Luke 17:20-37--The Coming of the Kingdom

Luke 17:20-37
English Standard Version

The Coming of the Kingdom
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.”

​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. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 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. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 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. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all-- 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot's wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

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The Pharisees missed Jesus' first coming not because they weren't present, but because they were not prepared, and Jesus seems to say that the same thing will happen again in the second coming.  Many will still be looking for His first appearance, but will also be looking for a world leader that will promise them peace and prosperity.  These people will fall for the lies of the Antichrist and the False Prophet.  However, Jesus points out something interesting here.  It is by design that the Pharisees do not believe, as they will help bring about the fulfillment of the prophecies that the Christ must suffer many things and be betrayed by all men before it is time for the kingdom of God to be revealed to all men, but to those who believed in Christ, the kingdom of God was already among them because the King was in their midst.  So then there is an "already" and a "not yet" meaning in this passage that makes it a little challenging to work through.

In some respects, Jesus is talking about a spiritual kingdom that He is building by the salvation of the Elect that we call the Church.  This will be the Bride of Christ that will come down out of heaven in the book of Revelation at the time the the New Heavens and the New Earth are revealed.  However, there is another aspect about a physical kingdom that the Pharisees anticipated because of the Old Testament prophecies.  Promises like the Davidic Covenant that promised that there would always be a king sitting on David's throne until the Messiah came and His Kingdom would be forever.  This is an earthly kingdom that they were expecting, but Jesus told Pilate at His trial, "My kingdom is not of this world" and that if it was, his citizens would have taken up arms to defend their king.  It is true that He is a king, but not a king like any other king, for He is the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.

So then, there is much argument about if there will be a future, physical kingdom someday.  I personally believe that biblical prophecy points towards this, but that Millennial Kingdom doesn't seem to be what Jesus is talking about here.  He instead seems to be talking about the New Heavens and the New Earth, because He says that there will be a time that for many will be a time of judgment but for those who are a part of His kingdom, it will be a time of deliverance, salvation, and rejoicing.  Jesus uses Old Testament examples of Noah's Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to point out that God did not destroy the righteous with the unrighteous and that He provide a way of salvation for those who belonged to Him.  But for those who were outside God's salvation, they were unaware that judgment was coming upon the quickly.  Only those who had made preparations to be inside the Ark were ready because they were sealed in the Ark before the rain started falling.  In Sodom and Gomorrah, God sent His angels to get Lot and his family out of town and they were told to move quickly, because the fire and brimstone judgment could not begin until they were safe, but they were not to look back towards the city as it was being destroyed but were to run to the hills for safety.  So then, God's people do not need to fear the coming judgment that is the wrath of God for, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

​Jesus' return is going to be quick, like a flash of lightning, and when it comes, there will not be any time for those who are outside the Ark to get into the Ark of Christ for salvation.  It will all be over in the twinkling of an eye.  It seems Jesus it talking about things that we think to be multiple individual events here such as the Rapture, the Millennial Reign, the Great White Throne Judgment, and maybe even the return of Christ to the Mount of Olives at the very end to destroy all of His enemies by the sword of the Word that comes from His mouth.  The same power that spoke everything into existence will put an end to all resistance and rebellion at the proper time.  We see this in the Old Testament too that all these events seem to run together into something called the Day of the LORD.  I won't try to explain to you how these things are all the same to Jesus, but they are all part of His return and His coming kingdom.

The important part here that Jesus is trying to get across to the Pharisees is that the same event will bring blessings for some and judgment for many.  The time is now for them to make their choice whether they are going to make preparations for that day or if they will be caught by surprise because they were living for the here and now.   So it will be in the end that people who are right next to each other will experience different outcomes--some will be saved and some will be judged.  It's unclear whether being "taken away" is to be taken away to safety (some think this verse points towards the Rapture) while others think that this points to the coming judgment where we see the harvest of the grapes of wrath and that people are killed.  I think it probably is referring to the harvest of the good wheat in Revelation that we would think of as the Rapture, and based on these verses and some others, I believe that God is going to give people nearly every opportunity to repent but there will be a day and a time when all the Elect are saved and the door to the Ark will be closed and sealed tight.  There are clearly still Tribulation saints as we see them mentioned in the book of Revelation where the Antichrist persecutes them and kills some of them, and we see them calling out for Jesus to execute judgment on the Antichrist and his followers.  So then there must be some point during the tribulation after which all those that will be saved have been saved that the door is closed, but for now we have an open door.

Jesus also seems to point towards the Supper of Lord's Judgment where the birds and beasts will feed on the flesh of the enemies of God.  So, the ones that are going to be taken away are probably going to die in the plagues at the end of the world or die by the sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus.  It is probably not a verse talking about the Rapture of the Church given the context that Jesus starts talking about dead bodies that vultures will feast on.

I won't pretend that studying prophecies about end times is a topic that is easy to understand, but "he who has ears to hear, let him hear" that the Lord is warning us to prepare for the coming Day of the Lord and to be inside the Ark of Christ so as to not be caught up in the judgment of the wrath of God that Jesus will bring upon all His enemies in that day.