Call Me: Your Kingdom Come

Ashurbanipal’s ivory

Ivory has almost always been of value, dating back thousands of years. The superstitious believed ivory to protect people. Ivory was the stuff of kings. In fact, in some cultures, only the king was allowed to have ivory because to own ivory was to lay claim to being the king. Think about that for a second. To have ivory was to have power, the power to protect, and to rule. One of the world’s largest collections of ivory belonged to the ancient emperor named Ashurbanipal, the last of the great Assyrian kings. In 1949, an archaeologist by the name of Max Mallowan made a startling discovery in what we know as Iraq. At the bottom of large wells, both inside and outside a palace of ancient Assyria, Mallowan found tons and tons of discarded ivory. In ransacking the capital city, the Babylonians had stripped off all the gold and trashed the ivory, the wells being used as large trash pits for the ivory. One of the pieces of ivory that was recovered said this: “I’m Ashurbanipal, the King of the World.”

A lot of irony there. King of the World. In a trash dump. Of ivory. Ivory that is supposed to protect. Ivory that lays claim to power. Not a lot of help at the bottom of a well. Not exactly King of the World at that point. That ivory makes up most of what is left of that kingdom. That kingdom ended up at the bottom of a well. Ashurbanipal may have been at the top, but eventually his kingdom became somebody else’s trash. Just like every other kingdom on earth. All earthly kingdoms are temporary. They fall. We spend a lot of time and energy on kingdoms that will not last. Will never last. Earthly kingdoms are just that: earthly. Built with human ingenuity and creativity; as good as that is, it’s still finite and temporary. And fallen, made by sinners.

The Lord’s Prayer

In the Bible, there’s only One kingdom that will last forever. And it’s not human. For a short period of time, that kingdom was visible on earth, but only for a specific purpose. And that kingdom is the subject of the second petition in the Lord’s Prayer. We began a series on the Lord’s Prayer last week. Call Me: The Lord’s Prayer for all of Life. Prayer is talking to God, asking God for help. And here in Matthew we have words given to us by Jesus for just that purpose. What we call “The Lord’s Prayer” is a cry for help. And it’s a cry for help to the only one who is in a position to save us, our Father who is in heaven. This Father in heaven wants us to cry out to him when we need help. He wants to hear from us.

The first ask in this popular prayer is “Your name be honored as holy.” We start with a cry that comes from faith, calling on the name of the Lord to save us. Asking the only One whose name is holy and completely perfect to fill the earth with his creatures who are calling out his name.

Your kingdom come

The second big ask in the Lord’s Prayer is “Your kingdom come.” We pray to the heavenly father who wants to hear from us “Your Kingdom Come.” Simple enough. Three words in our English language. However, the subject of God’s kingdom may be the most understood subject in not just this prayer, but the entire Bible. It’s not all that difficult if we stick to what the text is saying. But we will get to that in a moment. First, though, what is a kingdom? If we were to begin at the beginning of the Bible, we would find that a kingdom is defined this way: A kingdom has a Ruler, those Ruled, and a Realm. Or another way of putting it:

There’s always One Person, a people and a place.

Every kingdom has someone who is in charge. The king. The kings of the Bible were absolute monarchs. Their rule was their law. They had absolute power in their words and in their deeds. Secondly, kings ruled over those ruled.. a people. You’re not a king if you aren’t ruling over people, those who were the subjects. And finally… Kings also had realms. You’re not a king if you don’t have a territory, a place to rule. Every king had some kind of territorial boundary marking out the territory where they ruled their people.

In the Bible, beginning from the very beginning of the Bible in the garden, God has a kingdom. God’s kingdom is summed up this way:

God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule (Graeme Goldsworthy).

Everywhere you go in the Bible, you’ll find God’s kingdom being portrayed this way. Whether it’s the garden of Eden at the very beginning or the nation of Israel under king David, God’s kingdom always involves His people in His place under His rule. In the garden, God rules by himself, ruling over Adam and Eve in the garden AND giving them rule, tasking them with having dominion over the animal kingdom and subduing the world. Adam and Eve were to rule in God’s place. But they messed up. Another place we see this is with King David. King David, on behalf of God, exercised God’s rule over God’s people, Israel, in God’s place, God’s land, the Promised Land. But like Adam and Eve, Israel and her kings mess up. They sin and they lose it all.

And that’s the story throughout the Old Testament. Israel’s kingdom ends up no better than Ashubanipal’s. All the kingdoms of the world are temporary. What’s different about Israel is that in the Old Testament God promised that David’s kingdom would be forever with one of David’s heirs on his throne. The Old Testament ends in both destruction and hope. There is no heir. There is no throne. There is no people being ruled. There is no kingdom. And yet there is hope.

Hundreds of years after Israel and Ashurbanipal there arrives a baby, a baby who is said to be David’s heir. Angels announce the birth of one born in the city of David, the Messiah, the Promised One. This little baby is given gifts meant for a king. And when he is 30 years of age, he begins preaching about a kingdom. Our text today comes from Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus is preaching to a crowd on the side of a mountain. Just prior to beginning this sermon, Matthew tells us this:

Matthew 4:17,23 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Matthew 4:24-25 Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

That kingdom that Israel had been waiting for. Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven has come near. This kingdom of heaven coming near is “Good News”.

You see, God’s rule in God’s place over God’s people is all bound up with One Person. The kingdom has come near in Jesus himself. Matthew calls it the Kingdom of Heaven. This isn’t your typical kingdom. It’s what had been planned all along. All of those earthly kingdoms in the Old Testament were simply anticipating the arrival of a kingdom that is from heaven. A kingdom that is eternal, whose ruler rules in love and grace and mercy. Jesus is bringing to the earth a different kind of kingdom, one in which there is the Good News of the forgiveness of sins. This King’s greatest act on behalf of his people is to die for his people. When Jesus dies, over his head is the wooden placard: This is the King of the Jews. Those in charge didn’t know the half of it. This is the king of the Jews. But this is the King of the World. The Creator of the universe.

This king now rules His people through the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Sacraments in the gathering of his people. Christ’s rule in Christ’s gathering over Christ’s people. Every Bible talk, every Table, every word spoken about the grace that has been given to us is proclaiming the kingdom. Christ’s rule in Christ’s gathering over Christ’s people. Wherever the Word is preached and His people are gathered, the kingdom is near.

So there, in our passage, this Jesus sits giving people on the side of the mountain that day words to use, a template to use when they are crying out for help. And the second big ask is

“Your Kingdom Come.”

It’s a cry for help because we cannot bring in God’s kingdom. History is filled with people who claim to be bringing in God’s kingdom or claim to be representing God’s kingdom and they end up at the bottom of a well. We pray what we cannot do. We ask God to again visit us in and with his kingdom, and that’s wherever the Word is preached and the Sacraments are celebrated.

When we pray this, we are praying precisely this… that the people would gather, that the Word would be preached, and God’s rule through grace, mercy, and forgiveness in salvation would be proclaimed.

This is the Bible’s definition of God’s kingdom. This is what it looks like. This is how it happens. You’re going to read a lot of stuff out there and hear a lot of stuff from well-meaning people who are looking for God’s kingdom in the political sphere. God doesn’t promise that his kingdom would be present in politics. His kingdom is not advanced one inch through politics and policies. Jesus said this to Pilate:

John 18:36 “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

Jesus kingdom is from heaven. And always will be. His kingdom is not one of borders and boundaries with checkpoints and highway signs. His rule is not through use of military might. His rule is through his Word where he gives grace and forgiveness.

Before we say anything more, we must note the word “come”. “Your kingdom come”. It is natural to ask, “didn’t the kingdom already come? Is the kingdom coming in the future?” And the answer to both questions is “yes”. Jesus’ kingdom has come, just like he promised to the crowds. His kingdom is from heaven. His kingdom is from the future. There is a sense, a reality in which Jesus’ kingdom is heaven on earth. Jesus was and is heaven on earth. His kingdom is heaven on earth. So when we pray, your kingdom come, we’re not just praying that our Father’s kingdom would show up this morning. We’re also praying that the kingdom will come in all of its glory. That Jesus would come and make an end to all kingdoms, and end all sin and death. That too is our prayer.

This prayer is a cry for help. Your kingdom come. We cry out for Christ’s kingdom to be present among us because all we have to do is look around and see, the kingdoms we are building here are a mess. And I’m not talking about what’s happening in Washington DC. What’s happening here in Los Fresnos. Every day I wake up and I’m all about building my kingdom where I’m king and I’m in control and I want everyone else to be on my page. In fact, more often than not, I don’t want Christ’s kingdom. I want and I need for me to be king. For my kingdom to be built. It’s easy to get sucked into this. The Thompson Twins made their wish for the rest of us in the 80s: If I were king for just one day. My realm. My rule. Over my people.

When that happens, we are sorely in need of Christ’s kingdom to come in his Word among His people. Things here are so messed up. Our kingdoms, all of them, at some point are going to end up at the bottom of somebody’s well. All of our efforts to make our own earthly kingdom will be nothing more than discarded ivory. Christ’s kingdom, a kingdom of heaven is in the future. It’s from the future. It is the rule and reign of Christ from heaven itself. Someday, that rule and reign will be visible here on the earth. Christ’s will be the visible king over his people throughout the whole world, over the entire earth. The entire earth will be his visible realm. There will be perfect peace. There will be no more tears and suffering. His rule will be perfect. And the King will visibly be present among his people forever.

But that future is already in our present. It has already come in the Person of Jesus Christ. And it is here right now in His Word and in His Sacrament. In a world full of temporary kingdoms full of self-centered kings who rule with physical power, here is this eternal kingdom in Jesus, who rules His people through the grace he gives them. And so we pray, “Your Kingdom Come”. For us. Right now. This is our hope.

Let’s finish by again recounting the words of this Prayer that Jesus gave to his people that day on the side of a mountain:

Matthew 6:9-13 “Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Let’s Pray.

We say every week that this is a kingdom meal for kingdom people. Christ’s rule and reign on earth is exercised through the celebration of the table. When we receive Christ’s body and blood in faith, we are submitting to Christ’s rule and reign. His will as the King and Ruler is for us to believe. For us to have faith. For us to believe He is everything he has said and promised for us. This Table is Christ’s kingdom present among us.