The Kingdom ... within!
Luke 17:20-21 NKJV “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.’”
What was Jesus saying? What does this mean, the Kingdom within? Is it not a physical structure we can see with our senses? The Pharisees must have been so lost at that moment. Think of the position of the Jewish leaders at that time, avidly looking for signs that would precede the arrival of the Kingdom and the Messiah. Now here is Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, and they are still looking for signs! So, as they are trying to corner him with another technicality, Jesus hits the “blow your mind” button and says, “Hey! You’re looking for the kingdom out there somewhere, and you’re not going to find it! The Kingdom, it is inside of you!” Too much! Overdrive! TILT!
If Christ would have come with a scepter in His hand and ruled from a golden throne in the center of Jerusalem, He just may have fit their paradigm, but here Christ is presenting a concept of the Kingdom that is absolutely foreign to them. A kingdom that begins like a mustard seed, and continues to grow and expand until it covers the entire earth!
Here is the story in Mark 4:30-32 NIV, “Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.”
So here-in is found the revolutionary truth … the kingdom is within us!
When you hear the term “the Kingdom of God,” what do you picture? Many would picture streets of gold, a throne encircled by a rainbow, jewels, living creatures, the sea of glass, any scene that may be described in John’s Revelation. Or perhaps your frame of reference is relegated to life after death, a paradise resting place for those that will experience eternal life in Heaven.
The term kingdom indicates sovereignty, royal power, reign; a territory subject to the rule of a king. In a Spiritual sense, it is a realm. Christ was challenging them to not think of the Kingdom as a location or destination, but a realm that is within reach, in fact so in reach that it is within. There is a realm of true sovereignty, royal power, the reign and rule of the King of all Kings that resides within each one of us; a territory subject to the rule of the King. It is not to be viewed as a destination, but as a dimension that we can enter in.
Wesley said of the kingdom, “wherever it exists, it exists in the heart.” The beauty of all that He is (His character, nature, life, motives, heart) and all that He does (His power, His sovereign hand, His absolute victory and reign) is within us!
Paul says that this is all “within” us. This term within Scripturally indicates an instrumentally fixed position, a relation of rest. The kingdom of God is a tangible reality that is fixed in an instrumental position within us. We don’t have to beg God to come to us, He is already seated on the throne within us. Heaven is not just a reality for life-after-death, it is a reality we can begin to live in … now.