Thy Kingdom Come
Jesus teaches us to pray: “Our Father
in heaven…Thy kingdom come.”
What
does it mean for the kingdom of God to come?
To understand this we need to think of the kingdom, not in terms of
boundaries or geography, but in terms of a person.
To
the Jews Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is at hand…the kingdom is in your
midst.” How can that be? When we think of a kingdom we think of
geographical boundaries where a certain king has authority to rule. That is sort of the right idea, you just have
to cut out the part about geography.
God’s
kingdom is wherever Jesus is, wherever His Word is taught, wherever the Holy
Spirit is present through the work of the Gospel. So it isn’t about boarders and
boundaries. It is about Jesus and the
hearts wherein He creates faith.
The
kingdom of God is present when one lone Christian sits in the midst of his
Muslim neighbors because that one Christian clings to the death and
resurrection of Jesus for his salvation.
Where the Word is proclaimed and believed, the Holy Spirit is there. And where there is the Spirit, there God is
reigning.
And our prayer
is that this kingdom of God would grow, that it would advance, that it would
finally conquer the earth at the return of our Lord Christ.
The kingdom of
God grows within us as Christians, both individually and corporately, when we are
led to stronger faith and fiercer love.
Christians grow in faith as the Word of God works on their hearts,
moving them to repent and believe.
Christian love grows as the Spirit uses the Word to inform our newborn
souls of how to live God-pleasing lives.
Although we are
Christians, baptized into the name of the Triune God, we still possess an
imperfect knowledge of God’s Word, both Law and Gospel. We begin as infants in faith and love. We have life to be sure, but that life, just
like a baby, needs to grow.
A good
illustration of this is Jesus Christ Himself.
Although He was born perfect in every way, although He had not an ounce
of sin within Him, yet He grew in stature and favor with God and man. He was no more the Son of God at the age of
30 than He was at the age of 3, yet He did grow, and that growth is good.
Christians too
grow in Christ. Our sinful nature still
holds fast to idolatry and sin. We
should not fool ourselves into thinking that we have no idols because we are
Christians. Our idols are simply covered
in more pious language. Tradition,
relevance, family; we place these on pedestals and set them up as rivals to God.
And God, in His
mercy, calls us out. His Word points out
our worship of these false gods, these pious images and ideas, and He moves our
hearts to repent. Then, more gracious
still, God forgives us for the sake of the death and resurrection of
Jesus. The shed blood of Christ is
applied to us so that our idols are torn to pieces and our sins are covered.
That is how a
Christian grows in faith. That is how
God’s kingdom comes among us. The Spirit of
God calls us to repentance and faith through Law and Gospel. The Spirit brings Christ into our midst in
Word and Sacrament to forgive, renew, and lead us.
And where the
Spirit leads us is out into the world, spreading God’s kingdom to other people
and in other places. The kingdom of
heaven spreads out, not by conquering territory, but by conquering hearts. That happens through what we usually call
“missions and evangelism”.
Of course
missions can happen in faraway lands, amongst strange customs and
languages. The Lutheran Church has
missionaries deployed across the globe.
Our congregation specifically has partnered with Rev Joel Fritsche as he
goes to the Dominican Republic spreading the Gospel and planting churches.
This can happen,
however, closer to home, in your own back yard.
Just as the Spirit has had His way with you, convicting you of false
worship and leading you to repentance, so the Spirit will do the same through
you to other people.
As you live a
godly life, and take a stand for God’s Law in word and deed, the Spirit will
convict the people around you of their sins.
And when you open your mouth, telling them all that Jesus has done, His
death and resurrection, the Spirit will move them to trust Jesus, to come alive
by faith in Jesus.
And this will
prove to be the constant struggle of the Church. From the day of His ascension until the day
of His return, the people of God are striving to grow in faith and love. They are striving to spread the kingdom to
the ends of the earth. By the power of
the Holy Spirit it is happening in our lives, in our churches, and beyond.
Yet the day will
come when the kingdom of God will spread across the globe in an instant, in the
twinkling of an eye. And for that day we
earnestly pray as well. Jesus Christ
will reveal Himself to be the rightful King of the Universe, the undisputed
ruler of heaven and earth. He will raise
the dead, separate believers from unbelievers, take the righteous by faith to
Himself and cast the unrighteous by unbelief into hell. The kingdom will have come in full.
You see that we
pray for no small thing when we say those simple words: “Thy kingdom
come!” We are asking for an increase of
faith, love, and life. We plead, not
merely for earthly riches, but for heavenly and eternal treasures. We are praying for resurrection from death
and life everlasting.
And God promises to give it. He will not deny this prayer. On our own we might doubt, but not in
Christ. Baptized into Jesus, covered
with His blood, united into His family, we pray boldly as sons: “Thy
kingdom come, now and forever!”
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