HIS KINGDOM COME
What do we mean when we say this in the Lord's prayer? This is what I want to talk about here on this page.
- MATTHEW 6:9-13 "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Alead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.'"
- LUKE 11:2-4 "He said to them, 'When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'"
If we are saying "your kingdom come", we are saying that it is not yet here. We talked on the earier pages about the fall of man but I did not mention how this affected the earth as well. I want to go into this a bit. Let's start with Genesis.
- GENESIS 3:17-19 "To Adam He said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.'"
This disobedience affected all of creation, this includes the environment. The terrible storms that kill people, the earthquakes, famines around the world, and all of the other types of deadly hazzards that are what we call "just part of life" are a direct result of the fall. The world is in a state of decay. All around you everything is dying: trees, animals, and people. You I and can be sure that in the kingdom of heaven there is no death, no sickness, no decay. When Jesus was here on earth, He said, "The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15) Jesus showed us what the kingdom was going to be like with the way He worked: His compassion, His Truth, and His healings. No one who saught Him was left to go hungry, their needs taken care of. Everyone who came to Him for healing was healed. Does that sound like the world of today? Maybe for some people, or some parts of the world, but there are so many that who are not having their basic needs met on a daily basis.
There are verses that also show that this kingdom has not yet come. One that stands out for me is when Jesus was in the desert, being tempted by Satan. The last temptation was an offer of this world.
- MATTHEW 4:8-11 "Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give to you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' Jesus said to him, 'Away from me Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.' Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him."
- LUKE 4:5-8 "The devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.' Jesus answered, 'It is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'"
When you read the last two verses, are you left with any doubt whose posession the world is? Satan cannot offer to give the Lord something that He already has at that moment. How could this be a "temptation"? Satan owns this world, but he does not have to own you. You can give yourself to God. Being a nice person, living a good life is one thing, but who has you as his possession? As a possession of God, you know where you will spend eternity. I tell you this: If you are not with Him, you are also to be assured of where you will be when this life is done. Would you take the risk of just being this good person but not being a follower of Christ? I have read the bible and can not take such a risk. I know where I will be when this life is over, there is nothing left to chance. God has made me a promise and He does not lie.
Jesus came here, into occupied territory, to complete His mission: To save all that would believe in Him. He would suffer and die and be raised into glory. And He will return. He will lay claim to His people and will establish His kingdom. It has been foretold just as Jesus' first coming was foretold.
- ISAIAH 11:1-9 "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him-the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord-and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, or decide by what He hears with His ears; but with righteousness He will judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth; with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
This is a promise that all will be set right in the world once again. Notice the animals, they no longer will be after each other for food. See the safety of mankind, children no longer have to worry about even the most deadly of snakes. This is what was intended-this is what we gave up when we turned away from the will of God and went our own way. But we know that it will be all brought back to order.
- ISAIAH 65:17-25 "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain."
This is the closeness we had with God in the garden of Eden. We have all of this to look forward to when Jesus comes again.
- ROMANS 8:18-22 "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
- ACTS 3:21 "He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His holy prophets."
The removal of sin from the world is what we wait for. The end of this decay. The new kingdom will bring this. There will be no more sickness, no more dying, and we will all know the Lord. Jesus gave us a taste of this while He was here, for while He was here, the kingdom was very near indeed. Now I want you to check this out: The kingdom is within YOU.
- LUKE 17:20-21 "Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, 'The kingdom of God does not come with your carefull observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is', or 'There it is', because the kingdom of God is within (or among) you.'"
The kingdom of God is not something that you can measure with borders or lines, that is what you would do with an earthly kingdom like the United States or Canada. When Jesus came, the kingdom began here and when the Spirit moved the people like Paul, we can see the kingdom working in the hearts of men. It is going on today as it did then, people loving Christ and each other. His kingdom is growing. When I repented and chose to follow Jesus, I became part of that kingdom-it grew that much more. It's all about what is going on in the hearts of the people who love God. There is His kingdom. But there is so much more to come.
- LUKE 17:26-36 "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left."
- LUKE 18:17 "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not recieve the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
When Jesus said this about the children, He meant that we were to accept Him with the faith and trust that children have. If you tell a child that fire will burn, there is an acceptance in the child that this is true, even without having tried it out yet. We are told the Truth when we read the bible, we may not believe what we read-and this is what Jesus was talking about. It's all right there, yet we do not believe. The more you fight to save the life that you have, the more you will lose your life. But if you give your life to Jesus, you will lose your life and be reborn and gain a new life. It's really not that complicated, you only need call out to Him honestly.
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