The Lord's Prayer, Part I

These thoughts on the Lord's Prayer were presented in one of the adult Sunday
School Classes at Fairlawn Christian Reformed Church, in Whitinsville, MA

I. “Lord, teach us to pray”
Luke 11:1 says, “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray.’”
The disciples had often seen Jesus pray, and they knew that he frequently got up before dawn to spend time in prayer – indeed, that he sometimes spent the entire night in prayer. They also knew that it was customary for rabbis to teach their disciples a particular prayer, usually one that focused on the key themes of their own teaching. Those who followed John the Baptist had been given such a prayer, and Jesus’ own disciples wanted Jesus to give them a prayer that was theirs.
Jesus responded with their request by giving them what we call “the Lord’s prayer.” I have sometime heard people say, “This is not the Lord’s prayer. That is found in John 17, where he prays for his disciples on the night before he was arrested, tried, and crucified. What we call ‘the Lord’s Prayer’ is really “the Disciples’ Prayer.’” But I think that this prayer may well be called “The Lord’s Prayer.” It is not simply a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, but it is an outline, a skeleton, for ALL prayers. It is the way Jesus himself prayed. When we pray like Jesus, we pray in all the categories that are shown in this prayer.
In a number of places in the Gospels, we hear Jesus being challenged to give a summary of the Law – and he does, saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” This summary does not replace the 644 commands given in the Old Testament. Rather, it gives the two basic principles that underlie all those hundreds of commands. The summary of the Law helps us to understand the meaning and purpose of each of the individual specific commands – they are defined ways of loving God and our neighbor.
In the same way, the Lord’s Prayer summarizes all the prayers of the Old Testament. It gives us an outline to follow, so that we can use the Lord’s Prayer to shape our prayers – and indeed to shape our own hearts. The more we prayer this prayer thoughtfully, the more its petitions will unfold for us, and the more it will shape our understanding and our desire for God to receive glory as he wants to receive glory. We need what Jesus teaches about prayer, because, as the Rev D Martin Lloyd-Jones observed, “Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.” If you want to set aside ten minutes to pray each day, you will find that there are interruptions of all sorts that will come during those ten minutes – if not from outside factors, then from your own interior life. If we want to enjoy God’s company and to lay before him our concerns and our hopes, we need all the help we can get!
Last week I suggested that you read the Lord’s Prayer several times and ponder what understanding it brings to our hearts and lives. Does anyone have something to share with us?
My aim this morning is to look at the first half of the Lord’s prayer and examine in greater detail what it is that we are praying when we pray the Lord’s prayer. I want, if you will, to “unpack” the various phrases of the Prayer.

II. “Our Father”
The Lord’s Prayer begins where prayers ought to begin: with a focus on God. Of course, there are times when the situation is desperate and there is no time for anything but a quick “Help!” But in speaking of the Christian practice of prayer, we are talking about sustained and disciplined prayer. Jesus took time to pray on a regular basis, and the disciples wanted to be men who prayed as part of their daily lives. If you look at the Lord’s Prayer, it divides naturally into two parts. The first half of the Lord’s Prayer focuses on God. It invokes the Lord and then goes on to pray about him and his kingdom. The order of the Lord’s Prayer is important. We may go to prayer with concerns about our lives and the lives of those we care about, for it is all too obvious in life that we face challenges and disappointments that are more than we can deal with by ourselves.
It may be the recognition of our need that brings us to prayer, but in praying, we need to remember to whom we are praying. Taking time to focus on God does two things: first, it reminds us of the mercy, grace, and power of the Lord. That is a great comfort when we know our need. Secondly, reflecting on God and his character sets our needs in their proper perspective, and may change our concerns, so that we ask God for different things than we first had in mind – better, more lasting things. Again, a word from Dr Lloyd-Jones: “Prayer means speaking to God, forgetting ourselves, and realizing his presence.”
Every recorded prayer in the Bible begins with worship, recognizing who God his and praising him for his being and qualities. Towards the end of his life, King David offered a prayer for the his son Solomon, who would succeed him. Knowing that God would not allow him to build a temple as he had hoped, David had gathered materials for the temple that Solomon would build. The people of Israel cheerfully gave great offerings for the temple, and David prayed a prayer for Solomon and for the temple that was to come. It is found in 1 Chron. 29:10-19. Would someone be willing to read verses 10-13? [Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.]
Those verses are one very clear example of prayer beginning with God. The Lord’s Prayer begins with God, first invoking him and then making three requests. The invocation is only two words, but they are powerful words: “Our Father.”
That the Lord’s Prayer begins with “Our” is very important. “Our” reminds us that we are not alone when we pray. We are part of a larger company. This is encouraging – we are not going through life all alone, in some tunnel, cut off from others. We are in this enterprise of following Jesus with others. If you recall, when Jesus sent the 70 out on a missionary training experience at one point, he did not seek to send them out individually, in the interests of some theoretical efficiency gained by reaching as many villages as possible. He sent then out two by two, so that they could reinforce one another with mutual support and encouragement. When we come before the Lord, we come as part of his covenant people, graciously granted the privilege and joy of entering the Lord’s presence.
The “our” also reminds us that we are not alone in seeking God’s aid and support. When we pray, we are reminded that we are to shape our requests without selfishness. If I am planning a picnic, a pleasant, sunny day is best. But if rain is what my area needs, I am being selfish if I long for continued sunshine so I can have my picnic. That example is, of course, rather simple-minded, but in truth, the “our” reminds us that it is both foolish and selfish to pray solely for what benefits me, and to ignore how that might affect others.
The “Father” part of the invocation is also very important. There are many ways to refer to God. Suppose the Lord’s Prayer began with “Our King”? It is most certainly true that God is King and that as his people, he is our King – but there is a difference between “king” and “father.” It is certainly possible to love and be loved by a king – but on the whole, the word “king” connotes a distant figure of authority. A father certainly has authority – but the word is far more personal. We are reminded that we are children of God, adopted by his grace and welcomed into his presence.
Using the word “Father” does raise a question: of whom is God Father? In Acts 17, Paul is addressing the men of Athens at the Areopagus, and he says, in v. 27-28, “Yet God is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘in him we live and move and have our being;’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.” Here is Paul using Greek poets as authorities and implying that all human beings are children of God. If that is the case, then anyone could say of God, “My Father.”
But then we have Jesus speaking to the Pharisees in John 8. They are challenging Jesus because he has claimed to be the light of the world and to have a unique relationship to God. Here is part of the exchange, in Jn. 8:41b-44a: “‘We have one Father—even God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.’”
When liberal Christianity first made its appearance in the late 1800’s, its motto was “The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.” I do not know if they cited Paul’s speech on the Areopagus or not, but they certainly considered God to be the father of all humanity, even if all humanity did not recognize God as father. But when Paul was speaking in Athens, he was appealing to natural revelation and to common grace, seeking to make known the “unknown god” for whom the Athenians had an altar among their other temples. He was not saying that all human beings have God as their father without qualification, but that, as our creator, God is in a limited way the Father of all.
In his later writings, Paul makes clear that God is “Father” in the fullest sense only of those who trust the Lord Jesus. In Rom. 8:15-17, Paul writes, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”
Had not Adam and Eve rebelled against God, all human beings could rightfully call God “Father” in the fullest sense. Since, however, humanity is locked into sinfulness apart from the saving grace of God, only those who approach God relying upon the shed blood and righteousness of Christ can know the joy of calling God, “Abba, Father.” Those who want to call God “Father” may well be on the right track, and we must do all we can to encourage them to look to Jesus as their redeemer, so that they can indeed know God as their loving and gracious Father.

III. “Who art in heaven”
The Lord’s Prayer begins by invoking God as “Our Father.” That is a wonderful reminder of the intimacy God wants for us to have with him. The prayer then continues with “who art in heaven.” This reminds us that, although he welcomes as his beloved children, he is still the transcendent Lord, beyond our comprehension. C. S. Lewis once said that we sinful human beings do not want s father in heaven so much as we want a grandfather in heaven – someone to dote on us and indulge us, chuckling, as a grandfather might, at our little foibles and mistakes. But the fact of the matter is that God is our Father, not our grandfather. He has plans for us that we do not know. He seeks to bring us to maturity, so that we once again fully reflect his image. That maturity is going to mean discipline and correction. It will also mean that we come to terms with the reality that, while we can know God, we cannot know everything about him.
In the book of Job, we find Job defending himself against the accusations of his three friends. He proclaims his uprightness and goodness and says that he has not deserved the calamities that have befallen him. Then God speaks, and asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” and goes on to speak of his other wondrous deeds. Job’s reply is to say, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” By God’s mercy, we are enabled to know something about God. He has given us the Bible to enable us to know him, and many things about him. But because we know some things, we should not think that we know everything. I have met a few people who sound as though they believed they had God in their back pocket and were proud of how well they knew God.
“Our Father, who art in heaven,” should keep us balanced – we can know God personally and intimately, but we are too weak and too limited to know God in his fullness. The better we know God, the more we will recognize that we are limited in our knowledge. While there are certainly prayers that fly out of our hearts as soon as we become aware of some great need or some wonderful act of providence, prayer is best begun by what some have called “recollection,” in which we recall who God is and who we are.

IV. “Hallowed be thy Name
Having invoked the Lord and reminded ourselves that he is our Father and our King, both close to us and also far above us, we begin our requests. The Lord’s Prayer has six petitions in it. The first three focus on God and the second three focus on us. We will look at those second three next week, but today we want to look that the petitions that deal with God and his Kingdom. By beginning with prayers that remind us of God, his glory, and his purposes, we will set our requests for this life in a solid context. Some of our concerns will lose their urgency – while other things may vanish altogether, and some new concerns for prayer will become apparent.
The first petition is “hallowed be thy name.” I suspect that among many of us think first to the fourth commandment, “Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” We may be bothered by the current habit of saying “OMG” as an expression of surprise or delight. The name of the Lord is often casually or contemptuously by people in our culture. This casual use of God’s name is apparently normal for us sinners. The Jews of Jesus’ day were so concerned about the casual use of the Lord’s name that they decided not to use God’s name at all. When they referred to God, it was as “the Blessed One,” or simply as “The Name.”
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray “hallowed be thy name,” he was not teaching them to ask God to prevent the casual use of his name. In ancient times, a person’s name was not just a label to distinguish one person from another. Rather, a name was taken to be a summary of who that person was. In Acts 4, we read of Simon of Cyprus. He was a very generous man and he had a knack for helping the discouraged take fresh hope. Because of these qualities, Simon of Cyprus was given a new name: “Barnabas.” That name is translated as “Son of encouragement,” by which the apostles meant that Simon exemplified encouragement so well that he was to be called by a name that revealed his character.
To pray that God’s name will be hallowed is to pray that God will be known for who he truly is. It is not a prayer that asks that something not happen – but that something grand and glorious would – that the character and qualities of the Triune God would be known and adored.
If you read through the Old Testament, you will see many instances of God being called by certain names to reflect some aspect of his character and deeds. He is the God who sees, the God who provides, the God who is our shepherd, the God who is our righteousness, the God who is our banner to lead us, the God who is our rock. You may have heard the phrase, “Jehovah-jireh” used at some point – that is the Hebrew that says that God’s name is “The God who provides.” The name that God revealed to Moses is “Yahweh,” and it means, “I am who I am.” At the core of God’s nature is the fact that he is who he is, that he alone is self-existent. The Bible is filled with different ways of referring to God, to show that God’s nature is such that in him is all that we need for life – in this world and in the next.
To pray that God’s name be hallowed is to pray that he will be known, loved, and adored by all the world. I am going to pause for a moment and ask, “How can we seek to see that God’s name is hallowed – that he is known and adored in all his fullness?”
As Christians, we bear the name of God. The word “Christian” means “little Christ.” In bearing that name, we have a responsibility, and a privilege, that in us and through us, God’s character can be known.

V. “Thy Kingdom Come”
The second petition of the Lord’s Prayer is “thy kingdom come.” Why do people not know God in his fullness? Why do people not honor and reverence the holy Trinity and pay him the honor that is his due?
It is because this world in under the reign of the King of Darkness. I earlier mentioned Jesus speaking to the Pharisees in John 8 and saying that they were sons of their father the Devil. In the disobedience of Adam, evil was loosed upon the world, and an alien ruler took the world as his own. Watch the evening news for a week and you will see the discord that has descended upon us because we do not obey the Lord. The earth is enemy-occupied territory. It is a kingdom – and it is not the Kingdom of God.
In Col. 1:13-14, Paul notes how God’s Kingdom is increasing: “God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” When I think of the answer to the request, “thy kingdom come,” my first thought is of the return of Christ to make fully manifest his kingdom over all the earth for all time. That is certainly part of what we ask for in this petition – but it is also a missionary request. We want God’s kingdom to come to individual hearts, so that they will be rescued from the domain of darkness and live as subjects of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
When we pray “thy Kingdom come,” we are praying that God’s Kingdom would enter individual hearts, and that Christ will return to establish his perfect kingdom. This prayer is not simply about the future – but about making Jesus known today. We want to see people transfer from the Kingdom of Death to the Kingdom of Life.

VI. “Thy will be done, on Earth as in Heaven”
The third petition focused on God is “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Since God is sovereign, all that happens on this world is unfolding of his perfect plan, by which his glory will be displayed, his justice be shown, and his mercy revealed. In that plan, sinners will come to recognize their sin, and cast themselves upon the Lord Jesus for mercy and a new heart, one that will recognize that God is God and that God is good, and in that recognition will obey because they trust the only and living God. But this third petition is not simply an acknowledgment of God’s sovereign rule over all things in history.
Rather, this is a prayer that God’s revealed will be obeyed by willing hearts. Dr. Lloyd-Jones asks, “What troubles and worries our souls? Is it the manifestation of sin we see in the world, or is it the fact that men do not worship and glorify God as they ought to do?” I know that it is very common for conservative American Christians to bemoan the fact that our society is becoming more and more depraved, and because of this depravity we are in danger of losing the freedoms we cherish as Americans. It is certainly true that our society is more depraved than it was the 1950’s and much of the time before that. And I do expect that we will lose freedoms if things continue as they have been going.
But this prayer is not about wanting God’s will to be done so that our lives will be more convenient and orderly. God’s laws for human interaction are laws that will bring blessings – but the main reason to ask God that his will be done is so that men and women everywhere would know him, enjoy him, and honor him with the glory that is due to him. God is God – the only true and wise God, and we have been created so that we can know him, love him, and serve him, to his glory and to our joy.
Let me ask a question: how would our society look if God’s will were done in it?

Let me ask a second question: how would your life be different if you were completely obedient to God?

The Lord’s Prayer is both a prayer in itself and an outline for how we are to pray. In prayer, we begin with God. We call upon him, remembering who he is, our Father and our King. We pray for his purposes, recognizing that his purposes are eternal and glorious. As we pray for what he wants to do, we see our own lives and our concerns in a new light, and we ask God to answer our prayers in a way that will reveal his glory to the world, and to those around us. If we are praying in this way, we will also see how we can be God’s instruments in furthering his Kingdom. God’s Kingdom does not depend upon us – but the Lord is at work in us, and he honors us by directing and empowering us to be his tools in the world.

I conclude in the words of David the King: “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.”