More Clear Warnings

We are continuing our study of the life of Christ and tonight we are in Matthew, or excuse me, Luke, Luke chapter 12. So I invite you to find your place there in Luke 12. We've been in Luke's Gospel now for a few weeks. As we make our way through the life of Christ, remember where we are as we kind of reset every week. It's important to place what we're studying in the larger perspective of the life of Christ. We are in the last three months or so, three to four months of his life, and he is in the area around Jerusalem. Very shortly, we will find that Jesus has to move further away from Jerusalem into Peria across the Jordan River because of the intensity of the opposition. We've seen that the Pharisees are so livid with him now and so angry with him that they are seeking to put into death. They've taken the gloves off. There is no more courtesy. They're looking for any way they can to kill the Lord Jesus. And so in the midst of that climate, Jesus is both warning them and instructing his disciples. And this period of our Lord's ministry is often called warning and instruction because you really see him going back and forth. In recent studies, we have seen mostly warnings because Jesus is being surrounded by a huge crowd. Remember, I think it was chapter 12, verse 1, yes, said, a great crowd of many thousands had gathered so that they were trampling on one another. So there's a huge crowd swarming around Jesus so much so that they're trampling on each other. And in the midst of this crowd is a large degree of rabble, a large degree of people who are in opposition to him or who are just curious about our Lord and how he's going to spar with the Pharisees. And so in the midst of that, Jesus is warning the Pharisees. He's warning the great crowds of people and he's also warning his disciples. In the midst of that, he's also instructing them and teaching them but he's warning them as well. We've seen, for instance, in recent studies warnings about religion, warnings about hypocrisy, warnings about opposition to him, warnings about greed and warnings about worry. So tonight, we come to another warning about preparedness. We actually started into this one last week in chapter 12, verses 35 to 49. Jesus is talking about being prepared for what? Do you remember? For Christ's return, yes, being prepared for his return because he talks in this passage about the Son of Man coming at an hour when you will know not. He's talking about Jesus coming at a time when people will not be prepared. And so he's warning about being prepared for his coming, preparedness for his coming. Last time we saw that to be prepared for his coming means to be ready verses 35 to 40. It means to be responsible verses 41 to 48. Tonight, we pick up in verse 49 where Jesus says, in order to be prepared for my coming, you need to be realistic. And Jesus says some very interesting, almost stunning things in these next three verses about being realistic. Being realistic about how life, this world and everything in it is affected by his coming. Okay? Three things that Jesus talks about being realistic about. Notice in verse 49, he talks about being realistic about this earth, verse 49. I have come to bring fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled. Now that sounds strange, doesn't it? Why have I come? I've come to bring fire on the earth. What does fire often represent in the Bible? Judgment, exactly. So Jesus basically is saying, I've come to bring judgment on the earth and I wish it had already started. I wish it were already kindled. Now there's a reason for that. Why do you think Jesus would say, I wish judgment, it was time for judgment already come on this earth? Death on the cross would have already been passed, yes? Yes? He's going to speak to that issue specifically in the next verse or two. So I think that's on his mind. What does judgment usually bring about and then what follows judgment? Cleansing, okay. Judgment brings cleansing and then what follows that time of judgment and cleansing? Forgiveness and a time of restoration, right? And remember, Jesus is talking about the earth. For judgment to come up on the earth means that basically we're at the end times, we're at the time when I come back, when I return to this earth, and that's when things will be made right. Judgment will cleanse the earth. My kingdom would be set up, the eternal reign of Christ would be set up. And so that's why Jesus is saying, I wish this were already here because if the fire had already been kindled, if the earth had already been cleansed by fire, then we would be ready to set up the perfect eternal state. So that's why he says, he's not longing for judgment, he's not longing to judge, but he's longing for what will come as a result of the judgment. He's talking about the earth, right? So he says there in verse 49, I've come to bring fire on the earth. Is there actually going to come a fire on the earth sometime? And if so, what's that going to be like? When's that going to happen? I just asked three questions right in a row, did I? You don't even know which one to answer. Okay. What judgment is coming in form of fire, isn't it? Do you remember some place in the Bible, what talks about judgment by fire? Isaiah, okay. I'm thinking of another passage. Pardon me, John? Wow. You're really warm. It is second Peter. Second Peter, chapter three, talks about the earth being dissolved, the elements being dissolved in fire and the whole world being judged by fire. Now, scholars debate whether or not that means it will be completely destroyed and the new heavens and new earth created or whether it will be purged by fire, cleansed, judged by fire and the new earth will look much like the one we have now except redeemed from the curse and perfect, cleansed of all of its impurities and scars. Regardless, there will come a fiery judgment that will redo this earth and then there will be a new earth following that and that's what Jesus is looking forward to. He's looking forward to the new earth. He's looking forward to the time when the earth will be judged by fire and what will come out of that will be a perfect new earth, new heavens, new earth, revelation 21, 22 and the result of that fiery judgment will be a new heaven, new earth. So that's what Jesus is looking for and that all is tied to his second coming. So what does that mean to us then? If this world is going to be burned up, what does that mean about how we should view this earth? It's temporary, isn't it? Yeah, temporary. Okay. What does that say about our worldview? What does that say about the world philosophies that we hear so much about today? Can't save the earth, okay? All right. Is earth our mother? Are we living on mother earth that we should treat as sacred? I don't think so. Not according to this text in others in the Bible. So if we view this world as temporary, it is going to be burned up someday. It's not going to last forever. We're not going to save it or if we do, that's only temporary. Should we be concerned at all about how we treat this earth? Should we be environmentally conscious at all as believers? What are we talking about here? We are still at our hands. Still at home. We are stewards, okay? All right. So what degree should we be environmentally conscious? Is there a balance here that we need to have? Common sense? Okay. All right. Conscience? God did put man in this world. Remember when he created Adam and Eve, he put man in a garden. Of course, the earth was perfect then. That was the way it was intended to be. God's creation was intended to be perfect. But what did he have Adam and Eve doing in the garden? Genesis 2.15. He put man in the garden to keep it, to dress it and keep it. Even when there was no curse, even when there were no thorns and weeds, wouldn't you like to have had a garden then? Man was still charged with the responsibility of maintaining the earth, keeping it dressing it. In other words, he was considered a steward of God's creation. And that, what's often called the dominion mandate, the dominion that man has over the earth and over the creatures of the earth, has never really been set aside, although it is greatly complicated by the fall, isn't it? By the curse placed on the earth. And so we should not abuse the earth on the one hand. We should be conscious of the fact that we should be steward, good stewards of the creation that God has given us. It is his creation. It is his. And just like we should be good stewards of whatever finances he's entrusted to us, family he's entrusted to us, this world is also his. And we should be good stewards of it. But the balance is that while being good stewards of God's creation, we should not deify it, right? It's not mother earth, it's not sacred. We recognize it's only temporary. It is going to pass away. God's going to burn it up someday. So I come back to the fact that what we're really talking about here is be realistic about the second coming. The second coming, the fact that God does have a plan for the future and the future plan for this world does give us a different perspective than an unsafe person about this world. But it has to be a balanced one. We know this world is not going to last forever. So we shouldn't get all been out of shape about the fact that the world is going to use up all the natural resources and our world is going to and global warming is going to take us all. We don't need to get all been out of shape about that because we know that this is only a temporary place anyway. And God has a way of destroying it. He's told us in his word how it's going to be destroyed. And it's going to be with a fervent heat that he sends at some future point, I believe, after the millennium. So if you had a biblical perspective while you want to be environmentally conscious, you're not going to despair about the issues that seem to be so heavy on people's minds today. Does that make sense? Okay any comment or question about that Jerry? Exactly. Yes. Yes. That's part of what's called the Dominion Mandate. Man is to have dominion over this earth and part of that is to subdue it, rule it and subdue it. And subdue it means that man is to have mastery over the animal creation but also over the rest of God's creation. And that does include the natural resources that God has placed here for our benefit. Obviously we don't want to abuse the earth because it is God's creation but we are to use what God's given us here. I think you're exactly right. Yes. And man does have dominion over the animals. When it comes down to whether or not man should benefit from something or the little snail darder and a river should benefit from something. There's a bit of a priority there that I think the Bible places on man and his needs. Again, not to be wasteful, not to be destructive but to recognize that man is the highest of God's creation. Not bats and snails and whatever, little fish in a creek somewhere. Am I getting myself in trouble? Okay, not in this crowd, I don't think. Okay. All right, Walt. Fast and easy to use today were the animal right act of this is to bring up the lawsuit against sea world and the not even whales that rights. I didn't see that but I'm not surprised. Very interesting. This world has a very twisted view of God's creation really. And it's only the Bible that places things in the proper perspective. So what Jesus is saying is in light of my coming, what it means to be prepared for my coming is be realistic about this earth. Okay, if you understand biblical prophecy and what's going to happen in the future, you will have a more realistic view of this earth. And what it's designed for and how long it's going to last. Okay. Second thing Jesus says to be realistic about is be realistic about my mission about Jesus' mission. Verse 50. But I have a baptism to undergo and what constraint I am under until it is completed. What's Jesus talking about? I have a baptism to undergo. Wouldn't he baptize at the beginning of his ministry? Okay. Coming crucifixion. Everybody agree with that? Any dissent? Baptism is symbolic of that. Remember we're very close to that event. We're within three or four months of that event. It's hard to tell exactly to the day where we are but we know we're within the six-month window of the end of Jesus' life. Jesus will several times refer to his death in the last few months of his life. I mean, numerous times, it's very heavy on his mind. He will talk about it in John's gospel as a seed being planted and unless it dies, it doesn't bring forth fruit. He will talk about Mary having anointed him for his burial. Leave her alone. She's anointed me for my burial. Time after time, Jesus will use figures of speech to refer to his coming death. I think this is one of those. I think it is symbolic. He is going to be immersed in the wrath of God. He has a baptism to be baptized with. I think he's talking about his death. He says, what constraint I am under until it is completed. I know I had read that phrase before but it had never hit me like it has this week to understand a fresh and a new, the heaviness that Jesus carried with him in the last weeks of his life. Until that is done, until that's completed, the closer he got to it, the heavier that weight became on our Lord. Don't ever think that because Jesus was fully God, he did not feel the full weight of the suffering he was going to suffer. He knew what was going to happen. He knew he was going to die. He knew exactly when it would be. He knew how it was going to be done. The closer he got to it, the heavier that weight on him. Until the point when he got to the garden of Gethsemane, and there is so much pressure on him that the capillaries just under his skin burst. He sweat as it were, great drops of blood. This is huge, tension, stress, pressure on our Lord. The amazing thing is in the midst of it, he is still able to carry on his ministry, do what God has called him to do, prepare and instruct his disciples, warn the Pharisees, but there is a heaviness about our Lord at this time, until this baptism, this immersion into the wrath of God on the cross is finished. It's quite a gripping figure, really. Be realistic about his mission. Jesus' mission was to die. He knew that. He knew that's why he had come here. There was no confusion in his mind, like some have taught about Jesus not really understanding why I was here. There have been some people who have taught liberal theologians, for instance, that Jesus came to introduce the love of God, and it was rejected, and the cross was the bitter end of his dream. So the cross was like a mistake and aberration. It certainly wasn't. Jesus came knowing full well that he had come to die, and he's facing it, square in the face here, and it's heavy on him. He knows it's coming, and he speaks of it in these terms of being fully immersed in God's wrath, and that's the cup that he will drink on the cross. Be realistic about Jesus' mission. Any comment? Question? Yeah. The stress, the NIV edition I have has constraint. I think another version may have stressed. Yeah. Those are very powerful words, and Jesus will use similar words when he goes into the garden of Gethseemnay, where he says, I am, the idea was actually overcome with heaviness and sorrow. So, in Jesus felt every bit of this. Okay. Third thing to be realistic about is be realistic about peace. If you're going to keep things in perspective about Christ as coming back, be realistic about peace. Notice verse 51, do you think I came to bring peace on earth? Do you think he came to bring peace on earth? Said he didn't, but that's exactly what he says here. That's where we're headed. But isn't Jesus the Prince of Peace? Didn't the angel say when he was born peace on earth? Good will toward men? Didn't, wasn't Jesus promised to come rule over the throne of David and bring a kingdom of peace and righteousness on the earth? Didn't he come to bring peace? Okay. All right. He did come to bring peace, but where are we in our Lord's ministry? Remember the time frame? Remember what happened several months ago? The Pharisees officially rejected him, Matthew 12. Remember when they described his miracles as being done in the power of the Holy Spirit? And from that point on, Jesus ministry changed, and he no longer does miracles as signs of being the Messiah? Why? Because he's already been rejected. He's not going to set up his kingdom now. That's been rejected. So yes, he did come to bring peace if his kingdom had been accepted. But now we're beyond that. Okay. We're in that period of time in our Lord's ministry where he's turned to a different focus, and that's the training of the 12. And so now, Jesus says, do you think I came to bring earth on the peace? Look, or peace on the earth? Look at his answer. There in verse 51, no, I tell you, but division. And notice how he describes it. From now on, there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two, two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother and law, and daughter in law, daughter in law against mother in law. Wow. That's a lot of fighting, isn't it? Okay. What kind of what kind of strife are we talking about here? Republicans and Democrats. Oh, you can tell we're in an election year. Well, there is some of that in families, isn't there? There's some of that struck. I don't think that's exactly what Jesus meant. What kind of strife does he bring into families? Believers and nonbelievers. Believers and nonbelievers? Bill said the same thing. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's spiritual strife, isn't it? And that strife is brought because of the very thing he's addressing at this stage in his ministry. He has been rejected. Okay, it's not that Jesus loves tearing up families. You know, like we're talking about fathers against sons and mothers against daughters and vice versa and all that. It's not that Jesus loves breaking up families. The strife is caused because of the sinfulness of man's heart, right? And because in man's sinfulness and the depravity of his heart, he has rejected Christ. And when someone rejects Christ, that automatically puts them at odds with those who have received Christ. So when you've got those two in the same family, you've got conflict. You've got strife. It's not that Jesus came to look at families and say, oh, I'm going to mess this one up. Boom, I'm going to give them strife. You know, it's not that. It's that Jesus came to bring salvation, but in the sinfulness of people's hearts, when they reject that, that sets them in opposition to God, and all who are his, really. And so that strife is there, even in families, because of Jesus coming. So at his first coming, yes, ended up being strife, but again, it ties to his second coming, because in the context where he's talking about his second coming, at his second coming, he will bring peace. He will bring his kingdom. If his kingdom had been received by the Jews at his first coming, there would have been peace. But no, not now, strife. But so be realistic about efforts to bring peace on the earth. And here again, we have to have a balance. All of us want peace, don't we? We want peace in our homes. We want peace in our neighborhoods. We want peace in our world. We don't want conflict. We don't want war. Nobody wants that. But to be realistic about where things are in terms of the coming of Christ, we're not going to have peace, complete peace, in any of those venues until Jesus comes back the second time. It's going to be strife. So be realistic about that. You know, I don't want there to be another nuclear war. I don't want a ran to pile up nuclear weapons and to go unchallenged. I don't want that. Nobody wants that. But to be realistic, that might happen. There is not going to be peace on this earth completely until Jesus comes back. It's not that we long for war or want war, but a realistic biblical world view realizes man is going to have war until Jesus comes back. And we're not going to rid this world of war. It's just not going to happen. So these are pretty stunning statements, aren't they? I've come to bring fire on the earth. I'm going to suffer and I've come to bring strife on the earth. Those are stunning statements, but they really give us a realistic world view in terms of the fact that Jesus hasn't come back yet. And being prepared for him to come back means that while we're waiting for him to come back, we're realistic about what's happening in this world and take a more biblical view of it. Okay, we camped out there a little longer than I anticipated, but there's some stuff that we need to understand there. Any any comment or question before we move on? No, no problem. Is this the thing about the division of families? Well, it's more than just daughter and daughter and mother and law. We know that. That was supposed to be funny. No, I know, John, what are you getting out there? How broad is it? Every family? Is that what you're thinking? Yeah. Is it every family? Is it just a generalization? Majority of people are... It's a good question. Is the majority of people? Is this the standard? Is this the status quo? Is peace and families the exception? What do you think? I'm seeing some nods and I'm seeing some... And I'm not sure how to answer that either, John. I don't know percentage wise. I think this is probably... I would say it is more the ruled and the exception. Simply because of the sinfulness of man's heart, we're all infected with that. And because we're all infected with that, because we all are depraved, we have a tendency to mess things up royally. And certainly the majority of people in this world are unsaved. I don't know percentage wise, but we know that Jesus said, why it is the way, broad is the way that leads to destruction. Narrow is the way that leads to life eternal and fuser be that find it. So we know that the overwhelming majority of people in this world are unsaved. Don't know the word. And so that creates probably a majority of these kind of situations in homes. All right. Then, fourthly, in warning about being prepared, Jesus says, be reasonable. Be reasonable. And notice how he talks about how you ought to be able to figure some stuff out. You ought to be able to be reasonable about some things. And he's talking to unsaved people, particularly the religious leaders here. This is a warning. And he's saying, you can figure some stuff out scientifically, but you can't figure stuff out spiritually. Look at it in verse 54. He said to the crowd, when you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say it's going to rain, and it does cloud rising in the west from Israel's perspective is a cloud that comes up over the Mediterranean Sea. When you look west and you see clouds coming from the sea, you know you're going to get a storm. Okay. This is good weather forecasting. You just learn to understand how to see things. And then he says this in verse 55, when the south wind blows, you say it's going to be hot. And it is. South wind is the the the the Shirokho, the the desert wind coming out of the Arabian desert. What would be Saudi Arabia today or the Sinai Peninsula? That desert area. Wind's coming from the south are coming out of the deserts. It's going to be hot. We're going to have hot sandstorms. Okay. All you have to do is tell which way the winds come in or which way the clouds come in. And you know what kind of weather you're going to have. In other words, Jesus is saying, you know how to read the signs in the heavens. You know how to be very astute meteorologically or scientifically. You're very astute that way. But look at verse 56, hypocrites. You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? What does he mean by that? What does he mean by interpreting this present time? His presence on the earth. His presence on the earth? Okay. I think I think you're right. What is it about Jesus' presence on the earth that they don't grasp? They don't understand. He was among them. He was right there among them. And who was it that was right among them? God, yes. And their Messiah, their King, the one who came to set up the kingdom for them. And they didn't recognize it. Okay. You can recognize when you see a cloud that there's a storm coming. You're going to recognize when you feel south wind that you're going to get the hot desert wind. But you can't recognize when you see me that you have a Messiah in your midst. You missed that altogether. That's what he's saying. And aren't we the same way? I mean isn't it amazing how we can read things scientifically, understand what's going on around us? I mean I listened to these people on the Weather Channel. I've told you before it's my favorite channel. You know, I love the Weather Channel. You know listen to those people talk about this is what's happening and this kind of convection or this kind of upper atmospheric disturbance and these clouds mean this and this kind of trough means this and this this is going to happen. We know and how they can anticipate tornadoes and other kinds of storms. We're very smart aren't we? And very dumb spiritually. And that's what Jesus is saying. Be reasonable. Come on figure out what's going on around your spiritually. You ought to be able to see who this is that's in your midst and they didn't. They missed it. And so he says you're hypocrites. You can tell scientifically what's happening but spiritually you can't. So be reasonable he says in terms of the Lord's return we need to understand what's going on in this present time. Obviously Jesus talking about his time but we need to make sure we put what's happening in our world in a larger perspective of a biblical timeline. That's what Jesus is encouraging us to do. So be reasonable. And then lastly he says be reconciled. Be reconciled. In light of Jesus coming be reconciled. Verse 57. Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right? And he uses another illustration see if you can pick up on what he's talking about here. As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate. Try hard to be reconciled on the way or your adversary may drag you off to the judge and the judge turn you over to the officer and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. That's an interesting illustration isn't it? What do you think Jesus is talking about here? What's the danger that they're facing and what do they need to do about it? You're being sued trying to get out of course. Exactly what he's saying. If you're being sued, if someone is if you have a controversy with someone try to keep it out of court because once it gets there it's out of your control. That's judgment day isn't it? And the judge handles it from there. That's exactly what he's talking about. So what does that mean spiritually? What are we heading for? Judgment. Again he's talking about his second coming through this whole passage he's talking about I'm coming back when that happens judgment happens. Okay. Before you get there by all means take care of the thing before you get to the judgment time. That's exactly what he's saying spiritually. Make sure that you get reconciled both to other people in the illustration he's talking about someone you're having trouble with before you get to the judge but also obviously spiritually you you want to get right with God before it comes time for judgment. So he's warning them about his coming. There is coming when I come judgment comes and you're going to be taken to the magistrate and the officer and the prison warden and all the rest. Judgment's there it's going to be out of your hands at that time you've got to be reconciled before that happens. On your way to that destination get reconciled. You know make things right with God that's a strong warning. You know don't wait to get right with God until the events of Christ coming and the judgment start happening it's too late then it's out of your hands. Be reconciled on your way before you get there that's his point. Okay comments or questions. All right we're done with chapter 12 let's let's start into chapter 13 although boy we've got five minutes left I'm hesitant to do this because but but you know I will anyway chapter 13 is so so critical to our understanding of some very important things. In in in chapter 13 what Jesus is going to deal with is what I believe is one of the most if not the most perplexing question in life it is that serious. Jesus is going to deal with the question of why bad things happen to people. Why does God allow certain things? Why doesn't he prevent some things from happening? And what Jesus is going to do is take some things that had happened that are brought up to him headlines if you will of tragedies and he's going to deal with the questions being asked him why did these happen? Why did this happen? And why did it happen to these people rather than these people? And and I don't think I have to convince anybody here tonight that that's one of the most perplexing questions in life. It's one of the hardest questions that we all deal with. All of us at some point deal with it to some degree. And Jesus is going to in an amazing way address this and I think in a way to some degree that is not addressed quite like this any other place in scripture. I mean it is it is an amazing statement that Jesus makes about why bad things happen. He's faced with this question verse one. Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood pilot had mixed with their sacrifices. Now what Jesus is going to do is talk about repentance here. So this is a warning about repentance and he begins by talking about the need for repentance in verses one through five and jumping ahead of myself a little bit. I need to get the outline in there. The need for repentance. He's faced with a question that is brought to him about people whose blood pilot had mixed with their sacrifices. Okay let me just give you the historical background here and we'll raise the question and then we'll have to wait till next week to really see how Jesus deals with this question. What Jesus is handed here is a political hot potato. It really is a political hot potato. He something is brought up to him here and again it helps to understand the context when Jesus is operating in. He's operating in the midst of people who are doing everything they can to kill him, to put him to death, to discredit him and that's exactly what this is about. What is happening here? Jesus listeners in this huge crowd some of whom are really attacking him. His listeners bring up a story of a tragedy that has recently happened. It's probably been in the Jerusalem post. It's probably been on the news every night and they challenge him with this. They challenge him with this news story and they want him to tell they want him to respond because they think because of the nature of the story they think they'll catch him. They think they can get him to respond in an unwise way and here's the reason why. Here's the setting. Only Luke records these two events that Jesus talks about. One is in verse one where Pilate had killed a bunch of people in the temple as they were offering sacrifices and mixed their blood with the sacrifices. That's a metaphor. The ideas they were killed in the temple. Okay and Jesus raises a second issue right along with it in verse four or those 18 who died when the tower of Salom fell on them. Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? Back to the Galileans who were killed in the temple he says in verse two. Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? Now the question is going to be raised of Jesus is why did this happen to these people and Jesus is going to turn this whole issue on its ear in an amazing way but here's the situation. What Luke is referring to here and there's no record of it in the other gospels but there is a historical account that probably we have that Luke is referring to. Pilate had a plan to build and improve a Roman aqueduct. Some of it had to be improved. Some of it had to be built further and he dipped into the temple funds to pay for it. To pay for this Roman aqueduct. Now you know what that did to the Jews of his day. To dip into their temple funds to fund a Roman capital improvement that would not go over well and it didn't. There were riots. There were riots in the temple which is where those things quite often happened. You remember the book of Acts? When Paul was attacked by people there was a riot. There was a Roman a Roman garrison in the Antonio fortress. I should have brought my pictures maybe next week we'll show some pictures of the Antonio fortress. It had four large towers that overlooked the temple courts and the reason for that was the Romans knew that was where political stuff got stirred up. That's where the crowds came and that's where mobs could break out. Violence could happen. So that's exactly what happens here in this particular incident because the Jews or so upset about what pilot is going to do a mob riot erupted in the temple court yards and pilots sent in Roman soldiers disguised as Jewish worshipers and massacred a bunch of people in the temple. Just so happened that most of them were from Galilee. Now where did Jesus come from? Where did he grow up? Where did he grow up? Galilee, right? Nazareth Galilee, hang on to that little bit of information. That's part of the plot to get Jesus to respond angrily against pilot. You see the plot developing here? Well what happened is pilot went ahead with this aqueduct and one of the towers of it collapsed as it was in process of being built and that's what Jesus refers to of these 18 people being killed when the tower fell. Now with this historical background you can see this is in the headlines. You see the headlines. You know mob erupts in the temple court yard, pilot kills a bunch of Jews and then the tower falls. Aha you got yours pilot. Your project messed up and killed 18 or year-am in because everybody's blaming everybody else and everybody's saying God did this because God did this because and Jesus is going to address that whole issue. It is a political hot potato because they're trying to get him because he's a Galilean to respond angrily against pilot, condemn pilot for what he did and then they have a reason to arrest him. If he's spoken out against pilot the governor they can arrest him and they're seeing this as an employee to get Jesus in trouble but Jesus is going to raise the whole issue of what happened why these people died he's going to raise it to a whole other level of God's sovereignty. Why does God allow these people to be killed and not others? Why does God allow trouble to happen to these people and not other people? Why do these things happen anyway? That's what Jesus is going to address and it is it is quite gripping really. So we'll come back next week and and find out exactly how he he addresses this whole issue. Okay let's pray. Father we are once again amazed that our Lord in his teaching and his dealing with people or do we pray that we will understand and better apply to our own lives what it means to be prepared for your coming and how a recognition of your coming influences our whole world view and how we see things happening how we should view even this earth and peace on this earth and so many other issues that people are dealing with today. Help us to understand those from a biblical perspective and then Lord help us to understand that you have the answers to the deepest questions most perplexing issues we can raise but sometimes it's on a whole different level than what we were thinking so help us to be willing to be stretched to that level and understand what you're saying. We ask in Jesus name.