thy kingdom come thy will be done in prayer

The kingdom of God can refer to the age to come: In another sense, he needs to become King. From this brief survey of redemptive history, we can see that the kingdom is both present and future. The kingdom reveals both the meaning and the goal of history. Do not think of the kingdom as a realm to which we are going as much as a reality that is coming to us. The kingdom of God is the heavenly world breaking into our earthly existence. Think of the good news from Revelation 11:15, which you may have heard in Handel’s Messiah: “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” That’s what’s coming. In the age to come, the kingdom will no longer be something that has broken in here or there it will be all in. Life in the church looks forward to the eternal life where God’s redemptive presence will be enjoyed to the fullest. Human attempts to create heaven on earth have killed millions. History is littered with bad example after bad example of people who thought they could create heaven on earth.

Yes, we believe in a heaven on earth, but not in a utopian scheme of transforming society writ large. The heaven on earth we seek to create is the heavenly reality among God’s people in the church. The reason the church in its mission is not about societal transformation is the same reason the church does not throw sinners into the lake of fire. The church is supposed to be the outpost of heaven on earth, which is why the poor should be provided for in the church and why the wicked and unbelieving don’t belong in the church. The church is the place where you expect to see the values and rules of the kingdom honored and upheld. Likewise, the church-dwelling on earth in various nations around the world-exists to advance the interests of another kingdom, a heavenly kingdom. The embassy, while it wants to dwell peacefully in the foreign land, exists to advance the interests of another country. An embassy is a national outpost situated in a foreign land. We can think of the church as a kind of outpost or embassy of the kingdom. The two are not identical, but they cannot be separated, and in this life, they largely overlap. It is important to say something here about the relationship between the kingdom and the church. In The Lord’s Prayer, Kevin DeYoung closely examines God’s model for prayer, giving readers a deeper understanding of its content and meaning, and how it works in the lives of God’s people.

Thy kingdom come thy will be done in prayer