Sunday 02/07/16
Series: Living in the Kingdom XX
Message – Unified in Purpose XI
Living in the Kingdom
For weeks now we’ve been talking about our Unity with God and recently in particular, being unified in PURPOSE with Him.
Beginning with Paul’s prayers over the churches of Colossae and Ephesus, and moving on to the lives and prayers of others like Elisha and Jesus we’ve seen several ways in which this is lived out in prayer…
- Praying with fervency
- Praying with respect to God and His will
- Exercising faith in God w/ patience
- Being Persistence in Hope – There are two predominate reasons people give up hope:
- Growing weary – tired and therefore discouraged. Growing weary is an indication that YOU have been the one carrying the burden. The remedy for this is considering Christ and His struggles, so that we will not grow weary and faint. As we focus on Christ we are to roll the whole of our cares upon Him – being anxious for absolutely NOTHING, and in that environment of worship we make our request to Him in trust.
- Fear – People protect themselves from hope since it is so deadly to the human heart to have our hopes destroyed. It is easier to NEVER get our hopes up than to get them up and have them disappointed. Fear constrains our belief…it puts a choke hold on our trusting reliance upon Christ – Who told us that men ought always to pray and NOT loose heart.
- Being filled with JOY!
We’ve illustrated these points as they were lived out in the lives of others like David, Jacob, Elisha and Jesus.
We’ve also answered two questions that arose from that…
- What do these have to do with Living in the Kingdom?
- Since I’ve got no lions to slay, no kingdoms to conquer, nor worlds to save….How does this play into MY life? The answer? Christ in ME!
As we read Hebrews 10:32-12:29, we will see it illustrate these things in the lives of those who have gone before and obtained a good testimony of faith.
- We learned that Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham & Sarah, Moses…etc. all prayed with passion, sought God for His purposes and will, endured hardship and persecution, hoped in the face of hopelessness and experienced joy even before their faith became sight.
- We also learned that though we do not have any lions to slay or giants to kill, any kings to fight against or armies to fight against us – we DO suffer opposition against the formation of Christ in us.
Our purpose (as was mentioned in part by Paul in his prayers) is to bear His image – bear fruit, become mature, honor and glorify God by our sanctified desires, our passions, our thoughts, our words and actions.
To show ourselves COMPLETE IN HIM and nothing else! This should be the center focus of all we do, desire and pray for! It is THE PRINCIPLE thing we should pray concerning and NEVER give up HOPE for!
ALL of the little prayer we pray – for provision, for family, for health, for greater spheres of influence should ALL be done under the banner of this SINGULAR GREAT HOPE!
We determined that the BEST prayer which illustrated this was Our Lords…
It is here that I will interject our 6th key and that is sincerity, which should be the attitude behind all prayer and is indirectly addressed by Jesus as He leads into what we today call the Lord’s prayer.
Let’s turn to Matt. 6:5-15.
Jesus’ clear focus in prayer was to honor the Father. To ask for His will to be done. THAT is the Kingdom of God!
Jesus comes as a man…and as a man makes requests to God – BEGINNING with a humbled and awestruck recognition of His rightful place as supreme, coupled together with a confession of His Own personal sonship.
“Our Father, Who is in heaven”
In this statement we have Christ doing more than simply acknowledging Who He was praying to – He was showing respect and honor. A number of years ago in modern mainstream Christianity there was a paradigm shift from honoring God to His becoming our “bestie”. Like every major “enlightenment” in our past, the pendulum needed to swing to the center but had so much momentum that it swung entirely to being out of balance on the opposite side.
Holding God in so much reverence that we stand in abject, awe-inspired terror of Him, caused us to understand the God Who “so loved the world” as little more than an all powerful deity to tip-toe around in hope of not eliciting His wrath. From such time periods we received an abundance of hell fire and brimstone messages and books entitled, “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God”.
Today, God is no longer feared. He is our big, soft sugar daddy in the sky. He is the celestial push over of the cosmos and He loves you so much and “needs” relationship with you so desperately that He is no longer all bound up about that sin thing, and just wants you to be happy – regardless of how that happiness is obtained.
Here we see Jesus – not only the incarnate son of God, but in fact, Himself part of the Godhead. As a human, Jesus approached God as humans MUST – with deep respect for God as Creator and as Father. He does this with His traditional wisdom and simplicity using a minimum of words.
Jesus’ statement was a humble acknowledgement that God is in heaven and we, His children, are very much on the earth. And so agrees Isaiah and the Psalmist,
“(1) Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?”~ Isa 66:1
“(3) When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, (4) What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” ~ Psa. 8:3-4
“Holy be your name”
This was both a statement and a request. On the surface the words imply a reverential acknowledgment of the transcendent and awe-filled nature of God’s name. In modern society this is all but entirely lost on us, but one’s name was the recognition of all that one was and all for which they stood. Today, we unfortunately only encounter this in the negative in statements like, “You ruined my good name”. A name is like a company logo or sign, it is NOT the company, but when one sees it, they are immediately reminded of all that company represents, whether it be good or evil.
The term “holy” simply means “other than”. God’s name represents His person. God as a personality, is entirely unique in all that exists. While man shares His likeness and may of His attributes – even man is as nothing when compared to Him.
- “When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor. Selah” ~ 39:11
- “Surely men of low degree are a vapor, Men of high degree are a lie; If they are weighed on the scales, They are altogether lighter than vapor.”~ 62:9
- “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”~ John 15:5
So this statement is another admission of God’s greatness in comparison to man. As I said though, this was NOT just a statement, it was a request. The words also were asking for the Holy nature of God’s name and WHO it represented be impressed upon the minds of man and that their actions would yield to the weight of it’s awareness.
“Your Kingdom come!”
Thy kingdom come,…. Jesus was borrowing from a Jewish form of expression and it is used in their prayers and was no doubt then much as it is now, “מלכות משיחך יבא, “the kingdom of thy Messiah come”. Jesus alters the expression, by leaving out the word “Messiah”, and puts it thus, “thy kingdom come”, to let them know that the Messiah was already there and that it was the kingdom of the Father, in the power of His grace, upon the souls of men, that they must pray for and expect:
However, Jesus does seem to agree with a rule of their’s in His prayer that “every blessing, or prayer, in which there is no זברת השם, “mention made of the name”, i.e. of God, is no prayer at all; and that every prayer, in which there is no mention of מלכות, “the kingdom”, is no prayer at all.”
Jesus not only mentions both He begins with their mention!
Jesus is here asking for the progressive and final manifestation of God’s rule and reign to be established.
“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The will of God can be said to be accomplished on the earth like it is in heaven, when it is accomplished THROUGH His children who are the only ones capable since they alone have a spiritual understanding of the will of God*, believe in Christ, receive grace and strength from him, and are assisted by his Spirit”.
- When our wills are resigned to His
- When we patiently submit to every desire made known from His throne
- When our hearts and actions are in submission to his law
- When what is done, is done in faith, with a view to His glory
Then His will can be said to be done and accomplished on earth.
This is a request which is being answered in believers by the Holy Spirit’s work in them –
Phil. 2:12-15, “So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (13) For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose. (14) Do everything without grumbling and arguing, (15) so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.”
“Give us THIS day our DAILY bread.”
The Greek wording of this passage in Luke’s Gospel says, “Give us our bread day-by-day”. It was to be asked for “day by day”.
This hints on the uncertainty of life (we are not promised tomorrow – as James said in so many words). It seems to be designed to restrain us from covetous behavior, and to keep us returning regularly to God Who is our source in prayer, and press upon us the reality of our constant dependence upon Him. It is the lesson of the manna… Deut. 8:2-3,
“Remember that the LORD your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. (3) He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
“Bread” here has a dual meaning – that of natural & spiritual sustenance. It means all that is necessary for the support of our bodily life and by extension our spiritual life.
It is called “our’s”…
- Not by right and much less by deserving it, but because it is what we need, and cannot do without and therefore it is what is appointed for us by His hand – therefore we have a basis for the request. It is our’s by gift, and possessed by labor of one sort or another.
“And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors”
This is of course both in reference to natural debts AND debts of forgiveness. For Luke has this as, “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive EVERYONE in debt to us.”
Mark’s gospel explains this with greater clarity…
Mark 11:25-26, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing. (26) [But if you don’t forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your wrongdoing.”]”
Now again the grace movement and it’s various teachers will tell you this has nothing to do with us since it was spoke by Jesus Who was under the law and He was speaking to those who were “under the law”. While these two statements are true – the conclusion is NOT true.
As you know, Jesus taught the kingdom of God and told the disciples, “THIS” …. “This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world….”
This is also addressed in another way in Matthew
Mat 18:21-35, “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (22) “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus said to him, “but 70 times seven. (23) For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. (WHAT did He say His doctrine about forgiveness was compared with? The KINGDOM)”(24) When he began to settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before him. (25) Since he had no way to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. (26) “At this, the slave fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything!’ (27) Then the master of that slave had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan. (28) “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’ (29) “At this, his fellow slave fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ (30) But he wasn’t willing. On the contrary, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. (31) When the other slaves saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. (32) “Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. (33) Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ (34) And his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers until he could pay everything that was owed. (35) So My heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.”
Finally, let’s skip down to verses 14 & 15 in today’s key text of Matthew 6 to see this very same principle truth mentioned specifically by our Lord following His prayer.
Mat 6:14-15, “(14) For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. (15) But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing.”
This is where we left off this week. We will most likely resume from here this Wednesday…Blessings!
I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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Blessings!
