LUKE CHAPTER 17

SCRIPTURE

Today I will summarize Luke chapter 17 where Luke wrote about Jesus giving his disciples some helpful instructions to live by.  Where Jesus healed ten men with the skin disease and where Jesus discussed the end of the world and his second coming.  Jesus began and said,” It is inevitable that stumbling blocks and temptations come but woe to him through whom they come. Here is a special warning to anyone who hurts a child or causes them to stumble away from me.  This is no idle treat. 

I am making you a promise.  It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than to hurt one of my little ones.  Jesus continued, “Be on your guard.  Take heed yourselves.  If a fellow-Christian sins rebuke him.  You heard me right.  Scold him.  If he repents forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times a day and if he tells you that he is sorry and he repents forgive him each time.  The disciples heard this and said,” Increase our faith, Lord.” Jesus said, “You either have faith or you do not.  If you had faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree,” Be uprooted and planted in the sea and it will obey you.  Jesus said,” When you obey me have a humble attitude.  Think of yourselves as a slave.  A slave does not expect to get rewards for his service.  He is expected to obey even without getting a thank you.  You too when you do everything I command.   Say, “I am an unworthy slave.  I have only done that which I was supposed to do.”  Remember if you humble yourselves, I will exalt you in due time.  

While Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he entered a village.   He met ten men with a dreaded skin disease stood at a distance and called out to Jesus. They were aware he was and what he was capable of doing.  They begged,” Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.  Jesus smiled and said,” I will have mercy on you.  Go and show yourself to the priests.   This was a strange request but every one of the ten started to go to the priests.  As they went, they were healed miraculously.  One man saw that he was healed and he broke down in tears.  He raced back to Jesus and fell on his ace thanking him.   This man was a foreigner a hated Samaritan.  Jesus said,” Didn’t I heal ten men?  Where are the other nine?  Was no one found in return to give glory to God except this foreigner? Stand up and go.  Your faith has made you well.   One day the Pharisees asked Jesus about the future.  They asked Jesus, “When was the kingdom of God going to come?  Jesus told them so you want to know the future.  I will tell you about the future.  But it is not going to happen like you think it is.   You think someone will come and free you from Roman oppression but that’s not what the kingdom of God is all about.  There will not be signs or miracles to usher in the kingdom.  Behold the kingdom of God is here right now.  I am here right now.  Jesus’s disciples were to hear this.  Jesus turned to them and said,” the days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man.  One of my days, and you will not see it. 

Listen closely, people will say that they are the long-awaited Messiah.  Hey will claim to be me but do not follow after them Jesus said here is what the future holds.  First, I will suffer many things and I will be rejected by this generation.  I will be crucified and killed but I will be resurrected after three days and three nights.  Then after that, I will come back.  This is exactly how it will happen.  It will be a surprise.  It will be as fast as lightning.  It will be just like the days of Noah.  People will be eating and drinking and marrying.  It was just another day.  Hen Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.  It will be just like the days of Lot.  People were eating, drinking, buying, and selling plants and buildings.  It was just another day.  When Lot went out from the city called Sodom, fire and brimstone rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.  It will be exactly like that on the day that I return.  Jesus said,” On that day don’t look back longingly at this life if you believe in my look to the future with me.  Remember Lots’ wife.  She looked back and she yearned for her life of sin in Sodom She perished when she looked back.  On the day that I will come back, I will burn this entire world to ashes.  But first I will gather my church before I start.  In one part of the world where it is night two people will be in one bed.  One will be taken the other left.   In the other part of the world where there is daylight there will be two women grinding and working in the same place one will be taken and the other left.  Once I gather all my children from around the world, I will burn the world down with unquenchable fire.   

OBSERVATION

The thing I think the lord wants us to understand after reading this chapter is that he wants to make it crystal clear that anyone who hurts a child or leads them away from Jesus wishes they had not.  God wants us to see that we as Christians are supposed to rebuke another Christian if they sinned.  That would not be considered judgemental in his eyes.  He wants us all to forgive each other if that person asks for forgiveness.  God wants us to see that we either have faith or we do not.  God wants us to understand that according to Jesus on the day Jesus comes back to burn the world down he will gather his church first.  And that day will be a normal regular average day until that happens.  Have you ever taught a child to reject Jesus? It’s not too late. Ask God for mercy.  He will give it to you.  Jesus is going to destroy the world with unquenchable fire.  Come and let us turn to him my brothers and sisters and repent for sins before it’s too late.  He will redeem and rescue your soul. 

Why do we need mercy?

To go to answer points of salvation.  Purposefully or accidentally, we mess up daily and daily he releases us from the ultimate punishment we deserve – being eternally separated from him.  That’s where Jesus comes in.  He paid the consequences with his death because we couldn’t.  But there is also something else.  Back to those consequences we deserve.  We tend to breeze by the times we don’t get caught and dwell on the times we do.  I think about it.  God lets us off more often than he makes us live with the repercussions of our bad decisions, or he only asks us to pay the interest on the consequences we have earned rather than the total.

PRAYER

Father, God

Answer me when I call you.  Give me relief from my distress.  Have mercy on me father and hear my prayer.  We cry out to you as our authority and the author of true mercy.  Thank you for being a God of compassion and love.  Life is hard enough without constantly being afraid of a God who’s out to get me.  Help me see what you want me to see when you don’t lift the consequences of my actions.  Help me to pay it forward to others when you do.  Be that constant voice inside my head and the soothing arms around my heart.  Never let me forget to mirror to others the compassion you have shown me.  I ask this in the mighty name of Jesus.   Amen.