The Gospel of Luke (#76) "The Kingdom of God (3)" September 1, 2024

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Amen. Please be seated. And as you are seated, please turn to the back of your blue hymnal so that we may recite our church covenant together.

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Let's begin. Having been led by the Spirit of God to receive the

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Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the

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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now solemnly make this covenant with each other as one body in Christ.

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We will walk together in brotherly love. We will exercise a

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Christian care and watchfulness over each other. We'll faithfully admonish and help one another as the need may be.

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We will be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation without delay.

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If any stray from the path of truth, we will endeavor to restore them in the spirit of meekness.

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We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together or neglect to pray for ourselves and for others.

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We will seek to educate our children in the Scriptures. We will seek to win our kindred and acquaintances to Christ and to holiness.

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As stewards of the Lord, we will aid in the support of a faithful evangelical ministry among us and in efforts to preach the gospel to the whole human family.

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We will live circumspectly in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and according to our ability and opportunities, we'll do good to all men.

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We will endeavor as long as we live to glorify him who has called us out of the darkness into his marvelous light.

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May the Lord help us to be faithful to those words. When we come to the

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Lord's Supper, it's to be a period of self -examination. It's really a judgment that we are to pass upon ourselves by, you know, attempting to examine our hearts, our thoughts, our actions, acknowledge them as sin, turn from them.

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And so it's an act of judgment that you're performing upon yourself, and the gospel declares that if you judge yourself, you will not be judged, speaking about the final judgment of condemnation.

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And so this is a responsibility, a duty, a privilege that each of us has. May the Lord help us do so.

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And so let's just take a few moments and pray and ask the

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Lord to help you to see your sin and to turn from it, looking to Jesus Christ afresh for the atonement of your sin.

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This prayer written long ago speaks about a present salvation, our

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Creator and Redeemer God, author of all existence, source of all blessedness.

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We adore thee for making us capable of knowing thee, for giving us reason and conscience, for leading us to desire thee.

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We praise thee for the revelation of thyself in the gospel, for thy heart is a dwelling place of pity, for thy thoughts of peace toward us, for thy patience and thy graciousness, for the vastness of thy mercy.

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Thou has moved our consciences to know how the guilty can be pardoned, the unholy be sanctified, and the poor be enriched.

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May we always be amongst those who not only hear but know thee, who walk with and rejoice in thee, and take thee at thy word and find life there.

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May you keep us always longing for a present salvation in Holy Spirit comforts and rejoicings, for spiritual graces and blessings, for help and strength to value our duties as well as our privileges.

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May we share simplicity and godly sincerity of character. Help us to be in reality before thee, to set our affections on things above, to shun forbidden follies and vanities, to be a dispenser as well as a partaker of grace, to be prepared to bear evil as well as to do good.

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Oh God, may you make us worthy of this calling so that the name of Jesus may be glorified in us and we in him.

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For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. The Lord's Supper is for the

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Lord's people. If you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, you've committed to following him as Savior Lord, you've showed that in baptism, we invite you to eat and drink with us.

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Thank you, Father, for this bread as we hold it in our hands, as we ingest it in our mouths, our

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God. This reality, this physical reality, confirms to us the spiritual reality that life is in Jesus Christ alone, that this represents, portrays beautifully

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Jesus Christ. We look to him now, our God, that you would give us a fresh dispensary of his life to us through faith in him.

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Infuse within our souls our God desire for you, for love for you, resolve to live for you, and so bless this bread to us for we eat in faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ which it so beautifully portrays. We do pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, after that last Passover meal was complete, Jesus took the bread, he broke it, gave it to his disciples saying, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.

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We have both grape juice as well as wine, depending on your conviction, the wine is in the purple shaded cups on the perimeter of each tray.

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Thank you, Father, for this cup. Our God, we've attempted to judge ourselves, to assess our

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God, the sin in our lives, which is present in every one of us, and yet we look to Jesus Christ and his death on the cross so long ago to have provided a satisfactory atonement, a beautiful atonement for our sin, and we thank you for its effectual power, our

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God, to cleanse even today from our sin as we look to Jesus Christ. And so apply the blood of Jesus to our souls, cleanse us of sin, our

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God, forgive us, we pray, our transgressions, and help us, our

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God, to live righteously before you. Bless this cup to us as we lift it up in celebration and acknowledgement of the great suffering that our

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Lord Jesus underwent to save us from our sin. Bless this cup in Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, in the same manner, our

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Lord Jesus took the cup, gave it to his disciples, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, amen.

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If you ate and drank in faith, confessing your sins as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you may rejoice in the truth and the reality your sins are forgiven you, amen.

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Let's pray. Now, Father, we open your word and we ask that you would inform us, illuminate our minds to the truth that's in Jesus Christ, give us understanding, our

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God, in your word and your ways, and so help us, we pray, glorify yourself through your word, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, normally Pastor Jason would be up here on this Lord's Day.

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He's diligent and faithful in his preparations and he certainly wished that he could be here, but I'm here in his place today.

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So, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke 17, where we have been for some time now, and today we'll examine the details of this passage that we have read for the last two weeks, but have not addressed in detail.

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Luke 17 20 through 37, and so we'll want to consider this most difficult subject in a very difficult passage.

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It's not an easy one, believe me. Now, we've devoted the past two

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Sundays to provide background information to help give us a context for our passage. If we now make reference or allusion to what we've previously addressed, hopefully it will come to your mind more easily and readily.

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We'll once again read these verses. Now, when Jesus, as he was asked by the

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Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered and said, the kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say see here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you.

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Then he said to the disciples, the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the

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Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, look here or look there, do not go after them or follow them, for as the lightning that flashes out of one part of heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the

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Son of Man will be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation, and as it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the

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Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

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And likewise as it was also in the days of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

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Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day he who is on the housetop and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away.

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And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife.

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Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it. Whoever seeks his life, whoever loses his life will preserve it.

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I tell you in that night there will be two in one bed, the one will be taken the other left. Two will be grinding together, the one will be taken the other left.

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Two will be in the field, the one will be taken the other left. And they answered and said to him, where,

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Lord? So he said to them, wherever the body is there the eagles will be gathered together.

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We have in verse 28 the question raised by the Pharisees to Jesus. As Jesus and his disciples were approaching

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Jerusalem, they've been in this travel narrative since Luke 9 51, as they're approaching

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Jerusalem, the hostility of the Jewish leaders toward him intensified. Everyone knew that something on a grand scale would occur once Jesus arrived there.

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There would be conflict and perhaps there would be a move on the part of Jesus to assert the claim he was a

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Messiah and foment a rebellion, a revolution. Others had, many others had done so before him.

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It was reasonable therefore that questions about the coming of the kingdom of God should arise.

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Now I question whether the query of the Pharisees was made with sincerity for perhaps spite and indignance motivated his detractors.

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They weren't being teachable. They asked when the kingdom of God would come.

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We've already shown that the nature of the Jewish expectation regarding the promised messianic kingdom was quite different and errant from what the

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Lord Jesus taught the people. The Jewish people were anticipating an earthly restoration of the

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Davidic kingdom in which they, the leading Jews, would have a significant prominent role. They had the same error the dispensationalists have today, same way of thinking, and they're wrong.

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But Jesus did not declare to them that the anticipated and promised kingdom of God would be a realized earthly kingdom with physical borders, a kingdom governed by political leaders.

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In verses 20b and 21 we read the response of our Lord, the kingdom of God does not come with observation nor will they say see here or see there for indeed the kingdom of God is within you.

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So let's consider the response of our Lord to these Pharisees Jesus told the

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Jewish Pharisees that the promised kingdom was spiritual in nature, that it was not visible, that it would not come with observation.

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The Lord told them that the kingdom would not come in the form that they had assumed. They had it all wrong.

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To think in those terms was to misunderstand the nature of the kingdom completely. The kingdom is not something that is seen as arriving suddenly, being manifested outwardly.

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It's not a physical kingdom which one can identify as being here or there. In other words, the kingdom is essentially spiritual in nature.

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The kingdom of God is not a physical, visible, earthly kingdom. Jesus then added these words in verse 21, nor will they say see here or see there for the indeed the kingdom of God is within you.

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As the new King James version translates the phrase, there would be some who will arise to claim that the kingdom is coming with observation.

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Here it is, there it is, but they will be wrong for the kingdom of God is of a different nature.

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Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. Now the ESV renders a better translation for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

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Now some have taken our Lord's words in the King James and the New King James version, which again read the kingdom of God is within you, to suggest the kingdom is an internal matter, a subject dealing with the soul or heart.

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But this is probably not what Jesus was teaching. As one wrote,

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Jesus speaks of men entering the kingdom, not the kingdom entering men, and that's a good statement.

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A different translation is demanded and is not difficult to find. And so what

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Jesus was probably telling them was that the kingdom was to be taken or received if they would only take possession of it.

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The kingdom is right before them, already here. Jesus was advocating that the kingdom belongs to those who believe on him and follow him as his disciples.

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The idea being conveyed by Jesus was that the kingdom was within their reach, within their grasp.

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It's in your midst, it's right here. So the opportunity and possibility were real and present for anyone to enter the kingdom by becoming one of his disciples.

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Now J .C. Ryle set forth these two different understandings, whether it's internal, the kingdom is within you, or whether it's speaking about, you know, present with you.

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And so he set forth these two views. The expression is again interpreted in two ways.

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Some hold, with our translators, and he was referring to the King James, that the word within means in your hearts and consciences.

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The kingdom of God is an inward and spiritual thing and not an external visible thing.

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That's possibility one. Others hold, with our marginal reading, in the margin of his

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Bible, it had basically the reading that's set forth in the ESV. Others hold with our marginal reading that within means among you.

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And the Greek word can be translated either way. The context would make that determination.

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The kingdom has already begun in the midst of your nation. My disciples have already joined it, become its first subjects.

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While you're waiting, my spiritual kingdom has already been set up. And then

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J .C. Ryle makes his understanding quite apparent. I decidedly adhere to this last view.

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But in reading a handful of commentaries that I resort to every week,

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I noticed that there's division about this interpretation. But I think that earlier comment by I .H.

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Marshall really seals it in my mind. Jesus speaks of men entering the kingdom, not the kingdom entering men.

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And so I think Ryle is right on this matter. However, certainly there is a spiritual dimension to our

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Lord's words, obviously. The Pharisees wanted to know what kinds of signs would take place before the kingdom would come.

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And it would seem that some people can only see the kingdom through carnal eyes, something physically seen, physically experienced.

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But the kingdom has to do with believing and submitting to Jesus Christ, the promised King, over the kingdom of God.

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To enter the kingdom is to receive the forgiveness of sin, the gift of righteousness, peace with God, and enjoy the peace of God due to being assured of these things.

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The kingdom of God is joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit, according to Paul.

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The kingdom is within you or in your midst, that is, it's spiritual in nature, experienced by individuals who come to encounter the rule and power of God in their lives through Jesus Christ.

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And so even while Jesus was ministering, the kingdom was manifest to all who came in contact with him and experienced his work of grace in their lives.

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They're asking, what are the signs? When will it come? When it will come? Jesus said, it's here, and people are in it already, and it's available to you if you would consider your souls and who he was as the promised

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Messiah. Well, after our Lord responded to these Jewish Pharisees, the bulk of the passage, verses 22 through 37, is

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Jesus' further instruction to his disciples. After he answered the

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Pharisees, indicating to them their entire conception of the coming kingdom of God was in error, he now turned to his disciples and gave them instruction.

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And I came across this very good synopsis of the Lord's words. This is this passage distilled,

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I think, in a right way of understanding it. Jesus' answer to the Pharisees' question is followed immediately by a long discourse addressed to the disciples.

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They too are concerned about what is to happen in the future. A time will come when they will long to see some visible evidence of the coming of the

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Son of Man, but there will be nothing to see. It is true that people will spread rumors of the coming of the eschatological event, but the disciples must not be misled by them.

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For when the Son of Man appears, it will be no mistaking his appearance in glory, a glory that contrasts with his earlier suffering and rejection by the present generation.

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This same generation will give itself up to worldly, godless living as in the days of Noah and Lot.

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It will pay no heed to the gospel and consequently the day of the Son of Man will take it by surprise with its sudden judgment and destruction.

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If that day brings redemption for God's people, it also brings judgment to the ungodly, and therefore let the disciples not be attracted by worldly desires which may divert them from being instantly ready for the

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Son of Man. Even Lot's wife, though rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah, fell under the same judgment.

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Only those who are prepared to lose their lives will survive the judgment which will come and separate between men.

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It is senseless to ask for a map of what will happen as it is to ask for a timetable.

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Just as the location of a corpse in the wilderness is obvious from the crowd of circling vultures, and that's a better translation than eagles, so the

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Son of Man will appear for judgment in an unmistakable manner and there will be no need to ask where he is.

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That's a very good distillation of the passage in my opinion. Now regarding the interpretation of our passage, the matter becomes difficult.

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There are a number of interpretations which are given respecting our Lord's teaching. We'll consider them under two broad headings.

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First, the majority, I suspect, believe that Jesus was here speaking of his second coming.

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But there is a second understanding of this passage, that his words here were with view to the destruction of Jerusalem, in other words

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Judaism, by the Roman armies that occurred in AD 70. So which was it?

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The second coming or the destruction of Jerusalem in the temple by God using the

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Roman armies? So let's take each of these in turn. First, let's consider the question, was

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Jesus speaking here of his second coming? And many, if not most, readers of this passage assume immediately this is what

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Jesus was foretelling, his second coming. And even our Reformation study

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Bible, which I regard as our preferred Bible study or study Bible of the day, contains a heading over these verses,

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Christ teaches on the second coming. They made their view clear, although I questioned whether that was

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R .C. Sproul's view, and he was the general editor of the Reformation study Bible. It was the view of whoever was in charge of writing the footnotes for Luke's gospel, whatever scholar that was.

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It is of course clear in the scriptures that Christ is returning one day literally and physically. The Bible does speak about the second coming of Christ.

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We read of this in Acts 1 verses 9 through 11 most clearly. Now when he, Jesus, had spoken these things, while they watched he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

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And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, they were angels probably, who also said,

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Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner, visibly, physically, as you saw him go into heaven.

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The Bible clearly teaches the second coming of Jesus Christ. When Jesus returns to this world at his second coming, it will be a literal, physical, bodily return.

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Also the scriptures teach that at the second coming of Christ there will be a general resurrection of all the dead through all the ages of church history.

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All of humanity will come forward. When Jesus returns, he'll resurrect all people who have ever lived and judge each and every human being according to his works,

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Christians and non -Christians alike. Of course our works as Christians will not condemn us, they will validate our claim we're

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Christians. Our works are evidential, they're proof that we're Christians.

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The works of unregenerate people, non -Christians, will condemn them because the law of God, of course, condemns them in their sin.

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Jesus declared in John 5, do not marvel at this. This is right after he's really speaking about something they should marvel at, that God is able to impart spiritual life to a dead sinner.

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But he said don't marvel at this, and he's talking about the future physical resurrection. Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice.

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All of them, everybody. One event, not separated by a thousand years.

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All of humanity are going to hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good, as the

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Bible describes and defines good, to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

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I can have myself do nothing as I hear I judge. My judgments righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the

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Father who sent me. A general resurrection at the end of history.

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And he spoke these words in Matthew 16 27, for the Son of Man will come in the glory of his

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Father with his angels and then he will reward each according to his works. Every person will encounter that judgment of works.

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Again, that judgment will not condemn the Christian because he will stand in the righteousness of Christ, which he acquired through faith alone, but all others will stand condemned for their life of sin.

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The scriptures also declare that when Jesus Christ returns at his second coming would bring the end of our physical world.

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Even the physical universe, which will then be replaced with a new heavens and a new earth.

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Peter wrote that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. And this is not a secret rapture and it's not a silent coming either.

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The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise.

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Our friend Bill Downey once said the world teaches that everything began with a big bang.

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The Bible says it's all gonna end with a big bang. He's absolutely right. With a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat.

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That's everything physical. Both the earth and the works in it will be burned up.

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Therefore, since all things these things will be dissolved. Everything physical. What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire.

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The elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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This is concurrent with the second coming of Christ. There's not a thousand years after the coming of Christ that there's a new heavens and a new earth.

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It's one event. The second coming of Christ will be the end of history of the world.

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All Christians who are alive at his coming will be transformed instantaneously for God will give them glorified bodies in that they will escape physical death.

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The Apostle Paul wrote, I do not want you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep.

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He's talking about Christians who have died. Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope as non -Christians.

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For if we believe Jesus died and rose again even so God will bring with him, with Jesus at his second coming, those who sleep in Jesus.

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For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the

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Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

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They'll be raised first and then we who are alive will be caught up to join them. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God.

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The dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the

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Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

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It may be that we'll escape death. Who knows? Paul didn't know.

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We who are alive and remain and that's the way the Lord wants it. He wants all his people through all of history to be ready for the coming of the

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Lord. We don't know when it will take place. Paul also made this clear to the church at Corinth that some would not experience death.

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Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

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Behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep. Not all

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Christians will die but we shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye instantaneously at the last trumpet.

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That's the second coming. For the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised incorruptible. We shall be changed for this corruptible this physical body must put on incorruption.

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This mortal must put on immortality. These bodies we have currently aren't you know they might be good for 80 or 90 years at the outside but you know they're not fitted for eternity.

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That'll change. So when this corruptible is put on incorruption, this mortal is put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass to say that it is written death is swallowed up in victory.

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Oh death where is your sting? Oh Hades where is your victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.

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Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore my brethren, beloved brethren, be steadfast and movable always abounding in the work of the

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Lord knowing your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So that's all

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Christians. But what about non -Christians? All non -Christians who are alive at the coming of Christ will have their physical body consumed.

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They'll die instantly at his coming. Nevertheless God will give them bodies that will be suitable for everlasting punishment in hell.

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Again referring back to John 5 28 29. Do not marvel at this the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves all humanity in the graves will hear his voice and come forth those who have done good as the

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Bible defines good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil notice they have a resurrection too but it's a resurrection the condemnation.

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Their bodies will be suitable for eternal punishment in hell.

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But again most people before us look at this passage of Luke 17 20 to 37 as our

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Lord's clear teaching respecting his second coming. And it's understandable why they draw this conclusion.

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They would argue the following points. First the Lord said there would be a day when his disciples long for his coming.

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Verse 22. This is probably not saying the time would come that they're longing for the good old days when

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Jesus was with us although some take that position. Rather they long for the full manifestation of the kingdom at the second coming of Christ.

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Secondly those who believe this is teaching about the second coming would argue the

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Lord said there would be deceivers who would teach that Christ has already come that he's over here or over there. The Lord warns do not be deceived by them.

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And it's hard to imagine that Christians could be deceived in this respect and thinking that Christ could have returned and that we are tasked with having to find him.

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Imagine what kind of chaos if that's what Christians thought in today's world. But remember these disciples did not have the advantage of possessing the

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New Testament scriptures that speak about these matters. And the fact is there were many false

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Christs in that day. Particularly between the resurrection of Christ and the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.

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Sometime we'll probably rehearse those. And third they would argue that Lord said his second coming would come suddenly in a fashion that there would be no mistake.

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But first he must suffer and be rejected by this generation. It appears to be like a visible manifestation of the coming of Christ.

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And fourth the Lord said that his second coming would come suddenly and unexpectedly. That's what he says here.

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Which they would argue certainly speaks of his second coming. That day will be as in the days of Noah. The days of the

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Son of Man will arrive in the same way. Nobody expected the flood in Noah's day even though Noah warned them.

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And in the same way nobody will expect the second coming. It will happen suddenly. All be caught by surprise.

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Life will be going on as normal. No signs of immediate judgment exist. But then Christ will come.

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And note that the days of the Son of Man is a reference to Christ judging the wicked and rescuing the godly.

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And by the way if you take this passage as instruction about the second coming of Christ. Then all those prophecy buffs in the world today who make all kinds of predictions about signs before the

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Lord's coming are in trouble. For our Lord said that his coming will be like in the days of Noah.

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There was no warning other than the words of warning and Noah himself. The day of judgment came suddenly.

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Only Noah and his family escaped. The kingdom of God will not come with observation.

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There won't be signs. Jesus also said that his coming would be as in the days of Lot.

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Life in Sodom was going on as usual. There's no mention here the sins of Sodom. That's not the point of emphasis here.

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The point being made is that the people were unaware of the day of judgment until the very moment they saw fire and sulfur raining down upon them.

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And it'll be the same in the day of the Son of Man is revealed. That is when Jesus returned at his second coming to judge the wicked.

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And so that's probably the most popular view widespread view of this passage is speaking about the second coming.

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And again even the Reformation study Bible has that caption Jesus speaks about his second coming.

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But then we come to verses 31 to 36. And in these verses a real problem arises if you want to understand our

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Lord who have been teaching about the second coming. Jesus said in that day he was on the housetop his goods are in the house let him not come down to take them away.

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And likewise the one who's in the field let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it.

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Whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you that in that night there'll be two in one bed.

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The one will be taken the other will be left. Two will be grinding together. The one will be taken the other left.

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Two will be in the field. One will be taken the other left. And so Jesus said when that day comes flee.

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Get away. Now do not stop to pack. Do not go home if you happen to be away.

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As Lot and his family left Sodom you leave fleeing for your lives. Remember how Lot's wife tarried.

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Remember Lot's wife. God will cause a separation to occur the righteous from the unrighteous.

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But again we ask this question which I think is devastating to understanding this position this passage is speaking about the second coming.

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Where are you gonna flee or how are you gonna have time to flee when Christ returns a second time? Where are you gonna run to?

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Who can run? And yet the

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Lord is instructing his disciples to do so. Flee. Well some explain this again who hold that this is a passage about the second coming saying well

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Jesus is speaking metaphorically that he's stressing the need for his disciples to be fully ready hoping and waiting for the second coming not to love the world as did

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Lot's wife. Do not allow yourself to fall back into worldliness and sin and therefore be an object of judgment as well.

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And this is perhaps a plausible interpretation. But then there's a another problematic point in understanding this passage is speaking directly of our

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Lord's second coming. Jesus said one will be taken the other left. Now of course many evangelicals assume they read these words he's speaking about a future rapture of the church when

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Jesus will snatch away his people in a secret rapture. And so they see taken away here is a good thing being taken away as Christians raptured.

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And so they would apply this to 1st Thessalonians 4 that we read earlier about the Lord catching up those who are alive and remain.

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But look at the question the disciples asked in verse 37. He asked where they were taken.

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Some are taken some are left. Where were they taken Lord? Where there's a dead body there the vultures will gather.

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So he's not talking about a secret rapture he's saying these people died and their bodies are laying out there on the battlefield and they're being consumed by the vultures.

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They're dead. That's where they were taken. They were killed. And so Jesus was saying that they're being taken away was that they were killed due to the judgment of God that fell upon them.

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They are removed from among the living. Jesus was not speaking of snatching Christians out of the world in a secret rapture but he was speaking about massive dying on the part of many.

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Perhaps even suggesting as many half of those living. One will be taken the other left. The ones left behind are not souls who must go through a future tribulation rather they're the ones who didn't experience the wholesale slaughter that so many suffer.

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The whole left behind series is completely errant in their title left behind.

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They assume those are Christians who are caught up and the ones left behind are those who have to go through the tribulation now.

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It's just the opposite. The ones taken away and Matthew makes it clear. He speaks about the flood of Noah coming and taking them away.

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And the day of judgment, okay, the wicked are taken away.

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The ones left behind in Noah's day was Noah and his sons.

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And the ones left behind here those who are you for an AD 70 are talking about the survivors of the the siege of Jerusalem by the

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Romans in AD 70. And so because of verses 31 through 36 there's a second more plausible interpretation of this passage of which you should be aware.

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It's possible and I would say it is correct that the

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Lord was not speaking here of his second coming rather he was prophesying of the judgment that would fall on Jerusalem.

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And so let's consider the judgment of Jerusalem in AD 70. In AD 70 the city of Jerusalem was utterly destroyed by the

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Roman Empire. At that time the city suffered terribly under a long siege of three and a half years interestingly.

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The inhabitants starved. There was treachery and murderous bands among the Jews themselves within the city during the siege.

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Anybody who attempted to to surrender to the Romans was slaughtered.

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And by the final destruction it is said that 1 ,100 ,000 people died in that Jerusalem siege.

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And the Romans enslaved 97 ,000 remaining survivors and marched them off to Rome. The Arch of Titus in Rome right across the street from the

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Colosseum commemorates the conquering of Jerusalem and Judea and it has a relief of Jewish prisoners and there's a candle

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Jewish candelabra as Titus marches them into Rome to show their victory.

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And then of course they were enslaved to the Romans. The Romans destroyed, dismantled the temple so much so that there was not one stone standing upon another.

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And the Lord had prophesied of this event. It came to pass. It was an event of immense significance in the first century to the early church and the scriptures speak of the event repeatedly.

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However this makes our job of interpreting prophetic passages of Scripture difficult for two reasons, several reasons.

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First, in today's world most people are not even aware of what occurred in AD 70, yet alone of its importance.

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It was a changing of epochs, of ages, the end of the Jewish age, the onset of the kingdom of God.

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And consequently many Christians do not recognize those passage as telling of that event and so they take those prophecies of AD 70 and they project them as though they're prophecies of the second coming.

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And that's where you get so much end time nonsense about Israel and Jerusalem and the rebuilt temple and all that.

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Antichrist sacrificing a pig in the temple, all that kind of stuff. The prophecies of AD 70 they don't see, the importance and relevance of AD 70, so they take those prophecies and then say those foretell the second coming.

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And then secondly because the nature of the event is described in apocalyptic language of symbols, obscure images, cosmic upheavals, they assume these events have not occurred, of course.

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Jesus must have been speaking of his second coming, but the language of this passage is like other passage in the

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Old Testament, which described historic events like the fall of Egypt, Edom, Babylon, and Jerusalem.

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But in those Old Testament passages it used language so unfamiliar to us, the 21st century, we tend to think and interpret the language hyperliterally, which results in projecting those passages as prophecies of the day of the

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Lord, the second coming of Christ. But they're not, for people reason. After all, we have not seen the sun darken or the moon turn to blood or stars fall from heaven.

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Obviously these are references to future events, but that's exactly the way the prophets described epic shaking events in history, you know, because the city has been destroyed and consumed by fire and the smoke and the clouds, the sky, the moon turns to blood.

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It describes the overthrow of a civilization and a changing of ages.

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There's angelic war going on. It was believed and thought that angels on either side representing the nations, they battled it out in heaven, and whichever team of angels won in heaven, that's the nation on earth that they represented, won the battle.

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This is how they thought and this is how they expressed themselves in apocalyptic language.

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But we have this view in our Western world that we have to take things literally, which sounds on the surface to be legitimate, and consequently we don't see how the

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Bible uses apocalyptic language to describe these historic events.

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And third, the Lord in several instances seemed to speak of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and his second coming in the same conversation, like in Matthew 24.

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And the most difficult problem of deciphering Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, is to figure out where he stops talking about AD 70 and he begins to talk about his second coming.

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I have my own opinions about that, but that's for another time and matter. And so for these reasons, the prophetic portions of Scripture which speak of these things,

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AD 70, should be approached with caution. People's interpretation should be viewed with a great deal of skepticism.

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We tend to hear things in a shallow way, we just assume and embrace them without thinking it through.

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And so whenever you come to a portion of Scripture like this, you need to ask yourself, is this speaking of the events of AD 70 or the second coming of Christ or both?

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Well here in Luke 17 it may be that the Lord was predicting the fall of Jerusalem exclusively, that he may not have been speaking of his second coming directly.

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Now the Lord will later teach his disciples in detail about Jerusalem's destruction and we'll consider his words fully when we get to Luke 21.

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But here we'll simply draw attention to the fact that he declared he would bring upon that generation his judgment because they rejected him.

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And so how are we to interpret these verses? Well verses 22 and 23, Then he said to his disciples, the days will come when you desire to see one of the days of the

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Son of Man and you'll not see it. They will say to you, look here, look there, do not go after them or follow in them.

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The days of the Son of Man may be regarded as the equivalent of the day of the Lord. In the

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Old Testament when God judged Babylon, Egypt, Edom, Israel, and Judah. Just as there have been many days of the

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Lord in history, it was God breaking into history to overthrow wicked people through the means of Gentile armies.

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So the Lord Jesus says that one day at a time unexpected he'll break into history and judge this generation that rejected him.

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All these things will come to pass before this generation passes away. He was talking about those

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Jewish people in front of him. The disciples with whom he was speaking would one day long manifest, seek for a manifestation of Christ's kingdom.

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That he would come to their deliverance and put oppression and deliver that put down oppression, deliver them from their enemies.

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But their expectation would have to wait on God's timing. You will not see it, Jesus said.

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They will be deceivers but don't listen to them as if the Lord were manifesting himself here or there to his people.

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Verse 24, for his lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven so also the

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Son of Man will be in his day. These words may be, may seem to be that one of the greatest difficulties of applying these verses to AD 70.

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What the interpretation hinges on is the significance of lightning. By this expression was the

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Lord attempting to show the fact that all would see him because it will be as visible to all as lightning flashes across the sky.

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If so it would be difficult to see this referring to anything but the second coming. However if the emphasis is on the suddenness and unexpectedness of lightning then it can be seen to apply the events of AD 70.

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They didn't see it coming. Bang, it happened. They were not aware of what was coming and then it came but it was too late to do anything in response for the judgment of God fell upon them.

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In verse 25 we read but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation before God's judgment fell upon that generation.

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That generation will reject him. Then later he'd reject them. And so as a result of their rejection they would encounter their destruction due to the judgment of God.

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I personally believe that abomination that brought about desolation was their crucifying their king, their

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Messiah. That was an abomination and it resulted in their desolation AD 70 but we'll get to that in Luke 21.

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If we look farther in Luke we'll see the destruction of Jerusalem was in view. Luke 20 verses 9 through 16, he began to tell the people this parable.

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A certain man planted a vineyard leased it to vine dressers, went into a far country for a long time.

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Now at vintage time he sent a servant the vine dressers that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard but the vine dressers beat him, sent him away empty -handed.

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Again he sent another servant, these are the prophets, they beat him also, treated him shamefully, sent him away empty -handed.

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Again he sent a third, they wounded him also, cast him out. The owner of the vineyard said what shall

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I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.

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But when the vine dressers saw him they reasoned among themselves saying this is the heir, come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours.

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That's an allusion to the crucifixion. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

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He'll come and destroy those vine dressers and give the vineyard to others. And that's what

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God did. Took away the promised kingdom from the

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Jewish nation as a whole and gave it to his Jewish apostles and the Gentiles later. And then immediately following those verses in Luke 20

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I think, not 21, we read the words. And then he looked at them and said what then is that which is written?

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The stone which the builders rejected had become the chief cornerstone. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken but on whomever it falls it will grind him to powder.

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Well the chief priests and scribes at very hour sought to lay hands on him but they feared the people for they knew he had spoken this parable against them.

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They were going to be ground to powder metaphorically. And then in Luke 17 26 through 29 we read these words.

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As it was in the days of Noah it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark.

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The flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built.

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But on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the

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Son of Man is revealed. It's interesting the word doesn't say you know when at his second coming it's just when he's made manifest.

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The Son of Man was made manifest in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The Lord declared it would happen.

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It was his judgment. Luke 21 the Roman armies are called his armies. We'll see that then.

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Jesus declared that judgment would fall on this generation after they first rejected him. The judgment will fall on them suddenly as lightning comes suddenly.

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They'll be living as in the days of Noah the days of Lot as though there were no danger to them at all. But then the judgment of God would fall upon them suddenly.

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And so if these verses are understood to be foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans in AD 70 then verses 30 through 33 become very clear and understandable.

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In that day he was on the housetop and his goods are in the house. Let him not come down and take him away.

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Likewise the one who's in the field let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it.

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Whoever loses his life will preserve it. Jesus was warning his disciples they should get away as far as possible as fast as possible otherwise they would also die in this judgment to come.

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On that day his disciples were to flee Jerusalem which they did so according to historic records.

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Not one Jewish Christian perished in Jerusalem. They all fled to the hills.

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They believed Jesus's words applied to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. All of them.

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They ran off to Pella and established a community up there. And then

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Jesus declares that on day the righteous would be separated from the wicked. I tell you in that night there'll be two in one bed.

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The one will be taken the other left. Two grinding together. The one be taken the other left. Two in the field.

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One will be taken the other left. And the answer said where Lord? Again interestingly no

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Christians perished in that fall of Jerusalem. His temple in AD 70. It will explain how how can you escape if the if the city is surrounded by the

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Roman armies. We'll get into that in Luke 21. But the general of the

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Roman army, just a quick word, heard of some political intrigue up north and so they had surrounded

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Jerusalem, laid siege. But then they all rushed off to the north. The zealots in Jerusalem were celebrating

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God delivered us. That's when the Jewish Christians headed for the hills. And about three days later the

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Roman armies came back, surrounded Jerusalem, laid siege, and that was the end. It was in God's providence.

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Now one might be questioning but does not the language suggest even a far greater finale far greater than AD 70?

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But again most do not realize the tremendous implications for the advancement of the spiritual kingdom over which

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Jesus is Lord. Jesus pronounced judgment upon that generation of unbelieving Christ -rejecting

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Jewish people. Jesus declared their opportunity and result in accountability in his pronouncement of their judgment.

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We read of this back in Luke 11 if you'll recall. Jesus said, woe to you also lawyers for you load men with burdens hard to bear.

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You yourself do not touch the burden with one of your fingers. Woe to you. That's a prophetic pronouncement of judgment coming upon them.

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Woe to you for you build the tombs of the prophets. Your fathers killed them. In fact you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers for they indeed killed them and you build their tombs.

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And therefore the wisdom of God also said I'll send them prophets and apostles. Some of them they will kill and persecute so that here it is, so that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation.

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From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes I say to you it shall be required of this generation.

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The old Testament prophets foretold this destruction of Jerusalem. We won't go back there but Jesus said in Luke 21 that this event of 8070 is a fulfillment of all that was written in the

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Old Testament. These are the days of vengeance. We have an eyewitness historian by the way who saw all these things.

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I know the times late but these are kind of interesting things. I just want to conclude this.

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You be patient with us please. We have an eyewitness. He was a

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Jewish priest of course who was captured and began to serve the

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Romans and he was the historic recorder for Titus the

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Roman general who laid siege to Jerusalem. And so he witnessed everything that happened during the siege and the overthrow of the city and the destruction of the temple.

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And his description revealed this event to have been a great intervention of God in history to bring his judgment upon that generation.

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And so Josephus recorded miracles, signs, wonders that everyone there witnessed.

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And although scholars have rightly questioned his faithfulness in reporting numbers he tended to embellish the numbers since he was writing for the

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Romans. It was very unlikely he'd invent these kinds of things that he claimed he and others saw when the city was besieged.

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He wouldn't be writing down falsehoods as official Roman record. R .C.

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Sproul in his book which I read just last month wrote of the testimony of Josephus.

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Perhaps the most strange even bizarre report in Josephus's narrative is the sightings of heavenly apparitions.

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Thus these are Josephus's words. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, the zealots in Jerusalem, and such as belied

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God himself while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident and did so plainly foretell their future desolation.

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But like men infatuated without either eyes to see or minds to consider did not regard the denunciations that God made to them.

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Thus there was a star resembling a sword which stood over the city and a comet that contained a whole year.

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And thus also before the Jews' rebellion, before the commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread on the eighth day of Zanacchus, and at the ninth hour of the night so great a light shone around the altar in the

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Holy House that it appeared to be bright at daytime, which light lasted half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it.

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Josephus says, according to Sproul, that these astronomical phenomena triggered false prophecies of hope for Jerusalem and its people.

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And then later in his book, Sproul wrote, a further unusual phenomena that Josephus testified appeared in the skies over Jerusalem.

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Sproul wrote, in addition to his account of the comet, the sword -like star, and so forth, Josephus provides a most remarkable record of an even more astonishing celestial occurrence, one so extraordinary it seemed the historian himself was reticent about mentioning it.

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Besides these, a few days after the feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemis, Artemis Isis, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomena appeared.

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I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable were it not related by those who saw it, and were not the events that followed it so considerable in nature as to deserve such signals.

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For before sun setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running among the clouds and surrounding the cities.

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Moreover, at that feast, which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner temple, as their custom was to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that in the first place they felt a quaking and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude saying, let us remove hence.

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And that last statement of Josephus was stating that God's voice itself was heard, that he was about to remove his presence from the temple prior to its destruction.

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Again, one might consider this account to be too incredible to be true, but the students and believers of the

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Bible are familiar with what occurred in the days of Elisha. He asked the Lord to show his servant

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Gehazi the armies of the Lord who far outnumbered the Syrian troops gathered against him. Elisha said to his servant, do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

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And Elisha prayed and said, Lord I pray open his eyes that he may see. The Lord opened the eyes of the young man he saw, behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

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So what Josephus claims actually did happen in history in the Old Testament.

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The fall of Jerusalem brought an end to the Jewish age as the age of the realized kingdom of God and reigning of Jesus Christ over the history of the world was manifest.

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Again, the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish temple, had significant importance for the cause of the kingdom going forth into the world.

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Jerusalem, its temple, were no longer the center and location of God's activity in the world. Christ Jesus was

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Lord sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven ruling over his kingdom and his glory was manifest in what he brought to pass in fulfillment of his words to his people and to this generation.

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But we conclude with these words. We recognize although prophetic passages on a number of occasions in Scripture were pronouncements of God's judgment upon cities and nations in history, the way they're recorded and expressed caused them to be read as portending something more, something beyond the specific historic events to which they directly pointed.

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And so we're not saying that there's double fulfillment to these words, not at all, but we're saying that that fulfillment in history seemed to suggest something greater, something more, something final.

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In other words, they did indeed point to the second coming indirectly. And so it is with the prophecies and the

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Gospels of God's judgment on Jerusalem and Judaism that came to pass in AD 70. The day of the

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Lord and the second coming of Christ is portended by these events, that is projected. There's a prophetic projection by relating what happened in history which suggests there's something else coming on a far grander scale, and that's the second coming of Christ at the end of history.

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And so may the Lord help us to take these things to heart and interpret them in context.

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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Help us to understand these matters, our

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God. We understand the difficulty in doing so, for we hear so much, our

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God, and to which we've been taught, perhaps we've embraced, taught ourselves in the past.

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But we pray that you would open your word to us, our God, and give us understanding of your great work in history.

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We thank you that Jesus Christ is Lord over all flesh, as he himself declared in John 17, so that he might give life to the ones that you've given him,

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Father, from eternity. We thank you, our God, we're the recipients of this grace, the object of your mercy, and we thank you for the glorious future that lies before us.

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And regardless of what comes down in history, our God, King Jesus, as you are ordering events, we know that you will preserve us in faith through them all, and we will stand before you on that glorious day, exonerated and even more than just forgiven.

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You show forth us in righteousness clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.