Are you ready to meet Jesus face to face or Are you still clinging to this world? Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg considers the sudden nature of Christ's return and how we can be prepared. We're continuing our study in Luke chapter 17, picking up where Jesus answers the Pharisees' question: when will the Messianic kingdom come? Jesus says to them that the kingdom of God. Is not one that you will be able to determine by careful observation.
It's not going to come by careful observation. And he says to them, I'll give you two reasons as to why it won't. The first is that the kingdom of God is within you. Or better still is among you. You see, this they couldn't grasp.
He reads this message, he reads from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, Luke 4, which is pivotal in our whole study of Luke's gospel. I don't think there's been a study when I haven't gone back to Luke 4. Because this is really the the cornerstone of the whole thing. The kingdom of God has come, he says. Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
And these Pharisees looked at this and they said, Well, I know that He's raising people and He's healing people and He's doing these things, but we don't see this as this fulfilling of Scripture. This is not the kind of kingdom we've been looking for. Jesus says, the reason you're not going to be able to get at it with your observations is because the kingdom is here and you don't see it. Here in in my person there is the saving and judging of men and women. Saving those who come to me in childlike trust, judging those who remain stubborn in their rejection of me.
And the second reason And he comes to this in 22 and following. That you're not going to get to the issue by careful observation. Is because the final coming of the kingdom of God will take place so suddenly, so unexpectedly. that it will swallow up all and any attempts at defining the details with any degree of accuracy.
Now, it's the question of the Pharisees that triggers. That response. And then Jesus, as he does so often, moves from The question raised by someone in the crowd or by the religious leaders, and he turns to his disciples and he says, Let me just say a word or two more to you folks about this so that nothing takes you unprepared. And in verses 22 to 37, what you really have. Is Jesus providing the disciples with a further explanation concerning the coming of the Lord?
of the kingdom. He begins by pointing out in verse 22 that they will have times when they will long to see Christ in all of his glory. They will long to see him in the dark days of following him. And yet they will not see him. And throughout The pilgrimage of these apostles, they must have longed.
In the Martyrdom that so many of them faced, that Christ would come in all of his finality, in all of his fullness, and establish his kingdom. He's telling them now, he says, there's going to. The time is coming when you'll actually long to see this, but you're not going to see it. And when men are longing for the return of Christ, they are susceptible to all kinds of deceivers. And that's why he says in verse 23: men will tell you, there he is, or here he is.
When the faithful are longing for the return of Jesus, they will be susceptible to the false teachers. And in every age, Men have sought to cash in on the distinctively Christian conviction That humanity is heading towards a conclusion at the return of Jesus Christ. And the instruction of Jesus is very clear: don't go running down those dead-end streets.
Now, in the 18 years or so that I've been here, we've had a number of these rumblings. There was a classic little book, I think. It was 54 Reasons as to why Jesus Christ Will Come Back by the End of the Year. I can't remember who wrote it. Frankly, I don't care.
I thought it was a lousy book then and I think it's even lousier this morning. Guys, it was bogus. And just so many people in the congregation. used up a tremendous amount of pastoral energy. Wondering.
About the nature of what was conveyed on this dead end street. Don't go running down those streets. They'll say here, they'll say there. They'll say look, they'll say come. Jesus says, I'm telling you now so that you're aware of that.
Don't go down those streets.
Now, in my files, I've got myriad illustrations of this. I chose just one. uh from nineteen eighty two, April the twenty-fourth. This is from the Times. That is d times.
Uh from London, but anyway Well, you didn't for a moment think it was the New York Times, did you? Are they LA times? The world has had enough of hunger, injustice, war. In answer to our call for help as world teacher for all humanity, the Christ is now here. And then it goes on under these headings to tell us how we will recognize him, who he is, what he's saying, and when we will see him.
He has not yet declared his true status, and his location is known to only a very few disciples. You can guarantee that one. One of these disciples has announced that soon the Christ will acknowledge his identity. And within the next two months, We'll speak to humanity through a worldwide television and radio broadcast. For two months I sat by my TV.
Waiting, longing, hoping. If you believe that? We need to talk some more. His message will be heard. inwardly.
telepathically. by all people in their own language. And from that time with his help, we will build a new world. See, this is perfect. Because people will then be able to verify the truth of this.
Subjectively. Oh, I heard him. Did you hear him? Oh, I definitely heard it. Yeah, I was watching such and such a program and I heard.
Jesus says Man will tell you, there he is, here he is, don't go running after them. And let me tell you why, he says, verse 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. In other words, the coming of the sudden man will be so sudden and so inevitably and universally visible that there will be no room for anybody to misconceive exactly what's going on. That's why he uses the picture of lightning. lighting up one side of the sky to the other.
24,000 miles round the globe. Lightning display. What everybody says, did you see that? That was lightning. Nobody says, no, it wasn't.
I think it was just a flashbulb from my camera. No, it was lightning. He says that's how it's going to be. The Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes up the sky from one end to the other. But don't think that this is about just to happen any minute now, because the things I've already told you, verse 25, need to take place.
My suffering, my death, my resurrection, my ascension, my rejection by my own people. And there will be suffering and rejection, which is in the interim phase. Which precedes all of the great denouement that will be represented in the arrival of the kingdom of God. in all its fullness.
So he says, since some of you are inevitably saying to yourself, well, exactly, can you tell us and give us an inkling of what it will be like? He said, let me give you a couple of illustrations from the Old Testament. As it was in the days of Noah, So it will be in the days of the Son of Man. What does that mean?
Well, what was distinctive about Noah? He built an ark.
Well, does that mean that what we need to do to look for the days of the Son of Man is to look for some guy called Noah who is building an ark?
somewhere in a desert region. Clearly not. Indeed, he makes it perfectly plain. The reason he says I mention Noah is because it was business as usual. People were marrying, eating, drinking, giving their daughters in marriage.
Noah entered the ark, then the flood came and destroyed them all. They were overtaken by judgment in the very moment that business was going on as usual. They kissed their wives goodbye. They played soccer with their kids. They went down the pub.
They did all the things they were routinely doing. Life was just going on. And then the judgment came. That's how it'll be, he says. And the same is true if you think about Sodom and Gomorrah.
People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. They're just going, they're just doing their thing. Business as usual. And the day Lot left Sodom, verse 29, fire and serpal rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
After being invisible to the eyes of the world since His ascension, Jesus will suddenly be revealed at His second coming and it will be a visibility to all believers and unbelievers alike. They are going to realize in that moment. And so, verse 31, he says, On that day, no one who's on the roof of his house with his goods inside should go down and get them. If you're up relaxing on your patio, he says, don't run down and gather up your stuff and take it with you. Why would this be surprising?
That's exactly what they say on the airlines. In the case of an emergency landing, leave your hand luggage exactly where it is. Don't go full with it. Don't be jumping up there to try and get your favorite briefcase or your favorite fountain pen or whatever else it is. Leave everything where it is and get off the plane.
Make for the immediate exit and get out. That's what Jesus is saying. On that day, any preoccupation will stuff. Any preoccupation with the now, any preoccupation with the claptrap that we've put together or the lifestyle that we've come to love is simply going to be an indication of the fact that we are unprepared for His coming. Are you ready for his coming?
You ready? Can you leave? You leave any moment, can I? Or is all my life completely tied up with earthly things? All my hand luggage.
My fields, my stuff. I'm tempted to sidestep it. I should remember Lot's wife. What happened to her? She became a pillar of salt.
How did that happen?
Well, because when she was running away, she looked back. The outside of her was running. The inside of her was staying. The father you and I are running to church. or that I'm running routinely up to this pulpit.
is not necessarily synonymous with a fact. that what you see on the outside is true about what's going on in the inside. I may be running one direction on the outside and running another direction on the inside. Remember Lot's wife, he says. She didn't know whether she was coming or going.
She looked back to where her heart was, and that was the end for her. If she had kept going, kept her eyes in the right direction, she, like the others, would have been saved. Remember Lot's wife. History warns us against these kind of attachments. And so that's where verse 33, a statement that Jesus has made, presumably on a number of occasions, fits so perfectly.
He says whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. In other words, to live my life seeking everything now and apart from Christ. To focus only on stuff and on material things, to live only in the now and the benefits that I presently accrue. Is to actually deny myself the possibility of real life and true happiness. But if I am prepared to give all of that up and to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all of these things will be added unto me, and I'll make the discovery of genuine life and real happiness.
Are you ready? And that's when you come to verse 34, I tell you the truth. On that night, two people will be in one bed, one will be taken and the other left, and two women will be going to work together. One will be taken, the other will be left. What's Jesus saying?
He's saying family attachments and friendly relationships won't prevent a separation which is inevitable, final, and unrevocable. The fact that your wife attends Bible study and is a good, upright Christian, and she drags you here on a Sunday, you think that if you're in the same bed as her on the day when Christ returns, that somehow or another, as long as you hang on to her, you'll go with her, not a chance. She will go to Christ and you will go to judgment. You think that because your business colleague has spoken to you often of Christ and that you have come to an understanding of his truth, that you have given intellectual assent to the claims of Christ, but you remain unprepared to bow beneath his lordship, that if Christ returns on the day when you're in the lab together, that you'll be able to say, I'm with him. It won't happen.
One will go, the other will remain. The only person to be with is to be with Christ. Family. attachments, human friendships. cannot Prevent.
the separation that will take place. When Christ will welcome The faithful. And when the unbelievers will be ushered to judgment.
Now there's an enigmatic conclusion, isn't there? In verse thirty-seven. Where, Lord? they asked. I found myself saying, What do you mean, we're Lord?
After all of that, they come out and say, We're Lord. What do you mean, where, Lord? I don't even know what we're Lord means to tell you the truth. Does it mean where will that take place? Where will the people be left?
Where, what, you know, where. And then Just when you're hoping that Jesus will clear it up, He replies. Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather. Say, oh perfect, it's all fitting in now, you know. Just tie a bow around it.
We've got it, you know. But you know there is something that is teachable in this, isn't there? Because it's a reminder to us of the very things that Jesus is saying. It is not by your observation, it is not by your ability to constrain these things that the kingdom of God will come. And the best I can do with is this.
To recognize that just as the location of a corpse in the wilderness. is obvious to the distant traveler from the crowd of circling vultures So when the Son of Man appears for judgment, It will be in an unmistakable manner. And no one will need to ask Where? The day of the Lord. will be sudden, will be unmistakable, will be worldwide, will be separating.
and will be absolutely calamitous. For those who are unprepared. Are you prepared?
Now let me finish full circle. We started talking about how Christianity gives a cohesive and comprehensive and Cogent view of the world. Contemporary Western thought says essentially to men and women who aren't thinking. All the religions of the world are the same. That is just not true.
The religions of the world today don't merely disagree on secondary issues, they also disagree on central issues. The religions of the world this morning disagree about the answers to the basic questions with which we began.
So, for example, when your grandson asks you the question, Grandpa, where was I before I was born? The answer is you were nowhere before you were born. You were purposefully created by God.
So that you might know him and love him and serve him. The Buddhist child says, Where was I before you were born? The answer of the Buddhist grandfather is, Well, you were somewhere before you were born. You were in the great cycle of samsara. You were somewhere between dying and living again.
Being born and dying. being reborn, dying and so on. That is Buddhism. The unsatisfactoriness of life, the dukkha of life, can only be addressed for the Buddhist in the hope that somehow or another in that endless cycle of dying and being reborn, we can escape from that into a better sphere of existence than we've known before. The Hindu says that God has incarnated Himself multiple times, hundreds and thousands of times.
Christianity says that Jesus, that God has been incarnated only once. Therefore, there is a fundamental disagreement. We can't both be right. The law of non-contradiction demands that we can't both be right. And I say to you again.
Here in the scriptures. is a view of the world, its origins and its conclusions. Which is cohesive. And cogent. Comprehensive.
So you tell your friends and neighbors. Don't bank on coming around as a squirrel. You honor the bank on a second chance. In that same article, and with this I stop. In that same article that I was quoting from the New York Times, yesterday's New York Times.
The Afghani Leader representing the Taliban. It's a great pain to try and deal with this situation. Wakil, Ahmad, Muta, Wakil. Was compelled today to explain that the people of Afghanistan have great respect for Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus was not only a man of wisdom, but also someone who, quotes, cured lepers and brought the dead back to life.
You say, well, that's good. I mean, is there anything wrong with that?
Now there's nothing particularly wrong with it so far. I can't read the whole article, but as the article goes on, It concludes in this way: the gathering had taken on a hostile air. The foreign minister seemed to realize this and returned to the more ecumenical tone of his religious commentary. He said, We will end this conference by saying, Praise be to Jesus Christ. This is the Muslim leader.
We will end this conference by saying, Praise be to Jesus Christ. Who will eventually come as a Muslim? and will follow the teachings. of Islam.
Now for those of you who giggled, May God help you and may it only have been nervous laughter. Because this is the ultimate expression of blasphemy. It should be hell to us. that Jesus would be blasphemed in this way. Jesus Made.
Muhammad. Jesus Christ. Created. every existent particle of the universe. And at the feet of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess.
To the glory of God the Father, that Jesus Christ is Lord. This morning is a moment of opportunity. Are you ready? Are you watching? Are you waiting?
Are you hoping? Are you praying? Are you comforting one another with these words in the dark days of your lives as you go through difficulties and as you see the challenges of family life and the rearing of your children and bereavement and loss and all these other things that a confused world has no answer for? Let the pessimist look down, let the fearful look around, let the Christian lift his eyes and look up, for all will be righted when the king comes. And we will behold it.
Face to face. In all of his glory. Father, I pray that you write this truth on our hearts. Because some of us are growing real soft on the exclusivity of Jesus. We've been buying the contemporary mythology.
And it's deadened our zeal for Jesus. This helps us understand. That the devout Muslim is not about to give up anything. And I admire him for his devotion. Forgive us, Lord, when we're prepared to sell away the store.
So that everybody will think how unbelievably tolerant we are. We want to be socially tolerant. We know we have to be legally tolerant. But we pray you'd save us from the kind of intellectual tolerance which thinks that two and two equals whatever you wanted to eat. Get us ready, we pray.
For Jesus' sake. Amen. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. One of the ways all of us can be ready for the return of Christ is by keeping our heart and mind focused on. on God and His Word, And each month at Truth for Life, we recommend to you two carefully chosen books that will help you better understand God's Word so you can be more ready for the return of Christ.
The books we recommend cover a variety of topics. They include devotionals, books on theology, classics from Puritan authors, children's books, and a whole lot more. When you become one of our monthly truth partners and support Truth for Life with a donation each month of $20 or more, you can request all of the recommended books. More importantly, you'll be helping bring God's Word to listeners just like you all around the globe, people of all ages and backgrounds who are growing in their faith as a result of this daily programme, and you'll be reaching out to some who are learning about Jesus for the very first time. Become one of our monthly Truth Partners to day by signing up online at truthforlife dot org slash Truth Partner, or give us a call.
We'd be happy to sign you up over the phone. Our number is eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. And when you become a truth partner today, be sure to ask for the book Both and Ministry: Living and Leading Like Jesus. The author is Pastor Gary Miller, and in this book he explains how we can nurture both ends of the leadership spectrum that Jesus demonstrated. For example, Jesus taught with authority, but he served with tenderness.
He confronted sin and And he welcomed sinners. He was patient. and he was urgent.
Now that example is not easy to follow, and finding the balance can be a challenge. We tend to lean in one direction or the other.
So in this book you'll learn how you can identify which way you naturally gravitate and how to highlight areas where you want to improve. Once again, the link is truthforlife.org/slash truth partner. When you sign up, be sure to request your copy of this book. Thanks for listening today. Posting a wish list to God?
That's not praying. Tomorrow we'll learn what really happens when we engage in in prayer. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
