Christ desires not to be the King of what
we do and say, but rather He wants to be the Monarch that controls our desires.
He is more interested in the reasons why we do what we do than the actions that
we do. When our purposes are aligned with His will, then our actions take care
of themselves. If He is our first love, and that first love is genuine, then
all lesser loves will flow with obedience to the louder voice within.
Matthew gives us a summary of the exchange
between Pilate and Jesus, but John gives us “the rest of the story.” There are
two facts that can be raised with regard to this exchange that will help us to
understand what is going on here. The first is Jesus’ question to Pilate:
“Where is this title coming from?” [John 18:34] The second is Christ’s statement: “My kingdom is not of this
world.” [John 18:36]
Our task today will be to look at the
Kingship of Christ. What does it mean to make Him Lord? This issue before us is
the issue of submission to His Lordship. Sadly, in recent months, this
wonderful subject has been a subject of debate. Centering around the subject of
salvation, the debate has been: “Can a person accept Jesus as Savior and not as
Lord?”
The kingdom we are offered to be a part
of is not a kingdom of this world; however, since we live in this world,
citizenship in heaven has an impact on how we behave here. If this world is not
our home, and we are simply passing through, we are foreigners, and as
foreigners, our conduct here will be different. Jesus explained this in part in
His response to Pilate when He said: “If my kingdom were of this world, then my
servants would fight on my behalf [John 18:36].
One of the
sad facts of modern Christianity is that the line between believers and
unbelievers has been fogged over by doctrines of “easy-believism” and permissive lifestyles. God has called us to
be lights in a dark world, but the church seemingly has migrated to a
dawn-and-dusk existence where it is increasingly difficult to separate the
light from the darkness.
The phrase, “King of the Jews,” appears in the crucifixion narratives because
kingship brought with it a threat of authority. There was no place in the New
Testament setting for a monarch like the Queen of England today. The presence
of a king was the presence of a threat, and so should it be in our lives. If
Jesus is to be King in our life, then much that would be otherwise controlling
our lives must be dethroned.
Matthew 27:11-14
The Question of Kingship
A. From
B. From
C. From
The Question of Kingdom
A. Not
B. Not
C. Not
III. The
Question of Authority: Pilate = “What is truth?”
A. Safeguard #1
B. Safeguard #2
C. Safeguard #3
CONCLUSION
The final checkpoint