The Day The Son of Man is Revealed – Part 1
Luke 17:22-37 (22-25)
March 29, 2020
Well, it felt a little bit like we were never going to get back to this text.
Indeed the last time we were in Luke was over a month ago.
• But a week of the flu
• A Pastor’s Conference
• A Sermon on the Corona
• A Spring Break Vacation
Pushed everything back.
This morning we return and yet, thanks to the quarantine
It still doesn’t quite fell normal.
I’m reminded of the statement Paul made to Timothy
2 Timothy 2:8-9 “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned.”
If we were to put a current spin on that verse we might say,
“but the word of God is not quarantined.”
So, we press on.
• A small number are able to be here.
• Hopefully our members are able to access this via the website.
• And maybe even an extended number in days to come.
But one thing we are confident of, God’s word will not be stopped.
It never has been, and it never will be.
And in that we rejoice.
And this morning we return to our study of Luke’s gospel.
THE LAST TIME we listened as the Pharisees approached Jesus in order find out the facts about when the kingdom of God was coming.
We have a tough time believing them to have been sincere,
But regardless the question was asked.
And Jesus gave them the answer they needed to hear.
Luke 17:20b-21 “…He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
What Jesus spoke of was a spiritual kingdom.
• The kingdom were He rules the hearts of men as Lord.
• This kingdom was here and is here.
• Christ now reigns as Head over His church.
• It is not a physical kingdom you can easily see, but rather a spiritual one.
Romans 14:17 “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
And this kingdom is entered through salvation.
• When a person repents of their sin,
• And submits their life to Christ,
• Trusting in His atoning death and resurrection,
• God then transfers us into this kingdom.
Colossians 1:13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,”
That is the spiritual kingdom that the Pharisees didn’t understand
And it was the one Jesus proclaimed to them.
But Jesus also understands the curiosity
That dwells in the hearts and minds of His disciples.
In many ways the disciples had the same question the Pharisees had.
Lord, when?
This is what they were looking for.
• Many of them even tried to proclaim it during the Triumphal entry of Jesus
where they had hoped Jesus was about to make His power move to bring in
the earthly physical kingdom.
And so Jesus, because the issue is on their minds,
Turns to instruct His disciples regarding the coming physical kingdom.
However, what we see is that His message is most certainly
NOT what the disciples were expecting to hear.
For Jesus still doesn’t tell them when.
Instead Jesus gives them a sermon
Meant to prepare them for what was ahead.
And incidentally, I’d say that this sermon would prove to be one that HIGHLY INFLUENCED the future life and ministry of the disciples.
It is what the Lord wants His disciples to know
Regarding the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
And we want to begin to work our way through it this morning.
We can break Jesus’ sermon down into 4 points.
As Jesus prepares His disciples for what is coming.
#1 A COMING DEPARTURE
Luke 17:22
I’m pretty sure this was NOT what the disciples
Were expecting to here first out of the mouth of the Lord.
“The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.”
• It is a promise of unsatisfied desire.
• It is a promise of a longing that will not be fulfilled.
It is a promise that there is coming a day when
The Lord will not be here conducting earthly ministry,
And regardless of how badly you’d like to see it again, you won’t.
Jesus was speaking of His soon coming departure.
And one of the reasons this would have been so difficult for the disciples to pick up on is because of the mystery of Old Testament prophecy.
Let me give you an example.
TURN TO: Isaiah 9:1-7
This prophecy begins with a people in darkness who see a great light.
• That is with hopeless people who will see a light at the end of the tunnel.
• Isaiah even specifically identifies the region as Zebulun and Naphtali and Galilee of the Gentiles.
• He says a light will come and shine on those people.
Now the interesting thing is that we saw that.
Matthew 4:12-16 “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES — “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
Prophecy clearly fulfilled.
Now, if you were one of the disciples and you picked up on that fulfillment Your temptation would be to go back and read Isaiah 9
AND SEE WHAT ELSE IS COMING.
And immediately following that promise we read in Isaiah:
(READ ISAIAH 9:3-7)
• The temptation then would be to rejoice that the King has arrived.
• The Son has clearly been born.
• He is about to increase the nation.
• He is about to conquer the enemies.
• He is about to establish the government that will reign forever.
You can see how that would have so easily been the expectation.
So what gives?
Well, when you read Old Testament prophecies like that of Isaiah
It is best to picture it like you are approaching a mountain range.
• You see peak after peak after peak and from a distance they all look just
right there together.
• What you can’t distinguish from a long way off is how far apart they are.
• That’s the best way to explain this.
Isaiah saw 2 great peaks.
• He saw a Son being born who would give hope to the hopeless.
• And he saw a King arriving who would establish the kingdom.
What Isaiah couldn’t distinguish was
The 2,000+ years between those two events.
But you understand why the disciples would have expected
The kingdom to arrive any minute. After all, they had found their king.
And so what Jesus says must have been confusing and disheartening.
• I’m leaving.
• There is coming a time in the future on earth when I won’t be here.
• You’ll wish I was here, but I won’t be.
There are very important reasons why Jesus brought this up.
One reason is because it reminds that the OPPORTUNITY for salvation in Israel is rapidly FADING AWAY.
Consider these verses.
John 12:35-36 “So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.”
Life is difficult in Israel now,
But when Jesus leaves it will become even more difficult.
In just a few short weeks the Jewish people
• Are going to rise up and crucify the Lord of glory
• As a result they will be broken off and their hearts will be hardened until the time of the Gentiles comes in.
Romans 11:7-10 “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.” And David says, “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. “LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER.”
They are about to lose their immediate opportunity.
Now, they will be brought back in, but not until a time of great difficulty.
Romans 11:25-27 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.”
As far as these Jewish disciples are concerned,
There would never again be a time of salvation and conversion
Available like the time when Jesus walked the earth.
THESE WERE THE GOOD OLE DAYS
Part of the reason Jesus reveals this now is to up the urgency of the crowd.
• You cannot expect that Jesus is going to be here forever.
• Today you must believe.
• Today you must trust in Him.
But another reason Jesus would tell this to His disciples is that He might PREPARE THEM for what is coming.
When He leaves, it’s going to get difficult.
Persecution is going to intensify, unbelief is going to grow.
Consider what Jesus will teach His disciples the night before He is crucified.
John 16:1-4 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”
Jesus says it is about to get difficult.
Not only that, but we are promised that as we get closer to the end
Evil will grow more and more prevalent.
1 Timothy 4:1-3 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.”
2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”
Or even consider the parallel passage to this one in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew 24:9-14 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Now certainly we are aware of our Lord’s statements,
• Like the one in John 16:7 where Jesus says it is to our advantage that He
goes away so that the Spirit will come.
We also understand that
• His delay in coming has to do with the salvation of the elect, since He is not
willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
And we understand
• When He told the disciples that He was going to prepare a place for us.
We understand the necessity of His departure.
But it doesn’t change the fact that
The absence of the Lord on the earth
Means the increase of evil, apostasy, and unbelief.
And because it is hard Jesus said, “you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man”
This remains one of the chief sentiments of believers to this very day.
Believers are categorized as those who love Christ’s appearing.
2 Timothy 4:7-8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;”
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 “For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.”
The desire of believers is most certainly for the Lord to return.
• We want to see Jesus glorified.
• We want to see His enemies bow at His feet.
• We want to see Him reign over the earth.
• We say with John, “Amen, Come Lord Jesus!”
But before Jesus gives any details about His coming earthly kingdom
He first prepares His disciples for A Coming Departure.
#2 A COMING DECEPTION
Luke 17:23-24
It is like falling dominoes.
• Now we learn that not only would Jesus be going away,
• But we also see that the enemy would seek to capitalize on the desire of His followers to see Him.
Jesus warns that in His absence there would be a coming deception.
“They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!”
That is to say that people will constantly be promising that Jesus is back.
In Matthew’s gospel we read:
Matthew 24:4-5 “And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”
And my how that one has proven true.
Even in my day I still remember the fires in Waco, TX of the Branch Davidian Compound where David Koresh led 76 people to their death claiming himself to be Jesus in this world.
Others of you will remember Jim Jones and the massacre in 1978 when 909 people drank the coolaid and committed mass suicide in order to follow this cult leader who claimed to be Jesus.
Some of you have heard of Haile Salassie. He also made claim to be the Messiah, changing his name to Ras Tafarie and becoming the leader of Rastafarian music and Reggae culture. He died in 1975 and yet many now await his return.
If you do a Wikipedia search you’ll find that since the 20th century began at least 34 people have claimed to be Jesus…9 of which are still alive today.
Jesus’ warning certainly panned out.
Not only would there be a coming departure,
But there would also be a coming deception.
There would be many who would seek to steal the identity of Christ
AND THUS LEAD HIS FOLLOWERS AFTER THEMSELVES.
And it was important that the disciples know this.
So that they not follow these Satanic deceptions.
After all the greatest of all of these deceivers will one day be Anti-Christ himself.
The one Paul described as:
2 Thessalonians 2:4 “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”
And again:
2 Thessalonians 2:9 “that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,”
Jesus warned that the earth would be
Full of phonies and frauds all claiming to be Him.
Jesus said, “Do not go away, and do not run after them.”
And in order that His disciples not fall for these deceptions
Jesus gave the criteria by which we could measure His return.
(24) “For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.”
The main point is that His coming will be obvious.
There will be no doubt when He returns.
You won’t need someone to say, “Hey, come over here we found Jesus.”
When He comes back the second time everyone will know it.
Revelation 1:7 “BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.”
This is one of the main reasons
We DON’T FOLLOW the eschatological thoughts of Preterism.
• You may remember that the full preterist believes that the return of Jesus came in accord with the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70.
• If that event had actually occurred, it would not have been so easily overlooked.
Don’t fall for the deception.
And so what you see happening here is that
• More than simply giving His disciples details about His coming,
• Jesus is more concerned to prepare them for His absence.
There is A Coming Departure There is A Coming Deception
#3 A COMING DEATH
Luke 17:25
Jesus just told them about two things they needed to be aware of,
But before all of them Jesus reveals something else that will occur.
The next event on the prophetic timeline is His death.
“But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.”
No doubt this would have been the greatest blow
And the most difficult to swallow.
• The disciples were waiting for His coronation.
• They were waiting for His enemies to bow at His feet.
• They were waiting for Him to take Jerusalem and even Rome by storm.
They most certainly were not looking for Him to die.
We only have to go back to the conversation with Peter on the day God revealed to Peter that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
Matthew 16:21-23 “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Peter couldn’t come to terms with the fact that Jesus was going to die.
That just didn’t fit his plan or his understanding of prophecy.
But as Jesus said, this “MUST” happen.
And there are many reasons, but here are a few.
1) TO FULFILL PROPHECY
You may remember when Jesus was arrested, Peter tried to stop it with a sword.
Jesus answered:
Matthew 26:52-54 “Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? “How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”
The Old Testament is filled with prophecies that the Messiah would die.
• Psalms 22 and Isaiah 53 alone have so many prophecies to fulfill that a Messiah who does not suffer simply cannot be the Messiah.
Peter would obviously learn this, for when he preached at Pentecost.
Acts 2:22-23 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know — this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”
Peter clearly understood the death of Christ
As the “predetermined plan…of God”
Even when Peter preached again in Jerusalem:
Acts 3:17-18 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”
God had already announced the suffering of the Messiah,
IT HAD TO HAPPEN.
2) TO ATONE FOR SINNERS
This one is obvious.
Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
Jesus came and bore the wrath that sinners deserved.
He atoned for the sins of the elect.
Hebrews 9:11-12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
It was redemption which Christ came to purchase.
If He didn’t suffer for sin then He could not atone for sinners.
Hebrews 9:22 “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
• If sinners are to be atoned…
• If the elect are to be justified…
• If anyone is to be granted access to the Father…
Then Jesus had to suffer and die for sin.
Prophecy, Atonement
3) HOLINESS
That is to say the very character and nature of God was on the line.
Now, you could say, “Not really, all God had to do was start killing sinners and then He’d still be holy.”
But what about all those sinners who died before Christ
That God didn’t judge?
Romans 3:25 “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;”
• God had demonstrated so much mercy in the Old Testament…
• God had, in effect, given so much credit to sinners…
• The debt was enormous of all the sin that had yet to be atoned for…
• The sin of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, etc.
Men of faith to be certain, but still sinful men and women.
And in God’s forbearance He had passed over their sin.
The debt remained and the holy character of God hanged in the balance.
Christ had to suffer to satisfy the holiness of God.
4) MERCY
This is the other side of that same coin.
• On one hand God had shown forbearance and there was an outstanding sin debt which must be paid.
• But on the other hand, apart from an atoning sacrifice God would never be able to offer mercy to anyone else because His holiness would not have allowed it.
That is why we also read in Romans 3
Romans 3:25-26 “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
It was the cross that allowed God to be both “just and the justifier”
• It allowed God to be Judge and Savior.
• It allowed God to be Just and Merciful.
JESUS HAD TO SUFFER.
He had to “be rejected by this generation.”
AND THIS IS WHAT JESUS TELLS THEM FIRST.
They wanted to know about the coming kingdom.
They wanted to know about His glorious reign.
Jesus first shows them what they needed to know.
• What they needed to know that first, He was going to suffer and die.
• And then they needed to know that He was going to leave.
• And then they needed to know that deceivers would be at work.
• And then they needed to know that He would return and it would obvious.
Now if you’ll think about it, this would be the message
That these men would take to the world.
They would go out preaching
The crucified Christ, resurrected, ascended, and returning.
In fact, now listen to Peter’s sermons in Jerusalem.
You remember Pentecost
• I read to you a moment ago about how Peter announced that Jesus was crucified by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.
But Peter wasn’t done.
Acts 2:32-36 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”‘ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Peter DIDN’T stand to preach about
• The day Rome would be overthrown
• And the lion would dwell with the Lamb.
Peter stood to preach about
• An atoning Savior
• Who had been rejected
• But whom God raised from the dead
• Who had ascended to heaven
• Whom God had made Lord and Christ,
• And who would one day return to judge the world.
Later in Acts 3; Peter’s second sermon.
Acts 3:17-21 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
There Peter again reminds the crowd of
• Their rejection of God’s Messiah
• And of His necessary death.
This time Peter does speak of a future day of refreshing and period of restoration,
• But it only comes after the day of repentance for having rejected God’s King.
And even though they were being arrested and beaten
For their message they kept on preaching.
Acts 5, Peter had been imprisoned and the Lord broke him out.
Later his enemies found him preaching once again.
Acts 5:27-32 “When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Same message isn’t it?
• You crucified Christ
• God raised Him from the dead
• He is ascended to the Father
• He is the King
• And you need to repent before it’s too late
It is clear that the disciples learned from Jesus.
Did they want to know about the kingdom? Of course they did.
Did they want to rejoice in all those glorious promises? Of course they did.
Do you want to know about that coming day? Of course you do.
Do you want to know about the future reign? Absolutely
But don’t let your desire to know of those things
Cloud the ministry that you are currently in.
Today
• You live in a time when Christ is not on earth.
• You live in a day of great deception and false Christs.
• And you are here that you might proclaim the truth regarding the necessity of His death.
This is where Jesus takes the curiosity of the disciples.
Now, next time we’ll actually listen as Jesus speaks
About the realities of His second coming and glorious reign.
And what you’ll see is that based upon the facts surrounding His coming,
YOU SHOULD BE ALL THE MORE EAGER
To preach His gospel to the world before He comes.
