John 18

 ³³ Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. ³⁴ Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” ³⁵ “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?” ³⁶ Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” 

³⁷ Pilate said, “So you are a king?”   Jesus responded, “You are right to say that I am a king. In fact, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

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Pilate calls for Jesus to be brought into his palace, and there asks him a logical question – logical, considering that an hysterical mob was waiting outside, demanding that Jesus be executed.  Pilate asks: “Are you the king of the Jews?” 

Now, Pilate was not a king himself, but he was the highest- ranking civil authority in that land at the time; an unpopular figure backed in his power by the might of the Roman army itself, and the Emperor. From a human point of view – which was all he knew, of course - he (Pilate) held the life of this ‘rabble rouser’ in his hands.  He had the power. 

But Jesus does not immediately answer him; in fact, first, he asks Pilate a rather curious question. He says, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” Did you ever think about that question? As many Easter/ Holy Week sermons that I’ve heard over the years, and books that I’ve read, I can’t remember hearing anyone giving a reason, or an explanation for that question. (A fact which should probably caution me not to attempt it, but I can’t help it!) See, I don’t think that there are wasted words in the Scriptures. And so I think there is something to that question, because Jesus apparently accepted Pilate’s answer to it, and not only did he then answer Pilate’s question, but he answered it in a very clear, straightforward manner.  In a way that helps all of us today better understand what the Kingdom of God is about. 

“Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” We have to take a detour over to the Gospel of Luke to see this. Luke is the only Gospel writer of the four who records the interview that Jesus had with Herod, who just happened to be in Jerusalem for the Passover.  Now, Herod was a king, and Pilate had sent Jesus to Herod partially because he wanted to ingratiate himself to Herod (and technically, Jesus was from Galilee, where Herod ruled), and partially because Pilate just didn’t want to have to deal this himself.  It was turning into a ‘lose/lose’ situation for him.

So in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 23, we read an interesting line: 

⁸ Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. ⁹ He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. 

Did you notice that?  Herod “had heard about him [i.e., Jesus] and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle.” So we read a little between the lines, and we may hear Luke telling us that Herod’s questions were not, in any way, a seeking of truth, it was all about his own entertainment.  Satisfying his curiosity. He just wanted to see a miracle. And Jesus, chose to ignore him completely.  He refused to answer a single question.  Herod then gets frustrated, and mocks Jesus, and puts a royal robe on him. 

Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate.  But when Pilate asked Jesus a question, ‘the’ question, really  (“So, are you the King of the Jews?”)  before answering, Jesus asks him -  “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” (Sound familiar?)  It sounds to me that the point of this is to determine the sincerity level of Pilate’s ‘seeking’. It sounds like Jesus is asking, “Are you like Herod – or are you actually looking for the truth?”  I don’t know how else to read it. 

And what really blows me away in this is that Jesus apparently saw enough of whatever he was looking for in Pilate to satisfy him, so that he answered him fully.  To me, that is a wonderful revelation of the way Jesus works in the hearts of human beings. Jesus said, “If you seek you will find”. In Jeremiah, “If you seek me with your whole heart, you will find me.” If we are not honestly seeking truth we will not find it. I said this last week, “God is not going to force himself on us.” But if there is anything within us – on any level – that is open to God, God will honor that, and reveal himself to us. 

Not that Pilate was about to become a disciple!  He was an evil guy – not as bad as Herod, who was a complete maniac – but not a shining example of virtue, either.  His answer to Jesus’ question is disinterested, almost mocking.  He says, “What, am I a Jew? Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?” 

And as we saw… Jesus answers him.

What he says to him, in a more or less literal translation, is ‘My kingdom is not of this world’.

I want to look at that sentence a bit, because it is a key to our understanding what the Kingdom of God is all about.  This sentence is rendered in a couple different ways by various translations.  For example, in The Message, it is put like this: “My kingdom,” said Jesus, “doesn't consist of what you see around you.”  

In the New Living Translation, “Jesus answered, ‘My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.’  

In fact, all the translations that I looked at go in this direction, and all of these are, obviously, valid interpretations of the original Greek of this passage.  But I think that because of the way we tend to picture the Kingdom of God, (or the Kingdom of Heaven), in our culture that these translations can be a bit misleading.  Why? Because they all make it sound like Jesus is telling Pilate, (and us) that his Kingdom is a “Spiritual entity” – and doesn’t therefore have any connection with this physical world of our senses…this place where we just happen to spend our threescore and ten years.  They sound like Jesus is saying that his kingdom is not ‘about’ this world.  It’s about something else.  Some other world… somewhere. 

If we’re not careful, we can easily fall into a very popular kind of ‘dualism’ which I would say to you, is totally unbiblical, and not at all what Jesus was telling Pilate.  It’s completely inconsistent with other things that Jesus taught us about the Kingdom. Just think of this – how often have we ourselves tried to separate our ‘spiritual lives’ from our ‘earthly lives’ – and we talk about this and think about it, as if those words actually have meaning!  “How your ‘spiritual life going?’  Good, and how’s the family, and your job?” Friends, I hate to shock you by having to tell you this, but we only have one life!  It’s all the same! 

When Jesus says to Pilate here in John 18, “My Kingdom is not of this world”, he uses a little Greek word “ek – [‘out of’, or ‘from’]” followed by ‘this world’ [two words which are in the genitive case.]  Now, if this were a Wednesday night study class, I’d love to chart this out for you on a board, but I’ll restrain myself and simply say this: Both the word ‘ek’ and the genitive case in Greek can mean a lot of things, but one of the possible meanings for both is ‘the source of something’. “The thing out of which something flows.” It’s called ‘a genitive of source’.  The meaning is determined by the context. And, I think that clearly this is the meaning of the words in this verse. 

So Jesus, then, is not saying that “his Kingdom has no connection with this world.”  Instead, He is telling Pilate – this human ruler, this guy who thinks that he holds power over Jesus – that the Source of his Kingdom, the authority of his Kingdom, the power backing his Kingdom, is not this world.  “You’ve got your armies, and your power, and you ask if I’m a king. Well, let me tell you, “I am a king but my power [my authority] does not come from this world.” That’s the way I read this. And that, in fact, makes his next statement much more logical: 

If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” 

So, what difference does this make?

I don’t usually take words apart in my sermons like this, because I know that not everyone gets as excited over parsing Greek idioms as I do. And that’s OK!  But this is important, I think.  Because the tendency of the church in the Western world over the past say, 50 years or so, has been to be more and more accepting of a disconnect between faith, the Church, ‘religion’ and our day to day life.  We’ve bought into the concept that Christianity is something that takes place in our heads, and has little connection to this world: i.e., our families, our jobs, our schools, our free time, our investments, our government… and that is, again – unbiblical.  And, worse, it has made the church weak.  Too much of the Christian church does not model anything like the life that Jesus invited people into.  This abundant life, this victorious life. 

Bill Hull in his book, Choose the Life makes a profound observation. He says that a big contributor to that ‘shift’ that I just mentioned has happened because we (i.e., the church) have changed our understanding – and our teaching - about where we should look for evidence of Christian growth or maturity in a person.  He says, that most Christians today define a ‘strong Christian’ or a ‘mature Christian’ as someone whose theology is solid, someone who ‘knows their Bible’, someone who can clearly articulate their faith.  So we tend to define a mature Christian by what is in their heads. 

But, he says, when you read the Scriptures, what comes across clearly – in the Gospels, from the words of Jesus, to the writings of Paul, and in the wisdom literature – maturity in a Christian is not evidenced by what we know, but by what we do. In the scriptures, the evidence of Christian faith and maturity is not knowledge, it is ‘fruit’ – good deeds, compassion, forgiveness, mercy…love!  

Now don’t misunderstand me, it is certainly important to have a correct understanding of things – our theology is terribly important because our beliefs tend to determine what we do – but we cannot stop there.  The beliefs have to be put into action, they have to be translated into real life.  That is the bottom line; otherwise we end up with something other than the Kingdom of God in our midst. 

So, back to Jesus’ statement to Pilate – he is absolutely not telling Pilate that his kingdom is of some other realm, or other order, or some place that has no connection with this world.  He is informing Pilate that the power source of his kingdom does not come from this world. Our power isn’t from this earth. 

But the Kingdom of God exists in this world.  Every parable that Jesus told about the kingdom of God is an illustration showing how intimate is the relationship between the kingdom and the world. The Kingdom exists within the world, and for it’s transformation – as the love of God, the light of the world is made known. “The “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.” (Matthew 13:33). 

Or, this one: “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away.”  (Matthew 13: 46 – 47)  The point of that parable is the same as one about the wheat and the weeds – i.e., the citizens of the Kingdom of heaven are found intermingled with everyone else in the world. We’re all here together. Someday we’ll be separated, but for now, it’s all mixed up.  But we’re making an impact, as the Kingdom interacts with the world. 

You see, the Kingdom of God is not a place, per se; its not a defined area with boarders and all; the Kingdom of God is simply the place where God rules. And where does God rule?  In the hearts - in the lives - of those who have declared their allegiance to him, God rules in the hearts of all those who have said ‘yes’ to the invitation of Jesus Christ to ‘follow me’.  And the strongest evidence of this rule is not things we talk about, the evidence is found in what we do. 

One of the clearest statements of this from Jesus himself is one that we all know very well.  One of the first petitions in the Lord’s prayer is this line:  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   That’s not two petitions, it is one petition. Jesus here, as the Hebrews typically did, is saying the same thing in two different ways.  So the coming of God’s kingdom is exactly the same as people doing the will of God on the earth.  Turn it around: when we do God’s will, the Kingdom is here!  And what is God’s will?  In a word, “to love one another as Christ loved us.” 

Today [tomorrow] is a special day in the Christian calendar. It is called ‘Christ the King’ Sunday.  The significance of this day is that it is the last Sunday in the liturgical year.  Next week a new year begins, as the Church celebrates the season of Advent, and again we will anticipate and prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ. 

On this day, Christ the King Sunday, we focus on the end result of all those things that have been remembered through the Christian year – Jesus’ birth, his suffering, his Resurrection, his teachings.  All of these lead to his rule as King.  “A day is coming”, we read in Philippians “When every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2: 9 – 11).  On that day, the Kingdom will be fully revealed.  But we’re not there yet! Until that day comes, the Kingdom is manifested one person at a time, as people hear the invitation of Jesus and say, “yes, I will follow you. And they do.  Yes, I will gladly receive your grace into my life.  I gladly receive your forgiveness, and I will follow you in obedience.  I will follow you by my submission to your rule in my heart; my decisions, my will is yours.”  Wherever that is said in truth, The Kingdom has come. 

I was out driving one time and I came up to this pickup truck at a stoplight. The owner of this truck was obviously a guy of deep loyalties.  There was an orange, steer-head icon on the cab window with the words, “Texas Longhorns” on it.  The Trailer hitch had another steer –head icon and the word “Texas”.  The License plate frame had one of those borders on it with the “Longhorns” on top and “University of Texas” on the bottom.  There were even actual horns on the hood! 

But there was one thing that didn’t quite add up.  That decorated license plate frame was firmly holding in place a yellow and black, good ol’ “Garden State” license.  Apparently, this person had moved to NJ from Texas, and hasn’t yet gotten over the shock. He has not yet identified with his new home, and probably has no plans of changing loyalties. 

And you know, that’s normal human behavior. When we move, we often go through a slow transition of loyalties to our new home. But you know what? We do the same thing as Christians.  When we come to Christ, the Kingdom of God becomes our home, but the kingdom of this world does not leave our hearts easily.  The great challenge of the Christian – the road to maturity as a believer – is in overcoming our divided loyalties, and fully identifying with God’s kingdom – God’s rule in place of ours – while we’re still here on this earth.  And that can take awhile. 

Last weekend was our first “Celebration of Discipleship” weekend.  As each service went by, I found myself more and more moved, until I was pretty much speechless by the 11:00 service. It was just amazing to see literally hundreds of people coming forward with signed cards indicating your intention to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.  There were four areas mentioned on those cards – our personal seeking of God, (including finding someone to walk with us on the journey), our worship, our service, and our giving.   As I mentioned, these cards are going to be placed in the prayer room and you will be supported by prayer throughout the coming year in your journey.  [If you weren’t here last week and want to be part of this, there are extra cards available on the welcome table. Please do!] 

Listen to this parable, from Matthew 21: 28 - 32

"Tell me what you think of this story: A man had two sons. He went up to the first and said, 'Son, go out for the day and work in the vineyard.'

"The son answered, 'I don't want to.' Later on he thought better of it and went.

"The father gave the same command to the second son. He answered, 'Sure, glad to.' But he never went.

"Which of the two sons did what the father asked?"

   They said, "The first."

Jesus said, ‘You are correct’. 

The easy part is saying “Yes, Lord, I will follow you.”  But, as I’ve been saying throughout this message, the Lord is looking for us to do more than have good thoughts and intentions.  When I think of these four hundred and something cards sitting right now on my desk, I think of all these people who have publicly declared our intention to take our commitment to be followers of Christ very seriously. 

And, honestly, I’m having a hard time grasping the enormity of what that can mean… put it in this context: Jesus changed the entire world with just 11 committed disciples!  (Talk about potential!)  Just 11… 

But as this parable reminds us, the real impact will be determined over the next months and years as we either follow through on our intentions, or we do not.  Some will and some won’t.  And some, like that first son in the parable, will go out and do the will of the Father whether we respond immediately or not. 

And that is what will make an impact.  When we do the will of God. 

“May your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”