GOSPELS 10 YOUR KINGDOM COME

GOSPELS 10 YOUR KINGDOM COME

In Gospels 10 we are staying in Matthew Chapter six where Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s prayer, and the parallel verses are also in Luke Chapter eleven. But even before he taught the disciples about prayer Jesus had referred to his Father four times as ‘Your Father’ in that section of Scripture, teaching what many called his ‘hard sayings’, the revolutionary teachings that puzzled those who heard them because they seemed impossible to carry out. He spoke about being perfect as ‘your Father’ is perfect and loving your enemies as ‘Your Father’ does, sending his rain on the just and the unjust.

But these puzzling revolutionary statements of Jesus were not said simply for the sake of being a revolutionary. A definite theme of the nature of ‘Our Father’ was emerging that Jesus was declaring. After Jesus taught them The Lord’s prayer, the ‘Our Father’, it starts becoming very clear that the mission of Jesus was to bring about The Way for us all to live together with himself and Our Father and the Holy Spirit in the same way that he was living with his Father and the Holy Spirit at that time. He was talking about the Kingdom of God within him.

The crowds would not stop following Jesus so he would go into a solitary place where he could be still and reflect on what his Father was saying to him, but the crowds would find him and beg him not to leave them, so he said to them, I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other places too, for that is why I was sent. (Luke 4:42). 
Jesus kept talking about a Kingdom, and people wanted to know what this Kingdom was, especially the religious leaders and the Pharisees – Where was it? – When would it come? – What did it look like? His own disciples also had a secret ambition of them being given a position of honour and glory in that Kingdom someday very soon. No one understood.

Jesus’ answer to them all was that His Kingdom was not in a geographical place, and you couldn’t plan its arrival with a calendar or describe its outward appearance as a visible organization. He said it was not an external system but an internal reality. We read in Luke; ‘When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within (entos – amongst, in the midst of) you. (Luke 17:20 NKJ, ESV.). Jesus was the only human embodiment of that kingdom amongst them or in the midst of them - The Kingdom was within him but not yet within them.

But Jesus is prophesying that this Kingdom would be within them and within us after he had sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 

The Kingdom of God is the Father and Son agreement that determined the design and purpose for all of creation in the beginning through the Logos Word of Jesus, with the Holy Spirit being the creative power of that creation. 
        
The promise of the Father was that we would embody that ‘Our Father and Jesus’ life deep inside each one of us through the Holy Spirit. Jesus shared more fully on that in John and in Acts. 
Before Jesus ascended into Heaven his disciples asked him one last time if now was when Jesus would establish a material Kingdom to rule over the earth. Jesus realised they still did not understand so he told them that the Father would do all that in his own good time, and he went on to say ‘wait until you receive the promise of the Father, for you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be the living proof (witness) of who I am, in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). He also said to them Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14: 17. I).  He is telling them and us that we would embody the Kingdom of God the way that he had done. While Jesus lived amongst us his Father and Son relationship was the Kingdom of God in the earth expressing what the Father declared in heaven.

We now continue in Matthew chapter six, where a few verses earlier Jesus had just taught his disciples to pray to Our Father, honouring him, and asking him to provide for us our basic human needs and forgiving us for letting him down and guarding us from evil. 
He now presents us with the extravagant response of a loving devoted Father who desires to bless us and keep us abundantly more than what we would ever have thought to ask from him.
He says to his disciples,
“So my counsel is: Don’t worry about things—food, drink, and clothes. For you already have life and a body—and they are far more important than what to eat and wear. Look at the birds! They don’t worry about what to eat—they don’t need to sow or reap or store up food—for your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Will all your worries add a single moment to your life?
“And why worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies of the field! They don’t worry about theirs. Yet King Solomon in all his glory was not clothed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you, O men of little faith?
“So don’t worry at all about having enough food and clothing. Why be like the world which doesn’t know God? For they take pride in all these things and are fearful and anxious about them. But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, and he will give them to you, so seek first the kingdom of God and live in surrendered togetherness with him, and all these things shall be added to you - give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to. And don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. (Matthew 6:25-34)
Our Father is entreating us here to trust him beyond what we ever thought we could. The lilies of the field that do not toil are showing us that it is only the creative work of God upon them that brings forth their glory and beauty. They are not an example to us of living a toil free life, but an illustration of everything being how God created it to be. We are to be who we were created to be and do the good things he has planned for us to do, even in the midst of toil and challenge and loss. And God acts supernaturally upon our faithful being and doing and blesses that. He also gives us the spectacular playground of his creation for us to leisurely enjoy, as Adam did in the garden with God. But all of this being and doing takes place within a disordered world of chaos and malevolence – a world where people who do not know God live in fear and anxiety and uncertainty about anything and everything.  

Jesus died and rose again to freely give this Kingdom of God to you which is the Father and Son relationship that resides uniquely within each one of us forming and shaping God’s individual design and purpose for each of our lives. We become a locus and a showpiece of where the Kingdom expression of God comes on earth as it is in heaven. The Father’s idea, the Jesus logos word and the activity of the Holy Spirit meets your Yes and we do his good thing as well as we can (Ephesians 2:10). This good thing can be small and ordinary or a significant life changing thing – but it still expresses the Kingdom of God

Jesus set the example for us, to draw aside from time to time from the busyness of life just to enjoy the ‘be still and know that I am God’ times of rest and refreshing for our souls. These setting aside times help us deepen our trust as we wait for God to show us that he is acting in our lives supernaturally for our good, and our trusting expectation of his goodness draws his peace and tranquillity into our hearts. We rest in the assurance of the work of his Kingdom within us that works unceasingly, waiting to be captured by our faith at any given moment in time, where we swap anxiety and frustration for hope and expectation.
Your Kingdom come your will be done. Amen.