Luke 17, The Lord’s Other End Times Prophecy

Luke 17, The Lord’s Other End Times Prophecy - This Week’s
Feature Article by Jack Kelley – www.gracethrufaith.com

Our Lord gave us a pretty thorough overview of the End
Times as they relate to Israel. It’s often called the
Olivet Discourse because He was speaking to four of His
disciples on the Mt. Of Olives. It was just a couple of
days before He was arrested, and they asked Him about the
End of the Age. Matthew’s account of His answer is in
chapters 24-25. Mark’s is contained in chapter 13. Luke’s
version is a little different in that it also includes a
prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. You’ll
find it in his 21st chapter.

Since the Lord was answering questions about Israel’s
future and His 2nd Coming, the focus was decidedly Jewish,
so we don’t learn anything about the Church from studying
it. But understanding how things will progress for Israel
gives us a background that makes Paul’s prophecies about
the church in the End Times, which came 20 years later,
easier to understand. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians,
written about 51 AD, officially introduced the notion of
the Rapture and its timing to the early church, and contain
clarifying information about the anti-Christ and the
withdrawal of the Holy Spirit as well. The 2nd Coming is
referred to in every chapter of these two letters, for an
average of once in every 13 verses. (Read “The End Times
According To Paul”)

In Luke 17:20-37, the Lord gave us some additional
information about the time of His coming that’s often
overlooked. But after you’ve gained the Jewish perspective
from the Olivet Discourse and the Christian one from Paul’s
letters, you can use Luke 17 to double check your
understanding of the End times, and see if you’ve gotten it
right. The fact that Luke 17 shares some language with the
Olivet Discourse gives us a hint that they’re meant to be
related. Let’s take a look.

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom
of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does
not come with your careful observation, nor will people
say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of
God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

Right off the bat, the Lord threw us a curve to make sure
we’re paying attention. It came in the form of the word
translated “within”. He was responding to the Pharisees who
had posed the question, and the Kingdom of God was not
within them because they weren’t believers. So what was He
trying to tell us? Well, it turns out that the word can
also mean “in the midst of”, and the Kingdom was in the
midst of them. He was the personification of the Kingdom
and He was standing right in front of them. Some
translations, the NIV for example, offer “among” as an
alternate to “within” in verse 21.

To the Pharisees it was only true that the Kingdom was
among them. But once the Holy Spirit was given, the Kingdom
would also be within all believers. At that point, both of
these interpretations would become true. The Kingdom of God
is within us, and we are in the midst of the world. This is
the spiritual, or invisible phase of the Kingdom. But as
we’ll see it’s not the final phase.

Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you
will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you
will not see it. Men will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here
he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of
Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes
and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first
he must suffer many things and be rejected by this
generation. (Luke 17:22-25)

After being rejected and executed by the leaders of His
generation, the Lord would go away, and only the invisible
phase of the Kingdom would remain. It’s called the Church.
But then He would return and when He did there would be no
mistaking it. The second coming will light up the entire
sky, and the visible phase of the Kingdom will begin.

This is a clue as to why the Church and Israel are mutually
exclusive in the world. The Kingdom of God began with
Israel. He had Moses tell them so. “Now if you obey me
fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you
will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth
is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6)

But then because of their disobedience it was taken away
from Israel and given to the Church. In Matt. 21:43 Jesus
said. “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be
taken away from you and given to a people who will produce
its fruit.”

But this wasn’t to be permanent. After the Church
disappears, the Kingdom will be restored to Israel. The
early Church understood this, as evidenced by James’
prophecy in Acts 15:13-18 where he said that the Lord would
first take from among the Gentiles a people for Himself,
and after that would return to rebuild David’s fallen
tabernacle. Later Paul confirmed this, saying that Israel
had been hardened in part until the full number of Gentiles
come in, and after that Israel would be saved. (Romans
11:25-27)

The Days Of Noah

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in
the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking,
marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah
entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them
all.” (Luke 17:26-27)

Like it was in Noah’s time most people on Earth at the End
of the Age will be unaware that life as they know it is
about to end, not because they haven’t been warned but
because they haven’t believed the warning. Noah is used as
a model of the believing remnant of Israel at the end of
the age, preserved through the judgment while the world is
destroyed. Noah and his family remained in the general
location of the judgment while the unbelievers were swept
away in the flood.

At the End of the Age Israel’s believing remnant will
remain in the general location of the judgment but will be
preserved while the Lord completely destroys the nations
around them. Speaking of the time of Jacob’s Trouble (the
Great Tribulation) in Jere. 30:11 the Lord said,

I am with you and will save you,’ declares the LORD.
‘Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I
scatter you, I will not completely destroy you.”

In the symbolic language of Revelation the Jewish remnant
is represented by a woman, while Satan is called the
serpent.

The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that
she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert,
where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half
a time, out of the serpent’s reach. (Rev. 12:14)

The Lord used this same terminology to describe the manner
in which He delivered Israel from Pharaoh’s Army in the
Exodus. “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and
how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to
myself.” (Exodus 19:4)

The Days Of Lot

“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and
drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But
the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from
heaven and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:28-29)

At first glance this seems like another similar example.
But it’s really very different. Lot was taken away from the
location of the judgment to a place of safety. In fact the
angels who were sent to remove him said they couldn’t bring
the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot was away and
safe. (Genesis 19:21-22) He was rescued from the out
pouring of God’s wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah before it
began.

In this sense, Lot becomes a model of the Church. Paul
explained that the Church would be rescued from the time of
God’s Wrath on the Earth as well. They tell how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to
wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the
dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1
Thes.1:9-10)

The Greek word translated “from” in verse 10 means the
Church will be removed from the time or place or any
relation to the coming wrath. Just like it was with Lot and
the judgment of Sodom , we have to be away and safe before
the End Times judgment of Earth can begin.

I’ve often said that Jesus didn’t teach the doctrine of the
Rapture and didn’t even tell His disciples about it. But if
you already know it’s coming you can find hints of it in
the Gospels. This is one of them, and by using Lot as a
model the Lord confirmed the timing. Before the judgment.

“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is
revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his
house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them.
Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.
Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will
lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I
tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one
will be taken and the other left. Two women will be
grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other
left.”

“Where, Lord?” they asked.

He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures
will gather.” (Luke 17:30-37)

In Matt. 24:17-18 Jesus warned the people alive at the
beginning of the Great Tribulation not to go back into
their houses for anything but to flee quickly, so it’s
reasonable to assume He means the same thing here. It
wouldn’t make any sense for Him to be speaking of the
actual day of His return because by then it will be too
late to run. Those who cling to the ways of this world at
the beginning of the Great Tribulation will find themselves
losing everything. But those who abandon them in favor of
the next world will gain eternal life. I think Lot’s wife
is a graphic model of those “in-name-only” Christians who
attend church and even do lots of good things, but aren’t
born again. Though they claim to be Christians, their
hearts continue to long for the things of this world. When
the time comes they’ll be left behind, and many will perish
in the End Times judgments.

As in Matt. 24:40-41 the word translated “taken” literally
means received, and the word for “left” means to put away,
as in a divorce. After the Lord returns, some tribulation
survivors will be received directly into the Kingdom. They
will have become believers after the rapture and will be
welcomed into the Kingdom as their reward. But those who
have persisted in their unbelief will be put away, off the
planet, in the place prepared for the devil and his angels
(Matt. 25:41) This statement summarizes the judgments the
Lord will conduct just after His return. Matt. 25 describes
then in detail.

Some read a lot of symbolism into the comment about dead
bodies and a vulture, but I see it as a simple parable.
Vultures don’t gather any place in the sky except over the
carcass of a dead body. The dead body is really the purpose
of their gathering, it’s where they belong. The use of this
parable was just the Lord’s way of answering the disciples’
question, “Where, Lord?” He said each group will be
gathered to the place where they belong.

So in Luke 17:20-37 the Lord explained the two phases of
the Kingdom, the invisible phase (the Church) and the
visible one (the Millennial Kingdom). He said he was going
away and then coming back, and that His 2nd Coming will be
physical just like His first one. He also said there will
be a believing remnant preserved through the End Times
judgments that precede His return (Israel), another group
of believers who will be removed to a place of safety
before the judgments begin (the Church), and a group of
Tribulation survivors. Upon His return, some of the
Tribulation survivors will be received into the Kingdom as
a reward for believing, while the rest will be sent to the
place prepared for the devil and his angels for refusing to
believe. It’s a remarkable overview of the Great
Tribulation and 2nd Coming. You can almost hear the
footsteps of the Messiah.