Thy Kingdom Come!

This past Sunday I spoke on prayer from the Lord’s prayer, Mt. 6:9-13. (You can check out the message here.) Our Savior instructs us to pray,

“Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”

I was struck by the audacity of this request! Certainly it pertains to the return of the King at the end of this age and his consummation of all that he has been commissioned to accomplish. But, it also relates to this current age where the kingdom has already come and is growing, though not yet complete.

Have you ever thought about how much our view of the kingdom affects your Christian life? If you think the kingdom is not here until the end or the church is merely surviving until Jesus comes back than you will tend to be defensive in your posture and perhaps even to seclude yourselves from greater society, hoping you can preserve some remnant of Christian goodness in a world gone mad. You will tend to think more about the glory days of old rather than what God would do in our generation. You might find yourselves pining for the glory days of the Great Awakening instead of expecting a glorious Great Awakening for your own days.

I think scripture paints a very different picture of the church age and the kingdom’s expansion in this age. Check out Daniel 2:44, Mk. 1:15, Mk. 4:30-34, Luke 11:20, 13:18-21, 17:20-21 among many others. The kingdom has come and is to be ever-expanding. Yes, this will be amidst suffering and persecution but, in the midst of this he will build his church and his church will overwhelm the gates of hell and not be subject to them. The gospel will go to every nation as Jesus promised and it will bear fruit everywhere it goes as in the book of Acts!

If we believe the kingdom has come and is to be ever growing. And if we believe the gospel is to go to all nations drawing many into the kingdom before the end. Then we will posture ourselves aggressively and in faith in our outreach and evangelism. Perhaps our God would be pleased to duplicate here what has gone on in Korea over the past generation. In one generation Christianity in South Korea went from 1 million believers to 45 million believers – that is 1/3 the population - doubling in number every decade from 1960 to 2000[1]!

Isn’t that fantastic! Can not our God do the same here in New England? Scripture teaches us to pray for this.

Thy Kingdom Come O Lord! Whatever it takes O God! Thy Kingdom Come in New England in our generation, through our lives and through your beloved church to your great reknown for this is none like You! Thy Kingdom Come!

[1] Andrew E. Kim , History of Christianity in Korea: From Its Troubled Beginning to Its Contemporary Success, http://www.kimsoft.com/1997/xhist.htm