THE LORD'S PRAYER;    REVELATION; THY KINGDOM COME

REVELATION

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I began in the preamble by saying “Let's forget much of what we have heard about the Lord's prayer, wherein it takes on all kinds of “spiritualization” “ and we end up thinking that “Thy kingdom come” is a fervent request for the millennium to be ushered in. I don't believe [this] was in Jesus' or the disciples' mind when this was given.” Perhaps to be a little more diplomatic I should say: “What if for this study we considered what it might mean if it did not mean “Lord hasten the day when you leave the earth and then come back to establish your millennial reign, or the day when you take me to be with you in your heavenly kingdom”? And why did I give this phrase the heading “REVELATION” and why do I tie together the idea of the Kingdom coming, and His will being done... on earth, even as it is in heaven?

First observation: What is required before there can be a KINGdom? Must there not of necessity be a king? And secondly, must there not be “subjects”? Using no other method of interpretation as to what Jesus may have meant when using the phrase in the Prayer, than what he must have meant when he spoke what Matthew records is his first public utterance (apart from his conversation with John the Baptist and with the devil in the wilderness); “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. From that point on, Jesus' message was directed toward a new concept of what the kingdom was all about. Not about overthrow of the Romans. Not about power. Not about a peculiar ancestry. Not about a racial origin. Not about a “rules” righteousness. It was about a relationship with THE KING. About a Trust. And about attitudes. Check out the Matthew references only, to the kingdom of heaven, and discover the simplicity. The kingdom of heaven is not a Realm. It is a Reign. This was so revolutionary, that according to Matthew's record the “Gospel”, the “GOOD NEWS” is NOT the “gospel of salvation” that we hear so much about. It was the “Gospel of the kingdom”! See Matt. 4:23, 9:35, 24:14, and Mark 1:14.

Where the King Rules, there is the kingdom.

Therefore the disciples could pray: “Your kingdom come. Father, reveal your self to me and through me. Establish your reign in me and through me.” Let our “preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, bear fruit.”

The picture of the mustard seed, or the leaven in the dough, meant that as I do his will on earth in the same way it is done in heaven, when my thinking is in line with the king's, then his kingdom will come.

I like to point out the old familiar K-I-S-S principle: “Keep isSimple Saints” or “Kingdom-Living is Simply Submission” or to take up this phrase from KJV “KISS (Embrace)the son lest he be angry , and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” Ps. 2:12

The rest of the “Lord's Prayer” shows itself to be that which needed to be expressed daily. Surely, it is a daily awareness that I need to have the king reveal himself to me and I need to be always seeking to do his will, and in turn as the message is spread, then the kingdom is established. But this is not a Post-millennial hope that by our efforts the world will evolve into a better place. It didn't anticipate the wicked rulers of this world getting converted and a heaven on earth kingdom being established. In fact in Matthew 5:10 & 11 it guaranteed that the more the kingdom would be established in individual hearts, the more likely there would be persecution, but The KINGDOM would be at hand, the kingdom would come.

But the revelation was only the beginning. The consequences of owning the Father as the KING was recognized in the rest of the prayer. In a benevolent monarchy who provided for his subjects? When subjects broke the law, to whom did they appeal for mercy? When the king ruled over his subjects what were their responsibilities? When they faced enemy attacks to whom did they turn for protection? (Or the same questions could be posed if we were to think of the relationship of a child to its Father.)

But it only has significance if this is a today expectation and petition. Not for something off in the distant future, and not for “somebody else”. “My Father, in heaven, let me know your will and may I let you establish your reign in my life, so that you are free to do in me and through me all that any earthly king has the right (and responsibility) to do to, and in, and through his subjects.”