The Invisible Kingdom

Lk.17:20 - And when He was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.

What is actually visible to the optic nerve pertaining to the Kingdom of God? Nothing. Not the Father, not the Son, not the Spirit, not mercy, truth, hope, or eternal life. Even the Words of God, which Jesus said are Spirit, are communicated through written and spoken languages but they come from the everlasting and invisible Word. The magnificent Kingdom of God is invisible to the human eye.

The Lord Himself taught us that, like the wind, we can only see the effects of the Kingdom. So look around the room in which you are sitting, the Kingdom of God is there. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are present in your room - unseen. So if everything is invisible how did God communicate His message of the Kingdom after the visible Jesus returned to the unseen Kingdom? God has revealed Himself and His Kingdom for two thousand years through His Word, and He has used believing men and women to communicate and demonstrate that powerful and yet invisible Word.

II Cor.3:2 - You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.

When God said that we should be a "peculiar people", He wasn't talking about a culturally tempered Christianity, no, He was speaking of an unusual lifestyle that reflects love, mercy, conviction, contentment, and all the fruits of God's Spirit that should continually speak to a dark kingdom about the Kingdom of God's dear Son.

Phil.2:15 - That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you SHINE AS LIGHTS IN THE WORLD.

Distinctive and different, without self righteousness and false piety. Christ-like.

I Jn.4:17 - ...because as He is, so are we in this world.

You see, our lives are the vehicle by which God shows the world His invisible Kingdom. The more surrendered and transparent we are, the clearer the portal through which Christ can be seen and conversely the more we are consumed with "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches", the less the world is impacted by our lives. We are just like them, we sometimes talk a little differently, but substantially the same lifestyle.

II Cor.4:18 - While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things that are not seen: for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.

Many shacks - One Mansion. The man who lives in one of the shacks is visited by a messenger who informs him that they are cleaning the mansion and the man can move in permanently as soon as it is ready. And by the way, the man can bring anyone else who wants to come. When the man asks the messenger about his shack he is told "We're going to burn it as soon as you move into the mansion". Now the man starts to tell this story to his neighbors and at first they are a little intrigued, but soon they notice him painting, landscaping, and seemingly going to great lengths to remodel and fix up his shack. He goes to the shack bank and starts to save significant amounts of money that can only be used on his shack. He even spends a lot of time and effort going around to admire all the rest of the shacks in his city and he often gathers with others to talk “shack talk”.
Finally his friends put it to him bluntly, "Why are you spending any time and money on improving this shack when any day you say you will be moving into that colossal mansion? After all, that cursed dump is going to burn and if you listen carefully it seems to groan as if it wants to be burned. And didn't the messenger tell you to quit looking at this shack and start looking for the mansion you haven't seen yet?"
Even though the man had no answer, through the years most shack dwellers followed his example, and the words of the messenger changed as time passed to justify this behavior. In fact, it became almost impossible to tell the permanent shack dwellers from the ones that someday would move, but they waved at one another as they all painted.

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Now the last earthly person whose example the Scriptures exhorts us to follow is Paul. The last epistle that Paul wrote before he was martyred was Second Timothy. Let's see what the great apostle would say to us as he watched his shack burn and headed for the mansion.

II Tim.1:3 - ...that without ceasing I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day.
II Tim.1:8 - Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
II Tim.2:3-4 - Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
II Tim.2:15 - Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.
II Tim.2:19 - ...The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
II Tim.3:1 - This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
II Tim.3:12 - Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (The Falling Away version, "shall be materially blessed!)
II Tim.3:16 - All Scripture is given by inspiration of God...
II Tim.4:3-4 - For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away from the truth...
II Tim.4:8 - ...love His appearing.

The chosen Apostle to the gentile bride has told us to look upon the eternal and the invisible. How can a person look at something that is invisible? Only a born again follower of the invisible King and His Kingdom can fully understand. We might not always fully obey that exhortation but we know exactly what Paul is saying. Today the visible church seems preoccupied with the visible world and together they have not only made a truce, they have become the best of friends. The church talks, preaches, teaches, saves, and behaves as if the visible world is the only kingdom that there ever will be.

What would Paul say to us if he were still alive today? Read the New Testament, that is still what he would say. God's Kingdom is still invisible and we should be living in it, inviting others into it, and "Looking for that Blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of our Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ". The everlasting Kingdom will be revealed very soon and the corruptible will be changed into the incorruptible, the mortal into the immortal, and the invisible into the visible. I do not deserve it, but I desire it.

Let me go a step further, I don’t deserve Him, but I desire Him.
"Even so come, Lord Jesus!"