Lord's Prayer
3: Thy Kingdom Come

Sing together
verse 1 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God
verse 2 Man shall no live by bread alone.
verse 3 Ask and it shall be opened unto you.
seek and ye shall find
knock and the door shall be opened unto you

Read Matthew 12:28. Thank God that Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to this earth when he came. Thank God that we can know his presence today in our lives.

The Kingdom was central to Jesus' teaching. Read Mark 1:15, Matthew 5.

We don't preach very often (as he did) the Kingdom is at hand. What did he mean when he said this 2000 years ago? What would his hearers have understood?

1) From Tom Wright (Bishop of Durham), the message of the Kingdom has 6 features.

• an invitation - to repent and believe
• a welcome - to all with the offer of forgiveness.
• a challenge - to live as a people of the new covenant e.g. sermon on the mount.
• a summons - to follow Jesus (replacing the Torah)
• a warning - not all will enter the kingdom. You might be excluded (Matthew 25:1-13)
• a promise - Jesus and his people will, be vindicated.

2) If that is what it meant 2000 years ago what does the prayer mean when we pray it today? Firstly what does it mean for us as a church?

3) Look at John's Pentecost verse (John 20:21-23). We are sent as he was sent. He was sent to bear the message of the Kingdom, to show it by his actions, inaugurate it in his death and resurrection, call people to become part of it through his teaching, and warn of what would happen to those who rejected his message.

If we are sent as he was sent, what does this mean? Can religion be just a private matter? How many features of the message of the Kingdom are made plain by our lives?