Whom do you seek?

Scripture

Psalm 22 NKJV

To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Deer of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. 1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? 2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. 3 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. 5 They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. 6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. 7 All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” 9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. 10 I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. 11 Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. 12 Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. 13 They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; 17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. 18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots. 19 But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! 20 Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog. 21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me. 22 I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. 23 You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. 25 My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. 26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever! 27 All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the Lord, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. 28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s, And He rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive. 30 A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, 31 They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.

Prayer

Text

Luke 17:20–21 NKJV

20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

After a week like this one, what do you say?

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

The Jews in Jesus’ day knew what trouble was. They understood sin, pain, fear, worry. The threats were real.

And they also longed for the kingdom of God to come.

Isaiah 2:3–4 NKJV

3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.

Also here:

Isaiah 65:25 NKJV

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” Says the Lord.

These are wonderful descriptions of what eventually became known as the kingdom of God. Righteousness and peace and joy dominated, no more pain, no more sorrow.

And so they asked Jesus about it. Now?

Perhaps the healing of the lepers was the instigation. The kingdom would be marked with signs of healing, and Jesus did plenty.

But the question for them was this - so. Healing is good. Meanwhile, the Romans are still holding us in bondage. What about that?

What do you want? To be free from bondage? - well, yes. Of course.

To be free from disease? Hunger? malicious hatred?

Slander?

Political enemies? Loneliness?

Of course, as humans, we long for all of those things and more.

But we want to see it here and now. If only someone would raise an army.

If only someone would build a great temple.

If only we could get 1,000 converts.

If only we could raise the money. Get the right guy voted in. Build up the food banks.

Stop poverty and greed and racism and hatred...

And all of those things are good, and we should strive for them.

We should be a voice for those without a voice. We should stand up for justice to those who are oppressed. We should feed the hungry, and fight against racism.

But what do you WANT??

And what now? When the voice is silenced. When the world is mocking. When the future is blocked. When the bank accounts empty?

What about the kingdom of God?

Jesus answers:

“The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

First - not with observation. The kingdom of God is not of this world. You can’t point to an institution, a nation, a political party, and say, “Hey - that is the kingdom of God!”

The kingdom of God is God’s people under God’s king in God’s land.

But that rule is the rule of freedom - freedom from the bondage of sin and misery.

Take murder - you can stop a man from murdering. You can put him in a cage and never let him out. If you had a strong enough government, you can end murder.

Just put everyone into a cage from birth. But people don’t thrive in cages, and who watches the keepers of the cage - and isn’t the cure worse than the disease? What good is safety from murder when the body wastes away in prison?

And the heart doesn’t change. Lock a body in a prison and the hate that you were trying to cure simply grows more and more fierce.

This is why righteousness can never come by the law. The law is good - Paul says. But the heart is lawless. The cancer is deadly.

Part of the debate about criminal justice and what is right is to weigh human dignity and worth with the necessity of public safety. When the public fear increases, the demand for more cages increases, and when cages increase, lawlessness increases. And we live in a day of 24 hour news cycles that thrive on making people afraid. Do you see the problem?

And it compounds a thousand times when the kingdom of cages is called the kingdom of God.

How does the kingdom of God - of peace, prosperity, safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree - operate? If people are constrained to righteousness by the law, there is physical safety, but no righteousness, joy or peace. Just bondage. And hatred grows.

So we are tempted to say, “Look at that law. Look at that supreme court decision. Look at that political party. There’s the kingdom of God, right there.”

But compelled prayers, compelled church attendance, compelled righteousness isn’t righteousness at all. And the more we strive to compel, the more hatred, unrest, rioting and fear grow.

And pretty soon you get to the point where you beat a young woman to death for wearing her hijab wrong and call it the kingdom of God. Every dissenter must be crushed.

What do you want? Be careful what you answer. Do you want law and order? We all do. But what price are you willing to pay to achieve it?

Oh that it were possible to have law and order AND freedom at the same time.

And that is exactly what the gospel is.

Jesus said, “It doesn’t come with observation. You won’t find it in the things under the sun.”

It is within you.

This could have two interpretations, both according to the grammar and according to the context.

First, it could mean - it isn’t in outward actions alone, but in the regenerated heart where Christ rules by his word and spirit. And that is true.

Romans 14:17 NKJV

17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

In this way, you can indeed have law and order and also freedom. What if the heart could be changed so that people hated murder. And not only hated murder, but also hated the malicious hatred of the heart, slander, envy, injustice and their deepest longing was to love their neighbor as themselves.

If that happened, the police could be abolished, laws would no longer be needed, judges could become artists and musicians, and everyone would sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree.

1 Timothy 1:8–11 NKJV

8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

If all were righteous, the law would not be necessary.

But that brings us to the other meaning of the words “It is within you.”

It could also be translated “it is among you” In other words, you are looking for signs, when you should be looking for a person.

You want the king - look to Jesus

You want law and order - look to Jesus

You want peace - here is Jesus.

You want joy and righteousness - here is Jesus

When the world is falling apart, and everything seems to disintegrate around you, the question is the same, but the answer is clarified.

Philippians 3:1–11 NKJV

1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. 2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Susan asked me this week, “What do you want?”

And there is only one answer. I want to know Jesus and the power of the resurrection.”

For that, it takes suffering - the fellowship of HIS sufferings, actually. He was despised and rejected. He was falsely accused, found guilty without a specification, beaten, nailed to a cross, left to die.

And he died - and the power of death was broken. He took all of this upon himself. And when he ascended into heaven, he poured out his spirit upon the church.

That we might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, if by any means we might attain to the resurrection of the dead.

So we follow - looking to him, that we might rise with him.

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV

2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And like Paul, that means we learn throughout this life that all of those things we tend to be so proud of might turn out to be dung - that we might gain Christ and be found in him.

THAT is the kingdom of God. It is Christ, and this Christ is within us.

And the day will come when that reality will burst forth in lions and lambs and plowshares and music and art and gardening and choirs of angels singing praise to our God

But until then, we already have our greatest treasure. Jesus.

What do I want? I want to know him and the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his resurrection. And I want everyone else to know him with me. Everything else is secondary to that.

I sing the hymns, that we all might know Christ.

I confess the confessions that we all might know Christ

I teach zoom bible studies, that we all might know Christ

I study the scripture that we all might know Christ

I lead public worship that we might all know Christ

I administer the sacraments that we might all know Christ

I hear so, so often that the message people continually receive in the church is this:

God doesn’t love you. He doesn’t want you here. You aren’t his kind of person. Your sins leave you outside the circle.

I will continue to do everything in my power to fight against that, for it isn’t the voice of God. I would rather have you know the voice of God - when Jesus says,

Come to me, and I will give you rest.

The voice of Christ doesn’t say, “What are you doing here? You aren’t my kind of people. Do you hold the the historico-grammatical method of interpretation or the redemptive-historical method of interpretation? Have you read Twisse in Latin yet? One kingdom or two kingdom? What is your view on the decrees of God? are you infolapsarian or supralapsarian? We have to make sure you are the right sort of people because only the right sort of people are welcome here.”

And the box gets smaller and smaller.

This isn’t the voice of Christ. Look to the scripture! What does it say!

“Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord! He will teach us and show us HIS ways. And yes, doctrine is important - but ONLY if it leads you to know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his resurrection. Other than that, doctrine is dung, fit only for the garbage heap.

Much of what passes for doctrine is empty wrangling over words, ways to separate brethren into us and them, and drive the soul from the comfort of the gospel.

While we wrestle over pointless words, we forget the immense love of God in Christ, who so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Outside of that, there is only strife, hatred, unrest, arguing over nothing, and division. It isn’t of Christ and it isn’t the kingdom of God.

My prayer for each of you and for myself then is this:

Ephesians 3:14–21 NKJV

14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.