The Kingdom Of Heaven Hits Like Lightning
Luke 17:20 ¶ 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,
Luke 17:21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Luke 17:22 ¶ 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.
Luke 17:23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.
Luke 17:24 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.
Luke 17:25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Luke 17:26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
Luke 17:27 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.
Luke 17:28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
Luke 17:29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—
Luke 17:30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Oppressed and beat-down communities have always longed for the end of the world more than the well-to-do communities. The apocalyptic literature of the Bible, Daniel and Revelation, were both written in a time when the readers were struggling the most.
So the Pharisees, who are pretty well to do, are asking about the end of the world? Yep. They are also ruled by Rome and have their holy city full of gentiles and pagan foreigners. It’s a rough time.
The rabbis taught that the coming of the Messiah would be obvious. As in you could go outside, look up at the sky and down the street, and you’d know that the Messiah had come. So if Jesus is here and everyone thinks He’s the Messiah, why doesn’t it look different yet?
There are two things that Jesus changes about our perspective of the end of the world in this section.
- It’s going to be a while
- It’s going to happen before we expect it
All at once, Jesus is helping us to not panic about the end of the world coming, but at the same time to look forward to it and to prepare ourselves. The Kingdom of God is coming in ways that can’t be observed. Let that sink in a little bit.
The Kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed.
But it’s coming.
Have you ever been carrying in groceries, or walking to your car, and some lightning hit nearby and just about gave you a heart attack?
That’s the best example Jesus gave for the Kingdom of Heaven.
The conditions can be right.
There might be rain in the air.
Then: BOOM!
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