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Bible Text: Revelation 7:9-17; Philippians 1:3-11 | Preacher: The Rev'd William Klock | Series: The Church Year
True Worship
Revelation 7:9-17 & Philippians 1:3-11
by William Klock
Earlier in this morning's service we prayed in our collect:
"Father in heaven, keep your household the church firm in godliness, so that it may by your protection be free from all adversities and may devoutly serve you in good works to the glory of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
Think about those words: “Keep your household – the Church – firm in godliness” that we “may devoutly serve you in good works to the glory of your name.” The collect sums up our essential duty: to be steadfast in conforming to the nature of God, to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as he works to set us apart as a holy people, to sanctify us, so that we can do the good works that God calls us to do – to leave behind the works of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to put on the character of Christ. And we do this not selfishly for our own benefit, but to give glory to God.
This is what the Prayer Book refers to as “our bounden duty and service.” The post-Communion prayers remind us, saying:
“And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that we, and all partakers of the Holy Communion, may be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him. And although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Again, it's the Christian life in a nutshell: God gives us his grace so that, through Christ, we can be restored to fellowship with him. And while that restored fellowship doesn't instantly make us perfectly righteous on our own – we still have to rely on the righteousness of Christ for our redemption and ultimately to please God – that restored fellowship does do a work of sanctification in us. It takes a heart that was devoted totally to sin, and turns it gradually and bit by bit toward God. It's only by the assistance of God's grace that we can continue in that “holy fellowship” and that we can do the “good works” that God has prepared for us “to walk in.”
The Westminster Shorter Catechism gets at this when it asks its first question: “What is the chief end of man?” The answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” And that's the tack that I want to take with this today. The “chief end of man” is to “glorify God” and “enjoy him forever.” That's what we were created for. So we have to ask: what's our problem? Birds were created to fly and fish were created to swim, and that's exactly what both of them do naturally and without any problems. But the last thing that we're inclined to do as men and women is to glorify God. In fact, St. Paul reminds us in Romans that in our natural state we're all enemies of God – not just indifferent to him, not just not caring about him, but really and truly in complete and total opposition to him and to his plans.
God created us to be in close fellowship with himself, but in our natural state we're far from him and can never come close – in fact our desire is to stay away, as far as we can, from him. That's what sin does. Light and dark can't exist together, because one drives the other way. Righteousness and unrighteousness can't exist together for the same reason. In our case, our unrighteousness drives us away from God – just like most of us wanted to run and hide from our parents when they found out we raided the cookie jar, broke the window, or got in trouble at school. We know we displeased them, we knew that we were eventually going to be punished, and so all we wanted to do was run and hide. And for God's part, his perfect righteousness calls for perfect justice. He can't just overlook our sins. Our darkness can't be allowed into his presence without first being covered by the the long robe of Christ's righteousness – until we've been washed clean by his blood.
Before they sinned, Adam and Eve lived in that perfect fellowship that God created us for. But I don't think that's the first aspect of their lives that we think of. No, the first thing we think of is the beauty and perfection of the garden into which God had placed them. For us, paradise means no weeds, no thorns, no pain, no back-breaking labour, and natural beauty all around. We're not so inclined to think about paradise in terms of the full fellowship Adam and Eve had with God. The author of Genesis gives us a great picture of the closeness they had with God when he talks about them actually hearing God as he came down to walk with them “in the cool of the day.”
It's interesting that throughout Holy Scripture we see this idea of “walking with God” over and over. Adam and Eve really did, literally, walk with God – they were that close, they had that kind of intimate fellowship. And so it's not surprising that we still talk about someone “walking” with God when we want to stress both the closeness of the fellowship that that person has with God and the uprightness of character and life that person has. But since the fall, none of us can ever walk with God the way that Adam and Eve did. Not even Enoch. Enoch “walked with God” and was so close to him that one day God simply took him home with him. But even Enoch's close “walk” with God wasn't like Adam's walk with God – in order to be that close God had to take him home. Enoch was a “righteous” guy, but he was still a sinner. The only way for him to be restored to that full, whole, and open fellowship with God was for God to take him and perfect his righteousness in heaven.
I think that heaven was the real hope of Adam and Eve more than it is for anyone who's ever lived after them. No other human being has even had the fellowship with God that they lost when they sinned. I can't imagine how pained they must have been when they realised that fellowship was broken. All they knew of God was his perfect holiness, his perfect love, and his perfect peace. They walked in that presence every day. And because they knew the perfection of God's holiness so well and so fully, when they sinned they understood better than we ever can the full magnitude of what it means to offend God – to commit cosmic treason against our Creator. They knew the perfection of his holiness, and the moment they sinned I think they knew that they had suddenly thrust themselves out of his presence. They knew what real holiness was and realised that they were no longer fit to be in its presence.
The rest of us are a little like chickens. A chicken doesn't know what it means or what it's like to fly – that's not something they're capable of doing, so it doesn't make much of a difference to them that they can't fly. But clip the wings of an eagle and ground it, and you've effectively killed the bird. It's no longer capable of doing what it was created for and it knows it. All of us who have come after Adam and Eve are like the chickens. We're born sinners living outside the presence of God. Adam and Eve were born eagles – they lived in God's presence and then clipped their own wings. God creates all of us as eagles, but because of our sin we live like chickens. Adam and Eve knew what it was like to be grounded, but since none of us can soar like they once did, we sadly fail to miss what it is that God created us for.
To be restored to God, Adam and Eve put their hope in the promise of the righteous one who would come – in the hope of the Messiah. But heaven was their only hope for the full fellowship with God that they had before they sinned. And just like we're not usually inclined to think of life in the Garden of Eden as a time of perfect fellowship with God, we're also not used to thinking of heaven in terms of the restoration of that prefect fellowship. Ask most people what they think they'll be doing in heaven and they'll tell you about being restored with loved ones, not being crippled anymore, or being able to do all their favourite things whenever they want. What most people don't seem to mention is the restoration to fellowship with God that we'll have there – being able to be in his presence all the time, never hindered by sin. I'm sure that Adam and Eve looked forward to heaven because there'd be no more pain and suffering there, but even more I think they yearned for it because, more than anything else, they missed being that close to God.
In Scripture God puts our view of heaven where it should be. In the Epistle lesson from All Saints, St. John tells us about his vision of God's heavenly court and the saints there. Notice he doesn't talk about the things we normally associate with heaven:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.”
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17)
The main focus that Scripture puts on life in heaven isn't all those other things – it's on being in the direct presence of God. St. John wasn't given a vision of the saints of God embracing their long-lost friends and family, leaving behind crutches and wheelchairs, or just having fun all the time. John's vision of heaven was of the saints gathered around the heavenly throne in service and worship, while God takes care of their every need. All those other great things happened too – God promises to take care of us – but that all happens so that we can devote our lives – devote eternity – to the service of God in praise and worship. And I think John's vision should be a reminder to us of just how wonderfully amazing it will be to be in God's presence and to worship him if all those other great things we expect pale in comparison!
The beatific vision of St. John the Divine ought to sound familiar to us, because what the saints do in heaven is the same thing that we ought to be doing here on earth in preparation. John tells how God cares for the saints so that they can worship him eternally. Jesus tells us the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount, but relates it to our lives here and now.
In Matthew Six Jesus speaks his familiar words:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)
Jesus' words are hard for us to follow, because it's so often easier for us to trust in those things we can see and hold in our hands, and so Jesus then goes on to remind us that God takes care of the birds of the air and lilies of field. They don't put in any overtime. They don't stress about paying bills. They aren't worried about “keeping up with the Joneses.” And yet God cares for them – and if God cares for birds and flowers, how much more does he care for the men and women he created in his own image:
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. (Matthew 6:30-33)
This is the whole point of our life here on earth: to learn to trust God, and to devote ourselves to a life of service and worship to his glory. He promises to meet our needs so that we can seek first his Kingdom. That's worship.
One of our problems is that too much of the time when we think of “worship” we think of what we do at church on Sunday morning. That is what we do here on Sunday morning, but worship is a lot more than gathering to sing, to pray, and to hear God's Word read and preached. St. John doesn't tell us that the saints in heaven go about their business six days of the week and then gather around the throne for a couple of hours on Sunday morning. No, St. John tells us that the saints are gathered around God's throne in worship day and night.
If all you do is set aside from ten to noon on Sunday to worship God, your not living the life of the Spirit that God has called you to – and I'll add that if that's all you're doing, your Christian life isn't going to feel very alive and you're not really going to feel the reality of that restored fellowship with the Father that Jesus gives us. I really think this is why so much of the modern Church has turned to an entertainment oriented model for doing church and turned from true worship to emotional manipulation and “feel good” gimmicks. Much of the modern Church has been slack in calling people to a life of true and full devotion to God – to a life of true worship 24/7/365, because today's conventional wisdom says that if you ask people to be fully committed, they'll walk away. After all, we can't ask too much of people. But if we don't call people to wholly devote their lives to Christ, they won't. And then they come to church on Sunday morning, not expectantly, not with the idea in mind to gather with their brothers and sisters before the throne of God as the culmination of a week of worship in the more mundane aspects of life, but they come seeking to “experience” God and to have a feeling of his presence that's lacking the rest of the time.
The problem is that if it's lacking the rest of the time, it's going to be lacking on Sunday morning too – and so too many churches fake it with worship-tainment that manipulates the “worshippers” into feeling happy and good about themselves and about God.
But our “bounden duty and service” isn't just coming each Sunday to celebrate the Holy Communion – it's to continue in his “holy fellowship” and to “do all such good works as [he] has prepared for us to walk in.” If we live a life of worship all the time, we don't need to come on Sunday seeking God's presence having missed it all week. Instead Sunday becomes a celebration of thanks and praise with our brothers and sisters and where we find sacramental refreshment and promise of life at the Lord's Table.
Christian maturity is what happens when we seek the Kingdom of God first and always. That's why St. Paul writes in today's epistle from Philippians:
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 3:8-11)
Paul's great desire for the Christians at Philippi was for them to abound – to grow – more and more in their lives. His prayer was for them to conform more and more to the image, the example, of Jesus Christ so that they could show the world what righteousness looks like, and finally to be able to stand before God as blameless and full of the abundant fruit of the righteousness that Jesus gives us. What I find really strikes me is how Paul ends that prayer: not that they would do all this and grow in righteousness for their own benefit, but that through them God would be glorified.
What Paul desired for the Philippians is what God desires for all of his people. And it's a daunting thing. No matter how often we're reassured that God will look after the worldly things that otherwise bog us down and consume our resources, it's still really easy to let that happen. We do get bogged down in the cares of the world. We do become consumed with worldly things. But this is why God gives us his grace – that with his help, because we can't do it on our own – we can persevere to the end as we put him and his Kingdom first in our lives.
In that same passage from Philippians, Paul gives us some of the most reassuring words in all of Holy Scripture:
I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:6)
If he was certain of nothing else, the Apostle Paul was certain that what God started he would finish. God does nothing for nought. God doesn't waste his grace on any of us. If he has seen fit to call us to himself, if he as seen fit to send his only-begotten Son to die on our behalf, if he has poured his Holy Spirit into our lives, and if he has blessed us with an overabundance of grace, he will never, never abandon us in our struggles. God never looks down and says, “I sure did pump a lot of my resources into Bill, but boy did he blow it big time. I think I'll just take it all back and put all that grace and Holy Spirit power into someone else who will take advantage of it better than Bill did.”
No! When God sees us stumbling and falling behind, he gives us more! Paul also tells us that where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. If we struggle with devoting our whole selves to the glory of God, he will give us the grace we need to overcome those things that are holding us back. When we sin and drive ourselves away from his holy presence, he pours out his grace to draw us back. When we have trouble handing over that certain area of our life that we just don't want to let go of, he gives us the grace to find assurance in him so that we can put our trust in him and hand it over.
The key is to live in God's grace. We don't want to be like the man in today's Gospel lesson. You'll remember that he owed a huge debt to the king that he could never repay. By all rights he should have been sold as a slave so that the king could at least recoup at least some of the money owed to him. But the king was merciful and gracious enough to forgive the debt when the man came before him humbly asking for it to be forgiven. But then that same man, who had shown so much humility before the king and who had been shown so much mercy and grace, went out into the street to find a man who owed him a relatively small debt. He grabbed that man by the neck and demanded his money back, and when he didn't get it he had the man thrown in to prison.
I think that a lot of Christians are like that man that the king forgave. God offers his grace and mercy to us and maybe we even approach him humbly, knowing we're sinners. We take God's grace for our own benefit, but all we ever use it for is as a “get our of hell free” card. We fail to apply that grace to our lives and we don't consistently share it with others. We forget that God didn't save us from his wrath for our benefit alone. He saves us so that we can be restored to fellowship with him and so that he can work in us to change and renew our lives as a witness to the world around us of what God is and what he can do.
There really is no excuse for what so many of us do. Christianity is more than just “religion.” It's more than just a “Sunday thing.” Christianity is to be a “Christ follower,” and Jesus didn't leave his spirituality at the church door – he lived his life in the grace of God all the time and every day. He gave himself and everything he had over to his Father in heaven – even to the point of giving his life. He's our example, showing us the way to heaven. But are we living in a way that will get us ready for a life of worship in eternity, or are we living more or less like we always did – yes, we're redeemed, yes we've been saved from our sins – but we're still living in a way that serves self instead of God. We really need to be living in anticipation of what awaits us in heaven, wanting more than anything else to live in such a way here that a life of heavenly worship won't shock our systems when we get there. Have we given every aspect of our lives over to God, obeying him and letting him use us for his own glory?
And so each of us needs to ask: “Am I living a life of worship and service to God?” God calls us to be living sacrifices. St. Paul writes in Romans 12:
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)
This is the key to true worship. In response God continues to assure us of his presence with us as we come to his Table. Here he gives us the downpayment on eternal life. Here he reminds us in the bread and the wine, that he is the one who will take care of us, not just in eternity, but this side of heaven too. So I urge you this morning, if there is some aspect of life that you haven't given over to God, that you haven't trusted him with, bring it with you to the altar this morning. Receive God's promise of grace here at his Table and as you do that, lay your cares here, at the pace where he reminds us of his promises. As he gave himself, body and soul, for you, give yourself, body and soul, to him and live for his glory alone.
Please pray with me: “Our Father, we prayed earlier that you would protect us from all adversity so that we may devoutly serve you in our good works. Help us to understand that what you desire of us is true worship done by the devotion of every part of our lives to you and to your service. Give us the grace, Father, to hand everything over to you and to devote every aspect of life to what will bring you glory. We ask this confident in the Spirit that brings us life and by the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Bible Text: Matthew 2:13-18 | Preacher: The Rev'd William Klock | Series: The Church Year
Truth, Grace, and our "Culture of Death"
St. Matthew 2:13-18
by William Klock
Christmas is a joyful time – it’s the annual reminder that the Messiah has come to redeem us from death to life. The only thing that might top it is Easter, when he rose from the dead as victor over sin and death, or maybe the Ascension, when he rose to heaven to rule his kingdom. Christmas is a time of joy. And so it’s interesting that of the three saint’s days that fall during these twelve days of Christmas, only one of them – that of St. John, the apostle and evangelist – is a happy commemoration. While our focus may be on Boxing Day sales at the mall the day after Christmas, the Church commemorates St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr and it’s today that we commemorate the slaughter of the Holy Innocents by King Herod.
In our Gospel we read the angel’s warning to Joseph:
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:13-18)
Herod was king of Judea, but he wasn’t Jewish. Like the hated Samaritans, he was half-Jewish – the child of a forbidden mixed marriage. The Romans set him up as a puppet king. Despite all of his building projects around Jerusalem, he was hated and despised by the Jews. He was so insecure on his throne that he murdered and exiled his own sons. The last thing he wanted to see was the long-expected Messiah come to throw out the Romans and their puppet king. He may have used the title “King of the Jews,” but no one considered him such – that was the title of the coming Messiah. And so when the wise men came from the east looking for that King of the Jews, Herod was afraid. He trusted the wise men knew what they were doing when they went looking for the new king in Bethlehem, so he gave orders to have all the boys in Bethlehem two years old and younger slaughtered just to ease his fears.
Was he truly afraid that the Messiah had come or was he just being paranoid? From what we know of Herod, he wasn’t a very pious man. It’s unlikely, at least from what I’ve read of him, that he was pious enough to think that the Messiah had really come. But my reading about Herod does tell me that he was capricious and put no value on life other than his own. This is my interpretation of events, but I don’t think Herod truly feared that one of those little children was likely to upset his throne. When he ordered their slaughter it was a “just in case” move on his part. He put no value on their lives. It was convenient for him and gave him a little bit more security – at least it sent the message that you don’t mess around with Herod and get away with it! We aren’t sure how many children died because of Herod’s decree, but Bethlehem was a small town. Those who look at the demographics of the ancient world tell us that Herod’s decree probably resulted in about 25 children being killed. And today the Church commemorates those Holy Innocents.
And yet every day in Canada about 275 innocent children are killed in hospitals and clinics before they’re even born. For every 100 live births, thirty children are aborted. And those numbers don’t include children killed by the “Morning After” pill or who are prevented from being implanted in the uterus because their mother is on the birth control pill – which results in the abortion of a fertilized egg at least as often as it prevents conception. In our province alone, forty children are aborted every day. Wednesdays are “abortion day” at the hospitals in Campbell River and Nanaimo. In each place one room is given over to an abortionist on those days and the women are lined up shoulder to shoulder to get in. One local nurse estimates that 20 to 25 abortions take place at each of those hospitals every Wednesday. We read about Herod’s murder of 25 babies and toddlers and we’re outraged! And yet even more children than that are killed in our province every day. Under Pierre Trudeau, Parliament eased the abortion laws in Canada in 1969, then in 1988, in the infamous Morgentaler case, the Supreme Court struck down all of the criminal code applying to abortion, thereby allowing completely unfettered access to abortion by anyone and under any circumstances. Based on the most recent statistics – which only give us numbers through 2004 – over two-and-three-quarters million children have been aborted in this country. If those numbers remained the same over the past four years, they put us over the three million mark! And that in Canada alone.
Everyone cringes at the story of Herod’s murder of the Holy Innocents, but when it comes to the millions of children murdered in the modern world by abortion, somehow we take it in stride. Here’s the difference, I think, in the average person’s mind: the children Herod killed were wanted, and those killed by abortion were unwanted. You see, it started in the 1920’s with the birth control movement. Sadly not many churches have held out on the issue of birth control, yet it was an issue on which Christians up until about eighty years ago were unanimous in their agreement that it was a violation of both God’s law and natural law. Martin Luther, the magisterial Reformer, described artificial birth control as something practiced by “swine,” and that was the view held by Protestants and Catholics alike until very recently. And yet our culture bought into this movement and the natural consequence was the free-sex movement of the 1960’s. Birth control “liberated” us from what we started calling the “consequences” of sex. And notice that: a child, which used to be considered a blessing, became a “consequence.” And so it was only natural that the legalization of abortion would follow. If you don’t want the child to start with, and then you have an “accident,” the child becomes a “mistake,” then it’s only natural that somehow you’ve got to get rid of it. That’s how we got here. All the arguments about the health of the woman, about not being able to afford a child or not being able to care for a child – even the talk of rape and incest – are just window dressing. Those were just the argument used to convince the holdouts who still put value on children. The real issue is that the child wasn’t wanted in the first place and now we’ve got to get rid of it. It all comes down to the fact that as a culture, we place a low value on life – if we place a value on it at all.
And yet this is the very life that God lovingly created. The Holy Trinity existed in perfection before any created thing was ever made, and yet God in his great grace chose to create human life as a means to display his glory. He created Adam from the dust of the ground and gave him life with his very breath. He imparted to his creatures his own image. And when we rebelled and sinned against our Creator, he valued our lives enough to want to redeem them. We may not be passionate about life, but you know what? God is! He created it. He loves it. He didn’t have a need to create us, but he created us anyway and gave us life with his own breath. And when we fell into sin and death, he restored us to life by his own blood.
Think of the ministry of Jesus Christ. In John 10:10 he says, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” God saw that the life of his creation was sacred enough that he sent his own Son to redeem it. That’s God’s passion for life. He holds it as something holy, something sacred. But the fact that God sought to redeem his fallen creation reminds us that God is not just passionate about life – he’s also passionate about grace. Again, he sent his only Son to die for us. That’s grace. Grace is God’s unmerited favour. He knew that in our fallen state we are his enemies – we can do nothing good – and that our every inclination is to evil. Even our good deeds are tainted with selfish motives. And because God is both holy and just, he cannot tolerate our sin – even the smallest little bit of it. And that’s why God is so passionate about grace. Because in showing us grace through the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, he glorifies himself by giving us the gift we can never earn on our own – the gift we can never merit. We deserve death and everlasting damnation, but because God values and is passionate about life and because he values and is so passionate about grace, he sent a Redeemer to be what we can never be and to restore us to his fellowship.
You might think that the subject of abortion is an ugly intrusion on the joy of Christmas, and yet there’s no better time to address it. Because at Christmas we celebrate the ultimate gift of life and grace – the Word Incarnate, born of the Virgin Mary – God himself stooping down and becoming one of us that he might give his life for ours.
So what does this mean for us as the Church? The greatest massacre in history is taking place and it’s taking place with the approval of our government – with the approval of those whom we elect to represent us. What do we do as the Church in response to what is easily the greatest sin ever committed by the human race? I see the Church responding in three different ways. Well, some might add a fourth. There are “churches” out there that have embraced this sin and whose people have promoted abortion, or at least it’s legality. I can’t say this clearly enough: that is not an option for us. That is not an option for the Church. Any so-called church that promotes such a Gospel of death – of anti-life – is no church at all, but a convocation of Satan! That is not an option. So what remains?
The first thing we could do is ignore the issue. We could simply chalk this problem up to a fallen world from which we’ve been redeemed. Or we could simply choose not to address it at all – to remain neutral. Maybe we could say, “This is a political issue and the Church isn’t supposed to get involved!” We can stick our fingers in our ears and sing Amazing Grace all the louder. And yet it’s not enough to sing about grace – we have to put it into action. And grace in action is concerned about God’s Truth. Grace in action sees a fallen and sinful world and desires to see it forgiven and redeemed. And redemption doesn’t happen until we’ve first confronted the reality of sin – the reality that we’re all fallen creatures in need of redemption. Grace demands that we take a stand for truth. We need to be as passionate about the truth as God is. Ignoring the problem – ignoring sin – isn’t the answer. Jesus didn’t do that.
So instead we could be like some Christians. We could take God’s Truth about sin serious and we could stand on the street corner or in front of the abortion clinic and make sure that the women going in and the doctors and nurses and receptionists and office managers working there know they’re sinners. We could stand there shouting “murderer!” We could hold big signs with pictures of aborted babies and rub their noses in it the way you do to a dog that chewed up your shoe or did his business on the living room carpet. There are Christians that are passionate about life and they make sure people know the truth of their sins. We could do that and walk away from the abortion clinic satisfied that we’ve spoken the truth about abortion and the truth about life. We could walk away and hope that those people whom we told were murders will one day take it to heart, repent, and come to the Church. Lots of Christians do that.
But you know, if that’s what they do, they may be showing their passion for the Truth – and grace is all about God’s truth – but they’re forgetting that grace is also about redemption. Dear friends, it doesn’t do any good to point out the sin in another person’s life without also showing them the sin in your own life and showing them the Saviour who died to take away the guilt of that sin.
Imagine a starving homeless man who is one day pulled aside, taken to a place to get fed and cleaned up, given a change of clothes, and given a good job. Suddenly his life is changed. Now can you imagine that man going back down to Skid Row where the rest of the homeless, hungry, and jobless are still hanging out – can you imagine him going back there and walking down the street, pointing his finger, and shouting, “Losers! You’re all a bunch of losers!” And yet that’s exactly what we’re doing when we stand up for truth by pointing out the sins of others without sharing with them the reason for hope. We need to go back to the people still on the street and show them where we found food and clothes and a job. They need to see that we’re not perfect – that we’ve been cleaned up, but still have some of that dirt and grime from the street under our fingernails. We can’t condemn without at the same time leading those sinners to the Saviour.
That’s what grace is all about. Knowledge of sin is part of God’s plan of grace, but the heart of grace is redemption. And that’s why we need to be the kind of Christians – the kind of church – that is willing to take a stand alongside the men and women contemplating and hurting from abortion. They need to know that it’s the wrong choice – that it’s sin – but they also need to be shown the Redeemer. They need to know that we care as much about their individual souls as we do about saving the life of their unborn children. You see, grace acknowledges that there’s a gash across the souls of each and every one of us because our sins offend God. Grace seeks not only to affirm the Truth, but it provides forgiveness and healing. Grace restores the fallen and the wounded. Grace condemns the sin, but it also points to Jesus Christ.
And remember that St. James tells us talk is cheap. When people are hurting, they usually need more than us quoting a few Bible verses at them about hope and faith and salvation. They need to see the Gospel at work in us. They need to see us being the hands and feet of the Saviour. To paraphrase James: If a young girl is being thrown out by her parents because she chose to keep her baby, and one of you says, “Good for you! Go in peace and be warmed and filled, but doesn’t provide the support she needs, what good is that?” As the Church it’s not only necessary to encourage women to choose life, we need to be there to help them stand with them when the storm of consequences hits them. As Christian we can’t just point out sin and walk away. We need to put our arms around the sinner and mourn with them knowing that we are sinners too. Then we need to stand with them and give them our support as they seek to repent and follow after God.
Frederica Matthewes-Green of Anglicans for Life writes that as she was researching for her book, Life Choices, she spent two years asking post-abortive women what the reasons were for their abortions. She expected answers like, “I’m too young to have a child,” “I don’t have the money,” or “I want to get my school or career underway first.” But in 88% of cases, the reason was that someone close to the woman, usually a relative or friend, put pressure on her to have the abortion. In 88% of the cases it was the pressure from one other person. Imagine what could be done if as Christians we did what we’re supposed to do in showing grace to women like these. Imagine the influence for life that could be had if there were only one or two otherpeople influencing these women to choose life, and then committing to stand beside them and providing the support and resources they need in the months or years ahead? Imagine if we showed these women the face of Jesus. Imagine if we showed them the grace of God.
In conclusion let me say: our mission is a Gospel mission. As he was ascending to heaven, Jesus didn’t tell his disciples, “Go out and form Pro-Life groups and save babies.” No, he gave us the task of proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples. We are to stand up for Truth as Christians. We are to take a stand against evil in this world. But our primary duty is the world’s conversion to Jesus Christ.
And that’s the problem with so much of what I see going on today. For the last century or more Christians have been lazy. Because we lived in a predominantly Christian culture we forgot Christ’s Great Commission. Ultimately, the Church in too many ways has only herself to blame for the godless society we now live in. We live in a post-Christian age, because for too long we forgot the task of evangelism. Is it any wonder that there’s little value for life when there’s no value in the culture for God and his Gospel of grace? Don’t misunderstand me. We do need to be on the street helping those in need and doing what it takes to help women choose life. And we do need to work for laws and legislation that promote righteousness, but the bottom line is that if we aren’t about the business of the Great Commission – of making new disciples – our culture will turn farther and farther from God. If all we do is legislate morality and march in protest of the world’s sins we’ll only be fighting a losing battle. The only way to have a country and a culture that follow God’s ways is to have a culture of people that desire and follow after God. The only way to have a Christian culture is to go out and make more Christians. And the best way to carry out the Great Commission is to truly live the grace that has been shown to us by Jesus Christ. Don’t just speak it; live it and make it real for those around you.
Please pray with me: Our Father, as we look at the great sin taking place in our world and especially considering abortion, we first and foremost ask for your forgiveness. We, your Church, have failed so often in the mission you have given us. We have been lazy in proclaiming your Good News and we have often been lazy in living your Good News. Have mercy on us and on our land, Father. And give us a profound understanding of your grace, that we might preach it and live it in this fallen world, that our culture might be redeemed and follow your ways as it sees you at work in us. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Bible Text: Mark 1:1-8 | Preacher: The Rt. Rev'd Charles Dorrington | Series: The Church Year
Bible Text: Matthew 6:11 | Preacher: The Rev'd William Klock | Series: The Sermon on the Mount
Give Us This Day
St. Matthew 6:11
by William Klock
In the last three weeks we’ve looked at the first three petitions in the Lord’s Prayer and we’ve seen that one of the great lessons we need to learn about prayer is that we always need to put God’s interests first. Before we focus on ourselves and on our needs, we first honour God’s name, we first submit ourselves to his sovereignty, and we humbly subvert our own will to his. And this is why it’s so important that we fuel our prayers with Scripture, because it’s in the Bible that God reveals himself. It’s in the Bible that God shows us his way and his will. It’s in the Bible that God tells us the story of his redemptive acts. It’s in the Bible that God gives us his message of the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our prayer and our worship should be like a flame. The Holy Spirit is the spark – the match – that ignites the flame, but it’s Holy Scripture that kindles the fire. If you don’t have the kindling, it’s awfully hard to get the fire going, but at the same time, if you do get the fire going and don’t keep it fed with the kindling of Scripture, it can easily find fuel somewhere else – from the world, from the flesh, and can burn out of control and become a destroyer instead of the heat and light of the Gospel that others should see in us.
It’s only after we’ve put God first that we approach him with our own interests – our families, our friends, our relatives, our work and our finances, our health problems and all those other things. That’s not to say that our own needs and concerns aren’t important though. Scripture does tell us to pray for them. We just need to make sure our perspective is right. Jesus tells us that it’s after God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will that we pray:
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven ourdebtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:10-13)
Our needs: daily sustenance, forgiveness of our sins, and spiritual victory. All of our needs are covered in those three short petitions. Our whole life is right here. Jesus is so amazingly good at distilling everything down to what’s important and putting things in perspective. There’s nothing we need that isn’t covered by these three petitions.
I want to look this week at the first of these three petitions: “Give us this day our daily bread.” That first prayer request deals with our physical needs. When Jesus says “daily bread” he’s talking about all the needs we have for making it day to day. It’s a prayer not just for food, but for clothing to keep us warm and dry, for a roof over our head, and for a job that will provide the means for us to care of ourselves and our families. I think the list could go on – it covers all those things that we need in order to live in this world. But it also needs to be said what this is not a prayer for. Jesus says, “Give us this day our daily bread,” not, “Give us this day a new BMW,” or “Give us this day a big fancy house,” or even, “Give us this day a big healthy bank account.” The rest of the New Testament reinforces what Jesus has in mind. St. Paul writes in Philippians 4:19:
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Paul doesn’t say God will supply all of your wants. It’s not to say that God won’t often supply our needs in style. He does seem, especially in the western world, to allow us a lot of luxuries, but those luxuries are often the first cause of our spiritual poverty. But we are never told to ask for those things. We’re only told to ask for the necessities of life. God may bless you with a fancy new car, but it’s far more likely that he’s going to provide for your needs by keep your twenty-something-year-old Honda running. Remember what I said at the end of last Sunday’s sermon? John Calvin wrote, “Love God, and do what pleases you.” I think we could apply that same principle here: “Love God, and pray for what you need in order to carry out what pleases you.” But the key is that if you are truly following God and if your will is in line with his, your desires will be for your needs to be met so that you can do the work of his kingdom. His kingdom come! His will be done!
Jesus tells us to pray for our daily needs because God has promised to give us the things we ask for. A master provides for his slaves. A general meets the needs of his soldiers. A father makes sure to provide for the needs of his sons and daughters. The master, the general, and the father are all willing and want to provide. And in the same way our Father cares for those who have become his children through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe we sometimes doubt that God will answer our prayers for the needs of life, but we shouldn’t. Jesus himself teaches us that God is willing. He tells us to pray it here, and in the next chapter of Matthew’s Gospel he tells us why. Look at Matthew 7:7-11:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give hima stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Jesus tells us three things here: First, we come before God as his children. We must be his children before we can come to him. Remember that he tells us to pray, “Our Father in heaven.” Again, prayer is for Christians and Christians alone. Second, as God’s children we are invited and even urged to come. Prayer isn’t something we can do. It’s something we’re expected to do. I think we too often tend to look at it as something we have to do – like a chore – instead of as something that’s a privilege. God invites us. And third, God delights to answer those who come before him. We come into the Father’s presence through the Lord Jesus Christ and led by his Holy Spirit. And when we come that way we come not as God’s enemies, but as his children. We’re family.
Think about it. There are lots of things an earthy father would never do for a stranger. There are even more things he’d never do for an enemy. But there’s almost nothing a loving father wouldn’t do for his sons and daughters. And in the same way, we come not to a God who is distant, and harsh, and stingy or who is begrudging and tight-fisted with his gifts. We come to a God who is loving, willing, and merciful, and who is actually anxious (if we can use that word of God at all) to be known and loved by his children. Our God is a God who urges us to come and who wants us to come!
And he doesn’t want us coming every once in a while like a son or daughter who comes home every year at Christmas to visit their father. Notice how Jesus tells us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” “Give us today our daily bread.” Think about this. Do you notice how Jesus suggests there that this needs to be a regular and repeated prayer? A daily prayer? “Give us today our bread for today. He repeats that same idea twice – and he does that in a prayer that in whole totals only sixty-five words. If he’s being that tight with words and chooses to repeat himself, it’s probably because it’s important.
The word that’s used by St. Matthew for “daily” when he says “daily bread” is a Greek word that isn’t used anywhere else in the Bible and until fairly recently no one had ever found it used in any other ancient writings. No one was sure exactly how to translate it – so we just followed the tradition of the ancient translators who said it meant “daily.” That was confirmed in the last century when archaeologists found ancient paper fragments in Pompeii and an ancient papyrus in Egypt that used this word and confirmed what it means. And you know what those ancient fragments were? They were basically ancient shopping lists and the word referred to a daily ration. Jesus tells us to pray each day for a daily ration of life’s necessities.
So what do we do with this? Well, when we see that Jesus is giving us a simple prayer for the things we need in life and that God invites us to pray this way, we should see three great truths here.
First, Jesus reminds us that God cares for our bodies – for our physical well-being. There have always been people in the church that taught that the body was bad and that only our souls are important or good. That’s where the idea of celibacy as preferable to marriage came from. That’s where the idea of hair shirts and sleeping in the cold without a blanket came from. Some have even outright abused their bodies – beating themselves and mutilating themselves thinking that their bodies were evil. But that’s just not biblical. Even if we are fallen and sinful, we still bear the image of God. And think about the fact that Jesus spent so much of his time healing diseases and satisfying real, bodily hunger. When the crowd followed him into the wilderness to hear him preach, he was concerned that they have some food to eat – and he performed a miracle to feed them. Jesus himself, in coming to redeem us, took a body just like ours. He didn’t come just to save souls, but came to save body, mind, and spirit.
Now we have to be careful. There are plenty of preachers out there picking people’s pockets saying that God’s will is for everyone to be fully healthy and that if you suffer from sickness of disability it’s because you don’t have enough faith in God’s promise. The “faith” teachers on TV preach this. And yet consider that even these guys get old and die – a lot of them from heart disease, strokes, and cancer. Disease is part of our fallen state. God’s will is first and foremost for the health of your soul. If healing your body gets in the way of the health of your soul, it’s probably not God’s will that you be healed! We have to be careful with this stuff.
Second, Jesus teaches us here that if we live as God intends for us to live, we need to live one day at a time. That means that we shouldn’t be anxious about the unknown future and we shouldn’t get stressed out about it. We need to live in a moment-by-moment dependence on God.
That said, I think it’s important to note that the way we live this out is going to be different from culture to culture. Jesus’ point is that we shouldn’t be worrying about tomorrow and that we ask God and depend on him for what we need today. This plays out differently in a culture where future needs are met through the family structure and a culture where we meet future needs through financial planning and saving. In our society it would be wrong for a father to neglect to save for his children’s education or his retirement on the belief that he should ask God only for one day’s ration at a time. In the world we live in, part of today’s ration is the money that we set aside for tomorrow. For that reason we shouldn’t neglect our families by neglecting insurance policies, pension plans, or savings accounts. To do that would be to misread what Jesus is saying here. But at the same time, we shouldn’t become wrapped up in these things as if our life and our future ultimately depend on them. We need to wrap ourselves in our confidence in God!
Think about it. As a Christian, have you ever known God to be unfaithful to you? Have you lacked the necessities of life? There are plenty of times that God deprives us of our wants – usually because we need to get our focus back on him. God is always faithful. We can trust him to provide today and we can trust him to provide tomorrow.
Finally, third, we need to feed spiritually on God. Jesus isn’t just telling us to look to him for our physical needs. There’s only one other place in the New Testament where people make this request, “give us bread.” It’s in the middle of Jesus’ sermon on the spiritual bread that St. John records in chapter six of his Gospel. Jesus said to the people listening to him, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst’” (John 6:32-35). Just like the woman of Samaria who met Jesus at the well was thinking of physical water when Jesus talked about giving her a drink, these Jews were thinking about physical bread. But Jesus tuned them away from these physical things and turned them to himself as the One who could satisfy the far greater hunger of their souls.
What does it mean to feed spiritually on the Lord Jesus Christ? It means that he becomes the source of all spiritual life and that we will grow spiritually only as we draw close to him and learn about him. Dear friends, you need to understand that if you don’t do this – if you don’t draw near to Christ and draw your strength from him daily – you will starve spiritually.
It’s true, but very tragic that so many Christian let things get between themselves and Jesus and end up going hungry. This is what God tells us happened over and over again in the Old Testament. Scripture tells us that the Israelites desired “things” instead of God. The scary part is that God gave them those “things,” but also allowed their souls to starve (Psalm 106:15). We do the same thing today. One of our hymns describes our situation very well – we’re “rich in things, but poor in soul.” We’re often just like the Israelites, getting distracted by the world. And God lets us starve spiritually. We use every opportunity and every means to satisfying our physical hunger, and yet we never look to God for spiritual food. We pray, “Give me my physical bread,” but we never pray, “Give me that spiritual bread that comes down from heaven.”
I’ve seen first hand how God uses these principles to draw us closer to himself. Back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s my parents were attending Bible school. For part of that time our family lived off of the proceeds from the sale of our house. When that was all gone, my dad started working part time, but the economy was bad and every place he got a job at either went out of business or let him go not long after he was hired. We were truly living from day to day at that point. It was during that time that a neighbour came by the house and asked if we’d be interested in taking in two canaries that she had to get rid of. The fact was that we didn’t have the money to take care of those two birds, but my parents said yes and took them in as a reminder that if God would care for the birds, he would care for us too. Every time the pantry was empty, he provided. I remember at the worst of it, we were sitting down on a Sunday after church to eat the last thing in the house: boiled millet with some pancake syrup on top, when friends came by with bags full of groceries. God let us get all the way down to empty, but he did it to show us that it was his provision that got us through.
But our physical care wasn’t really the point. And it never is. God provides for our physical needs so that we’ll learn to trust him with our spiritual needs. Jesus healed the paralytic not just to heal him, but to demonstrate that when he says he has the power to forgive sins, he really does. He wanted to show to show those people that he really was the God he claimed to be. And he does the same for us as he gives us our daily bread – sometimes in miraculous ways.
But that’s not the only way he gets our attention. In Portland I had the privilege through our parish of working with ministry shares the Gospel with people in the homosexual community and disciples them, helping them come out of that lifestyle. And I remember talking one day with one of the men there. We were talking about when he had become a Christian. And he shared with me that when he became a Christian, his one great desire was that God would take away his homosexual feelings. But he said that didn’t happen. But he also said that as months went by he realized that God had left the temptation there to teach him something more important: that he needed to lean daily – constantly – on Jesus Christ. He needed the constant reminder that he could never live his life spiritually victorious without relying on the Saviour to give him power over sin. And that really struck me. I had to ask myself how much of the time I struggle with sin on my own simply because I fail to lean on Jesus Christ daily. How often do I come to his Table to receive the outward signs and symbols of the sustenance he gives to me, but live the rest of the week almost completely ignoring the fact that he is with me as the bread of life to spur me on to spiritual victory.
So as we gather at his Table today, remember that your heavenly Father desires for you to come into his presence each day. He invites you to give him honour and glory and that he delights to show his glory by giving you those things you need to make it through this day – not just your food, clothing, and shelter, but his grace and the indwelling of his Spirit to give you new life and victory over sin.
Please pray with me: Our Father in heaven, you tell us to first pray that your name would be hallowed – honoured – in our lives, by what we say and by what we do. Remind us also that you are honoured and glorified as you bring your promises to pass for us – as you care for us the way you have promised. Reminds us to daily come before your throne to seek our daily ration of bread, trusting in you to provide, but not only that, Father; let your provision of our daily bread be a reminder to us that we also need to come to you for our daily ration of grace – that we find no spiritual health and no spiritual victory in and of ourselves, but that we find it only in your grace and through the Cross of Jesus Christ. We ask this in his name. Amen.
Bible Text: Matthew 6:10 | Preacher: The Rev'd William Klock | Series: The Sermon on the Mount
Your Will Be Done
St. Matthew 6:10
by William Klock
So far in Jesus’ model prayer we’ve seen how we are to come before God as our heavenly Father. We’ve seen that our first petition is that God’s name be honoured – not just in our words, but in how we live our lives. Do we honour him in how we live or do we bring shame on his name. Last week we looked at the second petition: that God’s kingdom come – that we would humbly submit to his lordship in our lives. That we would acknowledge him as our sovereign in our hearts and lives. You see, that’s what it’s all about. Mere belief that Jesus saves will never save you. Appropriating him as your personal Saviour is what saves you and the New Testament writers tell us over and over again that if you’ve truly done that, your one great desire will be to make him your Lord. You will desire to follow him. You’ll desire to do what is pleasing to him. You’ll happily humble yourself and submit to his authority and to what he tells you in his Word. Now, the third petition in the Lord’s Prayer follows naturally:
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10b)
Do you notice how each of these first three petitions turns our hearts towards God and away from our natural inclinations? The natural man seeks only his own honour and glory, and yet Jesus tells us to pray that God’s name be honoured. The natural man’s desire is to be his own king, and yet Jesus tells us to pray that God’s kingdom rule over us. And the natural man’s biggest desire is to assert his own will, and here Jesus tells us to pray that God’s will, not our own, be done.
So let’s talk about wills. You see, at the root of sin is the assertion of our own will over God’s. Satan was cast out of heaven because he decided that he wanted to be in charge. And think about Adam and Eve. God wanted people who would love and trust him. He created men and women as finite beings. We’re not all-knowing. But God is all-knowing. He isperfect in every way. And so his expectation was that his creatures would lovingly trust him to care for them. When God gave Adam the one rule not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he wasn’t being a celestial killjoy. He wasn’t trying to keep something good from Adam. He was giving Adam a command based on his perfect knowledge of what was good for him. And yet tricked by Satan, Adam and Eve looked at the fruit of the tree, saw it looked pretty good, and decided to take God’s role on themselves. And yet human beings were never created with the capacity to determine morality for themelves. Our view is very limited. We don’t have the ability to see that what looks good right now, will do us harm further down the road. But that’s what sin is: it’s the assertion of our wills over God’s. It’s us saying that God doesn’t know what he’s doing or that he doesn’t know and desire what’s best for us. It’s a sign of disloyalty to our Creator. It’s cosmic treason.
And that’s why the most telling evidence that the Holy Spirit has regenerated a human heart, is that that heart has become willing to pray, “Your will be done.” That’s the one thing the natural man or woman will never do, but turning our wills to conform to God’s holy and perfect desires is the very first work of grace that happens in the Christian’s heart. It’s this desire for what God wants that gradually shapes our new life and renews our mind. It’s this desire for what God wants that drives us to his Word, that drives us to seek out his character, that drives us to purge the sin from our lives, and that drives us to conform ourselves to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it has to be said that if you aren’t driven in that way, you really need to go back and look at where you are with God. Is the knowledge of Jesus Christ the redeemer just head knowledge for you? Or have you appropriated his promises for yourself? And the big question: Are you still your own lord or have you made Jesus your Lord. Because Scripture tells us that making Jesus our Lord and submitting to his will is the most basic evidence of our faith – it’s the most basic fruit of the Spirit.
And yet that begs the big question: “How do I know God’s will?” We want to do what God wants, but how do we know what he wants? That’s the problem. God has given us a way to know his will, but too much of the time we try to find shortcuts because we’re lazy and don’t want to do the work.
When I was a teenager there was a girl at school I really liked. I was too gutless to just ask her out, so every time I walked past her house I’d ask God to give me some kind of sign as to whether or not she liked me. “God, if she likes me, let the sprinklers be running,” or something like that. At least once I remember asking God to show me what I should do with the Bible, so I closed my eyes, opened it randomly and dropped my finger on a verse. Well, first, asking God for that kind of sign simply isn’t biblical. It’s like Gideon putting out his fleece. God had already told him what to do, but he didn’t have the faith to believe what God had told him. Doing that sort of thing is trying to force God to follow pagan ideas about divination, and that’s sinful. But even still – and more importantly – I wasn’t asking the right question to start with. This girl wasn’t a Christian. It didn’t matter if she liked me or not – she wasn’t someone I should have dated anyway – that would have been outside God’s will.
The two men who had the most profound impact on my Christian growth were both the sorts of people everyone would always go to if they were seeking to know God’s will. They always gave wise counsel. But in both cases, I figured out, the reason they were always so able to give wise and godly counsel was because they were both deeply and profoundly steeped in Holy Scripture. And I realised that if I ever wanted to be even an ounce like them, the only way to get there was to steep myself in Scripture too. And that’s the hard part. That’s why so many people are always seeking out that sort of Christian for advice. But you know, those two men didn’t start out that way. Both of them had done the hard work and it had taken their entire lives. Our problem is that we live in a fast food, instant gratification culture. We want what we want and we want it now – even when it’s something good like a knowledge of God’s will. And so we look for a sign, or we look for a word from God or some kind of prophetic direct revelation, or instead of doing the work ourselves we constantly seek the advice of someone who has. And it’s not to say that sometimes God doesn’t give a sign, or a word, or counsel us through a wiser brother or sister, but ultimately what we need to understand is that if we want to know God and to know his will, we have to know the Scriptures. We have to devote ourselves to God’s revealed Word.
If you’re married, think about when you first met your husband or your wife. You wanted to get to know them. Did you ignore them, or did you spend time with them to learn what they like and dislike, to know what drives them and what they love? We need to do the same thing with God. We need to spend time with him and most importantly we need to spend prayerful time in his Word. We also need to understand that God doesn’t play hide and seek with us. He isn’t into playing games. He doesn’t hide his will from us. He wants us to know it and to live it. That’s why he gave us the Bible. It’s his direct revelation to men and women so that we can know him and follow him. There’s nothing hidden here. God put it all in plain black and white because he wants us to know it!
Do you want to know God’s will for you? If you’re a Christian that should be your greatest desire. Turn to 2 Timothy 3:14-17 and look at what St. Paul writes:
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, thatthe man of God may be competent, equippedfor every good work.
The first thing Paul says there is that God gave us the Scriptures for to teach us. The Bible offers us lessons and instructions for life, so that we can develop skills, knowledge, and insight that will help us live in ways that are pleasing to him.
But that’s not all. St. Paul also tells us that the Scriptures were given to rebuke us. God loves us and that’s why he never hesitates to reprimand his people when they stray or turn away from him. The Bible shows us when and where we’ve strayed from God’s path of truth and warns us when we’re headed in the wrong direction. That word “rebuke” literally means “to force back,” and that’s what Scripture does when it forces us to face God’s truth.
The third thing Paul says is that the Scriptures were given to correct us. Correction changes something from wrong to right. Remember when your teacher would mark your test up with a red pen, showing you where you were wrong and what the right answers were. God’s Word shows us where we’re wrong and shows us what’s right. God never just reprimands or scolds us. He always gives us correction so that we won’t make the same mistake again. Scripture puts us back on the right path and back into a right relationship with God.
Finally, Paul tells us that Scripture was given for training in righteousness, so that we will conform our lives to God’s standard. The Bible helps us to grow and mature. It shows us what God’s goals are for us and shows us how to get there.
But here’s the thing (and this is important) you’ll never reap these benefits if you don’t read and study God’s Word. Holy Scripture is God’s immediate tool for shaping your life. I don’t know how to make this point strongly enough. If you are a Christian, it is absolutely critical that you spend time in God’s Word each and every day. If you don’t, you will never come to truly know God. The work of the Holy Spirit in your life will be stunted. The Bible is how God chose to reveal himself and his will to us, and there’s no better way – no substitute – to know and experience God than through his living Word. If you pray, “Your will be done,” but find yourself asking what God’s will is, look at 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18:
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Do you want to know what God’s will is? It’s that you would rejoice, pray, give thanks, and seek after that which is good for everyone. God wants you to be a mature man or woman of God. He wants to see your character develop. He wants you to draw close to him and be changed. And he’s given each of us the indwelling Holy Spirit to teach and to guide us in all of that. But there aren’t any shortcuts. God’s way is to build our character through his Word and through the Holy Spirit in order to make us like Christ.
Still wondering what God’s will for you is? Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4:
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor.
Or how about 1 Peter 2:13-15:
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
That’s God’s will: your sanctification, that each of us, maturing in our faith and submitting to God’s authority and commandments, practising the fruit of the Spirit (like self-control) and being pure and spotless in our actions will be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the world. Are you maturing in righteousness? By your life and actions do you draw unbelievers to the Cross, wanting to know what you have? Or by your actions do you bring shame on Christ and make his Body a laughing stock? Jesus Christ has given us an example of how we are to live our lives. The way we can come to know him better and follow his example is to read about him in our Bibles.
And yet we struggle to do that. We live in an age of books. Our bookstores are full of good and helpful books on the Christian life, but the downside is that too often we end up reading all about the Bible, but we never read the Bible itself. We read the latest books on God or on the Church or on the Family, but we forget to pickup the Bible and read what it has to say. And yet the Bible is the only book that is God’s direct message to us. If you want to know his will for you, you have to spend time reading and studying it. If you don’t you will never mature in the faith.
If you struggle in your walk with God, if you struggle to overcome sin in your life, or if you struggle to know what God’s will for you is, I ask, “How much time do you spend reading God’s Word?” To know what pleases God and to grow in godly character you have to know his heart. And to know his heart, you have to draw close to him. Reading his personal message to his people is the way to know him. If you’re serious about your walk with God you will spend time listening to his message.
And by way of specific application, I want to suggest three things that you keep in mind as you read and study Scripture:
First: Pray. If you want to know the mind of God, pray through his Word. Pray as you read that God would enlighten your heart and mind, so that you may know him. That’s why he gave us the Holy Spirit – to lead us into truth.
One of the driest spiritual times I can remember was when I was in seminary working on my master’s thesis. I was spending more hours than I could count immersed in Scripture, but the problem was that it was I had made it a strictly academic exercise. I’d lost sight of the real purpose of what I was doing. And then my advisor told me about a Bible scholar he knew who had had the same problem. And he said that that man had decided to begin approaching Scripture prayerfully, asking God to open his eyes and his heart, asking “Lord, speak to me through your Word.” And after several weeks he started finding an amazing change and his soul started to burn for God and to desire more. God heard his prayer and started speaking through his Word.
In his introduction to Colossians, St. Paul prayed this for the Christians in that Church. He knew that the people needed a vibrant experience with Scripture if they were to be “filled with all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” He knew that the result of meeting God in this way would be spiritual maturity. You need to immerse yourself in Scripture every day, but before you do so, you need to pray for the Lord to speak directly to you through his Word. Ask the Spirit to enlighten you. There’s nothing mystical about it; it means having God’s Spirit teach you. You can never separate prayer from God’s Word.
Second: Memorise and meditate. If you really want to know God’s Word, not only will you read it, but you should also memorise it and meditate on it. That way the Word can speak to you, counsel you, and guide you. When you face decisions or temptations in life, it’s the Scripture reservoir that you’ve built up that you can draw on to know God’s heart. If you don’t have that reservoir, you’re going to come up empty. David wrote in Psalm 1:1-3:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
This is what Solomon tells us to do when he writes about God’s commandments, “Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you” (Proverbs 6:21-22). He’s not talking about the legalistic and Pharisaical practice of some modern Jews who literally wear God’s Word on a necklace or tied to their foreheads. He’s saying that God’s Word needs to be committed to our hearts and minds if it’s going to do us any good.
Think of learning to ride a bike. You see a tree ahead and everything in you wants to not hit it, but you do anyway, because your attention is so focused on it. The same thing happens in our spiritual life too. If we focus on temptation, we always seem to run smack into it. But Jesus teaches us a little lesson here. Remember when he was fasting in the desert for forty days? Satan came to tempt him three times, but in each case, Jesus turned him away and rebuked him using Scripture. You and I can do the same thing. If you struggle with sin, no matter what it is, commit Scriptures to memory that deal with that sin so that you can put your focus on God’s Word instead of the temptation. When the world, the flesh, and the devil assault you, do what Jesus did.
Finally: Humbly Obey. It’s not enough just to hear God’s Word. You have to humbly obey it. In our culture we think of someone who is a fool as being uneducated, but in the Bible, especially in Proverbs, he’s not an ignorant person; he’s a person who has the truth, but does nothing with it. St. James says,
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25)
He’s saying that only a fool gets up in the morning, checks the mirror and sees that he needs a wash and a shave, then walks away from the mirror and forgets all about it.
The wise man or woman reads Scripture, meditates on it, memorises it, and puts it into practice. Most of the time what Scripture tells us is the opposite of what the natural and sinful man wants to hear. But that’s the whole point. By his Word and the working of his Spirit, God humbles sinners and changes their desires to be in line with his own. That’s what God desires from each of us. He wants us exposed to his thoughts, thinking his thoughts, so that he can change us. That’s why St. Paul tells us:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)
When we pray, “Your will be done,” we’re asking for God to develop in each of us a heart for himself. When he was asked about what it meant to do God’s will, John Calvin said, “Love God and do what you please.” That’s the key. If we truly love God, our great desire will be to know him and to know his will and ways, and the more we come to know him, the more our desires (our will and our way) will conform to his desires as we give up our whole selves as living sacrifices to him. And so I urge you to cultivate that love for God – read, study, pray through, memorise, and obey his Holy Word – then do what you please, because God will have given you desires that are in accord with his own.
Please pray with me: Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks that you are working out your perfect will for your creation. But Father, we confess that too much of the time we fail to conform our wills to yours. We call you Lord, but we continue to do our own thing. We confess that it’s often through ignorance, because we’ve failed to seek your will by knowing your Word. Forgive us Father, we ask, and give us new hearts that hunger to know your will and your ways. Give us a passion, we ask, for your Word that we might come to know you better and to humbly submit to your will and obey. We ask this through our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Bible Text: Matthew 6:10 | Preacher: The Rev'd William Klock | Series: The Sermon on the Mount
Your Kingdom Come
St. Matthew 6:10
by William Klock
Two thousand, five hundred, and forty-seven years ago the last Babylonian king, Belshazzar, threw a party. The prophet Daniel tells us that to celebrate his greatness and the greatness of his empire, Belshazzar invited a thousand of his lords to come and drink wine with him. You can imagine how great this king thought he was; consider that it was his father, Nebuchadnezzar, who had built the 90-foot-tall golden statue of himself and commanded everyone to bow down and worship it. And so to show everyone his greatness, Belshazzar not only threw a feast, but ordered that the vessels of gold and silver that his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem – vessels set apart for God’s own use – be brought so that he could drink from them. It was his way of saying he was bigger than God. His father, Nebuchadnezzar, had claimed divinity, the God of the Israelites had humbled him, driving him into the wilderness to live like an animal until he acknowledged that God was sovereign. I’m sure Belshazzar resented that. His treasury would have had sacred items from all sorts of different conquered places, but he specifically chose to bring the things belonging to the God his father had acknowledged as sovereign – it was his way to deliberately thumb his nose at God.
And in the middle of that drunken feast, God’s hand suddenly appeared and he wrote on the wall with his finger: “mene, mene, tekel, parsin.” The king new this was something bigger than himself. He was scared. He called for all his wise men, his priests, and his magicians to tell him what those words meant. Each of those words described a unit of money. In modern terms, it would be like the hand wrote: “Tooney, Tooney, Looney, and Quarter.” Nobody knew what it meant until they called in Daniel. God gave him the wisdom to read the words differently, changing the vowels he told the king the words read: “Number, numbered, weighed, and divide. God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; he’s weighed you in his balances and found you wanting; your kingdom is divided between the Medes and the Persians.” And history tells us that that very night while Belshazzar was having his drunken feast, Darius the Mede diverted the Euphrates River, sneaked into Babylon with his army, going under the walls through the dry river channel, and killed Belshazzar and defeated his army. Thus God orchestrated the end of the greatest empire the world had known up to that time. He showed the world very vividly who the real sovereign is in this world.
But that’s what we see throughout history. Think of Egypt. Three to four thousand years ago it had a mighty empire. Now it has nothing. Forty years ago it lost a war with tiny Israel. Babylon was once even greater, and yet a couple of years ago her president was found cowering in a hole in the ground, hiding from invaders who had toppled his government and army. Syria, Greece, and Rome aren’t drastically different. Many of you, in your lifetimes saw the decline of the British Empire, that a hundred years ago controlled nearly a quarter of the world. In my short lifetime I’ve seen the fall of the Soviet empire and today we’re witnessing the decline of the United States as both a military, economic, and moral superpower. No matter the empire, God has a law that we see played out over and over again throughout history: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
Every kingdom ruled by men has followed the same pattern. God allows a man or a group of men to rise up above others in power, but that triumph sooner or later brings pride, and God removes them, often in a very brutal and bloody end. Men rise and fall, but you see, God reigns over all of human history. God is sovereign, even over those people and places that are in rebellion against him. His kingdom has always and will always prevail. That’s why when we talk about the “kingdom of God” it should bring us comfort if we’re followers of Christ, because we know that no matter what turmoil happens in our lives and in the world around us, God is sovereign. That’s how Jesus had the confidence to tell us to be anxious for nothing. There will always be “wars and rumours of wars,” but Christ’s followers – God’s kingdom people – have no reason to fear.
And that’s why the second petition in Jesus’ prayer is “Your kingdom come.” We pray “Your kingdom come” in the knowledge that God is sovereign and always has been. We pray “Your kingdom come” in the knowledge that at the end of the age, Christ will come as victor and judge and consummate his rule. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess on that day that he is Lord. And we pray “Your kingdom come” in the knowledge that God’s kingdom already rules in the hearts of those who have been redeemed by the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ, and in whom his Spirit dwells. When we pray “Your kingdom come,” we give voice to our desire that all men and women will come to know what we already know and that they will submit to the rule of Christ in their lives and that they will acknowledge God as sovereign over his Creation.
When God created the world and placed Adam and Eve in it, his desire was to bring into existence a people who would be obedient to himself and who would be in tune with his purposes in history. Think of what God told King David through the prophet Nathan:
Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. (2 Samuel 7:11-12)
It’s interesting that David’s response was one of humility. But that’s how you respond when your desire is for God’s kingdom and not your own. You know, Belshazzar didn’t build his kingdom – his father did it all. But that didn’t stop him from throwing a party to celebrate how great he was. That’s what the natural man does. He celebrates himself and he celebrates his own rule. Just like Belshazzar, he’s blind to the reality of God’s sovereignty over Creation. But David, a man who knew where he truly stood before God, one of the great kings of the ancient world, understood that he was only where he was because God had put him there. And so when God promised him a great kingdom, David responded humbly, acknowledging that if it’s going to happen, only God will be able to bring it about. God created this world and he rules over it – he always has and he always will.
But when Jesus came to earth and started his ministry here, the kingdom of God came in another sense and was much closer. In Christ the kingdom came to be among human beings. That’s how Jesus could say, “The kingdom of God is among you.” And at Pentecost he sent his Spirit who now lives and works in the lives of those who follow Christ. At Pentecost the kingdom of God came even closer. That’s how St. Paul could travel the world “preaching the kingdom of God” and talking about it as the new life we live of “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). God’s kingdom comes today whenever and wherever his righteousness, his peace, and his joy transform a life and bring the fullness of spiritual blessing. As his Church, as the Body of Christ, we his people make up his kingdom. We are his people and he is our Lord.
But Jesus warns us: don’t expect it to get any easier. Some Christians have thought that eventually the entire world will be converted to the Gospel and that God’s kingdom will take over that way. But Jesus pretty much tells us the exact opposite. He made it clear that much of the world would never be converted and that the children of the devil would be here until the end – even in the Church! He taught that his kingdom will only come in its totality at the end of time, and that even then it will only be established by his power – men will always be fighting against Jesus and the good news of the Gospel. In Matthew 13 Jesus gives a string of seven parables – parables of the kingdom – beginning with the sower who went out to scatter seed and ending with the parable of the dragnet. Those parables give us a preview of the Church’s history.
In the first one, the parable of the sower, Jesus tells us about a man who went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on hard ground where the birds ate it; some fell into shallow soil and started to grow, but the heat of the summer sun made it wilt and die; some fell in the thorns, which choked and killed it; and some fell on the good soil where it grew, thrived, and reproduced itself. Jesus explained to his disciples that in the story, the seed was the Word of his kingdom and that the Word would have different effects in the lives of those who would hear it preached. Sometimes the Word falls on deaf ears or on hard hearts so that it isn’t really heard at all; sometimes the devil and his demons snatch it away. Some people hear the Word and receive it, but they don’t truly understand. It’s a novelty and eventually they lose interest, especially in the face of persecution and especially when they’re called on to make sacrifices for the Gospel. This is what I fear the modern Church has become. We’ve put so much focus on being like the world in order to attract the world, that we have churches full of people with a “what’s in it for me” attitude. Their only interest is in what God can do for them. And the minute the Word calls them to give instead of take, the minute it points out their sin, or the minute it calls for self-sacrifice, they’re gone. If you come to God with a “What’s in it for me?” attitude, you can never truly pray, “Your kingdom come,” because you’re still living life as your own king. And a church made up of this kind of people is never going to get anywhere because they haven’t made Christ their Lord – they haven’t submitted to his rule and to his sovereignty. Sadly, this kind of seed seems to dominate today’s church in our part of the world – people who call themselves Christians, but have never truly made Christ their Lord, never truly committed themselves to him and to his rule. Jesus warns: not all the seed that’s scattered will end up bearing fruit. In fact, in all those types of ground and soil, its only in one that the seed does what it’s supposed to do.
Jesus really drives his point home in the second parable – the parable of the wheat and the tares. We read this just a couple of weeks ago in our Gospel. A man goes out and sows good seed, but in the night his enemy comes along and scatters weed seed throughout the field. Both the wheat and the weeds grew up together in the field. Some of the plants were wheat and the others looked a lot like wheat, but were worthless as food. As Jesus tells the story, the man’s workers asked if he wanted them to pull the weeds, but the man told them not to – in pulling the weeds, they’d end up pulling a lot of the wheat too. Instead, the man told them to let the weeds grow with the wheat, then at harvest everything would be cut and sorted. The grain would go to the granary and the weeds would be burned.
Jesus explained to them that the man’s field represents the visible church, the wheat represents those who belong to him, and the weeds represent the children of the devil. In other words, according to Jesus, there will always be people in the Church who imitate God’s children – who look like us, and talk like us, and even do a pretty good job of acting like us. His point is that this is what we need to expect until the end of the age. This is why the Church has an obligation to preach the Gospel, even when we think that everyone here has already accepted it. It’s also why the Church has the duty to hold her members accountable for their actions. If you’re not acting like a follower of Christ, it might well be because you aren’t really one of his people and you need a wakeup call from the Church to get your attention.
If we were to run all the way through Chapter 13, we’d see Jesus’ point made over and over again: that as long as the Church exists, it will always be imperfect because of the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The final parable gives the solemn warning: The kingdom of God is like a dragnet thrown into the water by fishermen. It drags and scraped along the bottom catching anything and everything. When they pull it up and haul it ashore they open it to find a lot of good fish, but they also find a lot of bad fish. Remember that the Jewish dietary regulations stipulated that some kinds of fish, not to mention bottom feeders like shellfish weren’t to be eaten. So the fishermen would sort the good and the clean fish and throw back the unclean, the shrimp, the prawns, the lobsters, the crabs, and the catfish. Jesus paints a vivid picture to explain what that means in spiritual terms: At the end of the age God’s harvest will be brought before him and he’s going to pick out the good fish, he’s going to pick out the wheat – he’s going to pick out those who have been made righteous through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and he will gather them home. The rest will be thrown in the fiery furnace where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” You see, we might tend to think of those whom God rejects as being more like old boots or tires caught in the dragnet; they don’t even look like fish. Or we think of them as rocks in the wheat field; no one’s going to mistake them for wheat. But Jesus talks about those being cast out, and says that in many respects they look just like the good fish or look just like the wheat. Again, there are a lot of people who call themselves Christians, but they’ve never truly made Christ their Lord. They still live for themselves. They may say the right things, but by their actions, by their lack of fruit, they prove their true state. They’re willing to give up an hour or two on Sunday, but they live the rest of the week for themselves. They may say that Christ is their redeemer, but their lives aren’t truly charaterised by the fruit of the Spirit, by love, joy, and peace. They may recite the Creed every Sunday, but during the week they cheat their boss, they act like a jerk, or they fail to meet their obligations to their wives and children. The come and sing praises on Sunday to a God they spend no time with the rest of the week and whose Holy Word they know nothing of because the only time they crack it open is for a few minutes in church.
And yet, God is gracious and loving. He “desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live.” He ushered in his kingdom with the coming of his Son, Jesus Christ, and when he gave his people the gift of the Holy Spirit. But he hasn’t consummated it yet. Even the Canaanites, an evil and wicked people if ever there was one, God gave four hundred years to repent before he came in judgement and wiped them out. He gave them a chance: to turn to him or to prove just how much they deserved his wrath and punishment. And God has done the same thing again. He’s giving sinful men and women a chance to repent and turn to him. But his patience is not eternal in that sense. We have his promise that one day this two kingdom situation will come to an end. When his kingdom came, it marked the beginning of the end for the kingdom of the world, and when he returns God’s kingdom will be fully and totally realised.
Jesus himself taught this. He told his disciples that there was not only to be a spiritual kingdom through this church age; he also told them that there would one day be a literal, physical, future kingdom too. In another parable he compared himself to a nobleman who went away to a far country to receive a kingdom and would then come back. In the meantime, though, that nobleman left gifts in the care of his servants, charging them to be faithful and to be ready to give a good accounting when he returned. At another time, after his resurrection, the disciples asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” (Acts 1:6). You see, they were still thinking he was the earthy Messiah who would drive out the Romans and restore the glory days of David and Solomon to Israel. Jesus answered them and said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8)
When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we acknowledge that Gods kingdom is here, but we also acknowledge that he’s still giving sinners a chance to change their loyalties. But we know time is short. When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we remind ourselves that the work of the kingdom is to be witnesses of our Saviour and Lord. That we’re called to carry the message of God’s rule through Christ to our community, to our nation, and to our world.
In conclusion, let me say again, God is using this present age to call out a people for himself. He’s taking people of every kind and every state and every condition from every part of the world and he’s turning them into men and women in whom Jesus Christ is present and in whom his character can be seen. But we also know that his kingdom will come fully in power in the personal rule of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of history. The time is short. Each of us needs to ask: “Is Jesus Christ truly my Lord? Am I truly committed to him as my sovereign? Am I living as a citizen of his kingdom, loving and following his commands, and making his priorities my priorities? Or am I still living in my own kingdom? And we need to remember that as citizen of the kingdom of God, we represent it, we bear witness of the true king, in a world full of men and women who have rejected him and are blind to his sovereignty. We need to ask what we’re doing to win their souls for God and for his kingdom. Jesus commands us to go out and share the Good News, but he tells us even more emphatically, that the faith we profess with our lips has to be backed up by the way we live – by our making Jesus our Lord, not just our Saviour, by making his priorities our priorities, by knowing and keeping his Word, and by bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
Please pray with me: Our Father in Heaven, we know that we are called to hallow and honour your holy name. We pray now that we would do that by humbly submitting ourselves to your sovereignty, that we would acknowledge your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master, not just as one who redeems. Work in us by the power of your Spirit, to give us a desire for you, to give us a desire to make your priorities our priorities, and give us the grace to be living witness of your kingdom. We ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.