“Thy Kingdom Come …”

Scripture: Luke 17:20-37

As we saw last week, Jesus offered his lessons of heaven in ways that were difficult to understand. They were, on the surface, about the things of earth, while in truth, every one of them was about our relationship with God. Jesus knew that we didn’t have to learn about our life in the world – we all have had enough physical experience to understand our human life – at least to some degree! But the things of heaven? Not so much!

The Lord knows that we need to learn about him and his ways, and that it isn’t intuitively obvious for us! So what was the reason for his approach with parables, the reason that he didn’t teach in lessons that were plain and clear? It was that faith in him must come first, and that understanding would come later, by faith in Christ, and not by our own ability.

Today, we consider our first parable – “The Coming of the Kingdom”.

Read Luke 17:20-25

Interestingly, the Pharisees were always trying to trap Jesus, but in this instance, their question almost sounds like a legitimate request. And as always, their expectation in the answer fell far short of God’s truth, and if we are honest, Jesus’ response probably surprises us, too! I imagine that most of us think that the Day of the Kingdom will be the day of Christ’s return. Jesus tells us otherwise! And now we know that the kingdom arrived with him at Bethlehem.

So this revelation changes the question from “When will God’s Kingdom arrive?” to “How do we experience God’s Kingdom in the here-and-now?” And this is the question that the Lord actually answers. Remember the line from last week’s introduction to the parables – “We can see and hear the word of God, but until it lives within our heart, we can never know the spiritual significance that it contains.” This week, Jesus is telling us that even though his word and kingdom exist all around us, as well as within us, we don’t experience the fullness of his word, nor can we sense the power of the kingdom’s grace, until we come to a saving knowledge of him as Lord and Savior of our lives.

Imagine - waiting and watching for the coming of God’s Kingdom is nothing more than a waste of our time and energy! It is already here! It is already within us! So why don’t people sense his presence and understand – after all, how often do we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done”? Can’t that mean, by the very words we speak, that the Kingdom already has come, and that we desire to follow that way? Why can’t we believe?
The problem is that so many people still think that they must continue to watch and wait and prepare, and they refuse to surrender their own plans and expectations, that God’s way might rise up to become divine Way for our life. The point is, that even though the kingdom of earth and the kingdom of heaven are present now, they cannot both be at work within our lives at the same time! We need to choose one or the other, and let those days of “fence straddling” fall by the wayside.

The first two verses of this passage are about what has already come to be through Christ’s first coming, while the rest of our verses are about that which is yet to come - it’s about the time when Jesus Christ returns to claim his rightful place in God’s Kingdom.
And his first thought in verse 22 is that his followers will live in those days when they fervently wish that his return would occur much sooner than later! He knows that the days of our persecution, and conflict, and fear, and struggle, and false accusations will continue to be with us until the day of his return, but that his presence in the Holy Spirit will see us through those times.

We will hear false proclamations that his coming has already occurred, or sometimes that it never will, but through faith in him, we will know the truth – that his return will come, and will be unmistakable for the entire world. We will see false happenings that will seem to be Godly, but by faith, we will know that they are lies. We will be told that Godly presence is just a fabrication of an overactive imagination, but by faith, we will know the difference between our mind’s desires and our heart’s reality.

On the day of Christ, the faithful will know, without a doubt, that when the kingdom rises to fruition, when the King takes his rightful place on the throne of creation, when the darkness and chaos of evil is forever banned, and the light and peace of Jesus Christ reigns eternally - that day will loudly proclaim that the hope of Jesus is no longer just faith, but has become reality.

Read Luke 17:26-30

In Jeremiah 29:4-14, the prophet sends a letter to the exiles who are still in Babylon. It’s a letter of encouragement in the people’s time of despair, it’s a letter intended to reassure them that even though they are a conquered people, being held in a foreign land, that God is still with them and caring for them. And he tells the exiles that their Lord wants them to live lives as normally as they possibly can – they are to get married and have children; they are to build new homes and live new lives; they are to be good citizens in this new land; they are to prosper, and to help the city they live in to also prosper. But they are also to know that their Lord God Jehovah has a plan for their lives – a plan that goes far beyond exile. Beginning in verse 11, we read that this plan will bring prosperity and hope and a glorious future for the people.

That is how the Lord has always worked for his people. Jesus reminds his followers that this is what the story of Noah and his family was all about, and what Lot and his family’s lives were all about – evil surrounded them, and all that they were called to do was to keep their eyes focused on what was ahead of them, and to not let the past, and even the present, cloud their future.

This is both a promise and a warning for what awaits the world when Jesus returns. We have to keep our lives focused on Jesus and his word, not on the world, with the evil and sin that has always defined it.

Read Luke 17:31-37

Don’t plan on taking anything of this world with you! It is worthless.
Don’t count on your relatives or friends to be your justification for the journey – it is only through your personal faith in Jesus that will allow us to experience the fullness of God’s kingdom. Not how close and intimate we may have been with some other follower of Jesus, not how much we may have read, or heard others say, about Jesus, not how much we gave to good causes, not how often we went to church – it is all about our surrender of the world and its ways, and our personal acceptance of Jesus and his way.

At the end of our passage, Jesus reflects on what the Day of Judgment will be for those who have never believed, and he compares it to a death that might occur in the wilderness of earth. Alone, sudden, hopeless, absolute, unavoidable, and a blessing for none but the scavengers.

For those in Christ, life will be eternal joy.
For those on the outside of God’s grace, life will terminate.

It is obviously better to choose Jesus, and receive life in his eternal kingdom. May God and his Kingdom be glorified by your decision for him today!