The Lord’s Prayer
Part I
Matthew 6:9-10
Almost all of our prayers begin by rushing into a series of requests in which we pour out to God our problems, our needs, our irritations. Unfortunately this only reinforces the focus of our attention on what is troubling us and our inability to remedy it. It could be that is at least part of the problem of why we are more depressed and frustrated after we pray than before.
Alan Redpath sums up how many feel even when they have prayed, “When we have finished our praying we can scarcely bring ourselves to believe that our feeble words can have been heard, or that they can have made no difference in the things concerning which we have been praying. We’ve said our prayers but we have not prayed.” [Alan Redpath. “Victorious Praying: Studies in the Lord’s Prayer.” (Grand Rapids: Fleming Revell, 1993) p. 12]
The Disciples themselves must have felt some-what the same way for they came to Jesus and said, according to Luke’s account, “Lord teach us how to pray.” (Luke 11:1) It was in response to the request to “teach them how to pray” that the Lord gave what is most commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Matthew tells us in verse nine that Jesus said, “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (10) Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. (11) Give us this day our daily bread. (12) And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.(13) And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:9-13)
There are some who argue that this should not be called the Lord’s Prayer but that the prayer recorded in John 17 more rightful deserves that title. Yet because this great prayer has been called “The Lord’s Prayer” for almost 2,000 years it is pointless to think we will change it now. But whether you call this the “Lord’s Prayer,” the “Disciples Prayer” or the “Model Prayer” doesn’t matter much as long as we recognize that it given by Jesus as a model for all true prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer was given to us as the Lord’s pattern for prayer that is acceptable to God. The Lord’s Prayer was given to show the Disciples how to pray, that is how they should go about praying, not just the words they should use. Jesus begins by saying, “In this manner” or “Pray like this” or “When you pray, say this.”
It is particularly ironic that the Lord’s Prayer is often mindlessly repeated, given that Jesus warned in verses 7 and 8 against the dangers of meaningless repetition. Two truths seem apparent. First, he does not want us to repeat any prayer again and again. There is a difference between much talking and much praying. Secondly, he wants us to know that God does not hear us based on the length of our prayers. Some of the world’s most effective prayers have been short.
The Lord’s Prayer is made up of six or seven petitions (depending on how the prayer is divided); the first three petitions are called the “Your Petitions” because they begin with the word “Your” and they center on God’s glory.
Your name be hallowed
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
The final set of four petitions is called the “Us Peti-tions,”focusing on our needs.
Give us our daily bread
Forgive us our debts
Lead us not into temptation
Deliver us from the evil one.
In this and the following message I want us to examine the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for prayer by looking at each of the seven petitions one at a time. In this message we will examine the first three petitions that are concerned with God’s glory and in the next message we will concentrate on the four final petitions addressed to the believer’s needs.
But before we examine the petition we need to note that the Lord’s Prayer begins with the phrase, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” That is not that we would merely say the words, but that we believe that God is our Father and we would relate to Him as a Father. One cannot really pray the Lord’s Prayer without first esta-blishing a relationship through faith in Jesus Christ and being born into the family of God. This part of the prayer cuts through the false doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God (that God is the father of all men). God is uniquely the father of the Lord Jesus Christ and becomes the father of those who believe on Christ. The Apostle John wrote, “But as many as received Him, (that is Christ) to them He gave the right to become child-ren of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12) All true prayer begins with an awareness of the ability to claim a relationship with God.
Jesus is stating the importance of starting our prayers with the awareness that God is our Father. What Jesus is teaching here is pretty dramatic. God is referred to only fourteen times in the Old Testament as Father and then it was always in a corporate sense as the Father of Israel never in a personal way. No one in the entire history of Israel had prayed as Jesus prayed.
Even more radical was the word that Jesus used for Father – it was the common Aramaic word with which a child would address his father – the word “Abba.” Of course everyone used the word, but no one under any circumstances used it in connection with God. “Abba” meant something like “Daddy” but with a more reverent touch than we use it today. It meant something like, “Dearest Father.”
The fact that God is our “dearest father” is to be foundational awareness in prayer. Wrapped up in the expression “our father” is a new dimension in intimate communion with God, the same intimacy that exists between a child and their father is to exist between them and God. The beginning of effective prayer is the recognition that God possesses a father’s heart, a father’s love, a father’s strength and a father’s concern for the best interest of his children.
The problem among some Christians today is the opposite of the ancient Jews; they are flippantly sentimental about God. Jesus addresses both errors by address the prayer to “Our father in Heaven.” “Father” relates the intimacy that one may address God as “Abba” or “Dearest Father” but by adding “In heaven” one is reminded that He is sovereign of the Universe. We may address God as “Dearest Father” but we should do so with the deepest sense of wonder. Everett Fullam a missionary to a remote tribe in Nigeria relates how one of the local natives saw the awesomeness of this new experience with God by saying; “Behind this universe stands one God, not a great number of warring spirits, as we had always believed, but one God. And that God loves me!” [as quoted in Kent Hughes. Abba Father: The Lord’s Pattern for Prayer (Wheaton, Crossway Books, 1986) pp. 22-23.]
I believe that we should all share in the wonder that this man felt that the God of the Universe loves us! It is through this sense of being loved that we can come to truly under-stand forgiveness and the wholeness that comes through from being loved and forgiven.
The writer of the hymn expresses it for us,
“Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.”
(Walter Chambers Smith – “Immortal, Invisible.” # 55 –Praise ! Our Songs and Hymns. (Grand Rapids: Singspiration Music, 1979 )
Having the foundational awareness of God as our Father we are now ready to move on to the first of the petitions.
First, Hallowed Be Your Name (6:9b)
What does it mean to “hallow” His name? The word “hallow” is the Greek word hagios which is the word for holy, “hallow” means “to set apart as holy, to consider holy, to treat as holy.” The best modern word perhaps is reverence. When you pray “hallowed be your name” you are saying, “Father may your name be reverenced on Earth as it already is in Heaven. May your name be given the reverence that is due your character and nature as the Heavenly Father.” It is climbing to a new level of respect for God and reverence for His person. You are ascending to the very heart of God to recognize who His and what He has done for us.
When you begin your prayers “Hallowed be your name,” you are not rushing into the presence of God to demand something, you come into his presence recogn-izing who God is.When Jesus taught us to pray “hallow-ed be your name,” He was telling us to make the presence of God real in our hearts. When you pray “hallowed be your name,” you are placing God on the throne of your heart. It is about putting God on the throne of our lives on Earth, as He sits upon His throne in Heaven.
His name is hallowed in our lives when we are supremely concerned that every detail of our lives should be for His glory. Whatever tasks you or I may undertake our first thought should be, “Is this for His glory?” This thought should be in our thoughts when I choose the books we will read or the movies we will watch. This phrase applies to the friends we make and the company we keep. It will be the chief concern in all habits we form and all the ambitions that we cherish. This should be our supreme object in every pleasure we seek. This will be our attitude concerning every sorrow and trial we face.
It is a solemn thought to realize that failure on our part to hallow the name of the Lord has disastrous consequences, in causing the name of that name to be blasphemed by the world. The Apostle Paul once warned the church at Rome, “…. the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, …” (Romans 2:24).
When we pray each day “Hallowed be your name,’ we are saying, “Father I realize that your reputation is at stake in me today. May I live in such a way as to be a credit to you. May others see your character through my behavior and honor your name because of what they see of you in me.”
Praying Not Only To Hallow His Name but …
Secondly, Your Kingdom Come (6:10a) “Your kingdom come.”
For Jesus the Kingdom of God was “the” priority. His message was primarily about the Kingdom (Matt 4:17, 23). Over a hundred times in the gospels Jesus refers to the Kingdom. It is not surprising then that Jesus taught His followers that the first order of business in our prayers, after entering into God’s presence through praise (hallowing his name) was to affirm the priority of God’s rule being established in our lives.
“So what did Jesus mean when He taught us to pray for “the Kingdom” to come?” There are also two present aspects to this request.
The first present aspect we need to recognize about our prayer for God’s kingdom to come is that we are asking God to rule in our own lives. Of course we recognize that the kingdom in its fullness will have to wait for the ultimate return of Jesus Christ. But we can experience an increasing manifestation of the kingdom in our lives today. Jesus said in Luke 17:21 “… For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” The Apostle Paul tells us we have already been transferred into the kingdom in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the king-dom of the Son of His love.” Now it is our task as Christians to manifest the kingdom of God here on planet Earth.
If we truly desire God’s rule over all men and women at a future time, then it follows that we desire that He will work His will out in our lives now. When we pray, “thy kingdom come,” we are acknowledging God’s right to rule all people, including us. We dare not pray for his rule over others unless we honestly desire His rule over us. There is absolutely no reason whatso-ever to pray, “thy kingdom come,” unless we fully intend to cooperate with the establishment of His rule in our own lives. Obviously the more fully we submit to God’s reign in our own lives the more effectively God will be able to use us in manifesting His kingdom on the Earth.
The second present aspect of praying for God’s kingdom is that we are asking for the spread of the gospel to those who do not know Christ. You are pray-ing for the kingdom of Christ to be expanded into the lives of people who are at present outside the kingdom.
There is of course a future aspect. There is yet to be a kingdom in which the rule and reign of Christ will be totally recognized. When we pray “your Kingdom come,” you are asking for the Second Coming of Jesus to this earth. You are asking for Jesus to come and estab-lished His kingdom on this Earth. We are looking forward to the climax of history when God’s will, shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven. When the prayer, “thy kingdom come” is answered He will take possess-ion of the kingdom and as John tells us in the book of Revelation, “…the kingdoms (plural) of this world are become the kingdom (singular) of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign of ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
Praying Not Only Your Kingdom Come but …
Thirdly, Your Will Be Done. (6:10b) “Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.”
This is the third and final “your” petition, which centers on God. It is unfortunately true that uncounted millions have repeated the words “your will be done” without the faintest notion of what God’s will is. Per-haps even more alarming is that even more people have repeated these words without any intention whatever of seeing to it that the Father’s will is done. You are not asking God to change His will or to bless your will, you are asking Him to help you find and do His will in your life. Think about what we are saying, we are even implying that our wills be overturned if necessary to accomplish His will in our lives. To pray “Your will be done” means we understand that prayer is not about getting God on “my” page but about me getting on “His” page. It’s acknowledgement of wanting to be a part of His plan and in line with His agenda.
To pray “your will be done” is a commitment to knowing God’s will as it is revealed in His word. But it is not enough just to know the will of God, one must then apply it, “your will be done,” is in reality a prayer of submission. According to Romans 12:2, it is our priv-ilege to submit to “… that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The truth is that the cause of all the unrest, frustration, unhappiness and sense of powerlessness in the life of a Christian can be traced to trying to follow our own self-will. Behind much of our failure is the desire to have my way not His way.
The second part of this petition is that His will be done “on Earth as it is in Heaven.” How is the will of God done in heaven? If the veil were pulled back for a moment so that we could get a glimpse of how His will is done in Heaven, what do you think that we would see? We would see the will of God being done without one creature out of harmony. The will of God is done in Heave; instantly, constantly and without failure.
Conclusion
One of the most important things to learn in life for a Christian is how to pray. And when His disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray,” by way of answer He gave the “Lord’s Prayer” as a pattern.
One has to wonder if the disciples were at first a bit disappointed with the Lord’s answer to their question. Given what they had witnessed in the prayer life of Jesus they probably expected more than a seventeen lesson on the meaning of prayer. But think about it for a moment. Jesus said, “When you pray, say this!” Perhaps the most profound thing this prayer teaches us about prayer is this; you can only learn to pray by praying. It is not found in a book on prayer or a seminar on how to conquer wondering thoughts, if you want to learn to pray, then all you have to do is pray.
It was never His intention that we should just recite this prayer from memory but rather that we should use it as an example of how to pray. And yet perhaps no prayer has been repeated more with little or no understanding.
To glibly repeat back this prayer accomplishes nothing however to really pray through the principles learned in this prayer is immeasurable.
The Lord’s Prayer
Part I
Matthew 6:9-10
The Lord’s Prayer is made up of seven petitions; the first three petitions are called the “Your Petitions” because they begin with the word “Your” and they center on God’s ____________.
Your name be hallowed
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
The final set of four petitions is called the “Us Petitions,” and deal with our ___________!
Give us our daily bread
Forgive us our debts
Lead us not into temptation
Deliver us from the evil one.
Jesus first states the importance of starting our prayers with the awareness that God is our _____________.
First, Hallowed Be Your ____________ (6:9b)
“hallow” means to ___________________.
Secondly, Your _______________________ Come (6:10a)
• Future aspect. – praying for the ___________ __________ of Jesus to this earth.
• Present aspect (two)
We are asking God to _________ in our own lives.
(Lk. 17:21 Col. 1:13)
We are asking for the spread of the ______________ to those who do not know Christ.
Thirdly, Your ______________ Be Done. (6:10b)
