1 Our Father
Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:1-4
Martin Luther is credited with saying, “Just as the business of the tailor is making clothes and the business of the cobbler is making shoes, so the business of the Christian is praying.” If that’s true, I have a question for us this morning: How’s business?
Prayer is vital for followers of Jesus, but prayer is not so much what’s involved with the words as it is in the attitude behind those words. And the model prayer of Jesus gives us a template that guides the direction our prayers and the attitude of our hearts.
Now, Jesus gave this example of how prayer works in Matthew 6 and again in Luke 11, in response to a question his disciples asked Him. And by his response, we know that he wanted His disciples to know how to pray…
So how do we pray? That’s a question we asked each other last week as we began to look at the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus first offered this model prayer to his disciples during what might be his most famous sermon…the Sermon on the Mount that’s written about relatively early in the book of Matthew, and it’s repeated in Luke 11.
Now, this wasn’t a prayer that Jesus gave us to just memorize and regurgitate back to God. He didn’t intend for us to get hung up on the words. He wanted us to pay attention to the structure of the prayer. It’s a template not a mandate.
So as we begin to move through the prayer of Jesus, he starts with letting us know about the commonality we have in Christianity with just one word. 2 “Our.” From the first word, Jesus shows that we have a connection not only to God but to other people. This prayer unites us, and expresses unity within the fellowship of all believers. It helps us realize that we aren’t in this alone.
There’s something reassuring and comfortable about fellowship – about being connected with each other. Our. It reminds us to link arms because we have some things in common.
That’s one of the qualities I’ve learned to like the most about our church – the way we stick together and work together for the common good. This is what “our” looks like. People in our church do a ton of things for each other and for the Kingdom, many of which go unseen. It’s the power of “our.”
As I was thinking about that this week I jotted down just a cross-section of what I mean by that. Over the last few weeks, Cookie, John & Eric did a massive clean-up around the building. Lois manages our kitchen and she or John make coffee for us every week. Carol drives her ministry to connect with people – visits, phone calls, noticing who’s here and who’s not.
Jenny and Brian take care of our finances. Denise coordinates church dinners. Ed teaches on Wednesdays and Sundays. Jim manages our facility. Camille and Michelle help decorate the building, especially at Christmas. And I know that’s nowhere near recognizing everything that gets done and everyone who works hard to make our church someplace special.
But it represents the power of “our.” We’re interconnected and we need each other. We’re here for each other through all of life’s ups and downs. And from the first word of the prayer Jesus taught us, he shows that we have a connection not only to God but to other people and that should hopefully lower the defenses we may harbor when it comes to church or the things of God. Because of “our,” Jesus makes the church inclusive and welcoming. That’s why we call it “our church home.”
3 Jesus said, 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” He sets the tone at the start by honoring the Father. “Father.” It’s a term of endearment. It’s an intimate and personal family-like approach to prayer. It’s reassuring and it makes God approachable. At the time Jesus laid this out, that was a foreign concept in the average Jewish home,
The word "Father" says a lot about our relationship to God. Prior to Jesus’ coming, most people wouldn’t presume to address God as their "Father"; but Jesus changed all that. Jesus startled people by repeatedly calling God His Father.
In the Old Testament God is spoken of as our Father, but there are no examples of anyone praying to God using the word, “Father.” To address God as Father seemed too familiar and presumptuous. But all that changed through the work of Christ. Now we are privileged to call God our Father. He is not distant or out of touch. He is with us.
If we visit the OT, we’ll find that God was referred to by pseudo-names and in hushed whispers because everyone feared that they may upset him or dishonor His name. And when he was mentioned it was YAHWEH…and NEVER was He referred to as the Heavenly Father!
BUT in the NT, we find God revealed in a much different manner. In fact, in the Gospels alone, God is mentioned as ‘Father’ over 70 times…
And when someone sees God as ‘Father,’ it puts him or her into a different relationship…a radically different relationship with God, because when we see God as ‘Father’ our perspective of Him changes. To address God as Father, made him more approachable just like family should be.
He moves out of the role of a cosmic judge or a boss and comes knocking at the doors of our hearts to reveal his intimate and eternal love for us… In fact, the entire concept of God as “Father” is immersed in the wonder of His incredible love for us!
When Jesus said, “Our Father,” he reminds us that we do not raise our prayers to some anonymous God, some vague "higher power" or spiritual force of our own imaginations. Our trust is not in "fate" or "nature". The Father is someone that we talk directly to.
Think about it for just a moment… the One who is from everlasting to everlasting… the One who has been from eternity past and will always be to eternity future… the One who thru His mere words, spoke the universe into existence…loves us and wants to be our Heavenly “Father”…for an eternity.
4 Paul talks about our relationship with God like this: "You are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ…because you have become His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts and now you can call God, ’Abba, Father’ (Galatians 3:26, 4:6)." We share something in common with Jesus; we children of God.
5 Paul said in Ephesians 1, “Long ago, before God made the world, God chose us to be his very own, through what Christ would do for us…” (1:3 TLB)
Max Lucado writes, “Of all his names, Father, is God’s favorite. We know he loves this name most because this is the one he used most. While on earth, Jesus called God “Father” over two hundred times.” (The Great House of God, pg. 13)
6 But for a lot of us, the thought of having a father in heaven is unnerving. Maybe we get a little tense and even uncomfortable when we think of the Heavenly Father because our earthly fathers disappointed or mistreated us.
So may I suggest that we “don’t confuse our heavenly Father with the fathers we’ve seen on earth. (Y)our Father in heaven isn’t prone to headaches and temper tantrums. He doesn’t hold you one day and hit you the next. The man who fathered you may play such games, but the God who loves you never will.” (Lucado, pg. 16)
When Jesus was showing the disciples HOW to pray, He began the prayer by saying, “Our Father…” And even though our concept of the Father might be shaped by our fathers, Jesus was NOT somehow channeling his feelings of Joseph the carpenter to shape his view of God. Jesus was expressing His own personal identity with God the Father as he had known Him throughout eternity!
Jesus KNEW the true nature and essence of God’s character! He comprehended the beauty, wonder and integrity of His personality. So naturally, Jesus wanted His disciples and ALL the world to know the caliber of the “Father.”
For us to see Him like Jesus saw Him…if we are to know the strength of His character as Jesus knew it…if we are to catch a glimpse of his grace and mercy…then we are going to have to approach the Father as Christ approached the Father!
For one thing, the Father was front and center in every thought Christ had, He dominated Jesus’ thinking. He was influenced by the Father and He was at the forefront of His mind. And we know this because of what he did and said.
In John 14 He said “…he who has seen ME has seen the Father…” so we can know that Jesus lived as an OPEN revelation of the Father to this world… He was Emmanuel… God with us!
Jesus was completely in tune with the Father. Jesus was in absolute agreement with the Father. Jesus was unified in His thoughts and understanding with the Father. Theirs was and is a relationship of delight and perfect co-existence.
And while we may strive to get to that level of closeness, we have baggage that gets in the way. We’re haunted by our past, by our sin, by our doubts or our guilt or failures. Maybe we don’t even trust that God really understands our situation or circumstances. So because of our baggage, our confidence in the Father suffers and that stifles our relationship with Him. And as a result, we often feel like we will never fully be accepted by God.
But God does accept us. He doesn’t define us by our mistakes. He extends grace and mercy and removes the things that drag us down.
7 Arguably, one of the best indications of that is from Acts 2. In that scene, Peter is talking to an audience about their sin and he doesn’t pull any punches. He honest with them but he also gives them hope.
38-39 Peter told them, “You must repent and every one of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that you may have your sins forgiven and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For this great promise is for you and your children—yes, and for all who are far away, for as many as the Lord our God shall call to himself!”
God’s mercy and grace covers our past and releases us from feeling like we’re never going to be good enough for God to like us. And unless or until we can grasp what kind of person God is, we will NEVER be able to develop a confidence in Him and what He can do for us and thru us… and YET this is His desire more than anything else… that we KNOW Him - His love and affection for us!
That’s one of the most impressive characteristics about the Father - his love…And I hope this reassures us and eases our minds. I hope this frees us to serve Him and lifts any weight we may be carrying.
8 Our Father. 2 short words with such deep and eternal meaning! These 2 words set the tone for the model prayer of Jesus and they embrace the beauty found in a unified and healthy family! These 2 words convey God’s love FOR us and the depth of His commitment TO us!
And as we speak to God, we address him with many titles. It’s “right to call him Holy, we speak truth when we call him King. But if you want to touch his heart, use the name he loves to hear. Call him Father.” (Lucado, pg. 16)
We close today with this story from John Eldredge. John Eldredge, who wrote, Wild At Heart and Fathered By God, writes of about fishing with his dad when he was a young boy, spending hours together on a Saturday morning trying to catch fish. "But" he said, "the fish were never the issue. What I longed for was his presence, his attention and his delight in me."
Before he finished elementary school however, his father succumbed to alcoholism and mostly disappeared, which left a void, obviously, in his life. The father's work was unfinished because boys need their dads. They need positive male role models.
In his mid-twenties he took up fly fishing, something his father never did with him. And his futility in fly-fishing was symbolic of the emptiness his father left. One day, in particular, he was fly fishing and saw trout all around him but was unable to catch even one of them. But the guy just up river was having no trouble. Every time he looked up at him, his rod was bent, and he was laughing and just having a great time netting another giant rainbow.
Finally, John Eldredge stopped fishing and just watched the guy to try to learn what he was doing and the man saw him and said, "C'mon down." Turned out he was a professional fly-fishing guide. In 10 minutes the guide fixed his leader, put the right kind of flies on the line, gave him a few instructions and then stepped out of the water to watch him.
It was almost like a father who's taught his son to hit a baseball – how he steps back to watch, to let the boy take a few swings all by himself. And pretty soon he hooked a trout and landed it. Then the guide came back into the water and showed John how to release it. "Have fun" the guide said as he left. A short while later, it hit John Eldredge, "As I drove home I knew the gift had been from God, that he had fathered me through this man."
Doesn’t that drive the point home that God steps in where our imperfect dads may have let us down or who have left things undone and he finishes the job? And He does that because he’s “Our Father.”
Prayer
And now, Lord, we are here as brothers and sisters in Christ to give you the glory and honor you so deserve and we thank you for being our Father with everything that entails. We also remember the extraordinary sacrifice of Jesus. We thank You for the legacy of his words, actions and obedience. And we are thankful for the Spirit which guide us and prompts us.
Lord, we come to You now to ask for forgiveness for any thoughts, words or actions that have not honored Your name. We are sorry for the times we have chosen to live selfishly rather than follow Your calling. We invite you to inhabit our hearts now as we celebrate communion. As we share this time together, bind us together as one family, filled with the love that comes from our Father, from the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we thank You Lord for Your grace that is constantly at work in our lives.
