Rabbi Schneider - Not of This World
One of my favorite scriptures is in John 18, verse 36. Yeshua is standing before Pilate. Pilate is questioning Him. Pilate is scared of Him. Pilate sees there's something unusual and powerful about this man, Yeshua of Nazareth.
So as Pilate is questioning Him, Yeshua says to him in John 18:36, “Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world,” He said, “My servants would be fighting.” He said, “but as it is, My kingdom,” Yeshua said, “is not of this world.”
I love that because our kingdom, beloved, is not of this world. And sometimes if we're not careful, we can get so conformed to the world that we become victims of the spirit of the age and of the spirit of darkness that's on the world. Jesus said to mankind, He said, “You are from below. I am from above.” Yeshua didn't identify with what was going on in this world right now, because right now what's going on in this world is that Yeshua hasn't taken control of it over it yet.
That's why all the evil and all the chaos and all the darkness and all the sickness and all the disease. Yeshua's from another world. And we need to be focused on the fact, beloved, that we are chosen out of the world. Jesus said “if you are of the world, the world would love you. But because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
Beloved, even as Yeshua is not of the world, you and I are not of the world. Let's think that way, and let's live that way.