And then in (Luke) chapter 10 and verse 9, he said “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” In chapter 11 and verse 20 “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” He preached the kingdom and then he said as demonstrated by his power over satan and demons, the kingdom of God is near. And then he said the kingdom of God has come. He preached that the kingdom had come in chapter 11. Same emphasis, “the kingdom has come”. Chapter 12 verse 31 “Seek for his kingdom and these things will be added to you.” He preached on the kingdom as recorded in chapter 13, chapter 14, chapter 16, chapter 17, chapter 18 and he preached the kingdom particularly in that 18th chapter, verse 29 he said “there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present life and in the age to come eternal life.” And then he preached the kingdom in chapter 19, 21, 22 and as I noted earlier also in chapter 23.
He preached the kingdom. He was a kingdom preacher and he was preaching a kingdom that had arrived because he was the king and he was there, his kingdom was there. Well this just did not fit the Jews’ expectations. All this kingdom talk and where are the signs of the kingdom? Where is the great coronation? Where is the great event? Jesus knew what was on their minds. This was mockery. This was “you keep talking about the kingdom, you keep saying you’re a king, which they perfectly well understood to mean that he was the supreme sovereign,” They understood what it was to be a king. We have a hard time with that. We’ve never had a king in America. We don’t like absolute, unilateral rule. That’s not our approach. But they understood what a king was and they understood the absolute supremacy, absolute sovereignty of a king to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, with whomever he wanted. And there was no recourse. They understood exactly what it was to claim to be a king. But to claim to be a king without the appropriate kind of coronation and to claim to be God’s king and to have brought God’s kingdom without the attendant and what they thought to be absolutely necessary evidences of that was in their minds ludicrous and foolish.