My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

My Kingdom is Not of This World Sermon

Today, the Church celebrates Christ the King Sunday and this is where we focus on Christ being the King of creation, king over the heavens and the earth, king and ruler over your life and mine.

We celebrate that Christ is the ruler of all creation. In the Christian faith, we believe that Christ existed with God before creation, that Christ was the agent of creation, and that Christ is the ruler of all creation. That is, Christ is the Lord of creation.

We also celebrate that Christ is the ruler of all nations, the ruler of all kings, and that his reign lasts for all eternity. All the kings and kingdoms of the earth will have their moment in history and fade away and die.

The kingdoms of this world are shakable and will eventually fall…repeat!

Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 2:6: about “the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.”

The Bible commentator Moffatt refers to them as "the dethroned powers who rule this world". Secular powers are still ruling, but in reality they are dethroned…dethroned in the sense that the sentence of doom has been passed upon them. They do not acknowledge God’s kingdom and so they will suddenly collapse or are in a process of silent decay.

Illus: Hitler, Communism, Saddam…

In recent times, Hitler believed his evil empire would reign for a thousand years; the follower’s of Communism have seen their regimes implode or self-destruct in most parts of the world and Saddam Hussein’s despotic rule is over…or has it simply been replaced by another one?

My point is, there is only one king who outlives them all…Jesus Christ the king.

Illus: Jesus…

Tonight as we celebrate together that Christ is the ruler of our lives; we will learn that the kingdom of God is the primary teaching of Jesus when he lived here on earth.

Jesus wanted his disciples to enter into the kingdom.

Jesus told parables about the kingdom and gave teachings about the kingdom and worked miracles of the kingdom.

Jesus wanted all people, everywhere to be part of his kingdom.

However, the world in which we live has a different slant on kingdoms, hasn’t it?

Illus: Christian writer and Pastor Chuck Swindoll suggests that the world system is committed to at least four major objectives, which can be summarized in four words:

Fortune

Fame

Power

Pleasure

First and foremost: Fortune…money. The world system is driven by money; it feeds on materialism.

Second: Fame…that is another word for popularity. Fame is the longing to be known, to be somebody in someone else’s eyes.

Third: Power. This is having influence, maintaining control over individuals or groups or companies or whatever. It is the desire to manipulate and maneuver others to do something for one’s own benefit.

Fourth: Pleasure. At its basic level, pleasure has to do with fulfilling one’s sensual desires.

It’s the same mindset that’s behind the slogan: “If it feels good, do it.”

Illus: A couple of hundred years ago, Bible expositor and evangelist D. L. Moody wrote:

The church is full of people who want one eye for the world and the other for the kingdom of God. Therefore, everything is blurred; one eye is long and the other is short; all is confusion...When the Spirit of God is on us, the world looks very empty; the world has a very small hold on us, and we begin to let go our hold of it and lay hold of things eternal. This is the church’s need today.

But what about us?

Have your ever day-dreamed about winning Gold Lotto?

What about being Bill Gates, Richard Branston, Oprah or Madonna for a day?

What would you do?

When I was younger, I used to indulge my imagination and pretended to be famous, wealthy, and powerful. Of course I grew up when reality of the real world kicked in…YOU KNOW, THAT DIRTY WORD CALLED WORK!!...but occasionally those fantasies returned.

In fact, multi-billion dollar industries are dedicated to making those dreams come true these days, aren’t they?

There are numerous examples that jump out of the media to grab our attention every day.

But only for a while…and always for a price!!

Let’s take the ultimate indulgence for a moment.

We’re going to join God and Bruce in the irreverent movie, “Bruce Almighty”, where God explains the rules to Bruce about taking his place for a day… Jim Carrey stars as Bruce Nolan, a discontented man who accuses God of doing a bad job running the universe. When God gives Bruce his powers to see if he can do a better job, Bruce eventually realizes that love and humility are more important than getting your way.

Illus: “Bruce Almighty.”…start 8:0:34:36…end 8:0:39:34…

So what does it really mean to be "king of the world?"