Preaching Reflections

 Pastor Huang Zijia

        The Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, beginning with “three petitions.” This not only shows that Christians should hold such desires, but it also emphasizes God's own heartfelt expectations. God anticipates that all people will hallow His name, that all people will recognize His reign and rule (the coming of God's kingdom), and that all people will live according to His will. When people live in opposition and rebellion, God Himself makes efforts to fulfill these “three petitions” by sending His beloved Son to preach the gospel, accomplish the salvation of the cross, and send His disciples to evangelize everywhere, even to the ends of the earth. This reveals that our God is truly a missionary God, and that the subjects of His mission are all people in the world, every nation and every tribe, so that all people may hallow God's name. The focus of the mission is the gospel of the Kingdom of God, that God will save the lost and bring them back under His authority. The scope of the mission is the entire world, so that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.

         God is supremely holy and glorious, worthy of awe and reverence, the Creator of heaven and earth, and the ruler of all things. Humanity, His creation, ought to hallow His name, love Him, obey Him, praise Him, and honor Him. The heavens declare God's glory, the firmament proclaims His handiwork, and the trees, plants, mountains, and green fields rejoice and sing. However, humanity, though specially favored by God, is foolish and stubborn, misusing their freedom. They not only fail to hallow God's name but even profane it and oppose God. Some replace the true God with false gods, attributing glory to the sun, moon, stars, and all natural phenomena. Others substitute great men for the true God, offering praise to idols carved of wood and stone. Still others deny God's existence with strange doctrines and philosophies such as skepticism, evolution, materialism, and atheism. In short, most of humanity does not hallow God's name. God's name represents His very being, His essence. God is the self-existent, eternal one, omnipresent, the Almighty who was, is, and is to come. He is holy, glorious, just, loving, wise, omniscient, supremely good, and perfect, deserving all honor, authority, power, and praise. But since the first humans, Adam and Eve, rebelled against the true God and sinned, falling into ruin, humanity's eyes have been darkened. They deliberately refuse to acknowledge God and to hallow His name, thinking themselves wise, they become fools, ultimately falling short of God's glory and losing His blessings. All have gone their own way, ensnared by sin, awaiting God's just and awesome judgment. But thanks and praise be to the loving true God, who sent His Son into the world to seek and save the lost. Through His Son's sacrificial death on the cross, reconciliation with God is made possible, and people are moved to willingly hallow God's name. When the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, though the redemptive work on the cross was not yet complete, His very purpose for coming was to suffer. This plan of salvation had been established before the ages, and He walked step by step towards Golgotha, so that through the cross, His Father's name might be glorified (cf. John 12:27-28; 17:4-6). Therefore, when we pray, “Hallowed be your name,” we should consider God's sublime nature, His glorious works, and His great salvation. He desires all people to be saved and none to perish. He is a God of mission, and therefore, Christians should also be Christians of mission.

         “The second petition of the Lord's Prayer, ”Your kingdom come,“ also shows that God is a missionary God, and the church should be a missionary church. ”The kingdom of God“ is an important theme throughout the Bible, appearing over a hundred times in the New Testament (including ”kingdom of heaven“). Although it appears only a few times in the Old Testament, such as ”the kingdom of God is an everlasting kingdom“ (Psalm 145:13; 45:16) or ”the kingdom of God shall not be destroyed“ (Daniel 7:14), descriptions of ”God reigning“ are very common. The psalmist declares that God is the King of all the earth (Psalm 24:1; 47:2; 93:1; 95:3-7, etc.); God is the King of nations (Psalm 47:2, 3; 99:2; Jeremiah 10:7, etc.); immediately after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, he composed a song to praise God, saying, ”The Lord will reign forever and ever“ (Exodus 15:18). Although it seemed as though there was no king in the land for over three hundred years while the judges ruled, the last judge, Samuel, explicitly told the Israelites, ”Indeed, the Lord your God is your king“ (1 Samuel 12:12). During the period of the kings, the prophet Isaiah saw in a vision ”the great King, the Lord of hosts“ (Isaiah 6:5). ”God reigning“ is actually the meaning of ”the kingdom of God“ coming, because the Hebrew noun and verb are often interchangeable and related in meaning. Thus, the noun ”kingdom“ derives from the verb ”to reign, to rule, to govern,“ so ”the kingdom of God“ is closely related to ”God reigning.“ God has always governed all things in the universe He created; God has always reigned and ruled in heaven and on earth. Created Adam and Eve were supposed to obey God's rule. Unfortunately, they rebelled against God, rejected God's kingship, and instead listened to the devil's schemes, with the result that Satan's power ruled humanity, causing people to die in their sins and transgressions, and to be separated from God. But thanks be to God, who is merciful and compassionate, for sending His Son into the world to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, ”The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel“ (Mark 1:14). He also explained that through the salvation of the cross, people can receive eternal life by believing in the Lord, be born again by the Holy Spirit, and thus enter the kingdom of God (John 3:14, 15, 3, 5). Therefore, all who repent before God and trust in the salvation of Jesus Christ, that is, all who humbly (poor in spirit) ask Jesus Christ to reign as King and Savior in their hearts, to them the kingdom of God has come; the blessings and the life of Jesus Christ reigning and ruling are realized in them. This is why He said, ”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." When the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Your kingdom come," it signifies God's desire to use the gospel to save people from Satan's dominion and bring them back under His rule. God has already accomplished this great salvation, and God desires this salvation to be realized. God is a missionary God, and the church should also be a missionary church.

        “The third petition of the Lord's Prayer is, ”Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.“ This petition appears quite broad at first glance, as God's will encompasses everything, from the movements of the universe to the details of personal lives, all of which should be done according to God's will. However, in the Gospel of Matthew, the phrase ”God's will“ is used only seven times, and the other six instances are related to the salvation accomplished by God through the Lord Jesus (as explained below). Therefore, ”Thy will be done on earth,“ while it can refer to the accomplishment of all of God's comprehensive will on earth, most importantly signifies the realization on earth of the cross salvation that God planned in heaven to bring to the world through His beloved Son, and the desire for all people to accept this great salvation.

         Of the six other times “God's will” is used in the Gospel of Matthew, three clearly refer to the Lord Jesus“ impending crucifixion. When the Lord Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, hoping that the Father would take away the cup of suffering, he emphasized twice: ”nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt“ (Matt. 26:39) and ”Thy will be done“ (Matt. 26:42). The third instance is when the Lord Jesus rebuked Peter, saying, ”You are not mindful of the things of God“ (Matt. 16:21-23), because Peter opposed the Lord Jesus going to Jerusalem to suffer. The fourth time is when the Lord Jesus was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God throughout Galilee and performed many miracles, but those cities did not repent. The Lord Jesus prayed, ”Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight“ (Matt. 11:26). The wise and proud do not repent and believe the gospel, while the humble like infants have their hearts opened by God, repent, believe in the Lord, and are spared future judgment (Matt. 11:20-24). God's good pleasure is to save the ”poor in spirit“ (Matthew 5:2), who, through Christ's redemptive substitutionary death, bear the penalty of judgment. Thus, being spared future judgment, this ”good pleasure of God“ is also related to the Lord Jesus” atoning salvation through the cross. Finally, the fifth and sixth instances have very similar usage: “Not everyone who says to Me, ”Lord, Lord,“ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21) and “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). The “will of My Father in heaven” mentioned here clearly does not refer to the hundreds of divine commands synthesized from the Bible. If that were the case, surely no one would enter the kingdom of heaven, nor would anyone be able to become the brother or sister of the Lord Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, doing the “will of My Father in heaven” is doing “these sayings of Mine” (Matthew 7:24), meaning to follow the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. The most important essence of the Sermon on the Mount is that the Lord Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets. He fulfilled the salvation of the Messiah prophesied by the Old Testament law and prophets (especially Isaiah 61, Luke 4:15-21); He also fulfilled the ethical requirements of the Old Testament law and prophets. He will also complete the ethical life of His disciples who acknowledge Him as king. Therefore, the “will of My Father in heaven” here can be categorized into three types: prophetic, salvific, and ethical. Prophetic—the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament has come; Salvific—the Messiah, through the salvation of the cross, will bestow “righteousness” upon those who hunger, are poor in spirit, mourn, and are meek; Ethical—the Messiah will complete the ethical life of His disciples. Thus, the “will of My Father in heaven” is for all people to accept the Messiah as Lord and King and to enjoy the blessings of His reign and His ethical life. Only those who thus do the will of the Father in heaven can enter the kingdom of heaven and be called the brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus. It can be seen that the “will of My Father in heaven” in these two instances is also related to the Lord Jesus' atoning salvation through the cross. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," the primary meaning is: "May the Father's salvific will be realized on earth, and may the people on earth receive the salvation planned in heaven."

         In summary, the “three petitions” in the “Lord's Prayer” all reveal that God is a missionary God. He desires all people to repent and return to Him, that His name be hallowed, that all people turn from the dominion of Satan to His kingdom where He reigns, and that all people on earth accept His salvific will planned in heaven. For nearly two thousand years, God has continued to work incessantly, through His church, engaging in missionary work among all nations, regions, peoples, and tribes. Facing the 21st century, may all Christians and the universal church fervently follow the missionary God, becoming missionary Christians and a missionary church, in order to further realize these great “three petitions.”