Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Friday after Ad te levavi, The First Sunday in Advent

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
Leave a comment
Scripture: St. Luke 17:20-25 (NKJV)
 
17:20 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; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
 
22 Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. 24 For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. 25 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
 
Devotion
 
The Pharisees are motivated by their formal principle that entrance into the kingdom is achieved by works. If you did good works, then God would save you and bless you. If you were receiving material blessings in this life, then God was pleased with your good works. If you were suffering, then you must have done something wrong and need to shape up. They even held that if all the inhabitants of Jerusalem would only keep the Sabbath perfectly, then the Messiah and His kingdom would return.
 
Jesus teaches them that the kingdom of God cannot be externally observed with visible and tangible works. First the Son of Man “must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” in order to provide the price of atonement. Second, the message must be proclaimed to create faith which admits into the kingdom of God. When Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is within you,” He is teaching that His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, consisting of all who have faith within them. Christ’s formal principle is that men are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
 
It’s not that external good works are forbidden. It’s just that they are the fruit of faith. God’s kingdom comes when we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. The Pharisees were imitating the works, but denying the faith. And thus, the kingdom did not come to them by their careful observation of the Law without faith.
 
Prayer: Stir up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins, and saved by Thy mighty deliverance; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Leave a Comment