God So Loved the World – The Two Kingdoms
John 17:14-19 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the Evil One. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 19 I sanctify myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth. (EHV)
These words were spoken by Jesus the evening before His crucifixion. They are part of a prayer that Jesus spoke to God the Father. These words are directed to God on behalf of the disciples of Jesus. We think first of the 11 apostles, who were closest to the Lord. But they also apply to us – as Jesus would go on in verse 20 to speak all those who would believe through the message preached by the apostles.
We point this out at the beginning because these two facts are fundamental to how we use these words today. We must remember: these are Jesus’ words – they are perfect in every way. And, these words are directed at our lives. Therefore, the result of those two facts is that we should be able to take these words, learn from them, and apply them to our current lives.
To do that, we first establish what Jesus was talking about. There is a division in His words – a contrast between two things. The division is between the world and the followers (disciples) of Jesus. The followers of Jesus are not of the world and the world hates them. Yet, all followers of Jesus are in the world – just as Jesus was.
We know enough by basic experience to find a connection to Jesus’ thoughts. The world, despite its many treasures, is not a permanent home. When Jesus mentions the world here, He’s not just referring to the evil part of the world – but to the entire world. Good and bad, pleasure and pain – the whole world is limited. Everyone, deep down inside their hearts, longs for something better – something more fulfilling and something more lasting. The world, no matter how much pomp comes along with it – cannot satisfy this longing.
That’s not to say people won’t try. Many and vast are the ways that people try to mask the longing for something better. They try to fill it in with money, possessions, knowledge, self-fulfillment, the freedom to live as one would like, and many other things. Just about any and every option known to mankind has been offered as a substitute to fulfill the longing for something better – and nothing works.
This is one reason why Jesus offered this prayer. He wanted His followers to keep the things of the world separate from the things of God. Yet that division is not a means to an end, because followers of Jesus still live in the world and operate in the world. There is a connection between the things of God (which satisfy the longing for something better) and the things of the world (which cannot satisfy). That connection is found in the word “sanctify,” which Jesus used to describe His work on earth.
Sanctification means to set apart, or to make holy, and it’s the crossover between the world and God. In the words of our theme, sanctification is how the two kingdoms interact. One kingdom is the world, and it concerns the believer’s life on earth. Within the kingdom of the world a Christian lives as a citizen, employee, friend, and neighbor. It is the part of the Christian’s life that is “of the world.” Each of the vocations within the kingdom of the world serves a purpose and is ordained by God – as the creator and designer of all things. Yet, the kingdom of the world is limited, especially in offering the “something more” that human hearts long for.
This is where the kingdom of faith comes in – the domain where the Christian operates as a redeemed child of God by faith in Jesus. The kingdom of faith takes a physical manifestation through the church, but on its own, the kingdom of faith is an entirely spiritual thing, just as the Church itself it. It is within the kingdom of faith that the believer is “not of the world.” It is through the kingdom of faith that we find the answer for “something more.” We find that in Jesus, who can only be received and trusted by faith.
Jesus prayed about this distinction so that His followers would be led to keep it straight. Because Jesus knew the trouble that ensues when these two kingdoms are mixed. This mixture of the two kingdoms is increasingly common in our culture, and among Christians today, and it plays a major part in the societal discord we see today.
Another way to think about this is that one kingdom is secular, one is sacred. The Christian has a place in both, but in different ways. Sanctification by Jesus, which comes through His Word, is what helps us understand the connection between these two realms in our lives. The idea of two locations is already inherent within the concept of sanctification, since it literally means to be set apart from something unrighteous. There is spatial aspect to this in our minds, as the Lord describes His work as moving us from unbelief to faith, from impurity to holiness, and from death to life. This is sanctification and it must be understood properly to understand one’s role in the two kingdoms.
Another key thought in all of this is the idea of the hiddenness of God. The hiddenness of God refers to what we know, don’t know, about God. The truth is that God does not come out openly and reveal everything about Himself to us. One reason He doesn’t do this is that we couldn’t survive the experience. Holiness destroys sin. The unrighteous cannot stand in the presence of God. We could not survive with the full expression of God before us. Throughout Scripture, God never directly reveals Himself to sinners. Even the most miraculous occasions are always through means, visions, or messengers. When God came to earth, He had to house His glory in a human body, and even that was too much for some to handle. Because of this reality, God needs to “hide” Himself in certain things that we can handle.
We see His glory in creation. He embeds His law in our hearts. He communicates His love and forgiveness in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He speaks through the Bible. God also masks Himself in the people around us. Parents, leaders, teachers, and pastors are all people God uses in our lives. He is hidden in them, not in some mystical sense of inhabiting them but by using them the stand for His Word and to deliver His will. In these ways, God is hidden within both kingdoms, and that’s why He expects us to respect those who stand in His place.
Ultimately, however, the hiddenness of God is something that we must learn to live with. Despite the many “masks” that God uses, He does not share everything about Himself with us. Even earthly authorities who stand in for God are flawed in many ways. There is much that lies in the category of the unknown. Herein is the second reason for the hiddenness of God, that the believer’s relationship with Him would be by faith and not by sight. Many people have tried to reason their way into life with God, but that’s impossible because we cannot comprehend the complexity of God – in part because of our sin, but also because God simply hasn’t told us everything about Himself. He is hidden in this sense.
What does this have to do with Christian life
in the two kingdoms? Well, Jesus prayed to keep this distinction intact,
because it keeps the hiddenness of God intact. We might wonder, well why would
we want this – doesn’t everyone want to know more about God? Surely that is
true, but there’s no point in learning about God if it isn’t true. Consider all
false teachings, what they really are within the context of our lesson are ways
that people have tried to reveal more about God than He has revealed. False
teachings are the manifestation of rebellion against the hiddenness of God. All
believers have had to wrestle with remaining faithful to what God has revealed
and not going beyond it; but trusting the means and the ways God delivers truth
to us. The believer’s life in the two kingdoms is about navigating the
hiddenness of God and leaving the unknown – both in earthly and spiritual
matters – in God’s hands.
Jesus is the perfect example for us in this regard, because this is exactly what He did to redeem us. Consider the prophecy from Isaiah about the suffering of Jesus when He paid for your sin:
Isaiah 53:2-3 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (ESV)
Jesus did not come with a majesty and beauty to attract the culture of His age. He was despised and rejected. As Jesus declares in our text, He underwent a personal sanctification to sanctify you in the truth. He offered up His body – which was stricken, smitten, and afflicted so that He could carry the unpaid debt of your transgressions before God’s just law. He was set apart – all by Himself – in a way that no other person could be – so that you and I might be saved eternally and have a place in heaven. Jesus didn’t need to be changed like we need to be changed, but He chose to be so that we could be saved. And it caused the world to reject Jesus, to kill on the cross the one perfect person who ever lived. If the world did such a thing to the holy Son of God, should be surprised when Jesus says our deepest longings exist outside of the world?
Yet the desire by so many today is to meld the church and the world into one. This is done most often by encouraging the Church to become more like the culture. So, instead of God’s revelation that the secular kingdom is limited in its ability to offer us hope because of the existence of sin, many people today try to use the church to correct all social wrongs, to set up utopian societies, and to teach that we can all become the real visions of morality by being better at loving one another. For those who believe such teachings, the secular becomes mixed with the sacred; the church becomes little more than a cultural institution to enforce socially acceptable behavior. This is often accomplished by shouted and preaching people down with the moral standards of the day; in essence by becoming modern day Pharisees who use intimidation and force to establish the religion of their choosing.
These methods steer away from God’s truth and discard the sacred hiddenness of God and the only way of receiving Him – by faith. God says sin is a problem we cannot overcome on our own or through the works of the law. God says that heaven is our home, not a utopian dream on earth. God says salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, not by a culturally-adjusted religion. God says that people are saved by faith alone, and that faith comes through the Word of God. Our preaching therefore, ought not to be done for the purpose of turning the church into an earthly kingdom by shouting others into social submission, but in a way that points to the works and merits of Jesus. These are all clear truths in God’s Word, and they can only be understood within the kingdom of faith. Because God has hidden truth in His Word, we can only ascertain that through the Word.
To use the Word is to rely on God, and that
will be a path beset with trials and tests. Martin Luther paraphrased this thought by saying that God
only allows the most severe trials, the very kind that cause us to sit on the
edge of despair, to the greatest of saints. Because through such trials,
all sense of self-reliance, all hope in worldly institutions, and all attempts
to re-write God’s revelation - vanish. When one is faced with such hard
difficulty that he wonders where God is, only the Holy Spirit, working through
the Gospel Word and Sacrament, can offer any hope. Only God can supply the “longing
for something better.”
This is life in the kingdom of faith. It is difficult. There are temptations to use the world to solve our biggest problems, to live only be secular means, and especially to change the systemic problem of the sinner’s fallen heart. But only Jesus can overcome those things – and He has. And so, it was Jesus who prayed that His followers – including you – would believe and apply the distinction between the two kingdoms in their lives – to be in the world, but not of the world, and to bring change through sanctification in the Word.
There’s always a hiddenness to God. This is why salvation is of faith and not of sight. Every “mask” of God’s authority will have its deficiencies – be it a parent, a pastor, or a president – yet our duty to them is still owed in the right way. But only God can sanctify – and He has only done that by faith in Jesus. This must be the Church we build and defend. We cannot let the kingdom of faith become a cultural institution that sways with the majority opinion. There is a deeper hope than social change. Only God can set us apart from sin and wickedness to becoming living heirs of heaven. This is the crossover from the secular to the sacred, and every redeemed soul in Jesus Christ is changed in that very way.
As we seek social, spiritual, and personal change in our nation, let us fix our eyes on Jesus and His kingdom of faith. Amen.
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