The following sermon is brought to you by Capitol Community Church, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol Community Church is a people awakened to a holy God. If you are searching for a new church home, or from out of town looking for a church to worship with, or simply seeking for answers, Please join us for worship at 10 45 a.m. Every Sunday morning and 6 o'clock p.m. For our evening service if you have any questions, please email us at info at capital community church.com We pray this sermon will help you grow deeper in your walk with Jesus Christ. I invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 18 And as you're turning there, let me give a brief prayer. Heavenly Father, we pray, Lord, that you would instruct our hearts and our minds through your truth and in seeing the truth that we would be changed. Thank you, Lord, for sending your Son to live for us and to die for us and to be raised for our future resurrection. We ask all this in Christ's name, amen. So we are picking up in John 18, verse 28. And just in terms of sequence of events, there has been three religious trials. And John tells us about one of them that the synoptics do not tell us about, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He tells us that he appeared before Annas. And then you see in verse 24, Annas sent him to his son-in-law Caiaphas. That was in the middle of the night. The scribes, Pharisees were there with Caiaphas, and then they put Jesus in a pit, and in the early morning hours, right at dawn, probably 6 a.m., Luke tells us, and this is in Luke chapter 22, that the entire Sanhedrin convened. So there were three religious trials, and what they charged Jesus with is blasphemy. They charge him with claiming to be God. And I put this verse in your notes, Luke 22. There's a typo, I think, in your notes. It's Luke 22, not 23, verse 70. They all said, this is the Sanhedrin, are you the son of God then? And he said to them, you say that I am. In other words, I agree. Yes, I am the son of God. Then they said, what further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips. So they hear that he claims to be the son of God. Let me say parenthetically, the reason why they hated that he claimed to be the son of God is because he brought a kingdom that they rejected. They wanted a political ruler to dethrone Rome and conquer and vanquish their enemies, and they wanted a messiah who would agree with them. And Jesus did not agree with the way that they taught the law. Jesus rejected it, and he also did not bring in a political kingdom, so they rejected his messiahship. Now what they wanted to do then is to kill him. Now it is true that the charge and penalty for blasphemy in the Old Testament is capital punishment. They would stone you. But because they were under the authority of Rome, they did not have the right to execute capital punishment. Rome reserved that for itself. So if they wanted to deal with Jesus as they needed to, in the right course of action, they would have to bring Jesus to the proper institutions. They would have to bring Jesus to the Roman governor. So pick it up in verse 28. Look at verse 28. Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters, literally praetorian, that's the Greek word. We get our English word praetorium from that. and it says it was early morning. This would have been literally the san hedron would have met at six a.m. It would have been a rubber stamp meeting because Caiaphas and them had already met earlier in the evening. So now you think it's probably 6 30 and they're making maybe a 2 to 300 yard walk to the Praetorium. The Praetorium was originally, Herod the Great was the one who built the temple. He was the great builder, the one who built the palace on top of Masada. But he built his own palace within Jerusalem. Now, Herod the Great has been dead now for since 4 AD, but the Roman authorities have since began using Herod's palace and the fortress that Herod built within Jerusalem. The Roman governor, who was Pilate at the time, we're going to get to Pilate in a second, his headquarters was not in Jerusalem. His headquarters was up in the town of Caesarea, which was on the seacoast. In fact, they literally, when we were over in Israel, we went to Caesarea and we literally saw a headstone at Caesarea that they discovered that said Pontius Pilate there in Caesarea. But for major feasts and major events, the Roman governor would come up up into Jerusalem in order to keep the peace. And when he would come up into Jerusalem, he would stay at this Praetorium. Now you have a map in your notes. Look at the map. So the Praetorium, or Herod's Palace, is on that far western side of the city. You see that square area. That is where almost certainly Pilate and the Roman cohort where he would be governing from. People used to think it was that Fortress Antonia. Do y'all see that right there at the top of the temple? And people made the Via Della Rosa, if you've ever been to Jerusalem and walked the way of suffering, they made it from there, which is actually inaccurate. It's most likely from this praetorium, which is where Pilate was, and you can see there the palace of the high priest. That's where Annas and Caiaphas would have been. They probably would have been in the same place. More than likely, it was actually a little bit further south than even where it's depicted in that drawing. So they would have taken Jesus from Caiaphas' palace, from Annas' palace, to the governor's headquarters early morning. Now, it says this, look back at verse 28, middle of the verse. They themselves, the Jews, did not enter into the governor's headquarters so that they would not be defiled but could eat the Passover. So here you see the hypocrisy of the Jews on full display. They were concerned. It was Passover week. You know, people get caught up in the fact that the Passover feast had already been eaten. Remember, it had been eaten the night before, but the Passover feast was a week-long feast. And so they were worried about being defiled for the week-long feast. And they were worried, you know, what would defile them. I guess they were concerned that if they were to go into this praetorium, this headquarters of Pilate, that they would encounter something, maybe some non-kosher food, maybe some bacon wraps, I don't know. They were concerned that if they went into this place, that there would be something that they would touch, something that they would get near, that would defile them in terms of the feast. So take a step back, think about this for a second. Think about this. You're standing outside of the praetorium with the eternal son of God who gave Moses the law at Mount Sinai, and you are there to kill him, and you are concerned about going into a Gentile headquarters in terms of your own defilement. That is a deep, deep level of hypocrisy. They viewed ceremonial defilement as far worse than moral injustice. Remember the night before, they had just conducted an unfair trial of Jesus, meeting in the middle of the night, beating him before he was charged. All sorts of injustices had taken place. These men were concerned primarily about outward, external conformity to the law, but not the matter of the heart. And that is one of the great dangers with religiosity. Jesus had warned the scribes and Pharisees, this is Matthew 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. True religion is always, always, always a religion of the heart. Christianity is a religion of the heart. You must love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Is it possible to be a man of the Bible and miss the kingdom of God? Yes, it is. Jesus said in John 5, 39, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but it is they that bear witness about me. Is it possible to serve the Lord in the church and miss the kingdom of God? on the last day, Jesus will say, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did I not prophesy in your name? Did I not do great works in your name? And he will say, depart from me, I never knew you. Is it possible to go to church and be a good churchman or a good church woman and miss the kingdom of God? I have found that some people prefer the thought of other people thinking that they're religious than actually being religious themselves. Jonathan Edwards, who was an American pastor, evangelist, theologian, nearly 300 years ago, wrote a book called The Religious Affections. He said Christianity is primarily about the affections. It has to get here. The truth has to get from your head to your heart. to where you actually love the Lord. And yes, we teach obedience to God's law, but that obedience has to flow from the heart. Edwards also said something that I've often thought about. He said, heaven is a world of love. Heaven is a world of love. Because when you're in heaven, heaven will only be populated with people who love Christ. You can fake people out down here. You cannot fake out Christ. And when you enter into the kingdom, the eternal kingdom, it will only be those who love Christ with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. So we need to do some internal heart work. I think this is a warning to us. Are you about the outward conformity to Christianity? Or are you about Christianity of the heart? Do you truly love the Lord? Paul says this, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So believe in the heart, trust Christ in the heart. Now look at verse 29. Pilate went outside to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? What accusation do you bring against this man? Now, John does not introduce to us Pontius Pilate. Remember, John is writing after the other gospel writers wrote. The early Christian community all over the Mediterranean world for probably 20 years had heard all sorts of things about Pontius Pilate. Paul wrote 1st Timothy before this was written. Paul says, this is 1st Timothy 6, he says, Christ Jesus in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession. So people knew all sorts of things about Pilate. Pilate, was a pagan ruler, roman ruler. He was self seeking. He was an opportunist. Judea was probably not his first choice of duty stations as probably not where he wanted to go. He was tasked with going to Judea to be the governor. He would not wanted to have gone there because it was the far reach of the Roman Empire. You would have to deal with the complexities of Jewish culture, Jewish religion, and that's something that he struggled with. He did not do well with understanding how the Jews functioned. When he first got there, he allowed the Roman Legion to carry their banners into the city of Jerusalem with Caesar's face on their banners. How do you think that went over? Went over really poorly. They needed to build an aqueduct in Jerusalem. And so he said, you know, why don't we just take some of the funds from the temple offering to build the aqueduct? Because after all, the aqueduct serves the people. So he took some money from the temple offering to build the aqueduct. Didn't go over well. So here he's in, with these Jews, he's in a precarious position. Later on, you know, he would often act very brashly, angrily. Later on, some, there were some Samaritans on Mount Gerizim that thought they could find some ancient, basically, archeological symbols and he had them killed with his calvary and that's what ultimately led to Pilate being removed and Pilate being recalled back to Rome and on his way back to Rome to see Caesar and await trial before Caesar, Caesar died. So no one really knows what happened to Pilate after 36 AD, but here he is. He's in somewhat of this precarious position. He knew that the night before that his soldiers had apprehended Jesus. Remember, Pilate had sent his Roman legion with the temple guard to apprehend Jesus. So he knew that Jesus had been arrested, but what he was probably surprised by is that the Jews were there at the Praetorium that morning with Jesus. He lent his soldiers for the arrest, but the idea was, okay Jews, you take care of this now. You tried Jesus with your own religious laws, but now the Jews are bringing Jesus to Pilate. And he's like, what, like, what is going on? You know, I thought that this was, was already handled. So he asked, what accusation do you bring against him? Look at verse 30. They answered him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. So they tell him nothing. They tell him nothing. They basically say, take our word for it, pilot. This man is bad. Take our word for it. You know, we had a saying in the Marine Corps, how do you know when a Marine recruiter is lying? when he's opening his mouth. That's how you know when he's speaking. I, once I was getting, I was on a Marine Expeditionary Unit, I was getting off a Navy boat, I think we were in the Philippines, and I, I was, as I was on the walkway out, I saw all these sailors out on the side of the boat. We'd literally just gotten in the port, and they're out there cleaning the side of the boat, and some of them are beginning to paint, and I'm just watching these guys just painting on the side of the boat. Hot sun, just brutal. And I talked to one of them afterwards. I said, how did you get this job? This is your job in the Navy to care for the side of the boat? He said, yes, sir. How did you get this job? He said, well, my Navy recruiter told me that this job would be filled with excitement, adventure, and I'd get to see the world. He lied. He lied. Look at what these Jews say about Jesus. They lie. They're as crooked as a Chicago politician. They say, Jesus is a kakos poieo. He is a bad doer, an evil doer. He is a law breaker. That is who he is. He is a law breaker. That's what they say about Jesus. They say, look, trust us, this guy is a law breaker. Pilate, He doesn't want to hear anything about this. Verse 31, he said to them, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. So you take him, you judge him. I don't want any part of this. The Jews then said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. So now we've come full circle. This is why they are here. They have pronounced upon Jesus at their meeting of the Sanhedrin, a judgment of the death penalty. For what cause? Remember, blasphemy. Blasphemy, that was their charge against him. Now, will the Romans put anyone to death for blasphemy? No. No. The Romans, remember, believed in a pantheon of gods. The Romans believed in hundreds of gods. The Romans believed that Caesar was God. So there was no religious ordinance or edict for blasphemy. But they want to put him to death. They need to put him to death. So they're kind of at a at a fork in the road here. What are they gonna do? And we're gonna come back to that. But look at verse 32. This is all in fulfillment, this is all in the providence of God, in fulfillment of the Old Testament, in fulfillment of what Christ came to do. John provides this little parenthetical verse. This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Jesus had predicted time and time again that he would die by crucifixion. Over and over, literally he had said, I will die by crucifixion. to, in John 3.14 to Nicodemus, Jesus says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, John 12.32. Jesus said to the Greeks, right when he came into Jerusalem, right after the triumphal entry, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. Jesus had taken aside his disciples. He had said to them numerous times, this is one example, Matthew 16, 24, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Take up his cross and follow me. Why the cross? Why is Jesus predicting the cross? Why is Jesus allowing himself to be taken through this process on the way to the cross? The cross, remember, was, or at least hanging a body was introduced in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy chapter 21. The law states this, this is very interesting. In Old Testament Israel, if you had a disobedient son and he refused to obey his parents, Moses said, you bring him to the elders and you pronounce the judgment and you stone that son. And then, as an example, as an act of shame, you put his body up on a cross. You put his body up on a cross. And for that reason, it represent cursedness, being a curse. And Paul says that that is exactly what happened with Christ being put on the cross. On the cross, he says, he became a curse for us, Galatians 3.13. He became the picture of the curse of God for us on the cross. And God poured out on the son, the obedient son, the curse of disobedient sons and daughters. Do you see it? All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned to our own way, but the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Jesus came to establish a kingdom. We gotta get that right. He came to establish a kingdom. Think about this. What if Jesus would have come in and established a political kingdom, the messianic rule that would last for all of eternity, that was prophesied in the Old Testament, what if he would have come and done that on his first coming? What if he would have done that? Question, who would inherit that kingdom forever with Jesus? No one. No one. If Jesus would have established an eternal kingdom of righteousness, then and there, when he first came, who's in? Raise your hand if you're in. I'm a righteous person. I'm in that kingdom. When I'm born, I'm there. I'm not the king, but I'm gonna be serving the food and the drink in the palace. Who's there? Nobody's there. So in order for the kingdom to come, the king had to die for the people. That's the whole point of the suffering songs of Isaiah, that the king would need to come and die, to be cut off. That's Daniel 9. That righteousness would be established, that atonement would be made, sin would be put away. So Jesus is coming, this is a kingdom initiative, going to the cross to establish the beachhead of His kingdom so sinners like you and me can enter it and be in the kingdom forever and ever with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what is taking place here. It's absolutely remarkable. Colossians 1.13, jot down that verse, Colossians 1.13. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. That happened at Calvary. That happened through the resurrection. That you enter the kingdom. through what Christ accomplished for you. That's why the gospel of Jesus Christ is the portal into the kingdom of God. It's the gate into the kingdom of God. You can't get into the kingdom of God unless you humble yourself, admit your need for a sin atonement, and Christ's perfect righteousness, and trust Christ in faith. That's the only way into the kingdom of God. So that is the purpose of the cross. Now remember, I told you that the Pharisees, the scribes, the religious leaders, they faced a conundrum. Their charge was blasphemy, that's why they wanted him to die, but Pilate's not accepting that charge. So Luke tells us what they did. They switched the charges. They switched it. Luke says, Luke 23, two, they begin to accuse him saying, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king. So notice the switch. They charge him with political sedition. They charge him with claiming to be a king, which he did. He did claim to be a king. But he never claimed to be a political ruler. But they're claiming, look, Jesus is coming as a revolutionary to overthrow the Roman government. If you look over chapter 19, look at chapter 19, Verse 12, they tell Pilate later on, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. That's their play. They are putting Jesus forward as a revolutionary who is going to overthrow Caesar's rule. So when this happens, Look at verse 33. Pilate takes Jesus and goes out from the street back into his headquarters, back into the praetorium. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Verse 34, Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord? Or did others say it to you about me? Jesus wants to know, Pilate, are you genuinely seeking? Are you genuinely interested in what the kingdom is about? Or are you just repeating a viewpoint of another? Verse 35, Pilate answers, am I a Jew? In other words, he's saying, what would a Gentile have to do with the king of the Jews? Why would a Gentile even care about the king of the Jews? He's saying, of course, I'm not interested in really your claim to be a Jewish king. He says, your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. And then he asked this question, What have you done? What have you done? So clearly from verse 35, I think it's obvious, Pilate does not perceive Jesus to be any threat whatsoever to Caesar, to the Roman government. He's probably looking at Jesus and he sees a man wearing simple clothes. He's seeing a man, he did not own any property. He was arrested very easily. He told his disciples to stand down. He's looking at a man who he does not perceive to be any type of king judged on the outward appearance. Now, now we come to one of the most remarkable statements in the gospel of John. Look at verse 36. 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 not from the world. And I want you to see from this, I want you to see from Jesus' statement, in his statement in verse 37, four truths about his kingdom. Okay, and I'm gonna give you these quickly. First, Jesus is in fact the king of the Jews. Notice what he says, my kingdom, my basilia, my, the literal translation is my kingship. My kingship is not of this world. What Jesus is saying is he is in fact the king the Messiah king that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Remember, God had promised David that a king would sit on his throne forever in 2 Samuel 7. Daniel had seen a vision in Daniel 2, Daniel 7. Daniel says, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Gabriel, the angel, had exclaimed to Mary, this is in Luke chapter one, verse 33, he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. So clearly, the angel is telling Mary that Jesus is coming as a king in fulfillment of the Davidic promise, in fulfillment of the prophecies that were made by the prophets in the Old Testament. So, Jesus is a king, he's coming to establish the kingdom that was prophesied in the Old Testament. That's the first observation. Second, the source of Jesus' kingdom authority is himself. It is not the world. Jesus is the son of God. He is king. He is king. He reigns. He is Lord in and of himself. Therefore, he does not need land to be a king. He does not need an army to be a king. He does not need servants to be a king. He does not need a political government to be a king. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom with none of these things. Remember, Jesus went out, after he was tempted in the wilderness, Jesus went out preaching, proclaiming, the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is at hand. He was proclaiming his kingship. He didn't have any armies. He didn't have a palace. He didn't have any territories. He had nothing of that. Jesus says, my kingdom is not from any of those things. If somebody today says I'm a king, we would say, well, what are you the king of, right? Where's your kingdom? What validates you as king? Where's your army? Where's your territory? Where are your people? And Jesus is saying, I am a king in and of myself. It's not from the world. I don't derive my power from this world. Third, third observation. Jesus' kingdom in this age is spiritual, not physical. It's spiritual, not physical. In fact, in John 6, people tried to make him king of Israel physically. The geopolitical king then and there. And Jesus did not allow himself to be arrested. He went up on the mountain. Jesus was repudiating at that point a political kingdom in the here and now, and that's something we need to understand. Christ's kingdom is already inaugurated, but not yet fully consummated. In this age, and I'm talking about in this age before Jesus comes back, in this age that we're in right now, the kingdom of Christ is a spiritual reign. It is a spiritual reign. And it will not become a physical reign until He comes back physically. So it is a spiritual reign in the moment, it will be a physical reign and a spiritual reign in the future, but in the present hour, it is strictly a spiritual reign. That means that we cannot associate the kingdom of Christ with any institution or entity on this earth. Your family, your school, our church, the government, none of those things is strictly correspondent to the kingdom. because most of those things have people in it who are not truly born again. The kingdom of Christ in this age is a spiritual kingdom. It is Christ's spiritual rule over the hearts of his people and the dynamic proclamation of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. So what this means is this, is that you cannot strictly associate any political government with the kingdom of God. You can't. Not the American government, not the British government, not the Israeli government. If any government would have been associated with the kingdom of God in this age, Jesus would be there reigning right now. but he's not. In fact, what will happen to governments before Christ comes back? Revelation 13 says that the governments will oppose Christians, that the beast will persecute the believers. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2 that there will be a man of lawlessness, that there will be a great apostasy. And the man of law, as some refer, think about in terms of the Antichrist, whatever title you want to give him, will persecute believers. So governments, I believe before the last day, will be co-opted by Satan and used to persecute Christians. Now, is it true that the degree that a government A government allows Christianity to flourish and a government enacts Christian laws and principles and ethics that that government in this age will thrive. Yes. Yes. And we should all desire that. We all should desire governments, schools, families that seek the ethics and principles of the kingdom, but we cannot strictly say that those things are the kingdom of God. Does that make sense, that distinction? Think about it like this. The kingdom right now is spiritual. It is strictly spiritual. And that is why Jesus says these words. That is why Jesus says, 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 not from this world. And because his kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, this leads to the fourth observation. The kingdom in this age only advances with spiritual means. This is so important. This is massively important. Look at verse 37. Pilate said to him, so you are a keen. And Jesus answered, you say that I'm a keen. And that means he agrees. He says, yes, I am. You say that I'm a keen, that's true. For this purpose, I was born. And for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Notice that. Underline that. Bear witness to the truth. This is the purpose for which I came into the world. Here's the point that Jesus is making. That the kingdom, which is spiritual in this age, is established not through the rule of government, not through armies conquering, not through Congress's passing legislature, not through school boards putting forth curriculum. The kingdom expanses in this age through the proclamation of the truth. And that's it. That is how the kingdom advances. What truth is He talking about? He's talking about truth, truth. The foundation of truth, that He is the Son of God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He's talking about that He is the essence of truth. truth that he is God himself, that only by believing in his name can you enter the kingdom of God. Jesus said, John 8, 45, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. People wouldn't believe him. So the kingdom in this age, and we have got to get our heads around this, we have to constantly correct our thinking because everything is so politicized. In some ways, as it should be, because there are serious things at stake in the political realm, everything is very political and you have a party, I think, in America that is pushing an evil agenda and Christians are rightly exposing that and pushing against that, I'm not saying that that's not important. It is important. But that is not the expansion of the Kingdom of Christ. The Kingdom of Christ will not expand by casting a vote in the ballot box. It only expands through our proclamation of the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ. So think spiritually, think spiritually. If we are going to be effective for the future consummated kingdom, the kingdom that is here now, we are going to have to think spiritually. And that means that we are going to be about the proclamation of the truth. That means personal evangelism, telling lost people, not just that they're wrong, but that they're wrong at the core of their being and they need Christ. That there's a means of reconciliation with God. So the mystery in this age, you know, Jesus talked about the mystery of the kingdom. The mystery of the kingdom. One of those things is that Gentiles are brought in. But another aspect that's a mystery that people didn't understand is that you don't advance the kingdom with the sword. You advance the kingdom with the truth. Think about Matthew 13, the parables of the kingdom. What are they about? Parable of the sower. What happens? Somebody sows the seed. What's the seed? The truth. The parables are talking about people coming into the kingdom mysteriously, where they encounter the truth. They humble themselves. They believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they enter the kingdom of God. That is the kingdom here and now. That's how people are coming in to the kingdom of God. Paul says this, 2 Corinthians 4, 18. We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. They're eternal. So the kingdom perspective is this. Don't get too focused. Don't get too focused. I'm not saying don't focus. But don't get too focused on what you see in the here and now. Don't get too focused that Christ's kingdom depends on a political outcome in November, on any political outcome, or any country for that matter. It doesn't. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not stand against it. Christ's kingdom will expand and go forth regardless of what happens on the national scene. Countries come and go. And I love our country, but our country is not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God will far outlast the United States of America. So if we're thinking that way, we will think, we will be spiritually minded, we will think spiritually, we will think about the kingdom. Notice, since the kingdom expands through the truth, notice what Jesus says there at the end of verse 37. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. That is who is a part of the kingdom. Those who listen to the truth, who respond to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Jesus said, John 10, 16, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice. That's how you can tell if someone is part of the kingdom or not a part of the kingdom, is that they hear the truth and they respond to the truth. And they believe the truth. What's the truth? That Jesus is the Son of God. And they surrender their life to Him. That's it. That is how you enter the kingdom of God. You see the truth, you believe the truth, you surrender your life to the truth. That's repentance and faith. So question, are you part of the kingdom of Christ? That is the fundamental question. Are you part of that eternal kingdom? And secondly, if you are, are you living for that kingdom? Are your eyes on that kingdom? This requires us to have eyes of faith. It's not focusing on what is transient, it's focusing on what is eternal. We all have to check our hearts in this polarized age that we are not gripping too closely, tightly to the world and the things of this world that are leveraging our lives for His eternal kingdom. Now notice Pilate's response, verse 38. This is tragic, absolutely tragic. Pilate said to him, what is truth? What is truth? I think this is the question of a skeptic. This is a question of somebody who grew up amidst hundreds of truth claims. Not unlike our day and age. This is somebody who grew up with so many people claiming that their God was the God. This was somebody who grew up amongst the Roman philosophies that had been passed down by the Greeks of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. He had heard so many truths, so many mythologies, and he hears Jesus talking about being this kingdom, being a king of this ethereal kingdom that's not of this world. He's just thinking about this, and he can't comprehend that. And he just discounts it as another mythology. It's just another truth claim on the chopping block. And he asks him, what is truth? You claim that you know it, maybe you do, maybe you don't. And then he leaves Jesus, goes back outside to the Jews. He says, look, I don't find anything wrong with this man. I mean, he claims to be a keen, he's talking about a kingdom. I don't really understand what he's saying, a kingdom that's not of this world. But he just brushes past his encounter with Christ as a skeptic. Don't make that mistake. This is not just merely a postmodern truth claim, a truth amongst many truths. You hear people say, well, this is my truth. No, no, no, no. This is objective truth. This is the eternal son of God who upholds the cosmos by a word of his mouth. He entered into time and space, and He is the only atoning sacrifice for sin. He is the truth. Don't stumble upon Him. Submit your life to Him, and you will enter His eternal kingdom. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You for this proclamation that Christ made of this kingdom, and we pray, Lord, that our eyes would be upon it those of us who are citizens of this kingdom, Lord, that we would look to that kingdom and that would be our focus, that that would be our heart, that our heart would be for the Lord, that we would be people of the truth, as you said, that those who enter the kingdom listen to your voice, they listen to your message, they hear the truth and they believe and they surrender to that truth. We pray, Lord, that we would do that. We pray, Lord, that we would be about our master's business, not that we don't care about the institutions that we are part of. We do care and we want our government, we want our state government and our institutions and our families to reflect what we believe and to allow Christianity to flourish and to even enact Christian values and ethics. But at the same time, Lord, you have taught us that your kingdom is greater and bigger than these things, that your kingdom does not rest on an election cycle. Your kingdom rests on your power and your power in converting sinners through the truth of your word, the truth of the gospel. Paul said, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and to the Gentiles. So Lord, may we enter the kingdom of God. You said that people take the kingdom of God by force, those who enter into it, that they can't stand to be outside of the kingdom, that they wanna come into the kingdom. We pray, Lord, for the sinner that is in our midst this morning. Of course, we're all sinners, but the one who has not yet found you. We pray, Lord, that they would take the kingdom by force, that they would enter in, that they would humble themselves and come to their master. Look to Christ in repentance and faith. We ask all these things for your honor and your glory. Amen. Thanks for listening. For more sermons, information, and events, check out our website at capitolcommunitychurch.com.