9th January 2005

Your Kingdom Come,
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We have been looking at the Lord's prayer, in which the Lord Jesus Christ taught us how to pray to „Our Father in Heaven.“

We have been learning from Christ that God seeks a close relationship with us. Prayer is not a heavenly shopping list. It is a heart cry to OUR HEAVENLY FATHER.

This relationship to our heavenly Father must be accompanied by deepest RESPECT, which the Bible calls the FEAR OF THE LORD.

Linked with this fear of the Lord are the words of the Lord’s prayer that we looked at last week: „hallowed be your name“.

With those words “hallowed be your name”, we are asking that who God is and what he is like may be clearly seen, …so that both His goodness and His justice may be vindicated. That is, that both his favour and his judgements are seen to be free from blame.

We want the terrible lies about God our Father, that have entered minds and hearts to be shown up as totally unfounded and false.
Doubts about God's goodness and faithfulness have entered minds and hearts as a result of man's
rebellion against God.
As we pray „hallowed be your name“ we desire, together with God, that these doubts in hearts and
minds disappear. We desire victory over the rebellion.
Jesus Christ made plain to everyone what God is like. He showed us that God is faithful, that God
is good, that God is loving and that God is just.
The Lord Jesus did this through his life and works of love. He did this through his death on the
cross. There he took upon himself the punishment that was due us. He took this punishment for me
and for you and for all mankind.
Jesus Christ made plain to everyone what God his Father is like through his resurrection, when
he was raised from death to life by the power of God.
When JESUS rose from the dead, he overcame death and the fear of death. At this moment in
history, Satan and his lies were defeated at their strongest and final point. The Bible explains (in
Hebrews 2:15), that the Lord Jesus Christ has freed us from slavery. He has freed us from the
devil’s grip.
Satan keeps people in slavery through fear, most of all through fear of death.
Jesus frees us from this fear and from all fear. Be free in Christ. God is your Father. Heaven is
home for all who put their trust in Him.
All the things that happened to Jesus, even the suffering happened for the sake of GOD’S NAME.
They all came from the heart of God the Father. Through what happened to Jesus Christ, we have
discovered that GOD IS LOVE.
These things that happened to Jesus happened for His Father's sake, but for OUR SAKES too, that
we may trust in HIS NAME, that is, that we may trust in WHO GOD IS AND WHAT HE IS LIKE.
When we turn to Christ in trust, believing that JESUS IS LORD, God's name will be hallowed.
God the Father is the one who has declared Jesus as head over all. If we ignore this, we do not allow
God to show us what he is really like.
In this past week maybe you, like me, have read responses to the tragedy of the floods in S.E. Asia.
What do you think about it all? It was awful to see and hear of the suffering of so many people.
Many from Europe say: This is not judgement. Interestingly, I have read that the people who live in
that area are saying: This is judgement upon us.
Why do people in our part of the world say so categorically, with such authority, “this is not
judgement” and those people say: “this is judgement”? Who is right? Who is telling the truth?
Interestingly, people in our part of the world are also saying: “Where was God when this tragedy
happened?” They are saying: “Our faith in God is badly shaken. Why does God allow such things,
letting innocent people suffer and die?”
Many innocent people died in that region, men and women, children and babies. The suffering of
those left behind is awful.
However, I also believe that we are not to tie God’s hands, nor can we tie them. Surely, the LORD
speaks through natural catastrophes today as he has always done.
In this part of the world, people are angry with God that innocent teenagers and children died.
But what about God's anger over the evil done to thousands of innocent teenagers and children in
the name of sex tourism. Surely, he is angry. Innocent teenagers and children over many years have
been sold into prostitution and homosexuality on the beaches and in the holiday resorts of Thailand,
Sri Lanka and elsewhere for people from our part of the world to use and abuse.
Are we more just than God? What did we do about that suffering? When such innocent people
suffer, the world says: “Why does God not do something?”
HE HAS.
He sent his only Son to die for sinful men and women like us. This is his world. Its end will come
as judgement and it will come as quickly as the Tsunami flood. On that day, it will be with fire. All
things of this earth will be destroyed. Before that day comes, there will be many more natural
catastrophes. They have been already ordained by God who is perfect in justice and perfect in love.
We read throughout the Bible about judgement. When God’s judgement came at the time of Noah,
there was only one way of escape: to be a member of Noah’s family and to be inside Noah’s ark,
which was a huge floating box. This box, and the family and the animals inside were kept safe from
the flood because it was covered by pitch, which is like black tar.
The Hebrew word for pitch is interestingly the same word in Hebrew for what God does
when he covers over sin because of a BLOOD SACRIFICE. The word describes what he does when
he pays the price that JUSTICE be done.
Only because he has paid the price can he, a HOLY GOD be reconciled again with US who live in
such selfishness even though we have heard the Gospel many times.
Today, there still remains only one way of escape from the anger of a sin-hating God and that is in
the safety of Jesus. We need to enter into all that he has done at the cross to reconcile us, to bring
us back to God.
I said before that the LORD speaks through natural catastrophes today as he has always done.
Let us not think we can tie the hands of God. The Lord still speaks in the way he chooses.
In Daniel ch. 4. we read of how Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, suffered under God’s hand
of judgement. He became mad and ate grass like cattle. He was fully restored when he humbled
himself before God. In verse 34, we read the words of a letter that this great king sent to all the
world at that time:
“At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes towards heaven, and my sanity was
restored.
Then I praised the Most High;
I honoured and glorified him who lives for ever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
Let us pause for a moment before we carry on. In the Lord’s prayer we pray “Your Kingdom
come.” Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes to heaven. He acknowledges that God’s Kingdom is not
of this world’s system. We all are subject to God’s eternal rule. When rulers of the earth humbly
acknowledge this, they gain perspective. Nebuchadnezzar continued his praise with these words:
All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.
He does what he pleases with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No-one can hold back his hand
Or say to him: “What have you done?”
We pause again. God is the King of Kings. Even King Nebuchadnezzar, one of the most powerful
men who ever lived, realised that he had no right to question the wisdom of God’s decisions. And
what has God done that men do not accept? God has given all authority in heaven and earth to
JESUS.
Because God has ultimate authority, No-one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have
you done?“ These words of King Nebuchadnezzar about God's Kingdom bring us now to the next
words in the Lord's prayer:
Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus taught us to pray that GOD'S WILL BE DONE. The Bible clearly says, in 2 Peter 3:9, what
God's will is:
“God is not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
The will of God is that we repent and turn back to him, putting our trust in Jesus Christ. We will not
see our need to repent until we admit that we and the whole world is in rebellion against God.
Mankind does not want to change from corrupt ways. We also have been caught up in those ways.
At the day of Pentecost, Peter warned the people and pleaded with them, saying:
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
The only way that we can do that is to begin to agree with God and long for his government in our
lives.
Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God's Kingdom and God's Will belong together.
God's Kingdom is where HIS WILL is done.
Compare the Lord’s prayer in Luke 11 verse 2 with that in Matthew 6:10.
Luke 11:2-4 He said to them, „When you pray, say: „FATHER. hallowed be your name, Your
kingdom come,
„Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven“
is an expansion of the clause.
“Your Kingdom come“ .
That means, when we pray for God's will to be done, we are praying further, but we are still
praying on the same subject of God's Kingdom.
Put it another way, we are putting clearly before God our hope, what we expect to happen when
God's Kingdom fully comes on earth.
What will happen? WHEN WE OBEY THE KING OF KINGS, God's Will is going to be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
This prayer “Your Kingdom come” does not speak only of the new heavens and the new earth that
God has promised. We are praying for God's Kingdom to come among us NOW. His Kingdom on
earth NOW must be a living demonstration of that which is to come.
When God's Kingdom is present among us now in our church: God's Will will be done in our
church as it is in heaven.
When God's Kingdom is present in its fullness in my life, God's Will will be done in my life,
wherever I go and in whatever I do.
„For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but
of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.“ Romans 14:17
The Kingdom of God has to do with people getting along with one another in righteousness, peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit. The context of this verse is about learning not to judge others when they
have freedom to eat and drink what I do not. The Kingdom of God teaches us to have wider hearts
than to judge on external matters.
Jesus said to his disciples. „The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor
will people say, 'Here it is' or 'There it is', because the Kingdom of God is within you.“
Luke 17:20-21
In the Scripture we read from Matthew 21, how Jesus gave an answer to the chief priests and elders
of the people. They were angry because of the stir Jesus made in the temple. He was doing miracles
and teaching. They were particularly indignant because the children were running about in the
temple shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David”. Jesus allows children to be children in HIS
KINGDOM, and wants them to know who he is.
These words the children were shouting, “SON OF DAVID”, was the term only given to the
expected Messiah, the promised King of Israel that was to come as a descendant of King DAVID.
He was the one who the prophets had said would bring in GOD'S KINGDOM here on earth and in
ISRAEL.
The chief priests and elders could not dispute JESUS' obvious authority. Therefore they asked him
who gave him that authority. When Jesus challenged them with a question, they could not bring
themselves to admit that JESUS' AUTHORITY was given to him from heaven. Jesus then told them
the story from Matthew 21. It is the parable of two sons who were asked by their father to go and
work in his vineyard. The FIRST son said “I WILL NOT”. He would not bend his will to do his
father's will at first. LATER he changed his mind and did his father's will. The word in Greek for “changed his mind” is related to the word for repent. We see it translated as “repent” at the end of
verse 32.
The other son said “I WILL” but he did not do his father's will. His words were empty.
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders, who were rejecting his authority as King:
“I tell you the truth,
the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.
For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him,
but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.
And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
The despised tax collectors and the prostitutes did 2 things: they repented and they believed the
message of John. The chief priests and elders refused to repent and believe.
What was the message of John the Baptist: Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near. That means,
stop living like you are living, as if God is not going to judge you. The Kingdom of heaven is near.
The Kingdom of heaven came near in the person of Jesus Christ.
Today the Good News of Jesus Christ has been preached to you. The Holy Spirit is near to convict
you of your sins and show you who JESUS is.
Will you accept the GOVERNMENT OF GOD in your life? Jesus of Nazereth, born in Bethlehem,
the Son of David is the KING that God has chosen to reign with HIM. He reigns now in heaven and
will come again to judge the earth. All things, both in heaven and on earth will be put under his feet.
Will you humble yourself before your Father in HEAVEN? Will you submit your will to the WILL
OF GOD?
Will you acknowledge Jesus as KING. Will you ask him to be your KING. If you are in trouble, the
Lord will answer you. He will pull you out of your mud and mire, as we read in Psalm 40:
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
When you have experienced how wonderful it is to be forgiven, you know that you are loved by
God. Having experienced Him as Saviour, have you also experienced him as a GRACIOUS KING?
We read what happened to the man in the mud from Psalm 40:8. After he was saved from death he
cried:
“I desire to do you will, O my God,
your law is within my heart.”
When you know that God is a gracious King whom you can trust, then “What do you want me to
do?” will become your question.