"Prayer and His Kingdom" Matthew 6:10a Sunday Morning Worship Service

Matthew 6, verse 9.

Matthew 6:9

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.

As I mentioned a minute ago, we'll be back in a few weeks to look at your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This morning I want to focus us on this phrase at the beginning of verse 10 in our prayers, Your kingdom come.

The kingdom is the theme really of the Gospel of Matthew.

Repeatedly in this book, there is instruction about the kingdom, teaching about the kingdom, prophecies about the kingdom, declarations of the kingdom.

Jesus is even crucified with a sign that labels him the king of the Jews.

But in the middle of this book is this warning to you.

I'll put it on the screen, Matthew 13, verse 19.

Matthew 13:19

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

As I mentioned, the kingdom is a theme of the Gospel of Matthew.

So this warning should uh open your eyes and cause you to tune in here.

Jesus says, if you hear the word of the kingdom and you don't understand it, the devil is actually having a victory over you at that moment.

When the words about the kingdom of God hit your ears and they get into your head, but you're unable to assimilate them and understand what is being taught about the kingdom, that is a victory for the devil.

And the devil doesn't just wrestle it away from your head, but the devil's victory goes down into your heart.

He the devil robs you of godly affections, robs you of loving the Lord, robs you of the word growing in your heart when you're unable to understand what is meant by the kingdom of God.

It is not a small small theme in the Bible, it is a massive theme, not just in the Gospel of Matthew, but in the Bible as a whole.

And that's why in the Sermon on the Mount here, it's appropriate that Jesus would really intro his teaching on prayer with the declaration about the kingdom.

As we've been looking at this what's often called the Lord's Prayer here over the last few weeks, you see it beginning with a contrast.

Don't pray like the Gentiles, don't pray like the hypocrites out on the street corners and in the synagogues.

Don't pray like them who heap up their words and want to be seen by others.

Instead, pray in this way.

And then what follows is the Lord's Prayer, and it's not a formula to be memorized, it's not a spell that you chant, it's not something you just read back to God as if you were impressed with the words, but it is more of an outline for prayer.

It's a structure, it's a skeleton, and you can fill it in with your own prayers.

I like to think of it as a connect the dot, you know, like the kids' menu, uh the connect the dots, and you draw the lines around.

That's what the Lord's prayer is.

It's teaching you at a childlike level how to pray.

You fill it in, you color it in however you want, but you're supposed to more or less follow this outline.

And the outline begins by addressing your prayer to God, our Father who is in heaven, by recognizing that it is his name that should be predominant.

It's his name that should preeminate be preeminent.

You want him to be preeminent in all things.

You want him to be sanctified, which means to be treated as holy on the earth.

And then really your your petition here in verse 10 is you're praying for his kingdom to come.

Your first supplication off of the Lord here, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom from heaven to earth come.

You want God's kingdom to be present in a real and manifest way on the earth, in a way that it's not right now.

You're praying that it would come to the earth.

You want it to come from heaven to the earth, just like his will.

We'll look at that next week.

The will in heaven to be done on earth.

You want his kingdom to come from up high to down low.

You want his kingdom to be prevalent on the earth.

That's what you're praying for.

Now, here's just a basic observation at the start of our message today.

Whose kingdom are you supposed to pray for?

God's kingdom.

The antecedent here is our Father in heaven.

It's his kingdom that should dominate your affections, his kingdom that should dominate your prayers.

And so you might take a second and ask yourself when you're praying, whose kingdom are you praying for normally?

Like just look at the body of your prayer.

Are you mostly praying for your kingdom or his kingdom?

I'm afraid that often in our prayers, we structure our prayers around our kingdoms, our little fiefdoms, you know, at a small level, our family, our needs, our job, our children, our parents, our finances, our health, our stuff, our little kingdom, we often pray for our kingdom more than we pray for God's kingdom.

And then moving beyond the borders of your own family, which are not bad to pray for, by the way, that's coming up in the Sermon on the Mount.

Coming up is praying for your own food and your own provisions.

But moving beyond your own family is praying for your own country.

And when I hear some people talk about prayer, it seems like a dominant theme in their prayer is praying for their nation, praying for their country.

It seems every election cycle, there's, you know, calls for prayer for our country, prayer for uh the which is really another way of saying praying for our kingdom here on earth.

Let's pray for our kingdom and for God to be at work in our kingdom, which is in reality a prayer for this kingdom here, as opposed and in contrast to praying for God's kingdom above.

And so again, ask yourself what kingdom dominates your prayer life?

Do you pray more for God's kingdom or your kingdom here?

Or your nation as a kingdom?

In fact, go bigger than your prayer life.

Talk about your own life, all of it.

Your affections, your hope, your confidence in the future, what you love, what you're worried about.

I mean, all of that kind of defines you.

What captures your attention more than anything else?

Are you consumed by the kingdom of heaven or are you consumed by the kingdoms on earth?

Let me go one step further.

Here's just a basic biblical definition of idolatry.

An idol is something that you think will give you health and prosperity, something you think will secure a good future for your children if you serve it the right way.

And you think if I serve this in the right way, my children will have a blessed life, I will have a blessed life, things will go well for me if this is satisfied.

That is an idol.

If you're looking for something to alleviate your fears and satisfy you in this world and give your children hope of a good life in this world, I mean that's either got to be God or it's an idol.

Those are the two categories.

And I am afraid that so many of us, especially in this area, you know, we consume news all the time, we consume politics all the time, and our hearts just get overwhelmed with fear and love and concerns of this world, and this idea that if things in this kingdom don't go the right way, our children won't have the right place to grow up in, or there will be just disaster in the future, and there's this so much fear.

And I and I understand there's things in the news that dominate our hearts and give us fear.

You look at what's happening on the southern border and the corruption and politics and the materialism in our society and our culture, and you think, if this doesn't change, what kind of world will my kids grow up in?

And so you look to the kingdom on earth to change for the better.

You pray for that end and you work for that end to give you and your children a secure future.

But that is just not, that's praying differently than this prayer.

This prayer is aimed at God's kingdom before your own kingdom.

Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for your own nation or that you shouldn't love your nation.

Uh I am patriotic.

I love the United States of America.

I'm thankful for the freedoms we have.

I'm thankful in history for the global influence of missions that have come from the United States, has taken the gospel around the world and for the freedoms that our country has even brought around the world with the gospel.

I'm grateful to be an American in that sense.

I'd rather be an American and complain about this country than be a citizen and complain about some of some other country and complain about that country.

Like if I complain about this country, I'm not gonna end up in jail, probably.

That's different than the rest of the world.

And so you can be glad that you're an American.

I'm and you can be glad that there are those that fight for our freedoms to protect our freedoms and they're will lay their lives down for our freedoms.

But I am, again, super concerned that love for this country becomes a dominant theme of prayer and a dominant source of your idea of hope for your children and a predominant really eclipse of your affections, where your affections of God are blocked out because you're so concerned and worried for this country.

Jesus does not say, pray in this way, Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

This kingdom on earth, Lord, we need help.

Sort it out.

And Rome was a massive nation.

Rome was the most powerful nation in the world.

That's where Jesus was.

And you could follow along the justification here, Lord.

If you would establish your kingdom through the Roman Empire, it would be just incredible.

It could dominate the world and do so much good for you, Lord.

Rome is uniquely situated to be a powerful beacon of democracy and hope and all this in the world.

So, Lord, establish the Roman Empire.

We pray for that end, but that is not what he says.

He prays, Father, your kingdom come.

It's aimed towards heaven about the kingdom of God.

Now, I know there are examples of praying for your own nation in the Bible.

In fact, let me put the one you may be thinking of on the screen.

1 Timothy 2.

Paul says, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Think about what he's commanding here.

He is saying, I want you to pray for everyone.

Now, who in the Roman church, the church, 1 Timothy is written to Ephesus, which is in the Roman Empire here, who in that church are people gonna say, Yeah, I'll pray for everybody, but not those people.

I mean, that's the implication behind what Paul is saying here.

I want you to pray for everybody.

He can picture the Christians going, okay, I can pray for my neighbors, I can pray for my enemies.

I'm definitely not praying for Caesar, I'm definitely not praying for the emperor.

Like that's too far.

And Paul says, No, pray for everybody, including kings, including those in authority, including those evil, villainous politicians, pray even for them.

What are you supposed to pray for for them?

That they would establish God's kingdom on earth?

No, Paul says very specifically, pray for them.

Pray, first of all, and most of all, that they would leave you alone.

I mean, that's the that's the crux of his prayer for government officials.

God, we pray that those who are in authority over us would let us live our own lives.

Like if you're looking for a political platform to staple this to, this would be the libertarians' prayer right here.

God, we pray our government would just let us live our lives.

Let us let the church be the church.

Let Christians be the Christians.

Let us work with our hands quietly, make a living for ourselves, give our money to church, give our money to missions, raise up missionaries, send them around the world.

God, we pray the government would just stay out of our affairs and let us do this.

That's what the prayer is asking.

In fact, later on in 1 Timothy 2, sorry, 1 Timothy 6, Paul closes the book by saying that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of Lords.

I mean, that eclipses this, right?

Pray for everybody, pray for your leaders that they would let you let the church be the church, but remember that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

So pray for kings, pray for presidents, pray for all people, and particularly kings and presidents, because they have the ability to meddle in the affairs of the church.

Well, they can mess you up, they can close you down, they can tell you you can't sing, they can tell you you can't sit next to each other, they can make all kinds of rules about what you can and can't do in church.

And so Paul says, pray for them, that they wouldn't do those kind of things.

But that shouldn't dominate your prayers.

What should dominate your prayers is Matthew 6, verse 10.

Matthew 6:10

Your kingdom come.

And I've talked to people to try to justify being so driven by prayer for our nation.

They try to baptize their prayers by saying the United States is God's kingdom on earth.

The United States is the kingdom of God where God is at work in a unique way.

He is establishing his kingdom.

And so when we say God's kingdom come, it's talking about the United States.

But listen, the United States is not the New Testament Israel.

The United States is a great nation, and I'm happy for it, but at the end of the day, it is just a nation.

And what happens to nations?

They rise and they fall at the will of the Lord.

We are a great nation, but we are a grain of sand in the hand of God.

Like all nations are.

I read last year uh Augustine's City of God, and it gripped me just this observation of the City of God, this is going back, you know, 300s, 400s.

When the Roman Empire was at its strongest, is when it was most pagan.

And as Christianity made its way through the Roman Empire, Rome got weak and it fell.

If you're a pastor in northern Africa, when the Roman Empire is falling, what are you supposed to say about that?

Because as Christianity grows, it seems like your country gets weaker.

And Augustine just made the argument listen, nations rise and fall according to God's own schedule, and it is disconnected from the religiosity of the people that are there.

That's not a very acceptable point.

But Augustine argued that you know what should dominate the hearts of Christians is not the city of man, but the kingdom of God.

And so Paul says, pray for leaders, but know that Jesus is King of kings.

Jesus says, pray to your Father in heaven and begin your prayers by a prayer for his kingdom.

That's what motivates you, that's what drives you.

The desire to see God as made much of in this world, that his name would be sanctified, that he would be treated as holy, and that you would build your life, your love, your hope, your future on the security of the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of man that comes and goes.

And so I do want you to try to wrestle your hopes, wrestle your worries out of this world and put them into heaven.

Again, so much in our world from the news and politics and media and entertainment and sports and all that just clamors for you to pay attention to it.

It's very difficult to say, no, the kingdom I'm living for can never be taken away from me.

The kingdom I'm living for isn't contingent on an election or a poll.

The kingdom I'm living for is in heaven and it will come to earth one day, but that's what I'm praying for.

God, I want your kingdom to come, not my own.

I want you to reign as king.

So again, evaluate your own prayer life.

Are your prayers focused on God's kingdom or your own?

Well, given the warning in Matthew's gospel that you want to understand the kingdom when it's taught, and given the way this prayer begins by praying for the kingdom to come, it is important for us to spend some time talking about what it means that you're praying that the kingdom of God would come.

The kingdom of God in the Bible is a difficult concept to understand because if you try to like chart it out, you know, when you study the kingdoms of Rome or of Persia or whatever, you go chronologically.

You start with where they came from, what happened, what happened in the future.

The kingdom of God is harder to study that way.

I'm gonna give you kind of a chronology of it.

When Jesus says, let your kingdom come, what he has in mind, first of all, the kingdom past.

The kingdom past.

And I want to give you this outline.

We're gonna do the kingdom past, the kingdom future, and the kingdom now.

I want to give you this outline because I'm trying to persuade you to pray more for the kingdom we're gonna talk about than our own earthly kingdoms here and now.

So we're gonna begin with the kingdom past.

Where does the kingdom of God come from in history?

Where did it begin?

When God made the world, he didn't make nations.

When God made the world, he made Adam and Eve, and they populated the earth.

There were not nations, there were not governments back then.

There was just people, no taxes.

So you think that's great, no taxes.

Also, no police.

That's that's bad, because there was a lot of murder.

They had that going for them: murder everywhere.

No police, no jails, no judges, no law enforcement, no taxes, just murder.

And evil populated the earth, so much so that God flooded the earth, destroyed it, and started over.

And when he started over, he established government to bear the swords.

He, the Tower of Babel, he scattered the nations.

Acts 14, verse 16 says it this way: God let all the nations go their own way.

Acts 14:16

So God builds the tower, uh, lets the people build the tower of Babel, then tears it down basically, and scatters them through the earth, and he lets them go to their own places that he draws the borders of.

Acts 17, from one man, I think it's speaking of Noah, he made every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined the allotted boundaries of their nations.

God let them go.

None of those nations had God as their king.

They all invented their own kings.

They invented their own laws.

Why did God allow that to happen?

That's Acts 17, verse 27.

Acts 17:27

God did this knowing that one day they would seek God.

He let them scatter the earth, so later, when the gospel comes, the gospel would go around the world and draw people from every nation back to him.

So that's the design behind nations.

But God didn't have a particular nation until Israel.

And when God called Israel, he did not choose a nation that already existed.

The earth was filled with nations.

God didn't choose one, he didn't choose his favorite one, he didn't choose the strongest one.

God chose to make his own nation from one person out of a nation.

And God tells, reminds Israel of this throughout the Old Testament.

God, whenever Israel rebells, God tells them, Who are you?

Do you know that you weren't a nation before I called you?

You weren't a nation until I made you a nation.

So don't talk back to me, kind of thing.

It's like a parent talking to a child.

You know, who made you?

You don't get to talk back to me.

God tells Israel that I made you, I chose you when you were not a nation.

He called Abram out of Ur and then changed his name and gave him the promise.

Deuteronomy 4, verse 34 says, God made a nation for himself by trials, signs, wonders, war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, by great deals of terror, great deeds of terror, all of which Yahweh did before their eyes.

Deuteronomy 4:34

So God made the nation of Israel by these just incredible signs and wonders and terror, the death of the firstborn, the plague of darkness, the parting of the Red Sea, manna from the ground.

I mean, no nation was forged like that.

We have our own national identity stories, you know, one of by land, two of by sea kind of thing.

Paul Revere's ride and whatnot.

Very different than Israel's origin story.

That's got manna and the Red Sea swallowing up Pharaoh's army.

That's how he made them.

And he did this in front of them so that they would see it.

They were supposed to be a special nation given to Yahweh.

Yahweh would be their king, they would have a prophet, Moses being their first prophet, and they would have people from a line of Moses that would be not genealogically, but a line of Moses, like, you know, with his mantle on them.

They would speak the word as ruler and deliverer.

Deuteronomy 34, verse 10.

Deuteronomy 34:10

It says he'll raise up a prophet like Moses from them.

And he would have priests.

In fact, the whole kingdom would be a kingdom of priests.

That's Exodus 19, verse 6.

Exodus 19:6

You will make to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

So the people were the priests, they had prophetic leadership, and Yahweh was their king.

The U.S.

has three branches of government, Israel had three branches of government prophet, priest, and king.

And God was their king is the point.

But it did not go well for them.

If you remember this, uh, they had their prophet Samuel eventually came along.

And as Samuel got old, Samuel was going to die, and the Israelites rebelled.

They took Samuel aside and they said, We need a king like the other nations.

I'll put this verse on the screen for you, 1 Samuel 8, verse 5.

1 Samuel 8:5

The Israelites corner Samuel late in his life, and they say, Behold, Samuel, you are old.

That's not very nice.

That's not a winsome way to start your speech.

Samuel, listen up.

You, my friend, are old.

Your sons don't walk in your ways.

I mean, they're looking at Samuel's kids, and they're, those people are sinners.

They're not following, they don't have a desire for godliness.

They're lecherous.

So they tell Samuel, appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.

Notice the contrast.

We see all the nations on the earth, they have kings.

They go off to battle, they got a king on a horse, and they got his face on a flag and his.

Face on their coins, they have currency with the king's face on it.

That's pretty cool.

And we go off to battle and we have to bring the Ark of the Covenant with us, and the other nation steals it from us.

That's what happened to Israel.

We don't have a king.

I wish we had a king like the other nations.

And Samuel protests and says, God is your king.

And they say, Where's God leading us into battle?

And Samuel was hurt by this.

You can see why Samuel's hurt.

I mean, they started by saying, You're old, and secondly, we don't like your kids.

And so Samuel goes to the Lord and says, I don't know what to do.

And the Lord tells Samuel, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me as their king.

That's the bottom line.

The Israelites were rejecting Yahweh as their king.

And so God tells Samuel, go give them a king like the other nations.

And Samuel, I don't know if you've thought about this before, but Samuel goes and gives them two kings.

And this is the nature of the kingship promise of the Old Testament.

It's the nature of the kingdom.

Samuel goes and gets them Saul.

Remember, Saul did not apply.

Samuel recruited Saul.

Samuel found Saul, had a whole rig and rule to disguise it.

Samuel made Saul king.

Because they deserved somebody like Saul like Saul.

Meanwhile, Samuel also makes David king.

David is a heart after God's heart.

He's a man after God's own heart.

David is trustworthy.

David is the kind of king that God would want his people to have.

And as they establish David as king, David and Saul overlap.

And Saul tries to kill David.

David runs.

Saul chases David.

They have two kind of competing things.

If Saul had any shred of credibility or godliness in him, he would have abdicated the throne and let David be the king because he knew David was the king that God wanted.

But Saul didn't.

Saul dug in and went to war to defend his little kingdom.

Imagine how hurtful it was to Saul when Jonathan, Saul's son, swore an oath of allegiance to David.

Do you remember that?

Can you imagine Jonathan coming home and telling his dad, the king, by the way, I'm loyal to King David?

Saul was furious.

Saul tells him, Do you realize by swearing to David, you're sore to your own harm?

If David becomes king, he's likely gonna kill Saul's family, is what Saul's thinking.

If David becomes thing king, Jonathan, your head's gonna come off.

And even if he doesn't kill you, the very fact that David would be king means that that you don't have, you won't ever be king, Jonathan.

Do you remember Jonathan's response?

He says, I would rather be a servant in David's kingdom than a prince in yours.

But Jonathan was loyal even to Saul to the end.

He died fighting next to Saul, but that's the two kind of promises of the kingdom.

God's going to have his kingdom on earth, but he's going to have somebody from the line of David that will come, that will be the true king, that will be the Messiah, that will be the savior.

That starts that dichotomy.

Israel is a nation, but God is not their king.

Israel is God's nation, but he is not their king.

That leads to the promise of kingdom future.

So that was the kingdom fast.

Here's the kingdom future.

Israel looked forward in the Old Testament to the day when their true king from the line of David would come.

They knew that he was promised to come.

This goes back to Genesis 3, verse 15.

Genesis 3:15

Before the flood, before nations, God had promised that a descendant of Eve would be born who would crush the serpent.

That promise gets passed all the way through Abraham to Israel, through Jacob to his twelve sons, through Judah to the tribe of Judah, to David, through the line of David.

That king will come.

He will be a human, he will be born in the line of David, and he will crush the devil.

He'll reign from Jerusalem.

That's Psalm 2, verse 7.

Psalms 2:7

God will establish him in Zion, in Jerusalem.

But this king will not just reign over Jerusalem, he will reign over all the nations of the earth.

Psalm 98 says his kingdom will bring salvation to all the nations of the earth.

Psalm 79, why should the nations ask, where is their God?

That question will be answered when the king comes, Psalm 79 says.

Psalm 82 says that God's king will inherit all the nations of the earth.

Isaiah 9, verse 6, the government of the world will be on his shoulders.

Isaiah 9:6

That's a Christmas verse, so you know we by familiarity we don't often think about just how outlandish it is.

Here's a point of contrast.

Americans like to say our nation is the strongest, most powerful nation in the world, largest military.

Other nations both do their currency off of our currency.

We're strong and influential.

Okay.

Israel says, all the nations of the earth belong to our king.

It's like a different category of bragging.

Israel says, all the gold, all the silver will go to our king.

The governments of the world will be carried on the shoulders of our king.

That's the kingdom promise.

Isaiah C 80, sorry, Psalm 86, verse 9.

Psalms 86:9

All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord, and will glorify your name.

All the nations that God has made will worship the king from heaven, the king of Israel.

Psalm 47, verse 3.

Psalms 47:3

He subdued peoples under us, he subdued nations under our feet.

Well, how is God going to subdue the nations, the rebellious nations under the feet of their king?

It'll start in Jerusalem.

Psalm 2, verse 6.

Psalms 2:6

As for me, the nations rage, the kings plot vain things, but as for me, Psalm 2, verse 6, Yahweh says, I will set my king on Zion on my holy hill.

Psalms 2:6

The nations conspire against God, but God sets his king in Jerusalem on Zion to rule them.

He'll rule them with a scepter.

And they have to kiss the sun or they will perish.

That's Isaiah 42, verse 4.

Isaiah 42:4

He shall not fail.

How will this kingdom be established?

Well it'll start small.

It'll start like a seed.

That's Matthew 13, verse 31.

Matthew 13:31

The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, a tiny seed.

It'll fall to the ground, it'll grow roots, it'll grow up, it'll become a massive tree, and all the birds of the nations will come and make their nest in its branches.

In other words, it starts small in the middle of the ground of Israel, but it'll grow so big that the nations will find their security and their shade in it.

The nations will praise Yahweh.

The nations will praise Jesus Christ, declaring that He is their God when that kingdom is grown.

Psalm 145, verse 10 All your works will give thanks to you, O Yahweh.

Psalms 145:10

All your saints will bless you, they'll speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power.

They'll make known your mighty deeds and the splendor of your kingdom.

All the nations will brag on God's king.

All the nations will give blessing and honor to Yahweh because of his kingdom.

Yahweh is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.

So understand what God is saying there.

That God's kingdom will be forever, and everybody will praise him for it, and he is faithful in his words.

His kingdom will have dominion that endures forever through all generations over the whole earth.

That's the promise.

Daniel 2, verse 44.

Daniel 2:44

In those days the kings of the earth will see the God of heaven set up his kingdom.

The kings of the earth will see this happen.

Now I've heard people say, oh, this happened already in time.

You know, the kingdom was already established, and what we're, you know, living now.

That's the this is the consummation of it.

But that is just what I all those verses I just described, that didn't happen 2,000 years ago.

All those verses I described, nothing like that has happened.

All the nations of the earth will be under the authority of the king from heaven forever and ever for all generations.

I mean, that is not in effect right now.

All the kings of the earth will see the kingdom established.

I mean, this is a future promise.

This is a future, a promise that will be realized in the future.

And that's why you see this promise repeated throughout the New Testament.

Jesus, after resurrecting from the grave, so Jesus teaches his disciples for three years about the kingdom and that he will die and resurrect.

Then he dies, resurrects, and gets 40 more days to teach them.

He spends those 40 days teaching them about the kingdom.

At the end of those 40 days, they have one question for him.

This is recorded in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

When will the kingdom come?

When are you going to establish it now?

And Jesus says, I'm not, it's not for you to know when it's going to happen.

Instead, you take the gospel to the nations.

And this marks the rest of the New Testament.

You're praying that the Lord would return.

You're praying that He would come and establish His kingdom.

Revelation closes that way.

Revelation 22, verse 20.

Revelation 22:20

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Matthew 24, 30, Jesus says the kingdom will be established when the Son of Man comes in the clouds with power and great glory, and the nations of the earth will mourn.

Revelation chapter 1 takes that same verse and says it again.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

And speaking of the Jews who who pierced him, they will see him come.

The nations of the earth will see him come, and they'll all mourn.

And you think, why would the nations of the earth mourn when Jesus comes?

Because they reject his authority, and when he comes, he's going to crush them and set up his own kingdom.

That's why they mourn.

Their kingdom will end.

It will be swallowed up by the kingdom of the Lamb.

And at that point, Psalm 96, verse 3 is fulfilled.

Psalms 96:3

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous work among all the peoples.

Isaiah 40, verse 5.

Isaiah 40:5

The glory of Yahweh will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.

All flesh, every human alive, when Jesus returns, will see his glory and will see the glory of the kingdom established.

That's a future promise.

When you pray, God, I want your kingdom to come.

That's what you're praying for.

You're praying the Lord would return.

You're praying that He would come from the clouds with power and great glory, that the nations would mourn, that they would be crushed, and that he would rule with a scepter.

And when that happens, it's going to be glorious.

No more injustice, no more government bureaucracy, no more corruption, none of that.

All that washed away and replaced with the reign of righteousness from the Prince of Peace, the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, with the governments on his shoulder.

He will reign over the earth, bringing in the glory of the Lord, and the whole earth will see it and participate in it, and it will be a marvelous time.

That's the promise of the kingdom.

And when you say, Father, let your kingdom come, you're praying for that.

Now listen, there's probably no more frequently said promise in the Bible than that the Lord will come and establish his kingdom.

It is all over the place.

So you think if God has promised it a thousand times, why should I pray for it?

Like it's gonna happen whether I pray for it or not, so why pray for it?

And I can give lots of different answers to that, and it kind of comes back to your theology of prayer.

So let me just give you the most basic answer.

The best prayers are those that God will answer.

The best prayers are those that are in accordance with God's will.

You want your prayer answered?

Pray in accordance with God's will.

You want your prayer not answered, pray something outside of God's will.

It's really that simple.

It's more complicated when you don't know what the will of the Lord is.

We'll look at that in the next part of the verse, your will be done.

That's that's for the next sermon.

But for this sermon, let me tell you something you know that is God's will.

His kingdom will come.

You know it's gonna happen.

So pray for it, and then your prayers will be answered according to his will.

Oh, we long for that day, don't we?

That'll be glorious when he comes.

But that doesn't exhaust the Bible's teaching about the kingdom.

Yes, it was promised in the past.

Yes, it will happen in the future.

But there is also a sense in which his kingdom is here and now.

This is our third point.

The kingdom now.

When you think of the promises about the kingdom, that's a wake-up call when Jesus comes, isn't it?

When Jesus comes to earth, you're expecting him to rule over all the nations, to crush the evildoers with his scepter.

You're expecting this global kingdom, and it's kind of let in.

John the Baptist ushers the kingdom in.

John the Baptist begins his ministry in Matthew 3, verse 2 with the preaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Matthew 3:2

That's how John the Baptist begins.

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

John says, the kingdom is knocking on the door.

Somebody go open it.

The next chapter, Matthew 4, verse 17, Jesus begins his ministry.

Matthew 4:17

He's baptized by John, comes out of the water, he begins his ministry, and he begins his ministry by quoting John.

He says, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Jesus tells people that.

Jesus went around teaching his disciples for three years about the kingdom.

Luke 17, verse 21, he tells his disciples, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

Luke 17:21

The kingdom of God is among you, meaning the king is there, he's right here.

The kingdom's not the door anymore, the king is hanging out with you.

Then at the end of his life, Pilate puts him on trial.

Pilate says, They say you're a king.

Are you a king?

And Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world.

Pilate kind of misses the main part of that answer and says, Aha, you are a king then.

And Jesus tells him, Listen, if my if I was a king of this world, my armies would rise up to deliver me.

So Jesus is making a statement that his kingdom is not here on this world now, but it's in heaven.

So you have to navigate this very, very carefully to make all of it be true.

There are those that say the entirety of the kingdom is spiritual and in heaven, not on earth, but that misses too much of the promises of it.

And there are those that say the entirety of the promises are on earth, and that promise was offered to Israel and then revoked from them, and so there's no, you know, earthly kingdom now.

That's too much, also.

You can't say the kingdom's entirely on earth or it's entirely in heaven, because they've both got to be true.

Jesus is when he dies, he's got a sign above them that says the king of the Jews.

That is not all the verses we just heard about all the nations seeing it.

So both have to be true.

There has to be a spiritual kingdom.

Then Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah from David's line.

And there's the promise of the future kingdom when he will establish it on earth.

So in what sense is the kingdom now?

Well, I would say it's now in this in that spiritual sense.

That when you become a believer, a follower of Christ, you become a citizen of his kingdom.

When you give your life to Christ, when you are converted, when you confess your sins to God, you become a citizen of his kingdom.

And that kingdom is growing throughout the church age.

Right now it's growing.

There's part of that kingdom that points backwards to the old promises.

There's part of that kingdom that points forward to his second coming.

But it's all true.

Here's a verse I think it'll help you understand that.

Matthew 13, verse 52.

Matthew 13:52

And Jesus said to them, Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom, so think about that for a second.

Every scribe, every religious leader that has been trained for the kingdom, Jesus is training people for the kingdom.

He says he's like a master of a house who brings out his treasures old and new.

What does that mean?

It's like you go visit a rich friend.

You've never been to his house before.

You didn't even know how rich he was.

And you go to his house and big house.

You walk in, it's like a museum in there.

And he's got treasures old and new.

He's got, oh, this was Thomas Jefferson's handkerchief.

I don't know.

This is a shoe from one of George Washington's horses.

And you go to his garage and here's his BMW M5.

The new treasure.

You got treasures old and new.

All of it's there.

Jesus says that's what it's like, having that rich friend with old treasures and new treasures.

That's what it's like to understand the kingdom.

There are old promises and there is future promises.

There is old and new, but it's all going to be true.

Jesus says the kingdom is like the net the fisherman throws over the side of his boat and drags it around, and then he says, and it gathers fish from all over the world.

Wow.

He doesn't say it gathers every fish in the world.

That would be something, but that's not what he says.

It gathers fish from all over the world.

That's what the kingdom is like right now.

The net is thrown over.

The gospel is going to the nations.

It is going around the world and it is gathering people from every tribe, every nation, every language, every ethnic group.

It's having people come to faith, it's having people join to the kingdom, as having people become kingdom citizens all over the world right now.

It's happening.

The tree is growing, the net is cast.

What happens?

What do the forces of darkness do as the kingdom grows like that?

Well, Jesus says the kingdom of God is like this.

The man sows seed, and that seed of the kingdom starts growing.

And what do his enemies do?

His enemies come and they sow weeds in his yard, they sow tares in his yard.

I've heard of a lot of crazy neighbors, but I've never heard anything that crazy.

Imagine you plant carrots, and that night your neighbor comes over and plants something like horrible, like cucumbers in your carrot patch.

And the disciples say, What are you supposed to do?

And Jesus says, The kingdom wheat is growing, the tares are growing, let it all grow.

Let it grow.

And when the kingdom comes, this master is going to come back, he'll cut out the wheat and send it to the kingdom.

He'll cut out the weeds and throw it in the fire.

In the meantime, the kingdom wheat can grow.

Let it grow.

That's what if you're a believer in Christ, you're growing in the Lord right now.

There are weeds all around us in this world.

That's all right.

Jesus will take care of it when he sets up his kingdom.

You're growing kingdom fruit now, but when Jesus comes to bring about his kingdom, oh, it's going to be glorious.

It's going to be glorious.

Matthew 11, verse 12, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew 11:12

In other words, the kingdom of heaven is advancing, starting with John the Baptist, one person at a time.

He's not talking about national warfare.

John didn't have a sword.

He's talking about the gospel going forward and people joining the kingdom of God one person at a time, conversion after conversion after conversion.

How does a person join the kingdom of God right now?

Not future.

How do they join it right now?

You know, the best passage about that is Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount.

You can look at Matthew 5, verse 2.

Matthew 5:2

Jesus opened his mouth.

This is how he began the sermon.

The Lord's Prayer is part of it.

Remember, this is the middle of a sermon Jesus is preaching.

The sermon started with Jesus saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That's how he began this sermon.

You want to get into the kingdom of heaven, you've got to be poor.

Poor spiritually speaking.

You know, in some places there's like income requirements to immigrate there.

You have to show, you know, you go visit some countries, you have to show a proof of return ticket, proof of income, a sponsor in that country.

You got all a stack of paperwork and everything to prove you're worthy enough to get in.

The kingdom of heaven.

You show up and you think, I don't have money, I don't have proof of income, I don't have the righteousness to get in, I don't have the way to get into heaven.

I can't be a kingdom citizen, and you mourn over it.

You're poor and you mourn over your lack of righteousness.

You confess your sin to God, and he forgives you, and he gives you his righteousness, and he welcomes you in.

If you're poor in spirit, yours will be the kingdom of God.

And you live in the kingdom now through faith in Christ.

You grow spiritually, you're a kingdom citizen, you grow stronger in the faith, you're growing your kingdom roots, but you suffer right now.

And Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

Matthew 5:10

So you're a kingdom citizen, yet the world hates you.

They're sowing weeds all over your life.

Nevertheless, yours, Jesus says, is the kingdom of heaven.

You're a kingdom citizen now.

You enter the kingdom through your own confession of sin, your faith in Christ.

Now you're a kingdom citizen.

But you inherit the kingdom later, when Jesus returns and establishes on earth.

And right now, God shows no favoritism.

People from any nation, any ethnic group, any language group can be a kingdom citizen.

Acts 10, verse 34.

Acts 10:34

Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him is acceptable to him.

Somebody gives their life to the Lord, they join the kingdom.

So to go back to where we began.

What motivates your prayers?

Are you praying for your little kingdom on earth?

Are you praying for God's kingdom to grow and advance on the earth through people coming to faith in Christ?

And are you praying for the soon return of the Lord Jesus from heaven to establish his kingdom on earth?

God, we're grateful that you have promised over and over and over again to establish your kingdom.

We know that you are the king reigning in heaven.

You are the high king of heaven.

Your victory has been won with the resurrection.

Nevertheless, we are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

We know that we will inherit the kingdom in the future.

We long for the day when you will return in the clouds with power and great glory.

You will establish your kingdom over all the nations, they will mourn, they will wail, and then you will be seen as the king.

Your foot will come down on the Mount of Olives, you will set up your scepter in Jerusalem, you will rule the nations, you will shake the earth, and the silver and the gold and all the tribute of the kings will funnel to Jerusalem and you will reign over the world.

We long for that day.

I pray for people here today that perhaps have never given their life to you.

I pray that today they would confess their sins, that they would take account of their own life, that they would see their spiritual poverty, that they would confess their sins to you.

We know that you're faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and we confess them to you.

And when we confess them, you receive such a sinner into heaven with open arms as they become a kingdom citizen even here and now.

We're thankful for those promises in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.