Dead To The World

Dead To The World

Let’s open with John 18:36. Jesus has been arrested and is being questioned by Pilate.

“Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”

Now turn to 1 Corinthians 2:12.

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”

Let’s read one more verse. In John 15:19, Jesus is with His disciples at the Last Supper.

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

What have we seen in these three passages?

? Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world, which means Jesus was not of this world.

? When we are born again, we receive the spirit which is of God, which is not from the world. We receive the same spiritual life that lived in Jesus.

? As children of God, we are not of this world and the world will not be our friend.

Now the first question we must ask is this: What does Jesus mean when He tells the disciples they are not of this world?

Do you see the word “of” in these verses? In all three verses, it is the same Greek word, ek, which is a primary preposition that denotes origin – the point from which a motion or action proceeds. It identifies where someone or something starts or comes from.

In John 18, when Jesus says “My kingdom is not of this world,” He’s saying “My kingdom did not originate, did not come from, this fallen world.”

In 1 Corinthians, when it says we have the received “the spirit which is of God,” it’s telling us that, who we are – our spiritual identity – no longer comes from this world.

In John 15, when Jesus tells the disciples “ye are not of this world,” He’s saying that “After I am raised from the dead, you will be just like me – your place of origin will be Heaven! You will have nothing in you that ties you to this world.”

Now here’s the next question: If we are not of this world, should the things of this world dominate how we think and live? The Bible says that once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are no longer part of this world. There’s a song we song in church when I was growing up: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door and I don’t feel at home in this world anymore.” This world, ladies and gentlemen, is not our home.

As I was thinking about this, I remembered the excitement my brothers and sisters and I would feel when my Mom’s brothers and sister from Minnesota would visit. For however long they visited, our home was filled with “Do you remember when stories?,” laughter and, best of all, lots of food! My siblings and I would eat so much that we would lay on the couch, the floor – where ever there was an open space – and fall asleep. I remember one time when I awoke that Uncle Ray said “Barry, you were dead to the world.”

How many of you have heard that saying? It’s an idiom, or figure of speech, that describes a person who is so deep in sleep that it’s hard to wake him up. Not only that, the person is not conscious of the things going on around him. His sleep is not being impacted or disturbed by outside influences. To a person who didn’t know better, the person sleeping would appear to be dead. That’s why he is said to be “dead to the world.”

Did you know that this saying, when it was first used, did not mean to be so deep in sleep that you appeared dead? The phrase “dead to the world” originated sometime in the 1700s or before and originally referred to a person – now listen closely – and originally referred to a person who had made a decision to be dead to the world and its influences and be alive only to God and religious pursuits.

By the 1800s, “dead to the world” also meant “unconscious.” Over time people began using it to describe sleep from which one could barely be awoken. Do you see how its meaning began to degenerate and have no relationship to serving God? By the early 1900s, people sometimes even used “dead to the world” to describe someone who was extremely inebriated.