1 Holy Is Your Name
Psalms 99:1-9, Luke 11:1-4
I’m interested in your opinions. What is it about the Lord’s Prayer that’s helped to solidify its position in modern day Christianity? Why is it so endearing?
[responses]
Today we’re taking a look at the first plea of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave this example of effective prayer to us in response to some of his disciples striking up a conversation with him about prayer.
We don’t know exactly why they picked this time and place to talk to Jesus about meaningful prayer. Maybe it was because they saw something lacking in their own prayer times that sparked an interest. Maybe it was because Jesus prayed to the Father on a totally different level than they did.
Whatever the reason, Jesus, on two separate occasions outlines what effective prayer looks like. One example is in Matthew 6, the other in Luke 11. And even though those two prayers are similar, they’re also different, because one point Jesus makes is not to get hung up on the words. He says pay closer attention to the attitude behind them. His prayer is a template not a mandate.
So he starts with showing us that God is someone approachable and full of grace and that we’re all joined together in the family of God with just two words: “Our Father.” And he points everyone to where the Father lives and the final destination for all who follow Jesus: heaven. It’s going to be unlike anything we’ve experienced – it will be something…heavenly!
2 Then Jesus moves ahead with this phrase: "Hallowed be Your Name." When we think of "hallowed" we think of "holy" and “blessed,” “revered” and “respected.” If something is "hallowed" it’s sanctified, special, uncontaminated, and blessed. It means we have a different quality of being, a higher quality that is extraordinary, and set apart.
God is separate from us in that He is completely undefiled. So Jesus is saying, “May Your Name be held in the highest regard as Holy." "May You be revered and respected because of Who You are. May Your character and reputation be honored and kept untarnished." One of our highest goals and deepest passions should be that God’s Name is revered – that we live with the idea that my life will honor God to the very best of my ability.
To hallow God’s Name is to recognize, regard, respect, revere, profess and proclaim God as holy. There is nothing we can add to make him any more or any less holy than he already is. Although we have free access to God, when we take advantage of His open-door policy – that is we can pray to him anytime anywhere; we’re free to open his word anytime we want to – we should speak to Him, however, with reverence.
"Hallowed be Thy Name" balances out "Our Father" because in these two opening phrases we see both our close, intimate relationship to God, and the respectful honor that is due to Him.
Maybe think of it in terms of how people respect the Flag. On Memorial Day, as the flag is paraded by, it’s evident who’s been taught to respect our nation and who has not. When the flag passes by, some stand, remove their hats and place their hand over their hearts as a sign of respect. Others will salute…and others will keep their hats on, put their hands in their pockets and keep talking to their friends. In the same way, some people honor God, while others do not.
3 1 Peter 3:15 says, “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.” So God should be set apart from everything that is common or irreverent, so that he will have the place in our lives that He deserves.
Martin Luther asked this rhetorical question to his students: "How is God’s Name hallowed among us?" The answer, he said: "When both our doctrine and our life are godly and Christian."
Jewish worshippers in the Old Testament regarded the Name of God as absolutely sacred – so much so that when scribes copied Scripture they would use a new quill to write the His Name. Back then, it was considered irreverent even to speak God’s Name out loud.
There are many names for God in the Bible that describe his holiness. Religious leaders took two names-Adonai, which means "the Lord God", and Yahweh, the Name God gave to Moses – and they took the vowels of the first, the consonants of the second, and came up with Jehovah, a made-up word, one they felt they could speak without offending the holiness of God.
Somehow, though, through the years, we’ve lost the awe of God and aren’t as impressed with his name or his majesty. And by starting with God’s holiness in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus recognizes and conveys the idea that prayer is not primarily for our benefit because the posture of prayer should always honor and respect God first.
People today love to be recognized. Just look at any typical high profile athlete. All you have to do is listen to a sound bite and you’ll see who wants to see their names in lights, or on plaques, and who wants the accolades and the limelight. So to that, David, way back in the Old Testament, said, "Glorify the Lord with me and let us exalt His Name together" (Psalm 34:3).
When Moses appeared before the burning bush, he heard the voice of God and removed his sandals, out of respect for God. It was an act of humility. When Isaiah caught a vision of the majesty of God, he cried out in fear, as he realized that he was unworthy to appear before the Lord. At that moment he understood who God was and who he was in comparison.
David, who is called a man after God’s own heart, showed his respect for God in his prayers and psalms and especially before he made any requests of God. In fact, in most Biblical prayers, worship happens prior to petitions.
Even in our own country, this was true in the prayers offered at the Presidential Inaguration and as far back as when the Declaration of Independence was being created. Prayer begins with God, and His priorities, his agenda, his sovereignty.
Gordon Hugenberger, who was the Sr. Pastor Boston’s Park Street Church said: "The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is the indispensable foundation for all the rest. It points us to the ’chief end of man’ as defined by the Westminster Confession-’to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever’."
So what’s in a name? Certain names evoke concepts and ideas. For example, if I said what company’s tag line is “When you care enough to send the very best?” That is…Hallmark
How about, “Just do it.” Nike
“Finger lickin’ good.” Kentucky Fried Chicken
There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s…MasterCard.
“Good to the last drop.” Maxwell House.
All those companies conjure up certain feelings or images about what those companies do and what kind of reputation they all have.
By revering God’s Name, we proclaim His reputation, proclaim Who He is and all He has done. We say that people have "made a name" for themselves. Our name is linked to our reputation. The Bible says, “A good name is better than fine perfume.” (Ecclesiastes 7:1)
4 Psalm 102:15 says, "The nations shall fear the Name of the Lord." So what’s in a name? Well, “Understanding the names of God is no quick study – after all there are more than eighty names for God in the Old Testament alone.” (Max Lucado, The Great House of God, pg. 28)
And the key to understanding them lies with understanding God’s relationship with his people. Here’s what I mean: the more the nation of Israel came to know God, the more their relationship developed over time, the more they were able to describe God. It’s the same principle that we live by.
5 “Initially, God was known as Elohim. ‘In the beginning God (Elohim) created’ (Gen. 1:1) The Hebrew word Elohim carries with it the meaning ‘strong one or creator’ and appears thirty-one times in the first chapter of Genesis, where we see his creative power.
As God revealed himself to his children, however, they saw him as more than a might force. They saw him as a loving Father who met them at every crossroad of their lives.
6 Jacob, for example, came to see God as Jehovah-raah, a caring shepherd. ‘Like a shepherd,’ Jacob told his family, ‘God has led me all my life’ (Gen. 48:15)
7 Abraham had different name for God: Jehovah-jireh, the Lord who provides.” (Lucado, pg. 29-30) That was his answer for a lot of questions.
Abraham, why are we moving to Canaan? And where will we live? The Lord will provide. Getting caught in an Egyptian scandal? No problem. How will we survive? Got it covered. The Lord will provide. And even after God asked him to sacrifice his son on Mt. Moriah, the Lord provided the sacrifice and Abraham, in turn, gave the mountain a name so everyone would understand, Jehovah-jireh, the Lord provides.
8 “He is also Jehovah-nissi, the Lord my banner. In the heat of battle, soldiers feared getting separated for their army. For that reason a banner was carried into the conflict, and if a fighter found himself alone, the raised flag would signal safety. When the Amalekites…attacked the Israelites…Moses went up on the mountain and prayed. As long as his hands were up, the Israelites prevailed. But when his hands were down, the Amalekites won.” (Lucado, pg. 32)
Max Lucado says, “Moses was no dummy – he kept his hands up. The Israelites won, the Amalekites ran, and Moses built an altar for God and chiseled a new name on a stone – Jehovah-nissi – the Lord my banner.” (Exodus 17: 8-16)
9 Here are just a few more of the names the Israelites gave God over the years:
El Shaddai-God Almighty
El Elyon-Sovereign Ruler
Jehovah-rophe-God heals
Jehovah-shalom-God our peace
Jehovah-sabaoth-the Lord of hosts
Jehovah-shammah-God is present
Jehovah-tsidkenu-God our righteousness
Jehovah-rohi-God our Shepherd
Maybe it would be a good thing to take a look at the names of God. There might come a day when we may need one of them – or even all 80 of them – all in the same day!
A name says a lot. Jewish families gave special thought to the names they chose for their children; they picked names that would reflect character qualities they hoped to see developed. Our early American Puritans did the same thing. They chose names that we might think are old-fashioned. Charity, Hope, Faith, Patience.
The Third Commandment tells us not to use God’s Name lightly, casually, or irreverently. We’re supposed to honor the Name of God in all that we say and do. Haddon Robinson, who is a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary said, "The essence of evangelism is that people everywhere will hallow God’s Name by allowing God to be God in their lives." In other words, worshipping God becomes a daily activity.
In our culture we have reduced worship (speaking universally only of our church services) to a certain level of entertainment. And that’s even reflected in our vocabulary. We hope that people "enjoy" church, that they "get something" out of the experience. Was the sermon inspiring? Was the music to our liking? Are we “comfortable?” And although we gain personal growth through what church offers, our primary purpose for being here is to honor God. The rest of the stuff is secondary. Nice, but still secondary.
One reason to pray this prayer is that we live in a fallen world which defiles and degrades the holy Name of God. Obscenity is everywhere. Profanity is socially acceptable. Irreverence is trendy. But as followers of Jesus, shouldn’t that bother us?
10 But God warns us. “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3: 1-4)
So as we’re dealing with our own selfishness, and materialism – when we hear on the news that some diva running back is holding out of training camp, and our neighbor’s kids are out of control – when bullying in school is still going on, and there’s protesting in the streets – when gangs and drugs are overtaking the neighborhood, should we be surprised? Disappointed maybe. Shocked perhaps. Surprised? Not really.
God said it’s coming. And all that stuff, while as disappointing or as tragic as it might be, the flip side of that (for those of us who want to follow Christ) is that we have no shortage of opportunities to point people to the name that is above all names.
So we pray, "Hallowed by Thy Name" in protest against those who revile and insult and despise the Name of God. We are praying that God will be regarded as holy, once again, in an unholy world – that the forces that seek to divide us and take us down with them would be repealed. We pray for light at the end of the tunnel of the downward spiral.
And with the Lord’s prayer, we are also distinguishing our worship as Truth. To worship an idol involves calling something holy that is not holy. And with plenty of that going on, in a sense, the Lord’s Prayer becomes an affirmation of faith.
So what are we doing to "hallow" God’s Name? How can our prayers and our lives bring praise to God a little more today than we did yesterday? We offer God our praise by hallowing His Name and responding to His holiness. God wants us to be holy, as He is holy. He wants us to be followers of His who are-set apart from all that is profane.
As a church, He wants us to present ourselves to the world as a community of faith, hope, and love – a place where we honor God, discover God’s unending grace and mercy, and build a strong sense of Community where anyone who wants that, can find it here.
Prayer
Father, together we pray that we might love holiness; show us the deceitfulness of sin that we might turn from it. We are glad that Jesus is our perfect model of holiness. Help us to draw from Him all that we need so we can follow Him in His love of righteousness. Give us a desire to turn away from our sin by pursuing the disciplines of the Christian life that will keep us connected with You all day long.
And, Lord, because you are holy and we want to be holy and we want for our community to be holy, we pray for our community – the place that we call home – so that everyone who calls Pittsburgh their home might realize that sin initially always appears harmless; that we might realize that a single seed can bring a destructive harvest and we’ve seen how that happens first-hand. Therefore, we pray that we might, first of all, look to Christ and his church for holiness and that strong sense of what family should be and security. Then we pray that our community would, in obedience, return to disciplines of the Christian life. We pray that we will not settle for living a defeated life. We pray that the intercession of Christ might assure us that an increasing degree of holiness is possible thanks to His grace and power. Give us a love for God that is always accompanied by a love of holiness and may we see a revival of spiritual awakening that has never been seen in our city before.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
