Enduring Faithfully Until Christ’s Return

When you think about all the commands in the Bible, there are some that are easy to remember, some that are easy to understand, and would you agree with me that there are some that are harder to remember and harder to live out.

For example, it’s not hard to remember the golden rule…

““In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, NASB95)

That is a pretty easy one for us to remember, and in terms of what you should do, it’s not too hard to interpret that one. If you don’t like being treated a certain way, if you don’t like people being rude, angry, or unkind to you…then guess what, don’t do it.

Or another one that is just as common and easy to remember, the first commandment of the 10 Commandments given to Moses on Sinai

““You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4, NASB95)

Again, pretty easy to figure out what is going on here…you can’t worship the God of the Bible and other gods. Both literally in the time when it was given to the children of Israel and the way that we think about it today, as an idol of the heart. Meaning, you can’t love pleasure, comfort, money, and so on more than you love Christ.

But every once and a while, even in the new testament we come across a command, an imperative that may be a bit harder to remember. Now, just because we don’t remember it, and perhaps we don’t even think about its importance, that does not make it any less significant in the ordinances of God to live a life that is pleasing to Christ.

Today, we are going to be considering Luke 17-- Enduring Faithfully until Christ’s Return and we are doing that because of how the preaching schedule works. As you know, if you were hear last week, we are going to be doing a verse-by-verse study of the book of Philippians until the summer as we Grow in Gospel Gratitude [Kari, please insert the picture of the theme that we are using].

However, for this Sunday, we will not be starting that series. Pastor Viars, our church’s senior pastor will be here next week to launch that study for us. At our various campuses, at Faith West we always start a series like this one week later. That means that we have one week here (and two weeks at the Northend if you were worshiping there) where we study a different passage. Faith East ends up hearing this message during the summer…but today we are going to consider Faithfully enduring until the Return of Christ. And as we study this passage this morning, I would like us to look for 3 Warnings that bring hope as we endure and perhaps see if you can spot that command that is in the passage, that is directed at all of us, for our grow in Christ, that might be a little less followed than perhaps the golden rule.

[Read Luke 17:22-37]

The first warning that I think will bring us hope this morning is that we are warned that we are to…

I. Long only for the True Son of Man

“And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. “They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. “For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. “But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” (Luke 17:22–25, NASB95)

Since Christ returned to Heaven, His followers have eagerly awaited Christ’s return. There is no doubt that during the days of the early church, many believed that Christ would return in only a few years.

For example, you may remember this passage that we studied at the end of 2021 when we landed our gospel of John study

“Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”” (John 21:23, NASB95)

Meaning, there was confusion in the early church that John, the beloved apostle, would be allowed to live a bit longer than most to see the return of Christ because it would not be that far off. Of course, his return is a bit like seeing a far off mountain. It looks so close, and yet when you are drive the mountain is getting closer…but it is not as close as it seems.

But this longing for Christ’s return is a universal desire for all his followers

All true Christians who understand Scripture, love the Lord Jesus Christ, and are concerned about His glory desire His return. They desire to see Him set aside His long humiliation and return in majesty and glory to reign. John MacArthur, Luke 11–17, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013), 408.

I would just ask you, how much of your longings, your prayer life, reflects that fact that you are eagerly longing for Christ’s return? Do you find your hope and joy in this world…or do you long daily for his return?

There are some who fear Christ’s return because they do not know what will happen, and I pray that you are not one of them, because you are covered by the blood of the lamb.

But there are some, who claim Christ, who are a bit…well apathetic to his return. This life is great and heaven will be to.

The reason for this apathy is they do not live like it is war time.

During World War 2, the entire world had to adjust to “war time living” and everyone longed for peace, in part so that they could return to their lives…but the desire for peace was not greater than the desire for evil to be stomped out.

How strange it would have been for someone to say, “I love living in war-time”

Our passage shows us that we all must long for the return of Christ…

In this midst of the longing for Christ return to Earth, we are told to

Beware False Messiahs

There has not been a shortage, even in the 20^th century of people who claim to be Christ incarnate. None are probably as infamous as Jim Jones and the cult that he lead where he claimed to be Christ and when US investigators began looking into him, a mass murder suicide was committed by his followers in the “Jonestown massacre”

The point that Christ is making in our passage is, there will most certainly be folks, and there has been, who claim to be Jesus…and what Christ is saying is…when he returns, it will be unmistakable.

Know his arrival will be unmistakable

Christ is warning us against looking for his return. When Christ came to earth, his incarnation and advent was hidden from the world…when he returns again, that is not what will happen. Commenting on this, MacArthur says…

The first coming of the Son of God was quiet and private. He was born in obscurity when His parents visited the small village of Bethlehem in Judea and lived His first thirty years in an obscure town in Galilee. Apart from His parents and the shepherds, none were aware of His birth. His return, on the other hand, the whole world will see.

Ever eager to corrupt the truth, satanic false teachers will try to deceive believers by enticing them to look there or look here for Christ. They will claim that He has returned in secret and revealed Himself only to insiders. But such people will be false Christ’s; charlatans and deceivers of whom the Lord warned, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them” (Luke 21:8). His return will be obvious to all, just as lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky. Like a flash of lightning, His appearance will be sudden, unmistakable, and visible. There also will be dramatic changes in the heavenly bodies:

John MacArthur, Luke 11–17, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013), 413–414.

Further it is an opportunity for us to consider, how will Christ’s return unfold…again, MacArthur can be helpful to us.

The basic outline of the events surrounding the second coming is clear. The rapture of the church will be followed by the seven-year tribulation, at the end of which Christ will return in judgment and establish His thousand-year earthly kingdom. After a final rebellion led by Satan is crushed, the current heaven and earth will be destroyed, the Great White Throne judgment will take place, and a new heaven and new earth will be created for all the righteous, which will last forever. Because no prophetic sign is necessary before the Rapture, the next event on the prophetic horizon, every generation of Christians lives in the anticipation of Christ’s imminent coming for His church.

John MacArthur, Luke 11–17, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013), 409.

While followers of Christ don’t need to live in fear that Christ may return, we ought to live like it could happen at any moment. It is an opportunity for all of us, as we enter the new year to ask, what areas of you life do you need to consider adjustment to live like the return of Christ is imminent?

For example, when you consider the spending priorities that you have for this coming year…does it reflect that your spending is on mission? When you consider things like giving, and just normal life spending…are you living in wartime?

I know for myself, it can be easy to get caught in the habit of thinking that I have 30, 40, 50 years of life left.

Or when it comes to arranging your family calendar and your personal schedule, does it look like you are thinking about the return of Christ when it comes to those priorities?

One of my hopes and goals that everyone who calls Faith Church West home would be that they think about their schedule through the grid of the one resource they can never get back…time. And that in thinking about our time we would organize it into

• How are you serving the body of Christ weekly but also how are you serving in the regular, annual serving opportunities.

For all of us, it can be quite easy to assume that others will handle the serving need, others will handle the opportunities that are presented…it is easy to rationalize and get busy with all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the urgent work of the king.

Here is my question for us all to consider, if we do really believe that Christ’s return is imminent and will be unmistakable, what might need to change in our lives today to live out that reality?

We also see in our text, in verse 25 Christ reminding his apostles that before his return…

““But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” (Luke 17:25, NASB95)

For us, what I think that means is we are too…

Rejoice in Him because of what He has done

I’ve been reading through one of my favorite Christian books, JC Ryle’s Holiness.

IN there, he shares an account of a conversation between an Englishman and a Native American convert:

“What is the reason that you make so much of Christ, and talk so much about Him? What has this Christ done for you, that you should make so much about Him?”

The converted Indian did not answer him in words. He gathered together some dry leaves and moss and made a ring with them on the ground. He picked up a live worm and put it in the middle of the ring. He struck a light and set the moss and leaves on fire. The flame soon rose and the heat scorched the worm. It writhed in agony, and after trying in vain to escape on every side, curled itself up in the middle, as if about to die in despair. At that moment the Indian reached forth his hand, took up the worm gently and placed it on his bosom.

“Stranger,” he said to the Englishman, “Do you see that worm? I was that perishing creature. I was dying in my sins, hopeless, helpless, and on the brink of eternal fire. It was Jesus Christ who put forth the arm of His power. It was Jesus Christ who delivered me with the hand of His grace, and plucked me from everlasting burnings. It was Jesus Christ who placed me, a poor sinful worm, near the heart of His love. Stranger, that is the reason why I talk of Jesus Christ and make much of Him. I am not ashamed of it, because I love Him.”

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I hope that you and me will do that very thing, to make much of Christ. And when we think about all that he has done for us, the we would, as this passage helps us see…rejoice in him.

We also see in this text…

II. Two Cautionary Tales

“And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. “On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. “Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:25–32, NASB95)

Christ gives us two powerful stories of judgement

Days of Noah

Days of Lot

What Christ highlights in both of these is that…well life was going on as normal…there was a massive impending judgment that was about to sweep, in the former case the entire world, and in the case of the latter, a destruction of an entire region…and it is in this part of our passage that we find one of the most curious commands of our Lord.

““Remember Lot’s wife.” (Luke 17:32, NASB95)

We are told from Genesis that Lot and his wife as they were parting from living with Abraham…

“Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar.” (Genesis 13:10, NASB95)

They chose to live in a beautiful country…like the Garden of the Lord.

And yet “The men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.” (Genesis 13:13, NASB95)

This wickedness eventually lead the Lord to destroy this region and God decides to spare Lot’s family if they will but obey God’s command.

“Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”” (Genesis 19:17, NASB95)

But of course, as they were escaping, what happened?

“But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:26, NASB95)

Now, you may be thinking…it was just a look, what could be wrong with that?

First, I think it reveals a lot about her character. A little leaven, leavens the whole lump.

Second, it was strictly forbidden by God. It was outright rebellion, similar to the garden.

Third, it was a proud move. In part, she looked back to see…would God really destroy that city? She doubted was God really going go to it.

But more importantly it revealed her true love.

The truth is, that while Lot’s wife had fled the city with her feet, her heart was still in the city. She had longed to be in that place. She had loved what that city had represented, and she was heartbroken to see it destroyed. Her heart, sadly remained.

What is so powerful about this story is that Lot’s wife was setup for success in so many ways.

Consider for a moment how, the days of Lot, there was very few people who had true knowledge of God. You had Abraham, you had his immediate family, and that was about it. She had seen God at work in so many ways and yet that was not enough to turn her heart toward worship of the living God.

Again, back to Ryle as he comments on this passage from Holiness,

Notwithstanding all her opportunities and means of grace - notwithstanding all her special warnings and messages from heaven, she lived and died graceless, godless, impenitent, and unbelieving. The eyes of her understanding were never opened; her conscience was never really aroused and quickened; her will was never really brought into a state of obedience to God; her affections were never really set upon things above. The form of religion which she had was kept up for fashion’s sake and not from feeling: it was a cloak worn for the sake of pleasing her company, but not from any sense of its value. She did as others did around her in Lot’s house: she conformed to her husband’s ways: she made no opposition to his religion: she allowed herself to be passively towed along in his wake: but all this time her heart was wrong in the sight of God. The world was in her heart, and her heart was in the world. In this state she lived, and in this state she died.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is an opportunity to ask ourselves, are we a bit like Lot’s wife?

Do we come to church, attend our small groups, all the while knowing that Christ is not in our hearts?

For some here today, while you make look the part, the truth is like Lot’s wife, you are not converted. Or you are trying to have a little bit of Christ, just enough, and then you will live your life in the world.

I would encourage all of to consider our own salvation in the midst of this warning passage…are we like Lot’s wife, putting on a coat to fit in…or has Christ truly become the Lord of our life.

If he has, then what marks has that left on your life. We are given these two stories, for Noah and Lot, there had been a change.

For Noah we are told

“but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;” (2 Peter 2:5, NASB95)

There was evidence that Noah lived a righteous life, and tried to encourage others to do the same.

And for lot, Peter says a few verses later

“and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),” (2 Peter 2:7–8, NASB95)

The point is, there was evidence of these men, in the midst of the destruction that would take place around them, that they desired to live a righteous life.

For those who claim Christ, let this also be an opportunity for us to consider what work are we doing to tell those around us of the coming destruction?

God’s judgement will come, as this passage reminds us. The world will be busy making its joy, and then Christ will return.

As we set out on this new year…my prayer for all of us is that we would consider some of the parting words of Christ.

““Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:19–20, NASB95)

My hope and prayer is that all of us, as we consider this New Year that we are about to embark on, that we would ask ourselves on a regular basis, what did I do today….what did I do this week…what did I do, even in this month to either win the lost or two make faithful disciples for Christ.

Yes, we need to handle all sorts of things in our lives, but what is the work that you can point to and say, “Here is what I did so save a lost soul”

“Here is what I did to help a person become a better follower of Christ. And this work was purposeful…this was part of how I believe God called me to live out the great commission.”

Let us take hope from this great warning that Christ gives us in Luke 17…and let us remember Lot’s wife for all sorts of reasons.

Let us remember that Judgement will happen. Let us remember that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of God…let us remember that if our hearts are not with Christ, then they are against him.

Let us remember that no amount of formal religion will save us. No amount of proximity to religious people will save us. Nothing will save us, but a new heart that only come from Christ.

Lastly our text shows us…

III. Salvation does not come to all

““Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. “I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. “There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.” And answering they said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.”” (Luke 17:33–37, NASB95)

The first thing that we can see from this text is…

God’s Word Has Always Divided People

You probably experience this in your own life…you desire to live a godly life and there is someone in your life that finds your religion strange, perhaps even repulsive.

We are living in an ever increasing day when the followers of Christ will be viewed with animus

I am sure that for many of us, that can be hard. To know that your walk with God separates you from family and friends. There is true pain and true heartache.

On the one hand, there may not be much that you can do. As you seek to present Christ in a winsome way, it will lead to a great divide between you and that person.

On the other hand, there is great hope because Christ has promised that this will happen. There is a certain amount of comfort that comes from knowing that a person is unsettled by you because of your love of Christ.

But it is also a wise time to ask, are there relationships in your life that are strained by your religion? If you have no relationship that is strained by your love of Christ, that could mean that there is a significant problem.

It could mean that your walk with God is so cold that others cannot tell that it even exists. Like dimly burning coals, there is very little light and heat coming from it that one would not even know that is exists at all.

While I am not calling that you go around and try to be offensive in your walk with Christ, I am asking, if this passage is true, that relationships will be divided…do you see any of that in your life?

And if the answer to that is no, then that might give you pause to consider is there something you are doing wrong.

It is also a chance for all of us to consider the truth, to embrace the fact that will experience hardship for Christ in this life.

Notice again these words from Peter

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.” (1 Peter 4:12–13, NASB95)

We should not be surprised when we have a relationship that is fractured, in fact we should prepare for it…and when it happens, there is a certain about of joy that we should derive from it.

In the days ahead, the church will only face more and more persecution. We are even seeing that here in our community with the local ordinance that has been discussed recently.

Brothers and sisters, this is why our eschatology helps us so much. We know that this world is only going to hate Bible believing Christians more and more.

We must put on the armor of God each day…and be ready for these assaults. And we must not, as some have done, chose the wrong path.

Lastly, our text reminds us that

The Only Relationship that Can Save you is a Personal Relationship with God.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is clear. If you will repent of your sins, believe in Christ, you will be saved. But that relationship with Christ must be a personal one.

““Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33, NASB95)

This is a curious expression for sure, but it’s meaning is obvious. It is when you give up your life to Christ, when you make him your Lord and master, then it how you will save yourself.

No amount of good deeds, no amount of effort on your part can save you. It is by trusting in the d/b/r of Christ that you will be saved.

There is no salvation by proxy. God has no grandchildren.

Friend, if you are here today and you do not know Christ as your own personal Lord and savior, today is the day to make that sure.

When we consider what is needed to faithfully endure until the end, we must head the warnings of this passage.

We need to ensure that we are truly longing for the True Son of man…knowing that many false messiahs and false ways of worship will come forward at the end…even today.

We need to live like Christ will return at any moment, and remember that it will be unmistakable.

We need to head the careful warnings of those that went before us, and not allow a smug belief that because we have all the external trappings of Christianity, that somehow we will be saved…

And we need to keep the mission of the proclamation of Christ at the center of our lives. We should use a passage like this to examine our hearts, our finances, our schedules, everything in our life and asked if we are living like Christ calls us to.

And we need to take heart, that those who are truly living a life for Christ will suffer many things, including great division in their relationships.

Let’s pray and ask God for the help that we need to do these things.