I SAW TWO ADVENTS.
Luke 17:20-25.
LUKE 17:20-21. The Pharisees were expecting a glorious, wholly visible coming of “the kingdom of God.” What they could not recognise was that the kingdom of God was here already, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation,” Jesus pointed out, because “the kingdom of God is within you,” in your midst, spiritually discerned in the Person of the King, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The spiritual reality had already been with them for near thirty years. Jesus had come unto His own, but His own ‘received Him not’ (cf. John 1:11). They could not see it, so they refused to believe Him.
But we thank the Lord that there were some, like Simeon and Anna, and the disciples, who did receive Him, to whom ‘He gave power to become the sons of God’ (John 1:12).
The Pharisees could not accept what Jesus was saying, so He turned to his disciples:
LUKE 17:22-25. What the Pharisees were missing, and what the disciples probably still had yet to learn, was that the coming of the kingdom of God was not one event, but two. In other words, there are two advents of Jesus. First He came to suffer, but subsequently He will come to reign.
(i) ‘Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and
(ii) for those that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation’ (cf. Hebrews 9:28).
The lightning flash is used to illustrate not only the suddenness, the unexpectedness, of the return of Jesus; but also the fact that it will be widely seen. “So shall also the Son of man be in His day” (Luke 17:24). We know neither the day nor the hour, but it will come upon us as in a moment, a nanosecond. To believers at least, it will be unmistakable.
“But first,” says Jesus, “He must suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:25).
Yes, we look forward to His coming in glory, but we must never forget what it cost Him to procure our salvation.
He must needs suffer. He must needs suffer and be rejected. His kingdom will come – but first, in this very generation in which He was living, the Cross!
