Yours Is The Glory Series

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.