Prayer Course, Session III The Lord’s Prayer, Pt 2
Praying for Our Own Needs
I. Body and Spirit – A Unity
The disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” His reply to their request was the Lord’s Prayer. Last week, we noted that the Lord’s Prayer is both a prayer in itself and a model upon which to base all our prayers. We looked at the first half of the Lord’s Prayer, and I said that Jesus specifically begins with God and his Kingdom, so that the requests we make for ourselves and others are to be made in the context of God’s glorious character and an awareness of his surely coming Kingdom. The first half of the Lord’s Prayer sets our minds and our hearts on God and his glory, so that we see our present situation more from the perspective of God’s Kingdom and his character than simply our desire to deal with some problem we or those we care about are facing. There is nothing that is too small to pray about – but the most helpful, and God-honoring, prayers are those that have a Kingdom-centered perspective.
Today we will be looking at the three final requests made in the Lord’s Prayer. The first of these has to do with our physical needs: “Give us this day our daily bread.” The fifth and sixth requests deal with our spiritual needs: forgiveness of our sins and protection from spiritual dangers.
It is important that both spiritual and physical needs are addressed in this prayer. We human beings are both physical and spiritual beings, and we need to keep the two elements together. Both are essential for full human being. In Gen 2:7, we hear the following: “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” The Hebrew word behind “breathed” and “breath” in this verse can mean “breath,” “spirit” or “wind.” According to Dr Meredith Kline, what this verse means is that God formed the physical body of the man, then breathed spiritual life into the man, so that he became a “nephesh chaim,” a living soul. Dr Kline said that, in the Hebrew way of looking at things, we have a body, we have a spirit, and, with those two together, we are a soul.
To care for only our physical needs would be unspiritual. But to pay attention only to our spiritual needs would also be wrong, for then we would be neglecting part of God’s own creation, the physical dimension. When God created the angels, he created beings who are spiritual. When he created the world, he created things that are physical. And when he created human beings, he created beings who are both physical and spiritual – we are embodied spirits. When Jesus had dealt with sin, he rose again in a physical body, showing how vital a body is to being human. God’s promise to us is not that death will free us from the bondage to the physical, but that when his Kingdom comes in its fullness, we will have bodies that are suited for eternity. The entire creation will be remade. The ravages of the fall will be undone, both for human beings and for all the rest of God’s great work. We will be restored completely, with hearts that love and trust God with all we are and have, character that reflects the character of the Lord Jesus, and bodies that are like the glorified body that Jesus took into heaven at his ascension.
All this is to say that praying for our physical needs is entirely fitting. The physical realm is not something that we need to go through on our way to a non-material “spiritual” existence at some point in the future. The physical realm will also be redeemed, and when it is, it will be a fitting arena for we who were created as both body and spirit, living souls. Thus, prayer for our physical needs is important. God is not simply “making do” with beings who have bodies. He intends to use all our nature, both physical and spiritual, to reveal his glory – and to give us joy in him and in his creation.
II. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
The fourth petition in the Lord’s Prayer, and the first that deals not with God and his character and kingdom, is one that asks, “give us this day our daily bread.” This request is not simply for a loaf of bread each day, but rather a prayer that each day, in some way, God will enable us to eat by providing food or the means to get it. Indeed, this request is not simply for food, but also for all that we need to sustain life. The basic physical needs of human life are food, clothing, and shelter, and so we are praying for all that we need to have these fundamental needs met – such as a job, transportation, and education to get a job, and so on. We are also praying for an orderly society, as Paul exhorts Timothy and the churches in his care, in 1 Tim 2:1-2, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”
We are really asking for quite a lot in this simple phrase, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is not simply a request for food, but a request for all that we need to sustain life day by day. At the same time, this phrase would have had a deep resonance for those who heard Jesus give it. Many of those who heard Jesus teach were day laborers. You probably remember the parable of the generous landowner, who paid all his laborers the full daily wage, a denarius, whether they had worked all day or only the last hour. A significant number of Jesus’ hearers lived one day at a time: if they worked, they ate – and if they did not, they went hungry. Daily bread was definitely something the people of Jesus day could relate to.
There is another dimension to “daily bread.” During the days of the wilderness wanderings, the people of Israel were fed by the Lord day by day. Each morning when they awoke, there was manna scattered on the ground. All they had to do was to go out and pick it up. This was spectacular provision by the Lord. If someone gathered more than was needed for the day, the leftovers turned rancid and were inedible. This was truly daily bread! They knew that God was providing for them, day by day, in a very direct way. Because God had declared that the Israelites were to observe the Sabbath, there was twice as much manna on the sixth day as the other days – but none on the seventh day. And on that day only, manna would keep overnight. The Lord kept providing manna until the Israelites had settled in the Promised Land, and their food would come through their labor and God’s gifts of sun, rain, and growth.
The people of Jesus’ day would have that story in their minds, and they would connect with the phrase, “daily bread,” both by their own situation and by their story as a people. That was one reason that they wanted to make him king when he fed the five thousand in the wilderness – here was a new Moses, to provide bread without labor! In John 6, Jesus taught them that the bread he would provide would not be physical bread, for their bodies only, but his flesh given as an atoning sacrifice and thus as the source of life eternal.
In our culture, most of us do not live as close to destitution as did the people of Jesus’ day. We have salaries, pension funds, social security, savings accounts and investments, and a large “social safety net” to help those who are struggling financially. The West in general and America in particular have wealth that amazes much of the world, and which would have astonish all those who lived more than 100 years ago. In 1988, I was part of a work trip to Costa Rica, which is one of the more wealthy nations of Latin America. At the end of the trip, when we were sharing with one another what we learned through our experience. One of the teens said that he had learned, to his astonishment, that the average family of the village where we were building a church building had the same annual income as he had brought to buy souvenirs: $200. Those families knew what they were praying for when they asked God for their daily bread. They were not starving, to be sure – but their pantry was not overflowing, either.
“Give us this day our daily bread” does not mean that we expect God to provide manna, so that we have each day’s food coming mysteriously in the morning. Rather, it means that we look to God to provide the opportunities and the resources we need to provide food, clothing, and shelter. We work, dependent upon the providential care and guidance of our heavenly Father.
But when do we stop working? How much is enough? There is a passage in Proverbs that I ran across years ago that says something very interesting. Pr. 30:7-9 has a prayer: “Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
With an abundance of possessions comes the temptation to forget God, thinking that one has amassed possessions by one’s own strengths and abilities. This is a danger that we can run, living in the wealthiest nation in history. But what we have did not come out of nowhere. Its source is ultimately the Lord, and we must recognize that. At the other end of the spectrum, poverty brings its own temptation – to reach out and take what is not one’s own. Theft dishonors God, for it says, “God cannot care for me the way I need to be taken care of.”
When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are acknowledging that all we have depends on God and his goodness. We are expressing trust in his providential care, that he will bring what we need when we need it. And we are also honoring the Lord as the creator of all things – the creator of a good creation that even in its fallen estate is filled with blessings.
III. “Forgive Us Our Debts, as We Forgive Our Debtors”
From our needs as physical creatures, we turn to our needs as embodied spirits, asking for two things – forgiveness and protection. As Christians, and especially as Reformed Christians, we know that God forgives us totally and purely by grace. There is nothing we have done, and nothing we could do, to deserve forgiveness. In Luke 17:10, Jesus says, “when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” Because we serve a God who is totally righteous and pure, nothing less than perfection will do. Even if we could become perfect today and live in that perfection to the end of our days, it would still not be enough to make up for the sins we have committed until today. We cannot deserve forgiveness; we can only receive it.
We are offered forgiveness because God, in his love and justice, appointed one man to suffer the just penalty of the wrongdoing we have each done. That man, unlike us, did not doubt the goodness and trustworthiness of God, but instead obeyed all that God had commanded. What God had commanded him included suffering unjustly. In himself, Jesus had done no wrong, yet he was treated by those with official powers – and by God himself – as though he were a rebel and a murderer. As Peter later said in his first Epistle, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,” (1 Pt 3:18).
We can confess our sins with full confidence that we will be forgiven. God has promised that all who rely upon his Son and his death will be given mercy. As the Apostle John says in his first letter, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
If forgiveness is complete and purely on the basis of God’s mercy and not our own merit, then why does Jesus include the phrase, “as we forgive our debtors” in the model prayer he gives his followers?
I believe it is because that, while forgiveness is instantaneous, the cleansing promised in 1 John 1:9 is a lifetime process. We have the righteousness of Christ applied to us by grace, through faith – but our hearts, while regenerate, are still afflicted by sin. Sin is ultimately a rebellion against God, in which we do not trust him to know what is best for us, or to do what is best for us. Because we do not trust God, we seek to take matters into our own hands – and so we lie, and steal, and bear false witness, and on and on. We hurt others, and others hurt us. We cannot go through a day without sinning against someone, or without being sinned against.
When someone sins against us, we want them to suffer for it. In some ways, this desire is a good thing: it reveals part of the image of God, who is perfectly just and desires that all who have done wrong suffer the consequences of doing wrong. If we want justice done, we are like God.
The trouble is that, while wanting justice reflects that God is just, we are not just ourselves. We do not know what a fair response is. The reason for the Old Testament law that said, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” was to limit retribution to an equal loss. Left to ourselves, we would be likely to exact a greater retribution from the one who harmed us.
While others sin against us every day, we seldom seek our version of justice against everyone who hurts us. We can let go of a lot – but there are certain events that come to us that grieve us deeply and bring pain on an almost daily basis. Perhaps a lie was told or a secret revealed that cost a reputation or ruined a relationship. Perhaps someone plotted against you to prevent you from getting a long-held goal. Perhaps someone deliberately hurt you or someone you care about, or damaged something precious to you, just to see your pain. Perhaps you were betrayed. The list of possibilities could go on and on. Deep pain that cries out for justice can come about in many ways.
How does one deal with that, in light of the fact that we pray, “as we forgive our debtors”? This question is reinforced because Jesus says, after giving the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, “for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you.”
If our forgiveness from God comes purely and completely by his grace, how can the Lord Jesus tell us that our being forgiving is necessary to receive forgiveness? There is a great deal to be said about this, but I will try to give you my best understanding of it. In one sentence: I believe that Jesus means that our willingness to forgive is an indicator of our own understanding of the grace of God. That is, if I believe that God has forgiven me completely and freely, without my earning or deserving that mercy, then I will be a person who forgives completely and freely. If I think that I must in some way earn God’s acceptance, I will require others to earn my acceptance by either apologizing in detail or by suffering, or both.
When Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive his brother, Jesus replied with the story of the unforgiving servant, in Mt 18:21-35. In that story, a man is forgiven a debt of millions of dollars that he owed to his king. As he is leaving the king’s court, he encounters a fellow servant who owes him a few hundred dollars. He demands immediate repayment – and when his fellow servant says he will pay if he can have more time, the first servant has him arrested for failure to pay his debt. When the king hears of this utter lack of mercy, he has the first servant brought back before him, and sentences him to the same penalty that the servant gave his fellow servant: imprisonment until the debt is paid. The reason is simple: the first servant was unaware of the depth of mercy he had received. He did not recognize the price the king had paid to forgive him. The king, after all, had a legitimate claim on those millions of dollars, and he chose to give up that claim. The king took an enormous loss in forgiving the servant. Why could not the servant take a much smaller loss?
A forgiven heart is a forgiving heart. One of the blocks to our forgiving others is a lack of awareness of the depth of our own sin. I remember that in my early 20’s, my thinking went something like this: “All human beings are sinners. I am a human being. Therefore, I am a sinner.” I knew the facts of salvation by grace alone, but I did not recognize the generosity of God’s mercy because I did not know how deeply I had offended him. But one day I had a conversation with a friend who spoke to me about my habits of sarcasm and put-downs towards other people. I said, “That’s just my sense of humor; I do not mean anything by it.” But my friend persisted in saying that it was wrong, and that my words hurt more than I knew – and that I needed to stop making excuses for things I did wrong, and repent.
It was a very small thing, but that conversation got me to thinking in a way I had never thought before. I could not sleep the night after the conversation because the Lord brought to mind the excuses I used to avoid responsibility for the wrongs I did – nothing spectacular, but still instances where I did what I pleased and not what God asks. I knew myself as a rebel against God, even if my rebellion was relatively quiet. And I recognized that Jesus suffered the penalty a rebel deserves – which is indeed what the penalty of crucifixion was for in Roman law. I began to see how vast God’s mercy was to me, and knowing the depth and extent of that mercy made a profound difference in how I treated others, and I became more willing and more able to give mercy to those who hurt me.
A forgiven heart is a forgiving heart. Having an understanding of the depth of our own sin and the price that God paid to forgive that sin enables us to forgive others. It is not automatic and it is not easy, but it is real. It also helps to recognize that there is a distinction between an act of the will and our emotional state. We can choose to forgive, even if our emotions are shouting, “What he did to me was wrong and he must pay!” Over time, we can train our emotions to let go of that demand.
In 1 Peter 2, Peter is talking about the death of Christ for our sins, and in verse 23, he says, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” When our emotions cry out for justice, we can say, “Lord, I trust you to deal with this person. I am not the judge; you are. You were merciful to me when I deserved no mercy; empower me to be merciful as you were.”
The reality is that one of two things will be true about the person who hurt you. If he is not trusting Christ, then he will indeed pay for the wrong he has done to you – eternally, and with an anguish greater than we can imagine. There is nothing in this life we can do to add to that coming suffering at the judgment from the one who judges justly. Therefore, all we need to say is, “Lord, you deal with it.” On the other hand, if the person who hurt you has trusted Christ for forgiveness, then Christ himself has already suffered for the wrong that was done to you. What can you add to that? What would you want to add to that?
We pray for forgiveness because we need it, every day. And so do those around us.
IV. “Lead Us Not into Temptation”
The final request we make in the Lord’s Prayer is for spiritual protection. The King James translation is “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” That phrasing can make it sound as if God may play games with us, laying snares so that he can say, “Gotcha!” when we fall into them. However, that is not what Jesus is saying. We know that God does not tempt us, seeking to entice us into sin. James tells us that, in James 1:13-15, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
God does not tempt us, but he may test us. We can cite instances of testing in Scripture. Adam was tested by God: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” We know that Adam failed that test, not because God tempted him, but because Satan did, inciting a desire for Adam to be like God and implying that God did not really want what was best for Adam and Eve.
Later on in the Old Testament, we hear of another test, when God permits Satan to attack Job. Satan sought to prove that Job’s faith was a mercenary faith, worshipping God because of the benefits God offered. But when those benefits were removed, Job still trusted God. He passed the test.
We may be tested by God, but he will not tempt us. When God tests us, it is for the purpose of making us stronger, not in order to catch us doing wrong and gloating over our failures. Tests are a sort of “spiritual gymnasium,” where we do exercises to increase our strength and stamina. Hebrews 5:12 tells us, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” Christ was always obedient, but in encountering the trials and temptations of human life, he grew in the depth and understanding of what obedience meant. In the same way, as we encounter various trials and temptations, we can learn how to be more fully obedient, trusting the Father ever more fully to care for us and to guide us.
Even recognizing that God allows trials to come into our lives, Jesus knows that we are weak. Thus, we pray not be brought to the test because we know that, apart from his mercy, we will be like Adam and not like Job. This prayer reminds us of our weakness and our need. This request is the only one in the Lord’s Prayer that has a second aspect to it – not only “lead us not into temptation,” but also “but deliver us from evil.” That “from evil” would be more accurately translated, “from the evil one.” While we are indeed weak and vulnerable to temptation in ourselves, we are not alone in the situation. We have an enemy who delights in our disobedience and who seeks to entice us into further rebellion against the living God.
We do not live in neutral territory. We live in the midst of a battleground. We were born into a cosmic rebellion against God, born as soldiers of the one leading that rebellion. Through God’s mercy, we have been born anew, as soldiers of the heavenly King. But we are still vulnerable to the lies of that consummate liar, Satan. We need continued protection and strength to resist those lies and to continue to trust the one who is Truth Incarnate.
The final petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks for just such protection. Later on this fall, I hope to talk more about being protected, but for now, let me just mention the book The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis. That book has a lot to say about the forces of evil and how they operate on our hearts, and also how we can resist them.
V. A Concluding Thought
Today we have looked at the three requests of the Lord’s Prayer that are for ourselves. We ask for provision for our physical needs, for mercy, and for protection. These requests cover all our lives, both the physical aspects and the spiritual aspects. There are difficulties in all three requests: how much is enough? How can we forgive the unforgiveable? How can we be protected from the insidious lies that encourage us to distrust the living God?
There is one thing that I have discovered that is important in dealing with all three things: thankfulness. The more we cultivate a spirit of thankfulness, the better we manage in trusting God. If we are thankful, we can trust in God’s daily provision, and not constantly seek “more.” If we are thankful, we can more easily forgive those who have hurt us. If we are thankful, temptations are far less powerful.
God owes us nothing good. Yet in his mercy, we have life, we have material blessings in abundance, we have friends and family to love us, we live in a free country, we have minds to think, hearts to feel, hands to care. God has given us so much more than we deserve. Most of all, he has given us his Son and he offers us life eternal with him. Yes, we experience pain, and we do not have everything we might want – but that we have any good thing is astonishing, compared to what we deserve. Our God is gracious beyond measure.
And so we conclude the Lord’s Prayer with joyful praise: “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen”
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
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.”
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.”
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The Purpose of Prayer
The Purpose of Prayer
Series on Prayer, I
If you ask many people, “Why do you pray?” you will receive a variety of answers – but most will be along the lines of “I need things, and God promises to answer our prayers.” Asking for help is a good thing, because it recognizes that God does care about us. It also recognizes that we are creatures – that we have not made this universe and that we are not in charge, having everything and needing no help. To accept our limits is a good thing. Our fallen human nature is such that we tend to think that we are in charge and that we can produce whatever we need. So, to ask God for something is a recognition that we do not have, in ourselves, all the power and resources for our lives and for our needs.
However, if the reason that we pray is so that we can get what we need, we tend to enter into a “patron and client” relationship with God. We have a need, and he has the power and resources to meet that need – and the question is, how do we get him to use that power and those resources on our behalf? Do we need to learn the proper techniques to pray so that we are granted what we request? Can we offer a bargain to God: “If you do this for me, I will do “X” for you” – or perhaps, “I will stop doing “Y”? Is there a certain standard of goodness we must exhibit in order to have our prayers answered? How many requests can we make at one time without exhausting God’s patience?
If the purpose of prayer is to get our requests answered, these are the sorts of questions we are very likely to be asking. We begin to think of ourselves as petitioners seeking not only to present our requests, but also to find reasons why our patron should give us what we ask for.
When Jesus taught about prayer, he taught that we can expect to have our prayer requests responded to. In Mt 7:7, 11, Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you… If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
I want you to note how Jesus refers to God in these verses: “your Father in heaven.” And o f course, Jesus taught us a model for prayer in the Lord’s Prayer, which begins, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” When we pray, we are not petitioning a patron who has power to grant our requests and who must be cultivated in order to receive our desires. We are instead addressing a loving, heavenly Father, whose love for us is seen in his giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. If he loved us enough to send his Son when we were sinners and had done everything to deserve his condemnation, then the relationship we have is not that of patron and client. We do not need to cultivate him as a patron. We are approaching our loving Father as a son or daughter. That is a huge difference. We do not have to persuade him that we deserve his help. He is not engaged in bargaining with us, for the kind of relationship he offers to us is that of father and child, not of patron and client.
When Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father,” he was teaching us about the purpose of prayer: “Father” is a relational term. In John 17:3, Jesus defines eternal life: “this is eternal life, that they know you, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The first purpose of prayer is fellowship with God. In prayer, we are spending time with the one who knows us and loves us beyond our imagining. Eternal life is being in a relationship with him – knowing and being known, sharing our hearts, seeking to enjoy him. It is of course not a relationship of equals – but it is a relationship of love and delight.
As I ponder the purpose of prayer, I see three things. The first purpose I have just given: fellowship with God. The second purpose is transformation: as we know God and deepen our relationship with him, we are changed. We resemble Jesus more and more, and we exhibit more fully the Fruit of the Spirit as given in Gal 5:22, 23: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” These are not qualities we can force ourselves to have; they are characteristics we get by spending time with Jesus in his Word and in prayer.
The third purpose of prayer is indeed to make requests of God, with the hope of having those requests answered. But there will be a difference in our requests as they are made by a heart that enjoys time with God and seeks to be more like Jesus, rather than as a petitioner approaching a powerful but distant patron.
II. Fellowship with God
The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We were created to enjoy God. In Genesis 3:8, we hear of what happened soon after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit: “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” The story in Genesis 3 is of the fall of humanity into sin, so that we are locked into the rebellion against God shown when Eve and Adam ate the fruit that had been forbidden to them in the wisdom of the Lord God. But even though that is the main story, we get glimpses into other things.
Chapter 2:15 tells us that God placed Adam “in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Adam and Eve had work to do. It was not burdensome, because caring for creation was part of why God made humanity. We were to be stewards of his creation. Before humanity rebelled against God, work was fulfilling and enjoyable at all times. Gen 3:8 speaks of God coming to Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day.” Their work ended in the evening, and so they enjoyed fellowship with God in a way that they could not while they tended creation. Before their disobedience, they were morally pure and completely open to God – but they were not infinite in their capacity, so God made them especially aware of his presence after they had done their day’s work. The greatest joy in the Garden of Eden was not its earthly beauty, but the fellowship with God that Adam and Eve enjoyed.
Through an act of rebellion against the wisdom and goodness of the Lord, Adam and Eve lost that fellowship. By God’s mercy, we may enjoy that fellowship again, through faith in the Lord Jesus. God graciously offers us forgiveness, as we depend upon the death of Jesus as payment for our sins, receiving his righteousness so that when the Father looks at us, he sees Jesus’ goodness and perfect obedience and calls us his own. In Hebrews 4:16, we are to called to approach God without fear: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find mercy to help in time of need.” In Christ, we may come to God as our loving and merciful Father.
The mercy of God was at work long before Christ came to earth. One little-remembered case of a close relationship with God is noted in Gen 5 is the little note about Enoch: Gen 5:24 says, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Although a sinner, like all humanity after the Fall, Enoch’s heart was turned by grace and he trusted and loved God, so much so that he could be described as “walking with God.” Enoch was one of two Old Testament Saints who did not taste physical death, but who were brought directly into heaven. Enoch and Elijah had very close fellowship with God.
But they were not the only ones. We know that Moses spoke often with God during the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings. Isaiah was granted a vision of the throne room of heaven, and called to be a prophet. Indeed, when you read of the various prophets in the Old Testament, it is clear that they all had exceptional relationships with God. They spent time with God, and God used them to carry out his work.
But there is one Old Testament figure who had a unique relationship with God. In 2 Chron. 20:7, King Jehoshaphat is praying, and he says to the Lord, “Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” And in Isaiah 41:8, God is speaking through the prophet and says, “But you,
There is no other individual in all of Scripture whom God refers to as his friend. I noted that Enoch and Elijah were very close to God – but he does not call them his friends. Only Abraham has that distinction. We all have friends, and if we are fortunate, we have a friend whose friendship is extraordinarily close and a tremendous help in life. If you consider that friendship and all its closeness, imagine what it means for God to call someone his friend. Of all the men and women of the Old Testament, no one had the honor of being called God’s friend except Abraham.
But then note what Jesus says in John 15:15: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” The privilege that Abraham alone enjoyed of all the great figures of the Old Testament is ours in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins, we who rely upon him for mercy have not only forgiveness, but access to a relationship with God that is completely open from his side. He calls us “friends,” and offers us his heart.
The first purpose of prayer is to enjoy time with God. It is not a relationship of equals, but it is meant to be a relationship of intimacy. In prayer, we can spend time with our Father.
III. Transformation
The first purpose of prayer is spending time with God. The second is transformation. In any good friendship, we are changed for knowing the person. We know that – parents take care about who their children have as friends. We want our children to have friends who have good values and good habits, because we know that they will reinforce one another in those same good values and habits – while getting in with a group with bad habits and worse values will drag them down. Our friends change us – so being in a friendship with God will bring changes. God, of course, being sublimely and supremely perfect, will never change – but we will.
Such change is good news for us. While each of us has been given good gifts, strengths, and characteristics, we each know that we are not perfect – and if we are keeping our eyes on Jesus, we see many areas where we do not live up to his standards and his character. Many of us remember Romans 8:28: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” That verse is a great verse to lean on in times of trouble, when we feel like the world has turned upside down and our dreams are being shattered. It is also a great verse to hang onto when we see how greatly we have failed God. But the next verse should give us even more hope. Rom 8:29 says, “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.” The “good” promised in verse 28 is defined in verse 29: “to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
That is the transformation God has in mind for us, and the transformation he works within us as we pray. I must hasten to add that it is not just prayer that works the transformation, although prayer is an essential part of growing to be like Christ. Another essential part of friendship with God is reading his Word. In prayer, we speak to God. In his Word, the Lord speaks to us. As we open our hearts to God in prayer, he will often bring to mind some passage of Scripture to encourage us, to guide us, or perhaps to challenge us. Prayer is ultimately a conversation with God – we open our hearts to him, and he opens his heart to us.
And as the conversation progresses, we are changed. We learn about God and we learn about ourselves. Our requests grow to include not only things around us, but things within our hearts. In knowing and talking with God, we become concerned about our character as well as about our circumstances and the circumstances of those we care about. We want to be more like Jesus.
Isaiah was a man who was changed as he met with God. In Isaiah 6, we hear of Isaiah’s call to be a prophet. “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’”
We see in this account a profound change in Isaiah. He is challenged about his own goodness, admits his unworthiness, is forgiven, and entrusts himself to the Lord for the Lord’s purposes. We are not likely to have such a dramatic encounter with the Lord, but he is still at work within our hearts.
There is another account of transformation in the New Testament. At the end of Acts 7, we meet Saul of Tarsus, who guarded the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death. He participated in the first martyrdom for Christ. Later on, he made others into martyrs, as he persecuted the young Church with great fierceness. In Acts 9, Saul meets the Lord Jesus – and turns from someone who made martyrs for Christ into someone who was eventually martyred for Christ. But there is something about Paul’s transformation that we seldom think of, and that is of the time involved. When he met Jesus face to face on the
In Gal 1, Paul gives a chronology of the time after he met Jesus. He was converted on the way to
It takes time to grow out of this mental habit – time that is used for conversation with God. It is he who enables us to see that it is his grace and mercy that makes us acceptable to him, not our accomplishments – and it is he who enables us to see that his response to our requests is a matter of his mercy and grace as well. Those years between Paul’s conversion and his missionary journeys were time in which Paul was being transformed into the instrument that God would use to bring the Gospel to the Roman world and to write a third or more of the New Testament. Paul did not begin his major ministry right after his conversion – God had Paul take time to grow and to be transformed before he sent Paul out as an Apostle.
God transforms us over time, as we spend time with him. Sometimes there are profound changes that happen over a short period of time, and sometimes there are changes that happen from a series of almost invisible little changes, day after plodding day. Over time, God helps us to develop ever greater insights and fresh appreciations for his Word and for his deeds for us. Our faith grows and our character develops, so that we are more and more like Jesus.
IV. Responses to Our Requests
The third reason for prayer is what we often think of as the first reason: to obtain what we request of God. In John 16:23-24, Jesus makes this amazing promise: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name Ask, and you will receive that your joy may be full.” This promise is but one of several that Jesus makes about our requests being answered.
We do indeed have needs that are bigger than ourselves, things that we cannot do for ourselves or with the help of others. We can only bring them to God. It is tempting simply to draw up a list of things that we want and present the list to God for his approval and response. We may try to tell God why we deserve what we are asking for, or make promises to him, or restrict our list to just one item so that we will not bother him too much. Those are the kinds of things that can happen when we think of our position as being clients to a patron, and when we see answers to our requests as the major or, indeed, only purpose to prayer.
However, when we recognize that our relationship is that of father and child and not patron and client, and when we grasp that the purpose of prayer is first of all fellowship, how we pray changes. We are not anxious, but delighted. We are not striving, but confident. When we learn that prayer is a transforming experience, we also know that we do not know what we need as well as God knows what we need. We grow in trust that God will give us what is best, and what will accomplish his purpose in us, to make us like the Lord Jesus.
A friend of mine once said, “God never answers our requests with a ‘No.’ He tells us ‘Yes,’ or ‘later,’ or ‘I’ve got something better for you.’” Time with God helps us to understand the truth of what my friend said. We can trust God to do the right thing and the best thing when we offer our requests to him.
I want to conclude with one final thought: when we spend time with God in fellowship and as we are transformed by his Holy Spirit, we learn more and more the kinds of things he wants to do for us. Our requests are more frequently answered with the requests we made – not because we have learned more effective ways of twisting God’s arm but because, as we have had our hearts made more like Jesus, we ask for what Jesus would ask for.
Next week, we are going to consider the first half of the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that Jesus gave us as a pattern for all our prayers. As you go through the coming week, let me suggest that you take the time to pray that prayer, pondering it and thinking about the requests made in that prayer.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:20)
Friday, September 10, 2010
Series on Prayer at Fairlawn CRC
I will be teaching a twelve-week series on prayer for one of the adult classes at Fairlawn Christian Reformed Church this fall. The topics are as follows:
I. The Purpose of Prayer
II. Jesus on Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer, part 1
III. Jesus on Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer, part 2
IV. Jesus on Prayer: Other Teachings on prayer
V. The Apostles Teachings on Prayer
VI. Types of Prayer
VII. Settings of Prayer
VIII. Forms of Prayer
IX. Kingdom-Centered Prayer: Prayer as the Foundation for Mission
X. Difficulties in Praying
XI. Notable Prayers in the Old Testament
XII. Notable Prayers in the New Testament
I will be teaching three Sundays out of four, beginning this Sunday, the 12th of September, and ending just before Christmas.
I. The Purpose of Prayer
II. Jesus on Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer, part 1
III. Jesus on Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer, part 2
IV. Jesus on Prayer: Other Teachings on prayer
V. The Apostles Teachings on Prayer
VI. Types of Prayer
VII. Settings of Prayer
VIII. Forms of Prayer
IX. Kingdom-Centered Prayer: Prayer as the Foundation for Mission
X. Difficulties in Praying
XI. Notable Prayers in the Old Testament
XII. Notable Prayers in the New Testament
I will be teaching three Sundays out of four, beginning this Sunday, the 12th of September, and ending just before Christmas.
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