October 24, 2023
Some Things Can Only Be Done In Heaven
“Pilate answered, ‘am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests 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.’” John 18:35-36 (NASB)
Back to yesterday’s story: I told each of the youths I was leaving, and they all became angry. They said, “What can we do about this?” I said, “Nothing, it is done.” One high school boy said, “Well, we want to do something.” I had something they could do. They all got excited. The next morning (a Saturday), I asked the students who were interested to meet me at the church at 9 AM. They did. When they arrived, they asked, “What are we going to do?” We went into the church building. In the sanctuary, I said, “Come to the altar, we are going to pray. Then leave it in God’s hands.” They weren’t happy but prayed. It was a special time. “Some things can’t be done in this world,” I said, “We have to leave it in God’s care.” I sensed great peace that day after we all prayed. The students weren’t happy but understood it was beyond their control.
“Pilate answered, ‘am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?’” “Pilate’s response to Jesus reflected his disdain for the Jewish people and his growing exasperation with the frustrating puzzling ethnic case before him. His further elaboration ‘Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me,’ makes it clear that the governor was merely repeating the charge leveled against Jesus by the Jewish leaders; the accusation was theirs, not Rome’s. Exactly why they had done so still eluded Pilate. He knew perfectly well that the Jews would not have handed over to him someone hostile to Rome unless they stood to gain from doing so.” [1] In the Roman court system, the accused were allowed to be questioned in detail. “… what have You done?” Or what is your crime then? At this point, Pilate could not figure out why the Jews showed such hostility toward Jesus. Matthew 27:18 says that Pilate later determined the real reason when he asked the crowd who he might release- Barabbas or Jesus; “For he (Pilate) knew that because of envy they had handed Him over.” For now, he didn’t. Jesus made clear His reason, “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.” Jesus’s kingdom was not “over” this world, but was not “of” this world. So by this, Pilate was unaffected by any action in Jesus’ life. It should bring no alarm as such either. The words, “would be fighting,” are in the imperfect tense, denoting action in progress, or “they would now be fighting while I am here.”
I firmly believe God used this story to allow me to see everything is under God’s control. I may have not liked it, but I was getting tired of fighting battles each week with the same people. My wife knew. I know God knew too. The summer before I left, we took 28 students to camp one year (from the original 3), and we had more than half accept Jesus as Savior. When we got back, I told each student who decided to share it with their parents. An excited girl told her mom. Her mom accused me of brainwashing her. The mother said, “She already accepted Christ as a child.” The girl said, “No Mom it’s true!” The mother told her to shut up. Instead of celebrating her daughter’s decision, it turned into another degenerative event.
[1] (John MacArthur, 2006), 330.