The Culture of God’s Kingdom

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

In 2017, my wife and I got to go to France, and it was an incredible trip. One of the things that's true about France is that the food is just different there. And so, a simple illustration is how incredible scrambled eggs in France are. The hotel we stayed at for the first few days had a complimentary breakfast, and as an American, I'm used to complimentary breakfast, which means a bagel that's more like bread, some stale cereal, a chalky muffin, and some bad bacon, and some overcooked eggs.

This was not like that. We go in, it's a restaurant, you ask for coffee, they bring a french press, ask would you like some fresh fruit, and some smoked salmon. Delightful. And so I chose to order scrambled eggs, with chives and pepper. When they arrived, it was like something I had never eaten before. It turns out the way they cook scrambled eggs in France is very slowly with a whisk and so the texture comes out more like cottage cheese than the fast cooked scrambled eggs we're used to as Americans. It's just different. And I'll tell you, it is incredible. Creamy, delicious.

We're celebrating Palm Sunday today, and Jesus entrance into Jerusalem is on a colt or a donkey. And he's celebrated, Hosanna in the highest, by this group of people that have been following Jesus. And what it shows us is that God's kingdom is just different.

It's built differently. It operates differently. And it operates in such a way in which humility versus arrogance - reign. That power is used to provide for others. And it teaches us that ultimately, we want to put our trust in people who serve. So let me sketch those ideas out for you a little bit. The story tells us that Jesus sends his disciples to grab this young colt.

And the purpose that Mark writes with is to try to help the reader understand that this wasn't an accident. That Jesus specifically told the disciples to grab the colt or donkey and that Jesus was going to ride this in on purpose.

Now, when we think about kingdoms, it's hard for us to connect with them. Maybe we think about "The Crown", the Netflix show, but a lot of ways, we don't have a good sense of what a kingdom is. Kingdoms in ancient times were places that often power ruled and privileged ruled.

And so Jesus choice to enter in on a cult is a few things. One, it's echoing Solomon's choice, as Solomon, king of Israel, during his entrance, chose to run a cult. And so Jesus is fulfilling that.

But additionally, while people are expecting a display of prestige and power, Jesus chooses to enter in humbly. And so it teaches us that the culture of God's kingdom, the values of God's kingdom, is one in which humility reigns. And so for you and I, we have to figure out, okay, what does it look like for us to be a humble people?

Well, humility is not a sense of not knowing who one is. It's a sense of being willing to serve for the good of others. And humility doesn't place themselves above, it places themselves alongside. And so just as Jesus comes in, and humbly enters on a donkey, we as a people want to be humble too. And the way we're gonna do that is we're gonna stop blaming others. We're going to be great listeners, and we're going to believe that arrogance hurts everyone. And so God's kingdom works a little bit differently, but we're going to grab a hold of that and enter it.

Secondly, what we see from Jesus is that Jesus takes his power and uses it to provide for others. Again, in many kingdoms, that kingdom establishes itself, and often the way power was utilized was to protect a few and enslave many. Jesus operates differently. Jesus uses his power to serve the greater good, to serve many. The ones who were celebrating Jesus on Palm Sunday are those who were on the outside of society. It was those with bad reputation, those who have been struggling with health, those who were poor, and Jesus in his ministry engaged them, made them feel loved, made them feel Cared for, made them feel seen, and so they celebrate Jesus. Why do they celebrate Jesus? Well, they celebrate him because he uses his power to provide hope and care.

This is a lesson to us as well. Whatever power we have, whether it's as a head of an organization. Or a leader of a team, or as a teacher or a coach, a parent, an older sibling, captain on a sports team. We want to take the power that we have. We don't want to use it for privilege. Rather, we want to use it to provide hope and care.

All of us in this world need hope. We go through challenging situations. We have difficult days and we want to know that there's a better future out there. And that's what great leaders do. Great leaders use their power to provide hope. They also come alongside their people and their people know that they are cared about, that they're seen, that they're loved, that they're heard.

And so just as Simon Sinek talks about in Leaders Eating Last, those who lead organizations as well as teams that are able to make their people feel cared for, it's a difference maker in the kind of culture. So if you want to build a culture in your sports team, in your family, in your school, in your workplace, that reflects God's kingdom, you want to use power to provide for others. Versus using power to amass privilege.

Lastly, what we see is that God's kingdom teaches us to trust those who serve. Jesus enters Jerusalem, shows up at the temple, and surveys it. Maybe for you, it's similar to, at the end of the day, you look back at your office and you consider all the events that have happened.

Or maybe, You are leaving an apartment or a house and you take in all the different moments. Jesus looked around and took in all the different moments. Certainly some probably made him happy because there are people there who want to worship God. Others probably made him sad and angry because they were going astray and enslaving people to practices more than helping them worship.

But ultimately what we see is the way that Jesus addresses that is by submitting himself to the cross. So he goes forward, doesn't use his power to protect himself and his followers, but rather uses his power to serve the greater good by giving his life for many. It's a great mark of a leader, one who wants to serve others.

And so we should always be asking ourselves this question, am I trusting people and things that are serving the greater good? Or am I putting my trust? in people and things that are untrustworthy. As Americans, we often put our trust in things like the right job, the right car, the right house, the right relationships. And these things often end up bankrupt, leaving us just chasing this endless feeling of, Can I be enough? Can I find enough?

What we want to do is we want to put our trust in people like Jesus, and others who are walking alongside Jesus in God's kingdom - looking to serve the greater good.

God's kingdom is built differently and it's displayed on Palm Sunday as Jesus enters in, worshiped by those who are on the outside of society, celebrating him because of his humility, his provision, and his willingness to serve.

As you go off this week, I hope that you find opportunities to do the same. To grow in humility, to use your power to provide for others and to put your trust in the one who serves and others who serve alongside him. Thank you. Have a great week. We'll see you next time.