Read Luke 17:20-37
For thousands of years, man has spent his life laboring to establish his very own kingdom. Throughout the centuries, mere peasants have risen to power, bringing with them a sense of supreme sovereignty, which would often then result in their downfall. One such recent example of this would be former Soviet Prime Minister, Nikita Khrushchev.
As a young man, he worked his way up the communist ladder, through both world wars, until he finally gained enough power to build his very own Soviet kingdom in the late 1950s. It was while ruling his struggling atheistic nation that the Soviet Leader made this arrogant boast. He said that by the year 1965, he would personally and proudly exhibit, on television, the last Soviet Christian. Khrushchev fell from power in 1964 – far from his ungodly goal. And such are many of the man-made kingdoms of this world, and the men who made them. However, as we'll see in today's reading, when asked about the Kingdom of God, Jesus didn’t point His listeners to any brick-and-mortar domain.
It’s at the very beginning of our reading that Jesus is confronted with a far-from-simple question from the Pharisees. "When will the Kingdom of God come?" they asked. For many centuries, the Jewish people had waited for the coming of the Messiah and for Him to set up His earthly kingdom. And so this was a common question among the Jews, a hot topic among religious leaders. However, the answer Jesus gave did not direct them to a specific date and geographical location.
The Kingdom of God isn't ushered in with visible signs. You won’t be able to say, "Here it is!" or "It’s over there!" For the Kingdom of God is among you. Luke 17:21
Do you see the irony in this situation? These religious men were looking to Jesus to point them to a visible sign of royalty, when all along they were in the very Presence of it… God's Son. And by demanding an estimated time of arrival for God's Kingdom, they were reducing it to an institution at the mercy of corruptible man. A worldly kingdom. A temporary kingdom. And at this, Jesus pointed out that God's Kingdom is not a physical empire to be constructed, but a spiritual realm that is eternal.
King David said it in the book of Psalms…
For Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom. You rule generation after generation. Psalm 145:13
Almighty God is the Supreme Authority. The Divine Ruler. The Everlasting King. And even though history is stained with self-proclaimed sovereigns strutting across the stages of life defying God, His Kingdom is absolute.
And no part of His creation, no matter how audacious, will ever become greater than its Creator.
