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, 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: 20-21
Luke 17: 20-21 Thy Kingdom Come
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come - As we have been reading through Luke, by now, we should have a certain awareness of the religious culture of that time. The Pharisees considered themselves not only members, but members in good standing to the approaching kingdom. They had done all the good deeds, read all the works of all the best Scribes, and they were sons of Abraham. Jesus answer to them was, "before Abraham was, I Am", and then He has throughout the gospels showed them the errors with their doctrines and interpretations. He has showed them that many of their teachings actually defy the God they say they believe in. He has let a Samaritan woman in on the reality of His Messiahship, and John the Baptist, the first OT style prophet after 400 years of silence has pointed to Christ, even baptizing Him to fulfill all righteousness. So there is a lot of wonder surrounding Jesus, people will even throw down palm fronds before Him as He comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Many think He is the Messiah because of His miracles, little things like raising the dead, healing lepers, walking on water, restoring sight to the blind. Others hope He is the Messiah, King of the coming Kingdom, because of miracles like feeding the five thousand. Jesus keeps talking about the Kingdom, and so the Jewish people, who are now living under Roman occupation, wonder when this will be. Given the attitude of the Pharisees though, I doubt this is a genuine, sincere question. They already want Jesus dead for exposing them as the hypocrites they are, yet the question is not without reason, like I said, Jesus taught about the Kingdom and the OT also teaches about a coming Kingdom.
…35“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?” 36Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.” 37“Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”… John 18: 35-37
…43As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so the peoples will mix with one another, but will not hold together any more than iron mixes with clay. 44In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever. 45And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”… Daniel 2: 43-45
This is not a bad question, although it originates in this case from a group of men who are generally bad! The Jews in general were looking for the Kingdom of God. They knew it was coming from the Old Testament and from the rabbim had taught. And as MacArthur says they were all "premillennialists!" And why would they ask Jesus about the timing of the Kingdom of God? One reason of course is because He had repeatedly made reference to the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven) As with all who do not have spiritual eyes to see, the Pharisees missed the fact that the kingdom had already come in the sense that the King was present. - Precept Austin
The Kingdom of God is not coming in ways that cannot be observed - If He is the King then they want to see signs in the heavens, and again, this isn't an expectation foreign to the Scriptures, and their eschatology is actually better than that which many hold today. It is lacking though, and significantly, as Jesus is pointing out. Here is the gist of it, the Kingdom will not allow for the unholy, because God is Holy. There are vast sections of their OT that lay this out in the pictures of atonement through the sacrificial system. It is seen in the substitution of Abraham's son Isaac for a Ram caught in the thicket. The Kingdom is not a racial Kingdom, for there is only one race, the human race, and all, including these Pharisees are fallen in Adam. It is not an ethnic Kingdom, as John the Baptist and Jesus have made clear, that being related to Abraham is not a saving grace. From their own prophets they could look and see that the Messiah will be rejected by His own, and that He will give His life for many. This is the great object of His first coming, the pivotal point in all human history, that which has to happen in order to make the physical kingdom possible. He has to go to Calvary to become a curse for us, to take my sins upon Him, to die an unfair death to make up for what would have been fair to inflict upon me. Remember the veil in the temple, it separated us from the Holy of Holies, the presence of God. The approach demanded perfect holiness, that only God has, and so in the picture of the tabernacle and the priests, we see that they had to be cleansed and offer a sacrifice, all pointing to Christ's ultimate sacrifice. Now this is going to hurt some feelings, make some irate, but God doesn't accept you just the way you are or on your own terms, hence the veil, and the two dead priest who brought strange fire. What does He accept? Christ, His Son, and so God's acceptance of you is in Christ Jesus. The Kingdom of God is made one believer at a time, of all those who trust not in their works, not in their own righteousness, not in their heritage, but in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
MacArthur gleans much of the following from The History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, (Volume 2 -Topic - The Messianic Hope, here is a cumulative index) written by historian, Emil Schurer (biography) who collected the ancient material from the time of Christ and pieced together the eschatology espoused by the Jews in the first century (see Schurer's topics covered under "The Messianic Hope")...
Here is what the Jews expected.
(1) the coming of Messiah would be preceded be a time of tribulation or trouble, even like birth pangs
(Ed Comment: Schurer was correct here, and it was not the Roman occupation of the first century, not even the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, which certainly was not followed by the establishment of Messiah's Kingdom. This "time of tribulation" is referred to several times in Scripture =Great Tribulation; Daniel's Seventieth Week; " a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time" = Daniel 12:1-note. See discussion of the "Time of Jacob's Trouble" in note on Jeremiah 30:7; see commentary on Jesus' Olivet Discourse Matthew 24:15 Matthew 24:16 Matthew 24:17 Matthew 24:18 Matthew 24:19 Matthew 24:20 Matthew 24:21).
(2) in the midst of this trouble and turmoil there would appear a prophet like Elijah, heralding the coming of Messiah (Ed: cf the mysterious "two witnesses" in Revelation 11:3ff-note).
(3) Messiah would establish His kingdom, age and glory and vindicate His people.
(4) and they found this in the Sibylline Oracles, the nations would ally to fight the Messiah. They would literally interrupt all of their wars to come and fight against Him (Ed: See Revelation 16:14-16-note).
(5) the Messiah would destroy all the opposing nations, subjugate them all (Ed: See Revelation 19:11-21, esp Rev 19:15-note).
(6) the restoration of Jerusalem would occur. It would be made new and magnificent. (Ed: See Zechariah 14:10-11-note)
(7) scattered Jews from all over the world would return to Israel. (Ed: Ezekiel 36:24-note)
(8) Israel would become the center of the world and all nations would be subjected to the Messiah. (Ed: See Zechariah 14:16-note)
(9) the Messiah would establish the kingdom and the kingdom would be a time of eternal peace, righteousness and glory. (Ed: See Isaiah 2:2-4-note, Jer 33:15-16-note)
(MacArthur goes on to say) That's pretty accurate. Tribulation, an announcement of the arrival of the Messiah, a prophet before He comes, like Elijah. He comes, the world fights Him. He defeats them. He sets up His kingdom, restores Jerusalem, gathers His people, His sheep from all over the world. Israel becomes the center of the world. Jerusalem the throne from which He reigns. And He goes into a kingdom that is forever, a kingdom of peace, righteousness and glory. That's good eschatology. That's my (John MacArthur's) eschatology. And some people say somebody invented this type of eschatology in the 1800's? These expectations on the part of the Jews were drawn from Old Testament teaching and they were embellished by extra biblical writers. They got a little carried away, but the basic eschatology is fairly sound. And remember, the first century Jews did not see two comings of Messiah but only saw one. Their idea was, all Jesus needed to do was show up and do this (set up the Kingdom of God). They did not expect (or understand) that He would come (first) to establish a spiritual kingdom. They were not looking for an internal kingdom, a spiritual kingdom. To put it simply, they were not looking for a Savior because they did not see their need to be saved. And that is why Jesus' message was so offensive. It wasn't that they did not want the kingdom of God. It was not that they didn't like to hear Jesus speak about that kingdom. It was not that they were not looking for a King. But it was the kind of kingdom Jesus was talking about that agitated them. - Precept Austin quoting J Mac
…7Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.… John 3: 7-9
Look, here it is, or there - Again, there is this huge, insurmountable void, that of God's holiness and our utter lack. It's not just hearing about the Kingdom that gains you access, or someone saying look, here it is, let's walk in and enjoy it. No, you must be born again. Jesus, the King, is present with them, and they don't accept Him, so they want a Kingdom that He is not in. God has provided this One way, through His Son, and they are rejecting Him. Once you hear about Jesus, you hear His words, the call to repentance, that is the time to accept Him, to say, "yes, I am a sinner, I am unfit to come before a Holy God, please save me." You enter the Kingdom now in Christ, or you reject it thinking there is some other way. And just know, He warns them, there will be plenty of false Messiahs culminating in a final antichrist, but when Jesus comes back it won't be any secret thing, that's when you will see the signs in the heavens, but you have to be born again, you have to become a citizen now.
Nor will they say, ‘Look (idou), here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ - Jesus counters their belief that the Kingdom of God would come in an obvious way that would be visible to all to behold (including great signs to behold). To the contrary, God’s kingdom would not be preceded by signs that could be observed. The Pharisees were completely off base regarding their theology of the Kingdom. Then Jesus really rocks their boat with His next declaration.
Jesus had made it very clear what was required to "see" this "invisible" kingdom. Speaking to Nicodemus He said “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot (absolutely continually will not be able to) see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). - Precept Austin
5“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”… John 14: 5-7
23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. Matthew 24: 23-28
The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you - The greater part of this idea is that the King is literally standing in the midst of them, and since He is the only Way by which we may enter, the Kingdom is present with Him as well. This further cements the teaching that something must take place inside each individual that would enter the Kingdom of God. You must have a changed heart, or in other words, "you must be born again."
…16Do not allow what you consider good, then, to be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18For whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.… Romans 14: 16-18
…26the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. 27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.… Colossians 1: 26-28
John MacArthur comments on in your midst - Many translators, seeking to avoid the apparent difficulty of Jesus saying that the kingdom was inside the unbelieving Pharisees, translate the phrase in which it appears in your midst. However a different phrase, en mesō, is regularly used to communicate the idea of “in the midst of,” or “among” (e.g., Mt. 10:16; Lk 2:46; 8:7; 10:3; 22:27; 24:36; Acts 1:15; 2:22; Heb. 2:12). The apparent difficulty is easily resolved by understanding your in the broadest national sense rather than as a narrow reference to the Pharisees. As was inevitably the case, the crowd listening to the Lord’s dialogue with the Pharisees ran the gamut from the outright rejecters to the curious but uncommitted, to the true disciples of Jesus. The Lord was reinforcing the point that the spiritual kingdom is internal and not manifested by observable signs. (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Luke 11-17)
Wiersbe - The statement “the kingdom of God is within you” has challenged Bible translators and interpreters for centuries, and many explanations have been given. One thing we can be sure of is that He was not telling the unbelieving Pharisees that they had the kingdom of God in their hearts! The Greek preposition can mean “within,” “among,” or “in the midst of.” Jesus was saying, “Don’t look for the kingdom ‘out there’ unless it is first in your own heart” (see Rom. 14:17). At the same time, He may also have been saying, “The fact that I am here in your midst is what is important, for I am the King. How can you enter the kingdom if you reject the King?” (see Luke 19:38–40) The Pharisees were preoccupied with the great events of the future but were ignoring the opportunities of the present (Luke 12:54–57). (Borrow Be courageous Luke 14-24) - Precept Austin
…27And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and steal his possessions, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.… Matthew 12: 27-29
…25I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.… Ezekiel 36: 25-27
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