“YOUR KINGDOM COME”
In recent years, we have witnessed the rapid decline of more than 150 years of strong Christian biblical influence in this country. A few years ago someone suggested that we were living in post-Christian America. Although it struggles to deserve a nominal Christian label, today it is more like sub-Christian America. People attend religious services and say they believe in God, but at best they adhere to a practical atheism and situational morality. Whatever vestiges of Christian religion still remain in our culture have become weak and compromising, if not cultic and apostate.
Our nation now affirms, through its legislative bodies and courts, a distinctively anti-Christian agenda. Anything singularly Christian has been virtually swept away under the aegis of equal rights and moral freedom. The divine standards and biblical morality that our nation once embraced are assaulted constantly. Moral freedom now reigns. Materialism and the breakdown of the family are epidemic. Abortions, sexual evils, drugs, and crime are rampant. And our leaders are at a loss to know what to do because there are no standards left to provide controls for these problems.
For those of us who remember the great revival of the ’70s, the debauchery of modern times is especially saddening. But that sadness, if left unchecked, can lead to resentment—particularly toward those in control of the government, the media, and society who encourage an anti-Christian agenda.
What concerns me most, however, is the open hostility that resentment with our nation’s leadership often fosters. When that attitude merges with the perspective that Christians ought to impact the culture by legislating morality, the church is severely diverted from its main purpose. Although changing our society by calling it back to a safer morality is a noble goal, this has never been Christ’s goal for His church.
The church has but one mission in this world: to lead people destined to spend eternity in hell to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and an eternity in heaven. If people die in a communist government or a democracy, under a tyrant or a benevolent dictator, believing homosexuality is right or wrong, or believing abortion is a woman’s fundamental right to choose or simply mass murder, that has no bearing on where they will spend eternity. If they never knew Christ and never embraced Him as their Lord and Savior, they will spend eternity in hell.
“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus told Pilate. “If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews” (John 18:36). No human kingdom or society can ever merge with God’s kingdom, even partially. Sinful man cannot be a part of the divine reign. That’s why we can never advance God’s kingdom by trying to improve the morals of our society.
Good and noble causes may be worthy of support, but they have no impact in helping to usher in the earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ. At best they can only retard the corruption that will always and inevitably characterize human societies and kingdoms.
America has but one destiny: to go the way of all the other nations. No human kingdom will endure forever because built into it are the sinful seeds of its own destruction: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Prov. 14:34); “In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways” (Acts 14:16).
While all the kingdoms of the world, including America, rise and fall, the gates of hell will never prevail against God’s kingdom (Matt. 16:18). You may be frustrated by our nation’s immoral agenda and its animosity toward God, but you can be confident that even now Christ is building His church. One day the Lord will return to establish His own perfect kingdom. That’s when we will finally realize what we have so anxiously longed for and what the disciples of Christ in the first century desired: to see Christ rule on the earth and the people of the world bow to Him.
Eighteenth-century hymn writer Frances Havergal beautifully captured that sentiment in these words to Christ in “His Coming to Glory”:
Oh, the joy to see Thee reigning,
Thee, my own beloved Lord!
Every tongue Thy name confessing,
Worship, honor, glory, blessing
Brought to Thee with glad accord;
Thee, my Master and my Friend,
Vindicated and enthroned;
Unto earth’s remotest end
Glorified, adored, and owned.
The Promise of God
The one who has the right to rule and reign is none other than the King Himself, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Psalm 2:6–8 says of Him, “I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession.’” Isaiah 9:6 says, “The government will rest on His shoulders.” Jesus Christ is the One who fulfilled the promise of a coming King. He is the Messiah—the “anointed one.” He is the hope of Israel, the hope of the church, and the hope of the world.
In one of his dreams, Daniel saw a statue representing the kingdoms of the world smashed to pieces by a flying stone, which represents Christ (Dan. 2:34–35). Then the stone filled the whole earth. The symbolism is clear: Christ ultimately crushes the kingdoms of men and establishes His own.
Christ is inseparable from His kingdom. The holy purpose of God is to exalt Christ in the consummation of history when the Son rules and reigns in His kingdom. The Jewish Talmud is right in saying that the prayer in which there is no mention of the kingdom of God is not a prayer at all (Berakoth 21a).
Our New Priority
Our greatest desire as believers should be to see the Lord reigning as King in His kingdom, having the honor and authority that have always been His but that He has not yet come to claim. That leads to the second petition in our pattern of prayer from Matthew 6:10. To pray “Your kingdom come” is to pray for God’s program to be fulfilled—for Christ to come and reign.
When you sincerely believe and genuinely confess Christ as Lord, you are confirming that the direction of your life is aimed at His exaltation. Your own causes are valid only insofar as they agree with the eternal causes of God revealed in Christ. When I pray, “Your kingdom come,” I am saying to God’s Holy Spirit, “Spirit of Christ within me, take control and do what You will for Your glory.” A true child of God won’t be preoccupied with his own plans and desires but with the determinate program of God, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Dealing with Self
In spite of our desire to be preoccupied with God’s kingdom, our prayers are usually self-centered. We focus on our needs, our plans, and our aspirations. We are often like tiny infants, who know no world but that of their own feelings and wants. Our lives are an unending struggle against our old sinful habits, with their constant and unrelenting focus on self.
Even problems and issues others face can cloud our supreme concern for God’s kingdom. It is our responsibility to pray for our families, pastors, missionaries, national and other leaders, and many other people and things. But in every case, our prayers should be for God to accomplish His will in and through those people—that they would think, speak, and act in accordance with His will.
The kingdom must be at the heart of our prayers. Before we go bursting into His presence with all our petitions, we need to stop long enough to consider His causes and His kingdom. We must affirm our yearning that He be glorified in His purposes.
Dealing with Satan
As soon as we desire to live a holy life for Christ, we run into a massive conflict. The greatest opposition to Christ’s kingdom, and the greatest opposition to Christian living, is the kingdom of this present world, which Satan rules. The next time you begin to resent the latest victory for the ungodly agenda in our country, consider the source. The essence of Satan’s kingdom has always been opposition to God’s kingdom and God’s people. Satan will challenge every believer’s effort to live a holy and God-honoring life.
A Kingdom Not of This World
The Greek word translated “kingdom” (basileia) does not primarily refer to a geographical territory but to sovereignty and dominion. Therefore when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are praying for God’s rule on earth to begin as Christ assumes His rightful place as ruler of the earth. “Come” translates the aorist active imperative form of erchomai, indicating a sudden, instantaneous coming (cf. Matt. 24:27). It is the coming of His millennial kingdom (Rev. 20:4) we are to pray for.
It Belongs to God
The kingdom we are praying for is unique because it doesn’t belong to any earthly monarch; it belongs to “our Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). As believers, we are no longer of this world (John 17:14). Our primary interest has been translated out of this world, and our real citizenship is now in heaven (Phil. 3:20). We are but sojourners and pilgrims (1 Peter 1:17), waiting to enter a city whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10).
God’s kingdom is not at all like the manmade kingdoms of this world. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, MedoPersia, Greece, and Rome are no longer world powers—their time in the spotlight was brief. Alexander the Great had one of the greatest empires in the entire history of the world, but it too is gone. All the once-great civilizations are extinct.
What Daniel said in reference to the end of the Babylonian empire could refer to all the nations of the world: “God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.… You have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.… Your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians” (Dan. 5:26–28). Earthly kingdoms go the way of all flesh—the degenerating power of sin causes inevitable decay and destruction.
But the kingdom of God is bigger than any nation. Our Lord said to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). He will take care of all our needs—clothing, shelter, and food—when we seek His kingdom. So we should pray, “Lord, do whatever advances Your kingdom and brings about Your reign.”
Christ Is the Ruler
The kingdom of God, or of heaven, was the heart of Jesus’ message. It is the gospel—the Good News of the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Wherever He went, Jesus preached the message of salvation. He even said, “I must preach the kingdom … for I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43). The reign of Christ is nothing less than the apex of human history. Jesus spent three years with the disciples teaching them about the kingdom. After He died and rose again, He appeared to them over a period of forty days, giving them commandments pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:2–3).
Jesus spoke of God’s kingdom in three ways: past, present, and future. It is past in that it embodied Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matt. 8:11). It was present during Jesus’ own earthly ministry in that He was the true King living in the midst of the people (Luke 17:21). But the particular focus of our prayers is on the kingdom that is yet to come.
As we saw earlier, Jesus characterized the kingdom as not of this world (John 18:36). But what kind of kingdom is it, and how can it be here yet still be in the future? We need to examine two aspects of the kingdom: It is both universal and earthly.
The Universal Aspect
God is the ruler of the universe. He created it, He controls it, and He holds it together. James Orr commented, “There is therefore recognized in Scripture … a natural and universal kingdom or dominion of God embracing all objects, persons, and events, all doings of individuals and nations, all operations and changes of nature and history, absolutely without exception.”1 God’s is an “everlasting kingdom” (Ps. 145:13), and even now “His sovereignty rules over all” (103:19). God is the universal King, and He mediates His rulership through His Son, by whom He made the worlds, and of whom it is said, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).
The Earthly Aspect
When Jesus said, “Your kingdom come” in His model prayer, He was saying in effect, “May the universal kingdom established in heaven come to earth.” Notice the last words in Matthew 6:10: “on earth as it is in heaven.” That is typical Hebrew parallelism, and it can relate to the first three petitions in the Disciples’ Prayer. We could say, “Hallowed be Your name on earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Since God is not now ruling on earth as He rules in heaven, we are to pray for the divine earthly kingdom to come—for Christ to return and establish His earthly kingdom, put down sin, and enforce obedience to God’s will. The Lord will then rule “with a rod of iron” (Rev. 2:27). After a thousand years His earthly kingdom will merge into His eternal kingdom, and there will be no distinction between His rule on earth and His rule in heaven.
Bringing God’s Kingdom to Earth
The best way to translate the phrase Your kingdom come is: “Let Your kingdom come now.” What features lead to the consummation of His rule on earth?
The Conversion of Unbelievers
In a present and limited, but real and miraculous, way, God’s kingdom is coming to earth each time a new soul is brought into the kingdom. Thus “Your kingdom come” is an evangelistic prayer.
Presently Christ’s kingdom exists on earth internally in the hearts and minds of believers. We ought to pray for God’s kingdom to increase. Praying for the kingdom to come, in this sense, is praying for the salvation of souls. The kingdom is the sphere of salvation entered by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Conversion to God’s kingdom begins with an invitation. In Matthew 22, Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to a man hosting a large wedding banquet. The man sent out invitations to the guests. When those who were invited initially refused to come, the man said, “Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast” (v. 9). Christ’s invitation is worldwide.
This invitation into the kingdom of God demands repentance. Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17; cf. Mark 1:14–15). And that requires a willing response on the part of the hearer. Jesus once told a scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34). While he had knowledge about salvation, he had not made any conscious choice to receive it. Knowledge of the kingdom goes only so far. If people desire Christ to rule in their hearts and minds, they must respond to what they know.
Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). People who truly desire to know Christ will respond to the invitation by seeking Christ with all their hearts. Luke 16:16 says, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” The Greek word translated “forcing” means “to enter violently.” When a person with a right heart sees the value of God’s kingdom, he rushes to grasp it. The kingdom of heaven is of such infinite value that it is like “a treasure hidden in the field” or a “pearl of great value,” which a person sells all his possessions to buy (Matt. 13:44–46).
The Commitment of Believers
The desire of those already converted should be to allow the Lord to rule in their lives now, just as He rules in heaven. We frequently come to crossroads in our lives where we have to choose between doing God’s will or our own. That’s when we need to affirm our commitment to God’s causes. Since Christ is Lord, we must submit to His lordship. In Romans 14:17, the apostle Paul said, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” When you commit yourself to the virtues the Spirit wants to produce in your life, you will pray that your life will honor and glorify your Father in heaven.
The Commencement of Christ’s Earthly Rule
One day the heavens will split open and Jesus will descend onto the Mount of Olives to establish His kingdom (Zech. 14:4). He will reign for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4) and rule with a rod of iron (Rev. 19:15). At that time the prayer “Your kingdom come” will be answered. Christ will reign in righteousness, justice, truth, and peace. He will rule on the earth on the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem and will set right the curses that have plagued this earth. Like Peter, I look for and seek to hasten the day when He comes. And I say with the apostle John, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). I hope that will be your request every time you pray.
Notes
1 James Orr, cited by Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom (Winona Lake, IN: BMH, 1980), 22.