Contrasting Characteristics Of The Kingdom Of God Series

Thoughts of kingdoms

Human drawn Boundaries (interesting, we don’t see any boundaries when looking from space)

Leaders

Governing systems and structures

Maybe languages

when it comes to thinking about the Kingdom of God, what does that mean? As we have on a few other occasions in our study of Luke, we’ll discuss the Kingdom of God today.

Open your bibles to Luke 17.

Luke seems to make an abrupt shift from the the lessons that we’ve considered over the last few weeks - the thankfulness that is expected - as seen in the cleansing of the Lepers; faith and service expected from his followers; the reality of stumbling blocks that face all of us. All of this is in the context of Jesus’ move toward Jerusalem. As He is making His way to Jerusalem, He is likely followed by His apostles (the twelve), other disciples (sometimes up to hundreds of learners), and even the Pharisees - who seem to be both curious and cautious about Jesus. It’s this last group, the Pharisees, who bring us into the topic of the Kingdom of God as they inquire of Jesus when the Kingdom would come (20).

Luke 17:20–37 ESV

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, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

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. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 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. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 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. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 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. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

The Pharisees likely had their ideas of what the Kingdom of God would look like. We could speculate on what they were expecting or hoping for, but it seems more prudent to consider what Jesus has to say - both in response to them and in private to His followers.

It seems like Jesus discusses some contrasting elements to the Kingdom.

First of all, Jesus notes that the Kingdom is…

Invisible and Visible.

In other words, the Kingdom will be both spiritually and visually discerned.

Jesus begins by noting that the Kingdom is

Invisible

Luke 17:20–21 “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.””

I do wonder if this is where Jesus may be addressing the Pharisees preconceived ideas about what the Kingdom would look like - visible in that it is ushered in with power and resulted with an heir of David being on a physical throne in Jerusalem leading the people of Israel (and all the world) in a sort of Theocratic-Monarchy. Maybe they were looking for miraculous and even cataclysmic events - like those pictured in Ezekiel and Daniel. Maybe they were looking for a godly, military leader who will overthrow the oppressive regime that currently ruled.

Whatever they may be thinking, Jesus notes that the Kingdom of God is not able to be visibly observed. Instead it is spiritually discerned. He even notes that it is “in the midst” of them - likely talking about Himself.