Living the Lord’s Prayer, Part-7, Mathew 6:6-13
“Yours in the Glory!”
Introduction
Often as I put my sons to sleep, just before they doze off to sleep will say “Daddy are you there?” “Yes son I’m here.” The knowledge of their abba’s presence, their daddy’s presence, is enough to secure within them the comfort necessary to turn over and go to sleep, without a thought of harm.
It is my most earnest prayer that someday when those little boys are seventy or eighty years old, that I will have instilled within them a trust of far greater worth and immeasurably greater surpassing value, that every night before going to sleep, though I will be long gone by them, they might look up into the face of their heavenly Father, their eternal abba, and say, “Father, are you there?” And then hear the answer which comes back, clear and strong, “Yes, my son, I am here.”
Textual Problem
Today we will look at the very last line in the Lord’s Prayer. Interestingly the last line of the Prayer of the Lord is not found in all modern English translations. The reason for this is rather simple but it is problematic for translation scholars.
The textual issue is simply that what are believed to be the oldest manuscripts, Codex Vaticanus specifically do not contain the doxology “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (KJV)
The majority text, which is the largest collection of manuscripts, the Textus Receptus or received text, contains the doxology. So the oldest manuscripts with the smallest number of actual parchments leave it out while the less ancient manuscripts with a greater number of manuscripts have it in.
The argument is whether the doxology was original to Jesus or if scribes included it later as it was no doubt the practice of the early Jewish Christians to end their prayers with a doxology, which was the Jewish custom. Remember that the Lord’s Prayer was at least influenced by the Jewish “Kaddish.”
This morning we will not focus so much on the textual issues surrounding why some translations include or do not include the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer.
Transition
I am convinced that it should be left into the text, however even translations which exclude it typically include the text as a footnote. In practice, this is one of the most important parts of the prayer. For in the doxology we sum up the purpose of the entire prayer, of our entire lives, bringing glory to God!
Today we look at the glory of our Abba, our Heavenly Father. When we know Him in intimacy the natural response will always be to seek to glorify Him. Today we explore an oft neglected subject: The glory of God!
We always extol, praise, call attention to, put on display, that which we love! To glorify our Abba, our Heavenly Father, daddy.
As we have this discussion this morning about the glory of God I don’t want you to miss the not so obvious connection between our relationship with God as loving father, our Heavenly Father, our abba, and bringing glory to Him.
His glory and our position as His child are so closely connected that we often overlook it. The child who is loved perfectly by his father longs to please him. In this case, it pleases the heart of the Father when we find our ultimate satisfaction in resting in His sovereign love as we partake of His glory.
Two key thoughts:
(1) The significance of Jesus' use of "Abba" is that, for the first-century Jew, "it would have been irreverent and therefore unthinkable to call God by this familiar word." "Abba" as used, therefore "reveals the very basis of (Jesus') communion with God," "not a familiarity and intimacy with God available to anyone," but a unique relationship that was bestowed upon Jesus, representing "the centre of Jesus' awareness of his mission." (http://www.tektonics.org/jesusclaims/abba.html) “And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36 ESV)
(2) “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29 ESV) We likewise are known by our abba.
Exposition
In I Chronicles 29:11 the Bible says, “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.” (KJV)
The doxology of the Lord’s Prayer echoes the many passages in the Bible where God’s people cry out the centrality of the glory of God. The expression of God’s glory is the ultimate aim of God in the universe. The magnification of God’s glory sit he ultimate aim of the Christian life.
From the inception of the Church, in the days of Old Testament Israel, and in our lives it has been and is the central mission of the people of God to make His glory known. We are standard bearers for His glory who are drawn close enough to Him that as we declare His glory we also bask in its presence.
When in Israel last year I sat next to a large Jewish family as I waited in the Tel-Aviv air terminal to board the flight back to New York. At the table next to myself and a Lutheran pastor I spent much time with there was a large Jewish family.
I overheard the most beautiful thing coming from these children to their Jewish father. They were trying to get his attention and they were saying “Abba! Abba! Abba!” Eventually they did get his attention and they were happy to have it.
Why are there some believers for whom the central theme of their life is bringing glory to God and then there are others who misuse, abuse, or completely neglect that aspect of the Christian life? Indeed, neglecting to glorify God, making Him central in our life, not robbing Him of His glory is the chief aim of this life.
Could it be that these believers have not known the tenderness that comes from coming just as we are no pretending, no religious garb, naked before the Lord, before abba, in simplicity, gazing into His eyes and knowing that we are loved simply, for who we really are?
Just as the routine praying of the Lord s Prayer has the great tendency to cause us to lose touch with its beauty out of familiarity and comfort, so religion, that is our working to express His glory outwardly, has the great tendency to rob us of intimacy with God.
It is far too easy and commonplace for the believer to exchange glorifying their abba from the depth of intimacy with Him for vain religious activity. What a cheap substitute religion is for love.
What pauper’s rags we wear when we clothe ourselves in religious garb rather than the clothing of Christ who has clothed us with His own righteousness – making us abba’s children!
Dietrich Bonheoffer commented in lectures to his students that “It is the structures of religion that must go not the proper consideration of Christ.” (Christ the Center, Harper Rowe, 1960, 15.) How easily we lose touch with a proper consideration of Christ when we mistake religious obligation for the glorification of God. We not only glorify God in worship on Sunday morning.
We do so in our conduct with one another throughout the week. We do so when we are on the job. We honor God in the fashion in which we do all that we do. “Whatever work you do, put yourself into it, as those who are serving not merely other people, but the Lord.” (Colossians 3:23 CJB)
The Lord’s Prayer encompasses all areas of the life of the believer. In it Jesus deals with our relationship with God, Holiness, the future kingdom, God’s will and purpose, our submission to the divine will, our daily needs and God’s role in our provision, forgiveness and our role in it, temptation and sin, Satan, and finally, the doxology: a humble recognition that all of the prayer and therefore all of our lives are not about our lives, but His glory. “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
“I believe the religion of Christ covers the whole man. Why shouldn’t a man play baseball or lawn-tennis? ... Don’t imagine that you have got to go into a cave to be consecrated, and stay there all your life. Whatever you take up, take it up with all your heart.” - D.L. Moody
What I am speaking of today is the difference between obedience to and adoration of our abba, our Heavenly Father, out of loving reverence, awestruck wonder at the beauty of His love, and religious box-checking, and outward appearance. We long to defend, proclaim, and protect the glory of God when we love Him and His glory.
If this seems foreign it is because we, the modern church, have tended to neglect to teach, preach, and proclaim His ultimate worth and glory! O, we have taught about His goodness, His blessing, but what of His worth?
When you are possessed by Christ, when you are abba’s child
Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV):
(1) Our Father which art in heaven,
a. Your love alone is at the center of my life. The worth you ascribe to me as your child brings me comfort when nothing else can. Abba, I long to reside safe in your arms.
(2) Hallowed be thy name.
a. Father, you are holy, perfect, of matchless worth; to know you is to know joy; to find you is to find a treasure!
(3) Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
a. Abba, I long for you to wash away the brokenness of this world and establish your kingdom perfectly on this earth. Your will be done in me, I am in love with my abba, my God, my personal intimate Lord.
(4) Give us this day our daily bread.
a. Abba, you know my daily needs. Give me what I need and that which you give me I will use to bless others.
(5) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
a. Abba, your mercy is so wondrous; teach me to share it with others so that I can participate in my daddy’s work. I want to be like you when I grow up abba.
(6) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
a. You tempt no one abba, restore my perfect vision of your worth so that I might avoid attacking your purity with my sin, so that I might put nothing in between you and me. My obedience draws me nearer to you Father. May it be so!
(7) For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
a. Your worth is the center of my security. Your gaze, when it meets my eye pierces my soul, your tenderness brings comfort to my heart, fills me with joy and hope! Because I know that I am yours and you are mine. Your glory defines my humanity.
Conclusion
Scripture is the best commentary on Scripture:
“I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. “ (Galatians 4:1-7 ESV) Amen.
