Please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 18. John chapter 18 and we will be looking at verses 28 through 40. John 18 verses 28 through 40. Hear now the word of the Lord. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early. And they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium, so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. So Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him, we are not permitted to put anyone to death, to fulfill the word of Jesus, which he spoke signifying by what kind of death he was about to die. Therefore, Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered. Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me? Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priest delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him, so you are a king. So you are a king. And Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king. For this, I have been born. And for this, I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews?" So they cried out again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. Ask the Lord to bless the preaching of his word this morning. Heavenly father. We do pray that you would bless the preaching of your word to your people to our souls Lord god that we would receive what you have for us this morning that you would teach and instruct us By your holy spirit lord god that we would receive the grace that you have for us by faith In jesus name we pray amen So last week we saw the trial of of jesus the true high priest And this trial was carried out by the high priest who prefigured, pointed to Jesus as the true high priest. So we see the shadow interrogating and mistreating the substance. The type exalting himself over the anti-type. The temporary over the eternal. As this gospel is coming to an end, John is bringing all of the various types of Christ and showing him to be the reality of those types. He is tying all that he has brought up in his gospel about who Jesus is and how he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament types and figures. And once again, we see another comparison and contrast between Christ as the true king and his kingdom and the kings and leaders of this world and their kingdoms. And as always, John is not just telling us, but showing us these truths by way of comparison and contrast. And so the focal point of this narrative is found in verse 36 with Jesus' statement, my kingdom is not of this world. This is an important and crucial statement because many have misunderstood the nature of Christ's kingdom. The nature of a thing, in this case of His kingdom, determines how His kingdom operates, how it is established, who its citizens are, and how it expands. And this is true for other kingdoms as well. The nature of those kingdoms will determine the methods used for their operation, establishment, citizenship, and expansion. This then is what we will be looking at this morning in our text. The nature of the Kingdom of Christ. What does it mean that His Kingdom is not of this world? Pilate asks several questions, but he asks three major and very important questions that give us insight into the nature of Christ's kingdom. He asks them, are you a king? What have you done? And what is the truth? All these relate to the kingdom and the nature of Christ's kingdom. Jesus affirms the first. He is a king. And though the other two are not explicitly answered, they are answered in this narrative as John records for us the dialogue between the Jewish religious leaders and Pilate, and then between Pilate and Jesus. And so because of the nature of Christ's kingdom, the method and the means of that kingdom are different from those of the kings of this world. And so as we consider then this theme, as we consider our text this morning, we will look at three different aspects of Christ's kingdom. First, the kingdom of Christ is righteous. The kingdom of Christ is righteous. Secondly, the kingdom of Christ is redemptive. And then thirdly, the kingdom of Christ is respective. The kingdom of Christ is respective. So first, the kingdom of Christ is righteous. The righteousness of Christ's kingdom is one way that the kingdom, that his kingdom is not of this world. And we see the righteousness of this kingdom when it is contrasted with the unrighteousness of the kingdoms of this world. The Jewish religious leaders here characterized the earthly and typological kingdom of God grounded in the Mosaic covenant and founded upon the Abrahamic promises. The kingdom itself was not the issue. The issue was the corrupt leaders, its kings, and in particular the spiritual leaders that had become corrupt. John highlights this corruption and worldliness in the deceitfulness and unrighteousness of these leaders. How do we see this? We see this in that they lied about Jesus breaking the ninth commandment. Was he a king? Yes. But their intention was not just to present him as the true fulfillment of God's king that he prophesied, but to put him against Rome so that he might be put to death. So in lying, they did that which God abhorred. The ninth commandment encompasses more than a simple lying. The ninth commandment in the Old Testament is within the context in which people conspired together to lie about another person to the authorities so that that person can be punished, put to death. And this is exactly what these Jewish religious leaders had done. They knew he was innocent. They had taken Jesus first to Annas to question him before they took him to Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. And so they take him to interrogate him and try to get something out of him, something to condemn him to death. And when Annas couldn't find anything, they take him to Caiaphas. And, of course, he couldn't find anything either. So they conspire together to take him to Pontius Pilate because they wanted to put him to death. Notice again the introduction to this section and the exchange between Pilate and the religious leaders. It is early in the morning, which is the break of dawn, and he is taken to the Praetorium to Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate was a Roman official and he was a Roman governor set in place by Caesar himself. He was a representative of the king of Rome. He stood in the place of king in that area. And we read that Pilate went out to the Jewish religious leaders and he said to them, what accusation do you bring against this man? And what was their answer? Did they give him a list of sins, of crimes that he had committed? Listen to what they say. If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. They didn't say anything. So Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. The Jew said to him, we are not permitted to put anyone to death to fulfill the word of Jesus, which he spoke signifying by what kind of death he was about to die. So we don't know, again, exactly what the Jews told Pilate, but we do know that it must have been something about him being a king. Not that they believed it, but they used that against him to lie about him, to present him as one who was opposed to Rome, who probably wanted to overthrow Rome. But all this for what what was their intention was so that they could have something to To a charge to bring against him so that pilot would put him to death So if they could show that he was somehow that he was attempting to proclaim himself as king and that he was attempting to overthrow Rome they would get their way they would be able to put him to death now it says here that they were not able to put him to death and During this time, because Rome was occupying the country or the nation of Israel, their ability to put people to death was restricted to some degree. Now, it wasn't complete. They were able to put certain people to death, and I think especially we see this when it has something to do with their religious laws. And this is why I think Paul our pilot tells him well you take him and judge him according to your laws But because of the charge that they were bringing against him it went into the jurisdiction of Rome He was he was attempting to be a king and overthrow the the Roman authorities So for something like that, they would need permission from Rome to put Jesus to death so They want to put him to death. They're lying. They're conspiring about him. They're conspiring about Jesus to get their way. They want to put the true king out. They want to put him to death. For what reason? To keep their own position, to keep their own nation. And so as they do this, as they conspire, as they lie, they use deceit to get their way, this only increases the Jewish leader's guilt and their actual defilement. And why is this important? Because the text says, and it shows us the blindness and deceitfulness of sin, it says that they did not want to go into the Praetorium. where Pilate was, where the Gentiles were, why not? They didn't want to become defiled. They wanted to eat the Passover. So they wanted to do the things that God had called them to do. And so they didn't want to become defiled by entering into the house of a Gentile. But what are they doing? They're breaking the ninth commandment. They're lying about the true king. They're seeking to put an innocent person to death. And in doing so, they think that they can still do this wicked thing and go and do what God had commanded them to do. So this is increasing their guilt and their condemnation. And as we consider this, the murderous plot of the Jewish religious leaders and what we will see with Pilate, the Gentile leader, we see God's eternal plan of salvation being carried out because our text says, John says that this happened for what? To fulfill the word of Jesus which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was about to die. So even this, them not finding sin in Him and wanting to put Jesus to death through the Romans, they weren't trying to fulfill God's plan, but in their wicked schemes, they were, in their own decisions and wicked schemes, they were fulfilling God's eternal plan. Because Jesus was not just supposed to die. There were many instances throughout His ministry when the religious leaders wanted to kill Him, But we read that it was not his hour. His hour had not yet come. It was not his time. Jesus had a specific time of death, but he also had a specific kind of death that he was to die. From all eternity, God had foreordained that Jesus would not die by the hands of some thief who ambushed Jesus on the road somewhere going to minister to a group of people. Jesus was not to die by some unfortunate accident. Jesus was not to die by stoning by the religious leaders or by an angry mob. Jesus was to die by the conspiracy of the Jewish leaders at the hands of the Romans by way of crucifixion. So the mode, the manner in which he was to die was foreordained. And we see this, for example, in Psalm 22. A psalm that Jesus quotes when he is on the cross and he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But that same psalm also talks about, or also says, they pierced my hands and my feet. And Isaiah 53 also describes for us Jesus Christ being crucified for our iniquities, being crushed, being punished for our sins. So there was a specific kind of death that Jesus was supposed to die. And in their scheming, in their deceit, they were fulfilling God's plan. They were guilty. It was their choice, their own wicked decisions. Yet in that, they were fulfilling God's predetermined plan. And in this, Again, we see the hypocrisy of the Jews, knowing full well that he was innocent, not wanting to defile themselves so they don't enter into the praetorium. We see the blindness of the Jewish leaders, that here right in front of them was the true king, the king that had been prophesied to Israel, the king who would actually bring true deliverance, but they misunderstood what this king was to do. They, in their minds, their kingdom was a physical, earthly kingdom that would overthrow all the kingdoms of the world at the time, and here in this case, the Romans. That the king would come and take it all by force, by military conquest. And so their sin and their wickedness, their desire for political gain, to remain or to keep their status as religious leaders, to keep their kingdom, made them hypocrites and made them blind. Because if you remember, Caiaphas, as we saw in the last section, was the one that said that it is expedient for one man to die for the nation than for the whole nation to die. So they're attempting to keep, to preserve the kingdom of Israel. They're attempting to preserve their status and their position and they're using worldly means to do so. The kind of methods that we see politicians and kingdoms use today. And so they were careful in some areas. They don't want to be defiled. but their wickedness, their zeal for some of these things make them blind and hypocrites in other areas. And beloved, sometimes we can be like this. We can be careful about certain things, yet we neglect or reason our way out of being obedient in some other greater way. We can be so careful in some areas of sin, and we do well that we are blind to the other areas, and we justify them or see them as lawful. Sometimes we focus more on the sins of others, but don't pay attention or minimize or rationalize our own sin. And this is the essence of Jesus' teaching about seeking to deal with the speck of dust in someone else's eye and ignoring the huge speck in our own eye. We need to be consistent. God calls us to look at every area of our life. not just to focus on one sin and we'll focus on the others later, we need to focus on all of our sin. We need to have the Word of God cleanse us in every area of life because sin has affected every area of our life. And so we need to be careful that some sins don't blind us to the reality of who we are and what we need to do. But not only do we see the earthly and political methods and unrighteousness in the Jewish religious leaders, but we also see it in Pilate. Pilate here represents the kingdoms of the world. And Pilate could not get a straight answer from the Jewish religious leaders. So he questions Jesus himself. He brings up the charge that was brought against him and he calls him a king. And after speaking with the religious leaders, Pilate enters again into the praetorium and summons Jesus and questions him regarding his charge and his crime. Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king? To which Jesus challenges him. showing him that he was being manipulated by the Jewish religious leaders. And how does he do this? He says, are you saying this on your own initiative or did someone else tell you about me? How would he know this charge? Again, it's because the religious leaders were manipulating him. saying, hey, this guy, he's trying to be a king, he's trying to overthrow Rome. They were using that argumentation for their own political advantage and putting this on Rome because one of the key things that any king or governor must do is to keep peace. In whatever land, whatever region they're assigned to, they must keep peace in that land. And so here they're using him, they're using that to say there's gonna be trouble here if you don't put him to death. And so he's saying, are you saying this out of your own initiative? Is this you saying it or has somebody else influenced you to say this, to think this? He is not only challenging Pilate to see that he is being manipulated, but he is challenging him to think for himself. And this really upsets Pilate, and Pilate answers, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done? So he's bringing it, he's putting it back on him, saying, no, this is something with your own people, they brought you to me. And then again, he asks him, what have you done? What is the crime that you have done? Pilate is still trying to figure out what Jesus has done to be hated so much and to be brought to him to be condemned to death. And this is where we see Jesus, where Jesus says to Pilate concerning his kingdom, he says, my kingdom is not of this world. And at this, Pilate then confirms that accusation that was brought to him. And he says, so you are a king. And this is where we first hear or read about Jesus affirming explicitly that He is King. He's not denying it, He's confirming it. He says, you say correctly that I am a King. For this reason I have been born, for this I have come into the world to testify of the truth. So He affirms who He is. But at the same time, he is denying the charges that are brought against him. Because the charges were, again, under the understanding that this is just another earthly political kingdom that is going to seek to overthrow Rome. And Jesus says, no, I am a king. And for this, I was born. But my kingdom is not of this world. It is not like your kingdom. It is not like the other kingdoms of the world. It is not of this world. So he's affirming, but he's also denying the charges, showing that he is innocent. So contrary to the Jewish religious leaders and Pontius Pilate, the kingdom of Jesus is not of this world in that it is one of righteousness. The kingdom of Christ is righteous because he is righteous. Neither the Jewish religious leaders or Pilate could find any real criminal charges against Jesus. He had done nothing wrong. He had committed no sin. Even though he was being wrongfully prosecuted and being reviled, he is not retaliating or reviling back. Pilate's own wife testified of his innocence and righteousness, and we see this in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, have nothing to do with this man, this righteous man, for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. Have nothing to do with this righteous man. In Luke 23, when Jesus is hanging on the cross in between two thieves, two other convicted people, one of them comes to faith in Him, and he acknowledges, we are here because of our sin. He's done nothing wrong. So, the testimony of Scripture is clear. In this context as well, Jesus had done nothing wrong. He was innocent, yet He was being attacked for political gain. But Jesus Himself remains righteous, true to the calling, to the Word of God, to what He had been sent to do. And what was that? Again, He says that He came to testify to the truth. He was righteous and He spoke and testified to the truth. The truth about His Father. We saw that in John 17. He manifested His name. He came to manifest the name of the Father, to the glory of the Father to His people. So He came to exegete, to explain the Father, the truth about Him. He came to explain and testify to the truth about who He is. That He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the true King, the Davidic King that was promised. He is the true High Priest that we've been seeing as well. He is the second Adam. He is all these things that the scripture in the Old Testament pointed to and prophesied about. That's who He is. He is the Son of God, God in the flesh. This is what He testifies to. And then ultimately, in testifying to that, He is testifying that He Himself is the truth. He is the way and the truth and the life. All these truths about God and the Father, the Spirit, salvation, all of them converge in Him. They are found in Him because He is the truth. And so because of this, we see that the kingdom of Christ is one of righteousness and one of truth. Contrary to the kingdoms of the world that are unrighteous, they are temporal, there's deceit as we've been seeing here. His is one of righteousness and truth. But His kingdom then is not of this world because it is one of righteousness and truth, but there is another aspect that makes it different, that it's not of this world, and that is that the kingdom of Christ is redemptive. The kingdom of Christ is redemptive. When the Jewish religious leaders arrested Jesus and interrogated him and conspired to lie about him, to put him to death, what was the ultimate dividing force or driving force behind this? Again, remember Caiaphas in John 11, I just mentioned it, where he says that it's expedient for one man to die for the nation, not for the whole nation to perish. The religious leaders hated that people went after Jesus. They saw the danger in losing the nation, the kingdom of Israel. They saw the threat in losing their own position. and status as teachers and religious leaders. So their move to lie, their motive to lie about Jesus was nothing less than a worldly political move. They used deceit and conspiracy and murder for what? Again, to maintain their position and preserve the kingdom? And then same thing can be said about Pilate. He badly wants to clear himself of any wrongdoing. He wants to find something because in the end he wants to please the Jewish religious leaders out of fear of revolt. He himself says, I find no fault in this man. So all these are decisions that are being made are being driven because of political gain. And again, as I said at the beginning, the nature of a kingdom will determine the methods that we use to keep that kingdom or to gain some political authority. If you want to gain or maintain political power, this is what you have to do. You have to use force, military force, even deceit. You have to use alliances that benefit you and sometimes you might even have to compromise on certain truths. We see this is what the religious leaders did. But this is then not what Jesus, the nature of the kingdom of Christ is. His kingdom is one that is redemptive. That is the nature of it, and because that is the nature of it, the methods that are used to expand this kingdom, to establish the kingdom, are much different. They're for a different purpose. We have already seen how the hour of Jesus is both His glorification, that is, that He is going back to the Father and sitting as exalted King at His Father's right hand, but it is also the hour of what? Of His suffering. His hour is both the hour of His suffering and the hour of His exaltation, His glorification as King. It is through His suffering that He is glorified, that He goes back to the Father as a conquering King. It is through His suffering that He conquers as King. It is through his death, burial, and resurrection that the king overcomes and is victorious. And it is through his death, burial, and resurrection and ascension that the king inaugurates and establishes his kingdom. And this makes the kingdom of Christ a redemptive kingdom. We saw this two weeks ago when Jesus rebuked Peter for using violence to further Christ's kingdom. He told him, when he cut the ear off of Malchus, he says, You know, He says, put that sword away. The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it? What cup is He talking about? That is a cup of wrath. The wrath for our sin. What He was about to do was to bring redemption. He was about to purchase back God's people. He was to reconcile God's people back to the Father by drinking the cup, by being punished in their stead. And in this act, the kingdom of God is established. It is inaugurated. And it is because of this that he tells Pilate in verse 36, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Because it is not like these other kingdoms, military force, political force does not have to be used. The methods that God has established for this kingdom is what? The Word of God. The preaching of God's Word. It is through the Word of God that the kingdom of God spreads in this world, as God confronts people through His Word. as God delivers them from the kingdom of darkness and translates them, puts them into the kingdom of his beloved son. It is through the preaching, that is the means that God has established to bring, to usher in his kingdom. And it is on the Lord's day, when God's people gather together, that the kingdom is here present in a very powerful way. But notice that none of us here have, well, I shouldn't say that, I should say weapons, but some people, But we don't have here an army that we've created for this church to protect us from some enemies. No, our weapons, again, are spiritual. It's the word of God. It's what he has left for us, his sure word, the word that explains God, that teaches about who he is, who we are, what our problem is, and what the resolution to it is. The gospel, it's Christ. So it's redemptive in nature and we see this also in our section here as John comments and says that Jesus being handed over to the Jews or to the Gentiles was to fulfill the word which Jesus spoke signifying by what kind of death he was about to die. So not only was it that he was not supposed to die just to die, but again, he was supposed to die a death that satisfied God's justice for our sins. To bring redemption, eternal redemption, to God's people. Though Pilate was sinning, though he was sinful, wicked, and a representative of a political state that had been oppressing the nation of Israel, a nation that was in covenant with God, yet Jesus did not see Pilate as an enemy per se, but as an individual who needed to believe in him. We are not to see the earthly and political kingdoms of this world as enemies that need to be physically destroyed. They will be one day. And it is tempting, especially when they persecute the church, when they ridicule and revile you on account of Jesus Christ, to want to retaliate or take up arms and use force. But what does Jesus call us to do? Remember what he said to Peter in the garden after he cut off, after Peter cut off the high priest slave's ear. He says, put the sword back in its sheath. And then in Matthew he says, for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. This is not the way that Christ spreads his kingdom. And sadly, throughout the history of the world, people have misunderstood the nature of Christ's kingdom and have sought to expand and promote the kingdom, to bring in that kingdom through political violence. And this is not the way that we are to do it. Part of what it means that his kingdom is not of this world is just what we have seen with the Jewish religious leaders in Pilate. His kingdom is not established, furthered, expanded by means of the world. It does not operate in those same political methods. And we might be tempted to say, well, we are not doing that. We're not using those political methods. But there are still other ways that we can be in error, just like the religious leaders in Pilate was. We can use earthly. and worldly means to bring people into the church. There's so many churches that have gone straight so far from true biblical worship in order to what? To please the flesh of the people, to bring in people. And so they're using worldly methods to grow the church, to get big numbers. And we do want people, we do want many people to come to this church, to other churches, but we want to do it the way that God has called us to do it, through the preaching of his word. Because you can have a church full of people that are there for whatever reason, but if they're not there to grow in the word of God, if they're not there because they've been convicted by the word of God and they've trusted in Christ, then What gain do they have? They're there at church, but they're still unregenerate. When they stand before God, they're gonna be condemned just like anybody outside. So we wanna have people in the churches, but we want them to be there for the right reasons. We want them to be there to worship Christ, to trust in Christ, to love his word, to grow in his word, because ultimately we are here to glorify God with our living, with our lives. He has delivered us, and that is what we owe Him. So the Kingdom of Christ is redemptive. And therefore, the methods that are used to establish, to further and expand the Kingdom of God is through the Word of God. It is through the preaching of the Word of God. It is through evangelism. It is through missionary work. These are the methods that God uses. Now, there will be a time when the kingdom of God will come in a more political and forceful way, but that's at the return of Christ, when He comes and He destroys the kingdoms of the world. But until then, God is, what is He doing? He is gathering His citizens. He's gathering His citizens through the preaching of the Word. And so that is the nature and those are the methods, and that is how the kingdom of Christ is not of this world. It is a heavenly kingdom. Lastly, the kingdom of Christ is respected. Now, what do I mean by respected? The kingdom of God separates between two kinds of people, two kinds of individuals, two kinds of groups of people. At the end of verse 37, Jesus says to Pilate, when he tells him that he has come to testify to the truth, he says, everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. The kingdom of Christ then discriminates or it distinguishes between those who are of the truth and those who are not of the truth. This distinction is similar to Jesus' teaching in John chapter 10 and in the imagery there of the shepherd and his sheep. Jesus is the true shepherd. He is the Divine Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, and all who are of His fold, who are of His sheep, hear His voice. They do not listen to the voice of another, but those who are His sheep listen to His voice, and they follow Him. But those who are not His sheep do not listen to His voice. By the actions of the Jewish leaders, who had heard Jesus preaching for three years. They had seen his great signs, his wonders, his miracles. So they had heard him. But by their actions, the leaders were showing that they were not of the truth. We have seen this illustrated for us throughout the many encounters between Jesus and the religious leaders throughout this gospel. In John chapter 9, when Jesus heals the blind man, a clear demonstration of who He is, again, they reject Him. In John chapter 10, in the heated debate and conversation, dialogue between Jesus and the religious leaders, we see that the religious leaders could not believe because they were of their father, the devil, whose native language was deceit. So they could not hear the truth because they were not of the truth. And John 11, after seeing the great sign of raising Lazarus from the dead, they now want to kill Jesus even more. And not only do they want to kill Jesus, but now they want to kill Lazarus for having the audacity to come back to life and make it look like Jesus had raised him from the dead. They rejected the true King, the true Son of the Father, and therefore they rejected an Antichrist. And what do I mean by this? This narrative ends By saying, Pilate gives him an ultimatum. He says, you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews? And what is their answer? What was their answer? It says in verse 40, they cried out again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. So again, what do I mean that they rejected the true king, the true son of the father, and received an antichrist instead? Well, do you know what the name Barabbas means? The word bar in Aramaic means son. So think of, for example, Peter's actual name is what? Simon Barjona. Right? So Simon, son of Jonah. This is similar to the Hebrew, Ben. The word Benjamin means son of the right hand. So Bar and Ben mean son. Well, if Bar means son, now take Bar off of Barabbas, and what would it be left with? What's that word? What do you think that word means? It means father. So Barabbas' name is son of the father. So here you have two sons. Jesus, the true king, the true son of the father. And then you have Barabbas. And Barabbas here, our text says that he was a robber. But in the other gospels, we see that he was an insurrectionist. He was a murderer. He had attempted to overthrow the Roman government, the Roman authorities. He was seeking to establish God's kingdom by force, by military conquest, through murder, through sin. So we have a false Christ, a false son of the father on the one hand, and then the true son of the father on the other. But the religious leaders, because they were not of the truth, what did they choose for themselves? They chose for themselves an antichrist, a false son of the father, when the true son of the father was right there in front of them. So again, this kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, the righteous and redemptive kingdom, one kingdom that is of truth, distinguishes. It's respective in that it distinguishes between two kinds of people. Those that are of the truth and those that are not of the truth. And those that are of the truth hear the truth. They hear Christ, who is the truth. And they act accordingly. And what we have seen here is that Pilate and the Jewish religious leaders None of them were of the truth. They heard Jesus, they examined Him, and they did not hear His voice. They did not hear the truth because they were not of the truth. But all those who are of the truth will hear. That is the nature of God's Christ Kingdom. And so the question then is, do you hear the voice of Christ? Are you of the truth? That is what we are, all of us, every single person is confronted with. Pilate was confronted with this. Are you saying this on your own initiative that I am a king, that I am who the prophets prophesied? Are you saying this out of your own initiative or are you being influenced or manipulated by someone else? Are you being blindsided? Are you being deceived by someone else? We are all confronted to make that choice about who Christ is. And Scripture, our Scripture this morning tells us that He is the true King. He is the true Son of the Father, the Son of God, God in the flesh, and that His kingdom is not of this world. It is in the world, but it is not of the world. And in order to be in this kingdom, we must go through Christ. We must go through Him, through His Word, through His truth. We must be born again through the Word, as we see in John chapter 3. We must be born again, and we want to see and enter into the Kingdom. Because His Kingdom, again, is redemptive, it's spiritual, and it is a Kingdom of righteousness and truth. And Jesus Himself is the truth. So, if you have not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in Him this morning. Hear His voice, hear His Word, and believe in Him. or else you will stand one day before God, before this great king, and you will be judged by this king. Here we see the king being interrogated, on trial, but on judgment day, all these that had him on trial will be on trial with him. He will have them on trial, he will judge them, and he will find them guilty, and he will find you guilty if you do not trust in him. But for those who have trusted in him, rejoice, because you are of the truth. You are citizens in this wonderful, redemptive kingdom that will one day come in its full glory, established here on earth, where righteousness will dwell on earth. And we will have Christ as our King ruling over us forever. What a great day. What a hope that we have as believers.