Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-46
St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
January 21, 2024
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes
We’re at the center of the prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is at the heart of why you and I exist.
I’m not over exaggerating this, it is the heart of the gospel, the heart of the purpose to be alive. We’re talking about the kingdom of God.
We struggle on what is the kingdom of God and it is critical that we understand what this means. We don’t understand what this gospel is all about, what church is all about. We don’t fully understand why we’re on this planet.
We’re learning how to pray the Lord’s prayer and we get to the heart of the matter. His kingdom come, through us, through me, as it is in heaven. Understandably, the kingdom of God is hard to comprehend. Some of us think that it is like Atlantis or the lost city, it is buried out in the Atlantic. It might exist, I don’t know. It is like Shangri-La, up in the mountains, in the Tibet mountains, this peaceful place (it’s not really there). Avalon, in Arthurian British Literature. It’s this idyllic place, but I really don’t know.
And some of us think, “I’m not sure, I’m not clear” and yet Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.”
To put this in context, let’s read the Lord’s Prayer, because we’re memorizing it.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
The coming kingdom of God is the entire story of redemptive history. This is how big, how critical this is, and this prayer of Jesus becomes our prayer. We are going to pray like him, because prayer leads to action.
We need to prayer more because then we live out our prayer. Jesus said, “Pray like this and live this.” This prayer of Jesus is being answered and will be answered.
The Christian life is not us going somewhere, the story is about something that has come, in the name of Jesus and he inaugurates this that we call the kingdom of God.
We’re going to answer three questions: What is the kingdom? Where is it? and How do you find it?
What is the kingdom? The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are interchangeable.
There are four views.
First, some believe it is eschatological, the end times, it is the future and the scriptures support this. Luke 17 is all about the future kingdom. Jesus talked about the future kingdom. The whole book of revelation is about the future kingdom. But why is Jesus praying for it come here now?
The second is that it is mystical, spiritual. Scriptures supports this view, remember the parable of the soils. The kingdom of God is like this; it comes in us. We pray and sing, “Christ be magnified in me.” We call it sanctification, let me grow up to be like Jesus. The kingdom somehow expands as the king becomes the ruler of my life. Jesus referenced this when he came before Pilate. Pilate inquires, “What kind of king are you? So you have a kingdom?” Christ says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” The confusion persists, is it spiritual, what does this mean.
A third view, it that it is political. Throughout history, certain empires claim that the kingdom is their kingdom. So some political agenda will make the kingdom come. If we get the right person, the kingdom will come. He, or she, is not savior, but he or she is going to help us get there. When Christians adopt political views, they’re not Christian views. We cannot claim that a partisan ideology aligns with the way of Jesus. Throughout history some claim that capitalism is Christian. Others say, that the way of Jesus is socialism. The fact is that Jesus will not vow down to our 21st century framework of politics. The key is to distinguish what is politically conservative and what is Christian, or what is politically progressive and what is Christian. We say the Bible is inerrant, but it is inerrant as long as it is interpreted the way I want it to be interpreted. I become God. Clearly at its core that cannot be changed. We say, “It is my view of scripture, my collective tribe of what we believe.” What we see in America is this rigid precision of inerrancy that we don’t see in the global church. Nor have never seen this historically. Some see inerrancy, not Christology, as the lens through how we see Scripture. Jesus is our standard; he is the lens through how we measure Scripture. Jesus is perfect theology. So if I believe that something is biblical and does not match with the way of Jesus. We must discern what is political, cultural and what is Christian, instead of conflating our faith and our politics and this is very acute in America. We cannot conflate politics and faith.
The fourth view, is that it is institutional. The Roman Catholic church has been a proponent of this and yet they don’t have a comer on the market. Denominations can fall is this same pattern or churches when they begin to compete with other churches.
Matthew 16:19, Peter is given the keys of the kingdom, some king of authority, organized institution on the earth. We see the Davidic kingship, priesthood, empires and we pray for his will to be done in our institutions, in colleges, the stock market, our family. But there is a problem, our structure, our system is broken. Because they are made up of people.
So which one is it? The kingdom of God permeates all of that. But we will never understand the kingdom of God until we understand the story of the gospel. Let’s deconstruct the story because we will never experience transformation until we decide that we will rid of our own story, which we make up as children in our minds and we develop a theology of some form and until we align our lives with the story of the gospel, we will never fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. We are in God’s kingdom because of His grace, mercy, love, compassion. He offered us Jesus and He brought the kingdom of God to us when we accept Christ sacrifice. It is not your works, your behavior, that keeps you in the kingdom, it is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
When Jesus talked about the kingdom he talked about everyday earthy stuff, he did not use spectacular language or images. He said, “It starts off small, and it expands and it grown in the everyday stuff of life. It infiltrates, it permeates, it invades everything and it brings life.
Where is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is anywhere God rules and reigns in the hearts of his people. We’re not assigning God a single place or specific space, He transcends everything.
Jesus first followers believed that the kingdom had come and God’s will be done through Jesus. In Bethlehem, in Judea, in Palestine, in Jerusalem, it had come on the cross, and in the Easter garden and out of the Easter garden. Heaven and earth have dovetailed together in the person of Jesus. When we talk about “His will be done” it refers to the work of Christ for us.
Luke 17:20-21.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God vis not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is! ' or 'There! ' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
In essence, he is saying, “I have brought it, it is here right now.” I am the kingdom. Think about it, he was born a king, he died as king of the Jews, he has been more king than any of the kings more than anyone could have imagined.
The kingdom is not somewhere you go, but something that has arrived. The kingdom of God is right here, right now.
How do you find it? How do you find anything? You look for it. The book of John is a book of signs. John the Baptist and Jesus preached that the kingdom of God has come, so repent, turn around. The way you’re going is leading to death; it’s self-obsessed, its self-consumed, self will kill you.
Luke 4:16-21
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This kingdom is subversive, it is coming to occupied space to release Israel, defeat evil and return Yahweh.
Jesus came to heal, restore, uplift. Someone is sick, blind, and he says, “That’s not the kingdom, so I’m going to heal, restore and heal,” and he wants us to do the same.
You may say, I’ve never healed anyone? Really? Have you prayed for someone, have you listened to someone, have you given a word of encouragement to someone You’ve brought to them the kingdom of God? This is done through one conversation at time.
Through the king and the kingdom, we find our place; one consuming passion. Are you living that way?
C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory said:
It would seem that the Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink, with sex, and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child that want to make mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is it is to be offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
The reason many of us are struggling in life, finding ourselves beaten down, worn out, tired, just quite cannot get it together is because we don’t have a singular passion in our lives and we’re too easily pleased by the stuff of this world.
If we’re faithful in the moment, we’re advancing the kingdom one small act at a time. Let us pray.