Luke 17
Sin, Forgiveness, Faith, and Service
17:1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Stumbling blocks are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!
Israel was called to experience blessings or cursings, depending upon their obedience to the Mosaic Law. Christians are not called to prosper, but they are called to suffer. The enemy will send stumbling blocks against the mature and active Christians. He will leave the baby, apathetic, and carnal Christians alone, because they are not a threat to the satanic world system.
17:2 It would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
Jesus supernaturally protects children. Those who teach false doctrine to children will be severely punished by God Himself. Those who commit fornication and then kill innocent children in the womb will be judged by God Himself.
Evolutionists teach children that they were not created in the image of God, but they evolved from monkeys. Drug dealers sell drugs to children on the street, addicting them to a life of pain and suffering. Rock musicians, Hollywood producers, actors, actresses, educational institutions, liberal politicians, and liberal media outsources teach children liberal concepts which are unbiblical. All of these people will be judged supernaturally by God.
17:3 Watch yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.
Notice that Jesus was not a seeker-friendly teacher. He exposed evil. He asked believers to expose evil, even if it was the sin of a fellow believer. If the fellow believer repents and changes his lifestyle, then he is forgiven by God and he is to be forgiven by fellow-believers. The purpose of exposing evil is to turn the elect back to God. Many believers think that it is “un-Christ-like” to attack and expose evil, especially when it is in the church. Satan keeps believers Biblically ignorant so that they will not expose evil. If evil is not exposed, then Satan can continue his deception upon even the elect who are living inside his satanic world system.
17:4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Forgiveness is continual. The sin nature is brutal. The only way to control the power of the sin nature is by mastering Bible doctrine, confessing of sins,(I John 1:9) and then by the filling of the Holy Spirit.
17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
The apostles asked for a good thing. They wanted to increase their belief in God and what He could do for them.
17:6 So the Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
A believer’s responsibility towards God is to believe that He can accomplish miraculous things through the believer.
17:7 “Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’? 17:8 Won’t the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink’? 17:9 He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? 17:10 So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”
A believer is to provide humble service to God. They should not expect special praise for doing things that God has called them to do.
The Grateful Leper
17:11 Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 17:12 As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, 17:13 raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 17:14 When he saw them he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went along, they were cleansed.
Leprosy was an incurable disease. Jesus performed a first in history by not healing just one leper, but all ten of them. They were sent to the priests to go through a Mosaic ritual for the healing of lepers. No leper had ever gone through this ritual in the history of Judaism. This was a powerful message to the priesthood that Jesus was the Messiah.
17:15 Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 17:16 He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.) 17:17 Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 17:18 Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 17:19 Then he said to the man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Only one of the ten lepers returned to thank Jesus. Many people receive blessings from God, but they rarely thank Him. God gives to all people air to breath, food to eat, money to spend, rain from the sky, healings of their sicknesses, yet most people in the world reject and blaspheme God.
The Coming of the Kingdom
17:20 Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 17:21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
This was a legitimate question, because Jesus and His disciples promised that the kingdom of God was near. The kingdom of God was within the Pharisees’ midst. All they had to do was to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and the kingdom would begin.
The Coming of the Son of Man
17:22 Then 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.
Jesus will have many disciples throughout history. Many of these disciples will desire to observe the Second Coming of Jesus, but they will not see it in their lifetime. This also means that the disciples will not see Christ return in their lifetime.
17:23 Then people will say to you, ‘Look, there he is!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ Do not go out or chase after them.
Many false messiahs will appear in the church age.
17:24 For just like the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.
When Christ does return, it will not be in secret. Every eye on earth will see His return. The Jehovah Witnesses teach that Jesus returned secretly in 1914. Jesus disagrees with them. He stated that when He returns, His return will be as visible as lightning flashing across the sky.
17:25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Before Jesus returns, He must suffer death by crucifixion.
17:26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man.
Before Jesus returns, the world will be living in unbelief.
17:27 People were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage – right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
Noah preached for 120 years that the flood would come, but no one believed him.
17:28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 17:29 but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 17:30 It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were completely surprised by their destruction. The rapture of the church will be a complete surprise. The Second coming will be preceded by many prophetic events. Jesus will return exactly seven years after the Antichrist signs a peace treaty with Israel and three and a half years after the Antichrist steps into the Jewish temple and declares that he is God.
17:31 On that day, anyone who is on the roof, with his goods in the house, must not come down to take them away, and likewise the person in the field must not turn back.
When the Antichrist steps into the temple and declares himself as God, then he will attempt to exterminate all of the Jews on the earth. The Jews in Israel will no have time to pack. They need to leave Israel immediately and head to Petra. Those Jews who make it to Petra will be supernaturally protected from the Antichrist.
17:32 Remember Lot’s wife!
Lot’s wife did not trust God. She looked back and was destroyed. If the Israelites return to pack their material objects, then they will die as well. Materialism will cost the Jews their life.
17:33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.
If a Jewish person goes back to pack his goods in order to survive, then he will be captured by the Antichrist and executed. Whoever gives up his lust for material goods will escape and keep his life. He will escape to Petra, be supernaturally protected, and then enter into the Millennial Kingdom.
17:34 I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 17:35 There will be two women grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
This is not the rapture, but the middle of the Great Tribulation. Jews all over the world will be taken and executed by the Antichrist. This verse demonstrates that the world is round with future Jews living on both sides of the world.
17:36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
This verse is not in the Westcott-Hort, but it is in the Textus Receptus.
17:37 Then the disciples said to him, “Where, Lord?” He replied to them, “Where the dead body is, there the vultures will gather.”
The disciples asked Jesus where these people would be taken. Jesus told them that they would be taken by the Antichrist to be executed. Vultures would eat their bodies.