My Kingdom Is Not Of This World (John 18:1-40)

John 18:1-40; Key Verse: Jn 18:36a

"Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world...'"

Overview of John 18:1-40:

1. The Kingdom of The World (Jn 18:1-32, 39-40; 19:1-42): Injustice. Darkness. Perishing.
   

• Betrayal (Jn 18:1-3).
• Arrest (Jn 18:4-12).
• Trial (Jn 18:13-14; 19-24; 28-32).
• Cowardice (Jn 18:15-18; 25-27).
• Compromise (Jn 18:39-40).
• Condemnation (Jn 19:1-16).
• Crucifixion (Jn 19:17-42).
  

Jesus' Kingdom is Not of This World (Jn 18:33-38): Righteousness. Light. Eternal.

• Kingship (Jn 18:33-36).
• Truth (Jn 18:37-38).

In his book, "Kingdom Life in a Fallen World: Living Out the Sermon on the Mount," Sinclair Ferguson said, “The kingdom is the rule and reign of God, the expression of his gracious sovereign will. To belong to the kingdom of God is to belong to the people among whom the reign of God has already begun.”

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn 18:36). Here Jesus is acknowledging at least five things:

1. he is a king.
2. he has a kingdom.
3. his kingdom is not of this world.
4. he came not to fight but to testify to the truth.
   
5. he came to bring us back to his kingdom.
   

I. The Kingdom of The World (Jn 18:1-32, 39-40): Darkness and Injustice

Jesus' kingdom is different from the kingdom of this world where we live. What might characterize the kingdom of this world? Though these categories overlap, Chuck Swindoll suggests that the world system is committed to at least four major objectives, which can be summarized in four words:

1. Fortune (money, money, money)
   
2. Fame (superiority, significance, somebody)
   
3. Power (politics, honor, control)
   
4. Pleasure (lust, flesh, sensuality)
   

They may be represented by the various characters in today's text.

1. Money. Judas betrayed Jesus for money (Mk 14:10-11; Jn 12:5-6; 13:29; Mt 27:3, 5). Judas was attached to the kingdom of this world through his love of money (1 Tim 6:10). Judas had the best shepherd, pastor, mentor, preacher, theologian, Bible expositor, friend, leader, counselor ever. He had the best Christian experience of any man in history. Yet he did not become a Christian. He could not hear the good news of the kingdom of God (Mk 1:15). His attachment to the kingdom of this world prevented him from grasping or understanding that Jesus' kingdom is not of this world.

Check each month where your money goes to. Is money bad or evil? Are there no rich people among godly believers? It is not the acquisition of money per se that is evil, but what we think and feel about it and how we use our money that reveals whether or not we are part of the kingdom of this world. The deceitfulness of wealth causes us to have a thorny heart soil that is not able to bear fruit of the kingdom of God when the seed of the gospel is planted (Mt 13:22; Mk 4:19). To check your heart about money, check each month how much and where your money goes to.

2. Lust. The soldiers (Jn 18:3, 12) who represent the common working people participated in Jesus' arrest because it was their job. They worked to get paid. With their money, they provided for their family and spent their money on their pleasures (Tit 3:3; Jas 4:3). When Solomon denied himself no pleasure, he was not happy but felt that everything was meaningless and a chasing after the wind (Eccl 2:1-3, 10-11). "Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich" (Prov 21:17). Like the love of money, the lusts and indiscriminate desires of our hearts close our hearts to the gospel of the kingdom (Mk 4:19). If our primary motivation in life is to indulge our lusts and pleasures, then we are still part of the kingdom of this world, and we become objects of God's wrath (Eph 2:1-3).

What is your heart's delight? What do you lust for?

3a. Politics (political). Pilate may be the representative of the political powers of the world. Because of his political maneuvering, he does not know or care when he is lying and when he is telling the truth. Everything he says and does is out of expediency. Truth is never a consideration (Jn 18:37). Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, for he was a victim of a Sanhedrin plot (Jn 18:38). His curt and cynical response, "What is truth?" shows that he is convinced there is no answer, or more likely that the does not want or care to hear it. He is not among those whom the Father has given to the Son. His incessant desire for political advantage is the evidence that he is a part of the perishing kingdom of this world.

3b. Politics, part 2 (religious). We might naively think that politics happens only in the world. But the sad reality is that politics also happens in religion and in religious institutions. It happened in the Jewish synagogues. It happens also in church. The chief priests and the Pharisees wanted to rid themselves of Jesus purely for political reasons. They felt that Jesus threatened their religious ecclesiastical authority. The high priest(s), Annas and Caiaphas, perhaps represent the worst of religious politics (Jn 18:13-14, 24; Jn 11:50; Lk 3:2; Ac 4:6).

If you are a Christian, are you tempted to "play politics" in the world, or even in church, in the name of serving God?

4. Somebody. We might never imagine that Peter, Jesus' top disciple, would deny him, not once, but three times (Jn 18:15-18; 25-27). Denial is a betrayal of sorts. Why did Peter faithfully follow Jesus to the courtyard and yet betray him? It was because his hope, which is representative of the hopes of all of Jesus' disciples (Lk 24:27; Acts 1:3), was still attached to the kingdom of this world. They wanted to be "somebody" in the earthly church kingdom they assumed Jesus would establish.

If you are a Christian, what is your real hope?

II. Jesus' Kingdom is Not of This World (Jn 18:33-38)

All the characters in John 18 reveal how they were inadvertently sucked into the kingdom of this world. But Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn 18:36). From Jesus, we learn that:

1. Jesus is a king. Who is your king?
   
2. Jesus has a kingdom. Does Jesus' kingdom reign over you?
   
3. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world. Are you in the world but not of the world?
4. Jesus came not to fight but to testify to the truth. Are you fighting or testifying?
   
5. Jesus came to bring us back to his kingdom. How does he do that?
   

1. Jesus is a king (Jn 18:33, 37). Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920; Reformed theologian and prime minister of the Netherlands, 1901-1905), famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, "Mine!” Regardless of whether or not we accept Jesus as king, he is, and it will be ultimately revealed to all that he is (Phil 2:9-11).

Who is your king?

2. Jesus has a kingdom (Jn 18:36). It is an eternal kingdom (Dan 2:44; 7:14, 27; Rev 11:15).

Does Jesus' kingship, kingdom and eternity reign over you?

3. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36). Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (Jn 18:36). The world is in darkness and will categorically resist and reject the light (Jn 1:5; 3:19). The kingships of this world preserve themselves by force and violence. Jesus' kingdom which is not of this world is no threat to Rome's interests.

How are you managing the tension of living in the world, yet not being a part of it?

4. Jesus came not to fight but to testify to the truth (Jn 18:36,37). Jesus having described his kingdom negatively (Jn 18:36), now defines his kingly mission positively. “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (Jn 18:37). To be a king was the reason he was born, the reason he came into the world, which refers to the incarnation--his move from the glory he shared with the Father in his presence (Jn 17:5) to his manifestation in this fallen world to manifest something of that glory (Jn 1:14). What was his purpose in coming as a king? It was not to use force to conquer as kings of this world do, but "to testify to the truth." This suggests that his kingdom is the kingdom of truth, and the way Jesus exercises his saving kingship is virtually indistinguishable from his testifying to the truth.

What is the truth Jesus is testifying to? It is to be understood in more of the intellectual sense. It is nothing less than the self-disclosure of God in his Son, who is the truth (Jn 14:6).

5. Jesus came to bring us back to his kingdom (Jn 18:37). How? Disclosing the truth of God, of salvation and of judgment (Jn 16:8-11), was the principal way of making subjects, of exercising his saving kingship. Only those who are rightly related to God, to the truth itself, can grasp Jesus' witness to the truth (Jn 3:16-21).

To give us the kingdom Jesus had to lose it. Ultimately, Jesus is able to bring us back to his kingdom only when he loses it himself on the cross. To give us the kingdom, he had to lose it. To give us life, he had to die. To give us peace, he had to be abandoned. To give us joy, he had to be stricken with sorrow. For our grief to be turned to joy, his joy of the Father's presence had to be turned to grief by being forsaken by his Father.

Who is your king and where is your kingdom aligned?

Questions:

1. After Jesus finished praying, where did he go (Jn 18:1; Mt 26:36; Mk 14:32; Lk 22:39)? How was Judas instrumental in Jesus' arrest (Jn 18:2-3; Lk 21:37; 22:39, 48)? Why did Judas betray Jesus? Who collaborated to arrest Jesus (Jn 18:3)?
   
2. What did Jesus know (Jn 18:4; 13:1, 3)? What did he do and why (Jn 18:4-9)? Why did the arresting soldiers fall back (Jn 18:6; 7:45-46)? Who was Jesus protecting (Jn 18:8; 17:12; 10:28; 6:39, 44)? How (Jn 10:11, 15, 17-18, 28)?
   
3. Why did Peter strike the high priest's servant (Jn 18:10; Mt 26:51-52; Mk 14:47; Lk 22:49-51)? What is the cup Jesus must drink (Jn 18:11; 12:28-28; Mt 26:39, 42; Mk 14:36; Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 25:15; Eze 23:31-34; Rev 14:10; 16:19)?
4. Why was Jesus bound and brought first to Annas (Jn 18:12-14, 19)? Who are Annas and Caiaphas (Jn 11:49-52; 18:24; Lk 3:2; Ac 4:6)?
5. Why did Peter follow Jesus into the courtyard and then deny knowing him three times (Jn 18:15-18; 25-27)? What do you learn about Peter?
   
6. Why did the high priest question Jesus about his disciples and his teaching (Jn 18:19)? What did Jesus' answer mean (Jn 18:20-21)? After being stuck, how did Jesus respond and why (Jn 18:22-23)? What was wrong with the entire legal proceedings of the high priest (Jn 18:19-24)?
7. What do you learn about the Jews who did not want to be ceremonially unclean (Jn 18:28; 2 Chron 30:21)? How did Pilate began the legal Roman proceedings (Jn 18:29)? Why might the Jews be "upset" (Jn 18:30-31, 3, 12, 24)? How was God fulfilling his will in the midst of such injustice (Jn 18:32; 3:14, 8:28; 12:32-33; cf. Ac 7:59)?
8. What is the charge against Jesus (Jn 18:33-34; 19:3, 12, 15, 19)? The nature of Jesus' kingship (Jn 18:35-38; Dan 2:44; 7:14, 27; Rev 11:15)? How does it compare with the kingdom of this world (Jn 18:36; cf. Mt 26:53 [12x6,000x185,000])? Who is Jesus and why did he come to the world (Jn 18:37; 1:14, 17; 8:32; 14:6)? What was Pilate's verdict (Jn 18:38)? What do you learn about him (Jn 18:38-40)?

Reference:

Carson, D.A. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1991. IV. Jesus' Self-Disclosure in His Cross and Exaltation (Jn 13:1-20:31), D. The Trial and Passion of Jesus (Jn 18:1-19:42). 571-596.

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