marks

thanks this was really helpful. do you happen to know what was meant by the following statement in the passage: And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together

In your lesson 4 you dispute the notion that "The Kingdom is essentially God's Reign in the individual soul" saying that the teaching is not found elsewhere in the Gospels. But what does John 17:20-24 say?

If you've ever been in a thunderstorm and seen a massive lightning bolt strike up in the sky with a clap of thunder - it is absolutely magnificent and if you are rarely filled with a sense of awe - at this moment you certainly will be. He's saying that breathtaking majestic power is inside of us - the kingdom - and it is stunning.

Jesus compares the kingdom of God to the lightning which lights up the sky from one end of heaven to the other. This is the power he says is within us in Luke 17:20. And he contrasts it to vultures feeding on a dead carcass - the false prophets. Matt 24:23-28

First thanks for the excellent questions and prompting me to think. It means before anything else the most important thing is the kingdom of god. Not to point out the obvious but in Luke 17:20 he says "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: