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           SUMMARY THOUGHTS ON LUKE 17:20-37
         by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, August 3, 1997
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The passage we have been studying this past week has taught 
us several important things about the when's and where's 
Kingdom. 

PRESENT AND FUTURE

First, it teaches us that the Kingdom is both present and 
future. When the Pharisees ask about the when of the 
Kingdom, Jesus replies that the Kingdom is in their midst, 
now! (vs. 21)  That is, the Kingdom is present in the 
person of Jesus, the King. In previous weeks we have read, 
"The Kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15), that when 
Jesus cast out demons by the "finger of God" it indicated 
that the Kingdom had come to them (Luke 11:20). Where Jesus 
is present, there is his Kingdom. "Where two or three are 
gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them" 
(Matthew 18:20). 

Second, this passage teaches us that the Kingdom is not 
yet. While it is present in the person of the King, its 
coming is also future, when the King will come with 
judgment and complete rule. We pray in the Lord's prayer, 
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in 
heaven." Jesus speaks clearly in our passage in Luke 17 
that the Son of Man is coming on a future Day. The 
noteworthy feature of the title of the Son of Man (see 
comments in last week's questions) is that he is "coming 
with the clouds of heaven," and that when he comes "his 
dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass 
away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed" 
(Daniel 7:13-14)

IN A MOMENT, IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE

Third, our passage teaches that Jesus' Second Coming will 
not be progressive and gradual, but instant, quick, 
apocalyptic. It will be like:

o  Lightning in its instantaneous and pervasive light (24)
o  Noah's flood in its unexpectedness and judgment (26-27)
o  Sodom's judgment in its quickness and destruction (28-
   29)

Jesus indicated that on the day when the Son of Man is 
revealed that there won't be time to

o  Go down from the rooftop to gather one's possessions 
   (31a)
o  Come in from the field to get anything (31b)

This judgment will be sudden and it will instantly separate 
those who otherwise have been next to each other:

o  Husband and wife in bed together (34)
o  Two women grinding grain together (35)

In other gospels we get the same picture, suddenness, 
unexpectedness, like a thief in the night he will come, and 
it will be too late then to make any preparations. "So you 
also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an 
hour when you do not expect him" (Matthew 24:44). Are you 
ready for his swift coming? Are you ready for final 
judgment? 

This is a sobering passage, but one which should shake us 
out of our complacency. Here we are, nearly 2,000 years to 
the day after the birth of Christ, and we can become 
drowsy. Near the end of his life, the Apostle Peter wrote,

"First of all, you must understand that in the last days 
scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil 
desires. They will say, 'Where is this "coming" he 
promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on 
as it has since the beginning of creation....'

"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the 
Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years 
are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his 
promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with 
you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to 
repentance.

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The 
heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be 
destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will 
be laid bare.

"Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind 
of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly 
lives as you look forward to the Day of God and speed its 
coming. That Day will bring about the destruction of the 
heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a 
new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness" (2 
Peter 3:3-4, 8-13).

The Kingdom is NOW in the person and presence of the 
Messiah in our midst. But it is also COMING in completeness 
and fullness and quickness in the future, when Christ's 
reign will be complete, and "at the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the 
earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).

Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Ralph