Section 5
In Luke 17:20, Jesus is asked about the kingdom of which he has been speaking. The Pharisees could have been testing him or they could have been seeking confirmation of their bias of what it would be. Jesus gives them an answer that we should all keep in mind.
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Luke 17
20 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, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
In John 11, Jesus tells Martha, the sister of the recently deceased Lazarus, about two groups of people that will be resurrected because he is the resurrection. Those that believed in him and died will live, and those that live and believe in him will never die (after the resurrection).
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John 11
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus wants her to believe that resurrection is different than what she was taught. She thinks that it’s far away in the future, a last day, but it is soon.
Paul talks about the same issues we may find ourselves debating today. “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come back?” In 1 Corinthians he gives a very long answer so that his words would cover all questions that the reader may have, and he also continues to cover the issue in Ephesians 2.
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1 Corinthians 15
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
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Ephesians 2
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
To say that the resurrection or us being alive in the kingdom is a future thing is to ignore everything Jesus was teaching us about his mission and what was believed by his most knowledgeable followers. To say that the kingdom must come to Earth in a visible display is to be ignorant of what his presence among us even means. In Mark 12, Jesus tells people that the idea of being raised does not include a waiting period of death.
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Mark 12
26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”
This is very similar to Jesus saying “No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven” in John 3, if you’re thinking about it in terms of people being lifted upward (away from the ground) to be resurrected rather than being alive at all.
In John 12, Jesus is making “Now” statements about things for which people will say that they’re waiting.
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John 12
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Are we to ignore these statements when we look at what is to be in our future? Paul, when talking about his life reaching its end, says that the day of his death is the day he receives the crown of righteousness, as will anyone that believes on the day that they die.
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6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
When Peter writes about what he believes is the “Hope” of the future, he talks about it as an ever present reality that each person is awarded in their own time. His introduction in 1 Peter goes on to talk about how the words of the prophets were about the people of the present time. His audience would experience the “revealing” of Jesus at the end of the era. This fits quite nicely with the message of the writer of Hebrews, who emphasizes the temple, that because of Jesus, we don’t need the physical temple.
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1 Peter 1
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
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