Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 46)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 7 – How the Bible Describes Truth
Signs to See
The disciples weren’t the only ones to ask Jesus about when He was coming. The Pharisees, too, asked. But while the disciples framed the question around “Your coming,” indicating their personal faith in Him, the Pharisees put it in terms of when “the kingdom of God” was coming – a less direct way of seeing the event. That is, while the Pharisees didn’t believe in Jesus, they did still hope for the kingdom of God. We have already seen, by the way Jesus interchangeably uses these terms, that their meaning is synonymous, but it is interesting to see the disciples approach the subject so personally while the Pharisees show interest in the kingdom without recognizing Jesus would be its King. Jesus, however, took no offense (He gives the word “class” a whole new meaning, eh?). Here is His answer:
“The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Luke 17:20-21
Before we say anything else about this answer, we should note that it clearly rules out a physical Second Coming. How could He have been more to the point? Will you pause for a moment and simply contemplate the profundity of His words…and our obtuseness in nevertheless insisting that His coming will be physical? “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed.” Amen.
I’m tempted to end the book here, for what more needs to be said? (If you actually paused to think as I just asked you, you would probably ask me to stop the book here.) Nonetheless, I will continue so that you might have even more reinforcement for the sake of your faith.
We see in this exchange Jesus telling the Pharisees that the kingdom was already present in Himself…and they couldn’t recognize it. If they couldn’t recognize it when it was right in their midst then (in Him), they wouldn’t be able to recognize it when it was right in their midst later (in others).
The disciples did recognize the kingdom of God in Jesus though they might not have expressed it in just those words. They knew Jesus was “from God,” “of God,” “being directed by God.” They could “see” that much. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were blind (“they are blind guides of the blind” Matthew 15:14) because they could not “see.”
This explains a discrepancy. Actually, it’s just a difference between believers and unbelievers in terms of the ability to perceive. When the disciples asked for signs, Jesus reeled off a string of them (as we saw), but when the Pharisees asked for signs, He had none to give them. Why? Because, as He said elsewhere, the evil generation does not does not get a sign. Because God does not want to give the evil generation a sign? No, because the unrepentant can’t
see signs. They’re blind.
The only sign unbelievers got was the sign of Jonah. That is, having thrown Jesus overboard into the abyss of death and having experienced as a result a temporary tranquility of circumstances, the Pharisees would later be shocked – just as those sailors who threw Jonah overboard surely were, to hear that, having been spared from death, the man causing all the stir was still serving his God and still preaching repentance.
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