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“Your Kingdom Come”
Praying The Lord’s Prayer, Part 4
Matthew 6:10a
Lord, Teach Us to Pray
March 2, 2003
I want to experience God’s intervention in my life on a regular basis. How about you? That’s why we are studying The Lord’s Prayer—we want to pray in such a way that assures God’s intervention in the here and now. We want a life in which God is very real and genuinely involved in our lives. We feel, very often, very alone on this planet—we face trials and frustrations and stresses and uncertainties. We know that heaven awaits us, a time when all will be made right, but we need to know and experience the presence of God in our lives here and now as well.
We want to experience, in some limited way, our heavenly future in our present situation. How does that happen? It must be a function of
prayer. We know that if God is to be with us in our lives now as he will in our future, it must be through our communication with him in prayer.
Genuine prayer breaks my whole life down to this simple truth: God is God, and I am his child. That means that God is the Lord, and as I yield my life to his ruling as King, my life will make sense and I will find meaning and purpose.
So when Jesus the Christ taught us how to pray, one of the essentials that he told us to pray for God to do was this: “Your kingdom come.”
In order to properly pray this prayer, we need to understand what Jesus meant by “kingdom” and what it means to pray for God’s kingdom to “come.” We must not merely pray The Lord’s Prayer by rote and then check off our “to do list” for being a good Christian—“Got that one done today…”—without a clue as to what we are praying. Jesus wants us to know and feel the profound words that emanate from our mouths. He was very against doing anything simply because it was the religious thing to do. We must know what we are doing in our heads; we must feel what we are doing in our hearts. One cannot be praying correctly without head and heart both engaged in the process.
So, what are we praying when we say, “Your kingdom come?”
1. “Your Kingdom”
We are to pray for God’s kingdom to come. First, we need to understand God’s kingdom.
a. Is it a place?
When we think of “kingdom,” we most often think of a geographic place. The “United Kingdom,” for instance, is made up of those particular places that are under the government of Great Britain. We most often think of a kingdom as a place that is under the rule of a king, and it was also the natural way the ancient Israelites thought of it—expecting a Messiah to rule over them and make them the greatest kingdom in the world.
But that is not what Jesus is speaking of.
When he spoke of the “kingdom,” he did not speak of geography but of dominion, not of a place but of a reign or rulership. In other words, it wasn’t where you lived, but who you followed. It wasn’t what place you found yourself, but where you placed your heart. In this sense, the kingdom exists wherever the king reigns. Not over a particular land mass, but over the hearts of people.
That is why Jesus would say things like, “the kingdom of God is within you”
(Luke 17:21), or to challenge us to
“seek first his kingdom and his righteousness”
(Matthew 6:33). He is not telling us to seek some land in the Middle East; he is telling us that we need to yield to God being King in our hearts.
While God is certainly sovereign over the entire universe, whether people yield to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or not, this is not the meaning that Jesus is conveying. He means something more particular. Jesus says things like this:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew 5:3. Who are in the kingdom? Just the “poor in spirit”—not everyone; just those who are humble enough to know that they are unrighteous in their own power. In John 3:3, Jesus tells Nicodemus,
“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born from above.” Who can see the kingdom? Just those who are spiritually reborn from God above—not everyone; just those who have experienced a conversion, a change into a new child of God.
So, when Jesus tells us to pray for God’s kingdom to come, he is not talking about God’s kingdom in a geographical, physical sense. What Jesus is focusing on is the spiritual dominion, or reign or rulership, of God in the hearts of human beings.
b. Do we live in it now?
Once we have understood that the kingdom is the spiritual reign of God over his people, we must understand the timing of this kingdom. Do we live in the kingdom of God now or is it something to look forward to in the future?
I would guess that when most people pray “Your kingdom come,” they are thinking that they are praying for the return of Jesus Christ as Lord of lords and King of kings, when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet, and loud voices in heaven will proclaim: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
(Revelation 11:15)
That is certainly one dimension of what Jesus wants us to pray for. We are to pray,
“maranatha,” which means, “Come Lord!” (1 Corinthians 16:22).
We are called to look forward to the time when Jesus will return, initiating all the events that will conclude with the new heavens and new earth coming into existence, when our eternity with God in perfect bliss will come to fruition.
The theological word for the study of how God is bringing all to consummation in the last days is
“eschatology,” from the Greek word that means “last things.”
For all of history, man has been fascinated with trying to figure out how things will come to an end in the last days. And Christians are no different. Go to a Christian book store, and there is an entire section of books dedicated to prophecy and end-times predictions—some with pictures of Saddam Hussein or pictures of the World Trade Center on fire. Many of these books are focused on a place and a time in the future and are trying to decipher from today’s headlines the signs of Christ’s return in order for him to reign in a specific place and for a specific time. I think it is very tenuous to try to speculate on the end times based on watching the latest news. Popular Christian writers have been making a living for years by making predictions of the end times, and when their predictions fail to occur, I’m shocked that nobody says,
“Hmmm… maybe we should not buy his books anymore.” Instead, the authors change their tune slightly and the next book sells like hotcakes.
While our future hope in the return of Christ is important, I believe that Jesus had more in mind when he taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come.” For, not only is God’s kingdom something in the future, God’s kingdom is today as well.
The full study of eschatology encompasses not just the future, but all that God has been doing to bring about redemption in history—past, present, AND future.
And the Kingdom of God applies to both the present and the future. The teaching of the Bible is that the kingdom has already arrived! When Jesus first came to earth some 2,000 years ago, he said that
“the kingdom of God has come upon you”
(Matthew 12:28). We who enter into relationship with God by yielding to Jesus Christ’s reign as our Lord are given “abundant life” not only in the future but in the here and now (John 10:10).
That being said, the Bible also teaches that the Kingdom of God will be inherited in the
future. Eternal life, though experienced now, is brought to perfection then, when the universe undergoes its radical transformation into the “new heaven and new earth.”
Therefore, we live in a unique time period, between the time when Jesus first came and the time when he will return. When Jesus first came, he
initiated the Kingdom of God; when he returns he will conclude his work and
consummate the Kingdom of God.
We live in a time that George Eldon Ladd called, “the presence of the future.” He writes,
“Jesus’ message is that in his person and mission God has invaded human history and has triumphed over evil, even though the final deliverance will occur only at the end of the age.”
(G. E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 1974/1993 Eerdmans, p. 65)
On a timeline, it looks like this:
(click
on image for larger image)
So, the “Kingdom of God” is not a place, but the reign of God in the hearts of people here and now. In this time in which we live, God is King—and we are the people in his kingdom as we yield to his Spirit in our lives.
What does all of this theology on the Kingdom have to do with our prayer life? EVERYTHING! When we pray “Your kingdom come,” we are praying for something that will impact our lives in our present reality, not just our future!
2. “Your kingdom come.”
We pray, “your kingdom come”—what does it mean for God’s kingdom to come?
There are three areas that I want to apply this prayer to: praying this prayer for our church, for it our families, and it for ourselves.
a. “Your kingdom come… in the church.”
If the kingdom is God’s rule in the hearts of people, then it should be clear what we are praying for concerning the church.
Lesslie Newbigin, a former missionary to India, has been instrumental in helping the evangelical church reevaluate its purpose in America. He watched from India as we were becoming a nation in need of missions as much as any other nation. He threw down the gauntlet to wake local churches up as primarily mission outposts where we are.
And what is the mission of the church? He correctly assessed it to be this: We are to be the presence of the kingdom of God. In every culture Jesus has blasted through and has introduced people to a deeper purpose and meaning to life—that God rules over the whole world through Jesus Christ. Our purpose, as the church, is to be TODAY what we will be IN OUR FUTURE, so that we can provide a sign, a foretaste, of the consummation of the Kingdom. Our mission is
“to show the world what it looks like when a community of people live under the reign of God.”
(George Hunsberger, “The Newbigin Gauntlet” quoted by Robert Webber in The
Younger Evangelicals, p. 133).
We exist to live as a Kingdom Community that believes in, embodies, and tells others about the loving reign of God. Our entire lifestyle needs to be so countercultural that everybody around us will want to experience this Here and Now Kingdom of God.
The church should not so much have an eschatology, but be an eschatological
community, living in the here and now what will be true in its fullness in the future. We need to be formed by the profound truth that God is very present in the age in which we live, and we can and often do experience him here and now. In this way, we can prefigure the future and express a foretaste of the consummation of the kingdom to come.
Think about how seeing ourselves as a Kingdom Community would change us! What
would living more fully as a Kingdom Community look and feel like in your local
church? How would it change our priorities from that of the rest of the world? How would we live our Christianity more authentically? How would we interact with each other in the church? How would we interact with those not yet yielded to God’s kingdom?
This is what the church is supposed to be! So, when we pray, “Your kingdom
come" -- we pray,
“May we be that kind of Kingdom Community that lives in the ‘Already-ness’ of the Kingdom in a radical, life-transforming way. May we experience God’s kingdom within us in such a way that we experience foretastes of the age to come. And may we live as a testimony to those who are not yet in the kingdom of the pleasure of being under the sovereign, loving rule of God!”
b. “Your kingdom come… in my family.”
If you are a father or a mother, you have a tremendous responsibility to your family. If you are the bread-winner, you feel the burden of making enough money to keep a roof over your family’s head and food on the table (not to mention insurance, taxes, medical bills, and school supplies!). If your full-time job is in the home, attending to the needs of children, cleaning, and cooking (not to mention taxi driver, counselor, and entertainer!), you also feel the burden of doing all this with excellence. These are tremendous responsibilities! But if you do all that and you do not pray for your family, you are shirking your responsibilities!
When you made a covenant with God on your wedding day to be a spouse and a parent, you made a covenant with God! And so, I want to encourage all of us to re-commit to praying daily for our families. Our battle is not against what we can see, but against spiritual forces that wish to do harm to your marriage and the spiritual well-being of your children. That is the cold reality of things.
So pray!
Pray for your spouse, starting out with something like this: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come to my family! I ask that the realities of your kingdom would come to Linda today—that she would experience in real and authenticating ways your power intervening in and impacting her life.” Then take several minutes sharing with God your heart for your spouse, asking for his intervention into your spouse’s needs and stresses.
Pray for your children. “Your kingdom come to Trey, to Kaira, to Joel. I pray that your kingdom would be real in their life. I pray that at a very early age that they would experience just enough of a foretaste of the life to come that they would be on fire for you and head-over-heals in love with you. Please protect them from the evil one. Give them the desire to live for you in the here-and-now in light of who they are in the Kingdom of God.”
Then take several minutes to pray about specific concerns you have for your kids.
Know this: the first and most important responsibility you have as a spouse and a parent is to pray for your family!
Take a moment now and pray for your family—first for your spouse then for your children. If you are single, this is would be a great time to pray for your parents and brothers and sisters.
c. “Your kingdom come… in my own heart.”
It all starts with my own heart. Divine intervention into my church and into my family must begin with his being in
my heart. And what’s wonderful is this: God wants to reign in our hearts.
Look at the lyrics of a couple of songs we sing in our church:
Lord, reign in me, reign in Your power;
Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour.
You are the Lord of all I am;
So won’t you reign in me again?
and
All to Jesus, I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow;
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
If God is the Lord, the one who we say we surrender our lives to so that he can reign in us, we must consciously pray to God, asking him to point out areas of our lives that we have not yet surrendered it “all.”
Maybe I will give my time to God’s work—but only up to a point. Maybe I give some money to God’s kingdom work, but I have yet to surrender my entire checkbook to what He would have me do. Maybe I will come to church on Sunday, but on Monday I will still lust the same way as I always have, or maybe I will still want materialism as I always have.
"I surrender some, I surrender some…"
Or maybe I will still seek to run my own life as I always have. I am so used to being in control, and even though I am completely frazzled with trying to keep all the plates spinning at the same time, all I know is to try to grasp at more power, more control.
"Lord, I reign my life, reign in my power;
Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour.
I am the Lord of all I am;
And I will always be the same!"
Take a moment and reflect on what areas of your life you have not given over to God to be the Lord. You are in the Kingdom of God, but you may have areas that you are keeping as your little kingdom, a little seed of rebellion that lingers.
Are you willing to give it over to God? Are you willing to let God be God? Can you take the risk of trusting him that he can be King over that too? Can you let go of that which you clasp onto with tight fists?
I pray the following prayer for myself. Maybe you can pray something
along the same lines.
“Lord I give you my entire heart—in fact, all of me. I submit myself to You as my King. I give myself over to Your Holy Spirit to fill me so that I can be all that You intend me to be. Produce in me the fruit of Your Spirit, give me the joy and satisfaction of being in Your Kingdom and being totally in line with what You are doing in me, in my family, in my church, and in the world. Amen.”
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