Two Great Lessons

It's been a little while since we've been in the life of Christ. So let me reset tonight a little bit. We are in the last few weeks actually getting close to the last week of the life of Christ. He has been ministering in Korea away from Jerusalem because of the intensity of opposition. And we saw as we jumped from Luke for one little snapshot that John gives us of Jesus leaving Korea and going back to the Jerusalem area, Jerusalem suburbs of Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. But you remember the end of John chapter 11 indicates that the Pharisees were so incensed by the fact that many people were becoming followers of Christ because of that miracle that they were not only now trying to figure out how to arrest him, they were actually plotting his death. Now they're actually planning. It's not a matter of whether or not we're going to kill him. It's okay, let's plan how we're going to do it. So they're plotting his death. So Jesus again moves away from the region of Jerusalem and we're in Luke 17 tonight where we find him ministering and teaching some lessons. We're going to focus upon two great lessons that Jesus teaches. One of them through an event that happens, a healing event that happens with him and then the other as he just answers a question by the Pharisees and uses that opportunity to not only challenge them but to instruct his disciples. So two great lessons. The first lesson, Luke 17 verses 11 through 17, the healing of the Ten Leipers. It's a lesson about gratitude. A lesson about gratitude. We just lost everybody controlling the PowerPoint. We have a map coming up. We don't have anything. Okay. All right. Let me show you where we are. Jesus has been over here in Korea and then he came over to Bethany and then we saw that he went up to a town called Ephraim. Ephraim is just north of Jerusalem about right here and he's outside of Jerusalem but notice if you will what happens in verse 11 of chapter 17. Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. So what happens is Jesus is right here in Ephraim but the border of Galilee and Samaria is up here. So he's moving away from Jerusalem. He's going further north. And so what's happening, the text is saying he's going to Jerusalem but he's not. He's going away from Jerusalem. So what's going on here? Well Luke is tracking our Lord's steps as he is making his last journey to Jerusalem. That journey is kind of a convoluted one. He's going all over the map but we saw back in Luke chapter 9 that he set his space like a flint to go to Jerusalem. He knows the countdown is on. These are the last few months of his ministry and everything in these last few weeks has been pointing toward Jerusalem and his death. So in that sense he's on a journey toward Jerusalem. It's around about journey and so he's going to make another detour now further north than when we found him last. He's going to go further north and then come back down the Jordan River to the Jericho area by Luke 18. We find him in Jericho healing Bartimaeus, the blind man. And then and remember that's the story of Zacchaeus. We'll get to that too. And then he's going to move from Jericho over here back to Jerusalem for the last week of his life. So we find him tonight up here in the border of Galilee and Samaria. So he's on his way to Jerusalem. Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee and noticed what happens in verses 11 through 14. We'll see the healing of the Ten Leppers. The healing of the Ten Leppers really had a cool picture of the Ten Leppers too. Sorry about that. You would have to imagine that tonight. Verse 12, as he was going into a village, Ten men who had leprosy met him. Now let's stop right there. I want you to try to visualize this scene as best you can. Ten men who have leprosy are near the place where Jesus is passing by. They met him. Help me remember what was leprosy. Okay. Let's think about this for a little. What was leprosy? It looked like what kind of disease was it? Terrible disease, yes. It was certainly a terrible disease. Your body gets eaten away. Okay. Contagious, highly contagious. Incurable in that day. Yeah. Open sores. Okay. There's a gruesome disease. Now in the Old Testament, not all that goes into the name leprosy is what we would identify as that kind of disease today, which I think has another name today, doesn't it? Dr. Pam Hanson's disease or something like that? I forget. But anyway, it's something. But anyway, in the Bible, leprosy was called, it was basically a term that described a whole spectrum of skin diseases. It could be anything from a rash to a very serious infection to the kind of flesh eating, if you will, disease that is often identified with leprosy. Quite often in the New Testament, that's what you're talking about. Oh, it's up. Can we look at the map real quick? Yeah, there we go. Okay. Jesus has been over here. Bethany, he came, or excuse me, came from the pariah over to Bethany. He was at Ephraim last. Now he's gone up to the border of Samaria, Galilee. He'll go back down to Jericho. That's just what I showed you before. So you've got that. Okay. Now the picture of the 10 lepers. There we go. 10 lepers is Jesus is walking along. 10 of them and we'll find they cry out loudly to him. But the Old Testament described leprosy in a broad spectrum. Quite often in the New Testament, what you're finding is that disease that does kind of rot away the flesh. These people are walking dead men, if you will. Their body is decomposing, but they're still alive. That's basically what's happening. The appendages would be eaten away, fingers, ears, nose, toes. There would be open sores. And it was considered a highly infectious disease. And so they were quarantined. They were isolated in groups, colonies of lepers. So you've got these 10 lepers that are together and Jesus is passing nearby. You can just imagine them looking like men who have walked out of the grave. Their clothes are probably tattered, probably rags. Their flesh is to varying degrees with the various people eating away. It's just an awful, awful thing. They're on the fringes of society. They're hopeless. So that's the picture we need to get in mind when we see these 10 lepers. This is an agonizing scene that Jesus comes upon. Verse 12 says, they stood at a distance. That was because the disease was considered highly infectious. And you were supposed to actually announce your presence when you came close to anyone by crying, unclean, unclean, and people would know to keep their distance from you. So they stood at a distance, but notice verse 13, and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, master, have pity on us. What do you think they're thinking when they said that? Think of what they're saying now. What do you think is going through their mind? They've been given a health sin. They've been labeled as a... You know, have the other thing to talk about people say, you must have been sent to Grom that twice kept sick. Yeah, yeah. Right. And so could be they're asking for pity because of the way they've been viewed and treated by others. That may have been part of what was going through their mind, for sure. Their last hope. What do you think they meant when they called Jesus, master? What do you think is going through their mind? Okay. And so, you know, I think it's a great thing to see that they're thinking of master, in terms of your own control of things, you're the master of the universe. You're the master of all things. You could... It's possible that they went that far in their view of him. Obviously, the word master had a more general meaning as well. Master could mean a master in the sense of a master teacher, like a rabbi or a teacher. But I suspect by appealing to the Lord, I think they may have had some clue or some idea that he was able, he had some kind of power to help them. I think there's a, in a sense, a cry of faith here, reaching out for help. To have pity means to have mercy. And by the way, the verb is a present tense verb here called out and allowed voice. It's not like they just cried out one time. The present tense in Greek always means continuous action. So it means they were persistently crying out. I mean, when they saw him coming as he drew nearer, as he got as close to them as he would possibly be, they kept calling out. They kept crying out. Master, Jesus, master, have pity on us, have mercy on us, and they continued to cry out to him. It's important to see that when we get just a little further along in the story, that this is a very intense, loud crying out, continuous crying out for the Lord to help them. Now, Jesus' response is very interesting in verse 14. When he saw them, he said, go show yourselves to the priests. Now, that doesn't sound like much of a cure, does it? Go show yourself to the priests. What is that about? Why did he say that? It's a hospital, but it's a hospital, so you can call the priests. That's what they did. Okay. They would have to go to the priest to show that they had been healed. Do you remember, you've all read the book of Leviticus and just been thrilled by it time after time, I'm sure. You remember in the book of Leviticus, especially chapters 13 and 14, there are all these laws about leprosy, and not only laws about leprosy, but also laws about molds and so forth in houses. It's kind of considered the same thing in a sense a house can get leprosy like a person can. And so these are kind of mixed together. But with a person who got a skin disease or some kind of leprosy, they were told they had to go to be diagnosed by the priest. And there were certain things that were in place, that the Lord put in place to help figure out if it was serious or not. But then if they felt that they were healed, if they felt it was clearing up and maybe it was getting better, because again, there's a number of different skin diseases that are grouped under that old test and term leprosy. Then they are to go back to the priest and they are to undergo eight days of testing and evaluation. There are certain tests that are given that in the book of Leviticus as to what the priest is due to determine whether or not they are infected. Well, this happens for eight days or kind of kept under quarantine. And if after eight days they prove that, yeah, you are okay, then they are able to reunite with their families. So, yes, going back to the priest, going to the priest was the way that you got cleared, you know, you got medical clearance, if you will, to re-enter society, to go back to your family, to be given a clean bill of health. And so the only way they would go back to the priest is if they believe they are better, if they believe they have been healed. So really what Jesus is calling on them to do is I am telling you to go back and get the work done in the temple that you need to get done to get cleared to re-enter society. In order to go, they would have to believe that they were healed, right? So what Jesus is really telling them is I am telling you to go, you are healed. But in order for them to go, they have to believe that. They have to take him at his word and believe that they are healed. So notice the end of verse 14 says, and as they went, they were cleansed. In other words, they were cured as they went. They had to believe that Jesus had the power to heal them and that him telling them to go to the priest meant that that's what he was doing. And so in order for them to go, that was the outward evidence of their heart saying we believe that what you said, that you are able to heal us. And they are healed as they go. And obviously they don't have mirrors, but they are able to see from each other. Can you imagine what that scene was like as the ten of them start off? And they start looking at each other and there were fingers, there where there had not been before or toes or maybe those again and sores that are healing up. And what a sight that must have been. The actual healing of the lepers as they go along. So quite a scene there. That's the healing of the ten. Now verses 15 and 16 describe the gratitude of the one. You're familiar with the story. I'm sure most of you are. Verse 15, one of them when he saw he was healed came back praising God in a loud voice. Now I want you to pause and again immerse yourself in this scene. When we study the Bible, we often just read so quickly. That's why I never encourage people to do the reading through a Bible in a year type plan. That's great. I'm not saying you're wrong if you do that. But I think sometimes we just scam through these stories and we don't really grasp what's happening. We don't really immerse ourselves in what's happening. Look carefully at what is said. One of them when he saw he was healed came back. I think that indicates he didn't wait till he got to Jerusalem to the temple. When he saw that he was healed and remember they were cured as they were on their way. When he saw that he was healed, basically this man's attitude is the temple can wait. That can wait. There's something more pressing for me. And that is I need to go back and thank Jesus for what he did for me. That's more pressing to me. That's a higher priority than getting the medical clearance and all that out of the way so I can go back to my family. Do you see what is happening here? And this is a reason Jesus is going to express such amazement and fascination and praise for this man. So he comes back praising God in a loud voice. So as he comes back as he's making his way back to Jesus, he's praising God in a loud voice. The term here is two Greek words, phonase, megalase. Phonase is voice to make a sound. We get a lot of our English words from Greek words. From phonase we get phonograph, you know, a form of writing that you can hear. Phonograph. We get phonics. We get all of those words come out of that Greek background. Phonase was voice to speak out. Megalase meant strong voice, which obviously would be loud voice and that's why the NIV translates it that way. But we get we put those two Greek words together and we get one English word today. You know what it is? Phonase, megalase. What do we get from that? We get to flip the two words. Megaphone. Megaphone is directly from those two words. Megaphone allows you to be heard in a loud voice. And it comes directly from those two words. But my point in stressing that is this. Back in verse 13, they were calling out to Jesus in a loud voice for healing. One of them comes back praising God in an equally loud voice. Now stop for just a moment and think about this. Because I thought about this a lot yesterday when I was working on this. How often does my praise for something God does equal the intensity of my request for him to do it? To be honest, not often. It's easy to pray real loud and real hard and real long and persistently. God, please do this. Please work this out. And then when he does, does our praise for that match the intensity of our request? This man's did. In fact, it was more important for him to come back and thank Jesus than it was for him to go on to the temple. And get the joyful news that he had been cleared that he was okay to reenter society. Be back with his family. You imagine the joy of that, but that's not as important to him right now as going back to thank Jesus. And it really hit me. You know, I ask God for things in a loud voice. Do I praise him with the same loud voice? Do I praise him with the same intensity? And as I really thought about that and investigated that in my own life, I had to honestly say not often does my praise for what he has done match the intensity of my request for him to do it. And so that's a kind of a kick in the seat of the pants to, you know, come on. If you ask God for something that much, then turn back around and thank him just as loud for what he did. That's a great lesson, I think it was for me anyway. But notice what he does in verse 16. He threw himself at Jesus feet. What do you think that means? Again, what's going through his mind? Worship. Yes. Anything else there that you might think. Humboldt. Okay. Both of you were thinking the same thing. Carol. Well, he was humbled by this. He falls at Jesus feet inside of humility. Okay. That that was all coming out of a sense that there's something more than just the physical healing here. There's spiritual healing as well. We'll see Jesus confirm that in just a moment. Throw himself at Jesus feet. There's an interesting tie here with one of the root concepts of worship. And you've described well his motivation. Worship humility, humbling himself before the all powerful God in the person of Jesus. You know, but there's a there's a interesting tie to one of the one of the main words for worship in the New Testament. There are like four different Greek words that are used. One of them is proskineo, which means to kiss toward the literal meaning of the word to kiss toward. And in Bible times when a king when a king came through, you would prostrate yourself at his feet and and blow a kiss toward his feet. And that was a sign of submission to the Lordship of that king. And it's one of the words used in the New Testament for worship to prostrate yourself at the feet of a king and to show him your adoration to to kiss toward the feet. It's a beautiful picture. And I think that's going on in this man's life as well. And all that's involved in what you've said with worship and humility and all, but he's also he's also giving his life. He's he's submitting himself to the one whom he now considers the king. That's all involved in throwing himself at Jesus feet. I mean, culturally, that's the way you would do that in that day. And so all of that's involved in in his throwing himself at Jesus feet and thank him and then notice this little note at the end of our 16 and he was a Samaritan. Have you ever noticed how often that shows up in the New Testament? When Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan, the good Samaritan was the good guy in the story. He was a Samaritan. There are a couple of other occasions where something happens and then there's this little tag on the end and he was a Samaritan. And that's because God loves surprising people with the least expected. The guy who would be least expected in the Jewish mind to be deserving of anything would be a Samaritan. And so God just shows when it comes to his working, everybody's on the same ground, everybody's on the equal playing field. There's nobody that's favored over another, whether it's racial or ethnicity or nationality or gender or whatever. Now, it is almost put the Jews to shame. Yeah, it is. It really is. And not only putting them to shame, I think putting them to shame in the sense that the people that Jesus was speaking to so often, the Pharisees, remember they felt like they had an upper hand with God because they were Jews. They were children of Abraham. Remember that coming up so many times in the Gospels. Where the children of Abraham and Jesus would say to them, well God can raise up children of Abraham these stones. That doesn't give you any, you know, any end with God spiritually. And I think there's some of that going on too. He is shaming the Jews in the sense that he's saying, here's a man who recognizes his spiritual need and submits himself to my Lordship and he's a Samaritan. He's not a Jew. So, yeah, there's a lot of that involved there. So that's the gratitude of the one, this one man that comes back with such amazing gratitude. And then notice the words of the Son in verses 17 to 19. Jesus asked, were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner? The questions, the way the questions are phrased, do show amazement and disappointment. By the way, Jesus felt things. He was not a robot. It was not because I'm God, I know all things. I knew what was going to happen. I knew one was going to come back and that's not to remember he was fully man too. And it's difficult for us to grasp how the humanity and the deity of Christ operated together. It's one of the great mysteries of the Bible. That's difficult to know how those two operated together in the actual living out of his life. But the way those questions are phrased indicates genuine amazement and disappointment. How is it when there were 10 that received the same miracle? How is it that only one of them appreciates the fact that God and His providence sent me along at just the time they were there? How is it that only one recognizes that such love and grace and mercy and miraculous power was demonstrated to them? And only one is willing to come back and recognize that. I think there's a genuine sense of how can that be? How can that be? It again causes me to wonder does God feel that way when I don't give him thanks for what he's done? Again, remember God does have emotion that's part of being a person. God is person. We can grieve the Holy Spirit. We can bring joy to the heart of God. God does feel. I wonder if when I fail to give him praise if he is disappointed. I think so. So those questions show genuine emotion there. But then he speaks to this one man in verse 19. Then he said to him, rise and go, your faith has made you well. Literally your faith has saved you. The idea is not just physical healing, but the idea of spiritual healing. And some of you mentioned that or Steve mentioned that earlier. Jesus confirms the fact that here's a man whose faith not just faith in what Jesus said about going to the priest and you'll be healed, but recognizing who he was and submitting himself to the Lordship of Christ. That shows genuine spiritual change that he is this man is saved. So his faith has saved him. Jesus knows that from his heart. It's a wonderful story. It's got a lot of implications to our lives about gratitude and praise and how often we ask and don't thank God and how Jesus values that and views that. Any comment or question before we move on from this story? Yes, well? In the support of your explanation of what I think is the question in the Jews that are involved for you to stand over the fact that they are involved in that. I don't think all of it is just like each other. I don't think that is the reason for this. I'm trying to think of an instance and I can't pull one off the top of my head wall. I know that the idea of master in the sense of teacher or rabbi would have been a common understanding whether or not there's an instance in the New Testament of another rabbi being called master. I can't bring one to mind immediately. There may be. I would expect in this group someone is either checking a concordance or your iPad to see. But if you can do a run on the word master, you can maybe find out real quick in the gospels. But I'd have to look that up. Don't recall. I'm going to ask this when he said the John to Nicodemus and John 3. Did he say to him, or if I'm a master in Israel, you don't understand these things. Verse 10, he says, your Israel's teacher seems like maybe one of the translations maybe King James or something has earned you a master in Israel. But maybe not. I may be stretching to find support for my own statement there. Good question. Any others? Okay, let's continue on then in verse 20. Jesus is going to talk about the kingdom. And so there's a lesson about the kingdom that's coming up here. And I want to pause before we jump into this lesson to talk a little bit about the bigger picture of what's happening here in talking about the kingdom. Because especially verses 20 and 21 have often been used by people who do not believe in a literal kingdom on earth. Remember when we talked about this few Sunday mornings ago, we talked about the different positions on the millennium, the kingdom of Christ on this earth for a thousand years. And there are people who are called omelennials. That means no millennium. They don't believe in a literal reign of Christ on the earth. And one of their key verses is Luke 17, 20 and 21. Because Jesus is going to say an answer to the Pharisees question about when when your kingdom going to come, Jesus is going to say something to the effect. This is not a kingdom that's observed. It's some translations say within you. The NIV, I think more properly translates it's the kingdom is in your midst or among you. But because of the old King James translation, the kingdom is within you. There have been many who have said, well, that means there is no visible kingdom. Didn't Jesus just say that the kingdom is not something that you can observe. It's within you. It's an inner spiritual kingdom. And so omelennialists have often pointed to these two verses as it's one of their favorite proof texts for the fact that there is no literal kingdom on the earth. Christ's kingdom is not one you see with your eyes. It's in your heart. That's what Jesus said here, right? Not long. It's not what Jesus said. It's in the in the context, not all of what Jesus said. What's going to happen is Jesus is going to talk about the kingdom in the broader sense of the biblical understanding of the kingdom. He's going to talk about some visible aspects of the kingdom because we're going to see in these verses through the end of the chapter verse 37 that he's going to talk about the literal second coming of Christ. So he's tying that into the kingdom. That's when the kingdom is set up. So he's going to talk about some very tangible visible aspects of the kingdom, but he's also going to talk about a sense of of the broader kingdom of God of the rule of God. And the key thing that Jesus is going to talk about is how you respond to God's kingdom, how how we live as kingdom people. When I first started seminary back in 1981, I was going to grace theological seminary. The founder of Grace Seminary is Dr. Alba McClain. Dr. McClain was dead before I ever got there, but he was one of the greatest theologians in the 30s and 40s and 50s. Up into the 60s that this country had. He was just an amazing theologian. He had written the book, still considered the standard book on the kingdom of God. It's called the greatness of the kingdom. It's like a 400 page volume. And what he does is he traces the concept of the kingdom all the way through the Bible. Not just little proof text like this, but all the way through the Bible. It is the most comprehensive work except for an old work by George Peters, a three volume work on the theocratic kingdom, which is just too wordy for. But this is a good theological concise panoramic view of the kingdom all the way through the Bible. And he does, I think the best job anybody's done in giving the whole Biblical picture of the kingdom. The kingdom of God in general is God's rule over all things. That is the big picture of the kingdom of God. His rule over the whole universe that he is in control of all things. Now throughout the Bible and Dr. McLean shows this beautifully through the Bible, there are different aspects of his kingdom, different ways in which the kingdom functions. The kingdom functioned in the Garden of Eden before sin came into the world. The kingdom functioned among the nation of Israel. And he spends a lot of time on that, the Old Testament prophets dealing with the kingdom. The kingdom of God also functions because of prophetic scripture in the Old Testament and New Testament. There will be a future literal kingdom on this earth. So there has always been throughout human history a form of God's rule over the universe, but also over his people. It looked like one thing in the Garden of Eden. It looked like something else among the nation of Israel. It will look like something else in the future kingdom that will end up fulfilling all the Old Testament promises to Israel during the millennium. But there is also a form of the kingdom today. There is a sense in which God's rule today is expressed through what he is doing with the church. And that's where a lot of people get confused and think the only kingdom is the spiritual kingdom of God ruling in our hearts and that operates in the church today. People who say that, Amalynialists, have a very limited view of the broadness of the concept throughout the scriptures. That's the value of a book like Dr. McLean's that deals with the whole biblical picture. There's a lot in the New Testament about us being in the kingdom right now. For instance, Colossians chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 say that he has brought us into the kingdom of light. And that we are transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. Now that's not the future kingdom. Paul saying, you, the Colossians are in the kingdom now. So there is a sense in which the kingdom is being functioning now, functions now, through what God is doing in the church. But that's not the limit of the kingdom. And that's where the Amalynialists are wrong. That's not the limit of the kingdom. The kingdom will take a different shape during the millennium and there will be a literal kingdom on the earth. Christ will come back, set up a literal kingdom. He will rule from David's throne in Jerusalem. It will be a literal kingdom. But that's also not the only form of the kingdom in the Bible. You know, 1 Corinthians 15 says after the thousand years are up, he will deliver up the kingdom to the father and Christ will continue to rule throughout eternity in the New Jerusalem. So the kingdom of God has always been and always will be. It just takes different shapes and forms through different stages of man's history. And right now there is a sense in which yes, we are in the kingdom because that's what God's rule over his people is being exercised through the church today. But to limit the kingdom only to that one thing like Amalynialists do is a serious distortion of scripture. So to take verses like these two in Luke 17 and to rip them out of the context of the whole Bible picture of the kingdom and say that Jesus was denying that there ever was a or ever will be a future literal kingdom. That's a travesty of interpretation. It's just a terrible way to interpret scripture. So that's not at all what Jesus is saying. It's going to sound like it. But it's not at all what he's saying. Jesus is talking about the bigger picture of the kingdom and primarily because of who he's talking to the Pharisees he's answering their question. He's going to talk to them about the issue is not a literal or non literal kingdom. The issue is where are you in relationship to God's rule? Quit looking for signs of the kingdom. Get your heart right with God. You need to be subjects of the king. So let me at least introduce the first part of kingdom living that he talks about in verses 20 and 21 and that is kingdom living means that you are submissive. Be submissive. Okay. Be submissive. Now notice how Jesus draws this out and we'll kind of set this up for a future study. Once on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. Okay. The Pharisees question basically is we heard we heard you talk about this. We heard you talk. Yeah. That's good. He'll be language there. We have heard you talk. We have heard you talk about a kingdom. But it certainly doesn't look like any kingdom we're familiar with. Tell us this kingdom you talk about when's it going to come? We don't see anything that looks like a kingdom. And so Jesus response is the coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed. Nor will people say here it is or there it is because the kingdom of God is in your midst. Now Jesus point here. He'll talk more about the literal coming of Christ to set up a kingdom later in the same chapter. But his point here basically is this. The kingdom I'm talking about is not something that can be observed. Now it's interesting the word observed is not just something that can be seen. The Greek word for observed here observation is to determine the future by signs. It literally means not just to see something. It means to spy or to lie and wait trying to figure out when something's going to come. Spying on something. That's the way the Greek word was used in that time. And so it's it has the idea of investigation trying to figure out. Okay we've got to see something here so that we can figure out when this is going to happen. And Jesus point is this. It is a waste of time and energy to always be trying to do detective work on signs to try to figure out when the kingdom's coming. And by the way it's still a waste of time to do that today. There are all kinds of people who get all hung up on signs. And you know no believer should be looking for signs anyway. All of the signs that are mentioned in the New Testament are signs of the second coming that will increase in intensity in the tribulation time. We're going to be in heaven when that happens. What are you looking for signs for? Look for Christ. Look for Jesus to come. That's what we ought to be looking for. Rather than reading the newspapers and trying to get all these little prophetic tidbits. But oh did you hear this was happening? And they're going to put a chip in people's heads now and that. Oh that's the mark of the beast. Why do we spend so much time on stuff like that? What Jesus is saying is you Pharisees are only interested in digging around in the dirt trying to figure out what does this king want to look like and what are the signs of it's coming. Jesus is saying this is not the kind of thing you're supposed to be spying out for. You're doing investigative work to try to figure out when it's going to come. That's what he means by using the word observed. He's talking about their attitude toward the kingdom. He's not talking about whether the kingdom is literal or not. That's not the issue. The issue is quit trying to snoop around and put your little ducks in a row and figure out when everything's going to happen. That's not the issue. The issue is don't be looking around to say oh here it is. I got a clue. Or there it is because the kingdom of God is in your midst. He says in other words because the king is here because I'm here. If you would accept me the kingdom would happen. You see the kingdom is already in your midst because I'm here. That's his point. So stop looking for all these signs and figuring out all the prophetic clues. Start focusing on Jesus. Be submissive to him if he is your king then you're in the kingdom. If they had accepted him as their king they would have gotten the kingdom they were looking for. That's the point. I've been in the ministry for 39 years and I have seen all kinds of craziness. I can remember in the first years of my ministry in the 70s, Jack Ben MP was talking about Christ coming in 1976. I've still got an article that he wrote in my files. Setting a date for Jesus to come back in 1976. You know why people were saying that? Because of a misunderstanding of the passage about this generation should not pass after Israel is formed. And they were saying Israel was formed as a nation in 1948. What to begin with that's not the forming of Israel that the Bible talks about because they came back to Israel in unbelief and the Old Testament is talking about coming in belief. And it's also a misunderstanding of the word generation which simply means this nation, this ethnic group, this race, Jews will not cease to exist until all these things happen. But there were all kinds of prophecy scholars saying 1948. One generation is like 28, 25, 30 years. Wow, we're in the mid 70s. Jesus is going to come back. I know. I remember hearing all that kind of stuff. And then I remember hearing stuff like, and I've got articles that I cut out and put in my files that talk about this stuff in the late 70s. Prophecy scholars saying, Vultures are laying more eggs in Israel. You remember hearing that? You remember hearing that stuff? Vultures are laying more eggs. So that means the Battle of Armageddon must be near because of what Revelation says about all the Vultures eating the flesh of the armies that are destroyed by Christ. So the time is near. And then there was a guy that, remember 88 reasons for Jesus to come in 1988. Remember that? And then in the 90s everybody was saying Iraq, the oral crisis. Oh, wow, oil, Middle East. Russia is going to come down. And the insati-the insati-times are coming, you know, every two or three years something like that happens. And people come up, what Jesus is saying is quit snooping around looking for signs and get right with the king. That's what he's saying. This is not something that you should be snooping around trying to investigate and discover and observe and figure out, when is the kingdom coming? Oh, I got the latest prophetic clue. I saw something in the newspaper the other day. I think I know when he's coming. That was the Pharisees problem. And that's a lot of people's problems today. Jesus is saying wake up. The kingdom is in your midst. It's right here. I'm here. I'm the king. Get right with the king and the kingdom comes along with it. That's what he's saying. So this is a terrible misuse of this passage to say there isn't a literal kingdom. It's not at all what Jesus is talking about. But he is cautioning us and rebuking us for our petty interest in little prophetic details and trying to read what I call headline prophecy. Looking at the newspaper headlines and trying to figure, oh, this must mean this and this must mean that this fits into the Bible here. I've seen all kinds of stuff twisted to fit the Bible in five years later. It doesn't fit anymore. That's headline prophecy. That's not biblical prophecy. And Jesus is saying quit doing that stuff. Yeah, I'm allowed to get to preaching. I think I already have. So we probably ought to stop. Nursery workers are going to be mad at me again. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the opportunity to see our Lord in action and to see him at work. Lord, I pray that we will understand where Jesus is coming from and that we will be more concerned about being right with the king than figuring out all the details of when the kingdom is coming. Pray for that we would we would be careful to be as loud in our gratitude as we are in our requests. You would help us to be truly grateful to you. Thank you for the lessons you teach us from your word in Jesus name. Amen.