Luke 17 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Luke 17:1-6: Causes of stumbling & Faith

A. Find Out:

1. What does Jesus say about sin? v.1
   • Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.
2. What does he say about the person who brings sin? v.2
   •  It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
3. What are we to do if your brother sins? v.3
   • So watch yourselves. ‘If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.
4. What if he sins and repents 7 times in a day? v.4
   •  Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying “I repent,” you must forgive them.’
5. What did the apostles ask? v.5
   • The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’
6. What did Jesus say about faith? v.6
   • He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you.

B. Think:

1. What is said about the seriousness of sin here?
2. What is the scriptural order that results in forgiveness?
3. Why is the “size” of faith irrelevant?

C. Comment:

Power packed verses! First Jesus speaks about sin and points out that in a Fallen World things causing sin will come but, he says, the person who brings such things is the one in trouble. Avoid sin is what he is saying because he then goes on to speak about what we should do if someone close to us sins.

In what follows we find the Scriptural order for forgiveness, but it starts with the need to rebuke the sinner, and that we don’t like doing, but that is Jesus’ instruction – don’t just tolerate or watch someone sinning – tell them off!

But note what follows – they repent and THEN you forgive them. Forgiveness without repentance is casual about sin. The divine order is rebuke, repentance and then forgiveness, and that should be our order as well.

When Jesus instructs them to keep on forgiving when then is repeated failure and repentance, the disciples realise this is difficult and ask the Lord to help their faith. His reply is amazing. It doesn’t matter about the “size” of your faith – you only need a tiny bit for it to be effective. Why? Because faith comes from hearing God (Rom 10:17) and is responding to God, so you only need to have caught a whisper and respond and God will do what you’ve heard Him say. Faith is human response and divine action.

D. Application:

1. Do I have an awareness of the awfulness of sin?
2. Do I readily forgive those who repent of their sins against me?

Passage: Luke 17:7-10: Servanthood

A. Find Out:

1. What does Jesus get them to imagine now? v.7a
   • ‘Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep.
2. What does he get them to imagine saying? v7b
   • Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, “Come along now and sit down to eat”?
3. What would they be more likely to say? v.8
   • Won’t he rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink”?
4. What question does he ask? v,9
   •  Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?
5. How therefore should they view their activity? v.10
   • So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”’

B. Think:

1. What is the point of Jesus’ illustration?
2. Why do you think it was necessary?
3. How should we apply it to ourselves?

C. Comment:

Jesus, you will remember, is speaking to his disciples (v.1) and now speaks simply about the duty of servants, because that’s what a disciple of Jesus is.

There is a natural tendency within Christians to start to rank themselves, or pride themselves when they are doing something good, or something for God. Pride is always waiting there to raise up its head. It is perhaps to counter this tendency that Jesus speaks.

He asks them to imagine they had a servant at home who both works in the field and does work in the house. When the servant comes in from working in the field, would they treat the servant as themselves and get him to sit down and eat with them. No, the job of a servant is to do whatever needs doing and put the needs of the Master first. Would the Master thank the servant for doing his job? No, because that is his job, it is what is expected of him, he’s simply doing what he’s paid to do so thanks are inappropriate.

This may seem a rather hard-nosed illustration that Jesus is using in that we might think it more gracious to thank someone when they’ve done their job well, even if it is their job, but remember Jesus is simply seeking to counter any hint of pride etc. in his disciples and so he wants to make it clear cut. If you’re my disciple, then you are a servant and if you are a servant, see service as a duty.

D. Application:

1. Do I have a servant heart?
2. Do I look for reward or praise when I serve?

Passage: Luke 17:11-19: TheTen Lepers 

A. Find Out:

1. Where was Jesus travelling and who did he meet? v.11,12
   • Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.
2. What did they ask of Jesus? v.13
   • They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’
3. What did he tell them to do and what happened? v.14
   • When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.
4. Who came back and why? v.15,16
   • One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan.
5. What did Jesus ask? v.17,18
   • esus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?’
6. So what did he tell him to do? v,19
   • Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’

B. Think:

1. What was the miracle being recounted here?
2. What was surprising after it?
3. What was the particular aspect of that which was challenging?

C. Comment:

Jesus is in the south of Galilee on the edge of Samaria when he encounters a group of lepers, some of whom would be Jews and some Samaritans. They have obviously heard about Jesus and have heard about his powers to heal and so cry out to him to have pity on them – the implication being, please heal us!

Now the way Jesus does this particular healing also most suggests that he knows what will happen and almost wants it to happen to prove a point. He could have healed them all in front of him when they would all feel obliged to thank him, but Jesus is in the business of exposing hearts, so instead he requires them to go to the priest whose role in such cases was to act as the local doctor and confirm healing. Their going as instructed before they see healing, is in a sense an act of faith. As they go they are healed.

It is at this point that their hearts are revealed. Only one of them is grateful enough to come back and say thank you. All the rest just go their way without any further reference to Jesus. What made it even more surprising was that the one who came back was a Samaritan, considered a foreigner by the Jews, while the others, presumably mostly Jews, didn’t come back. You would have hoped the Jews with their long relationship with God would thank Him – but no!

D. Application:

1. Is thankfulness a regular element of our lives?
2. Do we take for granted all God’s goodness towards us?

Passage: Luke 17:20-25: The coming kingdom

A. Find Out:

1. How did Jesus say the kingdom will NOT come? v.20b,21a
   • Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,”
2. Why? v.21b
   • because the kingdom of God is in your midst.’
3. What days will come and what will happen? v.22,23a
   • 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. 23 People will tell you, “There he is!” or “Here he is!”
4. What were they not to do? v.23b
   • Do not go running off after them.
5. Why? How will his coming be? v.24
   • 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.
6. But what must happen to him first? v.25
   • But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

B. Think:

1. Sum up what Jesus said about the kingdom of God ?
2. Sum up what he said about his second coming?
3. Why are these things significant for us?

C. Comment:

The Pharisees are still questioning Jesus. One of them asks about the coming of God’s kingdom and, in his reply, Jesus says two significant things. First, he says it is not outwardly observable so that people can say, here it is. Second, it is an internal thing, it is in us. What does this mean? It means that God’s rule is first and foremost expressed within us by our response to Him. God’s rule is when He speaks and we obey. That obedience comes when we surrender to Him and so from then on everything we do is in response to Him. THIS is God’s kingdom or rule on earth.

Then, because so often God’s rule is equated with a great future event, Jesus speaks about the time when he will return and everything will be brought under his reign. Look, he says to his disciples, you will not see it. Why? Because it is a long time later in time-space history. There will be lots of times when people will think it is happening and so lots of people will get excited about it, but it will not be happening, he says.

Don’t worry, when I return, you’ll know about it. In the same way that lightening flashes across the entire sky so that everyone sees it, so will be my coming. Yet, he continues, before all this can happen lots has to happen, starting with me being rejected by this generation. Yes, Jesus had a long-term agenda and the Cross was the start of it.

D. Application:

1. Am I aware that God’s call is for Him to reign within me?
2. Am I resting in His daily provision of grace until He comes?

Passage: Luke 17:26-37: The last days

A. Find Out:

1. To when did Jesus compare the day of his return? v.26
   •  ‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
2. What had happened then? v.27
   • 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.
3. To what other occasion did he compare it? v.28,29
   • ‘It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
4. What should happen when he returns? v.30,31
   •  ‘It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.
5. Why? v.32,33
   • Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
6. What will happen? v.34,35
   •  I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding corn together; one will be taken and the other left.’

B. Think:

1. What point is Jesus making in verses 26 to 29?
2. What point is he making in verses 31,32?
3. What point is he making in verses 34 to 36?

C. Comment:

As the questions above will have shown you, Jesus is making three simple and straight forward points in these verses.

First of all, he makes the point that his return will come with no great warning. People will be doing what they normally do. That’s how it had been with both the Flood and the destruction of Sodom. People were eating and drinking, thinking that everything was all right, when the destruction came.

The second point that he makes is that when he does come it will be sudden and the response to it will be sudden. It seems as if he is inferring that there will be opportunity to make a decision to respond and if you don’t instantly that will be a sign of your lack of relationship with him and you will therefore be left.

His final point is that his second coming will be a time of separating out, believers from unbelievers, godly from ungodly. The power of God will be sufficient that at that time the chosen ones will be caught away with him.

Observe two things that are often missed: the coming of Jesus will be clear and visible (v.24) and it will also be the time when the Christians are taken to be with Christ (v.34). This leaves no room for any theory of a ‘secret rapture’.

D. Application:

1. The call is always to be alert and ready for Christ.
2. The call is not to be casual or apathetic.