“Bible Prophecy by Jesus”
Luke 17:20-37
Introduction: If I were to ask everyone here who has read or seen movie versions of at least one of the “Left Behind” series of books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins to raise their hand, more than half of you would probably raise their hand. Well, if you have, you already know – and if not, I will tell you – that these books all have to do with End Times prophecy. Well, today’s message has to do with End Times prophecy that is found in the Scripture passage of Luke 17:20-37. And, although the human writer of the Book of Luke was, of course, the apostle Luke, Jesus Himself is the real author of this prophecy.
In this passage of Scripture, Jesus used “day” and “days of the Lord” interchangeably. And this term,“Day of the Lord”, encompasses several events associated with “end times” with which most of us are already somewhat familiar. In case you’re confused about those events, here’s a brief description of the events included in “The Day of the Lord.” This is God’s Prophetic Agenda : (1) The Rapture: The moment in which Christians will be caught up in the air to be with the Lord. This, by the way, is the next big event on God’s prophetic calendar. We read about this in 1 Thessalonians 4. (2) The Great Tribulation: This is a seven-year period of chaos and trauma in which a satanic leader (Antichrist) will direct a worldwide government and economy. We know from both Daniel 9 and Revelation 6-18 that this period will include three and one-half years of incredible disasters and difficulties as God pours out His judgment on sinful mankind. (3) The Battle of Armageddon: When Christ will return to conquer Antichrist and his armies. He will afterwards enter Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate to establish His earthly Kingdom and reign for 1000 years. Now, with this introductory background, let’s consider what Jesus said in Luke 17:20-37.
Scripture Reading: “20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God will come, He answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; 21 no one will say, ’Look here!’ or ’There!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is among you." 22 Then He 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. 23They will say to you, ’Look there!’ or ’Look here!’ Don’t follow or run after them. 24 For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be in His day. 25 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: 27 people went on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot: people went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. 29 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left. 36 Two will be in a field: one will be taken, and the other will be left." 37 "Where, Lord?" they asked Him. He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered."
Now, please let me try to simplify this information with five points about the future: There will be a test!
I. GOD’S KINGDOM IS BOTH PRESENT AND FUTURE.
1. The Pharisees assumed the kingdom of God would be constituted by a military king. They expected the Messiah to come and reestablish the kingdom David and Solomon enjoyed a thousand years earlier. But in v. 21 Jesus said, “…the kingdom of God is among you." The word translated here as “among” may also be correctly translated as “within.” As Jesus spoke these words, the Pharisees didn’t realize that the KING was standing right in front of them – and talking to them!
2. Here’s a simple way to understand the Kingdom of God: When you think “Kingdom of God” think of a King. The only thing you need for a kingdom is a King. When you have crowned Jesus as King, and submitted to His rule over you, you are in a Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is all about King Jesus!
3. But the Kingdom of God does have a dual meaning. In addition to being an invisible kingdom in your heart, the Bible also reveals the Kingdom of God with a future aspect. There will be a literal, visible Kingdom of God in the future….a time when Jesus will literally rule over all the nations!
4. But, my friends, we need not get too uptight about the future aspect of the Kingdom because our present duty is to be good subjects in the present Kingdom! Some people think only about heaven, and how wonderful it’s going to be, and as they do so, they assume that they are supposed to be miserable now! Don’t miss out on the present benefits of the Kingdom! Its here now! The Christian life is not just “pie in the sky by and by – it’s also about “steak on your plate while you wait!”
II. THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL ARRIVE LIKE LIGHTNING. - Jesus wanted to make Bible prophecy simple. He used metaphors everyone can understand, such as “lightning.” He said His coming would be like lightning. So, how is His return like lightning?
1. First, lightning strikes when there is a storm. When Jesus returns He will come into a stormy world of political and economic crisis. When there is a storm, you should look out for lightning. And when you see a political and economic storm, watch out for His return!
2. Second, lightning occurs suddenly. 1 Cor. 15 tells us the church will be raptured (caught up) to meet Jesus in the air, and it will happen in a “twinkling of an eye.” You won’t have time to repent when He comes – so you’d better be right with God before He returns!
3. Third, lightning possesses awesome power. In a split second lightning heats the air in its path to 1,400 degrees F. This rapid heating creates an audible sonic wave we call thunder. The energy discharged in a single stroke of lightning may be enough to lift a two ton weight (like your car) 62 miles straight upward.
4. Finally, Lightning strikes unexpectedly. People who have survived lightning strikes say they never expected it to happen – if they had, they would have been somewhere else! The fact that Jesus will come in a moment when He is unexpected tell us that we MUST be ready for whenever He comes!
III. CONDITIONS WILL RESEMBLE THE DAYS OF NOAH AND LOT. No one knows the exact date for the return of Jesus, but we can see the signs. Jesus predicted that when the world conditions match those during the time of Noah and Lot, we should look out because God’s judgment will happen soon! The Bible teaches us two important things about that time:
1. The first condition is extreme wickedness! There was extreme immorality and wickedness during the time of Noah and Lot. Genesis 6:5 says, “When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil….” Then in Genesis 19 we read that perverted sexual behavior was widespread in Sodom and Gomorrah. When two angels (who looked like men) visited Lots house to warn his family to leave – some homosexual men wanted to rape them! When Lot begged them not to do this “wicked thing,” they got angry with Lot and shouted “Get out of the way! This one (Lot) came here as a foreigner, but he’s acting like a judge!” SOUND FAMILIAR? Homosexuals and lesbians today say, when Christians tell them what they are doing is evil, “Who do you think you are? Who made you a judge? We can act this way if we want!” Well, God will judge them, and He may do it in as drastic a way as He did in Sodom and Gomorrahj – when He destroyed those perverts AND also both of those twin cities!
2. There was another condition besides the extreme wickedness! - While they were surrounded by immorality and wickedness, people in those cities lived as though nothing was wrong! Does that sound like America today?
3. The Bible confirms that in the last days there will be a great rise in immorality.
In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Paul writes: “But know this: difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of religion but denying its power. Avoid these people!” Folks, that’s a scary description of American culture today, is it not?
IV. GOD ALWAYS DELIVERS HIS OWN FROM JUDGMENT - Bible prophecy is not just a message of doom and gloom – it’s a story of deliverance! Yes, there was a flood – but God delivered Noah and his family. Yes, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed – but God delivered Lot and two of his daughters. And God will deliver US from the great tribulation and judgment! “…and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to ruin, making an example to those who were going to be ungodly; and if He rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral (for he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard) – then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials….” 2 Peter 2:5-9 HCSB
1. Before the judgment of the Great Tribulation, Jesus is going to come and rapture His church out of this world. Even though we live in a wicked world, like Noah and Lot, God is still delivering His own. In Romans 5:20, Paul writes: “But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more..”
2. Before God destroyed the world with a flood, Noah preached righteousness for 120 years. But the people scoffed at this “crazy man” building a boat in his back yard. Can’t you hear the jokes they made about him down at the local bar? But when the flood came, they stopped laughing. I realize there are many people who think we are a bunch of fools for coming together to sing, pray, an study this old book – The Bible! After all, we could be sleeping in, or doing something productive like reading the Sunday comics or watching some sports program. Trust me! When the rapture comes, they won’t think we are fools!
V. MRS LOT’S MISTAKE: DON’T LOVE THE WORLD! In v. 32 of our text, Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife!” You know the story! As they were fleeing Sodom, Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Joke: A Sunday School teacher told the story of Lot’s wife to her class, and one little boy said, “That’s nothing. This week, my mom looked back while she was driving and she turned into a telephone pole!”
1. Why did Jesus want us to remember Lot’s wife? - I’m sure Mrs Lot was a basically good person – the salt of the earth – but her mistake was that she loved Sodom so much she couldn’t resist one last look! Sadly the pews of churches are filled today with people who are religious on Sundays, but they are still fascinated and enamored with this world! 1 John 2:15-16 warns us: “Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle – is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
2. Mrs. Lot is a sad reminder of how people will be separated at the rapture. Picture this scene: Two people would be at work, when Jesus returns, BLINK, one will be taken and the other one is left. A husband and wife will be sleeping together. The wife loves Jesus and has prayed for her husband for years, but he thinks religion is for women and children – not for men! BLINK , suddenly she is gone – and he is left behind to endure the worst time the world will ever know!
CONCLUSION: In the last verse of our text (v. 17) Jesus answered a final question: “Where, Lord” they asked Him. He said to them, ‘Where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered.” Where are “the vultures gathered today?” The answer is simple – its where the killing is taking place! And where is that? Can you think of any place which answers that description more than the Middle East? (Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria…..) Do you get the picture?
The purpose of Bible prophecy is not so we can figure out a mystery! It is to remind us – to warn us – that Jesus is going to return SOON, but we don’t know when. Are you ready? When Jesus comes to rapture the church – will you be among those who will meet Him in the air, or will you be left behind? If you have never turned to Jesus in faith seeking His forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life - Will you do that TODAY?
