Luke 17:20-30
Finding the Kingdom

Being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, he answered them, "The Kingdom of God doesn't come with observation; neither will they say, 'Look, here!' or, 'Look, there!' for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."

He said to the disciples, "The days will come, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will tell you, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Don't go away, nor follow after them, for as the lightning, when it flashes out of the one part under the sky, shines to the other part under the sky; so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all. It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed."

World English Bible

How can we find the kingdom of God?

How can we make the kingdom of God here on earth?

How can we create within ourselves the kingdom of God?

These are mighty and fiercely debated theological questions, but it is my belief that these questions make no sense. To ask how to find the kingdom of God, how to make it, how to create it, is to assume that it is our action that must uncover and bring about what God has already given to everyone freely.

Jesus frequently directed us to put our "selves" aside so that God's will would be done in our lives. This indwelling of the Holy Spirit inside us brings about the kingdom of God, and fills us with peace and joy as blessings directly from God.

Jesus knew how lonely the disciples would be after he left. He also knew that all of us will have many times when we need reassurance that God is here, where we want "one of the days of the Son of Man." When we are at a low point, it will be easy to be led into wrong if we follow someone else. It would feel better if we could "do" something to "find" God here or there, where we could choose when to have what we want from God. Jesus reminds us that at the right time, with no warning, God is, and God is everywhere.

Just to make the point again, Jesus goes back into history, recalling the time of Noah. Talk about someone who felt alone! Noah obeyed a bizarre command to build a large ship on dry land, while everyone went on about life as normal, until suddenly God called rain from heavens. Did you know that Noah and the animals stayed on the ark, with the doors closed, for seven days until the rains started? Read it in Genesis 6, and imagine what kind of a test of faith that must have been!

I think Jesus intended us to think more about the people who were lost in the story of Noah. He also told the story of Sodom as a parallel illustration to Noah, and again, I think part of the reason was to think of those people destroyed. They were just going about their normal lives when the time came for them to be held accountable for their evil. What could they have done to have been saved with Noah or with Lot? Would it have been to study the stars to discern what God had planned? No, because there was and will be no warning, Jesus teaches us. What they should have done was to live their normal lives obeying God's Word and following God's will.

What are we to do when we feel alone and cut off? Don't follow our emotions, but with discipline follow our knowledge that God never leaves us, and live each minute of each day in God's will.

What are we to do in preparation for the Second Coming? Same thing! We have to put aside emotions that would lie to us and follow with discipline the truth of God, step by step, minute by minute, living our normal lives with reverence and love for God, because God has already placed the kingdom of God inside us!