When will the Kingdom of God come?

Remember when there were full service gas stations? Well, there was once a Pastor who was waiting in line to have his car filled with gas before a long holiday weekend.

The guy pumping gas worked quickly, but there were so many cars it seemed to take forever before it was the Pastors turn.

Finally he made it to the pump. The young man pumping gas said “Hi Pastor, I sure am sorry about the wait. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip.”

The pastor just laughed and said, “I know exactly what you mean. It’s the same in my business.”

I like that Joke because of the truth it represents. We are all on a journey to our final destination. There’s more to life than what we can see with our physical eyes.

The title of the message is “When will the Kingdom of God come?”. We are going to look at Luke 17:20-37 to hopefully answer that question and ultimately encourage you to continue to stop spying on the future, to stop second guessing God, and to stop clinging to the world.

Seems like a lot of “stops”. I pulled them from what Jesus was saying in Luke 17. These stops are not going to be reprimands, but stops that will inspire faith and hope in God.

In Luke 17 the Pharisees asked Jesus a question. This question is only recorded by Luke and it leads Jesus into talking about His return.

I like this subject of God’s Kingdom because it reminds me of God’s love. God’s love has always provided a plan. He loves order. He had a plan to redeem the people of the world through His son, and He has a plan to redeem ALL of creation through His Son. One day we will live in a perfect new world. I for one am excited to see what that’s going to be like.

The return of Christ is something that we should be looking forward too in hopeful anticipation.

When I was a kid, I can remember reading this scripture for the first time and being afraid. I think that’s that opposite of what should happen. The only reason to fear is if you haven’t placed your trust in Christ as your redeemer. He is the only way to live in FREEDOM. His return should be excitement.

Let’s read the scripture together:

Luke 17:20–37 NLT

20 One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. 21 You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.” 22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it. 23 People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t go out and follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes. 25 But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation. 26 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 27 In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. 32 Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! 33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. 34 That night two people will be asleep in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.” 37 “Where will this happen, Lord?” the disciples asked. Jesus replied, “Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.”

Here’s my first thought for you to consider…we should...

Stop Spying on the Future

Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. This was a logical question to ask, because He had been preaching for quite some time that the kingdom was at hand. Jesus responded to the question in two ways.

First, He said that the Pharisees would not be able to tell of the coming of the kingdom through their observations.

Second, he told them that the kingdom was already among them.

What Jesus was telling them was that their long awaited Messiah was standing right in front of them. All they needed to do was acknowledge that He is indeed the Messiah who could bring in the kingdom—and then the kingdom would come.

People are excited about prophecy and future events. They want to guess about what is going to happen. Some even claim to KNOW what the future holds. There have always been fortune tellers and those with the “gift” of telling the future.

There’s only one problem with these folks that know that future…they don’t know anything!

I picked a couple of doomsday predictions to share with you...

Halley’s comet passes by the Earth approximately every 76 years, but the nearness of its approach in 1910 created fear that it would destroy the planet, either by a celestial collision or through the poisonous gasses it was rumored to contain.

A worldwide panic ensued, stoked by the media and such newspaper headlines as “Comet May Kill All Earth Life, Says Scientist.” A group in Oklahoma tried to sacrifice a virgin to ward off impending doom, and bottled air became a hot commodity. The Earth did pass through part of the comet’s tail, but with no apparent effect.

Oh those silly people from 1910…they just weren’t smart…right?

There’s a modern day predictor of the end of the world...

Harold Camping has publicly predicted the end of the world as many as 12 times based his interpretations of biblical numerology. In 1992, he published a book, ominously titled 1994?, which predicted the end of the world sometime around that year. Perhaps his most high-profile predication was for May 21, 2011, a date that he calculated to be exactly 7,000 years after the Biblical flood. When that date passed without incident, he declared his math to be off and pushed back the end of the world to October 21, 2011.

He was wrong. And guess what? More people will be wrong because no PERSON will be able to predict the future.

Jesus is telling the pharisees and the disciples this truth when He said Luke 17:21 “21 You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.””

He told them in verse 20 that the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be OBSERVED.

In the greek the word observed means “to lie in wait, or to spy”.

Jesus was warning us not to devote our time spying on the future because we have a hard time recognizing what’s even happening right in front of our eyes!

Jews were looking into the future to find the coming king, but they missed the fact that He was already there with them!

We can be guilty of judging those jewish leaders pretty harshly, but really I think we can find ourselves in their same position.

God is always working to accomplish His will right NOW…if we spend our time spying on the future we are in danger of missing what He is doing in the present. We can be so wrapped up in the future that we miss the opportunities of the present.

Ephesians 5:15–17 NLT

15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

This is how we are to live in the present. The future is in God’s hands. Our job is to look around and see what God wants us to see NOW. We must make the most of every opportunity to do what the Lord wants us to do.

Just like some missed that fact that the Messiah was right in front of them we can miss that fact that God is guiding us right now.

When will the kingdom of God come?

It’s important for us to hear and understand the words of our Lord when He said the kingdom has already come. We must acknowledge Him and stop spying on the future.

We also need to...

Stop Second Guessing God

There were three men standing at the gates of heaven with St. Peter. “Tell me, what would you like to hear your relatives or friends say at your funeral?” the Saint asked.

The first man answered, “Because I’m a renowned physician, I’d love to hear someone say how I’d been instrumental in saving someone’s life.”

The second man reported that he was a family man and a schoolteacher and that it would be wonderful if someone said that he had been a wonderful father and husband and that he had made a difference in some young person’s life.

The third man before St. Peter said, “Wow, you guys, those are really great sentiments, but I guess if I had my choice, I would hear someone say, ‘Look! He’s moving!’ ”

The truth is that even in death we have a tendency to try to get God to do what WE want Him to do.

After Jesus told the pharisees to stop looking for the Messiah because the Messiah was standing in front of them He turned to His disciples and starting talking about the kingdom that was coming AFTER He was crucified, resurrected, and comes again.

He wasn’t telling them what they wanted to hear. He was telling them God’s plan for the future.

We are living in the time that Jesus was about to describe to His followers. The time when we are waiting on His return.

Luke 17:22 NLT

22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it.

Have you ever started a sentence...”If I were God...”?

Well, you might not have said those exact words, but sometimes when we pray we reveal our second guessing of God’s plans. We “suggest” ideas that we think might be good for God to consider.

One of the great philosophers of our time said it best “...sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers...”. Oh how right you are Garth Brooks.

We get the idea in our heads sometimes that we know better than God. We even second guess whether or not God makes good decisions.

Look at the life of Jesus. If you were one of the disciples Jesus was talking to that day wouldn’t you start to second guess Jesus?

It seemed as though Jesus was saying crazy stuff…especially after He just told the pharisees that He was the Messiah. Listen to what He said:

Luke 17:25 NLT

25 But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation.

I’d have a real simply question for Jesus.

I think my question would sum up what I would be thinking if Jesus told me that He must suffer and be rejected. I mean, He was basically saying He must die.

I’d simply ask…WHY?

Jesus, if you are God in the flesh, the Messiah who has come to set up this new Kingdom of God, WHY would you chose to suffer and die?

It’s incredibly easy for us to see why Jesus chose to suffer and die on the cross. We know that He became the sacrifice for our sins.

Romans 3:22–26 NLT

22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Easy for us to see, right? Paul made it super clear!

We read the words of Jesus and understand what He was talking about…but those disciples that day could not possibly know what Jesus was saying. They didn’t have the benefit of Paul’s words.

They might have been tempted to second guess Gods plan.

WE might be tempted to do the very same thing in our lives when we don’t understand what God is allowing to happen.

When we experience suffering, pain, loss, and hardship it’s so tempting to second guess God. But to do so would be a massive mistake because God is working on our behalf. He always has and always will have His children's best interest in mind.

I can prove that with scripture:

Matthew 7:11 NLT

11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

or

James 1:17–18 NLT

17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

Here’s the deal...It’s going to happen... We are ALL going to look up to heaven and ask God why. It’s natural because we just don’t know why He’s allowing what He does.

When we are feeling this way we must stand in FAITH on God’s word. On the truth we find in the words of Jesus.

When we do we know eventually we will know everything perfectly. We just can’t always see clearly in the moments of difficulty.

1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT

12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

If we stand in faith and stop questioning God then we will be able to say what Isaiah said:

Isaiah 12:2 NLT

2 See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.”

When will the kingdom of God come?

Jesus said the kingdom has already come. It becomes a reality when we Stop Spying in the future, it becomes reality when we Stop Second Guessing God because we are standing in Faith that He will continue to establish His Kingdom, and finally the kingdom of God becomes a reality in our lives when we…

Stop Clinging to this World

One final joke for tonight:

Q.  What excuse did Adam give to his children as to why he no longer lived in Eden?

A.  Your mother ate us out of house and home.

Silly joke…but it reminds us of something...

The world, as we know it, is not what was originally intended. God gave humans free will and they chose to disobey God which brought destruction to the world.

Romans 5:12 NLT

12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Sin will always lead to destruction and death because sin is disobedience to God. Why do we see bad things happening in the world? Well, it’s not because of God, but it’s because of the fallen human condition.

God is not making people kill people, rob people, or all sorts of other depravity. No, that’s the choice made by each person. The world is in the condition it is in because of bad choices made by many many people.

We have ALL sinned. No one is perfect.

When Jesus was asked, When will the Kingdom of God come, He first told them it was being fulfilled in Him but they couldn’t see, He then told His disciples that He must suffer and die for the sake of the kingdom, and finally He tells the disciples that He will return to rule and reign in His kingdom.

The truth is that Jesus is coming back for His church.

His kingdom has been set from the beginning of time. The enemy has not won. God is still God over everything.

We have a hope for the future.

Jesus said something that reminds us not to cling to this world.

Luke 17:33 NLT

33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.

There is a judgement coming when Jesus returns. Not everyone will be saved. There is no universal salvation. Some people will not trust in Jesus as Lord. I hate to say it, but some people will spend eternity in hell.

It’s a sobering reality.

Remember what Jesus taught us...

Matthew 7:13–14 NLT

13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

Part of the good news is that we are saved from hell when we chose Christ as our Lord. Seems to me that people don’t always get saved anymore. They want to have a foot in the world and a foot in the church.

God in His patience and grace gives warnings that we all need to completely surrender to Jesus as the Lord of our lives. In fact, Jesus said that one of the signs that He is coming soon is that people ignore the warnings of God.

Luke 17:26–29 NLT

26 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 27 In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

Jesus compared the last days to “the days of Noah” and “the days of Lot”.

Both men lived just before great judgments: the Flood (Gen. 6–8) and the destruction of Sodom (Gen. 19).

Noah warned the world of his day that the flood was coming, and the angels warned Lot and his family that destruction was coming; but the warnings did no good. Only Noah and his family (eight people) were saved, and only Lot and his two unmarried daughters escaped from Sodom.

What will the world be like just before the final judgment and the coming of the Lord?

It will be “business as usual” with little concern for the warnings God sends. People will eat and drink, attend weddings, and carry on their vocations; and then the judgment will catch them unprepared.

In Noah’s day, there was a great deal of violence; and in Lot’s time, men were given to unnatural lusts.

Do we see that in the days that we live? I think so...

Jesus did not paint a beautiful picture of human society that exists before His return:

Luke 17:37 NLT

37 “Where will this happen, Lord?” the disciples asked. Jesus replied, “Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.”

Jesus saw human society at the end of the age to be like a rotten corpse that invites vultures to circle.

I hate to say it, but our world can get worse than it is right now because Jesus hasn’t returned yet.

It’s not all roses and daffodils. We are in a mighty battle.

Revelation 19 reminds us that Christ wins and will return to establish His physical kingdom here on earth.

So, where does that put us as we wrap up the message for tonight?

We need to decide whether we are in the world or in Christ.

Luke 17:33 NLT

33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.

As believers in His church, we must obey and seek to live wholly for Him. That is the only way to be prepared for His coming.

When will the kingdom of God come?

Jesus said the kingdom has already come. It becomes a reality when we Stop Spying in the future, it becomes reality when we Stop Second Guessing God , and finally the kingdom of God becomes a reality in our lives when we Stop Clinging to the World by choosing to obey Christ and Seek His Kingdom First.