The Kingdom in Our Midst

Several passages in the Gospels tell us that many of the first-century Jews who encountered Jesus saw Him as a prophet. For example, Luke 9:18–20 reports that the crowds thought that Jesus was Elijah or another of the prophets who had come back to speak to the Jews (see also Matt. 16:13–20; Mark 8:27–30). The Samaritan woman at the well perceived that Jesus was a prophet (John 4:19). Even those who opposed Jesus recognized that He might be a prophet or that He had some special spiritual insight. At the very least, they wanted His opinion on important issues because so many people were following Him. Whatever their reason for asking, the Pharisees came to Jesus on one occasion with a question about when the “kingdom of God would come” (Luke 17:20).

Their question arose from the expectation that the Lord would decisively intervene in history to save His people from their enemies and restore them to dominion over creation. This hope was based at least in part on the teaching of the Old Testament prophets on the day of the Lord (e.g., Zeph. 3). During the roughly four hundred years between Malachi and the coming of Jesus, Jewish hope for the day of the Lord reached its zenith. Many writings from this period speak of the coming kingdom of God, often saying that it will come in a great moment of worldwide upheaval with signs in the heavens, cosmic battles, and so forth.

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees regarding the coming of the kingdom was likely not what they expected. Instead of explaining when the kingdom would arrive, Jesus told them how it comes. He said that the kingdom will not come in a moment of cataclysmic reversal; rather, it was in the midst of them right then (Luke 17:20–21). Jesus was referring to His own ministry and presence among them. By extension, this means that God’s kingdom is present wherever Jesus is present with His people. Today that is in the church, for Jesus comes to dwell with His church by the Holy Spirit (John 14). As the church submits to the rule of Jesus, we reveal God’s kingdom to the world.

The Pharisees were not entirely wrong to conceive of the kingdom’s coming in a universe-shaking moment at the end of history. Scripture does refer to a final day of judgment when all will be set right (Dan. 12:1–2; Rev. 20:11–15). That day will mark the consummation of the kingdom, however, not its initial arrival. Its arrival occurred in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 11:20).