Luke 17:20-37 -- Jesus is the unexpected.. King, Judge and saviour.

Luke 17:20-37 -- Jesus is the unexpected.. King, Judge and saviour.
But the most unexpected part is his timing!

1.0 introduction
The great populist philosopher Homer J. Simpson once confidently declared that, “BEER is the cause of --- and solution to --- all the world's problems!".

And that is an insightful critique I think, into the nature of our society and its relationship to alcohol today. Just ask, Frank Farina, Brendan Fevola, Brett Stewart, Jason Taylor, you get the picture -- it is possible, alcohol is not entirely our friend.

But another great populist philosopher, Christopher E. Hitchens, one of the "new atheists", (which I have to admit I happen to find it a little cheekily ironic for mind, being known as a famous atheist, with the name Christopher). Hitchens would probably agree with Homer’s proposal, but only by changing the subject from beer, to religion. And even then he'd say Homer only got it half right.
Because Hitchens boldly declares, that religion can only cause problems. In fact he goes further than that to say, “that religion is the cause of all the worlds problems”.

And it seems to me that this populist philosophy, has really struck a chord in our society today, because many of us suspect that there really is a problem for us in this world when it comes to religion.

And it is true, that the problem of religion is an important question of life, because there really is a problem in life when it comes to religion us, and the Bible would agree with that statement (it wouldn't always agree with the implications from it that someone like Hitchens draws, but it would agree at some levels with the sentiment.).

But more, (actually so much more than the atheists), the Bible not only asks this question about religion, it also offers a real answer to the question. The Bible says that there really is a solution to the problem of religion!

Now, if the world thinks that religion is along the lines of being, a belief in God, that is developed into a thought system (or worldview), that expresses itself in a defined set of life practices. Well the Bible goes much further than that, but puts it in pretty stark and more pointed terms, that the focus of religion (even the question of religion) is embodied not primarily in a belief system, but it is embodied in a person. And that person is the son of God, Jesus Christ.

And when it comes to the person of Jesus, this passage of the Bible from Luke we are looking at today, tells us three things about Jesus:
1. Jesus is God's King
2. Jesus is God's Judge
3. Jesus is God's saviour

This passage today, reminds us of the reality that for the whole world, (for all humanity throughout time and space), the question of religion is tied up into one of two options.


That for everybody who has been given life, Jesus is either:
-- their real problem -- because he is God's appointed Judge
-- their real solution -- as God's appointed saviour -- their saviour

The passage today asks the question, "what is to Jesus you?".
-- a problem?
-- or a solution?

Because the passage from Luke today also reminds us, that there is a very small window of opportunity, to decide to make a change and have your problem solved by Jesus.

2.0 Jesus is the unexpected king (verse 20-21)
Luke 17:20   
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees
when the kingdom of God would come,
Jesus replied,
“The kingdom of God
does not come with your careful observation,
21 nor will people say,
‘Here it is,’ or
‘There it is,’
because the kingdom of God is within you.”

Now Jesus lived (unsurprisingly, when you think about it from moment!), in the first century AD, in Palestine. And at that time the Jewish people had their own religious (and at some level governmental) leaders. And these people were called Pharisees, & they are the ones who have come to ask Jesus a question. And they are asking him a question about the kingdom of God, and for, two main reasons really.

Firstly, at this time, the Jewish peoples land was occupied by the Roman Empire, and the two groups didn't play together well, but as you'd expect, Rome didn't lose very often. And the Jewish people wanted this problem fixed, they wanted these Gentile, (these unclean heathen), removed. And the most logical way for that to happen seemed to be military action.

Secondly at this time, the Jewish people were expecting at King to rise up from amongst them, the one that had been promised by God himself in the old Testament of the Bible, the one who would be called the Messiah.


So the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, put ideas one and two together, and were expecting God's Messiah, God's King, to come and deliver them from their oppressors in a great military victory, just like so many great Jewish leaders in their past, like Moses and Joshua and David.

But as we go back to the action in the story, we see these Jewish leaders asked Jesus a question about the Kingdom of God, which is, "when?". “when will it happen?”.

And Jesus’ answer to them is quite unexpected, because he doesn't really answer the question at all, certainly not with a ‘when’, but with a ‘what’! Not ‘when’ will the kingdom come, but first ‘what is the kingdom’! Jesus is telling us all, that the first thing you need to know about the kingdom of God, isn't a ‘when’ and it isn't exactly a ‘what’ either to be truthful, it is a ‘who’.

In V21 Jesus says, "the kingdom of God is within you", what this means, is not that, it is in their hearts something, but rather it is in their midst, in the middle of the group of them, they are looking at right now.
These guys are trying to act like religious experts on the Kingdom of God, and they don't even know that most basic thing about it, ‘who’ the king is.

Jesus is the unexpected king, he is God's King, God's King come to Earth, God's King come to his own people, and his own people didn't even recognize him.

Jesus is the unexpected king, because he didn't come just to fix a political empire, and overthrow the Romans, he came to do so much more than that. Because the political problem was only a symptom of the bigger problem, the bigger problem we all know something about, the bigger problem of a broken creation, where nothing quite works like it should. Jesus didn't just come to fix a political problem, he came to put everything right, the whole of his creation. He came to fix that by firstly putting things right between God and Mankind.

Jesus is the unexpected king, Gods King who speaks with authority and acts with power in God's world, but not like the people expected.

3.0 Jesus is the unexpected judge (verse 26-37)

What's the hardest thing about comedy? -- timing!

Timing is an essential part of life, an essential part of good decisions. In fact sometimes timing is what makes the difference between a good decision and a bad decision. Timing alone can make the difference between opportunity or disaster. Just ask anyone from one of the big banks that were taken down in the global financial crisis. Knowing the right thing to do, is only half the battle. Doing it at the right time is what makes all the difference. It's what makes the most of opportunity, and at the same time averts disaster. And in this passage of Luke, Jesus highlights for us the importance of timing. Jesus Message is the message of warning.
Luke 17:26    “Just as it was in the days of Noah,
so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 People were eating, drinking,
marrying and being given in marriage
up to the day Noah entered the ark.
Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
Luke 17:28    “It was the same in the days of Lot.
People were eating and drinking,
buying and selling,
planting and building.
29 But the day Lot left Sodom,
fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
Luke 17:30    “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house,
with his goods inside,
should go down to get them.
Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.
32 Remember Lot’s wife!
33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed;
one will be taken and the other left.
35 Two women will be grinding grain together;
one will be taken and the other left.’”
Luke 17:37    “Where, Lord?” they asked.
  He replied,
“Where there is a dead body,
there the vultures will gather.”

It's quite a grim picture isn't it? particularly the vultures bit. But it tells us very clearly, that Jesus is God's appointed Judge, and the time of his judging will be very unexpected. Some might even say inconvenient, especially to those who actively ignore his warning, or even to those who were too distracted to respond in time.

As I said earlier, Jesus is a problem for people, because Jesus is God appointed King, Jesus is God's appointed Judge. And he will judge completely, utterly, and fairly. In fact when Jesus enacts God's judgement, it kind of makes the Roman occupation, that the Jews were currently experiencing, look like cakewalk!
Jesus makes it clear, that this is a real warning, of real and serious judgement of God. And he underlines this point, By illustrating the way God has judged people in the past, through using examples from the old Testament, in the time of Noah, and in the time of Lot. Jesus makes an appeal all the way back to the beginning of recorded history, to say that God has always been serious about sin, & on the flip side, mankind has always been stubborn about hearing the warning.

And in this Jesus seems to perceive the hearts of people hearing him speak, because he knows that people will mock the idea, people won't listen to the warning, people say, "when exactly is this going to happen?". All I see is everything going on in life like normal. But then people have always mocked God’s prophets, and doubted That their message is truthful, that is what mankind has always done -- doubted God, by doubting his Word to them, just like Eve in the garden of Eden. “Did God really Say????”

And instead people go about eating and drinking buying and selling, living life, and enjoying the fruits of their labour, not realising the reality that all the good things they enjoy, come from the hand of the God they are so determined to ignore. People are so intent on living their life to the full, they don't realise in their very actions, their opportunity of real life, eternal life, is slipping through their fingers.

Jesus is God's appointed judge, & it is a problem for all people. But it is important to say clearly this isn’t a problem of his making, he is being entirely fair, just, and good in bringing all wrong in God's world, to account. As God's Judge he gives to all people, exactly and fairly, what each of their deeds deserve. And that is a massive problem for each of us isn't it?

But the problem isn't Jesus, fault, it isn't his making or doing. The problem is Mankind’s problem. We made the rod for our own backs, and now to mix metaphors, our chickens are coming home to roost.

If we're being dead set honest, all of us know that we have done things that are wrong in this life. Things wrong against others, even things wrong against ourselves, and certainly things wrong against God. God our creator, who gets to see the whole show, every little detail of our lives, and our thoughts, even the bits we don't show anyone else, knows us and our lives better than we know ourselves.

Everyone one of us over two years of age, knows within themselves, that they have done things that are wrong, but these things we have done wrong are only a symptom of the bigger problem, the problem that we have denied God, as God of our lives, in various ways shapes and forms, at various times and we have chosen to try and live our lives our own way, and the Bible calls this pattern of behaviour Sin.

Two-year-olds on the other hand, have no shame, and will deny it until they are blue in the face. But denying it doesn't make it any less true.

Jesus is God's King, and because of that Jesus is God's Judge. And Jesus will be absolute, complete, and universal in his just judgement of all humanity, but thankfully for us, as we learnt from Luke’s gospel last week, Jesus is far more keen to forgive than to judge. In fact he says in Luke's gospel, the reason he came to Earth, "was to seek and to save the lost". To save the hopeless, those standing guilty, in condemnation before God.

Jesus here is sending us a real warning, that God will judge, and we need to be ready. And the question you should have right now is, "how can I be ready?". Well the good news is Jesus tells us the answer to that too.

4.0 Jesus is the unexpected saviour (verse 22-25)
Luke 17:22   
Then he said to his disciples,
“The time is coming
when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man,
but you will not see it.
23 Men will tell you,
‘There he is!’ or
‘Here he is!’
Do not go running off after them.
24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning,
which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.
25 But first he must suffer many things
and be rejected by this generation.

Jesus is God's King, the unexpected king, because no one guessed his kingdom would look like that.
Jesus is God's Judge, the unexpected judge, because he will surprise everyone in the time of their judgement.
and even more amazingly, if that wasn’t enough,
Jesus is God's saviour, the unexpected saviour, because no one expected him to save his people like he did.

People were expecting God's kingdom, to bring their salvation or deliverance with the sword, or at least a legion of Angels. But Jesus is the unexpected Saviour.

In V25 Jesus tells us, "but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.". What Jesus is telling us here, is that he knows how he will save his people, and it will involve his suffering on behalf of his people. No one can ever accuse Jesus, of being a distant and aloof, or nitpicking God, who just looks to judge his people for their wrong, in fact nothing could be further from the truth.
God desires to seek and to save the lost, and he is far more keen to save and forgive, than he is to judge. And to show it, rather than standing far-off awaiting the time to judge, Jesus entered into the world, and suffered terribly to seek the release of his people. This innocent man, this good man, God's son, would enter into this world and die a terrible, brutal, shameful and lonely death upon a wooden Roman Cross.

Luke 9:22 And Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Jesus suffered death, and the wrath of God, in our place on that cross, so that we would not have to. Jesus died our death in our place for our sin, so we could be forgiven by God. The judge was judged in our place to bring us forgiveness, that is what our God is like. The question is how will you respond his generosity?

Down in verse 33 it says, "whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.". Jesus is warning us in no uncertain terms, that we are awaiting our judgement, and it will be absolute. This is a serious problem. This is the problem of life, this is the problem of religion, this is the problem of Jesus.

But this same Jesus, is actually the solution to our problem, the solution to our problem of our sin and judgement. And the solution to our problem of religion, the solution to our problem of life. The response Jesus calls forward from us, is to stop trying to live our lives and our own way, of pretending that God doesn't exist, or God doesn't care about our lives and what we do with them. Instead Jesus is calling us to turn from this way of living, and turn to him. The Bible calls this action repentance, to change direction by 180°.

And if we do change direction from going our own way, and instead go to Jesus, Jesus offers us a real gift of forgiveness. Jesus bought our forgiveness in his own blood on the cross, and now he offers it to us as a gift.
Jesus Gift is something we accept with thanks, it is what we trust in to make things right between us and God. We trust in Jesus death, where the judge was judged in our place, that he really did pay the penalty we deserved before God, and because of that we can be forgiven. We trust in Jesus to be who he promises he is - our saviour, and the Bible calls this action - Faith - to trust in Him.

If we respond to Jesus gracious offer of forgiveness, by repenting -- turning from living our own way, by Faith -- trusting in Jesus death alone to put things right with God, there is one last thing Jesus calls us to, those of us who would call Jesus our solution, our Saviour, rather than our problem and our judge. Jesus calls us to follow him, to stop living life our own way, to lay down those desires for things that will not last, to take up his call to follow him and live for his kingdom, for the things that last for eternity. The Bible calls this being Jesus Disciple.

A wiser man than me once said (and I do realise that doesn't narrow the field whole lot) he once said "he is a fool who does not give up what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose!".
Jesus offers a real, true, generous and loving solution at the heart of life, Will you take up his offer? And if you will, don't wait too soon, because none of us knows the day when he will return.

Some of you here today, may be thinking to yourself, "I'm not too sure about all this Jesus stuff", well that's okay, why don't you come and have a talk to me afterwards, and we'll see what we can do to help.
But let me point this out, you can be absolutely sure about this, we all have a finite amount of time on this earth, and we don't know what length that is. At some point you've got a make a decision about what is at the heart of life, at some point you need to get off the fence, and make a conscious decision. And I can honestly say, I do not believe you will find a better, or truer offer, than what Jesus offers you right here now.

So what are you going to do about it?

Jesus is God's King, Jesus is God's Judge, and Jesus is God's saviour. The question is;
What is he for you,
is he your real problem?
Or is he your real solution?
Is he your judge?
Or is he your saviour?