Our text for this afternoon session is Colossians 1:15–20. This has historically been called the Christ hymn:

[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The Cosmic Context

Because of sin, things are not the way they’re supposed to be. Our world was not designed by God to be as deeply and horribly broken as it is. All you have to do is turn on CNN and see the latest report on someone’s death or a terror attack. Things are not the way they’re supposed to be. This world was created to be an eternal, utopian, cosmic display of God’s glory as he ruled over everything (all things) as the creator king. We were created to reflect his glory and his rule as we find our joy in him and in his mission to fill the earth and to rule over it so that the paradise of his perfect rule in Eden would be extended throughout all eternity throughout the earth. What I want us to do as we begin to look at this text is to place it in its context in two ways. First, I want us to look at the cosmic context. Then I want us to look at the historic context, and then in light of those overarching contexts we’ll dive into the text.

Now, what we know is this utopian creation is designed to bring God glory in the first chapter of redemptive history. In the next chapter, evil entered the story through a very real villain, Satan, who enticed man to sin. And then something horrible happened. Paradise was lost. God’s image bearers came under not only the just curse of God’s wrath, their hearts became corrupt and idolatrous. Man’s broken relationship with God caused all other vital relationships for life and joy to be broken — with self, with others, and with creation itself. The terrible impact of sin on humanity and on creation resulted in the total depravity of not just humanity, but the total depravity of all creation. But by God’s grace, both humanity and creation are not utterly depraved. When we talk about the doctrines of grace and we talk about the concept of total depravity, we separate the difference between total depravity and utter depravity.

God in his grace allowed a remnant of the original dignity and the beauty of his image to be reflected in his image bearers and in creation. But there is a sense in terms of our conference theme of understanding more deeply the systemic nature of sin that there was not one square inch in all of creation over which Satan did not cry, “Mine.” I mean it sounds almost blasphemous to read these words from the apostle John, “The whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). God’s original mission for humanity and for creation was grossly thwarted by sin. And as a result, God allowed Satan to set up his kingdom in this fallen world and begin ruling over it to the place that the apostle John would make a statement that makes us shutter. Listen to it again: “The whole world is under the control of the evil one.” This is why things are not the way they’re supposed to be. This is why there is so much brokenness in your life, in your relationships, and with your health.

Christ’s Valiant Triumph

In the world there is not just what we would sometimes call spiritual brokenness, but spiritual brokenness reflected in relational brokenness — socially, culturally, and economically. And on the political scale you see brokenness from North Korea to the Middle East. This is why there’s so much violence. This is why there’s so much poverty. This is why there’s so much disease. This is why there’s so much injustice. Things are not the way that they’re supposed to be. So people are looking for hope. They’re desperately looking for hope and they’re not finding it in things like money, sex, or power. This is what we celebrate at this conference. True hope can only be found in frankly a foolish sounding kind of story called the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s the news that in order to rescue us and to rescue this runaway planet infiltrated with brokenness — because of sin and dominated by Satan — the eternal Son of God took on a human nature.

He entered this story. And as our redeemer king, he did valiant battle for us against. I love the old Puritan phrase, “against all of his and our enemies.” And as the second Adam, he too was enticed by Satan, but the good news is he was not defeated. He lived the life we should have lived earning for us a perfect righteousness. He died a death we deserved to die, receiving the full wrath of God for our sin, shedding his blood. And through his death, Paul writes, “He disarmed all rulers and all authorities putting them to open shame by triumphing over them through the cross” (Colossians 2:15). And then God raised him from the dead, proclaiming not only his ultimate victory over evil and the vindication of his righteousness, satisfying the just demands of a holy God, but also inaugurating his new rule on the earth as the firstborn of many to follow in the new age to come where things will be like they’re supposed to be.

Then Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, and he poured out his Holy Spirit on his church through which he is now continuing God’s mission on earth by restoring not only fallen humanity, but also his fallen creation as far as the curse is found until he returns one day to make all things new. And as a result of Christ’s work Paul writes in Colossians 1:13–14, just preceding this text we read:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

That’s the cosmic context for these six verses. Now, let’s look at the cultural historic context.

The Cultural Context

This good news that I just shared with you was brought by a church planter named Epaphras to a small town called Colossi in a Roman province in Southeastern Asia Minor. If you had lived in that day, the big political news of the day was that Claudius, the old Caesar Claudius, was dead and there was a new promising emperor who was now on the throne. This was giving citizens throughout the Roman Empire new hope. There was new hope for justice and new hope for protection. His name was Nero, later rumored to have been so threatened by those who acknowledge this good news of Jesus as king, that he dipped them in oil and set them on fire to light up his garden at night. And we don’t know historically if that’s true, but it’s been a rumor that’s transcended the ages. And in a day without electronic media, the way they knew of this new emperor was by how the Roman authorities put his image everywhere from massive public displays to very small coins. These images were meant to convey the good news, “This is your king. He is named Nero in whom you have hope for protection, for justice, for peace, for human flourishing in a utopian new world order.”

The other big news during this time among followers of Christ was that a rapidly spreading movement of Christ followers, and this is not hyperbole, was actually spreading “throughout the whole world.” In fact, in this context, if you look at Colossians 1:6, this gospel movement is described by Paul as bearing fruit and increasing in “the whole world.” And as the good news of Christ was proclaimed, it’s very clear that lives were changed, churches were planted, and Epaphras was a part of this movement proclaiming in Colossi the good news of another king who had ascended to another throne and who was promising another kingdom. And by all accounts, specifically Scripture itself, Paul’s ministry as a church planter was very successful. When he returned to the movement leader the apostle Paul — most likely imprisoned at this time in Ephesus, about a hundred or so miles west of Colossi — wrote them later and he referred to the good report from Epaphras (Colossians 1:3–4).

He says, “We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.” Basically, we heard of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope that’s laid up for you in heaven. Do you see the trinity there? It’s just in a different order. It’s interesting he speaks of faith, hope, and love. The report from Epaphras as he came off the field to the movement leader who was in prison was that God is at work. There’s vibrant spiritual maturity. Christ is being formed in them. They have faith in Christ. They have love for all the saints. And the structure of this sentence is that faith and love are rooted in their hope. But Epaphras didn’t bring this movement leader, the apostle Paul, just a good report on Colossi. Epaphras told Paul that the Colossians were in grave danger.

An Infiltration of False Teachers

False teachers had infiltrated their vibrant church teaching doctrines that were against this gospel, this good news of Jesus Christ. Paul knew they were now at high risk for losing the power of the gospel at work in and through them producing faith and love, rooted in hope, not only for their own flourishing but for the flourishing of this gospel movement throughout the world. I mean, I don’t know if you realize, but the reason why Paul wrote Romans most people believe, is that he was just switching his mission base from Antioch to Rome so that he could go to Spain. Romans was not written in an ivory tower. It was a church planting movement leader advancing the gospel to the unreached peoples. And the first thing he wanted to do was bring them the fullness and the richness of the gospel, and he heard about their faith throughout the world. They were already mature, but he knew more than anything they needed the gospel or the movement was at risk.

Since Paul was in prison in this context when Epaphras brought him this report, he knew something else was very evident — that at any time the good news of another king and kingdom began to spread throughout the Roman Empire dramatically changing the lives of people. I mean Paul wasn’t mincing words when he said to Timothy, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 TImothy 3:12). Just do the math. So he’s concerned about the threat from within. False teachers. We know he was concerned and rightly so, history tells us with Nero, of a threat from without.

Christ’s Supremacy Over All Things

And very wisely, before he deals with the false teachings in Colossians 2, he first sets before them a majestic vision of this other new king, who had ascended to another throne, who was promising another kingdom. Before even dealing with the problem of false teachers, he wants very wisely to set before them a vision of this new king because he knew that just like in Rome even mature believers whose faith is known throughout the world must be continually deepening their knowledge of the supremacy of Christ over all things. Because he knew that only this good news could keep them and keep their movement flourishing in Christ, in the face of real evil because of sin. So we come to our text.

In Colossians 1:15–20, here we find Paul declaring the good news of Christ’s supremacy over all things using an ancient worship hymn or song, often called “The Christ hymn” from the first century church. Now, one of the ways that you can know this is a hymn like Paul would adopt a hymn when he wrote to the Philippians he adopted a hymn. By adopting and using this hymn, it has just as much authority because of its use and the Holy Spirit inspiring this hymn and it has full apostolic authority. And one way you can know if you study the Greek text here carefully that this doesn’t come immediately from the pen of the apostle Paul, that it’s a hymn that is being used, is because in almost every line of this hymn there is a word that is not found in any other place in all the Pauline Corpus.

I’d already committed to this text when I was reading one journal article on “The Christ Hymn,” and it started with saying, “These six verses that are probably the most difficult in all New Testament studies to interpret properly because there are terms in every line that Paul doesn’t even use any other place.” I looked at my wife and I said, “That’s great. I’ve already committed.” So here goes, and John Piper is looking right at me. It makes a guy feel real secure.

Christ’s Supremacy in Creation

There are two sections of this hymn, very neatly. There are three verses in three verses, but there are several different lines and I won’t go into the structure, it’s not as much form as it is grammar that gives this hymn structure. We don’t need to go into that, but the first section of this ancient hymn sets before us the supremacy of Christ in creation (Colossians 1:15–17). In Colossians 1:18–20, we’ll see the supremacy of Christ in reconciliation. So let’s dive into Colossians 1:15 and look at the first line of this Christ hymn.

In the first line of this hymn, we see Christ being lifted up, notice the phrase, as “the image of the invisible God.” Now, remember these words were being sung in a world filled with the image of Nero, the Roman emperor, so that people would put their trust in him. To worship Christ as the image of the invisible God was to bow before Christ alone as the only one through whom the only God has revealed the fullness of his invisible nature, lest temptation come to worship an emperor. In the next line of this hymn, we see Christ as the image of the invisible God lifted up as, notice in the phrase, “the firstborn of all creation.”

Now, Paul is not teaching that Christ is the first of all created beings. The title “firstborn,” most of you know I’m sure, means one who has supremacy or priority or rank. John the Baptist used this word when he described Jesus as the one coming after him who would have “supremacy” or “rank” over him. In Psalm 89:27, God promises that one day his rule will be restored on earth by a king who will come in the line of David. And listen to these words and God says:

And I will make him the firstborn,
     the highest of the kings of the earth.

Do you realize it was that vision that caused Handel to worship him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords? And he shall reign forever and ever and ever. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It was this vision of the ascended Christ that gave birth to that rich, majestic song. So we have to be so careful. It’s so dangerous to do what we’re doing here. We’re studying something that is meant to be sung in worship.

It’s like in seminary, when students study Pauline letters that were just letters that were being thrown out in response to serious problems in a church planting movement as if Paul was a seminary professor just writing about theology. There’s a danger of doing what we’re doing. Keep that in mind.

The One Through Whom All Things Were Made

In the next lines we’re given a glimpse at what Christ as the image of the invisible God and firstborn of all creation does. Look at this. Here we see Christ lifted up as the one through whom God creates and sustains everything, all things. Now is where I would love to have Scotty beam us back to the time of being able to hear this tune, but here are the words. I can just imagine the tune that went with these words where he is presented as the one through whom God creates and sustains all things. Listen to them. He says, “For by him all things were created,” and then he has four couplets. All things were created. What were the “all things” Paul? All things, as in where? Well, Paul answers with four couplets:

• In heaven and on earth
• Visible and invisible things
• Thrones and dominions
• Rulers and authorities

And then he wraps it up, saying:

All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16–17).

It almost feels like those times when the apostle Paul gets so caught up in the ecstasy of the depth of the astonishing love of God that it just seems like he’s breaking every Greek syntax rule and just building and building and building and building. It’s so astonishing here. Christ is lifted up as the agent through whom God brought the whole world into being. I mean most evangelicals when you ask them about the redemptive work of Christ, begin in Bethlehem. Paul is saying, “No, the redemptive work of Christ began in creation.” John put it this way:

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The writer of the book of Hebrews says:

In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world (Hebrews 1:2).

Now let this sink in. In these three verses, Colossians 1:15–17, are given the first part of a hymn that was actually ultimately a hymn composed by God for you to worship Christ for his supremacy over all creation. When’s the last time you did that, praising him using words like this? All things were created through him. All things were created for him. He is before all things. In him all things hold together. I mean, that’s enough even for a Presbyterian to get a quiver in his liver. In light of our conference theme, when sin increases grace abounds all the more. See this. I want you to make the connection here between the horrible tragic depth of the impact of sin on fallen creation that has now given birth in God’s redemptive plan in Christ to the antithetical, wonderful height of the riches of God’s grace now being poured out on fallen creation in him.

A Cosmic Redemptive Checkmate

Or you could look at it from this angle using the same conference theme, the good news that I proclaim to you this day is that the crushing rule of Satan over humanity and over all of creation has mysteriously in the providential redemptive plan of God given birth to the liberating rule of Christ who has come to set fallen humanity and creation free from the bondage of Satan and sin as far as the curse is found. This understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ is meant by God to give us a very deep sense of purpose as followers of Christ, both in our private and public lives. I told you the influence of this on Handel. After seeing this vision and scripture of the supremacy of Christ in creation, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, Abraham Kuyper, said his famous words, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine.’”

As a result of sin God mysteriously, sovereignly allowed Satan to establish his rule. I don’t understand that, but it was for the sake of his purposes and for the sake of his glory. He allowed Satan to establish his rule, his domain of darkness in the world over which there was not one square inch in all of creation over which Satan did not cry, “Mine.” And that gave birth, as a result of God’s matchless grace in Christ establishing his rule, over which not one square inch of all creation he did not cry, “Mine” was birthed. The ultimate cosmic redemptive checkmate. That’s the first section. Then you see a break in the actual grammatical use of this hymn, and he shifts after setting before us the supremacy of Christ in creation as worthy of both our worship and service. Now, Paul shifts us to another vision of the supremacy of Christ. This time it’s not a vision of his supremacy over creation, it’s a vision of his supremacy in reconciliation.

Christ’s Supremacy in Reconciliation

Now, let’s dive into Colossians 1:18–20. Let’s look at this again. I’m trying to be as faithful as I can to the actual structure of the hymn by giving you these three primary concepts being established here. They don’t follow the three verses. Here Christ is lifted up in his supremacy over reconciliation. Notice first of all as “the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18). Here Paul is affirming the supremacy of Christ, please get this, over a new creation called the church. A new creation. A new humanity. Do you see the tie to creation? Basically Paul is moving here from a cosmic gospel, or what is a cosmological perspective, to a more salvific gospel or a soteriological perspective. This is not an either-or like in so many battles today, it’s a both-and. And he does this so the Colossians would worship and serve Christ as not only the supreme creator of the cosmos, but as the supreme head of the new creation, the church. He’s the head of the body, the church.

Now, “head” is a good translation of this word. It just simply represents sole, ultimate authority over the church. Paul is making the same point when he wrote the Ephesians, but he put a different spin on it. He said it like this:

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:22–23).

Head indicates Christ as sole, ultimate, not just authority but resource for the life of the church as a spiritual organism through which he has mysteriously ordained to fulfill his mission.

The Head, the Body, and the Firstborn from the Dead

Now we move to the biological metaphor. Jesus sometimes would use a botanical metaphor, the vine and the branches and the concept of abiding. Here we have a biological metaphor of the body, and the concept being communicated here is just as the body is lifeless and powerless without the head so the church is lifeless and powerless without Christ. “Without me,” he said, “you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Nothing.

Now in the second line of this section (Colossians 1:18–19), we see Christ now lifted up not just as the head of the church, which is his body, but notice Christ is lifted up as “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” The key words are “firstborn from the dead.” What does Paul mean by that? Here we see Christ lifted up as not only in the previous part of this Christ hymn, firstborn, highest rank, supreme over all creation (Colossians 1:15). But now Paul goes on to say he is firstborn from the dead in the new creation. Christ is presented to us here as not only the one who created heaven and earth in the beginning — don’t miss this — but also by being raised from the dead, he became the one in whom those who died in the first Adam can now be made alive in the second Adam.

See the tie between creation and redemption in Pauline thought? Jesus’s resurrection marked his victory over all the forces of Satan and sin that held his people in cruel, tragic bondage. The good news is that when Jesus rose from the dead, God not only — and maybe we could say primarily, because many who stress the cosmological here miss the soteriological — declared him as completely victorious over Satan and sin on our behalf, but he also declared him as the vindicator that his righteousness satisfied. The holy God. But it also declares his inauguration of a new beginning for a new world, a new era, a new hope for broken humanity and creation.

Now, this is clearly central in Paul’s thought. When he wrote the Romans he proclaimed the good news. He says:

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29).

To the Corinthians Paul proclaims the good news that Christ is the “firstfruits” of those who have died (1 Corinthians 15:20). You see, Jesus’s resurrection was just the beginning of the new creation that God is bringing to planet earth. That’s good news. Things are not the way they’re supposed to be, but there’s a hope. Jesus’s resurrection is meant to proclaim to us as the firstborn from the dead just a foretaste, just an appetizer, like a really good movie trailer where you say, “I have to see it!” or this appetizer that is so good that you say, “I have to have the meal!” This is a foretaste of the age to come when God promised that there will be a great resurrection of all the members of his body from every tribe and every tongue and every nation on earth. New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce commenting on this he writes:

He who was declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead, now has universal supremacy over not just the old creation but the new creation that is going to come.

That’s the essence of the Pauline hope — heaven coming down to earth.

The Reconciler of All Things

In the final lines of this hymn and our text, we see Christ lifted up, and this may be the most majestic of it all. I believe it is intentionally placed at the end. He is the reconciler of both fallen humanity and fallen creation. The theme continues. Look at these words. Paul writes:

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things (not just a people), whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Oh, I love the combination of the cosmological, the cosmic, and the salvific or the soteriological. Here he embraces them both in the beauty and the riches of both. In this text, in these words, Paul sets before us the supremacy of Christ in his reconciling work of redeeming both a fallen creation and a fallen humanity. “I bring you good news. I couldn’t wait to get here to bring it to you.” That’s the way Paul approached the Romans. He says, “Your faith has been heard all the way down to the happiest place on earth.” That’s Disney World. The good news is that, even though all things in heaven and earth are in bondage to evil, Jesus Christ through whom God created all things in heaven and on earth will also be the one through whom God reconciles to himself all things in heaven and on earth.

How will God do this? How will this reconciliation of all things be done? Paul concludes the hymn like this: “By making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20). When Paul writes to the Ephesians, he tells them that God’s plan for the fullness of time is to unite all things in him — things in heaven and things on earth. God’s eternal purpose, God’s mission, is that all things would be summed up in him.

When Paul wrote to the Romans, he declared this good news to them saying this (try to pretend like you haven’t heard these words and don’t be callous to them):

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:20–21).

That’s the Pauline gospel. And since the freedom of the children of God is assured through the peace that comes through the blood of the cross, so the freedom of creation from its bondage is also assured by the same redemptive work. Our conference theme because of sin, the universe with all of its evil principalities and powers spoken of in the first part of this hymn is in a cosmic conflict with its creator. And the universe needs to be reconciled to him, not just the pinnacle of his creation, humanity. This conflict must be replaced by peace. And the good news is that this peace has been accomplished by the blood of his cross. Hear this: The downfall of the satanic powers in the universe, by the blood of Christ referred to in Colossians 2:15, were compelled to submit to a power far greater than their own.

Every Knee Shall Bow

The depth of rebellion, hatred, and hostility toward God from the sinful fallen enemies of humanity and creation are so great that they could only be conquered by the height of the sacrifice and the mercy and the love accomplished by the blood of his cross. That’s how broken the world is. This peace, this restoration of all things lost in the fall because of sin, this reconciliation of man — not only with God but with self and others and creation — was made possible by only one thing: the blood of his cross.

Paul used another hymn when he wrote to the church at Philippi, and there he tells us that the Father’s good pleasure is that all in heaven and on earth and under the earth shall unite to bow the knee at Jesus’s name and confess him as Lord. You see the good news here is that just as all things were created by him and through him and for him, so now all things in heaven and on earth have now been made subject, not only to him but to his mission for planet earth to bring glory to his name by seeing his kingdom come first and foremost in the affections of his people, and by seeing his will be done on earth, especially where there are areas of darkness and crookedness in creation like poverty in all of his forms as it is in heaven. For his is the kingdom, his is the power, and his is the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Radical Reorientation

I told one person before I got up here, I’m going to take a risk. Here it goes. This is how I’m trying to put all this together. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, including his mission to restore the supremacy of his Son over all of his fallen creation through his church by the power of his gospel. Somebody buttonholed me the other day and said, “You know what you are? You’re one of these guys that got bitten by Christian Hedonism and you’re taking it into a whole new sphere and you’re actually bringing a correction that it’s not a contradiction, it’s just a greater fulfillment in the sphere where God has placed me.” So thank you John. You just changed my life a little. Now, I won’t get in trouble, right? It’s the way I want to end and I know this is kind of a risk too. Exposition is finished. I want to do something that’s very different. Bear with me. This could be very brief. I believe that Jesus had an agenda beyond teaching a spiritual discipline methodology when the disciples asked him how to pray.

When he gave them what we call the Lord’s pattern prayer, I think it was very similar to when he told them to pray this: “Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise laborers to go in the harvest.” He knew that if they prayed like that they would be propelled into the harvest. I believe Jesus had another agenda rather than just giving a prayer pattern. When Jesus gave the Lord’s prayer, it wasn’t just a spiritual methodology, it was a revolutionary way to set the minds and hearts of his followers on fire for the glory of the Father, the coming of his kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will on earth — especially as he anticipated that most of them, as they did, surrendered their lives in advancement of the kingdom of Christ against all principalities and powers and darkness.

I mean, I almost got nauseated when I heard a person report, coming back to us as we’re training working with the underground church in China saying to me for their first visit, “I couldn’t believe it. All this talk about persecution but all they did was interview me at the beginning and they said, ‘Tell us what your message is,’ and I told them the gospel and they said, ‘Proclaim it from the housetops.’” And he said, “They just had one little thing we couldn’t talk about.” I said, “What was that?” He said, “They told me not to ever talk about Jesus as king, and don’t ever talk about another kingdom, and don’t ever talk about that invisible kingdom becoming visible on earth, not just in human hearts but in all spheres of life.” Oh, preach the opiate of the masses. Preach the Jesus-and-me gospel. That’s just fine. You are free. Preach this gospel and you’ll understand Paul meant what he said, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” The problem is most people don’t understand the revolutionary nature of praying the way Jesus taught us to pray. It’s a radical, revolutionary, visionary prayer.

On Earth as It Is in Heaven

Let me just wrap it up by just asking you to join me in a little exercise. Understand the structure of this text. Jesus says, “When you pray” — he’s basically reflecting the psalmist probably Psalm 86 — “pray that God’s name would be hallowed. When you pray, pray that God will be glorified. Pray that his glory would fill the earth as the waters do the sea. Pray like the psalmist for the glory of God.” And Calvin made the connection: Do not separate the first petition from the second one. How will God’s glory be manifested throughout the earth? By his rule being advanced over all evil. By his invisible kingdom being made visible. What does that look like? God’s will in heaven being done — and please never use the word “earth” but put your neighborhood there — in any town as it is in heaven.

I’ll never forget teaching a group of church planters in a rough downtown area of Kansas City. We had a small group of them and I taught them. This was what we call “the vision module” in our church planter trading. And when I taught them this vision I said, “Tell me what it would look like if on Monday morning you woke up and the Lord’s Prayer was answered for your neighborhood, and God’s will in heaven had descended to this little section of earth. What would it look like?” One said, “No more kids without dads.” Somebody else raised their hand, “No more drug addiction.” And all of a sudden there was just like a symphony of a vision for the glory of God in the city by the invisible kingdom being made visible and God’s will in heaven being done on earth. But you know what breaks my heart? As I have worked with church planters and churches for the last several decades, I ask them the question, “Give me your ministry vision.”

Now I almost always get the same thing. They say, “Well, I’m so glad you asked,” and they pull out their phone or whatever and they show me this elaborate vision statement. It’s their vision and their mission and their strategy. And it’s slick and it’s got graphics. If I have earned the right in my relationship — which normally I haven’t — I will say usually to that young man, “I did not ask you for your vision for a great church. I ask you for your vision for a great city. Tell me honestly, is your church for your city or is your city here for a really great church?” Do you realize how we flip the Lord’s prayer? Do you know why you need daily bread? It’s so that his will would be done in your area of earth as it is in heaven and so that his kingdom would come, so that his name would be glorified. That’s why you need food.

You also need forgiveness, a fresh refreshing taste of forgiveness. Forgive us as we forgive others. You also need to win the battle with temptation. You also need to win the battle with the evil one and be delivered from his grip. Why? So that his will would be done, so that his kingdom would come, so that his name would be glorified through your life.

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

Men and women, this is why your heart is beating right now. This is why your lungs are expanding and contracting right now in this auditorium. You exist for the purpose of the glory of God to be manifested in this strange time between the resurrection and the restoration of all things. So we pray, “Father, glorify your name. Cause your kingdom to come. Cause your will to be done in my area as it is in heaven. And for that, give me daily bread. Forgive me. Free me from temptation. Deliver me from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, and yours is the glory forever.” Jesus said, “When you pray, pray like that.”

He knew if you would dare to radically align your prayers and your life purpose with his, he takes great pleasure in manifesting his presence and pouring out his power on all who will dare to radically align their life’s mission and purpose with his life mission and purpose, which is revealed in making the supremacy of Christ over creation and reconciliation known. It sees the answer to the prayer that Jesus told us to pray.