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John 18:36-38
We come to this Maundy Thursday in a very troubled world.
There are wars in Ukraine, Yemen, South Sudan, and other places.
We have suffered lockdowns and other restrictions from a “pandemic.”
The global financial situation is perilous, and inflation is rampant.
Because this is the world we live in today, we tend to think this is the worst it has ever been.
But the world has always been troubled.
we live under the distortion of the global media in which we know about conflicts and troubles all around the world rather than just local troubles.
We become addicted to listening to the news about these matters and the pundit’s analysis of what is happening.
And we are troubled over censorship, and are not sure whether the news we hear is the “truth” or propaganda.
We can see these obvious things which disturb the peace, our own peace of mind and the peace of the world.
It leads to helplessness and despair?
What can we do?
So lets us come back to what Maundy Thursday, forgetting the problems we face in this world for a little while.
It is on Maundy Thursday, we remember events which happened nearly 2,000 years ago in far-away Palestine.
Why should we take our eyes off our problems to remember something that happened so long ago?
This is because these events have forever changed world history.
These events did not change God’s history, as he foreknew and ordained these events.
But it has forever changed history from the perspective of the world.
On Maundy Thursday, we remember the beginning of the final hours of Jesus on earth.
We remember the Last Supper,footwashing, the Farewell discourses, the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the denials of Peter, and the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin and Pilate.
On Good Friday, we remember the crucifixion of Jesus, His death and Burial.
On Holy Saturday (Sabbath) we remember that Jesus rested from his work of the New Creation even as God rested from His labor of the Creation in Genesis.
And of course, we remember on Easter Sunday, that Jesus arose from the dead, on the Day of Firstfruits and showed Himself alive.
Surely these events are more significant than the troubles of the world today.
However there current problems work out, the remembrance and significance of these events will fade from human history, and new crises will take their place.
But the events of these few days in Palestine so long ago have eternal consequence.
Let us, therefore, put things into their proper perspective.
As we have seen, there are a lot of events packed into the day we call Maundy Thursday.
We cannot cover all of these tonight.
So I want to center in to one small passage from John 18:36-38 tonight.
turn your Bibles to this passage, and let us read the passage together.
We might want to know that all of these events from the Lord’s Supper on actually happened on the day we call “Good Friday” as the Hebrew day started at sunset.
So the Friday was one of the longest days in history.
Jesus had instituted the Last Supper as the new Passover.
He told the disciples that they would abandon Him and that Peter would deny Him.
He settled an argument among the disciples on which was the greatest both in words recorded in Luke as well as in the washing of the disciple’s feet.
He gave one final sermon to His disciples.
He then walked with them into the Garden of Gethsemane.
There He prayed in agony that He might not have to drink the cup of wrath of the Father.
the first of much blood Jesus would shed that day was mingled with the sweat.
It was there Jesus was arrested and tired at night by the Jews, first before Annas and then before the Sanhedrin.
He was condemned, beaten, and bound.
Then he was sent to Pilate for trial.
So even at the point of the passage we read which occured in the middle of the first examination under Pilate, it had already been very long day.
He had had no sleep, and must have been exhausted, humanly speaking.
But the day would be even longer and more painful that day until three o’clock in the afternoon when He yielded His Spirit into the care of the Father, at the time of the evening sacrifice.
One can only imagine how awful that day was.
When we look at this passage in John, we realize that Jesus affirms that He is a king even before Pilate asks Him.
By saying “My kingdom” he affirms His kingship.
We don’t know what Pilate knew about Jesus or what the Jews might have said of Him, but as 2 cohorts of the Roman Legion joined the Temple Guards in arresting Jesus in the garden.
So, Pilate must have known something.
He only came up to Jerusalem when he had to, such as Passover, which was a celebration of Israeli independence from Egypt.
The Jews were expecting a Messianic king and believed that he would overthrow the Romans.
Pilate had to be on guard for an insurrection by the Jews against Rome.
Barabbas was such a charismatic leader who had come to Jerusalem hoping to be that Messiah.
He was now in Pilate’s prison awaiting execution.
It is probable that the two thieves crucified with Jesus were his accomplices.
One would expect the question would be brought up by Pilate.
But Jesus preempts the obvious question: “Are you the King of the Jews.”
He is indeed a king, but not of this world.
We need to now look into Jesus’ statement that His kingdom is “not of this world.”
By moving the word “not” up in the word order of the Greek sentence, this makes the “not” emphatic.
Jesus’ kingdom is certainly NOT of this world.
The Greek preposition translated “of” here is the Greek “ek”.
This has the idea of source.
This means that the source of Jesus’ authority does not come from any earthly source.
Jesus refused in John 6:15 to be seized and made the King of the Jews.
If He did, then the source of His kingdom would have come from those who had made Him king.
If one can make someone “king”, then the same can un-make the king.
This idea of king would have brought the swift condemnation by Pilate.
In the Roman Empire, there were client-kings of Caesar.
The source of their “kingship” would be a another worldly leader.
Only Tiberius could make someone king.
Pilate was married to the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus.
Such a mediocre and violent governor like Pilate would have owed his promotion to procurator through his wife.
He was wildly unpopular with the Jews.
He needed to be careful as the Jews had complained to Caesar about him before.
Rome had little patience with those who could not keep the peace in the cities and the provinces.
Pilate was disarmed as well as alarmed by the statement of Jesus.
If His kingdom was not of this world, then where was it from?
The Roman’s belief in the gods was mediated through Caesar and the city of Rome.
If Jesus’ kingdom was from God, then certainly the gods would have come to Caesar first.
As far as the Jewish leaders are concerned, if Jesus was from God, no less God the Son, then would not God have spoken to the leaders of the Jews first?
The Romans could respect a mediated king.
The Jews would fight for a king that they had approved of.
Jesus’ disciples at this point would have fought for this kind of king.
so there is more to Jesus’ statement about His Kingdom not being of this world than merely a divine claim to being king.
It was plain to Pilate that Jesus’ appearance and demeanor as well as His affirmation that His disciples would not fight be earthly means for and earthly kingdom.
The natural man is earthly in his thoughts.
When he hears about kings and kingdoms, he defines these words by the earthly kings and kingdoms he sees.
If he hears the statement that God is king, then God must be like earthly kings, only greater.
He can abuse power to a greater extend than an earthly ruler.
He has a bigger army.
He is more arbitrary, etc.
This is projecting earthly ideas unto God rather than understanding of kings, kingdoms, and servants from the point of view of God.
Our understanding is that of fallen sinners, If we are corrupt, then what we make is also corrupt, including kings, kingdoms, and nations.
But God is holy.
He is all-knowing, all powerful, and everywhere present.
How did Jesus see His Kingdom?
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