Scripture Reading: Luke 17:20-37
In verses 20 and 21 the Pharisees asked a question "as to when the kingdom of God was coming." The Lord answered, "The kingdom of God is in the midst of you." But the Pharisees were blind. The Lord made it clear that it could not be said, "Behold, here it is! or, There!" This sentence is the key; it is used in verse 23 as well as in verse 21. The Pharisees asked when the kingdom of God was coming, and the Lord simply answered, "It is in the midst of you." But He reserved the explanation for His disciples. He immediately turned to them and explained. Note, however, that the Pharisees' question referred to the kingdom, yet in His explanation the Lord referred to the Son of Man (v. 22). This is because the Son of Man is the kingdom of God. Whenever you have the kingdom of God in power, you have the Son of God in presence.
Verse 24 speaks of a day of manifestation. If you have the presence of the Lord today, you have the kingdom today. The kingdom is not a thing; it is the Lord Himself. Where His presence, power, and glory are manifested in the earth, there you have the kingdom of God. At present it is a matter of extent, not of quality or nature.
In verses 26 through 29 the Lord uses two illustrations from the Old Testament — Noah and Lot. He relates them to the days of the Son of Man. We are all familiar with the term "Son of Man." This term is used in Hebrews 2 which speaks of Christ as the Inheritor of the earth (vv. 6, 8). Everything God has is going to be deposited in Him. As God's "one new man," the corporate Man, He will receive His inheritance. He will be glorified and will possess the earth. However, something will happen to bring in the day of the Son of Man. There will be judgment on the earth and deliverance for the people of God. Noah left and the flood came; Lot left and then the fire from heaven came. The Lord tried to draw some definite lesson from these two instances for His disciples.
Verse 31 is an exhortation to not go down into the house. Verse 32 is a warning to "remember Lot's wife." Verse 33 points out that the way of escape is to lose the soul-life. A day is coming when all the "Noahs" and "Lots" will be taken. The "Noahs" and "Lots" will go by a specific call — a shout, the voice of the archangel, a trumpet (1 Thes. 4:16). The case of Noah does not illustrate partial rapture, for he and his whole family were delivered. The Lord did not draw His lesson for the discourse from Noah's story but from the story of Lot. He based His exposition on the story of Lot, and the warning is drawn from Lot's wife.
We are told that if we have goods in the house, we should not come down to take them away; if we are in the field, we are not to turn back to the things behind. It is all a matter of reacting to the divine call to "Come up here" (Rev. 4:1). Lot's wife received the call to go; she did not commit any sin, but there was a reaction of looking back, of turning back to her goods. Rapture will produce no miraculous change in us. It will only be a stepping away, and it will be a question of our attitude.
The things in verse 28, which occupy the lives of the people — eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building — were not sinful in themselves. They were perfectly legitimate, but there was no detachment from them. It is not necessarily sins which will be the hindrance. No, perfectly legitimate things will be the hindrance.
We must come to a point that when the call comes, the instant response of our heart will be, "It is the Lord!" Whether or not there will be a reaction to the Lord depends on the attitude of our hearts. We want a perfect detachment from our work or anything that occupies us and from anything that is short of Himself. When the call comes, will there be the thought, "But what about the work?" If so, then we may very well stay behind to do it! We may not perish in Sodom, but we may not get up to the mountain. A backward glance tells the whole history. It is very easy to get attached to the gifts of the Lord; therefore, Isaac had to be given up. Are we taken up by what we have been given? Can we say that the Lord has all the place, that we want nothing for ourselves? "Lord, You are the One, the only One who can effect such detachment." When our Lord went to the disciples, Peter heard, "It is the Lord," and all else was forgotten (John 21:7). The instant reaction was to go to Him.
According to Luke 17:33 this detachment can be effected by the losing of the soul. This is a definite condition for readiness for the Lord's coming. There is a necessity to lose our natural man, the part of us which desires, feels, and is always out for itself. The Holy Spirit is here to show us this natural life, because it will come out one day if it is not dealt with now. It will show itself, and we will have the wrong reaction. Therefore, the cross must cut into our life day by day. What is the sphere for the work of the cross? It is anything in us that is outside of the Lord. The Lord must stand alone. He must be all.
In verse 34 one will be taken, that is, alongside the Lord. When the Lord speaks of Noah and Lot, He is dealing with the question of rapture. Where do we stand with the Lord? Our attitude should be "as though they did not possess" (1 Cor. 7:30), "as though" we did not have this and that. We should not be ascetics; we are still in the flesh, but we have to be "as though" we are not using them at all. We possess them, and yet there is a detachment from everything that is not the Lord. This can be done only by the inner work of the cross.
When the call sounds to go in, we will react one way or another, and the way we react will be according to what we are. (Recorded by P.D.)
