Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: And today on reading the Gospel. We are studying the event, the coming of the kingdom. This is found in the Gospel of Luke. And we'll be reading from chapter 17. Beginning in verse 20. And going all the way down to the end of the chapter. We invite you to follow along in your bibles as we read.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come.
Jesus answered them.
The kingdom of God is not coming. In ways that can be observed. Nor will they say, look, here it is, or there.
For, behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
And he said to his disciples, the days are coming. When you will desire to see one of the days of the son of man. And you will not see it.
And they will say to you, look there or look here.
Do not go out or follow them.
For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other. So will the son of man be in his day.
But first he must suffer many things. And be rejected by his generation.
Just as it was in the days of Noah. So will it be in the days of the son of man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage. Until the day when Noah entered the ark. And the flood came and destroyed them all.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Likewise, just as it was in the days of lot. They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day when lot went out of sodom. The fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So it will be on the day when the son of man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop with his goods in the house. Not come down to take them away. And likewise, let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night, there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left. And they said to him, where, lord? And he said to them, where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
So Jesus here has been approached by Pharisees.
And they ask him this question.
When the kingdom of God will come. What were they looking for?
[00:03:18] Speaker A: They were looking for an earthly kingdom of God. Similar to the times of Solomon and David. The golden standard of the jewish nation. And they were looking for something that was quite visible.
And we realize this from Jesus. Answer. Who said, the kingdom of God is not coming in the ways that can be observed. Yeah.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: So they were looking for the restoration because they had a king.
It was a roman king, and they had an army. It was a roman army. They were being occupied. And before them it was the Greeks, and before them it was the Persians.
You go back in the Babylonians. So they were looking for the restoration of their king, their kingdom, their country.
But as you said, Jesus is coming and saying, you cannot observe this kingdom.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Why?
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Why can't we observe it? Is it not here?
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Because the coming of Jesus Christ, the king to establish his kingdom was in a surprising, unexpected way.
They expected him to come as a king, to enter in Jerusalem, to be installed or enthroned as a king. But he came in a very humble way, born in a manger, starting a humble ministry, traveling the country by foot, and establishing his kingdom, one disciple at a time.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
So verse 21, it says, this kingdom of God is in the midst of you, or in you and other versions, or among you.
What does that mean? Where is the kingdom of God? Now?
[00:05:14] Speaker A: When Jesus Christ came to establish the kingdom, it started from within.
It was built as an idea which was embraced by the mind. It was internalized in the heart.
And Jesus Christ, even today, he knocks at the door of our hearts, and we have to receive him there.
Throughout the Old Testament, you see God looking for people to receive him. He says, young man, give me your heart.
So the kingdom of God starts within.
And after that is being manifested outside, it is like the values which determine our behavior.
It is not the other way around. If it starts inside, it is sustainable.
It has the power to transform the character and to prepare us for the visible part of the kingdom. That will happen at the second coming of Christ. Yeah.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: And I think of things like architecture. Architects design buildings in ways to manipulate emotions, to bring people into a space, to bring them present. Think of cathedrals. You're going into these tall buildings, arched spaces with stained glass windows to tell stories. And the. The desired effect is to change our character, change who we are within, to bring solitude and quiet and reverence, and bring us to a place where we can worship God.
That's what I think they were looking for. And here, as you said, it starts within that God does the work within us. He knocks on our heart's door and the results shine out. So people who are citizens of the kingdom of God will have fruit in their life that emulates that. Like, if you go overseas, you can find an american anywhere, and many times they have american flags on them, or you know, you go, when we went to Israel, there was the local price, there was the foreign price, and then there was the american price, and they knew who the Americans were.
That should be the same thing about citizens of the kingdom of God, that we walk around with pride and patriotism, that people know who we are because they see just the signs of Christ on us.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: And I like how Jesus Christ contrasted those two stages of the kingdom.
It is verse 21.
Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you right now in verse 22. But the days are coming when this invisible kingdom will grow and will become visible. Verse 24. As the lightening flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the son of man be in that day or in his day.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: So as he's teaching the disciples, he's telling them, look, this kingdom that started when I'm not around, it's still here, but I will come back. And when I come back, the kingdom will be visible and present and a physical kingdom that you can walk in and see and everything.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Jesus Christ had a replacement or a representative while he was going back to the Father to prepare a place for us. And that was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came as another comforter, as someone who would uplift. Jesus Christ will not talk about himself, but will talk about Jesus. And I see the Holy Spirit who is running the church today, the visible kingdom of God, and gives gifts according to his will. And the Holy Spirit is working every stage, from conviction of sin all the way to growing us spiritually, helping us to multiply, building the body of Christ that is the church, and preparing the church, Christ's bride for his coming, to take her home.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: We then get into this section where we have these comparisons. Noah and lot, and the women on the housetop and the people sleeping in the bed.
There's taken and there's left.
What is the point of this story, this section here? What are we supposed to learn from this group of stories?
[00:10:22] Speaker A: The main point is that life will continue as normal until the surprising coming of Christ.
The second coming will take by surprise even the best disciples, the best followers of Christ, the most trustworthy. This is why we have to watch and we have to pray all the time.
In the same way. Two people will be working together, either on the rooftop or even during the night.
The second coming of Jesus Christ will have this element of surprise. Yet we know some major road signs towards the second coming, but we do not know the details. And Jesus Christ says that nobody knows the day and the hour.
We might know the season. Right.
But we do not know the details. This is why. Because everyone can be surprised, even his disciples. We have to be always ready. Yeah.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: When we look at the other texts in the Bible, passages that talk about the coming of the Son of man, it talks about this unexpected time.
I think there is another application here.
The kingdom of God might come for me at a different time. It comes for you if we do.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: Not make it to the time of the second coming.
It comes when life ends.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Now, it's not literally coming. It's not like Jesus is coming back billions of times. It's we rest in the grave until Christ comes again, until the graves are open and we're called up to meet the Lord in the air.
And while we're resting in the grave, waiting for that day, there's no thought. The Bible says we don't make decisions. We don't work. We don't go about normal business.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: It's like sleep.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like sleep. There's no chance for us to choose to follow God. So in that moment when our life ends, that is it for us. And that is virtually the coming of the son of man. Because the next thought that we have will be seeing the event of Jesus coming in the clouds.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: In the same way, the second coming will surprise two people on the rooftop. And verse 31 says, do not come down to take some goods from your house.
The second coming will be an absolute surprise. Will be so quick, as quick as death comes. So this is why now, every day is important.
Now every moment is a chance to choose Jesus Christ, to invite him into our hearts, to let the Holy Spirit transform us and prepare our characters for heaven.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: And that gets back to the story of lot, because the only thing we can take to heaven is our character. You know, we might. We can't go back, not even our bibles, as underlined and marked and noted and used as they might be.
We shouldn't even go back and try to get our bibles. When the time comes, when it's time to go, it's time to go. And we need to be ready to leave all behind. Those who seek to preserve the life they currently have, who want to keep their house, their jobs, their cars, their belongings, they're going to end up losing their life, the Bible says. And those who are ready to give up everything they have, they're the ones who will receive eternal life.
This is a story that is both exciting but also scary.
We like to have the future planned out. We like to know what is coming. No, I don't think anyone likes to be surprised.
At least not surprised with a thief coming home and find out that they've been robbed.
But it's good news. And the kingdom of heaven is something that's available for everyone. We all can apply. You don't need to wait like becoming a citizen in the US. Go through the green card process and wait ten years to become a citizen and take the test.
We all can be citizens of the kingdom of heaven now today let's pray. Father God, we desire to be members of the kingdom of heaven today. We want to experience the blessings you have in store and we want to be a blessing to others.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: We want to be changed by you. That we can serve those around us. That our focus is not on our wants and our desires but our focus is on doing your will. So we ask for your holy spirit to be present in our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
