"My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

“My Kingdom is Not of This World.”

John 18:28-40

October 11, 2009

NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."

Me: Like most families, we swap babysitting chores with other members of the family once in a while.

So that means we have nieces and nephews over and we really enjoy that, most of the time.

One of the things that we tell our kids when they’re staying somewhere is that they are to follow the rules of that house.

If they don’t allow you to do something that we allow you to do, you aren’t allowed to do it, and we’ll support their decision.

The only exception to this was if that house allowed them to do something we didn’t allow. Then they still weren’t allowed to do it there.

Anyway, the idea is that when you are there, you are subject to their rules, and if you’re here, you’re subject to ours.

“I don’t care if your mom lets you string spaghetti through your nose, it’s gross and you’re not doing it here!” (I won’t tell you which of my in-laws lets them do that.)

Each “kingdom” has its own sets of rules and such.

We don’t go to a neighbor’s house and tell them how to run their household and raise their kids.

We also don’t allow them to do that for us.

We are in our kingdom, and that’s the way it is.

We: All of us have little personal kingdoms, whether it’s your home, your office, or area of responsibility somewhere.

And if anyone messes with that kingdom, Lord help them, right? Right.

God/You:

Well, in our passage of Scripture today, Jesus discusses His kingdom, and He’s discussing it with someone who just doesn’t seem to care, because he’s got his own little “kingdom” to take care of, and that’s making sure that these unruly Jews don’t get out of hand and get him in trouble with Caesar.

And there are some things we can learn about Jesus’ kingdom that we need to get a grip on and put into our lives if we want to be effective subjects of His kingdom, which is what you are if you claim to be a Christian.

Last week we looked at the exchange that Pilate had with the religious leaders. This week we look at the conversation between Pilate and Jesus.

Like last week, we pick it up as the Jewish leaders are bringing Jesus to Pilate.

It’s interesting here that they won’t go into Pilate’s palace because they didn’t want to defile themselves by going into a Gentile’s home or business room.

If they had, they would have been unclean for seven days, and they would have missed the various meals and such related to the Passover celebration.

Apparently it was okay to condemn and innocent man and still eat the Passover…

John 18:28-40 (pp. 767) –

28 Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"

30 "If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."

Don’t you just love how they skirt the issue?

Kids do this all the time.

“Mom, Julia’s being naughty!”

“What’s she doing?”

“She’s being naughty!”

“How is she being naughty?”

“She’s just being naughty!”

Pilate’s not biting.

31 Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."

"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. 32 This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.

Crucifixion was the death for non-Roman citizens. Roman citizens were beheaded.

33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

That could also be translated, “So you are the King of the Jews, are you!”

34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"

35 "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

37 "You are a king, then!" said Pilate.

Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."