Father in heaven may your word to I win our hearts rich through this morning that you open up our minds to understand how the prophets and the Psalms spoke of Christ. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated Sorry, I got a frog. It doesn't really matter What political party you belong to today? There's a good chance that you're not happy with the way things are going in our country. Now I know this because pull after pull after pull Keeps coming out on how we're polarized and angry About how things are going on And and pick pretty much any issue that you want if you take a stand on it You are certain to start a rope The adage is even truer today than ever before the two things you should never bring up at dinner are Thank you religion and politics It wasn't always like this You know each one of us can think of better days. We can all look back to a time where we would be proud of the discourse where People set aside their differences to come together to work together on something and If you could wave a magic wand You would go back is that better yet if you can do it you would make things right today This is exactly how the disciples felt right before Pensacost See none of them had actually ever experienced a sovereign Israel, but they had heard the stories Stories of strength Plenty of respect to back then they were the big man on campus Nobody messed with Israel back then and they lived in relative peace and prosperity And so when when Jesus starts talking about the kingdom that the disciples They get excited So last Thursday was ascension day and thankfully it's not against the rules to celebrate ascension on Sunday Because well otherwise we would all have to come out during the middle of the week and I don't know. I don't think anybody's up for that You can chuckle a little bit at that Back me up here And for the last several weeks we've been hearing stories about how the church was established after Pentecost see when the Holy Spirit When the Holy Spirit is unleashed on the earth things start to happen Miracles happen the timid the broken the failures they become bold for climbers of the truth And the gospel begins to take root in people's lies that's never been seen before even in the Gentiles
and the ascension Sets the stage though For Pentecost because the whole paradigm of what's gonna happen and why Is revealed during this first chapter in Acts and it has to do with this 40 days there was 40 days from the resurrection to the ascension and what Luke tells us in our text that during that 40 days Jesus teaches the disciples about the kingdom of God and the disciples They were giddy with anticipation Now was the time this was the place he may have ridden a donkey a couple months ago But this time it's gonna be different every Sunday we pray these Words Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven but What exactly are we praying for? I mean the Bible teaches that Jesus is king Right, but isn't that a Jewish thing? I mean doesn't he come to fulfill that long line of Jewish kings? I mean isn't the whole reason that Jesus came was to die for our sins? Wasn't that it? Well, here's the thing the truth is that Jesus came for so much more In fact If I may be so bold his first priority isn't you and it isn't me His mission is to redeem the entire earth And to establish to reestablish God's sovereign reign over creation And this is what we see in today's passage in Acts and this is what the Lord's Prayer is referring to And so it's this threefold kingdom prayer that I want I want us to see And I want to I want to use as we're unpacking what's happening right before Jesus the sins Jesus opened up his ministry with these words Repents for the kingdom of heaven is at hand And throughout scripture kingship and kingdom is used as the primary Metaphor it's the central term that's used to describe who God is He's the divine king who rules who reigns over all of heaven and earth Isaiah is equal Daniel John they all describe God as being seated on this majestic throne in heaven And jove If you read the last few chapters jove Is driven to silence before God Because he is humbled by God's sovereignty over all of creation The bible speaks about God as king On earth however, it isn't immediately apparent that God is in control throughout history Evil has opposed God and his people at every single turn And this is why the hope of scripture consistently presents One day this conflict with sin will be eliminated one day God is going to Destroy the kingdom of darkness And bring a redeemed humanity Into a new Creation Where the kingdom of God reigns unopposed Here's a thing this is what the disciples were expecting
As Jesus is standing before them and he says now it's time and they're like yes Well what they've heard was the kingdom Would be very different than what they or anyone had anticipated This wasn't to be an earthly kingdom not yet It would be a spiritual kingdom It would be a kingdom that ruled in the hearts and lives of people Where God's law is written on a heart It would be a kingdom of grace and here's the thing citizenship in this kingdom Would mean forgiveness and remission a sin It would mean New relationships and responsibilities it would bind people together across all sorts of barriers all sorts of device
This kingdom would become its own culture It would revolve around specific beliefs and specific practices of worship A church would be born that would reflect this kingdom The thing is that the disciples didn't have an issue with thy kingdom come It was the thy will be done part that they had a problem with and and we should get this I mean deep down We don't do well with kings And aside from the fact that this country was established on the basis of throwing off the shackles of a king From the beginning of time humanity Has been trying to do things our own way I mean we simply don't like people telling us what to do and kings kings mess that up Kings have a tendency to want things their way They want things done in their own timing Kings Tends to have their own genza In kings Sometimes expect their subjects to die for them
See the disciples knew what they want to see It wasn't quite working out as they had planned And and their first disappointment the first disappointment came in the answer to their question is now the time See Jesus Or the disciples ask this they said is this the time that you will restore the kingdom to Israel I mean they longed with all of their fiber to see Israel restored and everything to be set right I mean they honestly thought that Jesus would trade his donkey in for a stallion Raise an army to feed the Romans and everybody else who stood in opposition to God and they believed that they would be in power Right along with them Instead Jesus reminds them Who actually is king See the father had a different plan and he tells them to wait and oh by the way. I've got a job for you Because to compound their disappointment now they find out it's going to require their work their commitment their blood They're going to have to be his witnesses Now We don't really fully understand this term witness what it means to be a witness so we give for us it means Simply someone who has seen something and can relate that story A witness is somebody who goes before the judge and says yeah, I saw this happen and the judge says are you telling a lie? I'm like no, I didn't tell a lie. This happened That's what a witness is The word in Greek tells a very different story the word is Marchurus Where we get our word
And it's this period of history It's this period following the Pentecost and it's it's the lives of the people In the church that actually changed the definition of Marchurus From witness to one who will die for what they believe
And the disciples The disciples sensed this tension
They they considered Where god was calling them to be witnesses to I mean Jerusalem and Judea okay. I'm good with that Samaria. Yeah, maybe But they might survive Samaria but the rest of the world wanted them dead
This was not how it was supposed to play out Have you ever been disappointed with god?
Yeah, thank you. I mean, I know that's a controversial question. It really is It's good Christians were supposed to all be happy with everything that god does But no and here's the thing one of my favorite authors in the world wrote a book called Disappointment with god. You know what happened to book practically got banned Because people wouldn't have anything of it Of course we face disappointment The we want our lives to be perfect We don't do well with patience We want expectations filled And when they aren't sometimes we go off the rails
The reality is life is by and large one huge disappointment But here's the thing it's that way Because deep inside coded in our Imago de ii in the image of god There's this sense of the perfect of that which was lost in the garden Deep down we know that in pretty much every situation of our lives there exists a better A perfect it doesn't matter what it is And this is why this is why scripture lays out for us the hope of a transformed world This is why we're told not to make this world our home It's not because one day we're gonna die and we're gonna go ahead and have it or gonna be handed a heart And we're gonna sit on a cloud for eternity. That's not it
This world is going to change and one day we come back here And it which brings me to the final part of the prayer on earth As it is in heaven see In heaven God's will is performed perfectly And our prayer is That that same sovereign control would be established here See heaven is not the goal Heaven is the standard
Christ kingdom is in earthly kingdom And this is why Angels say to the disciples this Jesus who has been taken up from you Will come in the same way That you saw him go
The resurrection Any ascension Does not change the fact that Jesus's incarnation Has forever bound him To be with mankind on earth He Will return
So today Jesus sits at the right hand of God and to position that Indicates his ultimate authority over all creation Jesus stands before God as our advocates In mediator he pleads our cause But one day one day he will return and establish himself As earth's king And on that day All the longings for perfection that the disciples Stanced all the things that they look for and all the things that they expected at that moment And all the longings we face Will be fulfilled those better days The better days that we look back and long for They're just as broken as today There's some things about the past that were better but there are other things that a whole lot worse There's never going to be a period of time That will measure up To what we have to look forward to
And as Jesus rose according to our gospel reading He extended a blessing And with his hands outstretched He rose into the clouds And that blessing slowly extended to all the earth the coming of Christ Ignorated the final stages of God Setting up his kingdom control on earth And now that kingdom Through us spreads blessing From Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the utter ends of the earth
For now that kingdom is established right here in the church and it's here that God's Sovereign reign exists in the hearts and lives of us
The one day He will return In glory and we will see his kingdom reach its final consummation here on earth And on that day we will finally see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven