When the disciples plucked up the courage to ask Jesus about prayer His response was, if we don’t know what to pray, or if we’re shy or uncertain, Jesus gave a prayer we can pray with confidence. This is a prayer for all ages helps us get the hang of what Jesus is doing when he prays[1]. We are able to keep company with Jesus as he prayed. Jesus was teaching a crowd on a mountain side about life. He said life is to be lived for the joy of God’s glory and pleasure 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Abba - Father is a term of recognition as Jesus included himself with us in this prayer. Our Father in Heaven we are speaking with, as he is not a metaphor not a object not a function. Our Father is Holy so our family portrait is the holiness of God; our family motto is personal purity matters to God[2]. This is a household prayer: 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. The words Kingdom, Will , Earth, Heaven all in this one prayer, making this is an expansive prayer. Jesus tells us when we pray, we are not praying about the absurd to the disinterested. God is interested in us praying, about the future as it has to do with his glory in heaven now. This is where we find ourselves praying Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done.
Again it’s just like Hallowed be your name, as God is already Holy, that is his nature. It is the same with God’s will, as God foreknows all things, nothing takes God by surprise. The simple truth is, God’s will and plans are going to be done anyway. It always was and always will be done. Thing is we are not the first to be troubled by the nature of God’s will. The Westminster Confession of Faith says this about what God’s providence means:
God, the great Creator of everything, upholds, directs, disposes, and rules all creatures, acts and things, from the greatest to the least. He does this by his most wise and holy providence, in keeping with his unerring foreknowledge, and the free and unchanging counsel of his own will, for the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy.[3]
God knows what is to come, and he is up to something good in it as Jesus reminds us we’re to seek company with God we are submitting ourselves to God’s will in this prayer of the servant. Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done. The word “Kingdom” is used a lot in the Bible as well, just as Jesus launches his earthly ministry saying the time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news. (Mark 1:15) The Kingdom sweeps us from the garden of Eden to the high point of Jerusalem and right through to the promise of Messiah to his arrival. See how we get swept along by God’s plans over history. Like in the beginning in Eden is where God’s kingdom was perfect until sin marred that relationship, and how ever since then the shape of sin is that we look to build our heaven on earth. How God through Abraham promised a kingdom, with a people more numerous than the stars, living in a place, with a special relationship with God, as his covenant people. How also through the judges, the people are delivered time and time again despite themselves. That time of the judges was described as everyone did what was right in his own eyes, there was calamity. So God raised up a judge, whether it be a Deborah, Gideon or Samson, and there’s a rescue but then God’s people fall back into their old way just as quickly. Then through the Kings, the Kingdom on earth seemed strong. We see through Saul’s selection he was someone who stood head and shoulders above the rest. Or in the reign of King David whose exploits as a warrior king secured a peace, and so that through his son Solomon his wisdom and great power. The story of the Old Testament continually reminds us how king’s fail, the country falls apart. Our the kingdom on earth is no heaven. The Old testament closes with the people of God looking for redemption; just as Jesus teaches us to pray Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done. Jesus tells us be subjects of God. This kingdom Jesus is Lord over as he tells Pilate bluntly when he stands before him on trial
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” John 18:36
The cross is the focus of the rule of King Jesus where God’s love for the world starts with his Son who rules from enduring the cross. Jesus is Lord over all because he has overcomes sin & death. We are not the first to notice what Jesus was getting us seeing. So to pray with Jesus 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This is as gutsy a prayer as it gets, as Jesus tells us to be aware of every earthly thing that’s going on, and to pray for God’s will to be at work in it. Jesus instructs us to pray for God to enable us to share the gospel with people who are perishing your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. As someone put it this way
“The phrase ‘will of God’ may well be one of the murkiest set of words in the Christian vocabulary…Still we commonly use ‘will of God’ as nothing more than a cliché drained of content. At other times, severed from Jesus’ prayer, it conveys a puzzled plunge into a maelstrom of anxiety. For some it posts a dogmatic No Trespassing sign that shuts off either thinking or praying. For still others, it scrawls a huge question mark over past and future and leaves us floundering in the ‘holy now’ where we do all our actual living…To use the word ‘will’ in relation to God is not a piece of esoteric. It is not all that different from the way we use the word among ourselves. Will has to do with intention, with purpose. Without a will, we live a meandering life. It has to do with energy. Without a will, we live a listless life.”[4]
The question is how will we pray these words “Your kingdom come” May this prayer be our prayer:
“Father…How can I recognize you – in the splendor of nature, in the odd mix of people I meet, in the still voice that calls me to be more like you? May I ‘hallow’ what lies before me, by consciously referring to you, and also honour your perfection, your holiness, by seeking to become more like you…Yes, and allow me to be an agent of that kingdom by bringing peace to the anxious, grace to the needy and your love to all whom I touch. May people believe in your reign of goodness because of how I live today. I see that will most clearly in Jesus, who healed the sick and comforted the grieving, who lifted up the downtrodden, who stood always for life and not death, for hope and not despair, for freedom and not bondage. He lived out heaven’s will on earth. Help me be like Jesus.[5]”
Again as we did the other week let’s close looking at this passage this week saying the prayer Jesus prayed with his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13. Will you join with me as we pray in the company of Jesus together out loud
9 “This, then, is how you should 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 today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ AMEN
David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 22/1/17
[1] Idea taken from Peterson Tell It Slant p165
[2] Peterson, Tell it slant, p.168, 169.
[3] The Westminster Confession of Faith for the 21st Century . Presbyterian Church of Australia Ch.5 Providence p.9
[4] Peterson, Tell it slant p 179
[5] Yancey, Philip. Prayer: does it make a difference, Hodder, London, 2006, p164