{"id":19229,"date":"2018-09-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-049\/"},"modified":"2018-09-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-049","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-049\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 049"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[87],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19229","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-luke","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 049","sermon_date":"20180912","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6058,"sermon_slides":6057,"sermon_mp3":6062,"sermon_id":"912181745339","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":87,"chapter_and_verse":"17:20-21","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n9-12-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Luke 17:20-21\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 49\n\nIf you\u2019re here for the first time in this class we do give you a free book which is on the screen there so see me after and I\u2019ll get you one of those because this is the book we\u2019re going by.\u00a0 My book, The Coming Kingdom, which as you know is not the most important book, the most important book is the Bible, Amen!\u00a0 My book just sort of topically organizes biblical information.\n\nBut here we are in Luke 17, verses 20 and 21.\u00a0\u00a0 And they gave me a new electronic gizmo up here so I\u2019m going to see if I can get it to work.\u00a0 You\u2019re supposed to be able to switch the screen.\u00a0 Look at that, wow!\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to have really good coordination for this to work so I might fumble it up a little bit.\n\nWe are in the book I wrote, chapter 16 which is pages 215-226 and as\u00a0 you know we\u2019ve been doing a study on the kingdom and the first part of it was what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 And we traveled all the way through the Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, and we saw the kingdom concept developed and offered to Israel on a silver platter in the first century.\u00a0 And as you all know the nation of Israel turned down that offer, which put the kingdom, not in a state of cancellation but postponement.\u00a0 God is doing a new work today through the church but He hasn\u2019t forgotten what He said He would do in and through Israel.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve traced that.\n\nSecondly we\u2019ve looked at the main problems with kingdom now theology because most of Christendom, going back to the fourth century, has argued that we are in the kingdom now.\u00a0 So God\u2019s program for Israel has been severed and all of Israel\u2019s promises have been transferred to the church.\u00a0 And we went through the problems with those interpretations.\u00a0 Basically they reinterpret what the Old Testament says concerning the kingdom.\u00a0 Our view of postponement does not reinterpret those passages, it simply argues that they are not happening today but they will happen.\n\nNow we\u2019re in part three, if all this is so clear why does most of Christendom believe that we are in the kingdom now.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going through a plethora of New Testament passages and I\u2019m trying to show you how to interpret those correctly.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ve been looking at several passages from the ministry of Christ because that\u2019s what many people believe, that Jesus set up the kingdom in His first coming and there are lots of passages people use to try to prove this\u2026 the kingdom is at hand, theirs it the kingdom, Thy kingdom come, and\u00a0 you see the verse references there with all of those, seek first the kingdom, the kingdom suffers violence until now, I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven, the kingdom of God has come upon you.\n
    \n \t
  1. The kingdom is at hand (Matt. 3:2)<\/li>\n \t
  2. Theirs is the kingdom (Matt. 5:3, 10)<\/li>\n \t
  3. Thy kingdom come (Matt. 6:9-13)<\/li>\n \t
  4. Seek first the kingdom (Matt. 6:33)<\/li>\n \t
  5. Satan falls like lightning (Luke 10:18)<\/li>\n \t
  6. The kingdom has come upon you (Matt. 12:28)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nAnd those are all passages that we looked at prior to the summer recess.\u00a0 Last week was our first week back for the\u00a0 fall quarter, after summer recess and so we started looking at last time Luke 17:20-21.\u00a0 Let\u2019s read those again, and this is what it says:\u00a0 It says, \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, \u2018The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; [21] nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!<\/em>\u2019 or, \u2018There it is!<\/em>\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d\u201d\n\nSo this is Christ speaking to the Pharisees, and of all of the verses that people use this is probably the number one verse people go to, to argue that we are in the kingdom now.\u00a0 E. R. Craven, a scholar that I\u2019ve been quoting a lot in these talks says this: \u201cThis passage,\u201d that\u2019s the Luke 17 passage that we just read, \u201cprobably by the advocates of the prevalent theory of the Basileia<\/em>,\u201d now Basileia <\/em>is just a Greek word for kingdom, \u201cThis passage probably by the advocates of the prevalent theory of the basileia is regarded as their most important proof-text, both as to its nature<\/em> and present establishment<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 [E.R. Craven, \u201cExcursus on the Basileia<\/em>,\u201d in Revelation of John, J. P. Lange (New York: Scribner, 1874), 96.]\n\nSo everybody that argues that we\u2019re in the kingdom now is going to, at some point, quote Luke 17:20-21.\u00a0 So we have to sort of learn how to navigate our way through that one, which is what we\u2019re going to try to do tonight, building on what we talked about last Wednesday evening.\n\nSo what I said is I want to give three responses or three reactions.\u00a0 The first reaction is these verses do not say what everybody thinks they say, that the kingdom of God is within you.\u00a0 Many, many Bible translations, like the NCV, I think that stands for the New Century Version, translate the verse as if it says God\u2019s kingdom is within us.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s what a lot of Christians think, the kingdom of God is inside of us once we\u00a0 get saved.\u00a0 And as I tried to talk us through last time, I gave you five or six reasons as to why I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what those verses are saying at all.\n\nFirst of all, who was Jesus addressing?\u00a0 The Pharisees.\u00a0 Are we going to say the kingdom is inside the Pharisees?\u00a0 That would be kind of silly, wouldn\u2019t it, particularly when the Pharisees were trying to kill Jesus at the time He made that statement.\u00a0 Secondly, we tried to look at the fact that the kingdom never entered people in the Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019s the other way around, people enter the kingdom.\u00a0 Third, we looked at the fact that when the kingdom comes Jesus is ruling with a rod of iron, no sin is tolerated.\n\nNow let me ask you a very honest question: do you guys ever sin as a Christian?\u00a0 And\u00a0 you guys are sinning right now because you won\u2019t admit it so that makes you a liar, right?\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Of course we sin as Christians.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we\u2019re told don\u2019t grieve the Spirit, don\u2019t quench the Spirit, those kinds of things.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we\u2019re told when we sin we don\u2019t lose our salvation but fellowship is broken between us and God.\u00a0 And we have to exercise 1 John 1:9 to get back in the proper fellowship.\u00a0 [1 John 1:9, \u201cIf we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d]\u00a0 You see, in fellowship, out of fellowship wouldn\u2019t be an issue if Jesus was ruling in our hearts in kingdom fashion because the kingdom is described as the time period when He\u2019s ruling with a rod of iron.\n\nFurthermore, in Christ\u2019s statement, \u201cthe kingdom is in\u00a0 your midst\u201d and this isn\u2019t the best version to quote, the best version is back there in Luke 17, \u201cThe kingdom of God is in your midst,\u201d does Jesus define what the word \u201ckingdom\u201d means here\u00a0 He never does?\u00a0 [Luke 17:21, \u201cnor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!\u2019 or, \u2018There it is!\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d]\u00a0 So what definition is He drawing from?\u00a0 Everything that\u2019s been developed in the Old Testament that we spent 48 lessons or something like that, working our way through.\n\nSo that\u2019s the way to understand terms in the New Testament that don\u2019t have a definition.\u00a0\u00a0 You fill that word with the meaning that prior revelation is already assigned to it which means that the kingdom is always something that\u2019s earthly, always involving a restored nation of Israel over planet earth.\u00a0 And because Jesus doesn\u2019t reinterpret any of that we can\u2019t just switch horses in midstream and make it sound like well, all that Old Testament stuff is cancelled because Jesus is reigning in our hearts.\n\nAnd beyond that when you get into the latter ministry of Jesus Christ, and we went through all the verses, He makes reference over and over again to a future kingdom on the earth.\u00a0 And the people that were hanging around Him all understood Christ as teaching that, having never cancelled it, so\u00a0 if all of a sudden the rules switch in midstream and the kingdom is spiritual then all of those statements in the latter ministry of Christ, by Christ, and people that knew Christ really well, don\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t think the NIV or the NCB or any of these versions have it right when it says \u201cthe kingdom of God is within you.\u201d\u00a0 I think the best translation is the NASB here when it says, \u201cthe kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d\u00a0 So that would be reaction one and that\u2019s what we covered last Wednesday.\n\nAnd let me give you a second thing to think about as we look at Luke 17:20-21.\u00a0 The offer of the kingdom framework is sufficient for handling Luke 17:20-21.\u00a0 And it\u2019s been a little while since we walked through a lot of that so I\u2019ll kind of redo a little bit the offer of the kingdom framework.\u00a0 But just a few points here on number 2, related to the offer of the kingdom framework.\u00a0 What you have to understand is in Judaism, in the Jewish mind, as portrayed in the Old Testament, king and kingdom always came together.\u00a0 It was like horse and carriage, they always go together.\u00a0 And the Jewish mind never conceived of any kind of reality where the King would be present and the kingdom wouldn\u2019t be here.\u00a0 And when you understand that you can understand Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Matthew\u2019s Gospel is the first gospel written; it\u2019s probably the most Jewish gospel that we have.\n\nAll of the early church fathers believed that it was written to a Hebrew Christian audience and to understand Matthew\u2019s Gospel you have to put yourself in the shoes of a Hebrew Christian, not a Gentile Christian but a Hebrew Christian.\u00a0 And you have to ask yourself what were Hebrew Christians in the first century thinking about?\u00a0 And what the Jews were thinking about is well, we\u2019ve believed in Jesus, at least the remnant had, we\u2019ve believed in Jesus and if Jesus is the King then where is His kingdom.\n\nSo Matthew\u2019s Gospel is set out to explain why the King is present but the kingdom has been rejected and postponed.\u00a0 Every detail that Matthew includes in that gospel is part of that explanation.\u00a0 And the Hebrew Christians needed that explanation because they needed to know if they really believed in the right guy.\u00a0 I mean, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah but His kingdom is not here so they were having doubts as to whether they had really trusted in the right Messiah that they were waiting for according to their Old Testament or not.\u00a0 So Matthew spends 28 chapters explaining, by including different stories in the life of Christ that the King came but the kingdom offer was rejected and postponed, not cancelled but postponed.\n\nAnd the nation of Israel, at least the remnant, needed that explanation because in their minds king and kingdom always came together.\u00a0 So to understand Matthew\u2019s Gospel you can\u2019t really think like a Gentile.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to\u00a0 put yourself in the shoes of a Hebrew Christian because of the way the Jews understood king and kingdom always going together.\n\nOver in in Luke 17:20-21 that\u2019s the reason that Jesus uses the present tense of the Greek verb eimi<\/em>, when He says, \u201cFor behold, the kingdom of God is\u201d present tense, \u201cin your midst.\u00a0 [Luke 17:20-21, \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, \u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; [21] nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!<\/em>\u2019 or, \u2018There it is!<\/em>\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d]\u00a0 It was in their midst because\u00a0 according to the Jewish mind king and kingdom always went together.\n\nLet me show you some passages from the Old Testament that reveal this so you don\u2019t think I\u2019m making this up.\u00a0 You know these verses, this is on all of our Christmas cards.\u00a0 Isaiah 9:6-7 says, \u201cFor a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;\u201d by the way, is that the first coming or the second coming there?\u00a0 That\u2019s the first coming and what does the rest of verse 6 say?\u00a0 \u201cAnd the government will rest on His shoulders;\u201d now is that the first coming or the second coming?\u00a0 That\u2019s the second coming, but you see how the verse conflates the two, because in the Jewish mind if the king is here the kingdom has to be here as well.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the Old Testament always portrays this.\u00a0 This is why Matthew has to explain the postponement concept, because it would be antithetical to the Jewish mind.\u00a0\u00a0 Verse 7 goes on and describes the kingdom, \u201cThere will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.\u201d\n\nYou see, you ask a Jewish person today who is unsaved\u00a0 and I went through law school and not to be stereotypical I had access to a lot of Jewish people in law school and most of my professors were Jewish so we got into the subject of religion and Christianity and I would say well how come you all haven\u2019t trusted in Christ as your Messiah; haven\u2019t\u00a0 you read Isaiah 53, which is a very clear portrait of Jesus 700 years in advance.\u00a0 And their answer is there\u2019s no Shalom; Shalom means what?\u00a0 Peace.\u00a0 Now when they use the word \u201cpeace\u201d they don\u2019t use it the way we use it. We in the Gentile dominated church use peace to describe peace with God, spiritual peace.\u00a0 When they use the word shalom they\u2019re talking about political peace.\n\nSo they don\u2019t think Jesus, in their unbelief, could be the Messiah because they don\u2019t see shalom, they see Israel as a tiny nation being bullied by the United Nations.\u00a0 And everything that the Hebrew Bible, or what we call Old Testament, speaks of concerning Christ and His kingdom, they don\u2019t think any of that is being fulfilled today.\u00a0 And they\u2019re right, so they think Jesus could not have been the Messiah because king and kingdom go together.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Matthew is explaining the postponement concept to Hebrew Christians in the first century, to tell them yes, Jesus is the King but the kingdom is not here, it\u2019s just postponed, because the Jews conflated the two, because they\u2019re Old Testament, which we call Hebrew Bible, conflated the two as well.\n\nNow Reformed theologians, replacement theologians come along and they say well, Jesus did succeed in bringing in the kingdom, it\u2019s just not literal, it\u2019s spiritualized. See that?\u00a0 So the unbelieving Jew says Jesus couldn\u2019t be the Messiah because we don\u2019t see a literal fulfillment of these prophecies.\u00a0 Replacement theologians say He did succeed in bringing in the Kingdom, it\u2019s just spiritual. And our camp rejects both of those positions; we believe that Jesus is the Messiah and\u00a0 yes, He did not succeed in bringing in the kingdom promises but those kingdom promises are not cancelled, they\u2019re postponed.\u00a0 So we are arguing against Judaism and we are also arguing against Reformed theologians because we\u2019re keeping them literal and we\u2019re saying that the kingdom will come, it just hasn\u2019t come yet.\n\nBut my point is you see how Isaiah 9:6-7 conflates king and kingdom.\u00a0 And you have to think this way to understand why Jesus would say the kingdom is in your midst to His Jewish audience, the Pharisees.\u00a0 Daniel 7:13-14 conflates king and kingdom.\u00a0 [Daniel 7:13-14, \u201cI kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.\u00a0 [14] And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every<\/em> language might serve Him.\u00a0 His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.\u201d]\n\nDaniel says \u201cIn my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man\u201d now who would that be?\u00a0 Jesus Christ, and then you keep reading and it talks about His kingdom, \u201ccoming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.\u00a0 He was given authority, glory, all sovereign power, all nations of peoples of every language worshipped Him.\u00a0 His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his\u201d what? \u201ckingdom is one that will never be destroyed.\u00a0 So you see how king and kingdom go together?\n\nAnother passage, a good Christmas one, Christmas will be coming up very quickly in a few months, and no doubt some of this will be on your Christmas cards.\u00a0 It says, [Luke 1:26]\u00a0 \u201cNow in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth,\u00a0 [27] to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.\u201d\u00a0 And then down in verse 32 it says, \u201cHe will be great\u201d this is Gabriel I believe speaking, \u201cand will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;\u201d so it\u2019s talking about the birth of Jesus Christ and it\u2019s saying the King is here and so is His kingdom because the two in the Jewish mind always went together.\n\nIn fact, dislocating the two would have seemed completely foreign to a Jewish person.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Matthew has to give us an in depth explanation of a postponement.\u00a0\u00a0 And you can\u2019t really make sense of why Jesus would say \u201cthe kingdom is in your midst\u201d unless you understand this Old Testament Hebrew Bible Jewish mindset.\n\nSo E. R. Craven says, \u201cNow, remembering the close connection in the Jewish mind between the establishment of the Basileia<\/em>, and the glorious coming of the Son of Man\u2014a connection established by the prophecy of Daniel (7:13, 14),\u201d we just read it, \u201cand not previously rebuked but approved by Jesus (Luke 9:26, 27)\u2014let anyone hypothesize as the meaning of . . . with the signs of a gradual approach<\/em>, and of . . . in the midst of<\/em>, and read the entire passage, verses 20\u201330.\u201d\u00a0 [Excursus on the Basileia<\/em>,\u201d in Revelation of John, J. P. Lange (New York: Scribner, 1874), 96.]\n\nAnd what he is saying is you can\u2019t make any sense of Luke 17:20-21, the kingdom is (present tense) in your midst until you understand the Jewish mindset that the king and kingdom went together like horse and carriage.\u00a0 [Luke 17:20-21, \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees\u00a0as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said,\u00a0\u2018The kingdom of God is not coming with\u00a0signs to be observed<\/u>;\u00a0nor will\u00a0they say, \u2018Look, here\u00a0it is!\u2019 or, \u2018There\u00a0it is!\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is\u00a0in your midst.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 And this is why Jesus in the verses we\u2019re looking at made the statement, \u201cthe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed.\u201d\n\nWhy is that?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s right in front of you is what he\u2019s saying; if I\u2019m here and the two go together and this is a unique point in Jewish history where a generation could have taken Christ, enthroned Him on His terms and the kingdom would have materialized; it was that near.\u00a0 And He says it is, present tense, \u201cin your midst\u201d because He\u2019s respecting the Jewish thought of Old Testament or Hebrew Bible that the King and kingdom always go together.\n\nHowever, what happened?\u00a0 What went wrong?\u00a0 You can\u2019t understand what went wrong until you understand the offer of the kingdom framework which is something that will be a review for many of you because we\u2019ve gone over it several times in prior lessons.\u00a0 Very quickly here is the offer of the kingdom framework and what gospel is it most developed in?\u00a0 Matthew. Why is that? Because the Hebrew Christians would need an explanation as to what happened.\u00a0 I mean, how in the world could Jesus be the king and the kingdom is not here?\u00a0 Matthew\u2019s Gospel explains that.\n\nWe know that throughout the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible the kingdom was predicted, many passages, like Isaiah 11:6-8, then the kingdom was offered through the preaching of John the Baptist, Jesus, the Twelve, and the Seventy who said what?\u00a0 \u201cRepent for the kingdom is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 It was offered to that generation.\u00a0 By the way, is kingdom defined here?\u00a0 It\u2019s not defined, so how do you define that word \u201ckingdom\u201d or basileia<\/em>?\u00a0 You go to the Old Testament.\u00a0 The whole thing, everything that the Old Testament predicted was offered to that generation.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s meant by the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 And that offer is extended right up until Matthew 12:24.\u00a0 [Matthew 12:24, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \"This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d]\n\nAnd that\u2019s the tragic point in which the religious leaders attributed Christ\u2019s miracles to the devil.\u00a0 The moment that happens it was evident what the nation was going to do; the die had been cast.\u00a0 So Matthew 12 is followed by Matthew 13.\u00a0 So for the very first time in Matthew 13 Jesus starts explaining the postponement.\u00a0 In fact, He begins to describe through eight parables the conditions of the earth spiritually while the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where we come in because that\u2019s the time period we\u2019re living in now, the interadvent age.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time period where God is at work and part of His program during this time period is to build what?\u00a0 The church or the body of Christ because we are inheritors of this coming kingdom.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that our instructions in the church are not to go around and tell people \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Why would we go around telling people to do that?\u00a0 That was an offer only for first century Israel.\u00a0 Rather our instructions are to go into all the nations and preach the personal gospel of salvation.\u00a0 Because you see, through all of this God took lemons and turned it into lemonade, which is something only God can do.\n\nOnly God could take a tragedy, and those of you in this room are listening when I say a walk through tragedy know exactly what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 If you\u2019re sensitive to God as you go through a tragedy He\u2019ll take a tragedy, the tragedy itself isn\u2019t good but He\u2019ll use it for good.\u00a0 And God took this tragedy of Israel\u2019s rejection of their Messiah nationally and used it to pay the sin debt of the world because Israel turned Christ over to the Romans for execution (as we know) and as Jesus died on that cross whose sin debt was being paid for?\u00a0 My sins and\u00a0 your sins.\u00a0 And He formed the church subsequent to that.\n\nThe offer of the kingdom was given only to Israel.\u00a0 Jesus told the twelve to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u00a0 [Matthew 10:6, \u201cbut rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d]\u00a0 Our instruction is to \u201cgo into all the world\u201d and not preach the offer of the kingdom but to preach personal salvation through faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 [Mark 16:15, \u201cAnd He said to them, \u2018Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 You see that in the great commission.\n\nBut one of these days the age of the church will end with which event?\u00a0 The rapture and there is a second generation out there, yet future, Israel, that will receive the offer of the kingdom because the nation of Israel in their history doesn\u2019t get things right the first time but the second time.\u00a0 And this is how to understand Luke 17:20-21.\u00a0 Luke 17:20-21 is part of that offer that was right in their lap that they could have enthroned Christ on His terms.\u00a0 [Luke 17:20-21, \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, \u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; [21] nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!<\/em>\u2019 or, \u2018There it is!<\/em>\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d]\u00a0 So there\u2019s John the Baptist, Jesus, the twelve and the seventy, offering the kingdom.\n\nHere is Dr. Toussaint\u2019s sort of rendition of the offer of the kingdom framework.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same kind of idea, the kingdom is developed in the Old Testament; we\u2019ve explained why there\u2019s a contingency in the offer because of the Mosaic Covenant, the message was confined to Israel.\u00a0 Jesus talks about contingency all of the time.\u00a0 For example, in Matthew 11:14 He says of John the Baptist, if you\u2019re willing to receive it he is the what?\u00a0 The Elijah who is to come.\u00a0 [John 11:14, \u201cAnd if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.\u201d]\n\nHe could potentially fulfill Malachi 4:5-6 if the nation receives the offer.\u00a0 [Malachi 4:5-6, \u201cBehold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. [6] He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their<\/em> children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.\u201d]\n\nAnd then what you find after Matthew 12 is a cessation of the offer because of the nations rejection of the offer Jesus announces judgment coming upon first century Israel under the cycles of discipline of the Mosaic Covenant; because of unbelief Jesus describes the postponement age in what\u2019s called the parables, particularly the parable of the minas where Jesus entrusts His servants with different tasks while He is gone for a season, and that\u2019s the season or time we\u2019re living in now.\n\nBut then the message of the imminent appearing of the gospel will appear again in the seventieth week of Daniel, the seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 So where do you put Luke 17:20-21? You put it right there in number three or right there in number four.\u00a0 [Luke 17:20-21, it says, \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees\u201d now that\u2019s a big deal right there, if you\u2019re an under liner in your Bible you should underline the word \u201cPharisees.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, \u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; [21] nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!<\/em>\u2019 or, \u2018There it is!<\/em>\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d\u201d]\n\nYou don\u2019t grab Luke 17:20-21 and say oh, Jesus brought in the spiritual form of the kingdom and forget this whole framework.\u00a0 And see, this is the tools that people really don\u2019t have when they\u2019re trying to read the Bible.\u00a0 No one ever explains to them this big picture that I\u2019m giving you.\u00a0 So they\u2019re kind of just grabbing a verse here or there to fit some preconceived idea.\u00a0 And what I\u2019m saying is you can\u2019t interpret Luke 17:20-21 independent of this framework.\n\nSo going all the way back to the Mosaic Covenant what was the obligation of the nation of Israel?\u00a0 Their obligation was always to set over them a king whom the Lord chooses.\u00a0 If the nation of Israel does that then they become not just the owner of their blessings from the Abrahamic Covenant but the possessor of their blessings and the kingdom of God comes to the earth.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what first century of Israel had a golden opportunity to do.\u00a0 They had an opportunity to set over them the King of God\u2019s choosing, which would be Jesus Christ, which would mean the kingdom, hypothetically could have conceivably come to the earth at that particular point in time.\n\nAnd the tragedy is that the nation of Israel turns down the offer and if you want an explanation as to why they turned down the offer what sermon should you read in Matthew\u2019s Gospel?\u00a0 Matthew\u2019s Gospel has five sermons.\u00a0 How do I know there\u2019s five sermons in there?\u00a0 Because each sermon ends with this phrase, \u201cafter He had finished saying these things.\u201d\u00a0 So what sermon would you read to figure out why the nation of Israel turned down the offer of the kingdom?\u00a0 The Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7 because Matthew 5-7, Jesus explains to Israel that the kingdom is not just physical, it\u2019s not just going to bring in Shalom, world peace, but it\u2019s also ethical and moral.\u00a0 And once the nation figured that part of it out they weren\u2019t interested.\u00a0 They loved the politics of it; in fact, in John 6 when Jesus feeds the multitudes with a few loaves and a few fish people were coming and taking Him by force, John 6:26, to make Him King. And Jesus had to withdraw Himself.\u00a0\u00a0 [John 6:26, \u201cJesus answered them and said, \u2018Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.\u201d]\n\nSo they all loved Jesus as long as He was feeding their stomachs, and they thought Rome was going to be overthrown.\u00a0 The moment He started talking about ethics and morals and righteousness and in fact how no one can enter the kingdom of God unless their righteousness is greater than the Pharisees.\u00a0 I mean, can\u00a0 you imagine how unpopular that teaching was?\u00a0 How can your righteousn\u00adess be greater than the Pharisees?\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s only one way to get that righteousness, that righteousness has to be imputed, transferred or an alien righteousness.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And normally when you start talking about things like that people weren\u2019t interested any more.\u00a0 And this is why the nation of Israel is in unbelief today.\u00a0 They want the political ruler, they don\u2019t want the moral ruler who\u2019s going to rule with a rod of righteousness. And this is why the nation of Israel today is a sitting duck for who?\u00a0 The antichrist.\u00a0 The antichrist is going to deliver on what they want, give them the pseudo peace, world peace, without the morality.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 But it will be a false Messiah.\n\n[34 minutes into the message]\u00a0 So that\u2019s how to understand Deuteronomy 17:20.\u00a0 Jesus was present and because King and kingdom go together therefore that nation could have taken Jesus on His terms, enthroned Him and the kingdom of God would have come.\u00a0 The whole world would be covered with world peace.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 17:20, \u201cthat his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.\u201d]\u00a0 But the Sermon on the Mount is what they didn\u2019t want and that\u2019s why they turned the offer down.\u00a0 So how do you understand Deuteronomy 17:20 the kingdom is in your midst?\u00a0 You understand it as a\u00a0 unique opportunity that was available for first century Israel because of the presence of Jesus.\u00a0 The king of God\u2019s own choosing was right there.\n\nSo just to show you that I\u2019m not making this stuff up here\u2019s a quote from Max Zewick in his Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament<\/em>, quoting Luke 17:20-21. Notice what he says here:\u00a0 \u201cIn view of the fact that Christ was addressing the Pharisees, modern exegetes generally prefer to translate \u2018among\u2019 but this meaning is elsewhere unknown.\u00a0 Secular and patristic\n\nNow having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, \u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; 21\u00a0<\/sup>nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is<\/em>!\u2019 or, \u2018There it is<\/em>!\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is]<\/sup>in your midst.\u201d\n\n\u201c\u201cIn view of the fact that Christ was addressing the Pharisees modern exegetes generally prefer to translate \u2018among\u2019 but this meaning is elsewhere unknown. Secular and patristic evidence has been produced (by C.H. Roberts) for an extension of the meaning \u2018within\u2019, in other words, it\u2019s in your hands<\/em> (which means that for which one is responsible),\u201d look at what he says it\u2019s, \u201cwithin your power of choice<\/em> (cf. \u2018it lies\u201d not inside of you but \u201cit lies with you\u2019), i.e., from the human side the Kingdom is yours if you choose it, if you will it.\u201d\u00a0 [Max Zerwick, A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament<\/em> (Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1996), 251\u201352]\u00a0\u00a0 See that.\n\nAnd this is one of the problems that I have with this kind of Calvinism that\u2019s very aggressive and being promoted today where it leaves no room at all for free will; God coerces people against their will to get saved.\u00a0 And you see, that violates everything that the Bible teaches because God has made us in His image (has He not) which means He respects our power of choice.\n\nNow it\u2019s true that you have to come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit to respond to the offer of salvation but whether you choose Christ or not the power still rests with you.\u00a0 If God didn\u2019t do it that way He would not be respecting how He has made us as image bearers.\u00a0 And as an image bearer of God you have one awesome power; you have the power to tell God no.\u00a0 Think how much power that is.\u00a0 In other words, if you want to go to hell you can go, God will certainly convict you and annoy you until your dying day but if you want to shut off your will and tell the Creator no that power rests with you.\u00a0 Modern day Calvinism doesn\u2019t respect that.\u00a0 They believe it somehow steals God\u2019s glory whereas I think what they\u2019re doing is they\u2019re developing a system of divine sovereignty that\u2019s so lopsided it\u2019s not respecting other parts of the Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019s certainly not respecting the offer of the kingdom here because the nation of Israel had within their grasp, they had it within their midst, they could have made Him the King and the kingdom would have come.\u00a0 That generation turned it down and so the offer is removed and won\u2019t be reextended until a subsequent generation.\n\nBut notice I\u2019m quoting a key grammarian here, Max Zerwick, who says the Greek rendering of that verse is not that the kingdom is inside of you but it\u2019s within your will, it\u2019s within your power of choice, you could have had it.\n\nHere\u2019s another one, another scholar, Walter Elwell and he writes: \u201c\u201cAnother example is that in koine<\/em> Greek,\u201d and that\u2019s the Greek that your New Testament was written in, koine Greek, koine means common, common Greek, it was basically a language that Alexander the Great brought into existence in the intertestamental period.\u00a0 And the reason God recorded His revelation in Koine Greek, Greek for the common person, is because God loves everybody and wants everybody to have the opportunity for salvation, so He put it in the language of the blue collar folks, the middle class working folks.\u00a0 So Walter Elwell writes, \u201cAnother example is that in koine<\/em> Greek, the expression entos humon<\/em> (literally, \u2018inside of you\u2019) often meant \u2018within reach.\u2019 Thus, Jesus\u2019 statement in Luke 17:21 could mean, \u2018the kingdom is within reach.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Walter Elwell and Philip Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2001), 207.]\n\nKing and kingdom go together, the Old Testament says that.\u00a0 I mean, the whole thing is yours, just enthrone the King on His terms and the kingdom in its very literal form, not spiritual form, would have materialized on planet earth.\u00a0 But we know the story, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 The rest of the gospels reveal how that offer was turned down and\u00a0 yet God took a tragedy and turned it into a victory; He took lemons and turned it into lemonade because through this transaction the sin debt of the world was paid for.\u00a0 The rest of the gospels record what?\u00a0 The rejection of the offer.\n\nIt says this, \u201cHe\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201ccame to His own,\u201d now who are \u201cHis own\u201d?\u00a0 The nation of Israel.\u00a0 See John here is explaining what he\u2019s going to develop throughout his book.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201ccame to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the tragedy.\u00a0 That\u2019s the tragedy that the Lord turned into a triumph; the offer was rejected.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a parable that Jesus told, called the parable of the minas, it\u2019s in Luke 19:11-27, we\u2019ll make reference to that in just a moment, but here the citizens in the parable are portrayed as the nation of Israel.\n\nNow don\u2019t get me wrong, a remnant of Jews did believe; I\u2019m talking about the crux of the nation, the bulk of the nation, the leadership of the nation.\u00a0 But his citizens, which is personified there as first century Israel, \u201chated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, \u2018We do not want\u201d see that, they didn\u2019t want it, \u201cwe don\u2019t want this man to reign over us.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 1:14]\u00a0 Feed our stomachs, that\u2019s fine, do some miracles, that\u2019s fine, but don\u2019t have authority over us in a moral sense; don\u2019t have authority over us the way the Sermon on the Mount describes the moral implications of the kingdom.\u00a0 And so the nation of Israel took a golden opportunity and threw it away.\u00a0 But did that throw God off at all?\u00a0 No, He just used that to execute His plan of the salvation of the world through the death of Christ.\n\nAnd this is what the Calvinists, I don\u2019t think really understand. They think you\u2019ve got to have God controlling people to such an extent that they don\u2019t have any free will and that\u2019s the only way to maintain God\u2019s glory; that\u2019s their thinking.\u00a0\u00a0 But I think what I\u2019m describing for you now actually accentuates God\u2019s glory to a higher level.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because only God can take the free will of His creatures and their independent power of choice and use that to execute His plan that He has foreordained from the beginning of the world.\n\nNow you step back an\u00a0 you look at that and\u00a0 you say how could God take rejection by His creatures of Him to orchestrate His will?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t that want to make us glorify God even more?\u00a0 I mean, only God could pull that off, right?\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m not worried about God\u2019s glory, I don\u2019t have to have God controlling everything and giving nobody free will to maintain His glory.\u00a0 My view of God is so big that God can take the decisions of His creatures and the power of free will that He has given them in such a way that when\u00a0 you make a move one way or the other in your own free will, as the Spirit convicts you, no matter which decision you make God is using you to pull off His plan.\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019re going to get into heaven and you\u2019re going to see this whole thing, the veil is going to be pulled back and you\u2019re going to say wow, that\u2019s just amazing, I\u2019m just going to glorify God throughout the ages.\n\nSo the offer is turned down, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and He says, \u201csaying if you had known this day, even the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes, for the days will come when your enemies will throw up a barricade against\u00a0 you\n\nLuke 19:42, \u201csaying, \"If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.\u00a0 [43] For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side,\u00a0 [44] and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another,\u201d why is that? \u201cbecause you\u201d that\u2019s first century Israel, \u201cdid not recognize the time of your visitation.\u201d\u00a0 He came into Jerusalem, you see it says in 42, this very day.\n\nNow Sunday mornings we\u2019ve studied the Seventy Weeks Prophecy; the fulfillment of that prophecy was to the exact day, from the moment the first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel\u2019s clock started running, Daniel 9:25.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:25, \u201cSo you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.\u201d]\u00a0 So they had all of this information available, yet they turned it down and that\u2019s sort of the tragedy that the Gospels reveal to us.\n\nAnd so what does Jesus begin to do?\u00a0 He begins to, in light of Israel\u2019s imminent rejection of the offer of the kingdom, he begins to articulate an interim age.\u00a0 This is what they didn\u2019t understand, there\u2019s a new age or a new period of time while the kingdom is not present where God is still at work.\u00a0 This age has been going on for 2,000 years and we\u2019re part of it.\u00a0 It says, \u201cwhile they were listening,\u201d Luke 19:11, it says, \u201cWhile they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable...,\u201d that\u2019s the parable of the minas, that\u2019s the parable where the owner entrusts his servants with different things to manage for him while he\u2019s gone for a long period of time, and He\u2019s coming back in the distant future to settle accounts and ask what we did with the things that the Lord lent us.\u00a0 That\u2019s called the parable of the minas.\n\nNow why did He have to tell them this.\u00a0 Look at the underlined portion there, it says \u201cbecause He was near Jerusalem,\u201d where is the kingdom going to be headquartered through?\u00a0 The city of Jerusalem, so they\u2019re right there in what they think is Washington D.C., this is going to be the capital of the whole thing, right?\u00a0 They thought He was going to set it up imminently and Jesus starts to explain to them it\u2019s not going to be set up imminently because the nation of Israel is about to reject Me.\u00a0 So let me give you a parable, the parable of the minas which discloses this long age of time where we are entrusted with things to do while the owner is not present.\n\nAnd why did He begin to unfold this?\u00a0 Because due to the fact that they were near Jerusalem they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear when?\u00a0 Immediately!\u00a0 So now Jesus is saying it\u2019s not going to appear immediately; it hasn\u2019t been cancelled but it\u2019s been postponed and there\u2019s this long age of time that you don\u2019t know anything about so I will reveal it to you for the first time through the parable of the minas.\u00a0 See that?\n\nNow does this mean that the offer of the kingdom is completely off the table?\u00a0 No it doesn\u2019t because the offer will be received by what?\u00a0 Not first century Israel but what?\u00a0 Future Israel in the time period of the tribulation, it\u2019s going to take the events of the tribulation period to bring Israel to her awareness of her need to receive this offer.\n\nDo you realize the event that\u2019s going to shake them to their core?\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be the desecration of the\u00a0 temple by the antichrist because the antichrist will show up, He\u2019ll give them politics and the healings and the food and shalom without the morals.\u00a0 He\u2019s the rider on the white horse, the first seal judgment, Revelation 6:-1-2.\u00a0 [Revelation 6:1-2, \u201cThen I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, \u201cCome.\u201d [2] I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.\u201d]\n\nThey all think this is our guy; in fact, they will have entered a deal with Him that Isaiah 28 calls a deal or a peace pact with Sheol or hell itself.\u00a0 And they will think He is their Messiah because He\u2019s given them what they\u2019ve always wanted, the kingdom without all the Sermon on the Mount stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 And what is going to shake them to the core of their being is when they\u2019re phony Messiah, who they think is their true Messiah, goes into the Jewish temple, Daniel 9:27, and betrays them by desecrating the temple and replicating what Antiochus Epiphanes did in the intertestamental period which is an event described on Jewish minds and hearts.\u00a0 Once they see that happen then they\u2019re going to realize we goofed up; we had it wrong all this time and that\u2019s when they began to repent.\u00a0 Zechariah 12:10.\u00a0 [Zechariah 12:10, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.\u201d]\n\nThey\u2019ll begin to weep, mourn, and they\u2019ll begin to cry as one cries for an only son, and\u00a0 yet through the trauma of that God is going to bring His elect nation into faith and once that happens the kingdom will come.\n\nAnd a really great thing to understand about God is God knocks us down so we look up.\u00a0 That\u2019s how it always works.\u00a0 Does He work that way in your life?\u00a0 Yes He does, He\u2019s going to work that way big time in the life of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 So this offer of the kingdom will eventually be received by future Israel and that\u2019s what Luke 21:31 is talking about.\u00a0 [Luke 21:31, \u201cSo you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near..\u201d]\n\nSee, Luke 17 comes before Luke 21, right?\u00a0 You can\u2019t just build your theology on Luke 17, you\u2019ve got to take into account Luke 21.\u00a0 And what does Luke 21:31 say?\u00a0 Now this is the tribulation period, the Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 \u201cSo you also, when you see these things happening,\u201d what things?\u00a0 The tribulation period, the desecration of the temple, some of the things I\u2019ve tried to describe \u201cSo also, when you see these things happening recognize that the kingdom of God is\u201d what? \u201cnear.\u201d\n\nWell wait a minute, I thought He set it up back in Luke 17. If He set it up in Luke 17, as most of Christendom apparently believes then why would He say yet future \u201cthat the kingdom of God is near.\u201d\u00a0 How could it be near in the tribulation period if it was already set up in Luke 17?\u00a0 Do you follow this?\u00a0 And what I\u2019m saying is you can\u2019t interpret Luke 17 without this big framework that I\u2019m giving you.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to look at the big framework; anybody can rifle through the Bible and grab a verse that supports their presuppositions.\u00a0 Anybody can do that!\u00a0 The skilled Bible interpreter can put the whole thing into a framework.\n\nAnd by the way, what does He say here, \u201cSo you also, when you see these things happening\u201d what things? Signs!\u00a0 What signs?\u00a0 The signs of the tribulation period.\u00a0 Well wait a minute, I thought back in Luke 17 He said the kingdom of God is not coming to you with signs to be observed.\u00a0 Why does He say in Luke 17:20 and 21, \u201c\u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;\u201d then He turns right around in Luke 21 and says that the kingdom of God is coming through signs.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0[Luke 17:20-21, \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, \u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; [21] nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!<\/em>\u2019 or, \u2018There it is!<\/em>\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d\n\nSo which is it?\u00a0 \u00a0Is He coming with signs or not coming with signs?\u00a0 Well, it didn\u2019t come with signs in Luke 17 because Jesus was standing right in front of them; see that?\u00a0 And it was rejected, postponed, temporarily the offer taken off the table, but it will come with signs in the tribulation period because it will take the desecration of the temple by the phony Messiah antichrist to bring Israel to her senses that they need to receive the kingdom on the King\u2019s terms.\u00a0 See, if you don\u2019t have an offer of the kingdom framework\u00a0 you have no basis for distinguishing Luke 17, the kingdom is not coming with signs to be observed, distinguishing that from Luke 21:31 which says that the kingdom is preceded by signs.\u00a0 [Luke 21:31, \u201c\"So you also, when you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near.\u201d\u00a0 Whatever your theology is you\u2019ve got to be able to put the whole Bible together and that\u2019s hopefully what I\u2019m trying to show you how to do.\n\nAnd I like to include these quotes.\u00a0 This is from doctors Quine and Toussaint, who wrote a Bib Sac article, Dallas Seminary\u2019s Academic Journal, on the kingdom. [Stanley D. Toussaint and Jay A. Quine, \u201cNo, Not Yet: The Contingency of God\u2019s Promised Kingdom,\u201d Bibliotheca Sacra<\/em> 164 (April\u2013June 2007): 138, 141.]\u00a0 I like to give\u00a0 you these quotes to show you that I\u2019m not just up her making things up.\u00a0 I\u2019m following a line of thought that\u2019s well-trodden by many, many scholars.\n\nThis quote says:\u00a0 \u201c\u201cIf the kingdom had already come,\u201d speaking of Luke 17, \u201cwhy did Jesus prophesy the future Tribulation in Luke 21:31 and say in connection with that series of events, \u2018When you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near\u2019? The implication is clear: This kingdom is not near now. It was near (in the sense that Jesus personally offered it to Israel), but then it ceased being near. Then in the future Tribulation the millennial kingdom will again be near. . . . In Luke 10:9, 11 the seventy were told to preach that the kingdom of God had drawn near. But in 19:11 the disciples thought the kingdom was close at hand, but it was no longer near. This contrasts with Luke 10:9, 11. Again Israel\u2019s rejection of the Lord is seen in the words of the citizenry, \u2018We do not want this man to reign over us\u2019 (Luke 19:14). But this parable teaches more than Jewish rejection; it also affirms that the Lord\u2019s followers\u201d that\u2019s us by the way, we\u2019re that unique people living between these two events, first century Israel\u2019s rejection, future Israel\u2019s acceptance.\n\nWhere do we fit in the whole thing?\u00a0 We\u2019re living between those two events.\u00a0 We are inheritors of His coming kingdom and we have things to do while the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 And when the kingdom is established I\u2019ll tell\u00a0 you this much, the Lord is going to hold all of us to an account and say what did you do with what I gave you?\u00a0 And you\u2019re probably sitting there saying well I don\u2019t have anything to give.\u00a0 Well, every person in this room has three things, they all begin with the letter \u201cT,\u201d Time, Talent and Treasure. Every one of us to varying degrees have those three T\u2019s.\u00a0 And when the Lord establishes the kingdom He\u2019s going to ask us what did we do with the three T\u2019s. That\u2019s the significance of the parable of the minas.\n\nBut this parable teaches more than human rejection; it also affirms that the Lord\u2019s followers have responsibilities to fulfill in the interim while He is gone because Israel had rejected the King, the kingdom was postponed, it was no longer at hand.\u00a0 So when you\u2019re quoting Luke 17:20-21 you can\u2019t just quote that verse to prove something; you\u2019ve got to put it in a larger framework which would include the offer of the offer of the kingdom, Luke 10:1, 9 the nation of Israel\u2019s rejection of the King and the kingdom back in the first century, Luke 19:14, Luke 19:42-44.\u00a0 And then you have to factor in Luke 21:31 as to why the kingdom is near and preceded by signs, and that\u2019s the future generation that will receive it.\n\nSo that\u2019s probably my favorite explanation of Luke 17:20-21.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say the kingdom is inside of you; last week we covered that.\u00a0 What it is, is you have to interpret that in light of the overall offer of the kingdom framework.\u00a0 And next week I\u2019ll try to give\u00a0 you a third possibility and I\u2019ll do that very fast and then we\u2019ll be leaving Luke 17 and moving into other passages that Jesus said that people use to say we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 [Stanley D. Toussaint and Jay A. Quine, \u201cNo, Not Yet: The Contingency of God\u2019s Promised Kingdom,\u201d Bibliotheca Sacra<\/em> 164 (April\u2013June 2007): 138, 141.]","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t