My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

Brad Hixon · Faith Church · Mar 22, 2021

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Brad Hixon

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jesus96jewish leaders11kingdom26god23jesus fights8steady20world20people17totally16because15life14jewish14new job5fight12leaders12physical11holy spirit4pilate10jews9fights9able8verse8saying8king8

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Repeated openers: “do you” (10), “i mean” (8), “if jesus” (8), “and so” (7), “he has” (6), “it's bigger” (6)

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John 18 is where we're headed today.

John 18, if you got to buy it with you, get it out, turn it on.

So you get out your phone, if you have a Bible app, great.

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Jesus ·93John ·4Will God ·3Jesus. ·2Roman ·1Matthew ·1Jesus guy. ·1Roman leaders. ·1guy. ·1Jews?" Luke ·1Luke ·1Roman government. ·1

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Rome ·3Rome. ·2Jerusalem ·1Israel. ·1Pilots house ·1Gentiles house ·1No ·1

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jesus fights back ·7my kingdom is ·7do you think there's ·6if jesus fights ·6thank you that ·6was going to ·6do you think ·6totally under control ·5do you ·10if jesus ·9i mean ·8and so ·7

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Transcript

Let's do it. John 18 is where we're headed today. John 18, if you got to buy it with you, get it out, turn it on. If you don't normally follow along in your Bible, I'd love for you to do so today because we're going to look at a long story and I want you to be able to track with us. So you get out your phone, if you have a Bible app, great. If not, you can go to just like Bible.com and look for the passage you'll find it there. John 18, do you know someone who is always called? Do you have someone in your life steady, calming influence. No matter what happens, it just seems like they don't get flustered, they keep their composure. Do you know someone like that? A parent, a grandparent, maybe your boss is like that. Everything's going crazy at work, and you go into her office and she's just like, "Hey, we've got this, don't even worry about it. Do you know someone like that?" Maybe you're like that. I wish I was a little more like that. I'm a little, "Baa, you know, I get a little flustered." Kind of easy. Maybe it'll be new to you, maybe it'll just be review. But I wanna show you that when the heat is on him, Jesus is totally under control. No matter what happens, Jesus seems to be able to stay composed, he seems to be able to just be steady and even keel. And that's going to be tested in the last few hours of his life, which is what we're looking at. We're in the sermon series called Fighting Words, and we're looking at the last couple days and I wanna jump right into the Bible today. I want the story to just speak for itself. But what I want you to see, what I want you to feel for yourself as we go through the story is how steady Jesus remains. When it feels like the whole world is crashing down on him and everything that Jesus is and everything that he says seems to be falling apart, somehow Jesus just remains totally calm, totally steady. where we're going to be. Last week we saw Jesus arrested. We're going to pick up the story at kind of the beginning of the trial of Jesus today. Here we go. Watch, listen, feel how composed Jesus is. Verse 19. It says, "Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. or at the temple where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said. When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. Is that the way you answer the high priest? He demanded. Jesus replied, if I said something wrong, tell me. Testify us to what is wrong. Why'd you strike me?" Then Anis sent him as Jesus bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Here's the scene. Earlier in the evening, Jesus was having dinner with some of his friends. He and his disciples hanging out, having a meal. He says, "Let's go for a walk. Let's just go out for an evening stroll." And so they do. They leave the city. They go out to where it's calm and peaceful. They're in a garden, a vineyard, where they can have time just to be together and to pray. there, their prayer time gets interrupted because a mob shows up, a mob of Jewish officials and Roman soldiers show up. And Jesus comes out of the garden and he says, "What do you need? Who are you looking for?" And they said, "We're looking for Jesus of Nazareth." And he goes, "That's me. I'm him. He doesn't put up a fight. And calmly and peacefully he goes with him. They arrest him. It takes him with them." This is a couple hours later now. And Jesus is being questioned by some of the priests. They're standing outside, likely standing outside in this courtyard. It's the middle of the night, it's cold. Jesus has got to be tired by now. It's been a stressful few hours. And so they start to ask him these questions. And they go, tell us about the things that you've taught. What are these things that you're saying that we keep hearing about? Jesus calmly goes, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. me before. Like you guys know me. You've seen me around town. I've come to your temples, your synagogues to teach. Why are you acting like this? I haven't done anything in secret. Like everybody's heard me. Look at my YouTube account. Like it's out there. There's no secrets here. Somewhere along the way, though Jesus is being calm and steady, somewhere along the way one of the officials doesn't like his attitude. Doesn't like his tone. So he slaps it. Jesus in that moment, Muscles start to twitch a little bit. And yet Jesus remains calm. He just stays totally even keel, steady. Matthew's Gospel tells us that people are spitting on him. Gross, imagine people spitting on him. People hitting him, mocking him. He's handcuffed. He can't defend himself. By now there's probably blood coming out of Jesus' body. And you know a crowd likes blood, right? it fired up. People are starting to cheer, and yet Jesus remains totally calm, totally able to control himself, able to suppress the adrenaline rush, able to fight back the urge to rip off the chains. Keep going. Jump down to verse 28. We find out the Jewish leaders verse 28 says, "The Jewish leaders take Jesus from Caiaphas "to the palace of the governor." By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness, they did not enter the palace because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. Stop here for a minute. Let me explain what's going on here, and let me just tell you right now, this is absolutely what I hate about religion. This right now, what's going on is in a nutshell, this is religion. It's the holiest day for the Jews. People flock to Jerusalem on this day to worship. In fact, Jesus would have been there to celebrate also. It's this festival called Passover. And they come and the purpose of this day is that they're going to celebrate everything that God has done. They're going to worship God for all that He has done over the years for the people of Israel. And so you have these Jewish leaders and they are wanting party. They're wanting to have this celebration, but they also want to take care of this Jesus guy. So they go to Pilots house, to the governor's house, but they refuse to go inside because they believe they have these laws that if they go inside a non-Jewish person, a Gentiles house that they will become impure, that they will be unclean and they won't be able to go innocent man. They'll watch him be tortured and killed. And yet they're afraid to go into someone's house because they might get a little dirty. They're afraid to be seen with the riffraff. This is religion. This is religion where we go. There's these laws, there's these rules and as long as you follow these rules, you're good. You're clean. No matter what's going on in your heart, as long as you follow the laws, you're fine. That's religion and that's They're going to kill Jesus on this day, but all they care about is their image. All they care about is following their laws, even though their hearts are evil and corrupt. It's religion. It's what I hate. Jesus hated it. It's what He fought against when He was on earth. They take Him to the Roman leaders. Their big hope is that they'll deal with Him. There's Jesus' guy. We don't like Him. Verse 29 says, "So Pilate came out of his house to them, and he asked, 'What charges are you bringing against this man?'" The Jewish leaders, they reply, "If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you." And basically, nothing, right? We got nothing. We've got no charges. We just don't like the guy. Get him out of our sight. Do something with this guy. They object and they say, "We have no right to execute anyone." Interesting how they jump to execution, isn't it? We don't have charges. We haven't had a trial. And they're just immediately going to execution, which tells you what? They just want the guy dead. Just get rid of this guy. Kill this guy for us because we don't like him. Verse 32 says that this took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death that he was going to die. for a minute. Jesus, over the last few years, he had predicted his death. He had told his disciples that he was going to die, but he didn't just say that he was gonna die. He told everybody how he was going to die. He called his shots. John records it throughout his gospel, chapter three, chapter eight, chapter 12. He continues to say that Jesus told them that he was going to die, that he was going to be lifted up. He was describing crucifixion. He was saying that he was going to be crucified. But here's the problem. He's in Jewish custody. If the Jews kill him, if the Jews execute Jesus, they don't crucify people. The Jews have a different way of executing people. If you break their laws and they put you to death, the Jews stone people. They literally throw stones at your head until you die. I mean, pretty mean, pretty gross, but that's what happens. They don't crucify people. irony of this, in God's sense of humor, the irony of what's going on here is the Jewish leaders are actually causing what Jesus said would happen. They're causing it to happen. They're taking Him to the Romans, and it's making what Jesus said come true. They're fulfilling the words of Christ in their actions. He has to be crucified. He said that He would be crucified, which means it's got to be the Romans that take His life. Verse 33, "Pilot went back inside the palace after talking with the Jewish leaders. He goes back inside the palace. He summoned Jesus and he asks him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Luke's gospel says that the Jewish leaders told Pilate that that was the crime, that Jesus was claiming to be a king. Jesus responds, "Pilot, is that your idea? And we have this part right here that tension is happening. The boiling point, we're getting near that boiling point right here. This is fighting words. Pilot is not going to like Jesus' answer. Pilot is a powerful man. He asks him a straightforward question. He expects a straightforward answer. He doesn't like what Jesus says so he gets right up in his face. Verse 35, with disdain in his voice, the Romans thought they were higher and more important than everybody else. He says, "What am I, a Jew? Your own people, your chief priests are the ones who handed you over to me." What is it that you've done? Watch Jesus' style. Listen to His words. Totally under control. Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world." We'll come back to that. to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place. "You are a king then," Pilate said. Jesus answered, "You say that I'm a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into this world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Pilate dismissively says, "What is truth?" With this, he went out again to no basis for a charge against him. Luke's Gospel tells us that while Pilate is out talking to the Jewish leaders, the soldiers are beating up Jesus in the back. They're mocking him, humiliating him. Pilate says to the Jews, "But it's your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of Passover. So do you want me to release the king of the Jews?" They shouted back, "No, not him. Give us Bervis." part in an uprising. Do you see how steady Jesus is? People have spit in his face. I mean, gross, right? They've mocked him. Soldiers take him in the back room and they twist together a crown of thorns and they hammer it into his head so it breaks the skin and blood is trailing when slapped. Do you see how steady he is? Would you be that steady? I wouldn't, right? If I'm Jesus and I have the power that Jesus has, I'm pulling off the handcuffs and the binds around my feet. I'm ripping all that stuff off. I'm throwing haymakers like the fight is on. Jesus, cool as a cucumber, totally steady. It's like, man, let's go, Jesus. Like I want him to light it up because I don't like bullies, right? And pilots are bully. And these Jewish leaders are bullies and the soldiers that would spit on and beat up a handcuffed man. They're bullies. And we like an underdog story, right? There's nothing better than seeing a bully get punched in the mouth. So let's go, Jesus. Come on. There's a part of me that when I read this story, I'm like, Jesus, a wedgie. trash can, let's go. Take care of these guys. Do you think there's a part of Jesus that wanted to fight back? Do you think there's a part of Jesus that wants to go, "Hey, come here. Do you know who I am?" Do you think there's a part of him that wants to rip off his chains? I mean, he's a man. He's a human being. Adrenaline is pumping through his veins. fight or flight is kicking in, his hands are clenched in fists. He's ready to go. Just wanting to survive. Of course there's a part of him that wants to fight back. And he has to make a decision in that moment. Is he going to act that out? Is he going to live by his instincts, by his flesh? Or is he going to be led by the Holy Spirit? Holy Spirit is and patience and peace and gentleness. I mean, play it out for a second. Let's say Jesus fights back. Let's just say for a second, sort of choose your own adventure here. Let's say that Jesus fights back. Let's say that when that official slaps him, Jesus just hits him back. I mean, he's justified, right? But if Jesus did that, what do we do with that whole thing where Jesus says if someone slaps you turn the other cheek. If Jesus fights back, what do we do with all that stuff He said about love your enemies and pray for them? I mean, we'd have to say Jesus can't even practice what He preaches. He doesn't do what He told us to do. If Jesus fights, what do we do with all the stuff that He says about generosity and sacrifice and forgiveness? We could then easily go, "Well, Jesus, you can't He's not who he says he is. If Jesus fights back, what do we do with the prophecy about the Messiah going to the cross quietly, like a lamb led to slaughter? If Jesus fights back in this moment, Jesus is a liar. He's not who he says he is. He has every right to fight back. He has the power to fight back. Jesus could rip off the chains. He could call down angels, right? a fight, he could go, "Hey, disciples, let's go, boys, do your thing. Take care of this." He absolutely has the power to do that. But then what? I mean, keep going. Go to the logical conclusion. He wipes out the Jewish leaders. He takes down the Roman government. He sets He does that. He hasn't accomplished the very thing that He came to accomplish. Because what about my sin? What about your sin? If Jesus fights back, then Jesus doesn't go to the cross, but He has to go to the cross. If Jesus fights back and they don't kill Him, He can't go in the tomb and He can't come back to life, which means you and I have no hope. of our sins, we have no promise of eternal life with God. The reality is that Jesus has to just sit there and take it, and it's totally unfair. And if that was me, I'm crying, I'm breaking down, I'm fighting back, I'm responding. I'm going, I don't deserve this. The very people that he's going to Those are the people that Jesus is dying for. It's totally unfair. And yet Jesus knows what He has to do. He knows what He came to do. He has to go to the cross. He has to die and He has to rise again. And so through it all, look how steady He is. It's not fair. In the face of beating, in the face of humiliation, in the face of certain death, He remains totally So let me ask you a question, knowing that. If Jesus is this study, with all this is going on, when his life is being threatened, he's being beaten, he's being tortured, he's being mocked. If he can remain that composed, do you think there's anything that could happen in your I mean, do you think there's anything that could go on in your life? Any problem that you could have, any incident that could occur, do you think there's anything that could happen where you bring it to Jesus and he goes, "Oh, crud, what are we going to do now?" No way, right? And he remains steady. Jesus is totally under control through the whole thing. He's totally under control all the time. Never surprised, never overwhelmed, totally even keel, totally under control, never loses his composure, never freaks out. Do you see that? I mean, I need you to see that. Jesus really is. Because if He's going to say things like come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Well if we look at Him and He can't even handle His own business, how's He going to handle yours and mine? If He can't even handle His own pain, if He can't handle His own stress, how will He handle yours and mine? I need you to see how steady He is. When everything is falling apart, when His life is threatened, when everything is totally out Even Q, never freaks out, never overwhelmed. I need you to see that. I need you to see who Jesus is. And I hope you see that. I hope you see how steady he is. I want to switch gears for just a minute because I want to look at one more thing, something that Jesus says. Because maybe he fights back just a little bit, but it's in the words that he speaks. He doesn't lash out. He doesn't freak out. He's still calm and steady. But a couple of the words that he speaks, they're gonna cause, they're gonna stir it up a little bit. Remember he said, a pilot says to him, "Oh, so you're a king, huh?" Listen to Jesus, how he responds. Still calm, still cool. Verse 36, he says, "My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is from another place." He's not saying, "I'm a king from another country. You've just never heard of me." He's not saying, "I'm going to go set up a land somewhere else on the other side of the world." He's describing something that is from a completely different realm. He's describing something, a kingdom that exists on a platform that we don't even understand, that is beyond anything of this world. And this is offensive because the man that he's speaking to, Pilate, is governor in Rome. time is the biggest and meanest and baddest empire that you could possibly imagine. No one was above Rome. And so Jesus, when Pilate says you're a king, huh? And Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom transcends this world. What Jesus is really saying is like, so Pilate is like, You're a little kingdom. It's like when someone says your house is, it's so cozy here. They mean it's tiny, right? Like it's so cozy. It goes, pilot, I love what you've done with the place. It's so cute. My kingdom is from a different realm. My kingdom transcends this world. The Old Testament, there's a lot of prophecy that looks forward to God's kingdom. Just write in your notes. And you can look this up later, Daniel 714. Go back and read this this week. dominion is an everlasting dominion. Will not pass away. His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. It's so much more than a physical kingdom or empire on earth. They thought Rome was so big that it could never fall. It was so powerful. And Jesus is like my kingdom transcends anything that you can possibly imagine. my kingdom. It's bigger than time and space. It's bigger than land mass. It's bigger than wealth. It's bigger than armies. It's bigger than politics. It transcends all of that. It's completely out of this world. And on top of that, it cannot be destroyed. Jesus' kingdom is a spiritual and everlasting kingdom. It's bigger. It's more powerful than anything that we could imagine. It can't be taken down. It can't be or destroyed, slow down for a minute. Get this. Because I think if we can understand that Jesus is so steady, that he never loses his composure, he never lashes out, he's never stressed, he's never overwhelmed. If you can understand that and we can partner that with this idea that he is building an everlasting spiritual that it sounds sort of philosophical, it's sort of ethereal kind of like out there, right? Just track with me for a minute though. If we can understand how steady Jesus is, and that he's building a kingdom that is bigger, that transcends anything that we could imagine in this world. If we can put those two together, I think it's actually super helpful, it's super practical for us. Let me show you what I mean. or spiritual. So the stuff that we think about most, is it more spiritual or is it more physical? Probably more physical, right? Because we live in a physical, tangible world. So the things that we pray about, the things that we get stressed out, that we get anxious about, the things that we want most, are most often physical. Here's what I mean though. Here's where physical is different than spiritual. I need a new job, God. Okay. Can God give you a new job? Sure. Will God give you a new job? Maybe he'll line up the perfect thing for you. Has God promised to give you a new job? I'm not sure. I'm not sure that he has. a sick family member or a friend. And you, God, will you heal this person? Can God heal that person? Yeah. Will God heal that person? Maybe, maybe he will, either by medicine or by miracle. He might heal that person. Has God promised to heal, to physically heal every sick person in this life? No, I'm not sure that he has. Say you wanna start a family. You're married, you want to have kids, but you go to the doctor and the doctor says, I'm sorry, you're not gonna have kids. And so you beg God, God, give me the family that I want. Give me children, God, please. Can God do that? Yeah. Will God do that? Will he miraculously give you children? Maybe. Has he promised that he will do that? Give you the perfect family, exactly the way you would draw it up. No, I'm not sure he has. See, we exist in a physical world. And so most of the stuff that we think about concerns this world. And Jesus says that my kingdom is not of this world. He's not saying that that stuff doesn't matter. Of course, Jesus cares about our family and our jobs and all our friends and all that stuff. Of course, but what he's saying is what I offer is better than anything you could imagine in this world. And so in those scenarios, does God promise to give you a new job? I'm not sure that he does. But does he promise that if you'll ask him, he'll give you peace and joy and strength to do your current job? Yeah, I think so. Does God promise to heal everyone physically? In this life, no, I'm not sure that he does. But he does promise that if you'll ask him, he'll be there with you, he'll hold your hand and walk with you as you go through that journey. They want? No, I don't think so. But God does promise that if you're lonely, if you're heartbroken, that you can come to him and he'll give you rest and they'll give you peace. Do you see how it's better? How Jesus offers spiritual solutions to physical problems? And of course, we want physical solutions. Of course, we do. But Jesus' kingdom operates on this transcendent level and it's better offer Rome was the greatest empire. If Jesus was building a physical kingdom, he would have just wiped out Rome and set up his kingdom right then and there. His followers would be the most successful, the wealthiest people in the world, but he didn't do that and were not. Instead, he said, I'm building a spiritual kingdom that can never be destroyed. When Pilate says, look at my kingdom, Jesus says, yeah, that's cute. You should see mine. Transcends all of this. invade our physical world with His goodness. Of course He does. It's all around us. And we should talk to Him about it. We should ask Him for the things that we need physically, of course. But Jesus is building a kingdom that is beyond the limitations of this world that is more powerful and more peaceful than anything that we could ever imagine. And He grants us access to His goodness for So I guess what I'm saying is this. If Jesus is really this steady, on the one end of He's really this steady, and He's really this composed, and we pair that with. He has the authority over a kingdom that transcends this world. It transcends time and space and everything that we face. and peace. So throw whatever you want. Yeah, Jesus, I guess. Throw him your worst. All your chaotic thoughts, all your doubts, all your fears, all your anxieties, all your needs, all your complaints, because he can handle it. He never gets overwhelmed. He's never surprised. Give it to him. Watch as He gives you back joy and peace and rest. Would you pray with me? God, thank you that you are so steady. Thank you that you're never overwhelmed. God, I know for me I'm overwhelmed enough for the both of us. that you never scramble. You're always cool. You're always composed. Jesus, thank you that you didn't fight back. Thank you that you showed us how to be led by the Holy Spirit, to be gentle, to be self-controlled. Thank you that you didn't give in to the temptation to fight. But instead, you ran to the cross. this. I'm not surprised. God, even right now, in this very moment, there are people watching online. There are people here on campus who are overwhelmed, stressed out by something maybe at work, surprised by something that's come up in their family. They've been You give us everlasting joy and peace, spiritual solutions that carry us, that are enough for this life and the life to come, joy and rest of peace with God, our Father. fight. You went to the cross to lose your life so that we could find life in your name. Thank you that you walked out of the tomb, that we have hope in your name. We thank you for your goodness and we pray all these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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