Luke 17:20-18:14

Living in the Present – Looking to the Future

When I was a child, I remember singing songs about heaven. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be, when we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory. When the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there. The King is Coming! Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine! Oh what a foretaste of glory divine! Many Spirituals share a longing for heaven as well – Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King. There is a Balm in Gilead, and Swing Low Sweet Chariot coming for to carry me home. These hymns and songs express a longing for something beyond, something better, and something more glorious. Our very soul aches for it – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Paul said it best in 2 Corinthians 5:1-2,4: For we know that if our temporary, earthly dwelling is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this body, desiring to put on our dwelling from heaven…Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. I love the language of this – we groan in this body, desiring to put on our dwelling from heaven. There is a small problem. We may groan for heaven, but we still have to live right now in the present. So, how can we look toward heaven while living in the now?

Vs 20-21 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God will come, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; no one will say, ‘Look here!’ or ‘There!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is among you.”

The Scripture had long foretold the coming of the Messiah. The people had waited with hope and expectation for centuries. They longed for His coming just as we long for Him to come again. Here, we find the Pharisees asking Jesus “When is He coming?” Jesus’ answer – “The kingdom of God doesn’t come with something observable.” A Greek translation of this is the kingdom doesn’t come with paratérésis, or careful observation. This word for observable is not desiring knowledge or wanting to understand something. It is a word that means to watch, like a guard looking for something in particular. Jesus is saying, you are like a guard, looking for particular signs you believe will come before the Messiah. In this answer we catch a glimpse of the attitudes of the Pharisees. They are like guards, just a bit hostile, and with everything figured out. They have a set of parameters they were guarding, and they believed they would be able to know from their understanding of Scripture who the Messiah would be, and when he would arrive. Jesus says, the kingdom of God isn’t what you think. In fact, it is sitting right here in front of you. The King of kings and Lord of lords is right here and you can’t see it because you are looking for something else altogether.

I believe it is the same today. There are those who look for particular signs and respond to particular prophetic words, when all along, He is here in our midst. This is why we can pray “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In one sense, we have become so future oriented, we miss the hope we have right now. The Pharisees and people longed for the coming of the Messiah, and rightfully so, but, when He came, they missed Him entirely because they were looking for something specific. They were looking for a Messiah that fit their perimeters and had particular qualities they thought He should have. And, it certainly wasn’t this man who ate with sinners, healed on the Sabbath, chose fisherman and tax collectors and zealots as His disciples and associated with Samaritans. Their Messiah would be more “holy” and refined and He would agree with them on every point. His disciples would be the finest of the fine and He would never associate with “those” people. We need to be careful not to fall into their same trap. Yes, Christ will come again, and we should long and hope for His coming, but, we need to be careful not to make this our only focus. If we do that, we risk missing out on what God is doing right now in our midst. We risk missing opportunities to see His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. We get so busy prepping for the future, we lose sight of the here and now. There are people all around us in need of healing, helping, saving, and uplifting. There is a world right now lost in sin, wandering in the darkness. More importantly, Christ is here in our midst ready to use us to be His hands and feet to a world in need. He has called us to be salt and light.

We also risk being easily swayed by every person who says they have a special message about His coming.

Vs 22-37 Then He told the disciples: “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you won’t see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Don’t follow or run after them. For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will 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 it will be in the days of the Son of Man: People went on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot: People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: One will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding grain together: One will be taken and the other left. Two will be in a field: One will be taken, and the other will be left.” “Where, Lord?” they asked Him. He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered.

Our calling to live life in the here and now while also understanding there is the future hope of eternity with God is like walking a tight rope. While looking forward, we still must live in the present moment. How?? The knowledge and understanding of Jesus’ coming again can be the motivation for what we do in this present moment. The hope of a future glory can help us focus on the important aspects of life now, shape the way we live, and influence the things we fill our lives up with. In other words, this future hope should radically shift everything in our life to line up with His will.

At the same time, we must also live with the understanding and knowledge that He is coming again. He has given us signs to look for that we shouldn’t ignore. In the days of Noah and Lot there were many signs. There was an up-tick in unrighteousness. People were not only going about their daily routine, they were consciously going about committing the most unholy of acts. Genesis 6:11-13 says, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.” And in Genesis 18:20-21 it says, “Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.” In both cases wickedness flourished. It was all around Noah and Lot. Everywhere they looked there was immorality. In fact, immorality had become the norm and holiness was on the decline. It seemed all hope was lost when God stepped in and raised what was righteous out of the flood of evil. He stepped in then, and He will step in once again when the time is right.

In this passage, Jesus gives us a few instructions as we look toward His future coming. First, don’t get distracted by those who would have us follow the signs. There will always be those, like the Pharisees, who feel they have “special” sight. They observe – paratérésis instead of observing in a way that desires to know. They will run around and say look here, and look there. Jesus says, don’t follow them! In Matthew 24:6-14, Jesus answers his disciple’s question about the end of the age. In verse 11 it says, Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. There is always going to be someone “in the know”. 1Thessalonians 5:20-22 says, “Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.”

Second, there is going to be suffering. Jesus had to suffer and die before His resurrection. The disciples all had to suffer for their faith. And we will also experience rejection and perhaps even suffer as we walk in His steps. Again in Matthew 24:9-10: “Then they will hand you over for persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name. Then many will take offense, betray one another and hate one another. Walking with Christ is not easy. In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus reminds us, “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Third, wickedness will flourish. The church will be surrounded by it. It will come at us from all fronts. I believe we are getting a bit of a taste of that right now. Immorality is becoming normalized, even, in some cases, in the church. Matthew 24:12 backs this up: Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.  As we see this world grow further and further away from God, it is even more imperative for us to stand firm in our faith.

Fourth, the examples of Noah and Lot give us a glimpse as to how we, the church, are to respond to the wickedness around us. We do not give in and go along with it. Instead, we must become obedient to what God asks us to do. Noah built an ark. It must have been quite a sight in his day. All around him is evil and sin while he consistently stays obedient to God. It set him apart. I am sure he was ridiculed and I’m sure there were a lot of questions. In all the time Noah was building, there was a chance for some to turn away from their evil ways, but none of them headed the warning. How do I know this? Genesis 7:1 tells me – Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before Me in this generation. Once again Matthew 24:13-15 sheds more light: But the one who endures to the end will be delivered. This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, And then the end will come. The church must stand firm in the truth of Scripture. They must continue to be a shining light in the darkness. We must heed the warnings John wrote to the seven churches about in Revelation and not be complacent and compliant.

This brings me to the fifth point – don’t look back. The angel had told Lot and his family not to look back (Genesis 19:17), but his wife did and became a pillar of salt. In this passage Jesus says, On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. What are the things of this world in comparison to the kingdom of God? There is nothing here that needs to hold our attention more than Him. The only treasure you will have is the treasure you have put away in heaven. Philippians 3:12-14 reminds us, Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

18 Vs 1-8 He then told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not become discouraged: “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect man. And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect man, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming.’” Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay to help them? I tell you that He will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on earth?”

Right after this, Jesus has His disciples focus on the need to pray always. Have any of you known any real prayer warriors? I mean real ones, not just people who pray in church or talk about prayer. These are people whose go to war when they pray. They battle and struggle. They enter into conflict and stand their ground. Unfortunately, the true prayer warriors are few and far between. These days, it seems prayer has been relegated to the least we can do. We even say it flippantly – You have my prayers, along with God bless you, (I live in Texas so we hear God bless you a lot). We even have emoji’s for prayer. There are the tried and true prayers – If Thy will be done, thank you for this meal, heal the sick… When tragedies happen, we tack it on as an afterthought – they have our prayers. But prayer should not be an afterthought or the least we can do. Prayer should be active, difficult and deliberate. Jesus says there is a “need to pray always and not become discouraged.” The Greek word for need is dei, which means it is necessary, a duty, and something that must happen. It is imperative! When we pray, we are actively seeking God’s guidance, intervention, justice, and direction. When Jesus prayed in the garden he began to sweat blood. Here, He likens prayer to a woman seeking justice against her adversary. She comes again and again and again for her answer. She doesn’t give up. The Greek says she was kopos – she labored and toiled and wore him down until he was weary. She was at war and he finally conceded and granted her the justice she sought. Jesus tells us, if this guy, who didn’t even fear God or respect man, will give justice, don’t you think God will give justice to those who cry out day and night? Unlike this ungodly judge, God is a judge who is holy, who loves and cares for His children, and who delights in answering our prayers. It is us who have lost our faith and have ceased to labor in prayer.

Jesus ends this parable with a curious question: Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on earth?” Will there be those with this kind of faith left? Will there be Believers who have the faith to labor in prayer? Are we willing to go to war? Honestly, this passage has really made me sit up and think, What does my own prayer life look like today? Is it vibrant and active and persistent. Do I labor as if I am in a conflict? If I’m being completely honest, I have to say no. I too have become lax in my prayer life. I’ve let the things around me to discourage me. This prayer warrior has sat too long on the sidelines. It has been a good reminder for me to put my armor back on and pray. Throughout my life, I have seen the power of prayer and I have a new desire to see that power once again. What is it going to take? I am willing to spend some time finding out.

VS 9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: “Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other people —greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Finally, Jesus tells one more parable, specifically to those who thought themselves righteous. We have two men who have come to pray. One, a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee’s prayer was filled with “I”. I thank God I’m not like other people. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I get. That’s five “I’s” in one short prayer. This is a prayer focused entirely on self. The Greek translation actually says the Pharisee stood and toward himself was praying. It was also a prayer uplifting self above others. I’m not like those people over there. Jesus’ inditement on the Pharisees had to hurt some egos.

Before we get started pointing fingers at this Pharisee, let’s see if we resemble him in any way. Ask the questions: How often has my church come together to really pray (go to war) in the past few years? What kind of things are we focusing on when we pray? Do we come to God in humility? Are we persistently seeking after God? I’m not sure what the answers for you own church are, but, I know it is something my church needs to work on. If we want the world around us to change, we have to start on our knees. 2 Chronicles 7:13-15 says, “If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. My eyes will now be open and My ears attentive to prayer from this place.” Over the past few years, I have seen less and less prayer time in the church and more and more focus on outside sources. For some, it is the emphasis on more and more programs to entice people to come. Other churches want to rely on style of worship, be it traditional or contemporary, to woo members. Still others have made it their mission to legislate morality through their participation in politics. The reality is, none of these are going to work. I know this sounds harsh, but this is the truth. There is no amount of programing, worship styling or politicalizing that will bring anyone to salvation. Our focus doesn’t need to be on what politics can change, it needs to be on the One who can change hearts. Our focus doesn’t need to be on those “other” people, it needs to be on the realization that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jesus reminds us that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” It is only when we get down on our knees with humble, seeking, and repentant hearts that anything will change. When we do this, God will hear us and answer. So, if we want to see the church once again be a vital influence in the world today, we need to be serious about our prayer life.

Our Father Who are in heaven, Hallowed be Your Name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer many churches pray each and every Sunday, and it is a prayer we need to be persistent in each and every day. God, we want Your will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven. God, we want to see You move in the lives of people around us. Most of all God, we want to see You move in our life. Humble us, change us, mold us and move us to Your will. Help us walk the tight rope well, keeping our focus on the future glory while being present right now. This is my prayer! Truth is, when we long for heaven, we put away the desire to store up things on this earth, and instead seek to lay up treasures in heaven that will not rust or mold. When we long for heaven, we begin to walk rightly and justly in the world around us. When we long for heaven, we listen to the guiding voice of the Holy Spirit. When we long for heaven, we become light and salt in the world. When we long for heaven, our prayers take on a holy pleading quality. We want to see heaven now, here on earth as it is in heaven. We hunger and thirst after righteousness and ache for His glory. May we become the church who cries out and pleads unceasingly for justice and righteousness to return.