“...Your kingdom come...”
“It’s my life, it’s now or never. I ain’t gonna live forever. I just want to live while I’m alive. It’s my life. My heart is like an open highway. Like Frankie said, ‘I did it my way.’ I just wanna live while I’m alive. It’s my life.”
That’s Bon Jovi with their 2000 hit It’s My Life. That’s a song about what philosophers call “the sovereign self.” ‘I am the king of my kingdom. It’s my life.’
That song alludes to another song: Frank Sinatra’s My Way, “I’ve lived a life that’s full, I’ve traveled each and every highway, but more, much more than this I did it my way. Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption. I planned each charted course each careful step along the byway, and more, much more than this I did it my way.” ‘I’m the king of the kingdom of my life. I do it my way. It’s my life.’
There can only be one king and there can only be one kingdom. This morning, Jesus teaches you that if you are in his kingdom, you are not the king and if you are the king of your life, you aren’t in his kingdom. He trains us to pray, Father, “Your kingdom come.”
The follower of Christ must pray, “Your kingdom come.” That’s the claim of this sermon. The follower of Christ must pray, “Your kingdom come.”
We will see this in two points. First: the kingdom that has come. Second: the kingdom that will come. First: the kingdom that has come. Second: the kingdom that will come.
First: the kingdom that has come. Jesus has been training us in prayer. He has trained us to pray confidently knowing that God knows what we need before we ask. He has trained us to pray to his Almighty Father who is also our Almighty Father. He has trained us to pray that the Father’s glory would be seen and celebrated. Today he trains us to bend the knee before the King and pray, “Your kingdom come.”
In some ways all of Scripture is the story of this kingdom. Here’s an overview. Satan incited a riot in Eden and Adam and Eve committed treason against the Lord. The rest of the story is the restoration of that kingdom.
At the Exodus, the Lord formed a kingdom out of slaves. He waged war against Pharaoh and all of Egypt. “I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.” When He brought His people out of Egypt, called them His kingdom. “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
The Lord brought them to Sinai to establish the laws of this kingdom. God’s words from Sinai are structured along the lines of a political covenant. Such covenants were made between a king and those who lived under his rule. It spelled out obligations, blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience. This covenant was as, if not more, foundational to God’s people as the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution are to the United States of America.
Israel became God’s kingdom by grace. He didn’t require them to clean up their act before He rescued them from Egypt, but once He rescued them He called them to obey His law. That’s the case for you too. While you were still a sinner Christ died for you, but if you have been saved you are called to obey. You haven’t been saved to stay in sin. No Israelite cold refuse to repent of breaking God’s law and cry, ‘grace, grace, remember the Exodus.’ No Christian can refuse to repent and cry, ‘grace, grace, remember the cross.’ Grace saves. The saved repent and obey.
God established His people as a kingdom at Sinai. He then conquered a land for them. That’s the book of Joshua. The book of Judges is the record of the people enjoying this land and then forgetting God. They rejected His laws and chose to live like the nations around them. This invariably led to disaster.
Let that be a warning to you: God will let you follow the way of the world and He will let you suffer the consequences. If you want sin, you should beware because God will let you have what you want, and it will be as disastrous for you as it was for Israel.
That’s the warning. Here’s the mercy: if you stop sinning and pray for rescue, God will save you. He did it for Israel. They tired of His commandments, wandered into sin, and suffered the consequences. Then they turned back to God and He took them back. If you are suffering the consequences that always come from sin, repent of whatever sin has entangled you and run the race marked out for you. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
God established His people as a kingdom, but they wanted a human king. They wanted to be like all the nations around them—somehow overlooking the fact that every nation around them was a disaster. God allowed His people to have a human king. He gave them Saul and it was a disaster.
This shows Christ’s kindness in training us to pray. Making a request of God is no small thing. In their sin, Israel asked for something disastrous and God gave it to them. I don’t want to ask for disaster and my heart is so foolish and prideful and selfish that I could easily see myself asking for something that would destroy me. Jesus trains me to pray. He doesn’t train me how to pray the right words to get what my sinful heart wants. He trains me to pray for what He wants for me. That’s what the Lord’s Prayer is all about.
After Saul, God gave them David. Just as He had no reason to rescue Israel from Egypt other than grace, just as He had no reason to rescue them time and again in the age of the Judges, so now He has no reason other than grace to rescue the people who have rejected His perfection.
Our God certainly has a humility about Him. Imagine that you are a boss and you’ve assigned a project to an employee. One day, you ask her about her progress and she is evasive. A week later, you stop by her office and ask to see her progress and she tells you that your oversight is neither wanted nor needed and that the company would be better off without you. That’s what Israel told God. ‘We are tired of being the kingdom of God. We are tired of You as King.’
Our God wasn’t too proud to help again. If you have been telling God, ‘It’s my life,’ you need to know that you are telling God to shove off. You are telling Him that you are better off without Him. Pray for forgiveness.
God gave Israel a new king, David –a man after His own heart. David ruled according to God’s commands. He made God’s law the law of the land.
That’s a picture of the church. God’s word is to be this law of this land. There is right and there is wrong in this church. I’m not talking about an ideal of right and wrong that we shoot for. I’m talking about commandments from the king. If you claim to follow Christ, are you obeying his commands? If you claim to love Christ, are you obeying his commands? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
God’s grace to His people continued. He promised to be the king of His kingdom forever and to always have a son of David on the throne. For years, He sent prophet after prophet to remind David’s descendants of this promise and of their responsibility to rule according to God’s law. By and large, they ignored God’s law far more than the Constitution or Bill of Rights has ever been ignored in this nation.
Israel wanted to live as if they had no king and so God gave them a taste of what that was like. He removed His kingly protection from them and gave them over to other kings –to Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.
If you don’t want to serve God as king, you will serve someone. Israel served Babylon. She served Rome. You won’t be king of your own life. “It’s my life,” isn’t really how it works. If you won’t submit to God’s rule, you are submitting to Satan. He is the god of this age. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” I don’t want you bending the knee before Satan. That can only lead to death. You need to bend the knee to Christ.
Even though Israel was in exile, God had not abandoned them. He was still the king of the kingdom. He promised to give them another king like David. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”
This was what Jesus’ original disciples heard when Jesus trained them to pray, “Your kingdom come.” They were praying for the kingdom of this son of David. They were right to believe this son of David was Jesus.
Jesus was clear that the kingdom was coming. “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” He said this kingdom was his reason for coming. “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”
Jesus taught that this kingdom is more important than anything else in your life. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Jesus’ kingdom is infinitely more satisfying than your kingdom. Life under Jesus is far more joyful than living your own life. If you see that, you will make whatever changes are necessary to join.
Jesus said his kingdom was only open to the humble. “Unless you change and become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom.” This kingdom is different in that its borders are not geographical. They are much more difficult to cross. “Truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom focused on the heart because submission to the king is what the kingdom is all about. If he freed Israel from Rome without dealing with their unwillingness to submit to God, what good had he done? We live in a nation filled with people who are as politically free as Israel wanted to be, but this is no kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is about submitting to the king. Do you see most Americans doing that? Are you doing that?
A man must be born again if he is to enter the kingdom of God. He must have a new heart, a heart that wants to obey. God made that clear through Jeremiah. ‘“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”’
Christ’s kingdom doesn’t forget about God’s law. To enter this kingdom, you need to be born again so you want to keep God’s word. Do you want to keep God’s word with all your heart?
If so, that is a sign you are in the kingdom, but not because you are good enough. You are not good enough to enter the kingdom. I am not good enough to enter the kingdom. It won’t help us to try harder. The Pharisees weren’t good enough to enter the kingdom and that was their full-time job. Jesus told them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
So, if you aren’t good enough, how can you enter? Jesus answered that question too. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” If you want to enter the kingdom you must repent. Prostitutes didn’t enter the kingdom instead of the Pharisees because morality doesn’t matter. If that were the case, the Pharisees would have entered too. The prostitutes entered the kingdom because they repented.
If that is you, you are ready to pray, “your kingdom come.” If that isn’t you, put first things first and confess that sine. Jesus doesn’t want you to say your prayers. He calls you to pray and you can’t pray, “your kingdom come,” if you are unwilling to obey the King.
Christ brought this kingdom, but he hasn’t brought it fully. We see that in our second point: the kingdom that will come.
The New Testament tells us that the kingdom has come, and the kingdom is coming. Paul can say, “[God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,” and he can say, “No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” The kingdom has come, and the kingdom is coming.
The New Testament speaks this way about many realities. We Christians have already been saved. Ephesians 2:8, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.” We Christians are awaiting our salvation. Romans 13:11, “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” We Christians have already been redeemed. Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” We Christians are awaiting our redemption. Ephesians 4:30, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Philippians 1:6 sums up the situation nicely, “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” The kingdom has come but we are still waiting for the day when every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
We pray for that day when we pray, “Your kingdom come.” Are we as a church expecting the kingdom? If so, we will encourage one another to live lives worthy of God. As Paul told the Thessalonians, “we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” The kingdom is coming. Keep following Christ.
Are you expecting the kingdom? If so, you will avoid sin. Paul tells us, “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” The kingdom is coming. If you are on that list, you still have time to repent. That’s grace.
Are you expecting the kingdom? If so, you will long for it. Early Christians did and Christians around the world today do. They long for it because they know the world hates them. Christians who suffer for righteousness’ sake cry for a better kingdom. Any Christian who faces the rage of this world will cry out, “Your kingdom come.”
Paul wrote to these suffering brothers and sisters saying, “you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” Are you concerned that you might be persecuted for righteousness’ sake? Cry out for a better kingdom. “Your kingdom come.”
Are you expecting the kingdom? Expect hardship. The book of Acts tells us Paul and Barnabas visited churches, ‘strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.’
Are you excited about the kingdom? If so, you will worship God with awe. “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” The kingdom is coming. Fall on your face, bow, and worship.
If you think your life is about you, you will not expect this kingdom. You can’t, “pray Your kingdom come,” with any meaning. You can’t because your life is about you and your kingdom. You can’t pray for the king to come because you are the king of your own life.
If that’s you, you need to know that Christ’s kingdom is coming and there is only room for one kingdom and only room for one king. There are many who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t be one of them.
If you don’t submit to Christ, repent. Pray, “God, I have tried to be the king of my own life. I’ve done it my way and I realize that can only lead to hell. Please rescue me from my way. Destroy my kingdom. Your kingdom come. Give me new birth. Put your Spirit in me. I want to follow Christ.”
If you are submitting to sin instead of bending the knee to Jesus, repent. Pray, ‘Father, this sin is entangling me. It didn’t seem so bad when I woke up this morning but now I see it for what it is. I want to put it to death. Please help me.’ Now Christ is your King remember that you’ve got a rich welcome waiting and nourishing life coming.
“Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love… if you do these things,” says Peter, “you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Keep growing in grace. You’ve got a rich welcome waiting for you.
The kingdom is coming. Will you be welcomed in? Do you submit to Christ? Has he rescued you from the kingdom of darkness? Can you truly pray, “Your kingdom come?” Amen.