Mat 6:10; The Prayer that Makes Us Seek the King.Thursday August 15, 2024
Intro: Why should we pray, “Your kingdom come?” Isn’t the kingdom coming whether we pray for it or not?
Act 1:6-8 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
First, it is not for us to know the times and seasons (epochs – kairos = periods of time, seasons.).
Second, the Father has set them (fixed – tithemi = set in place) by His own power (authority). The Father has determined them Himself and set them in place.
Taking this statement at face value, for I do not see any message hidden within it, we would conclude that the kingdom is coming, and at a particular time in history, that is not one bit contingent on prayer.
Why pray, “Your kingdom come.”?
Simply, we want it to come. Sets your mind on it every day.
We realize and are reminded of our obligation to its way, truth, and life as its members (Col 1:13; 3:1-4, 10-25).
We realize and remember our commission to the world (Mat 28:18-20).
Our prayer causes us not only to long for the kingdom and determine its way in our own hearts, but to also long for it for others, even our enemies.
We realize and remember to seek the Person of the King, to know the King, and what it took for Him to conquer, how He conquered, and how He rules.
We realize and remember that this world is a shadow of the kingdom to come, a temporary failure of kingdom building.
We realize and remember that life in this world is very temporary (Psa 73:3, 17; 90:3-4; Rom 8:18).
Why we pray, “Your kingdom come.”? It causes us to seek the King
The Lord came into the world without fanfare or pomp.
He told those whom He healed, and who knew who He was, not to tell anyone (Zec 9:9).
Your kingdom come - we need to be like the King, humble - do not pray like the hypocrites.
Unlike the kings of the earth, the Lord Jesus conquerors us for no other reason than to raise us up (Heb 2:10).
He did not seek power or to gain powerful people and their assets, but rather He heard the cry of the oppressed (Exo 2:24; 3:9; Psa 10:16-18; Psa 103.)
He tells us to give to the poor. To help, encourage in love, to lay down our lives for our friends. “Your kingdom come.”
He came to set the captives free (Luk 4:18-19). He came for the lowly, which we all are, but some do not think so.
We are all infected by deep seated pride when we come to face the King.
He tells us to visit the sick, the prisoners, the hopeless, and to pray for them and forgive them as He has forgiven us.
He saw that there was none to govern us, none to protect and provide for us (Isa 9:6; Mat 23:37-38).
He knew that through His government alone could we be rescued, and that the only way to exalt us was through His own humiliation (2Co 8:9).
He became one of us that He might become our King. He clothed Himself in our dust that we might wear His royal robe. He lay in our grave, that we might sit on His throne; He founded our joy in the deep bitterness of His own soul, our kingdom in His own obedience and subjection. Has He not claim to reign over us? Heb 2:10-18.
When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are reminded of the way of the King. We must be like Him - sacrifice for others, give of ourselves for others.
He had to found a kingdom under the most adverse circumstances and from the most unlikely material (us).
Christ took us in hand to make people so submissive that we were to be called living sacrifices (Rom 12:1).
From men and women who envy, hate, malign, despise, etc., He had to form a community that all loved to obey Him and were so unified that they held all property in common.
Do we need another to rule us when we come to know how He conquered, established His kingdom, and why? |