" IN CONSTANT PRAYER WE ASK GOD FOR GRACE TO DO AND ACCEPT HIS WILL FOR US."

124. Q. What is the third petition?
A. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. That is: Grant that we and all men may deny our own will, and without any murmuring obey Thy will, for it alone is good.[1] Grant also that everyone may carry out the duties of his office and calling[2] as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven.[3]
[1] Matt. 7:21; 16:24-26; Luke 22:42; Rom. 12:1, 2; Tit. 2:11, 12. [2] I Cor. 7:17-24; Eph. 6:5-9. [3] Ps. 103:20, 21.

Scripture Reading:
Revelation 22:6-17

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 34:1,3
Psalm 103:8
Psalm 89:3,4
Psalm 25:4,5
Psalm 143:6,7 &  Hymn 47:4

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

On this earth today countless tears are shed day by day, because so many people are frustrated, angry, bitter. What about heaven? How many tears, do you think, do the angels of heaven shed?

I ask the question because the Scriptures hold the behavior of the angels of heaven before us as an example for our behavior. That is: to overcome tears, we need to respond to God’s will as the angels do. So Jesus teaches us to pray, to beseech God that His will be done on earth as the angels do it in heaven. Jesus wants us to pray this wherever we get our hands dirty with the real troubles and trials of daily life. For the tears of this life will not disappear unless things on earth become as they today are in heaven.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. They did that in the dirt and dust of real life, made their request in the midst of the tears and frustrations that characterize life on earth since the fall into sin. In His reply the Lord told them how to address God - "Father"- told them also what to say: "Hallowed be Your Name, Your kingdom come." Then He continued: say also: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

The first question that needs to be considered is this: what is meant by the word ‘will’? You will know that the word ‘will’ in Scripture has two distinct meanings. One can speak of God’s "revealed will", and then the reference is to God’s law, God’s commands as they are spelled out in Holy Writ. We are to do God’s will, obey His commands.

The word ‘will’ can also refer to God’s "secret will", His plan for the world as He has determined it before He created it. That secret counsel, that secret plan is the will of God that is unfolded as the history of the world moves along. So the events of September 11 in America and of October 12 in Bali were recorded in God’s counsel, His secret will, and they occurred at God’s time. So too the bits and pieces of our personal lives.

Jesus instructs us to pray that God’s "will be done." Which of those two meanings of ‘will’ are we to think of?

It’s obvious that the first meaning certainly belongs to this petition. "Your will be done," and we’re asking God for the grace needed to do the will of God as He has revealed it to us in His commandments. In the words of our Lord’s Day: "Grant that we and all men may deny our own will, and … obey Your will." Here’s a prayer that we receive grace to obey the law of God.

But we should not, brothers and sisters, exclude the second understanding of the word ‘will’. The Lord God has a plan for each one of us, a plan that includes whether we get married or not, that includes whether we get cancer or not, that includes whether our lives will be easy or not. We do not know today what is written in God’s plan for us next year. But we do know today what God had written in His plan for us last year. After all, last year has come and gone – exactly as God ordained it for us. Now the thing is: how do we evaluate what the Lord God let happen in our lives last year – or this past decade? We can respond to God’s secret will, God’s plan for us as it has unfolded in our lives, in one of two ways. We can respond with criticism, with the conviction that the way God has dealt with us is not good or we can respond with acceptance. The first, criticism, leads to becoming bitter at life’s circumstances, makes one angry at God for letting it happen, or angry at people for hurting us. And bitterness, anger at the raw deal we’ve been dealt in life, can lead to feelings of resentment…. We know the consequence: where anger and bitterness dominate in our hearts, prayer becomes so difficult, tears abound, frustration triumphs, relations with some people collapses – there’s so much misery…. On the other hand, when we respond to what God gives with a humble heart, when we accept His will for us, contentment and peace fills our hearts.

What we pray for with the third petition? Yes, we pray for grace and strength to obey God’s will, God’s commands. But more: we pray also for grace and strength to accept God’s will, God’s plan in our lives. For: accepting the way God leads our lives is part of God’s command to us; God does not want us to protest His actions, His leadership, in our lives. That is faith; He is our Father, we His children, and so He wants us to acknowledge in the rough and tumble of real life what we confess in Lord’s Day 1: "without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head, indeed, all things must work together for my salvation."

But: to criticize God lies so close at hand for us! We don’t like our circumstances and so criticize God for the way He has led our lives. Or: we don’t like His commands, we feel that in our circumstances His commands are too harsh…, and so we feel free to disobey. Either way, we protest God’s will for us. And in criticizing God’s will for us we shed so many tears, experience so much frustration, end up with so much heartache. It’s true for us who know God; it’s equally true for so many who do not know God. On this earth so many tears are shed because we don’t like the circumstances in which God has led our lives.

The disciples were real-life people, like you and me, with the same struggles to accept that God’s commands were good commands in their circumstances, with the same struggles also to accept that the things God let happen in their lives were good; they were by nature as critical of God’s commands and guidance as we are, and they shed as many tears of frustrations at God’s commands and at God’s leading as we do. They sought from Jesus instruction about prayer, and Jesus told them to pray this: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

That brings us to our second point:

Heaven. The Lord has not told us a great deal about heaven. Yes, He is Lord of heaven, and His will is done there, His secret counsel carried out in heaven just as it is on earth and His revealed will obeyed. What the big difference is between heaven and earth? This: in heaven there is never any protest against what God does. On earth there is rebellion, on earth there is criticism of God. But not in heaven, not anymore!

Scriptures tell us that heaven is God’s dwelling; there triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit have their home. Scriptures add that with God in heaven are the angels and the saints who have died. Both angels and saints do God’s will in heaven perfectly, and accept God’s will perfectly too. The Lord has not told us much about the saints in heaven, has told us more about the angels. So when our Lord’s Day discusses the third petition, it refers not to the saints but to the angels.

The angels. We look up to them, venerate them because they live in heaven, with God. But from Revelation 22 we learn that that is emphatically not correct. John fell at the feet of the angel to worship him, but the angel was insistent: "See that you do not do that!" Why not? "For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book" (vss 8f). Notice the angel’s self-description: "I am your fellow servant." And that’s true not just of John, but also of all who keep the words of God; the angels and we are "fellow servants". That is: angels are to obey God just as we are, yes, angels are to accept what God puts on their path just as we need to accept it. Servants: they have no right of reply.

From our perspective on earth, we expect the angels to obey God perfectly, never criticize God or protest His commands or His actions. After all, we say, the angels are in heaven where it’s perfect, and so obeying God and accepting what He gives should not be a problem…. Yet, congregation, there are data in Scripture that indicate that submitting to the will of God in heaven is not as simple as it sounds. Consider the following.

"In the beginning," says Genesis 1, "God created the heavens and the earth," and that includes the angels. He created countless multitudes of angels, and gave them a twofold task: they were to praise and glorify God as well as function as His servants. So, when God laid the foundations of the earth, the angels (says God to Job) burst forth into songs of praise to God for His wonderful works (38:7).

But not so long after God created the angels and they sang God’s praise for His creating work, a number of these angels rebelled against God (Jude 6). We do not know how many of the angels rebelled, but many did. That is: not all the angels of heaven obeyed God’s will anymore! And yes, they were still allowed free access into heaven. Think of Job 1: the angels of God presented themselves before God and Satan appeared also (vs 6) – and spoke up in heaven against Job, criticized God’s care for Job (vs 9). Think also of the vision Zechariah saw, where Satan stood before the Lord to oppose Joshua the high priest in God’s own presence (Zech 3). You see: ever since the fall of the angels God’s will was not automatically done in heaven!

Many good angels continued to obey God. But: did they have an easy time accepting what God let happen in their lives? Remember: all the angels used to stand shoulder-to-shoulder singing God’s praise. On the day of Satan’s rebellion the ranks of the angels were thinned drastically. Did the good angels protest that God let this rebellion happen? Shortly after the rebellion amongst the angels in heaven, the good angels saw from heaven above what was happening in the Garden of Eden, how Satan tempted the woman – and she ate! Nothing comes by chance, but all from the almighty hand of the God they ceaselessly praised. Did they criticize God for letting that fall into sin happen on earth? Shortly after that fall into sin God sent some angels from heaven to earth to guard the entrance to the Garden, the way to the tree of life; did the angels criticize God for locking man out of Paradise?

So I can go on. God sent angels to Sodom and Gomorrah, to turn the cities upside down. Did they protest on behalf of the children in the city? God sent an angel to kill the first born of Egypt. Did he protest his commission? The book of Revelation makes clear that the plagues God pours upon earth today come by means of angels; they blow the trumpets and pour out the vials that begin the plagues. Do they protest? Here now is the point, beloved: nowhere in Scripture do we read of a single word of protest on the part of the angels! The picture the Scriptures give of the good angels is that they are willing servants, readily and eagerly doing whatever the Lord gives them to do. Ps 103: the angels of heaven "do His word," they "do His pleasure" (vss 20f). Never a protest, never a complaint, never criticism against God; always instant, perfect, complete obedience. They do what God tells them to do, they accept whatever God in wisdom puts on their path.

This, says Jesus, is the example we need to follow on earth. This is the third petition: Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. In heaven the holy angels do God’s will perfectly, accept God’s will perfectly; on earth it must be also. Lord’s Day 49: "Grant that we and all men may deny our own will, and without any murmuring obey Your will, for it alone is good." God’s will, be it His revealed will (His commands) or His secret will (His plans for us), is good, and therefore not open to any criticism, any protest, any murmuring. As the angels of heaven take what God gives, accept it without protest, so we on earth are to take what God gives, accept it without protest. Heaven is an example for us.

But we are so weak, protest and complaining lie so close at hand…. That brings us to our third point:

Time and again we experience that the circumstances God puts on our path are so troubling, His commands for us we find so hard to fulfill. So we complain, complain to each other about the rough deal we’ve been dealt, cry ourselves to sleep, take our frustrations out on each other. And maybe, maybe we’ll even raise a fist to God and protest to Him of the way He’s led things in our lives.

In such circumstances our Lord Jesus Christ comes with His heavenly instruction. How we are to respond to God’s will as it manifests itself in our lives? What we are to do with the tears and the frustration that wells up in us at the awkward hand we’ve been dealt, at the impossible command we’re to obey? Says our chief Prophet and Teacher: pray! Pray what? "Your will be done, through us on earth as it is through your fellow servants in heaven." Pray!

We are to understand also, brothers and sisters, that the words Jesus lays on our lips here have urgency in them. Jesus instructs us to petition God to grant us His grace today to do His will and to accept His will. We’re not to ask here that God cause His will to be done on earth in thirty years time; we’re to beseech God here to cause His will to be done now. To show you the significance of that, I need to take you back for a moment to the angels of heaven.

I mentioned already: Satan was allowed in the Old Testament dispensation to enter heaven and even criticize God’s works. But then came the day when Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, satisfied the justice of God, battled the devil and his demons and triumphed. Then we read this word in Revelation 12: "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer" (12:7f). Point: there is progress in heaven, things have changed in heaven! No longer may Satan or any demon enter heaven, God’s dwelling! So: Satan, with all his disobedience and his criticism of God, no longer has a place in heaven, and that in turn means that there is not a scrap of disobedience in heaven anymore, not a dot of criticism – thanks to Christ’s work on the cross. In heaven is a part of God’s kingdom where His will is perfectly done, where His will is perfectly accepted – without a protest of any sort.

Well now, here’s the urgency of the prayer: the Lord instructs us to beseech God that this same degree of perfect obedience and acceptance characterize earth! On this earth God should be fully acknowledged as Lord and Master, and so there should be no complaining, no disobedience, no protest against anything that God commands or does. And that begins, of course, with ourselves.

Where does it begin with ourselves? Where do we begin this perfect obedience and perfect acceptance of God’s will? There, of course, where we cry the most, where we struggle the most. Where is that? Is that, congregation, not in our daily circumstances, that which we’re busy with day by day? What we’re busy with day by day: that’s what the Catechism calls our "office and calling". That can be our daily work, and can also describe our obligations in marriage, our obligations as parents and children, our duties in the church, etc. Our "office and calling": that’s the tasks God puts on our path day by day at home, at school, in the factory, in the congregation. That’s where we get our hands dirty with the mud of this broken life, and that’s where we are to obey God’s commands and where we are to accept what God in wisdom puts on our path. And it’s exactly there, in the nuts and bolts of real life, that we hurt the most, that we struggle with God’s will. So precisely there we need to pray. What’s the way out of the tears and frustrations of this life? The way out is prayer: Father, give me grace to obey Your will today, as I’m dealing with this obstinate customer. Father, give me grace to accept today that You put this brokenness on my path. Take away my tears, take away my struggles, not by putting me into a Paradise-of-perfection, but by giving me grace to trust You, to trust You that Your commands are good no matter how silly they seem to me, to trust You that Your plan for my life is good no matter how unfair it seems to me. Grant me grace to deny my own will –for my sinful will protests Your commands, protests Your actions- and grant me grace to obey Your will without a trace of a murmur, and grant me that grace now, in today’s circumstances.

And this isn’t something we’re to pray for ourselves alone. We live in this world, and our lives are inseparably intertwined with thousands of people around us. These people have so many tears, the town of Kelmscott has so many tears, the city of Perth has so many tears, our country has so many tears and so does the whole world. God has a heart for all people, makes His sun to shine and His rain to fall on the just and the unjust, and so Jesus tells us to beseech God to make His will be done not just in our homes as it is in heaven, but to beseech God to make His will be done on earth as it is in heaven – in the factory and in our town, in the city and in our country and throughout the whole world. We ask God to make all men content with His commands, and to make everybody content with the way God leads their lives. As God had no pleasure in the disobedience and complaints of the devil and his demons, so God has no pleasure in the bitter frustrations and tears of anger of the ungodly of the earth; He wants their repentance, wants all men to acknowledge that His plan for world history is good, is praiseworthy. And as God has no pleasure in the anguished cries of the unbelieving, so we have pity on them too and pray: Father, grant that not only we but all men in their frustrations with the way their lives go may deny their own will, set aside their own dreams for what makes a happy life, and obey Your will, accept what You in wisdom give. Lord, reach into today’s world, hear the anguished cries of the millions who hunger, the cries of the homeless and the ravaged, the tears of the orphans and the oppressed, the pain of those in unhappy marriages and those who are unhappy in their being single, and work in them by Your Holy Spirit so that they learn to trust in You, to accept that Your commands for them are good, to accept that Your guidance in their lives is good. Lord, grant grace that on this earth there come today as much eager obedience to Your commands and as much calm acceptance of Your will as there is today in heaven!

The Lord promises to hear our prayers. It’s what Jesus said: "ask, and it will be given to you." That includes this petition to have God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the midst of our own tears and struggles, what’s the way forward? The way forward is not first of all a counselor, and it’s not first of all a new house or a new job or a better spouse or a different personality. The way forward is first of all prayer, prayer for grace to obey God’s commands, prayer for grace to accept God’s ways, prayer never to mutter or complain. That’s where it starts in our personal lives.

That’s equally where it starts for this world! How to improve the atmosphere in the office? How to help the destitute of the world? It all begins with prayer! "Grant that we and all men may deny our own will, and without any murmuring obey Your will, for it alone is good." Father, grant us and all men grace to follow the example of the angels of heaven day by day, in all our circumstances.

And yes, He hears! Jesus told us to pray this, and He intercedes before the Father on our behalf also. He hears, and answers.

And the answer will come in its fullness when Jesus Himself returns on the clouds of heaven. When He returns every urge to complain will be washed out of our hearts, and every one who refused to accept God’s commands and God’s plan will be swept off this earth. Then, finally, every tear on earth will be wiped away, and crying and tears will be confined to the bottomless pit where men will weep and gnash their teeth…. On that great day, heaven will come to earth, and the obedience of heaven today will prevail on earth also.

Lord, come quickly, come now!  Amen.