SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/13/2020 11:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “God’s Program”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
6:10a
Message of the verse: “10 ’Thy kingdom
come.”
In
this finial SD on this short section of Scripture I want to continue to look at
what John MacArthur wrote in his book “Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer.” We want to answer this third question in this SD.
“There
is coming a day when He will rule and reign, when our prayers will fully be
answered.
“Third, how does it come? What features lead to the consummation of His rule on earth?
Number
one: conversion. He brings His rule to
this earth when He reigns in lives.
Christ is His kingdom, and you will never separate Him from it. He mediates it through the believers. That’s why the Bible says we are priests and
kings.
To
pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ is to pray that He may take up His reigning residence
in the hearts and lives of those who are in rebellion. It is a prayer for salvation, for kingdom citizenship.
“The
kingdom of God includes an invitation that involves repentance. Jesus said, ‘Repent: for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.’ (Mark 1:14-15 sums
it up so will: ‘Jesus came into Galilee,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom.’
“Kingdom
citizenship is granted when one repents and believes.
“That
demands an act of the will. Jesus once
told a scribe, ‘Thou art not far from the kingdom’ (Mark 12:34).
“He
meant, ‘You’ve got the head knowledge, you just haven’t made that final
decision commitment, you do not enter the kingdom, and the rule of Christ is
not established in your heart.
“The
kingdom, then, has an internal aspect.
Such an internal kingdom, offered by an invitation that demands repentance and a choice to turn
away from sin and toward God, is available to every man. That is conversion.
“How
should you respond? Jesus said, ‘seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness’ (Matt. 6:33). You should be seeking it.
“Luke
16:16 says, ‘The law and the prophets were [proclaimed] until John [the
Baptist]: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man
presseth [is forcing his way] into it.’
“There
are a lot of ways to interpret that, but I like the one that takes the verb biazomai—which really means ‘to enter
violently’ –so that when people whose hearts are right see the kingdom, they
rush into it and literally seize it violently.
We
ought pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ in the sense that men be converted, rushing to
grasp the reign of Christ in their lives.
“And
we ought to value it. Matthew 13 quotes
Jesus: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a treasure (v.44) and a ‘pearl of great price’ (v. 46).
“I
believe the kingdom also comes by commitment. If you are
a Christian, He is Lord and His is ruling, but there is in the Christian life a
time daily for us to affirm that we bow the knee to the lordship. That’s commitment. I call it responding to the royalty residing
in us.
“That
is what Paul meant in Romans 14:17, written to Christians: ‘The kingdom of God is not meat and drink;
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’
“As
I give myself over to the virtues the Spirit wants to produce in my life, I am
asking that the fulness of Christ’s reign be made manifest in me. In that sense, His kingdom comes.
“Some
people have taken those first two ways the kingdom comes—conversion and
commitment—and assumed that that’s all there is. I cannot accept that. There is one more way the kingdom comes.
“The
kingdom comes in consummation. One day the heavens will split open
and Jesus Christ will descend and plant His feet on the Mount of Olives, and He
will establish His kingdom in this world.
“Paul paints a beautiful portrait
of Christ’s coming to receive His kingdom in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. The saints rise in the air ‘to meet the
Lord.’ In the extrabiblical literature,
the Greek word apantesis portrayed
citizens leaving their city to greet visiting royalty. Then they accompanied their royal visitor
back to the city and honored him.
At the rapture, Christ will come
to meet His redeemed citizens and to call them out of the earthly kingdom in
preparation for His soon-coming rule.
They will come into His presence, but instead of immediately returning,
they will wait seven years while Christ conquers the remaining enemies in His
earthly domain (Revelation 6-19).
“At
His second coming, He still completes the victory and return with His redeemed
citizens to consummate the kingdom. The
saints of heaven and the redeemed remnant of earth will then rule and reign
with the Lord God Almighty as His priests for a thousand years (Revelation 1:6;
20:6).
“The
world will see Jesus Christ reigning here, when the curse is reversed and this
earth is like God meant to be before the Fall.
“Jesus is coming again.
“He
will rule on the earth on the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem and will
set right the curses that have been brought to this earth. Like Peter, I look to and hasten the day when
He comes. I hear John saying again and
again, ‘Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming.’ Finally, he says in Revelation 22:20, ‘Even
so, come, Lord Jesus.’
“We
might ask the question, How does one become qualified to pray, ‘Thy kingdom
come’? The answer is, By changing
citizenship. And how does one change
citizenship? By conversion. And how does one live out that
citizenship? By commitment. And how is that citizenship fully
realized? By consummation.
“That
glorious day is coming, and in the meantime the kingdom is in your midst as He
reigns and rules in the hearts of His people.”
AMEN!!
11/13/2020 12:06 PM
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