The Days Of The Son

Luke's Gospel, chapter 17. And we're going to read from verse 20, a few verses, not too many. I did wonder about taking this whole passage to the end of the chapter, but you know, no one's in a rush. We can just take our time and think about some of the things that the Lord is saying to us here in these verses. So chapter 20, and we'll read down to verse 24.

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 to 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.

Amen. May the Lord bless these words to us. Hello Charlotte, good to see you. It is noticeable how persistent the Pharisees were in questioning the Lord Jesus The Lord is making his way to Jerusalem. He's heading there for the Passover. It will be his final Passover. And yet here are these Pharisees and they are constantly besetting him with puzzles, problems, curiosities, questions.

And I don't know if these men were genuinely seeking his opinion on this matter. curious perhaps about a timescale, or whether they were simply being sarcastic and disruptive and provocative to the Lord. Either way, we have much for which to be grateful. Inasmuch as the Lord took these opportunities to reveal gospel truth, and to provide his church with spiritual lessons suitable for spiritual men and women. And in the opening verses of our reading today, Jesus corrects the notion of these Pharisees, that God's kingdom is not earthly, it's not physical, it's not temporal, However, it was a widespread misunderstanding even amongst his own disciples because there were many who harboured these messianic hopes that included the idea that there would be an earthly kingdom established to overthrow the Roman yoke and restore the glories of the great days of Israel long ago, the days of David's kingdom and Solomon's reign. That, of course, was not to be.

And if these men had truly been spiritual men, they would have understood, they would have known, they would have appreciated what the prophets were telling them with respect to the coming of Christ. It was because they had compartmentalised so much of the Old Testament scriptures into little boxes that they could not see the whole picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ was coming to do. They might have known, for example, that since Christ would not come until Judah's independence was lost, as old Jacob had said back in Genesis 49, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come. and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. They might have realised that there were going to be such changes, such alterations at the time of the coming of the Messiah.

The kingdom of which the prophets spoke, of which John the Baptist preached, of which Jesus was now ushering in, was not a physical, national, military kingdom. It was a kingdom of spiritual dimensions. It didn't require a physical country or military assets. It can't be seen, it can't be touched, it cannot be travelled to.

It is a kingdom set up in the hearts of men and women. when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into their lives, quickens them by faith, and they are formed into his body and united with his spirit. The Lord turns away from the Pharisees, so to speak, and he speaks directly to his disciples, because they too retain this wrong notion of an earthly kingdom. They spent their days looking forward to reigning with Christ and anticipating and imagining what it would be like and how they would be honoured and prospered in those days when Christ would be seen to be King and Messiah. And so it is that to his disciples, and we should say to the church, Christ now addresses himself.

And I think there's something very precious in what he is about to say. Listen to the words, and these are the words that I'm going to emphasize for a moment or two. 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 it's that little phrase there. one of the days of the Son of Man. Let me rephrase that verse, that statement by the Lord. Let me rephrase it another way, or let me phrase it another way.

He told them, you are too busy looking forward with this wrong notion about how things will be in this imagined kingdom of yours. that you're neglecting to enjoy my presence now, here, with you today. You're failing to appreciate that I'm here with you right now, but I won't be for long.

The days will come, says the Lord. They are fast approaching. Indeed, as we've already mentioned, the Lord was already on the road to Jerusalem for the final time. The days will come when you will wish for days like these. Days when you could hear me speak. Days when we could share together on the road. Days when I was about this business of serving my Father and healing the sick and performing miracles and teaching my people. These days will be so attractive to you.

They'll be so blessed to you. when they are no more, that you will look back with fondness upon them and wish that you could be back there again. The days will come when you will wish for days like these, while I am with you personally and they will be gone. You will not see them anymore because I won't be with you here.

Far from being days of earthly peace and prosperity as the disciples hoped, the days that lay ahead for these men as the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ were days of trouble and persecution and uncertainty. When they would say how good it was to have had the Lord with us in person and we didn't appreciate it at the time.

And I think that perhaps we can apply a little lesson here. We would not be wrong to interpret Christ's phrase, one of the days of the Son of Man, as being at least paralleled to such occasions as today. when we are given opportunity to come together in worship, come together and share fellowship with our brothers and sisters in this little gathering, in this little meeting, or on the Lord's Day when we do the same. days that are set apart, times that are set apart when we come together to worship the Lord, times that are separated from the busyness of our working week, from the trials and the problems that can be, in a sense, not entirely, but in a sense, left aside as we ascend more particularly into the presence of the Lord in such gatherings as these. And nor should we take these times of opportunity for granted because they may not always be available to us. Already, already some of our company are finding it too difficult to meet with us because of their troubles, because of their pain, because of the distractions that they have. And I fear that too many believers become distracted by the world and have too many other things to do to be gathering with the Lord's people upon one of the days of the Son of Man.

And this is where these meetings, these days of the Son of Man, which is what I'm applying them to, these meetings are where Christ has promised to meet us. It's called a meeting, and it's called a meeting because we meet with one another, but the highest sense of this meeting is that Christ is meeting with us, and it has been well said that the only place on earth where a man or a woman can have any certainty of meeting the Lord is where two or three are gathered together in his name, for the simple reason that that is where he has promised to meet us. And if we come together in his name, and I appreciate that in his name bears a weighty significance, it means that we preach his gospel, it means that we worship him aright in spirit and in truth, but if we come together preaching that gospel, that Pauline gospel, that Christ gospel, if we come together preaching that gospel, let me say it, of free and sovereign grace, then we may be sure that Christ is in our midst. If we come together seeking to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, then we may be sure that Christ is in the midst and we may be sure that we will meet him there.

If you ever encounter a seeker, I don't know, let me be a little bit more specific. If you have a family member, if you have a friend, if you encounter anyone whom you think to yourself, this person is asking interesting questions, this person appears to be looking for the truth, this person appears to be a genuine seeker, then bring them to the service.

Tell them to go and hear a gospel preacher. invite them to the church to hear the gospel preached. And I'm not saying tell them to come here. Since this is our church at this time, tell them to come here and they'll hear the gospel preached. But that is what men and women need. They need to hear the gospel because that's where Christ has promised to be. It's the only place that they can be sure of meeting Christ. And there's blessing to be enjoyed when we meet under the sound of the Gospel. There's a blessedness to be sought as we come to this service, as we gather on the Lord's Day.

There's a blessedness to be sought, to be looked for, to be expected, to be desired. as we come to worship and it ought to be part of our approach to the service to be anticipating that because the Lord's going to be there and in this moment as we meet to worship the Lord, his presence should be looked for and sought, it should not be overlooked and it should not be neglected.

I suspect that in general We don't appreciate how blessed we are to have the gospel amongst us, to have Christ lifted up in the gospel. Let me qualify what I mean by saying that. I'm not drawing accolades upon myself in this role of responsibility that I have by any means. let's all be humble in these matters, but I do think that we don't appreciate how blessed we are to have the gospel amongst us, to have Christ lifted up amongst us. This gospel of grace, this message of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, the message of blood redemption, the message of imputed righteousness, is a message increasingly rare in our age and in our society.

And I don't think it would be wrong to say that many true believers have to seek it out, have to search for it. There is a famine of the preaching of the word. They have to search for it in the midst of a whole world of works religion and duty religion and religious entertainment that nowadays passes for the Christian faith. And who is to say that before the Lord Jesus returns, that we as individuals or the true church at large might not have cause to think. Such days have come when the Lord is no longer with us that we desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and we shall not see it.

It ought to be a prayer that the Lord will maintain his witness, raise up gospel preachers who both understand and faithfully proclaim the true gospel, and will have nothing to do with the freewill works-based counterfeit gospels that so much nowadays usurps our pulpits and pervades our age. I say again, It is only the true gospel of free grace that Christ, it is only in that gospel that Christ is to be found. It is only under sovereign grace preaching, the gospel of the lamb's sin-cleansing blood, the full imputation of righteousness and the new birth, It is only under such preaching that Christ meets his people, and that is what it means to meet together in his name. Now, in that context, look at verse 23.

It says, there to us, and they shall say to you, see here, or see there, go not after them, nor follow them. Why is that? What is he talking about? What is the Lord saying? He's talking about another gospel. See here, look at this gospel. Or see there, look at that gospel. Wise men desire to see Jesus. Sirs, we would see Jesus. And wise men will not be fobbed off with a see here or a see there. The devil is happy to see here and see there, just as so long as men and women are not seeing Jesus Christ crucified.

What was it the Lord said to Nicodemus? As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. It is in the lifting up of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel that eternal life is to be found. Spiritual life is experienced when we look in faith to the Christ of Scripture, There are many false Christs. Go not after them. Follow them not. Let me finish with a thought on verse 24.

Verse 24 says, 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. What does that mean? Okay, remember what we're saying about, we're talking about these opportunities of meeting together, worshipping together, being two and three together in his name and Christ in the midst. That's what we're talking about as the day of the Son of Man. So what is he saying here? What does it mean?

Well, whatever else it might mean, it is surely telling us that seeing Christ and finding Christ and knowing Christ is an elusive and mysterious thing. Lightning Lightning today is so impressive, it's so marvellous when you see it. It cracks on one end of the sky and it flashes across the sky and it's gone. And you think to yourself, wow, what power is manifested in that. Now in days gone by, before all our scientific explanations, lightning must have appeared to be a powerful yet a puzzling thing. Who could catch a lightning bolt? Who could harness such power as the brilliant flash that forks from one side of the sky to the other?

And what does the Lord say? So shall also the Son of Man be in his day. True faith is elusive. True faith is mysterious. It is powerful. And yet it is puzzling. It is a gift. The spirit blows where it listed. Grace comes to one and passes by another.

But oh, how blessed we are when it settles upon us in the day of God's grace. Our faith is not without physical, tangible evidences. I trust that we can all testify to changes that have been occasioned by our conversion and the effects of the new man in our souls, in our lives. If only, if only the antagonism that we now feel against the old man. We know the pleasure of Christ's spiritual fellowship. We know something of the joy of the Lord, something of the peace of conscience that comes with sins forgiven. But let us know this too, that essentially everything about our faith is internal, secret, spiritual, and within us.

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, not in its first coming by the secret quickening of the Holy Spirit, not in our subsequent experiences. It is felt more than seen. It is enjoyed more than explained. For the Scottish people amongst us, it's better felt than tellt. The kingdom of God is within you. Christ is in us and we are in Christ. The kingdom of God is in us and we are in the kingdom of God. It's a heart change, it's a soul conversion, it's a whole of life transformation.

The disciples took a long time to grasp what the Lord was saying about this new kingdom. And when they did, I'm sure that they often looked back and said, oh, I wish we could see one of the days of the Son of Man. And yet the Lord could say to Thomas, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe. May each of us here have grace to believe and may we grow in that grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Amen.

The Days Of The Son

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The Days Of The Son

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