“Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is just not of this world. If my kingdom had been of this world, my servants would have been preventing, that I may not be delivered over to the Jews. However my kingdom is just not from the world’” (John 18:36).
IT TOOK A LONG TIME FOR JESUS’ DISCIPLES TO UNDERSTAND THE KIND OF KINGDOM HE CAME TO ESTABLISH. They assumed that the Messiah, when He got here, would lead His folks in throwing off the shackles of any earthly empire (like Rome) that is perhaps ruling over them and reestablish the Davidic dynasty of kings in Jerusalem. We see this misunderstanding within the disciples’ query in Acts 1:6, even after Jesus’ resurrection. However we shouldn’t be too fast to criticize them. If we had been of their sneakers, we wouldn’t have understood issues any higher than they did.
Right this moment, many individuals nonetheless strongly want for Jesus, because the Messiah, to be the king of some kind of earthly authorities or nation-state. That, nevertheless, was not His intention. “My kingdom is just not of this world,” He stated. We’d do nicely to think about how His rule is completely different from the kingdoms that are of this world.
It doesn’t have a capital metropolis. David had a bodily throne located in a specific metropolis, however Christ’s authorities doesn’t have a house workplace wherever on the globe. He does certainly rule, however He does so from His seat on the proper hand of God (Colossians 3:1).
It doesn’t have a territory outlined by geographical boundaries. In political science, we are able to hardly consider a “kingdom” with out pondering of the bodily “territory” it controls. However the kingdom of Christ is just not outlined by the boundaries of any earthly territory — nor are its residents outlined as these born inside a sure territory.
It doesn’t develop by way of navy conquest. Earthly kingdoms have armies that struggle, both to defend their territory or to broaden it, and Jesus was being sincere when He stated, “If my kingdom had been of this world, my servants would have been preventing.” However it isn’t territory that Jesus needs to rule over — it’s the hearts of women and men, regardless of the place their earthly citizenship is. His kingdom exists wherever there are individuals who have actually given their hearts to Him, in order that their “citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).
“Jesus made clear that the Kingdom of God is natural and never organizational. It grows like a seed and it really works like leaven: secretly, invisibly, surprisingly, and irresistibly” (Os Guinness).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
