The Kingdom of God Is in Your Midst (Luke 17:20-21)

In Luke 17:20-21 Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is in your midst." Jesus said this because He was on the earth and people could see Him, hear Him, and touch Him. He had the kingdom with Him. To be near Jesus was to be near the kingdom.

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00:00 Sermon Lessons for The Kingdom of God Is in Your Midst (Luke 17:20-21)
13:22 Lesson One: They preached (Part 1) The Kingdom of God in the Gospels.
19:22 Lesson One: They preached (Part 2) The coming Messiah in the Old Testament.
26:23 Lesson One: They preached (Part 3) Christ crucified in the church.
32:05 Lesson Two: Jesus spiritually established the Kingdom of God at His First Coming.
41:20 Lesson Three: Jesus will physically establish the Kingdom of God at His Second Coming.
45:53 Lesson Four: Nobody is born into the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is one of the most important topics in Scripture. This is the Kingdom Jesus rules over. Every Kingdom has a king, and this is the Kingdom where Jesus is King:

2 Peter 1:11 There will be richly provided for you an entrance into THE ETERNAL KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

Jesus brought His Kingdom Him in His first coming when He came from heaven to earth. Every believer is part of this Kingdom, because it’s the Kingdom for people who have Jesus as their King.

Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

John the Baptist paved the way for the Messiah. He said the kingdom of God is “at hand” because He knew Jesus was bringing the kingdom of God with Him.

The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven Are the Same

Kingdom of Heaven is the same as the Kingdom of God. The title Kingdom of Heaven only occurs in Matthew’s Gospel because it’s the Jewish Gospel and the Jews were sensitive to the word “God” being used. To avoid offending his Jewish readers, Matthew says Kingdom of Heaven.1

John told people what to do to prepare for the kingdom: repent. We enter the Kingdom by repentance and faith in King Jesus. That was and still is how to enter the kingdom.

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The ESV and NKJV read “at hand,” but they have footnotes that they could also read “has come near,” which is how it reads in the NIV. “Has come near” is preferrable for two reasons:

It is past tense: the kingdom HAS COME, which it had, because Jesus brought it with Him.
The Kingdom was NEAR is also fitting because Jesus was on the earth and people could see Him, hear Him, and even touch Him. He had the kingdom with Him. To be near Jesus was to be near the kingdom.

Jesus’s Purpose During His Earthly Ministry

The phrase Kingdom of God occurs 54 times in the gospels, and 32 of those times are in Luke. Luke is THEE Gospel that gives the most attention to the Kingdom of God. Luke 4:43 is the first time the phrase Kingdom of God occurs, and it’s very fitting:

Luke 4:42 the people sought [Jesus] and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”

People were trying to keep Jesus from leaving, but He told them he had to go so he could preach the kingdom. He went so far as to say this was his purpose. We see Him fulfill this purpose throughout His earthly ministry. A few examples:

Luke 8:1 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and BRINGING THE GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. And the twelve were with him,

Jesus goes through the cities and villages preaching the kingdom of God, and then He commissions the twelve to do the same:

Luke 9:1 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he SENT THEM OUT TO PROCLAIM THE KINGDOM OF GOD and to heal.

The word proclaim contains kingdom imagery, because it describes a herald coming and making an announcement for the King. The Twelve Apostles would:

announce that the King – or Messiah – had arrived
tell people about the acts – the miracles and teachings – of the King
escribe the King’s Kingdom
tell people what the kingdom was like
tell people how to enter the Kingdom
Jesus, the King, attracted huge crowds, and He preached the kingdom to them:

Luke 9:11 When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed...

Read the rest of the blog post: https://www.scottlapierre.org/the-kingdom-of-god-is-in-your-midst/