Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Luke 17:20-37, NASB
- Series: Luke (2025-2027), no. 62
- Date: Sunday, September 27, 2026 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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When the Distant Becomes Near
I’m not good at gauging how much time has passed, just as I’m not good at figuring out the microphone. I think it was this last week that we were looking at needing to replace a bulb up here. I said, “It shouldn’t be out already. We just replaced that last year.” Rick pulled the invoice, and it was something like 2021. That kind of thing happens all the time.
That’s why I’m always agreeing to things that seem far off, because I think, “Oh, they’ll never get here.” Back in the spring, I agreed to two trips that required out-of-state driving back-to-back. I agreed to them months out because I thought they’d never get here. They always get here.
I have a bad habit, especially if something is at the beginning of the month. I can have something on the calendar for October 1, and we can be on September 30. Somebody will ask, “Have you prepared for that meeting at all?” “No, that’s in October. That’s nowhere near here.”
Some of us have a mission trip coming up to Alaska next month. My wife asked me a couple of weeks ago, “Have y’all bought plane tickets?” I said, “No, we’re still working on that.” She said, “Well, you know you leave in X number of days, right?” No, that’s October! But sure enough, it was just a few days away.
What I’m telling you is that it can be dangerous to perceive that things that sound distant are always going to be distant, that time is never going to catch up with you. A lot of people view God’s judgment in the same way. As we continue our study through Luke 17, Jesus addresses the fact that there have always been people, and there will always be people, who look at the judgment of God and say, “Oh, no, that’s hundreds of years away. That’s thousands of years away.” Even up to the moment when judgment came, they were still saying, “No, that’s way, way off.”
Jesus’ Warning About Judgment
We’re going to look at what Jesus says about this in Luke 17 so we can learn how to adjust our lives accordingly. We begin in verse 20 and read through verse 37. Luke tells us of Jesus’ conversation:
Now He was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, and He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long 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 leave, and do not run after them. For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so will it also be in the days of the Son of Man: people were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, and they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, and they were building; but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. “On that day, the one who will be on the housetop, with his goods in the house, must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever strives to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken, the other will be left. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.” And responding, they said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.”
This is a sobering passage of Scripture. If you’re a guest with us, especially for the first time, you may be thinking, “What have I gotten myself into? Here they’re talking about the end times.” Trust me, it was not in my plans. It was in the Lord’s, but we’re studying our way through the book of Luke, and this is the next passage.
I’ll tell you, it was extremely inconvenient for me. Back during the summer, when I was preaching on us being sent for the sake of the gospel, I preached a message on the great multitude in Revelation. I came out of that realizing there is so much about the end times that I still don’t understand and won’t pretend to understand for you, especially when it comes to the timing.
I’ve been trying to figure out, as I have time to do that deep dive for myself, what the Bible teaches about this. Do I really think what I think because that’s what the Bible says, or because that’s what I grew up thinking? I’ve been trying to study that, and then we get to Luke 17, and He’s talking about His coming. I thought, “Well, thanks for that, Lord, because I still haven’t figured out the timing on all of this.”
The point of this passage, though, is not the timing. It’s not the timing of how all the end-times things are going to play out. This passage may give us some clues about how everything works out when we look at it in combination with other passages in Matthew, Revelation, Daniel, Thessalonians, and places like that. But Jesus’ point is not to lay out a plan for the disciples and say, “Here’s the structure of the end times. Here’s how it’s all going to work.”
Jesus is giving them a warning. He’s giving Israel a warning, because He’s doing this right in the hearing of the Pharisees and religious leaders. He’s speaking to the disciples, but He’s giving them a warning about what will come for Israel. And even though the church is not Israel, there are things we can learn and apply to our lives today about living with the reality that one day we will all stand before the Lord.
The Kingdom in Their Midst
That’s the approach we want to take today: not speculating about the order in which things happen, not getting worried about whether we’ll be here for this or that, but recognizing that each of us has an appointment with God. Each of us will stand before Him. Every person who’s ever lived will stand before Him as He sits in judgment and weighs what we’ve done, and in particular, what we’ve done with the gospel.
Again, He’s speaking to the disciples, but He’s speaking where the religious leaders of Israel can hear Him. The disciples are the audience, but Israel is really who this message is for. They begin asking Him questions about the kingdom, and I think the messages Jesus has been preaching over the last several chapters were not lost on them.
Without a lot of subtlety, Jesus has been making the point over and over that because He has come as the Messiah of Israel and His own people are rejecting Him, before long the kingdom is going to be opened to people like Samaritans and Gentiles. The Pharisees thought the kingdom was just for us, just for people with the right family background who did, said, and thought all the right things and were part of their group. They thought the kingdom was for them. Jesus has been showing them that the kingdom of God is open to all who will come to Him by faith, all who will repent and turn to Him.
That’s why we see these examples of Samaritans and Gentiles. The story right before this is the Samaritan who had leprosy, whom we talked about last week. They all hollered out to Jesus for healing, and they all received it, but the Samaritan was the one who came back for Jesus. So Jesus has been making this point without a lot of subtlety.
I’m sure the Pharisees picked up on the fact that He’s talking about the gates of the kingdom being thrown open to more than just Israel. So they try to corner Him and ask Him questions about the kingdom: “Tell us more about the kingdom of God. When is it coming? How is it going to work?” And He tells them they’re not going to have to look for signs or miracles. That’s what He’s talking about in verses 20 and 21.
He says, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” Some translations will say, “The kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God is not within the Pharisees. I’m not saying that’s a wrong translation, but we shouldn’t interpret it that way. These men were as lost as they could be.
To say the kingdom of God is “in you” or “among you”—those words are very similar in Greek. Jesus is pointing to Himself, saying, “You’re wanting to know when the kingdom is coming and how it’s going to work. The kingdom is right here. The kingdom is standing right here.” Then He turns to the disciples and tells them more about what’s going to happen to Israel in the future. From this, we can learn principles that enable us to live faithfully now.
Don’t Be Deceived About the Coming of Jesus
The first thing He would have them understand, and have us understand by extension, is don’t be deceived about the coming of Jesus. We see Him hit on this theme in verses 22 through 25. He warns that a time is coming when they will long to see His day. They will long for His return: “You will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.”
This is important to them because they still don’t understand that He’s about to be taken from them. They still don’t understand the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. They don’t understand all of that. In a very short time, there will be a time when they genuinely long for Him to be back.
But Jesus is looking even further beyond that, to a time when we would look at the world around us, see its condition, and long for Jesus to be here. Some of you have probably felt that. Some of us have felt that. We look at the world around us and say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
Even as we say that, we know that God gives more time in His grace because He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Jesus has not delayed His return because He’s fallen down on the job or because He’s letting people get by with things. He’s giving space for one more opportunity to repent. He wants people to turn to Him.
There’s going to be a time when Jesus’ followers long to see His coming. The younger you are, the harder that is to imagine. I remember years and years ago sitting there, hearing older saints and the pastor say things like that, and thinking, “I don’t want these end-times things to happen.” The older I get, and the more I see the condition of the world, the more I’m on board with Him just showing up and doing what He’s going to do.
But He’s giving more space, more time for people to repent. He says there will be a time when people long to see His return, but they will not. When we get to verse 23, He tells them not to chase sensational reports that point to false messiahs. He talks about that elsewhere, I believe in Matthew 24, when He says there will come a day when people point to false teachers and false Christs and say, “Oh, there He is! Oh, He’s coming back!”
That happens today. You can go online and look it up; I think there’s a Wikipedia article even listing people who have claimed to be Jesus. There’s a surprisingly long list of people who have claimed to be the second coming of Jesus, and people have fallen for it. Somebody came in with a message, somebody came in purporting to show signs, saying, “Here I am,” or, “Look there, we found Him! Look over there, there He is!”
Jesus said not to go after those reports. If somebody says, “Hey, Jesus is back. I’ve got to show you,” when Jesus comes back, nobody’s going to have to show you. That’s the point He’s trying to make. When Jesus is back, everybody’s going to know. Don’t chase sensational reports that point to false messiahs, and don’t look for the person who says, “I’m Him. I’ve come to fix it all.”
His Coming Will Be Unmistakable
When we get to verse 24, Jesus tells us that His coming isn’t going to be hidden. It’s not something that’s going to be missed when it happens. There’s this imagery: “Just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.”
Here in Oklahoma, we’ve seen a lot of thunderstorms. Maybe not lately, but I think we’re supposed to get some this week, and I’m looking forward to that and some more rain. We’ve seen some powerful thunderstorms, and you’ve seen how the lightning can streak from one end of the sky to the other and light everything up like it’s daylight. When that kind of lightning is displaying its power in the skies, you can’t miss it. You’re outside; you see it. Jesus says that’s what it’s going to be like when He returns.
“So will the Son of Man be in His day.” His coming is going to be unmistakable. It’s going to be openly evident, like lightning across the sky. What do we take from that today? We don’t have to look for some hidden secret. When Jesus comes back, it’s going to be evident.
Anybody who tells you, “Oh, I’m Him,” or, “I brought a message from Him,” or any of that, is lying to you. When He comes back, it’s going to be evident. But Jesus goes on in verse 25 to tell them that before that happens, He’s still got to go to Jerusalem. This coming back like lightning is not the next immediate goal. He still has to go to Jerusalem to be rejected and crucified by His own people. He says that has to happen first.
So He starts out with this theme of not being deceived. Don’t be deceived about the coming of Jesus, because we don’t need sensational claims. We don’t need secret knowledge. We don’t need false teachers to tell us Christ has returned. There are some groups that teach that Jesus somehow invisibly returned in 1914, which goes against the direct teaching that everybody’s going to know and see it. Anybody who’s here is going to see it. Don’t be deceived about His coming. When He comes, that coming won’t need to be discovered.
Don’t Be Distracted from the Certainty of Judgment
He also doesn’t want us to be distracted. Don’t be distracted from the certainty of God’s judgment. He goes on in verse 26 and talks about the days of Noah. He lists things that were going on in the days when Noah was proclaiming God’s word and warning people about the coming judgment, saying, “Hey, get on the ark. That’s all you have to do. Get on the ark.”
The New Testament calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. God talks about striving with man only 120 more years. To us, that seems like a long time. But for God, it’s just 120 years, and He’s giving more opportunity to repent. That whole time Noah was building the boat and preaching about the righteousness of God, people were going on as though everything was going to be fine forever.
They continued eating, drinking, and marrying. Jesus isn’t saying there’s anything wrong with any of those things, but that’s where their focus was. Ordinary life continued all through the days of Noah until the day—singular—when judgment came. And He gives another example. Really, when you start looking for this, you can see it all throughout Scripture: people going on about ordinary life despite what God warns, until the day judgment falls.
In the days of Lot, people stayed distracted by eating and drinking. They were buying, selling, planting, and building until that singular day of judgment came for the city of Sodom. They thought judgment would never come, and then it did. They were caught off guard. They were distracted.
When we get to verse 30, He tells us the same spiritual distractedness will characterize the days of the Son of Man, the time leading up to His return. I’m just going to lay all the cards on the table here. I believe the church will be absent for at least part, if not all, of the tribulation leading up to the second coming. I’m still trying to figure out the timing. Maybe we’re all wrong on it, but I do believe we’re absent for at least part of that time.
“Pastor said we’re only going to be gone part of the time.” That’s not what I said. I said _at least_, okay? There’s a wide variety of options I’m still trying to nail down. So when it talks about His coming, I believe we’re already with Him and coming back at that point. I know there are others who see it differently, and that’s not something we have to fight about. I just don’t want you confused any more than necessary over what I’m saying.
There’s going to be spiritual distractedness in the days of the Son of Man. I tell you all of that because I really struggled with the idea: How are people going to be so distracted in the time leading up to the second coming? When you compare this with similar statements Jesus made in Matthew 24, He talks about this happening after the tribulation. You read what Revelation says about the tribulation and all the chaos running rampant on the earth during that time, and you think, how are people going about ordinary life during all of that?
The Danger of Finding a New Normal
I think we shouldn’t underestimate the ability of human beings to ignore what God’s doing and try to find some sense of normalcy. We’re really good at adapting to circumstances and finding some kind of normal. We may not like it, and we may complain about it, but we’re really good at it. Look at 2020. Look at all the stuff we had to do and didn’t like doing, and some of us didn’t do consistently. But look at what became “normal.” There should be air quotes around that word _normal_.
We have a strong ability to adapt and find normal, to find some comfort in the circumstances and go on. I think even in the tribulation, that’s what happens. Mankind looks at all the chaos engulfing the world and says, “We’ve still got some food to eat. We’ve still got a place to go at night.” They’re trying to find normal life wherever they can find it, even as this whole thing is the judgment of God.
They’ve been warned about the coming great judgment when Jesus returns. Yet people will still be consumed completely with the concerns of this life until that day arrives. We can look at that and say, “Shame on these people, going through the tribulation and still not paying attention to what God is doing.” But there’s a warning here for us.
Even if, like me, you don’t believe that believers in Christ will still be here on earth at that moment, that doesn’t mean we’re immune to doing this right here and now. It doesn’t mean we’re above the ability to do it. The problem is that this is our nature: to look for normal. We know that somewhere far off God is going to do something. We know that somewhere far off we’re going to stand before God, but that’s not for ages. We look for the normal now.
Look at the things He lists. We know the people in Noah’s day were destroyed because of sin. We know the people in the city of Sodom were destroyed because of sin, and not the sin of not showing hospitality. We know there was sin that led to destruction. But the things Jesus is talking about here aren’t even particularly sinful or rebellious things. They’re mundane, ordinary things we all do throughout our lives.
None of these are bad things: eating, drinking, getting married, building things, planting things. The problem is that even ordinary life can capture our attention. Even ordinary life can capture us so completely that we fail to recognize what God is doing all around us. Sometimes the problem isn’t that we ignore what God is doing because we’re too busy sinning. We can just be too busy living our lives to think about what God is doing.
It’s possible to be so distracted by legitimate things here on earth, by legitimate concerns, that we lose sight of eternal realities. Again, even though this is a warning in particular for Israel, we can take that principle away from it. We need to be careful now not to be distracted from the certainty of God’s judgment, not to be distracted from the certainty that we will give an answer to Him.
Don’t Be Drawn Back to This World
Then we go on to verse 31 and look at this last section. What it teaches us is don’t be drawn back to this world when God’s judgment is coming. Jesus offers two warnings about what not to do when the day of judgment occurs. He says these things should not happen. He phrases it specifically that way; He’s not telling the disciples, “Be sure you don’t do this.”
Again, I believe that if you’re walking with Jesus, if you belong to Him, you’re already going to be with Him. But He’s saying this is what should not happen: Don’t go back for your possessions. Don’t turn back. That’s why He says that if you’re up on the housetop, don’t go back into the house to get your stuff. Just run. If you’re in the field, don’t go back to the city to get your stuff. Just run.
He offers an example of what not to do: Don’t be like Lot’s wife. Up until this morning, I was thinking this might be the second-shortest verse in all of Scripture: “Remember Lot’s wife.” But apparently “Love never fails” is a whole verse. I wasn’t thinking about that one, so we’ve got a tie here for the second-shortest verse. There may be others that are three words long.
“Remember Lot’s wife.” Let’s try this. Remember Lot’s wife. What happened? They were running out of the city because the judgment of God was coming, and what did she do? She turned back around. Why did she turn back around? She didn’t want to leave. Her heart was back there in the city.
What happened? She turned into a pillar of salt. I believe that literally happened. I don’t understand the science behind it, but it’s not written as though it’s a morality tale. It’s written like something that actually happened. So He says, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Remember her so that we don’t do the same thing, or more specifically, so Israel doesn’t do the same.
She’s an example of what not to do. Even as she fled the city for refuge, her heart was still stuck on the thing she was seeking refuge from. When judgment came, her heart was still in the world, and Jesus warns against that. The principle here is what He says in verse 33: “Whoever strives to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will keep it.”
I think He’s talking about life as it’s gone on all this time. Everybody who’s so concerned about hanging on to what has been, that they’re willing to grasp onto it and hold on to it for life during the judgment, is going to lose that. They’re going to lose everything. But whoever loses his life will preserve it.
Judgment Will Be Sudden and Certain
In verses 34 through 36, we see that this separation is going to be sudden and decisive. I don’t think He’s talking about the rapture here, because this whole thing is about judgment. He’s saying there are two people in a bed: one’s going to be taken, and one’s going to be left. Two in the field: one is taken, and one’s left. Two grinding at the mill: one is taken, and one’s left.
What He’s saying is that this judgment is going to come so swiftly and so indiscriminately. Two people can be side by side, but on the day of judgment, God is going to distinguish between them. Verse 37 closes with the image of the body and the vultures. I think here He’s referencing back to the book of Job and the book of Proverbs.
Whatever meaning we assign to all the parts of this statement, where He says, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered,” judgment is not going to fail to find what is ripe for judgment. God is not going to be confused. God is not going to be distracted or dissuaded by the things He finds here in this world. Jesus is warning against being drawn back to the things of this world when God’s judgment is coming.
As I’ve said a few times throughout this, you and I may not be the immediate audience Jesus is talking to. We know He’s talking to the disciples. We know He’s talking about the Pharisees right in front of them. I still maintain that’s who the warning is to, as God deals with the nation of Israel and ultimately draws a believing remnant back to Himself.
But everything recorded in Scripture, even if it’s not written immediately to us, is there for us for a reason. Even if you take that framework where we’re not going to be here during the tribulation, or at least the end of it, we can still learn from these principles today. We face a common spiritual danger. We face the same spiritual danger they faced because our human nature is the same.
The Pharisees, in the face of God’s judgment, were holding on too tightly to the world as they wanted it and understood it. We have the same tendency, the same ability to hold on to the world as we understand it and as we want it. What we really should be holding on to is Jesus. Jesus is the only refuge we have from this world. Jesus is the only refuge we have when God comes to judge this world.
Jesus Is Our Refuge from Judgment
We look at judgment as a harsh thing, a uniformly negative thing. But we don’t feel that way when we’re the ones who want justice. When we see somebody guilty of a heinous crime, we want justice carried out, don’t we? When somebody has wronged us, we want justice carried out. God’s judgment is not a bad thing. It’s because God cares about our spiritual condition and our spiritual well-being that He does judge sin and that He will judge the world.
But Jesus warns here, “Don’t let yourself be deceived. Don’t let yourself be distracted. Don’t let yourself be drawn back.” Because even amidst this message of judgment, there is an escape. There is a refuge. When Jesus said the kingdom of God is in their midst, He’s there as that refuge, as that escape. He’s here for us as that refuge and escape.
When we trust Christ as our Savior, the payment He made for sin is put on our account. That means that when He went to the cross, He had no sin of His own, because He’s God in human flesh. He had no sin of His own, but He took responsibility for my sin, and He took responsibility for your sin. When He was nailed to that cross, when He shed His blood, and when He died, He was bearing the judgment of God for our sins in our place.
If you trust Christ, your sin has already been paid for. That doesn’t mean we won’t have to give an answer, and in all honesty, I don’t look forward to that. I think there’s going to be a lot of, “Boy, what were you thinking?” It doesn’t mean we won’t give an answer to Him, but our sin has already been paid for. Jesus has already paid the price.
No one wants to be on the receiving end of God’s judgment. Jesus has already done that for you. If this talk of judgment elicits any kind of fear or anxiety in you, know today that even as God promises the reality of judgment against sin, He’s already given you the remedy for that judgment. Jesus has taken your place.
This morning, the best thing you could do—the only thing you can do—is to believe that Jesus paid for your sin in full. Believe that He rose again three days later to prove it. Ask Him for that forgiveness, and cling to Him as your only hope.
