Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21). In his coming, living, dying, rising, and ascending, he inaugurated the kingdom in its new covenant form. By the power of his Spirit, those who are in him are of the new creation, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the new creation in its embryonic form. Knowing and trusting in this enable the believer to resist the common temptation to look for the coming of the kingdom in ways that can be observed, whether those be cosmic signs in the heaven or earthly signs such as political progress.

This glorious truth of the presence of the kingdom notwithstanding, the kingdom has not yet come in its fullness. As believers, what should we expect will happen between now and the end? And what ought we to cultivate in our lives as we wait for the consummation of the kingdom?

Expectation: What Should We Expect to Happen in the End?

It Is a Process to Get There

Despite Jesus’s focus in Luke 17:21 on the present reality of the kingdom, the rest of the chapter is a reminder that the kingdom has not yet come in its fullness. His next words in verse 22 indicate this, as he speaks of the days that are still to come. At this point, he has shifted from addressing the Pharisees to speaking with his disciples. Indeed, the rest of Luke 17 (vv. 22–37) is directed toward them. If the Pharisees represent an under-realized eschatology, then the disciples have to ward against an over-realized eschatology. In other words, they have to wait for the kingdom. That this is true does not suggest Jesus is talking out of both sides of his mouth (it is here . . . it is not here); we can be prone to this in our human nature, but God does not speak in this manner. Rather, it is a recognition of the process involved in the coming of the kingdom.

The entire history of redemption bears this out, for the story of the Bible (the story of the world) is wholly to do with the establishment of the kingdom of God. In the beginning, God built his creation-kingdom, and he filled it with subjects in order that his kingdom would flourish and his kingship would be acclaimed. Had sin not got in the way, the borders of his kingdom would have enlarged continuously and his kingship increasingly acclaimed until the earth would have been filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (see Hab 2:14). Mankind having fallen, however, God began the work of redeeming a people who would live with and for him in a new, restored creation; the seed of the woman would deal the fatal blow to the serpent. The identity of God’s people came into focus as he covenanted with Abraham, promising him a seed, the land, and blessing. God established the children of Abraham in the land, calling them Israel—a nation born out of slavery in Egypt, the result of Abraham’s child of promise (Isaac), and Isaac’s child of promise (Jacob, also called Israel). Through the repeated failures of the nation and their kings, it became clear that the King of perfect righteousness who would secure everlasting peace needed to come from elsewhere: from divine origin. And so God came to earth, assuming our human nature to save us from sin and death—the King obtaining possession of his kingdom. Upon his ascension to heaven, he continued to establish his church, the embassy of the new creation-kingdom here in the old, first for the Jew and then for the Gentile, until the good news of the kingdom was proclaimed to the end of the earth. This work is ongoing, as the church today continues to share in the Great Commission given to the disciples in the ascension and at Pentecost. We do so in anticipation of the great day of the Lord, when he will come in glory to judge the living and the dead, bring about the resurrection of the body, and take his people into the joyous blessings of life everlasting.

It Is Often Not Glorious Along the Way

As the church today thinks through what to expect considering our place in this redemptive timeline, we do well to reflect on the disciples’ struggles because of their assumptions—more pointedly, their assumption that Jesus’s plan for kingdom advancement had a military component. Clearly, the temptation to look for political signs of his coming was not exclusive to the Pharisees. Recall James and John, the Sons of Thunder, wanting to destroy the population of a city for their rejection of Jesus (Luke 9:54). Or consider how the disciples needed Jesus’s correction and instruction to act differently from those who are worldly leaders and to approach authority and service with a spiritual mindset rather than a fleshly one. Think also of Peter’s impulse to fight back against the soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane. In the original garden—in the temple-kingdom of Eden—the first man should have fought back to preserve the advancement of the kingdom. Now, however, on account of his sin and the sin of his race, the second man and his followers must not resist for the sake of the kingdom. In the end, however, the disciples continue to struggle to comprehend the nature of the kingdom as they ask Jesus immediately before his ascension, “At this time, will you restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus’s answer is fascinating. His answer, in effect, is Pentecost. As he lays out the program in Acts 1:8, his emphasis is on the task of witnessing, led by the power of the Spirit. This is the work of the kingdom that will lead to the advancing of the kingdom. Pentecost brings us back to Joel 2, for the outpouring of the Spirit on the church is a fulfillment of that passage. Joel had prophesied that everyone would prophesy by the power of the Spirit, and then the great and awesome day of the Lord will come, attendant with cosmic signs of the sun and moon and stars in the heavens. Surely something great and awesome is about to happen! What follows out of the day of Pentecost, then, is highly instructive, for it is not the case that the physical nation is restored. Rather, it is the church that is established. This is because the old covenant with its external signs is coming to an end, and the new covenant has come, led by the power of the Spirit. The character of the old covenant was physical blessings with physical promises (spiritual aspects notwithstanding). The character of the new covenant, however, is clearly spiritual in orientation. And this is what we should expect since it is not of this world but of the world to come, which is the new creation-kingdom of God. This is to say that with a different character comes a different expectation. King Jesus did not say, “You have my Spirit’s power to reign over the earth in a way that is observable and obvious.” Had he said so, the Christians’ reasonable expectation could have been to destroy the Romans and start an empire of their own—a Christian empire. But he said, “You have my Spirit’s power to bear witness to my present and future reign.” This is not so obvious and not so easily observable in terms of external signs, for one witnesses through words of hope, acts of love, and faithful suffering.

Suffering, in particular, is unexpected. This was certainly the case for the Christians in the earliest days of the church. In the years that followed Pentecost, Rome was not destroyed; in fact, Rome destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. This does not sound triumphant, as if the kingdom was advancing. Jerusalem is the holy city, after all. It took much wisdom and insight to perceive that this, too, was part of God’s redemptive plan, for in judgment there is redemption. As Acts and other parts of the New Testament give account to, the Jews persecuted the early Christians intensely, and so those who first heard Luke were suffering and looking for redemption. As Luke 17:22 puts it, they desired to see the Son of Man established in his kingdom; this would coincide with the establishment of his church. This brings to mind the example of John the Baptist, considered at the close of part 1: he, too, was looking for Jesus amid suffering. To his early followers, Jesus affirms two things: (1) I am with you in your suffering; (2) it will not last forever. As the Christians suffer from intense persecution in the early days of the church, they can do so in the knowledge that the Spirit of Christ is ever present with them, empowering them to endure faithfully in their suffering. Even more crucially, they could suffer in hope, knowing that suffering gives way to victory in the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God cannot fail, even though all the army of hell would press against it. This means that anyone who stands in the way of the kingdom will fall as well. So as great as the old covenant was, having been established by God for his good purpose, it had served its purpose and was now obsolete. Following Christ’s death and resurrection, the new covenant was now in force, and following Pentecost, the church of Christ was being established throughout Jerusalem and beyond. Seen in this light, the Jews who rejected Christ and persecuted his church were standing in the way of God’s redemptive work, so judgment was coming on those who were formerly God’s people. And in this judgment would be vindication and redemption, for Christ would further establish the new covenant and his kingdom reign through the destruction of the city of the old covenant, an act that would make it impossible to continue the temple worship of the old covenant. This is good, since Jesus is the reality to which the temple pointed; the King has come, and his kingdom is here.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are in the shoes (sandals) of a first-century Jew in AD 70. You are sitting out on the flat rooftop, eating and drinking. Perhaps you are celebrating a wedding; in any case, you are going about your days, doing the things that people do—typical, earthly focused activities. You would have no sense of urgency or a need to be ready for something big that is coming. If someone were to approach you and inform you that the world is about to end, you would scoff at the idea. This is what Peter describes in 2 Peter 3:4, as he identifies the words of the scoffer in the face of judgment: “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Imagine, then, how you would feel to see incoming armies suddenly descend on your city. As they come like a flood, it would be as if the vultures are circling; it would feel like the end of the world. And you would take immediate action. In the case of a fire in the house, we train ourselves and our children not to delay leaving the building in order to grab our possessions but to immediately get out. So it will be on that day, says Jesus: “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” (Luke 17:31). Lot’s wife is the cautionary tale here (v. 32); as it was in Lot’s day, when fire and sulfur rained down from heaven, so it will be on that day. “As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man” (v. 26).

What a horrible time for those in Jerusalem, as the historical accounts have laid bare for us! But what was so horrible for the people of Jerusalem served a purpose for the church—namely, relief from persecution and better prospects for advancing the kingdom.

And yet Rome was not the salvation of the church by any means. They, too, persecuted the Christians intensely. And so the suffering continued. It was a major part of the ancient church, a major part of the story throughout the history of the church, and it continues to be a part of the church today, as many are persecuted for bearing the name of Christ. In his Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke, J. C. Ryle comments on Luke 17:26–37:

It is hard to imagine a passage of Scripture which more completely overthrows the common notions that prevail among men about Christ’s return. The world will not be converted when Jesus comes again. The earth will not be full of the knowledge of the Lord. The reign of peace will not have been established. These glorious things will come to pass after the second advent, but not before. If words have any meaning, the verses before us show that the earth will be found full of wickedness and worldliness in the day of Christ’s appearing.

The End Is Nigh

What Jesus affirms to his original disciples, he affirms to the church today: (1) I am with you in your suffering; (2) it will not last forever. We, too, are living in the days of Noah and Lot. People are taken up with earthly things—some wicked things, some good things, but not ultimate things. A preoccupation exists with what is temporal and trivial rather than with what is eternal and glorious. Complicating matters is that the earthly approach can seem more glorious; “eat, drink, and be merry” seems to work well for a lot of people, who then scoff at the Christian hope (see 2 Peter 3). The Christian, in contrast, does have a great hope, and suffering through the hard circumstances of life—whether personal or societal, whether a result of sin against him or her, or the effects of living in a broken world—serves as a poignant reminder that the hope is not yet realized. Nevertheless, Jesus’s suffering rebukes the rising concern or complaint within the Christian. He suffered opposition and resistance, physical pain, relational brokenness, and more on the way to losing his life in the most horrible way imaginable. As those united to him, why should believers expect anything different?

And yet the good news is that he rose from death to life; he took his life up again. In John 10:17, he says, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” This was possible because, as Hebrews 7:16 says, he has “the power of an indestructible life.” It is the combination of his true divinity and perfect humanity that led him to triumph through judgment on the cross and rise from the dead, the Father vindicating the Son as he was raised by the power of the Spirit. So all who are united to Christ will be raised to new life as well on the day when he finally comes. That day will be absolutely glorious. His glory will be obvious and unmistakable, and all will see it. No one will have to work hard to figure it out, for there will be cosmic signs throughout the heavens and earth. Like lightning across the earth, Christ Jesus will return—in the Middle East, Russia, Asia, and China to Australia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. On all the world’s islands, from pole to pole, the kingdom will come in power and glory. Jesus will come in power and glory!

That will be a day of terror and judgment for the ungodly, as Peter states:

The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. . . . The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Pet 3:7,10)

It will be a day of judgment for the ungodly but a day of vindication and rejoicing for the godly: “The earth will be remade, and we will live in the new creation, the place where heaven and earth meet, the place where righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:12–13; translation mine).

Cultivation: What Should We Cultivate in Our Lives While We Wait?

The temptation in looking for the kingdom is to seek signs that have not been given or expect what has not been promised. The Christian hope is the hope of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, so Jesus offers a sobering warning in Luke 17:32: “Remember Lot’s wife.” As a member of Abraham’s family, she was connected to the covenant community with its attendant privileges of blessing and guidance from God. She was outwardly religious, to the point of fleeing Sodom with her husband. She looked back, however, because she desired the things of this world. This temptation of the flesh continues to demand our vigilance and resistance. As Christians, we may certainly partake in the things of this world as outlined in verses 27–28: eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, buying and selling, planting and building. But these cannot receive our ultimate love or sustain our ultimate hope. As Jesus says in verse 33, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” It comes down to a question of allegiance to the kingdom of heaven versus the kingdoms of the earth. There is no middle ground, for “one will be taken” to glory, and “the other left” to destruction (vv. 34–35). Looking at 2 Peter 3 again, take note of the contrasting position that Peter presents at the end of his epistle:

Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. (vv. 17–18; translation mine)

How does the believer grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? This question can be rephrased: How do we cultivate a desire for the kingdom while we wait for its consummation?

We can lean into a longing for the kingdom as we lift our eyes from the things of this world. The kingdom of this world presents many idols for us to worship and seeks to catechize us in the doctrine and life of false religion. In the case of formal religion and overt spirituality, the catechesis is clear. Even in what appears to be secular, however, the prince of this world seeks to win us over to his competing kingdom by drawing us into rhythms and patterns that orient and shape our hearts and minds away from Christ and his kingdom. The work of James K. A. Smith on secular liturgies is helpful here, as he outlines how cultural practices are rituals that shape our understanding of who we are and what we desire.¹ As we give our hearts and minds over to the things of earth, we may even remain in Christian worship services, practicing the form of true religion outwardly; like Lot’s wife, however, we would remain untouched on the inside.

So we lift our eyes from the things of this world to Christ. As we fix our eyes on him, then “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.” Then we will give our hearts to him in true worship and resist the liturgies and rhythms of the world in favor of learning and embracing the liturgies and rhythms of his kingdom. Borrowing from Smith, we learn to use the language of the kingdom as we practice the rhythms of song and prayer. We learn to tell the story of the kingdom as we practice the rhythms of reading, meditating on, and proclaiming the Word. And we learn to live the life of the kingdom as we practice the rhythms of serving, sharing, giving, and restoring.

The best place for us to cultivate these kingdom desires and learn these kingdom practices is in the assembly of God’s people as we gather together each Sunday to worship him. As the church thoughtfully moves through the liturgy, believers

• hear a call to worship: This directs their heart and mind with the realization that they stand in the presence of the great King because he has summoned them into his courts, determining to grace them with his presence.
• sing and pray: Through music, offering worship to God, but also being shaped by God, as music is a powerful influence on and expression of desire, the songs we sing take root in our heart, are sung by heart, and so are sung from the heart, causing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, as his Spirit fills us through our singing.
• confess sin: This is a reminder of the way of the kingdom and how much we are in need of the King.
• hear preaching: More than just a lecture on the Bible, the preaching proclaims the good news of what God has done for us in Christ and is doing in us by his Spirit; the Word of God preached exhorts the listener to desire the kingdom and equips the believer for life in the kingdom.
• give an offering: In the act of giving, believers display understanding of and appreciation for the economy of the kingdom, freely contributing to the needs of fellow citizens and supporting causes that promote the message and ministry of the kingdom.
• hear a benediction: The “good word” from God at the close of the service is a reminder of his sovereignty, and the church is blessed to be a blessing in the world as ambassadors for Christ, knowing all our lives are under his protection and provision.

A Concluding Exhortation

Luke 17 ends with the disciples’ question: “Where, Lord?” They do not ask when, as the Pharisees had, but where. Where is this kingdom found? Jesus responds, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” This proverbial expression is largely opaque to us and subject to competing interpretations that likely should be held loosely. Vultures circle over what is dying or dead, and this could be suggestive of the incoming judgment that had just been spoken of, but another aspect to consider is the way vultures are fed (and so live) through feeding on the flesh of what has died. In other words, Jesus’s response is to say that the people of the kingdom gather to receive the food of the kingdom. We are fed daily by God’s Word and weekly in the preaching of the Word, but as a people of God, the church participates in another crucial liturgical act—the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. We gather together to eat a meal that is the body and blood of Christ, the Word of God who became flesh and sacrificed himself for us. While his historical body remains in heaven, his ecclesial body feasts on his sacramental body, and so we become further strengthened in our union with him. We feed on him through faith, which is the hand and mouth of the soul, and so our hearts are lifted up to the Lord in heaven. The Lord’s Supper is such an important meal because it symbolizes and confirms the union we have with the King. It is a precursor and a foretaste to the banquet that will be enjoyed in the new creation, when the entire kingdom will celebrate the consummation of Christ and his bride.

The kingdom is nothing without the King, and so the kingdom of God is in your midst when Christ is in your midst—when the Spirit of Christ is in you. In his commentary on Luke, Kent Hughes says here,

Jesus Christ is everything. He is the maker and goal of all creation. He is the source and goal of redemption. He is the heir of all things. He is the focus of God’s Word. He is our person, our place, and our rule. He is the King. He is our destiny. He gives us the kingdom.²

This recalls Luke 12, where Jesus encourages all his followers, both then and now, saying, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (v. 32).

Since we are receiving this glorious kingdom by his grace and have an inheritance that is secured in heaven for us, let us worship him with reverential awe and joyful expectation, and let us reveal the presence of God’s kingdom in Spirit-filled living. For as we who call ourselves Christians find our life in Christ, we will increasingly show ourselves to be the people of God, our hearts to be the place of God, and our lives to be the example of the rule of God.

Notes

1. See James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Brazos Press, 2016); and Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, Cultural Liturgies vol. 1 (Baker Academic, 2009).
2. R. Kent Hughes, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon: The Fellowship of the Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ, Preaching the Word (Crossway, 2013), 221.

©Jason Vander Horst. All Rights Reserved.

---

RESOURCES

• Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
• Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
• Browse the Heidelshop!
• The Heidelblog Resource Page
• Heidelmedia Resources
• The Ecumenical Creeds
• The Reformed Confessions
• The Heidelberg Catechism
• The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Lexham Press, 2025)
• Recovering the Reformed Confession (P&R Publishing, 2008)
• Why I Am A Christian
• What Must A Christian Believe?
• Heidelblog Contributors
• Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to

Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

---

Post authored by:

• Jason Vander Horst

  

  Jason grew up in southern BC, Canada, just over the border from Washington State. After teaching high school for four years, he responded to God’s calling and enrolled at Westminster Seminary California. After three thrilling years of training there, he graduated and was ordained and installed as the pastor of Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC, Canada. After serving there for 6 years (2018-2024), he accepted the call to be the pastor at Bellingham United Reformed Church in northwest Washington. He is married to Ardis and they have three beautiful boys.

  More by Jason Vander Horst ›