"The Lord's Prayer: Thine Is the Kingdom"
1 Chronicles 29
Psalm 73
Luke 2
Introduction: The Kingdom Prayer
"For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever. Amen."
Why do you pray?
Over the last four weeks we've looked at the six petitions of the Lord's Prayer.
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom Come
Thy Will be done
Give us this day our daily bread
Forgive us our debts
Lead us not into temptation
Why do you pray that God's name would be treated as holy?
Why do you pray that the kingdom of God would come?
Why do you pray for your daily bread?
Why do you pray for the forgiveness of your sins?
It all comes down to this:
It is because the kingdom belongs to God.
It is because God has the power to hear our prayer, and to answer!
And it is because God's glory is at stake.
Kingdom
Power
Glory
The Lord's Prayer is pre-eminently the "kingdom prayer."
Our King Jesus is teaching us how to pray as citizens of his kingdom.
Q. 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer teach us?
A. The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer, which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, forever. Amen, teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in
our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him; and, in testimony of our
desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.
The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer teaches us
that God alone is the source of our encouragement in prayer.
And we see this in three ways
in David,
in the Song of Simeon
and in us.
1. Thine is the Kingdom in Jesus and David
The conclusion to the Lord's Prayer, oddly enough,
was probably not originally part of the Lord's Prayer!
The last phrase, "for thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen"
is not found in any Greek manuscript prior to the fifth century,
and while the Lord's Prayer is widely quoted by the early Fathers,
only after the fourth century does it conclude with these words.
How did it come to be added?
The Lord's Prayer ends rather awkwardly.
"Deliver us from evil" is a rather strange way to end a prayer.
And so most likely some early pastor decided to add a phrase from 1 Chronicles 29
to the end of the Lord's Prayer.
The phrase caught on and by the fifth century a large number of people were using
this concluding phrase.
At some point, probably in the 4th or 5th century,
a copyist was transcribing the Lord's Prayer
and thought that someone had accidentally left out the concluding phrase.
So he "corrected" the "error"-and since many other copyists perpetuated it,
eventually 1 Chronicles 29:11 became permanently affixed to Matthew 6:13.
That is one possible reconstruction.
Others could be proposed.
I am glad that most modern translations are willing to leave it out of Matthew 6:13.
Jesus almost certainly did not say it, so we should not put it in our Bibles.
BUT, I am also glad that we continue to use this conclusion to the Lord's Prayer.
Because not only is it true, it is also scriptural.
And while it may not have been Christ who said it,
it was a type of Christ-King David.
And just as we have seen that the Lord's Prayer is a kingdom prayer,
so also David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29 is a kingdom prayer.
When teaching us how to pray, Jesus taught us to pray "thy kingdom come";
and that is precisely what David prays in 1 Chronicles 29.
David is about to die.
He had wanted to build the temple himself,
but God had refused.
It was not fitting for David to build a house for God's name,
because God had built a house for David.
And so instead David gathers together all the materials for building (1 Chron. 28:1-9).
And before he died,
David gathered the people together to worship the Lord,
and to hand over the task of building to his son, Solomon.
In 1 Chronicles 28, David assembled the people and explained that
God had "chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne
of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.
He said to me, 'It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts,
for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father." (28:5-6)
And then David charged Solomon with the same words that Moses had charged Joshua:
"Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed,
for the LORD God, even my God, is with you.
He will not leave you or forsake you,
until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished."
(28:20)
When all the people had brought their freewill offerings to the LORD,
then David prayed that God would indeed do as he had promised:
Not only is it a kingdom prayer,
but it is a prayer for his son-that his son might reign wisely,
and build the temple for God's name.
"Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments,
your testimonies, and your statutes, performing all,
and that he may build the palace for which I have made provision." (29:19)
And it is in that context that David prays,
"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty,
for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.
Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head over all." (29:11)
David prays that God's kingdom will come through his son,
because he acknowledges that all greatness and power and glory belong to God.
Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and because yours is the kingdom,
please do all that you have promised!
It is fitting, then, that a portion of David's kingdom prayer
should be attached to the Son of David's kingdom prayer.
2. Thine Is the Kingdom in the Song of Simeon
We see the meaning of "thine is the kingdom" as well in the song of Simeon,
which we have been singing as our hymn of the month in December.
David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29 came at the end of his life,
and he prayed that God would prosper Solomon because he confessed
"thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory."
Here in Luke 2 there is another man who is approaching his death-
Simeon, who was "righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel."
In other words, he was anticipating the day when the herald would proclaim,
"Comfort, Comfort, ye my people-speak ye peace, thus saith our God!"
There were many righteous and devout Jews,
but Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon.
The Holy Spirit, at that time, was given only to those who had a special mission,
so this reveals that Simeon had a special calling, revealed in the next verse:
The Holy Spirit had revealed to him
"that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ."
And on the day when Jesus was brought to the temple 40 days after his birth
(as was commanded in Leviticus 12-every firstborn shall be called holy to the LORD),
Simeon was led by the Spirit to the temple,
"And when the parents brought in the child Jesus,
to do for him according to the custom of the Law,
he took him up in his arms and blessed God."
As the Spirit-anointed David had spoken of Solomon,
now the Spirit-anointed Simeon speaks of Jesus,
and says, in effect, "Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever!"
(Read 29-32)
Simeon, with the eyes of faith, sees the future in the present.
Simeon sees the salvation that God had prepared through all ages.
This little baby-helpless and weak-
was the one through whom the nations would behold the light of the glory of God.
Remember how our catechism puts it:
Q. 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer teach us?
A. The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer, which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
the glory, forever. Amen, teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only,[225]
and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him;[226] and, in
testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.[227]
Simeon does not see anything kingly, powerful, or glorious.
He sees a little baby.
But by faith, and by the Spirit, he sees the salvation of God's people.
3. Thine Is the Kingdom in Us
This is why I wanted us to sing Psalm 73 today.
Because Psalm 73 is all about seeing that "thine is the kingdom"
even when there's nothing obvious about it!
In Psalm 73 Asaph recounts how he had envied the wicked.
It was not at all apparent that the kingdom belonged to God!
The wicked prospered and sought to destroy the innocent.
"They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongue struts through the earth"
This describes well what we see.
In our day the wicked prosper.
In our day the godless have also attempted to speak of all things without God.
We have godless education,
godless politics,
godless economics,
and godless science.
How can we pray, "Thine is the Kingdom,"
when we can't see it?
Asaph explains.
We pray "thine is the kingdom" the same way that Simeon did.
All Simeon saw was a baby.
All Asaph saw was the sanctuary of God.
"When I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end."
When Asaph enters the temple,
then he sees by faith what Simeon would see 1000 years later.
He sees the coming of God's salvation.
"Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you."
The wicked lay claim to heaven and earth,
but there is nothing there worth having,
if you do not have God!
"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever!
What compares to that?
In other words,
what Asaph saw in the first temple in Jerusalem,
what Simeon saw in the second temple in Jerusalem, when he saw the baby Jesus,
is what John also saw in the heavenly temple, when in his vision
he beheld the exalted Christ standing at the right hand of the Father.
when he saw the living creatures and the elders and great multitude crying out:
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth
and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" (Rev. 5:12)
They saw the end of history from the middle of history.
And they saw that because of the end of history,
the middle of history is given its true meaning.
If all you see is the middle of history,
then Asaph and Simeon look like pious fools.
David's sons rebelled and the temple that Solomon built,
the temple where Asaph found comfort,
was smashed by Nebuchadnezzar.
The little baby whom Simeon declared was for "the fall and rising of many in Israel"
was crucified by the Romans, dying an ignominious death.
Do not look for the meaning of the kingdom of God in the middle of history.
Look at the end.
Look at Jesus-not the helpless baby-not the derelict on the cross-
but the one who has been named King of kings and Lord of Lords,
exalted at the right hand of the Father.
Thine is the kingdom!
Thine is the power!
Thine is the glory, forever!
Amen.
As our catechism puts it,
"and, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen."