Luke 17

Luke 17:1

IX. THE SON OF MAN INSTRUCTS HIS DISCIPLES (17:1-19:27) A. Concerning the Peril of Offending (17:1, 2) The continuity or flow of thought in this chapter is obscure. It almost seems as if Luke pieces together several disconnected subjects. However, Christ’s opening remarks on the peril of offending may be linked with the story of the rich man at the close of chapter 16. To live in luxury, complacency, and ease could very well prove to be a stumblingblock to others who are young in the faith. Especially if a man has the reputation of being a Christian, his example will be followed by others. How serious it is to thus lead promising followers of the Lord Jesus Christ into lives of materialism and the worship of mammon. Of course, the principle applies in a very general way. Little ones can be stumbled by being encouraged in worldliness. They can be stumbled by being involved in sexual sin. They can be stumbled by any teaching that waters down the plain meaning of the Scriptures. Anything that leads them away from a pathway of simple faith, of devotedness, and of holiness is a stumbling block. Knowing human nature and conditions in the world, the Lord said that it was inevitable that offenses should come. But this does not diminish the guilt of those who cause the offenses. It would be better for such that a millstone were hung around their neck, and that they were drowned in the depths of the sea. It seems clear that language as strong as this is intended to picture not only physical death but eternal condemnation as well. When the Lord Jesus speaks of offending one of these little ones, He probably included more than children. The reference also seems to be to disciples who are young in the faith.

Luke 17:3

B. Concerning the Need for a Forgiving Spirit (17:3, 4) In the Christian life there is not only the peril of offending others. There is also the danger of harboring grudges, of refusing to forgive when an offending person apologizes. That is what the Lord deals with here. The NT teaches the following procedure in connection with this subject:

1. If a Christian is wronged by another Christian, he should first of all forgive the offender in his heart (Eph_4:32). This keeps his own soul free from resentment and malice.
2. Then he should go to the offender privately and rebuke him (v. 3; also Mat_18:15). If he repents, then he should be told that he is forgiven. Even if he sins repeatedly, then says that he repents, he should be forgiven (v. 4).
3. If a private rebuke does not prove effective, then the person who has been wronged should take one or two witnesses (Mat_18:16). If he will not listen to these, then the matter should be taken before the church. Failure to hear the church should result in excommunication (Mat_18:17). The purpose of rebukes and other disciplinary action is not to get even or to humiliate the offender, but to restore him to fellowship with the Lord and with his brothers. All rebukes should be delivered in a spirit of love. We have no way of judging whether an offender’s repentance is genuine. We must accept his own word that he has repented. That is why Jesus says: And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. This is the gracious way our Father treats us. No matter how often we fail Him, we still have the assurance that If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jo_1:9).

Luke 17:5

C. Concerning Faith (17:5, 6) 17:5 The thought of forgiving seven times in a single day presented a difficulty, if not an impossibility to the apostles. They felt they were not sufficient for such a display of grace. And so they asked the Lord to increase their faith. 17:6 The reply of the Lord indicated that it was not so much a matter of the quantity of faith but of its quality. Also it was not a question of getting more faith but of using the faith they had. It is our own pride and self-importance that prevent us from forgiving our brothers. That pride needs to be rooted up and cast out. If faith the size of a mustard seed can root up a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea, it can more easily give us victory over the hardness and unbrokenness which keep us from forgiving a brother indefinitely.

Luke 17:7

D. Concerning Profitable Servants (17:7-10) 17:7-9 The true bondslave of Christ has no reason for pride. Self-importance must be plucked out by the roots and in its place there must be a true sense of unworthiness. This is the lesson we find in the story of the bondslave. This servant has been plowing or tending sheep all day. When he has come in from the field at the end of a day of hard work, the master does not tell him to sit down for supper. Rather he orders him to put on his apron and serve supper. Only after that is done is the slave allowed to eat his own meal. The master does not thank him for doing these things. It is expected of a slave. After all, a slave belongs to his master and his primary duty is to obey. 17:10 So disciples are bondslaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. They belong to Himspirit, soul, and body. In the light of Calvary, nothing they can ever do for the Savior is sufficient to recompense Him for what He has done. So after the disciple has done everything that he has been commanded in the NT, he must still admit that he is an unprofitable servant who has only done what was his duty to do.According to Roy Hession, the five marks of a bondservant are:

1. He must be willing to have one thing on top of another put upon him, without any consideration being given him.
2. In doing this, he must be willing not to be thanked for it.
3. Having done all this, he must not charge the master with selfishness.
4. He must confess that he is an unprofitable servant.
5. He must admit that doing and bearing what he has in the way of meekness and humility, he has not done one stitch more than it was his duty to do.

Luke 17:11

E. Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers (17:11-19) 17:11 The sin of unthankfulness is another peril in the life of the disciple. This is illustrated in the story of the ten lepers. We read that the Lord Jesus was traveling toward Jerusalem along the borders of Samaria and Galilee.17:12-14 As He entered a certain village, … ten men who were lepers saw Him. Because of their diseased condition, they did not come near to Him, but they did cry out from a distance, pleading for Him to heal them. He rewarded their faith by telling them to go and show themselves to the priests. This meant that when they reached the priest, they would have been healed from the leprosy.

The priest had no power to heal them, but he was designated as the one to pronounce them clean. Obedient to the word of the Lord, the lepers started out toward the priests’ dwelling, and as they went, they were miraculously cleansed from the disease. 17:15-18 They all had faith to be healed but only one out of the ten turned back to thank the Lord. This one, interestingly enough, was a Samaritan, one of the despised neighbors of the Jewish people with whom they had no dealings. He fell down on his facethe true posture of worshipand at the feet of Jesusthe true place of worship. Jesus asked if it were not true that ten had been cleansed, but that only one, this foreigner, had returned to give thanks. Where were the other nine? None of them came back to give glory to God.17:19 Turning to the Samaritan, the Lord Jesus said, Arise, go your way.

Your faith has made you well. Only the grateful ten percent inherit Christ’s true riches. Jesus meets our turning back (v. 15) and our giving thanks (v. 16) with fresh blessings. Your faith has made you well suggests that whereas the nine were cleansed from leprosy, the tenth was also saved from sin! Luke 17, 18

Luke 17:20

F. Concerning the Coming of the Kingdom (17:20-37) 17:20, 21 It is hard to know whether the Pharisees were sincere in the question about the kingdom, or just mocking. But we do know that, as Jews, they entertained hopes of a kingdom which would be ushered in with great power and glory. They looked for outward signs and great political upheavals. The Savior told them, The kingdom of God does not come with observation, that is, in its present form at least, God’s realm did not come with outward show. It was not a visible, earthly, temporal kingdom which could be pointed out as being here or there. Rather, the Savior said, the kingdom of God was within them, or better, among them.

The Lord Jesus could not have meant that the kingdom was actually inside the hearts of the Pharisees, because these hardened religious hypocrites had no room in their hearts for Christ the King. But He meant that the kingdom of God was in their midst. He was the rightful King of Israel and had performed His miracles, and presented His credentials for all to see. But the Pharisees had no desire to receive Him. And so for them, the kingdom of God had presented itself and was completely unnoticed by them. 17:22 Speaking to the Pharisees, the Lord described the kingdom as something that had already come. When He turned to the disciples, He spoke about the kingdom as a future event which would be set up at His Second Coming. But first He described the period that would intervene between His First and Second Advents. The days would come when the disciples would desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but would not see it. In other words, they would long for one of the days when He was with them on earth and they enjoyed sweet fellowship with Him. Those days were, in a sense, foretastes of the time He would return in power and great glory. 17:23, 24 Many false christs would arise, and rulers would announce that the Messiah had come. But His followers were not to be deceived by any such false alarms. Christ’s Second Advent would be as visible and unmistakable as the lightning which streaks from one part of the sky to the other. 17:25 Again the Lord Jesus told the disciples that before any of this could come to pass, He Himself would suffer many things and be rejected by that generation.17:26, 27 Turning back to the subject of His coming to reign, the Lord taught that the days immediately preceding that glorious event would be like the days of Noah. People ate, they drank, they married, and were given in marriage. These things are not wrong; they are normal, legitimate human activities. The evil was that men lived for these things and had no thought or time for God. After Noah and his family entered the ark, the flood came and destroyed the rest of the population. So the Second Coming of Christ would mean judgment for those who reject His offer of mercy. 17:28-30 Again, the Lord said that the days preceding His Second Advent would be similar to those of Lot. Civilization had advanced somewhat by that time; men not only ate and drank, but they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. It was man’s effort to bring in a golden era of peace and prosperity without God. On the very day that Lot, his wife and daughters went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed the wicked city. So will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Those who concentrate on pleasure, self-gratification, and commerce will be destroyed. 17:31 It will be a day when attachment to earthly things will imperil a man’s life. If he is on the housetop, he should not try to salvage any possessions from his house. If he is out in the field, he should not turn back to his house. He should flee from those places where judgment is about to fall. 17:32 Although Lot’s wife was taken almost by force out of Sodom, her heart remained in the city. This was indicated by the fact that she turned back. She was out of Sodom, but Sodom was not out of her. As a result, God destroyed her by turning her into a pillar of salt. 17:33 Whoever seeks to save his life by caring only for physical safety, but not caring for his soul, will lose it. On the other hand anyone who loses his life during this period of tribulation because of faithfulness to the Lord will actually preserve it for all eternity. 17:34-36 The Lord’s coming will be a time of separation. Two men will be sleeping in one bed. One will be taken away in judgment. The other, a believer, will be spared to enter Christ’s kingdom. Two women will be grinding together; the one, an unbeliever, will be taken away in the storm of God’s wrath; the other, a child of God, will be spared to enjoy millennial blessings with Christ. Incidentally, verses 34 and 35 accord with the rotundity of the earth. The fact that it will be night in one part of the earth and day in another, as indicated by the activities mentioned, displays scientific knowledge not discovered till many years later. 17:37 The disciples fully understood from the Savior’s words that His Second Advent would be catastrophic judgment from heaven on an apostate world. So they asked the Lord where this judgment would fall. His answer was that wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. The eagles or vultures symbolize impending judgments. The answer therefore is that judgments would swoop down on every form of unbelief and rebellion against God, no matter where found. In chapter 17, the Lord Jesus had warned the disciples that afflictions and persecutions lay ahead. Before the time of His glorious appearing, they would be required to go through deep trials. By way of preparation, the Savior gives further instruction concerning prayer. In the following verses, we find a praying widow, a praying Pharisee, a praying tax-collector, and a praying beggar.