Remember Lot’s Wife (Luke 17:20-37)

Remember Lot’s Wife
Luke 17:31-33

INTRODUCTION:
Those of us in our audience this morning are at different stages of our lives. Some are in school. Some have finished school and are getting ready to enter the military or pursue higher education. Some are getting prepared to get married. Some have little children and are building their family. Some have an empty nest and are enjoying the best years of their lives. Some are retired. Some have been retired for many years and are perhaps looking forward to heaven more than others of us. But none of us knows what is going to happen in our future - this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.

But at each stage of life, we have to have faith in God, that He will provide. We must never stop trusting God and staying faithful to Him through every stage of our lives. Satan will use any number of different schemes to get us distracted from staying faithful to Christ and we have to recognize those schemes and fight against those schemes, especially in our own hearts.

It really wasn’t any easier for the apostles of Christ to stay faithful to Him than it is for us in the 21st century. At the point we pick up the life of Jesus in Luke 17, I want you to think about what Jesus knows is going to happen in their near future and what the apostles are ignorant about:

1) They do not know, really, that Jesus is going to be arrested, tried in both a Jewish court and a Roman court, be convicted, and be crucified as a criminal.
2) They do not know that Jesus is going to rise from the dead.
3) They do not know that Jesus is going to send the Holy Spirit on the Twelve as He sits on His throne to rule over His kingdom.
4) They do not know that the temple - which symbolized the heart of the Jewish religion in the heart of most Jews around the world at that time - and the city of Jerusalem are going to be completely and utterly destroyed by the Roman armies before the apostles reached about 60 years old!

Before we get into our text itself, it is important for us to know…

SOME THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT:
First, when Jesus was born, the angel Gabriel told Jesus’ mom that Jesus would be the king on the throne of David and reign over the house of Jacob and His kingdom would have no end: 1:32-33.

The kingdom was prophesied in the OT, especially in the text of Daniel 7:13-14.

In that vision which Daniel saw, one “like a Son of Man” goes to Jehovah God in heaven and He receives a kingdom which includes all people of every language and the King rules forever and His kingdom is never destroyed.

So Gabriel tells Mary that Jesus is that King. Jesus is going to go to Jehovah God and He is going to receive a kingdom and He is going to reign over that kingdom forever.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus promised that some of His contemporaries would see the kingdom in existence: Luke 9:27. He had stated emphatically that is was near: Luke 10:9-11. Casting out demons was a sign that the kingdom was almost established: Luke 11:20. It was not and will never be a kingdom that has political and geographical qualities like the United States. It is a spiritual kingdom, not necessarily identified even by buildings: “Look! Here is church!” Rather, the church is the people who belong to Christ and, consequently, the kingdom also is the people who belong to Christ, wherever they are.

Before we get to our text, I want to fast forward just a little to the time when Jesus is on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin: Luke 22:69. Jesus will not sit down on the throne of God until He ascends into heaven in Acts 1 (see Acts 2:31-36). That’s when Jesus receives that Kingdom and He sends the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 to teach mankind that Jesus is now King. So when Jesus tells the Sanhedrin in Luke 22 that they will soon see the “Son of Man” seated at the right hand of the power of God, Jesus must have in mind both His resurrection from the dead and the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit - through the apostles - will prove that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. In Mark’s account (14:62), when Jesus says this, He also says, they will see the “Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven,” which is another reference to Daniel 7:13-14. Jesus is coming - He is coming in His resurrection and He is coming in the person of the Holy Spirit to establish that Kingdom.

Now let’s look at our text…

THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE KINGDOM - 17:20-21:
As Jesus is moving toward Jerusalem, He is questioned by the Pharisees when the kingdom is coming (ver. 20). We should understand that the Pharisees (and the apostles as well) expected the “kingdom” to be a literal, physical, political kingdom. They expected the Messiah to lead a literal battle against Rome and provide freedom for Israel from Roman oppression. Jesus responds by saying that the kingdom does not come “with observation.” That is simply another way to say that the kingdom is a spiritual kingdom and it will not begin in the same way that earthly kingdoms are started. It also illustrates the importance of Jesus, the King, destroying Jerusalem through His “servants,” the Roman armies. That will put the “exclamation point” on the fact that Jesus was not going to reign from Jerusalem over a literal kingdom. It was also the “exclamation point” on the fact that the physical descendants of Abraham were no longer and are no longer God’s people.

BEWARE OF DECEPTION - 17:22-24:
Jesus does not use the word “kingdom” again in this chapter. He shifts to the expression the “days of the Son of Man,” which assuredly refers to the days in which the Son of Man will establish His kingdom and, related to that, take vengeance on Jerusalem (the Jews) for their lack of faith in Him. In verse 23, Jesus turns His attention directly to His disciples and tells them that days will come when they will long to see one of the “days of the Son of Man.” When Jesus is crucified and buried, the apostles will long to see the establishment of that kingdom. In fact, even after the ascension of Jesus, the disciples will have to wait forty days (see Acts 1:3) before they see the Kingdom established in its perfection, in Acts 2. Of course, it will take yet another few decades before they see Jerusalem destroyed.

Jesus did not want His disciples to be deceived by false teachers claiming to be the Messiah (see Acts 5:36-37), which happened in the days leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem as men tried to gather disciples after themselves. In verse 24 Jesus alludes to the fact that there will be some indication of the establishment of the kingdom as well as the destruction of Jerusalem. Just as when the lightning gleams from one side of the heavens (sky) to the other, so those who listen to Christ’s words and teachings will see the kingdom established and will know when the destruction of Jerusalem is soon to happen. Jesus will talk more about the destruction of Jerusalem in chapter 19.

THE DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST MUST HAPPEN FIRST - 17:25-30:
Jesus clearly refers to His crucifixion in verse 25. The crucifixion comes first, followed by the resurrection, and then the establishment of the kingdom, followed by the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus will use the account of the flood from Genesis 6-9 as an illustration of the unexpected nature of both the crucifixion and resurrection as well as the establishment of the kingdom, and the destruction of Jerusalem (ver. 26). During the days before the flood, humanity was living as if everything was normal: they were eating, drinking, marrying (from the male’s perspective), and being given in marriage (from the female’s perspective). In other words, they were living life as if everything was normal. But a worldwide catastrophe was about to happen.

In verse 28, Jesus introduces another event from the Old Testament history that illustrates the sudden destruction that comes from God on people who are disobedient. Jesus alludes to the salvation of Lot and his girls while God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Everyone was living life as if everything was normal: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting crops, and building houses. The very day the angels of God led Lot out of Sodom (see Genesis 19:22-26), God sent a fiery storm of sulphuric rocks down from heaven to burn and destroy everyone.

When the Son of Man is revealed (ver. 30), everyone will be living their lives completely normally and completely unsuspecting that God’s eternal plan was about to reach its climax. Again, these thoughts could refer to the resurrection of Christ, which no one expected, even the apostles (see Luke 18:31-34; John 21:1-3). The thoughts could refer to the establishment of the kingdom in Acts 2, which no one was expecting (see Acts 1:6-8). The thoughts could also refer to the destruction of Jerusalem which no one expected (see Luke 19:41-44).

THE ESTABLSHMENT OF THE KINGDOM WILL COME AS A “SURPRISE” - 17:31-37:
The day in which the Son of Man will be revealed (ver. 31), at least in this verse which would point to His judgment being revealed against Jerusalem, seems to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem (see Matthew 24:17-18). Jesus says to “remember Lot’s wife” (ver. 32; Gen. 19:17, 26), who was warned not to look back, but disobeyed and God turned her into a column of salt. Jesus’ point is to take His warnings seriously and obediently.

In this context (17:33), in light of the challenging times ahead, Jesus repeats what He had said in 9:24: if someone renounces faith in Christ or Jesus’ teachings in order to preserve his physical life, he will lose it (spiritually). However, if he loses his life (physically) by maintaining faith in Christ and allegiance to His teachings, he will keep it alive (spiritually). In verse 34, Jesus illustrates again the unexpected nature of the events He has been predicting. Two individuals will be in the same bed, but one will be taken and one will be left. The difference in the two is their faithfulness to Jesus Christ. One will be blessed when the events happen and one will be punished.

His point in verse 35 is the same - the unexpected nature of these events. One grinding at the mill will be taken; the other will be left. The events will take people by surprise. But the events will not take every unprepared. Those who trust Jesus and obey His teachings will be prepared; all others will be unprepared.

The apostles ask Jesus where these things would happen (ver. 37) and He responded that wherever one sees bodies, there he sees eagles. In other words, look for the signs. If Jesus is referring to His crucifixion and resurrection, then they should look for indications that this event was about to happen. If He is referring to the establishment of the Kingdom, then they have to wait for the Holy Spirit to come over them and then they will know it is happening (24:46-49; Acts 1:6-8). If He is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, then the “body” would be the sins of the Jewish people, specifically their rejection of Jesus as the Son of God. In this situation the “eagles” would be referring to the Roman armies.

CONCLUSION:
The second coming of Christ will also take everyone by surprise. Since He is coming as a “thief,” unexpectedly (Matt. 24:43; 1 Thess. 5:2, 4; 2 Peter 3:10), then everyone will be “eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage, plowing, and building” when Jesus returns. It is essential that mankind responds to the Gospel in faith and obedience and then remains faithful until Christ returns in order to enjoy the home prepared for the saints.

We need to maintain our faith in Christ and our obedience to His teachings, not be deceived by the pleasures of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, but live so we’ll be prepared for the return of Christ at all times.

Take home message: Christ calls on us to stay faithful to Him at all times, trusting and obeying His teachings so we will be prepared when He returns.