Thy Kingdom Come

As we look at the world, it isn’t uncommon to hear of men and women speaking about an empire they’ve built. Maybe it’s a dynasty football program, a real estate business, or a music career; whatever it is, when we look at the world, it isn’t rare to find people focused on building their kingdoms. This is what we’ve discussed the last few weeks as we have taken note of the prideful hearts of the Pharisees who act religiously in public for their own name's sake. And though they weren’t building multi-million dollar companies, they were pursuing their own kingdoms and not God’s. Maybe this is where you’re at today. Maybe you’ve found yourself building your own kingdom as you’ve taken your eyes off the will of God given in His Word and turned your attention towards your own plans. That might look like allowing a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend to fall into sin to satisfy your lust even though you know the Lord is against it. Maybe it is telling the Lord His commands will need to wait while you focus on a sport, or a goal of yours. Whatever it is, when we direct our attention and affections towards anything that is contrary to God’s Word, we are building our own kingdoms which the Bible tells us are on sinking sand.

As we look at the Lord’s prayer today, He teaches us to pray a second request in this series and that prayer request is, “Thy kingdom come.” And as we take a look at this passage, we are going to find that the kingdom of God is one that takes the hearts of enemies and makes them people who love and live for their Savior King. Today we will quickly cover the prophecy of the kingdom, the presentation of the kingdom, the empowerment of the kingdom, and the progression of the kingdom and then we will find how it applies to our lives as we look at our hearts, our prayer lives, and our confidence in evangelism. It is my desire today that God might use His word to tune our hearts to sing along with the old hymn “His Coming in Glory” which goes:

Oh, the joy to see you reigning,

You, my own beloved Lord.

Every tongue Your name confessing,

Worship, honor, glory, blessing,

Brought to You with glad accord.

You, my master and my friend,

Vindicated and enthroned,

Unto earth’s remotest end,

Glorified, adored, and owned.

A Prophesied Kingdom

As Americans, the term “Kingdom” is not something we use very often, however, in the Bible it is used quite a bit. As we look in the Old Testament, we find that the Kingdom of God is promised all throughout it. In Isaiah 2:2-3 we read:

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

It is in this passage that Isaiah is prophesying a day where Christ will be exalted in the Heavens where He will rule and from His throne He will draw people from all nations whose hearts call out to run to Him. We also see this in Psalm 2:6-8 where we read, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” So, it is in the Old Testament that we are told of a kingdom that is coming where Christ will reign from Heaven where the Father will give to Him all that He asks. So, what we find here is that this kingdom that Christ calls us to pray for is a prophesied kingdom. But this isn’t all, it was a presented kingdom.

A Presented Kingdom

As we look in the Gospels, you will find Christ making mention of the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God being at hand. When the Jews see Christ casting out demons, they start whispering that He is only doing this because He has made a deal with Satan. And Christ turns to them and says, “If I drive out demons by Beezlebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?” and then He says, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” This is only one of many examples where Christ is directly telling them that He is the King of glory, He is the ruler of Zion come before them. What He is telling them here is that the miracle that He performed attests to Him being the King that the prophets of the Old Testament told about. Christ goes on in Matthew 12:29 to say, “Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” John Gill explains it this way, “by the "strong man", is meant the devil, see ( Isaiah 49:24 Isaiah 49:25 ) who is powerful and mighty…but Christ is stronger than he, and attacked him, and dispossessed him of the bodies of men; and restraining him from doing them any hurt, enters into the souls of men, dethrone him, and leads him captive, who led others; and keeps him from doing them any damage.” Here we see Christ coming to do the Father’s will by the power of the Spirit. Here we see the Trinity present in the presentation of the Kingdom of God which comes to bring deliverance to the souls of men. And it is in this time on Earth that Christ offers redemption to Israel, but they reject Him and deliver Him up to be crucified. But a while before He dies, He looks at His disciples in Matthew 16:28 and says, “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Now what do you think that might mean? This is a debated passage, as some believe it to refer to the story of the mount of Transfiguration where Jesus reveals Himself in glory to a few disciples, but others believe that this could be referring to the day of Pentecost where Christ sends the Holy Spirit in fullness to His people. I think it could be referring to both events, but at the time of Pentecost, we find our third point which is the Kingdom of God empowered. (Turn to Acts 2)

An Empowered Kingdom

In Acts 2, we read that the Holy Spirit comes down upon them, enabling gifts and empowering them to preach the Word. Now, the important thing here is that in the Old Testament Christians were really born again and really had the Holy Spirit, but they weren’t all anointed for jobs like the priests and kings were. However, when Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, all Christians are empowered to serve as a nation of kings and priests to the glory of God. And it is through the ministry of the Word through these empowered apostles that God turns the hearts of dead men to Christ as we later read of 5,000 men believing upon Christ. This is the kingdom of God empowered. That Christ has bought His people and empowers them by the Spirit to the glory of the Father. By the Spirit we are a people who are free from the bondage of sin, and we are empowered to be Christians in our daily lives if we rest upon Him. Now, we just saw a lot of people added to the Church in Acts. Acts 4 tells us 5,000 men, not counting women or young people. But I want to cover one more point to give us a full picture and that is the kingdom progressing.

A Progressing Kingdom

Earlier we read in Isaiah that Christ would be drawing people from every nation to Himself. And in Matthew 13:31-32 we read, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” Now, I’ve taught on this text before, but what Jesus is telling us is that His kingdom will grow and it will be a place where even the birds, or the gentiles, will find rest. What we find throughout the Bible is that the kingdom of God is growing, and it’s growing by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is sitting in Heaven waging a war right now and He isn’t doing it with guns or knives, He is doing it through His Church with His Gospel, by His Spirit. I am a casualty of Christ’s holy war. I was once an enemy of His, but He slew me in my hardened heart and raised me back to life by the hand of grace. Our Lord’s Gospel will not be stopped, He is saving His people from all over the world, and His Church is growing. He will not be beaten, He will win the war and He does this by turning the hearts of men who hate him into men who love Him and serve Him.

So, when you pray “Thy Kingdom Come,” you are praying for the saving of souls. But it isn’t as though God does this without us. God chooses to save people through the Church. So when we pray for this, let us pray asking for the Lord to make us aware of gospel opportunities throughout our day. When you pray “Thy kingdom come,” you are praying for the Lord to destroy the kingdom of darkness in this world. When you pray “Thy kingdom come,” you are praying for the kingdom of grace to reign in your heart. Does it? Has Christ’s reign of grace been established in your heart? Are you a person who looks at the world and longs for Christ to save men and make all things new? Are you a person, who like Christ in Gethsemane, prays, “Father, not my will but thy will be done.” Is this our prayer today or are we happy to go on building our own kingdoms? When God reigns in our hearts, we will be a people who will long to glorify Him in the work that we do in our lives. This looks like us loving our neighbor, helping those in need, doing honest work, loving the Church and more. It is my deepest prayer for you all that the sun of grace has risen in your hearts and melted away the bitter frost of sin.