Hi, this is the Human Proclaim podcast, The Messages of John Fonville. You're listening to season 4 called Pray This Way: The Divine Pattern of Righteous Prayer. Here's John with message number 6 called How Does the Kingdom Come? Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 6. We're going to pick up from last week.
We're looking at the Lord's Prayer. And in the Lord's Prayer, what Jesus is doing for us is he's contrasting two fundamental different ways to pray. You can pray unrighteously or you can pray righteously. Unrighteous prayer versus righteous prayer. The unrighteous prayers were the prayers of the scribes and Pharisees because their prayer life was based on a distorted understanding of God the Father.
So what Jesus does is he gives us the Lord's Prayer, which is based on a proper understanding of God as our Heavenly Father. And he focuses in this prayer on seven major themes of righteous prayer. And all of those seven themes focus us or center us on God the Father. Reveals to us the truth of who He is and what He does. And then we see also from these seven themes that this is actually how.
God's adopted sons pray.
So, what we have seen is that righteous prayer focuses on the knowledge of God as Father. This prayer begins with this address: Our Father. Second, righteous prayer focuses on the honor of the Father. Hallowed be your name. And so the first petition, hallowed be your name, is implied in the second petition, which is your kingdom come, which is what we're looking at.
And what we have seen is this, is that our Father dwells and reigns in heaven as a king. Therefore, it is our duty as his subjects of his kingdom to truly acknowledge his royal majesty as kingship. And as we do this, there is a zeal that arises within us. For his kingdom. And so Jesus teaches us to ask the Father.
That after he has subjected and finally and completely destroyed everything that dishonors his name. Hallowed be your name. The second petition, which is almost identical to the first, He teaches us to pray this, your kingdom come. And so, thirdly, the third theme is that righteous prayer focuses on the kingdom of the Father. God is a great king over men and over all nations and this whole entire cosmos.
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was brought to his knees. And he was brought to confess, he said, quote, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. and his dominion is from generation to generation. Jesus is the king of kings. And so in this second petition, Jesus teaches us that the Father's adopted sons, who are the true subjects of his kingdom, pray for their father's kingdom to come.
There are three important questions that we have to ask and answer. First, what is the kingdom? How does the kingdom come? And what does it mean to pray your kingdom come? Last week, what is the kingdom?
We said the kingdom is simply this. God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing.
So when we pray, your kingdom come, we have to keep in mind that the second petition of the Lord's Prayer is given in the context of Jesus' fulfillment of all the Old Testament covenants. He exercises his kingly rule in his kingdom over his subjects over all of creation through covenants. To live in God's kingdom is to live under his rule and realm and to enjoy his blessing through the covenants that he has made with us. But tragically, we saw that Adam failed in his covenant responsibility, so man is no longer. God's people living in God's place under God's rule and blessing.
Instead, man. is now Living outside of the kingdom, which is marked by separation from the blessing of God, but not separation, listen, from the cursing of God. You have to understand that eternal punishment, hell. Is not eternal separation from God. Please don't say that anymore.
Hell is not eternal separation from God. Hell is what you see right here in the garden. It is separation from the blessing of God, and instead of enjoying His presence, it is being crushed by His presence. Hell is where there is fear, dread, cursing, judgment, and death. But in his great love, God makes a promise in Genesis 3:15 to restore his kingdom and to bring his rebellious subjects back under his rule and blessing.
And so we saw. That the promise of the serpent crusher, this champion seed offspring from Adam and Eve, becomes the central and folding story of the Bible. The rest of the Bible from Genesis 3.15 all the way to Revelation 22 is simply the unfolding story of how God the great king is faithful to keep his initial promise to Adam and Eve to send the serpent crusher who is Christ to restore his subjects to his kingdom. That's the whole Bible in a nutshell. And so this brings us then to the second question this week.
How does the kingdom come? How does this kingdom, the rule and realm of God's blessing? Calm to man.
So what you need to first understand in answering that question is this. You have to understand that we do not bring God's kingdom into being ourselves. We do not build God's kingdom. We do not Build or bring into existence the kingdom of God. God does, who is the great king.
Now this ought to be self-evident from scripture. Why? Because if you remember in Genesis 3, 24, and the perished kingdom. All men are banished east of Eden. Genesis 3, 24, the Lord God drove the man out, that is out of his kingdom.
He drove him out. The Lord God drove him out. And at the east of the Garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim. And the flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
Now remember back, God assigned Adam the task of tending and protecting his garden temple. The kingdom of God. The pattern of the kingdom of God in Genesis 1 and 2. He commissioned Adam and Eve. to rule and subdue.
And to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the whole earth beginning from his kingdom right there in the garden. And so from Eden, this garden temple where God reigned as king, his kingdom was to spread to the ends of the earth through the fruitful multiplication of Adam and Eve. And tragically what happened is Adam broke God's covenant and he plunged himself and all of mankind into condemnation and because of his failure, obedience by man who has now fallen. Listen carefully. Obedience by man who is fallen.
That way to the tree of life is cut off by God forever. Entrance into the kingdom of God is now impossible by Adam's obedience and all of his posterity's acts of obedience. And so, whoever by his or her own obedience after the fall. Tries to obtain eternal life, that is, enter back into the kingdom of God. Come into the presence of God, enter God's holy temple.
Would me death, There is an angel, a cherubim with a sword waiting at the entrance to slay anyone who now, after the fall, attempts to enter the kingdom of God by his own acts or her own acts of obedience. And so, if man is to enter once again into the kingdom of God, God, the great king, must act, he must provide the way. And this new way of entry is called promise or grace. And the good news is the great King, he did act. He makes a promise in Genesis 3.15.
He sends the serpent crusher who is Christ. But you see, because Adam broke the first covenant, that is the covenant of works, where he could, by his obedience, because there was no sin, there was nothing keeping him from obeying perfectly. Nothing. God had created Adam perfectly, and he said, after his creation in his image, he is very good. Adam had all necessary faculties given to him by God to give complete and perfect obedience to that covenant.
The blame is not with God in his creation, but with man who willfully disobeyed. And so, what happens is just subsequent to the fall of man. Everything after Genesis 3.15 The restoration of God's kingdom has to come by promise or grace, entrance into God's kingdom. How does the kingdom come? Listen.
The kingdom of God comes by way of promise or grace. God, the great king, makes what is utterly impossible with man, entrance into the kingdom, possible by his promise.
Now I want you to look at Matthew chapter 19 because in Matthew chapter 19 Jesus teaches this exact kingdom truth and the encounter that he has with a young man who loved money rather than his neighbor. And there's a young man in Matthew chapter nineteen. Beginning at verse 16. And he comes to inquire to Jesus about perfect righteousness. In other words, he's talking to Jesus about entering the kingdom of God.
And he says to Jesus in verse 16, Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? Do you understand this question is the question of the old Adam? This is the question of the old Adam. What must I do? Pre-fall, condition of man.
Pre-fall, relationship that man had with God was under the covenant of works. Do this and live. And so this young man who is banished east of Eden is still thinking like he's still in the Garden of Eden under the covenant of works. What good deed must I do?
So he's thinking like the old Adam. And but what we've learned is that from the pattern of the kingdom in Genesis 1 and 2, where God placed Adam under a covenant of works. If Adam was to reach the goal of eternal life, he had to be obedient in his covenant responsibilities, but he wasn't.
So he broke the covenant. But the law, listen, in itself contains perfect righteousness and promises eternal life on the condition of perfect obedience. Jesus understood his law perfectly. And because the young man's question concerned works, he refers the young man to his law, and Jesus asks him. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.
And so the young man in his self-righteousness in verse 18, look what he says. He says, which ones? And so Jesus in verses 18 and 19, he replies by quoting the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, and ninth commandments in Leviticus 19, 18, which is a summation of those commandments where it says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so at verse 20, this young man puffed up with vain confidence. He declares to Jesus All these I have kept.
What do I still lack? You see, it's quite certain that this young man was an infinite distance away from what he boasted of having reached. He boasted of having reached perfect righteousness. What do I still lack? I can enter into the kingdom of God, I can have eternal life, I have done this.
But if his boasting had been true, he would have lacked nothing towards attaining the highest perfection, and Jesus would have said to him, come on in. That's not what Jesus says to him. Jesus doesn't say to him, oh, wow, wonderful obedience, come on in. Come into my kingdom. What does Jesus say?
Knowing that this young man lacked what the law requires for perfect righteousness, Jesus. After quoting the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th commandment, he quotes the 10th commandment to him. He applies the meaning of the tenth commandment: you shall not covet. And in verse 21, he says to the young man, not...
Well done, come on in. He says to him, he quotes in the law. Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, What do I still lack? What perfection I've obtained?
Okay, if you would be perfect, go sell what you possess and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. You see, Jesus knew that this young man's heart coveted riches. Wealth, not Jesus, was this man's God. Jesus uses the tenth commandment, the law, to lay open his idolatrous love of riches and to show that this young man loves money and wealth. He does not love his neighbor.
And so Matthew says that when the young man heard Jesus, look at verse 22. When the young man heard Jesus reveal to him the true demand of God's law for perfect righteousness, what God requires for entering the kingdom of God. Jesus doesn't say, okay. But I'll give you curves. No.
This young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. John Calvin makes this really important observation. He says, If he had been as good as a keeper of the law as he thought, He would not have gone away in sorrow on hearing this word. For the man who loves God with all his heart not only counts as refuse what it reposes love of him, but flees it like the plague. In other words, walking away from Jesus when you're convicted by your sin and great sorrow is the wrong response.
Whenever God confronts you with the perfect demands of his law, and the idols of your heart are laid bare before God, you are like Adam and Eve naked before the all seeing eye of God. The proper response is not to walk away from Jesus with great sorrow. That is the wrong response. The proper response is repentance, confession of sin, and a cry for grace and mercy. Like Bartimaeus the blind beggar, we should cry out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
What we have to understand from this account of this young man with Jesus is that Jesus is using the law to expose his pretensions of lawkeeping. Thereby demonstrating the fact that he lacked perfect righteousness. To put it another way, Jesus is teaching us here the complete and utter impossibility of this young man entering into the kingdom of God. On his own obedience. He cannot come in because why?
Genesis 3:24. Your personal acts of obedience to the law have forever been cut off by God. And there is a cherubim standing at the entrance of the kingdom saying, If you try to enter my kingdom through your personal acts of obedience, now that you've broken the covenant, you're going to die. How do we know that Jesus is teaching about entrance into the kingdom with this young man?
Well, we know because of verse 23 and verse 24. Jesus turns to his disciples and he says to them, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Kingdom of heaven, just another term for the kingdom of God. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Have you ever seen the eye of a needle?
And have you ever seen a camel? Jesus is being quite hilarious here. Camel's not going to an Ivan needle. You know what Jesus is teaching us here about this encounter with this rich young man? He's simply emphasizing the impossibility for fallen man to enter the kingdom of God by his own law keeping, by his own perfect obedience, because he can't give it.
Jesus is stressing the truth of Genesis 3:24, where the Lord God drove the man out east of the Garden of Eden. In verse 25, listen to how the disciples respond because they get what Jesus is saying. They get it. Partially they get it because you're going to see what they don't get. Verse 25.
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? Jesus? They got it partially. Listen. The disciples understood that entering the kingdom of God meant being saved.
Who can be saved? Who can enter the kingdom of God? Back in verse 16, who can have eternal life? The disciples' conclusion was partially right. If what Jesus just taught us is true, no man can enter the kingdom of God because he cannot give perfect righteousness like this young man thought he did, but he couldn't.
Entrance into the kingdom of God is impossible. And they were right, partially. Look at verse 26. Look what they didn't get. They didn't get the good news of the kingdom.
Because in verse 26, Jesus preaches the good news. He declares the good news. He says, But Jesus looked at them and said, With man this, what is this? That is entering the kingdom of God. by your own acts of perfect obedience.
With man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. What in the context are possible for God? Bringing you into the kingdom of God. Man's attempts at entering the kingdom of God, being saved, having eternal life, reaching the goal of the tree of life, however you want to say it, is impossible.
But the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom that Jesus came proclaiming is that the kingdom of God is founded on impossibilities. Because God the great King, who is the God of promise and performance, the God whose steadfast love never ceases, whose mercies never come to an end, who is faithful to all generations, because that is who He is, all things are possible to enter through His way. Herman Witzius says, None belongs to the kingdom of God. None knows and perceives its true nature who is not convinced that it arises out of impossibilities. At every point of our salvation, From the beginning, middle, and end, we are wholly dependent upon the God of promise and performance.
Jesus is teaching us in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Lord's Prayer, when we pray, Your kingdom come, He is teaching us that the entrance into His kingdom is a gift. It is not a wage. We have to keep in mind that the Lord's Prayer, as I've said over and over, is part of the Sermon on the Mount. And the focus of Jesus' sermon is on the kingdom of God, which he shows that Jesus, himself the king, is bringing into the world as gift. How do we know he's teaching that?
Because his sermon begins with the Beatitudes. And his beatitudes are gospel pronouncements of the king on his undeserving, rebellious subjects in his kingdom. And by doing so, Jesus from the very beginning of his sermon underscores the fact that the Father freely gifts the kingdom to rebellious subjects who are undeserving. And so the kingdom of God, Jesus says, is not something that we build. It is not something that we bring.
It is something that we receive. It is a gift. The kingdom of God is a gift that God the Father in love is giving to rebellious, undeserving subjects through the sending of his gift, his Son. How do we know this? Listen to Luke chapter 12, verse 32.
These are highly comforting words for you today. Listen to these comforting words of Jesus as he speaks. He's assuring words to our hearts. Fear not, little flock. At best, that's what we are, just a little flock.
Weak, failing, flailing sheep. Fear not, little flock. for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom God's children are the subjects of God's kingdom, and they are dear to the Father's heart. Jesus tells us that our Father in heaven delights. It's his good pleasure.
He takes great delight in giving his kingdom as a gift to his adopted sons. Do you hear that? Your father delights. and giving you this gift. The Father gives.
That's good news. In Matthew chapter 7, verse 11, near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, Our Father in heaven loves to give good things to those who ask him. What is it? The perfect righteousness required? To enter his kingdom that's given through his Son is a gift.
Not only the Father is a giver. But also the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, loves to give. In Matthew chapter 20, verse 28, Jesus says, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The Father gives and he delights in it. The Son gives and he delights in it.
This is why the message that Jesus preached is called the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom. That's why it's not called the good works of the kingdom. The subjects of God's kingdom receive the kingdom as a gift. Listen to the author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 28. Therefore, let us be grateful.
What produces gratitude? This. For receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Receiving a kingdom, not building a kingdom. Not bringing a kingdom.
Simply sitting down and letting the King of Kings read to me my inheritance. It's a gift. Because of the fall, we cannot obey our way into the kingdom of God. In Adam's fall, we all died. Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 1: You were dead in the trespasses and sins.
Dead. He tells Nicodemus: if anybody is to enter the kingdom of God, Nicodemus, he or she must be born again, that is, born from above. Being born again, that is born from above by the Spirit, isn't something that we do. It is a gift that we receive from the Holy Spirit. Jesus confirms this in John 3 verse 8.
He says, the wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Entrance into the kingdom of God, then, he says to Nicodemus, comes by the gift of regeneration. Which is a divine gift given by the Holy Spirit that you don't do. Because you're dead. It doesn't come.
Entrance doesn't come into the kingdom, he tells a rich young man in Matthew 19 by self-justification. Earning, keeping your way into the kingdom. It comes by regeneration, a divine gift of the Holy Spirit. And so the good news of the kingdom is that even though we were dead in our trespasses and sins, listen to what God the Father has done about it. What is impossible because we are dead.
It's possible with God because he raises the dead. Listen, God the Father, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. That's entrance into the kingdom of God right there. Entrance into the kingdom of God is a miracle of resurrection.
So what is impossible with man, God makes possible by his grace alone. Listen carefully. Entrance into the kingdom is a gift given from the Father. In the sun. by the Holy Spirit.
It's a Trinitarian work. And so to begin with, we have to note that the kingdom of God is never something that we bring into being. How does the kingdom of God come into being right now in the time in which we live? It comes, listen, the Father's kingdom comes as the Holy Spirit conquers hearts by means of word and sacrament. In the proclaimed kingdom, the age of the gospel, the last days, the age of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is creating faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and He assures it and confirms that faith by the use of the sacraments. Graham Goldsworthy says it like this. The kingdom of God comes as Jesus exercises his kingly power through the scepter of his preached gospel. The gospel is the word of his kingdom. It is the word the Holy Spirit uses to bring rebellious, dead subjects to life and to make them righteous so that they can be brought into faith union with the King.
And through this faith union with the king, they become righteous. through his declaration. And so, how does the kingdom of God spread currently? The kingdom of God currently in our days spreads as the Holy Spirit works through the proclamation of the gospel. When Jesus presented the kingdom, he presented the kingdom through not only his preaching and teaching, but through his miracles.
And I want you to see right after the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew and Matthew 8 and 9 shows us these kingdom miracles by Jesus. And the reason Matthew does this is to show us that Jesus is demonstrating his authority as the king. He's demonstrating the authority of Jesus' inbreaking of his kingdom upon the kingdom of man. And his miracles illuminate and validate who he is and the work he came to perform. And in each miracle, Matthew shows us, it is performed by speech.
He speaks these miracles into existence. It is a performative word. When he speaks, what he speaks, performs. It happens. Listen carefully.
People in Matthew A were not partly lepros, they were full of leprosy. People in Matthew 9 were not mostly blind, but totally blind from birth. People were not sort of paralyzed, but entirely paralyzed. Jairus' daughter was not almost dead. She was dead.
Matthew chapter 9. And in these miracles, we see the power of Jesus' word. Listen to Matthew 8, verse 3. Jesus speaks, be clean. And Matthew says, immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm. To the demons and the two demon-possessed men, Jesus simply says, go.
So they came out and went into the pigs. To the paralytic, Jesus says, take heart, my son. Your sins are forgiven.
So, how did the people know Jesus could forgive sins by simply speaking forgiveness into existence? Because they couldn't see into this paralytic's heart.
So listen to Matthew 9, 6 through 7. Jesus says, So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, Rise. Pick up your bed. And go home. And he rose and he went home.
What he said is what the paralytic did. In the same way, the Holy Spirit in this present age of the kingdom makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word of God effectual to salvation. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6, Paul says, just as God spoke the world into existence, Genesis chapter 1 verse 3, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness. What happened? Light shined out of darkness.
It's a performative speech act word. For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Coming into the kingdom is made possible. Because God speaks a word of ex ni hello creation. and says, live, and you come in.
The preaching of the gospel is not just to give information. It is not merely informative. It is performative. That is, Jesus speaks faith into existence through his gospel by means of the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. If you're sitting in a church week after week after week and all you get is tip and principle and tip and principle and we are relevant tip and principle, the Holy Spirit does not take that word and create faith.
He only uses the proclamation of the gospel and the sacraments to create faith in a sure faith. And if you're not hearing the gospel in your church week after week, find one where you are. As men hear the gospel through the preaching of the word, both saved and unsaved, they are apprehended by the King Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul says this and 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 5, he says, Our gospel came to you.
Not only in word. but also in power. And in the Holy Spirit. and with full conviction. Through the proclamation of the gospel, the Holy Spirit performs what is spoken.
It is a powerful performative speech. And so when a person who is dead is regenerated by the Spirit of God through the gospel, the gates of the heart are thrown open and the King of glory comes in and they are brought back into the kingdom. And what was impossible with them because they're dead was made possible by the power of God who raises the dead to life and speaks them back into existence. That's how the gospel comes. And so it's by means of the proclamation of this gospel, this performative word, that God's people, Jew and Gentile, believers in Christ, are brought once again into God's place called the church, and they live under God's rule and blessing in the church, the new covenant, the Holy Spirit, where the word and sacrament is given week after week.
So that people are apprehended by Christ through the Holy Spirit. And this brings us to the final question. When we pray that in your kingdom come, what are we praying? What are we praying?
Well, first It's very simple. Your kingdom come is a confession. of spiritual inability and complete dependence upon God for everything. The second petition acknowledges that only the Father can bring in his kingdom. It is a prayer that is looking for God the Father to take action, not the worshipers.
It is a prayer for God the Father to bring his kingdom into being, to establish his kingdom by himself. Not by us. It is God establishing the kingdom for us. It is not by us establishing the kingdom for God. It's the exact opposite.
And so quite literally to pray, Father, your kingdom come, we are asking, Father, do the impossible, raise the dead to life, grant life where there is only death, grant righteousness where there is only unrighteousness. Take the word of your kingdom, the gospel, and conquer and apprehend hearts who are rebellious by the power of your Holy Spirit and bring them to life and unite them to the king so they can be righteous and enter through him. Because at the end of this sermon in Matthew 7, 13, Jesus says, he is the narrow gate of entry into the kingdom. And we are asking the Father to do what is impossible. Father, bring your rebellious subjects to that narrow gate.
And save them. Your kingdom come. Take those who are bound up in the most cruel slavery. And rise up, the liberty of your kingdom. And take wretched, bound slaves who are held in the chains of tyranny by the God of this world, blinded to the gospel, and open their eyes and save them and do for us what we cannot do for anybody.
Your kingdom come. Second. To pray your kingdom come is to pray a gospel mission prayer. It is to identify with the purposes of God in the gospel right before Jesus' ascension into heaven. Luke says this, he says, Jesus says to his disciples, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, the promise of my Father upon you. That is the Holy Spirit. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Matthew 24 verse 14, this gospel of the kingdom, this good news of the reign and rule of God through Jesus will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. And so it is by the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, that the Father's kingdom spreads throughout the whole world in these last days.
So when we pray, your kingdom come. We are praying for the success. of the worldwide spread of the gospel of the kingdom.
So, missions is not an option for God's adopted children. It is the core prayer of their prayer life. In praying this petition, we all participate in the Father's Kingdom gospel mission. It is impossible to remain indifferent to the Father's Kingdom mission and pray this petition with sincerity. We pray that the gospel will spread to all nations of the earth, and we have the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, ensuring.
that his gospel mission will not fail. And then, third and finally, as we pray your kingdom come. It is to pray for the consummation of the Father's kingdom, and I think this is where we get the most comfort because. We've learned that the kingdom of God, the presented kingdom, came in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But we also learned that the kingdom of God will not be consummated, Matthew 28:20, until the end of the age.
So the kingdom has come, but it's also coming. And so presently, because of this tension, we live in what's called the in-between the times. We live between Jesus' presentation of the kingdom and the consummation of his kingdom when he comes again.
So, how do we understand the kingdom of God now?
Well, a Lutheran theologian, Oscar Kuhlman, is very popular with this illustration. It's the best I've ever found, so I'm just going to share it with you. He compares the time in which we live now to the time in World War II between D-Day and V-E-Day. On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces invaded Normandy. That's called D-Day.
And on D-Day, this marked a time when the Allied forces won the war and the German Empire was defeated. But many mop-up operations had to be fought for another year.
Some of those mop-up operations, historians tell us, were some of the fiercest battles of World War II.
So it wasn't until May 8th, 1945, that the day came known as VE Day, Victory in Europe Day. And it was on V E Day that Germany formally and unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces and the war was officially ended. And then Oscar Kuhlman shows us this. Jesus' first coming when he died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. The presented kingdom, that's D-Day.
At this time, Jesus, by his death, Paul says in Colossians 2.15, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, triumphing over them. Nevertheless, Because we live in the in-between times, the already but not yet tension of the kingdom. Our experience of the thrill of victory is always tempered by our knowledge of defeat and agony. Our belief in the power of God always runs side by side with our experience of pain and suffering. It's like the mop up operations, the year.
After D-Day. Yeah. Here's how the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 verses 7 through 10 describes our present life in this present kingdom. In the proclaimed kingdom, Paul says. We have this treasure in jars of clay.
What's the treasure? The gospel. And it is in jars of clay, not resurrected, glorified bodies. Broken clay pot, spilling water all over the place. Why?
So that the power of God that is in that broken clay pot can shine through. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed But not driven to despair. persecuted But not forsaken. Struck down.
But not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus.
So that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. It's all ready, but not yet. And so when Jesus is first coming, the kingdom of God came, but it's also coming. The author of Hebrews and Hebrews 2 verse 8 says, at present, that's right now, at present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. We don't see it.
We do not see sinless perfection. We don't see perfect sanctification. We don't see all the sick healed. We don't see all disease eradicated. We don't see all war, famine, poverty, hunger ended.
We don't see all ethnic and racial hatred reconciled, and we don't see all death ended in resurrection. We don't see that. We don't see everything in subjection to Jesus the king. But this will be the case when the Father's kingdom comes in consummation. And when we pray, Your kingdom comes, that's what we're praying for.
Do you know what this second petition is? I said it a couple weeks ago and I'll bring it back. This petition is the Abba cry of the Holy Spirit in us, crying for the consummation of the Father's kingdom. It is a cry for the Father's name to be hallowed by all. It is a cry for the establishment of his rule and reign and blessing in its fullness.
It is a cry for all to submit to his kingly rule and obey his will. Don't you think the Christians in Iraq and Syria are crying this petition right now? I love what Craig Keatner says about this second petition. He says, this prayer. is a prayer for the desperate.
who recognize that this world is not as it should be. and that only God can set things straight. For the broken. to whom Jesus promises the blessings of the kingdom and the beatitudes. Blessed are the broken.
As we close, I want you to notice one final thing. Jesus in this petition speaks of the kingdom as his Father's kingdom, not of his own kingdom. And yet he's the king. He refers to it as his father's kingdom. He says, pray, your kingdom come.
Our Father, your kingdom come. And yet he's the king. You know what Jesus is teaching us? The Father reigns. In Christ.
The kingdom Comes, listen carefully. This is how your Christian life is lived. The kingdom comes from the Father. In the sun. By the Holy Spirit, and at the end of the age, the kingdom will be delivered by the Holy Spirit in the Son.
to the Father. And when that kingdom is delivered in the Son, guess who will be delivered with him? You. Because you are the gift. of the kingdom.
to the Father, from the Son, by the Holy Spirit. And so, at the end of the age. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 24 and 28, all things will be in subjection to God who is all in all, and listen to what he says. Then comes the end. when he delivers Jesus, when Jesus delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
When all things are subjected to him. Then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.
So to pray, your kingdom come is to ask the Father. Restore your kingdom through your Son by your Holy Spirit for the purpose for which you originally created your subjects, namely that we could live under your rule and enjoy your blessing and intimacy forever and ever in your presence, not with dread and judgment, but with joy. While you, as the triune God, listen, Paul says, may be all in all. That's what we pray. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville.
Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fondill of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.
