THY KINGDOM COME

This is the first half of the Lord’s Prayer. It has the words “Thy kingdom come.” Every time someone prays that prayer, they are praying for the Kingdom to come.

What is the Kingdom? Christ will rule over the earth in perfect justice and righteousness. There will be peace, for Jesus will be King. People will live for hundreds of years. In many other ways it will be far better than now. But that is another subject. When will this Kingdom come, and how will it come? That’s what I want to talk about today.

The Disciples did not understand the Kingdom. They thought Jesus would throw out the Romans and set up the Kingdom right then, in their time. They expected to have high places there with Him. The Bible says,

“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory” (Mark 10:35-37).

Jesus answered, in effect, “That’s not why I came here.” The Bible says,

“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 18:21-23).

Jesus told the Disciples that He would be killed and rise again. Peter didn’t want that at all. [Neither did the others.] He wanted Christ to set up the Kingdom right then, and have a high place in it. [That’s a big reason why Judas quit, when there would be no money for him.] Jesus said that was a Satanic idea. He said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” This is a strong rebuke. The reason Jesus came was to die for our sins, not to set up the Kingdom then.

What about after the resurrection? The Disciples still wanted a physical, earthly kingdom then and there. Get rid of the Romans and set up a Jewish kingdom. They asked,

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6; p. 1147). Keep your Bible open here.

Now that you have died and risen again, will you set up the Kingdom now? Jesus said,

“It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1:7). That’s not your business.

What was their business to be? Christ said,

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Then He went up into Heaven.

“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men [angels] stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11).

Jesus will come back the same way He went up. He will come down from Heaven physically, personally, and visibly. People will see Him.

When will this happen? At the end of the age, after the seven-year Tribulation.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16; p. 1348).

When Christ comes the second time, He will not come to suffer and die. He will come to rule. And Christians will rule with Him.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4-6; p. 1349).

How long will this Kingdom last? A thousand years. After that is what is called the eternal state, but I won’t go into that now.

How is the Kingdom set up? Is it built through human effort, or politics, or even evangelism of the world? No. It will be set up by Jesus Himself when He comes back.

This seems pretty simple. It is called premillennialism – that Jesus comes back before the millennium (which means a thousand years).

This is what we believe. This is what most born again Christians believe. It’s right there in the Bible. It is what the early Christians believed for the first 350 or 400 years.

But something happened which caused many to think differently. In the 400s the Roman Empire fell and was taken over by a bunch of barbarian tribes. Civilization collapsed. Some people thought the world would end. BUT IT DIDN’T. Jesus did not come back then. So, what now?

The Roman Catholic church DID survive. Even after the barbarians took over, the church kept on, and it still exists today. So how do you interpret all this? What about the Kingdom?

In the 400s, Augustine said that there was no physical Kingdom which Jesus would physically set up. No. He said the church WAS the kingdom of God. It did keep going, and he said it would go on indefinitely. Sure, Jesus would still come – but very, very far in the future. The important thing was the church. This is called amillennialism – which means “no millennium.”

There is another version of this. Some people said the church would evangelize the world. It would get to a time when almost everyone in the world was a committed Christian. We would have a millennium. Then after this, Jesus would come back. This is called postmillennialism.

This idea was popular during the nineteenth century, when the world was mostly at peace, and the missionaries were going out all over the world. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many of the Puritans believed it. They were good men, but they didn’t have light on that subject.

People gave up postmillennialism in the twentieth century. [We are now in the twenty-first.] It started in 1914 with World War I and then came World War II. There came Fascism and Communism and now Islam. The world started going bad. Take a look at things now. Are they getting better and better? No. Is the whole world getting converted? No.

No, the Christians will not take over the world and convert it. The Kingdom will not come through the work of men. It will be set up by Jesus when He comes back.

But lately the idea of setting up the Kingdom by human work has come back again. There is a movement called Christian Nationalism. It has a wide range of ideas. The simplest is, “Love God and love your country.” I agree with that. I love God, and I love my country. I want to see the best for my country. But I don’t expect the USA to become the Kingdom of God. Take a look and you will see that it isn’t.

But some Christian Nationalists go too far. They want to take over the country, put their people in charge of everything, and change the country so that everyone has to follow God’s Law (yes, even Old Testament law). Some of them think Trump is called by God to do that. But let’s face it, that’s not going to happen. Is it happening, yes or no? Trump is selfish and sometimes crazy. Is the country getting better all the time? Are the Christians taking over? Sorry, it’s not happening. And the US is not in Bible prophecy at all! Couldn’t take over.

And there is one other thing. Some of the preppers (people who prepare) want to bring in the Kingdom. Please don’t laugh at preppers. Noah was the first prepper. He built an Ark. Joseph was a prepper. He set aside seven years of food in Egypt to prepare for seven hungry years. Yes, troubles will come, and we should do my best to prepare for them. But the most important thing, as I said last Sunday, is: Honor. Service. Love. A Christian attitude.

But there are some preppers who go much farther than that. They are actually planning to get through whatever bad years come – even decades. Then they will come out, set up the United States again, and evangelize the world until it is all Christian. There is a movement called the American Redoubt where they set up in Idaho or Montana or somewhere, to last through it all, and then restart to set up the Kingdom. They are postmillennialists.

But I am not. I believe, as the Bible teaches, that the Kingdom will not be set up by human work. So the Christian Nationalists, and those preppers, are wrong. The Kingdom will be set up by Jesus when He comes.

So what am I doing now? What should you do? I say be strong in Christ. Honor. Service. Love. Suffer if you have to. And a Christian attitude. That’s it!

Some of you here are not ready for when Jesus comes back. If you trust Him, you will have a wonderful future. But if you don’t, the Bible says, “the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (II Thessalonians 1:7-9).

Some of you will get just that. I hope you don’t. Jesus died for your sins. He shed His Blood to wash them away. Please trust Him. Amen.