Luke 17:21

Luke 17:21

Let us consider the kingdoms which are not material, but of a finer substance than matter, and whose forces and powers are represented by other than materialistic ones. Of these kingdoms we mention three

I. The kingdom of Mind. (1) Its creations are immortal; (2) its kings suffer no dethronement. At the motion of their hands our thoughts start up for service. Their kingdom is like a sea that has no shore; it is limitless. The race of man, irrespective of local boundaries, irrespective of governmental divisions, acknowledges the supremacy of their dominion.

II. The kingdom of the Heart. Where, in this kingdom, will you find any signs of age, any evidence of weariness, any vestige of decay, any proof that it has an end? Look where you will; sight it from whatever point of view you choose; measure it by whatever standard your ingenuity can invent, and you will find that this kingdom is a kingdom that knows not the measurement of time, that suffers not the infringements of age, that has never felt, and may never feel, the weakening of duration.

III. The kingdom of Soul. The kingdom of the mind naturally suggests man; the kingdom of the heart naturally suggests companionship and social communings; the kingdom of soul represents eternity. It represents God and the beings that are allied to God, and are of Him as the Son is of the Father. But the forces of the kingdom of soul are not to be seen in action like the former, and the reason is because this is not the sphere and the realm of their action. What refers to matter here has reference to earth and time; but soul refers to spirit, and has reference to heaven and eternity; and it is only by a mighty swing upwards, of ourselves, that we can reach that level of contemplation. Ranging our sight along which we behold the multitudinous activities of the soul. It is over this inward kingdom that Christ rules. It is within this kingdom that He energises. It is out of this kingdom that His glory has to proceed. And they who search to discern Him in spirit and life, in holy expression of consecrated faculty, in the energy of capacities dedicated to God, shall find Him; and they shall find that in these He is all in all.

W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit,p. 334.

Though the "kingdom of God," in its highest sense, certainly occupies space, we are quite sure, nevertheless, that we shall find heaven much more a state than a place. We know already, even here, that happiness does not depend on where we are. Happiness is a condition of mind. We carry about with us a feeling which makes the atmosphere, which determines the colour of the prospect. And what is all this? What is this great moral truth, which commends itself to every man's experience, but an approach to, and a part of, that truth, "The kingdom of God is within you"? But only a part; we have to look at it in a far higher meaning.

I. I believe that every one, in this present world, is gradually but surely ripening, and getting like the state whichever the state may be where he is to live for ever and for ever. The final condition of a saint in glory is only the growth and the increase and the extension of his life on earth. He has been constantly assimilating to his own perfected condition in another world. The heaven is in him long before he goes to heaven.

II. Heaven, we are led to expect, will be: (1) Light. But what are the emanations of that light? Truth, clearness, uprightness. And that is heaven. If you are a child of God, there is in your heart, transparency, strict justice, perfect truthfulness. The kingdom of heaven is within you. (2) Harmony. If you are a man that loves unity, if you hate variance, if you are doing all that in you lies to make the Church's unity then, in so far, the kingdom of God is within you. (3) Singleness of purpose. Whichever of us can say, "One thing I do whether I eat or drink, whatever I do, I try to do it to the glory of God" then of that one I assert, "The kingdom of God is within you." (4) Humility every angel covering his face with his wing. If I see a man very little in his own eyes I know that the kingdom of God is within him. (5) Through all heaven, it is the one felt Presence of Christ which is, to all hearts, all their joy; because He is there, therefore it is what it is. And, just according to what Jesus is to you, and you are to Jesus the more would an angel of truth, if he visited this church to-night, say of that soul of yours, "The kingdom of God is within you."

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,4th series, p. 15.

References: Luke 17:21. E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 163. G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons to English Congregations in India,p. 219; C. Kingsley, National Sermons,p. 176; Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Church of England Pulpit,vol. iii., pp. 56, 92; Homilist,new series, vol. ii., p. 371.Luke 17:22. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1323.Luke 17:22; Luke 17:23. D. G. Watt, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 104.