Your Kingdom Come

Please keep your Psalter hymnal open and turn to the back to page 61. We'll be continuing our series through the Lord's Prayer this evening. It instructs us also in the Lord's Supper in various ways, so I've decided to stay with this series. After you find that on page 61, I'd have you open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We'll be reading from 1 Corinthians just as a supportive text for the big picture of things, but we'll not be preaching from that directly. We'll be focusing on the petition, the Lord's Prayer, Your Kingdom Come. So we're on page 61 on the back of the Psalter, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in your Bibles, and our text for this evening you will already know by heart from Matthew. So as we look at Lord's Day 48, we'll have you respond to the question, What does the second request mean? Thy kingdom come means, rule us by your word and spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Keep your church strong and add to it. Destroy the devil's work. Destroy every force that revolts against you and every conspiracy against your word. Do this until your kingdom is so complete and perfect that in it you are all in all. Turning now to the Word of God from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'll be reading not all the verses. I'll read from verses 1 through 8, 11, and then 20 to 28. So I'll try to cue you in when we jump. Hear now the Word of God. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you, otherwise you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. In verse 11, then, Paul writes, Whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believe. Skipping down to verse 20. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own turn. Christ, the firstfruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he has put everything under his feet. Now when it says that everything has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. And then from Matthew, our text this evening, beginning with the Lord's Prayer. This is how you should pray. Jesus said, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your kingdom come. So simple, so brief, but so difficult to understand. On its face, it suggests that the kingdom of God, the rule of God, the reign of God is somehow missing or lacking. So that we must ask God to come into existence, to come into existence or to come in completion. But how can this be as if King David said, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, if the Lord is king forever and ever? Are we praying for something that already is? Or are we saying that somehow God is not sovereign? I think it's fair to say that this enigma leads many to utter this petition, not so much as a particular request of God to do something in particular that we ask with knowledge. but often more is a wish that he will do something, whatever it is that Jesus means here, to have his way. Thy kingdom come. Now while it is true that the height and the depth and the breadth of the kingdom of God for which we are to pray here is beyond our ability to comprehend completely, that does not mean that we can't understand it truly so that we may pray rightly, your kingdom come. we can start by remembering that we, the children of God through faith in Christ, opened our prayer by addressing Almighty God as our Father. It's His kingdom we are to be praying for. And when we remember that our first priority and ultimate goal is to honor and glorify and sanctify His name, we can be sure that as He answers this prayer, that's exactly what He'll do. Jesus has set us up to pray this prayer with confidence. So what are we to pray for when we pray, Your kingdom come? The answer becomes clearer when we pray it, remembering the beginning, anticipating the end, while waiting in the meantime. Let me explain. When we pray, Your kingdom come, we need to do so remembering the beginning. Not of the prayer, but of this world. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. Therefore, with the psalmist in Psalm 93, we confess the Lord reigns. Your throne is established long ago. You are from eternity. All that we know was created under the rule and the sovereign care of God. And so with respect to his powerful and universal reign, his rule, the kingdom of God is eternal. It will last forever. And so when we pray, your kingdom come, we're not asking for that. We can be assured that that is well in place and will never be lost. So we remember the beginning a little deeper. The pinnacle of creation, God created man. He created him in his image, and he created him to rule in his name over all that he had made. God established his kingdom in the garden where he installed his servant Adam as a vice-regent. That just means a lesser king that serves a greater king. Adam was God's delegated authority to take care of the garden and to guard the garden. And we know the rest of the story. Adam failed in his charge to guard the garden. Satan came in and he tempted Adam and Eve and they willingly defied God their king. By eating of the one tree he told them to not eat of. And with this, Adam committed treason against the kingdom of God. A crime for which he deserved the death penalty. He committed treason and instead he served to establish another kingdom in this world. The kingdom of Satan. To whom all Adam's offspring are enslaved to sin. All of us by birth, by conception. And by this treason, Adam forfeited his eternal life in the kingdom of God's glory. And instead he earned the death penalty. But God, in his mercy, did not execute Adam that day. He delayed final judgment so that through Adam and Eve he might bring the answer. He might bring the solution to rescue them from the kingdom of Satan and to restore them into right standing with him so that they might inherit the kingdom of God's glory. So God cursed the serpent. And in Genesis 3.15, He declared war on Satan's kingdom, the seed of the serpent, over which He would one day be victorious through the seed of the woman. And there we find God's first promise for a faithful vice-regent, the Messiah, who would come to pay the price being wounded in the heel to fully and finally destroy the kingdom of Satan by crushing his head and thereby fully and finally establish his kingdom of glory in the earth that Adam had forfeited. While Adam and Eve repented and believed this promise of God and thus armed with the promise and clothed by their maker God banished them from the garden into the accursed world where Satan rules. and the only way back was through the sword of God's justice. Now, Satan's first attempt to cut off the seed of the woman was through Cain to murder Abel, thinking he would just nip it in the bud. And, of course, God overcame that obstacle by giving birth to Seth by way of Eve. And to Seth, he gave birth to Enosh. And then we read in the Bible that at that time men began to call on the name of the Lord. I think it's more than them just calling Him by name. They started calling on the name of the Lord to do something for them. And for what did the people of God call on the name of the Lord? The theme that recurs from there through all of Scripture is that God would come to rescue His people and to restore things that had been lost. That he would come with power to save his people and to destroy his enemies. Now sometimes in the scriptures they have people calling out on behalf of many, like King Asa in 2 Chronicles chapter 14. He cried out, Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you. He was asking for rescue in the midst of battle. And sometimes they call out for only themselves, like David in Psalm 18. In my distress I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help. And from his temple he heard my voice. He reached down from on high and took hold of me. He drew me out of deep waters. Calling out to God for rescue. And when we pray, your kingdom come, we're to remember that we too are born sons of Adam. we too are to remember that in ourselves we're powerless to enter the kingdom of God. Powerless to save ourselves. We're powerless to restore anything. And so we cry out as well, Your kingdom come. Therefore, with the saints of all ages, when we pray for the Lord to come to rescue and restore, we must pray according to the promise given in the beginning that He would come. but also anticipating the end when God will ultimately fulfill his promise on the day of the Lord when the kingdom of glory comes. When the prophet Isaiah encouraged the people of God in the Babylonian exile, he did so in chapter 35 with some words that capture this abiding hope of God's people so beautifully. He says to the people of God, be strong, do not fear, your God will come. He will come with vengeance, with divine retribution. He will come to save you. You hear the theme. And all through the Old Testament, crying out to God to come. But the Old Testament comes to a close, still anticipating the day in which He will come. Malachi chapter 4, verses 1 through 3, we read that surely the day is coming. Surely the day is coming. And it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. And that day that is coming will set them on fire. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. The day is coming when the Lord will come and he will rescue his people and destroy his enemies. And then came 400 years of silence. And in those 400 years between Malachi and the coming of Jesus, The Jews coined the phrase, the kingdom of God, to describe that new age that the day of the Lord would usher in when he would set all things right, he would conquer his foes and establish his kingdom in glory. A prayer of the Jewish synagogue of that time expressed this desire. They said, may God establish his sovereignty in your lifetime and in your days. And in the lifetime of all the house of Israel, even speedily and at a near time. May it be soon that God would come. At the time of Jesus, the Jews were right to expect the Lord to come and to set things right. And they were right to pray for it. But they erred. And the error was not that they anticipated the kingdom of God coming in glory, but that they expected it to come without having to satisfy the wrath of God against their sin. They thought the kingdom of glory could come in as if Adam's fall had never happened. As if their sin didn't matter. Therefore, their conception of the coming kingdom was diminished. to that of an earthly kingdom, a political kingdom, that would be established by military might. They dropped their sights. Jesus' disciples shared this view. Even at the time that he was teaching them this prayer. James and John asked him, let one of us sit at your right and the other one sit at your left in glory. They're not talking about heaven, they're talking about Jerusalem. And when Jesus explained to the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord. This will never happen to you. Jesus' response to Peter exposes the ongoing war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. He says to Peter, he says, turn or get behind me, Satan. You're just a pawn in a bigger game, Peter. And why do the disciples say such things? Why do they ask such questions? Because like the Jews of their time, they shared the expectation that Jesus would assume the throne of Israel in Jerusalem and he would establish it with power right then and there. And it came to a fever pitch on Palm Sunday when Jesus mounted that donkey and came into the city fulfilling a prophecy of a king coming. A humble king. They missed that part. they went ahead and they followed behind and they shouted, Hosanna, which means save. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. This is it. And they expected Jesus to establish the kingdom of glory right there, right then. And when he didn't, they turned on him and called for his death. He didn't fit their plan. Because they'd forgotten the plan of God. See, the false expectations of the Jews were distortions of the true and important expectation that is to be ours when we pray, your kingdom come. Namely, that God's kingdom of glory will come soon to rescue us and to restore all things and to establish his kingdom in glory. That is to be our anticipation. That is to be our expectation. That is to be our hope. Now during his earthly ministry, Jesus identified himself with the Son of Man. You've heard him speak of himself that way. He identifies himself with that from Daniel chapter 7. And he revealed himself to be the one to whom God would give authority, glory, and sovereign power. Whose dominion will not pass away and whose kingdom will never be destroyed. He declared himself to be that man. And Jesus said to himself in Matthew chapter 25, when the Son of Man comes in glory, speaking of himself, when he comes in glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. And all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another. The wicked will go to eternal punishment and the righteous to eternal life. He's speaking of the last day. And it will be he who comes. He reminded the disciples of this when he instituted the Lord's Supper in a kind of a backdoor way. After commanding them to drink from the cup, he said, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. And Paul reminds us as well in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So as we participate in the Lord's Supper this evening, we are to call to mind these words of Jesus and be reminded that when we pray, Your kingdom come, we're praying for Christ to come in the kingdom of glory to rescue us, body and soul, and restore all things that were undone with the curse so that we may dwell with him and he with us forever and ever. That's part of why we have this supper is to remember that He's coming again and we will dine with Him bodily in glory. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 we read that the end will come, Paul writes, when Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power for He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet the last enemy to be destroyed is death And when he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. It will all come together. All that God had originally set before Adam to be realized, and that which he forfeited, will all come together. And therefore we conclude answer 123 of the Heidelberg Catechism, Confessing that your kingdom come means in part that all we ask of God in the meantime we ask him to do until your kingdom is so complete and perfect that in it you are all in all. You see we have the end in sight when we pray this prayer. With the people of God in all ages we are to pray your kingdom come remembering the beginning, why we need to pray this prayer, Anticipate in the end, the glory that's to come. But we do so in a way that the disciples did not yet understand when Jesus taught them this prayer. What they had just begun to see, we now see clearly through their eyewitness testimony set before us in Scripture. And that is, with the coming of Jesus into the world, God's kingdom of glory invaded the kingdom of Satan to establish a beachhead for his people in which we may stand as we wait for him to come back. Through the cross, Jesus crushed the head of the serpent who only bruised him in the heel and he gained the decisive victory to accomplish the way the way God will rescue God's people. Because we live on this side of the cross and are still waiting for Jesus to come again in the end We pray this petition waiting in the meantime. In Luke chapter 1, the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary the coming of the long-awaited king. You'll be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Son took to himself flesh and was born of this virgin Mary. He was born in the city of King David. He was born king of the Jews. And Satan sought to murder him from the start through Herod. But God rescued him, he saved him, he sent him to Egypt, and he kept him safe until the day when it was time to launch his attack against the kingdom of Satan. And in that day, John the Baptist came preaching. Repent, for the kingdom of God is near. And when he baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, heaven was opened. And Jesus was anointed with the Spirit of God. And his father announced him, This is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased. In his flesh, Jesus was anointed the vice-regent of God, humbled to serve as a lesser king to a greater king in order to fulfill the righteous requirements of God's law for his people in order to succeed where Adam had failed. Just as he did with Adam, Satan was on the scene. He came to Jesus in order to tempt him. This time in the wilderness where the sons of Adam have lived ever since getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden. And Satan tempted Jesus three times, the third time offering him all the kingdoms of the world. If Jesus would defy his Father in heaven and commit treason against the kingdom of God and bow down and worship him. It sounds familiar. Jesus succeeded in guarding himself and all who will have life in his name. And he said, away from me, Satan. See, Jesus came to rescue the children of God from slavery to Satan and restore them as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. To bring them into the glory of God. The Apostle John explains in 1 John chapter 3, The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's works, which Jesus immediately set out to do. From that time on, after his baptism, Jesus began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. And he did so with miracles, healing diseases, raising the dead, casting out demons, each one an act of war against the kingdom of Satan. In Matthew chapter 12, verses 28, Jesus explained, If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. See, Jesus came in the flesh to establish the kingdom of God here. That he'll come again for in glory. Now a moment ago I said that the Jews erred in expecting the kingdom of God to come in glory, apart from the wrath of God against sin. The truth is, according to God's plan, in order for God's kingdom to come in the fullness of His glory, the king first had to come in humility and accomplish something. God's plan required that Jesus, the Son of God and His humanity, we must always remember that Jesus is the Son of God, but He came in humanity to fully satisfy for the sins of His people. Therefore, in his humanity, Jesus lived the perfect obedience to the Father, even though he was tempted in every way as you and I are. Perfect obedience. And in his sinless humanity, he suffered the wrath of God against the sins of his people by dying on the cross at Calvary. And having fulfilled all righteousness, God raised him from the dead for our justification and exalted him to heaven where he reigns at the right hand of his Father in His glorified humanity. Vice region over all things for the church, Paul writes in Ephesians. The kingdom of glory that is yet to come in His fullness intruded, though veiled in the humanity of Christ, it intruded with His coming in order for Him to establish the kingdom of grace for His people until He comes again. He established a safe harbor. Many of you remember World War II and D-Day. This coming of Christ is often compared to that, that World War II, the beginning of the end, was D-Day. The beachhead was established. From that day forward, Nazi Germany was just on its way out. D-Day for Christ was Good Friday. He established the beachhead. He established the kingdom of God in this world that is yet to be finalized upon his return. Therefore, in the meantime, we pray your kingdom come not only anticipating future glory, but seeking the grace of God to live today in the present. Until the kingdom of God's glory comes, we pray for the kingdom of God's grace to come in three ways that are outlined in Heidelberg 123. First, we confess that your kingdom come means to rule us by your word and spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. As adopted children of God in Christ, who pray to our Father in heaven, we are citizens of his kingdom that is ruled by Christ. Christ has freed us from bondage to sin, but sin still clings to us in this world. Therefore, we continually need to ask God to rule us in such a way that more and more we submit to him. Your kingdom come in us. That we will live like your children, we will live like your citizens. And in what way do we need for God to rule us? By his word and spirit, we confess. According to Hebrews chapter 4, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates into dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. It is, as Paul says, the sword of the spirit. The means the Holy Spirit uses to establish and to increase the rule of God in the hearts of his people. Rule us by your word and spirit. Cut us deep. Lay us open. When we pray, Your kingdom come, we are to pray that God, by His Holy Spirit, would continue to use the means of grace He's given for this purpose, the preaching of the Gospel, and His portrayal in the sacraments, that He would use these means, by His Spirit, to make us more and more willing and able to submit to His rule that we find in his law. Well, secondly, we confess that your kingdom come means keep your church strong and add to it. As the older version of the catechism puts it, preserve and increase your church. Well, in John chapter 10, Jesus said, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them from my hand. And he's also promised in the Great Commission and that he will be with us even to the end of the age. Faith, created in us by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, believes these promises. And when we pray for God to preserve his church, we're asking God to grant us assurance that he is in fact doing what he said he would do so that we might be strengthened in the meantime. That we would remember that we've not been abandoned here on this beachhead. That He's with us, even as we wait. That He is preserving us. And to pray for the increase of the church is to pray that God would add to it by the Holy Spirit, creating faith through the preaching of the gospel, not only here, but around the world, that every tribe, every nation, every people, every tongue, every person, Lord willing, would hear the gospel. That the Holy Spirit would move to create faith in God's people. that's what we pray when we pray your kingdom come or we should that's what should be in our minds Jesus said I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God because that is why I was sent and he sent out the twelve to preach this message the kingdom of heaven is near and in Matthew chapter 24 Jesus said this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come but to pray for the increase of the church is to pray for more than an increase in numbers it's to pray for an increase in maturity and purity in Ephesians chapter 4 Paul explains that Christ provides his church with preachers of the word so that the body of Christ might be built up to maturity and in the next chapter Ephesians chapter 5 he explains how Christ makes the church holy cleansing her by the washing with water through the word purity, maturity and extending the numbers your kingdom come and thirdly and finally your kingdom come means destroy the devil's work destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your word when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans he concludes with this encouragement the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Applying to them the promise of the gospel. The first promise of the gospel. To pray your kingdom come is to ask God to make good on his promise. Not only in the end, but also in the meantime. To destroy the works of his enemy, the devil. To destroy every force that revolts against him, whether it's inside the church or outside the church. Anything that opposes the means he has given. To establish his kingdom. The preaching of the gospel. And the power of the Spirit. We pray this knowing that Christ will build his church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So in all these ways, when we pray, your kingdom come in the meantime. Until Christ comes again in glory, we pray that God would continue in the church. to work by his Holy Spirit through the means of grace, the gospel preached, and the sacraments displayed. And he would use these means to build up the kingdom of God, to extend the kingdom of God, to have the kingdom of God subject to him in all things. In Head 5 of the Canons at Door, Article 14, we confess, And as it has pleased God by the preaching of the gospel to begin this work of grace in us, so he preserves, continues, and perfects it by the hearing and reading of his word, by meditation thereon, and by the exhortations, threatenings, and promises thereof, and by the use of the sacraments. When we pray your kingdom come, let us do so remembering the beginning, Anticipating the end, even as we pray for the continued grace of God for his church as we are waiting in the meantime. We pray with the Apostle John, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come before you with glad hearts to know that your kingdom is coming. That you promised it to your people. That we can expect it to come in glory and we can expect to stand in it for the sake of Christ and not be undone. Lord, help us to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness help us to lift our eyes from the mundane and the routine and the distracting that we would set our eyes on the horizon longing for the day that Christ will return to rescue his people, body and soul to restore all things and to bring in glory without restraint and in the meantime Lord that we would pray your kingdom come in the life of your church in the life of your people that we would be citizens befitting such a kingdom the praise of your name and the well-being of the church we pray in Christ's name Amen