Thy Kingdom Come
Matthew 6:9, 10,
I think of the Lord’s Prayer like the Grand Canyon. You could never walk that canyon, I don’t think you could get down as deep as that canyon, there is so much in that canyon, you could spend almost a lifetime exploring that canyon. It is the same with the Lord’s Prayer. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson said,
“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
I think of the Lord’s Prayer like the Grand Canyon. You could never walk that canyon, I don’t think you could get down as deep as that canyon, there is so much in that canyon, you could spend almost a lifetime exploring that canyon. It is the same with the Lord’s Prayer. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson said,
"I think it is important to discuss this prayer because it is fundamental to our Christian life. Not only the prayer, but it is a prayer that reflects a basic guide to living the Christian life."
If you want to know how to pray a great prayer and how to live the Christian life, this can actually structure living the Christian life. Dr. Albert Mohler calls it the prayer that turned the world upside down.
Last Wednesday night we looked at it from a perspective of humility. I brought out at least six points that help us when we think of praying this prayer. It is a prayer that confronts our greatest deepest need, which is forgiveness of sin. It also reminds us of our great weakness in terms of temptation, also God’s greatness and His holiness. Thomas Watson, the Puritan, has written about fifty sermons that were preached on this actual prayer and put into book form. Here is what he said,
Last Wednesday night we looked at it from a perspective of humility. I brought out at least six points that help us when we think of praying this prayer. It is a prayer that confronts our greatest deepest need, which is forgiveness of sin. It also reminds us of our great weakness in terms of temptation, also God’s greatness and His holiness. Thomas Watson, the Puritan, has written about fifty sermons that were preached on this actual prayer and put into book form. Here is what he said,
"Before we can say, "Our Father," our hearts must be emptied of pride and filled with reverence."
Most commentators divide this prayer into six petitions. Three are directed towards God and three are really for ourselves. It is sort of like the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. The first five commandments are God centered, and then the last five are man-centered. The first petition, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be your name,” is the focus upon God.
The second petition is what I want to focus on, it highlights God’s greatness as well. Think about it, the key word is kingdom. When you hear that word, kingdom, what do you think of? You could be thinking of rule or reign, God’s authority and God’s sovereignty. Here is a question that I have often asked, “When you come to the Lord’s Prayer, where is Christ?” I think He is here. If I had one place to turn and say, “This is where Christ is,” in the Lord’s Prayer, I would make the choice dealing with the fact of kingdom. Three times in the New Testament Christ is called the King of kings, He is sitting on the throne of God right now and we are praying to the King of kings. Yes, we pray to our Father, but we also pray to God, the three-person God, and the second person is Christ, the King of kings. And when we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying for God to advance Christ’s kingdom, Christ’s rule and reign. When Jesus first appeared on earth, remember He announced, “The kingdom of God is here.”
Why did he say that? Well, because the King is here. The kingdom of God is here and I am the king. And He inaugurated His kingdom by preaching the kingdom, or the gospel of that kingdom. And when Jesus starts off His ministry, what does He do? He exercises His reign, His rule over three big things: demons, disease and death. Three of the things that frighten us all. Every miracle, in a sense, was announcing, “The King is here, I am conquering, I am reigning over everything that frightens you: demons (the devil), disease and death.”
You would have thought that anybody who heard that would have been excited, willing to bow and submit to the gracious all-powerful King. But right from the get-go the King is resisted, attacked and eventually crucified. What is the problem? There are a couple of problems. The devil doesn’t want to give up his territory, he has a kingdom as well. And sinners by nature hate God’s authority and refuse to submit to Him. Read Psalm 2, “We will not have Him rule over us.” They refuse to submit to the King of kings.
But here is the good news, the kingdom has come, past tense; the kingdom is coming, present tense; and the kingdom will come, future tense. It will come in its ultimate consummation when Christ comes back again. Every time a person gets saved, the kingdom comes. Every time you and I grow more in holiness, more like Christ, the kingdom comes. So when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are praying that the world would change; we are praying that our hearts would change, that we would become more holy; we are praying that the church would change, that it would grow; and we are praying for missionary engagement, we are praying for a world that would be more and more exposed to Christ Jesus and submit to His reign. That means this prayer never loses its relevance until Christ comes back again.
It is also a reminder that we are in a war. I think it is significant that the big graphic picture of the church, we don’t always think of it as a graphic picture of the church, but it is. In the back end of Ephesians it is a picture of the army, it is not individuals. When you look at that passage it is all plural pronouns, you, you, you, you, you are. And we are an army equipped with the whole armor of God. We have weapons that are far greater than any weapons in the world: grenades, bombs, missiles, we have the sword of the Spirit and we also have the great weapon of prayer.
He ends it in terms of praying, He ends that matter of the soldier dressed up in the armor of God focusing on praying, Ephesians 6:18, “Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.” That means every day you and I go out on a battlefield fighting temptation, fighting our pride, our unbelief, even Satan’s lies. So when we come to prayer, we come really to step on a battlefield. We are supposed to be good soldiers of King Jesus. So this is what we want to do, go to the prayer field, battlefield and remember that we are praying in light of the kingdom, “Thy kingdom come.”
The second petition is what I want to focus on, it highlights God’s greatness as well. Think about it, the key word is kingdom. When you hear that word, kingdom, what do you think of? You could be thinking of rule or reign, God’s authority and God’s sovereignty. Here is a question that I have often asked, “When you come to the Lord’s Prayer, where is Christ?” I think He is here. If I had one place to turn and say, “This is where Christ is,” in the Lord’s Prayer, I would make the choice dealing with the fact of kingdom. Three times in the New Testament Christ is called the King of kings, He is sitting on the throne of God right now and we are praying to the King of kings. Yes, we pray to our Father, but we also pray to God, the three-person God, and the second person is Christ, the King of kings. And when we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying for God to advance Christ’s kingdom, Christ’s rule and reign. When Jesus first appeared on earth, remember He announced, “The kingdom of God is here.”
Why did he say that? Well, because the King is here. The kingdom of God is here and I am the king. And He inaugurated His kingdom by preaching the kingdom, or the gospel of that kingdom. And when Jesus starts off His ministry, what does He do? He exercises His reign, His rule over three big things: demons, disease and death. Three of the things that frighten us all. Every miracle, in a sense, was announcing, “The King is here, I am conquering, I am reigning over everything that frightens you: demons (the devil), disease and death.”
You would have thought that anybody who heard that would have been excited, willing to bow and submit to the gracious all-powerful King. But right from the get-go the King is resisted, attacked and eventually crucified. What is the problem? There are a couple of problems. The devil doesn’t want to give up his territory, he has a kingdom as well. And sinners by nature hate God’s authority and refuse to submit to Him. Read Psalm 2, “We will not have Him rule over us.” They refuse to submit to the King of kings.
But here is the good news, the kingdom has come, past tense; the kingdom is coming, present tense; and the kingdom will come, future tense. It will come in its ultimate consummation when Christ comes back again. Every time a person gets saved, the kingdom comes. Every time you and I grow more in holiness, more like Christ, the kingdom comes. So when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are praying that the world would change; we are praying that our hearts would change, that we would become more holy; we are praying that the church would change, that it would grow; and we are praying for missionary engagement, we are praying for a world that would be more and more exposed to Christ Jesus and submit to His reign. That means this prayer never loses its relevance until Christ comes back again.
It is also a reminder that we are in a war. I think it is significant that the big graphic picture of the church, we don’t always think of it as a graphic picture of the church, but it is. In the back end of Ephesians it is a picture of the army, it is not individuals. When you look at that passage it is all plural pronouns, you, you, you, you, you are. And we are an army equipped with the whole armor of God. We have weapons that are far greater than any weapons in the world: grenades, bombs, missiles, we have the sword of the Spirit and we also have the great weapon of prayer.
He ends it in terms of praying, He ends that matter of the soldier dressed up in the armor of God focusing on praying, Ephesians 6:18, “Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.” That means every day you and I go out on a battlefield fighting temptation, fighting our pride, our unbelief, even Satan’s lies. So when we come to prayer, we come really to step on a battlefield. We are supposed to be good soldiers of King Jesus. So this is what we want to do, go to the prayer field, battlefield and remember that we are praying in light of the kingdom, “Thy kingdom come.”
Posted in Pastor Devotional