John Guest, a well-known evangelist in England and dear friend of R.C. Sproul, once told of his first visit to the United States in the late 1960s.[1] During his first few days here in our country he was shown around some historical tourist attractions in Philadelphia. He went to Independence Hall, saw the Liberty Bell, and went to the city of Germantown. It was in that city of Germantown where he noticed some signs displaying certain mottos and battle cries of the American Revolution like “Don't tread on me”, “No taxation without representation”, and the one that stood out the most to him, “We serve no sovereign here.” He told R.C. Sproul later on how uncomfortable he was with that last sign in Germantown. R.C. asked why and John said this, “That one sign stopped me in my tracks. I had left my native land and come across the Atlantic Ocean in response to a call to be a minister of the gospel, to proclaim the Kingdom of God. But on seeing this sign, I was filled with fear and consternation. I thought, ‘How can I possibly preach the Kingdom of God to a people who have a profound aversion to sovereignty?’”[2]
I would also say our aversion to a sovereignty is far too entrenched in us. Of course, this hostility in us toward the rule and reign of Christ the King isn’t only an American problem, it’s a human problem. Back in the Garden of Eden it was our first parents who rejected the reign of God over them as they disobeyed His first command. Israel later on also rejected God as their King in their desire to be like all the other nations. And Jesus Himself was rejected, scorned, mocked, and dragged before lesser rulers for claiming to be a King.
I begin with this thought this morning because this is exactly what’s in view today in the Lord’s Prayer, where Jesus shows us what the priorities of our praying ought to be. Not only are we to ask that God’s name be hallowed, but that God’s Kingdom would come, and that His will would be done here in our midst as it is in heaven. Church, what else is this, but to ask that God (the King over all) bring His Kingdom here among us and over us in full measure? Indeed we were made to be subject to this perfect and faithful King.
Today we come to our third message on the Lord’s Prayer where we’ll examine the second and third requests, both of which are found in v10, which says, “Your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Though separate these requests are intimately related. So let’s ask and seek to answer three questions about v10. First, what’s the tone of these words? Second, what do these words mean? And third, how do these words change our lives in the Kingdom?
The Tone Remains
As we were considering the first request of the Lord’s Prayer last week, “Hallowed be Your name”, we said that first request sets the tone for the whole prayer. As large and as weighty and pressing as our needs, our requests, our desires, and our problems seem to us, they must not be given the place of priority in our prayer. Rather, God and the glory of His name must take priority in our praying, and this first request shows us this. It is first in the Lord’s Prayer because this desire is first in the Lord’s heart. Now, when we embrace this and pray for God’s name to be hallowed and made much of in ourselves, in our families, in the Church, and in the world, ask yourself another question, ‘How will God answer this prayer?’ Well, among the many ways God can cause His name to be hallowed, the words in v10 directly following the request in v9b show us how God will answer this prayer. How will God hallow His name? By ushering in His Kingdom, and ruling it by His will.
So this first point is a small one to make, but it’s nevertheless important to see because it shows us that the tone and direction of the prayer beginning in v9 still remains here in v10. Specifically in that the first request for God’s name to be hallowed is answered in the next two requests before us today.
Toward Definitions
Let’s now move toward defining these terms more closely so understand what Jesus is teaching us and understand what it is we are asking in these two requests.
The Kingdom of God is a central concept all throughout the Scriptures. Kingdom is a territorial word. It’s a word that brings great empires to mind with great rulers over them who are always trying to extend and expand their borders. In this sense the Kingdom of God is truly the whole world since He is the Creator of all things. But in another sense the Kingdom of God is also a term referring to the rule and reign of God, such that, wherever God’s reign is submitted to there is His Kingdom.
God’s Kingdom began in Eden, it extends out through the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it is clearly seen in the Old Covenant nation of Israel. This would become a key component to the Israelite identity. God had made the promise to David that one of his sons would sit as king on an eternal throne over an eternal kingdom. From that point on every Israelite grew up with an eager expectation that one day God would do this, and come to set up His kingdom forever. But as wonderful as he was, David proved to be a sinful king, as did his son Solomon. And eventually their hopes were dashed as they went off into exile. But even there, in a foreign land among a foreign people, some of them kept their hope in the coming king who would bring in the long anticipated kingdom.[3]
The OT ends and the NT begins with the gospels. And in the gospels we read much of this coming kingdom. In Matthew’s gospel the announcement of the Kingdom comes long before this request in the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew 2:2 the wise men come to king Herod asking, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.” While this is not a reference to the Kingdom of God it is a reference to Christ the King Himself, and as we’ll see, when the King is in view so too is His Kingdom. Later John the Baptist comes preaching in Matthew 3:2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Also in Matthew 4:17 we read “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” And in Matthew 4:23 we read that Jesus went all throughout Galilee “…teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.”
So by the time the words “Your Kingdom come” were heard in Matthew 6:10 it was not the first time Jesus’ audience heard the claims concerning His Kingship and His Kingdom. But still the question is, what did these hearers understand about this request? They themselves heard Jesus say the Kingdom is at hand, and now in v10 they’re hearing Jesus instructing them to pray for the coming of this Kingdom. Which one is it? Is the Kingdom already in their midst, or is the Kingdom coming one day in the future?
Personally I think the answer to this is clear. But you should be aware that this is a much debated point. Some believe the phrase “Your Kingdom come” is an entirely future reality, really making this a request for the Second Coming. I disagree with this view because Jesus clearly says the Kingdom is at hand, meaning present at that time in His ministry and still present among us today. Others see “Your Kingdom come” as a call to various kinds of social work, where we labor hard to bring the Kingdom of God to bear by fighting for justice where there is injustice. I disagree with this view because its overly utopian focusing mainly on the here and now and neglecting the future hope of heaven. And I also disagree with this view because ultimately God is the One who brings in His Kingdom, not us, as the Lord’s Prayer displays. Still others believe “Your Kingdom come” is only a matter relating to the message of salvation and the need to call everyone to faith in Christ before the end.[4] I disagree with this view because it ignores the here and now by focusing solely on the future. Much debate exists around the reality of the Kingdom of God, even the disciples got confused about the Kingdom in Acts 1:6. There they asked Jesus if He, after His resurrection, was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. They were thinking nationally, that it’s all about ethnic Israel once again rather than thinking globally that it’s not ethnicity that gets you into the Kingdom but repentance and faith in Christ brings one into the Kingdom.
Against all these others views I believe the Kingdom of God is an already but not yet reality. This means the Kingdom is both already here right now and not yet here in its fullness. In this understanding the Kingdom of God came into this world with Jesus at His first coming, and the Kingdom will come with Jesus in full measure when He returns at His second coming. Once the Kingdom of God was a physical, geo-political reality with the nation of Israel in the Old Covenant, but now the Kingdom of God is a spiritual reality with the Church in the New Covenant. So while God is truly the King over all creation because He is the Creator, the Kingdom of God is now present wherever Jesus is loved and worshiped and trusted in. This means the Kingdom of God and the Church are inseparably bound together, making each individual true Church a kind of embassy here below of the greater country to come, where the values and priorities of the Kingdom are lived out.[5] But while I think this is all true, we must not neglect our great future hope, that one day the Kingdom will be a physical reality again in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
So, when we pray “Your Kingdom come” we’re praying for the full realization of everything pertaining to the Kingdom of God.[6] We’re praying for the gospel to succeed, for sinners to be saved, for churches to be full and overflowing, for the work of missions to taken up by those churches, for that work to succeed in spreading gospel to the nations, and for all who believe all over the world to be earnestly, wisely, humbly, sincerely, and gladly obeying the commands of Christ and living for the glory of the Lord.
All of that is really important to know and to understand about the Kingdom of God, truly. But that last part of that, about you and I gladly and sincerely obeying the commands of Christ is also really important because it takes us to the rest of v10. There we read “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This third request flows right on the heels of the second, and they go together like peas in a pod. Because, it’s in the Kingdom of God where the will of God is carried out.[7]
Here in this third request of the Lord’s Prayer we also see the already but not yet reality. In that the will of God is right now already heard and loved and obeyed in heaven while here among us the will of God is yet to be fully and totally acknowledged. This prayer simply means we desire that heavenly reality to more and more be the reality here on earth.
But there is confusion here too regarding this third request, because after all, why ask for this in prayer? Won’t the will of God be done in and over all things? Isn’t that part of what it means for God to be sovereign? Indeed it does. But that is not what the Lord’s Prayer is speaking of here. Historically there are two ways theologians have spoken of the will of God. We can speak of God’s decretive will and God’s preceptive will. The decretive will of God, or will of decree, refers to God bringing to pass whatsoever He desires in His sovereign pleasure. Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.” The ultimate example of God’s decretive will is the cross of Christ. Before time began God the Father planned redemption and chose to kill His Son on a cross for His people. God decreed this to happen, and because He decreed it, it must happen, at the exact time and in the exact manner God decreed it to happen. No one can stop His decree, no one can resist this decree, and truthfully, no one can ever be out of the decretive will of God, ever. It is always coming to pass every moment of our lives as our lives play out according to God’s sovereign orchestration of all things. That’s God’s will of decree. That is not what the Lord’s Prayer is speaking of.
What the Lord’s Prayer is speaking of is the preceptive will of God, or will of command. This refers to God’s commandments, to God’s Law. While the decretive will of God cannot be stopped, hindered, or resisted, God’s preceptive will is resisted all the time. When we read the Ten Commandments we see ten examples of God’s preceptive will. When Jesus commands His followers to love one another we hear God’s preceptive will. When we hear His commands we have the choice to obey Him or disobey Him. Jesus will speak of this later on in the Sermon on the Mount in 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” This too is referring to God’s preceptive will.
This prayer then is clear. We who know God as our Father in heaven, we who love and desire the whole world to know His name, we who are in the Kingdom of God already while eagerly awaiting the fullness of the Kingdom to come, we also desire that all people everywhere not just hear and know the will of God, but that all people everywhere would, love and obey the will of God. Finding His will to be the chief pleasure of our lives.
Church, how great is the Lord’s Prayer? We all struggle with what to pray for, yet here we get such rich guidance. We don’t need to ask Him how to pray, He has done so here. All we must do is put these words and these principles into practice.[8]
So far today we’ve seen much. That the tone of the prayer beginning in “Hallowed be Your name” still remains. And we’ve seen what these words mean as well as what we’re asking for when we pray in this way. Now lastly, I want to ask how the two requests change our lives.
Conclusion: Kingdom Life
I do desire to know how these requests change our lives, but perhaps a better way to ask this is, how do these two requests reveal a changed life? To answer this last question I want to say this.
Ever since Genesis 3 there have been two kingdoms at war with one another, the kingdom of darkness ruled by the devil and the Kingdom of God ruled by Christ. They have ever been at odds and ever been growing and expanding and stealing territory from one another, yet Jesus is winning. Mathew 12 describes Jesus as coming down from heaven, entering the Devil’s house, binding him, and plundering his house. In this description the cross is what bound Satan and we sinners are the plunder! Sinners once dead in sin, blinded to the beauty of the Lord are raised to new life in the gospel of grace. That’s what Colossians 1:13 speaks of, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Christians are those who have been delivered from death and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the light.
This then shows us what Kingdom life is. Since we’ve been plundered out of the Devil’s house, we must not seek to re-enter it again. No! We now live in the Father’s house forever as those who have been transferred and delivered and redeemed and forgiven and raised to new life.
In this house there is a great feast, a banquet, and a wedding celebration to come. The Father is sending out invitations and many who hear the call to come will come. Some will mock the invitation, others will ignore it, others will read it 20 times before they come in. May you hear and heed the call, come into the Father’s house, work to spread the word, show the quality of life within those walls, and labor to call others into it.[9]
Closing prayer: the content of Heidelberg Catechism Q123: “Lord, so rule us by Your Word and Spirit that we more and more submit to You. Destroy the works of the Devil. Preserve and increase Your Church…until the fullness of Your Kingdom comes where You will be all in all.”
[1] R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust, 2009) 40-41.
[2] R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord, 41.
[3] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1-13 – WBC (Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1993) 148.
[4] R. Kent Hughes, The Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom - PTC (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001) 171.
[5] Kevin DeYoung, The Lord’s Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022) 40-41.
[6] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew – PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992) 145.
[7] R.T. France, The Gospel of Matthew – NICNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007) 247.
[8] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grands Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1971) 2:66.
[9] DeYoung, The Lord’s Prayer, 53.
