Your Kingdome come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
Thy Kingdom Come
Study questions
1. Jesus prayed, “Thy kingdom come.”
• What is the kingdom that he describes? • When should we expect it to come?
• Who is part of it?
• Where will it be
• What does it look like?
1. What would be different if this prayer were answered?
2. Why should we want God’s kingdom to come?
3. Why is the kingdom important?
4. How should we balance praying for that outcome with working toward it? 5. Jesus also taught his disciples to pray, “Thy will be done.”
• Do you think he wants us to pray that we would do his will, that others would do his will, or both? • Which of these outcomes should be most important in our prayers, and why?
1. How can we find out what God’s will is?
Finally, two questions for private reflection that need not be discussed publicly:
2. What could I do differently that would help God’s kingdom to come?
3. What could I do differently that would mean God’s will would be done in my life?
Context
• We’re learning to pray!
• When asked, Jesus taught his disciples by example with what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. • It has a simple structure:
– An introduction;
– Seven petitions; and
– A closing doxology (not in all manuscripts).
• Last week Nick brought:
– The introduction (Our Father in heaven); and – The first petition (Hallowed be your name).
We’ll be working through the rest over several more weeks.
The passage
This is the 1662 Book of Common Prayer version – the version that’s typically used for communal worship. It’s almost identical to the Authorised Version but probably subtly different from what’s in your own modern Bible translation.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven:
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil;
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For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, For ever and ever.
Amen.
Matt 6:9-13.
We have two petitions today: 1. Thy kingdom come;
2. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
The language
A word about language. . .
The Lord’s prayer is not usually updated to reflect modern syntax.
- Most of the prayer is an unembedded example of the ‘subjunctive’ case; we rarely use this structure in modern English.
- That’s why it’s not ‘your kingdom comes’, which would mean something completely different.
- It’s the same sense as:– Bless you!
– Peace be with you! - In these examples, we will not be granting a blessing or peace – we are expressing a wish that someone else will bless or bring peace.The words mean that we are expressing a wish or a desire—and we are saying it to God in the expectation that he will hear and respond.
In Jesus’ pro-forma prayer:
• He is not instructing or commanding God; • He is not demanding that God act;
• He is not even directly asking God.
In modern English, he is saying:
• I want your kingdom to come; or, more formally, • May your kingdom come.
This is a humble position:
• God is much greater than us;
• He knows much more than us;
• We cannot presume to tell him what to do; • But he wants to hear what we desire.
This is a good model for our own prayers: tell God what we desire; let him work out how to respond.
Thy kingdom come
So why should we desire God’s kingdom to come? What is that kingdom?
The gospels and epistles make dozens of references to the kingdom, often in parables
• Matthew: usually (but not always) uses the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’.
• Mark, Luke, John: always uses ‘the Kingdom of God’.
• Jesus never defines the terms; he assumes his listeners know what they mean.
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Kingdom of God vs Kingdom of Heaven
Many parallel passages use the ‘Kingdom of heaven’ in Matthew and ‘Kingdom of God’ in another Gospel.
• Matthew says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed; Luke says the Kingdom of God is.
• Matthew says Jesus told people to repent because the ‘Kingdom of Heaven is near’; Mark says that the ‘Kingdom of God’ is near
So many people view the terms as interchangeable.
- Matthew wrote largely for Jewish audience who were sensitive about using God’s name.
- Jesus originally spoke Aramaic but gospels written in Greek, so perhaps Matthew and Luke translated slightly differently.But that doesn’t mean they are the same thing. For example:• Wales has a temperate oceanic climate; and • Penarth has a temperate oceanic climate.But Penarth is not Wales. Both kingdoms being near and being like a mustard seed does not make them the same.And there are problems if we regard both kingdoms as being identical:
- In the parable of the dragnet, the Kingdom of heaven includes those who are not true believers—but they are identified at the final judgement.
- In the parable of wheat and tares, the Kingdom of heaven includes those who are not believers but, again, they are identified in the final judgement.
- But Jesus tells Nicodemus that you cannot enter the Kingdom of God without being born again.
- In Romans, we learn that the the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.So the two Kingdoms have similar meanings, but the Kingdom of Heaven is broader in scope (Like Wales includes Penarth but is broader in scope). It includes those who make false claims to be Christians.So, simply, the Kingdom of Heaven includes professing Christians; the Kingdom of God is restricted to true Christians.That’s consistent with Matthew: the six times he uses Kingdom of God instead of Kingdom of Heaven typically refer clearly to salvation, such as when we learn that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.What is the kingdomWe live in the United Kingdom (although we have a Queen). That’s defined by geography: step in a boat and sail outside territorial waters, and you have left the kingdom.What is the kingdom that we want to see come in this prayer? To summarise what Jesus and the Apostles say about it:
- The Kingdom is at hand (so it’s not simply a distant eternal concept, although God will reign for eternity);
- It contains mysteries;
- It grows rapidly;
- It comes with power;
- You need to become like a child to enter it;
- It’s hard to get in;
- Christ will drink with us in the kingdom;
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• The birds (Satan) can rest in its branches – but cannot become part of it; • It contains yeast (evil) that can work through it and spoil it; and
• It’s inward and unseen rather than outward and seen.
Additionally, the Kingdom of God:
• Is promised to the righteous;
• Is characterised by righteousness, peace, and joy; • Will be delivered to the Father;
• Cannot be inherited by flesh and blood; and
• Will include gentiles and not solely Jews.
So, the Kingdom that we want to see come:
• Is spiritual – it controls minds, souls, spirits and not just bodies;
• Has no boundaries of race or geography;
• Is full of people who have repented and who willingly submit to Christ; • Has Jesus present with His people;
• Needs protection from evil; and
• Is precious to God.
The Kingdom of God comprises God’s true people:
• Serving Him;
• Loving Him; and
• Fellowshipping with him.
The Kingdom of Heaven includes those who falsely claim to follow him – but they will be identified at the last judgement.
So what? The church, the manifestation of the Kingdom on earth, is important to God.
- is it important to us? •
- Do we pray for it to thrive? For its members to grow in faith?
- Do we simply express a vague wish for it to come, or do we labour tirelessly?
- Do we see it simply as something that blesses us, or as something that we can help build for delivery to the Father?We may be in the Kingdom ourselves – but we want it to come and to grow so that others may also be blessed.Thy will be done on earth as it is in heavenThird petition: Thy will be done.
Acceptance of God’s will is fundamental to prayer• We cannot demand that God meets our requests
• Even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.”We can see this petition at two levels:• In the world around us • In our own livesWe will focus on the latter. We all have plans:• How we want to earn a living;
• How to help our families to thrive;
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• Where to live;
• When to retire;
• What holidays to take.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But these plans should always be subject to God’s will.
- I might want to land my dream job; God might want me somewhere else where I will be more useful to Him.
- I might want a beautiful house in the country; God might want me to serve him in the city.
- I might want a long holiday in the sun; God might want me at home to help my family.The Bible teaches that we should seek to discern God’s will; it’s called, ‘His good, pleasing and perfect will’. And then we should submit to it.And that starts with prayer: acknowledging God’s sovereignty rather than fighting against it.So what is God’s will? Sometimes we can make this too complex, as the Bible tells us a great deal about what God wants from us:• He wants us to do the work he has called us to do; • He wants us to be sanctified – to live holy lives;
• He wants is to be thankful in everything;
• He wants us to have pure minds;• He wants us to love him.
None of this is rocket science. We learn His will through• Bible study;
• Prayer;
• Hearing God’s word taught;
• Wisdom received from our brothers and sisters in Christ.When we get to heaven we will always do God’s will. Let’s get into practice on earth.ConclusionSo we have studied two petitions, both of which teach us how to frame our prayers and how to live our lives:
- The growth of God’s kingdom should be at the front of our prayers and the front of our actions
- We should be willing to do what God wants; then we should find out what he wants, knuckle-underand do it. We have learned• How to frame our prayers;
• What the kingdom is, and the difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven; • Why we would want the kingdom to grow;
• How to understand God’s will; and
• The importance of submitting to that will.So, finally, I suggest two questions for reflection:• What will we do this week to make God’s Kingdom come?
• What will we do this week that is God’s will – even if it’s not what we might want to do ourselves?