Thy Kingdom Come
Preached by Ben Bechtel
May 3, 2020
Scripture Readings
Matthew 6:9-13
9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Revelation 21:1-5
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Today we continue our six-week series on the Lord’s Prayer. We come to the phrase “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” To us in modern America talk of kings and kingdoms feels far from our everyday life experience. Kings and kingdoms call to our mind scenes from our favorite fantasy book or movie or that pesky country across the pond from whom we broke 250 years ago. To pray for the kingdom of God to come can seem like something far removed from our everyday experience. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Last week Pastor Benjamin taught us what it means to pray for God’s name to hallowed. And one thing he said is that the prayer for God’s name to be hallowed implies that in some sense here on earth God’s name is not hallowed. The same can be said of our prayer for God’s kingdom to come and will to be done. We are praying for something to be realized that is not presently realized.
Now when we speak of the kingdom of God, we are not speaking of God’s general control over all things. In the Bible God is oftentimes called king over all things, referring to his power over everything as the Creator of all things. However, when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God, he is talking specifically about a community in which God is recognized as king. The kingdom of God is a community in which God is present with a people that submits to his kingship and upholds his laws. While this feels abstract, let’s try to make this concrete in our experience. Picture what it would look like if everyone in Harrisburg were to obey the Ten Commandments and display the fruit of the Spirit all of the time. What would it look like if God alone was worshipped by everyone from the heart, if parents were genuinely treated with honor and respect by their children, if people unconditionally loved one another rather than murdering them in their heart with their held grudges, if people did not lie and deceive in order to get a leg up on one another, if we all practiced patience and self-control? How amazing would that be! There is no other word to describe this other than paradise. This is the society we all want to live in! This is what we are to pray would come about on earth.
Now, this begs the question, why do things not look like that? And how is it that God will bring his kingdom on earth?
1. The Forfeit of the Kingdom
Why do things in the world look like God is not king? Why do we not see this type of society in which all people joyfully love God and follow his commandments? I don’t think we have to look much farther than the second part of this phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. There is a rival kingdom at work in our world, one which does not acknowledge the will of the true and rightful king. In the beginning of Scripture, in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were given the will of God clearly and had the opportunity to enjoy life in the kingdom of God forever. However, rather than submitting to the will of the king they set themselves up as rulers. God tells them not to eat of one tree and their reply to God is essentially, “not your will God, but mine be done.” They wanted the benefits of living in the kingdom without reference to the king.
Ever since then, all of us live in this rival kingdom where we act like the rulers. Not your will God, but mine be done is the mission statement of our world and of our lives. We shove God to side and coronate ourselves and our desires. We all want to live in our own kingdoms set by our own personal agendas and preferences. I mean, just look at the plethora of our entertainment options. You can stream from Netflix or Hulu or Disney+ or Amazon Prime. You can watch virtually any movie or TV show whenever you want. You can pick your own news network with your own political bent. And you can spend time scrolling on your favorite social media platform without the inconvenience of having any views that contradict your own. I was talking about this with a guy from our church this week and he said, “If I really wanted to I could listen to only bald, bi-racial TV anchors and radio hosts.” In one sense, we really do all live in our own kingdoms. The reason why we do not see the kingdom of God in the world is because we all want to build our own kingdoms on our own terms. We want our lives to be curated just like our Netflix queue because after all we are the star of our own lives. When we set ourselves up as kings and queens without reference to God, tyranny and terror result, both in our own lives and the lives of others.
We see the destruction that this “not your will but mine be done” principle wreaks on ourselves and others. Maybe you’re a father or mother who is consumed with success in your career and you are feeling the toll of this as you look in the mirror and see the bags under your eyes or feel the chill in the air when you come in the door after dinnertime again and walk past your spouse.
Maybe you’re someone who is trying to be more fulfilled in life and as you find certain people are “toxic” to you and not bringing you joy you cut them out of your life, whether that be parents or old friends, only to find yourself increasingly anxious and lonely. Maybe you’re a full-time pastor who also attends seminary and your desire for success and to be viewed as someone who is smart and capable regularly leaves you feeling exhausted and your wife starving for time that you continually give to other things.
In any case, we are terrible kings and queens of our lives. And we have shunned our true King to our own detriment and destruction.
2. The Cost of the Kingdom
How does God bring his kingdom into this mess? How can a society exist in which people rightly worship God as king and follow his commands for the good of ourselves and others when we are doomed by our own selfishness? Simply put, the king must invade hostile territory and take back what is rightfully his. However, he doesn’t come as a conquering king with a sword of judgment in his hand to put down the rebellion but as a humble servant. We see this in a passage later on in Matthew’s gospel (Matt. 26:36 & 39):
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray…” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
In this prayer we see another man in a garden who changes the fortunes of the world. You see, this cup which Jesus speaks of is the cup of God’s wrath, his judgment as king against all those who have rebelled against his kingdom. But rather than coming to earth to pour out that wrath on you and I, Jesus came to earth as an expression of the eternal love of God and said “I’ll take it. I’ll die the rebel’s death so that rebels can freely be welcomed into God’s kingdom.” Unlike the first man in the Garden of Eden who said “not your will but mine be done” Jesus prays to his Father, “not my will but yours be done” to his own detriment but for the life of any who would trust in him. And it is in this sacrificial act of love on the cross that Jesus reestablishes an outpost of the kingdom of God on earth marked not by selfishness and pride but by sacrificial love. Now Jesus has risen from the dead and sits ruling as king in heaven over his people.
Now some may hear this and say, “amen! Jesus showed us how to actually live. The Kingdom of God is about following in the way of life of the king and so we should seek live out the kingdom by serving the poor, loving our enemies, and seeking reconciliation.” While this is certainly a picture of what the kingdom looks like in action, this is not the foundational message of the kingdom. The message of Jesus’ kingdom is not foundationally “go be a person who displays sacrificial love and brings in the kingdom” because this message would only condemn us! On the TV show American Idol, whenever someone clearly isn’t a good singer but they’re parents or loved ones continue to push them to practice and work hard to get better, only two results come about. On one side, the person honestly realizes that they are not good enough is crushed. On the other, the person is proud and in denial because they really are that good and others just don’t see their potential. But what they really need is for someone to come along and say, “you’re a lousy singer but you’re not defined as a person by that fact.” So it is with this “Jesus as Example” gospel. If the kingdom simply gives us a new way to live we will either be crushed in despair because we realize we can’t live as a perfect citizen in God’s kingdom or puffed up in pride because we deceive ourselves that we have lived in a manner worthy of the kingdom.
Jesus tells us foundationally what the kingdom of God is about one chapter earlier in Matthew 5:3:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of God is not for those who think they have life figured out or for those who think they can do enough right and good things for God. This “Jesus as Example” gospel isn’t enough because it still leaves us and our actions as central. It still centers our lives around what we can or cannot accomplish. We need a “Jesus as King” gospel, one in which we recognize our poverty before God and cling to his sacrificial work for us. The true gospel humbles the proud by revealing our poverty and inability to live up to God’s kingdom law of love and it elevates the despairing because Jesus has fulfilled this law and given you access into his kingdom freely. The foundational aspect of the kingdom is the king and his actions of love and grace to save us. Only when we know the love of God for us in Jesus can we truly start to pray “not my will, but yours be done.”
As we trust in our king and experience his sacrificial love for us, our lives overflow in acts of love toward others. Theologian John Calvin says that “our acts of love as the church of God are what make Jesus’ invisible kingdom visible in this age.”[1] The Kingdom of God is displayed as we say “not my will, but yours be done” in every area of our lives. Church, as citizens of the kingdom of God, let’s be people generous in sacrificial love for others. Let’s be people that are willing to give at great cost to ourselves in order to display the reign of King Jesus. We ought to be the ones championing justice for the vulnerable and outcast most fervently, no matter the cost, not out of a false vision of societal progress but as an expression of the character of our king. As the people of God give of ourselves in love because of the great love we have received in Christ, the world will know what it looks like when Jesus is king.
3. The Hope of the Kingdom
Even as we speak of all this though we recognize that the kingdom of Jesus is not yet on earth fully as it is in heaven. But the Bible gives us a snapshot of what it will look like when the kingdom does come (Rev. 21:1-5a):
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Although Jesus is truly the king now, there will be a day when we will see him coming on the clouds, where he will return to make all things new. He will dwell with his people and all will be made whole, right, complete. We will live with God forever in the safety of his kingdom, where no unclean thing can enter, where there is no threat or worry but simply eternal work and worship for our loving King.
As we wait for this day, what ought we to do? As an embassy of that future kingdom in the present time, what should the church do? Pray in hope. Even as this world appears to be going to hell in a handbasket, what it means to be a Christian is to confess that heaven has descended and will descend fully one day on earth. And so we pray. We pray for God’s kingdom to be more fully realized and expressed in and through us individually and the church in this age, we pray for more people to brought into this kingdom, and we also pray with a view toward the future that God would bring his kingdom in fullness on earth as it is in heaven. As we pray for God’s kingdom to come and will to be done, we submit our own desires to his and hope for the day when he will return.
Church, our current situation is a perfect occasion to grow in prayer. It is readily apparent to us that we are not in control and that we need the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, both in us in the present and in its future fullness. And so we pray. Friends, don’t drown out prayer with panic, constant screen time, and the endless news cycle. Prayer is our lifeline in these times of crisis and uncertainty. Prayer for the kingdom of God to come is the way we fight to maintain hope in a time when we are so tempted to lose hope. Prayer is the way we reorient ourselves to what God is doing in us and through us and what he will do one day to bring his story of salvation to its conclusion. As we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” in this time may our hearts become more attuned to the love of our King, may we desire the coming of this kingdom more and more each day, and may we be motivated to display this kingdom to our spouses, children, and neighbors as we love others sacrificially like Jesus saying, “not my kingdom, but yours come. No my will, but yours be done.”
[1] Sproul, 51.
