This is an amazing and
very revealing conversation. We must pay
attention to those Jesus is addressing.
The question is asked by the Pharisees: when the kingdom of God would come.
Jesus first answered the Pharisees (v20-21); then He spoke to His
disciples on the same subject (v22-37).
What
the Pharisees are asking is very clear: they know Jesus claims to be the
Christ; they know the Messiah will establish a Kingdom headquartered in
Jerusalem; they are asking about that kingdom as promised in Psalm 2 and
throughout the Old Testament. This kingdom
is often referred to as the Millennium
(meaning 1000 years, from 6 specific
references in Rev. 20:1-7). There are
three basic views of this kingdom (with many nuances):
- A-millennialism: there is no earthly reign of Christ; it is a spiritual kingdom.
- Post-millennialism: Christ will reign on earth only after the world is spiritually ready to submit to Him.
- Pre-millennialism: Christ will return to establish an earthly kingdom.
Those who deny an
earthly kingdom often refer to Jesus’ words in v20-21 (E.g. Kenneth Gentry on p38 of Three Views
…, see Bibliography: The kingdom does
not await some future, catastrophic, visible coming, Luke 17:20-21).
There are many things
that can be said in response to this argument but we will limit ourselves to
the immediate context. Jesus clearly tells
the Pharisees that the kingdom of God is spiritual and is first and always a
matter of the heart. That is what the
Pharisees needed to know. For Jesus to
talk to them about His earthly reign would only complicate their problem: they longed
for an earthly kingdom without being prepared spiritually to submit to the King
of that kingdom.
On the other hand, in
Jesus’ words to His disciples (those who professed faith in Him, to have
received Him as the Christ) Jesus very clearly speaks of an earthly kingdom in the days of the Son of Man, a term He
defines as the day when the Son of Man is
revealed (v30). It is the subject of
the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev.
1:1).
Yet this kingdom is
very earthly. Jesus gives the timing: first He must suffer … and be rejected (v25). He speaks of the nature of life on earth as
the time draws near, being days like the
days of Noah (v26-27) and the days of
Lot (v28-30). The Revealer of Hearts (Lk. 2:35) will
reveal the hearts of those on earth with one taken (in judgment because that
one is not right spiritually, like the Pharisees) and one will be left (to
enter the earthly kingdom).
Do you remember the
ten lepers? One, whose faith had made
him whole, had faith in Christ; the kingdom of God was within him. That is what distinguished him from the
others. Is the kingdom of God within
you?
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