Ron Dunn Podcast - The King And His Kingdom (Ron Dunn Podcast)

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

From "Gathering Storm"

Well, I want you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, Chapter 18. The Gospel of John, Chapter 18. And I want to read beginning with verse 28 and read through verse 38, the Gospel of John. And as I said yesterday, we're, during these days, we're dealing under the general title of the Gathering Storm of Victory. The cross before and after. And we're dealing with what I believe is some of the greatest portions of Scripture there are, although it almost is a little bit sacrilegious to say that there may be some more glorious than others, but I doubt if anybody would disagree that these chapters in the Gospel of John

are some of the richest that we find concerning our Lord Jesus. In John chapter 18, beginning with verse 28, Then they, that is the chief priests, took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate's headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. Now I can't read that without commenting that here were people who were so scrupulous about keeping the religious ritual, and yet they had no scruples at all about putting to death an innocent man. And so that tells you a little bit of their character.

So Pilate went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered, Well, if this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. The Jews replied, We are not permitted to put anyone to death. This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die. Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, Are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus answered, Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me? Pilate replied, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here. Pilate asked him, So you are a king? Jesus answered, You say that.

Put a period there. I am. I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Pilate asked him, What is truth? You know, if you hate someone, if you want to get rid of somebody,

any old excuse will do. If they can't find a legal charge or a justifiable charge against you, they'll make one up. Or they'll scrutinize your life and they will condemn you for burping at the dinner table or something like that. If somebody is out to get you, they don't need hard evidence. They'll think of a way. And one excuse is as good as another. And one accusation is as good as another as long as it achieves your purpose. Matter of fact, you will even ally yourself with your enemies in order to get rid of a mutual enemy.

And that's what the chief priests were doing. They hated the Lord Jesus, of course, and they were trying their best to get rid of him because of his popularity, because of the things that he had been saying, and so they were determined, resolute in that determination to get rid of Jesus. And so if you study the whole trial of Jesus and read the books about it, you'll find that it was all like a kangaroo court and all trumped up charges, and they could find no one until somebody came forward to lie for them. They could find no one to bring any accusation against them, and Jesus could stand and say, which one of you convinces me of sin?

I dare anybody else to stand up and ask that question. Which one of you convinces me of sin? I certainly am not going to ask that question because there'd be too many people here that could stand up and say, well, now that you mentioned it, do you want them in alphabetical order? But when Jesus asked that question, there was silence. Why? Because no one could convince him of sin. So in final desperation, they brought him to Pilate. Now, Pilate had no use for them. He wasn't interested. He said, you take him and judge him yourself. And when he asked Jesus if he were a king, Jesus said, well, are you saying this because you believe it or because somebody else have told you that? He said, am I are you saying this because you believe it

or because somebody else have told you that? He said, am I a Jew? I don't care for these things. I'm not interested in that. All I want to know is what you've done. Now, why was Pilate willing to take the case. And then after examining him, why was he so willing to let him go? Well, we'll see that in the course of the message.

But when he asked Jesus, what have you done? Jesus answered with these words. He said, my kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here. And I think those are some of the most vital, essential words that our Lord ever spoke. So I want to talk to you tonight a little bit about the king and his kingdom. Pilate said, are you then a king?

And Jesus said, you said it. I am a king. But my kingdom is not of this world. The kingdom of our Lord. The kingdom and his king. Now, at that time, as it is today, the believer lives in two kingdoms parallel. There is the kingdom of this earth to which all of us belong, and then there is that invisible kingdom that is not of this world.

Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven. Now, Paul made much of being a citizen of Rome, and he was a citizen of Rome. But he said, I am not only a citizen of Rome, but my real citizenship is in heaven. It is not of this world. And my greater allegiance belongs to that kingdom that is invisible, that kingdom that is not of this world. And you and I today live in two kingdoms. We live in the kingdom of this world, and we operate by the laws of this world

as long as they do not conflict with the laws of the kingdom of God. Because we belong to a higher citizenship. We have a higher citizenship. We have a higher kingdom. We have a higher allegiance. I pledge allegiance to this country and to the flag, but I have a greater allegiance. And I couldn't help but think last night as David Barron Martin was speaking, I wish somebody would tell me I couldn't put up a cross in a cemetery. I'd do it. Let them take me to jail. Let them sue me.

I don't care. I have a higher allegiance than to anything the Supreme Court says. Now, I believe we ought to obey the laws of the land. Jesus himself said, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, but make sure you render unto God that which is God. The law said to them, You shall not preach nor teach anymore in the name of Jesus. But Peter said, Ah, we have a higher allegiance. And that allegiance is from God and to God, and we cannot but do what he has told us to do.

So Jesus says, I have a kingdom. Now, there are several things about this kingdom. First of all, He says, my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world. It is not out of this world, or it is not from this world. The Greek idea is it cannot be laid alongside this world. In other words, there is no comparison. There is the kingdom of this world, but then there is a totally different kingdom, and my kingdom does not derive its origin, does not derive its essence or its allegiance from the kingdom of this world. They are two separate worlds, two separate kingdoms. My kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this world, then I would use worldly means in order to advance my kingdom.

I would order my men to fight to save me from the Jews. And you remember when the Jews came led by Pilate, led by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter did try to fight. And he drew out his sword and he went over. And he was brave, but he was a poor shot, of course. He went over and chopped at Malchus and cut off his ear. He didn't mean to cut off his ear. He meant to slice him right down the middle, mouth on one side and cuss on the other. And Jesus said, put away your sword. Put away your sword.

Why? Because my kingdom is not of this world. Therefore, my kingdom is not advanced by worldly means. And I cannot borrow from the tactics of the kingdom of this world in order to advance my kingdom. Now, the church has often forgotten that truth. It's always been. Even the pagan The pagan historians like Suetonius and Tacitus said that there was a fable or a legend among the Jews that there would come day come a Messiah, a leader, who would overthrow the Roman yoke of bondage and set up an earthly kingdom. And so they were always trying to make Jesus a king here on earth.

Time and time again they sought him, they tried to take him to make Jesus a king here on earth. Time and time again they sought him. They tried to take him to make him a king, but he always slipped out. Why? Because he wasn't king of this world, and his kingdom was not of this world. And the disciples had a hard time understanding this, even after the resurrection. You remember in Acts chapter 1, before the ascension, they met with Jesus and they said, now Lord, now Lord, will you restore again the kingdom to Israel? They still were thinking in earthly, worldly terms. But Jesus said, if my kingdom were of this world, then I would use worldly methods in order to propagate it, to advance it.

Now, there is one thing that we as ministers, above everybody else, need to keep in mind, and that is that the kingdom in which we serve and the kingdom in which we have a part in building is not of this world, and that means we do not use worldly methods in order to advance that kingdom. Now, you say, oh, we ought not to use any worldly methods?

What about advertising and all of that? Well, you know, every person has to be a judge for himself. I think there are some things Jesus told us to be wise as serpents, and he commended the wise people of this day of that world who were able to advance their cause by using certain means. And he said, I want you to be as gentle as doves, but wise as serpents. And you use those things that are available to you. And so every one of us has to, you know, we have to decide for ourselves how far we can go. But we need to remember that this is not a worldly kingdom

and it's not built like you build worldly kingdoms. And if you try to build your church like the world tries to build its kingdom, it's going to be faulty and false all the way through. The kingdom of God is not of this world. He said if it were, I would use the same tactics you use. I would have my men fighting for me. You know, it's amazing that there are even today people like in this domination theology who say that we need to take over this world,

and we need to rule this world right here and now. But that's not the purpose of God. The Lord Jesus Christ isn't in any kind of theology like the domination or dominion theology that says, we're going to take over the world right now and run the world right now as a theocracy. Oh, no. No, that will never happen. That's not God's intention. The Lord is not out to repair this old kingdom or to fix it up and to fancy it up. He has a totally new kingdom, and it is not of this world. So don't be surprised when the world doesn't understand the kingdom about which you're talking. I tell you, folks, it's like talking Greek. Who doesn't know Greek?

It's like talking Greek. Who doesn't know Greek? It's like talking Greek to you when you try by worldly methods to impress the world to join your kingdom and join your side. They laugh at you. They laugh at this kingdom. They think it's non-existent. And if it is, it only exists in the figment of our religious imaginations. So the first thing Jesus says is, my kingdom is not of this world, therefore I don't use worldly methods to advance my kingdom. But he says something else about this kingdom. This is the kingdom of truth. This is the kingdom of truth. Jesus answered in verse 37, you say that I am a king, and I am. For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world. By the way, I can't pass this up.

You notice the double phrase he uses there, I was born, and I came into this world. Jesus always gets in that little bit of preexistence there. See, the rest of us were born, and Jesus was born, but none of us came into this world as though we originated someplace else. So he said, and for this reason I came into the world to testify to the truth, everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Oh, isn't that something? Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. My sheep hear my voice, and they know me, and they follow me, and people who will not hear Jesus Christ and listen and obey His voice, they do not belong to the truth. They belong to the lie, the lie of this world, that this is the only thing that counts, and this is the only thing that matters. He says, my kingdom is the kingdom of truth.

Now, that's very important because in the first place, Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world, therefore I don't use worldly tactics. Swords are not my weapons. You know what my weapon is? The truth. My weapon is the truth. How does God build His kingdom? How does Jesus Christ build His kingdom? What are you and I as His servants who are in this cooperative effort

of adding to His kingdom? What is our weapon? What is our weapon? Our weapon is the truth. Our weapon is the truth, not our fancy gimmicks, not dog and pony shows. Our weapon is the truth, not new life philosophy, not psychotherapy. Oh, too many of our pulpits have become therapeutic pulpits. I mean, ten ways to better self-esteem and how to do this and how to do that and how to do this. I want to tell you something, folks. The world is going to be converted only

when we preach Jesus Christ crucified for our sins and raised again the third day. And that our message is to be, you have sinned against God and you must flee the wrath to come. And the only place to flee is to Jesus. Now I want to ask you, do you hear much of that today? Do you hear much of that today? I don't know. Somehow or another, we've gotten the idea that we're going to win the world with something else other or less than truth. And by the way, when the Bible speaks of truth, Jesus says, I am the truth.

I mean, I can get up here and talk about biological truth, and I can talk about economic truth, and I can talk about psychological truth, but that's not going to convert anybody. It is the truth concerning Jesus Christ, that He is the Messiah, that He has come into this world to take upon Himself our sins, and He died and shed His blood so that we might be made white as snow. It is the truth. And I greatly fear for the next generation of preachers. For I greatly fear from those who hear them.

Because today the emphasis is not upon truth. No, it's not upon truth. Or at least it's not upon scriptural truth. The emphasis is always upon something else to tickle their ears to gather the crowd to bring them in and there are folks today

who believe you can't build a great church with preaching the truth you just can't do it but Paul said in Colossians he says whom we preach we preach Christ Jesus

in order that we may present every man perfect in the presence of God whatever that we may present every man perfect in the presence of God. Whatever else we may do, the weapon that you and I have, the only weapon that we have to dislodge lost men from the grasp of Satan is the message of truth. You know, once in a while, I heard this just the other day, as a matter of fact, somebody said, well, in our church,

we don't preach doctrine because doctrine divides and we just preach love. You ever been to one of those places? I mean, they're so gooey. Their minds are so open, their brains have fallen out. Well, we just keep an open mind about anything and everything, you know. We just preach love. We don't preach doctrine.

By the way, you know what doctrine is, don't you? Truth. It's just another word for truth. Or they say doctrine divides. Amen. Truth divides, my dear friend. It's meant to divide. And if the preaching of the gospel does not divide men, it is not true preaching of the truth. Always will divide. Oh, but there's something else he says about the kingdom. He says, my kingdom is based upon allegiance to me as truth. You see, it's based upon allegiance to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

And a person classifies himself by what he thinks of Jesus Christ. What you do with Jesus and the place in your life that you give to Jesus classifies which kingdom you belong to. Because this kingdom recognizes only one king. Now let me show you something. Pilate, let's see, over in chapter 19, Pilate was trying to release Jesus. There was a reason why he was wanting to release Jesus. But the Jews, listen to this in verse 12, from then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out,

If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar's. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against Caesar. And then notice what they said in verse 15. They cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate asked them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, and this is the most damning words ever spoke, We have no king but Caesar. Oh, you are Jews? You claim to belong to the kingdom of God? And you say you have no king but Caesar?

They're liars. They hated Caesar. They hated Rome. What they were looking for was a Messiah who would come and overthrow Rome and restore the glory to Israel. But you see, to get what you want, sometimes you have to give allegiance to somebody else. And they said, we have no king but Caesar. And they damned themselves in saying those words. Because

if Caesar is your king and not Jesus, then you are not a part of the kingdom. All right, I've got a couple more points I want to get in here so we can hear the other Ronnie. I'm going to slip into this fourth point. Anybody here remember Yugoslavia? I mean, you've got to go back a few years to remember it. Remember Tito, dictator? Now, for all the bad that you can say, could have said about Tito, the dictator, he did keep the kingdom together as long as he was alive. When he died, his kingdom blew apart. And we're hearing of nations we've never heard of before.

Because when the king died, the kingdom died. And it's always been through the ages that a king, in order to preserve his kingdom, had to preserve his life. That's why they had the king's tasters. You take the first bite, and if you don't die, I'll eat the rest of it. Why? Because when a king died, possibility of the kingdom falling apart was very real. And so kings of this worldly kingdom, they must preserve themselves. The Pope is sick, but they're not talking much about it. Because when he dies, the political turmoil in that kingdom of the world, by the way, which is not the kingdom of heaven, but

it is a kingdom of the world with its own army and police force. There will be political upheaval in it. For the ordinary kingdom, it is essential that the king live. But in this kingdom, it is essential that the king die. And so Jesus did not try to defend himself. Jesus did not have his soldiers fight. Why? Because for this kingdom to become a reality in the lives of people, it required the death of a king.

In order to save the kingdom, the king had to die. And so John 19 takes up a great deal of the death of Jesus and gives us the picture of the crucifixion of the Lord. He was a king even when he died. He was a king to the end. There is something interesting that over in Luke chapter 20-something, yeah, wherever it is, Luke chapter 23 and verse 44, Luke's record of the crucifixion. It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun's light failed, and

the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Verse 46, Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. It is finished. He cried with a loud voice and then bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Now, I must tell you, people don't die that way. People don't die with a loud voice. Well, now, if suddenly you're in a car wreck, you may scream, or if somebody is going to shoot you, you may scream. But people who are dying do not die with a loud voice. I learned this from visiting the hospital years ago. You walk down the halls of the hospital, and you hear through one of the doors, somebody say, I'm dying, I'm dying, I'm dying.

And nobody's running in. No doctors, no nurses running in. I asked a doctor, I said, why? He said, oh, she's not dying. She's got that much strength, she's not dying. When people die, they don't die with a loud voice. They die with a whimper. You've seen that. You've seen that. Here is the person been in the hospital for weeks perhaps. He's dying. He gets quieter and quieter.

As the strength leaves his body, he can barely, barely whimper a sound. But when Jesus died, he died with a loud voice. Why? Because friend, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down. And if I lay it down, I am able to take it up again. Even in his dying, he was in charge. He was in charge. And he cried with a loud voice. He had enough strength left in him to last nobody knows how long. No, he gave up the ghost, voluntarily gave up his life. Now, there's one final thing about this kingdom. I said earlier, asked you earlier, why was Pilate willing to hear this case? He had no concern for the troubles of the Jews. He didn't want to be involved, didn't want to have anything to do with it. But when he heard that he professed to be a king, he decided to hear the case. And he examined Jesus. And then after he examined Jesus,

he was intent on letting him go. Again and again, he wanted to release him. Now, why is that? Why is that? They said any man who is a friend of Caesar's cannot tolerate another king. And so Pilate was forced to examine this king and to see if he was any threat to the empire. That was his only concern. His concern was not whether or not Jesus was innocent or guilty of anything.

His only concern was in protecting the empire, protecting Caesar. And so he examined him. And after he examined him, he said, This man is no threat to Rome. This man is no threat to Caesar. Why, he doesn't have an army. He doesn't have men who are armed and trying to fight to save him. This man is no threat to Caesar, to the empire. There is no danger of this man bringing the empire down. That's why he was willing to release him because Jesus posed no threat to the kingdom of Caesar.

And yet it was the kingdom of Christ that brought Rome to its knees. So my last point is this kingdom will overcome all other kingdoms of the earth. I just think that's hilarious. I think that's just wonderful. Here is old Pilate saying, oh, this man is no threat. Jesus is no threat. Christians are no threat unless they get right-wing radicals and start voting.

The Bible is no threat. It's an outdated book. Why? This religion. This is no threat. And so as in the Colosseum, the lions licked the blood of those Christian martyrs. Little band of believers who just prayed. Who would ever have thought that the little band that prayed would win? People today say Jesus is no threat.

Let's dismiss him. Let's rid ourselves of his name. You may on certain occasions mention the name of God, but you never mention the name of Jesus. He is nothing. He is no threat. And so the world dismisses our kingdom and our king. But long after the kingdoms of this world have crumbled into dust and the kings and princes and presidents and prime ministers of this world lay buried in the soil and become food for the world, there will be one kingdom that will be there standing victorious. That's our king, the Lord Jesus Christ. So you can't get rid of this kingdom by killing its king.

All you do is energize the kingdom when you do that. And if all to be that way today, that the more you and I are persecuted for our faith, and believe me, we are being persecuted and will be persecuted, the more you and I, and when I heard things like I heard yesterday, you know what that did? That didn't discourage me, that energized me. Because if the king dies, it doesn't defeat the kingdom. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification,

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