1 Your Kingdom Come
Matthew 6:9-13
Have you ever seen a TV show or a movie where a couple are on a date and they’re seated at this nice restaurant? Maybe it’s a French restaurant, and the menu, naturally, is printed in French. The woman orders first and she just happens to be fluent in French, so she orders something that only she and the waiter understand.
Well, the man, not wanting to appear ignorant or unsophisticated, does something truly ignorant. He simply points to some mysterious words in the menu and says, "I’ll have one of those."
Big mistake, of course.
Much to his dismay and surprise, when his dinner is brought to the table, what he sees is both intriguing and uninviting and it looks similar to what he’s tried to keep out of his garden.
So the moral of the story is: Be careful what you order in restaurants. If you don’t know what you are asking for, you might very well regret it.
The same might be said for prayer. Be careful what you pray for. You just might get it, and if that happens, hopefully, you won’t regret it.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been taking a look at the Lord’s Prayer. This is a prayer that looks and sounds pretty safe. What could possibly be distressing about praying for our daily bread, or freedom from temptation?
But early in the prayer, there’s the phrase, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
Praying for the kingdom to come on earth might be like asking for escargot in a French restaurant and ending up with a plate of snails. You’ll get what you ask for, but it might not be what you want.
2 Now…Back in the Old Testament, Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah and his kingdom. He revealed that one day God’s Son will establish His Kingdom: "The government will rest on His shoulders…His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of His ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the Lord Almighty will guarantee this!" (Isaiah 9:6-7).
So the Messiah will establish His kingdom with authority. The title Messiah means "anointed one." We inaugurate Presidents; we anoint Kings.
3 The word "kingdom" in the original language means "rule" or "reign". God’s Kingdom is unique – in that it is not a human kingdom. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall, but the reign of God will prevail and last forever.
Pilate asked Jesus what kind of king He was; Jesus didn’t fit Pilate’s perception; He didn’t conform to the popular notion of a political ruler. Jesus responded, saying, "My Kingdom is not of this world." He told His followers, "the Kingdom of God is within you." In a spiritual sense, we are living now in the Kingdom. Both John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministries announcing that the Kingdom of God had come-it is here.
When we pray "Your Kingdom come" we are asking God to advance and expand that Kingdom through his people, and we are anticipating the day when that Kingdom literally comes when Jesus returns. It is a Kingdom that is both present and future-it is here and now, and will one day come in fullness.
I believe that God loves to hear that prayer from his children. Max Lucado says in the book, “The Great House of God,” that “We’re often content to ask for less.” We present to God “a satchel full of requests—promotions desired, pay raises wanted, transmission repairs needed, and tuitions due…Not that our needs don’t matter to him…
(But) When you say, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ you are inviting the Messiah himself to walk into your world…Be present in my heart. Be present in my office. Come into my marriage. Be Lord of my family, my fears, and my doubts.’ This is no feeble request; it’s a bold appeal for God to occupy every corner of your life.” (pg. 61-62)
So do you think we really want the kingdom of God on earth if it looks like that – if God is present in every corner of our lives? If our answer is “Yes” then I think we can break that phrase – Your kingdom come – down to basically two things. We’re asking for a radical change in our society and a radical change within ourselves.
4 In the kingdom of God, it’s the poor who are blessed. It is those who mourn and grieve. It’s the meek and those who hunger and thirst for what is right. It’s the merciful and the pure in heart. It’s the peacemaker and the persecuted.
That’s a radical change from what we’re used to, where the rich are the ones who seem most blessed; where the most aggressive person gets the best job; and where the immoral seem to prosper. And sometimes we’re left looking around and thinking “What’s happening? This isn’t right.”
In the kingdom of God, when you get hit on your right cheek, you will willingly get hit on your left cheek too. In the kingdom of God, if someone asks for your coat, you give him your shirt. If anyone has two shirts, one of them is shared with someone who doesn’t have any.
And it only gets worse in the parables of Jesus. It is the son who wasted his inheritance who ends up being the hero of the story. It is a despised Samaritan who is respected for his compassion. Tax collectors and sinners enter the kingdom before the pious and the upright. Lazarus rests in Abraham’s bosom, while the rich man at whose gates he had begged is the one who is in torment. Those who work one hour are paid the same as those who work twelve. What kind of economic sense does that make?
In the kingdom of God, nobody is forced to live in poverty. Everyone is treated with dignity. The last go first and the first are last. The nobodies receive a place of honor at the table. In story after story it is the worthless people of the world who become the most important in God’s kingdom.
So what’s up with that? Well, these things are things of the kingdom of God.
As we pray "Thy Kingdom come" we pray a prayer of protest. We are opposing every worldview that is contrary to God. Prayer is political action and social energy.
David Wells of Gordon-Conwell Seminary calls this kind of prayer a "refusal to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal." We see this kind of prayer in a lot of the psalms, protest songs and prayers that complain about the evil corruption in the world. God welcomes our complaints for change and righteousness.
If you think about it, "Thy Kingdom come" is a submissive prayer, too. The function of prayer is not to inform God of our plans but to call on Him to fulfill His plans through us – after all, it’s not "my kingdom come." It’s “Your kingdom come.”
In the Old Testament, the prophet Micah wrote about a perfect society like that. He said, "(Nations) shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken." (4:3-4)
Isaiah wrote about rejoicing in Jerusalem, where there would be no more weeping. He said, "No more shall there be in (the land) an infant that lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days. For the child shall die a hundred years old...They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their children with them.
“Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food." (Isaiah 65:21ff)
But let’s be careful about what we pray for. Global changes are wonderful. Who could argue with peace, security, and freedom? But it’s going to take a radical change in the social order of things for that to even begin to happen.
And when we pray for the Kingdom of God to come, we are not only asking for something global, but something personal as well.
The gospel of Luke says that one time, 20-21 Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.” (Luke 17:20-21) The kingdom of God is within us.
And when we’re living in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God carries some implications with it. And here’s what I mean: we do not worry about what we will eat or drink. We learn to trust in God. (Mt 6:25-34).
In the kingdom of God, we give up things that are of value to us, such as that extra coat or shirt, because we value other people.
In the kingdom of God, we learn to love our neighbor as ourselves.
In the kingdom of God, we learn peace within the midst of tragedy.
In the kingdom of God, we learn to hunger to do that which is right and just, rather than to do that which satisfies our greed and appetites.
In the kingdom of God, society changes because we have learned how to change first.
In the kingdom of God, God rules the society.
And in the kingdom of God, God rules our hearts and guides what we do.
And that can be stressful because the kingdom of God has some implications that go along with it. When God rules our hearts, souls and minds, we have to let go of some things that may have become important to us.
It means letting go of our hate and anger. None of us start out wanting to hate another person, or to be angry. But those become familiar things that are hard to let go.
It means letting go of our fear and anxiety. Instead, we learn to trust in God.
The kingdom of God means letting go of our greed for possessions, our lust for power, and our selfish world view. These are hard things to let go of, because they have been part of us for so long.
So often, we cling to that which is of no value, and lose the things that are of importance.
We work at our jobs long hours and we miss seeing our children grow up. We stuff money into our wallets and buy the things for our homes that will soon depreciate. And maybe we missed the opportunity to give out of our abundance to those who are hurting or struggling.
The kingdom of God is within us, or at the very least, it can be. But we might have to learn to let go of some things that have become important to us, which may have little eternal value. Let go of the greed. Let go of the anger. Let go of the fear. Let go of the pennies in the jar and value the things that God values.
Hold on instead to the love. Search for peace instead of hate. Embrace trust rather than fear. It is hard to let go of these things. It’s not easy to pray for God’s kingdom to come on this earth. But are we ready to pray?
Can we pray remembering it is the poor who are blessed in the kingdom. Can we pray remembering it is the one who mourns and grieves who is blessed. Can we pray remembering it is the meek who inherit the kingdom of God, not the strong, powerful, or boastful. Can we pray for the Kingdom of God to come to earth remembering it’s our enemies, as well as those who are easy to like, whom we must love.
Honestly, I’m not sure I’m always ready because our lives have been seduced by the way things are and what direction that our biases lean. And yet, I have to keep reminding myself that God does not depend on our readiness.
The Kingdom will come by God’s initiative and when God decides. And we are a part of it only by His grace. So ready or not, we must pray, knowing that the answer to our prayer may change all the comfortable rules by which we have lived so far.
I think one great illustration of praying “Your Kingdom Come” “is in the story of Hadessah. Though her language and culture are in atlas apart from ours, she can tell you about the power of a prayer to a king.” (Lucado, pg. 62)
There are some differences, though, between her prayer and the model prayer of Jesus. She prayed to her husband, the king, and not to her father. Her prayer changed the king’s plans and millions of people were saved from annihilation.
We’ll never be able to meet her face to face, since she lived in the 5th century BC, so we’ll have to be content with reading about her in the book which bears her name, the book of Esther.
And to make a long story short, Esther is at a crossroads because she has to decide to follow God, which is risky, or follow safety and security which means death to the Jewish nation, including her own family, at the hands of a corrupt leader.
So she steps out in faith, refusing to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal, and talks to the king – and by a strange turn of events, ends up saving the nation of Israel. For her, “Thy kingdom come” meant that if this doesn’t work, I’m going to die. And if God’s in it, then everything will be OK.
Through Esther, we “get a dramatic reminder of what happens when we approach our King.
Like Esther, we have been plucked out of obscurity and given a place in the palace.
Like Esther, we have royal robes; she was dressed in cloth, we are dressed in righteousness.
Like Esther, we have the privilege of making our request…” (pg. 66)
And when we pray for God’s kingdom to come, it comes!
If you are ready, then we’ll pray, and as we do, let’s pay close attention as we come to the most dangerous words we may ever utter: "Thy kingdom come..."
6 Let’s pray together right now, as Christ taught us to pray.
9“‘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 today 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
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Matthew 6: 9-13 (NIV)
