Sermon Bible Commentary
Matthew 6:10
The Kingdom of Grace within us.
I. If the kingdom has to come to us, we must be by nature outside of it. This petition reminds us, then, of the fall and its consequences. True, the kingdom of God is around us; the light shineth into the darkness; love seeks the banished ones, even the rebellious; but the place whence this petition now is offered is a province fallen from the King. It is the longing of the soul that God would visit and redeem us.
II. We cannot go to the kingdom; it must come to us.
"Come unto us the peace of Thy dominion,
For unto it we cannot of ourselves,
If it come not, with all our intellect."
When we feel the desire to be restored to God, it is natural that we should think of returning to God, and we hope that, after a long journey, we may reach the kingdom. Prayer, good works, piety, we imagine to be the road to God. But we cannot thus go to the kingdom; it must come to us. The door is before the narrow way, and the door is very nigh unto us even Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners.
III. Father, Son, and Spirit bring with them righteousness, peace, and joy. Every kingdom is based on righteousness; the condition and manifestation of its prosperity is peace; the crown and fulness of peace is joy.
IV. In this kingdom there is greatness or dignity and liberty. Humility is the dignity of the kingdom; obedience is its liberty.
V. Think now of the extent and the comprehensiveness of the kingdom. The kingdom of grace in the individual is to be all comprehensive. Having its centre in the heart (out of which are the issues of life), it is to extend to all our desires, thoughts, words, and notions. All that we are and have belong to God, and that always.
VI. The character of this kingdom as long as we are on the earth is antagonistic. It is in opposition to sin within and around us. The more we seek to follow and serve God, the more clearly and painfully we become conscious of the evil of our heart, of our unbelief and worldliness. It is not yet the time for rest, for exclusive praise and thanksgiving, for unmingled joy; but the time of warfare, of prayer and fasting, of manifold temptations. The Solomonic reign has not yet commenced. It is the period of David, of exile and wandering, of humility and patience, of danger and of struggle.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord's Prayer,p. 153.
In these words themselves it is revealed that the kingdom is an actual thing future, not a metaphorical thing present; a thing to be brought in, completed, as a new state, not any increase of Gospel blessings in the present state. What do we know from Scripture of such a kingdom?
I. It was prefigured by the constitution of God's people Israel under Himself as their King. They were a chosen people, and He dwelt in the midst of them, ruling them and upholding them. We find allusions to it in the writings of David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Scripture testimonies show that we are to look for a kingdom of Christ, not as a spiritual figure, but as a matter of fact to be accomplished in the future; a kingdom closely associated with His coming again to us; a kingdom wherein His saints shall reign with Him; a kingdom to be established over and in this earth of ours, wherein it, being fully rescued from sin and the curse, will be completely subject to its rightful Lord and Redeemer. It is of that kingdom that our Lord Jesus taught us to say, "Thy kingdom come."
II. Let us now trace a few of its characteristics. (1) It is a kingdom of peace and love. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain;" "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (2) It is a kingdom of purity. Only the pure in heart shall see God. And if we search deeper for this purity of heart, we shall find that it can spring but from one source the new birth by the Holy Spirit. (3) It is a kingdom whose very glory and chief attribute it is that Christ is present and ruling in it. (4) Again, it is a kingdom of joy; and those who pray for its coming hope and yearn for the blessedness of its approach. The joy of their hearts is not here, but hidden with Christ, and waiting its manifestation with Him. (5) This kingdom is a kingdom of hope, and we are prisoners of hope, and all who really pray for it hope for it. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. ii., p. 230.
What do we mean when we say to God, "Thy kingdom come"? And is the wishing or praying enough? or if we wish and pray, is there aught besides which we ought to do?
I. To wish from the heart and pray with the whole soul are enough, if there is nothing else for us to do. But all prayer to God implies that we act as we pray. God wills to knit in one His own work and ours. He wills so to unite His creatures with Himself that He would bring about His own work through them. He willed to allow His kingdom to shine out or to be darkened, to widen or to be narrowed; to enfold the known world, or to be hemmed in and struggle, as it were, almost for life. All these changes and ebbs and flows of His grace He allowed to be as man was faithful or disobedient to His will. So is it as to His threefold kingdom, whereby God rules in the souls where He dwells. He wills so to employ us, His creatures, in His work of love, that through us His kingdom should come in the single soul, through us should His kingdom throughout the whole world be enlarged, through us should the kingdom of His everlasting glory be hastened.
II. God's condescension involves our corresponding duty. He wills that through the power of His grace, and for the merits of our crucified Lord, which alone make us acceptable to Him, by aid of man accepted in Him, man should be brought to the knowledge of Him, and should be saved. He wills that through the merits of His all-holy thoughts, words, and deeds, our words and deeds, wrought and spoken through His grace, should reach, affect, win to Him our fellow-sinners. May none of us be slothful servants, saying listlessly, "Thy kingdom come," yet acting as if we cared for nothing less. But may God give us grace so to use faithfully what He has for this short time entrusted to us, that we may see in that day with joy those whom our prayers, our alms, our words, our deeds, our lives, have helped to love our God.
E. B. Pusey, Sermons for the Church's Seasons,p. 43.
I. Christ's kingdom on the earth may be divided into three parts nature, providence, grace. And the kingdom of grace, again, is triple. There is the kingdom in our own hearts, there is the kingdom over the earth, and there is the kingdom of the glory of the Second Advent. We are praying for all three.
II. Our great work is evangelization. More we cannot do. We cannot convert, but we can evangelize. We can make Christ known to every inhabitant of this earth. The rest is with God. Missionary work is not like other work mere natural cause and effect. It is on a much higher level. It is different from all ordinary undertakings. It is Christ's own power, to do Christ's own work, for Christ's own glory. It is a King the King of kings asserting His right and taking His kingdom. He has purchased it; He has predestinated it; He has done it. We are working with promises; we are cooperating with faith; we are leaning on majesty; we are allied to omnipotence.
III. Our Lord's own prayer and directions give us clear instructions for what we are chiefly to pray. (1) For union of the Church, as the highest testimony and the truest sermon in the whole world: "That they all may be one," etc. (2) For increase of missionaries. His prescient eyes foresaw the universal difficulty which there would be in every age not of openings, not of money, but of men.(3) For grace to give power to truth: "Sanctify them through Thy truth." (4) The far end: "Glorify Thy name." (5) Nearness to that end: "Thy kingdom come."
J. Vaughan, Sermons,14th series, p. 141.
I. The kingdom of God, though not a temporal one, is a real one. The language of the Bible cannot be explained away as simple metaphor.
II. The kingdom for whose advancement we so often pray is a peaceable kingdom, and one which is constituted in the very person of the King Himself.
III. The kingdom of our blessed Lord, for whose prosperity we are permitted to pray and labour and endure, admits of unlimited extension throughout the world.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday,p. 67.
I. As it is in heaven.The nature and manner of heavenly employments are not precisely known to us. But of some of the qualities of that perfect doing of God's will we can treat from what we know of ourselves, who, a little lower than the angels, are, like them, beings with reason and affections and spiritual life before God. And we may observe (1) that their doing of God's will is without selfishness. No idol set up within interferes with the proper aim and end of action. (2) Again, their conformity to God's will is all real and genuine the act first of the heart and of affections and desires, then of the tongue and outward bearing. (3) Their work is done without intermission or weariness. They cease not day nor night.
II. Man's glory is to suffer. In this sense let us consider the words, "Thy will be done." Let us regard them as expressing the intelligent resignation, on the part of an imperfect and erring being, of his ways and his prospects, into the hand of an almighty and merciful Father. And thus viewed they imply: (1) A knowledge of the relation between God and himself. God is to him a Father watching over him, careful and solicitous for his welfare. Hitherto He has done well for His people; He has not forsaken them that trust in Him. The most adverse circumstances have in the end proved for their good; God has led them by a way that they knew not. All this dwells on the Christian's mind, and from such evidence as this, strengthened by his own spiritual experience that the Lord is gracious, he learns to trust Him, and to say respecting Himself, "Thy will be done." (2) "Thy will be done." And what if that will be not only afflictive, but dark and mysterious also? What if God be pleased to wound just when we believed we wanted cherishing? What He does we know not now, but we shall know hereafter. I remember, on a glorious day of all but cloudless sunshine, passing in view of a well-known line of bare and majestic downs, then basking in the full beams of noon. But on one face of the hill rested a mass of deep and gloomy shadow. On searching for its cause, I at length discovered one little speck of cloud, bright as light, floating in the clear blue above. This it was which cast on the hillside that ample track of gloom. And what I saw was an image of Christian sorrow. Dark and cheerless often as it is, and unaccountable as it passes over our earthly path, in heaven its token shall be found; and it shall be known to have been but as a shadow of His brightness whose name is Love.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. ii., p. 134.
Let us view this petition
I. As a description of the kingdom of Christ. When Christ comes to reign earth will rejoice. Israel, renewed by the Spirit, and gifted in the richest measure with humility and fervent zeal, will be the first-born among the nations; and then the Saviour's saying, "Salvation is of the Jews," will find its perfect fulfilment. When the Holy Ghost shall write the law of God in their hearts, then shall be seen the spectacle of a righteous nation; and, imitating them, all kingdoms shall conform themselves to the will of our Father in heaven.
II. As a description of the angelic obedience, the standard and pattern of ours. To do God's will is the delight of angels, and His will is His self-manifestation on earth. Angels are interested in the earth that God may be glorified, even as Satan and his servants are interested in it to retard the progress of God's kingdom and to obscure His glory. The obedience of angels is in humility and perfect submission. They obey because God commands. Thus ought we to accustom and train our hearts to reverential obedience.
III. As pointing to the Lord Jesus, the ladder between heaven and earth, in and by whom this petition is fulfilled. The Son of God has become the Author of eternal salvation to all believers. By His obedience we are constituted righteous. By His sacrifice we have gained the position of children. In Him we are reconciled and renewed; one with Him, we receive the Father's love and the gift of the Holy Ghost; and thus
IV. God's will is done in us and by us. When we think of the will of God, our hearts are at peace. The secret will of God is a mystery, into which it is not for us to search; but we know that, while clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. We see His revealed will in the gift of Christ and the Spirit. We know this is the will of God, that all who believe in Jesus should have eternal life, and that He should raise them at the last day. This also is His will, even our sanctification, that Christ by the Spirit should dwell and live in us, and that, in union with the true Vine, we should bring forth fruit.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord's Prayer,p. 203.
The Obedience of Angels.
I. An angel, by his very nature, is a servant doing God's behest. It is laid upon him; it is a necessity and law of his being. With us service is too much an occasional thing put on at times; done and left. It must not be so if you are to be like an angel. It must be an essential part of every moment of life reality; the sum and substance, the whole of your existence; continuous, obedient service.
II. The angels behold the face of the Father, and hence their power and their joy. They go wherever they go straight from the immediate presence of God. So they carry their sunshine; so they carry their might; so must you.
III. And no one can doubt that an angel's obedience is the obedience of a happy being. You will not do much, you will not even obey well, till you are happy.
IV. It matters nothing to an angel what the work is which is given him to do. It may be for a babe, or it may be for a king; it may be for one, or it may be for multitudes; it may be for the holiest, or it may be for the vilest. It is just the same to him. It cannot be too menial or too lofty; it cannot be too little or too much. It is simple obedience. It is reasonable because it is not reasoning service.
V. An angel's response to an order is always instant, and the course the quickest and the straightest. Witness the visit of the angel Gabriel to Daniel. The obedience to the command is always minute, always accurate, and always entire.
VI. If your obedience would be like the obedience of angels, it must always be primarily to Christ. It must touch Him. It must have a savour of Him. There, in that beautiful world where the angels live, Christ is the centre of everything. There is not an eye there that is not fastened on that Master. It would be no obedience at all which did not go up and down upon that altar.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,10th series, p. 246.
I. We begin by inquiring into the meaning of the words. They are often uttered and not felt. They are sometimes spoken in a sense which is very different from, nay opposed to, the whole teaching of Christ. We shall gain a truer idea of the prayer if we begin by clearing away the thoughts respecting God's will which are opposed to the idea of a Father. (1) There is a tendency in man to confuse God's will with the thought of an irresistible force. This confusion may rise very naturally from the consciousness of human insignificance. Contemplating the grandeur of God, and overwhelmed before the majesty that rules the universe at His pleasure, man may submit to God's will because it seems to be an awful power which cannot be resisted. This conception of God's will as an irresistible force springs from forgetfulness of the great difference between God's rule in the kingdom of matter and His will in the kingdom of souls. The essential feature of spirit is its capacity for resisting God. (2) Again, there is a tendency in man to confound the will of God with the thought of an unsearchable self-will. This thought may spring from a sense of ignorance. Enfeebled by conflict, a man's own will may be calm, and yet not surrendered to God in the faith that He does all things well. In that spirit he may say in all quietness, "Thy will be done," but because he has submitted to a mere will, not to a righteous will. (3) It is Christ who teaches us to pray, "Thy will be done." And we may therefore feel that that will, though sovereign, is for our highest good, though working darkly, for our greatest blessedness. We may look out from our poor finite thought on life and the universe to the everlasting will of a gracious and loving Father.
II. There is no other rational law of life than this. In a life of obedience, every struggle, every sorrow, every tear, has a bearing on the future. They chasten the spirit, and help to purify it from its earthliness. Every victory over self-will strengthens the soul and makes it "more than conqueror."
E. L. Hull, Sermons,1st series, p. 191.
How is God's will done in heaven?.
I. It is certainly done zealously.
II. The angels in heaven do God's will reverently.
III. God's will is also done in heaven with cheerful alacrity.
IV. God's will is done in heaven perseveringly.
V. Angels do God's will in heaven harmoniously.
VI. God's will is done in heaven perfectly.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday,p. 74.
I. Human life is one great want.
II. This want should turn human life into one noble aspiration.
III. This aspiration can only be noble as it is lifted up towards a Father.
IV. This Father must be asked to come in all the power and splendour of a kingdom.
Parker, Hidden Springs,p. 271.
References: Matthew 6:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1778; T. Lessey, Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p., 234; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. vi., p. 316; vol. xi., p. 164; W. Hubbard, Ibid.,vol. xxv., p. 193; R. A. Armstrong, Ibid.,vol. xxxi., p. 314; H. Price Hughes, Ibid.,vol. xxxii., p. 261; E. B. Pusey, Parochial and Cathedral Sermons,p. 319; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 117; M. Dods, The Prayer that Teaches to Pray,pp. 50, 76; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 152; F. D. Maurice, The Lord's Prayer,p. 25; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,pp. 415, 421; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons,1st series, p. 211; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,pp. 418, 431; R. Heber, Sermons Preached in England,p. 193.