TITLE: “In Your Midst”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is from the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on the words, "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 in your midst."

Jesus is having a conversation with the Pharisees about the kingdom of God. They wanted to know when the kingdom of God would come. For the Pharisees, when they thought of the kingdom of God, they thought of God’s power and judgment. God would come and judge the world, and he would condemn everyone who did not keep the Law like they did. Or so they thought. So Jesus begins this conversation by making an important point about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, Jesus says, does not come with observation. God’s kingdom, in other words, was not the same kind of kingdom as a kingdom of the world. In a kingdom of this world, how do you know where to find it? You find it by looking at where the government is. Where are the soldiers? Who is running things? It all comes down, I suppose, to power and control and responsibility. That is what a kingdom is about here.

But Jesus will have no part of that sort of kingdom. When Jesus was before Pilate during His humiliation and trials, He said to Pontius Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. That is what Jesus is talking about here. His kingdom doesn’t come with observation. It doesn’t come like the kingdoms of this world. You can’t measure it or define it or make it so nice and simple and clean. That is not the kingdom of God.

Then Jesus makes an even harder statement: For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst. Now you might notice that I translated that a little differently than our New King James Version translate it. They translate it the kingdom of God is within you, but that translation completely misses the point. With that translation, you could easily think something like the kingdom of God is in your heart or what you feel or even what you believe. The harder you feel or believe what God tells you, the more of the kingdom of God you have. But that’s not God’s kingdom.

No, a clearer way of understanding it would be to say the kingdom of God is in your midst. Or, we could put it into slang and say you’re lookin’ at the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, dear friends, is Jesus Himself. For where Jesus is, there is the whole sum and total of God’s revelation to the world. God’s power, His authority and might, His true nature are all given to you not in the trappings of this world, but if you really and truly want to know God, you need only look into the face of His Son, Jesus Christ.

It sounds so very simple, and yet we so often completely miss this basic reality of how God works in the world. Three stories from the Old Testament demonstrate this to us:

First we have the story of Noah and the flood. You know the story. The world was wicked and evil. They had forgotten God and His Word. They lived as if God did not matter and as if they mattered most. But Noah trusted in God’s Word. He heard the Word of God and said Amen to it. God revealed to Noah that He would destroy the world and everyone in it who did not repent and believe the Gospel. So Noah built the Ark. For a hundred and twenty years Noah preached and pleaded with the people of the world to repent. But they could not see what was right in front of them. They refused to hear God’s Word. The Kingdom of God was in their midst, but they rejected it for the sake of a lie, the lie that they were the most important thing in the world.

The second example our Lord uses is the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, lived in Sodom. He was a believer in the Word of the Lord, and did not hide who he was and the truth of God’s Word to his neighbors. But they refused to hear. They ate, they drank, they lived their lives blithely ignorant that God’s judgment was coming.

The third example is our Old Testament lesson, the story of the Golden Calf. God had delivered the people of Israel from the evil hand of Pharaoh and his minions. God had delivered them through the waters of the Red Sea and had promised them His everlasting faithfulness to them. But because Moses delayed coming down from Mount Sinai, the people became impatient with God’s timing and sought to fashion a God after one of their false gods from back in Egypt. They made a Calf, and idol made from gold that they would worship instead of the God who delivered them from all troubles and gave them His Word through His servant, Moses.

Now in each of these three examples from the Scriptures you see a people who refused to hear God’s Word. They lived their lives as if God had no part and place in who they were or what matters most to them. God’s judgment came upon all three, each in their own time. None of the three could predict exactly how or when God’s judgment would come, but they were so very busy doing their own thing that God, well, God would have to come later.

Our Lord says to you this day, repent. Repent of your false priorities. Repent of making and believing that the things of this world and the things of your life are more important than the great things God has in store for you. Repent of your selfishness with your possessions and your running after the false gods of worldliness, leisure and laziness. Repent of the false notion that you are in control of your life, and that you can map out everything which will happen to you. Repent.

Repent and believe. Believe that when Jesus says to you, the kingdom of God is in your midst, that He is speaking to you. Believe that Jesus is on your side, as the choir piece this morning confessed so well. Believe that the things of this life come and go, but that the Word of the Lord endures forever. Believe that Jesus loves you more than life itself. Believe that Jesus went to the cross, to suffering and death for you so that you would not be consumed by the lies of this world and the corruption when you face every day. Believe that when Jesus says, be not afraid, for I have overcome the world, believe that He is talking to you. St. Paul says in our Epistle lesson:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

That is your comfort and your hope, O Christian. Your comfort and hope lie in the Word of Jesus. For He is in your midst with His Word, He is in your midst by Water, Bread and Wine. He is in your midst with the sacred words of Absolution. He is in your midst even now, forgiving your sins and drawing you to His gracious embrace. Repent and believe, for our Lord has great plans for you, plans that will last to all eternity.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.