On Earth as It Is in Heaven

0:00When Luke records what we call the Lord's Prayer, he tells us that Jesus taught it in response to a request. Lord, teach us to pray. In other words, it's a kind of model prayer. Pray like this, it says our Lord Jesus. I mentioned yesterday that the prayer has an additional function because it teaches us the shape of our praying, it also teaches us the shape of our living as disciples of the Lord. I don't think I really need to remind you what that shape is. Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever and we enjoy Him only when we live for Him, when we glorify Him. The masters of the spiritual life I think of all recognize that our lives by nature are disordered, our minds, our wills, our affections are all disordered and

1:04they need to be regenerated and refashioned. That's what Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 is all about, isn't it? The transformation of our life, its reconstruction, its reshaping, its reordering, that takes place by the renewal of our minds. And that's actually one of the blessings of praying the Lord's Prayer. It begins to renew our mind. It begins to shape how we think about life. It reorders our priorities. It resenters us on the Father. It sets our affections on the right things and in the right order. And that's why we pray for God's name to be holy, to be reverenced, to be treated with awe, to use Martin Luther's words to let God be God. And it follows that the heart that is centered on God's glory in this way will want to see that glory manifested in the

2:06world. And so Jesus now teaches us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is His reign. In fact, it's what Adam and Eve were commissioned to bring about in the world when they were given dominion. They were to extend the garden God had given them to the ends of the earth. You remember that not all the earth was garden. And so they were to extend it. And then, then the earth would be full of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. But they failed. But through Jesus Christ, the second man, God is going to accomplish what they failed to do. And Paul envisages this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 20 through 28. He looks forward to the end of history taking place when everything is subjected to the Lord Jesus

3:06as the last Adam. And he tells us on that day, he will present a renewed and reordered world. And even himself as God's vice gerent, he will present all this to his father. And then he says, God will be all in all. That's what we're praying for when we say, thy kingdom come. But we know something that the disciples discovered only slowly. We know from the New Testament that the kingdom comes in stages. It was inaugurated by Jesus. And it's now being extended in and through his people in the church and it will be consummated when he returns in glory. So praying your kingdom come presents a great actually a thrilling vision. But it isn't a vision of pie in the sky when you die. Don't get me wrong, there is pie in the

4:06sky when you die a glorious future indeed. But we also need to see this pie now as we might say. For this petition is part of a parallelism like those we find in the Psalms. They go like this. The first line says one thing and then the second line often explains it or develops it. So line one, the Lord is my shepherd, line two, developing it, I shall not want. And it's like that here, isn't it? Thy kingdom come is developed by the next statement. Thy will be done here on earth as it is perfectly in heaven. In other words, what we're praying for here is help to know and to do God's will. And that brings us right back to Romans 12 versus 1 and 2 again, doesn't it? Our lives are

5:06transformed by the renewing of our minds. And it's in this way that we discover the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect. And all this is rooted in us yielding ourselves to the Lord and not being conformed to the will and ways of the world. So when we pray, thy will be done, we're submitting to the Lord's decreative will, that is his sovereign purposes. But we're also asking for the help we need to understand and pursue his revealed will. The pattern of life he has set before is in scripture, together with its rich and varied and many individual applications to our own lives. So that's why we need to pray today and every day. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done.