The Conclusion: Thine Is The Kingdom
Sermon
What's That Supposed To Mean?
Using The Catechism In The 21st Century
Object:
The Lord's Prayer -- The Conclusion
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. What is meant by the word "Amen"? That I should be certain that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven and are heard by Him; for He Himself has commanded us so to pray, and has promised to hear us. Amen, Amen, that is, Yea, yea, it shall be so.
Amen. That's one of those words in the Bible that has managed to find its way into all the languages of the world. In English, we would say, "You can depend on that." It's sort of like a chair; you don't ask yourself, "I wonder if this chair will support me?" -- you assume it will, because it is a chair. How much more is this true of God? The Hebrew people would merely say, "Amen," to that dependability. Remember a number of times Jesus, in the old King James Bible, would say something like, "Amen, Amen, I say unto you"? That was His way of saying, "What I am about to say is most certainly true; it is something you can depend on."
Amen. Why do we put that at the end of our prayers? Because our prayers are dependable? No. That's our confession of faith in our God. And today I would like to focus specifically on how the word "Amen" is used in the Bible in a very special and unique way. Did you know that "Amen" is a nickname for Jesus? You can find this in the book of Revelation, where he says, "Tell the Laodiceans this is what the Amen says." So when we say our prayers and we end them with the word "Amen," we as Christians have in mind that our prayer can be prayed only because of Jesus, because he is the one that's dependable, not us. Often we also show this by saying just before "Amen" something like, "through Jesus Christ."
Now in the Lord's Prayer, we end by saying, "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen." But did you notice in the catechism when it comes to explaining that, it doesn't say anything about the kingdom and the power and the glory, does it? It just focuses on the word "Amen." That's because "Amen" summarizes "for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory." Remember, "Amen" talks about Jesus. It's His name. And if you look at those words there, "For Thine is the kingdom, the power and glory," they also point to Jesus. I'd like to focus especially on the connection between the words "For Thine is the kingdom" and "Amen."
"For Thine is the kingdom." Remember when Jesus was going around the countryside? What was he preaching about? The Gospel writers report that it was, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Of course, He wasn't merely walking around saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand" -- that's just the summary of the message, that's the theme of His sermons that He went around preaching. His preaching was about His coming kingdom.
Now remember when Jesus was finally arrested by the chief priests, brought to trial before the supreme court of the Jews, what was the charge that was brought against Him? He was convicted of blasphemy. He was convicted of saying, "I am the Son of God." But also remember that the supreme court wanted Jesus executed, but they wanted the Romans to do the dirty work. And yet the supreme court recognized that if they took Jesus before Pontius Pilate and said, "This man deserves to die, because he says he is the Son of God," Pilate's going to laugh them right out of court. Romans worshiped many men who claimed to be gods. So, what charge did they take to Pontius Pilate against Jesus? They took one statement that Jesus made at his trial, "I am the Christ."
When Jesus said, "I am the Christ," His enemies knew that the Romans would be interested in that statement, because the word "Christ" is a loaded term. For centuries God's people had been looking forward to a Christ -- God's "Anointed," a King -- who would be their Savior. Along the way, they also began to believe that this king would come to defeat Rome, and would establish the Holy Land as the headquarters of God's government on earth.
This is what would catch Pilate's attention. Pilate would say, "A king? Nobody can be king unless he first swears allegiance to Rome. I don't want any kings running around who've got some idea that they're going to set up a kingdom that's going to overthrow the Romans." He already had two Jewish kings to contend with as it was. He had one Herod up in the north and another down in the south. Each claimed to be king of the Jews. The last thing he needed was some fellow running around claiming to be another king of the Jews.
So Pilate asks Jesus point-blank, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And what did Jesus say? "Yes. You said it. But my kingdom is not of this world." With those words, Pontius Pilate was able to breathe a big sigh of relief. "Not a king of this world? His kingdom must be in another world!" There's only one other world that Pilate knew about, the world where the dead go. So for Jesus to say that His kingdom was not of this world meant that Jesus' kingdom was of the next world, and what threat could that possibly be to Pilate or to Rome? To be king of the dead -- so what? So Pilate was willing to let Jesus go.
Of course the Jews pressed Pilate, until finally he said, "All right, all right. I'll execute him. And I'll execute him as king of the Jews, just for you. But I'm also going to make you sorry that you messed with me. I'll show you what I think of your king -- and what I think of you!" So Pilate let his soldiers dress Jesus up like a king, pay mock homage to Him, and then beat Him black and blue. Pilate made sure that, when Jesus was crucified, a sign over his head said, "This is the King of the Jews." Then, just to mock the Jews further, Pilate had two criminals crucified with Jesus -- one on one side, and one on the other, the mocking image of a king and his court, the king with his criminal advisers on either side of him. By this, Pilate said what he thought of the kingdom of the Jews -- it's a kingdom of robbers and thieves, of crooks and the worst of humankind.
So, there's Jesus hanging on the cross. On the left-hand side is a criminal who is mocking Jesus, "Save us, O king!" And on the right-hand side is a criminal who says, "Hey, we're getting what we deserve. This man is innocent." He turns to Jesus and says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And how did Jesus answer that? "Today you will be with me in paradise." There, hanging on a cross, Jesus demonstrated what it meant when he went around preaching, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." The kingdom of heaven is made up of people like that criminal who confess their unworthiness, who then receive Jesus' promise of eternal life. That's the kingdom.
Where's the "Amen"? As He died, He said, "It is finished." He said this after He prayed that the Father would forgive those who had executed Him and after He promised to take the penitent criminal to heaven with Him. "It is finished!" That's the "Amen" at the end of the prayer. "It is finished," Jesus told this malefactor. "Today you will be in paradise."
But that promise is only as good as the word of Jesus, isn't it? Yet, hasn't Jesus showed that His Word is dependable, that He is "Amen"? Only by death on a cross could He take away the sins of the world. He showed that He could be depended on when He went to that cross -- and that's why we decorate our churches with crosses, to remind us of Jesus and His dependability.
And then God says "Amen" to what Jesus did for us, and what He promised to do for us, by raising Him again from the dead. Is there any question, then, that the kingdom of heaven belongs to God, through and in and from Christ? That's what the Bible means when it talks about the kingdom of God. It only means Jesus. It doesn't mean any political power here on earth, whether in Washington or in Jerusalem, as some people mistakenly think today; it has to do with Jesus and the message of forgiveness of sins. So the kingdom does not belong to our national leaders; it does not belong to the United Nations; it does not belong to any man who claims to be in charge of things. The kingdom belongs to the Father in heaven, in and through and from Jesus Christ the Amen. And that kingdom is found wherever the forgiveness of sins is declared and believed.
So here in this place is the kingdom of God. You people gathered here today are the kingdom of God. And the promise that Jesus made to this malefactor is the same promise He makes to you. "Today you will be with me in paradise." You can go straight from this room into the presence of God. And we do, don't we, in our prayers? We don't need priests. We don't need anything, because we have Jesus, God's Amen, who has opened the way for us. He is the King. And His forgiveness, His kingdom, is as dependable as what He has done for us. And so all we have to do is look back -- what did He do? He suffered, He died, He rose again, He sits at the right hand of God. And that's what "Amen" is all about. Jesus rules heaven and earth for our sake. "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord." Why? Because Jesus is Amen; Jesus is the king. That's saying the same thing in two different ways.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to believe that You are the king, and that Yours is the kingdom, especially when we look around us and we see how evil is out of control. Give us faith to depend on Your royal decree of forgiveness, and on how that royal decree transforms and changes fallen humankind into citizens fit for heaven. Make us fit for heaven as we hear that decree declared to us, and give us faith to come and live under that decree. All this we pray for Your precious name's sake. Amen.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. What is meant by the word "Amen"? That I should be certain that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven and are heard by Him; for He Himself has commanded us so to pray, and has promised to hear us. Amen, Amen, that is, Yea, yea, it shall be so.
Amen. That's one of those words in the Bible that has managed to find its way into all the languages of the world. In English, we would say, "You can depend on that." It's sort of like a chair; you don't ask yourself, "I wonder if this chair will support me?" -- you assume it will, because it is a chair. How much more is this true of God? The Hebrew people would merely say, "Amen," to that dependability. Remember a number of times Jesus, in the old King James Bible, would say something like, "Amen, Amen, I say unto you"? That was His way of saying, "What I am about to say is most certainly true; it is something you can depend on."
Amen. Why do we put that at the end of our prayers? Because our prayers are dependable? No. That's our confession of faith in our God. And today I would like to focus specifically on how the word "Amen" is used in the Bible in a very special and unique way. Did you know that "Amen" is a nickname for Jesus? You can find this in the book of Revelation, where he says, "Tell the Laodiceans this is what the Amen says." So when we say our prayers and we end them with the word "Amen," we as Christians have in mind that our prayer can be prayed only because of Jesus, because he is the one that's dependable, not us. Often we also show this by saying just before "Amen" something like, "through Jesus Christ."
Now in the Lord's Prayer, we end by saying, "For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen." But did you notice in the catechism when it comes to explaining that, it doesn't say anything about the kingdom and the power and the glory, does it? It just focuses on the word "Amen." That's because "Amen" summarizes "for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory." Remember, "Amen" talks about Jesus. It's His name. And if you look at those words there, "For Thine is the kingdom, the power and glory," they also point to Jesus. I'd like to focus especially on the connection between the words "For Thine is the kingdom" and "Amen."
"For Thine is the kingdom." Remember when Jesus was going around the countryside? What was he preaching about? The Gospel writers report that it was, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Of course, He wasn't merely walking around saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand" -- that's just the summary of the message, that's the theme of His sermons that He went around preaching. His preaching was about His coming kingdom.
Now remember when Jesus was finally arrested by the chief priests, brought to trial before the supreme court of the Jews, what was the charge that was brought against Him? He was convicted of blasphemy. He was convicted of saying, "I am the Son of God." But also remember that the supreme court wanted Jesus executed, but they wanted the Romans to do the dirty work. And yet the supreme court recognized that if they took Jesus before Pontius Pilate and said, "This man deserves to die, because he says he is the Son of God," Pilate's going to laugh them right out of court. Romans worshiped many men who claimed to be gods. So, what charge did they take to Pontius Pilate against Jesus? They took one statement that Jesus made at his trial, "I am the Christ."
When Jesus said, "I am the Christ," His enemies knew that the Romans would be interested in that statement, because the word "Christ" is a loaded term. For centuries God's people had been looking forward to a Christ -- God's "Anointed," a King -- who would be their Savior. Along the way, they also began to believe that this king would come to defeat Rome, and would establish the Holy Land as the headquarters of God's government on earth.
This is what would catch Pilate's attention. Pilate would say, "A king? Nobody can be king unless he first swears allegiance to Rome. I don't want any kings running around who've got some idea that they're going to set up a kingdom that's going to overthrow the Romans." He already had two Jewish kings to contend with as it was. He had one Herod up in the north and another down in the south. Each claimed to be king of the Jews. The last thing he needed was some fellow running around claiming to be another king of the Jews.
So Pilate asks Jesus point-blank, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And what did Jesus say? "Yes. You said it. But my kingdom is not of this world." With those words, Pontius Pilate was able to breathe a big sigh of relief. "Not a king of this world? His kingdom must be in another world!" There's only one other world that Pilate knew about, the world where the dead go. So for Jesus to say that His kingdom was not of this world meant that Jesus' kingdom was of the next world, and what threat could that possibly be to Pilate or to Rome? To be king of the dead -- so what? So Pilate was willing to let Jesus go.
Of course the Jews pressed Pilate, until finally he said, "All right, all right. I'll execute him. And I'll execute him as king of the Jews, just for you. But I'm also going to make you sorry that you messed with me. I'll show you what I think of your king -- and what I think of you!" So Pilate let his soldiers dress Jesus up like a king, pay mock homage to Him, and then beat Him black and blue. Pilate made sure that, when Jesus was crucified, a sign over his head said, "This is the King of the Jews." Then, just to mock the Jews further, Pilate had two criminals crucified with Jesus -- one on one side, and one on the other, the mocking image of a king and his court, the king with his criminal advisers on either side of him. By this, Pilate said what he thought of the kingdom of the Jews -- it's a kingdom of robbers and thieves, of crooks and the worst of humankind.
So, there's Jesus hanging on the cross. On the left-hand side is a criminal who is mocking Jesus, "Save us, O king!" And on the right-hand side is a criminal who says, "Hey, we're getting what we deserve. This man is innocent." He turns to Jesus and says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And how did Jesus answer that? "Today you will be with me in paradise." There, hanging on a cross, Jesus demonstrated what it meant when he went around preaching, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." The kingdom of heaven is made up of people like that criminal who confess their unworthiness, who then receive Jesus' promise of eternal life. That's the kingdom.
Where's the "Amen"? As He died, He said, "It is finished." He said this after He prayed that the Father would forgive those who had executed Him and after He promised to take the penitent criminal to heaven with Him. "It is finished!" That's the "Amen" at the end of the prayer. "It is finished," Jesus told this malefactor. "Today you will be in paradise."
But that promise is only as good as the word of Jesus, isn't it? Yet, hasn't Jesus showed that His Word is dependable, that He is "Amen"? Only by death on a cross could He take away the sins of the world. He showed that He could be depended on when He went to that cross -- and that's why we decorate our churches with crosses, to remind us of Jesus and His dependability.
And then God says "Amen" to what Jesus did for us, and what He promised to do for us, by raising Him again from the dead. Is there any question, then, that the kingdom of heaven belongs to God, through and in and from Christ? That's what the Bible means when it talks about the kingdom of God. It only means Jesus. It doesn't mean any political power here on earth, whether in Washington or in Jerusalem, as some people mistakenly think today; it has to do with Jesus and the message of forgiveness of sins. So the kingdom does not belong to our national leaders; it does not belong to the United Nations; it does not belong to any man who claims to be in charge of things. The kingdom belongs to the Father in heaven, in and through and from Jesus Christ the Amen. And that kingdom is found wherever the forgiveness of sins is declared and believed.
So here in this place is the kingdom of God. You people gathered here today are the kingdom of God. And the promise that Jesus made to this malefactor is the same promise He makes to you. "Today you will be with me in paradise." You can go straight from this room into the presence of God. And we do, don't we, in our prayers? We don't need priests. We don't need anything, because we have Jesus, God's Amen, who has opened the way for us. He is the King. And His forgiveness, His kingdom, is as dependable as what He has done for us. And so all we have to do is look back -- what did He do? He suffered, He died, He rose again, He sits at the right hand of God. And that's what "Amen" is all about. Jesus rules heaven and earth for our sake. "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord." Why? Because Jesus is Amen; Jesus is the king. That's saying the same thing in two different ways.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to believe that You are the king, and that Yours is the kingdom, especially when we look around us and we see how evil is out of control. Give us faith to depend on Your royal decree of forgiveness, and on how that royal decree transforms and changes fallen humankind into citizens fit for heaven. Make us fit for heaven as we hear that decree declared to us, and give us faith to come and live under that decree. All this we pray for Your precious name's sake. Amen.
