We finally get to resume our series on The Lord’s Prayer. If you remember, we began with what it means when we say, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.”
Yes, there was an entire sermon on just that half of a sentence. And now, we’re going to take a look at the rest of the sentence, which we all know as “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Now, if you’re wondering, why are we taking so long on this prayer? I mean, we all know it, and it’s short, it should only take one sermon–two tops. Well, you’re asking the preacher the wrong question. I found a couple of books on just the Lord’s Prayer, one by R.C. Sproul was 129 pages and a more recent book by another author is 176 pages long. So, just be thankful I’m not spending that much time on it.
And because it’s just a short, simple half of a verse, I’m not going to have us turn our Bibles there, but I will be sprinkling a lot of other verses throughout this sermon today.
So what is it that I want to say about this simple little verse? Well, remember when I said that The Lord’s Prayer is a template for how we ought to pray, and how we ought not to pray. It isn’t so much that we get it right, word for word, but that our hearts and minds are centered on praying the right things. And this verse–verse 10 from Matthew 6, demonstrates that our prayers should be in submission to the will of the Father, and to quote an unknown author, “Your kingdom – Not my little “fiefdom” down here.”
The Lord’s Prayer is found in Matthew chapter 6. But another one of our Lord’s prayers can be found in every gospel account, and that is the prayer at Gethsemane. As a side note, if you really want to understand the concept of The Trinity, read Jesus’ prayer at Gethsemane from the gospel of John and see what gold nugget about The Trinity you can find there.
If we go from Matthew 6 to Matthew chapter 26, we read this: 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
Just as Jesus included us and himself at the beginning of The Lord’s Prayer by addressing God as our father–not just, “God Almighty, O Holy One” or something along those lines, he affectionately addressed God as our father who art in Heaven. Here, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus again addresses him as “My father.” And again as we mentioned last time, Father was the only way in which Jesus ever addressed God.
Now, why am I bringing this out to you today–especially since we covered it in length last time? Notice how much in submission Jesus was. Equal with the father, yet at the same time, in submission to him.
As a side note, the Hebrews regarded God’s name of Yahweh or “I AM” so holy and sacred that they didn’t dare say it or spell it in full, therefore, we don’t know exactly how the Hebrew Yahweh should be appropriately pronounced or spelled now.
So Jesus is equal to “The Great I Am” yet is also The Son of The Great “I Am.” How does that work? Like I said, read the prayer at Gethsemane from John’s gospel and it will help clear this up a little. But if we go to John chapter 5, we read something similar to what we watched in Sunday School last week, “16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
So what does this teach us about The Lord’s Prayer? It teaches us that even Jesus, who was equal to God the Father, was throughout his whole ministry and throughout all eternity, under The Father’s submission as His son. How much more are we who are God’s adopted children to be under submission to the will of our Father in Heaven?
In teaching us about imitating Christ’s humility Paul tells the Philippian church that Jesus, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Now, I could go on and on about that in a whole other sermon, but it goes to show you that Jesus, who is equal to God the Father, is also in submission to God the Father. And as sons and daughters of God, we too, should pray in submission to God’s will.
John also said this–not in his gospel but in his first epistle–that, “14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
I believe this was also in our Sunday School lesson last week, if we go one chapter ahead in Matthew to Matthew 7, we read Jesus saying, “11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Christmas is coming up soon, a time for gift-giving; and we just celebrated Charlotte’s first birthday last Saturday, and boy was she spoiled. I have never seen a first birthday party like that one. She was just showered with gifts. And they were all good gifts. No snakes. No stones. Lots of toys, lots of clothing, lots of books. All good stuff. Why? Because gift-giving is a love language. It is a way in which we show that we love someone.
Just like at Christmas. People say the presents aren’t important…yes, they are if that’s your love language.
While we might have only a couple of different love languages, God has them all. And gift-giving is one of them. But does God always give us what we want or ask for all the time? When God says no, just like a loving father, he says no for a reason. A good reason. Either we came to him with the wrong attitude, or God knows that that thing that we are asking for is not good for us. And it’s God’s loving protection to say no, that’s not the right job for you, that’s not the right person to date, and so on.
D.A. Carson in his book, The Sermon on the Mount, said that, “What is fundamentally at stake is man’s picture of God. God must not be thought of as a reluctant stranger who can be cajoled or bullied into bestowing his gifts (Mt 6:7-8), as a malicious tyrant who takes vicious glee in the tricks he plays (Mt 7:9-10), or even as an indulgent grandfather who provides everything requested of him. He is the heavenly Father, the God of the kingdom, Who graciously and willingly bestows the good gifts of the kingdom in answer to prayer.”
So that brings us back to the first part of the second part of the second verse. Sounds like a Marx Bros. routine.
“Your Kingdom Come.” If you were to translate this literally, it reads “Thy reign come” or “Let Thy Kingdom come now!” In other words, this is in the form of a command which calls for effective action and even a sudden, instantaneous coming.
But wait a minute. What does it mean for God’s kingdom to come down now? I mean, we read in Revelation that a New Jerusalem will come and Jesus will reign for a thousand years as its king. But if the interpretation means, “let thy Kingdom come now” then that kind of makes you scratch your head a little, doesn’t it? Does it mean we should be eagerly waiting for that moment, as we would The Rapture? Well, no, because the Rapture could happen at any moment, but the timing of The New Jerusalem is more defined. It won’t happen until many other things happen first.
So what does it mean when we pray, “thy kingdom come now?”
Well, there are two meanings.
The first is about personal submission to the will of God, that’s why “thy kingdom come” and “thy will be done” go together. It is really about submitting to the will of God. It is inviting Him to rule in our hearts and in our lives, and it is about having a tender, pliable heart made of clay, and asking Him to take our will and form it to His own.
I just came across a quote this morning and thought I’d share. It’s from Joni Eareckson Tada. She said: “The longer the tea bag sits in the cup, the stronger the tea. The more God’s word saturates our minds, the clearer our grasp on what’s important to Him and the stronger our prayers.”
Precept Austin says “The Kingdom of God is the sphere in which God is acknowledged as King in the hearts of those giving Him loving obedience. This is the Kingdom in its present form.” In other words, this is the spiritual kingdom of God. Many times, when Jesus taught, he began by saying, “The kingdom of God is like…” and then went into a parable. He didn’t talk about the kingdom of God in the same way I talked about it during my mother’s funeral when I mentioned how wonderful and amazing the sights and sounds of Heaven must be.
Jesus instead talked about the way in which the kingdom of God operates in contrast to the way in which our natural tendencies are, and how the Hebrews interpreted God’s law without grace. Jesus demonstrated God’s way of truth and grace as opposed to satan’s sinful kingdoms on earth. Going back to John’s first epistle again, he says, “The whole world is under the control of the evil one [satan].” That is, except for those who belong to God’s kingdom.
Colossians 1:13-14 says, “13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Paul said to the Romans, “17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.”
And twice in Revelation, the kingdom of God refers to not a place, but a people. Revelation 1:5-6 says, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”
And then later in Revelation, when Jesus takes the scroll, four living creatures (we don’t know if they are angels or not) say, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
So The Kingdom of God is not just a place called Heaven, it is heaven (in essence) brought to earth, through the Bible and The Holy Spirit to saturate our hearts and minds. Some churches would substitute that to say, heaven is brought to earth through the teachings of Jesus. See how deceptive that is? See how Satan has deceived some churches to only look at the red letters and nothing else? The kingdom is brought to us through the whole counsel of God and through the indwelling, power, and presence of The Holy Spirit. And since we are his kingdom, filled with The Holy Spirit, we are therefore, according to 2 Corinthians, ambassadors of God’s heavenly kingdom on earth.
Phil Newton, a Baptist pastor in Memphis, said, “Kingdom citizens long to see the kingdom of God extended into every life and corner of the globe.”
So the first meaning is to experience God’s spiritual kingdom within ourselves through the word, and the power and sanctification of The Holy Spirit. The second meaning is that we are praying to see God’s kingdom expanded here on earth. It’s not, by the way, Christian Nationalism–which doesn’t actually exist. When people talk about the so-called dangers of “Christian Nationalism,” it’s Satan’s way of trying to thwart a revival or another great awakening. When we pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done, it’s not a prayer for some form of Christian political takeover. It’s a prayer for the gospel to be spread and for these churches to be full once again, and as we have seen throughout our history, it would therefore logically spill out into our society through the indwelling of The Holy Spirit, which is again, God’s kingdom.
As the chorus goes, “We want to see Jesus lifted high, A banner that flies across this land; That all men might see the truth and know, He is the way to Heaven”
Or another chorus that goes: When will the world see that we need Jesus? If we open our eyes, we will all realise that he loves us; When will the world see that we need Jesus? When our hearts are as one, and believe that he’s the son of our God…
When will the world see that we need Jesus? When sister and brother love one another as one; When will the world see that we need Jesus? Will we ever understand Jesus is the Son of man; We must live in the shadow of His love
So the two meanings of Thy Kingdom Come mean that we are asking for God’s kingdom to come into and revive our hearts, and then to spread across this world. What does it mean for us today? It’s a call for personal revival and another great awakening.
Just as a side note, when Jesus first said this, the Jewish people thought they were it–God’s holy elect. And no one else. But Jesus is praying here for God’s spiritual kingdom to not only be felt and made alive within the hearts of true believers, but to also be spread across the earth, for the Gentiles to join in God’s kingdom, and for God’s kingdom to reign in the hearts of every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth.
This was kind of a scandalous prayer when you think about it. We take it so much for granted, but this was the kind of prayer that could have gotten Jesus stoned to death.
But this is a prayer for God’s glory and agenda. Not our own.
The Blue Letter Bible Commentary tells us that, “The right kind of prayer has a passion for God’s glory and agenda. His name, kingdom, and will have the top priority.”
So, I realize that I put this together kind of backward. I rushed to the back and made my way to the front–so to speak. I talked about “thy will be done,” first and then went backward to “thy kingdom come.” But at any rate, I hope you can see how these two phrases go together.
In a book called, `A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,’ Ivan endures all the horrors of a Soviet prison camp. One day he is praying with his eyes closed when a fellow prisoner notices him and says with ridicule, “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any faster.” Opening his eyes, Ivan answers, “I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the will of God.” Prayer is not manipulating God to get what we want but discovering what He wants us to do, and then asking the Holy Spirit to enable us to do His will. Prayer is not a way to get what we want but the way to become what God wants. (Our Daily Bread: A Daily Devotional)
Robert Law once wrote that “Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth,”
The “prayer warrior” George Mueller who fed thousands of orphans with food that God provided in answer to prayer wrote, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s willingness.”
J C Ryle explains, We here pray that God’s laws may be obeyed by men as perfectly, readily and unceasingly as they are by angels in heaven. We ask that those who do not obey his laws now may be taught to obey them, and that those who do obey them may obey them better. Our truest happiness is perfect submission to God’s will, and it is the purest love to pray that all mankind may know it, obey it and submit to it.
One last quote before we close. This is from Precept Austin, which says, Thy kingdom come is related to Thy will be done in the sense that a genuine, complete submission to God’s will naturally flows out of an undivided, absolute allegiance to His Kingdom. How is the church in America doing in this area? Are we giving lip service to God by praying “Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come” and yet continuing to love this present world.
Though we live here on earth for a temporary time, our citizenship is in heaven, and we should not only be praying for our hearts to be revived with God’s glorious kingdom but also so that the citizens of earth (whom we once were) may join us as citizens of Our Father’s Kingdom in Heaven.
