We’re following Jesus and his disciples on their journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. As Jesus travelled, he taught about ‘the kingdom of God.’ But the Pharisees don’t see much sign of it. So they ask Jesus when it will come. It’s a sensible question! Jesus tells them that the kingdom of God isn’t something that can be observed because it’s ‘in your midst.’
THE KINGDOM WHICH HAS COME
So what is the kingdom of God? As I was preparing for this talk, I came across this little story. It was told by the American theologian and preacher Robert Sproul. He wrote:
‘In 1990, I was invited into Eastern Europe to do a series of lectures in three countries, first in Czechoslovakia, then in Hungary, and finally in Romania. As we were leaving Hungary, we were warned that the border guards in Romania were quite hostile to Americans and that we should be prepared to be hassled and possibly even arrested at the border.
Sure enough, when our rickety train reached the border of Romania, two guards got on. They couldn’t speak English, but they pointed for our passports, then pointed to our luggage. They wanted us to bring our bags down from the luggage rack and open them up, and they were very brusque and rude. Then, suddenly, their boss appeared, a burly officer who spoke some broken English. He noticed that one of the women in our group had a paper bag in her lap, and there was something peeking out of it. The officer said: “What this? What in bag?” Then he opened the bag and pulled out a Bible. I thought, “Uh-oh, now we’re in trouble.” The officer began leafing through the Bible, looking over the pages very rapidly. Then he stopped and looked at me. I was holding my American passport, and he said, “You no American.” And he looked at Vesta and said, “You no American.” He said the same thing to the others in our group. But then he smiled and said, “I am not Romanian.”
By now we were quite confused, but he pointed at the text, gave it to me, and said, “Read what it says.” I looked at it and it said, “Our citizenship is in heaven.”‘
I liked that. On that train were a group of people who were citizens of the kingdom of God. But to the casual eye, it wasn’t observable. Of course, the whole universe is God’s kingdom. But when the New Testament talks about ‘the kingdom of God’ it OFTEN means the sphere which acknowledges Jesus as king.
* The magi who found Jesus as an infant acknowledged him as KING OF THE JEWS.
* Jesus’ disciples acknowledged him as king. Simon Peter told him, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ I think that counts as acknowledging him as king.
* The people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem acknowledged him as king. They shouted, ‘Blessed is THE KING who comes in the name of the Lord!’
* Pilate acknowledged Jesus as king. He had a notice prepared which said, ‘THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.’
I don’t know if all these people were sincere in recognizing Jesus as king, but some certainly were. In Jesus’ day, some people acknowledged him as king. There was a sense in which God’s kingdom HAD come. But for the moment, it was partial and it wasn’t yet observable. I can imagine the Pharisees sniffing and thinking, ‘That isn’t very impressive!’
God’s kingdom had come. But it wasn’t – in Jesus’ time – observable.
THE KINGDOM WHICH WILL COME
But there was clearly more to come. Jesus taught his disciples a prayer which we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’ It includes ‘May your kingdom come.’ God’s kingdom HAD come but it also WILL come.
Jesus now turned to his disciples and told them about that. Whereas the coming of God’s kingdom was not observable when Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, on the day when he comes again to take up his kingship there will be no mistaking it! His coming will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.
For those of us who have put our trust in Jesus, the fact that Jesus is coming again is wonderful news. When a political leader is elected their supporters celebrate. They believe something good has happened. We have much more cause to celebrate. We have a new king to look forward to who will be far, far better than any human president or prime minister has ever been.
In the middle of last week we had our course on the environment. Steve Finamore [principal of Bristol Baptist College] took that lesson. He reminded us that Jesus’ plan isn’t only for the salvation of our souls. His plan is bigger than that: it’s for the redemption of the whole of creation. Many theologians are telling us – with good reason – that Planet Earth will be redeemed, and that we will be here, with resurrection bodies like Jesus’ resurrection body, and Jesus will be king of all creation. It’s a wonderful prospect to look forward to!
NOT GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYBODY
But regrettably, it isn’t a wonderful outlook for everybody. In Luke 16, Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In brief, his message was, ‘Reject God’s salvation and the time will come when you will regret it.’ That’s a sombre message. In today’s passage, some will be taken, some left. There will be judgement. The vultures will gather. There will be death. That’s also a sombre message.
Many people, in churches or otherwise, would rather not hear such messages. They feel that they’re sombre and depressing – and in many ways they are. But we have to give these messages. Without them, we can’t understand the cross.
‘Holy Week’ is just a few weeks away. We’ll remember Jesus on the cross. We’ll praise God for his resurrection, the firstfruits of the new creation.
At the moment we're in a part of Luke that's called ‘the travel narrative.’ We’ve been following Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Soon, Jesus will enter Jerusalem and the events that lead up to his crucifixion start to rapidly unfold. Why did Jesus have to go to Jerusalem? Why did he have to die on a cross? In today’s passage, Jesus gives part of the answer. It’s because there will be a judgement. If Jesus did not do something, the result for all of us would be death.
WHY DOES THERE HAVE TO BE A JUDGEMENT?
You may wonder why there even needs to be a judgement? The answer is that when Jesus comes to take over his kingdom, he will deal with sin.
I wonder if you’ve ever watched an American film and noticed that a student is enrolled in ‘course number 101’? American universities often use the number 101 for an introductory course on a subject. The Bible does too! Psalm 101 is the Bible’s introductory course on leadership. It isn’t very long so I think we can read it all. It’s a psalm of David, and the Bible twice calls David “a man after God’s own heart.”
Here are verses 4, 5, 7, 8:
(4) The perverse of heart shall be far from me;
I will have nothing to do with what is evil.
(5) Whoever slanders their neighbour in secret,
I will put to silence;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
I will not tolerate.
(7) No one who practises deceit
will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
will stand in my presence.
(8) Every morning I will put to silence
all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
from the city of the Lord.
What do you think of David’s leadership style? In the opening verses of the psalm he’s concerned that he is blameless. But then he’s committed to removing a whole group of people: the perverse, the slandered, the deceitful, the wicked, the evildoer.
When Jesus fully takes up his rule, he’s going to take the same approach.
Let’s read verses Jesus’ words in Luke again (17:26-30).
‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.’
In the days of Noah, God removed the wicked from the land. In the days of Lot, God removed the wicked from Sodom.
A commentator, Darrell Bock, writes, ‘Both comparisons picture the absolute finality of God’s judgment. The days of the Son of Man will be like those ancient days of judgment.’
Look at verse 34. Jesus then says,
‘I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding corn together; one will be taken and the other left.’
IS THIS THE ‘RAPTURE’?
I’m going to go on a side-track at this point.
[Possibly play clip from “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.”]
Some denominations believe that what Jesus is describing here is something they refer to as ‘the rapture.’ They consider that God will take the righteous and the wicked will remain on earth. The purpose, as they imagine it, is that God wishes to spare the righteous from a time of tribulation that will come on the wicked.
[Picture of the rapture.]
Probably many of us have read or heard of the ‘Left Behind’ series of books. These books assume that there will be a rapture. The series has 16 volumes and has sold almost 80 million copies. Until about 2010 many commentators on Matthew and Luke also assumed that there would be a rapture. I say Matthew, because there’s an almost-identical passage about one person being taken away and another left in Matthew 24. So a lot of people have got it into their heads that there will be a rapture.
But over about the past ten years some theologians have argued strongly that it isn’t the righteous who are taken and the wicked remain; it’s the other way around. I definitely take this view. We don’t have time to look at the arguments in any detail but we have time to look at one.
Look at verse 37. Jesus’ disciples ask, ‘Where, Lord?’ Jesus has been talking about two groups of people. One group remains; the other is taken. Who are the disciples asking about? They won’t be asking ‘where’ in connection with the group that REMAINS! They know where they are. They ask ‘where’ in connection with the group that’s TAKEN. Where are they?
Jesus replied, ‘Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.’ In other words, the group that’s taken will die. You’ll know where they are by the vultures gathering. Therefore it is the wicked, not the righteous, who are taken.
If that’s correct then Christians will NOT be taken and therefore NOT spared from the tribulation that will come on the world before Jesus comes again. We need to be spiritually and mentally prepared it.
That’s the end of the sidetrack!
Let’s return to verse 34. ‘Two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding corn together; one will be taken and the other left.’
Ultimately, this moment of judgement will be as sudden and unexpected as it was in Noah’s day and as it was in Lot’s day. Let me quote Darrell Bock again:
‘To underscore how total and swift the judgment will be, Jesus notes that people will not have time to grab things out of their houses to take with them as they attempt to flee. Nor can workers in the field go home to recover possessions … If the world is not careful, they will not be prepared for the judgment when it comes …
The return of Jesus is serious business, a time when God will be engaged in definitive judgment. Jesus talks about the end in grim terms and gruesome detail to make clear how serious an issue judgment is for God. Judgment means accountability. In a society that tends to view adults as accountable only to themselves and their own consciences, it is a critical reminder that God does hold us responsible for our actions.’
CONCLUSION
How should we respond?
This passage has a message for us if we haven’t yet put our faith in Jesus.
In the previous two weeks we looked at the parables of the lost sheep and the prodigal son. There’s a shepherd who searches diligently for his lost sheep; there’s a father who runs with arms wide open to welcome an undeserving son. It’s a message of amazing grace.
Today’s passage has a sterner message. Jesus is the son of God, the rightful king over all creation. He will come again. When he does, the wicked will be removed. A person can choose to reject him as king and not live under his rule. But when Jesus comes again, he will remove that person. I don’t like to say this, but it’s what Jesus said. The very reason he went to the cross was make a different outcome possible. But we have to choose it. Like the prodigal son, we have to choose to return to God.
The passage also has a message for us if we have put our faith in Jesus.
Jesus said, ‘Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.’ We have to be prepared for possible tough times. We have to be willing to lose everything in order to hold on to the one thing that’s really important – Jesus. And through it all, we should hope. Jesus will come again as king – the most wonderful king the world has ever known. It will be great!
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 7th March 2021
