“THE VISIBLE KINGDOM WILL COME”
LUKE 17:22-37

I. Introduction
I have a question for every Christian here this morning: What is the purpose of the salvation God has given you? Is it so you can be fulfilled and live a happy and productive life? The answer is a resounding, “No!” But today, if you listen to a lot of what comes out of modern evangelism, and if you buy into much of what comes down from many pulpits, you might actually think that a fulfilled and happy life is the whole point of salvation in Jesus Christ.

So then, Christian, what is the purpose of the salvation God has given you? Is it to give you eternal life and allow you to enter into His presence the moment you die? “No!” Of course, eternal life and being present with God are two of the great undeserved rewards and unimag-inable blessings that come with our spiritual redemption, but those two things aren’t the ulti-mate purpose of salvation either.

Think about it. All of those things I’ve just mentioned – fulfillment, happiness, living a pro-ductive life on this earth, even enjoying eternal life in heaven, and being in God’s presence – all of those things are all about us. They’re all about our glory, if you will. They’re not about His!

If there is a great and even shameful weakness in the way the gospel is too often preached, and the Scriptures are too often taught, this has to be it. Too many believers, too many pas-tors, too many evangelists, and too many churches have become so blind to spiritual truth, and so man-centered that Jesus Christ is presented in such a way as to make Him palatable to a lost a dying world that, for the most part, isn’t the least bit interested in Him.

The message that goes out is, “He’ll do this for you and He’ll do that for you.” Is it any surprise that the message that’s heard is, “It’s all about me.”? Of course not! So people flock to this Jesus. They’re told they are Christians. They’re told to expect happiness, ful-fillment, pretty much everything they want, health, wealth, and a free ticket to heaven.

And for them, the Lord of Glory becomes nothing more than a means to an end – the glory of man. So I repeat my original question: What is the purpose of the salvation God has given you? The ultimate purpose for salvation is not for you or for me and our glory. It is for God and His glory.

Any serious student of the Bible knows that because God has made it abundantly clear. As Bible-believing Christians we want to see Jesus in all of His glory, don’t we? This is one of the very things for which Jesus prayed before He went to the cross. In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed for Himself, the twelve apostles, and us, His soon to be born church. He began His prayer for the church by praying that we would be unified in Him.
He went on to ask His Father that we, His church, would see His glory.
*John 17:24
24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

This is the glory every true Christian longs to behold. We want to see Jesus as He is. That’s what the Apostle Paul calls the Christian’s “blessed hope” in Titus 2:13. Did you know that there is a special reward reserved in heaven for those believers who love the very thought of the Second Coming?
2 Timothy 4:8 (Paul speaking to Timothy)
8 …in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

And He WILL come again! Jesus’ Second Coming is as certain as His first. And the order of events is clear. The church will be taken to heaven in what is commonly known as “The Rapture.” John 14, 1 Corinthians 15, and 1 Thessalonians 4 all speak of it. That will be followed by seven years of tribulation on earth, the specifics of which are spelled out in Revelation 6-18. At the end of those seven years Jesus will return as King of kings and Lord of lords, He will take His seat on the throne of David in Jerusalem, and He will estab-lish His Millennial Kingdom.

At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, after Satan’s final rebellion is crushed, Revelation 19-22 tells us the Great White Throne judgment will be executed, this present creation, being weighed down by sin and corruption, will be destroyed by fire, the new heavens and the new earth will be created, and all of God’s people will enter into the glory of the eternal kingdom of God. But all of that is still future. At the Second Coming Revelation 1:7 tells us that, “…every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.” That brings us to Luke 17:22-37.
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II. Review
The religious leaders of Israel were expecting the Jewish Messiah, but they were looking for a human king, a warrior who would drive out the Romans and re-establish Israel’s former power and glory such as she had known under David and Solomon. They were convinced that’s what their promised Messiah would do.

So when Jesus came, saying that He was their Messiah, God’s kingdom had already come, and their King was standing in their midst, the Pharisees didn’t see the King of kings and Lord of lords. Rather, they saw what they believed to be a meek and mild rabbi who looked and acted nothing like a conquering hero. That led to the confrontation in last week’s text.

Jesus told the Pharisees the kingdom of God had come, but it was invisible to human eyes.
The kingdom He had brought was non-material and spiritual. This invisible kingdom of God had come, and its subjects would be all of those whom God chose to save and redeem. At His first coming Jesus came to provide access, to open the doors, to this spiritual king-dom. But because it couldn’t be seen with the human eye it was an “invisible” kingdom. It could neither be seen nor understood by those people who had not been saved and redeemed because they had not been given the “spiritual eyes” to comprehend it.
1 Corinthians 2:14
14 But a natural man (an unsaved man) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (turn to Luke 17)

The Pharisees were natural men. Therefore, they rejected Jesus and their spiritual eyes remained closed. And so, after Luke 17:21 and before v. 22, Jesus turned away from the Pharisees and re-directed His words to His own disciples.

He would tell them about His return to earth. He would tell them that when He would come again, it would be anything but invisible. He wouldn’t come offering salvation; He would come to judge. He wouldn’t come quietly; He would literally shake the foundations of the world. There wouldn’t be any question about who He was. The King of kings and Lord of lords would come in power and great glory, visible to all. And “…every eye will see Him.”
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III. Text
That’s what this morning’s text is about. Just before we read the passage I want to give you a “heads up.” The opening verse may seem to contradict what I’ve just said. But bear with me. When we see it in context it will make sense.
*Luke 17:22-37 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
22 And (Jesus) said to the disciples, “The days shall come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
23 “And they will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them.
24 “For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.
25 “But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27 “They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
31 “On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away; and likewise let not the one who is in the field turn back.
32 “Remember Lot’s wife.
33 “Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it.
34 “I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, and the other will be left.
35 “There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken, and the other will be left.
36 [“Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.”]
37 And answering they said to (Jesus), “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered.”

The disciples had believed in Jesus, but once He was gone, if He did not soon return, there was a real possibility that their faith would falter, and their confidence in His words would begin to wane. So Jesus begins by telling them to be patient. He tells them, in so many words, “I will not be coming back as soon as you may think.” These words are not spoken to us in the twenty-first century; they are spoken directly to the twelve in the first century, but there will be a lesson for us.
*Luke 17:22
22 And (Jesus) said to the disciples, “The days shall come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.”

Jesus is telling the disciples that all true Christians long for His appearing. “…one of the days” probably refers to the whole sequence of events surrounding the Second Coming. I think Jesus is talking about everything from the Rapture through the Glorious Appearing. As persecution increases and becomes more severe, Christians all over the world will cry out for the Lord’s return, not only to avenge them, but to glorify Himself.

When Jesus tells His disciples, “…you will not see it,” He’s not saying He won’t return. He is saying it won’t be soon after His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. He’s telling them they need to be patient. The lesson for us should be clear: We may not see the Rap-ture during our lifetime either, but that does not mean it won’t happen. All Christians need to remember that if you don’t live to see it, it only means you will have already been with Him in heaven when it does happen.

Along with the martyrs of Revelation 6:10 we cry out, “How long, O Lord?” We ask, “How long must we wait for You to rescue us?” The bottom line is that it will happen.
But we are not a patient people, are we? Have any of us not hoped the Lord would come back, deal with His enemies (and ours), and clean up this mess? “How long, O Lord?” Just listen to this description of the times.
“It is a gloomy moment in the history of our country. Not in the lifetime of most men has there been so much grave and deep apprehension; never has the future seemed so incalculable as at this time. The domestic economic situation is in chaos. Our dollar is weak throughout the world. Prices are so high as to be utterly impossible. The pol-itical cauldron seethes and bubbles with uncertainty. Russia hangs, as usual, like a cloud, dark and silent, upon the horizon. It is a solemn moment. Of our troubles no man can see the end.” Harper’s Magazine, October 10, 1847 (167 years ago!)

Does that help? Maybe not, but it does put things into perspective! Listen, Jesus will come for His church and He will glorify Himself, but He will do so in His time, not ours. In the meantime, unbelief will always mock and say things like…
2 Peter 3:4
4 “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

Let them mock, but we are called to be patient.
*James 5:7-8
7 Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.
8 You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. (draws nigh or approaches) (back to Luke 17)

*Luke 17:23-24
23 “And they will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them.
24 “For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.”

These last two verses confirm what we already know. As Jesus’ return draws nearer, false teachers and false Christs will abound and lead many astray. We see this all around us to-day. The tragedy is that these lies have even worked their way into the church. Listen, you and I are not only called to be patient, we are called to be wise and discerning. And you cannot be wise and discerning if you do not know the Word of God. You just cannot! Luke 17:23 is not Jesus’ only warning about deceivers, false teachers, and the lies they propagate.
*Luke 21:8
8 And (Jesus) said, “See to it that you be not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is at hand’; do not go after them.”
(back to Luke 17)
In v. 24 Jesus is talking about how VISIBLE His return will be. Think again of Revelation
1:7 where the Scripture says, “….every eye will see Him.” When He comes in His glory the changes in the heavens will be dramatic and, if I may employ two grossly overused words, “Awesome, dude!” Jesus gives us a description in His Olivet Discourse.
Matthew 24:29-30
29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken,
30 and then the sign (the shekinah?) of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky in power and great glory.”

All of this begs the question again. When will all this take place? Jesus tells the disciples it will be a while.
*Luke 17:25
25 “But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

The Lord is talking about what would be, at this point, only a few months away. Not only will He suffer and be rejected, He will die. That’s the reason for His first coming. So there will be no coming in power and glory until after the purpose for this coming is fulfilled, un-til, as Jesus would later say on the cross, “It is finished (John 19:30)!” What is finished? The entire work that God the Father gave God the Son, the work of our redemption is what is fin-ished. Nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken away from it. It is finished!

Do you see why, with respect to salvation, all of man’s works are worthless in God’s sight? What are we going to do to improve on Jesus’ work on the cross? The work is finished!

You’ve all heard the saying, “Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees,” or, “What forest? I don’t see any forest. There are too many trees in the way.” There is something so obvious in the next five verses that it’s really easy to miss.
*Luke 17:26-30
26 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27 “They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;
29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”
Jesus has told His disciples how they should conduct themselves in light of His coming. In vv. 26-30 He tells them how His return will come about, what they may compare it to, and what it will look like. Let me suggest that you keep two words in mind as we look at these five verses. The words are “evil” and “sudden.”

God’s judgment against evil came down first in water, and again in fire. God judged sin! We know that He is long-suffering, but His patience will run out. Thus one of the primary reasons for the Second Coming is to judge an evil world, just as God has done in the past.

When God’s patience runs out, judgment will be sudden, and just as it was in the days of Noah and the days of Lot, those who will be judged will never see it coming. Why? Because the people will be completely immersed in the things of this world. They’ll be eating, drink-ing, marrying, buying, selling, planting, and building.

Now to be clear – there’s not a thing wrong with any of that, unless they’re done without regard for God and His Word. The great irony is that when people live their lives like judg-ment will never come, it is precisely by that very judgment they will perish. That’s what Jesus is talking about in v. 30 when He says, “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

Just how evil were the days of Noah? Genesis 6:5 says, “… the wickedness of man was great… every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” How evil were Sodom and Gomorrah? The men of Sodom wanted to rape the angels who had come to warn Lot. Genesis 19:5 says, “…they called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.’”

As bad as all of that was, the days leading up to the Second Coming will be far worse. Anti-christ will rule the world and the restraining power of the Holy Spirit will be withheld. And so, God’s judgment, when it comes, will not only be sudden, it will be swift, thorough, and devastating. The Lord Jesus will bring it at His Glorious Appearing.

By the way, what is so obvious in vv. 26-30 that it’s easy to miss? Much of the world that calls itself Christian, but regards itself as “more enlightened,” claims to “believe in Jesus,” but rejects Noah’s global flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as fairy tales. They say things like, “If there really was a Noah and there really was a flood, it was local, not world-wide,” and, “If there really was a Sodom and Gomorrah, and if it really was destroyed, then it must have been a ‘natural phenomenon,’ because a loving God would never judge and destroy gays and lesbians.”

But the very same Jesus whom much of the liberal church claims to “believe in,” didn’t question the reality of a global flood or how and why Sodom and Gomorrah were reduced to ashes. What should be obvious to all of them is that this Jesus, whom much of the liberal church claims to believe in, taught those things as accurate and literal history.
He believed in them, didn’t He?
*Luke 17:31-33
31 “On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away; and likewise let not the one who is in the field turn back.
32 “Remember Lot’s wife.
33 “Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it.”

As Christians we say we love the Lord. But do we really? Or do we love the things of this world even more? In vv. 31-32 the warning should be instantly clear to all of us. In v. 31 the warning is, “You can’t take it with you,” or, as I once heard someone say, “Coffins don’t have pockets or a place for your wallet.” In v. 33 the warning is, “Once you have left the things of this world behind, don’t turn back. It isn’t worth it.” And in v. 32 the warning is that if you try to cling to the pleasures of the life you have in this world, you will lose the joys of the life God has for you in the next.
*Luke 17:34-36
34 “I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken, and the other will be left.
35 “There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken, and the other will be left.
36 [“Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.”]

When Jesus returns the distinction between the saved and the lost will be crystal clear. No one will wonder who the true believers are. That’s because every unbeliever will be taken away to be judged and every believer (those saved during the tribulation and surviving the anti-christ’s reign of terror) will be left to enter into the Millennial Kingdom. Don’t confuse this “taken and left” with those who are taken and left behind at the Rapture when the believers are taken to heaven and the unbelievers are left behind to face the seven-year tribulation and the antichrist.

Notice that v. 36 is not found in the oldest manuscripts, but it doesn’t really matter, because whether or not it’s part of Luke’s original text, it adds no new information and it changes nothing in the narrative.
*Luke 17:37
37 And answering they said to (Jesus), “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered.”

There are a variety of ways to interpret this verse. Are the disciples asking where the judg-ment will take place or are they asking where those taken will be taken? Is Jesus’ answer saying that judgment will take place wherever the spiritually dead are found?
Or is He saying that the location of a corpse is obvious because you can see where the vultures gather? All or part of those answers could be true, at least in some sense.

But the bigger picture is this: Anyone who fails to heed the warning that judgment is coming will be caught up in that judgment when it does come. And it will come at the visible return, the Glorious Appearing of our King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ Himself.
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IV. Conclusion
What can you take with you this morning? The spiritual but invisible kingdom of God has come in the Person of Christ. He lives today in each and every true Christian. But the phys-ical and visible kingdom of God will come when Jesus returns to take His rightful place on the throne of David in Jerusalem.

I want to leave you with a question this morning. The Apostle Peter will ask it.
*2 Peter 3:10-13
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
11 Since all these things (this present and corrupted creation) are to be destroyed in this way, (now here comes the question) what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with in-tense heat!
13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

So, “What sort of people ought we to be…?” The kingdom of God WILL come! Turn to the very last chapter in your Bible. I close with the very last words in the Bible.
*Revelation 22:20-21
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus,
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.

~ Pray ~