" IN PRAYER WE ADDRESS THE WORLD’S KING ABOUT THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS ."

123. Q. What is the second petition?
A. Thy kingdom come. That is: So rule us by Thy Word and Spirit that more and more we submit to Thee.[1] Preserve and increase Thy church.[2] Destroy the works of the devil, every power that raises itself against Thee, and every conspiracy against Thy holy Word.[3] Do all this until the fulness of Thy kingdom comes, wherein Thou shalt be all in all.[4]
[1] Ps. 119:5, 105; 143:10; Matt. 6:33. [2] Ps. 51:18; 122:6-9; Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:42-47. [3] Rom. 16:20; I John 3:8. [4] Rom. 8:22, 23; I Cor. 15:28; Rev. 22: 17, 20.

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 47
Matthew 28:16-20

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 99:1,2
Psalm 93:1
Psalm 47:1,2,3
Psalm 96:5,6,7,8
Psalm 24:1,2 &  Hymn 47:3

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The world paused this past week to remember the horrid events of September 11 two years ago. So much has been done to counter terrorism, but it’s painfully clear –witness binLaden’s latest tape- that there’s still so very much to do. Everybody knows: the world has changed because of September 11; a mantle of uncertainty and fear envelops the globe. And what, we wonder, can we do about it? We’re sure: there’s nothing we, in our little corner in Kelmscott, can do to help overcome these enormous problems.

The problems of the world, though, are not just with terrorists and suicide bombers. Our own local community knows its unrest. So many of us can tell stories of burglary, so many of us know neighborhood children who grow up in a one-parent home. Alcohol abuse, drug abuse: it’s all around us. And again the question arises: what can we do about it? We try a bit here and do a bit there, but we recognize: it’s just a scratching at the surface. There’s so very little we can do; we feel so helpless. What are we in the face of the mega-problems of our time!

Jesus gave His disciples instruction on prayer. To go into your inner room and speak with God seems so weak, so ineffective. But Jesus assures His disciples: you’re speaking to the King! The prayer of a righteous man is effective because the King to whom you’re praying is King of the world, He hears and answers – and makes His kingdom come in 2003.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

"Your kingdom come," Jesus instructs the disciples –and hence His church- to pray. There’s an implicit confession in this petition, and that is that God already is King, already has a kingdom. But it’s not here, it’s somewhere else, and we’re asking God to make it come here. What is this kingdom? What holds it back? Here I need to sketch some background.

Adam and Eve lived in a Paradise that knew no suicide bombers, or terrorists that hijacked airplanes to fly into towers. They knew no danger of alcohol abuse on their street, or of drug abuse, or of child abuse. Their Visitor was God Himself, who came to them in the cool of the day. Their Visitor, their God, was King over all, and Adam and Eve knew well that they needed to submit to Him, listen; more, they knew well that as long as they submitted and obeyed they would live in peace and safety – and they would have no problems.

In an event we cannot comprehend, some of the creatures of God’s realm one day rebelled against God the King. Certain angels "did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode" (Jude 6). Here was rebellion within God’s kingdom! God remained King over the world, but some of His subjects –He’d recently created them!- refused any longer to acknowledge Him as King, and began an effort to overthrow the King, their Maker. The effort of the rebels was successful inasmuch as Adam and Eve –though created in the image of God- caved in to their attacks and ate of the forbidden fruit. Rebellion spread from the realm of the angels (and angels are servants) to the realm of God’s own children – people. God had elevated His children, people, Adam and Eve, to the high status of having dominion over God’s world, God’s kingdom. But we fell – and with us we took the whole world into rebellion. The consequence was drastic: God sent us out of the Garden, out of the environment of peace and safety we had before. The wilderness outside the Garden was a place of hunger and toil, was a place of parental grief over depraved children, of suffering and pain and anguish. That’s because life outside the Garden is characterized by rebellion, disobedience to the King who made us and knew how to maintain law and order. The water shortages and pollution of our society are the consequence of our rebellion in Paradise, and so are the high-speed chases on our roads. The broken homes of our town are the consequence of our rebellion in Paradise, and so is the alcohol and drug abuse of our community. The suicide bombers of the Middle East and the threats of binLaden are the consequence of our rebellion in Paradise, and so are the terrorist attacks in Bali and the Marriot Hotel in Jakarta. The tensions of living with a rogue state as North Korea are the consequence of our rebellion in Paradise, and so is the assassination of the Shiite leader in Najaf. Make no mistake: the problems of today’s world all have their roots in the fall into sin, in our rebellion against the God who made us, the King of the world. These kinds of things could not happen if we still lived in Paradise.

What, then, is the answer to the problems of the world? The Biblical answer, brothers and sisters, is easy: people need to turn again to acknowledge God as King! Obedience to His commands is the way of life, as sure as rebellion is the way of death.

Is God then King? Or has the rebellion resulted in His being dethroned? Satan would dearly love us to think that God has indeed been dethroned. But the Lord is emphatic in His Word: He remains King Supreme, even though many in His kingdom refuse to acknowledge Him. In His revelation from heaven on high, the Lord assures us –Ps 47- that "the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth" (vs 2). He gives us the same message in Ps 93: "The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty" (vs 1). I remind you too of the visions Daniel saw and the dreams he interpreted; all point up the reality of God’s continuing sovereignty over the world.

This sovereign King sent His Son to earth to defeat the devil and pay for the transgressions of the rebels. Christ triumphed on the cross, and so it pleased the Lord God to exalt Him to heaven, to the throne of the world. Just before He ascended, Jesus spoke those mighty words of Matthew 28: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (vs 18). Notice what He says about His Kingship: "all authority has been given to Me." As John saw in the Revelation shown to Him: the triumphant Christ could open the scroll in which God had written all the things that were to happen in the course of New Testament world history. He can open the scroll, can make history happen, because He is King of kings. The Book of Revelation underlines the point: earthquakes and hunger and floods and wars and biochemical attacks and terrorism come not by chance but because the King of kings opens the seals of the book of history. Let it be fixed in your minds, brothers and sisters: your Savior controls the events of the world sovereignly. It was He who destroyed Hitler’s Reich 50-odd years ago – be it that He used the allies. And it was He who destroyed Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror – be it that He used the American army.

Let the point be fixed in our minds: what you saw on the news last week and read in the paper may describe so very much rebellion against the King of the world, but Christ remains King nevertheless. He is King, and the entire world is His kingdom!

But: so many millions of our world do not acknowledge Christ as King! They live in rebellion, and therefore have so much misery in their lives. What we can do about it? Says Jesus: pray! Pray what? "Your kingdom come." That prayer is a confession, a confession on our part that Yes, Christ is king, has a kingdom. In fact, His kingdom is this world. That prayer is a confession that so many citizens of Christ’s kingdom live in rebellion against the King. That prayer is a confession that the King of glory ought to be recognized as King throughout the whole world. And that’s why we ask the Lord to make His kingdom "come". That is: in our world of misery and rebellion, we ask God to make people acknowledge more and more that Christ actually is King.

That brings us to our second point:

Our Lord’s Day describes the content of this second petition in four points. The first is this: "so rule us by Your Word and Spirit that more and more we submit to You."

Given what we’ve said in the first point of this sermon, this first aspect is rather surprising. We’d expect the Catechism to explain the petition in relation to the rebels, ie, make the rebels in Your kingdom to acknowledge that You are King. But look: the Catechism does not first of all speak about the rebels; the Catechism speaks first of all about ‘us’. That, we understand, includes you and me, people who do acknowledge that Christ is King of the world today, people who also delight in God’s law to do it. Then we wonder: is it so fitting that we should ask God that we submit? Don’t we already do that?

The point, of course, is that we have but a small beginning of the obedience God requires. We acknowledge the Lord is King, and so we want to obey. But time and again we catch ourselves having disobeyed God’s commands, done our own thing. We know what the Lord says about how to keep the Sunday, about how to obey the traffic laws of our land, about the need to be merciful as God is merciful, about honoring our parents, etc, etc. But we fall so short of God’s standard, and that disobedience on our part is rebellion too! We say that Christ is King, and so we submit, but our submission leaves so much to be desired, and so –upon Jesus’ command- we pray, we ask God to make His kingdom come, and ask it first of all with respect to our own hearts. Father, we pray, we know that You are King, and so we ask: make Your kingdom come first of all in our own hearts; make us to submit to You more and more!

Our King, though, is not a dictator. He doesn’t compel obedience through torment, terror, murder; He’s not like Hussein was. That’s why we ask Him to "rule us by" … not a heavy hand or a gun, but "rule us by Your Word and Spirit." For the Spirit through the Word works in sinners’ hearts, works faith, works conversion, regeneration; through the Word He changes hearts so that hearts inclined to rebellion learn to love God and serve Him eagerly. That’s what we ask: work mightily in us through Your Holy Spirit that more and more we eagerly do what You instruct us to do – no matter what the consequence to us.

We realize: we need to do more than pray; those who pray also need to work. That means specifically: we do what we can to submit more and more to the instructions of our King and Lord in the dust and dirt of this daily life. We strive to obey the Lord more and more.

In the second place, says the Catechism, we ask God in this petition to "preserve and increase Your church." With this aspect we’re moving closer to the need amongst the rebels of God’s kingdom. You see: Christ’s kingdom includes the entire world; everybody on our planet is a citizen of Christ’s kingdom. Most, it is true, refuse to admit that, live in rebellion against the King. But the Lord through His Word and Spirit has changed the hearts of many, and He gathers these regenerated people into His church. The church: that’s the gathering of the obedient citizens of Christ’s kingdom. But that gathering is made up of imperfect people. So these obedient citizens ask the Lord to make them submit more and more to His kingship, make that kingdom come more and more in their hearts. But if that’s true in their hearts, it’s true also in the church; that gathering of obedient citizens is so weak…. Hence the prayer: "preserve Your church!"

But the prayer is not only that God preserve the church; the prayer is also that God increase the church. With that request, the church hooks on to what Jesus said on the day of His ascension. "All authority," He said before He went to heaven, "has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Mt 28:18); Christ is exalted King over all. Then Jesus drew out the implication of His position as King; said He: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (vs 19). That was an instruction to the disciples, and in them to the church. Mission, the church’s task to spread the gospel over all the earth, is the direct consequence of Jesus’ exaltation as King! In our Lord’s Day the church takes this mandate seriously, and so goes to God in prayer with the request to "increase Your church." That is to say: Lord, make thousands of rebels on this earth into obedient citizens of Your kingdom. Cause the gospel to go out, work mightily through Your Holy Spirit so that hearts are changed, made alive, turned to faith in Jesus Christ. Change rebels, Lord, into obedient citizens!

Here, congregation, is a recognition too, then, that only the gospel can supply the answers to the problems of the world. The problems came upon the earth with the fall into sin. Christ came to earth to pay for sin, and so in principle to restore Paradise. He rules the world, and it’s those who acknowledge His kingship who can enjoy peace again. It’s that awareness that compels the church here to beseech God to increase His church, to work in such a way that the gospel spreads over the earth and the hearts of many be changed. It’s the underlying premise: only the gospel can bring peace on earth, only the gospel can heal the hearts of New Yorkers broken by the attack of two years ago, only the gospel can give peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, only the gospel can bring happiness in Iraq, in Indonesia, in Afghanistan. Only through faith in Jesus Christ can people escape the misery of the fall into sin and return to the peace of Paradise. The church realizes that, and therefore prays: increase Your church, make people to acknowledge that Christ is King!

Again, to pray this petition means also that we work to carry it out ourselves. The gospel is to be spread? That takes preachers of the gospel, ministers and missionaries. Only the gospel can give peace in the Middle East and in the streets of Kelmscott? Then it’s for us to do more than pray for preachers; it’s also for us to consider what we ourselves can do to make sure there are preachers. This past week the Year 10 and 11 students focused on career decisions; what should I become? In the process of answering that question, there are so many aspects to consider, so many questions to explore. But the first question, brothers and sisters, older and younger, is this: Lord, how can I best serve You in Your kingdom? The first question is not: what work do I think I’m going to enjoy? Nor is it: where can I make the most money? Nor: where will life be easiest? Christ is King, and so we are servants, and therefore the first question is: how, Lord, can I best be of service in Your kingdom? And what does this world, Christ’s kingdom, need? All the misery and grief you read about in the Comment News and in the West comes from rebellion against God, and Christ has come to conquer Satan and pay for sin, Yes, is today King of kings. There’s the answer to the problems of the world: acknowledge that Christ is King, and so submit to Him! That’s the answer, and so what this world needs is not more soldiers in Iraq or a greater spirit of tolerance amongst religions; what this world needs is the gospel, and therefore preachers of the gospel! What you can do to make this world a better place? Whatever is in your power to spread the gospel! This second petition, "Your kingdom come", includes in it the prayer to God asking Him how you can best be of service in His kingdom. You, Lord, are King: use Me as You will; I’m not here for me but for You, tell me what to do!

The third aspect the Catechism mentions is this: "destroy the works of the devil, every power that raises itself against You, and every conspiracy against Your holy Word." Through His triumph on the cross the Lord Jesus Christ has defeated the devil. But the devil refuses to roll over, refuses to admit defeat. Rev 12: "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time" (vs 12). Today the devil is, says Paul, "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience" (Eph 2:2). He’s "in the air", and full of wrath, doing whatever he can to foment more and more disobedience on the earth against the King of kings. Terrorists have been tracked and tried as a result of the Bali bombings, and fathers who refuse to take responsibility for the children they conceive can be compelled to supply some sort of support. But behind all this evil lies the instigation of the devil, and he will never be charged and tried in an earthly court; he’s beyond what we people can handle. Yet he remains Enemy Number One on this earth! Are we helpless in the face of such a foe? Not at all! Our Lord told us to pray, to beseech God to make His kingdom come, and that means too that God’s great enemy be destroyed, and every effort of his to foment more rebellion on the earth be destroyed also. Yes, the devil deceives the nations, but –remember the gospel- Christ has triumphed and He has bound the devil. So we may boldly ask the King of the world to destroy every work of the devil in the realm of politics and terror, in the realm of drugs and abuse, in the realm of marriage breakdown and adultery, in the realm of false preaching and unbelief. The devil too great a foe? His conspiracies too much for us so that we ought to live in anguish and terror? Not so, beloved, not so! He is defeated! So we confidently join with the church of all ages and beseech the Lord to make His kingdom come!

The last aspect the church mentions in our Lord’s Day is the plea that God please continue to "do all this until the fullness of Your kingdom comes, wherein You shall be all in all." The Lord has not promised to remove problems from this earth; the miseries resulting from the fall into sin will continue on earth until the day of Christ’s return. On that day every angel and person in heaven above and on the earth beneath and in the waters under the earth will bow the knee to the King of kings; yes, even the devil and his demons will need to acknowledge that Christ is king after all. When that happens, the Lord will wipe every rebel off the earth. After that day this earth will be inhabited only by those who acknowledge Christ as King, only by those who obey Him. And because they obey Him perfectly –eagerly so!- will this earth be Paradise Restored – no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering, no more terror, no more brokenness! For that day we long: the fullness of God’s Kingdom!

Today we live in this world of so much misery. Ours is a global village, so that we know of so much suffering, so much evil happening anywhere in the world. In the face of all that evil we feel so helpless, and because we can’t make any positive contribution we tend to isolate ourselves from this world and write it off as lost…. But isolate ourselves is not God’s will for us, and think we can’t do anything is not God’s revelation either. What we can do? Pray! Remember: the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects (cf James 5:16). Pray: Your kingdom come! And join the prayer with work: use me, Lord, in Your kingdom, for Your glory!  Amen.