The Kingdom and Where to Find It
Scripture: Luke
17:20-33
I want to begin this morning by
telling you a story. It concerns a monk and a rabbi. It starts in a monastery
that was on the brink of closure. The monks did not get along well with each
other and were constantly fighting and bickering among themselves. No one
wanted to join the monastery because the atmosphere turned people off. It was
well known in the towns surrounding the Monastery that there was trouble there.
So, one day the leader of the monks
decided to visit with a rabbi at the local Jewish Synagogue in town to see if the
Rabbi had any advice for him. The monk and the Rabbi met for lunch. The monk
told his story of the disorder at the monastery and the Rabbi listened intently
to the monk’s story. And when he finally spoke it was to say, “your savior is
one of you”. The Rabbi refused to say who specifically who it was. And the two
men then parted but the monk went over and over the words of the Rabbi. Who
among that ill-willed group of monks could be a savior? He wondered.
So, the monk called a meeting of his
fellow monks. He told them what that the Rabbi had told him. This caused
excitement among the brothers. Due to their leader’s words they began to give
up their poor attitudes toward one another. They began to treat each other with
respect and Christian love. They never knew when the person they were dealing
with was the savior or not, so they treated everyone with genuine love. Before
too long the people in the towns began to hear of the change that was taking
place up at the Monastery and began to visit to see if it was true. A few of
the young men from the town began to sense a call to a vocation at the
monastery. And their numbers began to grow. You see the savior was among them
as soon as they loved each other with Christlike love. While Jesus was never
truly there in person his spirit was, and as we will discern his kingdom was
among them and that made all the difference in their lives. So, the Kingdom of
God within us, can make all the difference the way we live our lives.
Today’s scripture vs. 20-21 tells us
that the kingdom of God which the Jewish authorities were looking for all
around them; was in fact right there among them in the person of Jesus, and
that all they needed to do was repent of their self-centered ways and follow
Jesus and they too could experience the Kingdom as it was moving all around
them. Up until this point in the scripture Jesus had been speaking to the Pharisees
answering their questions about when the Kingdom would come.
Jesus now turns his attention to his
disciples in verses 22-33. Jesus likens his coming Kingdom to flashing of
lightning from one end of the sky to the other. Jesus said, “The time is coming
when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t
see it. 23 People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here
he is,’ but do not go out and follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day* when
the Son of Man comes. 25 But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and
be rejected by this generation.” (NLT)1 Jesus foretells that his own
death must come before the Kingdom will come in all its fullness. In this
section Luke argued in the following manner: God’s kingdom would not be
preceded by signs that could be calculated and observed. On the contrary the
kingdom was already present in the coming of Jesus Christ (17:20–21). As to the
consummation of the kingdom brought about by the return of the Son of Man, this
would not come in the disciples’ lifetime (17:22). The Son of Man will
furthermore not come in some secret fashion (17:23), for his coming will be
observed by all (17:24). His coming will be foreseen by none yet seen by all. Before
all this happens, the Son of Man in his present ministry faced rejection and
death (17:25). As for the Son of Man’s coming, it will be unexpected, and
people will be unprepared (17:26–30). In that day, the final separation will
take place dividing even families (17:31–35). Just as one knows the presence of
carrion by the attending vultures, so the return of the Son of Man will be
clear to the whole world (17:37).2 (NAC)
What are the people of God to do while
we wait for Jesus to come again? First, let me tell you what we are not
supposed to do during this time of waiting. That is to gaze into the heavens and
do nothing of any use to the Kingdom. What we are supposed to do is to tell
everyone we meet that Jesus is coming again and we need to trust in him for our
salvation and become his disciples. If for some reason we cannot tell people
about Jesus then we need to pray for their souls, that those we pray for may
stop and really hear the voice of Jesus through reading the word, the witness
of other Christians, or by a direct word from God.
That is what Jesus means when he says
the Kingdom is within you. He means that each of us who bear the name Christian
have the Holy Spirit within us. We are to use that Spirit to share the good
news that Jesus has come and is beginning to spread the Kingdom of God among
his people as we await his return. We are to be, in modern parlance, like a
“super spreader” event. Like the virus the Kingdom of God is not something you
can see or physically touch. But it spreads like those California wildfires
once a believer or group of believers catches the Kingdom message and begins to
spread the word there is nothing on heaven or earth that can stop it. It will
burn through the thickest anti-Christian heart and set it ablaze as well. Who
knows it may have burned through the heart of some of the Pharisees who were
present that day.
So, we must be
the message bearers that the Kingdom of God is in the midst of us. The kingdom
is present here today and to those of us who are listening in via Facebook.
God’s Kingdom is always seeking ways to express itself and multiply its effect
in the world. Until Christ comes again and establishes the Kingdom on Earth
with Him as the ruler. Then every knee shall bow (whether voluntarily or involuntarily),
and every voice proclaim that Jesus is King the world. Until then people will
go about their business as usual. There will be false prophets who point to
some sign that Jesus is coming right away. (No matter how much we wish it were
true.) We must not believe them but continue to wait for him patiently. Rejoicing
in the fact that the Kingdom is already present within us and within the world
and it is growing despite all evidence to the contrary and will one day be the
one and only kingdom in the world. The
devil, the ruler of this world now, will be cast down into the pit permanently and
sin and death will be no more. Weeping and mourning will cease. Joy and Love
will be there instead.
Already the
kingdom of God is on the march. In places like Africa and Asia the church is
growing by leaps and bounds. Meanwhile here in North America where the church
is shrinking in numbers the Kingdom presses on especially in the inner cities
and the rural areas of what used to be called the rust belt. As Jesus said once
he establishes His church the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
But why does
the church in America and throughout the western world seem to be shrinking? For
the same reason, the monks in the opening story of this sermon were shrinking in
numbers and almost at the end of their rope. They had stopped believing that
the Kingdom was already at work among them. We as a church in the western world
have ceased to believe that God’s Kingdom is at work among us. We treat those
outside our little circle of believers as if they are not really Christ
followers. We build our worldly kingdoms with high walls to keep others out
instead of a place where all are welcome and even rejoiced over. We tend to
follow certain Christian teachers and not others because we cannot believe that
God is working through them. While we should beware of false teachers and prophets,
however, we should rejoice with those teachers who exemplify the spirit of
Grace that we see modeled in Jesus.
God’s Kingdom,
Jesus tells his disciples, will not be found in any particular location. It
will be more like lightning that flashes from one end of the sky to the other.
Jesus predicts his own trial and crucifixion must come before the Kingdom of
God comes in its full glory. So, we are to wait and wait for our savior to return.
While we are waiting, we are to be witnesses to the Kingdom of God on earth. We
are to wait expectantly for Jesus to return but we are not to be lazy servants.
While no major event of salvation history is seen as intervening between the
disciples’ time and the Son of Man’s coming, though in the larger context of
Luke-Acts the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost and the preaching of the gospel to
the whole world from Jerusalem to Rome are major events in salvation history.
For Luke and his readers only the return of Jesus still lay in the future for
the church and the world.
In verses 27,28
we read what it will be like in the days when the Kingdom of God is fully
established on the earth. Luke uses a pair of negative examples. First, he uses
the days of Noah and the flood. People in Noah’s day went about their own
business until the flood came and it was too late to prepare. The same is true
of Lot, The people 0f the Sodom went about their business until after Lot and
family escaped, then Sodom and all who lived there destroyed by fire from
heaven. The word is telling us that there were no unusual signs in these days (besides
Noah building a really big boat for no apparent reason) suddenly destruction
came upon them. And no one survived these disasters except Noah and his family
and Lot and his family. The word says it will be just like that for us. We will
be clueless as to the timing of Christ’s return. We will be as unsuspecting as
the world was on the day of the flood or the city of Sodom was on the day of its
destruction. These two examples from the Old Testament are meant to warn us.
They are meant to serve as instruction to us not to become complacent about the
return of Christ and the final coming of the Kingdom. And to stay open both physically
and spiritually to God’s offering of the Kingdom in our own day and time.
In the final
analysis of these verses, we can see that God’s Kingdom is available to all of us,
in the here and now. Accepting God’s Kingdom means walking in courage because
of the assurance of God’s presence with us at all times. We do not have to wait
for some future event to receive God’s Kingdom. God’s kingdom is ever present
for believers. It is within and among us today. We are free to operate in the
Kingdom’s power whenever we love someone unconditionally or serve someone
sacrificially. God’s Kingdom can come upon an entire church when we run a
thrift shop to provide clothing, help with a food pantry, or a homeless
shelter. When we sponsor missionaries, who are out in the world proclaiming
Jesus name on our behalf. When we provide funds for those in need of emergency
assistance. When we pray for those who are sick, and home bound and reach out
with meal assistance and perhaps just a card to lift someone’s spirit. Even
just doing our everyday jobs, if done for God can be the inbreaking of the
Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is on the move all around us and we do not even
notice it. And I am sure it is moving among us in ways I have failed to name
right now. The kingdom of God is within us and is waiting to be released into
the world through our actions that help build the Kingdom brick by brick so
that the gates of hell may not prevail against it.
Even though for
the time being we must keep our physical distance from each other, I pray that
we can be spiritually close. That we can see the Kingdom in each and every person
we meet. That we may somehow be a servant of God to every stranger we meet.
Performing Kingdom service on their behalf so as to please God.
Although we are
to be busy about the Kingdom’s business, we must hold in our hearts the hope of
Jesus returning and the full establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. When
Jesus comes (if it is in our lifetimes) may Jesus find us at our appointed
duty. If he returns after our earthly toil and labor may he say “well done my
good and faithful servant. Come enter into the joy of your master.” May God
reveal to us the fulness of His love. May we be filled with the joy that comes
from knowing that we have pleased God and advanced His kingdom here on earth.
The
Kingdom is among us truly this day and each day we walk as a church following
our Crucified King Jesus. Each day as we seek to bring forth God’s kingdom
through our loving actions for all people. Let us remember and never forget
what Jesus suffered to bring about His Kingdom. Let us not forget that our
efforts to show forth God’s kingdom is not God’s plan B, but God saw perfectly
into the future and knows all that will happen to us. His Kingdom is from
everlasting to everlasting. Only God knows the time of his return in glory to
implement God’s final Kingdom. From the old Battle Hymn of the Republic (which
is no longer politically correct goes); “In the beauty of the lilies Christ was
born across the sea
With a glory in
His bosom that transfigures you and me
As He died to
make men holy let us live to make men free
While God is
marching on.”
So, may we march on as a mighty army.
Bringing God’s Kingdom as we march, making all things holy, as we march to our
appointed tasks. So, do not be afraid, but work for the Kingdom. Knowing that
nothing done for the Kingdom is done in vain. As Matthew 25:31-40 states. 31 “But
when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he
will sit upon his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be
gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep
at his right hand and the goats at his left.
34 “Then the King
will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father,
inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For
I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a
stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked,
and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison,
and you visited me.’
37 “Then these
righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you?
Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and
show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When
did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “And the King
will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these
my brothers and sisters, * you were doing it to me!’ [1]
God sees all
the work that is done under the sun and rewards those who are faithful in
completing His work. Let us be known as a church that feeds the hungry, gives
drink to the thirsty, clothes the naked, visits those who are sick or in prison,
and shows hospitality to the stranger then we will know that the kingdom is
among/within us. For such is the work of the present Kingdom of God, let us
joyfully celebrate our Victory in Jesus in the return of our Lord. As we do these things that make God’s Kingdom
known here on the earth.
Let us pray:
Lord God we pray that you would find
your Kingdom in each of us this day and every day forever. Help us to live in a
way that will bring glory to your name. May whatever we do be done to bring
glory to your name. Help us bring the beginnings of your Kingdom on earth. May
we kindle the fire for your kingdom in all the places we go and in all the
things that we say and do. Amen
[1]
Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New
Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers,
2015), Mt 25:31–40.
Comments
Post a Comment