Today we wrap up the Lord’s Prayer series from Christian Life Week. The theme of certain hope in Romans 8 that we explored in the children’s message is the same confession of the close of the Lord’s Prayer: The Kingdom and the power and the glory are God’s.
As news broadcasts beam into our loungerooms it can often seem anything but the Kingdom, power and glory are God’s. It might seem that the Kingdom, the power and glory are Russia’s, as news reports show us Ukrainian survivors sifting through the smoking piles of rubble which were once their hometowns. Or by the flexing of its political muscle and parading of their military might, it might seem that the Kingdom, power and glory has a ‘made in China’ sticker on it. As we hear of the persecution of Christians overseas, losing their villages and even their lives for bearing Jesus’ name, we may wonder if the Kingdom, power and glory belongs to Islamic extremists. Closer to home sickening crimes shock us. The police are always occupied intercepting gang rings and drug lords, whose kingdoms seem to flourish rather than being finished.
Confronted by such shocking and troubling events we might wonder what the world is coming to. But these things aren’t new. They all have the same common origin—the desire to build one’s kingdom, the desire for power and glory. A toddler in meltdown, demanding their own way in the supermarket, or a child in a playground making fun of another to feel better about their own insecurities, is behaviour that comes from the same sinful desire for power, control and glory seen through crime, war and terrorism.
Despite all the law reinforcement resources available, evil continues. That’s because evil is a heart problem. Jesus taught that it is not what a person puts into their body that makes them unclean, but our heart is unclean: For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them” (Matthew 15:19-20).
This reality is at the core of human nature after Adam and Eve’s takeover bid in the garden of Eden, seeking to establish their own kingdom authority. Jesus said: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). It is what led to Cain killing Abel because he was jealous in his heart of God’s favour to his brother. It was the desires of the people of Shinar to be great and glorious that inspired the building of the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:4a). It was why King David had Uriah killed in battle, so he could have Uriah’s wife Bathsheba, whom he coveted in his heart. It was why Daniel was thrown in the Lion’s den—the officials were jealous of his success in their hearts.
The context of the Lord’s Prayer In Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus’ teaching about not using prayer to feed the sinful desires of the heart: making prayer a public show of righteousness to gain honour and glory from others. The devil tempts us in the church this way too. He tempts us to seek glory for ourselves rather than to give God glory. He tempts us to want to make a name for ourselves. He tempts us to desire great spiritual power, and think that results in the church are up to us. We are tempted to think that God takes more notice of us and gives us his favour because of how well we pray.
Psalm 19 speaks of the glory of God in the heavenly realms where God dwells. At the beginning of this series we heard how there are anywhere between 100-200 billion galaxies in the universe, with 100-200 billion stars in each, including hypergiant stars like Eta Carinae, 21 times the size of the sun. God sits enthroned above all this. He is not manipulated by our performance. He takes the initiative. Jesus teaches: “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven.” And it is because of his perfect performance; his perfect life and righteousness that our Father in heaven gladly hears our prayers—for Jesus’ sake.
In the Old Testament, God gave commands to make a sacred space—a tabernacle—in the desert. This was a huge tent where God would be with his people to speak with them and bless them, like in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. In Exodus 40:34 we hear that the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. The glory of God—his majesty, splendour, magnificence, power and might—moved in and encamped with his people. The tabernacle was a mobile temple. God veiled himself in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When the cloud lifted, they would break camp and follow God’s leading. When it settled, they would remain (Exodus 40:38).
Wouldn’t that be an incredible experience; a spectacular sight. Wouldn’t it be amazing, to be able to see and talk and dwell with God?
Now God’s glorious presence dwells not in tabernacles or temples, but veiled in the person of Christ. John puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
This is the One of whom it was said: The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:32-33). This is the one who triumphed over Satan in the wilderness by doing what Adam and Eve couldn’t—living faithfully according to God’s word. This is the one who declared before Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). It is a kingdom out of this world; it is not by material means, political force or military might that God reigns. But by the suffering and death of his own Son; his death which emptied death, sin and hell of all their power and authority to condemn and enslave. All the tyrants, all the workers of darkness, all the mighty earthly empires, all the idols so many people place their hope in are nothing in comparison to the Cross.
In our recent study series on the early church “Everything in common” we looked at different socio-cultural contexts of the early Christian communities. Throughout the Greco-Roman world, there was widespread celebration of sexual immorality and idolatry. In Corinth, situated on the 1800 ft summit of the Acrocorinth, was the Temple of Aphrodite, which maintained a thousand priestesses for cultic prostitution. In the foreground is the Apollo Temple. People came to these thinking they were accessing divine strength, favour, power and prosperity. When they built these temples they built their own kingdom, revelled in their own power, for their own glory.
But look at them now…the buildings are now an ancient ruin, the idols powerless to prevent the disintegration of their Temples. But the True Temple; the Person of Christ, although brought low was rebuilt in three days, and he lives and rules eternally. I’m reminded of the hymn: “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time.”
The Father raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1:20-23). In the risen Christ, the Kingdom of God is near and continues to reign on earth, and will reign in heaven forever.
Do not be afraid. No evil can thwart God’s good and gracious will. It is no coincidence, that after Luke’s account of Jesus giving his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus drives out a demon from a man unable to speak. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some who rejected Jesus and wanted to discredit his miracles, said “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. But this was a sign from heaven…a sign from heaven on earth. Why would Satan sabotage his own empire? Jesus explained If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?…But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:14-20).
Satan’s Kingdom wasn’t being destroyed from within, but from the outside: this was God’s kingdom reigning over Satan, over evil, just like when Jesus overcame the devil’s temptation in the wilderness. And it pointed ahead to when Jesus once for overcame all evil and the world by his cross. The Cross is weakness, suffering and death, yet it is simultaneously the most powerful weapon against evil possible. Not even death itself was able to triumph over Christ, but it was merely the final enemy to be destroyed. It is through the Cross that we are busted out of hell’s prison. It is by the Cross that Christ brings glory to the Father by reconciling the whole world to him, displaying God’s wise plan, unconditional love, and great sacrifice in giving his Son to do such a work.
Even before he is about to be crucified, Jesus prays for the Father to be glorified by the Cross: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:1-3).
You are living proof that the Kingdom of God still reigns. For Although we were once spiritually blind and dead, the Holy Spirit has given you a new heart to know the Father, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, so that through faith in the King from Heaven, eternal life is yours. The Holy Spirit has called you here again today to be where the Kingdom of God reigns through his word and sacrament.
As you come to the King’s table, invited by him as his honoured and specially chosen guests, the kingdom continues to reign with all power and might. It may seem like a small, brittle wafer in your hands, and just a drop of wine to sip, but all the missiles and bombs, armies and empires, and spiritual powers are no match against this precious gift. For in this holy meal Jesus is here to do what other kingdoms are powerless to do. By eating and drinking in faith; trusting Jesus at what he says he gives you—his true and precious body and blood—all the benefits of his death and resurrection are yours personally. All sin is washed away, and the deliverance from the power of Satan, death and hell are certainly yours. As you eat and drink, the new heart God has given you pumps Jesus’ own blood throughout your body, making you holy from the inside out, with his own life giving you life eternal. And as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we join with the angels and saints of all times and places in proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.
By standing firm in this faith, you too will join in the praise of the heavenly assembly revealed to us in Revelation 5:13: “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honour and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Until that time, keep asking that together we would keep the Father’s name holy, that his Kingdom would keep graciously ruling over us, that his will would be done in us, we would have what we need each day, that our Father in heaven would forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, lead us from temptation and deliver us from evil, because there is only one kingdom whose power and glory will outlast all the others: Father, the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours.” Forever and ever. Amen.
