The Heart of God — Luke 16-17

0:00 But certainly happy to see everyone here this morning and excited about the opportunity to to look at god's word once again here together. So, let's let's bow in prayer and then we'll we'll look at a portion of scripture together. Our heavenly father, we we pray this morning as we have opportunity to be together to to gather into the name of the lord Jesus Christ to have a copy of of your scripture with us. Father, we we want to look at it. We've been considering things through the weekend about what is our identity, our identity in Christ.

0:38 And so Father, as we look at your word, as we contemplate its principles, we pray that you would just apply it to our own heart and mind. We understand this morning that each of us comes with a different story, a different age, a different experience but father, we all have definite things in common and one of those things that we have in common this morning is to hear your word. So we're going to ask that as a group that you would you would speak to us this morning. You would make it plain to us what your word for us today is. And so father, help us.

1:18 Help us in this. We ask this in your... In the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, if you would take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 17, please.

1:28 Luke chapter 17. Yes, we've been having a conference weekend where we've been looking at the identity of of our identity in Christ But we've also been doing at Westlake Bible Fellowship, a study through the book of Luke. And we find ourselves this morning in Luke 17. Devin and I were able to share Luke 17. We kind of kind of sliced it in half and and are parsing it out.

1:52 And we're going to continue with that, but I think you'll be interested to see how the theme of identity does merge or correspond with particular passage in Luke chapter 17. Now, Luke chapter 17, I'm going to give you just kind of a little bit of an overview as to how this chapter lays out. It's in the Gospel. Gospel account according to Luke, you may be familiar with how some of the things lay out in this but I'm going to divide it into four sections, okay? Four sections.

2:25 The first section, we're going to call it this. It's about well, I'm kind of a relationships kind of a guy, you know, so like I'm going to label it relationships and forgiveness. This is where he talks about in the first four first four verses where he talks about like, beware if offenses come. And then if there is an offense, he says, go to your brother and rebuke him. And and and then if he asks for forgiveness, then forgive him.

2:51 So we've got this this relational this aspect about keeping relationships good and healthy. Okay? That's the first section. The second section, he gives us example about the steward and he he uses this phrase that catches our attention unprofitable servant and we're wondering like, what could this mean? Like, do I want to aspire to be an unprofitable servant?

3:15 But no, he's got some teaching there about servanthood or the the role of the servant. That's the second section. The third section deals with this this account where 10 lepers are healed and they then they go to the priest as instructed by the lord Jesus but only one returns and comes back and gives glory to god and expresses his Thanksgiving and so I'm just labeling, I'm labeling that that portion Thanksgiving, okay? So, the that's the third portion. Then, this fourth section that starts about verse 20 and goes to the end of the chapter, we're going to label the kingdom of God.

3:57 It has to do with the kingdom of God that's yet future. So we've got these four different divisions of this particular chapter. Now, if you consider those four different divisions, I'd like to suggest to you that you see the heart of god in every one of those. Do you not? What's the heart of god?

5:03 The heart of god. Then, we see the heart of god in the role of the servant, don't we? Well, Luke's already told us back a few chapters ago that the lord Jesus Christ came not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. The heart of God is being exemplified in Christ as the role of the servant. And what does He do?

5:30 Philippians tells us that He takes on the form of mankind. He steps out of heaven and He takes on the form of a servant. Then He washes the disciples' feet. There He is, given this role and example as a servant. His heart is being expressed in real life situations, the heart of God.

5:54 Then we come to this third section that I labeled Thanksgiving. And you've got your Bibles open there to Luke chapter 17. And we we look at how do we see the heart of god here? Look at verse 17 of chapter 17. And Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed but where are the nine?

6:19 This is the heart of God being revealed. He wants our thanksgiving. He's saying, Where are the nine? He wants our communion. He wants our praise.

6:31 He wants our interaction. He wants this. And he's asking, When it's not given, where is it? This is his heart. This is his heart wanting to receive, wanting to communicate.

6:45 And then in the fourth section, we'll see the heart of God being revealed in the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. And we'll talk about that more in-depth. Now by way of overview and kind of introduction to this chapter as well, I want to give you let's see, I think there's it's one, two, three, four, five, six. Six statements. Six statements or excuse me, six phrases.

7:13 Two of them are statements. Four of them are questions. Okay? The statements that are made throughout the chapter that I want to kind of highlight that will help us build some framework as we go through this. Now, look at look at verse three.

7:28 Here's the first statement. Jesus says this, verse three of chapter 17. He says, Take heed unto yourselves. And here's the statement, If a brother trespasses against thee, rebuke him and if he would repent, forgive him. First statement.

7:47 The second thing is going to be a question and that's in verse seven. This is Jesus speaking as well. But which of you, speaking to His disciples, which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he is coming from the field, 'Go sit down to meet.' So He's asking this scenario. He's given him this scenario. He's asking this question.

8:11 Look now at verse 17. We see the next question that's being asked and it's by the Lord Jesus Himself again. We just read it. Were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? This is one of the questions asked in this chapter.

8:26 Then verse 20 is another question, but this time it's asked of the Pharisees. Okay? The Pharisees are asking this to Jesus. And when Jesus was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come. That's their question.

8:45 When will the kingdom of God come? In verse 22, Jesus makes a statement and it says in verse 22, He said unto His disciples, Jesus said unto the disciples, here's the statement, The days will come when you shall desire to see the one of the days of the Son of Man and you shall not see it. And then lastly, the next question that we have is asked by the disciples in verse 37. It's only a two word question and it's asked to Jesus by the disciples, Where, Lord? Where?

9:25 So we have these statements here. I've given you an overview of the chapter And I want to kind of right up front here make a little bit of a practical application of how we see the heart of God in these four different divisions. We're considering these statements and or questions that are being asked. But even like if we take this twenty six Below conference weekend and we use it as a little object lesson. Now you may or may not have been aware of this, but as we gathered together Friday night and all day Saturday, there were probably a couple of offenses.

10:33 There were some offenses that occurred during our conference weekend. Now I'm glad that so many of you stuck it out and we're still here, right? But you know, in real life, offenses occur, right? I mean, you say an offhanded comment, you get tired, you do something, somebody does something different than you would have done it, you name it. It happens.

10:56 Now, what the teaching Jesus is going to give is to say, when the offenses occur, then ask for forgiveness and be reconciled. Keep whole, stay whole with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And we want to notice this, when he he says this language, if your brother offends you and we're going to say this, if your sister offend you, okay? So, it's it's a it's a family relationship. Notice, if you will, in all four of these things, might be jumping ahead of myself, but let me let's just stick with this, okay?

11:31 Offenses happen and hopefully they've been reconciled. The second thing was servanthood. I mean, Tim was out there with his Blackstone yesterday cooking up bacon and he was serving the group. Wayne came yesterday and picked up trash. He was serving the group.

11:54 Other people are working behind the scenes and you understand what we're doing? As the body of Christ, as a group of believers, I'm exemplifying the heart of Christ. Christ serves so I serve. And Christ served me, I serve others. Christ has enabled me, He's gifted me, He's equipped me, I serve others.

12:16 And we serve our brothers and sisters in Christ in the context of the local body, whether it be in their daily personal life or whether it be as a group gathered together in something like this. But there has been servanthood going on. All kind of different ways that you've stepped into a role of a servant. Now, how about this Thanksgiving? There's probably some have come and they've heard the word open and they get this glimpse of God and they say, Wow.

12:54 You see, this is what... At it in the chapter. Chapter 17 and look at how it comes in verse 15. And when one of them, when he saw that he was healed, he turned back and with a loud voice glorified God. You see, this is the Thanksgiving.

13:14 Is this happening with us, with you and I? Did this happen with you as you gathered together with the other saints, as you heard the teaching of God's word? Did you get an a wow moment? A like realization of a fresh realization? This is God.

13:32 He's incredible. Did you glorify him with a loud voice? Would you be willing to fall down on your face at his feet with thanksgiving? This happened during the weekend and the kingdom of god, I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to save that one for just a minute, Because we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But do you understand that your identity as a follower of Christ is to keep good relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

14:17 Your identity as a follower of Christ is to serve one another. Your identity as a follower of Christ is to recognize who Christ is and be awed and wondered by Him and fall at His feet in thanksgiving for what He's done for you. You see, we're going through this little passage or this chapter, Luke 17, and I've given you these four different divisions. And we've been talking somewhat about this this aspect of Thanksgiving. And as we as we consider this, the little verses that we just read, and he fell down on his face at the Lord Jesus Christ's feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan.

15:44 In fact, listen to these words that Doctor. Gooding writes, All God's gifts are meant to lead us to the person who is His supreme gift to mankind. Me read that again. All God's gifts are meant to lead us to the person who is His supreme gift to mankind. What was the gift to the leopards?

16:14 It was the gift of healing. What was that gift doing? Was Christ was showing who He was among them. He was validating that He had power over disease. And so He's given them this gift.

16:30 He's given them this sign to show them who He is. You think about it, all through the Gospels we've been reading about it. He has given sign after sign, wonder after wonder, miracle after miracle, These things all exemplifying and every gift or every sign that Jesus gives is to show who He is. Now, listen to the next sentence of this little portion I want to quote. It is strange behavior to take god's gift and to ignore him.

17:12 It's strange behavior to take god's gift and ignore him. And this is where it comes back into play. You see, these these lepers, they were unclean. Would it be fair to say they were on death row? There's no cure.

17:40 They're on death row. And they're going to take healing, but they're going to ignore the healer. I mean, nine of them are. And here's the heart of God. Were there not 10 cleansed?

17:59 Where are the nine? I tried to think about an example like how can I put this into modern day vernacular or help us to understand this? What if Andy here needed a kidney? Do you need a kidney? No.

18:17 All right. Okay. And Philip is a match. And Philip says, Dad, I'll give you my kidney. In fact, I know several people that have had a kidney transplant.

18:28 Maybe you know some that have had a kidney transplant. But I'll tell you this. This is okay, know like I know of a situation where a woman needed, she she was she's my age. She needed the kidney transplant. She got it.

18:43 She actually got it from a woman that was older than her. There was a match for the kidney but you know, like, she gave up her kidney and she's very thankful. I mean, she's very thankful, very appreciative but guess what? Life kind of goes on and they, you know, she doesn't call her every day and say, hey, thanks for the kidney or call her to check-in like, hey, kidney's doing great. You know, like, it's just like she kind of goes on with life and that's kind of a little bit of a like, man, we we see things like we have these brushes or experiences with death and they kind of just wake us up and we're like, Man, I need to get my life back on track.

20:09 Jesus also said, Do this in remembrance of me. And do you think when he were gathered together, does he say there were a 100 cleansed? Where are the I'm not trying to make this like this is Jesus asking. This is his heart revealed, okay? This is what he desires.

20:38 This is not meant to be a legalistic statement but you'd, oh, okay. Let's give another example. How about this? In Mark chapter one, we see Jesus, it says, he wrote in a great while before day, he rose up, departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed with the heavenly father. Do you think the heavenly father would ever say, And where is Andy?

21:04 He didn't wake up a great while before day. He didn't depart into a solitary place. He didn't have some time to talk with me today. I think this is his heart. Where is he?

21:18 Where is the nine? Put your name in there. Where are you? When the saints are gathered together, when there's a purpose for the time, when when we're spending time with the lord, where are we? Are you with the Lord?

21:51 You see, back in the end of chapter 16, we hear about the rich man of Lazarus. They were given a sign. The rich man says, Man, this is a terrible place of torment. Go and tell my brothers so that so that they will they will know to repent and get their life straightened out with the holy god. And let's say, no.

22:17 We're not going to do it. And we hear these words that they have Moses and the prophets. If they will not believe them, then even though one rise from the dead, he will not believe. The sign is there, Moses and the prophets. The testimony is there.

22:36 Complete in scripture. One raised risen from the dead. Jesus risen from the dead. The sign is there. The lepers, the sign is here.

22:49 The sign of healing was here. He is Jesus. Only one went away and we read it in verse 19. Jesus says, go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole. Only one went away saved.

23:08 Only one went away redeemed, forgiven of his sin, made whole, and it's faith. Faith in the lord Jesus Christ that did that. You see, that we transition right into verse 20 and we have these Pharisees. What are the Pharisees doing? They're looking for a sign.

23:26 The Pharisees are looking for a sign and when Jesus was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said this. Now, we're going to connect this back a little bit with some of the previous questions that they had asked. They had already asked for a sign. You know, and Jesus has responded to that even in the course of the book of Luke. But here again, He says this, The kingdom of God will not come with observation or with an outward sign, your Bible might say.

23:57 And so they're looking for this sign. They're looking for some kind of validation. And, you know, Jesus has given them so many signs and wonders to validate who he is and they're still asking. We want to know when the kingdom of god is going to come and he says, it's not going to come by observation or by a sign. But notice as we continue on, it says this, that neither shall they say, Jesus speaking, Neither shall they say, Lo, here it is, or Lo, there it is, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

24:31 Or maybe translated, the kingdom of God is among you. Jesus asked or Jesus answers their question and he brings open this topic of the kingdom of god. Hold your finger there if you will in in Luke and go back to with me to Daniel chapter two. Daniel chapter two. Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea.

25:11 We look at Daniel chapter two. Now, Jesus has just, well, actually, the the the Pharisees have done this. The Pharisees have kind of stepped into new territory, so to speak. And and I I I think about this and I wonder, like, okay, I'm going to give the Pharisees a little grace here because you think about this, like they're just curious. They're curious about God's timeline, how things are going to play out.

25:40 And so they're asking, when is this kingdom of God going to come? If you go through the book of Luke, it's mentioned, the kingdom of god is mentioned or god's kingdom is mentioned at least about 45 times and so this is a a right? It's something there. We want to understand what it means and so, these guys are curious And I would say this, we've got teaching here, we've got teaching that Jesus is going to do, He's going to answer these Pharisees questions who were at the time unbelievers. They're scoffing Jesus.

26:11 They're trying to trick Him. They're jealous of Him. But then he's also got this group of believers and guess what? They're asking the same question. We're all curious about how the things are going to play out.

26:23 That's normal. That's natural. And so here, they're asking this. Now, I find it interesting that they demanded it of him. I don't quite understand that.

26:32 I'm a little taken back like here, the created is demanding of the creator That's not a good spot to be in but okay. So, now, I've asked you to turn to Daniel. Listen, so, what I'm what I'm saying is that these guys, Jesus is going to respond but it's it's this is prophetical, okay? These are things yet to come And so we're going to get a little glimpse here from Daniel and we want to understand this this kingdom but notice this, Daniel chapter two and verse 44. Daniel two and four forty four.

27:30 This is different than any other man made kingdom. This is different than anything that's ever happened in history before. This is different than than Saul being the first king of Israel and David being the next king. This is different, okay? God will, the god of heaven will 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, all the previous kingdoms, all the existing man made kingdoms of what we know.

28:01 These things will be will be be done away with and god will establish his kingdom and it shall stand forever. Verse 45, for as much as that thou sawest the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it break in pieces of iron. He's referring back to a previous the previous prophecy, the brass and the clay and the silver and the gold. Listen, here here's what you want to catch. The great god hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof.

28:38 What's the what's the interpretation of the dream? God has a future kingdom. The god of heaven has a future kingdom that he's going to set up. What were the Pharisees asking about? They're asking about God's future kingdom.

28:51 When will this be? You're in Daniel chapter seven. Flip over to chapter or excuse me, you're in chapter two. Flip flip over to chapter seven. And when you find chapter seven, go to verse 13.

29:12 Verse 13 says this, and I saw, this is Daniel prophesying, okay? This is a vision given to him by god, a prophetic vision for our learning. I saw in the night visions and behold, one like the son of man. This is Jesus who came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him and there was given to him dominion and glory, a kingdom that all people, all nations, all languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.

29:57 Do you catch this? Do you see that that that Jesus is being instilled as the king. God the father is setting up a kingdom and Jesus Christ will be the king. We hear the words of of of first Timothy that says, king of kings and lord of lords. He is the king.

30:15 He's been set upon the throne as the king. And so with him being established as the king, what will happen? There... His kingdom will be there and others will serve him. Did you catch that?

30:28 He'll have dominion over that. And so here he is. We we think about the four categories of our of our chapter. We have this relationship, thanks give or a relationship and forgiveness. We have servanthood.

30:46 He's the king is in dominion. I'm serving the king. We have Thanksgiving. I realize who he is that I've been I've been placed in his kingdom and then we have the kingdom of god itself. Being described and being defined.

31:02 Now, there's other verses that we could look at even in Isaiah, we would find out what is the capital city. Well, it's Jerusalem. It's it's defined for us and and and so, there it is a brief definition of this kingdom of god concept. Now, go back. You could if you're if you're really good, you can still keep your finger in Luke but go to John chapter three.

31:48 They're having this theological debate. They're having this discussion. And He says, Verily, verily or truly, truly, I say unto you, Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of god. Now, are you putting this together? That that that god's got this design, god's got a kingdom in mind but for you and I to be put part of the royal subjects, we've got to be born again.

32:16 My identity is in Christ. I I become a I become a member of the kingdom. I become a royal heir. I become a subject in god's kingdom. Through belief in the lord Jesus Christ through his spiritual birth.

32:39 Colossians will say it this way. Colossians chapter one and I believe it's verse 14. Colossians chapter one is verse 13. Who hath delivered us, this is God, has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin. And so Jesus, he gives these Pharisees back to Luke chapter 17.

33:21 He gives these Pharisees just a little a little a response. Hey, the kingdom of god is is not going to come with observation. But you've you've had Moses, you've had the prophets, you have the word of god, will you recognize what I'm doing? Will you recognize my kingdom? Will you, like here's Nicodemus, a leader, a religious leader, he's going to step in there and he's going to change from being, he's going to no longer antagonize Christ.

33:59 He's no longer going to be an enemy of Christ. He's no longer jealous of Christ. He's going to step in and say, look, even me as a Jewish ruler, I know I should know these things but the the what what you're saying cannot be true except you have come from god. I'm going to be born again and Nicodemus is going to be a part of this kingdom. Now these Pharisees had a chance to do that.

34:23 But there many of them rejected. Some believed, many rejected. Then He turns to His disciples and he gives him this statement. We referred to this earlier that he gives him this statement and he says, the days will come when you shall see one the days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the son of man and you shall not see it. You don't have to turn there.

34:49 I'm going to read you a verse just from a earlier portion in Luke. It's Luke chapter 10 and verse 23 if you're taking notes but just listen to this. Jesus also speaking to the disciples earlier. He said this, he said to this them to them privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you have seen. I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things which you are now seeing and have not seen them and to hear the things which you hear and they have not heard them.

35:23 You see, Jesus was kind of giving them a little glimpse like, hey, people through the ages, they wanted to be where you are. You got a front row seat. I mean, we think about this. We kind of daydream about this and think, wow, wouldn't it been great to be one of the disciples? And so, Jesus, he he tells them, he tells them this truth.

35:43 You're going to even desire to see more things but guess what? You're not, you're going to desire to see this but you may not see it. Look at verse 23 and they they shall say to you, see here or see there and Jesus says, don't go after that. Don't follow that. He wants them to keep he he wants them to keep his focus, their focus on him And he tells them this, for as lightning that lights out one part of the sky under heaven, it shines into the other part of heaven, so shall the son of man be in that day.

36:59 He's first going to do these things and now we know two thousand years later that those disciples didn't see the coming of the Son of Man to set up His kingdom. That's yet to happen. You see? That's still future. Now, here we've laid out some of these things.

37:22 We're exploring some of these topics and let me say this, that god's timeline from here on out, well, there's different views, different opinions, different thinking but here's what what we would like to express and I say that, I say, we, Denzel and I would like to express, hey, we want to be able to talk about, have rational conversations about prophetic things, about the end times but what we what we don't want is this to become a divisive issue. Go back. If there's offenses, keep the offenses, reconcile them, serve one another. One way we serve each other is to share our thinking, our learning, our thoughts, our ideas with each other. You see?

38:14 And we keep Christ as the one that He is and we're bringing ourselves to Thanksgiving to Him and then we explore all these things about the kingdom. But there's other issues and we don't we want to take any hot topic issues and diffuse them without them becoming divisive. Men and women's roles is a common conversation right now. Sorry, visitors. We're getting into some housekeeping items here.

38:45 But whether or not you have a part in your own salvation, we wouldn't be able to have valid conversation about this without it becoming a divisive issue. So we broached on this little topic about the end times where we might say it this way, that the Scripture would teach that the Lord Jesus came unto His own and His own received Him not. There's no debate about Jesus came as a babe in the manger. Then we read in one Thessalonians that He will come in the air to bring up, to rapture all those that remain and who are alive to meet him in the air. Those that have died in Christ together.

39:33 So he came into his own, his own received him not. He came in the air and he called his own out. And then there's an up next step. He's coming again. He's coming again with his own.

39:49 Came into his own. He called out his own. Now, he's coming again with his own and that's where I understand this portion in Luke to be. The coming with his own back to the earth to physically set up his kingdom for a millennial reign. Now, if you got different ideas or concepts, we'd like to hear them.

40:11 Can send it to you know, just send it to the chapel address. Now, let's conclude. Go to go to first Thessalonians. First Thessalonians chapter five. And let me make one more connection with Luke.

40:37 The last time I spoke in Luke, I was in chapter 12. And you may remember chapter 12 gets into this a little bit. In fact, let me just... Again, you don't have to turn, but let me remind you of what this says. Listen to these words, okay?

40:55 This is already covered in chapter 12. This is Jesus speaking. But rather seek you the kingdom of god and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not little flock for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms.

41:13 Provide for yourselves bags which wax not old and treasures in heaven which fall not nor or fail not, neither the thief will approach, neither the moths will corrupt. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also and listen, god has been revealing his heart throughout this gospel. God has shown his heart in the calling of the prodigal and as he's as he's waiting for the son to return. God reveals his heart. God revealed his heart in the rich man in Lazarus.

41:43 He says that he's willing, not willing that any would perish but at all would come to repentance. God is revealing his heart in in showing this aspects of forgiveness, of showing these aspects of of servanthood, of showing this aspect of of Thanksgiving and wanting you to be a part of it and showing this aspect of the future kingdom. He's revealing his heart. Let your loins be girded and your lights burning and you yourselves like unto men wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding that when he knocks, he will... They will...

42:20 The door will be open to them immediately. Blessed are those servants who when the lord comes, he shall find them watching. Maybe that's just a good place to stop right there. Read one Thessalonians five on your own. You're children of the light, not children of darkness.

42:55 Father, we understand that the scripture would even validate itself where you would give us this example of the days of Noah. You would give us this example of the days of Lot. You would tell us that future judgment is coming. You judge the world in a worldwide flood. You judge the city with fire and brimstone.

43:17 A future day of judgment is coming. Father, we pray for understanding about how to be prepared to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us a gift, not only a physical healing as we read about with these lepers, but he gave them the the sign gift to say, I am the Lord Jesus Christ who has paid the price and penalty for your sin. He that calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, shall be protected, shall be placed into my kingdom. And so, Father, we ask this now in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.