Welcome back to the Fourth Way podcast. In the last episode, we gave an overview of government in the Old Testament. We discussed how governments were largely portrayed as a usurpation against God and that the stage was being set for a revelation of God's ideal government. Israel awaited a Messiah who would come to rule them as the perfect ruler and show them the government that God intended. That of course brings us to the gospels which we will be discussing today.

The first thing to notice about King Jesus is that He isn't the Messiah anyone would have expected. He steps down from His throne and joins humanity in humility, being born in a lowly position and in a lowly place. Jesus immediately shows us that being a King in His kingdom looks like an emptying of self. We call this self emptying concept kenosis, which we'll come back to probably in the next episode when we talk about Philippians. Jesus is constantly emptying himself, whether it's, we see it through his birth and how He lived meagerly, how He acted as a servant in washing the feet of His disciples, or how He laid down His life.

There is constant kenosis from Jesus. Jesus not only shows us that ruling in His Kingdom looks like kenosis, but he explicitly states it. He tells us that the first will be last, that the least will be greatest, and he explains most importantly for this particular conversation that his followers do not wield power like the Gentiles do. True followers don't lord themselves over others, but instead serve. Jesus not only shows and tells us what his kingdom is like, but he gives us some other powerful insights into the world of government.

When Jesus is tempted in the desert, it's interesting to see that Satan tempts Jesus with the kingdoms of the world. Now, for such a thing to be a legitimate temptation, one assumes that Satan really had power over the kingdoms, a notion that the Bible seems to back up because it recognizes that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. So for whatever reason and whatever way, Satan seems to have certain authority on earth. And Paul even recognizes this when he says that there are principalities, powers and rulers that we contend with with which aren't flesh and blood. And we can see this concept as a running theme throughout the Bible as well, as Pharaoh's court magicians could do some crazy magic stuff.

And we see in Daniel that evil spiritual forces were behind the kingdoms of Persia and Greece contending with God's angels. In contention with Satan's behind the scenes dominion of the world is the Kingdom of Christ. Jesus says that the Kingdom, His Kingdom, is not from this world. That preposition is very important in my opinion, and you can translate it differently. I'm of the opinion that Jesus isn't saying that his kingdom is ethereal.

Like, my kingdom is not of this world. It's it's this different substance, know. One day, we'll all go to this kingdom and it'll be great, but it's not of this world. And that sounds really gnostic to me and otherworldly and not tangible and it just doesn't sound like the teaching of Jesus. I mean, the Lord's Prayer, right?

I'm more of the opinion that it's not from this world, but it is for it. His kingdom is for this world even though it is not worldly, it's divinely inspired. Being of God's kingdom makes us a a perfect fit for the world as we are salt and light. We seek to live out the lives that God intended us to live. And by living this way, we are ambassadors and conquerors.

Jesus links us to this kingdom not simply through teaching us how to live and showing us how to live, but he he gives us a fealty oath in the Lord's Prayer as well. So check out the links in the description for for more details, but the Lord's Prayer plays out a lot like a field to oath. It's explicitly anti empire and it's replacement of Caesar and Rome with God and His Kingdom, and it isn't just a prayer that does this, right? All sorts of language and imagery from the Bible are political. Jesus is Lord, Christ and Messiah.

He's the Son of David, the Son of God, the Son of Man, and all of those are strong political terms. In Shane Claiborne's book, Jesus for President, the audiobook at least, chapter 33 to 35, something like that, it's a beautiful compilation of all of this. And I you know, some audiobooks is just basically the book being read. I really recommend Jesus for President on audiobook in particular because they have different readers reading it, and music, and it's just it was very well done. But in chapters 33 through 35 of that audiobook, it's a beautiful, they go through like a coronation ceremony for Caesar and how Jesus' passion and crucifixion basically mimic that and and so you see so much political imagery going on and not just the purple robe and the crown of thorns and all that kind of stuff which are are kind of mocking Jesus, but there's so many other steps that are just very powerful.

So so definitely check that out. Point is, the Bible is filled with not only tons of political language, but lots of political imagery as well. Much of the imagery, we miss out on. But even beyond the language and the imagery, Jesus explicitly discusses His kingship. When Jesus is talking to the religious leaders before His execution, He tells them in Matthew 20 four, From now on, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Jesus is using kingly language of being seated on the throne at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds, which is just an Old Testament lingo for wielding power, like God talks about coming on the clouds to Egypt in judgment, right? It means, hey dude, I've got some power and it's about to, I'm about to show you that power. So Jesus said that this was going down, like, right now, you're about to see this and He was being lifted up and it was about to be finished and secured. His kingdom would be fully realized in the future for sure, right? We don't fully realize it now.

But from that moment on, he would have it secured and He would be reigning, He would be seated at the right hand of God the Father. That is something that is not going to happen, that is something that has happened. Alright, well, that's pretty much where we're going to leave things with the Gospels. They are infused with terminology, imagery, and direct declarations about the state of government and God's view of true government. When you couple this picture with the largely negative picture that we get from the Old Testament, things start to become much more clear.

However, we have one more section of the Bible to go through which we'll get to in the next episode. That's all for now. So peace and because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it. This podcast is a part of the Kingdom Outpost Network. Please check out the links below to find other great podcasts and content related to non violence and Kingdom Living.