Kingdom, Power & Glory

so much that is changing so quickly.

And there's all this talk of the new normal,

and yet we are not certain what that new normal will be.

All we know now is that everything feels different.

And that can be profoundly disorienting.

It can leave us feeling like not only are we not in control,

but we don't even know which way is up.

And for that reason, we've been looking these last several weeks

at the Lord's Prayer.

And we're looking at this prayer not only to learn how to pray,

but because this prayer contains core truths.

It's a kind of summary, a distillation of a lot of theology

from the Old and the New Testament.

And ultimately, this prayer reminds us what is true.

It reminds us what we can count on.

It reminds us what we can hold on to,

and it feels like everything else is up for grabs.

And this is especially true when we come to the end of this prayer,

what we call the doxology of the prayer,

which says, for yours or for thine is the kingdom

and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Now, even though this last part of the prayer

was not recorded in Matthew's version of the prayer,

we know that the church has been praying this ending to the prayer

ever since the first century.

And this little piece of the prayer

is a deeply biblical prayer of praise.

That's what a doxology is.

It's a prayer of praise to God.

And it's a prayer that extols three great themes about God

that we see running all the way through Scripture.

And they are the themes of God's kingdom,

God's power, and God's glory.

And the reason that we're looking at these this morning is this.

I know of nothing that provides more comfort

or more true hope

than God's kingdom,

God's power,

and God's glory,

when we rightly understand them

and base our lives on them.

I know of no greater source of comfort or strength or hope.

So I want to look at each of these in detail.

And we're going to do that by looking at Revelation chapters 4 and 5.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

Now, you may be wondering,

what in the world does Revelation have to do with the Lord's Prayer?

Well, Revelation is actually an amazing book of theology.

Now, most people don't think about that

because most of the time when we think theology,

we think in left-brain terms.

We think of systematic doctrines that are logically laid out,

presuppositions and inferences

that reflect what we know to be true in Scripture.

And that is certainly a hugely important part of theology.

But the book of Revelation is theology for the right brain.

The book of Revelation is filled with rich images

and fantastic scenes unfolding, visions.

It's filled with drama and poetry.

It paints a theological picture for our right brains.

And so it's a fantastic source for understanding

God's kingdom and power and glory.

And specifically, we see those in Revelation chapters 4 and 5.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

God gives the Apostle John a vision

where he's taken up into the heavenly throne room

and he joins into a worship service that is already underway.

And in this vision,

God's kingdom and power and glory are put on full display.

So we're going to look at these chapters to understand

this ending to the Lord's Prayer

and why it offers such great comfort to us.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word

and we thank you for your kingdom

and your power and your glory.

And we thank you for this prayer that's been handed down to us from Jesus.

And we pray that we would more deeply and accurately understand it

as we look at it this morning.

And we pray that through that,

we would come into a deeper relationship with you,

that we would fall more in love with you,

Lord, through your word.

We pray this in your son's holy name.

Amen.

So first of all, let's look at God's kingdom

as we see it unfolding here.

In the book of Revelation, when it opens,

we learn that John at this point in his life

is living in exile on the Isle of Patmos.

And he is no doubt feeling extremely disoriented

and out of control,

probably like many of us are right now.

And so God gives John a vision to reorient him,

to remind him of what is ultimately true,

despite what his life looks like in the moment.

And in this vision,

John enters into this heavenly worship service

that's already underway.

And verse two tells us that the first thing John sees is a throne.

He sees a throne.

And it says there is one seated on the throne.

And the thing that he realizes is that everyone

and everything in this room is centered around this throne.

This throne is the center of everything.

And what we realize looking at this image

is that this throne and the one seated on the throne,

this throne is the center of everything.

It's the center of the world.

It's the center of everything that exists.

And it's the source of all authority.

So all human thrones, all human governments,

all human leaders,

whether they're presidents or kings or queens or CEOs

or parents or teachers or coaches,

anyone with any kind of authority

is merely a reflection or a shadow of this throne.

This is the embodiment of true authority.

And so John recognizes this.

And then it says in verses nine and 10,

that the elders who are surrounding the throne,

they're worshiping the one seated on the throne.

They're singing praises to God.

And then it says they're casting their crowns down

before the throne.

Now that's very important.

When I ask, what is this showing us?

Well, this is showing us how life is meant to work,

how the world is meant to function.

So think of our solar system

and think about all of these massive bodies

moving through space.

And if you've ever seen a model of the solar system,

you see that there's incredible precision.

There's incredible order to the solar system.

And the question is raised,

well, why or how could all of these planets

be moving in such a beautiful choreography,

nothing ever bumping or slamming into each other,

all of these planets moving in perfect time

with all of the other ones.

And the reason there's such order

is because they're all centered on the same thing.

And in that case, the sun,

they're all oriented toward the sun.

And because of that,

they move in perfect harmony with one another.

Without that center,

without that common central point,

all of these,

there would be no solar system.

Things would be crashing into each other.

The beautiful order would give way to chaos.

And this is a way of understanding

why our world is the way it is.

Why human beings are always crashing into each other.

Why our agendas are always in conflict

with someone else's agenda.

Why there is so much fighting and conflict

and violence and injustice

and poverty and hate

and discrimination in the world.

Why these things exist

is because human beings have lost our common center.

We're no longer that solar system

of precision and harmony and order.

We have no center.

Or a better way to think of it is

we all have a different center.

We all have something around which we orbit.

Something that has taken the throne of our lives.

And that's different for all of us.

So our orbits are constantly changing.

Sometimes, as I think about my own life,

sometimes my needs take the central place in my life.

My needs take over

and they're driving my decisions.

Sometimes our fears claim the throne.

And sometimes our fears take that central place

in our lives.

They take over.

Sometimes our desires, they take over.

And they're driving us in our lives.

Sometimes our desires become that central thing.

But whatever sits on the throne of your life

will define you.

Whatever sits on the throne of your life

will define you.

Now, what does this have to do with the Lord's Prayer?

Well, every time we pray the Lord's Prayer

and every time we pray your kingdom,

every time we pray yours is the kingdom

or thine is the kingdom,

we are, in a sense, casting our crown

at the foot of this throne.

With those words, we are ultimately saying to God,

my life doesn't work when I'm the center of it.

Because that's not how it was designed to work.

My life doesn't work if my needs are the center of it,

if my fears are the center of it,

if my desires are the center of it.

My life doesn't work.

Not only does my life not work,

my relationships don't work.

I lose my way.

And so what we're saying with that prayer,

thine is the kingdom,

yours is the kingdom, God.

We're saying, I need you, God,

to sit on the throne of my life.

I need you to be the center of my solar system

and bring everything into harmony and order.

I need you to be the one to do that.

And so what that means is taking all of our needs

and all of our fears and all of our desires

and putting them under the authority of God,

casting our crowns down at the foot of his throne.

So every time you pray the Lord's prayer

and you say, thine is the kingdom,

I encourage you to envision this throne

and envision yourself casting your crown

down before this throne.

That's what you're saying.

So that's the first theme, God's kingdom,

God's kingship, God's throne.

The second thing we pray is, yours is the power.

Thine is the power.

And the symbol of God's power in Revelation,

in this place in Revelation is a scroll.

In verse one of chapter five, it says,

then I saw in the right hand of him

who is seated on the throne,

a scroll written within and on the back,

sealed with seven seals.

So God is holding a scroll in his right hand.

And it says this scroll is covered in writing.

Both sides have been absolutely covered,

top to bottom, front and back with writing.

And in John's vision, this scroll represents all of history.

It represents all of the events that have unfolded

since the creation of the universe.

Everything that has happened,

everything that is happening,

everything that will happen,

it's all written down here.

And in the Bible, this scroll that represents all of history

is in God's right hand.

And in the Bible, your right hand,

that is the hand of authority.

That's the hand of kingship.

That's the hand of strength.

And so what this image shows us,

again, right brain theology,

what this is teaching us visually

is that God has authority over all of history.

God holds all of history in his right hand.

And that makes sense that God would have authority over history

because God is the author of history.

And so it's the kind of authority that only an author can have.

And I think this is something that we need to be reminded of

every single day.

Because I think more often than not,

it seems like no one is in control.

It seems like there is no one who has authority over history.

No one who has authority over the events in our lives.

I mean, from our perspective,

life most of the time feels utterly random

and completely meaningless.

When we hear especially,

or when we hear of people suffering

or facing senseless tragedy,

or when we ourselves experience suffering

or senseless tragedy,

when we can't make sense of it,

when it seems random,

it's easy to look at all of life and to say,

this is all random and meaningless.

No one's in charge.

No one's calling the shots.

And it's natural in times like that

to begin to wonder, where is God in all of this?

Or how could God let something like this happen to me?

And these are questions that if we're honest,

I think we ask all the time in our lives.

But when we pray,

yours is the kingdom and the power,

we're talking about God's sovereignty over history.

God's power enacted all throughout history.

Now, this is utterly unique

because there are a lot of philosophies out there

that tend more toward fatalism or determinism.

They say that the end,

that the direction of history and the end of history

and our end is more or less fixed

and our choices don't really matter.

So they say that our destiny is more or less determined

despite our choices.

You can try to fight your fate,

you can try to fight your destiny,

but destiny will win every time.

There are other worldviews and philosophies

that go in the opposite direction.

They tend to lean more towards emphasizing free will.

So they say that our choices do determine the outcome

and that we hold our destiny in our hands

and we have the power to write our own story.

And so they say,

instead of saying that our destiny is determined

despite our choices,

they say our destiny is determined

because of our choices.

All right, so these are the two sort of categories

that we see in terms of worldview.

But what the scroll in heaven shows us,

the scroll in God's right hand shows us something else.

Because the God that we worship

is the author of history,

Christians have a much more beautiful and nuanced

and I think balanced understanding of how history works.

Because what we believe

is that God has such control over history.

He has such control over history

and yet he is so intimately involved in our lives

that our destiny is determined through our choices.

So on the one hand,

we believe that our choices matter.

They make a difference.

They shape our lives.

They shape the world.

There are real consequences and implications.

They do have an impact

and we are responsible for our choices.

And yet on the other hand,

God is directing all of these courses and outcomes

and God is continually weaving everything together

like a great tapestry.

If you've ever played chess

against somebody who's really good,

if you've ever played chess against a chess master,

you realize that as the game progresses,

you are free to make whatever choices you want.

You can move whatever pieces on the board you want

and use whatever strategy you want.

But no matter what you do,

if you're playing against a true master,

no matter what you do,

eventually all of those moves

will lead one after another into checkmate.

And it feels as though

all of the decisions that you made

were ultimately only contributing to that checkmate.

But that's what it means to play with somebody

who is really in control of the board

and they understand all of the pieces

and all of the movements in a way that we don't.

And it's the same when it comes to God and history.

No matter how much evil gets thrown at God,

no matter how much rebellion gets thrown at God,

no matter how much human beings turn their backs on God

and ignore God and live in the world that God made

and act as though he doesn't exist,

no matter how much we do this,

it all gets folded into a sequence of events

that will one day lead to a new heavens and a new earth

and a God who stands before us

and with compassion and empathy beyond all understanding

wipes every tear away from our eyes.

That's the Christian hope.

So when we pray the Lord's Prayer

and when we say,

yours is the power,

think of that scroll.

Think of the fact that that scroll of history

is in God's right hand.

No matter how hard life gets,

no matter how meaningless it all seems,

God is in control.

And whatever you're facing right now,

even if it doesn't make sense,

even if it looks like total chaos,

God is in control.

And we know how the story ends.

So that's God's kingdom

and then God's power.

But now we want to look at this third theme,

God's glory.

In John's vision,

the scroll is in God's right hand,

but the problem is that the scroll is sealed shut.

And an angel says that they need someone

to come and open the scroll.

And based on what we just said,

what that means is

they need someone who is worthy enough

to enact God's plan in history,

someone to open the scroll,

to bring it all to bear.

And John realizes that there's no one,

or so he thinks,

who can do that.

And so he begins to weep.

Because what hope is there

for all of the suffering in the world?

What hope is there for all of the injustice

and the racism and the violence

and the war?

And what hope for resolution

do we have in the world that we live in

if no one can open the scroll,

if no one can enact God's plan?

And so John begins to weep.

And then Jesus arrives.

And you say,

well, where was Jesus all along?

He wasn't there in the beginning of the scene,

and all of a sudden,

Jesus arrives.

And this is a bit of a sidebar,

but because this is Ascension Sunday,

and we on this day,

and actually a few days ago,

we celebrate

after Jesus conquers sin and death,

through his crucifixion and resurrection,

Jesus then ascends to the throne of heaven.

And so on this day,

we remember and celebrate

the ascension of Christ.

Well, Revelation 4 and 5

shows us the ascension

from the perspective of heaven.

Right?

So in Acts,

the disciples see Jesus ascend

and depart from them.

But in Revelation,

John is able to,

through this vision,

witness Jesus arriving

in the heavenly throne room.

This is the ascended Christ.

And we know that

because in verse 5,

one of the elders says,

weep no more.

Behold,

the lion of the tribe of Judah,

the root of David,

has conquered.

He's conquered sin and death.

He's accomplished

God's plan

on the cross

and in the tomb

so that he can open the scroll

and its seven seals.

So John is exuberant

and John turns

expecting to see Jesus

as this ferocious lion of Judah.

But then something bizarre happens.

John doesn't see a lion.

John turns

and he sees a lamb.

It says he sees a lamb

in verse 6,

I saw a lamb standing

as though it had been slain.

Now in ancient literature,

when it comes to symbolism,

lions and lambs

are basically opposites.

Lions represent strength.

They represent royalty.

They represent power.

Lambs are the opposite.

Lambs represent weakness

and powerlessness.

And so the question

of this whole section is,

which is he?

Which is he?

Is he, as the elder said,

the lion of Judah,

the ferocious lion?

Or is he, as John sees,

the helpless lamb?

And of course,

the answer is,

Jesus Christ is both.

He's both the lion and the lamb.

And this is the great paradox

of the Christian gospel.

You know, I think this is the thing

that sets Christianity apart

from any other religion

or philosophy

or worldview out there.

It's one of the reasons

that I first came to faith

as a Christian.

The lion is the lamb.

If you want to see God's glory,

if you want to see the jaw-dropping,

awe-inspiring radiance

of God's character on display,

look at the cross

where the lion became a lamb.

On the cross,

the judge took on the judgment

that was meant for the world.

On the cross,

the conqueror

allowed himself to be conquered

for the sake of the world.

On the cross,

the king allowed his coronation

to become a crucifixion

for the sake of the world.

The cross turns our whole idea

of glory completely upside down.

It completely flips everything

on its head

because we live in a culture

of self-glorification

and self-exaltation.

We worship wealth and status

and success and influence

and celebrity.

And yet God,

in a world like ours,

God reveals his glory

on the hardwood of the cross.

which is a place

of humiliation and torture.

But there we see

what true glory is.

Not self-exaltation,

but self-donation.

An act of love.

Jesus Christ,

who lived the life

that we should have lived,

who was then willing

to die the death

that we deserve to die,

His glory was His willingness

to give everything up

for us

because He loves us.

And this shows us

what true glory really is.

So when we pray

in the Lord's Prayer,

yours is the glory.

Think of the cross.

Think of the cross of Christ.

And when we pray this prayer

in the Lord's Prayer,

it's an opportunity

not only for us

to praise and worship

God who is glory,

God to whom

all glory belongs.

We're not only able

to praise and worship

the God

and the glory of the cross,

but we are also affirming

this definition of glory

over and above that

of our culture.

So God's glory

is reflected in us

when we take up our cross.

when we're willing

to follow Jesus faithfully

even when it costs us.

When we're willing

to give our lives to Him.

And then when we're willing

to give ourselves

to loving and serving

our neighbors

and the people

who God puts in our lives.

When we do those things,

God's glory is reflected in us.

God's glory is reflected

all throughout the world.

It's reflected like the moon

reflects the light of the sun.

It's reflected in the everyday courage

of healthcare professionals

who are risking their lives

right now

to treat people who are sick.

It's reflected in people

who are giving financially

to support people

who have been adversely affected

by this pandemic

and the loss of their jobs.

It's reflected in people

who are out on the street

handing out masks

to people who need them.

People who live on the street

who don't have access

to things like that.

It's reflected in people

who are delivering food

and making sure

that everyone has enough to eat.

It's reflected in people

who are simply taking the time

to check in on their neighbors

and to make sure

that they're okay.

In all of these things,

most of these people

will never have their name in lights.

They'll never have their name

in the news.

And yet in these quiet,

often unrecognized acts

of sacrifice,

they are reflecting

the very heart

of the God of the universe.

that's true glory.

So to bring all of this together,

life is unpredictable at best.

And I think in the coming months

and years,

it's going to be

a whole lot more of uncertainty.

And a whole lot is going to change.

And there will be a new normal.

And we're not sure

what that new normal

is going to be.

And there's not a lot

to hold on to right now.

But this final statement

of praise in the Lord's Prayer

gives us three things

that are eternally true

no matter what else happens.

God's kingdom.

God sits on the throne of the world.

God's power.

He holds all of history

in his right hand.

God's glory.

The lion became a lamb

to save humanity.

I don't think there's

any greater source of comfort

to be found

anywhere in the world.

And when you pray,

and when you pray

the Lord's Prayer,

if you believe

these things to be true,

then say to God

when you're done praying,

Amen.

Which is as important

as every other word

in this prayer

because it's our way

of saying to God,

I am more certain

of your promises.

And I am more certain

of your character.

And I am more certain

of the truths in this prayer

than I am of anything else

in my life.

Amen says God.

You and your character

and your promises,

those are the foundation

of my life.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you.

And now we ask that

these things that are

in our minds,

these realities

that we're holding

in our minds

would make the long journey

into our hearts.

And we pray that

that would be aided

by the power

of your Holy Spirit.

We pray that you would

plant these truths,

God's kingship

and kingdom,

God's power

and God's glory

so deeply in our hearts

that they would be

the center,

that they would define

and redefine

our perspective

and even how we make

sense of this day.

And we pray this,

Lord, for our good

and for your glory

in your Son's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

That song of Wayne