Today, I’m going to start a six-week series on another very familiar passage in the Bible, something that I said, “Someday, I’ll do a sermon series on this.” After our Psalm 23 series, I thought now would be a good time to do this series, it’s on “The Lord’s Prayer.”
So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Matthew 6, and we’ll read verses 5 through 8. These are the verses that precede The Lord’s Prayer. I thought that since we already know The Lord’s Prayer pretty well, why not first get a glimpse of it in context?
Some of you might say, that since we already know the Lord’s Prayer and we recite it every Sunday, why spend six weeks on it?
Well, for one, I could spend one Sunday on it, but for me, there’s just too much to discuss to shorten it to one Sunday. In fact, I could spend about eight weeks on it, but decided that with Christmas coming up, I’d shorten it. So, we get six weeks instead of one; or we get six weeks instead of eight. However, you want to look at it.
And so, before we look at the preceding verses that go along with it, let me tell you quickly about the verses that precede that–verses 1-4.
Jesus is talking about how to give to the needy. Not what to give, or that we should give, but rather how to give. Some churches get caught up on that we should give, but the main emphasis of Jesus’ teaching here is how we should give. Jesus does not want giving to become a competition because it therefore becomes self-seeking. Verse 1 says, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
So how are we to give? Verses 3 and 4 say, “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Scripture: And then Jesus segues into how we should pray, because the Scribes, Pharisees, teachers of the law, they would pray in the same way and for the same reasons as to why they gave–to be honored by men, to impress those around them, and to show that they gave the most. Aren’t they holy? Talk about holier than thou?
So Jesus continues in verse 5, let’s take a look there:
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
The first eight verses of this chapter is a sermon unto itself, and because I’m keeping it to six weeks, I won’t go there, but I think it’s pretty self explanatory. Have you ever had a child who you knew was going to ask you something before they ever asked? It could be something as simple as asking for an ice cream cone or a cookie. Or it could be that they needed help with something and you were just waiting for them to ask.
We do that sometimes, don’t we? We know our child–or even a friend or neighbor–needs help with something, but we wait until they ask.
God may not always wait until we ask, but oftentimes he does. He wants us to ask. And like a good father, he’s always there ready, willing, and able to help.
Sometimes God wants to help, but we don’t want his help. And like a good father, he doesn’t push or pry or get in our way, he lets us go without help even though he knows his help is what’s needed in that–and every–situation.
In either case, our God is a good, loving, holy, and righteous father who longs for us to pray to him. And he wishes that we would come to him in private, like a lot of dads would in certain situations. Why? Because in this case, it means that we have a relationship with our heavenly father. We’re not praying for attention. We’re not praying as a contest. We’re not praying to seek pats on the back from our peers.
We pray because we need God.
I sometimes add into our closing prayers for God to hear the private prayers of individuals within this congregation who are not on our prayer list or known to us. If you ever have a prayer like that, during our time of announcements and prayer requests, you can just say, “unspoken” and we’ll know to respectfully pray for whatever need you have that, for whatever reason, you would not like to share publicly. We all have prayers like that.
But God knows. Prayers like that can certainly be taken to the Lord. Our God hears us, loves us, is a wonderful father, and wants to have a personal, deep, intimate relationship with us. And spending that alone time with God is an example of how God wants to spend time with us. Being showy, lofty, and so on is not having a relationship with anyone but yourself.
So in this passage, we see Jesus giving us an example of how we ought to pray. It seems as if it’s contradictory at first, doesn’t it? In verse 7, he tells us to, “not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” And then he gives us a prayer to recite. Seems odd. But as much as we recite The Lord’s Prayer every Sunday, I think that it is a form of worship. But it is not intended to be the only words we use for prayer. It is intended to be a way or an example to pray.
Let’s take a look at that.
I’m breaking this down, so I’m just going to be looking at verse 9 today, which says, “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
So how should we begin our prayers? By not forgetting to glorify God. It’s so easy to just yell for help, isn’t it? It’s so easy to bring God our burdens and just dump those burdens at his feet. And during tough times, it is so hard to praise him, isn’t it?
I’m reminded of Paul’s words to the Philippians. He said: “6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Think about how that applies to The Lord’s Prayer. How does Jesus begin? He begins by slowing us down. It’s very similar to Communion. You know, Communion and The Lord’s Prayer were two things that this church does on a very regular basis–more often than any other church I’ve ever attended. In fact, I’ve never attended a church that recited The Lord’s Prayer, that I can remember.
And it honestly used to bother me that we did these things so often because by having done them growing up, they just became repetitive religious stuff that quite frankly really meant nothing to me–until I came back here and now, not only did I have to do these things, but I had to do them in the role of pastor. This means I have to find the meaning behind this if I’m going to lead the congregation in these things. It was easy to see that these things meant something to the congregation both then and now, so what was I missing? What was I not seeing? What was so important about these things?
With communion, I learned that it forces us to slow down, pause and reflect. The same is true with The Lord’s Prayer. In a world where many Christians want dynamic, uplifting, engaging church services, we forget that we also need time to slow down and reflect on what’s important.
The Lord’s Prayer immediately does that.
Talking about children again, how many times have you ever said to a child, “Slow down, take a breath, what are you trying to say?”
And by doing so, the child calms down quite a bit.
So before we present our requests to God, we do so with thanksgiving. Then, in the next verse in Philippians, Paul says, “7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
About a year and a half ago, I preached a sermon based on this passage in Philippians, and here’s something I said about it: As Paul mentions here, that peace transcends all understanding. It’s just as much a miracle, I believe, as the miracle of healing. It’s a conundrum to those who see our lives, and even to ourselves at times. We can only say that the source of our peace is God. And hopefully that acts as a testimony and a witness to others who need that same peace in their lives. And experiencing that peace gives us something to rejoice––exclamation mark––about.
Let’s take a look at the very words Jesus used again. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”
Is “Our Father in Heaven” a form of worship? It sure is. It’s not just to whom we are addressing, but it is to whose we are. In The Gospel of John, there’s this discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees:
18 I testify on my own behalf, and so does the Father who sent me.”
19 The Pharisees asked him, “Where is your father?”
Jesus replied, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”
So isn’t it interesting then that Jesus would lead us in this prayer by calling God, “our” father, not just “his” father? It is a moment to reflect on to whom we belong.
And Jesus was also setting the Pharisees straight because the Old Testament calls God our father. It was very unusual for the Jews of that day to call God “Father” because it was considered too intimate.
But:
- Isaiah 63:16 says, But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledges us; you, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from old is your name.
- Isaiah 64:8 says, But now, Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are the work of your hands
- Deut. 32:5-6 says, They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
- Jeremiah 3:4 Have you not just called to me: ‘My Father, my friend from my youth,
[And just a few verses down, 19 and 20 say]
- Jeremiah 3:19-20 I myself said, “‘How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord.
Now having said that, from what I understand, there is no evidence of anyone before Jesus using this term to address God in such a personal and intimate way. Not at the beginning of a prayer, or in a psalm. So for Jesus to have us stop and call God our Father right from the get-go, the very first phrase of this prayer would have been a shock to his listeners–especially the Pharisees. God is our God and our Father.
It would have been wonderful, amazing, a relief, and seemingly a tad blasphemous to hear this if you were a disciple.
But, I don’t know about you, it is wonderful to know that I am a child of God. And that God himself, in telling us to begin this prayer this way, is in essence calling us his children. He is confirming it by having Jesus teach us to address God as our Father.
And we can pray to him, addressing him as father, as Precept Austin states, The writer of Hebrews encourages us to enter through the rent veil into the very throne room of God our Father, a glorious journey made possible by Jesus’ finished work on the Cross and His present intercession as our Great High Priest,
It also says that in this chapter of Matthew, “Father” is a keyword occurring some 10 times. Clearly, the practice of righteousness is to be for the Father’s eyes. We are not to pray to saints and angels, but to the everlasting Father, the Father of spirits, the Lord of heaven and earth.
Jesus Himself addressed God only as Father (some 60 times in the Gospels), never referring to Him by any other name! Virtually all of Jesus’ prayers were addressed to God as Father (exception in Mt 27:46)
And thus the New Testament believer knows God as his Father, with even greater clarity than anything his Old Testament counterpart could have enjoyed. Thus it follows that his praying proceeds from a childlike trust, as expressed in the addressing of God as “Our Father”.
I could go on and on and on about that, but I do want to address the second part, which is the more obvious remark of praise, “Hallowed be thy name.”
We just celebrated Halloween, or if you’re Catholic, “All Hallows Eve,” which is the night before The Feast of Saints or All Saints Day, which honors the martyred Christians. But the word, hallowed means: to be treated as holy, dedicated, consecrated, set apart, sanctified. It means to set apart for God, to sanctify, to make a person or thing.
So this is a form of worship as seen in The Ten Commandments whereby we are not by any means using our Lord’s name in vain, but we are recognizing how Holy He is, and how Holy His Name is.
Gotquestions.org says, The name of the Lord is holy, as He is holy. The name of the Lord is a representation of His glory, His majesty, and His supreme deity. We are to esteem and honor His name as we revere and glorify God Himself. To do any less is to take His name in vain.
And Precept Austin again says, What we are doing when we pray this phrase is we are acknowledging God as holy, as unlike any other. We are choosing to hold His Name in reverence and thus to reverence, honor, glorify, and exalt Him for His name speaks of His person and character.
It reminds me of what we just read out of Jeremiah where God calls the people of Israel unfaithful. They have defiled his name. Last week, we read about the watchmen out of Ezekiel, and here is another passage from Ezekiel.
Chapter 36:22-23 say, “Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned (defiled, polluted, desecrated, treated with abuse, irreverence, or contempt) among the nations where you went. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.
So in the very beginning of The Lord’s Prayer, we are to not only acknowledge God’s name as Holy, but it is a reminder for us to fulfill the third commandment to keep it that way. And how do we keep it that way?
One more from gotquestions.org: Those who name the name of Christ, who pray in His name, and who take His name as part of their identity, but who deliberately and continually disobey His commands, are taking His name in vain. Jesus Christ has been given the name above all names, at which every knee shall bow (Philippians 2:9-10), and when we take the name “Christian” upon ourselves, we must do so with an understanding of all that signifies. If we profess to be Christians, but act, think, and speak in a worldly or profane manner, we take His name in vain. When we misrepresent Christ, either intentionally or through ignorance of the Christian faith as proclaimed in Scripture, we take the Lord’s name in vain. When we say we love Him, but do not do what He commands (Luke 6:46), we take His name in vain and are possibly identifying ourselves to be among those to whom Christ will say, “I never knew you. Away from me” in the day of judgment (Matthew 7:21-23).
Another subject that I could go on and on and on about. But let me say this, let me encourage you today, to remember the Lord’s goodness, his greatness, his power, and his love whenever you pray. It should become a habit to begin our prayers–as Paul said and as Jesus demonstrated–with thanksgiving. We should come to God, slowing down, thinking of Him, his greatness, his mercy, the fact that he loves us, that we are His, and that he calls us His children.
Galatians 4:6 says, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Let me read you this from Desiring God, and then we’ll close:
By the Spirit, God himself is in us, binding us to himself, making us his own, and giving us access to him now through prayer, and then forever in eternity face to face. We have intimacy with the only one who can truly know us and satisfy us (Psalm 16:11). By our faith, he lives in us, listens to us, loves us; he is with us by his Spirit.
The Spirit gives us the confidence and freedom to cry out to God. He assures us that God really does love us. The cry he inspires is a cry to a dad: “Abba! Father!” The Spirit inside of us pleads as a child, and not as a [mere servant]. As children, our intimacy with the Father means his love is deep, persistent, and not decisively based on our performance. We are thoroughly known and profoundly loved. We are his.
Let us remember that as we slow down our prayers, and approach His Throne of Grace as confident children would approach their daddy.
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