Good morning. I'd like to welcome you back to our second Anchored in the Word morning reflection and hope that you're having a great day. I just want to remind you, if you're a part of our church family, that tonight we have our midweek service instead of Wednesday, which we normally do. So tonight, Tuesday night, we have our Bible study and our prayer time. And our Bible study is going to be focused on a Thanksgiving theme and hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week. And if you're able to join us tonight, I hope that you'll do that. The text that we're dealing with is Luke chapter 17, and we're looking at verses 20 through 37. So, please let's turn there, let's read through this passage of scripture again, and then today we're going to look at a summary of the passage in front of us. It says, And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, Lo here! or Lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is come. the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto his disciples, The days come when they shall desire to see the days of the Son of Man, and you shall not see it. They shall say unto you, See here, or see there. Go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteth out of one part of the heaven shineth out unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of his generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man. Now, as I mentioned today, I'd like us to look at a summary of the passage that's going to help us as we look at some of the truths that we read in this passage of Scripture. So you could really take this passage and break it into three major components as Christ is interacting with both the religious leaders, the Pharisees, and with his disciples. The first part is a loaded question and that question is presented by the Pharisees. It says in verse 20, he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come. Now the fact that that question begins with when indicates that these Pharisees believe there were certain signs or a timeline that Christ should give them in order for them to know the timing of the kingdom of God. The second thing we see in this passage is the way that Christ answers their question. He knows it's a loaded question and he's not going to take the bait. He's going to answer the question based on the way things actually are. And so in verse 20 he says, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. His answer is that the way that you're anticipating a timeline or certain signs is actually not how the kingdom of God is going to come. It comes without observation. There are not timetables for you to observe. There are not signs for you to look forward to. And when those things happen, then you know that the kingdom of God is going to come. This is something that's going to happen in a way that is going to catch people off guard. And then as he digs into this, we see how that concept is developed. The first part of it is he tells them they need to stop wasting their time. The kingdom of God is not going to come the way that you expect it to come. He says in 1 Thessalonians 5, another passage of scripture that gives us insight into why he says it this way. He says, yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. As Paul writes on this, he's expecting the people to know this because of the teachings of Christ. You know perfectly because you've already been taught this. These people were to recognize that looking for signs when there are no signs to be given is a waste of time. Second thing, they were rejecting the verifiable information that was given to them about who Jesus is. In Luke 11 29, he says, this is an evil generation. They seek after a sign, but there shall no sign be given them save the sign of Jonas the prophet. So shall also the son of man be to this generation. So he's basically saying you're wasting your time looking for something you expect, but actually isn't going to be given. And while you're focusing all your attention on that, there is something in front of you that you're ignoring. And those are the signs that demonstrate who Jesus the Messiah is. The second part of this is that he doesn't want them to follow the poor example of generations in the past. And there are two I want to supply from the passage, verses 26 to 37. He says that people who lived during the time of Noah, when God destroyed the world in a These people who did not heed the warnings of Noah, did not take seriously what he said, these people died in the flood. Verse 26 says, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man. And then we see a second example, verses 28 through 30, the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, As it was in the days of Lot, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Remember Lot's wife. There's a final piece. People living when Christ returns are not going to be prepared for this. He says in verse 33, whoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it. Now, he gives that statement within the context of a person who's living through these events and they need to flee for their life for protection. And instead of them fleeing for protection, they go back to get things that are ultimately going to cost them their life. It's like a person whose house is on fire. And instead of running out of the house to save their life, they go back into the house to get something that they really don't need. Their life is more valuable than that possession that they're going to get. And that possession costs them their life. This is the sense of the illustration that he's using here. And then the third piece to this is the warning, verse 25. He says, first, he, that is the son of God, must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. So you can see the components of this interaction that Jesus has. You have the loaded question. You have his answer in three parts. And then you have this closing warning that I'm going to die because this generation is going to reject me. But this is an essential component in the story of redemption and in the story of God bringing his kingdom to mankind. Well, as we think about these things, I hope it gives you some stuff to chew on. I hope it gives you a better appreciation and understanding for the text in front of us. And then, Lord willing, tomorrow what we're going to do is we're going to dig into this passage a little bit more, taking that summary that we just talked about and breaking down some very simple, basic, helpful truths that we find in the passage. Have a blessed rest of your day. I hope that we'll see you tonight during our Bible study, if you are a part of our church family. and Lord willing we'll see many of you tomorrow. Have a blessed day. Bye now.