CHAPTER 17

(A.D. 33)

FORGIVENESS AND FAITH

¹Then said He unto the Disciples (presents the teaching given here by Christ as immediately following the illustration given concerning the rich man in Hell), It is impossible but that offences will come (refers to the fact of opposition against the Child of God, and from whom it will mostly come): but woe unto him, through whom they come! (Strangely enough, most opposition will come from the religious sector! There is an offence to the Cross! And those who reject the Cross, which are the far greater majority, will oppose those who accept the Cross. To reject the Cross is to reject Christ! Judgment is guaranteed to follow such action.)

²It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea (pronounces the judgment which awaits Christ-rejecters), than that he should offend one of these little ones (little ones mentioned here have nothing to do with children, but rather Believers who are clothed with humility, consequently allowing the Lord to defend them; they are little in their own eyes, judged to be the same by the offenders, but held very dear by the Lord and watched over minutely by Him).

³Take heed to yourselves (speaking directly to His Disciples, warning them that this spirit of offence can come on anyone unless they are careful): If your brother trespass against you, rebuke him (has to do with Mat. 18:15-17); and if he repent, forgive him.

⁴And if he trespass against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to you, saying, I repent; you shall forgive him (while the untiring, fearless rebukers of all sin, at the same time, we must never tire of exercising forgiveness the moment the offender is sorry).

⁵And the Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith (this is the request of many; however, the answer the Lord will give is extremely interesting).

⁶And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed (a very small seed, telling us, in effect, that its not really the amount of faith, but rather the correct object of Faith; the correct Object is the Cross [I Cor. 1:18]), you might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you (the removal of trees and mountains were proverbial figures of speech among the Jews at that time, expressing the overcoming of great difficulties).

THE FAITHFUL SERVANT

⁷But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by (immediately), when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

⁸And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird yourself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drank; and afterward you shall eat and drink? (A faithful servant will attend to his duties first, and himself second.)

⁹Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not (I think not!).

¹⁰So likewise, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do (the Lord, in essence, says that having fulfilled all these conditions, which were their duty to do, they would be no better than unprofitable servants; this is a fatal blow to the doctrine of Salvation by works; the Disciple is to say, I am an unprofitable servant; the Master will then say, well done, good and faithful servant [Mat. 25:21]).

THE LEPERS

¹¹And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of (between) Samaria and Galilee (the Lord was traveling eastward to the Jordan, which He would cross, and travel south toward Jerusalem on the eastward side, which was the longer route).

¹²And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, which stood afar off (Levitical Law stated that they had to remain approximately one hundred feet or so from other people [Lev. 13:21, 45-46; 14:2]):

¹³And they lifted up their voices (they were not allowed to come closer to Christ, or anyone else for that matter, so they had to shout to make themselves heard), and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us (they had, no doubt, heard many wonderful things about Jesus, and now, miracle of miracles, he was standing not too far from them).

¹⁴And when He saw them, He said unto them (they got His Attention), Go show yourselves unto the Priests (this command assured cleansing; for only a cleansed leper was to show himself to the Priests). And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed (they knew they were unclean; but they believed Christs Word, went away with the conviction that it was true, and were immediately healed on the way).

¹⁵And one of them, when He saw that He was healed (concerned the Samaritan), turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God (every Believer should praise the Lord continually),

¹⁶And fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan (what Jesus did for him destroyed his national faith in Mount Gerizim, and rightly so, and pulled him into the right way [Jn. 4:22]).

¹⁷And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? (The nine were indicative of most of Israel of that particular time, unthankful!)

¹⁸There are not found who returned to give Glory to God, save this stranger (as well, the stranger who had been healed would be indicative of the Gentile Church, which was shortly to be brought about).

¹⁹And He said unto him, Arise, go your way (Jesus lifts people up): your faith has made you whole (proclaims the fact that not only was he healed, but Saved as well; all of them showed Faith by asking Christ for healing, which they received; however, only one, it seems, was given Eternal Life because He Glorified God).

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

²⁰And when He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come (the Lord, in effect, answered that the Kingdom of God was at that moment in their midst, for He was the Kingdom of God), He answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation (the Jews claimed that when the Messiah came, He would overthrow Rome, etc.; Jesus is telling them that their observations are wrong):

²¹Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! (He is saying that all these outward signs they were talking about are not Scriptural, and really have no bearing on the Kingdom of God.) for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you (would have been better translated, the Kingdom of God is within your midst, for the Kingdom is Jesus, but Israel would not recognize Him; the Born-again experience brings Christ into the heart and, thereby, places the Kingdom of God within the person).

SECOND COMING

²²And He said unto the Disciples, The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you shall not see It (after the Day of Pentecost, all the followers of Christ, and especially the Disciples, would have a far greater understanding of all the things that Jesus said and did, and would love to have the opportunity to relive those former days).

²³And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them (He is speaking of the Second Coming).

²⁴For 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 (in other words, He is saying that when He really does come back, there will be such a display of Heavenly Glory that no one will have to ask the question, is it really Him?; it will be overly obvious to all that it is He).

²⁵But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation (the Glories of that coming day will have a relation to and will be the result of His Atoning Sufferings at Calvary).

WARNINGS

²⁶And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man (means that the world, at the time of the Second Coming, will be as indifferent and corrupt as in the days of Noah and Lot for that matter).

²⁷They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage (proclaims business as usual; in other words, as the world did not expect the predictions of Noah to come to pass respecting the flood, neither will the world expect the Second Coming, which is proclaimed in the Bible), until the day that Noah entered into the Ark (means that up to that very moment they laughed at his predictions; they saw him enter the Ark, and it was met with derision), and the flood came, and destroyed them all (their negative response in no way altered the judgment that soon came).

²⁸Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built (pertains to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah);

²⁹But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven, and destroyed them all (the Judgment did not come, however, until the Righteous concerning both Noah and Lot had been taken out; even though all of this pertains to the Second Coming, it could also pertain to the Rapture of the Church, which will take out the Believers and usher in tremendous Judgment as recorded in Rev., Chpts. 6-19).

³⁰Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed (this is the Second Coming).

³¹In that day (this definitely refers to the Second Coming, and not the Rapture), he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away (in the Middle East, almost all of the houses have flat roofs, and in Jesus day, especially during the summer months, many would sleep on top of the house, even as some still do presently): and he who is in the field, let him likewise not return back (these particular statements have nothing to do with the Rapture, inasmuch as that will be sudden, in the twinkling of an eye; Verses 31 through 37 pertain to the mobilization of Israel against the Antichrist; Ezekiel describes it in Chapters 38 and 39; that mobilization will be hurried).

³²Remember Lots wife (the emphasis is if Israel hesitates at that particular time, they will be destroyed exactly as was Lots wife; incidentally, in this one Passage, Jesus proclaims the historical fact of Lots wife being turned to salt [Gen. 19:26]).

³³Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it (refers to the Jews at that time who will think fleeing in other directions will preserve them, but in reality it will have the opposite effect); and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it (refers to those who go forward to the battle (Battle of Armageddon), and as a result, will have the protection of the Lord [Zech. 12:8]).

³⁴I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.

³⁵Two women shall be grinding together (grinding at the mill); the one shall be taken, and the other left.

³⁶Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left (once again, all of this speaks of the mobilization of Israel at the Battle of Armageddon; it does not speak of the Rapture as many have been led to believe).

³⁷And they answered and said unto Him, Where, Lord? (They did not know where or what the Lord was talking about, at least at that time.)And He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together (it refers directly to the Battle of Armageddon, and once again not the Rapture as some think! [Ezek. 39:17]).