...thoughts expressed here are not necessarily final.
January 03, 2005!
Tsunami Disaster Relief links at Joel News. Keep the unfound in prayer. CNN data here.
God and the Tsunami with Al Mohler here.
Universal access to all human knowledge? Brewster Kahle thinks so ,and soon.
Dave Barry hangs it up for a year. What will we do if we need an exploding toilet?
New Years Resolution: Eat more carbs!
 |
Yes I will be heading over to the mediterranean side of the dieting universe. At least there will be a few more carbs than Atkins affords. |
Notes for : Sign-Seeking and the Coming of the Kingdom (Luke 17:20-37)
Signs, signs everywhere signs...
The Pharisees practiced living in the light of the seen; They made appraisals
based on appearances. Jesus made much of this in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus taught that sin was not only that which was manifested externally,
but that the attitudes of the heart, such as anger and lust were tantamount
to murder and sexual sin.
In chapter 16, Jesus accused the Pharisees of being wrong headed in their
orientation.
"Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all
these things, and they were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You
are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your
hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the
sight of God” (Luke 16:14-15)."
The logical termination point of this error in orientation is that the
coming of the Kingdom would be anticipatd in the same categories. The
Jews expected its arrival to be signaled by various external “signs
and wonders” which of course would be managed by the Scribes and
Pharisees. The Pharisees persistently challenged Jesus to prove Himself
by performing miraculous signs (Matthew 12:38; 16:1; Mark 8:11). The ironic
thing is that He DID present signs and wonders and yet they failed to
apprehend them!
In Luke 17:20-37, the subject is the coming of the kingdom of God. The
Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom was to come. It’s imperative
to recognize that there are three errors concerning the second coming
of Christ.
The first is the error of the Pharisees (verses 20-21). The second error
is that of our Lord’s disciples (verses 22-25). The third error is
that of the people as a whole, (verses 26-32). We can see that no one
fully understood the Old Testament messianic prophecies and how they would
be fulfilled in Christ.
We should recognize that none of us who live today have a complete understanding
of Bible prophecy either. No matter how many prophecy conferences or charts
we master, there is an aspect of mystery that will not be fully apprehended
until Christ returns in power. We who see as in a darkened mirror need
these words from the lips of our Lord as much as the people of His day
needed them.
The Structure of the Text
Our text contains two main paragraphs, the first of which concerns the
Presence of the Kingdom and the Pharisees (verses 20-21). The second paragraph
is significantly larger and contains instruction regarding the future
coming of the Kingdom to His disciples (verses 22-37). The subject of
both paragraphs is the coming of the kingdom of God. The text can be subdivided
into the following sections:
(1) The Pharisees and the Kingdom of God (vv. 20-21)
(2) The Disciples and the Kingdom of God (vv. 22-37)
a. The Danger of over-zealous presupposition (vv.
22-25)
b. The Danger of worldly preoccupation (vv. 26-32)
c. The Danger of coming judgment (vv. 33-37)
The Already/Not Yet Kingdom of God
- The Promised Kingdom
- The Present Kingdom
- The Professing Kingdom
- The Permanent Kingdom
- The
Perfect Kingdom
Text of Lesson to come...