WHEN GOD IS OUR KING by Pastor Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson
Introduction: We’re in our series through the Lord’s Prayer called “Talking to the Father” and today we will hear our third message titled – “When God is Our King.”
Matthew 6 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Overall Background: In 2004 Britain’s Channel 4 aired a documentary titled – Britain’s Real Monarch. It made a stunning claim that the real king of England was actually a forklift driver from Australia named Michael Hastings. This was not just some crazy theory but it actually had some historians and genealogists behind it. They claimed that it all began in the 15th century when the War of the Roses was being fought. King Edward IV who was king at the time was actually illegitimate. He was not the son of Richard, the 3rd Duke of York but was actually from an affair between his mother Lady Cecily Neville and a local archer named Blaybourne. He should not have been the king. Instead, the rightful heir to the throne was his brother George Plantagent and his direct descendant Abney-Hastings. So when you trace this line, instead of Tudors, Stuarts, and Windsors, you see a lot of Hastings. They asked Michael Hastings (he died in 2012) if he would contend for the throne and he said that he had no such intentions but he thought about sending some past due notices to the Queen since her family has been living in his castle for 500 years! His son Simon also said that he has no desire to contend for the throne but then added – “It does make you think about how things could be different.”
Does it ever make you think how things would be if Jesus were the King? Do you ever wonder what this world would be like if God was indeed the sovereign ruler of this world? Would there be so much crime, violence, hate, lies, injustice, immorality, lewdness, vileness, poverty, sickness, hunger, despair, and hopelessness? Why doesn’t God answer the petition – “Your Kingdom come?” Why does it feel as if the rightful king is in exile? Listen carefully – God’s kingdom has come. Those who have received Christ can see it. It is growing and one day when all will see the King and bow before Him.
Question: Is Jesus the king of your life? Is He in control of your life? Are you doing all you can to spread His kingdom in this world? Are you saved? To be saved, all you need to do is receive Him as your Savior. But don’t stop there. Make Him the sovereign ruler of your life. Make Him the king of your life.
3 questions we will answer to understand the petition – “Your Kingdom Come.”
I. WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
Background: Bible Scholars have argued for quite sometime about the meaning of the “kingdom” or the “kingdom of God/heaven.” To understand it, we need to ask “What did it mean to Jesus’ audience when He used that phrase?” If they knew their Old Testament, they knew that–
- God was the eternal King who created the heavens and the earth. Psalm 47 6 “Sing praises to God…Sing praises to our King…7 For God is the King of all the earth…”
- God was the rightful King over them, His people Israel. Isaiah 43:15 “I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”
- Most importantly, God would one day come to rule over His world forever. Isaiah 40:10 “Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him” and Psalm 146:10 “The LORD shall reign forever…”
This was also part of their daily prayers. In the Shemonah Esreh or the Amidah, the 2nd blessing says – “Who is like You, Lord of the mighty acts, and who resembles You, O King, who orders death and restores life, and causes salvation to spring forth?” The 8th blessing says, “Grant a perfect healing to all our wounds; for You, almighty King, are a faithful and merciful Physician.” The 11th blessing says, “…reign over us, O Lord…Blessed are you, O Lord, the King who loves righteousness and judgment.” I can go on and on. Also, listen to the Kaddish (also an ancient Jewish prayer from the time) – “May he establish His kingdom in our lifetime and in our days.” Sounds like the Lord’s Prayer, doesn’t it? When we study the other Jewish literature from the time, we again find that the Jewish people knew that God their King was coming and one day He would reveal His kingdom by lifting up His name in all the earth, by judging the wicked, by rescuing His people, and, by reigning sovereign over all creation forever and ever.
Even though the Jewish people had been under many foreign rulers (the Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Romans), they knew that ultimately God was the true king of the world; God was their true king; and one day He was coming to take His throne as the King forever.
Here’s the point: Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged when we read the news today. It seems as if there is no end to violence and wars and battles. There seems to be no end to the depravity and hate and evil. Many times God’s people have suffered terribly. But here’s something you can hold on to – there is one king who is still on His throne and He always will be. He is the Living True God. There’s one kingdom that has no end. It is His kingdom of the Eternal King. One day the rightful king will do away with all the wicked and their wickedness and He will vindicate and reward his people.
Application: Are you afraid of the future? Are you discouraged about the future of this world and our nation? Do you wonder what God is up to? Let me remind you to rest in the fact that He is still in the rightful King and His kingdom shall prevail.
II. WHEN WILL THE KINGDOM OF GOD COME?
9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come.
Background: There is something unique about the way Jesus talked about the kingdom. Unlike the Jewish people who believed that one day God would come and reveal His kingdom, Jesus did not talk about God coming or the kingdom being revealed. Instead He merged the two and said, “The kingdom has come.” I know this may seem a little trivial to you but please don’t miss this point. What Jesus was telling them was – “I am the God you read about in the scriptures and I have come. Also, I have brought with me the kingdom you’ve been praying for. You have to go through Me to get into the kingdom.” Boy, did that make the leaders angry! There would’ve been no problem if Jesus had said – “God is coming” or “I’ve come to set up the kingdom of God.” The problem was that He merged those two. Their reaction was – “Are you claiming to be God, our king, who will establish the kingdom that will never end? How dare you? We know who you are. We know your parents. You are a nobody.” Jesus made it clear to them that “Entering God’s kingdom was by receiving Him as their Savior and receiving Him as their Savior was entering God’s kingdom.” So how did they respond?
Some questioned the timing of the kingdom of God. Jesus responded in Luke 17:20 “…The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, “See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Some opposed His preaching. So Jesus began to preach in parables. When His disciples asked Him why, he said in Matthew 13:11 “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
Some opposed His miracles and said that He had demons. Jesus responded to them by saying in Matthew 12:28 “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
Some came to check Him out like Nicodemus. Jesus said to him in John 3:3 “…Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Some acknowledge that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, like Peter. Jesus said to him in Matt. 16 17 “…Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…”
Some questioned their position in the kingdom of Heaven. So Jesus called a little child and set him in the midst of them and said in Matt. 18:3 “…unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
I can go on but here’s the point – Receiving Jesus is receiving the kingdom and rejecting Jesus is rejecting the kingdom. To enter the kingdom, you have to be born again. To enter the kingdom, you have to come to Jesus as a humble child and be converted.
Application: Do you belong to the kingdom of God or are you still in the power of darkness? Are you willing to humble yourself and be converted?
III. HOW DOES THE PRAYER FOR THE KINGDOM WORK?
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come.
Background: Once again, do not forget, the first three petitions are in the third person and they are divine passive. This means that we are not ordering God to hurry up and bring the kingdom. We are simply declaring that we are under His rule and He is the king who does what He pleases. It is a declaration not an instruction. God will bring His complete kingdom when He is ready to. The question I need to ask myself is – “Am I submitted to Him in every area of my life? Is He the rightful king in my life?
But we don’t stop there. We do all we can to live in a way that we declare Him King in every part of the world in which we live – Politics, ethics, morality, art, literature, etc. Yes, one day He will make all things right but until then we need to live out His purpose in this world.
Colossians 1 13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Are you saved? Are you submitted to the King?
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