the group of disciples, some of them were not clean.

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So after he had washed their feet and taken his garment and was set down again, he said unto him, know ye what

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I have done to you. So that's the reason I believe maybe he did wash

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Judas' feet, but I'm not certain. Know ye what

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I have done to you? You call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am.

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I am your master and Lord. If then I, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.

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For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

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Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his

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Lord. Neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are ye if you continue doing them.

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Now, this is just a hint of the disciples coming tribulations.

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They're not going to live a life of leisure. I heard Dr. Jeffers on the way in this morning say, Lord never promised a

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Christian that he'd have no problems. He just promised the Christian that he would be with him through the problems.

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We all have problems. If we exist, we have problems. If we are Christians and we exist, we may even have more problems than the worldly people have.

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But we have one thing that they don't have. We have God going through with us, holding our hand.

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And if God be for us, who can be against us? But this is a hint to them, to the disciples of their coming tribulation.

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Verse 18. I mean, John I forgot the chapter. I'm in John 13 and we're now at verse 18.

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That's true. It is a service that we are bound to do because the

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Lord commanded us to do them. It's not something we want to do. Otherwise, we wouldn't classify it as a service.

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But it's something that we will do and we'll be happy doing if we really understand and believe what the

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Lord is telling us. Yes, ma 'am. Well, you may be correct.

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And that's why we're quibbling or not quibbling about whether he was a disciple or not. We do know that he was a follower of Jesus.

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We know that for certain. We know that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and all of them were there, including

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Judas. Now, if Judas's feet had not been washed, all the other disciples would have known that he was the one whose feet was not washed.

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And they would understand who it was that wasn't clean. But only Jesus at this point knows that.

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So I'm not totally 100 % sure of the answer. And that's why I prefaced it at the beginning to say,

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I don't know. Okay. But there are some things that we do know.

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We do know he was a follower of Jesus. And we know that he was not a follower of Jesus by mistake.

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We're going to get to that in just a few minutes. Whoa. I speak not of you all.

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Who's he talking to? Well, he's talking to the Pharisees and the disciples. But right now he's focusing attention on the disciples.

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And he says, I'm not speaking to all of you disciples, I think is what he's saying.

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I know whom I have chosen. But that the scripture may be fulfilled.

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What scripture? He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

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What he is saying to the disciples is, I made no mistake in choosing those that I chose to follow me.

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I chose every man to follow me. And I chose them all for my own reasons.

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I chose them correctly. I made no mistake in the choosing. 11 of you were chosen to follow me and to share in the cup of my tribulation.

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And one of you was chosen for an entirely different reason. That's kind of what he's saying.

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And he goes on to say, verse 19. Now I tell you before he come, I tell you before he come, that when it has come to pass, you may believe that I am he.

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Now look carefully at that verse. If you've got your Bible out, you'll notice something about the word he.

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And what is it? It's lower case, but it's worse than lowercase it is in.

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Is it in italics in your version? Now what does that mean? If something is there and it's in italics, what does that mean?

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What does that tell us? It's added. It's added. It was not in the Greek text.

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The word he is in italics. That's not in the Greek text. Jesus is telling his—and we're left with what?

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We're left with the phrase, I am. Jesus is telling his disciples that very soon they will recognize that he is

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God. That word I am is the word for Yahweh, the word that the

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Jews wouldn't say. I am. That's what Jesus spoke to Moses out of the burning bush.

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He identified himself. Moses says, who are you? And he says, I am. What he's saying is,

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I am the one. I am the Messiah. I am the one. And he is making that certain to the disciples that they will recognize that he is the

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Messiah when it comes their time for their trial and their tribulation.

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And they're all going to go through trial and tribulation. And at the first blush, every one of them will turn and run except maybe

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John. John is the only one that was there with Jesus looking on at his crucifixion.

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Peter was kind of there, but he was hiding out in the other room denying Jesus. Verily, verily,

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I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me.

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So he's telling them, I'm going to send you. And those that receive you receive me.

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And he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. So if you receive

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Jesus, you receive God. Now, when Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in the spirit.

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And he testified and said, verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.

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So now the disciples are beginning to see some of the problems, some of the things that lie ahead of them.

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But they didn't quite understand yet because look at 22. Then the disciples looked one on another doubting of whom

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Jesus spake. So they didn't know that it was Judas that he was speaking to. So maybe Jesus did wash his feet.

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Now there was one leaning on Jesus's bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.

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Now, this is John writing. This is John chapter 13. John's writing. John always refers to himself, not as John, but as the disciple whom

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Jesus loved. Verse 24, Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, beckoned to John, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.

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So Peter's asking John to ask Jesus, okay, who are you talking about? Then he, then lying on Jesus's breast, said unto him,

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Lord, who is it? And the Lord answered, it is to whom

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I shall give a sop. And when he dipped it, when I have dipped it, and when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

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And after the sop, Satan entered into him, into Judas.

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Then Jesus said unto him, that thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.

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They don't know why Jesus said what he said to Judas. For some of them thought because Judas had the bag.

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Judas was the money man. Judas was the man that carried the money around. He's the one that paid the money. He was the one that gathered the money.

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He was the one that stored the money. He had the money at his hands. That's why I ask in the beginning, do you think he was following Jesus primarily because he loved

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Jesus and wanted to follow him or because he had access to the money? For some of them thought because Judas had the bag that Jesus had said unto him, buy those things that we have need of.

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That's what I was talking about then. Buy those things which we have need of against the feast or that he should give something to the poor.

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So they're thinking Jesus is sending them away to buy something that they need for the Sabbath or to take something to give to the poor.

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Then he then, having received the sop, went immediately out and it was night.

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Now that's the end of the passage in John that I wanted to read. So Judas has now left the building.

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He's left the building on an errand. The errand is to betray Christ. The other disciples think maybe he's gone to gather some money or to distribute some money to the poor, buy something for the

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Sabbath. But he's not. He's gone to betray Jesus. They don't really know that, but they will know it when he comes back with the soldiers in a few hours.

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So let's go back to the very beginning of Luke's because we've been so long since we've been there and we're not very far in.

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So Luke chapter 17 verse 1. Then said he to the disciples, it is impossible but that offenses will come.

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Those are snares. But woe unto him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

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And he's talking about new Christians, not little children. Verse 3. Take heed to yourself.

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If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him.

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Now, not only are Jesus's followers not to cause others to sin, but they're to counteract sin by forgiving others.

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It says one should rebuke a brother if he sins. And if he repents, he is to be forgiven, even if he sins and repents over and over again.

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Jesus makes it a little bit more explicitly clear. And if he trespass against these seven times in a day, seven times in a single day, and seven times in a day, turn again to these saying,

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I repent. Thou shall forgive him. What that saying is, no matter how many times a man sins and repents, he's to be forgiven.

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The number seven does not set a limit on how many times you need to forgive him. One of the other disciples made a mistake of asking that in another place.

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And he said, not 70, but 70 times seven. It's precisely the opposite.

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Jesus meant that forgiveness should be granted unendingly.

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In Ephesians 4 .32, you don't need to go there. It's just one verse. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving.

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Forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.

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And Colossians 3 .13 says, forbearing one another and forgiving one another.

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If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, also do ye.

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And a question, John, how many of your sins did God forgive? He forgave all of them.

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All the ones you have done, or all the ones you're going to forgive? Because for him at the time he forgave them, all of your sins were in the future for him.

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None of them had been done. Not a single sin that you committed had been done when

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Jesus died on the cross and forgave you of them. So there's no limit between the sins that you have done and the sins you're going to do tomorrow.

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And that's me too. None of the sins that I have done is left unforgiven or will be left unforgiving.

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God won't forget tomorrow to forget the sins that I do day after tomorrow because they've already been forgiven.

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And you know, Bill, I think that that's non -Christian people. They can't comprehend.

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And so I think that's one of the reasons why it's so difficult because it's in the future.

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And he gives it to us, the understanding, what little bit I have.

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Yes. But, you know, I mean, they just don't, they don't even understand the concept. No.

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And they can't understand why somebody like me, who before this day is done, is going to do another thing that is sinful.

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I'm going to try not to. I'm going to get through, I think, I think I'm going to get through my part of the service today without doing one.

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But maybe before it's over, I will have slipped. How can we be forgiven when we're no different than they are?

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Well, we are different because we're forgiven. You remind me of a good friend of mine that I used to work with.

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And he was right, you know. That's right. Now, Brother David, I've heard him say many times, it's not impossible for us to go for days on end without sinning.

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The only thing we have to do is keep constant contact with the Lord and walk in the

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Spirit. If we do that, we can't sin. But the unfortunate thing is we will slip. We're manly.

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We're earthly. We will slip. We'll let the old man take us over for a while. And when we are there, we will sin.

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And the outside people will see us sinning. And they'll say, what in the world is going on? How can this person claim to be

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God -like or Christ -like? How can he claim to be a Christian?

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Fortunately, we can. Well, the apostles understood just how serious this was.

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And so verse five said, and the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.

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They knew that forgiving one time was going to be hard. They knew that forgiving seven times in one day was going to be hard.

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And they knew that forgiving 70 times seven is going to be even harder.

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But he didn't even say that. He said, as many as they ask, those who forgive for all of years the

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Lord forgave. Not some of them, not most of them, every single one.

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So they understood that they needed to increase their faith. Considering the high standard that Jesus set for them, the disciples understood that they had insufficient faith of their own.

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So how could they have sufficient faith? Well, they'd only have to get it from Christ.

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But it can't be something that they get that belongs to them that came from Christ. What is it?

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It's Christ's own faith that they have, that Christ has put in them. You can't have enough of your own.

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There is a passage in Mark that deals with this. This is for the father that brought his daughter to be healed.

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And when he was there, Jesus said unto him, this is Mark 9, 13, if you want to try to get there before I get through.

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Mark 9, 13, Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

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And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe.

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Help thou mine unbelief. Same sentence, I believe, help mine unbelief.

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He's saying, I don't have within me the wherewithal to have enough faith to believe.

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You're going to have to give it to me somehow. Well, the Lord did and the child was healed. Verse 6, this is back in Luke.

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And the Lord said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamore tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea and it should obey you.

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John MacArthur said this. I'm going to quibble a little bit about what he said, but not right now.

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True faith, by Christ's definition, always involves surrender to the will of God.

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I have no quibble about that. What he was teaching here is nothing like positive thinking psychology.

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He was saying that both the source and the object of all genuine faith, even the weak mustard seed variety is

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God. Now, if I were going to quibble about anything, it would be on the adjective used to describe mustard seed faith.

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Weak mustard seed faith. Well, in any case, it's of God.

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And if it's a God, I don't think he can be weak. Secondly is, think about the faith it's going to take for this tiny grain of mustard seed to change from being a dead seed into a live, growing, thriving bush.

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That's not a weak thing. That's a strong thing in my estimation.

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In any case, with God, MacArthur says, nothing will be impossible.

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And I totally agree. The only thing I would quibble with, if I were quibbling with anything, would be that the mustard seed faith would be described as a weak faith.

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I think anything that comes from God cannot be weak.

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And if I were to ask Dr. MacArthur that, if I would say, Dr. MacArthur, do you think that anything that comes from God can be weak?

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He would not hesitate in saying, if it comes from God, it's got to be strong.

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How about that? You agree? You know Dr. MacArthur. I'm certain that that's what he would say.

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Lesson two. That was lesson one. What was lesson one? Be wary of the traps.

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Don't be a believer that entraps or ensnares another believer.

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It's bad enough when a non -believer does that. Yes, ma 'am. Many say, well,

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I don't really have to forgive them. So then they start arguing over the definition of who's my brother.

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Well, Jesus answered that, who his brother was. But, yeah,

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I think that might be an attraction. Because, like you were saying, forgiveness, just like faith, has to come from Christ.

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And if we have faith in Christ, then we should have the forgiveness of Christ. And if it is very strong and perfect in all its ways, then we should be able to forgive no matter what the relation.

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Now, I'm going to only change one word that you said. Should, would.

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Not we might be able to, not we should be able to, but we would be able to. That's the only thing

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I would change about that. Yes, indeed, and that is a trap that we can so easily fall into. Rationalizing why it is that I don't have to forgive

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John, but I do have to forgive, because John is not my brother, but he is.

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No, we can't do that. All are our brothers. That is, that is a snare that we fall into. And if we teach that sort of thing, then we are guilty of the worse of the two.

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A believer entrapping a believer. And what does it say about the believer that traps, entraps a believer?

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Woe unto him, it's better than a millstone be hanged about his neck and he tossed into the river, into the sea.

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That would be better for him. You're absolutely right.

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There are some things that it's not within me to forgive a person for doing.

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I could not possibly do it. It would be totally impossible for me.

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It would be like the camel going through the eye of a real needle. It just won't happen.

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But it's not me that's doing it. It's Christ that dwelleth in me that's doing it.

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And Christ forgave me of worse. He forgave me of worse than I'm asked to forgive that egregious person.

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So you're absolutely right. We should, we should pray for faith and for the ability to forgive.

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Because without faith, we won't have the ability to forgive. And that's what the disciples prayed for.

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They prayed, increase my faith so I can forgive 70 times seven times in a day and have forgiveness still left in me.

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Because I would be worn out after four or five. I mean, I would say, hey, it's about time you quit doing that.

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No more for you. But that's me. That's not

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Christ. Christ didn't say that to me. He didn't say to me, one more bill and you're done.

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They're already paid for. Yes, sir. I don't think so.

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Well, it's that that is certainly how it fits into the church discipline.

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There's no question about that. And after that happens, then you're bringing them back into the fold, into the congregation and accept them as a brother and accept them as a brother without remembering what it was that they did, which is hard to do too.

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But lack of forgiveness is a poison. And it's not, and it's not just poisonous toward the person that you're not giving.

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It's poisonous to you. If you hold on to a grudge because the person didn't ask you to forgive them, it hurts you more than it hurts them.

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And that's why I would in some ways disagree, but I'm not. I think we are in the same general area.

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For our sake, we need to forgive. For their sake, we need to forgive.

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For their sake, if they're a brother and they ask for forgiveness, we forgive them and bring them back into the fold.

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Yes, ma 'am. Yes. I think that well, it is.

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I think it is your brother. And I think it is your duty to forgive them. But, but they're not one of you in the, but they're not one of you in the first place.

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So I can understand that. And it will be much more difficult to forgive someone who hasn't asked for forgiveness.

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So I think the onus is on the person who is forgiving, not the person who needs to be forgiven to do the forgiving.

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I believe I agree with that. Okay. That was lesson number one.

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Now, I didn't think that lesson number one had anything to do with lesson number two until I actually went through this passage in John.

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And now I see a bit of a link. So maybe, so maybe the archbishop was better than I thought he was in dividing the chapters.

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Because he put lesson one and lesson two in the same chapter. But I'm going to not go to Luke.

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I'm gonna go to Matthew. And I'm gonna go to Matthew 20, 20. That ought to be easy to remember. Matthew 20, 20.

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And then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children.

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Now who would that be? That'd be James and John with their sons, worshiping him.

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So James, John, his mother, came to worship Jesus and desiring a certain thing of Jesus, of him.

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And he said unto her, What wilt thou? And she said, and he said unto her,

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She said to him, Grant that these my sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand, in thy kingdom.

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But Jesus answered and said, You know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

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Now what's he saying there? What's he asking them? He's saying,

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I am getting ready to go to the cross to die. I'm going to be crucified.

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I'm going to be put to death. Are you able to go through that same kind of a thing?

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And if you're John and James, you don't want your mother with you when you answer this question.

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And you don't want to be there when Jesus asks that question. You are going to have to go, I want to die and be crucified.

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And you're going to have to suffer the same kind of faith. That's what you're looking forward to. And he says,

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Are you able to drink the cup that I shall drink and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

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And they say unto him, We are able. Okay. And so he responds this way.

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And he saith unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of my cup.

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James is going to be crucified. John is going to be exiled. Both are going to go through their life under tribulation and trial.

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Yes, you're going to drink of the cup that I'm drinking of and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with.

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But to sit on my right hand and to sit on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my

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Father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.

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They were a little unhappy that John and James would, through their mother, have the audacity to ask

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Jesus to be the number one and number two assistants. Especially you'd think

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Peter would be. I think if anybody would be angry right now, it would be Peter. But Jesus called them unto him and said,

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You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them.

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So the leaders of the Gentiles exert dominion over the

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Gentiles, over the people. And they that are great exercise authority upon them.

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But it shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.

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And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.

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Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

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I want to read that in another version. In the New King James version, it would say, Even as the

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Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

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So the word served is a better word for us in this context. I didn't come to be served by you.

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I came to serve you. And you are not here to be served if you're a leader, but to serve.

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And then he goes on in Luke 17 verse 7.

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Luke goes on to introduce a parable about a servant plowing in the field.

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And that's when I first did this, I said, I don't see any connection here at all. But I think I'm beginning to see one.

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I think I'm beginning to understand why the Archbishop of Canterbury left this with the same one.

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But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by, when he has come from the field, go sit down to meet.

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And will not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink.

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Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded of him? I throw not.

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That means I don't think so. If this was a worldly king, a

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Gentile king exerting authority over his subjects, if the master was an earthly master, he wouldn't tell his servant, you come in and eat.

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He would say, you come in, you take care of me. And when you take care of all the things that I need to be taken care of, then you can go and eat.

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So he says, so likewise ye, now he's back talking about the disciples now. So likewise ye, when you shall have done all the things which are commanded you, don't say we've done everything that we need to do.

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Don't say that. Say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done those things which was our duty to do.

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I added a comment. And only those things. See, it's not just the things that you're commanded to do.

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It's more than that. The things that you're commanded to do is not the end of the extent of what you're to do.

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It's only the beginning of what you're to do. Too many of us seem to believe that we deserve some sort of commendation for simply doing what is our duty to do in the first place.

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Though the standards set by the Lord in the first four verses of this chapter seem daunting to the disciples, daunting enough that they ask for him to give them extra faith to just do it, they only represented minimal duties.

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Performing them would not be something that would deserve or earn special notice.

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Special notice would demand special service. So it wouldn't be enough to forgive them 70 times 7 when they asked for it.

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It would only be enough if you gave 70 times 70 times 70 times 70, even to those that didn't ask.

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Well, that was just my addition there. And I hadn't even thought about that until just now. Okay, I'm going to check a quick time on time.

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Oh, I'm way past. I thought that we would get all the way through. And we've not even gotten to the 10 lepers.

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But that's good. It gives me a whole new lesson next week. And we'll pick up here lessons three, four and five out of this chapter, chapter 17.

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The lepers, the kingdom that's here now, and the kingdom that's not here now, but that is coming.

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And there is, I think, a problem split where he left the kingdom that is here now, and the kingdom that is coming in the same chapter, so that we tend to link the two and think that if you got this one, and that one, it's the same thing.

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And it's not. It's two different kingdoms, the one we have now, and the one we're going to have in the future.

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Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. And thank you for all our many blessings. Thank you for getting us through this week with no further problems than we already have.

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Thank you for being with us to deal with the problems that we do have. We understanding that you will be with us, taking us through all of our difficulties, as you promised your apostle that you would do.

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Not that they would not have difficulties, but that you would be there with them through them all, leading them, guiding them, protecting them.

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Be with us the rest of this day, through the rest of the services.