"Your Kingdom Come"

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 6:10

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Well this morning we press on in chapter 6 as we've begun the Lord's week the
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Lord's prayer several weeks ago we now press on to the second petition this morning in verse 10 as we
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Come to next week to the third petition We'll have opportunity to recover some of the things that I want to talk about This morning and really with that even what we saw in verse 9
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We see these petitions oriented toward God the first three petitions and in some ways they all
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Hold together. They all consist within one another and so we'll have some opportunity to Pull out some of the content from this morning's sermon again next week as we look at what it means for God's will to be
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Done on earth as it is in heaven and then after that as we move on to verse 11
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We'll find Beyond that is where the prayer is largely about the needs of the disciple the need for daily bread and so forth and so where we are right now the the
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Prayer of the Lord the prayer of the disciple of the Lord is completely fixated upon God Upon his name being hallowed upon his kingdom coming upon his will being accomplished on earth
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In the same way it is accomplished in heaven And so it's important that we recognize the the way that Jesus begins prayer
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Everything is oriented to his father in heaven When you pray do not use vain repetitions like the heathen for they think they'll be heard for their many words
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Therefore do not be like them for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him in this manner
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Therefore pray our father in heaven Hallowed be your name your kingdom come
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That's our verse this morning here in verse 10 your kingdom come so this is the second petition
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Jesus says At the end of this chapter when we get to verse 33 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
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All these other things all these other needs will be added to you So you can see that we're going to be talking about the kingdom of God even before we head to chapter 7 and this is a massive theme for the gospel of Matthew as I hope to Unpack even later this morning.
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This is an important theme just to understand scripture But it's a very important theme for the gospel of Matthew.
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He tends to use the phrase the kingdom of heaven And I don't think I agree with Jonathan Pennington who argues
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We we shouldn't think of the kingdom of heaven as Matthew's way of saying this is something completely apart from the earth
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Completely apart from our own experience of time and space in history Something that awaits the very end that has very little to do with what coheres right now
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And I think no as Pennington argues no rather Matthew wants to introduce the the tension perhaps speaking to the origin of the source of this kingdom
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It's the kingdom that comes from heaven the kingdom that is empowered by heaven the the kingdom that seeks to bring heaven down to earth and that of course carries on in The Lord's Prayer and so the big question
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I want to answer this morning and we're going to spend the whole sermon Simply trying to answer this question How do we understand the kingdom of God?
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That's the only thing on the agenda this morning. How do we understand the kingdom of God and Speaking of God's kingdom.
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The first thing we have to acknowledge is that God reveals himself as king You can't speak of the kingdom of God without first recognizing that God is king
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God is a glorious King Psalm 24 who is the king of glory the Lord Almighty.
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He is the king of glory So before we even can understand the kingdom we must understand the king
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This is a major part of the revelation of the kingdom of God is to reveal the dawning of the reign of God The reign that had been usurped when mankind fell into rebellion following the voice of the evil one and there from the very beginning of the pages of Scripture you have a rival kingdom a
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Usurper this is the sort of primordial coup d 'etat The original overthrow and it came as a result of man and woman as image bearers of God revolting against the law of God Absconding from the commands he had given them and the bounds he had created for them and rather as it were
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Rebelling against him in his way giving their tacit allegiance to the prince of the power of the air the evil one and So from the very beginning of Scripture were introduced to the idea of the intention of God to reign over all that he has made
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Through the image bearers that are meant to reflect and know his glory and for those image bearers then to enter
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Inter -rebellion by following the voice of the evil one and as it were giving him legal entree to the world
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Giving him legitimate authority as a rival king in the same way that a prince may reject and rebellion the the king proper and actually give his loyalty or his allegiance to a
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Rival to a usurper you remember the scene as well as I do and one of the greatest films ever made Braveheart when
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Robert the Bruce is there at the behest of his of his father and of course the whole time you don't know who this mysterious knight in the black helmet is and as the forces of Wallace as the
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Scotsman are getting decimated and you see old Long shanks, they're sort of smiling and taking it in saying, you know finish him off finally the revelation of who this
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Who this knight is who this slaughterer is and it's Robert the Bruce and that look on William Wallace's face the look of complete betrayal
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Right, and the look is so powerful that Robert the Bruce says I can never fight for the English again
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Godspeed and so you have the whole idea here of mankind Entering into the betrayal of all betrayals rebelling against God the king
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Giving themselves over to a rival kingdom a usurper an evil one Who had slithered in to Eden to the place from which the domination and glory of God was to spread to the ends of the cosmos
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Which is to say when we're talking about the kingdom of God We have to begin at the beginning and we have to understand the nature of God as king and how his rule was to be reflected by his image bearers exercising dominion over all that he had made and Then in some ways if that's the foundation to understand the contours of the kingdom of God all of Scripture streams down as a result of this occurrence this event
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This rival kingdom in tension with the true kingdom and the true king of creation so you have some and I Was almost green as I was reading so many
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Older treatments and commentaries that argued essentially the kingdom of God is a New Testament concept
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It's something largely foreign to the Old Testament You really don't have it being revealed until the ministry of Jesus and the
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New Testament begins to make it a priority in the teaching And an understanding of the relation of the gospel.
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It's like no the kingdom of God is all over Scripture it may not use the same terminology as the
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New Testament. It may not come to its clearest presentation as in the teachings of Jesus But you simply cannot understand the biblical storyline if you don't have this concept down of the kingdom of God Graham Goldsworthy an
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Old Testament scholar He says the idea of the rule of God when you're talking about the rule of God. What are you talking about his kingdom?
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the older divines the Puritans would speak of his rule as his providential kingdom or the kingdom of his sovereignty meaning
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This has always been true. There is no overthrow of his sovereignty his providential control and governing of all things
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But then they could also speak of the kingdom of redemption or the kingdom of his grace Which is to say his work of salvation in the way in which the kingdom advances and overturns the evil
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Usurper and the prince of the power of the air and then they could also speak of the kingdom of glory in other words the kingdom in its consummated form when when the
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Unveiling of his power of his wisdom of his salvation is manifest from the mountains to the seas
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The idea of the rule of God Over all that he has made over all creation over all creatures over all kingdoms thrones principalities and powers
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Over his chosen and redeemed people no less but over everything. That is is the very heart and message of Scripture Tom Tom Schreiner is a
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New Testament scholar. He He was sort of in this fad that took place about ten years ago where every
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Old Testament or New Testament scholar had to write a biblical theology in other words How do we understand the whole of Scripture and they had to sort of work out?
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What do we think is the major theme and I don't know that there's necessarily a warrant to try to do that I don't think that Scripture invites us to say
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Investigate and argue for one particular thing but certainly there's things that are emphatic and Schreiner's view was that the major theme of the biblical story the biblical theology
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That has arrived from Scripture is simply this the king in his beauty The king in all of his glory
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God the King Christ the enthroned Son of God ruling as God intended the express image bearer now
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Exercising dominion all of his people in him over all that he has made his enemies being brought beneath him like a footstool
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So we can't talk about the biblical storyline without talking about the kingdom of God. That's the first thing
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There's already some mental backdrop for Jesus to be able to say these disciples when you pray pray to your
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Heavenly Father Pray that his name would be hallowed pray that the kingdom of God would come And they don't go what what kingdom of who what
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King? What are you talking about? They already have some idea of of what is meant by that They believe in a kingdom of God that is coming to now
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Jesus in his ministry is going to have to correct a lot of the things they Misunderstand about the nature of that kingdom
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But they certainly believe that there is a kingdom of God in other words that there is a rule of God That must come the rule and reign of God that the prophets had prophesied that they long waited for And so from the very beginning of the pages of Scripture We were introduced to this idea of the reign of God Adam and Eve called to be image bearers
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Ruling as it were over what he had made in that sanctuary kingdom temple all these layers of Eden Extending his rule bringing order and glory to his name over all that he had made
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Of course that goes wrong when the serpent slithers in and they heed his voice Now as a result of the rebellion toil pain death characterized human life under the
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Sun characterizes the life of fallen man and yet also introduces with it a
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Tension that is given by the promise God gives to the woman that one day a son will come
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Who will overturn these infernal works of darkness undo the wages of death that come to all sin and establish the kingdom that God had always intended to feeding death crushing the head of the serpent and Establishing his reign unto eternity
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That's essentially Genesis 3 Projected out through the rest of Scripture And you can hardly make sense of the beginning of Scripture if you can't make sense of the end
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You get to Revelation 21 and 22 and you understand exactly the counterpart the book ends of the whole biblical storyline
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So one of the things we have to understand about the nature of the kingdom is that it's a kingdom at war
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Because of this rival kingdom that is revealed from the very beginning of the biblical storyline The Sun comes to establish the kingdom and deliver it over to his father
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The risen conquering son who not only defeats death and all those in opposition to God but establishes a kingdom whose reign will know no end and That is promised in seed form to the woman right after the fall
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Everything else is the elaboration of that event in the second petition as the shorter catechism says this is the first thing they're gonna
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They're gonna define it in three ways in the shorter catechism What are we praying for when we pray the second petition? Listen to the first thing that the catechism mentions.
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I Would argue this would not be your first thing Because we tend to be for whatever reason
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Rather idyllic and privatized about our understanding of the import of faith What does it mean to enter into the kingdom or what does it mean to pray for the kingdom to come?
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You think oh, it means that I'll you know, I'll be more sanctified and one day I'll be with the Lord forever and these are all true and wonderful things
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But what you've done is you've not put yourself within the biblical storyline you haven't understood where we are in the midst of the bookends of Genesis 3 and Revelation 22 and so the kingdom of God begins to fall out of view and the first example of that the first evidence of that is that we're not even thinking of the kingdom of God as A kingdom at war against a usurper against a rival kingdom a kingdom of darkness and depravity
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That seeks to oppose God and his will for the world and destroy the souls of men and women
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So if I said what do we pray for when we pray that God's kingdom may come? You'd probably get the the second and third part right that the kingdom of grace would be advanced
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That we and and others that were able to witness to would be brought into this kingdom of grace
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Kept in it and that one day this kingdom of glory will be hastened and God's glory will cover the earth
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It's like amen. Amen. Amen, but what's the first thing? We pray for according to the
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Catechism in the second petition. We pray Your kingdom come so that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed
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That's the first answer they give We pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed
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I'm assuming here that that's not your first answer To what we pray with these words
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And again as I'm hoping to establish it shows that we're not actually aligning ourselves in the story of Scripture You ask someone off the street
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You know, what's life or what does it mean to be a Christian? You're a young child here and you're trying to understand
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What does it mean to be a Christian? How should I think about my life how should I think about the
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Christian faith To ask anyone Christian or non To explain the meaning of life the purpose of life how they're living in what they're living for that They have to explain it in terms of a story
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You ask someone, you know, who are you? Where'd you come from there and they're giving you a story when they tell you about where they grew up or who their parents were the where their parents came from or what they're doing or What they're hoping or where they're going
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We can't only speak of experience and time in terms of a narrative in terms of a story
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And so the question is not whether there's a story It's which story do we understand understand ourselves to be in what story are you a part of?
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And I would argue with these words your kingdom come We need to understand ourselves as part of the story of the kingdom of God Which is at war against the kingdom of Satan and is advancing as a result of the crucified and risen
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Son is Advancing in a way that the gates of hell can no longer withstand it and the evil one is bound he's no longer able to deceive the nations and the day is fixed when his kingdom will be consummated and We're brought in the glorious train of this victor as we march forth and tribes and tongues are swept up into his redemption
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Unto the glory of God. That's the story. We're in if we don't plug ourselves into that story faith becomes something very privatized idealized
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It's about what makes me different from others. It's not the master narrative for everything.
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That is and We'll find that we don't have a lot in common with Much of church history for this very reason.
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We don't pray like the ancient Christians pray We don't act in labor like the Reformers acted in labored largely because we're not plugging ourselves in to the master narrative of the
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Kingdom of God that would be my argument Just to help us think about this storyline
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Getting us up to speed to where Jesus begins to correct and teach upon the kingdom I'm gonna give sort of a 30 ,000 foot view very quickly we leave the scene of Eden and we recognize that what what comes as a very result of the promise of the
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Son who will come Is a seed that God is giving redemptive grace to and a seed that is very much characterized by the ways of the evil one the tripartite enemy of the believer the world the flesh and the devil and so you have through the
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Sethite line and then later on through the Noahic line and through the Shemite line through the singling out of Abraham and his seed and the nation of Israel you have this thread of Redemption that leads all the way to the fulfillment of the promise of God that this son would come in the fullness of time the son that the prophets testified to And so we trace this thread and we recognize that Abraham's family
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In some ways Abraham's experience all that we saw as we were working through Genesis 12 and following Is another angle on the nature of the kingdom of God?
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It's not for nothing that Israel ends up in Egypt Which is this physical shadow of the evil
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Empire Pharaoh being as it were the serpentine ruler Keeping the people of God under bondage and slavery
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God as it were raising up a deliverance as a result of the The slain lambs blood being spread over the people
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Then bring brought out through water and given bread this you start to see there's a microcosm of redemption
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And that's all within the contours of a rival kingdom that is overthrown as the wrath of God is poured out in ten plagues as the the hosts of Pharaoh is destroyed in the
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Red Sea you start to see the kingdom of darkness being destroyed God's people being delivered in this great act of redemption
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And then as the storyline continues God gives these people not only his presence and his protection, but his laws
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Unfortunately the people flout the laws of God Rather than being a light to the nations in this way
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They they actually allow the nation's to blaspheme the name of God They establish for themselves not the kingship of God But they actually want a king like the other nations have a king who's a man they choose for themselves who will be their king
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Saul is rejected by God God gives a man after his own heart
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Even though this is a result of Israel's own fleshly rebellion against God God nevertheless uses that as a way again of reminding and Pointing the storyline of redemption to the fact that a king was coming.
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He chooses a man after his own heart the King David He installs this king to rule over his people
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And of course David fails he falls in a tremendous way If ever there was hope that this would be the king that would finally bring about the reign of God on the earth
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It all falls in disaster If there was hope that Solomon his son the one who builds the house of God on Mount Zion if there was any hope that he would be the one we've waited for we see his heart torn astray with harlotry and chasing after foreign women and their gods we start to realize that there's a very tragic history of the kings of Israel and The kings of Judah and eventually this leads to Israel's exiles
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They're brought once again into the evil empires to be under bondage and captivity as a result of the exile as it were they experience
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Death the prophets promise nevertheless this exilic people that God has not forgotten his promise one day a king will come and will restore the people to the land that he had given them and the reign of God will
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Be brought to the very ends of the earth And so the Old Testament storyline when we get to the very end of the prophets really closes with Israel waiting in centuries of darkness
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Longing for that light to dawn the light that Isaiah spoke of in chapter 9 We find
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Israel as it were captive under an ever -changing name of simply the shadow of dark
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Empire Now at this point in time in the first century It's the Empire of Rome that extends its domination to the
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Mediterranean world Rome ruling over now Israel and therefore Israel once again
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Experiencing captivity and bondage to a foreign nation with foreign gods And into this comes
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The long -awaited King. How do we understand
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God's kingdom? Well, the first thing we have to understand about the kingdom is there's something already and there's something not yet The fancy term for that if you want to impress your friends at a get -together is inaugurated eschatology
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That's the fancy term inaugurated eschatology. You don't care to impress people. You're gonna say already and not yet There's something presently true
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Presently now about the kingdom of God and there's also something not yet Something we're waiting to be about the kingdom of God We get to for example,
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Matthew 11 John the Baptist is one who has actually prepared the way of the King He is one who recognized what the prophets were longing for and he knew that he had lived to see the dawning of that great
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King I'm not worthy to untie your sandal straps. He says Jesus says nevertheless to fulfill all righteousness.
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Let it be so John the Baptist as it were Introduces the king out in the desert out in the wasteland.
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He baptizes the king and Sets him forth into this ministry the advance of the kingdom of God But by the time we get to Matthew 11 even
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John the Baptist isn't quite sure if he's properly understood this king and this kingdom
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He sends word to Jesus from the dungeon of Herod. Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another?
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I Baptized you as the king I Sent you forth to reclaim the kingdom, but now
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I'm in a jail cell Under Herod this evil ruler and I'm beginning to question.
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Are you really the king who's come to reclaim the kingdom? This is not what
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I thought the kingdom of God would be like Of course
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What behind that question is the thought that? The promise has not come to pass at least not the promise in the way that John the
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Baptist Expected it not the way in which Jesus own disciples would expect it when they're being taught to pray your kingdom come
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They know exactly what that means for them. Finally. We'll get to kick the Romans out Finally, we'll be the mountain that rules over of the other nations
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It'll be a social geopolitical kingdom just like the other kingdoms of the earth We find that Jesus very patiently and consistently corrects this warped misunderstanding
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The Jews were looking for the Messiah. All right, but with him they were looking for a carnal kingdom Governed like the kingdoms of the pagans.
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This is how they understood the kingdom This is what they sought in the age to come and yet here comes
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Jesus and he doesn't teach the kingdom as something far -off He doesn't say that it's necessarily something all future
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He begins to argue that that future that destination of the kingdom has broken into the present age
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There's something already about this kingdom from the very beginning in Mark chapter 1 Jesus says the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand
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Therefore repent and believe the gospel This is not something beyond you.
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It's it's arrived. It's at hand Jesus says Matthew 12 if I cast out demons by the
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Spirit of God Surely the kingdom of God has come upon you
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Do you see his argument there? He's saying this wasn't a magic trick. He's not doing a
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David Blaine act Look what I can do with people who are possessed or crippled or blind That's not what
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Jesus is doing He's fulfilling the Isaac prophecies of what the Messiah would come to do and he's showing that the very nature of his ministry is establishing the reign of God by overthrowing the kingdom of darkness and So we're we're demons have now taken possession
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And throw as it were the people of God into captivity make them as slaves
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Make them as it were turn in upon themselves and against others and here Jesus comes and he casts out the demons of God And he understands he's doing something related to the kingdom
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If I'm casting out these demons by the Spirit of God surely the kingdom of God has come. It's already here
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He was now as he goes on to say Binding the strongman so that his people could plunder the strongman's house.
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The kingdom had already arrived Because the king had arrived Jesus had come the the person and ministry of Jesus Even though God's enemies had not yet been entirely removed and the people of God did not entirely
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Possess the inheritance that God had promised with Jesus Because we see the kingdom has already come the kingdom has come because the king has come and then
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Jesus In the next chapter in Matthew 13, he gives several parables to try to explain what the kingdom of God is like We ask the question
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How do we understand the kingdom of God? Jesus speaks of how this kingdom advances how this kingdom grows
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How his disciples? Cannot lose heart like John the Baptist was tempted to lose heart
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This isn't what I thought I didn't think I'd be in a den dungeon. I thought the Romans would be long gone by now.
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I Thought would finally hold our own against all the other nations that seem to have so much power and influence in this world
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And Jesus is saying here's how you should understand my kingdom and how it advances and how it grows
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Matthew 13 beginning in verse 31 Another parable he put forth saying the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
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Which a man took and sowed on his field and indeed it's the least of all seeds But when it is grown it is greater than the herbs it becomes a tree so that even the birds of the air come and nest in its branches and Another parable he spoke the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid and three measures of meal till it was
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All leaven there's a lot more we could say from Matthew 13 that that gives us other angles on the kingdom
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But I want to focus on these for a reason Jesus is speaking about the nature of his kingdom. How does this kingdom grow?
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How does it move as on? unfolding redemption brings about the purpose of God brings about God's will on earth just as God's will is done in heaven and Here we see just by taking a step back and looking at Jesus own ministry
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Jesus does not come with legions at his disposal. He doesn't arrive with ironclad
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Angelic foot soldiers to sort of cast out all the usurpers and bring about this dominance by might
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What does he do when he comes? He chooses a tax collector some fishermen this little band of 12 and that's how he goes about Advancing the kingdom of God in his ministry
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He's speaking about the growth of the kingdom These crowds have been attracted to him because of the signs and the wonders and he's asking the question
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So what will you like in the kingdom of God? How can you picture it? And that's what he's doing in Matthew 13
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Here's how you should think about it. Here's how you can understand it Jesus is essentially asking what can you compare the kingdom of God with that will explain it to you?
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Well, how do you think the disciples would have understood it up to that point? What's the kingdom of God like give me a picture give me a symbol.
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Well, they knew the great symbols of power They Knew what Rome used as the great symbol of Imperium the great
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Roman Eagle? brooding over all of the battle standards over all of the public buildings
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They knew that battle standard that bird of prey so majestic in its height the bird of prey that we use
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As our symbol of prowess and dignity and power there is something noble and epic about a bald eagle
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Or you think of the Assyrian lion? The Greek leopard you think about these mighty animals these predators
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Russia now has the bear India is the tiger Belgium is that royal lion?
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I don't know of any nations that have as their symbol of power or their mascot on their flag the shrimp
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I don't know of any nation that has as its decoration for its civil and patriotic adornments the mosquito or the flea
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The kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon were actually described as these miters mighty cedar trees you read
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Ezekiel 17 31 Daniel 4 Babylon itself is like this mighty cedar and its branches spread throughout the whole garden
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What is that a picture of? Here's the earth and here's this Empire and it's like no one can stand against them.
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The branches are going everywhere It's overshadowing everything and the little tributaries
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The little vassals as it were like birds that have to come from afar and all they can do is be under that shadow
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Under that rain. These are pictures of immense height Exalted power. We're talking about earthly kingdoms and Jesus says, how should you think of the kingdom of God?
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It's like a mustard seed. I Hope some of you have had whole grain mustard on a sandwich and you see how small a mustard seed is a tiny seed infinitesimal and Yet from that tiny easily missed easily ignored easily out of sight in mind from that little seed will grow a tree that Jesus says will dominate the garden and The birds of the air will come and find refuge under its branches
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Now whose kingdom is dominating now whose branches are extending over the earth
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Now who becomes the vassal and the tributary whose Kings stream in to pay tribute and render honor
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Jesus says his kingdom Will one day extend its branches in this way, but in the first century, it's bought a mustard seed
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That's it The disciples want it all now John the
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Baptist wants it now and Jesus says no, it's a mustard seed It's almost an insult something so small
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But he says again, it's like a mustard seed when it's sown on the ground It's smaller than every seed on earth
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But when it is sown it grows up and is greater than all of the plants And so the point becomes very clear it it's not that Jesus says well my my kingdom is just this little mustard seed
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And just hide it in your heart and wherever you go have that little kingdom with you One day, hopefully you'll bring your little mustard seeds to Jesus.
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That's not that's not the image You say my kingdom is like this little mustard seed. It's so hard for you to see
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John It's so hard for you to see you sons of Zebedee listen I'm sowing something in the ground right right now that even the
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Caesars won't catch on to for about a century but a few centuries after that it's going to turn their Empire upside down and inside out and From that through history its branches will shoot there may be times where in my judgment.
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I'm prune there may be Fierce conflicts in which the kingdom of darkness sets up a front and seeks to withhold
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But I'm telling you the gates of hell cannot withstand what this plant is going to do it will dominate the cosmos
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My kingdom will know no end How did the coming
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King arrive he arrived as a mustard seed? He didn't come descending on this golden throne chariot to hover over Jerusalem surrounded by legions of seraphs
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He was born of a Virgin Mary cowering on a bed of straw placed in a manger the conquering
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King That all of the sons of God from Genesis 4 to the very end have long awaited
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Was born on straw in the place where animals come to feed And he doesn't grasp on to divine glory
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He he doesn't even refuse to be humiliated in this way when he enters into the world as a weak
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Infant totally dependent on his parents He was like a mustard seed very tender in his growth
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Luke says he he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with men and with God and When he established the kingdom
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He didn't he didn't choose the the titans of industry and the greatest minds the
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MIT think -tank You know the the engineers of future prowess
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He chose some of the despised some blue -collar guys that were pretty rough around the edges
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Some people that were kind of seedy some people that were in conflict with each other Putting a zealot with a tax collector.
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That's a rough way to church That's like getting someone with Kamala bumper stickers and a you know eco
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Prius here and we're kind of like, oh, what do we do? He came as a weak infant
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When he established his kingdom he chose as his mighty men not what David chose not scribes and scholars
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But these rough -cut ne 'er -do -wells Not exactly an all -star cast for the kingdom, but Jesus was planting a mustard seed
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And you think of these men in their lifespan from the time Jesus called them to follow him
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And then witnessing his life his teaching his righteousness His sufferings his death his resurrection his ascension and in their own lifespan
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What did that little mustard seed become on the day of his death? Pentecost there was only a few hundred people devoted to the
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Lord When you're reading Acts 1 15 you get there's about a hundred twenty people that are following the
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Lord How many of those are just the third cousins of some of these disciples? I guess we'll just go with you
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What happens in Acts 2 3 ,000 people come to faith in the Lord Jesus By the time we leave
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Acts 4 5 ,000 have come alongside you see the mustard plant is beginning to grow
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Even where there's a reaction now from the Jerusalem leadership and the church scatters and Acts 8 1 they're just Scattering more of that spread of the branches of the kingdom
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So it goes to Samaria and from Samaria as Luke himself says to the very ends of the earth everywhere
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These witnesses go the kingdom is advancing And this all began as a mustard seed.
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This is the way that God chooses to work. Jesus says think of my kingdom in this way God chose the foolish things of the world
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Paul says to put to shame the wise God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong God chose the lowly things of this world the despised things the things
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That are not to bring to nothing the things that are what appears so insignificant at the beginning grows beyond all
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Expectation the point is that the kingdom has arrived in this small and seemingly insignificant way
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Not even in Jerusalem the major city, but out in Galilee It's like the mockery can anything good come out of Nazareth when when it's reported
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Jesus is of Nazareth And yet it comes and it it takes root in Jerusalem And then it grows and it grows and it grows and empires rise and empires fall and two millennia later
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The kingdom of God is still enduring still growing. The branch is still extending And this is a story that we are in brothers and sisters
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We're in a story that has The ending already revealed which is why it can be broken into the present
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The day is fixed when this kingdom's glory will be unveiled to all when every knee will bow every tongue confess that Christ is
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Lord this day when the kingdom is Consummated and joins into the everlasting glory that to us right now is presently veiled
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The disciples would have been amazed to see
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Pentecost lead thousands To know that though they felt so vulnerable
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Jesus was no longer with them. They no longer could just immediately go to him and say master
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Lord What do we do about this? We need your help with that he had ascended now, but they were learning how to understand his presence in his leading by his spirit and they witnessed with their own eyes why
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Jesus said it's far better that I go when they saw the Spirit come in power and thousands come to faith in the
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Lord and Peter at the end of his life as he's writing his epistle and he says I I'm amazed that you love him whom you haven't even seen
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It's just the Spirit of God at work Think of how these men would have thought about the kingdom of God if they could understand
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The spread of the faith throughout the globe in 2025 They were amazed that it was taking root in the temple mount
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They were amazed that some of the major cities in the far -flung provinces of Rome had a smattering of Christians They would have been absolutely floored to recognize that the global scope of these branches expanding and People from tribes and tongues that they could not even imagine
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Bringing glory to the crucified Savior That is what we're after when we pray your kingdom come
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Now part of the glorious promise of the kingdom is that many tribes and many tongues will stream into it
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It's part of the language of other birds as it were coming into the branches of this kingdom
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They they leave these lesser plants and they go to the place of true refuge of true glory
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And so Jesus says his kingdom will involve many strangers and foreigners to become part of the very members of the household of God Pliny the
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Elder by the way Pliny the Elder who wrote Historical accounts as well as he sort of was an amateur botanist and he recorded some of the plant life especially of places that he had visited and he actually wrote on mustard plants and He says this the mustard plant grows entirely wild You can you can domesticate he says it grows entirely wild like it's just out there but It's very improved by being transplanted
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It grows wild but if you dig it up from where it is and put it somewhere else it thrives
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And he says on the other hand once it's been sown It's impossible to get a place free of it once those little seeds fall.
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Good luck. It's it's all over You're gonna have a lot of mustard in your garden. That's what he's saying The seed almost as soon as it fall begins to germinate
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You see like once it's sown it. It's already begun It's too late. You look at the
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Chinese Communist Party Desperately trying to dig out the mustard seeds from the soil of Chinese culture and you just it's just too late
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It's too late It's been germinating There's really nothing you can do.
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I'll tell you there's one thing you can do kiss the Sun lest he be angry He doesn't just have a golden scepter
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To honor and embrace those who enter into his kingdom He has a rod of iron to smash those who oppose him and every kingdom falls
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Underneath the throne of this king. And so how should we understand the kingdom?
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We should understand it as the storyline of Scripture, which is the storyline of the world This is the narrative you are in Jesus says pray that this kingdom will come
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Pray that it will continue to advance that its consummation will be ushered forth Don't live, you know when
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I was in church growing up around Easter or whatever that give little Gadgets and what we call Jesus junk and one of the things they would give no offense if someone's wearing one of these
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Was a little lapel pin. There's a little lapel pin and it had a mustard seed encased in glass
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It was this reminder. Your faith is like a mustard seed That's wonderful that my faith is like a mustard seed.
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The kingdom of God is like a mustard tree It once was a seed it is a seed no longer and we should not live as If the kingdom of God is this little mustard seed and it's okay whatever happens beyond me
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They'll never get this little mustard seed out of my heart. That's not the kingdom of God brothers and sisters The kingdom is not like a mustard seed the kingdom is what happens to the mustard seed it grows over all
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It grows until it dominates everything And that's why Jesus can say from the very beginning of his ministry
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After John was put in prison Jesus came to Galilee Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God saying the time is fulfilled.
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The kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel Jesus is preaching. He's proclaiming.
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This is a royal decree. He's preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God Jesus is not preaching
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Meditations for a happier life. Jesus is not preaching ten spiritual laws He's not giving you some
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Facebook algorithm some philosophy of life to find ways to be more present and more relevant
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He's not looking for healthier happier. This is a kingdom at war
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Advancing over a usurping kingdom a kingdom of darkness that God sought to overthrow by actually sending his son into the very heart of that darkness and Succumbing to all of its evil designs in order to conquer it from the inside out
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This is why we sing hymns like thine be the glory risen conquering son, how do we understand the kingdom of God?
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It's it's almost part and parcel that back in the 80s when you had what was known as a lordship controversy
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The kingdom of God had essentially fallen out of preaching fallen out of understanding of the significance of it as a theme
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It was George Eldon lad that largely began to argue for it and other scholars begin to catch on Yeah, this is a major theme that we cannot ignore.
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We have to be able to explain its significance Well, it's not surprising if you stop thinking about the kingdom of God if you're not plugging yourself into the story of this kingdom
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What does it mean for Jesus to be King? What does it mean for him to be Lord of your life? Well, that's the extra
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You know, he doesn't have to be Lord of your life in a way that's actually transforming your life at all You just have to believe and at least you're in now
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You're in the kingdom just because you believe regardless of how you live you can be a carnal Christian If you want to be one of those goody -two -shoes super Christians, then you actually have to allow him to be
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Lord This was the lordship controversy for 1900 years before that such a thought could not exist because for 1900 years before that people knew what it meant to have a king
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You can't speak of entering the kingdom without reference to a king. This is a disadvantage for us. We were
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Americans. We don't have a king We don't live under a monarchy. In fact, we fought a war to make sure we wouldn't live under a monarchy
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So it's very hard for us to understand what living under the rule of the king means as Americans We're predisposed to thinking of it in completely negative terms.
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It's a good thing. We don't have to live under a king You drive up to New Hampshire. What's on the license plate live free or die?
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We can't think in a positive way about a king we can't think in positive ways about allegiance and loyalty and reverence and zeal
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The closest we get is when we watch, you know Lord of the Rings and we see the way Tolkien portrays Aragorn and it's like I want to jump into that page and fight fight
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With him and fight for him. He's a good king. He's a glorious king He's fighting the necessary battle of the kingdom
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And so we in some ways to use this phrase we decrown the king by neglecting the kingdom of God when we take the kingdom away from the way that we think about our lives the story that we are plugged into the story of history the story of the world the story of creation and new creation and We're no longer able to think about and apply this truth to our lives.
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We're not thinking of the king Who is enthroned above who's bringing his enemies beneath his footstool?
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We no longer think of ourselves as subjects loyal to him zealous for him Desiring to fight with him and fight for him to ensure that in our small way his kingdom is advanced and it's renowned
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That we give testimony to the glory of this king in other words We witness to his good news. This king has made terms of peace to all who lay down their rebellion and come to him
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It's just another way. We keep the mustard seed in a little glass case Leslie Newbigin who was a missiologist
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He was a missionary in India for a number of years from the UK from the UK. I should say the Commonwealth He might have been
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Australian I forget but Leslie Newbigin a very influential writer who wrote a lot on in the 80s and 90s about how to understand secularism and post -modernism and what that meant for witnessing to the faith what that meant for contextual evangelism and He believed that he saw this he saw the impact of these things.
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He said Jesus and the kingdom have become so disconnected in our century Evangelicals emphasize the person of Jesus in their gospel, but they neglect the kingdom that he proclaimed
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And so he says therefore the invitation is reduced to a personal relationship. That's all there is Jesus doesn't
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Nothing against personal relationship that to have faith is to enter into a personal communion with the Savior I'm not knocking that at all, but Jesus doesn't use that language to describe coming to him.
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What does he say? He says of those who will know by no means enter the kingdom
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Those who will see the kingdom he uses kingdom language to talk about conversion Entering the kingdom seeing the kingdom being part of the kingdom
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The kingdom dawning within you And so when we separate
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Jesus from the kingdom that he preached all we have is just a little mustard seed to wear on Your jacket and just you know, enjoy this little personal relationship you have make sure it doesn't ruffle any feathers around you
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The world will have to do what the world does. We have this nice little neat mustard seed that one day will mean something wrong story wrong view of the kingdom
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That's to say there's a king but no kingdom Jesus is my king His kingdom is some somewhere somehow it'll come sometime
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Jesus came from the very beginning of his ministry says the kingdoms at hand if I'm casting out demons the kingdom has come
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And we're entered into that on the flip side You can go back even before that in the 30s and 40s of the last century and you have a sort of a social gospel
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Tradition and it was using kingdom language to talk about the need for mission, but it actually neglected the person of Jesus You start to see the reaction
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It was all about let's do kingdom work by donating blood You know and making sure we're building libraries
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Just trying to be good citizens get out the vote and that was their idea of advancing the kingdom And there was really very little to say about Jesus.
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There was nothing to say about toppling the kingdom of Satan In other words, you had a kingdom but no king
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And we cannot fall on either of these errors. We must not have a king without a kingdom or a kingdom without a king
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We are those who have been brought into a kingdom with a mighty glorious King a kingdom that knows no end
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And so when we sing Christmas hymns, we can't be like the rest of the world around us Remember a few years ago walking through Best Buy and they were singing
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Christmas hymns And I was so gratified. I'm like, this is awesome. This you know, it's like that meme with the butterfly is is you know
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Is this kingdom advancement? Thank you.
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Someone knew that me But Then you start to feel a little sad because you're like the lyrics like people are more invested in the
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Xbox they have in their Hands and what these lyrics are saying Let the earth receive her
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King Jesus Lord at thy birth
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You see we can't understand the gospel story if we don't frame it in terms of Kingdom What does it mean that?
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Christ was born It means the long -awaited King has come to overthrow the usurper and establish what belongs to him and he freely gives it
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To his people as co -heirs to rule and reign with him as God did God intended from the very beginning
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It's why when the angel appears to Mary in Luke 2, she says behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son
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Here's the seed promised to thee woman in Genesis 3 15. You'll call his name Jesus.
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He'll be great He'll be called the son of the highest the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign
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And of his kingdom there will be no end You can't understand who Jesus is if you don't think about it in terms of the kingdom
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You can't understand why Jesus came if you don't understand it in terms of the kingdom Jesus now ruling over every enemy as he must reign
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Paul argues in 1st Corinthians 15 until he's put all of his enemies under his feet How do you understand the kingdom of God is
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It the mustard tree that's shooting across the globe and you're on this little twig here in Barry Doing your part to see the buds in your own generation and your own circle of influence continue to advance
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Or is it this little glass button you you wear for some strange reason? It's so privatized.
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It becomes meaningless That's why there's this disconnect between the newborn
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Savior who is exalted as a king and the longing for a return you know another evidence of the fact that we disconnect the kingdom of God from our understanding of the gospel is that We actually don't pray this second petition very well, do we?
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We know how to pray your name be hallowed as good Calvinist. We know how to pray for daily bread But Often what doesn't factor into our prayers is your kingdom come if we're being honest
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If we were to voice a prayer be more like your kingdom. Wait, I've got things I need to accomplish Your kingdom wait, there's things in life.
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I need to experience your kingdom. Wait, I don't know if I'm ready for all that I've got to get my act together The ancient church would be looking at us sideways
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Their whole cry was your kingdom come They saw themselves as a bride and the bridegroom had gone to prepare a place and and the bride is there just saying come back
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Come back They read Song of Songs and they knew that was a letter to them. I Can't go on much longer.
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When will I see you? When will as it were the bridal veil of the skies be rent apart?
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So I can actually see this king of glory and sit at the wedding feast and enjoy the communion that the earth has been groaning for and so they their cry in worship was
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Maranatha Lord come What are they connecting?
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To their faith that we are not if that's not what our worship leads us to pray if that's not the side behind our hope
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If that's not the crown of our prayer Lord Hallow your name and when is your name going to be hallowed exclusively and predominantly when your kingdom is consummated
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You can't pray for your name to be hallowed without your kingdom coming Lord And all
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I am is at your disposal. It's why when you get to Revelation 19, it's not this newborn
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Writhing as it were on a straw mat being being swaddled by his his mother
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But it's the king whose tongue is like a sword to strike the nation's ruling with a rod of iron treading on the winepress of the wrath of an almighty
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God having a robe on his thigh is written king of Kings Lord of Lords and John is giving this vision to these persecuted believers in the first century
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And he's saying that day is coming. This is the kingdom. You're a part of this is the king you serve
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It may seem like the Romans have the upper hand they're dust on his scale It may seem like they have the axe handle in their hand, but his rod of iron is fast coming down upon them
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You serve a mighty king a glorious king and then he he closes all of Scripture in Revelation 22 simply with this this phrase come
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Lord Jesus Second last second to last verse in the whole book of Scripture even so come
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Lord Jesus What have I disconnected about the gospel about my faith about the story that my life is a part of if my prayers don't?
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Naturally orient themselves in that direction Lord just come to pray your kingdom come is to pray that God's salvation will continue to advance
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Against the gates of hell to pray your kingdom come is to pray that the kingdom of God Advance will usher in this long -awaited consummation that not just his people
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But even the earth is groaning for to pray your kingdom come is to join with the the songs and the sighs and the hopes of the ancient church
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Witnessing with their own lives their great. Hope as they prayed come Lord Jesus To pray your kingdom come is to stand on the last page of scriptures
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Just like John does in Revelation 22 and say come come kingdom come
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So you have to understand the kingdom
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It's the biggest story of all that is it's nothing that you can plant like a seed into a little glass button
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Because the branches are already shooting out over the earth It will continue to do so as long as God sees fit to bring in all that he will bring in it's a glorious kingdom
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Into our own shame and embarrassment. We don't think about it deeply enough Which is why we hardly pray
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Your kingdom come may God help us to pray and to mean as we pray
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Your kingdom come. Amen Let's pray father.
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Thank you. Thank you for your kingdom your glorious kingdom We were rebels to it
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Lord in your grace. You conquered us In the day of your power you made us willing
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With irresistible grace Lord you you drew us to yourself even as we came With bald fists and hardened hearts and seared consciences
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Lord Your mercy is so rich and free that it stripped away all of that filth and all of the detriment of our sin
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And you clothed us with your own righteousness the righteousness of the Son whom you sent You gave us the golden ring of your promise and you sat us at the table of the feast
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You drew us into this kingdom with fellow soldiers a brotherhood a fellowship
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Lord But as Paul says consists of righteousness and peace and joy
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Lord forgive us. We don't pray for your kingdom to come as we are We don't think deeply enough about your kingdom as the storyline of the world
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We don't think about it of the story behind all stories the history behind all histories We don't see in our own lives that the shadows and past wounds of the bondage of of an evil
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Pharaoh Of a rival usurper of a kingdom of darkness and destruction
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We don't often connect the domination of the prince of the power of the air When we see the lives of people in bondage to sin change to addictions given over to depravity and all things that empty and hollow
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Themselves to humanize their lives and to humanize the lives of others Help us to see that kingdom for what it is
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Because we see your kingdom for what it is. Help us to know that darkness because we see your light
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And may you armor us and equip us to be ever a part of your kingdoms advance though we have a small twig here in Barry and Small little buds of opportunity surrounding us.
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May we recognize that even this is the way in your sovereign providence and wisdom the kingdom of God grows from that small mustard seed that burst forth out of the soil of Jerusalem and Ascended on high to the heavens that your kingdom will advance until heaven and earth become one