THE COMING KINGDOM
Luke 17:20-37
Throughout the book of Luke, we have heard Jesus speak on numerous occasions about the Kingdom. Even before the birth of Jesus, the angel told Mary that her son would reign over the house of Jacob forever and that His kingdom would have no end (Luke 1:33).
By now you might be asking the same question that the Pharisees were asking: "Jesus, you’ve been talking about the coming kingdom for your entire ministry. When exactly is it going to come?"
THE DANGER OF MISSING THE KINGDOM NOW
Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst." (Luke 17:20-21).Jesus was on his way to the Holy City where he would be finally rejected as the Messiah by the chief priest (John 19:14,15) and crucified. Since chapter 13, he had been speaking to both open-hearted sinners and closed-hearted Pharisees.
Earlier in this chapter we have seen Jesus warning against being a stumblingblock. Now our attention comes back to the Pharisees. They are the ones who have been trying to dissuade people from following Christ. They have been trying to play the part of a stumblingblock to the nation of Israel. It is ultimately they who will stumble and fall. One of the signs of their fall is their failure to recognize the King and His Kingdom.
The Pharisees had all sorts of ideas as to what the Kingdom of God would be like. They envisioned a conquering king coming and overthrowing the Romans and setting up Jerusalem as their capital city and reigning over the nations while they received a front row seat. But they missed the fact that the Kingdom was already in their midst.
We are going to talk in a moment about what that means. But first we should ask what is meant by these words "the kingdom of God."
The Old Testament declares that God, the eternal King of the Universe, rules over the whole earth and all the kingdoms of men. Kings and kingdoms rise and fall at his command. As the Judge of all the world, God reigns in righteousness and justice over the affairs of mankind.
If that is the case, then why do the Pharisees speak of a future coming of the kingdom? They did so because the Bible also promised a future coming kingdom.
"And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever." (Daniel 2:44).
There would come a kingdom that would be an abiding kingdom. A kingdom that would arise and not fall. We speak of the rise and the fall of the Roman Empire, but the kingdom that would come would never be destroyed. Instead it would crush and put an end to the kingdoms that preceded it.
Jesus tells the Pharisees several things about the Kingdom.
The Pharisees were always looking for a sign. They seemed to glory in the dramatic. Paul said that the Jews seek for signs while the Gentiles seek for wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:22). And while Jesus elsewhere speaks of signs that take place within this age, the Kingdom does not come with signs to be observed.
You can miss it if you try. You can look at it and you can see it with your own two eyes and you can still miss the reality of its presence in the same way that the Pharisees could look at Jesus, they could see His miracles, they could even eat the bread and the fish that He had supernaturally provided, and yet still miss the fact that God had come near.
The Greek text literally says, The kingdom of God is in you (
The Pharisees were eagerly awaiting the coming of a kingdom yet future. In looking for that which was future, the Pharisees were missing that which was set before them.
THE DANGER OF OVERZEALOUS EXPECTATIONS
And He said to the disciples, "The days shall come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
23 And they will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. 24 For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. 25 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. (Luke 17:22-25).The Pharisees were looking for a future Kingdom and missing the fact that the Kingdom had a present reality. The disciples, on the other hand, need to know that this is not all there is -- there is a future coming for which they must wait. They need to know the before the crown comes the cross. They need to know that they are going to be living in the "between times" and that there will be days when they long to see the days of the Son of Man and they will not see it.
Jesus started out this passage by addressing the Pharisees. But now His audience has changed. Instead He is addressing His disciples. They are the ones who will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man. They are the friends of the bridegroom who will mourn the absence of the bridegroom (Luke 5:34-35).
One of the signs of a Christian is that he is one who waits and looks with eager anticipation the return of the Lord. He is one who is looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus (Titus 2:13).
Our age is filled with people who would have us "look here" or "look there" for the coming of the Lord. False prophets and false date-setting seems to abound. Unfortunately, too many of these are from the ranks of Christians who ought to know better.
Tim LaHaye has recently co-authored a series of fictional book set in a futuristic prophetic scheme. I have no problem with Christian fiction, but I do have some serious reservations about the accuracy of Mr LaHaye’s false prophecies. In one of his older books, he outlined how the second coming was to take place within the generation who had seen the onslaught of World War One. Quite a number of years have passed since Mr LaHaye made that prediction and he no longer says that. But he is still in the prediction-making business and the words of Jesus still apply: Do not go away, and do not run after them (17:23).
Hal Lindsey is another modern Bible Teacher who went on record as believing that Christ had to come by the year 1988 (a generation after the recognition of Israel as a nation), but that was proven to be in error. He has continued to write prophecy books and he continues to make predictions about the future and many of these continue to be in error.
Don’t go chasing elusive prophetic butterflies. Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour -- that no one knows when He will return.
One of the most spectacular fireworks displays I have ever seen was at the Bicentennial Celebration of 1976. Paula and I were living on Hollywood Beach and we had a grandstand view of those fireworks. They burst in the air and they sparkled and they crackled.
When the fireworks were over and the crowds had left the beach, a thunderstorm moved in. There was no rain. It was one of those dry storms. The lightning lit up the sky in great, jagged streaks that ran from horizon to horizon. It was as if the Lord were saying, "You think that your little fireworks display is impressive; look what I can do."
I believe that is what Jesus is going to do when He returns. There will be no missing Him and there will be no question about His authenticity.
There is a popular teaching going around today that there shall be two separate comings of Jesus in the future. It is claimed that before the Second Coming of Christ, there will first be a secret "rapture" in which Jesus will quietly come and take all believers from the earth and then at a later date He will return in His Second Coming. The words of Jesus in this passage are in direct opposition to this teaching.
The cross did not mean that the kingdom of God had failed or that it would go unrealized. Neither is the church some alternate plan that was brought about because of some failure in God’s planning.
After his death, burial and resurrection, Jesus would tell His disciples that: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age." When you say the word "authority," you naturally think of a King and his Kingdom.
THE DANGER OF WORLDLY PREOCCUPATIONS
"And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all."It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
31 On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away; and likewise let not the one who is in the field turn back. 32 Remember Lot's wife. 33 Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it." (Luke 17:26-33).We have seen the danger of missing the Kingdom now in our quest and our overzealous expectations for the future. Now we see that there is an equal and opposite danger -- the danger of being so casual about the future that it catches us unawares.
What are the events of which Jesus speaks in this passage? There are two primary views:
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The Second Coming of Jesus in the Future |
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The Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 |
The second view is known as the Preterist View. It states that all of the prophecies of the Bible were fulfilled by the end of the first century.
There is also a moderate view that says many of the prophecies of the New Testament were fulfilled in A.D. 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem. R.C. Sproul is a representative of this position. In Matthew 24:34 Jesus says, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" and Sproul takes that to be a reference to the specific people who were living in the days of Jesus and feels that this is a promise that they would see "all these things" described in Matthew 24.
The reason I mention this is because a number of things found in that chapter are paralleled here in Luke’s account.
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Matthew 24 |
Luke 17 |
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"For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be" (24:27). |
"For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day" (17:24). |
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"For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be" (24:37-39). |
"And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all" (17:26-27). |
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"...then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; 17 let him who is on the housetop not go down to get the things out that are in his house; 18 and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak" (24:16-18). |
"On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away; and likewise let not the one who is in the field turn back" (17:31). |
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"Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. (24:40-41). |
"I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, and the other will be left. 35 There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken, and the other will be left. 36 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left" (17:34-36). |
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"Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather" (24:28). |
And answering they said to Him, "Where, Lord?" And He said to them, "Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered" (17:37). |
The question that we must ask is whether this passage is speaking of the events of A.D. 70 or whether it is speaking of a still future return of Christ. I believe that the answer is BOTH.
It was prophetically significant when, in A.D. 70, Jerusalem was surrounded by her enemies and when the Temple was burned to the ground amidst much destruction and slaughter. Josephus was an eyewitness of those events and he described them in great detail. Regarding the judgment that took place in Galilee, he said:
"...one might then see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. And a terrible stink, and a very sad sight there was on the following days over that country; for as for the shores, they were full of shipwrecks and of dead bodies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were inflamed by the sun, and putrefied, they corrupted the air..." (Wars of the Jews 3:10:9).
Describing the final fall of Jerusalem, he went on to say..
"...the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in a prison, and the Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly, the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world." (Wars of the Jews 6:9:4).
I believe that this was a prophetic judgment from God. But it is not the last judgment that shall ever take place. It perhaps prefigures a future universal judgment. If this is a correct assessment, then it means that the teachings of this passage were able to be applied in that day and they are just as applicable for today.
1. Worldly Occupations do not necessarily appear to be Evil.
Look at the list of things that are said to characterize the days of Noah and the days of Lot.
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Days of Noah |
Days of Lot |
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None of these things are bad in themselves. Most of us have been involved in most of these things at one time or another. The problem is not in these activities. The problem is when we get to thinking that these activities comprise our life.
2. Worldly Occupations Drain our Expectancy.
The one thing that we see in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot is that it was business as usual. When we get caught up in all of the business of daily living, there is a temptation to forget that there remains a promise of the Lord’s coming.
Few Christians are overcome in the sudden falling away. For most of us, it is more of a case of gentle erosion that gradually laps at our faith and draws our attention from the Lord.
3. Worldly Occupations will lose their Significance when Christ returns.
"On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away; and likewise let not the one who is in the field turn back." (Luke 17:31).
One of the worst fires I ever experienced in my career as a firefighter was in the summer of 1988 when a chemical warehouse went up in flames. The giant plume of smoke and flames could be seen 20 miles away. Instead of being 20 miles away, I was leading a hose team into the building. As we were getting ready to go in, I recall the owner standing nearby asking if we were able to get his briefcase while we were inside.
I suppose he was still in a state of shock. I don’t think he realized how close he had come to death before getting out of the building. A minute or two later, we were inside when the whole place was rocked with explosions and a blinding fire that knocked us out the door. I landed outside, still holding onto the fire hose.
I have to tell you that this fellow’s briefcase was the furtherst thing from my mind. When the whole world is ending, the last thing you should be thinking about is your worldly possessions. SAVE YOURSELF!!!!
That is what Jesus is saying here. I am not certain, but I think that it may well have application for both His day and our own.
Within 40 years the judgment of God is going to fall on Jerusalem. The Romans will land on the shores of Palestine with four Roman legions and will surround Jerusalem and put her to the sword. Jesus is saying, "When that day comes, you save yourself and get out of town and don’t let your possessions slow you down!"
I think this has applications for us, too. Jesus says to us, "Don’t let your earthly possessions get in the way of your salvation."
4. Worldly Occupations can result in the Loss of that which is Truly Significant.
"Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it" (Luke 17:32-33).
Did you hear about the man who was traveling through India by train? He had a large amount of money in his suitcase and forced himself to stay awake day and night for three days lest someone should sneak in and steal the case. On the third day, his eyes grew heavy and he dozed off. When he awoke a minute later with a start, it was to find that the treasured suitcase was gone. "At last," he said to himself with a yawn, "I can finally get some sleep."
There is a place of rest for you today. It is in Christ. Don’t be holding so tightly onto something else that you cannot hold onto Him.
TAKEN OR LEFT BEHIND?
"I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, and the other will be left.
35 There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken, and the other will be left. 36 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left."And answering they said to Him, "Where, Lord?" And He said to them, "Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered." (Luke 17:34-37).
We have already seen that judgment is coming. It was coming in Jesus’ day in that the Temple would be destroyed within 40 years. And it is still coming because the God of this world will one day return to judge the world in righteousness.
When it comes, it will not matter whether you are grinding or whether you are at work or whether you are sleeping; it will not matter in which of the details of life you happen to be occupied at the time. Do you see it?
Each of these are a part of those details of life. But that is not the issue. One is taken while another is left behind.
Which is judged and which is saved from judgment? Some maintain that it is those who are taken away who are taken away to judgment. Others say, "No, the context of Matthew 24 shows that it is the elect who are being gathered." Which is it?
It doesn’t matter because that is not the point of the statement. The point is that there is going to be a separation and you want to be ready for it. How do you get ready?
Come to the cross, worship under its shadow, and learn to hold loosely to the things of this world. There is an old hymn that calls you to...
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There are several lessons that we can learn from the teachings of Jesus.
First, we learn that God is active in history. The Kingdom of God points to the fact that God is the King who acts in history to bring that history to His divinely directed goals.
Secondly, we see that there is both a now and a not yet to the Kingdom. On the one hand, there is a present aspect to the Kingdom. God is ruling today over the affairs of men. But there is also a not yet aspect of the Kingdom in which sin continues to manifest its presence.
Finally, we should note that both the now and future aspects of the Kingdom are supernatural in their character. Jesus said that HE would build His church and He does so in His own manner and after His own design.