Our Heavenly Father

The Lord’s Prayer we recite is a prayer Jesus taught His disciples.

• It is not His prayer to God but a prayer meant for us.

• Jesus need not have to pray “forgive us our sins” for He had no sins.

In the Scriptures, the longest prayer of Jesus is found in John 17.

• This prayer was made just moments before Jesus was betrayed.

• We can tell a lot about people by the way they pray.

• What do we learn about our Lord as we listen to Him pray, so close to being crucified? If you know you are about to die, what will you say?

One thing we discover is that Jesus’ primary thoughts were not about Himself, but the wellbeing of His disciples.

• Looking at the whole prayer in chapter 17, only the first 5 verses concern Himself, and the rest is His prayer for His followers.

Considering the fact that He is about to suffer and be crucified, He still show concern for His followers.

• We want to remember the needs of those who are closest to us.

• Jesus shows us an intercessory heart. And He is still doing that today.

• He is “at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Rom 8:34)

In this prayer, Jesus reveals a few things about the Father.

1. The basis of our prayer – the Father’s love

2. The assurance of our prayer – the Father’s control

3. The reason for our prayer – the Father’s heart

Jesus began His prayer, “Father, the time has come.”

• When He taught His disciples in Luke 11, He said “Our Father in heaven…”

• When Jesus prayed outside the tomb of Lazarus, He said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…” (John 11:41-42)

He is our heavenly Father.

• We know He is our Creator; He is the Lord of the Universe, and the King of kings.

• Although He is all of these, when we come to God in prayer, Jesus taught us to say “Our Father”.

Understanding this relationship is important. We come as His children.

• Each time we pray, we are not coming before an unwilling Judge but a loving Father.

• Knowing that He is our Father is important. It broadens our perspective of prayer.

• A common error we make is to rush into God’s presence and start presenting our petitions, without any regard to WHO God is.

It is more of a child and father talk, not a subject and his king.

• We experience a calmness and assurance. No fear. No suspicion.

So in prayer, we are not engaging in a theological dialogue.

• When we talk to our boss, or those in high-ranking people, we plan our words.

• We do not want to say the wrong things. We are anxious.

• But we do not have to be too bothered by these in prayer.

Jesus calls Him “Father” and taught us to do the same.

• We don’t have to put on special clothing, or use special language. We just come.

• We need to see it this way each time we pray. We need it.

• God has a father’s heart, a father’s love.

Why did Jesus use this phrase, and not ‘Our God, our Creator, our King…’?

• I believe man needs love. We need to know someone cares.

• Each time we pray, this is the case.

• Each time after prayer, we have a sense of peace.

• There is assurance, knowing that your heavenly Father has heard you.

Haddon W Robinson writes in What Jesus Said about Successful Living,

“In the OT, the Israelites did not individually address God as Father. As far as we know, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, or Daniel never fell to their knees in the solitude of their chambers and dared to address God that way. Yet in the NT, God is called Father at least 275 times, and that is how we are instructed to speak to Him. All that a good father wants to be to his children, Jesus told us, God will be to Christians who approach Him in prayer. We can pray as children.” (Discovery House Publishers, p.190.)

It is by grace that we can do that.

• Heb 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

The assurance of our prayer – the Father’s control

17:1 “Father, the time has come”

• This was hardly spoken; mostly we hear Jesus says, ‘It’s not time yet.’

In Gospel of John:

1. At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, His mother pressed Him to do something about the lack of wine. John 2:4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.”