Coming of the Kingdom

The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. He replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Then He said to the disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see just one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘Look, there He is!’ or ‘Look, here He is!’ But do not go out or chase after them. For just as the lightning flash lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will be the Son of Man in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man: People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

“It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

“It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let no one on the deck of their roof come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one who is in the field return for anything he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: One will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together: One will be taken and the other left.”

“Where, Lord?” they asked.

Jesus answered, “Where there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”

See Luke 17:20–37

Notes: “One will be taken and the other left”: For the Gospel of Luke, the source manuscript Textus Receptus (TR) adds the statement: “Two men will be in the field. One will be taken and the other left,” the same as is recorded in Matthew 24:40.