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: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
The generality of the Jews, and particularly the Pharisees, expected that the promised Messiah should be a temporal prince, and deliver them from the Roman yoke, under which they groaned. Accordingly, the Pharisees here demanded of our Saviour, When the kingdom of God, of which he had so often spoken, should come? Christ answers them, That his kingdom cometh not with observation: that is, with pomp and splendor, which men may observe and gaze upon; but he tells them, the kingdom of God was now among them, by the ministry of John the Baptist and himself; and was already set up in the hearts of his people, by the secret operations of his Holy Spirit.
Learn hence, that the false notion which the Jews had of the Messiah and his kingdom, (that he himself was to be a temporal prince, and his kingdom a secular kingdom, to be set up with a great deal of noise, pomp, and splendor,) did hinder the generality of them from believing in him.
Secondly, that the kingdom which Christ designed to set up in the world, was altogether spiritual, not obvious to human senses, but managed in the hearts of his people by the sceptre of his Spirit. My kingdom cometh not with observation, but is within you.
BURKITT | Luke 17:1-2 | Luke 17:3-4 | Luke 17:5 | Luke 17:6 | Luke 17:7-10 | Luke 17:11-13 | Luke 17:14 | Luke 17:15-16 | Luke 17:17-19 | Luke 17:20-21 | Luke 17:22-25 | Luke 17:26-30 | Luke 17:31-32 | Luke 17:33-36 | Luke 17:37 |