Let’s do a quick thought experiment. How many different human ‘kingdoms’ can you name?

As you consider your answer, you first need to determine what a ‘kingdom’ is. Then you need to recognize that they come in all shapes and sizes.

If we define a human ‘kingdom’ as someone’s domain, or sphere of authority, or place of rule, then the potential number of ‘kingdoms’ in the world increases by orders of magnitude!

There are the big ones like nations, tribes, continents, and territories. There are the smaller ones like neighborhoods, offices, schools and corporations. And this is not to mention those that are even smaller, such as homes and families, affinity groups and clubs, even personal friendships. There is always someone seeking to be the one in charge! It’s just natural. As the song goes, “Everybody wants to rule the world”!

Well, into this incalculable morass of human kingdoms big and small, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Father . . . Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2). If we are reading Scriptures correctly, then the conclusion seems obvious: There are really just two ‘kingdoms’ in this whole universe: ours and our Father’s!

In the one, our ‘kingdoms’ big and small, we find the multitudinous earthly places of human rule, but also those of the unseen realm of evil forces, guided and empowered by the devil himself. After all, humanity is fallen. And this means that every human kingdom is polluted with the noxious stench of sin, and, according to the Apostle John, has been captured and enslaved by “the evil one” (1 John 5:19). All of these supposed ‘kingdoms’ will one day come crashing down under the righteous judgment of God!

In the other ‘kingdom,’ our Father’s “kingdom,” there is the reign of the Real King. His rule is eternal, holy, unequalled, and glorious! The splendor and power of this greatest of domains cannot be captured by human thoughts or language! It is the “Kingdom of God,” the “Kingdom of Heaven,” of which Jesus spoke so frequently.

This Lord’s Day, we will listen as Jesus teaches us to pray that this great “kingdom” will “come”!