“Under Siege”
Matthew 6:13
April 26, 2009
Where we’ve been:
• Begin by coming to grips with “Our Father”
• Pray then that, above all else, the purposes and plans of God come to accomplishment
o That His moral will be increasingly realized
o That the “not yet” portion of His kingdom be hastened along, acknowledging our readiness for the consummation of the ages to take place
• Acknowledge our own need/insufficiency when I pray, “give us this day our daily bread” and “forgive us our debts”
o Physical needs
o Spiritual needs
• Remember the critical nature, having been forgiven of much, of ourselves being forgiving people
Today, we focus on the final part of the prayer, the first part of verse 13. This embroils us immediately in a bit of controversy, since the version of the Lord’s Prayer that we are used to praying doesn’t end where we end today. We focus today on “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” As typically prayed, the ending goes on further: “for Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” Several thoughts and explanations:
• There is nothing wrong with praying, “for Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.”
• The likelihood, though, from all available manuscript evidence that we have, is that these words were added by a well-meaning copyist. Most of the early manuscripts that we have do not contain that phrase, and we deem that it’s most likely that Jesus did not include it in His prayer, though again, there’s nothing wrong with adding it in , per se!
• A moment, then, on what we do when such issues arise:
o Question: we say that we believe in the “inerrancy” of the Bible; what does this do to that belief? Answer? Nothing.
o Understood correctly, we believe that the Bible is “without error in the original writings”. Technically speaking, then, “inerrancy” doesn’t apply to any given translation of the Bible, but rather to our belief that the Bible is the Word of God to us (thus without error) instead of man’s ideas about God (subject to error).
Perhaps you’ve heard of folks who are called “KJV-only”, believing the King James to be the only inspired Word of God. In Sam’s Club a couple weeks ago, I was walking by the Bible section, when a lady pointed out to her friend that there weren’t any King James versions for sale there, and would her friend be interested in a New International Version? “That’s garbage”, was the lady’s response, and I found myself saddened to think of the fact that some pastor would answer to God one day for putting into her mind the idea that the Bible was “garbage” if it wasn’t in the particular version of his liking. Their error is in a fundamental misunderstanding of a number of things, not the least of which is the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture. In the next breath, we can say that there are a number of translations that qualify as extremely accurate and faithful translations, including some that are much more accurate than the King James (though it itself is a fine translation), and while no translation is itself perfect, none of them qualify as “garbage”.
That’s off our point, but it’s important for Christ-followers to understand the right way to approach the Word. Now we’ll get off that discourse and return to our point, which is that Christ’s final word regarding prayer to us is that we need prayer for God’s protection. That’s not a surprise, but note the area of protection for which we are to pray: protection against the encroachment of evil into our lives.
It’s common for Christians to pray for “traveling mercies”, or for protection for our troops, for instance, but in these instances our prayers are for physical protection, for the continued wellbeing of our bodies. There’s nothing wrong with those prayers, but that’s not what Jesus mentions in the model prayer. Rather, His concern is for the protection of our lives from the influence of temptation, and He encourages us to enlist our Father in our battle against sin. Let’s pray together!
Ever feel as though you were under siege?
• We are bombarded seemingly at every turn by inducements to sin that come as a result of this world in which we live.
o I read too much, I realize, or maybe I read the wrong things, like bumper stickers, t-shirts, and magazine covers at the checkout stand. Sometimes when I do, I come away feeling pretty slimy—because of the filth that appears in some of those places!
o Seems like from every direction, we receive inducements to sin.
Checkout line
TV – watch a good show, but then ads come on!
o Seems like a daily frontal assault on decency.
• On top of these things, our natural, fleshly propensity is to sin
o Some try to flee the world by joining monasteries, but there’s nothing that a monastery can do to deal with our own human flesh.
o I can sin perfectly well without having any outward “inducement” whatsoever.
• Then, too, we fail to give the devil his due. If you remember from our Walk Thru the Bible seminar, fully 60% of professing born-again Christians doubt that Satan is a real being. And yet, the Bible is clear that he and his minions orchestrate a worldly system which seeks to undermine the kingdom of God and its priorities.
This unholy trinity—the world, the flesh, and the devil—lay siege to our Christian commitment. What is the believer to do? Different people take different approaches to the issue of dealing with sin.
• Some try to deny the reality of evil.
o Christian Scientists
o Hindus
o Zen Buddhists
o Transcendental meditationists
• Some wallow in evil, either giving in or becoming paranoid, almost; either way, they allow evil to control them.
• Some take a self-righteous tack: “thank you, Lord, that I’m not really like those evil people”. These are the folks that Jesus reserved some of His harshest criticism for!
• Some Christians try to tackle the problem of sin and evil in their own strength; Jesus’ words here suggest a far better approach to the problem!
So…what is the believer to do?
Jesus recognized the pervasiveness of the problem of evil, the prevalence of temptation, and so He tells us, “as you pray, pray about evil; pray about the temptation that you will inevitably face.” But before we get more deeply into it, there is an immediate problem that we face when we look at this part of the prayer: the Greek word “peirasmos” can mean either “temptation” or “trial”, but most scholars suggest that what is meant here is “temptation”. What’s the problem? According to James 1:13, God isn’t in the business of tempting us to do evil! He’s not setting up spiritual “speed traps”, trying to trip us up and catch us sinning against Him. But we’re actually no better off if we choose to translate this as “trials”, because James tells us that we are to welcome the trials we experience, knowing their potential to develop fruit in our lives—but Jesus here is saying that we pray against this “peirasmos”, so He can hardly be talking about trials, it would seem.
So what’s the solution? What is Jesus saying here?
• One commentator suggests that this is a figure of speech. We use them. “Not half-bad” or “not too shabby”, you’ve heard; what do we mean? Pretty good! So Jesus is saying, in this view, “lead us, not into temptation, but into righteousness”. And certainly that interpretation is in keeping with the will of God, no doubt.
• Another answers that Jesus is not meaning to speak so much theologically here, or even logically, per se, but rather He is addressing the kind of heart-desire that ought to cause a Christ-follower to want to avoid spiritual danger at all costs. He’s suggesting that in prayer we ought to express such a desire for holiness that we want to steer as far away from sin as possible, and that this ought to be part of our praying.
I’ve been advocating for some time that a prayer that we all ought to pray with regularity involves our “want-tos”, that we ought to pray that the Holy Spirit would transform the inclinations and longings of our hearts so that giving in to temptation might increasingly be repulsive to us, so that temptation will become less and less attractive as God’s grace becomes more and more real and desirable to us. I want a heart so set upon God—and so aware of its own weakness—that it would rather avoid temptation altogether than have to withstand it, a heart that wants temptation to become both less available and less tempting!
“Deliver us from evil” – This is a prayer for rescue when I do fall into sin. Yes, I will sometimes fail, but this prayer acknowledges that it is not my desire to live defeated by my sin and failure. What then does it mean, practically, for us to pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”?
I. I sign on for the struggle against evil.
Evil and temptation cannot be seriously denied, and they ought not be succumbed to; rather, we need to confront evil and temptation. In praying this way, I sign on for that conflict.
I place myself squarely in the role of adversary to
• Worldliness.
But my question this morning is, how quickly do we rather cooperate with worldliness rather than confront it? “It’s not that bad.” Hear me now: I wonder how many Christians take their cues on holy living more from the standard other Christians set rather than what the Bible says? If I’m to be serious in incorporating this petition into my praying, then I must be serious in confronting worldly standards rather than giving in.
• My fleshly appetites.
I am not a victim; I do not have to give in to those lusts of the flesh that war against the soul. When I pray, “deliver us from evil”, I recognize soberly that I am made of flesh, that my fleshly impulses and appetites must be yielded to the Lordship of Jesus.
• The devil.
I recognize that I have a real enemy who orchestrates evil in this world, and I dare not underestimate his cunning and his ability to lay out a snare perfectly for me.
II. I acknowledge my own weakness.
How foolish it is to say, “oh, that could never happen to me. I could never give in to that sin.” That kind of self-confidence is the devil’s playground. Instead, the pray-er of this prayer is not one who says, “OK, Satan, hit me with your best shot” (a la Peter), as though he is some type of spiritual superstar, but rather the prayer of this prayer we might call a “sanctified chicken”, if you will, who prays that he won’t even have to face the fight as much as possible, who prays to be kept from the temptation in the first place, rather than have to defeat it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The disciple is conscious of his weakness and does not expose himself unnecessarily to temptation in order to test the strength of his faith.” It’s a fair, reasonable, and right prayer to pray, “Lord, keep me out of situations where I fear my faith may fail the test!” We might run the peril of falling into sin by virtue of
• Establishing a dangerously close alliance with the world;
• Becoming unequally-yoked with unbelievers in such a way that our testimony for Christ might be compromised;
• By withdrawing ourselves so completely from society, on the other hand, that we can hardly function as salt and light;
• By becoming so busy in our daily affairs that important things are neglected;
• By sacrificing the best on the altar of the good.
These and many more perils are out there, and a knowledge of my own weakness and susceptibility to sin in these and other ways ought to prompt me to pray, “Lord, don’t allow me to get anywhere near those things lest my love for You grow cold”.
The band Casting Crowns has written a song that I think describes what happens to a lot of folks:
Be careful little eyes what you see
It’s the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it’s the little feet behind you that are sure to follow
Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray
It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It’s a slow fade, it’s a slow fade
The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you’re thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking
Might I suggest that in light of our propensity for such “slow fades”, and in light of our own weaknesses which prompt this portion of the prayer, we adopt a strategy by which to combat sin and glorify God, a practical way to assist living a life of holiness. Here’s the principle:
“Don’t build your fence on the edge of the cliff.”
What do I mean by that? If “the cliff” represents a fall into sin, don’t allow yourself anything/everything up to that point.
We are promised that there is no temptation with which we come into contact that we will be unable to fend off with the power of the Spirit; that said, sometimes, temptations are so strong that we’re better off not facing them than having to battle against them!
III. I desire a close relationship with the Father.
Why would a person pray to be delivered from evil? It is not merely that he desires to live a holy life for its own sake, but that he desires a closer relationship with God the Father. Sin and evil block that relationship, keep us from experiencing the fullness of God, and the person who sincerely prays this type of prayer is expressing a desire to know God in a deeper way. Yes, I want to live holy, but I want to live holy because I want to be close to God. Do you?
IV. I confess Christ’s victory.
I believe that God has the power to lead me—one who by nature is prone to sin—not into temptation, but into righteousness, and to deliver me! N.T. Wright said that to pray this is “to inhale the victory of the cross and thereby to hold the line for another moment, another hour, another day, against the forces of destruction within ourselves and the world.”
Albert Schweitzer said, “Jesus was called to throw Himself on the wheel of world history so that, even though it crushed Him, it might start to turn in the opposite direction.” And because Christ’s resurrection trumpeted His victory over evil, I can pray with confidence!
When did you last pray such a prayer? It is spiritual carelessness not to pray this way regularly—sometimes, I’m guilty of that—and we pay a price every time we sin. “Oh, what peace we often forfeit; oh, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” We began by saying, a few weeks ago, that it would be highly unsatisfactory to me if we gained this increased intellectual grasp on the intricacies of praying, but remained unwilling to become better pray-ers. So I ask you today,
• Are you praying—or are you playing?
• Does your praying resemble the things that Jesus considers important?
• Do you rely on God for the things mentioned in this prayer, or by your prayerlessness do you give evidence that you think you can handle life by yourself?
• Ultimately, do you love Jesus enough to talk with Him on a regular basis?
TalkAbout
• Look back over the entire “Model Prayer”. What are some things that could keep a follower of Christ from sincerely praying this prayer?
• What are some ways you pray which demonstrate your desire to live a holy life and not fall into sin?
