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Luke Lesson 55 (2010)

THE SUDDEN COMING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
(Living Between Times)

Luke 17:20-37
Key Verse: 17:32-33

“Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

Today’s passage is Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees’ question concerning the time of the Advent, or the coming of God’s kingdom. The second coming of Jesus, we believe, is the culmination of God’s redemptive history and the end of the world. Throughout history, numerous scholars, historians, scientists, and preachers have been trying to figure out and predict the exact time of the end of the world, and many have been proved to be wrong. Stephen Hawking, the British physicist whose book “A Brief History of Time” sold over three million copies, recently confessed that the end of the world will be a lot later than he first thought. He now calculates that the end won’t happen for “at least ten billion years.” What? We don’t have to agree with him. However, according to Jesus, none of us will be able to figure it out (17:20-21), and it’s not for us to know the exact time of his second coming (Acts 1:7). Yet, we do know one thing for sure that our own end will come a lot sooner than the end of the world. Therefore, what we should be concerned about is not so much the eschatological signs but our lifestyle as long as we live in this world. That’s why Jesus said to his disciples in verses 32 and 33, “Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” Let’s try to hear what Jesus is saying to us through today’s passage.

Look at verse 20a. “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom would come, Jesus replied…” The Pharisees’ question about the coming kingdom of God was reasonable because Jesus had been preaching mainly about the kingdom of God. In fact, John the Baptist also had a question while he was in prison. He sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Lk 7:20) Most of the Jews in Jesus’ time, including John the Baptist, expected that the Messiah would appear soon and set them free from the rule of the Roman Empire. The Pharisees especially believed that the main reason for their exile to Babylon was due to their failure to obey the Law of God and to observe its regulations. So the Pharisees tried to observe the Law of God and regulations. And their observation of the law and regulations was often obsessive and made them spiritually blind. They probably thought that their observance would enhance the coming of God’s kingdom. Many of the Jews in Jesus’ time believed that Messiah would come at a Passover celebration. So as Jesus traveled toward Jerusalem to observe the Passover, they questioned Jesus when the kingdom of God would come.

Look at verse 20b. “Jesus replied, ‘the kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God within (among) you.’” There are several ways to understand the phrase “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation.” It could mean that the coming of the kingdom of God has nothing to do with the Pharisees’ observation of the law. It could also mean that the kingdom of God cannot be detected by visible signs. In fact, the coming of the kingdom of God will not be detected by anybody, so that no one will say, “Here it is!” or “There it is.” Even though there will be general signs of the end of the age, there will be no specific and drastic signs to show the coming of God’s kingdom. Yet, Jesus said in verse 20b, “because the kingdom of God is within you.” The NIV translation “within you” (Gr. Entos hymon) may not be the best translation of the Greek “Entos hymon”, which also mean “among you”, as the footnote indicates.

What Jesus meant here is that the kingdom of God has already come through his presence among them. Jesus once spoke to the people in the synagogue of his hometown Nazareth, quoting from messianic prophesies in Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:18-19) Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (4:21) Here, the good news and the year of the Lord’s favor basically mean the grace of forgiveness of sins for all humankind. In other words, God’s kingdom had come through Jesus who came to offer God’s grace of forgiveness of sins.
But the Pharisees didn’t believe what Jesus had claimed about the coming of the kingdom of God. One of the main reasons that they didn’t accept Jesus’ teaching is that their external view of the kingdom of God was different from that of Jesus’ view of God’s kingdom, which is both internal and external.

The grace of forgiveness of sins brings the kingdom of God into our lives. According to Jesus, the kingdom of God starts from the inner world of our lives and goes beyond, as Romans 14:17 reads, “For the kingdom of God not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” One day, a young paralyzed man was brought to Jesus on the mat by his friends. We don’t know what caused his paralysis. The Jews in Jesus’ time considered sin as one of the main causes of paralysis. When Jesus saw the man lying on the mat, he said to him, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” (Lk 5:20) Hearing what Jesus said to the paralytic, the Pharisees were offended. They said, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus then said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately, he stood up in front of them, took his mat and went home praising God. This paralyzed man had become a new person. Everyone was filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.” (5:26) What they actually saw through Jesus was the kingdom of God through the grace of forgiveness of sins. God’s glory here is this young man fully alive through the grace of forgiveness of sins. Likewise, if we accept Jesus as our Savior in our hearts, our sins are forgiven and the Spirit of Jesus enters and dwells in us, which means the kingdom of God is within us. (Ro 8:9-11) That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “The kingdom of God is within (among) you.”

After Jesus talked about the present kingdom of God among them in verses 20-21, Jesus turned to his disciples to talk about the futuristic kingdom of God in the following verses 22-37. In verses 22-24, Jesus mainly warns his disciples not to be misled or be deceived by false teachers who try to predict the exact time of Jesus’ second coming. Read verses 22-24. “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, “There he is!” or “Here he is!” Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.” People who are curious about eschatological events are easily tempted to run off after them. Jesus’ disciples were also very curious about the time of the coming of God’s kingdom. When Jesus predicted the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, they immediately asked Jesus, “When will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?” (Lk 21:7) And after Jesus’ resurrection, they again asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They were very curious about the times and dates. But Jesus said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8) There are many wonderful preachers and servants of God who, utilizing all their Biblical knowledge and spiritual insight, try to predict the time of Jesus’ second coming. But all of them were found to be incorrect. Jesus told us not to pay attention to the times or dates. We should focus on the power and work of the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 25. “But first he (the Son of Man) must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” Here, Jesus indicates that there will be the first coming and the second coming of the Son of Man. We are living between the time of the first coming and the time of the second coming of Christ. The rest of the section is Jesus’ instructions to his disciples concerning how they should live between the times as his disciples. In verses 26-29, Jesus told two Old Testament illustrations, the times of Noah and the times of Lot, with which the second coming of Christ is compared to. The common factor of the times of Noah and the times of Lot in Sodom is the suddenness and unexpectedness of God’s judgment. According to the Bible narratives in Genesis chapters 6-9 and 19, we understand that the people in Noah’s time and the Sodomites in Lot’s time were wicked. But Jesus didn’t necessarily point out their moral wickedness. Instead, he simply said that people in Noah’s time and people in Sodom were doing what was considered normal in life, such as eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage. But they could not escape God’s judgment because they didn’t pay attention to the warnings through Noah and the angels who visited them.

For example, when Lot warned his future sons-in-law about God’s impending judgment, they thought he was joking. They might have been brilliant young guys. Yet, they regarded God’s warning as a joke. These young men didn’t have the fear of God in their hearts. When they didn’t have the fear of God, they became fools. (Prov. 1:7; Psalm 53:1) They could have escaped God’s judgment if they heeded God’s warning. The fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Look at verse 30. “It will be just like this on the day of the Son of Man is revealed.” God’s final judgment will be sudden and unexpected. It does not matter how famous, successful, or wealthy we are. Those who refuse or fail to heed God’s warnings will not be able to escape from it. Their loss will be irreversible.

Look at verses 31-32. “On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife!” Here, Jesus warns that unless one is free from the attachment to the things of the world, he or she cannot escape from God’s judgment. Lot’s wife is an illustrative example of someone who didn’t follow the warnings seriously enough. Actually, Lot himself wasn’t willing to leave the city. My parents escaped from North to South Korea when the communist regime came to power in the Northern part of the Korean peninsula. When my father left, he took his wife, his five children and his younger brother. Unfortunately, his parents didn’t want to leave because they underestimated the cruelty of the communists and didn’t want to give up their house and property there. You can imagine what happened to them after that. Their house and their property were confiscated by the communist regime, and they died after that. Lot also had a hard time to leave Sodom because he was so attached to his life in Sodom. He had his investments and a lot of possessions in Sodom. When he hesitated, the angels grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters, and led them safely out of the city for the Lord was very merciful to them. It was only by God’s mercy that they could escape from God’s judgment. The angel warned everyone not to look back on their way to the mountains, but Lot’s wife could not escape completely and looked back on the way. When she looked back, she became a pillar of salt. Why did she look back? It’s because she was so attached to something in Sodom.

Why did Jesus say to his disciples to “remember Lot’s wife”? It’s because it’s very easy for us to be like Lot’s wife. All of us are somehow attached to people or things of the world. In some sense, it’s very hard not to be attached to something in the world. For example, “America runs on Dunkin.” Many of us are attached to “Dunkin Donuts coffee” or “Starbucks coffee.” We are all attached to something. Some are attached to I-phone, Internet, music, sports, shopping, boy friend or girl friend. Some attachments do not seem as harmful as the others. And it’s not easy to overcome our attachment to the things of this world. We have an urge to look back. Even if we may have successfully overcome an addiction, there is always a danger of falling back into it.

Then when should we consider our attachment to be dangerous? It is most dangerous when we are in denial of our attachment. Some people say, “I don’t have an addiction problem. I can quit any time I want.” Probably, Lot’s wife didn’t think her attachment was a big deal. She thought that she could handle her problem. Yet, she couldn’t. In fact, she might have been in denial of her attachment. Maybe, she used to rationalize herself saying “Well, I am better than others.” But the cost she had to pay was beyond her imagination. She just looked back once and turned to a pillar of salt. It sounds too harsh. But that’s what happened to her.

We must take heed of Jesus’ warning through the example of Lot’s wife and struggle hard not to look back but look forward to what God has called us. Romans 13:12 and 14 reads, “The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Hebrews 11:15-16 also describes our forefathers of faith who struggled in the same way in their journey to heaven in this world, “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” Since our life in the world is already full of stress and problems, we don’t want to have to struggle more or be challenged by anything more than necessary. If possible, we want to live a comfortable life rather than to struggle emotionally, mentally and spiritually. But we must remember that living by faith means to struggle hard in order to follow the will of God in each step of our lives. We might need to relax from time to time. Yet, spiritually speaking, the moment we stop struggling before God, we become like a dead fish. It’s so difficult not to become like Lot’s wife. That’s why Jesus warned his disciples, “Remember Lot’s wife.”

So how should we live until Jesus comes again or as long as we live in this world? We should live a Christ-centered life, which involves imitating Christ’s person and service. Look at verse 33. “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” Jesus said the same thing to his disciples in Luke 9:23-24, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Everyone in the world wants to save his or her life. But his disciples should live differently. Instead of trying to save themselves, they should let their lives go. How can they do that? We can lose our lives when we cling to Jesus, who is everything and the greatest reward from God.

Losing one’s life does not mean that we should not work for a living or pursue our worldly career. We should not neglect one of our tasks for the sake of the others. We need to prioritize and work very diligently. Most of all, we should never let Jesus go. Jesus should be our main goal in life. We should abide in Jesus, so that Jesus may abide in us through the Holy Spirit. (Jn 15:5) We should imitate his life as a servant of God and a shepherd of God’s flock. 1 Peter 5:2-4 reads, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers – not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”

In conclusion, Jesus said to his disciples in verses 34-35, “I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” What Jesus tried to tell his disciples in these verses is that there is a clear distinction between judgment and salvation on the day of his second coming. As Jesus mentioned in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, there is a chasm between heaven and hell so that no one can be transferred from one place to the other. Even loved ones can be permanently separated. Therefore, when there is still time left, we should share the gospel with those who have not heard or have not yet accepted it.

The disciples didn’t understand where people would be taken to. So they asked, “Where, Lord?” Jesus replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” This verse is hard to understand. What would Jesus be saying here? We are not sure. However, he might be saying that when he comes again, he will judge the living and the dead. In today’s passage, Jesus talks a lot about God’s final judgment. Although it makes us uncomfortable to hear it, we should heed his warnings. We know that God’s judgment will be sudden and unexpected. Like the people in the times of Noah and Lot, we should eat and drink, buy and sell. Yet, we should not be like the people in Noah’s time or the Sodomites who were destroyed because they failed to pay attention to God’s warning in their time. Let’s not take God’s warning lightly. Let us fear the Lord who will judge all men and women according to what they have done. Without the mercy of our God through Jesus, none of us can avoid God’s judgment. We don’t know when Jesus will come again. Yet, we don’t need to look back and despair about our past. We don’t need to be anxious about tomorrow either. We need to abide in Jesus so that Jesus may abide in us. We need to trust fully in God who is in control over everything. Heeding the warning from Jesus, may we not to lose our hearts to the things of the world but live a Christ-centered life day by day. Most of all may each of us grow in his grace and live as a shepherd of God’s flock and a hardworking and unworthy servant until the final day. Let’s read our key verses. “Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”