Thy Kingdom Come
Lord's Prayer • Sermon • Submitted
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In this time of pandemic and national unrest, we have committed ourselves at the start of this year to prayer. We said last week that prayer is the first and primary ministry of the church, because there is no work for God that must not be saturated in prayer. In prayer we are grounded in the steadfastness of our God, though the ground is shaking beneath our feet. In prayer we are sustained by God’s relational nearness, though we are separated and distant from those we love. And in prayer we always have a conduit for ministry, even when all our normal avenues have been blocked.
So we are starting this year with a deep look at prayer, and as our guide we’ve begun walking through the Lord’s Prayer. Last week we covered the first lines: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. This week we continue with the second line: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Let’s turn to Matthew 6:7-13 once more:
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
These are not our words, for we seek our own kingdoms.
These are not our words, for we seek our own kingdoms.
When we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” we are proclaiming something that is foreign to our sinful human hearts. Ever since Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, humanity has walked to a different drum beat, not “your kingdom come, but my kingdom come,” not “your will be done, but my will be done.” In fact, this was the issue at the very center of the serpent’s temptation. The serpent told them that they could decide for themselves what was good and bad, what was right and wrong. He offered them the authority to be kings and queens. What does a king do? He establishes the laws of the land which say this is good and this is bad. Seatbelts are good, murder is bad. The serpent was offering them a kingdom of their very own.
But it went deeper than that, because the serpent also tempted them with the ability to be like God. You see, Adam and Eve had been already been given the authority to rule over all the earth. They had already been coronated as king and queen by God himself! But it was a delegated authority, which meant that while they held the highest honor of all of God’s creatures, they were not the highest authority, but rather their position was to point upward to a higher authority, a higher will - to God, who was the ultimate king. The king of kings, you might say.
So what did Adam and Eve grasp at when they took the fruit? They wanted to be the highest authority. They wanted to be the king of kings. They wanted to be able to say, “my kingdom come, my will be done.” They were grasping at godhood. It’s like when a teacher has to step out of the room so they appoint someone to be the class leader. It’s quite an honor to be chosen for that role. But what happens so often is that student, who has been honored with delegated authority, starts bossing people around as if they were not just a classroom leader, but the teacher herself.
When we say, “my kingdom come, my will be done,” we are grasping at godhood. We are unseating God as the highest authority in our lives, and taking his throne for ourselves. And we know that this is at the center of the fallen human heart, and it is the cause for all the suffering and pain that we experience in this life. Because think about it: if I’m declaring “my kingdom come” and you’re declaring “my kingdom come,” than we are set up for a collision of competing kingdoms, which is the definition of conflict. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes said that this was the state of nature, a war of all against all, because each of us are seeking to enact our will and our way on the earth.
This is at the root of all systemic oppression in society. It’s at the root of tribalism. It’s at the root of nationalism, where my kingdom and my will for governance must come out on top over and against all others, not matter who has to get hurt in the process. My kingdom must trump yours. It’s also the root of relational and marital conflict, when our homes are not a place of a harmony and a united will but a place of competing wills, and our spouse becomes a kingdom to be dominated rather than a person to love and serve. But this isn’t something that we just develop later on in life, and if you don’t believe me, try putting two toddlers in room with just one toy and see what happens. This is what happens when we all proclaim “my kingdom come, my will be done.” We are in conflict with one another all the time in a war of all against all.
But we’re also in conflict with our selves. Because what happens when we say that we get to be the judge of what’s right and wrong? What happens when we give ourselves the justification to pursue any pleasure that we want? The things that we turn to for liberation from this world actually end up enslaving us. The ways that we seek to exert our will actually come to control our wills. At some point you turned to alcohol as a means of escape, and now you can’t escape it’s hold on you. It controls you. At some point you sought escape through pornography, but now you can’t escape it. At some point you sought to control every aspect of your lives, and now you constantly feel out of control every time things are exactly right in your life. When we proclaim “my kingdom come, my will be done,” we become enslaved to our wills.
These are Christ’s words, and that is good news for all.
These are Christ’s words, and that is good news for all.
So in the prayer that Jesus teaches us, we recognize that these words are alien to us. They are not our words. So, how can we say that this prayer is good news for us? Because while they may not be our words, they were Christ’s words. What was always on the Lord’s lips in all of his activities here on earth? “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” And this prayer is good news because Jesus didn’t just say it, he lived it.
So what does it mean to proclaim and live “Your kingdom come, your will be done?” Well for that we can turn to a well know passage in Mark 12:28.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” (Which is to ask, what is the will of God?) Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
What is the kingdom of God that this man is not far from? What is the will of God for our lives? It is to love God and to love people. This is why we say that Jesus did not merely say “your kingdom come, your will be done,” but he lived it perfectly. His love for God is perfect and complete. His love for people is perfect and complete. When Christ looks to the Father, all of his responses culminate in what? In love. When Christ looks out upon the creation that he himself made and formed, creatures that he gave his life for, that he was raised for, that he ascended for, all of his responses culminate in what? In love. What is the kingdom of God look like? It is where the will of God is done, and what does the will of God look like? It looks like loving him, and loving those he has made.
You can see that this is the exact opposite of the fallen human heart, which rebels against God by dethroning him and seeks to dominate others to ensure that my kingdom and my will is done. The kingdom of God is to be filled with compassion and love for our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, our fellow human and to be filled with an abiding love for our Father in heaven. So necessarily when we pray “your kingdom come,” we are saying “not my kingdom come.” And when we pray “your will be done,” we are saying “not my will be done.”
Now for some of you, this is hard to hear for one of two reasons. First, some of us express our piety and faith through loving our neighbor, and loving your neighbor isn’t all that hard for you. You’re a friendly person, your heart is moved to compassion by the plight of those in need, and you eagerly seek to help others whenever you can. But your heart has grown cold to God. You don’t feel a great sense of love for him. Or maybe you are the opposite! You have a deep love for God, and you love spending time in His word and in prayer. You have a deep passion for him, but you have a deep resentment towards other people.
But there’s good news for you who fall in either of those camps. This is a prayer. This is a petition. This is a request, because none of us perfectly obey the will of God. None of us perfectly live in the kingdom of God. Only one has, and it is Christ. And what we are doing in this prayer, is we are asking our Father in heaven that the life of Christ would become our life today. That the love of Christ would become our love today. His love for God, and his love for others. We are asking that God would do a work of love in us, to change us so that we no longer have to dominate and compete with others, but we can, in love, elevate the needs of others above my own. To change us so that our wills no longer seek to overshadow God’s, but in love for him, we dethrone ourselves and follow the true King.
So if you struggle with this, there is good news. This is a prayer that seeks the gift that only God can give. Love is a gift from God, we cannot generate it in ourselves. So the question is: do you pray for this? Do you pray that God would increase your love for him? Do you pray that God would increase your love for others? For your spouse? For your children? For your neighbors and coworkers? For your enemies? When we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are seeking the heavenly life of love to be our’s on earth today. Do you seek the love of God in all things? Because when God’s people are filled with his love, his kingdom comes.
This prayer breeds in us a longing for Christ’s return.
This prayer breeds in us a longing for Christ’s return.
This is why whenever we find ourselves in times of crisis and great conflict like what we are experiencing today, when we are tired and weary of life in a fallen world, this prayer ought to be on our lips. Lord, would your kingdom come. Would you hasten the day that you return and put to right everything that is wrong. I am tired of being enslaved to my will. I’m sick and saddened by the ways of this corrupted age. Lord, hasten the day when you wipe away every tear, when your kingdom spreads over all the earth like the waters cover the sea, when your grace abounds more and more so that at your name every knee would bow, not in domination but in adoration, as they confess with their tongues that Jesus, who become nothing for my sake, he is Lord of all.
This prayer breeds in us a longing for Christ’s return. A longing for God’s kingdom to come in full, when the whole world has peace because they are united together in God’s perfect will and perfect love. Which is why it is the prayer that breaks down the foundations of all forms of tribalism, nationalism, racism, sexism, and all other forms of oppression that characterize life on earth.
What does this prayer do? It does a work of dethroning us from our lives, which frees us to seek the love of God and the love of others as our highest will and desire. And it generates in us a longing to see God’s kingdom come to earth both now and at last when Christ returns. Would you join me in praying this prayer in this season, because Lord knows we need it.