Of Course Jesus Knew...

Jesus knew — knew — that we're carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we're all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look..."
~J.D. Salinger

As I was pondering the above quote, most of the scriptures I came across were found in the book of John..the gospel that deals more with the mystery of Christ...than the history of his acts.

Yes, Jesus did know about the kingdom within us and he spent most of his ministry trying to convey it to minds and hearts that were not ready to hear the truth he was proclaiming.

He even proclaimed it to the Pharisees!!!

Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods John 10:34 NIV

or as The Message translates it:

Jesus said, "I'm only quoting your inspired Scriptures, where God said, 'I tell you—you are gods.' If God called your ancestors 'gods'—and Scripture doesn't lie—why do you yell, 'Blasphemer! Blasphemer!' at the unique One the Father consecrated and sent into the world, just because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?

And then again in Luke.....

  Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20-21NIV

That's pretty plain, don't you think?

Don't you know that you are gods??? The Kingdom is WITHIN YOU...as it is within me....

And even those closest to him just didn't seem to get it....

You know the way to the place where I am going."

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" John 14:4-5

Oh come on Thomas...get a clue....listen up...pay attention!!!!

And Jesus tried again....

Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:10-12

And more assurance....

17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The NAS declares that they will make their "abode" with him...

a staying, abiding, dwelling, abode

metaph. of the God the Holy Spirit indwelling believers

And more assurance....how much plainer could he say it?

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:14-15 ESV

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one,even as we are one. John 17:9

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 17:20-26