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A literal account of Jesus' bodily descent was never a theme for Matthew 24:30 and the central theme it is sourced from is Dan 7:13-14. The basis for Daniel 7 is concerned with the giving of the kingdom to a symbolic figure in human form who Daniel sees as coming on the clouds of Heaven. The interpretation of the vision by the angel in Dan 7:23-27 tells us that this figure stands for the community of the Jewish people who have remained faithful to the covenant of God when they had been over-run and ferociously assaulted by a pagan ruler, later identified as the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes in later chapters of Daniel.
Daniel's vision here in chapter seven tells the tale of divine judgement on the pagan kingdom and the blasphemous ruler Dan 7:11 and a vindication before the throne of God and the suffering of the saints of the Most High, who is the ancient of Days. The narrative as well, paints a pictures of Jewish transgression and apostasy, their judgement on their nation, by this pagan ruler as the historical agent of God.
Jesus recaps this story for His disciples because He believes that certain similar event, that will unfold in the coming decades, on a political and religious level, to the unrest and apocalyptic scenario like that of Antiochus Epiphanes. There is a two fold theme that is involved in this text, and that is Israel will suffer at the hands of a pagan aggressor, and many in Israel will choose a course of action, the wide and safe road Matt 7:13-14, that is bound for destruction. Likewise, Jesus gathers around Himself as the symbolic Son of Man, a community of "righteous" followers who would endure plenty of suffering for the sake of the good news bracketing the future of God's people. This community will eventually be vindicated, not only by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, but by the way of life they choose in taking up their cross for the spiritual temple despite the looming thought of being martyred.
The kingdom that is established is given to the Son of Man, which is not an invisible, ethereal kingdom bent on a mode of existence that we call the afterlife, or is it something that which is temporally unseen within the time space continuum. It is not an internal mode of or structure in reading Luke 17:20-21. "Kingdom" is fundamentally a matter of who reigns over God's people, and who exercises judgement over the people and defends them against their enemies both nationally, spiritually, or politically. These thems go back to the original demand for a king made to Samuel.
1 Sam 8:19-20 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
The coming of the kingdom has to do with the judgement of the current generation of unrighteous Israel, the salvation and vindication of faithful Israel, and the deliverance of the disciples from their enemies. Jesus' perspective is in part limited to the war against Rome. He is deeply concerned about Jerusalem, for the most part, silent about the growing antagonism that would follow the apocalypse in Judea between the emerging churches set up by the apostles over Greek and Roman paganism. This is precisely why the picture is told in the same apocalytic genre of Christ coming on the clouds of Heaven and is so closely associated with the coming war between Rome and the Judea rebellion.
The gather of the elect in Matthew 24:31 refers to, symbolically, to the inclusion of the disciples in Jesus' own vindication as the Son of Man. He "comes" as the one who alone receives the kingdom and authority from the throne of God after His own suffering in the passion and crucifixion on Mt Golgotha, and as the one who secures the vindication of His persecuted disciples and their followers.
Paul's outlook and view, is much broader in scope, as he uses the same apocalyptic genre in his sermons to the various churches in which he was sent to minister for God and Jesus Christ, and extends the narrative of Matthew 24 and Daniel 7 to make sense of the conflict between the churches and the pagan opponent who, like Antiochus Epiphanes, will seek to subdue and persecute with monstrous aggression towards the worship of God, and the practice of Christian communal worship seem in places like 2 Thess 2:14. The kingdom that is given to Jesus is a direct rule over the pagan powers of the world at large, the name of His which is above every name and the historical themes finds fulfillment in the conversion of the pagan empire to Christianity. Once we rightfully place these events in their historical place, the narrative come alive and clearly establish the fact that Christianity was born for a reason, to subdue the nations with Christ rule of Iron Rev 19:15. This took effect in 313 AD, when Rome caved into the hand of Christ.
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