Living The Lord’s Prayer, Part-3, Mathew 6:6-13
“Your Kingdom Come”
Introduction
“Everybody treats us so nicely. No one seems to thing that we mean what we say. When we say “kingdom of God,” no one gets apprehensive, as if we had just announced (which we thought we had) that a powerful army is poised on the border, ready to invade. When we say radical things like “Christ,” “love,” “believe,” “peace,” and “sin”—words that in other times and cultures excited martyrdoms—the sounds enter the stream of conversation with no more splash than baseball scores and grocery prices.” — (Eugene Peterson in Leadership Vol. 10, no. 2)
Transition
What is the Kingdom of God? In the second line of the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Your Kingdom Come.” What is the kingdom and what does it mean for His kingdom to come? Where does it come from? Where is “it” going? What is the nature of the Kingdom? Who is a citizen of the kingdom? When will it come? Has it already come? Is it a physical or spiritual kingdom?
These are important questions to ask. How careless of so many to pray week in and week out, for some day in day out, “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come” and never have considered at any depth what that kingdom is. If we are to build the kingdom we need to know what it is.
This morning I will state plainly what I believe to be a biblical view of the kingdom and how it applies to the here and now of the Christian life.
No other biblical doctrine as that of the kingdom of God is as oft mentioned in the Bible and yet so routinely debated. There is vastly differing opinion among theologians, scholars, pastors, denominations, and the like, as to the message of the kingdom. There is no debate however that it is a prevalent biblical doctrine.
Exposition
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:35-38 NIV)
Everywhere He went Jesus preached the kingdom. In Matthew 4:17 it says that “From that time on [early in Jesus ministry] Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (NIV) Or in the KJV Jesus says “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is just out of reach, it is present, it is here.
So on the one hand you have Jesus telling people to repent for the kingdom is near and then on the other hand you have Jesus telling people to pray, “Your kingdom come.” Which is it? Is the kingdom right here, close enough to reach out and grab or is it afar off and something that I need to pray for it to come?
It is both here and it is yet to come! The kingdom of God is present wherever God reigns. The kingdom is present when we allow God to reign in and through us. It is yet to come in that Jesus has promised to return and establish a literal thousand year reign upon the earth which will usher in eternity.
Varying Views:
For nineteenth century liberal theologians like Albrecht Ritschl and Adolf von Harnack, the kingdom of God is not something to be established in the future, but is now present in the form of the “brotherhood of man.” For higher critical scholars, the infinite value of the individual soul, and the ethic of love fully represents the kingdom; the apocalyptic component in Jesus’ teaching is secondary to Jesus message of universal love. The predominant liberal view is that the kingdom of which Jesus spoke was a present ethical kingdom.
Reformed theologians have typically viewed the kingdom only in terms of a present spiritual reality. The more optimistic among them look to a day when all of the world will be come to faith in the Jesus Christ and thus the completeness of the kingdom of God will be realized. For them the kingdom is now and there is at least the possibility of the perfection of Christ reign on earth through His Church.
Dispensationalists have tended to focus on the apocalyptic teaching of the book of Revelation and Daniel to say that kingdom which Jesus spoke of as “being near” is near in the sense that it will soon, in the grand timeline, be consummated.
For dispensationalists the focus is on the future, though the present reality of Christ reign in the life of the belier is recognized.
Interestingly there are those who have drawn hard lines between the New Testament terms “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God.”
“While some believe that the Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are referring to different things, it is clear that both phrases are referring to the same thing. The phrase “kingdom of God” occurs 68 times in 10 different New Testament books, while “kingdom of heaven” occurs only 32 times, and only in the Gospel of Matthew. In response to this, some interpreters have come to the conclusion, with the understanding of the Jewish nature of the Gospel of Matthew, that Matthew was writing concerning the millennial kingdom while the other New Testament authors were referring to the universal kingdom. However, a study of the use of the phrase reveals that this interpretation is in error.
For example, in the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-24, Christ uses “kingdom of heaven” to speak of the spiritual kingdom. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven’” (v. 23). In the very next verse, Christ proclaims, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” So, in answer to the rich young ruler’s question concerning eternal life (v. 16), Christ uses the phrases “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” interchangeably.” (http://www.gotquestions.org/kingdom-heaven-god.html)
I, along with a growing number of conservative theologians have refused to be boxed into either a “kingdom future” or a “kingdom now” emphasis. The Bible teaches a “both/and” approach to the kingdom.
The kingdom of God has already arrived in an inaugural form, but has not yet fully been consummated, and will not be until Christ’s second coming. “This “already/not yet” approach has drawn proponents from dispensational, historic premillennial and reformed camps, so much so that [theologian] Richard Gaffin has observed that it “has now virtually reached the status of consensus.” This position is well represented by New Testament commentators such as D.A. Carson and progressive dispensationalists such as Craig Blaising, Darryl Bock and Robert Saucy. (D. Matthew Allen, “The Kingdom in Matthew)
Application
In Executive Edge newsletter, management-consultant Ken Blanchard retells the story of a little girl named Schia (which first appeared in a book titled Chicken Soup for the Soul). When Schia was 4 years old, her baby brother was born.
“Little Schia began to ask her parents to leave her alone with the new baby. They worried that, like most 4-year-olds, she might want to hit or shake him, so they said no.” Over time, though, since Schia wasn’t showing signs of jealousy, they changed their minds and decided to let Schia have her private conference with the baby.
“Elated, Schia went into the baby’s room and shut the door, but it opened a crack—enough for her curious parents to peek in and listen. They saw little Schia walk quietly up to her baby brother, put her face close to his, and say, ‘Baby, tell me what God feels like. I’m starting to forget.’” Have you grown older and forgotten God? It’s not too late to return to the one who created you. Jesus taught that to enter the kingdom of God, we must simply receive it like a little child (Mark 10:15). (Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 3.)
A few nights ago my 2 year old son Ephram was very sleepy and ready for bed. Though his bed is the bottom bunk he decided that he was going to climb up the latter to Sebastian’s top bunk. Normally he is very able to climb to the top but in his half awake state he got his foot tangled in the latter and began to fall. Of course, I grabbed him before he could fall but he was scared and started crying. I lifted him to the top where he wanted to go and held him under his little arms and I looked into his eyes and said, “Ephram, daddy won’t let you fall. Daddy is right here!” He smiled through his tears and sobs and said ‘o-tay.’”
In Mark 10:15 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (NIV) The various theologies of the kingdom and the nuance of their interpretations seem a great deal more complicated than they need to be to me.
Jesus says that the kingdom is received with the heart of a child crying out “Daddy, Abba, don’t let me fall, Abba, be near!” The kingdom of God is found wherever God exercises perfect dominion. “Your Kingdom Come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
God’s reign in Heaven is perfect but in the earth there remains rebellion, hatred, injustice, and sin. While God is perfectly sovereign over His creation that creation has used the freedom granted to it to rebel against His grace, love, and will.
When we pray “your kingdom come” we are imploring God to transform us so that we might transform the world! When we pray “your kingdom come” we look forward to the time spoken of by in the Bible when Christ will return to wipe away every tear, tear down every earthly stronghold, deliver His people, and establish His physical literal reign on this earth that will usher in eternity.
Conclusion
Child of God, when we pray for His kingdom to come, we are asking for our kingdoms to be overturned. “Your kingdom come, your will be done in my life as your will is done perfectly in heaven. Your kingdom come into my heart with all of its fullness, power, perfection and crush my little selfish kingdom. Your will be done perfectly in my life!”
And “O, how I long for that day when Christ shall descend with the sound of a mighty trumpet, this world will be washed away in the flood of holy furry and a new age shall be ushered in where love not hatred, where healing, not pain, where the God of my salvation, rather than the prince of this world, shall reign.”
The prayer challenges us to pursue the kingdom of God in our lives rather than our own. Dear Christian where do your priorities lay? Whose kingdom are you building? Are you seeking satisfaction in your own kingdom or in being a citizen and builder of His? From what wellspring is your satisfaction drawn?
“When we seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness, fulfillment comes as a by-product of our love for God. And that satisfaction is better than we ever imagined. God can make the pieces of this world’s puzzle fit together; he helps us view the world from a new perspective.” – Erwin W. Lutzer
Wherever the Lord reigns over the human heart, His reign is present. While we look forward to the time when He shall reign perfectly over the earth, today if we will bow our hearts to the will of His sovereign grace He will reign in our hearts and we will see His kingdom come! Amen.
