Luke 17:11-37 "Get With the Times" (Carlton 10:30am)

Oh, I'm Marcus, by the way. I'm one of the pastors here. It's great to be here with you this morning as we look at Luke 17. But let me pray as we get into our passage. Our Father God, we just thank you for this time to open your word together.

And we pray that we would listen to these words of Jesus as confronting as they are, so that we might live lives that honor your. We pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Now, in our passage today, Jesus is going to completely reorient the way that we think about our lives. And he's going to do it in a way that completely disagrees with one of the basic premises of the world around us.

Because everyone in our world today basically lives by one premise. Whether you're meeting them at school or at work, wherever you are, almost everyone is living for today. And we've come up with lots of different ways about talking about this idea. So you may have heard of carpe diem, you know, Robin Williams in the Dead Poet Society, standing on a table whispering, carpe diem. You know the one?

Yeah. Seize the day. Seize the day. Make the most of this time that we have right now. Maybe if you're a bit younger, maybe like a Rod Fitch, you know, yolo, you only live once.

Do as much as you can right now. Squeeze the most out of today as you can, because you've only got one shot, one opportunity. Those are the words of Eminem. You might also know, maybe it's not today, but maybe it's the immediate future. Everybody's working for the weekend.

Get the most that you can out of today. And so people have become laser focused on making this life count. They're trying to squeeze as much as they can out of their time to get every good thing that they can find right here.

But what Jesus is going to say to us is, don't get swept up in it. Don't get swept up. And the reason he'll say it is because there is more to life than what we think of the present. Because not only do we often misunderstand what the reality of today is, but the realities of the past, the reality of the present, and the reality of the future mean that our lives will be completely different to the world around us. And so let's start with the past and particularly with the salvation that Jesus has given to us that he's put on offer.

And to see this, I want you to imagine that tomorrow you're on your way to work or to school or wherever you're going, and you get in the car and. And as you put your hands on the steering wheel, you notice that you've got a little bit of a rash on your hand. A little bit of a rash, maybe like a little bit of pus, but it's just mostly flaky skin. And so you go, all right, I'll get home and I'll put some moisturiser on it. Or if you're like me, you're just like, oh, I'll just leave it.

It'll be fine. But then you drive to work or school, wherever you're going, you get out of the car and a woman walks past. She sees you and she screams, because now what was just a small, tiny rash on your hand has made its way all the way up your arm. And she's like, you gotta go to a doctor. You gotta go see someone.

Because I've seen this happen before, and it doesn't end well. So you're like, all right, well, I should probably do what she says. You know, she's very passionate about it. So you get in your car, you drive to the doctor, and by the time you walk into the doctor's office, he sees you, and his face drops. Because now what was a tiny little rash on your arm has gone all across your body, all across your face.

It's completely everywhere, all over you. And as the doctor starts putting on his Hazmat suit, he says to you, you gotta get out of here. Don't talk to anyone. Don't even talk to your family. Don't go see them.

Don't go see your friends. Do not go to work. And at that point, you're kind of like, oh, this is kind of nice, but get out of here. Get as far away as you can. Go to a place called Wallabada.

That's a real place. Go to Wallabada. Get out of here. Because you can't see anyone. If you go anywhere near anyone, you'll infect them, too.

You need to go there. There are people there with your disease. Go there right now. Do not talk to anyone. No contact at all.

And so you drive out there, you drive hours and hours, and you get there and you find the people who have the same condition that you do, and they say to you, yep, you can't talk to your family. You can't talk to your friends. You can't do anything you want to do where you might see other people because they might get sick, too. You need to just stay with us, sit with us, and waits until you die.

Or a miracle comes to town.

Do you see how the 10 lepers are feeling when we get to this story? They're isolated, they're sick, they're suffering, they're completely lonely.

But take a look at what happens in verse 11. Luke 17:11.

While traveling to Jerusalem, Jesus passed between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, 10 men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and raised their voices, saying, jesus, master, have mercy on us. See, the miracle they've been waiting for might have just appeared. And you can tell how ingrained the isolation is in their minds because they're still standing at a distance from Jesus.

But look at what he says in verse 14. Look at what he does. When Jesus saw them, he told them, go and show yourselves to the priests. And Jesus says this because in the Old Testament, once you were clean, once you didn't have anything on your skin, you would go to the priest and he would declare you as. As being clean.

You could rejoin society, do all the things you wanted, and yet Jesus sends them off and they've still got their leprosy. But they take the risk. And then look what happens in the back half of verse 14.

And while they were going, they were cleansed. See, Jesus has done it. He's brought the miracle. And he even did it from a distance, from far away. Do you see how powerful Jesus is?

Do you see how compassionate he is to these people? And so you'd expect that all of them, all 10 of these lepers, would turn back, start running back and cheering, excited, because Jesus has just scored the miracle goal in the World Cup. And they're all in a circle, jumping up and down, having a great time, celebrating what Jesus has just done. But take a look at verse 15.

But one, only one. But one of them, seeing that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice gave glory to God. He fell face down at his feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. Now we don't get told why the other nine don't come back.

The generous assumption would be, maybe they listened to Jesus and they went to the temple priest. But they've been isolated from friends, from family, from society for years. They haven't been able to go and do the things where anyone else would be. And now they are free. I think they're off to seize the day.

But regardless of where they are, they've made the wrong choice, the nine. Because look at what Jesus says in verse 17.

Then Jesus said, Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Didn't any return to give glory to God. Except this foreigner. See what I mean?

I think Jesus knows that they haven't actually listened to him, but keep looking. Verse 19. And he told him, get up, go on your way. Your faith has saved you. He says to this one man, you have now been saved.

And he doesn't mean saved from the disease because the other nine were healed too. No, Jesus says, you have been saved from an even worse fate than what was happening to your skin. Jesus says, because you saw me, because you saw my salvation and you turned to me. You literally turned around and came back to me. You have been saved from an eternal isolation.

You've been saved from an eternal uncleanness. You've been saved from hell, just like Lazarus was in the parable two weeks ago. Because this man has seen the power of Jesus and fallen at his feet in praise. And I think that shows us the right response to what Jesus has done for us. We've seen his power.

We've seen Jesus raised from the dead. We have seen his salvation. We have seen the past. And that means we turn to Jesus and we run to Him. This is what it means to have faith.

It's not that we see Jesus salvation and go off and do those things that we feel like we've been missing out on. No, we turn back to Christ and we fall at his feet and worship because he has saved us. And really that's the basis of the Christian life, isn't it? It's the beginning of what transforms everything. Because we now live to worship Jesus, to bring praise to the King who reigns today.

And if you haven't already, if you're one of the few here who haven't turned to Christ, make sure you do it today.

Now, that's the reality of the past that shifts everything that we've seen, the salvation of Christ. But Jesus reign as King is our present reality. And I know that earlier I said that our world lives for the present, but while the world lives for today, to get as much as they can out of this world we live in in light of the one who reigns today. And we see this in verse 20. It all starts with a simple question.

Because the Pharisees want to know when the kingdom of God is going to come. Jesus has been talking about it. It's a fair question. When will God fulfill His promises to us? When will he send his king?

When will he reunite all nations under him? And Jesus gives a very simple answer.

You're looking at him. Just take a look. Starting in verse 20, when he was asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming with something observable. No one will say, see here or there. For you.

See, the kingdom of God is in your midst. Jesus says, you want to see the kingdom of God? I'm right here. I've brought it. Don't go looking for it.

It's not over there. The kingdom is standing in front of you. And that's a pretty revolutionary idea back then, but even for today, because it means that we today are not waiting for God's kingdom. We're not waiting for Jesus reign to begin. And we definitely don't need to do anything to start God's kingdom here on earth, because Jesus is king now.

We are his people. Now you as people who have turned back to Jesus like the leper, are citizens of heaven today. Because as you sit right here now, Jesus is reigning from heaven where he sits in at the right hand of the Father. We're not waiting. The kingdom has come.

Now we still need to pray like in the Lord's Prayer. We still need to pray that it would be fully realized here on earth as it is in heaven. But that doesn't mean that Jesus isn't the king. Let me give you an example. Even though we see people all the time breaking the law, that doesn't mean that the government, that the courts aren't in charge.

Do you see what I mean? But the reality is that Jesus is reigning. And that's such a great comfort, isn't it? As I've been reflecting on Jesus present reign this week, it's been such a great comfort to me because the same king who compassionately and powerfully healed 10 lepers is running the place. The king who offers salvation to all people is in charge.

And that's actually taken a bunch of stress off my shoulders because I know that the one who rules will bring about God's glory and my good. And I know that the only perfectly good king is the one in control. And so often people around us are stressed because everything seems to be out of control. They work so hard to try and create security because they ignore that there is a king in charge of the whole world. But that doesn't have to be us, because we have our king sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven right now, as we are here today.

But Jesus being king also means our lives are oriented to his purposes. It's his kingdom. He is the king who we serve. And so we obey the king because he is our authority. Too, what he says goes, but again, isn't that such a great comfort because his ways are always good.

And so we've seen the past. We've seen that we've been saved by Jesus through faith. He has offered salvation to all people. And we've seen the present, the reality that Jesus has brought the kingdom and that he is the one who currently reigns. But most of this passage, I don't know if you noticed as we read through it, most of this passage is actually about living in light of the future.

In fact, the Christian life is one that's always thinking about the future. Just take a look at verse 22 and notice how Jesus changes his audience and his topic. Then Jesus 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. He's telling his disciples about the time when he's going to come back.

And we are going to long for this because trials will come. We will cry out, come, Lord Jesus, come. But what he says is that his return is going to be unmissable. And I don't mean like, you know, Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey, you know, you gotta go see it. You can't miss out on this one.

No, he means unmissable in that there'll be no mistake that. But it's happening. Which is why Jesus says what he does in verse 23. They will say to you, see here or see there. Don't follow or run after them.

Basically, Jesus is teaching us that there will be Chicken Little. Before Chicken Little was Chicken Little. He says that there will be lots of boys who cry wolf. Lots of people who say, look at the events of this world. This is it, it's happening.

It's about to. But that's not how it works. Jesus return won't be gradual or something that will get specific, oddly detailed signs about. No, Jesus says it's going to happen like a flash of thunder in the sky. Bang.

And it's there. And this is a warning from Jesus because he says that when it happens, people will go to judgment. Take a look at verse 34. 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. Jesus says that on the day that he returns, on the day he comes instantly, those who haven't turned to him like that one leper that we saw earlier will face condemnation. And sometimes Christians think that Jesus here is talking About Christians, people who are saved being taken away to the new creation. But if we look closely, Jesus is talking about judgment, people being taken to judgment. Just take a look at verse 37.

The disciples hear this and they ask, where Lord? Where Lord? They asked him, where will these people be taken? But keep looking, he said to them, where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered.

See, on the day Jesus comes back, those outside of Christ will find themselves eternally outside of God's kingdom, in the place where they will be picked at by vultures for eternity.

As Phil said last week, Jesus doesn't sugarcoat his words, does he? And I think for many of us this can be a point of deep sadness because it's the fate of some of the people that we're closest to, the people that we love. Which is a great reminder of the need to share the gospel with the people that we love. Because in some ways this is a warning to all people to be ready for the day that Jesus returns. And at the same time we also need to remember who Jesus is telling this to.

Do you remember from verse 20, he's talking to his disciples. Because this is actually a warning to stay vigilant, a warning to us, to Christians. Take a look at verse 26 where Jesus talks about a similar judgment in history. Verse 26. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the Son of man.

People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

People lived like nothing was going to happen. And then they died in the flood. And so Jesus is saying, be ready, be like Noah. Don't just carry on like nothing is going to happen. No, the Christian life is one where we live waiting for the day of Jesus return.

Now I don't know, I don't know if you guys remember a couple of years ago there was like this little thing COVID pandemic. Anyone you remember? Okay, that's good. But over those two years there was this phenomenon that took place and it actually recently came back a bit, a little bit with petroleum. Panic buying.

Anyone remember panic buying? Anyone willing to admit that they panic bought? Rod? Thanks.

I like to think that I didn't panic buy but as my wife reminded me earlier this week, we may have gone to my parents place and pinched a couple of loo rolls. But anyway. But panic buying happened because people saw everyone else doing something and got freaked out because they thought they needed it too. And Jesus warning Here is to not panic, buy this life. Just look at what he says about the time of lot in verse 28.

It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. That, to me, is a summary of what people live for nowadays. All you need to do is go to Bunnings on a Saturday. You'll see all of those things happening.

They're trying to live the good, secure, comfortable life here. And if we're not on guard, we'll do the same too. We'll see everyone else investing in the property market for security in this life, and panic because we think we need to do the same. We'll see everyone else trying out the best restaurants, trying to get the most comfort out of this life, and panic because we think we need to do the same. We'll see everyone spending endless cash to send their kids to certain schools to get the best education, and panic because we think we need to do the same.

But people do these things because they think that this life is all there is. They're trying to seize the day, but they don't care about the future day that matters more than any other. And so they do it out of a desire to have security and comfort now. But that's not us. We know Jesus is coming back.

He guaranteed it by being raised from the dead. And he's coming back so that those who trust him will live with him forever in the new perfect creation. And just as an aside, do you remember what people panic bought during COVID It was toilet paper. And if we think about these things, the things of this life in light of eternity, they amount to about the same. Because what Jesus has to offer is in eternal life is so much better.

The new creation will be great. And so we need to do what Jesus says in verse 32. Take a look. Verse 32. Remember Lot's wife?

Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it. And whoever loses his life will preserve it. In Genesis 19, as Lot and his family are escaping judgment, Lot's wife looked back. She looked at the world that was being destroyed. She took her eyes off salvation and focused on what she was losing.

And she received judgment. She turned into a pillar of salt. And so Jesus is saying, don't live for security in this world. Don't panic, buy this life. Don't live in a fear of missing out on what this world has to offer so that you miss out on the next.

And so it's more than just panic buying, isn't it? It's trying to Find security in this life. That's what Jesus is confronting us on, because he's promised that he's coming back. And he gives us this warning so that we won't lose our security for the next life. He says, be ready for when I come.

Because when he does, it'll be like a thief in the night. And the only way to be prepared is to be ready at all times.

And so let's be ready. Let's get ready. Are you waiting for Jesus to come back? Do you know the times that we live in? Or are you trying to find security?

Are you trying to find comfort in this life?

I think this really puts our lives into perspective, doesn't it? Because there's no middle ground. Jesus doesn't talk about being half prepared. It's all or nothing. Which means our lives need to be all or nothing too.

And Jesus gives us some examples of what it looks like to still be caught up in this world. We've read through some of them, but this is about everything. Because if our response to Jesus salvation is to turn back to him, our whole lives back to him, and if Jesus is our king reigning in heaven now, and if we need to do everything we can to be ready for the day that Jesus returns turns, then just changing a few things here or there isn't actually the answer. That's not the call that Jesus is making on our lives. Because if we just change our attitude to one thing, we'll find something else in this world to replace it with.

That's what our hearts tend to do. And so, yes, if you need to sell the investment property, change careers, remove the distraction, but don't do just that. Do everything. Do everything you can to be ready for that day. Because the past, the present and the future give us every reason to do it.

And do what Jesus says in verse 32. Look again.

Remember Lot's wife. Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it. And whoever loses his life will preserve it. And that life that we receive in the new creation is so much better than the toilet paper castles that we build here.

And so do you see how this changes everything? Changes everything from the way that the people around us will think. We do not live for today, to get as much out of this life as we can. No, all of our days we live for our great, compassionate, powerful, reigning King Jesus, who is coming back to take us to be with him.

And I look forward to seeing you there. Let's pray.

Our father God, we praise you that you are the God who saves.

We thank you that through Jesus you have brought us salvation so that through faith in him we might be saved by his power, not our own. And Lord, we pray to give thanks that we have a king who currently reigns from heaven, who is bringing all things to your glory and our good. We pray that we would live for him and be comforted by his reign now. And Lord, we pray that in this time between his first coming and his second coming, that we would look to the day that he is returning and be ready. Help us to put off to shake off the things of this world so that we might have eyes fixed on that day.

And we pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.