The Kingdom of God: Here and Coming

Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 17. Luke 17 this morning. We're going to be looking this morning at a passage of scripture that deals with prophecy. And as we do that I just want to say that prophecy is one area that I always feel uncomfortable with. Prophecy is extremely important. A huge proportion of the scriptures are prophecy. They are looking forward to end times that haven't happened yet. Many of the prophecies of the scripture have already been fulfilled. Many haven't yet. There are a lot of preachers that like to go crazy on prophecy. Just talk about prophecy all the time. I'm not one of them. The reason why I'm not one of them is because I feel like there's a huge chance that I'm gonna get that wrong. If you look at the Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, I think that the vast majority of people that believed the Bible would have gotten them wrong. I mean you see that in the New Testament. You see all of these people that love Jesus and they love Scripture and they are totally confused about the Old Testament prophecies. I don't think that the people Jesus taught in the early church would have understood this church age stretching on as long as it has. And so when I come to prophecy in the scripture, I don't want to come with a strong sense of certainty that this is what's going to happen because I understand that I might be wrong. I might be getting this wrong. What I do think we should do and what I'm going to do this morning is to clearly explain what the Scripture says, even in prophetic passages. So with that in mind let's look at Luke chapter 17. We're going to start in verse 20 and we're going to read through verse 37. > [20](#) And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: > [21](#) Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. > [22](#) And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. > [23](#) And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. > [24](#) For 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. > [25](#) But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. > [26](#) And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. > [27](#) They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. > [28](#) Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; > [29](#) But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. > [30](#) Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. > [31](#) In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. > [32](#) Remember Lot's wife. > [33](#) Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. > [34](#) I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. > [35](#) Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. > [36](#) Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. > [37](#) And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. > Luke 17:20-37 (KJV) When I first read this passage, it was when I was first getting ready for this sermon. I got all excited and I was like, - "This is a passage about the rapture." - “This is a passage that talks about how we're going to be taken up to be with Jesus.” - “We're gonna be like the Eagles soaring on high.” - “The kingdom of God is in us. “ And I hate to burst your bubble but every single one of those thoughts is wrong. That's not what this passage is about at all. This is one of the most misunderstood passages in the book of Luke. So we have quite a bit to walk through. Now we're going to be talking about the Kingdom of God and we're going to be talking about prophecy. The temptation for you is going to be like, "Oh this isn't for me. This isn't for right now. I have kids to raise. I have bills to pay. I don't want to think about the future kingdom or anything like that. “ You couldn't be more wrong. Jesus was making a point here that we need to grasp today. It's going to affect the way that we live and it's going to affect our eternity. This is one of the most practical passages in the whole book of Luke. So let’s get into it. So this passage starts with the Pharisees asking Jesus a question. Actually they're not really asking Jesus a question. They're interrogating Jesus. They are demanding answers from Jesus about one subject: "When is the kingdom of God going to come?" Now the Pharisees loved to talk about the kingdom of God and what they had in mind when they talked about the kingdom of God was a political kingdom. The second coming of King David, the second coming of the powerful Israel. When the Pharisees talk about the Kingdom of God, you could almost picture them wearing red MIGA hats. “Make Israel Great Again.” That's what they were looking for. That's all they were looking for. They read the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and they thought kingdom politics. And they were always looking for signs of some new political movement that would pop up and be the thing that God used to “Make Israel Great Again.” So they wanted to know what Jesus, this new teacher, this worker of miracles, thought about when the Kingdom of God was going to come and they were pressuring him about this. And Jesus had to burst their bubble. He said, "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation." People aren't going to say, "Look there" or "Look here that thing might be the Kingdom of God." That's not how the Kingdom of God works. You aren't going to see it coming Pharisees. Then he said, "The Kingdom of God is within you." Now this is a very confusing phrase. A lot of hippy-dippy types take this verse and they're like, "The Kingdom of God is within you, man!" “I don't need to go to church man. The Kingdom of God is within you.” That's not what this verse is saying at all. And you know how we know that's not what this verse is saying at all? Who is Jesus talking to? He's talking to the Pharisees, these people that have rejected him. Jesus isn't saying, "Hey Pharisees, you have the Kingdom of God inside of you." That's ludicrous. I don't remember a ton from when I studied Greek in college but one thing that really stood out to me and was really helpful was understanding prepositions in Greek. Greek in general is a much, much more specific language than English. Like the tenses and the verb endings are so specific. And that's true in almost every area except for one: prepositions. Do you remember grammar and you had to memorize the prepositions? - aboard - about - above - across - after - against - along - amid (That's as many as I remember.) We have a ton of very specific prepositions in the English language but in Greek they had just a couple of prepositions and they did a lot of work. And so the word translated here “within” can actually be translated several different ways: - within - inside - among - in the midst of And I think that clarifies what Jesus was trying to say here. Jesus wasn't saying, "The Kingdom of God is in your hearts Pharisees." What he was saying is, "The Kingdom of God is right here. The Kingdom of God is in your midst." And you're missing it. Think about the phrase "Kingdom of God" here for a second. What do you need to have a kingdom? You need a king! And the king was right there. The Messiah was right there in front of them and they were missing him. Then in private probably Jesus talks with the disciples and he tells them “the days will come. “ So Jesus is talking about something that isn't here yet. He's talking about something that's coming. And so here we have in these two verses a really good example of the nature of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is already and not yet. The Kingdom of God is something that's here and something that's coming. The king is already here. The king can already be followed. We can already order our lives around the king's rules. We can already declare our allegiance to the King, to Jesus. That's “the already”. But there's also “the not yet”. The king is here. Jesus is alive. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus is inside all of us who believe (not the pharisees Jesus was talking to) but the king is also coming. In a very real sense Jesus will come back someday. And when Jesus comes back he's not coming in the same way he came the first time. Jesus came the first time to be the Prince of Peace. Jesus came the first time on a donkey. When Jesus comes back again, he's coming back on a white horse. He's coming back in judgment. He's coming back with an army. And he's going to rule this world. So we live right now between the already and the not yet. We live with the kingdom of God inside of us. We live in allegiance to the King of kings and the Lord of lords but we understand his job is not finished yet. He is going to come back and judge. And so here is what I think this passage is saying in one sentence: > The kingdom of God is already here in the person of Jesus and is coming in the judgment of Jesus - and everything depends on which side you are on. The kingdom of God is here and the kingdom of God is coming. Let’s use that as our outline this morning. 1. The Kingdom of God is Here ============================= This is what Jesus was telling the Pharisees. The Kingdom of God is in your midst. The Kingdom of God is here. And I think there are two things Jesus was trying to get through to the Pharisees that we need to understand too. The first thing is we shouldn't look for the kingdom in some political movement. Jesus is going to make the world right but he's not going to make the world right through some kind of revolution or some kind of political happening. The work of the kingdom is not something that can be observed like that. You know you can observe political revolutions. If you're paying attention, you can kind of see different things happening. A lot of people before 2016 were already talking about the rise of populism. The signs were there. But Jesus' Kingdom isn't like that. It's not something that you can see the signs of its coming because Jesus' Kingdom isn't political in that sense Jesus' Kingdom is about making Jesus the king. So the second thing I think Jesus was trying to get these Pharisees to understand is they needed to make Jesus their king. They needed to accept Jesus and live under His rule. You know it matters who your king is. It matters who your ruler is. In the last several months I can think of three different countries where there were massive uprisings against their ruler: Iran, Venezuela and this week, Cuba. In Iran a few months ago there were hundreds of thousands of people in the streets speaking out against the Islamic Republic there and you know what they did? They killed as many as 30,000 of their civilians. They murdered thirty thousand of their own people. Whether or not we think you think we should be involved, I think you can understand it is a horrible thing to have a bad ruler. It's a horrible thing to live under a rule that is oppressive and corrupt. As believers our allegiance is to King Jesus. Jesus is our King. And we live primarily under His rule. And His rule is both radically different and radically better than anything this world has to offer. - We have a king who is all-powerful. - We have a King who rules the universe. - We have a King who can provide anything. - And we have a King that cares for us. - We have a king who is wisdom personified. - We have a king who is love and mercy personified. - We have a King who took our sins on himself and went to the cross for us. Why wouldn't you follow this king? - His law is love and holiness and mercy and truth. - His words are the words of life. - His future kingdom is secure and eternal. So the first thing Jesus was trying to get across is that the Kingdom of God is here. The second thing Jesus was telling his disciples is… 2. The Kingdom of God is coming. ================================ That's what I think Jesus is talking about in verses 22 to 37. Jesus says, "There's coming a day when you're going to miss the days of the Son of Man." We've been living in those days now for nearly 2,000 years. And Jesus said, "Don't pay any attention to the people that are like, 'Look, here's the coming of the Son of Man. Look over here, here's the coming of the Son of Man.' Don't pay any attention to the people that are showing you all these signs." Because you're not going to miss it. No one is going to miss the Kingdom of God when it comes. --------------------------------------------------------- It's going to be like lightning that's visible on all parts of the earth. When Jesus Christ comes, the people in Alaska will see it. The people in the bottom of Chile in South America will see it. The people in China will see it. The people all over the world will see it. Nobody is going to miss the coming of Jesus. When Christ comes back, I think that happens at the end of the tribulation period, people aren't going to miss it. A second thing I think Jesus wanted the disciples to know in these verses is that… Most people will not be ready for the Kingdom of God. ----------------------------------------------------- He tells them the first thing that's going to happen is people are going to reject me. I must suffer many things and be rejected. Church, that happened. That happened at the cross. That happened at Calvary. The Jewish people went in a week from Hailing Jesus, laying down palms and saying, "Hosanna!’ Palm Sunday to crucify Him on Wednesday. They hung Jesus on a cross. He was despised and rejected of men as Isaiah 53 says. But then Jesus uses two different Old Testament illustrations of God's judgment: The first is Noah. I love the story of Noah. I named my son Noah. We have had Noah's Ark toys and Noah's Ark decorations around our house at various times but most people, I think, miss the meaning of the story of Noah. It's a story of judgment. God judged the whole world. God destroyed the whole world. Thousands, if not millions, of people were judged by God in the time of Noah. Noah was preaching to them. Noah was telling them what was going to happen and they rejected him. They thought he was crazy. They just ignored him and went about their regular life. They had weddings. They had business deals. They just kept doing their thing. Until the rain started falling and then it got serious. God's judgment came. The second story Jesus used as an illustration is the story of Lot. Lot lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, these two wicked cities. God said he was going to judge these two wicked cities and everybody ignored it. Even Lot ignored it at first. If it wasn't for the angels bringing them out of the city, they would have been a part of that. As they're leaving the city, if you remember the story, God brought fire and brimstone to that city. God turned that city into a parking lot. All the people there perished. Now it wasn't like leading up to that. It wasn't like there were a lot of people talking, "Hey, you know things are bad, judgments are coming." No, they were going about their normal life. They were doing business; they were getting married; they were having a normal life and then God's judgment came. And so this is how it's going to be. Most people are either going to reject Jesus outright, like people did in Jesus' time, or they're just going to go about their normal life and ignore Jesus, ignore the King. Until He comes and when He comes they won't be able to ignore Him anymore. So what is the moral of Jesus’ story here? I think it’s obvious: Be Noah and Lot, not everybody else ----------------------------------- Be on Team Jesus when he comes back. Be one of the people that are ready for Jesus coming because you've made Jesus your King. You want to be in the ark not one of the people pounding on the outside of it. You want to be Lot and his family leaving with the angels not the people inside getting destroyed by fire and brimstone. And you want to be one of the people standing with Christ when He returns, not one of the people that is answering to his judgment. Jesus describes what that's going to be like. People are going to be going about their normal lives when God's judgment comes. Some of them will be out in the field and one person will be judged and one will not. Some will be in bed together and one person will come under God's judgment and one will not. By the way, “taken” here is not talking about the rapture. I do believe in a rapture but I don't think that's what this verse is about. “Taken” is referring to being judged. God's judgment is going to come suddenly. It's going to come universally and those who are not ready for it are going to face judgment. So the moral of this whole chapter is be ready for it. Make sure that Christ is your King. Make sure that you're following Him. Make sure that you've put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that you've accepted Him as your Savior. Church, for those of us who are Christians, the coming of Christ is a very good thing. It's a very positive thing. It's our hope but for those who have not accepted Christ, it's judgment. When Jesus told the disciples, "These people would be taken," their question makes a lot of sense. They said, "Taken where?" And Jesus said, "Taken where the eagles are." When I first read that I was under the impression this was talking about the rapture and I was thinking, "Oh this is great! We're going to fly with the Eagles!" That song from the 90s popped into my head. I'm gonna fly like an eagle. That's not what this is talking about. Jesus was talking about how the birds go around dead things. Like if you look out in the field sometimes, you'll see birds and they'll flock down onto something. What are they there for? They've found some kind of dead body that they can eat. The Jews would have understood this as a chilling reference to God's judgment. There is one more little lesson in these verses for us. Jesus said in verse 32: *Remember Lot’s Wife.* If you know the story, as Lot is being rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah, his wife turns around and looks with affection at that city. God turned her into a pillar of salt. What's Jesus saying here? I think he's saying don't look with fondness at what God is destroying. Don't be in love with the world that God is going to judge. You can't have your feet in both kingdoms. You have to choose: are you on Team Jesus or are you on Team World? So the Kingdom of God is here and the Kingdom of God is coming. It's coming in the form of Christ's judgment. The biggest thing that matters is what side you're on. At the beginning of the message I told you that I don't really like prophecy because I feel like it's uncertain. It's a little too speculative for my taste. I can't tell you if the stuff that's happening in the Middle East right now, for sure, is a fulfillment of prophecies that are in Revelation or Ezekiel. It may be. There's a lot of similarity there. I'm not interested in getting into arguments about the specific timing of the Tribulation or the Lord's coming back or anything like that because again it's speculative. Chances are if you and I have different opinions, we're both probably wrong. But I can be certain about this prophecy: Jesus is coming back! Most people are not going to be ready for it. Nobody is going to miss it and if you are on the wrong side of Christ when he returns, you will face his judgment. And if you die outside of Christ before he returns, you will face his judgment. So this is something we can be certain about. The most important thing is making sure that our status with the Lord is the right status. Making sure our name is in the Lamb's Book of Life that we read about a couple weeks ago. Making sure that we are a part of Christ's kingdom not one of his enemies that he will judge. So as I close the message today, can I ask you: are you a part of Christ? Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? Is Christ your King? When he returns will you rejoice or will you be terrified because you know it's judgment time? Jesus is offered for anyone who wants to come to Him, to accept Him as his Savior. Why not do that today? Let's stand together for a song of invitation.

The Kingdom of God: Here and Coming

The Kingdom of God: Here and Coming

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Ryan Hayden