Luke Chapter 17
Jesus clearly taught that heaven and hell are two very real places. In light of that knowledge a person should first of all make sure that they are born into the family of God so that they do not spend eternity in hell. And secondly a believer needs to be careful how they live, because they will still experience temptations to sin. Jesus said that “temptations are sure to come.”
The thing about giving in to temptation is that others are watching the believers. When we sin it affects others. Our choices to sin could cause little ones to follow after us in sinful ways. The judgment for causing a little one to sin will be great, so great that it would be better to hang a millstone around the neck and be cast into the sea.
Jesus was very serious when He taught about the need to avoid temptation and to not give in to sin. In fact, He wants us to help each other out in this area by going to a brother who has fallen into sin. Sin is always to be viewed as a trap that we fall into, and we need to keep that in mind when we see a fellow brother or sister in trouble. If the brother has wronged us, we need to be prepared to forgive that brother (or sister) and possibly we may need to forgive them many times.
Let's Reflect
1. When a fellow believer sins against us, what should our actions be? We should not pretend that the offense never happened, but we should in love deal with it.
2. What did the apostles recognize they were lacking in dealing with people, and rightly so?
3. In verses 7-10 the key to understanding what Jesus was teaching the apostles is found in verse 10. There is always more work to do when serving our Master (Jesus). Jesus recognized their feelings of inadequacy as evidenced by their request for more faith. Jesus explained that with the right heart attitude, that of a servant, they would just need to keep pressing forward serving Jesus. The apostles would not expect to be thanked by Jesus in light of all He has done for us. What is the proper heart attitude of a servant of Jesus?
4. Luke tells us about a great miracle Jesus performed for ten men who had leprosy. What did Jesus tell the men to do if they wanted to be healed?
5. A Pharisee asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God was coming. This was probably a sarcastic question as the Pharisees rejected the claim of Jesus that He was the Messiah. Spurgeon put their sarcastic question in this way, “Is this the coming of thy promised kingdom? Are these fishermen and peasants thy courtiers? Are these the days for which prophets and kings waited so long?” Jesus said the kingdom could not be observed – that word in the original language had a meaning of “hostile observation.” Where did Jesus say the kingdom of God is?
6. Jesus then talks about the times when people will be waiting, longing for Jesus to set up His kingdom because of the evil in the world. What time frame of the Old Testament did Jesus compare the end times to?
7. Why does Jesus tell them that in the future there will be some who will be taken and some who will not be taken?
8. What did Jesus say would have to be accomplished before any of that could happen?
Devotionals
