Matthew 6:7-15
The Lord’s Prayer
Manuscript
The Lord’s Prayer. It’s one of the best known prayers ever. One of the best known passages of the Bible. Many of you – perhaps most of you - can recite it off by heart. Even if you can’t, you’ve probably heard it or heard of it. In many churches – both Protestant and Catholic - the Lord’s Prayer is recited in every service. I grew up in the Catholic Church and the Lord’s Prayer, which we called the “Our Father,” was recited or sung in every service. And it’s not just churches that recite the Lord’s Prayer. Did you know that in the Australian Parliament - yes the big one down in Canberra - every day that parliament sits, they commence with the Lord’s Prayer! The Lord’s Prayer. It’s big. It’s popular. It’s common. The Lord’s Prayer is big, popular and famous, but it is also very misunderstood.
The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew is in chapter 6:9-13 and we usually take it right out of it’s context. Now even before we even look at the contents of the Lord’s Prayer, to really understand the Lord’s Prayer, we need to look at what Jesus says about this prayer in the verses leading up to it. Remember that last Sunday we looked at the beginning of Jesus’ teaching on prayer.
Matthew 66 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
That is, Jesus is telling us to pray privately, by ourselves, to God. Now last week we talked about public prayer being okay. But in this instance, Jesus is giving instruction on private prayer. And as part of Jesus’ instruction to us on private prayer, He gives us the Lord’s Prayer. That is, the Lord’s Prayer is in the main meant as a private prayer! It wasn’t designed as a prayer to be prayed each week in church or to open parliament with. Jesus gave us the Lord’s prayer as that prayer we pray when we go into that private place, and pray to our Father who is in secret. Does that mean we should never pray the Lord’s Prayer in public? Well, I’ll answer that later, but we need to understand the primary use of the Lord’s Prayer is a private prayer. Let’s continue with Jesus’ teaching about prayer
Matthew 67 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
What does this mean – this heaping up of empty phrases, or as the NIV puts, it, “Babbling like pagans” and the NKJV, “vain repetitions.” What does it mean? Well the Greek word here means to say the same thing over and over again. As though by saying something enough, regardless of whether you are thinking about it or not, that just repeating yourself will make God hear you. And many pagan prayers are like that. The Buddhists of Tibet and Mongolia use prayer wheels. They stick prayers on wheels and then spin them so they can say as many prayers as possible in the shortest amount of time, as though that will make their gods here them better! But we can do it too. Now I grew up in the Catholic church and we were encouraged to get rosary beads and pray through the rosary. Who knows what rosary beads are? Rosary beads – it’s this thing with beads, and you move your fingers along it, and for every small bead you pray a “Hail Mary” and every 10th bead there is a big bead, and when you’re on that you pray an “Our Father” – the Lord’s prayer. Now most people who prayed through the rosary didn’t really think about what they were praying. For most it was a mindless repetition of prayers, and ironically one of the prayers of the rosary was the Lord’s Prayer - the very prayer that Jesus is saying shouldn’t be a mindless repetition. But even without rosary beads, many – not all of course, but many who recite the Lord’s prayer in a church service, or as Parliament opens, don’t really think about what they are reciting. For many when they recite the Lord’s Prayer it is a mindlesss repetition, precisely the thing Jesus tells us not to do when He says in verse:
Matthew 6 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Okay so Jesus says don’t be like them. Don’t pray mindless repetitive prayers. So how then should we pray? Jesus tells us in verse 9:
Matthew 69 Pray then like this: and then He gives us the Lord’s prayer.
Now notice Jesus doesn’t say: “Pray this exactly.” But He says “pray like this.” Literally it is “pray in this way or manner.” That is, Jesus is not telling us the exact words to pray as though it is some magic formula, but He is telling us how to pray and the general things we should be praying for. You see, if you pray the exact words of the Lord’s prayer it will take you about 20 seconds, but your prayers would I hope be somewhat longer than that! You can certainly pray the exact words of the Lord’s Prayer, but what Jesus has given us here is more than just a prayer, but He’s given us instructions on the sorts of things that we should pray for. So let’s have a look at Jesus’ instructions on how to pray.
If we have a look at the Lord’s Prayer we can divide it into two. The first half is the big picture stuff, which concentrates on God and His purposes for the world:
Matthew 9b “Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
The second half is the “us” bit – that concentrates on us:
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Let’s have a look at the first part first! The big picture stuff. First line:
Matthew 9b “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Hallowed – what does that mean? It’s not an everyday word. It basically means to make God’s name holy. Well, what does it mean, that we should pray for our Father to make His name holy? It means this: it means that His name should be treated as holy. That is, with reverance, sanctity and awe. Awe. God’s holiness expresses His divine perfection. Now is that the way God’s name is treated? With awe, reverence, holiness? Well it is in heaven, but it isn’t always here. People riducule God, people ignore God, or they say they serve Him, but when it actually comes to obeying Him, following God’s laws, they spurn Him. Very often, God’s name is not hallowed on earth. So we are to pray for God to magnify, glorify His name. Now how does that happen? Let’s go to the next part of the prayer to find out:
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
God’s name is glorified and hallowed when people recognise His rule over their lives. That is, as they recognise and come into His kingdom. We need to be praying for these things in our prayer life. Now notice the line “on earth as it is in heaven.” What does this mean? It means that in Heaven – now, at this very time, in heaven, God’s sname is hallowed. God’s kingdom has come. God’s will is always done. But ever since our ancestors rejected God in the Garden of Eden, people do not do God’s will. And we are to pray for God’s kingdom – God’s rule - to come. Now the big question here, is this referring to the future – or to now? Well, we’ve already seen earlier on that it is referring to both. One day Jesus will return to this earth. One day the dead will rise - the righteous to everlasting life, the unrighteousness to everlasting judgement. And only those who recognise Jesus as king will get to live with Him for eternity. And so God’s reign will be established in all it’s fullness on earth, as it is in heaven. But – what is the message of Jesus? Remember we looked at His message in Matthew 4:17.
Matthew 417 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
That is, Jesus’ message was about the Kingdom of Heaven. He was calling people to repent from their life of not following God, and to turn to Him, asking for the forgiveness of their sins, and because Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross, He can forgive our sins if we repent of them and place our trust in Christ and let God be the ruler of our lives. That is, God becomes our king. We obey Him, seeking to live the way He tells us to in the Bible. Jesus was preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven, and now in the Lord’s prayer we are told to pray for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done. That is, we should be praying for people to come under God’s rule. That is, to come to know Christ and to come to obey Him. What does that mean practically for our prayer time?
Well, for me, I like to start with Christians, that Christians would become more like Christ and grow more obedient to Him, letting God rule in their lives – which is what kingdom means - the rule of God - and that Christians would do God’s will. I start with myself. I try and think of areas of my life where I’m struggling to obey God, and I ask Him for help in being obedient. Then I pray for my family, and our church, that His rule would be evident in our church. That we would be a people that don’t just say we follow Him, but a people who really do follow Him, a church where God’s will is done in each of our lives.
But God’s kingdom is not just for those who are already Christians. The whole point of Jesus’ preaching was to call people to repentance. That is – people outside God’s kingdom. There are so many people in Gympie who don’t recognise God as their king – their boss. I pray for people here to come to His kingdom, and this is a good time to name specific people you might know who don’t know Him.
But then I’m conscious that there are 2 billion people in the world who don’t just now know Jesus, they aren’t even in contact with Christians – so how can they hear about the kingdom? So I pray for them – and the missionaries who work amongst those people. But I pray also for those people so isolated from the Gospel, that there are no missionaries among them. I pray another prayer that Jesus told us to pray later on in Matthew:
Matthew 937 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”
We need to pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to send workers into those parts of the harvest field that don’t have any workers currently reaping the harvest.
So we see the first part of the Lord’s prayer is not about us. It’s about God. It’s about His glory being known over all the earth, among all peoples. It’s about His kingdom coming, about people living according to His will, on earth, here, as it already is in Heaven. And truly, when we look at the Lord’s prayer, fully half of the Lord’s prayer is about God’s name being hallowed, about God’s kingdom coming, about God’s will being done, here on the earth. Do we spend a good chunk of our prayer praying for this?
And it’s not until we get to half way through the Lord’s Prayer, that we can at last pray for ourselves. But even then – it’s different to what we might expect. Let’s have a look:
Matthew 6
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
This is the section where we pray for ourself, but notice that in none of it do we pray “I.” It is all “us” and “we.” That is, even though the Lord’s Prayer is our private prayer between God and each one of us, we shouldn’t just be praying for ourselves, but for all Christians. Now let’s look at verse 11 - it is the only part of the Lord’s prayer where we are to pray for our own physical needs. The only part! And it’s only one line! But note what it says
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
Bread – food - that’s a pretty basic need. In other words, we are to pray for our needs, but not our greeds! And the other thing we need to remember is that Jesus gave this prayer to a people in a much poorer society than ours. A people who really did worry about what they would eat from day to day. Remember, a world without Centrelink, superannuation and the pension. They were in much more dire straights than we are. Of course – we still have basic needs, even if we know where our next meal is coming from. If we’re crook – especially if it’s bad – that is a basic need we need to pray for. But the other thing to note is that Jesus didn’t tell us to pray, “Give me this day my daily bread,” but “give us this day our daily bread.” That is – don’t just pray for your own needs or those of your immediate family. Pray for others who have needs. Pray for others who are struck down with illness. And as for daily bread, although most of us in Australia don’t worry about our next meal is coming from, although of course, some do, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world don’t know where their next meal is coming from. It doesn’t matter that they might live on the otherside of the world, they are still part of “us” – humans made in God’s image. I mentioned last week the famine developing in East Africa - let us pray for them. Actually they are not “them” they are “us” – they are part of us. Pray for our daily bread, and not just pray, but as it says in:
James 215 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
Do something about it too, and in your newsletter today there is some information about how we can help our brothers and sisters who today are wondering where there daily bread is coming from. So – pray for them – pray for us – they are part of us. And so we progress to the next bit:
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Well that’s the heart of the Gospel isn’t it? Forgiveness of our sins! Here we can confess our debts to God – that is, our sins and disobedience against God’s will. And if you are here today and you are not a Christian, if you aren’t living with God as your king, if you are not obeying the way He is telling you to live which we find in the Bible, there is hope! Jesus calls you to repent, that is – to acknowledge that you haven’t been following His way to live, and to ask Him for forgiveness. And because Jesus died and rose again from the dead, He has the power to forgive you of your sins if you ask Him. If you ‘ve never done that, please come and talk to me or someone else here straight after the service.
And for those of us who do know Christ already, we still, despite getting better and better, still sin from time to time. This is our opportunity to ask God afresh for forgivenss of our most recent sins. And He will forgive us, but it does come with a condition! This is the only part of the Lord’s prayer with a condition. We can only ask our Father to forgive us our sins, if we forgive those who owe us, those who’ve wronged us. And after the prayer has finished Jesus makes this condition really plain:
Matthew 614 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I get really concerned when I hear Christians who won’t forgive others for something that has been done to them. I need to tell you today that if you hold unforgiveness against someone, that is one of the most dangerous things you can do. Because it’s black and white here - if you don’t forgive others, then neither will God forgive you of your sins. And that’s scary. Friends, I know from experience that forgiveness is hard. But you gotta do it. Ask God to help you forgive. Of course it helps to know what forgiveness is. Some people think forgiveness is excusing what someone did. For example, when someone apologies to us, we have a tendency to say, “that’s alright.” But forgiveness is not excusing the sin. If someone has sinned against you, then it’s sin, don’t excuse it. Some think forgivenss is forgetfulness. But it’s not that also. You can’t make yourself forget something. But the Greek word for forgiveness means, “letting go.” This is what forgiveness is: it is letting go. Letting go for the desire for revenge, letting go of the trying to seek justice. Letting the matter drop.
And when we do that for others, letting the matter drop, then when we ask God to forgive our sin against Him, He will let go of seeking justice for our sin. He will let the matter of our sin drop. Hallelujah! I’m glad He does that! But we need to do it to others. And if you are having trouble forgiving someone of something they’ve done for you, I’d love to talk with you, and work with you through the process of forgiving. It is so essential – don’t let it slide. And then the Lord’s Prayer concludes with:
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
I love that part of the Lord’s Prayer! Mate, I know I’m a sinner and I struggle with temptation, so I pray to God, keep me away from temptation, and rescue me from any evil that I might be tempted to do.
Friends that’s the Lord’s prayer. Let’s summarise: The Lord’s Prayer is primarily intended as a private prayer. It wasn’t given by Jesus primarily as a prayer for a church service or for parliament, but for our own prayer life. Also, it was given not to be mindlessly repeated over and over again, but as a guide to the sorts of things we should be praying for. In fact, I find it very helpful to use the Lord’s prayer as an outline when I pray. Most of us know it by heart so you can use it anywhere. So when I go in private to pray to God, I often use the Lord’s prayer to guide my praying, like this:
Firstly – God’s glory, His kingdom, His will. Pray that you and your family that you will do God’s will in your life. Pray for our church that we would all do God’s will. Pray for those who don’t know God, both those here – and abroad. Pray for the chaplains, the missionaries. Pray for those people who don’t have missionaries. Pray for all of us that we can be good witnesses. Pray that God’s kingdom will come and His will done on all the earth, among all people, as it is heaven.
Then, you can pray for yourself, but not just yourself – pray for “us”. Pray for those who don’t know where there next meal is coming from. Pray for the basic needs of both yourself and others. And then ask God to forgive you of your sins. And as you do, check your heart to see if you don’t hold unforgiveness against anyone else. If you do – forgive them before you move on. And then pray for God to lead you away from temptation and the possibility of doing evil.
And I’ll close by answering a couple of questions you may have. Firstly – is it okay to pray for things not covered by the Lord’s Prayer? Well I need to tell you that the Lord’s Prayer is only one of the prayers of the Bible! And so, if it is a godly prayer – yes you can. But if you actually look at the general categories, almost anything from elsewhere in the Bible can fit into the general pattern of the Lord’s Prayer.
And secondly, is it okay to pray the Lord’s Prayer publicly? Well, as I said last week, although Jesus here is talking about private prayer, we find lots of examples and instructions elsewhere in the Bible about praying together. So while the Lord’s prayer was given primarily as a private prayer, it is certainly a good prayer to also pray together, provided you also pray it secretly to your Father as well. And of course, when praying publicly, we must be careful that we don’t just do it ritually without thinking. But I think it is appropriate to close today, not with a song, but with the Lord’s Prayer. Not reciting it. Not saying it. But praying it together, thinking about the words, and determining to use it as the pattern for our own personal prayers to our Heavenly Father.
Matthew 9b “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 also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
