2.16.19 4.10.2022 Truth and Kingdom John 17 18 & 19

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Entice: Jesus prayed throughout His life and ministry. He prayed for us the last night of His incarnate ministry. His people, His Church, His flock. Yes, He prayed for the Kingdom dawning in a way no one could see coming.

Engage: No armies marched. No slogans were shouted. No ultimatums were delivered. When they came to arrest Him, He replied with all the dignity of God incarnate: "I Am". He submitted to their torture. He went obediently to His death. Jesus followed a path of victory which began with surrender, self-denial not self-promotion.

Expand: His kingdom was at issue that day. It had been the subject of His ministry all along, but this day, all the various authorities which felt threatened by Him, every petty empire with a pretense to power, colluded to end His life, ministry, and influence. Little did they know the redeeming power His death would unleash. We think of the cross and feel shame and contempt. He saw the cross as enthronement and exaltation.

Excite: Kingdom and cross are the ultimate measure of His ministry, the twin poles around which the Gospel orbits. Kingdom does not come without the cross. The victory of resurrection only comes after the perceived defeat of the cross. Kingdom cannot rightly be understood without the cross. His glorification only finds context in His humiliation. While the empires of this age shouted, "He is finished." His shout of triumph: "It is Finished," Signaled the judgment of all human institutions and proclaimed the authority of the King of Kings--Lord of Lords. We all must make some kind of decision about this crucified King. Those last hours of His life we see the options laid out before us.

Explore:

Jesus asks you to choose what you will do with King and Kingdom.

Explain: In the end we only have three real choices...

Body of Sermon:

1. Receive the Kingdom

Jesus discusses what it means to receive the Kingdom in what is sometimes called the great pastoral prayer in John 17. There He reviews what it means to balance our role in the Kingdom between the realities of word and world.

John 17:13–19 ESV

13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

For Jesus Receiving the kingdom means that we...

1.1 Rejoice in the Word.

We need to rejoice because our allegiance to Kingdom means that we will be

1.2 Rejected by the World.

And despite the seeming contradiction, despite the opposition we experience receiving the Kingdom means that we accept that as far as witness makes possible, that we are

1.3 Responsible for the World.

No hatred for the world, no hiding, no hedging; we are called to be distinctive, daring, and driven in order that we may expose the Empires of this age for the frauds they are.

It is nice to have a strong lede. I'm afraid that the other choices regarding Kingdom are not so positive and sadly, we see them all around us every day. We will meet many who

2. Resist the Kingdom.

Resistance indicates active attempts to undermine, dismiss, explain away or ultimately harm the proclamation of the Kingdom. This resistance takes two primary forms.

2.1 Personal Resistance.

John 18:2–6 ESV

2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

We see this in Judas and to some extent Peter. This resistance need not be permanent and eternal, Peter repented and was reinstated. And of course, we have the example of Saul of Tarsus whose resistance gave way to faith and transformation. Sadly, there is a broader, more lethal resistance to Kingdom we see in this story.

there is

2.2 Public Resistance.

John 18:19–24 ESV

19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.” 22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?” 24 Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

That covers virtually every other person we meet in this sordid story. We meet many people with a variety of motivations, but it comes down to a few familiar human vices...

Power and Influence.

Corruption and collusion with evil.

Wealth, Greed, Narcissism

So, the Jewish leaders resisted the Kingdom because they were invested in one of the many faces of Empire and through their resistance, they sought to undermine the impact of Jesus, His Word, and His Kingdom for others...

The final choice we see in the person of Pilate who represented the greatest earthly power--the Roman Empire--ever known. He chose to

3. Reject the Kingdom

I don’t intend to make excuses for Pilate, yet what he did was different from those actively opposed to Jesus. He was simply doing His job; Pilate does not really consider the claims of Christ and he does not really care for the concerns of the Jewish authorities...

3.1 For Pilate it's just business, nothing personal.

John 18:29–32 ESV

29 So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” 31 Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” 32 This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

He casually rejects the Kingdom as if he was dismissing a subordinate for making an administrative error. He just exercises Imperial authority in the Imperial way that autocrats do, not because he cared, but because he didn't. Like Michael Corleone in the Godfather, for Pilate it was just business.

Of course, for Jesus, it was a bit different.

3.2 For Jesus, His business with us is personal.

John 18:34–38 ESV

34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

A kingdom not of this world

The eternal word bearing witness to the eternal truth.

For us it is everything…For Pilate just another Imperial detail.

For Jesus it is the next step in the final, eternity-altering drama of salvation.

Shut Down:

Some turned their backs, some gloated, Pilate moved on to the next item on his agenda. Those whom Jesus gathered, now largely scattered, awaited the unveiling of His promise.

John records very starkly what happened.

John 19:16–18 ESV

16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.

As the creator of all bore the indignity and shame. He suffered and was mocked.

John 19:28–30 (ESV)

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Our King bowed His head and reigned from His cross. He gathered the flock and laid His life down for it. And more than two millennia later each of us find ourselves somewhere in the crowds that day. Dealing with Him. Dealing with His Kingdom. You can reject it with contempt as did Pilate. You can resist it with words, deeds, and deception as did the critics. Or like those awaiting His resurrection receive the Kingdom with gladness. That is God's word for us today, here in the shadow of the cross.