Pray then in this way:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Let us have a word of prayer together.
Father, by Your grace and mercy we are here today, and we thank You; we praise You. Because the kingdom is Yours, the glory is Yours, and the power is Yours.
Tonight, we are gathered together here in Your name, and we thank You for this wonderful opportunity that we may sit, like Mary, at Your feet and listen to Your words.
And now, Lord, we pray that You may set Your throne in our midst, that we really can hear Your Word. Lord, may You really conquer us with Your Word. May Your words sink deeply into our hearts, that they will grow in us, affect us, and conquer us.
So, Lord, we commit tonight into Your hands. Speak to our hearts, Lord, and give us an open heaven. We thank You, Lord. We are all here waiting before You. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
I think we all know that the theme for this conference is, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” We know that this theme is taken from the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer begins with adoration. That is why the Lord teaches us to say, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Then we have the petitions, and after the petitions we have the doxology.
When we read Matthew 6:13, we have this phrase: “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” Now, we know that in some of the older versions we do not find this phrase there. Sometimes we wonder whether this phrase is authentic, and we ask about the validity of this doxology.
Even though this has been questioned, many ancient authorities and some old versions still include this doxology. To me, I think it is very natural and very appropriate to terminate this glorious prayer in this way.
After we pray, “Deliver us from evil,” it is very natural for us to give such a word of praise and say, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
Even if this phrase were not there, the thought of it is everywhere in the Bible. When we think of the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God, actually we are thinking of the fullness of God. Probably we cannot find any other phrase like this one to tell us what the fullness of God is.
It is the fullness of God that forms the basis, the soul, and the aim of the whole prayer. With this fullness, we have the basis of our prayer, the soul of our prayer, and the aim of our prayer. So I personally believe that this phrase is very natural and very appropriate.
Now let us turn to 1 Chronicles 29, verse 11.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth;
Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all.
Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone.
Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious name.
But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee.
After we read this portion of the Word, we find an expansion of the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer. We know that this is the prayer of David. Actually, this is the last prayer of David.
If we know the background of David and the background of this doxology, somehow we can appreciate it even more. When David gave these words, we can feel how God had done a great work in David.
David had learned a very bitter lesson before the Lord. Probably the greatest sin in the life of David was the numbering of Israel. When he committed adultery, Uriah and the child died; but when he numbered Israel, seventy thousand lost their lives. The whole nation was involved in judgment.
His sin of passion robbed Bathsheba of her purity and Uriah of his life. However, his sin of pride robbed God of His glory.
After this bitter lesson, after the operation of the work of the cross in his life, David could offer this praise before the Lord. It was as if he were saying, “Not my kingdom, but His; not my power, but His; not my glory, but His.”
David knew what he was talking about. He was acquainted with the splendor and majesty of a kingdom. He knew the glory of his own kingdom, the splendor of David’s kingdom, and the magnificent offerings for the building of the temple. Yet, in the midst of all this, David forgot his own kingdom and declared, “Not my kingdom, but His; not my power, but His; not my glory, but His.”
This is a wonderful doxology in the Word of God. It ought to remind us of that beautiful doxology in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.”
Let us turn to another part of the Word of God: 2 Timothy 4:18.
The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Again, this is a doxology. It is part of the last words of another great man of God, Paul. In the sunset of his life, he uttered a very beautiful praise before the Lord: “The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed.”
I believe that, when Paul offered this praise, he was reminded of the Lord’s Prayer. The last phrase of the Lord’s Prayer is, “Deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
So, somehow, in the last words of Paul, when he remembered that phrase, “Deliver us from evil,” he automatically offered his own praise: “The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we begin with adoration and end with a doxology.
My part this time is to share only on, “Thine is the kingdom.”
When we listen to the doxology of David, we discover that the kingdom David mentions is a universal kingdom. It is a great kingdom, an everlasting kingdom, from eternity to eternity. That is why David says, “Thine is the dominion.”
The kingdom is a great topic. The Lord has put this phrase in my heart these days: “Thine is the kingdom.” I have done some meditation before the Lord, and I have sought to find out whether there is a phrase in the Word of God uttered by God Himself: “My kingdom.”
Can we find such a phrase anywhere from the Old Testament to the New Testament? When we pray, we say, “Thine is the kingdom.” The kingdom was in the heart of our Lord, and it was our Lord who taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” This ought to be our prayer every day, from the very depth of our hearts.
Someone has done some statistics and found that the word kingdom is mentioned roughly one hundred and sixty times in the New Testament. About three-fourths of those occurrences were uttered from the mouth of our Lord. The kingdom must be a central message of our Lord.
After His resurrection, He spent almost forty days speaking to His disciples about the kingdom of God. The book of Acts begins with the kingdom and ends with the kingdom. In the final portion of Acts, Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
To proclaim the kingdom of God can never be divorced from teaching the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the kingdom of God? It simply means that our Lord Jesus Christ is Lord.
Is it possible for us to find a phrase uttered by God Himself: “My kingdom”? To my surprise, you can find only one place in the whole Bible. I may be mistaken, but I checked and double-checked.
The kingdom is such a great topic—universal and cosmic—that we have a tendency to oversimplify it. We try to narrow it down to one line of thought and then insist that this is the whole truth. But then we overlook the complexity of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is as great as God Himself. Sometimes we make our God so small. It is not that God is too small; it is that our view of God is too small. We are limited, and we tend to limit God.
It is almost impossible for us to define God, and it is almost impossible for us to define the kingdom of God. It is from eternity to eternity. We can never narrow it down to one line of thought or to the teaching of one school.
But thank God, if we come back to the Word of God and let Him impress us with His own Word, and if we learn as disciples at the feet of our Master, then by the mercy of the Lord we may begin to see a little more about the kingdom and appreciate the phrase, “Thine is the kingdom.”
Let us turn to 1 Chronicles 17:11.
And it shall come about when your days are fulfilled, that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up one of your descendants after you, who shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
This portion, from verses 1 through 15, concerns God’s covenant with David. In the Old Testament there are three very important covenants: the Sinai covenant, the covenant with Abraham, and God’s covenant with David.
God’s covenant with Abraham and God’s covenant with David are described as everlasting covenants. When God made covenant with these people, He bound Himself to fulfill His promise.
God made a covenant with David concerning his throne. The throne of David would endure forever; there would always be someone to sit upon the throne of David. This is very important for our understanding of prophetic Scripture.
Israel was taken captive into Babylon, and from that time no one visibly sat upon the throne of David. Yet God’s covenant with David remains: according to His promise, that kingdom will be forever.
He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.
I will be his Father, and he shall be My son.
But I will settle him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.
The prophecy was fulfilled partially in Solomon. Solomon built a house for the Lord, and God established his throne. But the word forever takes us beyond Solomon. If we look to the end of history, we see how this prophecy is wonderfully fulfilled.
The one spoken of is greater than Solomon. The complete fulfillment is found in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us turn to Matthew 1:1.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Here the Holy Spirit describes Jesus Christ as the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. When we connect this verse with 1 Chronicles 17, we discover that God’s promise is fulfilled in the life of our Lord.
It is our Lord who will sit upon the throne of David. One day, in the literal kingdom for a thousand years, our Lord will reign. Yet the kingdom of God is not limited to an earthly, political, or merely Messianic kingdom. It is universal and cosmic.
The kingdom of God is intimately connected with our Lord. You can never separate the two. Acts 28:31 speaks of “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:10 says, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ have come.”
When we speak of the kingdom of God, we are speaking of the authority of His Christ. In Luke, the Lord speaks of leaving all “for the sake of the kingdom of God.” In Mark, He speaks of leaving all “for My sake.” To understand the kingdom of God, we must understand one Person: our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the kingdom of God.
This is my burden: let us dwell in the Gospel according to Matthew. The term kingdom of heaven is mentioned many times in Matthew, and the term kingdom of God also appears there.
What is the kingdom of heaven? What is the kingdom of God? Is there a difference between the two? Some say they are identical; others say they are different. We must derive the answer from the Word of God itself.
Let the Gospel tell us. Then we may begin to see something about the kingdom and appreciate that wonderful phrase, “Thine is the kingdom.”
Matthew is the longest among the four Gospels. The first verse already gives us a summary: Jesus Christ is the Son of David and the Son of Abraham.
The first twenty-five chapters present Christ as the Son of David—the One greater than Solomon. Solomon’s special feature was wisdom. In these chapters, our Lord speaks many words of wisdom. The final chapters present Christ as the Son of Abraham, pointing to His death and resurrection.
In Matthew 12:42, our Lord says:
And behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
The Gospel contains five great discourses, marked by recurring formulas such as, “When Jesus had finished these words.” These five discourses naturally divide the first twenty-five chapters into five parts.
The five major discourses are:
The Gospel has a beautiful structure and symmetry. We may compare it to a mountain range with five peaks. The first and last discourses correspond; the second and fourth correspond; and the central peak is Matthew 13, the parables concerning the mysteries of the kingdom.
At the beginning of Matthew, we see Christ as the King in the royal line of David. At the end, in Matthew 28:18, He says:
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
At the beginning, He is the King of Israel; at the end, He is the King of the universe. Therefore, the kingdom is not local or merely political. It is cosmic and universal.
Matthew begins with “Emmanuel,” meaning “God with us,” and ends with, “Lo, I am with you always.” The beginning and the end correspond beautifully.
All these lines lead us toward the central peak: Matthew 13. This chapter is about the nature of the kingdom. It is about the kingdom itself.
Matthew 13 receives special focus and attention. It is like a central pivot around which the other sayings and doings of our Lord Jesus revolve. Something concerning the will of God, especially in connection with the kingdom, is condensed there.
If, by the mercy of the Lord, we can enter into this chapter and ask Him to reveal it to us, we will find something very important. If we want to know anything about the kingdom, if we want clarity concerning the kingdom, we must give attention to Matthew 13.
By the Lord’s mercy, and if the Lord is willing, we will consider this chapter in three further messages. We want to find:
We want to derive all these things from the Word of God itself. The Word of God is the only answer, and it gives us the clearest answer.
Our desire and prayer is that, after this fellowship, we all may pray the Lord’s Prayer with a fuller understanding of this doxology.
On the one hand, we need to learn the lesson of David. We are nothing. We have the spirit of pride. We always tend to number; we want to know the glory and power of our so-called kingdom. But this is great sin before God.
If we really learn the lesson, and if we allow the Holy Spirit and the work of the cross to work deeply in us, then probably we will begin to see something about His kingdom.
We will say, “Not my kingdom, but His; not our kingdom, but His; not our power, but His; not our glory, but His.” Probably this is the lesson for our whole life. May the Lord be merciful to us.
Dear Lord, we thank You for this mercy. If You think these things are useful, Lord, use them and work in our hearts. Impress this Word deeply in our hearts, and conquer us by this Word.
May we begin our way with You. May we begin to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God. Lord, we thank You. It is Your promise. You will grant the kingdom of the Father to us.
So thank You, Lord. We are waiting before You to reveal more of Your will to us. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.