Good Morning Friends,
“Pilate then went back inside the palace,
summoned Jesus and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘My
kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my
arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.’ ‘You are a king,
then!’ said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In
fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to
testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’” (John
18:33, 36-37)
He’s the strangest king I’ve ever heard of. He
had no land that He can call His kingdom. He had no palace and no throne from
which to reign. He didn’t dress like a king and wasn’t treated like a king by
most people. He didn’t have the wealth that kings usually have. A strange king,
but that is what He calls Himself.
A king whose kingdom was founded on truth. Now,
that’s unusual, because earthly kingdoms are founded on a lie, the lie that
some ancestral lines are superior to others. But here is a king whose ancestral
lines are different from all others and definitely superior to them. He alone
deserves to be called king.
A king whose kingdom isn’t of this world.
Then what world is His kingdom of? His is a kingdom of the true world, the
permanent world, the eternal world, not this temporary one in which we now
live. It’s a kingdom we can’t see from here, but that doesn’t make it less
real. The fact that we can’t see the kingdom from here says more about our
world than the one to come!
A kingdom without land. We think land is the
most enduring and most important aspect of this world. We’re wrong! The most
enduring and most important aspect of this world is the hearts of men. That is where Jesus’ kingdom is in this
world.
A king. A strange king. A king unlike any
other. The one King worth following. My King! Is He yours, too?
His. by Grace,
Steve
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