John 18: 28-40 "Not of This World"

At the time I begin jotting down some ideas for this week’s sermon, my stomach is a Little upset. It may have been that I filed my stomach up with a good breakfast and two bottles of water before we left, and the winding road up and down the mountain twisted and churned my stomach like a washing machine. I am resting in the van and the team is heading through the ancient ruins of Ingaperica. As I sit in the van looking out across the mountain side, I am reminded, God owns it all. He painted the skylights in the heavens, He swept the mountain peaks up to their highest with His might. He owns it all, even the many cows and pigs grazing and rooting on the countryside. I had entered into a world, in all of its vastness, which reminded me. No matter what we think we own, no matter what little plot of land we think we have complete control over, God really owns every square molecule. If that measure makes sense. I am also reminded of a very theologically rich truth, a theologically and philosophically rich and robust truth. Here it is so write it down, “Jesus loves the little children.”

On July 9^th, on Expo Sunday, the Ecuador mission team will craft a worship service to share what the Lord did in their hearts, and with the children in the villages. We had many God appointed encounters and we will share what we can, and have just a small amount of pictures as well. Mission trips do something to you. For some, you know you are going to try and make an impact for Christ on some people in another land, but Christ impacts you through it all. In a brief moment of time, we get to see the world, in real time, the way God sees them, in need of the savior.

As Christ followers, we have got to remember, this world is not my home. Jesus said similar words during His trial. As He stood before Pilate He said, “My Kingdom is Not of This World,” and that is the title of today’s sermon.  I want to propose a few questions throughout the message. “Have you gotten too comfortable with the comforts of this world?” Have you been too comfortable in your cultural bubble? My prayer is that God would invade that bubble, and do so very soon.

1. Too Good For The King: 28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.

• When we talk about Jesus as King, we want to focus on Hi in this way: He is King of kings and Lord of lords. As Andreas Kostenburger wrote, “Jesus was the otherworldly king who had come to this word as a witness to the truth; He was the one who would one day serve as as its judge, but who was to give His life for the sins of the world.” The temple guards led Jesus from the high Priests home, (which was unlawful anyway), to the headquarters of the governor Pontius Pilate. The scriptures say the Jews didn’t want to get close to the headquarters, a place where the gentile dogs live, for they thought they might be unclean. Praise the Lord God didn’t see clean and unclean in terms of ethnicity. All this business with unclean people was a misrepresentation of the Hebrew Scriptures, just read the book of Jonah. Jesus sees all people in need of a savior. They would not go into the office of Pilate, as if stepping in would add any more dirtiness to the filth and depravity they carried around anyway. The fact that I mention this so harshly, or even mention it at all, is because sometimes we act the same way. There are people all over the world that are hurting and lost, even in our own neighborhood, but we think we are too good to talk to them, or even invite them to church. Sin, sickness, addictions, etc., Jesus didn’t die on the cross so we could be comfortable locked in our own little Kingdom. A Kingdom where we have the draw bridge up, the moat is full, the doors are locked. You might say, our church isn’t like that, but I guarantee there are some that wants to limit access to the Kingdom and that is sin my friend there is no other way to put it. These guards would not even go into Pilate’s headquarters. Then get this, as to add irony to the narrative, go to get ready for the Passover. They were dirty before their feet even hit the ground in the morning, much less getting close to a Gentile. They thought that somehow, participating in the Passover would make them clean. Not so! In fact, many people today rely on ceremonies and traditions to make them acceptable to God. Many people are still in sin, and still act as if taking communion, coming to church, or getting baptized makes one clean. Those things are worthy of participation and used in worship. If you are a Christ follower and have been saved. It is only the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice that makes one clean.

29 So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”

A young man had a fire and a zeal to serve the Lord and to be on the mission field.  He felt the call, even at a young age, to go to a foreign country and share Jesus with them. He prayed about it and knew the Lord was calling Him to go, and so he sought his Pastor’ counsel. He sat down and shared what the Lord was doing in his heart and life, and told him he felt called to foreign missions. Amazingly, the Pastor was not in full agreeance with the young man’s calling. He said, “I think you are too young to go to another country instead of encouraging the boy, He seemed to crush his hopes and dreams of working for the Lord. Having enough wisdom, even at his young age, the boy looked at the obviously inner focused pastor and said, “I might not be a pastor, and I might not be a biblical scholar, but when the Lord says GO I Go. It wasn’t long afterwards, the pastor retired due to infidelity towards his wife, and the young man went on the mission field in China. What is amazing about the story, this young man started a revival in his church by being obedient. People were being saved, people that thought they were in Gods will and saved but were in fact lost. To be part of Gods work is to understand this, we are not too good for Gods mission, nor do we build up a little impenetrable kingdom of our own.

1. Too Good To Persecute (Dirty Work):  Joh 18:30  They answered him, "If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you."

Joh 18:31  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."

Joh 18:32  This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die

This is a classic case of getting someone else to do the dirty work, or to get a scape goat. We quickly see, they were not even willing to execute Jesus. They were willing to point the finger, but we’re coward when it comes to executing Jesus. They wanted someone to do their dirty work. Pilate was a man of business, a man that wanted to know exactly what the defendant did to merit such a request of execution. He must have done something to force the religious leaders out of obeying their own laws. Exodus 20:13, “thou shalt not kill.” They didn’t care if the gentiles broke the law of god, I mean, “they Jews are God’s chosen people.” They misunderstood what that meant for centuries. Despite the Jewish nature of the whole narrative, the method of crucifixion will be used to kill Jesus, as reality that Jesus already predicted. Joh 12:32  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Joh 12:33  This he said, signifying what death he should die. 

There was a committee that didn’t like the Pastor was running things. They gathered all the people that had the same idea about him and decided they wanted one person to address the pastor first. They gathered all the appropriate people for their “noble cause,” but they themselves were to dignified to go to the pastor with their concerns. They finally got themselves a scapegoat. This person was respectable in the church sent the person on their way to execute the deed. This person went to the pastor and stressed the disapproval. I believe the cause of upset was they thought he spent way too much of the churches resources. The pastor sat and listened intently to all of the grievances, he didn’t utter a word. He paused at the end of all of the grievances, looked at the young scapegoat and said this to them, “Kingdom focused people don’t enlist others to do their dirty work, they come seeking health and what is right for the kingdom of Jesus.” The Pastor had flaws just like everyone else, but don’t call up a rallying squad to execute. Listen, have enough faith that God will work it out, so much so, that He will give you boldness, even when confrontation is difficult. The very first thing we should do when we have an issue with a brother or sister is most of the time the last. Jesus died so we can be Kingdom people, He stood before Pilate persecuted so that we could be Kingdom people.

III.             Too Good TO Proclaim Him King:  Joh 18:33  So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Joh 18:34  Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?"Joh 18:35  Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?"

• Pilate asks a very simple question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” In true Rabbinic fashion, Look at Jesus’ reply. Did Pilate come to this realization on his own or just what He was told? What Jesus is doing, in some regard, is showing that of the spirit and that of the flesh. He asked the disciples, “Who do the people say that I am,” and Peter said, “thou are the Christ the Son of the living God.” Peter’s confession was one that could only come from the spirit. Likewise, Jesus is asking, although He knows, where did he come up with the notion that Jesus was the King of the Jews? Jesus own people turned Him over to the Roman government because He disrupted the corruption in that was in the temple, He constantly called them out for their false interpretations of the law, Jesus stirred the pot with righteousness, and being confronted made the Jews angry.

Notice the last part of the question, “what have you done?” That’s the whole point, Jesus did not have any offense other than being right and true. That’s the whole point of the cross of Christ Jesus, which is what makes the cross so crucial in His sacrificial work, Jesus was innocent, but His own people wouldn’t proclaim or see Him as the way of atonement, or amends with God almighty. Here is the thing, we don’t make amends with God, and He makes us righteous and pure in His sight. We offer nothing. They were too good to proclaim Him as King and they were separated from God, so Christian, what is your excuse? If you are saved, sanctified and secured in Him, you will lift up the name of Christ. One of the effects I see coming from the trip to Ecuador and many more, is that it teaches us to be mission even in our own back yard. Tell, the neighbor about the love of Jesus, even if you might have a hunch he knows Christ. God is moving, why aren’t you?

1. Jesus Proclaims His Kingdom Borders: First, Jesus, as co-creator with God the Father owns all this world. Second, we have Kingdom borders similar to Jesus. Joh 18:36 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."Joh 18:37  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."Joh 18:38  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. Joh 18:39  But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?" Joh 18:40  They cried out again, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a robber.

• If Jesus Kingdom was of ancient Israel or the Roman Empire, He could have had His servants fight. Jesus answers the way we all should. Here is the thought, “this world, and the ways of it, are not my home.” We don’t rest in the ways of the world and all of its depravity, we rest in the Kingdom of God. Jesus could have easily rallied some troops, in the garden He could have commanded His people to raise up arms, but He didn’t. He could have ensued a right but He didn’t, because this world, and the way of this world, is not His home, and it isn’t for the Christian either. We spend such a short time here on earth and we become some of the most wasteful people with the time God has given us.