The Kingdom Is Within You

This morning I opened my Bible to the following verses - Luke 17:20-21 NIV:

[20] "Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, [21] nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is in your midst (within you).”

I added the parentheses for the meaning of the original Greek word entos is within/inside.  When we read "in your midst" we can tend to think that this means some gathering of people and I don't think that captures the full meaning.  It seems to me that the Lord is really meaning His Kingdom is within us, each of us individually and collectively in us. His rule, His Lordship are experienced personally.  The Holy Spirit resides inside of us (John 14:17), and He is God present in us and a deposit guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor 1:22), speaking of our heavenly inheritance in God's Eternal Kingdom.

One of Jesus' main messages was the Kingdom of God.  As I have written before, the Jewish people were looking for a Messiah who would restore an earthly Kingdom, and throw off the rule of the Romans.  they wanted a real earthly king, like David, and a real earthly kingdom with armies, cities, land and boundaries, etc. They were asking Jesus when He was going to establish this type of kingdom, and Jesus replies that the Kingdom of God is within you, which negates all of their thinking and mindsets.  I could just imagine after Jesus' response all the people standing around looking confused, for His answer was not what they expected and He was talking about a completely different paradigm.

I was just reminded of a story that a Russian friend told me about when she brought her Mother to America in the late 80s.  They took her to Cub Foods (imagine a Sam's club but only with food) and when her mom walked into the store she stopped and just started weeping.  She was overwhelmed that there was so much food.  Her only experience to that point was grocery shopping in Russia where there was a very limited supply, mostly empty shelves and no real choice (her words not mine) so when her daughter asked if she wanted to  go grocery shopping that is what she was expecting.  Her paradigm for groceries was very limited, and when she stepped into the store in America, she went through a radical paradigm shift.  She could not have imagined what she saw and was completely overwhelmed, and was crying both tears of joy and sorrow.  Joy for what was her new reality, and sorrow for the years she had lost to scarcity and deprivation.

In some ways, this illustrates to me how Jesus' response would have affected His listeners, and how it still relates to us.  We really can't fully grasp the reality of what He says - that the Kingdom of God is within us.  We can understand the words, but don't have the experiential knowledge of the richness of what He means.  Just like the woman's mother understood "grocery shopping" but had no understanding how abundant food could be.  We try to put His words into a context that allows us to understand them, but how do we grasp the fact that the Holy Spirit is in us?  This is why I believe that the experiential components of the "works" is so important, for the works develop in us an experiential context for deeper understanding of God's words.

As Jesus says in John 14:10-17 NIV:

[10] Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. [11] Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. [13] And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

[15] “If you love me, keep my commands. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever--- [17] the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

The way we can know that The Father was in Jesus was the evidence of the works themselves.  In the same way, I believe that the way we can know that the Holy Spirit is in us will be through the evidence of the works Jesus promised we would do (verse 12).

So, back to the Kingdom of God being within us, what greater demonstration can be found than enabling us to do the same works as Jesus?  He was demonstrating the reality of the Kingdom through works, why would He ask us to do anything less?  As He directed the Apostles when He sent them out, "As you go, proclaim this message: 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' [8] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give." (Matt 10:7-8NIV).

Amen Lord!  Help us to believe and experience this reality.