Kingdoms in Conflict

My name is René, I'm another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, and I want you to grab your message notes that look like this. Jesus Journey is the name of our fall series. And in this sermon series, we've been going back into time each week to discover new sort of mysteries about the history of Jesus. And this all ties into a book that we wrote that you can get at the info desk in the lobby. If you're a visitor and you're just starting with us this week, a lot of what we've been talking about covering in the series is available in that book. I encourage you to pick it up. We ask for a donation, but it's just a suggestion. If you don't have any money with you or you just don't want to pay for it, just take a book. We want to be the church that gives, a church that's about grace, and we want to get you with that, especially if you're a first-time visitor here today.

And guess what? This series is almost over. If you can believe it, next weekend we wrap it all up. And I would personally love to get from you some emails about whether or not it has impacted you. I'd love to hear about it. I'd love to hear about your Serve the Bay project or your food drive idea. So if you have a story to tell that relates to this, please email me, René@tlc.org, because I want to include some of your stories next weekend, whether you've been joining us here in the auditorium or watching on cable or whether you're over there in the venue service. I just want to hear from you so that we can incorporate some of these stories when we wrap up next weekend with a celebration.

Well, this week we are almost at the end of the story of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. And I want you right now to be very still and imagine that you're in a darkened movie theater. The main feature has just begun. The screen is black. There's no sound. But you know something's about to unfold, and slowly something horrible fades into view. Three crosses, three instruments of torture, three people died here today, including on the middle cross, Jesus. Jesus, our hero. Jesus, the one we've been following along during this journey. Jesus, the one that we've been falling in love with, the one that we've been inspired by and challenged by. And now he's dead. What happened? How did he get here?

I mean, they didn't kill him because he was a nice man who loved children. They didn't kill him because he was gentle and meek. It was something else. They killed him because of his crime. One clue remains. On the top of the middle cross, there's a sign written in three languages. It says, "King of the Jews." And that clue right there is the key to understanding the whole mystery of the life of Jesus Christ.

If you love movies, you know that there's a director named J.J. Abrams, and he often uses a screenwriting trick. He starts his TV shows and movies with a confusing scene. Our hero is in trouble. How did this happen? Is there any way that he can possibly escape? And then you see a subtitle on the screen, something like, "24 Hours Earlier," and he starts to tell the tale. Well, that's what I want to do today. Apparently, Jesus ends here on the cross, dead under this sign, three years earlier. Here's how Jesus starts his ministry. Remember, he shows up in Galilee, the political hotbed, and here is his very first message. Mark 1:15, he says, "The time promised by God has come at last. The kingdom of God is here." It's near. It's right around the corner. And this becomes his main theme by far.

We talked about this when we launched the series. Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God about a hundred times in the Gospels, 53 times in the Gospel of Matthew alone. Much more than the other themes we associate with Jesus, he uses the word "saved" or "salvation" about ten times. He uses the word "church" about three times, and he uses "kingdom" about a hundred times. And then when you realize the other words that he uses are "kingdom" words too, like "Christ" or "Messiah." Those two words mean the same thing. "The anointed one," "the coronated one," "the new king." That's what Christ means. That's what Messiah means. "The new king." The term "son of man," that's the prophet Daniel's word for the same thing. The Messiah, the Christ, the coronated one, the new king. And so he's always talking kingdom. Kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. You cannot understand the ministry of Jesus Christ without understanding this was his theme.

One problem. When the people hear this, they expect soldiers and banners and fortresses and military victories. We've been talking a lot about how for centuries the Jews had been praying for a new king, a Messiah, a Christ, a son of man, a king sent by God to kick out the foreign oppressors with overwhelming military might. And so when Jesus starts using this language, they think, "Oh, that's what he's got in store." But Jesus almost immediately starts to correct this idea. He tells stories like in Luke 18:19, "What is the kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it?" Well, it's like a tiny mustard seed. What? Yeah, just a tiny mustard seed planted in a garden. And then it grows and it becomes a tree and the birds make nests in its branches. In other words, this kingdom doesn't come with fanfare and clanging armor. It starts so small, but it slowly grows and grows and grows.

Or Luke 17, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is or there it is, because the kingdom of God is within you.'" He's saying this kingdom doesn't have a capital or a castle or a king. This kingdom lives and grows inside of humans, inside of you. But it doesn't stay there. It starts to leak out and change the world. This is a slow and sneaky and invisible kingdom. And if you're kind of confused here, you're not alone. Because a lot of people started to get confused about this in Jesus Christ's day too. They kept going, "But if you're a king, what's your strategy? If you're a king, where's your army? If you're a king, where's the battle?"

I mean, even the disciples would hear Jesus explaining this and go, "Right, Jesus. So when you come into your kingdom, can we sit on the left and right thrones?" They just didn't understand. Even John the Baptist gets confused. You remember he's the one who launched Jesus Christ's ministry by essentially pointing to him and saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, you're Messiah." But then when the revolution doesn't happen, when the soldiers aren't recruited, when there's no rebellion, even he starts to wonder, "Is he the guy?" And he's in prison, but he sends a couple of disciples to say, "Are you really the guy?" It says John's two disciples in Luke 7 said, "John sent us to ask, 'Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for somebody else?'"

And then he, Jesus, told John's disciples, "Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is preached to the poor." Jesus says, "Here's the signs of this kingdom, not blood in the streets and beheaded rulers, but healed sick people, and hopeful poor people, and resurrected dead people." I'm telling you, once you start looking for this theme, the kingdom of God in the Gospels, it'll feel like, go back and read the Gospels again. It's like every third verse is about the kingdom of God. And you'll be like, "How did I ever miss this before?"

For example, the Lord's Prayer. Jesus says, "Thy kingdom come," what comes next? "Say it with me, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'" I always used to think those were two different things. "Thy kingdom come, oh, and thy will be done." But now I see he's explaining that first phrase. It's a parallel. "Thy kingdom come." That means God's will done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is what it looks like when up there comes down here. And in fact, all throughout Jesus' ministry, he keeps contrasting the kingdoms of this world with the kingdom of God.

Look at the chart at the bottom of page one of your notes. The kingdoms of this world, they're all about power. Who has the most power to leverage and to make war? They're all about pride. You know, look at me, I'm a big deal. And how do people stay at the top in the kingdoms of this world? Threats and bluster, and they're all about self-protection and guarding your position. You know, think of those billy goats we saw a few weeks ago, head-butting all contenders to be king of the mountain. But Jesus says, "Well, the kingdom of God is more like this instead of power, weakness." In fact, God's power is made perfect in my weakness. Instead of pride, humility is prized. Instead of threats, we overcome our enemies with blessing, right? Jesus said, "Bless those who curse you. Be kind to those who mistreat you." Instead of self-protection, the kingdom of God is about sacrifice and service. And all through the ministry of Jesus, he preaches this difference.

And you've got to understand this, the people were expecting the Messiah to have a superior army and smarter generals and sharper spears. But Jesus says, "I've got a totally different way to conquer the world." And then, page two, suddenly, dramatically, these two systems, these two realities, these two ways of ruling, these two kingdoms collide the day of Christ's death when Jesus faces Rome, the ultimate example of the kingdoms of this world. The world had never seen anything like it. Rome had the most modern technology, an army and navy numbering at times in the hundreds of thousands. It had the best strategists and politicians and architects and generals. It had the most weapons and wealth. And Jesus would have to face down a fearsome representative of this kingdom.

It all starts with scene one, his arrest, the last day of his earthly ministry. Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane praying, and it says, "Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, one of his trusted apostles appeared, and with him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs." First, notice it was Judas who betrayed Jesus. Ever wonder why? What was Judas's motive? I think his name is a huge clue. Because Judas was the most popular name for boys in first century Judea. If you had boys in your family, you wanted to make sure at least one of them was named Judas. Why? Judas was the national hero. A man named Judas Maccabeus had led a rebellion about 200 years before Christ. He kicked out the foreign oppressors who were the Syrians at the time, rededicated the temple, freed the people, and Jewish people still celebrate this to this day. At what holiday? Shout it out if you know. That's right, at Hanukkah.

I mean, it was a wonderful national holiday even in the time of Jesus Christ. Now, soon after Judas Maccabeus, Jerusalem was oppressed again by foreigners, but the story of Judas Maccabeus gave the people hope that it could happen once more. And in fact, about 20 years before Jesus was betrayed, a man named Judas the Galilean arose up in the Galilee. And he put together a revolt. He became kind of a Robin Hood character, and he terrorized the Romans, and he said that he was the Messiah, Judas the Galilean. But he was captured by Rome along with many of his followers, and that he and 2,000 of them were crucified, the crosses lining the roads in Galilee. This was when Jesus would have been about 12 years old, and so he would have seen all of that. All his apostles would have remembered that too from when they were 12. 2,000 of this Judas the Galilean's followers along with him, crucified. Why? Because he claimed to be the Messiah.

But still, in Jesus' day, almost every family named one of their sons Judas, because they hoped their boy would grow up to be the next Judas, the next national hero. Judas Iscariot was probably raised on stories about his namesake, right? Primed for another rebellion. And I think that at this point, about three years into Christ's public ministry, Judas has had it with Jesus. I mean, Jesus is using all this kingdom language, and yet all he does is feed some people and heal some people, right? Where's the political action? And as I mentioned in this last week's small group video, when Jesus enters Jerusalem, the crowds go bananas, because they're ready to rumble. Right on, Jesus. Finally, let's go up to the temple and kick the Romans out. And Judas Iscariot is probably going, "At last, here we go!" But then Jesus instead basically pronounces a curse on the temple and leaves.

And now a bunch of the people who cheered Jesus are thinking, "Great." Now, he refuses to lead this rebellion, and now the Romans are going to crucify another 2,000 of us, you know? Instead of that, why don't we all get together and give them Jesus and save our lives? And so Judas gets a crowd together to arrest Jesus, a crowd armed with swords and clubs, like, "This is how it's done, Jesus! With swords and clubs! These guys were armed, ready to help you! This is what you could have had too late now!" And what happens next, Mark 14:46? Then one of those standing near, one of Jesus' disciples, drew his own sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. One of the disciples drew his sword. In the Gospel of John, we discover it was Peter who drew his sword, which kind of figures, right? Peter again!

This guy had heard Jesus explain about the kingdom for three years, all about peace and love, but when push comes to shove, what's his instinct? Pull out that sword and go, "Samurai disciple!" You know, and just go into aggressive mode. But I've got a question. Aren't we a lot like Peter? We say we're all about forgiveness, like Jesus, but just a little bit of provocation, and we go for the sword hilt. Eugene Peterson is one of the great writers and scholars and pastors, all about Christian faith and spiritual life. A man of deep faith and spirituality. Eugene Peterson, he's the guy who translated the Message Bible, and he's written a lot of great books, and he writes about how he grew up in a very devout, fundamentalist Christian home.

But when he started first grade, for the first time in his life, he met non-Christians. Now, when Eugene was in the first grade, a second-grade bully named Garrison Johns picked Eugene out to be his victim. And here's the story that Eugene tells about this. He said, "I've been prepared for the wider world of neighborhood and school by memorizing, 'Bless those who persecute you,' and turned the other cheek." Now, I don't know how Garrison Johns knew that about me, some sixth-sense bullies have, I suppose, but most afternoons after school, he would catch me and beat me up. He also found out that I was a Christian, and so he taunted me with, "Jesus, sissy! Eugene, the Jesus sissy!" He says, "I arrived home most days bruised and humiliated. My mother told me this had always been the way of Christians in the world, and that I'd better get used to it." She also said I was supposed to pray for him.

Well, one day I was with seven or eight friends when Garrison caught up with us in the afternoon and started jabbing me, and that's when it happened. Something snapped. For a moment, the Bible verses disappeared from my consciousness, and I grabbed Garrison, and to my surprise, and his, I was stronger than he was. I wrestled him to the ground. I sat on his chest. I pinned his arms to the ground with my knees, and he was helpless. At my mercy, it was too good to be true. I hit him in the face with my fists. It felt good. And I hit him again, blood spurted from his nose, a lovely crimson in the snow. This is Eugene Peterson writing this, the Message Bible guy. He says, "I said to Garrison, 'Say, uncle!' And he wouldn't say it. I hit him again, more blood." And then, my Christian training reasserted itself. I said, "Say, I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." He wouldn't say it, so I hit him again, more blood. I tried again, "Say, I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." And he said it. And Garrison Johns was my first Christian convert. I don't know how bad you messed up sharing your faith, but this is like the all-time low, right?

But you know, I can be just like that, especially if I feel like a crowd is coming after my Jesus. And I step in front of him and I feel like I've got to defend him when I feel attacked because of my faith. I get defensive. I go into attack mode and I go for the sword. And I'm exactly like Peter. Aren't you sometimes? Somebody provokes you a little bit at the office or you hear about some atheist book and you get all riled up. And just like Peter, we get riled up enough to be annoying, slicing off somebody's ear, but not really to be effective, right? And Jesus says, "Stop. Am I leading a rebellion that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?" Interesting distinction again.

The word rebellion suggests a guerrilla movement using violence. And Jesus is saying, "If you come at me with swords because you think I'll retaliate with a sword, you don't understand me at all. My revolution does not come with a sword. It's the first true revolution." You see, what Judas and the crowd and Peter even did not get yet was that Jesus was leading a revolution. He was simply leading a greater one than history had ever seen. Remember that chart back on page one? To quote Tim Keller, what happens in the kingdoms of this world is that revolutions basically just keep the same old things at the top of the list. They're not real revolutions because power and pride and threats and money and politics in some order always stay at the top.

Most revolutions are really just a fine-tuning of the same old order. The revolution might improve things a little bit. It might bring a new set of people into power. And then the next revolution brings a new set of people into power. And it might be good for you because maybe you know some of those people, but it's the same values. But Jesus isn't bringing a new set of people into power only. He is bringing in a totally new way of ordering reality, the kingdom of God, where all the things that are on the bottom of the kingdoms of this world list, in fact, don't even make the kingdoms of this world list. They're at the top of the kingdom of God list.

This means Jesus, a very important point, Jesus is not a revolutionary that you can possibly stop with swords because he's not about swords at all. Judas doesn't get it. The crowd doesn't get it. Peter doesn't get it. And so it's still his claims to kingship that get him arrested. And then scene two, he's put on trial. Jesus ends up in front of the ultimate example of the kingdoms of this world in Judea, Pontius Pilate. Now, who was Pilate? Not a nice guy. We actually know a lot about Pilate from some other ancient writers. The ancient Roman writer Philo describes Pilate as, quote, "a man of vindictiveness and furious temper, inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness." Philo says, "Pilate's rule was full of bribery's insults, robberies, outrages, executions without trial, constantly repeated and supremely grievous cruelty."

In fact, Philo says it even got to the point where Caesar Tiberius himself personally wrote to Pilate, saying basically, "Dude, you are stepping over the line even for a Roman ruler. Reel it in, my friend." And he gives him two instructions. Number one, stop upsetting the locals. And number two, no more hasty executions. And so Pilate's on thin ice when he sees Jesus, because imagine being him. On the one hand, your immediate direct report, Caesar, has personally written you saying, "No more hasty executions." On the other hand, in the same letter, he said, "Don't upset the locals." And now the locals are asking you for what? A hasty execution. And Christ's opponents tell Pilate, "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar," which wasn't true, that was a lie. "And he claims to be Christ, a king." They drop the magic word "king." He claims to be a king. That's insurrection, and you know what you do to these people.

And so that becomes the big question Pilate asks, "Are you the king of the Jews?" So this is the moment, intensely dramatic. All Jesus has to do is say, "No, and he'll probably go free." So what's he going to say? "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "Yep, that's me. I'm the one they've all been waiting for." But even to Pilate, Jesus wants to make that thing clear. "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest. My kingdom is from another place. A kingdom not of this world." Pilate is saying, rather Jesus is saying, "Pilate, there's something that matters more than all of this. There is a power stronger than Rome. There is a force stronger than hate. There is a strategy stronger than fear. And this calm assurance of Jesus freaks Pilate out just a little bit.

You ever seen a mouse standing up to a cat? You ever seen this happen? Our cat at home is a great mouser, Oreo, and she is a little black and white cat who loves to display her skill to us by bringing in captive mice and putting on a mouse-catching show in the living room. Does your cat do this too? She brings in the mice who aren't even, they don't even seem hurt. There's not even any blood or anything. It brings them in like a little kitten in her mouth. And she spits them out, and then when the mice try to run away, she pounces on them, and then she lets them go again, and they scamper under a chair, and she gets them, and then she brings them back in again with her claws retracted, and then she lets them go again, and pounces on them again, and my wife is screaming, and it's just a circus. It's just amazing.

But one time, one little mouse didn't run. I'll never forget it must have been the bravest mouse in the world, right? She comes in, she spits it out, and it instantly turns around, looks at her, stands on its hind legs, and bears its teeth, and kind of goes, "Ach, ach, ach, ach, ach, ach, ach," like this. And our cat didn't know what to do. She kind of reared up on her back legs like this and fell over. Literally, she got a little freaked out, and then she ate it. And Jesus maybe has about the same effect in Pilate's eyes. It's the mouse standing up to the cat. This never happens. And Pilate's unnerved, and he even tells the chief priest, "I want to let this guy go, freaking me out here," but they turn up the pressure. "If you let this man go, you're no friend of Caesar." That's the hot button. "Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. We have no king but Caesar, Pilate." And so it's back to the king thing, and Pilate eats the mouse, and we have scene three, death.

Pilate crucifies Jesus with one last ironic touch, because every executed criminal had to have his crime posted above his head as a deterrent to all the people who saw this grisly death. And Pilate tells the guys, "On Jesus' sign, I want you to write these words, 'The King of the Jews.'" That was his crime. And of course, it had to happen this way, so that even in his death, the message comes through. This man, from beginning to end, claimed to be king. And ironically, it is a servant of Caesar, the ultimate earthly king, who's the first person in the Gospel of Mark to see Jesus for who he really is. When Jesus dies, remember that giant curtain in the temple is torn, that huge temple separating the holy of holies where the presence of God is, from the rest of the world. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. God's saying, "Now anybody can come into my presence, and look who the first person is to walk in," maybe two minutes after this.

Mark says, "When the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God.'" Now up to this point, not one human being in the Gospel of Mark has figured this out. And here's the centurion, a servant of the kingdom of this world, who is the first one to get it. And this is even more ironic, because every Roman coin of the time was inscribed, "Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus." If you'd asked a Roman, "Who's the Son of God?" They would have said, "Caesar, all our money says so." But this man says, "No, that, up there, that's the Son of God." Now why would the centurion say this? His job was supervising crucifixions. He'd seen way more people die in this way than you and I can even imagine. And so he realized this one was different.

The verse says, "When he saw how Jesus died, he said this, he had seen them mock Jesus and spit on him and torture him and whip him and beat him and nail him to the cross." And I imagine the centurion's mouth just hanging open in awe as he hears Jesus saying things like, "Father, forgive them," and praying for him, the very one who had nailed his body to the cross. And the centurion realizes he is standing on holy ground and he becomes the first person to confess the deity of Christ, the first person after Christ's death to actually choose to step over from the kingdoms of this world to the kingdom of God. And he says, "Man, I want to follow that man. I want to follow a man who dies like that and who lives like that. That is my king." And don't you feel like following that man too?

Don't you feel like turning away from the kingdoms of this world and all the stuff that they perpetuate that tends to dominate your life and make you worry and make you stressed out and instead turning to Jesus? You know, the Gospels really keep asking two questions, both related to this theme of kingdom. And this is important because you've got to grapple with Jesus on the terms with which he defined himself. We tend to relegate Jesus to, "Well, he's like the guy who's going to give me my ticket into heaven," right? But that's not how he defined himself. It's like a heavenly train conductor. He defined himself as the ultimate king of everything, the king of a weird and wild and wonderful new kingdom. And so you have to ask yourself, "Who is my king? Who do I serve in my life?"

Now, some of you are thinking, "I don't need this theological stuff. I came to church because I really need help to be a better wife or husband or I need help for my anxiety or help for my despair, help to fight my temptations, help to forgive somebody." Well, making Jesus your king is all about those exact things. Because when he's your king, when you believe he is sovereign, your worry begins to subside, your confidence grows, your inspiration just soars and you forgive and you live and you love with purpose when he's your king. Who is my kingdom? And then you have to ask the second question, which is, "What's my kingdom?" Really, do I live for the kingdom of God? And that means very practical stuff. Am I feeding the sick and the poor? Am I helping outcasts? Am I spreading the good news to the poor like Jesus Christ did?

Now, listen carefully. Don't get me wrong. The gospel is not about trying harder to live a life with kingdom values. The gospel is about, like that centurion, seeing that man on the cross, beholding the lamb of God, your king. Because that changes you when you realize, "My king who rolls over all the other supposed kings on this earth, my king loves me that much. My king loves me no matter what." The centurion saw him and thought, "This man's praying for me after what I did to him." And when you look at him and think, "This king loves me, even though I did that thing that's in my past that still haunts me," he still says, "Father, forgive him. Father, forgive her. And my king gives his life for me, and my king loves the poor and the weak and the despised." And you just think, "Man, I want to live like my king." And then his kingdom starts inside of you, and it starts inside me, and it starts to leak outward. And that is how the revolution happens.

Now, the best news is yet to come. Because in three days, his grave will be empty. Jesus will rise. And we're going to talk about that more next weekend. But in Acts 1, I don't know if you remember this, but it says his disciples are talking to the resurrected Christ, and they have a question for him. Do you remember what the question is? They say, "Lord, Lord," yes, "Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom?" They're still talking about the kingdom. And Jesus says, "The times and dates set by my Father are not for you to know, but you will receive power to go and be my witnesses to the whole world." The good news is that one day this king returns in glory and eliminates all suffering and sadness and creates a perfect kingdom here on earth. But he says, "Until then, you serve as kind of the advanced ambassador of the kingdom of God."

And just like an embassy in a foreign country is officially that foreign country's property. And inside that embassy, it's the laws of the foreign country that are in operation. So you and I are ambassadors of the kingdom of God so that there's a radius around us where the laws of the kingdom of God operate. And that's why we feed the poor, and that's why we help the less fortunate, and that's why we love and live and forgive, because we serve Jesus if he's your king. Why don't we pray to him right now and give our lives to our loving, powerful king. Pray with me.

Heavenly Father, forgive me, forgive us for the times that we allow ourselves to be ruled by lesser kings, by the princes of this world. The times that we get anxious and worried and in despair and wrapped up in temptation, because it feels like the evil kings are winning, and maybe even it feels like we're on the cross. But it's when I behold the king as the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, who took away my sins, that's when I fall at your feet, and I love you so much, and I want to follow you. Not because I feel guilty, not because I'm trying harder to be good, but because I simply behold you on that cross, my king, my savior, and I fall in love with you. And I pray that we would be a church where the rules of the kingdom of God are in operation, and people would sense that and see that and think, "Man, I want that kingdom to be my kingdom. I want that kingdom to be my kingdom." And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.