Good morning and welcome back to our third Anchored in the Word morning reflection, and I hope that you have been learning some helpful things this week as we've been digging into Luke chapter 17. Again, our focus is on having discernment, understanding the times that we're living in, and specifically the text in front of us has some very practical things for us to dig into. On the first day, we dealt with an introduction, talked about some concepts that we find under eschatology that are pertinent to the discussion in this text of scripture. And then yesterday, we kind of looked at a summary statement for the entire passage. What I'd like to do this morning is I'd like to look at the first two of four truths. And then on Friday, Lord willing, we will pull it all together with some final thoughts. So if you have your Bible, let's take it. Let's turn together, please, to Luke chapter 17. And we're going to begin reading in verse 20. 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 within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say unto you, See here, or see there. Go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day. For first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man. Now the first truth that we're going to dig into from this text is that the questions that we ask reveal something about the health of our mindset. I mentioned yesterday when we talked about the summary that they began with a question that was loaded, and then Jesus gives them an answer that pulls it back to the reality of the situation. The kinds of questions we ask say something about our presuppositions. And so let's think about it this way. The first century, when the Jewish people had opportunity to interact with Christ, they had unprecedented opportunity. In verse 21, he says, neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there, behold the kingdom of God is within you." Now that statement, the kingdom of God is within you, is an interpretively discussed statement. And the idea is not that he lives in your heart, he's talking to the Pharisees, but the idea that it is in your midst, you are looking at it, it's right in front of you. Literally the person who is the center of the kingdom of God, the one who allows you to come into the kingdom of God, the one who is the king of the kingdom of God. He's right in front of you. You have all these verifiable signs to demonstrate who he is and you're ignoring it. These people were ignoring what was verifiable, what was objective, what was right in front of them. And we see a lot of examples of this as we read through the miracles that were performed by Christ leading up to this one and then after this one. For instance, in Luke chapter 11, We see that Jesus shows compassion on a man who's demon-possessed. And how do the religious leaders respond? Instead of bowing the knee and say, certainly this must be the Messiah, this must be the one who was promised, they say, no, he did this by the power of Satan. Or in Luke chapter 13, there's a woman that comes into the synagogue on the Sabbath, and Christ has compassion on her. For 18 years, she has had this terrible infirmity. But the response isn't, certainly this must be the Son of God. Instead, the response is, he violates the Sabbath day. Certainly, he can't be from God. Then we come to another example in Luke 14. There's a man who comes in on the Sabbath day. He has this terrible swelling in his legs. And what does Jesus do? He has compassion on him and he heals him. But instead, the religious leaders begin to go after him and say, again, he's violating the Sabbath day. He can't be from God. And then we come to Luke chapter 17, the 10 lepers out of the 10. How many came back to Jesus? and said, thank you, only one. And interestingly, Christ says, we're not 10 cleansed, but only one was made whole. So when we look at these examples, like 14, 17, 18, these all show us examples of how the people responded to Christ. Verifiable objective proves that he is the Messiah. And instead of embracing him as their Messiah, they rejected him as their Messiah. They were literally distracted by the assumptions that they had about the future. They were unable to see what was right in front of them because of what was getting their attention. In verse 20, he says, the kingdom of God does not come with observation. And they should have known that. Mark 13, of that day and that hour knoweth no man, not even the angels which are in heaven, neither the son of man, but the father. Take ye heed and watch and pray that you know not what time it is. Or Acts 1-7, this is obviously after the ministry of Christ, but this is built on what he has taught. He says, it's not for you to know the seasons and the times which the Son hath put in his own power. Why does he say that? Well, because of the things that he's already taught. They should understand this by now. Or then we see in the epistles in 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord succumbeth as a thief in the night. So all of these passages point to the fact that Jesus had been very clear that the kingdom of God, the day of the Lord, this is going to take place and it's going to catch massive numbers of people off guard. The second truth I want us to notice from this text is that God's answers in situations are sufficient. They're enough. In verses 22-24 it says, He said to the disciples, notice how there's a change in His focus. The day will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, see here or see there. Go not after them nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteth out of one of the parts under heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall it be when the Son of Man comes in his day. Now notice the distinction between the disciple and the Pharisee and how you want to see his day and they are trying to get you off guard. What's his point? His point is be a discerning person in those days. They will say to you, see here or see there, do not go after them. Do not follow after them. Be a discerning person in the time you're living. Realize there are going to be massive changes that come out of nowhere and they're going to catch lots and lots of people off guard. But you are not of those people that should be caught off guard because you have the word. He says, as the lightning that lightneth out of the one part under heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall it be for the Son of Man in his day. God's answers are enough. His answers may not satisfy all of our questions, all of our curiosities, but his answers will always give us enough information to do what he wants us to do so that ultimately he is pleased with the choices we make. So God's answers are enough. They're sufficient. This reminds me of Deuteronomy 29, where it says the secret things belong unto the Lord. Those are the things he's not revealed. But those things which are revealed, the things that he's given us in his word, these belong to us and to our children for what purpose? So that we may do all the words of this law. God's word is enough. We see the same thing in 2 Timothy 3.16. that the scriptures were given by inspiration of God and are profitable, so that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Again, we see another example of this in 2 Peter chapter 1. He says, His divine power hath given to us all things pertaining unto life and godliness through a knowledge of him that hath called us unto glory and virtue. And then I love this last one in 2 Corinthians 8. It says, if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to that he hath not. The idea is that God gives us what we need and what he gives us is enough that we can please him and obey him. I want to encourage you this morning, rather than getting so focused on the things you don't understand, the things that God hasn't revealed, Focus in on what is clear. Get in the Word of God, know what God has said about Himself, know what He said about us, and then focus in on it and obey it. May the Lord help us today to rest in the sufficiency of His Word. May He help us to be a faithful and godly people. Have a blessed rest of your day, Lord willing. I know tomorrow's Thanksgiving. My plan is to record one in the morning so that this will be something to think about throughout the day and hope that you have. a great and restful day. Bye now.