JESUS ON HIS RETURN

Father, this is your word.

It's your word to us.

It's not our word about you, but it's your word to us.

And we confess before you, Father, that we have our own criteria,

and if we're not careful, we judge your word.

But we ask, Father, that you humble us before your word

and help us to hear your word

so that your word will judge the desires of our hearts

and our thoughts and our plans

that we might hear your views and your perspective

and your good and gracious word to us

in the midst of our preoccupations.

Father, speak to us by your word.

Pour out your Holy Spirit with gentle but deep power

upon our mind, upon our wills, upon our hearts, upon our souls,

to the center of who we are.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us

and that we might hear your word and bring you glory.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son,

and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So today we're going to talk about

why Christians should be the principal relativists in Canada.

And we're also going to talk about the meaning of life.

But before we do that,

I want to talk to you about something which is sort of relevant

and you sort of need to have your Bibles.

It's something that happened to me on Friday.

And when I was in the Starbucks where I was working on my sermon.

So if you get your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 17,

Luke 17 · chapter mention

it's sort of, there's something really cool

about this particular text in the Bible.

So on, on, on, there's a fellow in this one Starbucks

that I go to most mornings now.

My schedule has changed a little bit.

And he was in one of my,

he was in the very first church that I served in.

And he still goes to a liberal church.

And, and so he sees me many times in the week

working on my sermon.

So on Friday, he came up to me and said,

have you finished your sermon yet, George?

And I said, no, I haven't finished my sermon yet.

And then he said to me, George, you know,

I don't know how you do it.

Having to say something every week, I'd, I'd, I'd find it really hard.

And, and I said to him, well, uh, yeah, it's actually a bit easier

if you have to do it every week because you get into a bit of a rhythm.

But, you know, the main thing is that if I,

and here I was sort of making a little tiny bit of a dig at, at, at, uh, at his church.

I, I said that, uh, if I had to, if, if, if what I did on Sunday

was just get up and share my wisdom with the congregation,

uh, after three weeks, I would be in trouble.

And so would the congregation because I would have exhausted my wisdom

after three weeks.

But if what I try to do is just, we read a passage in the Bible

and then I, in a sense, hold the Bible like this to the congregation

and just try to help them understand what the Bible says.

Well, then every week there's a different Bible passage.

So there's always, I mean, it can still be hard to understand and all,

but there's just a different passage that I can point people to

and help them to understand it.

Now I know that he's read, uh, a couple of, um, of the critical types of books

about the Bible.

And I could tell from his expression that when I said that what I would try to do

would be to try to sort of just open the Bible to the congregation

and just try to help them understand.

I, I knew I could tell by the look in his eyes that he sort of thought,

well, you know, who knows what the Bible really is and, and, and, you know,

and who knows if it's even accurate.

So I said to him, uh, I almost said his name to him,

which wouldn't have been good.

I said, you know, listen, you just come over here for a second.

I want to show you something really cool, which I'm going to show you

something really cool about the Bible.

So I, we got the Bible.

And if you look to the end of chapter 17, look, you'll see that there's verse 34.

And then you look and see there's verse 35.

And then after that is verse 37.

If you have a modern Bible, if you have an old King James version of the Bible,

it might not do that.

But if you have a modern Bible, that's probably what it does.

I said, verse 34, there's verse 35, verse 35, and then verse 37.

And I said, you know, I almost said his name again.

We'll call him Fred.

That's not his name.

So I said, Fred, you know, here's the thing about the text.

I said, virtually every modern version of the text, I said,

there are thousands and thousands and thousands of,

literally thousands and thousands of manuscripts of,

of the New Testament that go back to very close to the time that it was actually written.

And I said, there's actually a scientific discipline whereby scholars

will compare the different manuscripts.

And when there's differences in the manuscripts,

they have a different, a way, a scientific way of trying to go back

and actually figure out what the original text probably was.

And I said, as archaeology discovers more text,

as archaeologists discover more text,

it gets easier and easier to try to be more confident

that we're actually reading the older text.

And I said, so, like when the King James Version

and the medieval age when they were developing the verse system,

there was a verse here which we now would say that wasn't there.

And he said, really?

I said, yeah.

And he looked and he saw, yeah.

And I said, you know, you go back and you get a good modern translation.

They'll all mention that.

And at the bottom, there'll be a little note

that'll tell you what the, you know, the verse was that was left out.

And I said, there's another thing.

I said, you just have to sort of take my word on it.

But he, every, this particular day, I still had the book open.

I was reading volume two of a commentary on Luke that was,

volume two is this fat and volume one is that fat.

So he sees me going through this commentary.

And I said, do you know that when there's two places in this text

where there's a little bit of a difference in the manuscripts,

and do you know that what scholars do, I said,

it's completely opposite to what you hear on PBS and TVO

and reading Globe and Mail and The Citizen,

they'll all tell you this thing and it's completely,

they're actually all wrong.

I said, when there's a difference between two manuscripts

and they're not sure what to take,

I can tell you that in every modern translation

that's worth its salt, which is most of them,

they choose the difficult and awkward version

that makes complications in the text not the easy version.

Because the translators know that human nature is such

that if a copyist is going to make a mistake,

they're more likely to try to smooth over a difficulty

rather than to create a difficulty.

And so that's what they do.

And I said, you see, that's why we can be very confident,

whether you believe it or not,

whether you think it's God's word or not,

you can be very confident that what you're reading here

is very close to what Luke actually wrote.

So here's the first point for the morning.

And it actually is relevant to the rest of the things

that we're going to talk about,

although it might seem a bit odd.

But here's the first point.

So if the true and living God really speaks to humans,

it is only wise to want to hear him clearly.

Isn't it?

If the true and living God really speaks

or has really spoken to humans,

it is only wise to want to hear him clearly.

And that's why, you know,

there's always been a branch of Christianity.

There's always been some Christians

who are very fearful of the truth

and don't want to really ask these hard questions.

But, you know, really, at the end of the day,

we as Christians believe these aren't our words,

but this is God speaking to us,

that God was the one who caused these words to be written,

that he is speaking to us.

And so it's only wise to want to hear him clearly

and not get other people adding their own opinions.

We spend all day listening to people's opinions.

And if we're not listening to people's opinions,

we're listening to our own opinion in our head.

But surely, if God really speaks,

you want to hear him clearly.

And it's very, very interesting.

It'll become obvious as we go through the text.

One of the profound differences

between the Christian faith and Islam

is that in Islam,

there is no critical examination

as to what the original Koran was.

Because they're terrified of it.

And part of it has to do with the nature of God.

You see, it's a very, in a sense,

an autocratic God who's portrayed in Islam.

And you can still fall in love with autocrats,

and I'm not saying that there aren't many Muslims

who don't sort of fall in love with God,

but it's a type of autocratic God,

and a distant God, right?

Because even in the Koran,

God speaks to Gabriel,

and Gabriel speaks to Muhammad,

and Muhammad speaks to his followers,

and his followers write it down.

But in Christian faith,

like the one who is speaking here now

is one who dies for us.

There's a different understanding

of the nature of God,

that God is love.

And so we have this interesting concept

that as we have a clearer sense

that God is love,

it frees us up to look

and try to hear more clearly

what it is that God actually says.

And that's reflected then

in Christian scholars

who work with non-Christian scholars,

non-Christian archaeologists,

is to try to actually have the text

be as accurate and clear

as we possibly can get it.

So that's the first thing,

is that if the true and living God

really speaks to humans,

it is only wise to want to hear him clearly.

Now, I said to you,

some of you might remember,

I said that this text

is a perfect example

of why it is that Christians

should be the principal relativists.

We should be far more relativistic

than any other person,

than any other group in our culture.

Christians are often thought of

as being sort of narrow-minded,

as being absolutists,

but we should really be

the principal relativists.

And so let's look at the text

and we'll start to see

why that is the case.

So you hopefully still have your Bibles.

It's Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

We'll begin at verse 20.

And here's how it goes.

Being asked by the Pharisees

when the kingdom of God would come,

Jesus answered them,

the kingdom of God is not coming

with signs to be observed,

nor will they say,

look, here it is,

or there.

For behold,

the kingdom of God

is in the midst of you.

Now, some of you,

and this often happens to me

when I talk to people at Starbucks,

is that they'll tell me

that the Bible is filled

with contradictions.

And some of you

might be thinking,

if you know a little bit

about what goes on

actually in Luke's gospel,

because in a couple of chapters,

Jesus is going to talk about signs

of his second coming.

In Luke's gospel,

three times he talks about

the second coming.

And this is the second time.

And in, I think,

it's two chapters from now,

he's going to talk about

the second coming again.

And he's going to say

these are some of the signs.

And some of you

might be familiar

with John's gospel.

And John's gospel

is organized

around significant signs.

And so,

is Jesus contradicting himself?

Is the Bible contradicting itself

when it says here,

the kingdom of God,

when Jesus says,

the kingdom of God

is not coming with signs

to be observed,

nor will they say,

look, here it is,

or there,

for behold,

the kingdom of God

is in the midst of you.

Well,

sort of two things.

In the New Testament,

there's two different words

in Greek

that are translated as sign.

And in this particular case,

it's one word,

and later on in chapter 19

and in John's gospel,

it's a different word.

And the two different words,

they're both signs,

but they have a specifically

different connotation.

So,

here's the difference.

Here's this first one.

The first one could really

be translated as

looking for symptoms.

That's what Jesus

is really saying.

And here's the significance

of it.

A couple of years ago,

my doctor retired.

It was sort of traumatic

for me.

I'd had him for a long time.

I had to find a new doctor.

And then I found a new doctor

about two years ago.

And this doctor believes

that people my age,

men my age,

should have a yearly checkup.

So,

this past Friday,

I went for my yearly checkup.

And it's an odd situation.

We go into this tiny little room

and I sit down.

He says,

don't sit down for very long.

I'm a doctor.

Take your clothes off.

That feels very funny,

taking your clothes off.

He's dressed.

Actually,

it would be weirder

if he wasn't.

Then I wouldn't.

But it just feels pretty funny,

right?

And I take my clothes off

and he said,

you know,

I'm asking you to do this

not just to make,

not to make,

not because I want to make you

uncomfortable,

but he said,

you know,

he asked me to turn around

and he's looking to see

if I have funny looking moles.

And he's looking to see

if I have,

I don't know,

rashes or bruises

or cuts or scars

or something else.

He's examining me.

He stands,

in a sense,

in judgment

in a good sense.

I trust him.

He seems like a really good doctor

and he's standing

to observe symptoms

or signs

that according to his criteria

allow him

to make judgments

about my health.

And that's the image here.

So the Pharisees,

Jesus knows

that the Pharisees

want to be like a doctor

judging God's kingdom.

kingdom.

And they're saying,

Jesus is saying,

you folks

have your criteria,

your criteria

to judge

whether something

is God's

of God or not

and of the kingdom

or not.

And you are asking me,

according to your criteria,

what are the different signs

that are going to come?

And I'm telling you

what Jesus is saying is,

God's ignoring your criteria.

God doesn't give a hoot

about your criteria.

You can keep your criteria

if you want,

but if you keep your criteria,

you're going to miss

the kingdom of God.

You're going to miss it

completely and utterly.

You see,

God is relativizing

your criteria

to judge.

Because you know what?

And it's a common problem here.

What is it about us

when we try to judge

the kingdom of God?

Well, in our culture,

if it really is going to be

God's kingdom,

well, it has to have

this particular view

of human sexuality.

Or it has to have

this particular view

about how markets,

financial markets work

and the power of the state.

Or it has to have

this particular connection

to the teaching of evolution.

Or it has to have

this particular criteria

in terms of science.

Or it has to have

this particular criteria

in terms of how emotional it is.

Or it has to have

this particular criteria

in terms of how mystical it is.

And in our culture,

we have a whole range

of criteria

that we hold to

very, very firmly

that we use

to judge

whether something

might be God's kingdom.

And just like the Pharisees,

they're different criteria

than the Pharisees,

but it's the exact same

human drive.

And Jesus says,

God's going to ignore

all of them.

I mean,

that's actually a bit

striking.

But Jesus says,

God's going to ignore

your criteria.

Those aren't his criteria.

And in fact,

because you hold on

to your criteria

and aren't actually,

if God actually speaks,

isn't it wise

to hear him clearly

and listen

for his criteria

rather than yours?

And isn't that

the wise thing

to do?

And in fact,

he says,

and here's the next point.

And the first point,

in the original language,

if you translate it,

it actually has Jesus

sounding a little bit

like he's Yoda.

Okay?

Because what actually

it says,

when Jesus says,

like if they were

to translate it literally,

therefore,

there,

sorry,

it says,

for the kingdom of God

is in the midst of you,

it actually is saying,

Jesus is actually saying,

the kingdom of God

among you is.

Sounds like Yoda,

right?

The kingdom of God

among you is.

And it's sort of

ungrammatical.

It's sort of funny.

I mean,

this translation

was done after Yoda.

They could probably

get away with it,

you know,

as a Yoda-ish type

of thing that Jesus says.

But, you know,

what Jesus is saying

is here you're,

if you go back

and read just

what happened before,

Jesus has performed

a remarkable miracle.

And the implication

of the miracle is

that part of the reason

that the men knew

that they had been

healed of leprosy,

the implication is,

is that,

you know,

lepers,

because they lose

their sense of,

they lose any sense

of pain,

and so they eventually

lose things like

their eyes get gouged out,

they don't realize

they have something

in there ruining

their eye,

they have,

they can have their,

you know,

things can fall

on their finger,

they can cut their finger,

they can burn their finger,

they don't know

that that's happening,

so they end up

losing fingers.

And the implication

is that in the miracle

that part of the reason

that they knew

that they were healed

is that things like

fingers probably grew back.

All because of a miracle

by Jesus.

And,

and you see,

what we're going to see

in,

in,

in Luke 19 or 20,

whatever it is

where he talks about,

what we see in,

in the Gospel of John

is that Jesus says,

God is giving you

all sorts of signs

that the Messiah

has come.

Like,

surely to a reasonable person,

a finger coming back

is a sign.

But it's not to them,

it's not their criteria,

right?

And so Jesus is saying,

here he is,

he's surrounded by Pharisees,

he says,

the kingdom of God

among you is,

and the original language,

the is,

is emphatic,

which is why I've sort of,

in this case,

I've made it higher,

I mean,

I capitalized it,

to try to,

is,

and Jesus is saying,

I,

when I came,

I have started

to bring the kingdom,

the kingdom of God

is inaugurated

in your midst,

by my ministry,

by who I am,

and by my disciples

who put their trust in me.

That's,

that's what's going on here.

And now Jesus is going to

then go on

and talk about the fact

that,

um,

that God,

in his sovereign wisdom,

has decided to,

to bring all things right

in a,

in a way which doesn't fit

with the way that we would

want to do it,

but it's the way that God

wants to do it,

out of his sovereign love.

That it's going to involve,

first,

the Son of Man,

Jesus,

uh,

coming and dying upon the cross

to redeem and to save

and to call to himself

a community of people,

a community of people

that's,

uh,

relativizes geography,

relativizes human institutions,

relativizes the nation,

state,

relativizes people,

groups,

that he's going to call

to himself out of

every people group,

out of every language group,

out of every religious

and spiritual group,

he's going to call people

out of these groups

that we think are important,

but the kingdom of God

is going to relativize,

and he is going to call people

out of all of these groups

into a community

centered around his Son,

a community,

uh,

of blessing

and of enablement

that blesses and enables.

that's,

that's what the gospels

are talking about.

Now,

some of you might say,

George,

I remember you reading this,

you just read this text

a few moments ago,

and,

you know,

okay,

George,

I know you've just said

that God doesn't sort of

use our criteria,

but it sounds,

I mean,

where the corpses are,

the vultures will gather,

I mean,

George,

that sounds like a really,

I don't know if I can

even possibly accept

any type of view of God

or any type of view

of the future

that's going to involve

such death and,

and chaos and,

and mayhem.

Well,

let's look and see what it,

see what the text says.

Verse,

you see,

so now Jesus has talked about

the fact that he's here,

and the,

the disciples are sort of

a bit confused about it,

and so Jesus is going to

talk to them,

really start talking about

his second coming

and what happens in between,

and,

and he's,

and,

and in the course of that,

he's going to talk about some,

he's going to give some

gruesome images.

So let's look,

verse 22.

And Jesus said to the disciples,

right,

now he's not talking,

he's talking to the disciples,

not the Pharisees,

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 will say to you,

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.

And just sort of

pause there.

You know,

it's really an interesting thing here.

Look at,

again,

at verse 22.

The days are coming

when you will desire

to see one of the days

of the Son of Man.

And the Son of Man,

it's an image,

in this particular case,

it goes back to the book of Daniel.

It would have been recognized

by the Jewish people

as something that talks about

the end,

the end of the end of the end.

And he's saying that

you're going to,

the days are going to come

when you would desire

to see this future thing,

to desire to know

and to see

and have the future arrive.

And you know,

it's a very,

very common

human desire

to see the future

and to know the future.

It's a very,

very common

human desire.

like in,

when we talk about

people being progressives

in our society,

there's this sense of,

there's a future

that things are progressing towards.

And it's a very,

very deeply ingrained thing

within our culture.

And it's not just those

who are considered

to be progressives.

We all fundamentally desire

and have a hope

that the future is,

there's going to be something

good for us in the future.

And unless we're complete

and utter narcissists,

we not only want there

to be something good

for ourselves,

but to be good

for others as well.

That we want,

we want to have a sense

that things are going

to get better

in our economy,

that things are going

to get better politically,

that things are going

to get better in Canada,

and things are going

to get better

in other places.

And it's going to get

generally better

and it's also going

to be better for us,

for me as a particular individual

or for my family

and my friends.

And it's a very,

very powerful,

powerful desire.

If you watch movies,

in many movies,

I just,

I just read,

because I have Netflix,

I just re-watched Armageddon,

a Bruce Willis flick

from the 90s.

And there's a huge asteroid

the size of Texas

hurtling towards the Earth.

And when it hits the Earth,

it's going to be something

that will completely

and utterly destroy the Earth.

And when they say,

when they have the behind-the-scenes

thing about the White House

and them not wanting

to tell people

that it's coming,

why?

Because it will cause panic.

Right?

And nobody,

it's not when they say that

in the movie,

and there's lots of other movies,

similar types of themes,

right?

Is that you don't,

we,

because they understand

that partly what holds,

the glue that holds

whatever type of order

there is in society,

a big part of it

is with the idea

that there's a future.

some type of a future,

not only for myself

as an individual,

but for the culture

as a whole.

There's a very interesting

series of detective novels

that are called

The Last Detective.

And in it,

it,

I think it's by Ben Winters

or something like that.

And in it,

there's an asteroid coming

that's going to destroy

the entire Earth

and scientists know

the exact second

it's going to come.

But in this case,

people know of it

several years in advance.

And the books

talk about

how does society

hold together

when we all know

that everything

is going to end

in two years

or whatever it is

or a year and a half.

In fact,

the preface,

the interesting dilemma

of all of the three books

is worked out

in each case,

he's,

like police forces,

you know,

nobody shows up to work,

things all start breaking down,

people are committing suicide,

and in the midst of it,

a cop wants to solve a murder.

And the thing

which helps to drive

the novel

is why would you bother

trying to solve a murder

when everything's going

to end in a year?

And his co-workers

think he's nuts.

And the novels

discuss this very

interesting possibility

of everything

is going to end.

Like,

how do you live together?

And what is it you do?

And so we all have

this instinctive sense

that the future matters,

that we desire

to know something

about the future,

and that we desire

to have this sense

that the future

is going to be

something worthwhile,

good for myself

and good for more than me.

And that's a fundamental desire.

And in fact,

within that,

like the same,

you know,

if you were one

wondering about

why is it that this text

is going to talk about

these gruesome details,

the funny thing is

that within our own views

of the future,

and it's going to be

different if you're

on the left

and different if you're

on the right,

but whether you're

on the left or the right,

depending on our view

of the future,

we have this sense

of judgment

that will come

if we don't heed

our view of the future

and act appropriately.

And so it is,

if we don't heed,

I'm not making

political points here,

I really am not,

and I hope I don't

lose you all

as to wondering

whether George

is a global warming

skeptic or not,

okay,

but just bear me out.

You know,

it's a very,

very common type

of view that,

you know,

the earth is warming

because of human activity

and if we don't deal

with it,

there's going to be floods,

there's going to be hurricanes,

there's going to be tornadoes,

there's going to be earthquakes,

there's going to be

mass death,

there's going to be

mass starvation.

What are we saying?

If we don't follow

our understanding

of how to live,

which is connected

to a good future,

lots of people

will die.

And on the right,

you know,

if we intervene

with markets

in the wrong way,

if we tax too much,

if we do this,

if we do that,

then there's going

to be deforestation,

there's going to be poverty,

there's going to be

unemployment,

there's going to be

wars connected to it,

and there's going to be

all sorts of people dying.

And it's very,

very funny

that on one hand,

it's a very,

very common idea,

apart from the Bible,

that if you don't

sort of do

certain types of things,

all sorts of people

will die,

but when it comes

to the Bible

and we see that

the future could involve

a judgment

that involves death,

we say,

I have a hard time

with that.

I have a hard time

with it.

But you see,

here's the profound

difference between

whether it's this

global warming view

or a more right-wing

type of view,

is that in both

of those cases,

it's completely

and utterly impersonal.

And there really

isn't a sense

no hope

unless you toe the line.

But in the Bible,

as we're going to see,

it's a personal God

who judges,

but who doesn't

just judge,

he does something

vastly more remarkable

than the ideologies

and the common

viewpoints of our day.

If you could put

the point up,

Andrew,

this is what

Jesus is teaching us.

The judgment

of the living God

must fall

and will fall

on every person.

The question

before me is,

will it fall

on me as I deserve

or,

by God's grace,

will it fall

on Jesus

in my place?

The judgment

of the living God

must fall

and will fall

on every person.

The question

before me is,

will it fall

on me as I deserve

or,

by God's grace,

will it fall

on Jesus

in my place?

I mean,

everything that we

are to hear

about,

see,

and that comes out

in verse 25,

it's the fifth

of the six times

in the gospel

of Luke

where Jesus

talks about the fact

that he's going

to Jerusalem

to die.

Right?

Come here just about

every week,

every part we're

reading right now

from chapter 9 on,

every part is to be

understood as Jesus

is going to Jerusalem

to die.

He's going to Jerusalem

to die upon the cross.

That looms over

everything in his teaching.

And we Christians

understand that

unlike the left wing

or right wing

or historical other views

which tend to be

impersonal

and tend to all involve

us in some way

keeping the party line

of those who are

predicting some type

of future calamity,

Jesus is going

to Jerusalem to die.

God will bring

all things to an end

but before that

in mercy,

the judgment

that you and I

deserve will fall

on Jesus.

That's the gospel.

And it has

no parallel

with our

other types

of cultural

understandings

of doom

of the future.

Rather than

having to

toe the line,

Jesus

walks in our

stead

and dies

in our stead.

and if we

put our faith

and trust

in him,

then the judgment

that I deserve

by grace

will fall

on Jesus.

See,

that's the gospel.

That's why,

see,

one of the things

that the Pharisees

were thinking

is that they do

all of these

particular good works

and then God's kingdom

will come

and they just sort of

enter in

and Jesus

understands that

no amount of

good works

done in advance

will be something

that then means

that now Jesus

accepts you

and whatever he's

done on the cross

will be,

it can't be that.

The whole judgment

on my life

falls on Jesus

and I cannot

lessen that

in any way

by my actions.

I need to accept

that the judgment

that I deserve

falls on Jesus

in my stead.

and when I turn

to God

and accept

the power

of God

for salvation

that he offers,

then I am his.

Then I am his.

So as we're reading

all of these

other things,

we read them

in light of verse 25

of Jesus

bearing our judgment

upon ourselves.

So you see,

that's why

on one hand,

see,

again,

is that grace

is profoundly

relativizing.

It relativizes

all human religion

and all human

spirituality

because all human

religion and all

spirituality

is an attempt,

different sets

of advice

about how to

live your life

and how to,

in a sense,

merit God's favor

or bring in

God's rule

or bring God

down

or into our sphere

or whatever it is,

but it's always

advice.

And the gospel

is not advice,

it's news.

It's news

of a power

of God

for salvation

that comes in

and relativizes

all natural

human religion

and all natural

human spirituality,

all attempts

to toe the line.

It relativizes

all of this

with the news,

the announcement,

that the power

of God

for salvation

has arrived

if we are willing

to set aside

our criteria

and to accept

what God

has done.

So let's look

a little bit more

at this relativizing

because it's going

to get sort of

deeper into the text

in a very clear way.

Look at verse 26.

Just as it was

in the days of Noah,

so will it be

in the days

of the Son of Man.

They were eating

and drinking

and marrying

and being given

in marriage

until the day

when Noah

entered the ark

and the flood

came and destroyed

them all.

Likewise,

just as it was

in the days

of Lot,

they were eating

and drinking,

buying and selling,

planting and building,

but on the day

when Lot

went out

from Sodom,

fire and sulfur

rained down

from heaven

and destroyed

them all.

So will it be

on the day

when the Son of Man

is revealed.

It's going to be

a day of judgment.

Jesus dies

on the cross

to save,

but, you know,

in that point,

the judgment

of the living God

must fall

and will fall

on every person.

The question

before me

is will it

fall on me

as I deserve

or by God's grace

will it fall

on Jesus

in my place?

Continue reading

in verse 31.

On that day

let the one

who was on the housetop

with his goods

in the house

not come down

to take them away

and likewise

let the one

who was in the field

not turn back.

In other words,

don't turn towards

the world.

Don't think

you can sort of hide.

Don't think

that it's going to

all be about you

being able to,

you know,

live in your bunker.

Here's the right wing

version of judgment.

You're going to be able

to live in your bunker

and outlast the apocalypse

and then emerge

on the other side

after the radiation's

gone away

to have a triumphant

white earth future

or whatever it's going to be.

Don't bother thinking

any of those types of terms.

Remember Lot's wife.

Whoever seeks

to preserve his life

will lose it

but whoever loses his life

will keep it.

Jesus means

loses his life

when he gives his life

to me.

I tell you

in that night

there will be

two in one bed.

One will be taken

in the other left.

There will be

two women grinding together.

One will be taken

in the other left.

And they said to him

where Lord?

He said to them

where the corpse is

there the vultures

will gather.

But notice those

last few verses

34 and 35

and that night

the judgment

will come.

Like we tend to

how do we tend

to judge the world?

We tend to judge people

by whether they're

you know

you know

Caucasian

or African

Canadian

or Asian.

We tend to judge

people by

economics

by social class.

We tend to judge

people

by education.

We tend to think

things like

the family

or marriage

are really

really

family is really

important

or the tribe

is really important

or the clan

is really important

or economic

arrangements

are really important.

And Jesus says

that you're going to

have two people

lying together

whether it's

you know

a mother

with her kids

or a husband

and a wife

or you know

a gay relationship

or whatever

one will be taken

and one will be left.

Those things

that we think

are most important

and most absolute

are relativized

by the judgment

of God.

That the image

of the two women

grinding together

it's an image

of the family

of the clan

of the tribe

of the economic unit

of the social class

things that we think

are so important

when we judge each other

and when we evaluate

each other

and one will be taken

in the other left

that once again

the things in this world

by which we rate people

that we rate ourselves

which we think

are so important

is he slim?

Is he fat?

Is he smart?

Is he good looking?

Is he ugly?

Is he successful?

All of these things

that we think

are so important

that we use

to judge ourselves

the Bible here says

the judgment of God

will completely

and utterly

relativize.

They don't matter.

We live in a world

where all sorts of things

are treated

as the basis

of judgment

and from the perspective

of Jesus

and of his word

they do not matter

and they are not

the basis of judgment.

It won't be

that heaven

is filled

with rich successful people

and all the poor people

not.

There will be poor

there will be rich

there will be well educated

there will be people

who are not well educated

there will be people

with high IQs

there will be people

with very very low IQs.

The Bible relativizes

all of that.

See here's the

here's the thing

Canadian moral relativism

robs life

of true meaning.

biblical relativism

clarifies

and reveals

true meaning

in life.

If you could put

that point up.

Canadian moral relativism

robs life

of true meaning.

Biblical relativism

clarifies

and reveals

true meaning

in life.

See Canadian moral relativism

is usually around

matters of sexuality

and certain other types

of religious

and spiritual practices

and it leaches

into basically

just a relativism

around morals

what's right

and what's wrong

and it really

ends up just creating

that it's sort of

up to me

to make all of those

types of decisions

and I'm the one

who sets the criteria

about the type of end

and about the type

of what's right and wrong

and it's right and wrong

for me

and it's really

in a sense

like

I don't know

if you've ever done this

with little kids

and you say

can you hit the bullseye

in this pond

and you know

it's a very very still pond

or something

and they might look

at you quizzical

and you take a rock

and you throw the rock

and it lands

in the still pond

and then there's

the ripples that go out

and it looks like a bullseye

and wherever the stone lands

you've hit the bullseye.

Pretty cool eh?

And you know

so a little kid

might throw that

you know

and it goes into

the still pond

and there's a bullseye

they hit the bullseye

every time

but that's really

what Canadian moral relativism

says

and you know what

that's sort of fine

when you're a kid

but ultimately

it's sort of boring

and it only works

while we're being

very successful

and while we're young

and part of the desire

and drive

part of it

not all of it

but part of the drive

for state assistance

for doctors

to be able to have

the right to kill people

when we ask

or when our loved ones ask

which is a whole

dark corridor

of that whole projection

is because we

are in control

of our meaning project

and we are fine

with it

when we're

you know

sexually desirable

and economically viable

and able to entertain

and amuse ourselves

and once that goes

there's no meaning

to life.

Biblical relativism

by relativizing

all of those things

one of the things

it does

is it says

that the meaning

of life

is not found

in space and time

that if you follow

the different longings

and yearnings

of our life

and you follow

that trajectory

you realize

that the meaning

of life

has to be outside

of space and time

but have relevance

to space and time

and that's what

Jesus says

he says

that the kingdom

of God

in the midst

of you is

that God

is calling

to himself

by all who put

their faith

and trust

in Jesus

it doesn't matter

if you've been

a street person

or if you're

a high tech executive

if you're a soccer mom

if you're a gay activist

if you're an iman

in a mosque

it doesn't matter

if any of those things

if you heed the call

of Jesus

to come to him

he will in no wise

you know

come to me

all who labor

and who labor

and are heavy laden

and I will give you rest

take my yoke upon you

and my yoke is easy

and my burden is light

I will bring you peace

and Jesus will take anybody

and when they come to him

in repentance

and faith

he calls us

into a community

of meaning

a community

centered around

the living God

a community

to bless

to enable

for us to do

good works

of love

for people

with eternal meaning

and for us

to do things

that actually

bring God glory

I mean one of the

interesting things

is when you

you look at the other

Pauline epistles

Paul gives advice

to slaves

about even though

they're economically

and politically

and legally

completely

and utterly bound

the epistles

are dynamite

to the slave

empires

of the world

because

Paul says

you can belong

to Jesus

and there are ways

that you can act

as a follower

of Jesus

even as a slave

that bring

God glory

the world

says

you belong

to me

you are

under

my foot

and Jesus

says

come to me

all who are

burdened

and heavy laden

and I will

give you rest

take my yoke

upon you

and learn

from me

for I am

gentle

and lowly

of heart

and you

will find

rest

for your soul

for my yoke

is easy

and my burden

is light

and even though

you are a slave

in the eyes

of the world

I will accept

you as mine

you are part

of my community

and there is a way

for you to live

where you are

bound as you are

that will bring me

glory

your life has worth

and value

and meaning

just to bring this

all home now

with the 40 minutes

here's the

if you could put up

the next point

Andrew

and then I'm going

to just give you

three prayers

to pray

to help make it

sort of

bring it home

here's the first thing

here's what we are

to understand

when we become

a child of God

we can say

I am the adopted

and reconciled child

of the crucified king

who walks with me now

and who will come again

so good things

with eternal meaning

can be done today

and tomorrow

and every day

until the end

we can say that

I am the adopted

and reconciled child

of the crucified king

who walks with me now

walks with me today

and who will come again

so good things

with eternal meaning

can be done today

and tomorrow

and every day

until the end

and this doesn't just mean

spiritual things

it means good things

it means good things

it means good things

where you work

it means good things

in your neighborhood

it means good things

with your family

it means good things

that will help

to spread the gospel

and relieve suffering

and it means good things

in terms of music

or poetry

or art

or scholarship

and it just means

that there's this whole world

of good things

that it's possible

for us to do

that it's possible

every day

as I'm going to show you

in a moment

to wake up

and say to God

what good things

would you have me do today

for the good of people

and for your glory

and as a follower of Jesus

this is not an absurd question

it's a real question

and you might say

well I don't know

I'm going to spend my day

in a cubicle

looking at a screen

but the question still is

not to have the cubicle

and the screen define you

but to say to God

what good things

can I do today

to love people

and to bring you glory

and you can pray that to God

I'm not going to tell you

what it is

but you can pray that to God

that your life

has meaning and direction

that there's one

that you can talk to

and bring to

and a community

that you can bring

those things to

and you can address them

in your small groups

or other places

in terms of

what are the good things

that I can do

where I am

that will love people

and bring God glory

that's the heart

of this text

is that when we come

to Jesus

because he has

taken upon himself

the judgment

that we deserve

you see

no amount

of good works

or success

makes us more

attractive to Jesus

it's not as if

we can say

okay Jesus

you only have to die

for 97%

of my sins

because I've sort of

covered it

these 3%