Luke 17 - Benefits for Using faith against Sin

Questions

1. What is sin?

   1. Breaking God’s Law: the 10 Commandments.

   2. Missing the mark

   3. To wander from the path of uprightness with God

   4. All of the above

Luke 17 opens by showing us what the Lord expects of us concerning sin.

And [Jesus] said to His disciples, “Temptations (snares, traps set to entice to sin) are sure to come, but woe to him by or through whom they come! It would be more profitable for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were hurled into the sea than that he should cause to sin or be a snare to one of these little ones [lowly in rank or influence].“Pay attention and always be on your guard [looking out for one another]. If your brother sins (misses the mark), solemnly tell him so and reprove him, and if he repents (feels sorry for having sinned), forgive him.” (Luke 17:1-3 AMPC)

If you are not a member of church leadership, you are what Jesus calls a “little one,” which refers to your role within the church. He tells us that it is better to drown in the ocean than to lead others into sin who may not be as learned in the Word of God. This is why churches should never support what God calls a sin. But what exactly is sin?

Answer

If you guessed D, all of the above, then you got it right! In this scripture, the Greek word translated as sins is hamartanō, which means to miss the mark… but what mark are we talking about? It is more than breaking God's law, although doing that is definitely a sin. It also means to wander from the path of uprightness with God.

According to these scriptures, Christians need to do more than try to avoid sinning. The Greek word epitimaō is translated as “reprove,” but it means admonish or rebuke, to let them know it is wrong. Jesus expects us to let other Christians know when they are sinning! Oh, my gosh, has the whole Body of Christ forgotten this commandment from our Lord? It is reinforced in another scripture:

Brethren, if any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also. (Galatians 6:1-2 AMPC)

Paul instructs the new Christians on how to implement these instructions from the Lord. We must give correction without a prideful attitude of being better than the one who sins. We must be gentle, or else God may allow a strong temptation for the same sin to come against us! Before we see why Jesus requires this of us, I have another question:

Question

1. What sins will prevent us from making Heaven?

   1. When we take Jesus as Lord, sinning does not keep us from Heaven.

   2. Only continually and purposefully breaking the Ten Commandments will keep us from Heaven.

   3. The New Testament states many types of sins that will keep us from Heaven.

Let’s look at some New Testament scriptures about sin to find the answer to this question.

For if we go on deliberately and willingly sinning after once acquiring the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice left to atone for [our] sins. [There is nothing left for us then] but a kind of awful and fearful prospect and expectation of divine judgment and the fury of burning wrath and indignation which will consume those who put themselves in opposition [to God]. (Hebrews 10:26-27 AMPC)

Sin gives God’s enemy, Satan, more power over you and the Earth. When we sin, we are siding with God’s enemy and opposing Him. If we do this deliberately and willfully, eventually, the grace period for salvation will eventually end, and there will be a judgment against us.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV)

Answer: If you chose C you got the right answer!

These New Testament scriptures are a short list of sins that will prevent you from “inheriting the kingdom of God.” That means if you are doing these things repeatedly, you will not go to Heaven. Christians are celebrating many of these sins with others instead of standing against them. How?

Every time you celebrate “Pride Day,” which is observed for a month now, you are celebrating the sin of homosexuality. Every time you celebrate a couple moving in together before they are married, you are celebrating sexual immorality. Let’s get a bit more real. Every time you rejoice with those who get drunk every Friday night, you are celebrating the sin of drunkenness.

It is our job to help one another avoid these sins, not to rejoice in them. The Lord brings this topic of sinning to a more personal point of view as He continues discussing it with His disciples:

And even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and turns to you seven times and says, I repent [I am sorry], you must forgive him (give up resentment and consider the offense as recalled and annulled).” (Luke 17:4 AMPC)

For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15 AMPC)

Sinning doesn’t cause us to miss Heaven if we are willing to turn from it! This is why we should encourage each other not to sin instead of celebrating sin. By rejoicing in sin, we are encouraging them to remain in sin.

In addition, if we want God to forgive our sins, we must be willing to forgive those who sin against us. Holding unforgiveness in our hearts is like holding a blade that has no handle; it cuts us as much as the other person. Only when we let go of the anger, bitterness, and resentment can the Lord bring healing to our wounded hearts. It takes faith to remove sin, to confront sin, and to forgive those who sin against us. The disciples had a bit of trouble accepting this new way of looking at sin.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:5-6 ESV)

It takes faith to tell someone, in a kind and loving way, that they are sinning. It takes faith to forgive someone who sins against you. Like a mustard seed, faith should grow. It grows every time we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit concerning sin. Jesus spoke about the quality of a mustard seed in the Book of Matthew:

It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:32 ESV)

When you begin walking in God’s ways, your faith may be small, but it has the potential for growth more than anything else if we will use it! The first step is to apply it to the two areas mentioned above as it relates to growing faith..

This revelation about faith was so new that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to describe the many benefits of walking in faith in the remainder of this chapter. The first encouragement He brought in the way of a parable, which Jesus told after stating the need for faith. The discussion is so foreign to how we look at things today, we really need to see the way Jesus explains it:

Will any man of you who has a servant plowing or tending sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and take your place at the table? Will he not instead tell him, Get my supper ready and gird yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; then afterward you yourself shall eat and drink? Is he grateful and does he praise the servant because he did what he was ordered to do?Even so on your part, when you have done everything that was assigned and commanded you, say, We are unworthy servants [possessing no merit, for we have not gone beyond our obligation]; we have [merely] done what was our duty to do. (Luke 17:7-10 AMPC)

Not many of us have servants today, and to me it seemed awfully unkind to command someone to prepare supper after they had worked all day in the field. When looking at the Bible, we must remember that this was normal behavior in that day and age. Servants worked for their lords. They didn’t get “free time” or consideration for being tired. A servant’s day was only half done when tending the sheep or working in the fields. They had the meals to prepare in the second half of the day.

Standing in faith against the temptation to sin and letting other Christians know that they are sinning is the first half of the job. Forgiving people when they turn from sin or when they sin against us is the second half of the job. We should not expect to be praised by God for these things; it is what we are expected to do! However, there are benefits to being a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, as we see in the rest of the chapter.

In a village on the border of Samaria, a group of lepers cried out to Jesus, begging for mercy. The Lord did a huge miracle in a new way.

When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. (Luke 17:14 ESV)

Jesus didn’t pray over the lepers, apply mud to them, or spit on His hands before touching them. Jesus instructed these individuals, “Go and show yourselves to the priest.” Following the Lord’s orders would be an act of faith because lepers were required to show themselves to the priest IF they were healed, so they could be readmitted back to society. They were not healed until they obeyed God and started walking towards the priest!

We should apply this to the prior discussion. The disciples asked the Lord to increase their faith. As the lepers applied their faith to follow Jesus’ instructions, they received a miracle of healing. Are you looking for a miracle? Are you looking to increase your faith? You must be willing to do what the Lord says to do!

Only one of the ten lepers turned back to Jesus when he discovered that he had been healed. He fell right at the feet of Jesus, praising God for the miracle.

Then Jesus asked, “Were not [all] ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was there no one found to return and to recognize and give thanks and praise to God except this alien?”And He said to him, “Get up and go on your way. Your faith (your trust and confidence that spring from your belief in God) has restored you to health.” (Luke 17:17-19 AMPC)

The Greek word translated as “health” is sōzō, which also means to be made whole. Leprosy destroys parts of the body; lepers often lose fingers, ears, and even limbs. This was the only leper to be fully restored because the miracle caused him to have faith in God. This is the difference between a servant doing as he is commanded, like the nine following the instructions of Jesus, and the servant going above and beyond the orders of his Master. When we rejoice in God, when we thank Him for all He has done through His Son, we receive wholeness!

After this wonderful benefit of being not only a servant of our Lord, but by going above and beyond our duties by praising Him, we see another advantage of using our faith to remove temptation.

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:20-21 ESV)

In Daniel 2 and Zechariah 14, it is prophesied that God would set up His eternal Kingdom on the Earth. Jesus tells the religious leaders that they are looking for the wrong thing. The Greek word translated as “midst” is entos, and it means inside your being.

When Adam and Eve defied God’s instructions and ate the forbidden fruit, sin entered the world, and Satan became the spiritual “ruler of this world” because it was Satan whom the entirety of mankind obeyed. Jesus, who is God, came to retake spiritual possession of this world. To do this, He had to be born on this Earth and be obedient to God in every moment of His life, even unto the most painful death: the torture and the death of the cross.

This was the payment necessary to take back that which had been given to Satan. Jesus rules the Earth, but only for those who submit to Him as their Lord, which means we have to be willing to obey Him. We have a choice: will we sin and obey Satan, or will we exercise our faith to turn from temptation so that we can be part of the Kingdom of God? When we choose Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit inside us, who will help us do this. That is why Heaven is in the “midsts” of us.

There is an awesome reward which Jesus describes next, but before He does, He tells His disciples what to expect in the coming years:

And He said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day. But first, He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. (Luke 17:22-25 ESV)

Jesus told His disciples that they would want to see His coming in strength, but they would not see it. He describes His second coming as an event the whole world will witness, like lightning that flashes across the entire sky. But first, he had to be rejected, suffer, and die.

Next, we have the famous description of the day when Jesus will return: people will be going through life, buying and selling, eating and drinking, and even getting married, and so on. He uses the examples of “as it was in the days of Noah… or Lot, so it will be.” Both of those events have one thing in common: mankind was sinning against God with no concern for their sins. Jesus specifically mentions this aspect of the events:

…but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from Heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:29-30 ESV)

We get the word “sodomy,” the act of what two men do together, from Sodom. The two male angels God sent to judge Sodom were accosted by the townsmen demanding to have sex with them… hmmm… see how that relates to using faith to stand against sin? The reward for doing so is mentioned next:

On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” (Luke 17:31-33 ESV)

Before the return of the Lord, we must be ready to do what the Lord says when He says to do it. Who will need to flee? Well, that is a class at the Living Word about the return of Jesus. Let’s apply it to faith and sin. In Genesis, it says Lot’s wife “looked back” towards Sodom. The word “look” means to look intently at; by implication, to regard with pleasure, favor, or care. She was looking back with longing for her old life. This is the opposite of encouraging people not to sin. Jesus warns His disciples that if we have this attitude, we cannot expect to have what comes next:

I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” (Luke 17:34-35 ESV)

If two are in bed and one is suddenly not there, or two are working side by side and one is suddenly “taken,” it is a removal of people from the Earth. Many refer to this as the “rapture,” which comes from this description of the prophesied event:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 ESV)

“To be caught up” was translated into Latin as rapio. Rapture is the English version of that word. In an instant, Christians will be “caught up” and removed from this earth. To receive this reward from our God, we must be willing to turn from sin. Jesus mentioned Lot’s wife specifically. She thought she was safe, as do many Christians, but are you doing what she did, gazing back at sinful behaviors with longing? Or even worse, are you still participating in it on a regular basis? We all sin, none of us is perfect, but if you are continually, willfully sinning, that is a different matter because it will prevent you from going in the rapture.

Luke began with two items that we need to use our faith to achieve: encouraging each other not to sin and forgiving those who sin, even when it is against us. When we walk in faith, doing what Jesus tells us to do, God can bring the miracle of healing. When we rejoice and worship God, full restoration can come. When we look at the order of the discussions, we see a flow of what is necessary to be part of that awesome evacuation, the rapture, where we will escape the wrath of God coming on the whole Earth.

Did you realize that being a Christian means Jesus is your Lord? That word means owner, master; you are His willing servant. Did you know you were expected to turn from sin? If not, it is easy to correct! Talk to Jesus like He is your Friend. Let Him know you are sorry, and you want to do what is right. Begin the free online classes, Removing Attacks, will help you understand sin and how to receive more benefits from Heaven!