---
title: "Your Kingdom Come: The Kingdom Already Here and Not Yet Complete"
category: "prophecy"
description: "The second petition of the Lord's Prayer: what basileia means, from Daniel's everlasting kingdom to Jesus's ministry, and why the kingdom He brought is already here and still to come."
tags: ["lords-prayer", "matthew", "luke", "daniel", "dispensationalism", "method/word-study"]
draft: false
primary_passage: "Matthew 6:10"
bible_references: ["Matthew 6:9-10", "Luke 11:2", "Matthew 4:17", "Matthew 5:3", "Matthew 6:33", "Daniel 2:44", "1 Chronicles 29:11", "Matthew 19:23-24", "Luke 15:18", "Matthew 12:28", "Luke 11:20", "Exodus 8:19", "Luke 17:20-21", "Matthew 25:34", "Acts 1:6-7", "Revelation 11:15", "Revelation 19:11-16", "Revelation 20:1-6", "Matthew 13:11", "Luke 12:32", "Luke 1:32-33", "Luke 19:11-12", "Matthew 25:31", "Matthew 19:28", "Revelation 3:21", "Acts 3:19-21", "Matthew 23:39", "Matthew 10:5-7", "Colossians 1:13", "Ephesians 1:20", "Matthew 28:18", "Acts 2:30-35", "Romans 11:25-29", "Matthew 13:41"]
date_created: 2026-09-29
date_modified: 2026-10-02
ai_provider_models:
  - anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
---

# Your Kingdom Come: The Kingdom Already Here and Not Yet Complete

> ✝️ Matthew 6:9-10 (ESV)
>
> 9 Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your
> will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Every time you pray the Lord's Prayer, you ask for a kingdom in three words. Jesus put that request
second, straight after God's name and before any request for bread or forgiveness. This study takes
that one line of [The Lord's Prayer](https://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/lords-prayer/) and asks what you are asking
for when you pray it.

**In one sentence:** "Your kingdom come" asks God to finish what He began in Jesus: His reign broke
into the world when Jesus drove out demons by the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28), and you pray toward
the day He establishes it in full, visibly and on earth (Daniel 2:44; Matthew 25:34; Acts 1:6-7).

## Key Takeaways

*(This section follows the [Key Takeaways](https://the-way.lewy.au/about/key-takeaways/) format — see that page for what each part is for.)*

### Types & Prophecy

**Prophecy.** Daniel promised that "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be
destroyed" (Daniel 2:44, ESV), a kingdom that ends every human kingdom before it. "Your kingdom
come" asks God to keep that promise. Revelation hears it kept: "The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15,
ESV).

### Lessons about Jesus

- **He brought the kingdom with Him.** When Jesus cast out demons "by the Spirit of God," the
  kingdom of God had "come upon you" (Matthew 12:28, ESV). The reign you pray for began in His
  person and His work.
- **He is the King who will return to reign.** Jesus names Himself "the King" who will say to His
  people, "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34,
  ESV). The one who taught the prayer is the one who answers it.
- **He keeps the timetable with the Father.** Asked whether He would restore the kingdom to Israel
  "at this time," Jesus answered the question of timing and left the promise standing (Acts 1:6-7).

### Memory verses

> ✝️ Matthew 6:10 (ESV)
>
> 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

> ✝️ Matthew 12:28 (ESV)
>
> 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon
> you.

### Be Transformed

- **Think.** The kingdom is God's reign, and God Himself brings it: it came near in Jesus and comes
  in full when He returns. Your part is to ask for it, and to live now under its King, Jesus.
- **Attitude.** Wait with confidence. The kingdom began when Jesus came, so its end is as sure as
  its beginning, and your Father is glad to give it to you (Luke 12:32). When the news makes the
  world look ungoverned, pray this line on purpose.
- **Do.** This week, pray "your will be done" over one decision in front of you, and then do what
  you already know His will to be in it (Matthew 6:33).

### Prayer

Father, Your kingdom has already come near in Your Son Jesus. He drove out the enemy by Your Spirit,
and He will come back as King. Bring Your kingdom in full. Let Your will be done in me today as it is
done in heaven, and keep me watching for the day Jesus reigns on the earth. In Jesus' name. Amen.

## Study outline

- **[Where Jesus puts this petition](#where-jesus-puts-this-petition)** — the kingdom in the
  Sermon on the Mount, and the synagogue prayer the disciples probably knew.
- **[What "kingdom" means](#what-kingdom-means)** — the word *basileia* and its Hebrew and Aramaic counterparts,
  Daniel's everlasting kingdom, and why Matthew says "kingdom of heaven".
- **[Already here](#already-here)** and **[not yet complete](#not-yet-complete)** — the Gospels'
  evidence for a kingdom present in Jesus and a kingdom still to be established, how Christians
  divide over fitting the two together, and where this study lands: Jesus reigns now from His
  Father's throne and takes David's throne when He returns.
- **[How the petition is phrased](#how-the-petition-is-phrased)** — the one active verb among the
  first three requests, and what it shows about God.

## Where Jesus puts this petition

### In Matthew's Gospel

The kingdom runs through the whole Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' preaching began with it: "Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17, ESV). The sermon's first blessing gives it to "the
poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). The prayer asks for it (Matthew 6:10). A few verses later Jesus turns
the request into the first priority of a whole life: "But seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33, ESV).

The prayer's first three requests are all about God: His name, His kingdom, His will. Luke's shorter
form keeps the kingdom request word for word: "Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come"
(Luke 11:2, ESV).

### In the synagogue: the Kaddish

The disciples already knew a prayer that asked for God's kingdom. The *NIV Cultural Backgrounds
Study Bible* identifies it as the Kaddish, a prayer Jewish people recited regularly, and gives its
earliest form as beginning: "Exalted and hallowed be his great name, in the world that he created
according to his will; may he cause his kingdom to reign . . ." (note on Matthew 6:9-10). The same
note says the Jewish prayer asked for God's future reign to change the world, and that Jesus
presumably meant His petition the same way, with one difference: for His followers the kingdom is
already here and not yet complete.

#### Its words: Ezekiel's promise, Daniel's praise

The prayer book confirms the wording. The Kaddish is still said in Aramaic and opens:
<span dir="rtl">יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא</span> (*yitgaddal ve-yitqaddash shemeh
rabba*) ... <span dir="rtl">וְיַמְלִיךְ מַלְכוּתֵהּ</span> (*ve-yamlikh malkhuteh*): "Exalted and
sanctified be His great Name in the world which He created according to His will and may He rule
His kingdom. In your lifetime and in your days..." (Siddur Ashkenaz, Half Kaddish, Metsudah
translation by Avrohom Davis, via Sefaria). Its first two verbs are God's own promise in Ezekiel
38:23, <span dir="rtl">וְהִתְגַּדִּלְתִּי וְהִתְקַדִּשְׁתִּי</span> (*ve-hitgaddilti
ve-hitqaddishti*): "So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of
many nations" (ESV). The congregation answers, "May His great Name be blessed forever and for all
eternity," which echoes Daniel's Aramaic praise in Daniel 2:20: "Blessed be the name of God forever
and ever" (ESV). So the prayer asks God to keep a promise He made through Ezekiel: to show Himself
great and holy before every nation by bringing His reign.

#### How old it is

How early that wording is remains uncertain. The same study Bible calls the Kaddish a prayer that
"came to be prayed daily" (article "Kingdom," at Matthew 4:17) and cites no first-century text for
it. The earliest dated witness is the congregation's response. The Babylonian Talmud, compiled
around AD 500, has Rabbi Yose, a second-century teacher, describe Israel entering "synagogues and
study halls" to answer "May His great name be blessed" (Berakhot 3a). It also says the world endures
by that response "recited after the study of aggada," the teaching drawn from Scripture's stories
(Sotah 49a; both William Davidson translation, via Sefaria). The response was therefore in synagogue
use by the second century. No surviving text gives the full first-century wording, so treat the
parallel as likely, resting on the shared order: God's name hallowed first, then His kingdom asked
for.

So "hallowed be your name... your kingdom come" would probably have sounded familiar to the
disciples. What Jesus added was Himself. The kingdom the synagogue prayed toward had, in His words, "come upon you"
(Matthew 12:28, ESV).

## What "kingdom" means

### Reign first, then realm

The Greek word is βασιλεία (*basileia*, bah-see-LAY-ah, G932, "kingdom"). In the New Testament it
usually means a king's rule, his exercise of royal power, and less often "realm," the land he rules:
the MACULA data classes 145 of its 162 occurrences as "rule" (Louw-Nida 37.64), including Matthew
6:10, and 17 as a realm (1.82). The *NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible* says the same of the
biblical languages generally: "kingdom" "usually meant 'reign,' 'rule,' or 'authority'" (article
"Kingdom," at Matthew 4:17). The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, regularly
uses it for Hebrew <span dir="rtl">מַלְכוּת</span> (*malkut*, H4438) and Aramaic
<span dir="rtl">מַלְכוּ</span> (*malku*, H4437). Both come from the root *mlk*, "to reign." So when you
pray "your kingdom come," you are asking first for God to rule.

### Daniel's kingdom and David's prayer

Daniel gives the clearest Old Testament background for a kingdom God Himself will set up:

> ✝️ Daniel 2:44 (ESV)
>
> 44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be
> destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these
> kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,

The Aramaic uses the same word, *malku*, three times in that verse: twice for the kingdom God sets
up ("a kingdom that shall never be destroyed," "the kingdom" never left to another people) and once,
in the plural, for "all these kingdoms" it ends. God's kingdom takes their place.

David's prayer at the dedication of the temple offerings gives a second background text: "Yours is
the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all" (1 Chronicles 29:11, ESV). The word there
is <span dir="rtl">מַמְלָכָה</span> (*mamlakah*, H4467). That line is probably where the familiar
ending "for thine is the kingdom" came from. It is a later addition to Matthew's text (see
[Why some Bibles end differently](https://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/lords-prayer/#why-some-bibles-end-differently)),
drawn from David's own words.

### Kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God

*Basileia* occurs 162 times in the New Testament, and 55 of those are in Matthew, a third of the
whole. Matthew has his own phrase for it, "kingdom of heaven," 32 times. No other New Testament
writer uses it.

Matthew uses the two phrases for the same thing. In two adjacent verses of one saying about a rich
man, Jesus says "the kingdom of heaven" and then "the kingdom of God":

> ✝️ Matthew 19:23-24 (ESV)
>
> 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person
> enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
> a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

Jewish speakers often said "heaven" where they meant God, out of reverence for His name. The
prodigal son does it: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (Luke 15:18, ESV).
"Kingdom of heaven" is Matthew's reverent way of saying "kingdom of God," and both name the one
kingdom you pray for.

## Already here

### By the Spirit, by the finger of God

Jesus says plainly that the kingdom arrived in His ministry. "But if it is by the Spirit of God that
I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:28, ESV). The verb is
ἔφθασεν (*ephthasen*, from φθάνω, *phthanō*, G5348), an aorist: the kingdom has arrived.

The *NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible* explains why the Spirit is the proof. Many Jews of the
time believed the Spirit's full work had ceased after the last prophets and would return only at
the end, so Jesus' works by the Spirit showed the end-time kingdom had come (note on Matthew 12:28).

Luke has the same saying with "the finger of God" in place of "the Spirit of God" (Luke 11:20). The
phrase comes from the plagues in Egypt, where Pharaoh's magicians gave up: "This is the finger of
God" (Exodus 8:19, ESV). The God who broke Pharaoh's hold on Israel was breaking Satan's hold on
people, in person, in Jesus.

### "In the midst of you" (Luke 17:21)

Jesus told the Pharisees the same thing another way: "the kingdom of God is in the midst of you"
(Luke 17:21, ESV). The Greek ἐντός (*entos*, G1787) can mean "within" or "among," and translations
divide. The CSB and NLT both footnote "within you" as an alternative. "In the midst of you" fits the
setting best, since Jesus was answering Pharisees who opposed Him (Luke 17:20): the kingdom was among
them because the King was standing there. The *ESV Study Bible* reads it the same way, on the same
ground: Jesus would not tell disbelieving Pharisees the kingdom was inside them (note on Luke 17:21).

This shows that God keeps His word in person. He sent His Son, and where Jesus was, God reigned. So
the kingdom you pray for is one you have already met, in Jesus.

## Not yet complete

The same Gospels look ahead to a kingdom still to come. Jesus speaks of the day "the King will say
to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world'" (Matthew 25:34, ESV). That inheritance is future.

After the resurrection the apostles asked, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to
Israel?" (Acts 1:6, ESV). The verb, ἀποκαθιστάνεις (*apokathistaneis*, from ἀποκαθίστημι,
*apokathistēmi*, G600), means to put back as it was. The *NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible* notes
that Jewish hope for Israel's restoration commonly included the return of the scattered tribes, the
house of David and the temple (note on Acts 1:6). Jesus answered only the timing: "It is not for you
to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority" (Acts 1:7, ESV). He left
the promise standing, as [Israel's Regathering and Refining](https://the-way.lewy.au/israel-and-church/israels-regathering-and-refining/)
works out in full.

The kingdom's full arrival comes with the King's return. Revelation shows Christ coming visibly to
reign (Revelation 19:11-16) and then reigning on the earth for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-6).
This site reads those as literal events, in the order given, as the
[statement of faith](https://the-way.lewy.au/about/statement-of-faith/#end-times) sets out. "Your kingdom come," prayed
in that light, asks God to bring Jesus back.

## How the "already" and the "not yet" fit together

Christians agree that Jesus brought the kingdom and that He will complete it when He returns. How the
two relate is contested. There are three main answers.

- **Classic dispensationalism** holds that Jesus offered Israel the kingdom promised to David, that
  Israel rejected it, and that it was postponed until His return. The present age is a different
  form of God's rule, the "secrets of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 13:11, ESV). On this view the
  "already" is real but distinct from the kingdom promised to David.
- **Progressive dispensationalism** holds that the kingdom promised to David was inaugurated at
  Jesus' first coming, with Jesus now reigning on David's throne at the Father's right hand (reading
  Acts 2:30-36 that way), and will be completed on the earth, including Israel's restoration, at His
  second.
- **Amillennial and many Reformed readers** take the present kingdom as Christ's reign in believers
  and in the church. The *ESV Study Bible* reads Matthew 6:10 this way, expecting God's will to be
  seen more and more in this age and in full only when Christ returns (note on Matthew 6:10). They
  expect no separate earthly reign of a thousand years.

### Where this study lands

#### Now: the Father's throne

**Jesus reigns now, from His Father's throne.** God raised Him and "seated him at his right hand
in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:20, ESV), and He has "all authority in heaven and on earth"
(Matthew 28:18, ESV). The Father "has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us
to the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13, ESV). The kingdom you pray toward already has
you in it, and its King is on the throne.

#### At His return: David's throne

**He takes David's throne when He returns.** Jesus dates it Himself: "When the Son of Man comes in
his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne" (Matthew 25:31,
ESV; compare Matthew 19:28). He names two thrones in one sentence: "I will grant him to sit with me
on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne" (Revelation 3:21,
ESV). Gabriel promised Mary a Son who "will reign over the house of Jacob forever" (Luke 1:33,
ESV), and Peter says heaven "must receive" Him "until the time for restoring all the things about
which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago" (Acts 3:21, ESV). *Restoring* there is
ἀποκατάστασις (*apokatastasis*, G605), the noun of the verb the apostles used in Acts 1:6. Jesus
told the story of a nobleman who "went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then
return" (Luke 19:12, ESV): the kingdom is given where He has gone, and exercised where He comes
back.

#### Offered to Israel, and waiting for Israel

**The kingdom was offered to Israel, and its arrival on earth waits for Israel's welcome.** Jesus
sent the Twelve only "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" with "The kingdom of heaven is at
hand" (Matthew 10:6-7, ESV). Refused, He told Jerusalem, "you will not see me again, until you say,
'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'" (Matthew 23:39, ESV). After the resurrection
Peter made the offer again: "Repent therefore, and turn back ... that he may send the Christ
appointed for you, Jesus" (Acts 3:19-20, ESV). Paul says the answer is certain: "all Israel will be
saved," because "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:26, 29, ESV).

#### Contested: is the right hand David's throne?

Peter moves from God's oath to set David's
descendant "on his throne" (Acts 2:30, ESV) to Jesus "exalted at the right hand of God" (Acts
2:33, ESV), and progressive dispensationalists read the two as one throne. The case is serious.
Peter draws the resurrection from the oath, since David "foresaw and spoke about the resurrection
of the Christ" (Acts 2:31, ESV), and the right hand from Psalm 110:1, and Jesus calls that seat His
Father's throne (Revelation 3:21). Stanley Toussaint reads Acts the same way: Christ "is now seated
at the right hand of God," and "When He returns He will sit on David's throne" (*Bible Knowledge
Commentary*, on Acts 15:16). This study holds that reading with moderate confidence.

#### The present age

So the present age is what Jesus called "the secrets of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 13:11,
ESV): His kingdom already, sown in the world and growing among weeds until the Son of Man gathers
"out of his kingdom all causes of sin" at the end of the age (Matthew 13:41, ESV). David's throne,
Israel's restoration and the reign on the earth are still to come (Revelation 20:4-6). **This shows
that God reigns now through His Son and will keep every word He swore to David.** When you pray
"your kingdom come," you are asking the Father to send Jesus back to sit on that throne.

## How the petition is phrased

Two of the first three requests have a passive verb. "Hallowed be your name" is ἁγιασθήτω
(*hagiasthētō*, G37), an aorist passive imperative. "Your will be done" is γενηθήτω (*genēthētō*,
G1096), passive in form. Neither says who does the hallowing or the doing. Many scholars hold that
Jewish speech often described God's action this way, leaving Him unnamed out of reverence, and call
this the "divine passive": the listener knows God is the one acting. The pattern is clearer in the
first request, since γίνομαι (*ginomai*, G1096), "to happen," often takes passive forms with no
passive meaning.

The middle request breaks the pattern. ἐλθέτω (*elthetō*, G2064), "let it come," is an active verb,
a second aorist active imperative, and its subject is the kingdom itself. The kingdom arrives.

The aorist presents the arrival as one whole event. That fits the "not yet" of Matthew 25:34 and
Daniel 2:44. The aorist is also the ordinary tense for requests in New Testament prayers, though, so
the grammar is consistent with this reading without proving it.

This shows that God's kingdom is His to bring. You ask; He sends it. And Jesus told His followers
what the Father intends: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
the kingdom" (Luke 12:32, ESV). You pray "your kingdom come" as an adopted child asking the Father to
do what He has already said He is glad to do.

**Pray it:** *"Father, bring Your kingdom, and bring Jesus back. Until then, where my will and Yours
disagree today, let Yours be done."*

## Discussion questions

1. In Matthew 6:10 the verb ἐλθέτω makes the kingdom itself the subject that arrives. What does that
   change about what you expect to happen when you pray this line?
2. The disciples probably knew a synagogue prayer asking God to "cause his kingdom to reign." What would they
   have heard as new when Jesus said the kingdom had "come upon you" (Matthew 12:28)?
3. Jesus calls Himself "the King" in Matthew 25:34. How does knowing who the King is shape what you
   are asking for in "your kingdom come"?
4. Luke 17:21 puts the kingdom "in the midst of you," and Acts 1:6-7 leaves the restoring of the
   kingdom to Israel in the Father's timing. How do you hold those two texts together?
5. Matthew 6:33 tells you to "seek first the kingdom of God." Where in your week does something else
   come first?

## References & Recommended Reading

- ESV Bible (Crossway) — primary translation quoted throughout; every quotation verified against
  the ESV text in this repo's `study-notes.db`.
- *NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible* (Zondervan, ed. John H. Walton and Craig S. Keener) — notes
  on Matthew 6:9-10 (the Kaddish), Matthew 12:28 and Acts 1:6, and the article "Kingdom" at
  Matthew 4:17, cited above.
- *Siddur Ashkenaz*, Half Kaddish (Weekday Shacharit), in the Metsudah translation by Avrohom Davis
  (1981, CC-BY), via [Sefaria](https://www.sefaria.org/Siddur_Ashkenaz%2C_Weekday%2C_Shacharit%2C_Pesukei_Dezimra%2C_Half_Kaddish)
  — the Aramaic text and English of the Kaddish quoted above. The note linking its opening words to
  Ezekiel 38:23 is the Metsudah siddur's, citing the *Levush* and the Vilna Gaon's siddur.
- Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 3a and Sotah 49a, William Davidson Edition (Koren/Steinsaltz, CC-BY-NC),
  via [Sefaria](https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.3a) — the congregation's "May His great name be
  blessed" in the synagogue and study hall. Shabbat 119b gives a third-century saying about the same
  response.
- *ESV Study Bible* (Crossway) — note on Matthew 6:10, cited above for the amillennial and Reformed
  reading; note on Luke 17:21, on "in the midst of you".
- *NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible* (Zondervan) — note on Matthew 6:10, which likewise reads the
  petition as asking for the kingdom to come more completely until its final consummation.
- *CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible* (Holman) and *NLT Life Application Study Bible* (Tyndale) —
  translators' footnotes on Luke 17:21 giving "within you" as an alternative rendering.
- MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets (SBLGNT) and MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (WLC), queried via
  this repo's `references/build/bible-text.db` — source of the morphology, Strong's numbers and
  occurrence counts cited above.
- *The Bible Knowledge Commentary* (ed. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Victor Books, 1983-85) —
  Stanley D. Toussaint on Acts 15:16, cited above for Christ's present session at the right hand and
  His future seat on David's throne.
- On this site: [The Lord's Prayer](https://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/lords-prayer/), the study this one grew
  from; [Israel's Regathering and Refining](https://the-way.lewy.au/israel-and-church/israels-regathering-and-refining/)
  on Acts 1:6-7; and the [statement of faith](https://the-way.lewy.au/about/statement-of-faith/#end-times).