The Gospel of John: Jesus before Pilate (2)

The Second Coming, Judgment, and Christian Readiness

If you can fathom that, amazing. Second Peter three, these are the last words penned by the Apostle Peter in this second epistle. And so it's fitting that he addresses matters like the second coming of Christ, the end of history, the day of judgment.

And there's really an exhortation that we should live in the light of this coming judgment as well. Now, he talks about the Lord coming as a thief, as a thief in the night as it were. And unfortunately that is commonly taught that it's a secret coming, a rapture.

God's gonna send Jesus, he's gonna come down and secretly catch up his people and nobody will know it except by the absence of Christians all over the world. We would argue the Bible doesn't talk that way about Jesus coming as a thief.

He's not coming secretly, he's coming as a thief unexpectedly. And in fact, Peter talks about when he comes as a thief, there's going to be the dissolving of the heavens and a great noise. As a Fred once said, the world says that the world began with a big bang.

The Bible says that world's gonna end with a big bang when Jesus returns and we are to be ready. And so Pastor Jason will read this and then pray for us. Second Peter chapter three.

Second Peter chapter three. This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.

Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as 1 ,000 years and 1 ,000 years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowless, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.

But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away by the air of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that we belong to you, that we are a part of your body, of your family, of your temple. We thank you, Lord, that all of these blessings are found in Christ Jesus.

And Lord, we are thankful that you are returning for us. And Lord, we anxiously await that day. And until that day, Lord, we pray that we would live holy lives, that we would be just and righteous, that we would be pursuing godliness.

We pray, Lord, that we would devote every moment of our day to you, that we would obey you, that we would strive to understand your will, that we would walk according to your spirit. We pray, Lord, that you would help us in this, that you would give us wisdom, help us to be ready for your return.

And Lord, we pray that as we continue our worship service through the sermon that is preached, help us, Lord, to be attentive to what it has to say. We pray, Lord, that in this sermon, we would see the beauty of your holiness, that we would see the wonderful grace of your salvation.

We pray, Lord, that this sermon would just exalt you and that we would exalt you. Lord, we pray that you would help us in this as well. We thank you, Lord, for this time together. In Jesus' name, amen.

John’s Passion Narrative and the Two Trials of Jesus

Let's return to John's gospel. And today we're right at the opening of John chapter 19. Although we're gonna review a little bit what we covered last week. You know, the hymn we sang a little bit ago that was written originally back in the 11th century could almost be a hymn that we could preach from as setting forth this passage before us.

It emphasizes our Lord Jesus having that crown of thorns placed upon his head and a mockery of that robe placed upon him. And yet he did it for us and that hymn certainly celebrates that fact. It's of course a rather slow and solemn hymn, but it ought to be as we sing about matters of our suffering savior.

Now, we have shown that in John's account of our Lord's passion, there's a focus given on two trials of Jesus in John's gospel. The first is his trial before Annas who was the father of the high priest Caiaphas.

And then the second trial before Pontius Pilate, which we began to consider last week. And although John mentions that Jesus was taken from the house of Annas to the house of Caiaphas, nothing is said of what transpired in the house of Caiaphas.

We could go to the other gospels and there's much said about a trial before the gathered Sanhedrin, the taking of there, we read of Jesus being taken before King Herod, but not here in John's gospel. It is the house of Annas, it is the trial before Pilate.

And the trial before Pilate is the lengthiest and most detailed record of our Lord before his prosecutors in these four gospels. The first part of this trial, it was in two parts. We addressed last week, it began with John 18, 28, continues through the end of the chapter.

Chapter divisions are not inspired, but here it does kind of divide part one and part two of the trial before Pilate. And then it continues all the way through verse 16 of John 19. And so it's quite lengthy actually.

And again, last Lord's day, we addressed John 18, 28 through 38. Today we'll continue with part two. We've got to address the last couple of verses of chapter 18 that we didn't get to last week, but then we will largely give our attention to the record in John 19.

However, so that we get an understanding of the entire context, I want to reread the entire account to see all that's involved. And as we do, I want you to notice that John kind of has this scene of Pilate going back and forth, outside, inside, outside, inside.

Inside where Jesus was, outside where the Jewish leaders were. John 18, 28. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium and it was early morning, but they themselves did not go into the praetorium lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.

Pilate then went out to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, if he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you. Then Pilate said to them, you take him and judge him according to your law.

Therefore, the Jews said to him, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke signifying by what death he would die, being crucifixion. Then Pilate entered the praetorium again, called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus answered him, are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me? And Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me.

What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here.

Pilate therefore said to him, are you a king then? Jesus answered, you say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born and for this cause I've come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

Pilate said to him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him at all, but you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover.

Do you therefore want me to release to you the king of the Jews? And they all cried again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. And now we begin chapter 19 that we did not cover last week.

So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple robe. Then they said, hail king of the Jews. They struck him with their hands.

Pilate then went out again and said to them, behold, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. And Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man.

And therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, you take him and crucify him for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law.

And according to our law, he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid and went again into the praetorium and said to Jesus, where are you from?

But Jesus gave him no answer. And Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? Jesus answered, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above.

Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out, sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation day of the Passover and about the sixth hour.

And he said to the Jews, behold, your king. But they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.

And he delivered him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led him away. This episode, this entire pericope, as an episode is called in the gospels or any narrative, this episode of Jesus' trial before Pilate serves to set him before us as the king over the kingdom of God, even as he's being tried and abused.

And as a kingdom that would eventually encompass.

The whole world.

And that is suggested, implied in this passage. One wrote of this, this pericope guides the reader to see more clearly how the impending death of Jesus is the sacrifice of God for the whole world. And that's the emphasis of John's gospel.

Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Like the previous pericope, he gives the plural for pericope. Even while being arrested, bound and in question, Jesus is in complete control, dictating the terms and guiding his own interrogation.

The reader is exhorted to see Jesus as the true king. And the answer to Pilate's question, what is truth? Through this pericope, the reader is coming to understand the true meaning of Passover. And how Jesus fulfills the roles of both king of kings and lamb of God.

All that is emphasized in our passage. So as we continue our study of our Lord's trial before Pilate, I'd like us to review what we covered last week, but also add some other matters that I wish I could have related.

Of course, although John did not record the events, the other gospels relate that before our Lord was brought before Pontius Pilate, he had already encountered and endured a great deal of injustice and suffering through the long night that he was held by the Jewish leaders.

We read those passages last week. He had been mocked, humiliated, beaten, abused, he was spat upon. But John focused on what transpired between Jesus and the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. That's his point of emphasis.

And although the Jewish leaders had falsely accused Jesus before Pilate, having prejudiced Pilate ahead of time against Jesus before he had spoken to him, and though Pilate began his inquiry in a rather directly stated charge against Jesus, Jesus early on seemed to take control of the proceeding.

Yes, Jesus was on trial, but to the reader, to you and me, to the reader, it appears that it was Pilate on trial. For Jesus, who was being interrogated, began to interrogate Pilate. He's in control. The Jews had brought Jesus before Pilate in order to assure the death of Jesus by crucifixion.

Although the Jews had desired and sought to put Jesus to death on several occasions, a number of occasions throughout his ministry, in this way, they could legally have Jesus executed and in a manner that was probably pretty commonly done.

Many people were crucified by the Romans in that day. And the Jews, by doing this, getting Pilate to execute him, could perhaps show or claim that they were actually doing things according to justice, that justice had been rightly executed against Jesus.

Pilate, the Roman governor, had done so. One once wrote about this, that he, Jesus, might be put to death with less reproach to them, that is to the Jews. It was an invidious thing to put one to death that had done so much good in the world, and therefore, they were willing to throw the odium upon the Roman government to make that the less acceptable to the people and save themselves from the reproach.

Thus, many are more afraid of the scandal of a bad action than of the sin of it, interestingly. But the Jews also desired to have Pilate judge Jesus for other reasons, or so it seemed, not just to take the heat off of them or direct the matter to Pilate instead of themselves.

If it were Pilate that ordered the execution of Jesus, the Jewish leadership might avoid the hostility and rejection of the general Jewish populace, many of which had come to view Jesus as a great prophet of God.

And John's gospel emphasizes that. I gave a number of verses in the footnote. They regarded Jesus as a great prophet. And so, if the Jewish leaders could employ the Romans to do their work, there'd probably be no danger of an uprising of the people against them.

They also purposed to bring Jesus before Pilate early in the morning. They waited till the morning. They spent all night with him. They would have been, before a great many people had it been midday, perhaps, moving about.

And so, they would have the trial take place in the confines of the Roman praetorium, the residence of Pilate, where there would be no Jewish observers or witnesses of the judicial proceedings. The prophet Micah addressed this kind of condition.

He wrote of this kind of treachery. Woe to those who devise wickedness and treachery and work evil on their beds. When the morning dawns, they perform it because it is in the power of their hands. That sure can be applied to the Jewish leaders, bringing Jesus early in the morning before Pilate.

John, of course, revealed their duplicity, their hypocrisy. They would not enter Pilate's residence lest they become ceremonially defiled, which would have resulted in an interruption of them keeping the feast of unleavened bread that had begun that very morning, the morning after the Passover had been eaten.

Matthew Henry commented on their sinful actions. Their superstition and vile hypocrisy, the chief priests and the elders, though they came along with the prisoner, that the thing might be done effectually, went not into the judgment hall because it was the house of an uncircumcised Gentile, lest they should be defiled, but kept out of doors that they might eat the Passover, not the Paschal lamb, Matthew Henry wants you to understand, is not because they hadn't yet eaten the Passover meal, they had done that the night before, he says, but the Passover feast, that's a reference to the seven days of unleavened bread.

Upon the sacrifices which were offered on the 15th day, that is that very morning, the Shaggagah, which was a particular sacrifice offered the morning that signaled the beginning of the seven days of unleavened bread, the Shaggagah, as they called at the Passover, bollocks spoken up, and there's some Old Testament references.

These they were to eat of, and therefore would not go into the court, that is into the Roman praetorium, for fear of touching a Gentile, and thereby contracting not a legal, but only a traditional ceremonial pollution.

This they scrupled, but made no scruple of breaking through all the laws of equity to persecute Christ to death. They strained at a net and swallowed a camel, which is certainly true. Pilate had inquired of the Jewish leaders as to the specific charges against Jesus that they were laid before him.

He had gone outside of his residence to meet with them, Jesus already inside, and by doing so, Pilate showed deference to their religious scruples. He wanted a serious and specific charge against Jesus by which to try him.

And so here we see really a few commendable traits of Pilate for although he was a very hard and cruel man, not always governing the people in justice, he did show several positive qualities here. First, although it must have been quite early in the morning, perhaps too early, Pilate showed concern for his role and duty to convene court on matters concerning the people under his guidance, under his authority.

He came out to them. And that Pilate went out to the Jewish leaders, showed consideration of them, perhaps more than what some might have given them. They don't wanna come into me, I'm not going out to them.

You could see that kind of attitude probably be pretty common. Pilate demanded a clearly stated accusation from them. He wanted a legitimate charge that would warrant their desire for a death sentence for Jesus.

But in addition to a charge, Pilate wanted evidence from them as to the validity of their accusations. It is injustice to convict a man who cannot be proved to have committed a capital offense. Pilate wanted the charge stated, he wanted the evidence to support the charge if he was going to try this man.

And it would seem Pilate purpose that Roman law would be served. The Jews at the first did not charge Jesus before Pilate with his claim to be the son of God. They do so later, of course. Rather, they charge Jesus with being a doer of evil.

Verse 30, we emphasized last week, there's a present tense verb or participle there. And it's just, he's always doing evil. If he wasn't always doing evil, we wouldn't have brought him to you. They were rather general and they didn't lay a specific charge.

They're just saying he's a, you know, he's a wicked person, deserves your condemnation. They testified to Pilate, he was a doer of evil. One, this one who the Bible describes is going about doing good, healing all who are oppressed by the devil for God was with him.

He's an evil doer, they charged. But it would seem that this general indictment would not be sufficient. For they charge Jesus with a crime, they needed to charge Jesus with a crime they knew would bring forth Pilate's concern and scrutiny of him and perhaps motivate Pilate to action.

And so they said Jesus claimed to be a king, a direct threat to Roman authority over Palestine. And by the way, here we see a common trait of those who vehemently oppose our Christian faith and practice.

They will charge us with doing evil things, interpret our motives as evil, and charge us as the cause of great disruption to good order and decency in society. You hear this all the time today, don't you?

About Christians. Increasingly, we're gonna see that where the problem is perceived. When God's judgment fell upon Israel in the eighth century BC due to King Ahab's sins, after Elijah confronted King Ahab, Ahab called Elijah the troubler of Israel.

Elijah was troubling Israel. And Elijah responded to him, I've not troubled Israel, but you have, your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. And here these Jews had accused Jesus before Pilate, he was a troubler of Israel, an evildoer.

Our Lord said that those of the world would treat us as they treated him, so we should not be surprised or alarmed when it occurs. Jesus said to his disciples, it's enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master if they call the master of the house Beelzebub, chief of demons, how much more will they malign those of his household?

They're gonna malign us more than what these evil men maligned Jesus, or at least if it happens, we shouldn't be surprised by it. Jesus said it would occur. And he actually called them to remember that.

Remember the word I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, and they did and do, they will also persecute you. If we can live in a society where in liberty and freedom of living our Christian lives, we are greatly blessed, but that is an unusual event in history, generally.

And it's probably coming to an end, we would think. Jesus promised great blessing on those who suffer for his name's sake. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Every once in a while, I'll get an anonymous letter in the mail down in the church office.

Already, I can see she opens it and reads it, which she certainly, we want her to do. We should put it in my box, and it'll be anonymous, and sometimes it'll attack me, attack Christians, attack the Bible, it's just, but it's anonymous.

And it just comes, it happens. And then, of course, so many of you know what it is firsthand in your own families. Jesus said, from now on, your greatest foes are gonna be those within your own family.

And he said, don't think I've come to send peace on the earth. Don't think that I came to bring peace to your family. From now on, I'm setting a father against his daughter-in-law, you know, a mother against a daughter.

I mean, there's all kinds, the greatest conflict is often within the family over the issues of the Christian faith and our convictions. Nothing new in these days. Oftentimes, as they did to Jesus, we'll be called or declared to be evil workers by the people of the world who do not know God through Jesus Christ.

Pilate had sought first to appease these men. He condescended to them in a measure when he said to them, you take him and judge him according to your law. But this would not satisfy them. They were implacable and intractable.

They acknowledged their legal constraints. And there, I think they're saying that our law won't permit it. Later, they declared their law requires a blasphemer to be, you know, executed. But probably where their law prohibited was they couldn't do so on the Passover or during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

But they felt like they needed to deal with this guy immediately. And so they acknowledged their legal constraints. The law of Moses would not permit them to execute Jesus on the basis of the evidence that they claimed to possess and during the time of their festival.

They then pressed upon Pilate further their desires and perhaps even demands. But we recognize, and John declared it, we saw it, that he in actuality was the Lord God with superintending all that had transpired.

Now clearly, these Jewish leaders, and Pilate was responsible for their sin, for their evil desires and designs. Pilate was not without his fault. But God was controlling them even in their freedom to do their evil deeds.

Peter would later charge these leaders before God of their crime. In a prayer that he offers in the Book of Acts, he's praying to God, Peter was. For truly against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, that would be the Romans, and the people of Israel, that would be the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, were gathered together to do whatever your hand, your purpose determined before to be done.

When people persecute us, even if they're close to us, recognize God and his sovereignty, even though they're responsible, they're wicked, they're evil for doing it, God is overseeing it all, and he's got purposes for it, for your good, for his glory.

Perhaps he intends to redeem them, save them. And the greatest witness that you're gonna be able to bear to them is that you don't react to them like the world reacts to them. But you're patient, you're loving, and you're merciful.

And they ponder that. You know, gee, he didn't act toward me like I would have acted toward him. Maybe there's something to this. You know, it's been commonly said for centuries, you know, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church that there were so many people converted through the early martyrdom, the first couple centuries of Roman persecution, when the pagans saw there must be some reality to this Christian faith.

I wouldn't suffer like that for that cause. They are, maybe there's something true here. And there are many people that would count their conversion to Christ through their witness of the brutality afflicted upon the people of God.

So divine providence directed all that had transpired. God was controlling the Jews' wickedness and Pilate's sinful compromise and concession to them in order to accomplish his purpose in offering Jesus as a sacrifice for sinners.

It was in the plan and purpose of God for Jesus Christ to die the death of one who had been forsaken by God for sin. God had cursed his son in the place of his people. And his death on the cross declared that to have happened when Christ died.

He had to die upon the cross, not be stoned. Because the punishment of breaking the law of God, of course, was to be killed. And then your body hung on a tree. Everybody, when they saw that happen, they said that man could not possibly been favored by God.

God, if God cared for this man, he wouldn't have permitted this man to be so shamed by having his naked slain body hung up there on the tree for everyone to see. It was an emblem, a sign, evidence that he was cursed of God.

Christ was cursed of God on our behalf. He had to be crucified. He had to be hung on a tree. And Paul wrote of this in Galatians. For as many as are the works of the law are under the curse. For it's written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

You wanna be saved by keeping the law of God? You're not gonna do it. Break one law and the whole weight of the law comes upon you. But that no one is justified, that is brought into a right relationship with God by the law of God, by doing the law of God in the sight of God is evident for the just.

He quotes scripture, Old Testament, back at 2 .4, that just shall live by faith, not by works. And yet the law is not a faith. The law didn't command faith, it commanded obedience. And he quotes the Old Testament, the man who does them, that is the works of the law, he shall live by them.

But of course no one could possibly do so except the Lord Jesus, he did so. And so Paul wrote, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, their substitution. For it's written, Paul quotes the Old Testament, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

That's another term, metaphor for the cross.

Why?

So that the blessing of Abraham, God's promise to Abraham of life through the Holy Spirit might come upon the Gentiles in Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. John had declared that these things happened in order that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying by what death he would die, verse 32.

Well what sayings of Jesus make that were fulfilled by the Jews declining to judge him according to their law? Well Jesus declared that two things would happen and they transpired, they happened. Jesus told his disciples that he would be first delivered unto the Gentiles, the Romans, and that as we see in Matthew 20, Mark 10, behold, we're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priest, Jewish, the Jewish priest, and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and discourage.

And John says this fell out this way in John chapter 18, in order to fulfill what Jesus said would happen to him. And then the second thing Jesus declared is that he would be crucified. Jesus said, you know that after two days of Passover is coming, the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

And so this is why he had to have been prosecuted by the Romans, by Pilate. Well after Pilate was before the Jews, he again returned into the Praetorium, his residence, to try Jesus privately. And Jesus would judge and condemn by Pilate.

And why was he judged and condemned by Pilate? So that you and I will not be judged and condemned by God. He was our substitute. Pilate challenged Jesus as to whether or not he claimed to be a king, verses 36 and 37.

Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, are you a king then?

Jesus declared his kingdom was not like a physical nation or kingdom in this world with geographic boundaries, with concerns of military expansion to the detriment of other nations. His kingdom was no physical threat to Rome.

It was a real threat, but not a physical threat to Rome that Pilate could do anything about, frankly. Notice first that Jesus described his kingdom negatively. What it was not, my kingdom is not of this world.

That itself reveals a lot. This may have alleviated any concern Pilate had of this man as a political or military threat to him or the rule of Rome. But our Lord's words when he said that negatively also implied some positive things regarding his kingdom, his kingdom was the kingdom of heaven.

It was not of this world. He was pressing upon Pilate the spiritual arena of God and God's will for mankind on earth. Jesus has a kingdom, but not one of or like the kingdoms of this world. By the way, this negates all ideas of a state church, the Church of Scotland, the Church of England or whatever.

The Bible presents local churches, not state churches. That is making the kingdom of God a kingdom within this world, and it's just contrary to the spiritual nature of the kingdom. Of course, we know from Christ's teaching recorded elsewhere, his kingdom was entirely spiritual in nature.

It's a kingdom in the hearts and minds of men and women, boys and girls, regardless of where they dwell or under what form of government they live out their daily lives. We can live as Christians in a free society.

There are Christians living under the oppression of North Korea, China, and in some ways, the ones in China are thriving credibly. We hear, you know, hear Christians in America because we've got so easy, we tend to get rather lazy and careless and indifferent and presumptive.

When it starts costing something to live as a Christian, then perhaps people get a little more serious. His kingdom was in the realm of how and why citizens of the kingdom are to live, not where they dwell, but how they are to live, how they are to view themselves and God.

His kingdom cannot be entered through physical birth, but only through spiritual birth, as declared in John 3. A spiritual birth from above that creates a new desire and opens a new way of living for this citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

You cannot enter the kingdom of God or heaven because of your parents' faith. If you don't have faith in Jesus, you have no hope of heaven no matter what your church is or who your parents are. There's individual responsibility.

Individuals come into the kingdom of God through a work of grace that God himself performs, imparting life where there's death. The riches and possessions of those in this kingdom, the spiritual kingdom, are not enjoyed now, but there will be an occasion when we are translated out of this world, brought into the presence of the Lord, and then the day of glory arrives.

We'll receive our inheritance as a reward, according to the apostle. Earthly armies do not secure possessions for the citizens of the kingdom of God, but rather God himself reserves the riches that he has promised them.

God is guarding them in heaven, and nobody can prevent God from protecting that which he's promised his children. And so nothing about his kingdom would directly impinge upon any national entity or authority.

Pilate could be assured his kingdom, the kingdom over which Jesus was king, was of a different nature and of a different concern, had different concerns than that for which Pilate was responsible. And so Jesus affirmed to Pilate in verse 37, "'You say rightly that I am a king.'".