Untitled Sermon (20)

Scripture Introduction:

I was driving outside of Branson a few months ago and there was a big billboard advertising a week long End Times Prophecy Conference. And it hit me that you really don’t see things like big massive billboards advertising a deep dive on the book of Colossians.

Why are those so popular? Because we want to know when God’s kingdom is going to come. We long for rescue and redemption. When times are prosperous you don’t see people longing for Jesus’ rescue quite as much.

A kid goes to a birthday party, his parents drop him off, and the party is incredibly lame. It’s no fun at all. He looks up at the clock and is thinking, oh man…how am I going to endure these 3 hours. He’s just waiting for mom to come and pick him up. Minutes are feeling like hours.

But then they bring out the new gaming system and he gets to play. Suddenly an hour feels like a minute. He looks at his watch and thinks, “oh man, only 15 minutes, can she wait a little...”

For the people living in Jesus’ time it was more like the first part of the party when there isn’t a gaming system, the cake isn’t out yet, and you’re bored out of your mind and waiting for your mom to rescue you from this lame party.

Actually, that’s probably a poor way of presenting this. For Jesus’ people it was much worse than a lame party. They were occupied by the Romans. Things weren’t going well and so this is why the Pharisees are going to ask Jesus about the coming of God’s kingdom.

Now when they say that keep in mind what they mean. They aren’t talking about Jesus. They aren’t even really talking about heaven. They are talking about a king coming and reigning in power and restoring all their fortunes. Rest, rule, relationship but in the here and now. It’s not as futuristic as we might think of it.

So when they say, “when is the kingdom coming” they mean something like, “when is the Rescuer going to come, boot out Rome, and give us back our kingdom free from any kind of outside rule?

Listen in at their question and Jesus’ answer.

Luke 17:20–18:8 ESV

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Sermon Introduction:

There is something about end-times stuff that gets people very interested. Mark 13 and Matthew 24, and the latter part of the book of Daniel, This section in Luke and a couple chapters later we will see some of this again in Luke 21. These and a few other places where you can really draw people in and sell tickets to your prophecy conference. But I’m going to sorely disappoint you this morning. I’ve got on charts or pictures or timelines or anything like that. I’m not going to say something like, “Here is how its going to happen in the end”. Let me explain why.

I want to share with you two stories. You tell me which one matches the thrust of Scripture more.

Story #1:

A king tells his subjects that he is going away for a time but he will be returning. He doesn’t announce the date but he says be ready. If I come back and you aren’t here I’m going to leave you. This guy studies all of the kings literature, he studies the stars, the planets, the moons, and puts together a timeline of when he thinks the king will return. He picks a date. Confident of the date he goes about his village telling everyone that the king is going to be returning on this particular date—they need to get ready—for this particular date because the king will come back on that date. And wouldn’t you know it, the dude actually somehow gets the date correctly and he shows up and meets the king on that particular day. He was ready because he got the date right.

Story #2

A king tells his subjects that he is going away for a time but he will be returning. He doesn’t announce the date but he says be ready. If I come back and you aren’t here I’m going to leave you. This guy goes about spending his time following the kings orders and encouraging his fellow villagers to live out the kings commands. He doesn’t have a clue what date the king is going to come back and so he gets with the other villagers to set up a schedule of watching for the king. 24/7 somebody is at the watchtower waiting for the king’s return. Lo and behold one day the king comes back. He was ready because he kept watching day after day after day after day after day.

Now I ask you, which one of these stories matches the thrust of the Scriptures? It’s the second one. We are never encouraged to try finding a date or to put together end times charts and try to figure all of this stuff out. I get that impulse. It’s that impulse which gives us this text.

People argue about this stuff and I can never really figure out why. If you have different views on exactly how things are going to shake out then it can get really heated. And I’ve never understood that. Jesus is returning. I don’t know how exactly, I don’t know when exactly, and I don’t even know what exactly it will look like when he does. But I do know this. He is very good. He is very faithful. And he tells us to be ready. And in this text I think we have a few pointers for us to make sure that we are preparing for His return.

Whether that comes through a pre-tribulational rapture, whether that comes through going through an intense period of suffering, whether it leads to a literal thousand year reign, whether it’s more metaphorical, whether some of these things have already happen in the destruction of the temple or much is left to come. What matters isn’t the answer to those questions. Your salvation isn’t determined on being right on those. The truth is whatever happens is going to happen if and because you are connected to Jesus Christ. His kingdom is your kingdom.

So let’s get to work here seeing what it means to stay faithful to Jesus as we wait for His rescue.

I. When

The first thing the Pharisees want to know is WHEN is this going to happen. When can we expect to have the kingdom restored to us. When will the king come and wallop Rome.

But Jesus corrects this misunderstanding. The kingdom is actually here now. It’s right in front of you. But they were concerned with sign watching. Jesus helps us to see here that sign-watching is not the path forward. If it was then they’d have recognized Jesus, the Messiah, who was right in front of them.

That’s the danger in all this is that we can miss Jesus. We can miss the kingdom. We can miss the stuff of the kingdom because we think it’s about something entirely different.

But then Jesus turns to his disciples and addresses them...

II. Where

The picture here is of longing for rescue. Keep in mind that the audience switches a little starting in verse 22. His audience is now the disciples. He knows the bent of their heart…he knows the bent of our hearts…and that we are going to be prone to error.

When you are longing for something you are vulnerable to accepting error. This is what Jesus is warning them against in verses 22-23. He’s saying you will “desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man.” I think, given the context, that they are longing for rescue because as believers things are going to be difficult for them.

Many of the ones he is saying this too will be martyred within a few years. They will be longing for rescue, and that will put them in a vulnerable position because they are going to really really want to see Jesus return, they are going to want to see things a certain way, and so this will make them susceptible to error.

Some joker comes along and says, “look there, look here,”

Now, bad people know about this vulnerability. And they’ll take advantage of it. They will peak your interest with prophecy and slip a bit of false gospel in through the back door. They’ll focus your eyes on this shiny thing and then pick your pocket with their other hand. Here’s some end times teaching…look at all these fancy Greek words and the way I’ve tied all these Old Testament verses together.

And then with the other hand they’ll fill you up with some prosperity gospel, some name it and claim it false teaching, some Christian nationalism. something that will stoke fear and hatred of others.

When you find yourself doing a deep dive on some of these matters—whether it be eschatology (that means end times) or some other doctrine that you’re really diving deep on. Ask yourself this question. Am I emerging with a deeper love for Jesus? Am I emerging with a greater love for others? Is this bringing about the fruit of the Spirit?

What I see so often happening with this stuff is that we get wrapped up in minor details and really trying to find out the secrets of the end times. But listen to Jesus here....

Verse 24. It’s going to be obvious. You aren’t going to miss this. When you are out at night and there is a big thunderstorm and lightning fills up the sky, you see it. You recognize it. You don’t need mystery goggles to see lightning.

It’s also inevitable. It’s going to happen but it’s going to happen through suffering. Jesus lets them know in verse 25 that his kingdom and the path of his kingdom always comes about through suffering.

And it’s also going to happen when people are just living life as normal. And that’s really where we can lose our guard. This is where we can miss out on Christ. We get wrapped up in the world and the cares of the world. Eating and drinking and marrying until Noah entered the ark.

That’s why the warning here about not looking back. If you are fixated on the things of this earth then you’re going to end up forsaking Christ when the time comes. Seeking to preserve your life will cause you to be unfaithful.

It is also inescapable. When the time comes no doomsday bunker is going to amount to anything. You aren’t going to do something to slow his return or to speed it up. The issue isn’t if you’re eating, drinking, and marrying. The issue is whether or not as you are doing these things you have a single-minded focus on the Lord.

Dividing common folks. There are a couple ways one could read this text. You could say that one is taken (and rescued) or you could say that one is taken (into judgment). Is it better to be left or to be taken? Just from the context here I’d lean towards saying that the one taken is taken away into judgment. (I think it carries over some exile language from the prophets as well).

But that’s really not the main point. The dividing nature of the kingdom is what is the point. As one person put it:

The Gospel of Luke 5.6.2.2. Where is the Kingdom? (17:22-37)

Both are sleeping, both are grinding, but one is rescued while the other is caught up in the calamity of judgment. At stake is the nature of one’s dispositions, one’s commitments, one’s attachments, one’s ultimate loyalty.

Are you with Jesus or not? Do you have faith in the son of Man or is your loyalty elsewhere....and I think we see this played out in the parable of the persistent widow.

III. The Persistent Widow

I think it’s a bit unfortunate that we have a chapter break here because this story is very much connected.

It’s been almost 2000 years since Jesus was taken up into heaven. And Christians have been praying “come quickly, Lord Jesus” ever since then. Every generation has expected the return of Christ. We’ve had ups and downs. There have been some seasons that have been great and seemed like the church was thriving. And there have been really dark points.

But the typical path—and I think you can see this even here in this story in Luke—is that the Christian life is often marked with suffering. And in those moments we cry out, “Come Lord Jesus”.

And so Jesus tells them this parable to encourage them to always be praying and don’t lose heart. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be dejected. Don’t give in to cynicism. Or bitterness. Or overcome with negativity. Keep on hoping.

And he tells us a story. It’s about a widow that wants justice. We don’t know many details. She’s an unnamed widow in an unnamed city crying out day and night for a wicked judge. He’s a powerful judge and he holds the fate of the vulnerable woman in his hands. He’s corrupt.

We know what corrupt men do in such a situation—they continue to protect the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. And this is precisely what the wicked judge does. He doesn’t care about her receiving justice. Time after time he dismisses her case. But she keeps coming back. We get the idea that the judge become annoyed with hearing the case and he says “because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice…”

Her persistence gets her justice. But what are we to make of this story? Does it mean that if you keep asking God over and over for something he will eventually buckle and give you what you want? Is this about a kid getting ice cream when he finally breaks his parents down?

What is Jesus doing in this parable? He is arguing from greater to lesser. That’s why it seems a bit strange for us to have an unjust judge in the parable representing God. Certainly, God isn’t unjust. There is no shadow within him. He always judges and rules correctly. Every widow will receive justice from the Lord. This is why Jesus’ argument works so powerfully. A wicked judge — who does not want to give justice — is worn down by her persistence and he eventually gives what he does not want to give.

But God isn’t a wicked judge. He wants to give justice. All the promises of the kingdom he delights to give. Consider Luke 12:32, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” The point, then, is not that God doesn’t want to give something and we have to wear him down in prayer. The point is that if persistent asking can wear down an unjust judge, how much more should we be persistent in asking a Judge who delights to give that which we are asking for?

When hardship comes, we can be tempted to think that God had abandoned us. In the story the widow could have easily given up after her first attempt at justice. “Well, that’s just the way things are. This is just the way things are always going to be.” But she didn’t do that. As MLK would say years later she believed that “the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.” When we stop believing that, we stop praying and we lose heart.

Furthermore, we stop praying and we lose heart when we become like those in Noah’s day or like Lot’s wife, and we become so wrapped up in day-to-day existence that we forget God’s bigger story. Prayer and hope keep us grounded in God’s story. There are seasons where it can seem like we take a punch to the throat every day. But picture that widow. I am picturing a long line of those waiting on the rulings of this corrupt judge. And I’m picturing the blow she must have felt each time he ruled not in her favor. But what did she do? She picked herself up and got into the back of the line to have her case heard again.

This is what Jesus is calling us to in prayer. She certainly did not have confidence in the judge’s character—but she had confidence that God could turn hearts. She had confidence that justice would eventually win. And so, she kept at it. We are called to do the same in prayer because of the character of God. We must keep going to him and praying that His kingdom will come.

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Jesus’ rescue. Setting all things right. Making all things new.

Will the Son of Man find faith when he comes. That’s the question. Not faith in a certain view of the end times, not that you got all the ins and outs of His return figured out. But faith in Him. Trust in Him like a persistent widow who knows that only one person holds the keys of rescue, and healing, and justice.

Will he find people who are still trusting in Him, still resting in Him, still crying out to Him for rescue?

Or will He find people who are self-sufficient and saying, “what are you doing here?”

Or will He find people who are caught up in their own worlds and upset at his coming. Or who have positioned himself as their enemy…who are like the wicked judge.

Will he find faith today? Today is the day to turn to Christ. May he rescue you.