Sermon
Thy Kingdom Come (Part1)
May 1-2, 1999
Pastor Donald Sheley

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. It's the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray, and I'd like for you to join with me in Matthew chapter 6. The subject is prayer. It's the subject we've been dealing with now for some time. We're going through the Sermon on the Mount, and arriving here in chapter 6, Jesus discusses this whole matter of prayer. In verse 5, He says, "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 

We're going to use a lot of verses today so I trust that all of you have a Bible in your hands. Verse 6, "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heather do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. "Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. "In this manner, therefore, pray. 

We've noted a couple of weeks ago that Luke in chapter 11 says that the disciples came upon a scene wherein Jesus was praying. They must have been very deeply moved as they watched their Master in intense prayer, and when He was finished it said they said to Jesus, would You teach us how to pray? And Jesus said I'm going to tell you how to pray. Here's the pattern. We often refer to this as the Lord's Prayer, but it is probably better referred to as the disciple's prayer. In our study we go from verse to verse, and chapter to chapter. Sometimes we'll cover two or three verses, and sometimes we'll only cover a verse. We sincerely want to find the spiritual truths that are lodged in these passages, but when we came to the Lord's Prayer I felt compelled in my spirit to take time, in a few weeks, and go through the prayer phrase by phrase. Because most of us from our childhood days have said the Lord's Prayer, and the words have just kind of fallen over our lips. But to really understand what we are prayer, it's a prayer with a massive amount of theology. It's really a deep prayer, and I thought it would be good for all of us just to contemplate the meaning of each phrase. 

Three weeks ago we took the phrase where it says, our Father, and we made it personal and said my Father, and suggested that real prayer can only be prayed when through faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we can address almighty God as our Father. It's a wonderful thing to be able to, because of what Christ has done for us; it has remedied the problem of sin and separation between us and God. Now He's our Father and He's adopted us into His eternal family, and we can address Him as Father. It's a great privilege. 

I told you I grew up in a home, a very poor home, and a father who never achieved much in life in the sense of what the world calls success. He went to the fourth grade. Filed, stacked lumber most of his life until he died of cancer. My father so lived his life; it was always an honor for me to say that's my father; that's my father. What an honor it is for you and I to be able to address almighty God as our Father. We took then the phrase, which art in heaven, and suggested that God is never to be reduced to our sphere of human terms. He's not; He's not, I say, the man upstairs. He's the almighty, the everlasting, the eternal, immortal creator the God of the universe and the God who rules over all. And He deserves all of our honor, all of our adoration, all of our respect. Never, should we diminish Him and say He's just the man upstairs. He's God almighty. 

Last Sunday we took the phrase, hallowed be Thy name, and suggested that it's a petition with a passion. We're saying God, may it be that our world comes to worship and serve You. May Your name, that is, may You dear God, be magnified and glorified by my life and deeds. May people think higher of You because of the way I live my life, they knowing that I believe in You. We hallow His name by making, by causing people to think higher of God. And I suggested a practical way, one way, and that is the way we conduct our business. And I suggested to you last Sunday that I believe as your pastor that we should so conduce our business as a church that even businesspeople realize we live by a higher standard. And we don't wait till the end of the month to pay our bills. As soon as they arrive they're paid that very day and within 72 hours all of our creditors have payment. That's very strange in the business world, but I wanted to set a standard so high that it attracts their attention; and it does. They commend us frequently. 

This week I had a businessmen who sat here last Sunday and he listened intently and when we talked about honoring God and hallowing His name by the way we conduct our business, he realized he hasn't honored God and the truth went through him just like a dagger. And he said he went home and thought it through and he said, look at, you know I've got a bookkeeper who isn't very much impressed with my Christianity because she knows I'm a cheat. She knows that I do not put the right figures down on the columns when I send them into the government, and I'm the one that makes that determination. And so I've had very little, made very little, impression on her as far as being a Christian. He said, this week I went and I apologized and asked forgiveness and said I haven't done right. I want you to put the proper figures on those columns when they go in again in the report. Never again are we going to do it the way we did it. What I'm suggesting is when we hallow His name, we live such a life that we bring honor and praise to Him in all that we go.

Now we come to the next phrase. It's comprised of three words, Thy kingdom come, but it is absolutely a fabulous subject. In fact, I went through my library this week. I have a considerable number of books and out of them I found very quickly over a dozen books, some of them massive manuscripts, and they're all written on the subject, Thy kingdom come. It's the subject of the kingdom. And you know why it's such a massive subject? It's because the kingdom of God is the theme of the Old Testament as well as the theme of the New Testament. So when we're talking about the kingdom, we're talking about an immense theme. 

I want you to imagine you're standing there, we're standing there together, 2000 years ago and we're Jewish people and we're listening to this Galilean preach. He's already started His ministry by saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! And He's brought in the subject of the kingdom already in the announcement of His sermon. And then He comes, He comes to the middle of His sermon when He's talking about prayer and says make sure you pray, Thy kingdom come. Now let me give you the definition and then we'll work from it. The kingdom is God Himself exerting His rightful power to bring all people and all things under His control and to direct them by His will. It is God asserting His right to rule over human life and demonstrate His power to overthrow all powers hostile to His purposes and subdue them all to His will. Now that's a massive undertaking in an evil, wicked world. When Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God coming, He does not mean something which does appear.

In Luke chapter 17 as they approached Him about the kingdom, Jesus said, the kingdom does not come with observation. That is you can't see it. It's not something that's observable. And then He went on to explain, He said, the kingdom of God is within you. So He took it out of the physical, gave it a spiritual meaning, and said the kingdom is within you. Now if we had time today and we could go back and read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and we could underline every time the phrase 'kingdom of God' or 'kingdom of heaven' appears, it would be 104 times. Well you say, Pastor, is there a difference between the phrase 'kingdom of God' and 'kingdom of heaven'? No, because when we go back we will find that Matthew uses the term in all but four instances where he uses the term kingdom of heaven.

The other two gospel writers do not. They use the term the kingdom of God. And here's the reason. Jewish people had a sacred and an awesome respect for the name of God, and at any occasion they could they would choose to use another name. They would use the word, Adoni, which is the word for Lord, and they did not want to say the word God because they were afraid of using His name in vain and thus violating the commandment. And Matthew was very sensitive to the Jewish people, because the gospel of Matthew was written to the Jewish people. He in that sensitivity removed and used the term the kingdom of heaven, but the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God is a term that's interchangeable throughout the gospels. Remember, we find it 104 times and then we go back and look one more time, and 91 times in the preaching of Christ He makes reference to the kingdom of God. Now any subject that Jesus talked about 91 times is an exceedingly important subject. 

Now here's my thinking. I'm standing here and you and I we're a part of that crowd 200 years ago, and we're Jewish people. We've listened to Him make His announcement, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now He's talking about the kingdom again in His prayer. He said, when you pray, make sure you pray Thy kingdom come. What would be going through the minds of His Jewish listeners? What was their concept of the kingdom? Because the biblical idea of the kingdom of God is deeply rooted in the Old Testament. And it's grounded in the confidence that there is one eternal living God who has revealed Himself to men and who has a purpose for the human race, which He has chosen to accomplish through the nation of Israel. 

Now, let's take our Bibles and see what's in the mind of those Jewish people listening to this sermon. Go with me to Daniel 7:9-18. Now these Jewish people listening to this sermon, they knew the writings of Daniel. Daniel was a very important prophet to them, so they knew what Daniel had written about the kingdom. Let's see what he wrote, Daniel 7:9. "I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated: His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. 

It almost sounds like the description of Christ in the book of Revelation, doesn't it? The court was seated, And the books were opened. "I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. "As for the rest of the beasts, they had their domination taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. And, of course, he's making reference to something he's written just before this.

Let's go on. "I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. Daniel made the announcement that a kingdom was coming. "I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. "I came near to one of those who stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things: 'Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth. 'But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.' Now here comes this Galilean and these Jewish people know just exactly what Daniel has said, and they're saying, has the kingdom arrived that Daniel talked about? 

Go with me to Isaiah. Back up. And Isaiah gives another aspect of this kingdom, some of it's characteristics and you'll find this throughout all of his prophesies. Look at what he says. It says, The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 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. He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. And here Isaiah sees a kingdom filled with peace; nobody leaning war. And the nations will flow into it and the people shall come and the word of God will flourish. 

Well, let's go to Isaiah 11, just a few pages ahead in our Bible. Because all the way through Isaiah there are many, many passages that give various aspects of their concept of this kingdom. Look at it, it says in verse 1 of chapter 11, There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots, The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain. So it's a kingdom of even peace within nature itself, isn't it? And he says, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. 

We could spend many hours going over all of the verses that build this concept that was in the minds of these Jewish people who heard the words of Jesus. Remember, we've learned that Israel was selected to be the missionary nation to the world so that all of the world would reverence and worship and adore Jehovah God. But we've learned that that nation of Israel missed their assignment. As I suggested to you, Max Dumont in his great book entitled 'Jews, God and History' says, the Jewish nation is the spiritual castaway of history. Because God gave them this divine assignment. He wanted through them as a nation to make this kingdom come to fruition. And they let Him down. As a nation, they went off and served idols and joined themselves with the pagans, and God wanted to display His kingdom through them as a nation, His glory and His power, but they wouldn't let Him. So He took the kingdom from them. 

You say, where does it say that? Go with me to Matthew chapter 21. And I think this is probably one of the most tragic verses that relates to the nation of Israel in all of the Bible. And Jesus put it in the form of a parable. I'll start at verse 33. And He uses the parable of a vineyard, and they knew because in Isaiah chapter 5, Isaiah likened the nation of Israel to the vineyard of God. So when the vineyard is brought up in the subject again, they know that they as a nation are being spoken of. And here's what it says. "Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. "Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. "And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. "Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. "Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' "But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.' "So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?" 

Now they already know He's talking about Jesus, He's talking about Himself. They said to Him, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons." Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'? "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. Jesus said I want to make an announcement, you missed it. God wanted to fulfill His divine purposes to this world through a nation, but you failed and the kingdom has been taken from you. Well who was it given to? It was given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. Well who is that nation that God's kingdom was given to? That's a good question.

Go with me to 1 Peter, and here's the answer. 1 Peter is way back in the back part of your New Testament there folks, 1 Peter 2:9-10. Here's our answer. But you are a chosen generation. Now he's defining the church; a royal priesthood, a holy nation. What is the church? It's a holy nation. And look at the assignment; His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. And so God gave to the church the divine assignment of bringing glory and adoration and worship to Him throughout the world. It's the assignment now of every Christian. 

Now let's come back to our text, and I have to hurry. Here's this Galilean and He says when you pray, pray Thy kingdom come. Then you'll find that in everything that He said in the gospels, He was telling people how to get into His kingdom. Everything He said relates to His kingdom. Remember, He mentions it 91 times. Secondly, His mighty works were intended to prove that the kingdom of God had come. In other words, Jesus said the kingdom is already here. Go with me to Luke chapter 10. You'll notice that most of the sermon today is Scripture verses, but it's powerful when you see all of these tie together. Here in chapter 10 of Luke is the story where Jesus sends out the seventy, two by two. And He said, look at, verse 2, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. And He tells them, He gives them assignment; now go. I send you out as lambs among wolves. "Carry neither money bag, knapsacks, nor sandals. And He gives the instructions for the journey for their preaching assignment. They're some of the first preachers for the kingdom. 

Look at verse 9. "And heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' What's He telling them? Every time the supernatural happens say, this is part of the kingdom of God. Verse 10. "But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.' So He defines, He gives characteristic to the kingdom the characteristic of the supernatural. I mean, they go and they have tremendous success. 

Look at verse 17. Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." They are amazed at the authority that's theirs that Christ has given them as messengers of His kingdom. Even the demons respond, and the next verse is probably one of the most interesting verses in the gospels. I think Jesus must have stopped in all of their excitement, closed His eyes and said, I just saw something folks. "I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. Therefore He says, "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." That must have been something. Jesus saw Satan fall from his position of authority. He's fallen. You say, is there any place else in the Bible that describes that? Yes. Go with me to Revelation chapter 12. Now remember, when John has his revelation, he sees the cosmic development of the redemptive plan of God from the beginning of the ages till the end of the ages. It's not all written chronologically. And John sees in his vision what Jesus saw on that day.

Go with me to Revelation 12:7. I'm sorry my time is gone. I'll just read this one. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. You say, that's interesting. That's what Jesus saw. Well, how do you know it's connected with what he's talking about? Look at the next verse, Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come. That's the announcement of the kingdom, isn't it? And he says, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. He's been tied and bound. He's diminished in his power. He's been cast down. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. We've got to stop there, but what I want you to see, Jesus took the concept of the kingdom, understood by a Jewish mind, transferred it to the church, and said when the church really understands the kingdom, the church will be filled with the power and the glory of God. And when you pray Thy kingdom come, you're praying a prayer that's absolutely possible for all the power of heaven to invade this earth. We'll talk more about it next week. Join me. It's a fantastic phrase.