Kingdom Come- transformation

There is one other reality that the disciples and we have to reckon with when it comes to Jesus and what He came to do. To really grasp this, there is a passage that is in the middle of John’s Gospel during the Good Friday narrative that makes it crystal clear. But before we get there, I need to set the stage for you and explain how this is still an issue today.

The Jewish nation saw the Messiah as an earthly king. Someone who was going to come on the scene and destroy their enemies and set up a nation where they were in charge and oppressing their former oppressors. They saw the Messiah as a person whose purpose was conquering. They were wholly unprepared for Jesus.

We have a similar mindset among some evangelicals in the US today. They see their role and purpose as establishing some kind of earthly kingdom or theocracy where all their enemies are defeated and they are in charge. They are also wholly unprepared for Jesus.

Both these groups misunderstand scripture and the character and nature of Jesus. Who He is and why He came. And don’t miss it, if He had wanted to at any point He could have taken out everyone who “opposed” Him in an instant. But the problem everyone would have faced is that ALL of us would have been His enemies, because in choosing sin we had set ourselves up against God. Without someone to set us right, we would have been in the same boat as the Romans and Samaritans that the Jews hated so much.

But that conquering and ruling is not why Jesus came. He came to serve and to “lay down His life as a ransom for many.” and that is never clearer than in the passage we are looking at today as we prepare for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

Turn with me to John 18:28-40.

Jesus has already been arrested and early on Friday He is being taken from the house of the High Priest to the headquarters of the Roman governor, Pilate. Notice, they are SO concerned with being unclean that they won’t go into the governor’s quarters, but they are not concerned with being unclean by being guilty of lying about an innocent man.

I note that because in our day and time you can often tell who is serious about Jesus by how they handle the truth. There are a lot of people who do things in the name of Jesus that involve lying and deception and other sins. You cannot sin your way to glorifying Jesus and Jesus is not going to ask you to sin to obey Him. That’s an easy way to ascertain whose side someone is really on.

So when they arrive at Pilate’s HQ he wants to know what they are charging Jesus with and the Jewish authorities are really evasive. They have only brought Jesus to Pilate for one reason- they want Him killed, but they do not want to get in trouble with the Romans for doing it. In other words, they want the result but not the culpability.

John 12–21 (1) Delivering Jesus to Pilate and the Opening Charges (18:28–32)

Pilate in this Gospel asked for the charge. The immediate response is not a statement of the charge but an accusation of Jesus being a criminal or literally “one who does evil.”

So Pilate has a choice to make, and to make this choice he wants to question Jesus. So he takes Jesus inside and asks Him a very vital question- “Are you the King of the Jews?”

The weight of this question is huge because to say Jesus is a King implies that He is a rival to Caesar and that would be treason and make Him worthy of death in Roman eyes. But the kingdom Pilate is asking about is not the one Jesus is worried about.

John 12–21 (2) The First Interrogation of Jesus in the Praetorium (18:33–38a)

Such a charge was undoubtedly intended to gain the attention of the Roman governor. Messianic claims swirled around Israel in the post-Maccabean period and were only put to rest after the second Jewish uprising with the defeat of Simon Bar Kokhba (A.D. 135).

In each Gospel the question begins with the emphatic Greek su (you!): “Are you …?” which suggests that Pilate could well have been astonished that Jesus was claiming such a title. Jesus hardly had an army, and he certainly had not led an uprising against the Romans as a rebel king might have been tempted to do. What kind of a king was this?

Vs 34-36

Jesus tells Pilate that He is not here to found an earthly kingdom. And as proof He offers that no one is there fighting to keep Him from being arrested by the Jews. And then He says, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

John 12–21 ((2) The First Interrogation of Jesus in the Praetorium (18:33–38a))

Pilate’s response indicates that as a governor, who was responsible for the “just” conduct of trials, he recognized he was being challenged by the defendant. He was disturbed by the way the interrogation was going; and he replied sharply, “Am I a Jew?” Such an idea was obviously from Pilate’s point of view unthinkable.

Jesus could not be clearer. He did not come to start an earthly kingdom, to rule on earth like a normal king, or to just have a set of territories to govern. He did not come for the nation of Israel. He came to do something far greater, to found a Kingdom “not of this world.”

John 12–21 (2) The First Interrogation of Jesus in the Praetorium (18:33–38a)

Jesus’ kingdom is not a piece of land on earth or involved in earthly power and domination.

John 12–21 (2) The First Interrogation of Jesus in the Praetorium (18:33–38a)

Jesus’ kingdom is directly related to the concept of the kingdom of heaven and the reign or authority of God. It is both a proleptic reality now and a future expectation yet to come in its fullness. Although this kingdom does not have its source in the world, it is nonetheless active in the world. But since it is related to God, it draws its power from a source external to the world. Moreover, its task is one of transformation in the world (cf. 20:31) so that its citizens will authentically represent God or Heaven here on earth.

How is this Kingdom founded? Vs 37 It is entered into by those who would hear the truth.

John 12–21 (2) The First Interrogation of Jesus in the Praetorium (18:33–38a)

Jesus’ mission was to integrate truth into life. That is the reason the text here defines people who are of truth as those who hear the voice of Jesus. Hearing or obeying Jesus is not the same as affirming correct ideas. The Pharisees and legalists in Jesus’ day were very precise in their theological formulations, but God was remote for them. Moreover, they schemed his crucifixion in their correctness because they missed hearing the voice of God. That can still happen today. What Jesus did in this story was confront Pilate with himself and with the genuine nature of truth.

What truth? The good news of the Gospel- (Gospel presentation here)

To be a part of Jesus’ Kingdom means accepting what He says is true. That we need forgiveness. That we cannot save ourselves. And that Jesus is who He says He is. Without truth, there is no Gospel and there is no Kingdom- which makes it no wonder that those who seek to create some kind of “kingdom” in the name of God on earth have to lie and deceive people to do it. Because they are not on the side of truth.

And neither is Pilate. Look at verse 38.

“What is truth?” This is what happens when we stop believing that truth exists. We will turn facts into word games and behave as if truth does not exist or matter. Even when another’s life is at stake. Pilate does this- he knows Jesus is innocent, but he puts the choice of what will happen to Jesus back in the hands of those who have brought Him to Pilate.

John 12–21 (2) The First Interrogation of Jesus in the Praetorium (18:33–38a)

For politically motivated people, truth is frequently sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Many politically oriented people pretend they are interested in truth. But Pilate summarizes his politically oriented life pattern with the haunting question: “What is truth?” The implications of that question are exceedingly far reaching for any person.

For Pilate that question was an attempt to resist taking Jesus’ statement seriously in his own life

Vs 39-40.

Those who do not love truth will choose sin over truth. They choose Barabbas over Jesus and they call for Jesus to die.

John 12–21 (3) Pilate’s First Verdict and the Jewish Reaction (18:38b–40)

The choice was either to release Jesus, whom he knowingly called “the King of the Jews,” or the scoundrel and thief, Barabbas. Mark goes further in 15:7 and identifies Barabbas as a murderer and an insurrectionist. This Barabbas was hardly the kind of person Pilate thought the Jews would desire to have loosed on their society. The obvious alternative from his point of view was the healer, wonder worker, and prophet-type king. He must have smirked at the choice he gave to the people. But Pilate had not calculated on the scheming way in which the Jewish leadership had readied the group outside the Praetorium to answer him. Pilate’s shrewd plan was undone by the leadership when the people chose the scoundrel and rejected the King.

Church, hear me, we have to make a choice. Whose Kingdom are we living for? Whose Kingdom are we serving? And which Kingdom are we building?