Luke 17:1-21 Bible Teaching

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Luke 17.1-21
March 15th 2020
Okay we left off wrapping up chapter 16 and the first four verses of 17. So let’s read our text in 17 beginning at verse 1:5 where Luke has Jesus say:

5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Alright, let’s go back to verse 5. Now, it seems that this verse is another case where Luke has just started another topic out of nowhere. But at the same time, it is possible that the apostles are responding to the contents of verses 1-4 here.

We don’t really know so I am going to suggest that this is just a statement out of the blue because either way it was a request from them of the Lord and it reads:

5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

If this is tied to verses 1-4 which are all about forgiving, then the apostles were asking for more faith to be able to accomplish what he taught.

That makes sense. See, if we do not believe that God forgives us, or that forgiveness will amount to anything in the afterlife, if we believe that God is going to just receive all people equally, and that he is not going to do or be what He says he will do or be, then forgiving others seems like a waste of time – and exacting our own revenge seems the better choice.

And so, it requires faith to forgive, that an abundance of faith would be required to forgive people over and over and over again.

And the apostles realized this, and asked for it.

OR . . .

This was a separate request disconnected from the first four verses and a completely different topic.

Whatever the case, the possession of faith was important to them – and certainly to us.

I have previously established what I am about to say before but it bears repeating:

LOVE is the ultimate goal of the believer – in all of its permutations and expresssions (relative to agape), but the Love that God desires from His Children is impossible without FAITH.

Therefore, in the order of things, FAITH first, LOVE to follow.

What does this look like? God tells us to forgive. We either trust, place our faith in this command and His reason for giving it, or we don’t.

To have the faith to believe in the promises of God therefore this comes first – so we seek first to believe, and by believing we will then love as He commands – as in forgiving.

Jesus is called the Author and Finisher of our faith in Hebrews 12:2 meaning as we look to Him and His life and commands we are enabled with His capacity to love.

In response to the increase our faith bid, we now read in verse 6:

6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

We read here Sycamine-tree (which we know better as the Sycamore tree) but the Latin Vulgate and the Syriac versions translate this tree to a mulberry which is said to have been a very common tree in that area which bore some sort of fig.

In all probability Jesus was standing near one when he said this. Of course, faith the size of a mustard seed was a tremendous amount of faith, not a small amount, and that is why we don’t have many people telling mulberry trees to relocate to the ocean and it happening.

Even though a mustard seed was indeed small, to have that much faith would be like having that much plutonium.

And then at this point (verses 7-10) Luke has the Lord take us another apparent direction on a topic and says:

7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

In other words, who has a servant that he treats preferentially, as if he were the master, and would tell that servant to go and take care of their own hunger and needs first? Jesus adds:

8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I don’t think so (the King James says, I trow not).

The point of this example here seems to be that when you are a servant and you do the things that are demanded and commanded of you, then there is really no thanks involved – you have only done what was required.

Talk about a teaching that humbles you to the ground. And now Jesus adds:

10 So likewise you, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

There are ample accounts of Jesus telling the disciples that they would be rewarded – so this is not the point. The point was more humbling in my estimation – that for them to remember that whatever we do as servants in the cause of Christ, we cannot earn points, we cannot repay what He has done for us – so serve with a heart for him out of love and gratitude – and even in this we will wind up unprofitable servants.

Sobering.

Psalm 16:2-3 says something RADICAL:

“O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;” Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?”

Add in that it is him in us that is working out His will and grace, and not ourselves, and we are pretty well instructed that whatever happens at our hands we can never put God in our debt and that it is all the result of Him, and that if anything, all things that we do is our duty, as servants – and in the end, even unprofitable servants.

New subject:

11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

Going to Jerusalem meant traveling through these two cities.

12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

Of course, these lepers would not have been allowed in the cities because of their ailment and so they were outside the parameters in a group of ten. A fitting tale in our day of CoronaVirus.

Again, and according to the Law, they had to remain “a ways away” from the uninfected and so standing aways off they saw Jesus (verse 13)

13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

How they knew this was Jesus is a matter of conjecture but whatever the means they believed that He had the ability to heal them. And so they cried out for him to have mercy on them.

We note that mercy is when we deserve something but are spared the punishment and compassion is when we seek care and consideration for something we don’t deserve.

They fact that they asked for “mercy” to me suggests that they were of the belief that they deserved the disease that afflicted them.

14 And when he (Jesus) saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

This is an interesting exchange as it required these men to believe and trust in His power and to evidence this trust through action.

They possessed the disease when he said it, and they could have easily said to him:

“But we are not yet clean!” But they did as He instructed them and in going to show themselves to the priest they were healed. It’s very similar to the healing of the man with the withered hand when he told him to stretch forth the disabled hand.

Of course, we find a principle here with the Lord and our own lives and he will direct by the Spirit, often without any precursor for us to rely upon – and those of faith move to action, by faith, only looking back and realizing that he came through on his promises in the end.

In my own life I can greatly attest to this principle as more often than not the Lord directs and requires me to step forward in the meager faith I possess before giving me any sort of validation that what I am doing is going to amount to anything.

And this is often the case with us when we were in sin. God calls us to believe first, to trust in Him and His ability to forgive and wash us clean – and sometimes he makes us wait for verification.

For some this will not do. They want verification first – which can result in a fail for them to connect or take action in faith.

In this story we see the import of faith reiterated – and how much God desires those who are His to trust in His directions and promises.

So, these lepers were all made whole. (verse 15-16)

15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

To me, we have an interesting insight here for us to consider in this retelling. Nine of the lepers were Jews, and one was a Samaritan. All were given instructions and all were healed. And in the face of this miracle one of them – the Samaritan – ignored the letter of the law given them – which was to go to the priest and shew himself – but instead deviated from that course in order to stop and glorify God and fall on his face at the feet of Jesus to give thanks.

To me this illustrates the heart of legalistic people who do what they are told believing that it is their obedience to what they are told that grants them blessings, which would be a typical reaction of the Jews, but the one, again the Samaritan (no less) gave glory, honor and thanks to the real source of the healing: to God and His Son.

The importance of the Samaritan’s reaction over the other nine is underlined by what Jesus says in response (verse 17-18)

17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

Perhaps the nine, who knew that they had to get the A-okay from the priest were driven to get to Him as soon as possible. And this response is understandable considering the culture that they were in, and their having had this dreaded disease and to be miraculously cured of it.

But at the core of the issue there is the expressions of the Samaritan, who saw through the external demands of the Law and went right to the source with his Praise and Thanks – to God.

It’s interesting but when I was religiously inclined, I sought after the insights and additions of men to my troubled situations. You know, counseling, their advice and approbation on my failures. But the moment Jesus stepped into the picture, and once and for all cleansed me, giving me a new heart, all my affinity to men and their wisdom stopped – that day.

I directly went to God with my praise and thanks and needs from then on out.

So, Jesus asks, “Where are the nine?”
All the while knowing that the answer was, “they are going and doing what you told them to do.”

And in this we have an example of the letter of the law verses the spirit of the Law being played out – which was very important in that day and the ministry of Jesus to His own.

In this case, while Jesus certainly gave the command for them to go to the priest, there was an implied expectation or anticipation that those healed would have FIRST thanked God.

We note that Jesus did NOT give them instructions (laws) to first thank and glorify God, but that he left this decision upon the individuals involved.

To command gratitude and praise from a free-will subject is to remove their free-will choice to act graciously. And so leaving the ten with the ability to choose, only one of the nine was able to see past the written law and embrace the obvious spirit of the law – which was gratitude.

And so we have a stranger, or foreigner that was not of one of the tribes, who was looked down on, understanding and then choosing the Spirit of the Law – which was to love God first – and nine other under the law who did not even think to consider his goodness and to reward it with thanks.

In many ways we all can find ourselves in the same situation when we are the beneficiaries of God’s benevolence and constant love but take such for granted and move on with the external demands of life while failing to praise and thank Him for His provisions.

We find ourselves in need, and someone comes through, and we thank the person over and over and praise their goodness forgetting the one we have been petitioning through pray to help us. So (verse 19)

19 Jesus said unto him (the Samaritan), Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Of course, we know by this point that the one who turned and gave thanks could not have gone to the priest – he was a hated Samaritan, and so we see another lesson in this –

The nine were still reliant on elements of the Law to get their healing certified and for them to be considered clean. Those still under that law proved themselves to be guilty of the Spirit of the Law.

But as a Samaritan, did he have the demand and ability to go and visit a priest from the House of Israel?

I do not know the answer to this. Some say yes, others say no. But that we do know is he was face down in the dirt and at the feet of one who could rightfully intercede on the priestly duties and Jesus fully acted fully as his intercessor here, telling him to go his way for his faith had made him whole – which of course, is a type for all of us today – our faith in Him and His instructions makes us whole.

At verse 20 we hit on some important stuff eschatologically.

20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, “when the kingdom of God should come,”

This subject of the Kingdom of God coming was a matter of great importance to Jews and they anticipated that it would arrive with tremendous fanfare and pomp.

This idea was established way back in Daniel when they read:

(Daniel 2:44) And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

And then Daniel 7:13-14 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

The phrases, “kingdom of heaven,” “kingdom of Christ,” and “kingdom of God,” all occur in the Bible and they all refer to the same thing. The Reign of God over the world. Prior to this Satan reigned.

Anciently, the prophets had told of a successor to David that should sit on his throne,

1st Kings 8:25 Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.

Jeremiah 33:17 For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;

And so therefore the Jews expected a great national deliverer who upon his appearance all the dead would be raised; the judgment would take place of the world; and that the enemies of the Jews would be destroyed, and they would rise up to immeasurable honor and national dignity.

By the time Jesus appeared on the scene (with John the Baptist leading the way) the Jews expected the Messiah to come with a message for them to gather great military power and arms, to be an insurrectionist against the evil Roman Empire, and to call the Nation to actual material warfare.

Instead John came preaching personal and national “repentance” – the last thing that they believed they needed to do.

So, while John and Jesus certainly came preaching the Kingdom of Heaven, and saying that it was coming, it was a VERY different approach to what the people expected.

Today and for nearly two millennia, believers have supposed that the Kingdom of God/Heaven/Christ means:

What the state of heaven will look like for those who die.
The personal reign of Jesus here on earth once he returns.
the material church and its reign over the world while we wait to usher the Kingdom in
But as I see it, it is the reign of God through Christ in the hearts of his people.

As stated, what the phrase, Kingdom of Heaven best meant from the mouth of John and Jesus is, “the reign of God draws near.”

Many people believe that the reign of God, if it is truly a reality, will be total and utopian-like and for this reason they cannot fathom that the Kingdom of God is reigning now and has been for nearly thousands of years.

What Jesus says here helps with this understanding – if we will allow it.

So, back to the passage, and as usual, it is likely that the Pharisees asked Jesus this question to trip him up, trap him and find him guilty of some sort of heresy.

And what does Jesus say in response to when the Kingdom of God would come?

“he answered them and said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:”

The Greek word translated observation means with “ocular evidence.” That is really important and should be taken into consideration by people today who think that this eternal kingdom is materially based – or will be.

It is WITHOUT OCULAR EVIDENCE.

So even with the all the factors of the signs to happen before the incoming kingdom was established the Kingdom of God wasn’t really something that would have been dazzling to the eye and observable.

John was a desert nomad before his mission and Jesus was a Galilean born of suspect circumstances.

They were materially unimpressive, and the people who heard and followed them were the same for the most part.

But most importantly, they were preparing and promising internal peace, internal cleansing, and the power of the Spirit to move in the hearts of those who were part of this Kingdom, with Jesus describing the works and ways of the Spirit as un-directable, and invisible in some sense of the world.

Jesus did not deny here that the time for the Kingdom was drawing near; but he denied that his kingdom would come in the manner in which they expected.

And then after clearly establishing for them that the Kingdom that they were inquiring about was not observable, he adds

21 Neither shall they say, “Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The line “neither shall they say Lo here or lo there,” means that people relative to the Kingdom will NOT be able to say, “look over here! or Look over there!”

Think about this, folks. Think about the religious empires where popes, prophets, and pastors spread their arms wide and cry:

“Just look at the Kingdom of God and how it has spread thoughout the land though our church! Look at our campuses, look at our missions, look at all the real estate we have.”

No. And Jesus said it – relative to the Kingdom of God, there will be no saying “look here or there” because the Kingdom is NOT observable through ocular evidence. Why? Where is this Kingdom? Jesus tells us, saying:

“For the Kingdom of God is within you!”

Now, men who do not want to accept the most apparent interpretation of this suggest that Jesus is saying to them/then that the Kingdom of God was already within them, meaning that the Messiah was present with them and those who received it had received him in their heart.

I say that is at best “a stretch” because Jesus says, that

The Kingdom of God was not visible through ocular evidences,
That it was not a Kingdom where people would observe it with exclamations of Look Here or Look There, but that
The Kingdom of God is within a human being, meaning it is invisible, it is not with observation and that God establishes His reign over individuals lives and not over empires or institutions.

Other kingdoms, which are of this world, are typically adorned with pomp and splendor and are reigned over by temporal kings whose purpose is to garner external allegiances and demand external complicities and to appeal to external wealth. These kingdoms impress human beings and are truly material.

But going back to Jeremiah 31:33-34 we read that God, in the day when he has established His Kingdom in and through the victorious and meritorious life and works of His Son would:

“put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The establishment of this Kingdom, and all that was required to put it in operation is explicitly described in the Book of Revelation where all the former things – the old Jerusalem and the Law and the Prophets and the material religion reigning on earth – would be fulfilled, and the end results of it described as operating in the lives and hearts of individuals is summarized (again Spiritually and in the hearts of those who are His) with these words in Revelation 21 where we read

21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. (meaning brazen sea that was once part of the temple which would have been leveled)
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
(This Kingdom, which is from above, is the Kingdom of which all who are his are apart by the Spirit within us).
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for (because) the former things (hell, Satan, the Law, sin and death) are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

At this point here in Luke, Jesus enters into a description of the end times that were to fall upon them.

Why would He begin to speak about such things now? He was just asked about the “Kingdom of God” and what was required for the Kingdom of God to be established was a whole bunch of items that He said would occur prior.

He will say

22 And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
23 And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
24 For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
31 In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. {this verse is not found in most of the Greek copies}
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

And so we will address what he says next in this context next week!

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