{"id":1588,"date":"2022-01-23T21:37:15","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T20:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2022-01-23T21:37:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T20:37:17","slug":"your-kingdom-come-mark-1615-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1588","title":{"rendered":"Your Kingdom Come Mark 16:15-20"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPrayer does not enable us to do a greater work for God. Prayer IS a greater work for God\u201d (Thomas Chalmers). Prayer is not an optional extra to the work of the church \u2013 prayer IS the work of the church. So we all need to learn to pray which is why we are working through the Lord\u2019s prayer which gives us a pattern for all our prayers.
\nWe start by praying to Our Father, Abba, Daddy. We continually need to develop our relationship with God our Heavenly Father.
\nWho art in Heaven. This reminds of just how great God is. He is Almighty and glorious, Ever-present and All-knowing, Eternal, Holy and Righteous, Loving and yet Transcendent.
\nHallowed be your name. May your holy name be honoured. Glorify your name in all the earth. And God\u2019s name will be glorified if the next two petitions are answered.
\nThy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Two requests which run in parallel and are all centred on God himself.
\nSome people have the wrong idea that God\u2019s kingdom only exists where human beings acknowledge God as King and allow him to be King. That is not the way it is at all. God is always King. And the world experiences God\u2019s Rule as King whenever God chooses and in whatever ways God chooses. God\u2019s kingdom comes when God in his Sovereign power acts as King in his world. So what are we actually praying for when we pray, Thy Kingdom Come? We are praying for the return of Christ. \u201cCome, O Lord!\u201d
\nGod is King and always has been King and always will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God is Sovereign Ruler of All. But at present he is allowing evil to continue to exist. Sin and suffering have been defeated, but they still exist in the universe. At the moment, God is on the Throne of Heaven despite the presence of evil and all its consequences on the earth. But one day evil will be removed completely and every eye will acknowledge him as King.
\nThis was the central hope we find in so many places in the Old Testament looking forward to God acting as King to bring His salvation to all the earth.
\nIsaiah 52:7-10 7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, \u2018Your God reigns!\u2019 8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. 9 Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
\nIn Jesus\u2019s generation the Kaddish was the prayer that Jews prayed every day to God, \u201cMagnified and sanctified be his great name. May he establish his kingdom in your lifetime, even especially at a near time\u201d. Every Jew would bring this urgent prayer that God would bring this world to a close, to bring an end to injustice and suffering and to begin his eternal reign of peace and joy. That was the hope which Jesus picked up on when he proclaimed in his own ministry, \u201cthe Kingdom of God is at hand.\u201d And that is the hope which underpins that phrase in the Lord\u2019s prayer, \u201cYour Kingdom come.\u201d
\nJesus came announcing to everybody that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, in other words that the reign of God on earth was beginning. God\u2019s kingly rule was beginning, but it did not fully arrive in Jesus\u2019s lifetime. Even after the decisive victory over sin and death and the devil which Jesus won on the cross, and even after his glorious resurrection from the dead, God\u2019s Kingly Rule on earth was not fully complete. The prayer, \u201cyour Kingdom come\u201d was not fully answered \u2013 so we are still praying forward to the return of Christ, the Second Coming.
\n2 Peter 3 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
\n10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
\nOnly when Jesus returns and there is a new heaven and a new earth will God\u2019s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Until then we are in the Last Days, the time between Jesus\u2019s first coming and his Second Coming. God\u2019s Kingdom has been inaugurated, but it is not yet fully established.
\nSo for almost 2000 years the church has been praying the same prayer, \u201cCome, O Lord.\u201d It is such an important prayer that the phrase is retained in the original language of Aramaic in 1 Corinthians 16:22 in the middle of the rest which is in Greek. The phrase is Marana tha \u2013 our Lord come. And the prayer is there in Revelation 22:20. He who testifies to these things says, \u2018Yes, I am coming soon.\u2019 Amen. (So be it) Come, Lord Jesus!
\nGod\u2019s eternal Kingdom is not based on us acknowledging him as King. It is all about the things God does as king by his Sovereign power. We cannot do anything to bring in or to build the Kingdom of God. Only Christ can do that and he WILL do that when he returns in glory. We can\u2019t make Jesus return \u2013 we can only pray, \u201cYour Kingdom Come.\u201d
\nBut we don\u2019t need to wait until the Second Coming of Jesus to see the beginnings of that prayer being answered. God had already begun to reveal his glorious salvation! In his earthly ministry Jesus announced, \u201cThe Kingdom has come near you\u201d The Kingly rule of God has not completely arrived. But it certainly began as Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom in words and also in actions. In bringing healing and deliverance. In sharing table fellowship with sinners. In forgiving sins. All these were acts of love and power repairing the damage and suffering which sin has caused in the world. And all these signs of the coming Kingdom of God were repeated in the life of the Early Church, as Jesus at the end of Mark\u2019s Gospel had commanded.
\nMark 16 15 He said to them, \u2018Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on people who are ill, and they will get well.\u2019
\n19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
\nGod\u2019s Kingdom will only fully be established when Jesus returns, but God is already preparing the world for that day as his Kingly Rule in invading this present darkness. When we pray \u201cyour kingdom come\u201d Christians are praying that God will act in sovereign power here and now to set people free from suffering and sin and evil. We are asking God to break in and transform the world and the church. We are acknowledging that we cannot build the Kingdom of God. Only God can do that. Through miracles of healing and deliverance. Only the power of the Holy Spirit, the dynamo and the dynamite of God\u2019s power, can bring God\u2019s Kingly Rule.
\nSHOW YOUR POWER, O LORD,
\nDemonstrate the justice of Your kingdom.
\nProve Your mighty word.
\nVindicate Your name Before a watching world.
\nAwesome are Your deeds, O Lord; Renew them for this hour.
\nShow Your power, O Lord, Among the people now.
\nIn praying \u201cyour kingdom come\u201d we are inviting God\u2019s Holy Spirit to break into our lives. Praying for that day when God\u2019s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. But that has to begin with a personal response. Beginning with me \u2013 may God\u2019s will be done in my life.
\nOf course, praying \u201cyour will be done\u201d is not about us telling God what we think should happen. The Almighty and Omniscient Creator and Redeemer doesn\u2019t need our bright ideas for solving the problems of the universe! It is God\u2019s will which must be done. Our task is simply to find out what God\u2019s will is and say, \u201cYes Lord, do that\u201d.
\nSo we pray, \u201cThy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d On the whole earth. By every person in every country all around the world. May every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen come Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPrayer does not enable us to do a greater work for God. Prayer IS a greater work for God\u201d (Thomas Chalmers). Prayer is not…<\/span><\/p>\n

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