This is how God works, and it is wonderful in our eyes. He first calls men and women and children secretly to himself. They walk with him and know him and worship him, while surrounded by a world which does not know him, a world walking in darkness and unbelief, which mocks the reality of faith and conversion. They maintain their witness to the world and prove the reality of those things invisible by staking their lives on them. But that does not, and cannot continue forever. When God’s purposes are ripe, the opportunity to enter his kingdom by faith will be withdrawn, and the door will be closed, and the invisible kingdom will become visible. We may only enter it in its invisible form, for we may only enter it by faith and not by sight.
There is therefore a period of waiting when patience built upon faith is required of us. The indication is that it will be a long period, and Christ says these words not just to the twelve apostles, but to all disciples throughout the ages. Patience will be taxed to the limit, and persecution will make it worse. The true disciple knows that all his good is bound up with the Lord, and he longs to see his Lord, and to have him visibly with him. Just as his faith is invisible, and just as the kingdom of heaven within him is invisible, so too the Lord is invisible at present. Right now he remains seated at the right hand of God in heaven, from where he will come again. When Christ returns visibly to this world at the end of history, then the kingdom will come in visible form. He will bring that kingdom with him, and Satan’s period of licence to operate will be ended. The kingdom of heaven is invisible now, not because God wants it to remain hidden forever, but because this fits perfectly with his plan for the world. If the kingdom came now, then judgment would have to come now, for there would be no further opportunity to exercise faith, and to enter the kingdom voluntarily. Those who remain in unbelief at the second coming will cower before him in terror, and not come boldly to him in repentance and faith. ‘When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2). We too will be transformed at that time. What was invisible in us will be made visible, and he ‘shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself’ (Philippians 3:21).
But before he comes, during times of great pressure on our faith, and persecution, we will long for Christ to be with us. We will long for him to overpower our enemies and snatch us out of their hands. We know that his love for us would not allow him to hesitate for a moment to deliver us once he appeared. But Christ says, ‘And ye shall not see it.’ The Lord will not appear, and God’s children will have to go on waiting, and hoping, and living by faith. He has told us this in advance, and so it must no surprise us when he delays to come. ‘The days of the Son of man’ are the days that every disciple is taught about in the world of God, in which Christ was with his people, and showed his great power to work miracles, and to defy his opponents. His disciples felt immensely safe with him. But even greater days are coming, and his people look forward to these days. But they must wait, and faith must continue to be exercised, and their attention will be focused on his second coming, which will be the solution to every problem: ‘He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus’ (Revelation 22:20). This is the proper mindset of the believer.