Your Kingdom Come ~ Matthew 6:5-13

March 8, 2015 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson

Intro: Everythings spposed to be different than what it is here.
That line from the 1991 film, Grand Canyon, perfectly captures the longing of every human heart who has
experienced the brokenness of this world. No matter how well things may go in our lives, we can all imagine
a world that is dierent--better--the world we all want.

If we we yearn for that, then no matter what you come in here believing today, you get the backdrop for not
only understanding Jesus and his mission, but also for what well learn from him in our lesson today.

During this season of Lent/Spring leading up to Easter, we are spending some time looking at whats called,
The Lords Prayer. Specifically, were taking an extended look at a prayer that for some is unfamiliar and for
many has become all too familiar, and were marinating in each statement and doing some serious thinking on
what Jesus taught.

So if youve experienced the brokenness of this world, if youve ever struggled with the existence of evil, if
youve ever wondered why God doesnt do something about it, if youve ever watched the news and just
shook your head longing for things to be dierent, then you are in a perfect position to understand why
Jesus teaches us to pray

Your Kingdom Come ~ Matthew 6:5-13

I. Your Kingdom Come: What is the kingdom?

For many of us in the democratic West, talk of a kingdom speaks of a bygone era. But lets put ourselves in the original audience of Jesus to see if we cant pick up on how they would have understood it.

1. The Kingdom Lost: We Mourn The Brokenness of This World

(1) Error: Some think that Jesus was speaking of the restoration of the political kingdom of Israel.

Israel was called into existence because of a deeper problem: the loss of shalom. They were
called to be the light for the Gentile nations around them, telling the true story of the world.

(2) Story: The way things were supposed to be.

Mandate - Gen. 1:27-28, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Separation - Gen 3, You are dust, and to dust you shall return.

(3) Angst: Life in a post-Gen 3 world. We all live in a place where everythings spposed to be dierent.

(4) Objection: The so-called Problem of Evil

1) If God exists, there would be no evil.

2) Evil exists.

3) Therefore, God does not exist.

The hidden assumption: there is no reason for evil to exist. Therefore, God doesnt exist.

But that is to forget that we are the ones who unleashed the power of hell on this world.

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 Frame, The Bible is preoccupied with the problem of evilthe whole Bible addresses the
problem of evil, for the story turns on the entrance of sin and evil into the world, and on Gods
plan for dealing with it.

2. The Kingdom Promised: We Long for a Better World

(1) Gen 3:15, God tells Adam & Eve that the Promised One would come to destroy evil.

(2) Isaiah 25: On this mountain [i.e., in Gods kingdom] the Lord will make for all peoples a feast of
rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he
will swallow up on this mountain [i.e., in his kingdom] the covering that is cast over all nations. He
will swallow up death forever; and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of
his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

3. The Kingdom Anticipated: We Hope for What Jesus Declared & Demonstrated
(1) Lk 4:43, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God.

(2) Lk 9:11, he welcomed them and spoke of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need
of healing.

The miracles of Jesus were not just clever magic show meant to impress, but pictures of what it
looks like when the kingdom of God comes in all its fullness. Healing. Redemption. Shalom.

II. Your Kingdom Come: What exactly are we praying for?

1. We pray for Gods future kingdom to come fully and finally putting an end to all evil.
Lets talk about sex-tracking.1 Acc. to UN, 2 million children are enslaved in the sex trade today. Acc.
to our friends at Servants Anonymous, the average age a girl finds herself on the streets in Calgary in
prostitution rings is 12-14. The power of hell has been unleashed in this world. The kingdom of
darkness is vicious and seeks to destroy all that is good.

(1) Do you want to live in a world like that? Are you okay with that? Arent there some things that you
want out of this world? Guess what, there are some things God wants out too. Forever.

(2) But heres the deal. Jesus takes it much more seriously that you or I do.

Mt. 5:27-30, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you
that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her
in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that
you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right
hand causes you to sin, cut it o and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your
members than that your whole body go into hell.

Hell = outside Gods coming Kingdom

(3) J.B. Ryan, Skeletons in Gods Closet, Suddenly I had a problem. Jesus wants to get rid of sextracking too, only he takes it a lot more seriously than I do. I want to get rid of sex-tracking:
Jesus wants to get rid of lust. I want to prune back the wicked tree; he wants to dig out the root.
And that wicked root is in me. I may not be a sex-tracker, a pedophile tourist, or a greedy
madmanbut I have lust. I can be one lusty animal. Jesus says if you even look lustfully at one of
Gods daughters, demeaningly commodifying her as an object for your own self-centred
gratification, then the power of hell has its roots in you, and when God arrives to establish his
kingdom, you are in danger of being cast outside the kingdom with it.

I was no longer simply part of the solution. I was part of the problem. The enemy is no longer
simply out there but in here. In the famous words of Pogo, we have met the enemy, and he is
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us. There is a wicked tree that has grown to monstrous proportions in our world, damaging and
destroying the lives of tens of millions of young girls beneath it's dark in disastrous shade, and the
roots of that wicked tree live in me.

(5) The big problem for God is not the so-called problem of evil, but rather the evil that dwells in
your heart and mine. How can God be just and at the same time freely pardon those of us who
have committed moral crimes against the Creator of the universe?

Tim Keller, The Reason for God, The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for
creation. He had to pay for our sins to that someday he can end evil and suering
without ending us. And if this is true, though we still have no answer to the question of
why he allows evil to continue, we know he cant be doing so out of indierence or
detachment. God takes our misery and suering so seriously that he was willing to take
it on himself.

Os Guinness, Christianity is the only religion whose God bears the scars of evil.

(6) When Jesus died upon the Cross, the victim of mankinds hatred of him, he was also doing
something very intentional: taking hell upon himself in the form of your sin and mine. And because
he did that, b/c God poured out his judicial wrath upon the One we call the Saviour, God can take
people who vandalized this world with their sin, and forgive them, cleanse them, and welcome
them into his kingdom.

When we ask God to forgive us and to save us, we are asking for his kingdom to be set up in our
lives. We are asking him to take dominion of our hearts. We are bowing our knee to the king.

Col. 1:13-14, He has delivered us form the domain of darkness and transferred us to the
kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

2. We pray for Gods future kingdom to spill over into the present.
(1) Following Jesus, Christians do not believe we are called to usher in the kingdom of God by
coercion or force, but rather by love (cf. Mt 26:47-56).

(2) When Christians see injustice in the world, it is entirely appropriate for us to do something about it.
The law of love demands it of us. We pray Your Kingdom Come, but we dont just want to sit
back and do nothing. We can pray that Gods future kingdom will come, but also that it will spill
over into the present even now.

Lets take the example of the sex-tracking of children, and what it looks like when Christians get
involved to do something about it.

Sarah gives her life to rescue children sold into slavery.

Jim works for an international justice team that prosecutes the men and the women who
shamelessly enslave children into this demeaning life.

Rebecca advocates for laws to be put into place to protect children.

David works to lead a mens sex addiction recovery group.

Nancy counsels victims who have come out of the sex trade and helps them put their lives back
together.

Bob is active in his local church teaching men what true manhood means, and how Jesus
teaches us to view women as dignified and created in the image of God.

Stacy uses opportunities with her colleagues to raise awareness and funds that go to supporting
ministries and organizations that rescue & restore children.

Robert started a prison ministry that seeks to preach the gospel to sexual oenders.

Delores who is so overwhelmed by the problem that all she knows how to do is to pray, Your
kingdom come, and to support the work of her church as it seeks to make disciples who follow
Jesus and display to the watching world a dierent way of being human.

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All of these are examples of people who not only want a dierent world, but who also in some way
seek to become the answer to our prayers that Gods coming kingdom would indeed spill over into
the present.

Application #1: Pray, Your Kingdom Come, because you long for the Kingdom.
1. Samwise: Is everything sad going to come untrue?
The answer from Jesus is a resounding Yes! Thats why I want you to pray for, Your kingdom come.
Jesus spoke of the new world. (Mt 19:28). Greek is paliggenesia = literally, the new genesis.
2. Acts 3:19-21, Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing
may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom
heaven must receive until the time for the restoration of all things.

Application #2: Pray, Your Kingdom Come, because you long for the King.

Revelation 22, Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Summary: Jesus teaches us to pray for the coming of Gods kingdom because if focuses our attention and
desire on the restoration of all things and the Restorer of all things.

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Here, Im following the argument laid out in Joshua Ryan Butlers work, The Skeletons in Gods Closet, ch. 2, The Power of Hell.

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