Luke 17:11-37 "Get With the Times" (Carlton 6:30pm)

Well, good evening everyone. It's so good to see you. My name is Marcus and this weekend was my first ever invest and I had such a good time. I had to leave early so I could come back for church this morning and preach. But as I was driving away, I was like, I don't want to go anyway.

It was great to be there and it was actually great to get to meet so many of you and I'm so glad that that was the case. Why don't I pray before I preach? Let me pray. Our Father God, we thank you so much that you are so kind to us in giving us your word. And we pray that in view of your mercy, we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we might live for you.

And we, and we pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Now, in our passage today, what Jesus is going to do is completely reorient the way that we think about our lives. Because what he's going to do is disagree with one of the basic premises that our society lives by. Everyone you go to school with, everyone you go to university with, everyone you work with will live by this same premise.

And that is that everyone is living for today. And there's lots of different ways that we describe this idea, lots of different phrases that people have come up with over time. So it's a bit of an old movie, but have people seen the Dead Poets Society? Got a couple of hands. Yeah.

Yeah, good. In that movie, what does Robin Williams whisper? Carpe diem. Carpe diem. Seize the day.

Make the most of today. And then in more recent years, you guys are all young, you'll know this one. Yolo. Remember yolo? How good was that?

Not really. But anyway, you only live once. You're going to get the most that you can out of today. Squeeze the most out of life that you can get. Make the most of it.

Because this life is all that there is. And so people have become laser focused on trying to make this life count. They're trying to squeeze out of life every good thing that they can find. But what Jesus is going to say to us, what Jesus says to us in this passage is don't get swept up in it. And the reason he'll say it is because there is more to life than the present.

And not only do we misunderstand the reality of today, but the realities of the past, the realities of the present, today, right now, and the reality of the future mean that our lives will be completely different to the people around us.

And so let's start with the past and particularly the salvation that Jesus has given to us. And to see this, I want you to imagine that you're getting in the car tomorrow. And as you get in the car, what you notice is a little bit of flaky skin on your hand. And you think, oh, maybe there's a little bit of pus. I don't know.

When I get home, I'll put some moisturiser on it. Or if you're like me, you'll just leave it alone and hope it goes away. But then you get to wherever you're going. And as you get out of the car, a woman walking past just screams. She's freaked out.

She's looking at not only your hand, but your whole arm, which by this point is covered in flaky skin and pus. And she says, you gotta go see a doctor right now. You gotta see them. I've seen this. It's bad.

It doesn't end well. So you're like, all right, I guess I should probably go to the doctor. So you drive to the doctor, you walk in the doors, and the doctor sees your face covered in flaky skin and pus. And his jaw drops and he says, get out of here. He's putting on his hazmat suit.

He's saying, get out of here. Don't go see your family. Don't go see your friends. Don't go to uni, which. Which you're probably kind of happy with, but don't go there.

Don't see anyone. Don't do anything you want to do, because if you do, other people will get sick. You need to get out of here. Drive to Wallabada, five hours away. Make sure you meet the people there who have the same condition as you because you are covered with this disease.

And so you drive there, you're like, well, I gotta do what the doctor Sundays. You drive five hours, you get there, you find these people. And, yeah, they say to you, from now on, you cannot see your friends.

You can't see your family. You can't do anything you want to do. If you might see other people, you have to stay as far away as possible. And all you can do is sit here and wait until you die or some kind of miracle comes along.

Do you see how the 10 lepers are feeling when we get to this story here in Luke 17? Isolated, sick, suffering, alone.

But take a look at what happens in verse 11, Luke 17, 11. If you haven't got your Bible out, grab it out now. While traveling to Jerusalem, Jesus passed between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered the 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 that they've been waiting for might have just appeared. And you can tell how ingrained the isolation is for them because they're stand standing at a distance. They won't even come close to Jesus. And look at what he does in verse 14, verse 14. When he saw them, he told them, go and show yourselves to the priests.

And Jesus says this because in the Old Testament, once the skin disease had left your hands, once it had left your whole body, you would go to the priest and he would be the one who. Who declared you as clean. And yet Jesus sends them off still in their leprosy. But they take the risk, don't they? And then look at what happens in verse 14.

And while they were going, they were cleansed. See, Jesus has done it. He's brought the miracle even from a distance. Do you see how powerful and how compassionate our Lord Jesus is right here? And so you would expect that these 10 lepers would all start running back excited to see Jesus, the one who just healed them.

It's like he just scored the goal in the final of the World Cup. And they're all going to be in a circle, jumping up and down, celebrating. But look at what happens in verse 15. But one, only 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 is maybe that they listened to Jesus and they went off to the temple to see the priest. But they've been isolated from friends and family and doing whatever they want for years. They haven't been able to go anywhere that people would be able to see them. They haven't been able to do the things that they want.

And now they're free. I think they're probably off trying to seize the day.

But regardless of where they are, they've made the wrong choice. They've made the wrong choice. Look at what Jesus says in verse 17. Then Jesus said, were not 10 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 listened to him. But keep looking at verse 19. And Jesus told him, get up and go on your way.

Your faith has saved you.

Jesus Says to this man, you have been saved. And he doesn't mean saved from the disease because he's only talking to one person right now. He's only talking to the one who returned. And the others were healed too. No, Jesus says, you have been saved from an even worse fate than what was happening with your skin disease.

He says, because you saw salvation and you turned to me and you came to me. You have been saved from an eternal isolation. You've been saved from an eternal uncleanness. You have been saved from hell. Just like Lazarus in his parable two weeks ago.

Do you see how this salvation that Jesus has on offer and has given to this man and offers to us is so much greater than the healing of his disease?

And so, because this man has seen the power of Jesus and fallen at his feet in praise and thanksgiving, I think it shows us the right response to what Jesus has done. Each of us has seen Jesus power, his resurrection from the dead. We have seen his salvation greater than what he did for the leper. We have seen the past, what Jesus has done. And that means we return to him.

We turn to him, we go back to him and we run to him.

I think this is what it means to have faith, right? You guys are all experts now, but this is faith turning to Jesus, trusting him to be our savior, knowing that he is the one who saves us.

See, it's not that we see Jesus salvation and we go and do all those things that we wanted to do. No, we turn back and fall at Jesus feet because he has saved us. And really that's the basis of the Christian life. That's where the beginning of the transformation happens. Because now we live to worship Jesus, to bring praise to the king who reigns today.

And if you haven't already turned to Jesus, if you haven't put your faith in him, if you have not responded like the leper to this salvation on offer to you, do it now. Do it now.

Now. That's the reality of the past that shifts everything. But Jesus reign as king is our present reality. And I know that I said earlier that our world lives for the present, but while the world lives for today, we live in light of 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. When will God fulfill His promise? When will God send His king? When will he reunite all nations under him? And Jesus gives such a simple answer.

You're looking at him. Just take a look. Starting in verse 20, Luke 17:20, 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 have brought it. Don't go looking for it. You can't find it anywhere else.

The kingdom of God is standing right in front of you. And that's a pretty revolutionary idea. Not just back then, but, but even for today, because it means that we 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 it to bring the kingdom of God here on earth.

Jesus is the king who reigns now, and we are his people. Now, right now, as we sit here, we are citizens of, of heaven today. Because as you sit here right now, Jesus is reigning from heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father. We're not waiting. The kingdom has come now.

We're going to pray the Lord's prayer in a second, and we still need to pray that prayer. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We still need to pray. It would happen 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.

Now let me give you an example. So just because people will go around and break laws, they'll steal, you know, they'll break into cars, those sorts of things, that doesn't mean that the government, that the courts aren't in power. And even though people disobey Jesus, that does not mean that he is not reigning, because the reality is that Jesus is reigning. And isn't that such a great comfort?

As I've been reflecting on Jesus present reign this week, it's been such a great comfort because the same king who compassionately and powerfully healed 10 lepers is running the place. And that's actually taken a huge bunch of stress off my shoulders because I know that the one who rules will bring about my eternal good. And I know that the only perfectly good king is in control because we have our king sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven right now.

That is reality.

And so we've seen the past, that we've been saved by Jesus through faith. We've seen the present, the reality that Jesus has brought the kingdom and he's the one who currently reigns. But most of this passage in Luke 17 is actually about living in in light of the future. In fact, the Christian life is one that's always thinking about what is coming. Just take a look at verse 22 and notice how Jesus not only changes the topic, but changes who he's talking to.

Verse 22. 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 when he's going to come back. And until then we're going to long for him to come back. We will say, come Lord Jesus, come because there will be trials. But what he says is that his return is going to be unmissable and not in the sense of like, you know, Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey. It's like you can't miss it, you know, you gotta get it while it's in imax, you know, it's not like that.

It's unmissable in the fact that there will be no mistake. We will know that Jesus has returned, which is why he says what he does in verse 23. Take a look. Verse 23. They will say to you, see there or see here, don't follow or run after them.

Basically, Jesus is teaching us about Chicken Little. Before Chicken Little was Chicken Little. He says there will be lots of boys who cry wolf. Lots of people who look at the events of this world and say, this is it, this is the end. But that's not how it's going to work.

Jesus return won't be a series of very specific gradual signs that we'll have to squint our eyes at. No, Jesus says it's going to happen like a flash of thunder in the sky. Bang. And it's arrived. 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 on the day he returns, on the day that comes instantly, those who haven't turned to him like the one leper will face condemnation. Now sometimes as Christians are reading this passage, they think that Jesus is talking about Christians being taken up to heaven to the new creation.

But if we look closely, Jesus is talking about people being taken to judgment. Because look at what he says in verse 37.

Where, Lord, they asked him, where will These people be taken to, they ask, but keep looking. He said to them, where the corpse is.

There also the vultures will be gathered on the day that 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 all eternity.

And as Phil said last week, Jesus doesn't sugarcoat his words, does he? And I think for many of us this idea is a deep point of sadness because this is the fate of some of the people that we are closest to, which is a great reminder that we need to share the gospel with the people that we love. And so in some ways this is a warning to all people to be ready for Jesus return. Yet at the same time we need to remember who Jesus is telling this to. Do you remember from verse 22, who's Jesus talking to?

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 also it will be in the days of the Son of man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given up in marriage 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 when the flood came. And so Jesus is saying, be ready, be like Noah. Don't just carry on like nothing is going to happen. But the Christian life is one where we live waiting for this day when Jesus returns.

Now I don't know if any of you remember, a couple of years ago this thing happened, kind of flew a little bit under the radar. Does anyone remember the COVID pandemic? It was two years, it was pretty crazy. But a phenomenon happened during that time that was a bit strange. Actually it came back a bit recently with petrol.

Panic buying. Do people remember panic buying? Is anyone here. You're probably too young, but is anyone here willing to acknowledge that they panic bought anything? Anyone?

No. No, I didn't think so. I like to think that I didn't panic buy, but I was talking to my wife Naomi the other day and she reminded me that during COVID we may have gone to my parents place while they were away and permanently borrowed a couple of rolls of toilet paper. But anyway, panic buying happened because people saw everyone else doing something and got freaked out because they thought they needed to do it too. And Jesus warning here is not, is to not panic buy this Life.

Just look at what he says about lot in verse 28. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. Now that, to me, is one of the greatest summaries of what people live for nowadays. You can see all this happening at Bunnings on a Saturday morning.

But the thing they're trying to do is live the good, secure life right here, the comfortable life. And if we're not on guard, we'll do the same too. We'll see everyone 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 spending endless time to study, to go to certain unis and get particular jobs. And we'll panic because we think we need to do the same.

But people do these things. They get obsessed with 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, and particularly the one day in the future that matters more than any other. The day when Jesus returns. 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, and he's coming back so that those who trust him, those who believe in him, those who have turned to him like the one leper, will live with him forever in the perfect new creation. Now, just as an aside, do you remember what people panic bought during COVID I mentioned it before. Toilet paper. And if we think about these things that Jesus mentions here, in light of eternity, they amount to about the same, because what Jesus has to offer is so much better.

The new creation will be great. Face to face with Jesus forever.

And so we need to do what Jesus says in verse 32. Take a look. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it. And whoever loses his life will preserve it.

See in Genesis 19, as Lot and his family are escaping the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's wife looked back. She looked back at the world that was being destroyed, the world that was subject to decay. She took her eyes off the salvation and focused on the thing that she thought she was losing. And she received judgment. She received judgment.

She turned into a pillar of salt. And so Jesus is saying, don't live for security in this life. Don't panic. Buy this life. Don't let a fear of missing out in this world mean that you miss out on the next.

Because it's more than Just panic buying. It's trying to find security in this life. That's what Jesus is confronting us on. He has promised us that he is coming back. And that is an incredible promise.

And he gives us this warning so that we won't lose our security for the next life. He says, be ready when I come. Because when he comes, it will be like a thief in the night. And the only way to be prepared is to always be ready.

And so let's be people who are ready. Are you ready? Are you waiting? Do you know the times? Or are you trying to find security in this life?

It's hard because everyone else is doing it, everyone else is trying to do it.

I think this really puts our lives into perspective, doesn't it? Because there is no middle ground. Jesus doesn't give a halfway option. He doesn't talk about being half prepared, being half waiting. It's all or nothing, which means our lives are all or nothing too.

And Jesus gives us some examples of what it looks like to still be caught up in this world. But it's about everything, right? Because if our response to Jesus salvation is to turn back to him with everything, and if Jesus is our king who reigns now, and if we need to do everything we can to be ready for the day that Jesus returns, then just changing a few things here or there isn't the answer. That's not the call Jesus is making. Because if we just change our attitude to one thing, then we'll just replace it with another thing later on.

That's what our hearts do. And so yes, if you need to change degrees, change jobs, remove the distraction from your life, but don't just do that one thing, do everything you can to be ready for the day that Jesus returns, that great and glorious day. Because the past, the present and the future gives us every reason to live for Jesus with everything. And do what Jesus says in verse 32. Remember Lot's wife.

Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it. And whoever loses his life will preserve it. Because the life we'll receive in the new creation is so much better than the toilet paper castles that we'll build here. So do you see how this changes everything?

We don't live for today. There is no carpe diem for us. No, all of our lives we live for Jesus. Every single moment, every single thought, every single thing we do, we live for Jesus because he is the king who reigns and the king who will return.

And I look forward to seeing you in the new creation on the day he comes back. Let's pray.

Our Father God, we thank youk so much for Jesus. We thank youk that he is the King who reigns. We praise youe for the salvation that we can have in his name. And Lord, we ask that yout would help us to be ready for the day that he returns ends. Help us to cast away and shake off all those things that hinder us.

And God, please purify our hearts so that we might have pure eyes that look to you and we pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.