Lord’s Day 48 · Thy Kingdom Come
Your Kingdom Come Reformed Confessions 7 min February 26, 2026
Taught by
Joel Overduin Vineland Free Reformed Church, Vineland, Ontario Read along About Transcript
Q123 What does the second petition mean?
“Your kingdom come” means: Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Preserve and increase your church. Destroy the devil’s work; destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy Word. Do all this until your kingdom fully comes, when you will be all in all.
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Reverend Joel Overduin pastors the congregation of the Vineland Free Reformed Church of Vineland, ON, Canada. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids MI, USA in May 2005 and was ordained into the ministry of the Word in September 2005.
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0:00 The Second Petition The Second Petition The Second Petition The Second Petition The Second Petition Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 48. 0:12 What does the Second Petition mean? 0:14 "Your kingdom come" means: "Rule us by your word and spirit, in such a way that more and more we submit to you. 0:24 Preserve and increase your church. 0:27 Destroy the devil's work. 0:29 Destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy word. 0:35 Do all this until your kingdom fully comes, when you will be all the same. 0:40 all in all. The second petition of the Lord's Prayer has to do with God's kingdom. The Bible as a whole refers to kings and kingdoms and reigning and so on. And yet at the same time 0:53 in our world today, we don't operate with this idea so much anymore. We live in common countries, not kingdoms. Even here in Canada or if you live in the United Kingdom, you know, 1:06 functionally we have a king or maybe symbolically I should say we have a king, but functionally we don't think of ourselves as in a kingdom. So what does it mean when we talk about kingdom? A kingdom 1:20 is basically a realm over which a king rules. And so God's kingdom is the realm over which he rules. Now of course God rules over all of creation, all of heaven 1:31 and earth is subject to him. He's the king over the cosmos. But what's also revealed in scripture is that he is establishing his realm and his kingship, his rule in the hearts and lives of his people, 1:43 sinners whom he is bringing to conversion, to faith in his Son, Christ Jesus, and in whom he is living by his Holy Spirit as Sovereign Lord and Master. 1:54 Colossians 1:13, Paul speaks there about how believers are are sinners who have been delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of His love. 2:08 And so we enter the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. 2:13 Now we are asking for this kingdom, we're asking for this kingdom to come. 2:18 And what does that exactly mean? 2:19 Here's where the catechism helpfully unpacks this for us in a series of three particular requests. 2:27 And the first one has to do with God's rule in our own hearts and lives. 2:31 It's very personal. 2:33 And it reminds us that even when we may be believers and members of God's kingdom and his rule is in our heart. 2:39 there's still something in us, or many times many things in us, that resist His rule and need to be brought to surrender to Him. Maybe even now as you listen to 2:49 this you might think of things in your life, habits or practices or besetting sins that are temptations that you routinely fall before, things that are not yet in obedience to Christ the King. 3:03 And so with this petition, we are asking the Lord to change that in our life. 3:07 "Rule us," we are saying, "through your word and spirit, bring your power and authority to bear on our life in such a way that we submit our whole selves to you." 3:17 Another thing that's involved in this petition, your kingdom, kingdom come has to do with the church. And the catechism mentions that too, preserve 3:24 and increase your church. Now we might wonder what is the relationship between the church and the kingdom? And that's a big question and many things can be said about that. But 3:35 basically we can say now that the church is like the agent of God's kingdom. 3:39 or the ambassador of God's kingdom. 3:42 It was to the church and is to the church that Christ has given the keys of the kingdom, namely preaching and sacraments. 3:51 And so the church has the responsibility to administer those keys, to proclaim the gospel to every creature, as Jesus says, and also by way of discipline to make sure that kingdom citizens live in line with the kingdom 4:06 in obedience to the king. 4:08 And so we ask that the Lord through your kingdom come might preserve and increase his church. 4:15 And several things are in view there where we're asking for the Lord to bless his church universally. It's not just our church or our churches, but the church, the church 4:25 worldwide. It's a broad request. We're also asking for the Lord to bless His church spiritually, that she might be faithful to Him, that she might grow in obedience to Him and in likeness to Him. I mean, 4:39 We're asking the Lord to bless his church numerically, to increase his church, to do what he did in the days of Acts 2 when the Spirit came and he added to his church daily such as should be saved. 4:55 Really we're asking for conversions, for the Lord Jesus to rescue people from sin, and darkness and death and Satan. 5:02 Mentioning Satan brings up another point. 5:04 As the catechism puts it, in asking for God's kingdom to come, we're asking the Lord to destroy every work of the devil and every conspiracy that is raised up against his word. 5:14 The devil goes about as a roaring lion and we're not to be ignorant of his devices and we're to wear the whole armor of God that we may stand. This petition is recognizing that reality that the devil is 5:26 at work to try and wreck and ruin and destroy the people of God and the cause of God and the kingdom of God. And we know that someday the devil will be fully destroyed, but till 5:37 then he still has some power and he has a power. 5:39 he is a foe to be reckoned with and the best way to reckon with him is to pray for his demise, to pray that the Lord would destroy his efforts, to pray that the Lord would destroy all the 5:51 schemes that are plotted and pursued in destruction of the church. And we're praying that the Lord may someday bring an end to the devil altogether. 6:04 In fact, that's really when God's kingdom will come in all its fullness, when his people are made fully like him, when his church has completed its commission, and when the devil is destroyed forever. 6:16 And this petition has in view, really, the coming of Christ. 6:19 And he will return to rid the world once and for all of evil and to bring his people into the new creation, to make all things new, as he himself says. 6:29 Grand Lord, that that may happen more and more and that we may see that great day come. 6:39 you Made automatically from the audio, so a word here or there may be wrong. Tap any line to play from there.
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