“Nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” – Luke 17:21

What follows is the edited manuscript of a sermon that I delivered on March 15, 2026. If you, for some reason, might prefer to watch the video recording, you can find that here: https://vimeo.com/unityreformedchurch

When, Oh Lord?

A couple weeks ago, I was asked to provide pulpit supply. But there was a caveat. I had to preach from Luke 17 so that the series we’ve started in Luke might remain congruent.  

And Luke 17 contains that very familiar story about the Ten Lepers who are healed but only one returns to express their gratitude to Jesus for the healing. I had every intention on preaching from that text. There’s lots to be learned from that story, and especially from the twist when it’s revealed that the one who returned was a Samaritan and not an Israelite. It’s a great passage. It’s a safe option. It’s not a scary option.

I wanted to avoid the second half of Luke 17 because that is where all of the scary, edgy, apocalyptic bits of text are found – all the weird material about the end of days, flashes of lightning, judgement, vultures circling over corpses, stuff like that. 

Yet, as these last few weeks have progressed, I’ve found myself having all kinds of conversations about those types of subjects.

In fact, there were a few occasions in youth group where Jesus’ second coming came up in relation to all of the wars happening around the globe. In our small time, a teen asked how we are supposed to feel about all of this and if it is some sort of sign of Jesus’ return. I had another conversation with a friend about reading tough passages in the Bible like the ones that deal with future events, and that we shouldn’t shy away from them. I had even another conversation with someone about our shared religious upbringing and it’s extra intense, and in my opinion unhealthy focus on end-times prophecy and extravagant chart-making.

And I bring all of that up to say, I tried to skip this episode of scripture, but I feel as if God is sort of twisting my arm to preach on it. I had hoped to talk about the easy, comfortable story about gratitude but instead we are going to go in a different direction.

But, and at the same time, I do think that fruitful discussion can be had.

Because I’m sure the anxiety that the teens expressed is shared by more than just them. Our world is a bit crazy right now. What are we to make of it in light of what the Bible sometimes seems to say?

Setting the Scene

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.

But just as he makes it out of the region of Samaria, he is stopped by a group of Pharisees. And they have questions for him, as they often do, about the nature of God’s kingdom. This time around, though, they want to know when God’s kingdom would officially arrive.

People in the first century, just like now, were reading their Bibles in anticipation of God’s coming reign. They longed for the day when the Lord would right wrongs, defeat his enemies, put a stop to sin and death, and bring about a peace that would last forever. And the Pharisees were the Bible scholars of that day and age. They knew the scriptures forwards and backwards. They probably had set to memory all of the passages that talked about what the Old Testament refers to as the Day of the Lord or sometimes the Day of the Son of Man.

For example, in Daniel 7:13-14, within a futuristic vision the prophet receives, we find these words:

“I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven…He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His rule is an everlasting rule that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

This day that Daniel foretold was something that people both feared and desperately yearned for. It was a day marked by both judgement and blessing.

And the Pharisees had their charts all made up. They had their Bible timelines completely graphed out. They knew that this Day of the Lord had something to do with God’s Messiah, and Jesus had been going around signaling to others that he, in fact, was God’s Messiah. Was the day that they had both feared and hoped for just around the corner? Was the Lord going to reign fire down upon their enemies and finally establish his everlasting kingdom upon the throne of David?

Well, Jesus responds to them by saying, yes!

But just not in the way that they were thinking.

The Pharisees were thinking of God’s kingdom only in future terms. Jesus challenges them to think differently: the kingdom is already here! (Luke 17:20-21)

In response to the Pharisee’s question about when God’s kingdom would show up, Jesus explains that the arrival of the kingdom wasn’t really something that was going to be observable.

And that was partially because, as Luke 17:21 states, God’s kingdom was already among them.

Now, if you’re using a different Bible translation than I am, your version might not say “among you.” The NIV and the ESV translate Jesus’ words as “the kingdom of God is in your midst.” The KJV, on the other hand, says the kingdom is “within you,” which is actually the most literal rendering of the original text. The Greek word entos is an adverb that everywhere else in the New Testament is translated only as “inside” or “within.”

Because of that, some people have concluded that the kingdom Jesus is talking about here really isn’t the one mentioned in conjunction with the Day of the Lord, but instead a reference to a private, interior relationship where God lives within our hearts. It’s a purely spiritual thing. But that interpretation doesn’t fit the way Jesus talks about the kingdom anywhere else in Luke, nor does it match how the Pharisees seem to understand his words in Luke 17.

God’s kingdom is not an inner feeling. It’s a public reality. And the citizens of God’s kingdom have real obligations for how they are to think and act in the present. It would be hard to take seriously Jesus’ commands to love our enemies, to show compassion to outsiders, to forgive those who wrong us, or to give generously to those in need if faith were only about what happens inside our hearts.

But it is also completely understandable that the Pharisees were a bit confused about all of this too, right? They didn’t have the perspective we have now on this side of the cross and resurrection.

That is to say, it’s not as if the Old Testament really ever clearly spells out that the Day of the Lord was going to take place in two phases. Nowhere in any of the texts that the Pharisees had memorized did it explicitly say that the Messiah was going to show up, die, rise from the dead, and ascend to heaven only to return at a later date to bring about the final judgement and redemption of creation. But that is how the arrival of God’s kingdom worked.

Sort of like an appetizer to the main course, or the first rays of sunshine before the entire sun rises up over the horizon, God’s eternal reign began to break into our present reality through the person of Jesus.

The kingdom has arrived at least in part. 

And in light of all that, I think that there’s a bit of an implied challenge that Jesus gives the Pharisees with his answer in 17:21. If God’s kingdom had already arrived, they needed to stop living in a way that was hyper focused on some future date and instead start living in the present. If God’s kingdom was being ushered in by Jesus, they needed to get on board with what Jesus was doing or else they might miss it entirely.

2. The Disciples were thinking of God’s kingdom only in present terms. Jesus challenges them to think differently: be prepared for the coming kingdom! (Luke 17:22-37)

The Pharisees were questioning the validity of Jesus’ Messiahship. The disciples weren’t.

They had seen Jesus perform miracles and cast out demons. They had heard him teach with an authority greater than the prophets. They had observed Jesus forgiving sins. They had even seen nature itself obey his words. And the disciples were getting excited! Jesus had declared that his kingdom was at hand, and they were currently on their way to Jerusalem! Was this it? Was God going to overthrow Rome and establish his everlasting throne in the next couple of days?

Well, again, not exactly.

God was going to bring about his kingdom in its fullness, but a few things were going to have to happen first, namely a bit of suffering and rejection on Jesus’ part. Furthermore, the disciples should not be too quick to read into what they were perceiving as signs of the arrival of God’s kingdom.

Those of us who stayed up to watch Tuesday night’s storm roll in might understand the picture that Jesus is trying to paint even clearer, but just like a bolt of lightning very suddenly illuminates the entire night sky, the Day of the Son of man will arrive as if from nowhere but will be completely visible to everyone, everywhere. That is, the exact timing of Jesus’ return will be a surprise. It will appear as if from nowhere. Yet when Jesus does return, it will be made plain to all people immediately.

And this, of course, is consistent with the teaching that Jesus gives elsewhere concerning the timing of his second coming.

Consider what Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 24:3-6:

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

He picks up the same thread later in Matthew 24:36:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

In other words, the disciples were tempted to think that certain wars, famines, or other such calamities in their present were signs of the coming Day of the Lord. Yet Jesus tells them that those things were not predictors of the end of this age. The fullness of God’s kingdom will arrive suddenly and without warning.

Jesus then goes on to explain how his disciples might live in light of the sudden, unpredictable arrival of God’s kingdom, by way of several rather striking illustrations.

He first calls back to the days of Noah. The Lord had told Noah and his family that a destructive flood was going to overtake the entire earth. Noah believed the Lord, and got busy building an ark that would house his family and many animals. Yet those who saw his building efforts did not think to ask about his urgency. Instead, they continued on as if life was normal until they met their swift ends.

Jesus then reminds his disciples of Lot and his wife. In Sodom and Gomorrah, people were living unaware, or unconcerned with God’s promised destruction of their towns. And by the way, Jesus isn’t attempting to make a comment about eating and drinking, buying and selling, or getting married. Those are all morally good or at least neutral actions. But people in Sodom and Gomorrah had been busying themselves with these day-to-day activities and were consequently caught off guard when their destruction arrived.

It’s also important to understand that Jesus isn’t using these illustrations to go back on what he previously said in the passage right above this section. He isn’t saying that people in Lot’s or Noah’s day were caught up in destruction because they failed to read the signs of the coming doom. What he is saying is that these folks were given to destruction because they were so busy focusing on what they understood to be important that they consequently missed that which was more important, namely God’s salvation.[1]

And the disciples should be on guard for this, too.

Even though they had close proximity to Jesus, they may find themselves tempted to become double minded. There might be actions they are enticed into that might seem good and secure but are really only distractions born from the kingdom of this world. Only those who build their lives on the values of God’s kingdom, even if that means losing their standing in this present world, will be ready for the end.

Just as an aside, how many of you have read that series of books titled Left Behind that were popular in the 90’s? I read them all twelve of them when I was a teen.[2] But I hope we all know that those Left Behind books were biblical fan fiction and weren’t exactly trying to be accurate in their predictions of what the end times are going to be like. But it is interesting that this passage in Luke 17:34-35 is where the title of that book series came from.

It’s also interesting that those books understood this passage exactly backwards.

Jesus tells his disciples that, on the Day of the Son of Man, two will be in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. Or two will be grinding grain in the mill. One will be taken and the other left. But his illustration isn’t that the righteous person will be whisked away to some celestial safety zone. No, harkening back to the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, the metaphor is that those who have not aligned themselves with Jesus’ inbreaking kingdom will be the ones taken away – they will be captured and sent to their destruction.

And, again, this destruction won’t be in secret. Just like vultures circling in the sky signify to everyone in large radius that there is roadkill underneath them, God’s judgement will be clearly evident to all. The Day of the Son of Man will be sudden, worldwide, inescapable, and calamitous for those found unprepared.[3]

Application

And that is the edgy, apocalyptic, and somewhat scary ending to Luke 17.

If it wasn’t clear to you from the beginning of this sermon, you probably now know why I was so hesitant to preach from it. But it is a part of our Bibles. These are words that Jesus did say. And as 2 Timothy 3 tells us, all scripture is useful for teaching us what is true and training us in what is right. Even though texts like this might make us, or at least me uncomfortable, they are helpful, nonetheless.

So, towards that end, let’s now think a little bit on how Luke 17 might be helpful for us here and now.

1. We should not waste our time obsessing over signs, or get wrapped up in speculation about exactly when Jesus’ return might be.

A couple of years ago, I was sitting in a Burger King with a group of about 30 teenagers from the church I was serving in at the time. We had stopped for dinner on our way back from a winter retreat at a camp called Spring Hill.

And I guess our group must have looked rather churchy because we were approached by a gentleman who was also eating there who recognized that we were all Christians like he was. He asked us where we were from, what church we were a part of, how our retreat went, and then he asked if we understood that the nuclear submarines that Russia had created were what Revelation 13:1 was referencing when it talked about the beast from the sea. He then asked to pray for our group so that we’d remain faithful as all signs were pointing to Jesus’ return in the next few months!

While this experience that my group had was a bit jarring, and especially for the newer believers in the group, I don’t think it was really that unique. I bet that lots of us have had encounters with individuals who attempt to rile others up with speculation about when Jesus might return. If you’ve got cable or frequent certain radio stations, you’ve probably heard all sorts of preachers saying all sorts of things like this.

And I don’t mean to discredit the heart behind what these folks are saying. I’m sure they are trying to live as faithful followers of Jesus, and they desire to see that others have that opportunity as well. I am also not going to spend any time attempting to refute all of their different claims. It’d take too long. I’ll leave that for you to discern.

But I do want to point out that Jesus said his kingdom in its fullness would appear unexpectedly. It’d be like lighting. There will be no signs of Jesus’ return. He will just show up without warning.

This means that looking for signs of God’s return might be wasted effort. In fact, when we become so busy speculating on where God might appear, we might actually miss him here and now.

Don’t look for signs of Jesus in the headlines. Don’t hurt your neck constantly staring up at the clouds. Instead, look for Jesus where he has already told us he’d be found – in the eyes of the marginalized and the oppressed.

To remind us of a passage that we’re all familiar with, here’s what Matthew 25:34-40 has to say about the end times:

“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger (or foreigner) and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.”

Very much related to that:

2. We should go about doing the types of things that serve as a glimpse of God’s kingdom come.

It is understandable as to why people might want to speculate about the timing of God’s return, especially in times that are far from peaceful. Bombings, wars, pandemics, natural disasters and other things like that highlight some of the worst ways that sin and death have corrupted God’s good creation. None of this should be. We want to see such things gone, replaced with the everlasting peace that our Lord has promised us. Looking for signs, or reading our Bibles with the hope of gaining inside knowledge about Christ’s return might be a way for us to ease our anxiety. All of the problems of this world can weigh on us so heavily.

Because of that, it can almost feel like it’s our duty to figure these things out.

But Jesus has already told us what our duty is in times like these. Instead of using all our effort to predict the future, we are to act as representatives of God’s kingdom in the present. 

As Jesus told his disciples, the arrival of God’s kingdom in its fullness might be a little way off. Nobody knows the time or hour. But the kingdom has come in part, and Jesus has tasked his church to act as a foretaste, an imperfect window into that perfect, sinless reality which will arrive one day.

So, in our small little pockets of the world that we inhabit now, how might we foster a greater sense of peace? How might we encourage those in our midst that are anxious? How might we offer love to the loveless? How might we stand as bulwarks against injustice, or offer a helping hand to those already caught up within it?

What are the types of things that we could do that might make people say, “Heaven has sprung a leak and is flooding out of Unity Reformed Church?”

The world we live in is broken, I think that’s clear.

But we have been promised a better one in the future, and that’s something we can confidently hope in. We’ve also been tasked to be that better place, here and now, so that others might join us in our hope.

We might not know the hour of God’s coming kingdom. But we do know the King. 

Let us live like His kingdom is already here.

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[1] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 634-635.

[2] Hal Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth” was another fun book in this type of genre.

[3] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 631.