Pray for the Kingdom of Grace to Come More & More Among Us
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Dear Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Would you pray powerfully and effectively full of faith believing you will receive what you ask in prayer, not because you got the words just right or payed really long? Then says, Jesus make sure you have a prelude to your prayer. Be more sure of whom you are praying to and His relationships and intention to you, then even that you are sure that you want what you are asking him for. What it means to have the basis/foundation of your every prayer in the most unique relationship ever - God as your Father, in Jesus Christ the eternal son. You share the same sonship the beloved - and that puts you in relationship - with a claim on the One who is in heaven - the One who claims you as His precious child! There is a deep kind of attending to a face -to face - full adoration and thankfulness in invoking God as Father and recollecting that as God is Father to Jesus, so he has become to me in my salvation and it is on this basis that I will cry out to him in prayer!
We ahve seen in Jesus method of prayer
Well then, on that basis what does a Christian pray? Two weeks go we saw that praying that God’s name be hallowed - isn’t exactly the same thing as the 3rd commandment, though it is implied that we will want God name to be made famous, not used in vain, we are not narrowly praing that we would make God Name and Character, His Works and attributes holy in our lives. No, we are praying for God to hallow His name in and through us.
If somewhere to spit on your name, defame your character, spread all sorts of false rumours about you, if every time your name is mentioned in conversation people just went hmph and said nothing at all about you, some suggested seek you for job, give you praise, but they just say hmph. How would you feel? The exact opposite as if they started to get excited and said Yes I know Joe, he is like .. he would Let’s… Well, nothing is more important in your life and mine, in this church and churches across the planet, in this whole universe than that God's Name is talked about, sought after, valued, set apart. His name is what conveys not only His grace but Himself. Great thing of the covenants of Grace, I will be their God and they shall be my people. It is supremely what Jesus came to reveal His Father’s Name , His Father Glory - It was God the Father says Jesus does among His people - He will glorify His Name! Christian are people who pray for this to happen have the goal of life and of history! But how does God get His name sanctified, what tool does he use? That’s the role of Christ bringing a kingdom. This 2nd petition, is about the tool, ot the goal. And this petition for Christ’s kingdom is not first of all a prayer for God to bring the End Times upon us, and bring the Kingdom of Glory - It is a prayer for the in Between Times - for Christ’ kingdom his tool for establishing Name of God among us! . A prayer not for the work of God in the kingdom of glory, but during the Kingdom of grace. Remember how similar the first part of the prayer was to the Aramiac Kadish - about God’s work in our daily life, in common language of the people, not the Temple!
When this is the biggest deal in our lives, the main business of our lives, it’s like we’ve learned to pray backwards. Most people pray frontwards - We first rush to asking about themselves and their needs. And then how do they end it , And we pray this in ________ ________. Why those words: not a magic incantation, but Jesus said Ask anything in my name be given to you. To say, I’m asking according to your saving wilin in Jesus for me. I ask what Jesus wants and represents as best as I can discern it. Bryan Chapel says, in terms of our requests we should try praying backwards. God this is what I discern Jesus will about this situation - what Scripture reveals, what my hearts believes - I am longing and aching for this. I beliver that is the point about Thy name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will before, OUr Bread, Our sins forgiven, Our not being led into tempatioan and being delivered from the evil one. We pray first and most intentionally in deliberate prayer the God-requests which is how he gets that goal of hallowing His name on earth and in our homes and church and places of work and land. Praying for His coming of grace and His will to come more and more. And then second, we move to our needs We-Requests, those things that keep us fit for His kingdom service. Also why four positives prayed first, then in this battle the negatives against the sin temptation and Evil one. Do you pray for God’s purposes as well as your needs? After that first and all encompassing purpose of His name being hallowed, the only petition that we will never stop praying not even in heaven, what are we to pray?
We come to a petition for God’s purpose about this time in the world and your lives. Your Kingdom Come. So used to that phrase and it can seem so disconnected from our needs and our view of our lives and world that. many agree hardest petition to really pray. You could flesh out how we are specifically longing and aching and praying for bread, forgiveness, forgive others, temptation, could flesh out how want God’s will, and His Name held high. But how do we pray for God’s Kingdom to break into our lives this week. I want to help you pray powerfully and effectively for God’s Kingdom. So let’s understand what Jesus means here by kingdom and come, and also thy
A. Pray for the KINGDOM of Grace, Not of Glory
We don’t really relate to kings and kingdoms any more do we? A T Roberston suggests that living in democracies we dislike this idea. It is politically incorrect, to speak of rule, reign, submission, dominion. Foreign concepts. So the accent fell on Christ’ teaching, but you can’t get into Jesus teaching without having the kingdom put right in your face. What will you do with it?
If sin is the problem and the curse on sin, that destroys the life God intends for us. Jesus is the answer. The gospels and the epistles teaches us that Jesus is the remedy. Two times phrase used in the gospel of John, Jesus says the kingdom of God enters us, and we enter it. The Kingdom comes with the King. The King comes when we let Jesus, ruler over us as Saviour and LORD .
The King comes when we let Jesus ruler over us as Saiovur and LORD
So the NT begins with Jesus’s crier, the forerunner, John the Baptist with this announcement:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
And Jesus calls the same:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus sends out the 12 preaching announcing the kingdom is at hand, it is near. Luke records it this way when he sends out the 70 disciples
Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
The gospel is not a good news about individual salvation alone, it is the gospel of God, which is the gospel of the kingdom!
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
The Old Testament is full of prophesies of this Kingdom coming, as we read in our responsive reading in this everlasting kingdom will be given to the saints. In the Psalms and to David’s sons in the history books, prophesied and pictured. Jesus says, the Law and the Prophets the OT idea of kingdom was until John the Baptist, but now the King has come in Jesus, now the Kingdom of heaven is among us, it is coming! It is not a territory or a country. Jesus rejected all such attempts to make him a king like that , but the way Jesus uses the word it is always an authority a rule = a reign.
Here we must see one contrast between Jesus kingdom and how we might be tempted to think and even pray for it. In
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
What Jesus was talking about in saying to Pilate my kingdom is not of this world. Jesus just said to his disciples you are to be in the world, but not of it. In our circles it is in vogue to be all about social justice, and I know the foundation of God’s throne is justice and truth and we should be for this as human being made in his image. But some have turned Christ’s kingdom into one that is of this world, of one that just is about Justice. People who make Christ’s kingdom speak of sin, but only of social sins, not total corruption of human nature. It speaks not of forgiveness - but of victims , it speaks of social righteousness but not of righteousness that is not by law but by faith in Jesus Christ. It speaks of new kingdom pricniples but not of the Spirit of regeneration in the heart and mind - new birth by the Spirit. And the problem is that they are not thinking or praying of the kingdom as Christ did.
Of course, God has a kingdom - a universal one rules over all - kingdom of creation. But since our Fall, God is establishing another reign and it is a spiritual one worked in our hearts and minds, whereby God Himself would rule among them. The OT promised that God Himself would come and be our King, and that he would bestow an eternal kingdom on His people gathered from every land His kingdom. In this reign - God Himself would give eternal life - and when someone in repentance and faith - he enters in to this kingdom of grace and salvation and redemption. This kingdom then is spiritually established in the hearts of God’s people through Jesus, where by He begins to rule them by His grace and truth! So this is the thing you want established if you are effectively pray for God’s Kingdom to come in your life. It isn’t His kingdom over all the earth in creation as God Almighty, it is a spiritual kingdom.
So this is the thing you establish if you are effectively pray for God’s Kingdom to come in your life, it isn’t His kingdom over all the earth in creation as God Almighty, it is a spiritual kingdom. But the 2nd point you must undertand is that it is not primarily for the fulness of this kingdom the consummation that we are praying for. THough entirlely appropriate for us to pray Maranatha - this longing prayer is not God bring your final kingdom now in my life. Primary heart cry hear is not for the Kingdom of Glory at the end of the eowlrd, but his is a prayer for the Kingdom of Grace. The frist stage of the meidatorial kingdom, the kingdom that God sets up with Jesus on earth, and came among all, not fully but invisbley nd nnerwardly and then shone forth in the community of believers as they wre transformed and governed by Christ. We seek fris HIs kingdom then the righteousness and every thing else follows. And this is the signifiance of not only praying for the kngdom of God as opspsed to all the kingdoms of the world, but also the kingdom of heaven in contrast to the kngdom of earth.
But the 2nd point you must understand is that it is not primarily for the fulness of this kingdom the consummation that we are praying for. Though entirely appropriate for us to pray Maranatha - this longing prayer is not, God bring your final kingdom now in my life. Primary heart cry here is not for the Kingdom of Glory at the end of the world, but his is a prayer for the Kingdom of Grace. The first stage of the mediatorial kingdom, the spiritual kingdom that God sets up with Jesus on earth, and came among all, not fully but invisible and inwardly, and then shone forth in the community of believers as they were transformed and governed by Christ.
So this is the thing you establish if you are effectively pray for God’s Kingdom to come in your life, it isn’t His kingdom over all the earth in creation as God Almighty,
And this brings us to the second aspect of praying for God’s kingdom in our lives. As opposed to all the kingdoms of the world, we are praying for the also the kingdom of heaven in contrast to the kingdoms the of earth. Picture God’s kingdom of grace perfect in heaven already, and we are to pray that that perfection breaks into all the brokenness down here. We pray not only for individual salvation and deliverances, but for this kingdom of Christ tom come as it were from heaven down into our lives. For that kingdom now in part to be protected and to grow and to advance. You need an eschatological glance to do this. And this brings us to the second word our prayer:
Here you should see the purpose for which we pray not only for indivdula salvations and deliverances, but for this kngdom of Christ in our lives to be protected and to grow and to advance. You need an eschatological glance to do this. And this brings us to the second word our prayer:
B. Pray for The Kingdom of Grace to be COMING (Realizing it Never Fully Comes until the Kingdom of Glory)
There was a time when the kingdom of God was on earth - probationary - we exercised dominion, as vice kings and queens for God’s glory. But with the Fall, humanity in Adam our head, made friends with the devil, seeking reign, to be vice-kigs not for God, but for our selves . How Satan established a kingdom of darkness and unrighteousness that is spreading. John says antichrists in world already, but ultimately leads to the Man of Lawless, and the kingdom of Anti-Christ. This is the direction of the Satan has deceived our to head in without Christ, and it is spiritual kingdom in which we are in bondage. And Christ came to liberates us out of that kingdom:
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
God in His grace, according to His eternal purpose - anointed His Son to be our King and King in our place. To establish a new dominion and realize the Kingdom of God on higher plane. So Christ came to do battle with the dominion of Satan, the kingdom of this world, and the powers of sin and death. Remember after those 72 came back from proclaiming the Kingdom of God -
And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
He says he has bound the strong man Satan. He says:
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
It is in this sense that the kingdom of God among us is always coming and is always in contrast to the kingdom of darkness. Believers have to take the kingdom over with a holy violence. Where we get the term taking heaven by storm! All out spiritual offensive against the gates of hell, in a away that Christ prevails!
Do you see now why we must be in prayer for the protection, the advance and growth of Christ’s mediatorial kingdom among us! Christ’s followers are in a battle not for earthly dominions, nor material blessing, and certainly not in a battle against each other. We are in a battle for the righteousness of God and the acknowledgement of His sole sovereignty and the glory of His name. It is not enough for you and I to have our individual salvation and life restored, it is no enough to have a nice church and church family - no what is most important and comes first is this Kingdom of Christ, this spiritual reign in people’s lives. That’s why we have salvation as individuals, it is why their are local churches. No kingdom, then there is no use for the church, no point to be ing saved. But the church, while not being the kingdom, the church is the great God-appointed agency for spreading Christ’s kingdom.
Now the local church may have traitors nonetheless, the kingdom of grace is made up of all the saved who are ruled by Christ the Lord whom they serve. We don’t fight each other, but we do fight the devil, we do stand opposed to every conspiricay of Satan against Christ’s truth, we do ...
And that is why we must see that the fulness of the kingdom has not come, the kingdom of heaven means fulness is found in that realm where most of God’s people are now with angels and in fulness of his glory. That is not yet our experience and so we live in the mediatorial coming kingom. It has arrived in part, but not fulness, it is already/ yet is also not yet. That’s why we read : In chapter 4 (of Revelation) God’s sovereignty is seen as it is already fully acknowledged in heaven. This is the true reality which must in the end also prevail on earth. On earth the powers of evil challenge God’s role and even masquerade as the ultimate power over all things, claiming divinity. But heaven is the sphere of ultimate reality. What is true in heaven must become true on earth. (Richard Bauckham)
in the Rome of the author m’s day, God’s name was not hallowed, nor his will done; instead evil ruled through oppression and exploitation. ‘But in chapter 4, he sees in heaven, the sphere of ultimate reality, the absolute holiness, righteousness and sovereignty of God. From this vision of God’s name hallowed and God’s will done in heaven, it follows that his kingdom must come to earth.’
The Day of the Lord will come, not when church is raptured out of the world, but when kingdom of heaven in its completeness will come down to earth, and once again the kingdom of heaven will be on earth and this time in fulness. But we are not at that day of judgment. So until then our prayer is that this kingdom of grace would come more and more fully.
Because Christ’s kingdom has only arrived in part, that means that we must not only fight the kingdom of darkness out there in there in the world, but also in here in the church, and even more in my tiny little heart. Where is the kingdom of Satan today? Russia, Iran, is it in Ottawa or Washington? No, how about in Hollywood or Wall Street or Bay Street, How about Main Street? Is in movies, or idolatry of sports? NO! The territory Satan seeks to influence just like Christ is the human heart. And while salvation delivers us from the reign, dominion of Satan and transfers us into reign of grace and Christ, still the influence of Satan remains in our hearts - his lies distort and damage the fellowship of this church, just like in the world without Christ.
Realize Christ not reigning and influencing and directing, and healing and protecting, not by external organization of church, nor by the will of man, but by His Holy Spirit and His word. Kingdom of Grace does not come nor is it a matter of talk, eating and drinking, but in power of the Spirit. Comes where the Word of God penetrates, convicts, heals, transforms, equips. Process of daily conversion and sanctification. Why just like the prayer for God’s name to be hallowed, we can’t do that, God must do it. So too for this kingdom to grow - rely in prayer on His Spirit and Word.
We are to have a kingdom of God radar, kind of sixth sense, study to promote the Kingdom of God in our desire and our prayers - be true - unity, love, not attacked, that grow - evangelism but also children that know you for next generation, - pray for those ministries with each other. pray against Satan’s attacks. Very local level, but on the mission field in Canada, through out the world! Do you pray for Christ’ kingdom - do you feel it when following Satan’s direction, people are setting up His wares in the living room of their lives, homes, in our nation, and even in Christ’s church. Making church just a human enterprise and club, trading selling entertaining and not making it a house of prayer for the nations… Do you remember what it was said of our LORD - when he saw this and holy desire cleared out the temple: quotation from Psalm a prayer in the midst of battle with evil, where God’s people trampled and shame brought upon them, weeps for those and himself caught in the battle do you - He surveys his life his circumstance the people around Him, and He wants the abundant love of God to triumph among us - and he calls out:
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
That’s the best kind of jealousy - holy jealousy longs for the best and will protect loved ones … we are to pray for that kingdom of grace and against the kingdom of darkness. And that brings us to the last word we need to pray this with the right emphasis.
And that brings us to the last word we need to pray this wwiht the right emphssis.
C. Pray THY Kingdom in Opposition to Satan’s Kingdom
Remember what I said about trying to pray backwards? Jesus name and will first, In Jesus name I am praying. When we pray thy kingdom come. we are looking at our world and saying see so much where Satan has dominion, and Christ bring your rietgn, your grace your truth among us! I have picture etched into my memory of statues of kings, holding not only a staff in lefthand, but in righthand, an orb. Represents the realm that king was supposed inhabit and reign over. Well every king claims a domain, and when we pray Thy kingdom Come realize it is in opposition to my kingdom, to the Devil’s kingdom. Christ I want to see everything that is opposed to you and your reign - so aware of that darkness, not just run from it, but I want You, and Your people, and me - to oppose it and shine Your light there.
Do you know why we intuitively love stories, even fairy tales! Always a bad guy, always a conflict a trouble - we love that battle for redemption. Deep down know that things are not the way they are supposed to be. Interesting post-modern movie - like Pulp Fiction - not stories of redemption, not stories of brokenness restored to beauty… We want our happily ever after, but one of Satan's schemes if can’t get us to bite on false kingdoms is to get us to give up on kingdom all together. This is all there is, no over arching story, no God just ourselves and what ever meaning and happiness we can eek out. So eat drink for tomorrow we die. Live without God and without hope in this world!
But I always find it so interesting that kids, fascinated by puppet kingdom of King Herod’s, mesmerized by the enticing yet evil power of a Hitler, a Rome. Why do you think Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, even Harry Potter so popular! But will with childlike faith Have the courage to believe King and His SOn - and His kingdom.
Groen Van Prinster not studied unbelief that is the big danger for Christ’s kingdom the world, but a lack of godly zeal He said, all the effort and exertions of philosophy and philanthropy apart from Christainity, have ended in despair, in despondent and passive resignation. Only from a revival of Christian charity and and Evangelical spirit can we draw the strength to match unbelief and derive confidence without which no self-sacrifice, no progress, no improvement is possible.. .Sentiment captured in phrase and title Slouching Toward Gomorrah. Pray awake us from our dogmatic slumber, awake us from worldliness . Lord overthrow Satan's schemes in your church in our home, in our lives… Do you see what’s at stake with false ideas, misguided directions, pray against them. Do you pray for , and with your entire heart and strength and heart desire the kingdom of heaven and all Jesus’ ways! Edmund Burke, put it this way, “The only that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing!” Of \course on political field seen this in Rwanda, Nazi Germany, French Revolution. But on the spiritual field, as Church that is not praying Thy Kingdom com, against the powers of evil at work in Satan’s kingdom of darkness, - praying for the protection and advance and growth of God’s kingdom, is a church failing to live out its mission in depending of the power of Almighty God!
Let me conclude with the story of a boy who grew up in the church but then sought power and realized that the kingdom of Christ would stand in his way. In the fourth century the Emperor Julian (later known as Julian the Apostate) abandoned the Christian faith and sought to abolish Christianity, replacing it with the worship of the ancient gods of Rome and Greece. At the very height of his power, and as it looked as though the abolishment of Christianity could become a real possibility, he was mortally wounded in battle. “The historians tell how, when he lay bleeding to death, he took a handful of his blood and tossed it in the air, saying: ‘You have conquered, O man of Galilee!’” Christ’s “conquering” of the Emperor Julian, as Julian viewed it, was but one small step away for the “man of Galilee” from the throne of Heaven and earth. For when Christ returns in glory he will have the heads of all evil rulers and all disobedient people under his foot. Then, finally and absolutely, the will of Heaven will become the way of earth. Barcaly Sermon on the Mount
O I dare you on the basis of your identity in Christ, to pray differently, pray backwards. We are in the time of grace, of God’s forbearance and our repentance. We are in the time of spiritual warfare - put on all prayer - and that includes Kingdom prayer! This one is the hardest to pray because we would so much more concern ourselves in even in our prayers with ourselves and our little kingdoms. But Jesus teaches us in the discipline of Christian prayer - that the praying church is to be engaged in the expansion of God’s kingdom!
Our catechism tells us we are to even be in prayer that Christ would keep His church strong, and add to it. And remember something we must be praying together. It is amazing how when you dare to pray with another in words, how selfish prayer pushed aside , praying together for the community of Christ, of course our needs but first Christ’s rule and erign …