Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 14 – January 1978

 

Thy Kingdom Come

 

Sermon by Rev. D. J. Van Garderen, Th. Grad. on Matthew 6:10

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 48

Scripture reading: Mark 1:1-15

Psalter Hymnal: 194; 299:1, 2, 3, 8; 431:1, 3; 317:1, 4; Conclude with three-fold AMEN or Hymn 310

 

Dear congregation,

And Jesus taught us to pray saying, “Thy kingdom come…!” As we consider this, the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, we enter into a very, very broad field.

What are we praying for? What do we ask of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ as we, in obedience to Him pray: “LET IT COME (both now and in the future) THE KINGDOM of THINE (God)”?

I. WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?

In order to discover what this petition is all about the first point that arises for our consideration is this: what and where is the Kingdom of God (or of heaven)?

The description ‘Kingdom of God’, or its parallel, ‘the kingdom of heaven’ used more by Matthew, is quite a common one in the Bible, especially the New Testament.

For example, John the Baptist, Christ’s herald, preached to the multitudes and said: “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

Again, Mark, in introducing Jesus in his Gospel, wrote: “Now after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:14,15).

These are introductory words to the good news of Jesus by which John and Jesus did two things at once. With them they INTRODUCED their respective ministries, and at the same time, with them they SUMMARISED the content of their message.

In short, the concept of the Kingdom of God dominates the message of salvation. The proclamation of the Gospel is, at its core, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God into which the saved enter and to which they belong.

Can we therefore attempt to describe or to define what or where the Kingdom of God is? In order to learn what we are praying about in the second petition, we must certainly try!

As we proceed to do this, note that there is a whole range of meanings which the concept of the Kingdom of heaven or of God introduces.

1. In the first place, the Bible sometimes uses the term ‘kingdom of God’ to point our attention to the GLORY of God as revealed here on earth. God’s glory, that is, His REIGN or KINGSHIP in all the earth. You see, the Greek word which we translate ‘kingdom’ in the Lord’s Prayer has a much wider meaning; that also includes the idea of ‘kingship’ or rule.

Thus, praying for God’s coming kingdom is first of all a prayer for the increasing awareness in our lives of God’s glory in all the earth and through all that He has created.

“God, thy kingdom (be)come known to us so that we may know and praise Thy glory.”

2. Secondly, this prayer calls us to look at the kingship of God in the sense of God’s POWER, DOMINION and RULE. A prayer for God, as King to exercise His royal, Kingly duties with all power.

In affect this second petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks of God that He will increasingly reveal and put into action His Kingship and rule. “God, You are the almighty King, let that become more and more of a reality over all this world, in the affairs of mankind everywhere!”

Yes, at present this is indeed something to be praying for as men increasingly scoff at God and His Kingship. “Men reign! Nature, and our manipulation of the forces of nature, rule this world,” cry the people as they look to science and the latter-day priests, the scientists!

What utter folly!

Pray, therefore, O believer… “THY Kingship with all its power, dominion and rule be revealed and acknowledged, O Lord of Hosts.

3. In the third place it is also profitable to take into account what the Jewish people of Jesus’ own day believed about the Kingdom of God.

What they believed was that the coming of the Messiah (Christ) and the coming of the Kingdom of God were two events that came together. Messiah would come and HE would establish the Kingdom of God here on earth.

If Messiah comes, the Kingdom of God is at hand, and, vice versa, if the Kingdom is at hand it means that Messiah is here.

For us, we who by grace have received power to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah (Christ), the Kingdom has, along with Messiah, come.

“God our King,” we therefore pray, “let Christ Jesus, as the announcer and establisher of your Kingdom, COME…….!”

“…Into our hearts and lives so that Your royal rule may dominate, and the crushing of Satan and sin, the removal of the sting of death, may be real.”

“…Into the Church of which Christ is the Head, so that Your rule may be maintained and increasingly established.”

“…Into this world, so that those who are living in darkness and under the Kingship of Satan as his slaves, may be set free and brought into the Kingdom of light!”

Brothers and sisters, this prayer has in many ways been answered and equally continues to be heard by our heavenly God and King.

The entire ministry of Jesus is a continuous testimony to this. Remember Him being driven into the wilderness for 40 days and nights? Three times tempted by Satan …with fame, with fortune, and an earthly kingdom that would make the Roman Empire look like peanuts! But marvelously Jesus resisted that temptation and with His replies sent Satan scampering from sight. Satan is defied and his stranglehold cracks. Throughout Christ’s earthly ministry these cracks spread and widen as Satan’s servants, evil spirits and demons flee at His command. Ultimately Satan’s power is shattered as God’s anointed, Jesus Christ, defies and defeats him at calvary with His blood.

The head of the serpent is crushed at Calvary, and with it the rule, Kingship and Kingdom of God enters into the world.

“Go tell everyone the news that the Kingdom of God has come!”

May this power of Christ, this power which has made and continues to make the Kingdom of God a reality in the lives of the saved, come more and more.

4. There is yet a fourth way in which the Scriptures speak of the Kingdom of God. Call it the FUTURE promises of the Kingdom of God.

So far we have spoken of the Kingdom of God mainly in terms of God’s RULE, but when we consider the FUTURE aspects of the Kingdom, we are also thinking about a REALM – a gigantic, global empire.

When Christ returns, He will establish a kingdom, God’s Kingdom, in which God’s rule will not only be totally recognised, but in which it will also be fully and perfectly heeded and obeyed.

There will be a time when all of creation will no longer groan in travail and sigh in sin-sodden misery, but when everything, rocks, hills and plains, every living plant and creature, absolutely everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth, shall be made new and thus freed from its destruction and decay. A new heaven and a new earth where God will be all and in all.

We pray for that final and full coming of the Kingdom of God as we utter the words of the second petition.

“Thy Kingdom come… Maranatha Lord Jesus… come quickly to establish it!”

You can perhaps see now why, in the introduction it was said that praying for the coming of God’s Kingdom is a very, very broad subject.

What are we praying for?

See that as we pray this second petition that it refers to both God’s RULE and God’s REALM, both His Kingship and His Kingdom. It is both a present reality and a future hope. We can say that it HAS COME and at the same time is TO COME.

It is the dominion and rule of God that Christ came to establish and the domain or realm that He will come again to establish.

II. SUBJECTS OF THIS KINGDOM OF GOD.

Another question that arises as we pray this prayer is this: For whom is this kingdom for which Jesus taught us to pray? Who are and will be the subjects of God’s Kingdom?

An obvious question?

Not really, for consider the following: the Bible teaches us that the members of God’s Kingdom include the heavenly hosts of the angels as well as all the saints (believers) who have departed from this life to go before us.

Also, in a way which we often tend to overlook or at best underestimate, it includes all true believers, whoever and wherever they are throughout the world of today.

Believing, confessing Christ as Lord and Saviour is our guarantee of belonging to the Kingdom of God. We have been born again so that we could enter the Kingdom of God.

Thus, for us who believe, the Kingdom of God for which we pray is a reality in which we have a place, in which we belong.

When we pray for the coming of the Kingdom, we therefore pray for its citizens as well. In affect, we pray for the citizens of God’s commonwealth.

Remember and apply this when you pray, “Thy Kingdom come…!”

III. THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM FOR WHICH WE PRAY.

A final consideration that confronts us as we examine this petition of the Lord’s Prayer is this: “What about the coming of Kingdom of God? How does God’s Kingship and Kingdom come?”

In answering this question, first heed to the warning about to follow. Many Christians today have slightly changed the tone of this question by asking, “How do WE make the Kingdom come?”

In answering it the emphasis tends to fall on what WE as people can do and should be doing. Making this a better world, creating a ‘new society’ with a gospel of good works and love, making all people accept the Christian way of life and love, creates the Kingdom of God. When all people become Christians or accept the Christian way of leading life, THEN our prayer has been answered and the Kingdom of God HAS come on earth.

The problem with this answer is that it takes a grain of truth (or a fraction of the truth) and then, without a blush, transforms it into the WHOLE truth.

Remember the WHOLE truth? Consider again what the Bible teaches us about the coming of the Kingdom: its glory will be exclusively God’s, and as such no man can hope to create and maintain such glory. Its power, dominion and rule will lie exclusively with the King Who alone will rule His Kingdom. Human kingship, no matter how tightly policed or well- intentioned can never equal the Kingship of the Lord God.

Consider again how the Kingdom is brought about by the coming and working of the Messiah (Christ). Only He could establish a Kingship and a Kingdom that rules over all the earth, every creature. No man or group of men can create the Kingdom of God. In Christ’s Name, as members of His army if you like, we can apply the regulations of the Kingdom, but we cannot, by ourselves, establish or completely make it come.

Consider what the Bible says about the future Kingdom which shall be finally realised at the last day, the Day of the Lord. It will only come with Christ’s return, and be realised fully after the great battle of Armageddon and the final destruction of Satan and all his host of wickedness.

Let the Kingdom come… and it will when Christ returns as the Bridegroom in order to take to Himself the Bride, namely the Church.

Know therefore, when we pray for the coming of the Kingdom, we ask of GOD THE FATHER that He will act to reveal His Kingship, rule and dominion in the hearts of men and throughout this world, and we ask of GOD THE FATHER for the return of Christ Jesus to finally restore this world to its paradisaic glory.

We await, in answer to this petition, the revelation of God’s glory, God’s Son, God’s rule and God’s future Kingdom.

“THY KINGDOM COME… O Lord God our Father… THY KINGDOM COME. Teach us to pray for this glory, this rule in our hearts and in the hearts of all men, and that great and glorious day when Christ shall be all and in all.”

Amen.