Luke 17:20-37 Sermon

The Kingdom of God is. . .

look carefully. . .

It's over here!

Do you think that the end is near? Why? Is it what you hear on the news? Is it what someone says? What does Jesus say?

There it is!

(20) Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation,

(21) nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

not!

“The Kingdom of God is Near”

(Matt 3:1-2; Mark 1:15; Luke 10:9; John 3:3; 18:36)

Luke 4:21 (NIV)

and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

the kingdom is in your midst

(2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

By the 1st Century,

"Son of man"

came to mean "a heavenly pre-existent being that would come at the end of the age to establish the Kingdom of God

(John 3:3 NIV)

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

Romans 14:17 (NIV)

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,

Daniel 7:13-14 (NIV)

"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.

14He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

(22)

Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the SON OF MAN, but you will not see it.

(23) Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them.

(24) For the SON OF MAN in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.

(25) But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Matthew 26 (NIV)

(63) But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."

(64) "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the SON OF MAN sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

(26) "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the SON OF MAN.

(27) People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

(28) "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

(29) But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

(30) "It will be just like this on the day the SON OF MAN is revealed.

(31) On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.

(32) Remember Lot's wife!

(33) Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

(34) I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.

John 19:16 (ESV) So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they “took” Jesus,

(Luke 3:16 NIV) John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

(Luke 3:17 NIV) His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

The Kingdom of God is within you