Kingdoms Collide (John 18:28-40 Jeff Kliewer)

God’s Love, Fear of the Lord, and Church Announcements

Yes, I want to welcome you all. It was an amazing time last night, a fellowship with our dinner. We had over 90 people were here last night. It was a great time of food. I wanted to say thank you to the women and the men who cooked.

A huge army that stayed afterwards to help set this up, but it was just an amazing time of fellowship. It's good to get together like that. I'm gonna open us up with a scripture. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.

We live in a life, we live here on the earth, and we experience this thing that we would call love. We have it in various forms. I can think of what it's like in family. We have, for our parents, we love them.

We have our children, we love them. Grandchildren, we have siblings. We have our church family, we love them. How much greater is God's love? And to know that when we have bowed the knee, when we have professed Christ, when we have turned to him by his grace through faith, that love that we get to experience, something the rest of the world can never really understand.

They try to place other things in its place. But how great, how high, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is the love of God towards those who fear him. So I had to think about what does it mean to fear him?

And I just wanna say that I think there are two things that are appropriate in this realm. One is that we surrender to the sovereignty of God. We don't make ourselves what we're not. We surrender to the sovereignty of God.

And the second thing is we accept his sovereignty in all aspects of our life. When that becomes the motive and that becomes the way that we approach our life, we are opening ourselves up to experiencing this love that is so great and so majestic.

It's God's love towards us. Surrender to him, be bathed in his love. We have some announcements. I'm gonna try to be as quick as I can, but we got a lot of stuff coming on. First things that are on the calendar.

In two weeks, on the 3rd of December is our congregational meeting. It will be after the second service, and it will be to discuss the calling of our new associate pastor. Please stay after second service and come for that meeting if you're a member.

Even if you're not a member, please come. It's an important and exciting time that we'll get together. Towards the end of December, on the 24th, it's Christmas Eve. It falls on a Sunday this year. We're just letting you know in advance our schedule.

We are gonna have the normal nine o 'clock, 1045, worship services, and then our candlelight service will be at four o 'clock in the afternoon. We'll keep you posted on that. In a couple of weeks, on a Saturday, something's happening.

John and Janet would like you to know that everybody in the church is invited to hear, to witness, to be part of the celebration here at the church. I believe it's gonna be at 11 o 'clock on Saturday here at the church.

So join us in celebration for our brother and sister. That's an exciting time. This coming Thursday, we are going to have a turkey bowl. I wanna thank Eric Meyer, who's graciously agreed to pull that thing together for us.

Carrie, I think it's at 1030. Yes, it's at 1030. And it does not matter, man, woman, whatever, but there's an age 13 and above. So if you wanna come around and bang into each other and throw a football around on Thursday, I think the weather's gonna be really good for it.

This is Thanksgiving week, and we recognize Wednesday. It's like the day before. We are not gonna do the 12 o 'clock study on Wednesday. So if you're normally coming for our Daniel study, it won't be this week.

We're taking this week off. Now, looking far ahead, gentlemen, I want you to be getting your minds already wrapping around this. We have our men's retreat is planned. We're working on the specific details, but it will be in April the 12th through the 14th.

It's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday this time, and we're gonna be back up at the Pocono Mountain Bible Camp where we've been before. It will be just us. We're not joining with another large group. So we're putting that out there so you know it.

An opportunity that we would like to put in front of you, and that's that we're providing an opportunity for an end-of-year offering. People often are looking for the right place to do an end-of-year offering.

Churches provide it. We are aware of an opportunity to support the building of a girls' orphanage in Malawi, and that's where Hamilton Banda is our missionary out there. So we're taking an end-of-the-year offering to put together funds to support the building of this orphanage.

Our plan is to work with the missions committee. There's gonna be an oversight of the project. We're not gonna just give a big slug of money. We're gonna fund it as it works. But an end-of-year offering, it would be a great encouragement, I think, to Hamilton as well as a much-needed ministry for the young ladies in Malawi.

We do have our Connect Care. I want to highlight a couple of thoughts about the Connect Care ministry. It's an opportunity for us as a church body to volunteer to step up and encourage those who are going through a particular stress, they have a particular need.

There are two ways that you participate. One is if you are aware of a need that somebody has, and it might be you or it might be somebody you know. Back in the foyer on the table are these forms. You fill this form out, and there's a box, you put it in the box.

The second way is to participate. So as these needs show up, there is a team of volunteers that contact those who are willing to be contacted, sending cards, letters, phone calls, visits to encourage those.

We want to encourage your participation in that way in the Connect Care ministry. We are in the middle of our process towards identifying the new elder, the new deacons that will step up in the board in April.

It takes a while to work through the process. But you as a congregation are gonna nominate, you're going to identify those individuals you think should be serving. You're gonna get a list of people, and you're gonna pick off of that list.

But we recognize that at this point in time, not everybody feels at this point in time in their life is the right time for them to be serving, but you are a member. You would contact the nominating committee.

Drew Deegan is the chair. Don Snowden is the deacon on it. You can send it to them. Pastor Jeff sent it to myself. If you feel this isn't the time, then your name just is not on that list. And that allows people to nominate those who would be wanting, feeling that God is calling them.

Please take that seriously. If you think in prayer this is not the time, just let us know. Come back tonight speaking of prayer. Come back tonight at six o 'clock for our church prayer meeting. It's an amazing time to bring the needs of the church and what's going on.

Join us at six o 'clock. Let's turn to prayer now. Lord, we celebrate in the truth of your love. And how great is that love? We come here today to worship and to hear your truth and to draw close to you.

We come here today because of your love. We're unworthy sinners, but you ordained that your son would be the sacrifice. We come here today because by your love, we are called your children. And we come remembering and celebrating the standing of the true hope of your sovereign grace.

Thank you, Father, for calling us and drawing us here today. We continue to pray, Lord, that you would be with your children in Israel. Stand by them, protect them. In fact, protect all civilians. Lord, in this time of strife, but we pray along with others who pray that you would watch out for your people in Israel.

Father, be with those in our midst and our fellowship who are in need, who are grieving, who have sicknesses. We lift them up to you. Be with Pastor Jeff as he prepares to bring us your word. Give him your words to speak and preparing our hearts to hear and to respond.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Psalm 34, Thanksgiving, and the Lord’s Prayer

Let's sing together.

He sought the uncertainly and delivered me. Be ashamed, be ashamed.

That's taken right from Psalm 34. I encourage you to meditate on that as you go through your week. Magnify the Lord together with me. And as we continue, let's sing together because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let our mouths proclaim his wonderful grace and mercy and his steadfast love to us.

His love, he is above all things. His love endures forever. His love.

You get to stand and sing praises to your name. Lord, we are thankful. As we go into the Thanksgiving season, we know, Lord, that you have done so much more for us than we could ever repay. And we are thankful.

Every blessing, every breath, everything you do for us, we know is by your grace.

Ever cease. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues of all races. Safely to like a flame I walk.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious heavenly Father, hallowed be thy name. You are worthy of every praise that we could ever offer you. You are good and you are God. We worship and adore you.

Your kingdom come. God, we do ask that your kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. We pray, Lord, that your rule would be extended into the hearts of those who hear this sermon today, believing that they would bow the knee before the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, and so belong to the kingdom of heaven.

We also pray, Lord, that your kingdom would come, Jesus, that you as King would come back for your own. Come, Lord Jesus. We are looking for your return. And we know that we cannot make things right here without you.

We can do the best we can to hold on, Lord, but we are waiting for you, Jesus, to come back. Come, Lord Jesus. In the meantime, Lord, we pray that we would preach the gospel faithfully, that we would tell the truth to everyone, and that your kingdom would grow like from a mustard seed to become the biggest of trees, Lord, that the birds of the air would find nest in the branches of the kingdom.

So God, please use us in the pursuit of truth and preaching truth to make you known. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanksgiving is Thursday. You guys do know that, right? You have plans of where to be? Thanksgiving is Thursday.

Thanksgiving, the Reformation, and the Founding of America

Well, with Thanksgiving, I want us to take a moment at the beginning of the sermon to think about a particular blessing that we have to be born or to have moved to the United States of America. How thankful should we be for this country in which we live?

We should be profoundly thankful, recognizing that this country was given to us by God, that there was a special providence in the plan and economy of God that brought us the country in which we live.

In fact, if we were born and raised in the 1300s in Europe, we would have been under the boot of the Roman Catholic Church. Under the darkness of that particular situation, there were elements of truth.

They preached the Trinity. There were elements of the Bible that were rightly upheld, but the gospel had been obscured behind a veil of ignorance, not aware of the word of God. The people didn't have access to the light of scripture, and so many pursued sacraments just out of a mere course of religion without ever being born again, without knowing Jesus Christ.

But there was a second problem. Besides the lack of gospel clarity, the second problem was political. The Roman government, the empire, was somehow wed together with the church so that the church could arrest people who didn't believe as they do.

One of the morning stars of the Reformation was a man named John Wycliffe. We know he brought the gospel to England in the 1300s, but in 1370, he wrote these words, "'Neither the Pope nor any other prelate of the church "'ought to have prisons wherein to punish transgressors.'".

Doesn't that seem pretty obvious to us? Because we were born in America where the church doesn't imprison people. About 50 years later in Bohemia, Jan Hus would make a similar pre-Reformation stand, and the church condemned him to death, whereas they never caught up with Wycliffe until after he was dead.

They would exhume his body and burn his body and scatter his ashes. They did catch up with Jan Hus in Bohemia, but before he was burned, he said, "'You are going to burn a goose.'". The name Hus meant goose in Bohemian.

"'You are going to burn a goose, "'but in 100 years, you will have a swan "'which you can neither roast nor broil.'". Interesting famous last words, right? The famous last words of Jan Hus, prophetically speaking of the rise of Martin Luther.

They couldn't kill him, and the Reformation did take root throughout Europe. Now, we're very aware of this. The Reformation out of darkness, light, post-Tanabrus, lux, the gospel flooding into the European continent, the truth of the gospel, but what many people don't realize is that there was a political corollary to the Reformation.

It was the preaching of freedom, as Wycliffe declared in Jan Hus. Theodore Beza would constrain magistrates against the divine right of kings. Kings do not have absolute authority. Following Calvin was this Beza, and he wrote on the rights of magistrates in 1574.

There was a Frenchman, a Huguenot, anonymous. Nobody knew who he was, but he wrote under a pseudonym, Stephen Junius Brutus. Now, Junius Brutus was et tu, Brute, the one who killed Caesar when he was becoming a bit of a tyrant, so I think he was making reference to that, but he was writing under a pseudonym to defend against tyrants.

Listen to what he wrote. First, the Holy Scripture does teach that God reigns by his own proper authority and kings by derivation. God from himself, kings from God. God hath a jurisdiction proper. Kings are his delegates.

It follows then that the jurisdiction of God hath no limits, that the kings are bounded, that the power of God is infinite. That of kings is confined, that the kingdom of God extends itself to all places.

That of kings is restrained within the confines of certain countries. What's he saying? There is a king of kings and a lord of lords. There is one enthroned in heaven who is over and above the constrained, delegated authorities of this world, that although God appoints magistrates in certain ways to do certain things, that is a delegated derivative authority that comes from the absolute, unquestioned, unchallenged, unmatched, unparalleled, full sovereign right of the king of kings.

God is over all. That's what he's saying. Now, this is hugely important because it means that the king, the sovereign, in a land, is not all-powerful. The next important work to be written was Samuel Rutherford, who wrote Lex Rex.

Another interesting term, Lex Rex. Lex law, Rex king. The rule of law over the king. Rex Lex would have been the king is law. But Lex law, Rex king, means the law rules the land, the rule of law. And from this doctrine came other writers who extended this Protestant theology.

Protestant political theology we're talking about. So when the Mayflower Compact was written in 1620, the pilgrims, Puritans, escaping the oppression and the tyranny of their homeland came to this place that we call the United States of America.

They got off that boat with the Mayflower Compact, saying, Mayflower Compact, saying, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. They were willing to boldly confess that their God was Christ.

And they were here under his sovereign authority. Interesting. When John Locke developed his ideas that give us the freedoms that we have in this country, understand that he credited these very writers that I'm telling you about as the founders of what he was teaching.

And the United States of America was fashioned with our constitution to give freedom of conscience. Because that came from the Bible. To limit and restrain the role of the state and the role of the governor and the king, because that came from the Bible.

But it did not subjugate God and the sovereign rule of the king of kings under the civil magistrates. When Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists and said that there is a wall of separation between church and state, he was telling the Danbury Baptists that the state will not keep them from doing whatever they are to freely do.

It was not the other way around. It was freedom of religion in the United States of America. Thomas Jefferson did say that there would not be a religious test to hold office nationally. But that didn't mean that states couldn't do that,.

As we'll learn.

When the founding fathers wrote the constitution, did these men envision a secular thing where government would exclude and limit what Christians are able to say? Well, if so, then why did Thomas MacLean have altar calls in the courtroom?

John Hancock, whose famous signature took up half the page, called his state to prayer 22 times with Christ-centered language. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers, founded the first Bible Society and the Sunday School movement.

Francis Hopkinson set the entire book of Psalms to music. Remember we just sang Psalm 34 set to music? This founder set the entire book of Psalms to music. Robert Treat Payne was a military chaplain. Roger Sherman was a theologian and John Witherspoon was a gospel preacher.

In New Jersey, he was the president of Princeton. Even Thomas Jefferson, you'll be surprised by this, in 1802 signed a law renewing the authorization for the Society of the United Brethren for propagating the gospel among the heathen, for missionaries to be on the Northwest Territory evangelizing the Native Americans.

What is this republic? Ben Franklin was asked that. He said, you have a republic if you can keep it. In our day, the freedoms that we were given are now being turned into an attack upon the church in many ways.

There is an upside down view of what this country was meant to be. John Adams took his philosophy from the Reformation political theory. He credits as his forebears, the very people that I referenced earlier in this sermon.

And he says, we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net.

Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. What we were given in this country, what we inherited, what we say thank you for this Thursday when we have our Thanksgiving meals is the work of God through the Protestant Reformation and not only the ideology, but the people.

It was the French Huguenots that immigrated here. It was the Puritans who brought and settled this country. What we give thanks for is a gift of God that he brought forth in time. Now, how did that happen?

Christ Before Pilate and the Collision of Kingdoms

I wanna pause for a moment and think. When Jesus stood before the governor representing Rome, this governor wielded the sword of Rome's authority, Pontius Pilate. Jesus had the power to approach him and to snatch the scepter from his hand.

He could have called 12 legion of angels to come fight for him, but instead he humbly submitted himself to die a death at Rome's hands. He could have done this in the collision of kingdoms. Does that mean that the kingdom of God was vanquished and conquered by Rome?

Quite the opposite. What Jesus did in humbling himself was for the redemption of a people. If he had snatched that scepter and crushed Rome to pieces, set up his throne in Jerusalem, and Rome came to throw him out, he would have been victorious, he would have reigned over a kingdom, but none of us here would have been in it.

No one would have been.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He instead laid down his life for sinners like us. And many people stop right there and say, okay, well, that's all that the kingdom of God is. It's within you, and it is.

But understand that when he encountered Pontius Pilate and going forward, he also seeded the world with truth. Like a seed that grows and becomes a tree to fill the whole earth, he seeded the world with truth.

And that truth has transformed the very world in which we live. It's what gave us this country. Let's read this encounter without missing the point. John 18, verses 28 and following. As we come to chapter 18, verse 28, we have already seen Jesus in the garden arrested.

There he is, a prophet, in the wilderness, alone, no place to lay his head. As the Roman authorities come to arrest him, he proclaims, I am he, prophetically declaring who he is. Of course, Malchus is there, and he loses his ear in this exchange.

But after proclaiming himself as prophet, the scene changes from Gethsemane to where? The seat, the courtyard of the high priest. So here we see Jesus as the great high priest. There is a pretender to that station, Caiaphas.

But he's only a political priest. By political machinations, he has gotten that place. Annas, his stepfather, has gotten him in the role, and he stands in judgment over Jesus. But we need to see him as priest here, Jesus as priest, because Peter, in the scene, is very in need of a priest, where he should be standing and praying and submitting to the lordship of Christ, and even boldly confessing Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Instead, what is Peter doing? Denying him three times. And the point is, here is one who needs a priest. And there is the steady, immovable rock of our salvation, the great high priest, who cannot be moved, and openly declares the truth, prophet, priest, king.

Now look with me in verse 28. They led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. Here you see the true king will clash with a pretender to the throne, an opponent, a Roman governor representing King Caesar.

It was early morning, verse 28. They themselves did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man?

They answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. Pilate said to them, take him yourself and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.

Now notice verse 32. John is writing this gospel, and so we look to the author for the meaning that we're to take from the narrative. In verse 32, he tells us, this was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken, to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

So this narrative that we're reading results in this conclusion that we'll explore. Look back at verse 28. They go to the governor's headquarters. Jesus is forcefully brought in to see Pilate, but where do the religious leaders remain?

Verse 28, outside for fear that they would defile themselves. Imagine the hypocrisy of that. Their religious scruples keep them from defiling themselves in the presence of a Gentile while they're in the midst of handing Jesus over.

To be killed.

Their murderous hearts don't match their outward practice. And this is the case with religiousness. Very often, the religion of humanity is fickle. Out of the same mouth someone blesses and praises God and then turns and curses his neighbor.

Blessing and cursing out of the same stream. Polluted water with the pure. Mankind is often very religious, but human religion is fickle and hypocritical. And if we're careful, we need to see this in ourselves at times as well.

How often do we bless the name of the Lord with all our soul on a Sunday morning and then fall into sin or a bitter attitude of the heart later on in the week? This is something to which all humanity is prone, and it is why we need this high priest that we're studying and seeing today.

No man, listen, maybe you've come here today and you have a certain religion. I don't care what the tradition is. The Buddhist eightfold path, the 10 commandments of Judaism, Islam's five pillars, Christianity's Roman Catholic sacraments.

Whatever you're trusting, you will not perform that duty in a pure undefiled way. There will be elements of hypocrisy in you and you will fall short of the glory of God. You won't even live up to your own standard, let alone to the righteousness and perfection of God.

Do you see it in the Jewish leaders? On one hand, they're being very religious, very scrupulous not to defile themselves, but in the same breath, they're handing over the God of the universe.

To be crucified.

There has to be a different way than religious obedience. It doesn't work for them and it wouldn't work for us. There is another way. It's through faith in the Son of God. Verse 29, so Pilate went outside to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man?

Now, pause for a second and think about that question. What's the charge? What charge do you bring against this man? At the crack of dawn, why did you get me out of bed? What's going on here, folks? You would think that when you read the next verse, you will at least know what he's charged with.

If you don't, there's something wrong with these men. Listen, they answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. So what's the charge? What's the charge? Their answer is, oh, we have a good one.

We have a good one. Trust us, it's good. Believe me, believe you me, this man is evil. And if he weren't, we wouldn't be here today. They're completely obfuscating. They have no charge that they can press by biblical justice.

Now, notice what standard they're actually using. They're actually not judging Jesus by biblical justice. If they were to do that, they would examine his claims. He claims to be the Christ. The Bible prophesied who the Christ would be.

They would look and see, does he match the prophetic writings? Was he born in Bethlehem? Did he come out of Egypt as a child? Did he do miracles greater than Moses? Did he ride into Jerusalem on a donkey?

As Zechariah 9, 9 prophesied would happen. If they were judging by biblical standards, equal weights and equal measures, they would see his claim to be the Christ is true. But they don't wanna face the reality and judge rightly, so they're actually gonna, watch this, they're gonna use Roman law to condemn him.

This is the upside down ethics of this world. Biblical justice is given to them, but notice what they explicitly do. Verse 31, Pilate says to them, take him yourself and judge him by what standard?

Your own law.

And what do they do? They turned to Roman law. The Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. Oh, they could have put Jesus to death for blasphemy. If he's not the son of God, that's in the Torah.

The penalty is stoning, to cast him down. So what is John doing in this narrative? What's happening? Well, I told you where to look. John himself says in verse 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 kind of death that is the unjust killing of Jesus by Gentiles, by being lifted up. Remember what John told us earlier in John chapter 12. Go back with me, let's just look at it so we all see it ourselves in the text.

John 12, 32 and 33. If the Jews were to put someone to death, how would they do it? They do have a means. It's by stoning. In Acts chapter seven, when they don't like what Stephen is saying, what do they do?

They stone him right there and then. But look what happens here in John 12, 32 and 33. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

The kind of death that Jesus is going to die is not to be cast down and stoned to death, but rather to be lifted up. Next chapter, 13 verses 18 and 19. John 13, 18 and 19. I am not speaking of all of you.

I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me. He's quoting from Psalm 49. The scripture will be fulfilled. Judas Iscariot at the Passover meal is eating bread with the other disciples.

Jesus dips the bread and gives it to him. And Judas lifts up his heel against Jesus. How so?

What does it say?

I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Jesus prophesied his own death. And in Matthew 20, verse 19, he will say that he would be handed over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified and on the third day raised from the dead.

Jesus prophesied his own death, being betrayed by his own people, Judas being the instrument of that, and not killed by Jewish stoning, but rather lifted up by Roman crucifixion. John 18, verse 32. This is John's point, that we, hearing these words fulfilled, recognizing how Jesus died, by being lifted up on a cross, a Roman instrument of execution, not stoned to death, but handed over to the Romans, that's why this is unfolding the way it is.

It was ordained by God, prophesied by Jesus, and is now being fulfilled right in their sight. He's unjustly condemned. Notice that the one who does this is a pretender to the level of authority he's claiming.

Look at verses 33 and following. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? You see, the issue is, are you a king? He won't be condemned for blasphemy.

He'll be condemned for high treason. Not for the Jewish charge that he claims to be the son of God, but for the Roman threat of insurrection, sedition. He's a king, and that's Pilate's concern. It's the concern of the text.

He's a king.

Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me? Now, Pilate is thinking of his own derivative authority. He's a governor of Rome, and Jesus is only a lowly Jew under him, under his jurisdiction.

He doesn't know who he's dealing with, does he? Verse 35, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Here we have a man in his jurisdiction failing to recognize that there is a king and a kingdom that's higher than him.

How many times have you heard it taught that Romans 13 tells Christians that we are always to obey the civil authorities, to be in submission? Those saying such things fail to recognize that a few verses later, Romans 13 four says, listen, that the governor is God's deacon, diakonos, servant.

Did you know that all authority on earth in a proper jurisdiction, the governor, the king, the president, the judge, all of these jurisdictions are derivative authority, but there is a God who has absolute authority overall.

We foresaw this in Daniel chapter two and Daniel chapter seven. You have these different kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, then the Romans coming out of Greece, but in Daniel chapter seven, we see not only the jurisdictions of this world and the kingdoms as God causes kings to come and go, but you see a son of man who has a throne and to him is given all dominion in that all the people of the world will worship him forever, Daniel chapter seven.

And now listen very carefully. In Matthew 28 verses 18 to 20, when our commission is given to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded, Matthew 28, 19 and 20, that is preceded in verse eight with this claim, don't miss it.

All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Jesus reigns now as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Although he submits himself to Roman crucifixion, he does not abdicate his throne. He is still ruler of all and the kingdoms that he brings up to restrain evil in the world, to bear the sword of government, Romans 13.

These kingdoms are derivative authority, but he is that king from which their authority derives. They are not absolute. And there is a such thing in this world as tyranny of which the Protestant reformers wrote.

To resist the tyrant who takes for himself an authority that's out of his jurisdiction in the name of Christ is good and godly. It is not disobedient to Romans 13. Should we talk about a couple of examples of that?

When a government says you are not to meet, we are to say the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has commanded us to gather in his name, to preach the word, to sing hymns, to take communion, to be in fellowship with one another, to hear the preaching of the word under the authority of God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit in the gathered assembly.

This is our command and the King of Kings has jurisdiction over yours. When they say you are forced to take this injection into your body, we are to say the King of Kings is the King and Lord over this body.

This is a temple of God. And the Holy Spirit has jurisdiction, not you, go back to your lane. When they even say you must cover your face, we are to say the King of Kings has made this face to shine with the light of Christ to the world, with the glory of God reflecting so that you can see on my face as I preach that I believe in Jesus Christ.

And governor, you have no authority to tell me to cover this face. Anywhere or ever. Because the King of Kings has jurisdiction even over you. You see where I'm going? And in every area of life, this applies.

It doesn't mean that we are rebellious. It doesn't mean that we are to be an anarchy. It means that there is always still a King over us. We have freedom of conscience. And the way that God has designed government is for it to be limited.

There are real authorities in earth that we are to heed when those things stay in the lane that God has given them to hold. And that brings us now to the key passage in verse 36 to 38. So often wielded wrongly to tell Christians that our domain is only spiritual.

That Christians cannot touch anything beyond the invisible. 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, watch this, not from the world. Did Jesus there teach us that we are to not be in the world? Just chapters before, just a chapter before, John 17, verses 14 and 15, turn back a page.