allow me to quote the full scripture passage
Luke 17:20-25 (cont' verse 26-37)
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God
would come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not
come with observation; 21 nor will they say, See here! or See
there! For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.
22 Then He said to the disciples, The days will come when you will
desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not
see it. 23 And they will say to you, Look here! or Look there!
Do not go after them or follow them. 24 For as the lightning that
flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under
heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. 25 But first He
must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Background to this:
1) This statement was made in response to the question from the
Pharisees on WHEN the kingdom of God would come.
2) The general expectation at that time, is that the kingdom of God
is a physical kingdom (like that of King David/Solomon), and that
the Messiah is to lead them (in a war) to liberate them from
foriegn (Roman) rulers.
This is my personal understanding(others may differ):
1) On the subject of when the kingdom of God will come, is that no
one can really say, its here or its there, it come so suddenly that
those who are not ready will be caught off guard and
unprepared.
2) And as if to debunk the expectation that its a physical kingdom,
Jesus is saying that the kingdom will be a spiritual kingdom.
3) and before this kingdom of God can come, The Son of man must
suffer many things and be rejected, pointing to his
suffering/death/rejections that He have to go through.
