Christian Challenge Sermon Viii: Intimate Communion With Father God Series

CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE SERMON VIII: INTIMATE COMMUNION WITH FATHER GOD

As a loving great grandfather of a cute little blond-haired toddler, who has become attached to me in a special sort of way, my encounter with him this past week serves as a timely illustration of the point Jesus made to His followers when He taught them about prayer.

When the 15-month-old looked up and saw me enter the room where he was playing, immediately he ran toward me squealing, with outstretched arms - which, when I picked him up, he threw around my neck and, hugging me tightly, with his head on my shoulder, patted me with his chubby little hand on my back.

What a heart-warming scene of a dependent little child engaged in intimate communion with a much greater-than-self God-like figure which, to the child, not only represents but indeed is a source of love, provision, safety and security.

Now folks, this display of intimate communion occurred instantly, caringly and genuinely. No one had to suggest it . . . remind the child of his need for it . . . even had to teach the child that it was the right thing to do.

It occurred naturally. Intimate communion occurred naturally between the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father who, because we have been born again, is our Father too.

Thus, Jesus told His disciples that they, too, could experience intimate communion with God in “like manner” . . . “like this” . . . “in this way”.

We all can “say” the words that Jesus taught but the question remains: Do we “pray” His “way” rather than just “say” His words?

So, as we take yet another look at His model for praying to God, think about the points for emphasis that He had in mind when He prescribed “how you pray”. If we are indeed to “let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus” should we not look beyond the wording of, to the reasoning for, His pattern for praying.

Jesus considered praying to God to be communion between God and any one or all of His family. With that in mind - with the concept of “koinonia” (community) in mind, He constructed His model so as to emphasize three aspects of praying: the communicants . . . the community . . . their communication.

In connection with one petition in particular, Jesus added a very intriguing caveat . . . to highlight parenthetically our Lord’s amplification of the principle of forgiveness in His model prayer - Matthew 6:9-15 . . . Jesus constructed His model prayer to ensure a right understanding of the communicants as denoted by the salutation “Our Father”.

Obviously His model prayer is not for non-Christians - folks who are not: believers in Christ . . . kingdom dwellers . . . not even kingdom seekers – none of whom can pray “Our Father”, for none other than children of God have family ties to the LORD God whose kingdom the Son of God came to establish. Unbelievers can “say it” but not “pray it” – and there’s a huge difference.

The focus of the prayer is first and foremost the LORD God, His kingdom . . . AND secondarily, all who belong to His kingdom by virtue of repentance of sin and acceptance of Jesus as Son of God and Savior of the world.

“Our” refers to all Christians. “Father” refers to the Christian’s relationship to God through Christ. In Christ, we were “born anew” and granted sonship status, making us heirs and joint-heirs with Christ. Thus, we all are now part of the family - the family of God.

For that reason, Jesus also constructed His model prayer to ensure a right understanding of the community aspect of praying. Nine times Jesus emphasizes the all-inclusive nature of rightly praying to the LORD God by His use of those two pronouns “our” and “us”.

Together we all “dwell” in Christ. Together we all are kingdom dwellers. Together we all “shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever”.

We believers in Christ are all in the same boat, spiritually speaking. So might as well get used to the great idea - conveyed by the ark of the covenant of the Old Testament then fulfilled by the person of the covenant (the Living Ark . . . Word) of the New Testament - that we are all in it together in the here and now and need to be prepared to make the most of being a part of the family of God in the hereafter.

As a matter of fact, Jesus told us to pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” For, you see, eternal life for true believers begins at the moment of conversion. Thus, we can accurately speak of ourselves as “pilgrims passing through” this world of woe. The best IS yet to be. We are in community with each other because we are in communion with God.