Luke 17:20-21
The Kingdom of God (1)
Introduction; Jesus was still on the road to Jerusalem. On this day
as He traveled, He was asked about the kingdom of God.
Luke 17:20 And when he (Jesus) was demanded of
the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should
come….
A. The Pharisees wanted to know about the kingdom of God.
1. My first thought was "Good for them! They are finally
asking about something that might do them some good!"
2. But my second thought was, "Maybe not" and it is because
of the word used by the translators to describe the
Pharisees’ inquiry, "they demanded."
a. It is possible that they were being sarcastic.
b. Jesus and John the Baptist had been preaching that
the kingdom of God was at hand for several years
now.
c. Maybe with a sarcastic voice, the Pharisees were
saying. "Where is this kingdom of God we hear you
preach so much about? When is it supposed to come?"
B. Either way, much like the Apostle Paul said, it is good.
Phi 1:18 What then? notwithstanding, every way,
whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is
preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and
will rejoice.
C. Their question sets the Jesus up to discuss the kingdom of
God from \\#Luke 17:20-37\\.
I. \\#20-21\\ Statement
A. Jesus’ first statement concerns the "internal" kingdom of God.
1. We have discussed this before.
2. \\#Luke 13:20\\
B. Part of what Jesus was revealing to those who were interested
in learning was that there are TWO kingdoms of God.
1. The first and up to that time, the only one mentioned,
was the one promised to the Jews.
a. It is a literal, physical kingdom which will be
established by Jesus on this earth with His throne
set in Jerusalem.
b. There are many promises of this literal kingdom in the
Old Testament.
c. It will come.
d. The New Testament reveals that it will occur during
a period we refer to as the millennium.
e. The millennium will occur approximately seven years
after the rapture of the church.
2. The second one is one we are living in right now.
a. It is God ruling inside of us.
Luke 17:21 …behold, the kingdom of God is
within you.
b. Interestingly, in this kingdom, we get to decide who
will be king.
(1) That will NOT be the case when Jesus comes to
establish His physical kingdom.
(2) In this kingdom, Jesus Christ is our King.
(a) He is supposed to rule in our hearts, and
it is supposed to show in our lives.
(b) However, all of God’s people have problems
with that some of the time and some of
God’s people have problems with it all of
time!
(c) Our goal is to surrender to King Jesus and
to serve Him gladly.
c. This is the kingdom of God that exists while we wait
for His physical kingdom to be established.
C. And because of that, part of what Jesus was revealing was
that they would not see the kingdom come (at least not in
their lifetime) nor would it ever be in a place that you
can point to and say, "There it is over there" or "It is
over here."
1. No, today, the kingdom of God is inside of us and it
cannot be touched or entered into through a physical
gate.
2. You and I and the lives we live are the only evidence
that the kingdom of God exists at all.
3. It behooves us to live so that others can see the kingdom
of God does exist and so that they can see the power of
God in that kingdom.
D. But after making His first statement, Jesus went on to tell
of signs that will come to pass before the literal kingdom
of God is established.
II. \\#22-36\\ Signs
A. Jesus shared some of what would happen while His followers
are waiting for the literal kingdom of God to come.
1. Of course this is not a complete list.
2. Some very important events are not mentioned here, but
there is enough to help us in recognizing what things
will look like before it comes.
B. I count six signs.
1. \\#22-24\\ A Misdirected Mindset
a. Part of the misunderstanding was in \\#20-21\\, some
believing that the only kingdom of God is the
physical kingdom of God.
(1) Friend, God has been ruling and reigning in the
lives of people since the world was created,
but the effect, reach, and power of that reign
dramatically increased once Jesus died.
(2) Each of us are an evidence of that power.
b. \\#22-24\\ Two more misdirected mindsets are pointed
out.
(1) \\#22\\ There will be a day when you will want
to see Jesus and won’t.
Luke 17:22 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.
(a) While that is surely true of every born-
again believer, I believe Jesus was
directing that statement to the Jewish
nation.
(b) Within just a few years of that day,
because the Jews had rejected Jesus, they
would face and be destroyed by the
Romans, and then belittled and rejected
by all nations for millenniums, including
the Muslims and the Germans.
(c) All because they rejected their King,
Jesus!
(d) Even so, few have understood, but they
will.
(e) The worst of them all has yet to arise,
the anti-Christ.
(f) One day soon, he will arise and the Jews
will finally see their need for Jesus;
yet, they will not get Him as soon as
they realize their need.
(g) \\#Zech 14:2-3\\ tells us Jesus will NOT
return until the nation is completely
conquered.
(h) Sadly, their misdirected mindset will cost
them severely.
(2) \\#23\\ There will be many false announcements.
Luke 17:23 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.
(a) How many hundreds of false prophets have
there been?
(b) I remember Jim Jones (1978) who beguiled
almost 1000 people into believing he was
the Christ and then had them kill
themselves.
(c) I remember Edgar Whisenant’s "88 Reasons
Why the Rapture Will Happen in 1988."
(d) I remember Harold Camping, the founder and
director of Family Radio, a large string
of Christian radio stations across the
globe, who predicted that Jesus would
come first on September 9, 1994, then
May 21, 2011, and finally on October 21,
2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Camping
(e) As recently as April 23 this year, just
two days ago, David Meade predicted that
Jesus would come for the third time in
the last six months. Of course, He did
not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Meade_(author)
(f) Jesus made it clear that these people
would come and also made it clear that
we are not to listen to them \\#23\\.
(g) Further, Jesus stated that the only true
sign of Jesus’ coming will be Jesus’
coming and when He comes (to set up His
kingdom) the whole world will know it.
(h) Now there is another coming of Jesus, the
rapture, which will be a secret but Jesus
was talking to the people about the
coming Kingdom of God and that coming is
going to be seen by all.
Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every
eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him. Even so, Amen.
c. So there were to be three misunderstandings about the
kingdom of God.
(1) That there is only one kingdom of God.
(2) That Jesus would not be desired or wanted.
(3) That Jesus’ coming could be predicted.
2. \\#25\\ A Suffering Savior
Luke 17:25 But first must he suffer many things,
and be rejected of this generation.
a. The greatest sign of a coming kingdom was and is the
killing of its King.
(1) Granted, that is a strange sign that a kingdom
will come.
(2) Most of the time if you kill the king, you kill
the kingdom. Not so with the kingdom of God.
(3) Jesus’ death—and what followed—are proof
positives that His kingdom will come.
(a) How can that be?
(b) Two reasons:
(1) Because in doing so, Jesus fulfilled
some 300 plus prophecies.
(2) His resurrection
b. But not only did Jesus speak of the suffering He
would endure as a sign, but also the rejection.
(1) Whoever had been so uniformly hated and
rejected as Jesus, especially of the Jews?
(2) But the rejection and hate for Jesus only began
at that time.
(3) It has continued and will get worse.
c. Although this sign was one that was fulfilled
quickly, we should not deem it of any less value.
d. What Jesus was saying is that as surely as you have
seen these things happen, that is how sure you can
be that there will be a literal, physical kingdom
on earth.
This is where we must stop but let's close with an earlier thought.
Jesus said the kingdom of God is at hand, then He left. Our
surrendered lives are the only evidence that what Jesus spoke is
true. Is what Jesus said concerning the kingdom of God true of your
life? This is the God who resurrected Jesus. This is the God who
resurrected Israel. He should be the God who is ruling over you.
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