Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Your Kingdom Come--Quickly

by Dave Wilkinson

Matthew 6:5-8

June 6, 1999

It is probably no secret that I am an admirer of Garrison Keillor of public radio’s "Prairie Home Companion." Keillor says that his only claim to fame is that he talks slowly. But those who listen slowly know that he has a way of touching the heart of human life.

In his book, Coming Home, Keillor writes of Christmas in mythical Lake Wobegon, Minnesota: "Dozens of exiles were back, including some whom their families weren't expecting because they'd said they weren't coming, couldn't come, were sorry but it was just out of the question. But Christmas exerts powerful forces.

"Larry the sad boy was there, who was saved twelve times in the Lutheran church, an all-time record. Between 1953 and 1961, he threw himself weeping and contrite on God's throne of grace on twelve separate occasions -- and this in a Lutheran church that wasn't evangelical, had no altar call, no organist playing "Just as I am without one plea" while a choir hummed and a guy with shiny hair took hold of your heartstrings and played you like a cheap guitar -- this is the Lutheran Church, not a bunch of hillbillies -- these are Scandinavians, and they repent in the same way that they sin: discreetly, tastefully, at the proper time, and bring a Jell-O salad for afterward.

"Larry Sorenson came forward weeping buckets and crumpled up at the communion rail, to the amazement of the minister, who had delivered a dry sermon about stewardship, and who now had to put his arm around this limp soggy individual and pray with him and see if he had a ride home. Twelve times. Even we fundamentalists got tired of him. There comes a point when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and start grappling with the problems of the church furnace and the church roof and make church coffee and be of use. But Larry kept on repenting and repenting. He came up for Christmas and got drunk and knocked over the Christmas tree. That before 2:00 P.M. He spent the next eight hours apologizing for it, and the penance was worse than the crime."

This is the second meditation I am preaching on the brief petition in the Lord’s Prayer, "Your Kingdom Come." This is because the Kingdom of God is central to Jesus’ teaching.

What is the nature of this Kingdom? What does God expect of us? Does He expect us to feel guilt all the time? Does He expect an endless repetition of conversions? Or is the only alternative to such spiritual high jinx a spiritual blandness in which our highest expression is found in grappling with the problems of the church furnace and the church roof and making church coffee?

Now, I’m not putting down roofs, furnaces, and coffee. I am grateful for all of these things -- especially coffee. I just suspect that God calls us for something more — even those whose gifts lead to involvememt with furnaces and roofs -- something God will bring to completion.

What does God call us to when He calls us to His Kingdom?

This morning I want to identify key biblical characteristics that mark the people of the Kingdom.

First, Kingdom people are people in ambiguity.

Let me explain.

There is a puzzling passage in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:17-20. There Jesus stresses the law; not a letter and not the smallest part of a letter of it will ever become invalid. Anyone who only fulfills the law’s demands has but a low place in the Kingdom. "I tell you," Jesus says, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." What is the meaning of this?

The meaning is that the man or woman who enters into the Kingdom is on a harder assignment than any scribe or Pharisee. Our task is harder than obedience to the law.

The scribes and the Pharisees based life on the obedience to the law. Now the very characteristic of law is that it is possible to satisfy it. When we have done what the law requires -- when we’ve paid our debts -- the law has no more claim on us. But the law of life in the Kingdom is love. The characteristic of love is that no person can ever satisfy its demands. Our responsibility as a member of the Kingdom to God and to each other is limitless — and terribly hard to measure.

We don’t live by keeping the rules. We live because of our relationship to Jesus Christ. But that can be hard. How can we ever know that we have done enough? Where is the checklist? How do we handle it when our only measure is the glory of God himself?

A lot of people have a hard time with the ambiguity. They want to know "how they’re doing"— especially in relation to other believers. This is the attraction of some of the cults. Every expectation is spelled out. They give an objective "How am I doing" measuring stick that a true relationship with Jesus Christ does not provide. Even those who don’t get caught up in cults can get wrapped up in a kind of Christian legalism where they seek to prove themselves as "super believers" through keeping certain rules and looking for that "second blessing" that will prove that they are "more spiritual" than others.

But we have no measure except Jesus Christ. We have no strength except our relationship with Him and no claim except the promises He makes to us in His Word. This means that we must accept the ambiguity and not succumb to some sort of Christianity-by-the-numbers "sanctified sorcery". It also means above all, that we are people who know our great and ongoing need for God’s forgiveness and saving grace.

This is the second characteristic of Kingdom people. They are people who know their radical need for God. Kingdom people put away their pride and self-sufficiency. They know their need for God.

Jesus said that the Kingdom and it’s blessings belong to "the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). In Greek the word is ptochos, and it means, not only poor, but absolutely and completely destitute. The Kingdom belongs to those who recognize their own total inability to save themselves and who put their whole trust in God. Entry to the Kingdom belongs to the person who humbly rests his poverty in God’s wealth, his ignorance in God’s wisdom, his sin in God’s mercy, and his moral failure and his battle with temptation in God’s grace. It belongs to the person who recognizes the obligation to do the will of God, but who also recognizes his or her utter inability to do it without the help that God alone can give.

However, in the words of the old hymn, those who "Trust Jesus fully find him wholly true." And this means that Kingdom people are also people of expectation — expectation that God will complete in us the good work that he has begun. That’s the third characteristic of Kingdom people. They are filled with hope for a good future.

We pray "Your Kingdom come" so that we might remember that our true destiny is to live together as children of light in the city of God. In prayer we remember the hope to which we have been called.

Some people used to believe that the coming of the Kingdom has to do with the gradual betterment of society through the influence of the church. Now a lot more people believed than before World Wars I and II than believe it now. The events of history kind of took the wind right out of the sails of those who believed people were getting better and better.

The Bible says something very different. There is no doubt in Scripture as to when the Kingdom comes. The Kingdom comes when the King comes. Every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper that is what we do "We show forth the Lord’s death until He comes." In this, His table, Jesus gives us a vision not only of his sacrifice, but also a foretaste of his coming — when people shall come from the north, south, east and west and be seated together at the great marriage feast of Jesus and His church.

Charles Swindoll writes: "I worked in a machine shop for four-and-a half-years alongside a fellow named George. His job was to sweep and clean out the shavings underneath the huge lathes and machines we were running. George was born again, and he loved the teaching of Scripture on prophecy. I remember hearing him sing hymns as he worked. Many of them had to do with the coming of Christ.

Late one Friday afternoon about ten minutes to quitting time when we were all weary, I looked at George and said, "‘George, are you ready?’ He said "Uh-huh’ but he was all dirty. He was just obviously not ready. In fact, he looked like he was ready to keep on working. I said, ‘Aren’t you ready to go home?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m ready.’ I said, ‘Look at you! Man, you’re not ready. You’ve got to go clean up.’ ‘No, he said, ‘let me show you something.’ So he unzipped his coveralls and underneath were the neatest, cleanest clothes you can imagine. He had them all ready. All he did when the whistle blew was just unzip and step out of that coverall, walk up, punch his clock, and he was gone. He said, ‘You see, I stay ready to keep from gettin’ ready -- just like I’m ready for Jesus.’"

Are you ready to meet Jesus? You’d better be if you’re going to pray the Lord’s Prayer. You are issuing an invitation. Someday you’ll be taken up on it.

If we are going to sincerely pray the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer "Your Kingdom Come" we must also sincerely pray the prayer that goes with it -- you’ll find it at the end of the last chapter of the Bible -- Maranatha -- "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." Come even if you interrupt my business, my plans, my worldly expectations, come. Come and make it right. "Your Kingdom come." "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." "Your Kingdom come -- how about right now!"