Occupy Till I Come

Luke 19:11-27 LUK 19:11-27
Few portions of scripture contain fuller instruction as to God's present ways than this parable in Luke 19 of the nobleman in a far country. In verse 11 we learn that Jesus spoke it "because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.”
Right after this He entered Jerusalem and His disciples hailed Him as King saying, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord." v. 38. They expected, as the two disciples on the way to Emmaus declared, that He would at that time "have redeemed Israel" (Luke 24:21) and also that the kingdom of God would be thus manifested.
We see from Luke 17:20, 21 that the kingdom had already come, but it was not yet with outward show or observation. It was even then among them, but neither then nor now, as a visible kingdom, was it recognizable by the world. The real "children of the kingdom" may recognize it in its present hidden form. Christendom may acknowledge it as a kingdom in word, but with no true sense of God's sovereignty. The rest of the world can see in it nothing but a religious profession with no character of a kingdom about it.
While the kingdom of God in the veiled form in which it now exists had already come, it had not then, nor now, appeared or been manifested. It was to check the eager anticipations of the disciples as to its immediate appearance that this parable was spoken. In it, therefore, the Lord details what is to happen before that appearing, for which they were looking, should take place.