Luke 17:20-37 "Don't Look Back!"
Angel went to Six Flags last week with a few of his friends. You know that little sign that says “Please place all loose items (phone, sunglasses, wallet, etc.) in a locker for safekeeping?” They have this ride called “The Joker,” it’s a spinning pendulum designed to remove your cell phone from your pocket and hurl it at 75 MPH to the pavement 180 feet below. It was probably the collaborative brainchild of Apple and Samsung to drum up business.
Angel was pretty sure he needed a phone upgrade after going on the ride. I don’t know—it might still have some life in it.
He also thought he would be cautious and give his debit card to a friend for safekeeping because they had a zipper on their pocket. I mean, it’s a solid plan. Unless your friend keeps unzipping the pocket and getting stuff out of it and doesn’t notice when they drop your card somewhere. Oopsies!
So, Angel came home from Six Flags with a phone that looks like it lost a fight with the Terminator and no way to pay for anything. Just in time to start a new job at a church where he would certainly need both of those things every day.
As followers of Jesus, I think this is a pretty good picture of what we all do with things in our life that are important to us. Our job. Our kids. Our money. Our time. We don’t want to hand them over—we want to hold onto them. Keep them in our pockets on this thrill ride we call life on planet Earth. But it’s a lie to think anything is safer when we hold on to it tightly and don’t give it to God to keep it safe.
Today, Jesus has some really strong words about giving our entire life to Him, holding nothing back—or else those things will get destroyed along with the rest of the world when He returns in power and glory at the end of time. And until then, if we don’t keep all those things in His care, doing with them what He wants us to do with them, then there’s a constant danger that those things will tempt us to turn away from Him when it matters most. He warns us, “Don’t look back.”
We don’t want our life to be like Angel’s iPhone and debit card.
Luke chapter 17 VERSE 20:
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” Luke 17:20-21
The Pharisees were the self-appointed keepers of the faith. They had been following Jesus around, watching every move, critical of every word. When they say “kingdom of God” they mean Messiah. When will the Christ come? When will God send a new king to come and unite Israel and save the Jewish people from these Roman barbarians? They were really looking forward to the coming of the kingdom of Christ. But Jesus gives them a very disappointing answer, “Yeah, you’re not going to notice it when it happens. It’s already here. Hi. It’s me. The kingdom of God is in the midst of you already.”
Sometimes that line is translated as “the kingdom of God is inside you.” That’s a very misleading translation. It makes it sound like Jesus is saying “it’s just a spiritual thing,” like Jesus is just “king of your heart”—not really king. It leads to weird ideas like, “Just Jesus and me, that’s all I need.” Like faith in Jesus is some kind of personal, private thing.
Jesus is not saying, “The kingdom of God is inside YOU.” Jesus said this to the Pharisees. Do you think the kingdom of God was inside them? The faithless men who were trying to trap Him? The ones who were rejecting Him? No. He’s clearly talking about how He is in the midst of them. Jesus is the king who brought the kingdom of God. That’s what all His teaching and miracles have been about—announcing the kingdom of God is here.
When will the kingdom of God come? It already did and you missed it. You’re missing it as we speak.
There’s a concept called “now, not yet.” It’s very important if we’re going to understand anything about the kingdom of God and Jesus.
As Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, the kingdom of God was standing right in front of them. The kingdom of God is the activity of God—where the king is actively reigning. So, in that sense, the kingdom of God was Jesus, and it was happening “now.”
But it was also “not yet.” Because the kingdom in its fullness was yet to come. That’s what the rest of this passage is going to be about. The same is true for us—we are right now part of the kingdom of God but the fullness of the kingdom is yet to come. “Now, not yet.”
And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.
Luke 17:22-23
Jesus turns from the Pharisees to His disciples. Remember, He’s walking toward Jerusalem where He’s going to die on a cross, raise from the dead, and then ascend to heaven. It won’t be long before all these sweet days of hanging out with Jesus walking to Jerusalem are going to come to an end for the disciples. They’re going long for the good old days when Jesus was right there in the flesh in the midst of them. And they’re going to look forward with eager anticipation to the day when He returns in glory to make everything new once and for all, just like He promised.
And He doesn’t want them to be bamboozled. Don’t be tricked by people saying, “Hey, did you hear? Jesus came back and He’s waiting for us on a mountain in Big Bend National Park!” “Jesus is at a BBQ joint in Tomball!” Make you feel like you missed it.
He’s saying it’s understandable that they’re going to miss Him and that they’ll really be looking forward to His return but don’t worry, “When I return, it’s not going to be subtle—you’re not going to miss it.”
For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Luke 17:24-25
Don’t worry, no one is going to miss it. Everyone on earth, everyone under the heavens, is going to notice when Christ returns at the end of time. And we know He’s talking about the second coming at the end of time because He adds that first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation—the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, Pentecost, and the Gospel going to the Gentiles as the Jews reject Him.
Then Jesus really turns up the heat. He describes what it’s going to be like just before He comes back on the last day at the end of time. People are always talking about the signs of the apocalypse—well, here they are according to Jesus:
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-27
You remember the story of Noah. God told him to build an ark, big enough for his family and two of every land animal. They all got inside the ark, God shut the door, and then He flooded the whole earth. No one outside the ark survived.
And Noah warned them but no one believed him. They just kept doing what they were doing until the rain came and it was too late. Jesus says when He comes back at the end of time, it’s going to be the same.
Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Luke 17:28-30
Revealed—do you know what the word “apocalypse” means? It means “revealed.”
This reference is even more terrifying—no one decorates their nursery with images of Sodom and Gomorrah like they do with Noah’s Ark. The wickedness of Sodom was so bad that God rained fire from heaven and scorched the earth. This is particularly disturbing because it’s how the second coming is described in 2nd Peter 3:10 “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” When Jesus returns, it’s a complete do-over. A total reset. And like Sodom, it will be done with fire.
Like Noah, we’re going to want to be on the ark. I’m not going to take the time to completely explain this but the ark is Jesus. Have you ever wondered why we call it an “ark” instead of a “boat?” It’s because it points to Jesus. Read the description in Genesis, it wasn’t boat-shaped, it was a box. The Ark of the Covenant was a box in the Tabernacle and the Temple where the special presence of God on Earth was located—the Ark of the Covenant. In Revelation, the city of God with the throne where Jesus sits is called an “ark”—same word. The whole city is an ark. If that’s confusing, don’t worry about it—just remember this: the Ark is Jesus. When He comes back, you’re going to want to be on it. You’re going to want to be in Christ.
Notice what Jesus says everyone in the days of Noah and the days of Sodom were busy doing. He doesn’t even mention the wickedness. He just says they were busy doing normal everyday life things: eating, drinking, getting married, having families, buying stuff, selling stuff, planting, building—all the things we love about life. Pleasurable good things. Things we’re supposed to be doing. So what’s the problem?
Well, if those things are an end in themselves. If we try to hold them tightly in our hands. If we don’t give them to Him for safekeeping. If those things are done with no thought to serving God, worshiping God. If we do all the normal things of life as though there is no God—we’re going to ruin those things. Lose those things. We’re not going to be ready when Jesus comes in the full glory of His kingdom. We’re going to be too attached to those things. We’re going to look back at all that stuff and get caught up in it.
Everything in this life is attached to something. It’s either attached to Christ or it’s going to anchor us to the fate of the world. That’s what Jesus is warning about here. We either worship the Lord with every aspect of our life, give it all to Him, or we’re not going to be ready when He returns.
On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Luke 17:31-32
They entertained on their housetops—when Jesus comes back, don’t be running in the house to get your stuff.
Lot’s wife—do you remember what happened to her? They were living in Sodom and the angels warned them to get out of town. They were specifically told not to look back, no matter what, don’t look back. So, they started walking out of town and the fire started raining down, probably made a terrible sound, they could probably feel the heat on their back, probably smell it. Well, she turned around and she looked back. She was killed instantly—turned into a pillar of salt. Her heart was more attached to all the things she left behind in Sodom than the salvation in front of her. We don’t want to be like that.
When Jesus comes back at the end of time, no matter what you’re doing, drop everything and don’t look back. I don’t think He could be more clear about this. We don’t need anything in this world that we haven’t already given to Jesus. The only things worth having in this world are the things we give to the Lord. Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.”
Which was actually Angel’s senior quote in the yearbook. Too bad he didn’t think to apply it to cell phones.
Then Jesus said something that He probably repeated more than anything else. One of the only things quoted in all four Gospels and twice in Matthew. It must be important:
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. Luke 17:33
Whatever aspects of your life you try to hold onto, not give to God, not put under the Lordship of Christ—those things will be lost. This is true in the little things, the big things, and it’s true of your whole life overall. When you lose your life by taking up your cross, dying and rising with Christ—by giving up your devotion to the world and not looking back, by trusting Jesus with your whole life—well then your life is preserved forever. Christ has promised that everyone who puts all their trust in Him will get everything back and so much more. Life. Salvation. Eternity. Everything.
But when Jesus returns, It’s going to be so sudden there won’t be time to do anything before the end arrives. If you wait until then to think of preserving your life by handing it over, you will lose it. Today is the day to put all your trust in Him—there won’t be time in the moment when He returns. Jesus explains in horror movie imagery…
I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” Luke 17:34
When He returns at the end of time, He says it will be like this: there will be two people in a bed, one will be received into the kingdom of heaven and the other rejected. Two women will be grinding flour, one will be taken and the other left.
Who is in the kingdom of God and who isn’t? Who will be ready and who won’t? Jesus says you can’t tell by just looking at them. This is like the wheat and the tares. The sheep and the goats. The saved and the unsaved, the People who are in Christ and the people who are not.
By the way, no one knows when this is going to happen. Could be at night when people are sleeping, could be during the day when people are working.
So, is this a reference to the rapture? You’ve probably heard of “the rapture,” right?
Well, it depends on what you mean by "the rapture." The English word "rapture" comes from the Latin translation of the verb "caught up" in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 where it says,
“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together (rapture/rapiemur) with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
The Greek word for “caught up” means to be taken on purpose. So if by “rapture” you mean what 99.9% of all Christians believed until the 19th century—that anyone who is still living on earth when Christ returns visibly on the last day "will be caught up" ("raptured") to be with Jesus as He’s returning, together with "the dead in Christ" (all the believers who had died and went to heaven already) the living will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (basically, the resurrection of the living—go from the body you have now to the glorified body that you’ll have for eternity) to "meet the Lord in the air" as He returns in glory to judge the world at the end of time—gathering all His people to Him in safety before He destroys heavens and Earth with fire—if that’s what you mean by “the rapture” then sure, that’s what this is talking about. Because this is all talking about the second coming of Christ that the church has been waiting on for 2,000 years.
Just keep in mind, Christ will return only once (and everyone will see it as clear as lightning in the sky) at that moment He will "take" all believers, living and dead, gather them to be with Him before He destroys the world and recreates a new heaven and a new earth. This is the “not yet” part we were talking about earlier. Christ returns, and we will live on this new earth, under a new heaven, in the perfectly restored kingdom of God that is yet to come. But until then, things will go along as they always have up until the end—we aren’t going to figure out when Jesus is coming back by observing the news or the signs of the times—we’re just supposed to be ready.
I understand that people can be very emotionally attached to their end times theologies and theories. We certainly don’t need to fight or argue about any of this. God’s going to do it the way He wants to do it no matter what any of us think about it. Here’s what Christians agree on: Christ has promised to return, and when He does, He promises it will be really good for everyone who is looking forward to it—everyone who puts their trust in Him. We can have different “end times” views and still follow Jesus together. Deal?
And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” Luke 17:37
So the Pharisees started off by asking “when” the kingdom of God would come. Now the disciples ask “where” the kingdom of God will be. And Jesus gives a strange, disturbing answer. He seems to be using a common saying, an idiom. “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” In other words, it will be obvious, you can’t hide a dead body, the vultures will give it away every time.
Jesus returns to the idea of lightning lighting up the sky and says they will recognize where the kingdom of God is because it will be plain to see—easy to find.
Remember Jesus is walking toward Jerusalem, toward the cross. This is the event that will define the kingdom of God forever. When Jesus’ body is nailed to the cross and he dies surrounded by hostile enemies—vultures—that’s where you’ll find His kingdom—that’s where you’ll find the activity of God in the world. Where is the kingdom? It’s wherever the body of Christ is, and it will continue to be so throughout the age of the church—the body of Christ is where you’ll find the kingdom of God.
Wherever people believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, that’s where you’ll find the activity of God from now until Christ returns at the end of time on the last day.
Then, on that day, the kingdom of God will come in raw power and never before seen glory. When we least expect it. Suddenly. And it will be obvious, not only to those who believe and trust in Jesus but to everyone. It will be the day of truth—are you with Christ or against Him? Inside the ark or outside? Is your heart attached to the things of this world, are you looking back? Or have you put all your hope and trust in Him as you walk in the direction He sent you?
Faith isn’t just an idea. It’s not just inside you. Faith has to be followed by faithfulness—you have to do something with it, you have to do everything with it—or faith will rot and die. Use it or lose it. Nothing in your life is safe unless you put it in Jesus’ hands for safekeeping. That includes your job. Your kids. Your money. Your time. We don’t want to hand them over—we want to hold onto them. Your life is not safe in your own hands. It’s not safe in someone else’s pocket either—even if they have a zipper.
In this passage, Jesus wants us to live in daily repentance rather than putting it off or having some false confidence that we’ll be able to figure out the day when He returns. But you can take comfort, you can trust in Jesus. You can trust Him with everything in your life—put everything in His hands, trust that He knows how to take care of them better than you do. Take that faith you’ve been given and turn it into faithfulness. Faith in the Son of Man, who suffered and was rejected for us, so God would not reject us. He is returning. Everything we do here is trying to make sure we’re ready when He does. As we give more and more to the Lord then there’s less and less left except to look forward to His return. Take us out of this world with all of its pain and start our new life in the world to come. Are you looking forward to it? Until then, let’s keep faithfully walking in the direction He’s pointed us—toward our salvation. No looking back. Amen