“Your Kingdom Come” Matthew 6:10a July 18, 2010
SI: When we began our study of the Lord’s Prayer
four weeks ago,
I gave you an interesting comment about the
Lord’s Prayer
by the Latin Church
Father Tertullian.
He
called the Lord’s Prayer “a compendium of the Gospel.”
All the Gospel, all Christian theology, is found in the Lord’s Prayer.
In one sense it’s so simple that even a
Christian child can pray it and understand,
but it also has a
depth that the most mature Christian can’t completely fathom.
I
was struck by that in my study this week.
The petition of the Lord’s Prayer we’re
about to look at opens so many doors,
and has so many
implications, that you can’t even begin to cover them all.
So
what I want to do this morning, is lean on the
catechism.
Because it gives such a
helpful, basic understanding for us.
Before
we read the Scripture, as a way to get our minds warmed up—
let’s recite this
catechism question in unison.
INTRO: A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of
hearing Tim Keller speak
at a church
planting conference in Memphis.
Most
of you know who he is, but if you don’t, he’s the pastor of
Redeemer Presbyterian
Church in New York City.
He
planted that church about twenty years ago on Upper East Side of Manhattan.
It now has thousands of members and several congregations
meeting in
different parts of the city.
As
I said, this was a church planting conference, and Dr. Keller was talking about
the importance of
planting churches in cities, how that was the strategy of
the Apostles,
because Christians in cities have a greater influence on the culture.
He
was explaining Redeemer Presbyterian’s commitment to church planting
and said that their
church has helped plant 100 churches in New York City.
And
then the next thing he said was fascinating.
Of
those 100 churches Redeemer has helped plant, only 15 of them are PCA.
Only 15 of the 100 are churches of our
denomination, Presby Church in America.
All
the others are churches of various other evangelical denominations.
For
example, a Southern Baptist minister came to New York City
a few years ago
with a desire to plant a church.
He
had no denominational support and he came to Redeemer for help.
They coached him in church planting and
supported him financially,
and now he has the
largest Southern Baptist congregation in the city.
Dr.
Keller’s comment was: The PCA can’t
reach everybody.
And besides, he said, we aren’t interested
in only growing our church
or our
denomination, we want to advance the kingdom of God in New York City.
I
think that’s a remarkable statement for several reasons.
But the reason I shared that story with you
is because
it’s such a helpful
picture of the kingdom of God.
The
kingdom of God is not just the church—
whether we’re
speaking of individual congregations, or denominations,
or even the church
as a whole.
The
church is certainly an outward manifestation of the kingdom.
But the kingdom of God is much bigger than
the church.
It’s
the reign of King Jesus.
His reign starts in the hearts of men and
women, boys and girls.
And
then, from the hearts of his people, the influence of Christ’s reign
extends over their
lives and behavior,
their marriages and
families, their friends and interests,
their churches and
schools and workplaces,
their neighborhoods
and towns and cities,
and even the
cultural and civic life of their nations.
The
kingdom of God is the gentling effects of the Gospel,
changing individual
people, and then spreading out in concentric circles,
and changing those
they touch and influence.
The
kingdom of God is the saving work of Christ in our own lives
and in the sweep of
human history during this Gospel Age,
and in the Second
Coming and the Age to Come.
The
Lord says, When you pray, I want you to have that big
view.
After
you have praised God for who he is and thanked him for the good things he
has done for you
and given you, then you should pray that his kingdom will come.
Pray
for the growth and advance and fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation
and the redemptive
work of Christ in the world.
That
should be one of your priorities in prayer,
and a grid through
which you filter all your prayer requests.
Why? Two reasons.
First,
in a mysterious, supernatural way, our prayers are one of the means
God uses to bring about his kingdom. I don’t know how. It’s certainly not
in a way we can
measure. But it’s real. As we pray, his kingdom is advanced.
And
second, and this is much easier to understand, as we pray for the kingdom,
it changes us. Changes our perspectives,
our values, even our view of history.
As we pray for the kingdom, we become more
kingdom-minded.
Let’s
look more carefully, and we’ll use the outline from the catechism.
1.
You must pray that the kingdom of grace will be advanced.
2.
You must pray that the kingdom of darkness will be destroyed.
3.
You must pray that the kingdom of glory will be hastened.
MP#1 You must pray that
the kingdom of grace will be advanced.
One
of the ways the New Testament speaks of salvation
is in terms of the
kingdom of God.
Paul
describes salvation as being delivered from the dominion
of darkness and
being brought into the kingdom of Christ.
We
are born into the kingdom of darkness.
Our parents don’t have to teach us
how to sin. We know how and we like it because we born
with sinful natures.
So
salvation is taking us out of that kingdom, and giving us citizenship in the
kingdom of
God. It’s not just a change in our
status, it’s a change in the
way we think and
act. It’s a change in our loyalty.
Christ
himself described salvation as having the kingdom within you.
The idea is that when God’s grace really
comes into your life, it starts to rule you.
It starts to govern the way you think, and what you consider right and
wrong,
and what is
important to you—and that, of course, affects your behavior,
how you treat your
family, how you use your words, how you work,
how spend your
money, where you spend your time, and on and on.
And
it transforms families and marriages and neighborhoods and nations.
One
of the old Puritans put it this way:
“When grace comes, there is a kingly
government set up in the soul.
Grace rules the will and affections and
brings the whole man in subjection to Christ.”
Isn’t
that a lovely way to express it? Jesus
wants you to pray for that rule of grace.
First,
pray this for yourself, that the kingdom of grace will be advanced
in your own soul
and that you will personally come under the reign
of Christ more
fully and completely. You know where you
struggle.
You
know the areas of your life that need to come more under his control.
Next,
pray this for your spouse and your children.
It’s so easy with our children to pray for
them to do well in school,
and make good
grades, and have good friends, and be happy in work and love.
But
all those things shouldn’t be your first prayer for them.
It should be that they walk with Christ, and
know his claim on their lives,
and love what he
loves and hate what he hates, that they are kingdom-minded.
All
your requests for them should be filtered through that grid.
Don’t just pray that they will get a job so
they will make lots of money and be
personally
fulfilled. Pray that they will get a job
so they can serve Christ.
Pray
for your church, for its members and officers and staff.
Pray for other churches you know and
love.
Because
through the church people are brought into the kingdom and discipled.
And the church is the visible manifestation
of Christ’s kingdom.
And
pray for missionaries, because they are following a special calling
to advance the
kingdom of grace in places where it is not known.
And
even though all Christians can’t go to the mission field,
all can have a part
in the work through prayer.
Every
week a missionary prayer letter or email is printed in the bulletin.
Take it home and use in your family
devotions or your own prayers.
It
will not only make you and your children more kingdom-minded,
you will be
advancing the kingdom through your prayers.
Have
you ever heard of the Haystack Prayer Meeting?
It’s one of the most significant events in
American church history.
One
Saturday afternoon in August, 1806, in Williamstown, Mass,
five Williams
College students met in a field near the college to talk about
the spiritual needs
of Asia and the possibility of missions.
You
have to understand that missions, as we know it today, was not practiced
by the Protestant
church 200 years ago. Churches and
denominations did not
send out
missionaries to foreign countries. Many
people were opposed to it.
But
the idea of missions was starting to stir in the church, these students were
talking about it
when an afternoon thunderstorm blew in.
So they ran to a
haystack in the
field, and sat under it, and they began to pray for Asia.
Later
one of them said that the suddenness of the storm, and the intimacy
of the place had a
profound effect on them. After they
prayed, pledged to act.
Two
of them decided to go India. So they all
organized a mission board to raise
money and support. Over next 50 years, that board sent 1200
missionaries.
Over next 150 years, that mission board sent
5000 missionaries to 34 countries.
That
Haystack Prayer meeting changed the hearts of those who prayed,
and it advanced the
kingdom. Wouldn’t it be great of one of
our own covenant
children answered
that call and became a full-time missionary from this church?
I’m
thrilled by the number of our graduates on mission trips this summer.
Pray
for the kingdom of grace to be advanced, and not only will you be changed,
but you will have
the privilege of participating in the kingdom.
But
everywhere the kingdom of God advances, there is opposition.
That brings us to the second point:
MP#2 You must pray that
the kingdom of darkness will be destroyed.
When
you pray that something will be destroyed, you’re cursing.
Should
Christians ever curse? The immediate
answer that comes to mind is no.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Jesus himself prayed, Father, forgive them.
Seems to be no way that
Jesus’ command and example would permit cursing.
But as you read the whole of
Scripture,
you start to
realize that the answer is more complicated.
Many of the Psalms contain
curses. David asks God to destroy his enemies.
He says things like smash their teeth, O
Lord.
May his children be fatherless and his wife
a widow. Psalm 109 a vivid example.
In
Paul’s letter to the Galatians he is very angry at false teachers in the church
and he says: Let them be Anathema. What does Anathema mean?
It means:
God damn them to hell for their false teaching.
And in the book of Revelation
there is a glimpse of heaven in chapter 5.
John sees souls of martyrs. Christians killed for faith in Christ.
What are the doing in heaven? Playing harps and singing Kum
Ba Ya? No!
“How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true,
until you judge the
inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”
Here are the souls of the
righteous made perfect cursing enemies of church.
Calling for God to bring them down for blood
of Christians they have shed.
How can you love your enemies,
pray that Father will forgive them—
at the same time
pray with deep feeling for God to bring certain people down?
Does the Bible contradict
itself? Is Paul contradicting himself
when he writes:
“Bless those who persecute you, bless and do
not curse.”
“If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be
on him. Come, O Lord.”
No. This is not a contradiction. As a Christian you are commanded to love
enemies, and there
are also times when a Christian must curse the enemies of
God—as Paul did, and David, and saints in
heaven do.
If your
first and greatest prayer is: Your
kingdom come.
Then you will also hope and
pray that anything that stands against
the
If you’re a true Alabama fan,
what do you pray the day of the Auburn game?
“O great Spirit of Bear Bryant: May Alabama be
victorious on gridiron this day.”
And what is, by necessity,
your next prayer?
“And may
Your desire for victory means a
corresponding desire for defeat of the other team.
Would a true
I want
If you make the victory of
Christ’s kingdom your first prayer—
you will by
necessity pray for the defeat of all rival kingdoms.
This does not in any way give
you permission to hate or curse people for
the personal harm
they do to you. You have to love them
and pray for blessing.
The curses in the Bible aren’t personal
vindictiveness.
They
are prayers that the kingdom of darkness will be defeated.
I got a letter a number of year ago that I wish I had kept, a perfect illustration.
It was from a Christian man
in a little chapel somewhere in the county.
He had sent the letter to all the churches
in Cullman informing us
that he and his
church were starting a ministry to meth addicts.
He had statistics about meth
use in Cullman, but it was essentially a prayer letter.
And he had two prayer requests.
First, pray that the drug
addicts who came to program would be delivered from
addiction and saved
body and soul by Jesus Christ.
And second, pray that the
meth makers and pushers and sellers would be destroyed.
He didn’t use the word cursed, but that’s what
he was asking us to pray.
To pray that God would smash the teeth of
the wicked meth makers.
The man’s Christian love was
evident.
He would rejoice if every meth maker was
saved and shut labs willingly.
But barring that, he wanted
their destruction because they opposed
the work of the
Good old Martin Luther summed
it up well:
“We should pray that our enemies be
converted and become our friends, and if not, that their
doing and designing
be bound to fail and have no success and that their persons perish rather
than the gospel and
the
When’s the last time you
prayed like that?
When is the last time you
prayed so passionately for success of Christ’s kingdom—
that you also
prayed for all the enemies to be cursed, starting with the enemies
in your own soul,
your own pet sins and self-justifications?
I don’t know your prayer
life, but I don’t pray that way nearly enough.
Because most of the time my
prayer requests
are about the
things that concern me only, not God’s kingdom,
but my little
kingdom. Brings us to third point:
MP#3 You must pray that
the kingdom of glory will be hastened.
What’s
the kingdom of glory? It’s Christ’s
Second Coming.
When
we pray: Thy kingdom come—we are
ultimately praying for Jesus
to come back quickly
and set all things right and wipe away every tear.
In
fact, the Bible ends with this prayer.
Revelation 22:20.
Jesus says:
Yes, I am coming soon.
And the church answers: Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus!
The
Christians who pray the most for Jesus to come back soon are always
those who have
faced persecution and suffering,
and have really
fought against sin.
They
long for the kingdom of glory to come and for things to be set right.
There
was a man who worshipped in our Florida church who was a former
Assembly of God minister. But he had lost his pastorate and marriage
for moral
reasons. And he worked in a convenience
store.
Because
of where he had been in life and where the Lord had taken him,
he had a keen sense
of the brokenness of the world and the fight against sin.
Whenever
anyone would buy beer, he would warn about dangers of drunkenness.
And woe to the man who asked for a
Playboy.
He would argue with him, try to shame him, and
if he insisted, he would
reach under the
counter and put on a great big pair of gloves, and then pick up the
magazine with a
pair of kitchen tongs.
I
asked him how he kept his job, said store owner put up with it because he
knew this he was
honest and hard-working.
This
man had an expression that I though was just a verbal tick—
a holdover from his
Assembly of God days. He would say: Glory!
He
would say it when talking about something good.
Glory!
He would say it when talking about something
bad. Glory!
I
began to realize, it was a prayer for him.
His shorthand way of praying
that the kingdom of
Glory will be hastened. That Christ will
return and deal
with this world of
sin and set up his kingdom of love and righteousness.
He
gave us a Bible when moved, in gold letters on front: Andrew and Allison.
And on the back, also in gold: Jesus and Glory
How
often do you pray that the kingdom of glory will be hastened?
How often to you pray: Lord Jesus, come quickly?
Often? Seldom? Never? Why don’t you pray for him to come?
I’ll
tell you why.
Because you’re more concerned, day to
day with your own little kingdom.
We
all have our own little kingdoms, don’t we.
We have the places in our life where we
exert some influence and want things
to go our way—might
be our work and career, our family, our finances,
or some other
sphere of life.
You
must deliberately pray: Thy kingdom
come. Not, my kingdom come.
Do
our prayers really hasten the day of his coming?
That’s
a hard question to answer. The Bible
speaks of an appointed day.
A day determined in the unchanging counsel
of God’s will.
But
at the same time, the Bible says that when certain things happen, that day will
appear, things that
we can do—like the preaching of Gospel to all nations,
and praying
earnestly for his return.
So
it’s a mystery, let’s leave it at that.
But
what is not a mystery, in fact, it’s quite clear,
is that praying for
Jesus’ return will change you.
It
makes you more calm.
The things you worry about, even the big
things will be put
in perspective. I was talking to a
church member this week
about the erosion
of liberties in America and the historical pattern of decline.
We
laughed when realized how worried we were making each other.
Hey,
we’re citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Christ is coming.
It
will make you more content—with your marriage, your work, life God has given.
Jesus Christ the King of Glory is
coming. He has great things planned for
you
This life is so short. It’s just a preparation for greater days.
It
will give you a proper fear of sin as you ponder that he is coming soon.
Don’t you want him to find you working and
faithful?
And
it will get you ready for death.
We think so little about death in our youth-worshipping
culture,
but the hour of
your death is approaching.
And
nothing prepares you more than a lifetime of praying for that future kingdom.
John
Calvin said it is the task of the church to make the invisible kingdom visible.
We
do that by living in such a way that we bear witness to the reality
of the kingship of
Christ in our jobs, our families, our schools, our checkbooks,
because Christ is
king over every one of those spheres of life.
They
aren’t our kingdoms, they are his.
Were
do we get power to live that way?
Christ has showed the way—it’s through
prayer.
It’s by praying, oftentimes deliberately,
and sometimes freely—
that his kingdom
will come—
that the kingdom of
grace will be advanced,
that the kingdom of
darkness will be destroyed,
and that the
kingdom of glory will be hastened.
Closer
to home, if you are discontent with your marriage or work or life,
We
agreed that America
let’s just believe
both of those things, and