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While the kingdom of God has already come in Christ, it is still not yet fully here until the Son of Man comes again. What are we to make of this, and how should we respond to Jesus' words about the end times? Today, Pastor Weihi shares our message.

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This morning, um, we are we are still going through uh selected portions of Luke as we are entering as we are in the Lent season. Um and we're and this morning we're looking at a topic that is a running theme throughout all the gospels, right? And that is the coming of the kingdom of God. And here Jesus speaks uh about the reality of God's kingdom. Um, that on the one hand it is already here, and on the other hand, it is still to come. And so in Luke chapter 17, verses 20 to 37, um, it starts off with a question from the Pharisees. Yeah, and and it starts off this way being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is, or there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. We don't know if the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus, but it is interesting that they are now asking Jesus about the kingdom of God. Since earlier they were ridiculing Jesus in Luke chapter 16, and judging from Jesus' response, is they seem to not just be asking when it will come, but what the signs will be. Right? They wanted to know what to look out for to ascertain that the kingdom of God is coming. Now, importantly, the Pharisees had their own idea of what the kingdom of God will look like. And that colored their understanding of how and when God's kingdom will come. And so, very broadly speaking, for them, the kingdom of God means liberation. Right? It is about uh God coming, God's kingdom coming, uh, and it will be a time when God will come down and set the nation Israel free from foreign rule. Right? So to them, the Messiah, the Christ, is uh the anointed one, the chosen one who will bring God's kingdom. And he will come as a priest, as a warrior, or as a king, or all a combination of these things. Right? So, what they were really looking out for was signs that the Roman rule will be demolished.

unknown 2:25

Right?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

They were waiting for the Messiah to usher this kingdom and tear down foreign rule so that they will be free, so that they will be politically uh a sovereign nation under God once again. And because that was their understanding, because that colored the way they saw the kingdom of God, they completely missed that the kingdom had already come in Jesus. And so with great irony, they asked Jesus when? Lord, when when will the when will God's kingdom come? When it had already come, and Jesus says it was right in their midst, it was right under their noses, and yet they couldn't perceive it. They were spiritually blind to God's purposes and plan for humanity and for the world, and it was so because they had no interest in the kingdom of Jesus. Their concern was about their political situation, right? Whereas Jesus came not for a political purpose, but for a spiritual one. He came to tend the hearts of men and save souls. He wasn't gonna storm Caesar's courts with a sword, he was gonna storm the gates of hell by way of a cross. So, what is meant by the term kingdom of God? It does not primarily refer to a place, but it refers to the reign or the rule of God. To believe in Jesus then is to receive and to come under the kingdom, to come under God's reign in your lives. Jesus' work on the cross decisively dealt with sin and death, so that sin does not rule over us anymore. Sin has no reign in our lives, death has lost its thing, and the devil is powerless against the spirit that lives in us. And that is the gospel of Christ. That is the gospel that Jesus came to proclaim. And the way into this kingdom is through repentance and faith. But the Pharisees did not understand this message, and so they were still waiting for signs, right? They were still waiting and living as if the kingdom had not yet come. And so this is Jesus' interaction with the Pharisees. Very quickly, right after Jesus answers the Pharisees, he turns to his disciples to further unpack the other dimension of the kingdom of God. While it is already here in Christ Jesus, it is not fully here yet. So while the power of sin, death, and the devil has been dismantled by Jesus, their complete eradication will come only when Christ returns to pass final judgment on the world. So there will be a time when uh we who have entered God's reign now will inherit God's kingdom in full and in everlasting peace with him. And so there's this tension of the already and not yet, right? When it comes to the kingdom of God. And so there is a future time when the kingdom will come fully. And speaking about that future consummation of God's kingdom, Jesus tells his disciples, The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you will not see it. And they will say to you, Look there or look here. Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And so over the years, over the centuries, actually, uh there have been many people who have tried to calculate uh the end days, right? And they try to pinpoint when God will come back. And they have thus far all failed. And I'm sure some of us wished that Jesus would just come back already, right? Especially holidays are over or exams are coming. You will kind of wish Jesus would just come back now so that we don't have to do any of this anymore. Um, but the second coming of Jesus cannot be controlled and cannot be calculated. A striking feature of Christ's coming, uh second coming is that everyone will know when he's back. Right? It wouldn't be something only a few will know. Uh, even though there are a lot of people who claim that Christ has returned or that that here is the Christ, there is the the the the man who will bring salvation, right? Um it is not something that's hidden or just for a few people to to reveal to us. God, when he comes, will reveal his presence to all of us. So when we look at what Jesus says, it's very clear that people who claim that they are the Messiah or they have the Messiah in their area in their church are obviously wrong. Right? I mean, in there are a few kind of more in the last minute one or two centuries. Uh, if you heard of uh Moonis, you heard of a unification church in Korea, um, the founder it the founder claims to be not the Christ, but a Christ. Right? He claims to be um a messiah that Jesus has kind of uh commissioned him to come and continue his work to save the world. Um and another person uh also from Korea, also uh An Sung Hong, he is the founder of uh Church of God, Jesus Witnesses. And after his death, you know, World Society Mission, Church of God claimed that he is the second coming uh Jesus, second coming Christ. Right? And I and I and I kind of bring this up because that church is quite active in our country, right? Sometimes you will pass by uh MRT stations and all, and people stop you and try to speak to you about about God, about God the Mother, the whole new revelation now and all. People claiming to be Christ is alive and well, right? Like there are people who are still claiming that they are the Christ. But that clearly can't be right. When Jesus returns, you know, Jesus says it'll be like a lightning flashing in the dark sky. Uh and that is a picture of what they call a mega flash, right? It will just kind of flash across the sky, and you cannot be missed, right? Nobody will miss it. And so we wouldn't need someone to tell or show us. All of us will see him on the day of his return. We call that day the day of the Lord, right? And the day of the Lord is frightening, it is it will be a sure and sudden destruction. And Jesus compares that day with the flood in Noah's time, uh, and also the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So, verse 26 to 30, I'll quickly read it out for us. Just as in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, they were marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on that day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulphur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Part of why it is frightening is that the people were just doing very ordinary things. Right? Jesus wasn't even describing debauchery and all that, right? He was just doing very ordinary things. They were eating, drinking, marrying, being married, being given in marriage. They were just buying and selling, planting, and building. And very suddenly they were destroyed. And that's kind of the point. Right? The people were going about their daily lives and were so taken up in their affairs that they did not heed or care about God. And so the judgment came to them. The judgment that came to them was swift and sudden. So Jesus tells us the day of the Lord will be the same, we'll be like that. Right? When Jesus comes and brings judgment, he'll do it suddenly. And there is this sense of great urgency on the day of his return. Um, and and so I think a couple of verses uh has great bearing on our life today. But just let me read out 30 uh verses 31 to 33. On that day, let uh 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. Verse 32, remember Lord's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. Jesus specifically says, Remember Lord's wife. And if you read through Genesis 19, the angels of the Lord eventually removed Lord, uh, removed his wife and his their two daughters from Sodom. Right? They were warned not to look back, and only when they have safely escaped to the city of Zoah did God bring down the fire and suffer on Sodom and Gomorrah. Right? So Lord's wife at this point was already safe. Right? She has safely escaped the doom, uh, but she looked back, even though she was she was told not to. Probably looking back at what she had and the delights she used to enjoy. Her longing for her old life in Sodom brought judgment. Then she was turned into a pillar of salt. When the kingdom of God finally comes in full, we must be ready for Him. Right? There can be no turning back to what we had, no clinging on to our possessions, even it is for self-preservation. For Jesus says, whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. And so, what are the implications for us today? Right? What can we learn from the interaction between the Pharisees and Jesus on the one hand and the teaching of Jesus to his disciples on the other? The Pharisees are a group of people in the Bible that we love to hate, right? And that's understandable considering how many things they get wrong and how often they are rebuked by Jesus. And yet, like the Pharisees, sometimes we misunderstand what the kingdom of God is. We misunderstand what the reign of God in our lives is really all about. And we live as though the kingdom hasn't really come yet. We live as though we are not rude or governed by God. And sometimes we even find ourselves simply doing whatever we want in our lives, right? And then using spiritual language to justify it. In uh 2018, someone created this card game in Singapore called the Singaporean dream. Um every player starts with a personality, and and uh no, each of you, each of us will have a starting point, we have special dreams and all. Um and the goal is to collect as many Singaporean dreams as you can, right? And the one with the most dreams wins. Uh presumably, because you'll be at the top of society, you are like apex in the in your in your society, right? Uh and and so if you can achieve uh if you can achieve the most, you win. Yeah uh and I think it's a really fun game. How many have ever uh played this game? Uh just a show. No, not many people. It is really, really fun. Uh, if you're able to get a copy or like like I don't know, borrow from someone, just play it, right? Um it's fun and it's relatable, right? And I think maybe there's a the uh a bit of a trouble. I think it is a bit too relatable, right? As Singaporeans, we it is hard not to get caught up in a Singaporean dream. From young, we are encouraged to envision what our lives should be. Or we have our own ambitions for our children, and we become so preoccupied with these uh dreams. And yet, chasing these dreams are not actually God's number one priority for us and not what the kingdom of God is about.

unknown 14:06

Right?

SPEAKER_01 14:06

The Pharisees thought the kingdom of God was about political liberation from foreign rule. Whereas for us, living in a time of peace, affluence, and opportunity, we can very easily think that the kingdom of God is about being in a kingdom of rich resources that God lavishes on us so that we can achieve these dreams and desires. But even today, the kingdom of God is first and foremost about our spiritual situation. It's about God's reign in our hearts and in our minds. That we are liberated from the power of sin and death, and that we allow Him to rule over every thought, word, and deed. That we give ourselves up, we give up our dreams, our ambitions and hopes so that God can have his way with us. Does that mean we don't ever aim for great things in life? Or does that mean that all dreams are illegitimate in the kingdom of God? Of course not. This is that's not true at all. And and I think achievements and positions in life are not inherently bad. It is even even the idea of money isn't bad, right? Paul says the love of money is one of the many roots of evil, and so it's the love of these achievements and possessions, becoming so preoccupied with these dreams that is the problem. And the problem lies in our heart, our sinful nature, that as I as Augustine kind of puts it, we prioritize or we seek out the lesser good instead of the greatest good, instead of God, right? It is when we seek the lesser good that we sin against God. And so, what are we to do? Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and that is Matthew chapter 6, verse 33. In the immediate context of that verse in Matthew 6, Jesus was uh Jesus has just told his disciples, don't store up treasure uh on earth but in heaven, and we need not be anxious about the basic necessities in life, right? Food, shelter, uh clothing. We don't need to worry about these things, right? But seek first his kingdom, and he will add this, uh and all this which shall be added to you. Meaning God will provide for our essential needs. But the principle remains true beyond the bare necessities. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, seek his redemption and his reign. Serve him alone as master, and let God add these things to you. Seek first his kingdom, not to seek our desires first and then see how we can cram God's kingdom into our life, right? That will be putting the cart before the horse. Right? Seek first his kingdom in our studies, career, in love life, in our love life, in hobbies or in everything else that we find meaningful. Seek first the kingdom of God. And you will find that rather than being a hindrance, his uh his kingdom, seeking his kingdom first will lead us to people and to places where we truly come alive in the purposes of God. And you may or may not actually achieve those Singaporean dreams, right? But that would be beside the point. And if you do achieve them, it is not because you strived for it, but because God led you to it, God added it to your life. And even if you don't, so what? You are count already counted as blessed by the Lord, no matter what your station in life is. A writer uh by the name of Drew Bratchett puts it this way: work hard and do amazing things. But do so out of the overflow and in response to the work that God has done for you already in Christ. Anchor your soul in Jesus. And when you have that, you can pursue your calling without fear of failure or rejection. You will bring glory to God because you won't be out there trying to steal God's glory for yourself. And when things don't go as planned, you will still have a hope and a stay. You'll be seeking first his kingdom instead of shoring up your own. So will you surrender your dreams and ambitions to God and see where seeking his kingdom first will lead you. So some of us might think, might be quite advanced in years, and you might think, you know, kind of at the end, it's time for retirement, it's time to chill, time to relax. And I want to say, even uh at your age, right, even senior as you may be, right, we we still need to first seek the kingdom. Right? When they like to say now the 70s is the new 60s, is that is that a saying, right? Uh we are we are still young, right? Even 70s is still young, right? And and whatever age we are, whether we are very young or we are very old, right, we are still to first seek God's kingdom for our lives and see where God is calling us to, where we can serve his purposes. And God may lead you to high places, he may lead you to achieve great things, or may lead you to somewhere where you would have never expected or considered. Right? It may be anything, it may be to the banking industry, to the government sector, it may be to the F and B industry, cleaning services, maybe a nonprofit organization, or to the music and arts. One is not more prestigious than the other in the eyes of God. But as we seek his kingdom first, we are all equally loved and honored by God, who alone is our joy and our reward. And so that's the first uh first point, right? Uh sometimes we are like the Pharisees, we live as if the kingdom has not come yet. Um just as uh just just as an equal danger, um we are also in the danger of living as if God, as if Jesus were not coming back. If the Pharisees lived as uh as if the kingdom hasn't come, right, as disciples of Jesus, we sometimes have this danger or risk of living as if Jesus weren't coming back. When Jesus turned away from the disciples, uh Pharisees to the disciples, right, he's also speaking to us today, to his followers who see the kingdom of Jesus and have entered it uh by repentance and faith in him. And now Jesus calls us to be ready for his return. In a parallel passage, Jesus, after Jesus warns them of the destruction to come, he tells his disciples in Matthew chapter 24, verses uh 42 to 44, therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this if the owner of the house had known what time, at what time of night the thief had was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready. Because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Keep watch and be ready for Jesus' return. But it feels like Jesus, because Jesus hasn't come back in the last 2,000 years, right? We can just relax, right? Like I'm sure he wouldn't come back for another hundred, won't come back in my lifetime, at least, right? Uh that's what that's what we like to think. So we kind of relax a little bit. And then we uh nothing to do, then we keep watch on uh on other things instead, right? Um because other things are so much more immediate, and they are immediate uh things that we we need to watch out for, right? Um but because they are more immediate, they also kind of feel more essential to us, right? So we we rather keep watch on these things uh rather than on something that hasn't happened in a it happened all these years and we think likely won't happen in in our lifetime. That's why we might instead be watching, uh keeping watch on uh the recent development on the Silicon Valley Bank and the signature bank failures right in the States. Uh and we might be keeping watch as if our lives depended on it. Uh for some of us, especially, um the collapse of the of a global government will spell the end times. You'll be the opposite. Apocalypse when we find we we face another financial crisis. Or we might be on the edge of our seats, keeping watch on the geopolitical tensions of our time. Worried that at any time now, World War III will break out. Things we constantly keep watch on have a way of betraying our ultimate concerns in life. Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 6, uh, 21. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And to be sure when global crisis happens, uh we will all be in a lot of trouble. And life will be difficult. I mean when pandemic hits, we all we all have gone through it, we all have a taste of it. Global crisis brings about great trouble for us. And yet, as Jesus tells us, they are not to be the ultimate concerns of our lives. But we are prone to fixate on these things, right? We are prone to fixate on them as if our lives wholly depend on them. But one day, all these things will fade away. Right? What will remain are things of the kingdom of God. And really, it is God's kingdom that we are supposed to fix our eyes on. When God's kingdom is our ultimate concern, we inevitably keep watch and readily await the full arrival of his kingdom. And so what does that mean? What does it mean to keep watch and be ready for Christ's second coming? Uh, 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 10 to 13 uh tells us this that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, right? And then the heavenly bodies will melt away, everything will be dissolved, everything will fade away. Uh but verse and so verse 11, since all these things were thus to be dissolved, what sorts of people ought you to be? In lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Being ready means living in living a life of holiness and godliness so that we are always ready for the Lord to come. Now it is very interesting and probably very frustrating that God does not reveal when he will come back. Right? It's super frustrating, right? How come Jesus just don't tell us uh when he will come back? Um if we know when he will come, we can just you know be a bit more relaxed. Then maybe one month before that when we know he comes, okay, yeah. Let's let's let's get let's get things started, right? Let's shape up. Um and and and and before that we can just kind of sit back, relax, and wait for him to come back. Right? Um and that's what we think uh that's why we think preparation is. Uh preparing right before the uh and and and and especially procrastinators will be really good at that, right? And uh and maybe that's why there's always an impulse in us to look for signs and to try to predict his second coming. And Jesus has already preempted all these uh thoughts, right? When he said that the out the day and the hour, even he doesn't know, right? Jesus doesn't know even know when he will return. But God knows and it's keep kept hidden from us. And if God keeps it hidden from us, right, he must have a purpose for it. But in the meantime, don't listen to anyone who says to look here or there, or that he or she is the Christ. As we have seen just now, when he returns, it'll be so obvious that no one can miss it. But in the meantime, and this is where Jesus kind of is most concerned with, right? In the meantime, be faithful and be ready. And it's that in the meantime that we struggle with, right? In the meantime, there's an adage from the investment world, right? It is not about timing the market, but time in the market, right? Um, and and we are kind of tempted to think of about the things of God like this, right? Uh let me just do what I want first, then at the opportune time, I will turn my life around and receive God's reward for us. Right? We want to time uh the market, so to speak. And if I may borrow and modify that adage a little, it is not about timing the coming of the kingdom, but time in the kingdom that has already come. Right? If we want to come and face the reality of the already and not yet dimensions of the kingdom of God, it is not about trying to time Jesus' second coming, but it is about our time now, living as people in the kingdom of God that has already come. Keeping watch is not about timing his coming, right? It is not about predicting the end times so that we can shape up or even enter the kingdom at the very last minute and reap the rewards, right? It has got to do with living as kingdom people now. That in fact the benefits or the rewards or the blessedness, the blessings are even here already now for us, for our lives, as we uh live at live in his kingdom. And to do that, we must live as God's kingdom people, in accordance with Jesus' paradox in today's passage. Uh in verse 33, he says this, right? Whoever seeks uh his life, whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. In order to save our life, we have to lose it. And we lose it by dying to sin and to self. As Jesus reminds us of the people in the in Noah's time and uh in Lord's time, dying to self and dying to sin means we don't get so caught up with our daily affairs that we miss out what God is really, what God is already doing in our midst. It means not becoming so tattered to our possessions in the world that they become too precious to leave behind. Right? That we need to go back and save something when the Lord returns. It means not looking back longingly at our old ways of living before we came to know Christ, like Lord's wife did. When we die to sin and self, we are giving our lives over to God. For Him to reign over our hearts. We flee from temptations, we fight sin in our lives, and we offer our bodies as a pleasing sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We become kingdom-minded in everything we pursue so that God's kingdom may come and his will may be done in our lives. So, brothers and sisters, let us not live as if God's kingdom hasn't come or as if Jesus is never coming back. But let us give up our silly ways and instead seek first God's kingdom and righteousness in everything we do. And may we, having received his kingdom, eagerly keep watch and be ready for Christ's return with his kingdom coming in full. May we learn to lose our lives, to die to sin and self, so that we might keep it in Christ Jesus. May we who have accepted the love and grace of Jesus Christ break away from the rule of sin to come under the root of Christ.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.