Luke 17 Part 4 The Coming of the Kingdom (Luke 17:20-37)
Notes
Transcript
Text - Luke 17:20-37
Subject - Kingdom
Theme - The coming Kingdom
Thesis - The kingdom of God is already present in Christ but will be fully revealed in the future, requiring vigilance and readiness for His return.
Principle - Be ready and live faithfully, because Christ’s return will come suddenly and decisively, bringing judgment and salvation.
Our passage for this morning is one of the more difficult in scripture to understand and apply.
Part of that has to do with the question being asked.
At the end of the Old Testament, the Israelites were left anticipating the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.
Today, we wonder when will Christ return.
Imagine this: It’s a normal day.
You wake up, drink your coffee, check your phone, and head off to work or start your daily routine.
Everything seems ordinary—until suddenly, in an instant, everything changes.
Christ has returned.
There’s no warning, no time to prepare—just the reality of His coming.
Would you be ready?"
Jesus tells us in Luke 17:20-37 that His kingdom is already here, yet one day He will return suddenly, just as in the days of Noah and Lot.
The people in those times were living their everyday lives—eating, drinking, buying, selling—completely unaware that judgment was about to fall.
They weren’t ready, and it was too late.
The same will the true of Christ return.
The question before us today is this:
Are we living with a readiness for Christ’s return, or are we too caught up in the temporary things of this world?
The kingdom of God is already present in Christ but will be fully revealed in the future, requiring vigilance and readiness for His return.
Let’s turn to God’s Word and see what Jesus has to say about being prepared for His coming.
20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24 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. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 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. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
The Kingdom Is Not Coming in Observable Ways (Luke 17:20-21)
The Kingdom Is Not Coming in Observable Ways (Luke 17:20-21)
We pickup in verse 20 with the Pharisees asking a question.
When will the kingdom of God come?
Given their track record, they may well have been asking their question skeptically.
The general Jewish belief was that the kingdom of God would begin with a bang, with a powerful Messiah establishing His rule in Israel and delivering the nation from her enemies.
In Jesus day that meant that the Israelites believed the establishment of this kingdom would result in political independence for themselves: the Messiah would remove the yoke of Rome from the Israelites.
Jesus has been referencing the Kingdom of God quite a bit as he has gone about teaching and preaching.
Up to this point in Luke, counting in the ESV Jesus has mentioned the kingdom of God specifically 19 times.
It is a common theme or topic in His teaching.
It is as if the Pharisees were saying “Okay, you have been talking about the Kingdom of God. We are ready for it to come.
When is it coming?
You have not done any of the signs that we have been taught that would accompany the coming of the Kingdom of God!”
Jesus response is, your’e looking for the wrong things.
English Standard Version Chapter 17
The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Jesus was doing signs of the kingdom, just not the ones they were looking for.
The Jewish people as a whole were looking for signs in the heavens, cataclysmic signs, great signs about which their OT prophecies had written, signs that would precede the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Jesus was doing as he stated when He quoted from Isaiah back in chapter 4.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The point of Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees is that they had wrongly interpreted the OT eschatology, especially regarding earth shaking signs.
Yes, the Kingdom had come (the King was present) but it was a spiritual kingdom and not yet a visible kingdom and that is what the Pharisees and most of the Jews missed (and many continue to miss today).
Their belief was, all the messiah needed to do was show up and set up the Kingdom of God. (Which is why the people tried to crown Jesus king).
Could he have done that? Yes most certainly, but that was not God’s plan.
They did not expect (or understand) that He would come (first) to establish a spiritual kingdom, one that also included gentiles.
They were not looking for an internal kingdom, a spiritual kingdom.
To put it in a different way, they were not looking for a Savior because they did not see their need to be saved.
And that is why Jesus’ message was so offensive.
It wasn’t that they did not want the kingdom of God.
It was not that they didn’t like to hear Jesus speak about that kingdom.
It was not that they were not looking for a King.
But it was the kind of kingdom Jesus was talking about that agitated them.
Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 The Question of the Kingdom
Many people in the church expect the same things today.
They see a culture in spiritual chaos and seek a political solution—the kingdom of God established through human government.
Or they speculate about the end-times prophecies in the Bible and develop a timetable for the second coming.
Or they claim to have secret and specific knowledge about the end of the world.
They are looking for what Jesus will do rather than looking to Jesus himself.
The kingdom, Jesus tells them is already in their midst.
This wording is difficult.
Depending up the translation you have you will read as the ESV says midst, others read within or among.
There is obviously a difference between saying “the kingdom of God is within you” and “the kingdom of God is among you” or “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Jesus was surely not saying that the kingdom of God resided within the Pharisees’ hearts.
The Pharisees opposed Jesus and had no relationship with God.
Jesus in other places denounced them as “whitewashed tombs” and “hypocrites” (Matthew 23:27).
In the midst or among is a better understanding.
Jesus was telling the Pharisees that He brought the kingdom of God to earth.
Jesus’ presence in their midst gave them a taste of the kingdom life, as shown by the miracles that he performed.
The truth of the matter for them and for us is that the kingdom of God is in our midst, in the person and presence of Jesus.
Jesus ascended to heaven but sent the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit resides in those who believe.
Jesus inaugurated the kingdom.
The kingdom continues to grown as He changes the hearts of men one at a time.
The kingdom of God is present within those who believe!
The kingdom of God begins in the heart of all who believe and it grows and grows like the mustard seed and like leaven until it is fully realized.
For the time being, Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).
The kingdom of God is simply the rule of God, his sovereign authority.
As Graeme Goldsworthy explains, it is God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule.
How do we as Christians today recognize and live in the kindom of God?
Daily Awareness: Start each day with a mindset of seeking God's presence in your life. Pray, “Lord, help me see Your kingdom at work today.”
Kingdom Perspective: Instead of chasing after worldly success, focus on where God is working in your life and in the lives of those around you.
Serving Others: Demonstrate the values of God’s kingdom through acts of kindness, generosity, and forgiveness, reflecting His love in daily interactions.
We do this because one day the kingdom will be made fully known on the earth
Jesus reiterates this point in what he says to the disciples.
The Days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:22-25)
The Days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:22-25)
To prepare them for kingdom come, Jesus said to them:
22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24 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.
When Jesus said “the days are coming,” he was looking ahead to his future kingdom.
He knew the time would come when the disciples would look for his appearance and wonder why he was so long in coming.
Some people think “the days of the Son of Man” refers to his earthly ministry.
In that case, the disciples would be looking back with fond remembrance on all the happy times they shared with Jesus during his good old days on earth.
However, this passage is looking forward, not backwards; what Jesus says is oriented towards the future.
When the Bible talks about the day or days of the Son of Man, it is primarily talking about the last day on earth, when Jesus will come again to judge the world.
The son of Man’s day is the day of final judgment.
We all need to be ready for that eventual reality.
Jesus said the time would come when we would start to wonder when his kingdom would ever come.
Have you wondered that these days yourself?
Jesus knew that all the rumors and speculation would only lead us away from the truth.
To protect us from getting taken in, he said, very firmly, “Do not go out or follow them”
Jesus warns His disciples that He will return suddenly, and they must not be caught unprepared.
Many people live as if life will always continue as it is, but Christ calls us to stay vigilant.
When the Son of Man does return, it will be so totally and universally obvious that we will not need anyone to tell us where he is.
Jesus said the second coming will strike like a bolt of lightning that flashes across the sky:
sudden in its appearance, obvious in its shining brightness, and powerful in its mighty display of the glory of God.
Before any of that could happen though, Jesus had to suffer.
25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Jesus foreshadows his crucifixion and work on the cross.
Predicting His sufferings and death.
The kingdom only comes at the cost of his blood,
and we can only enter the kingdom of God by trusting that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
The kingdom will come to us when we believe in Jesus for our salvation.
The hard part of all of this is that there is no part of the Word of God that leaves us with more questions than those passages that deal with what has not yet happened.
We have to understand that we are going to be left with some mystery and need to be okay with that.
We can get lost in debates over pre millennial or amillennial interpretations - Pre tribulational or post tribulational - it is nod bad or wrong to hold on to these views.
What is wrong is to hold them with a closed fist.
I have beliefs on what I think from my own studies but what I really prefer to focus on is the fact that Jesus is coming back, and we all need to be ready.
The world will end with the return of Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us life as we know it will end with the return of Jesus Christ to earth --the literal, physical, bodily return of Jesus Christ who will come back in the same way that He left.
Are you ready?
Will the people you love be ready?
Are you making decisions with eternity in mind?
Or are you just chasing a career, success, or comfort.
Have you considered how your choices impact your faith and others’ spiritual growth?
Jesus has made it clear: the kingdom of God is already among us, but one day it will be fully revealed.
The question is, will we be ready when that day comes?
The Pharisees were looking for visible signs, but they missed the King standing right in front of them.
Many today make the same mistake, either living as if Christ will never return or looking for signs instead of surrendering to the King.
Jesus warns us however that when He does come, it will be sudden—like lightning across the sky
As we will see next week he compares his coming with the flood in Noah’s day, or like the fire that fell on Sodom.
The time to prepare is not when the storm clouds gather but now, in the quiet moments of everyday life.
Each of us must ask ourselves,
Am I living with a kingdom mindset, ready for Christ’s return?
Or am I clinging to the temporary things of this world, as we will see Lot’s wife did.
Am I looking back at what I can’t bear to leave behind?
True readiness means surrender.
It means trusting Christ fully, living in obedience to Him, and setting our hearts on the eternal rather than the temporary.
We will pick up next week with Jesus’ sobering examples—the days of Noah and Lot—to remind us just how sudden and final His coming will be.
The question remains: will we be found ready or unprepared?
