Gospel Prism

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.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

Introduction

Every January since we have existed as a church, we have taken this month to emphasize the vital place prayer has in our lives as believers of Christ both individually and corporately.  This month is no exception.  And as I shared last week, one of the blessings of preaching through a book of Scripture is that we get to see how the text providentially speaks to our present circumstances.  So it is with great joy and excitement that we begin this 5-week journey through the Lord’s prayer and its many truths not only about prayer, but about the God we pray to.

Verses 1-2 give us the context for this prayer.  Verse 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.”  After all of Jesus’ busyness, continuously surrounded by different people who are in need of Him, He goes away to pray.  I have to imagine that His disciples were watching Him pray, or had seen Him pray before because there was something about Jesus’ prayer, whether it was the sincerity and depth of His face and posture, or perhaps the few words the disciples caught, that made them sense that their prayers were quite different than Jesus’ prayers.  In fact, it was so different that they believed they needed to be taught anew to pray.  After all, it wasn’t as though the disciples had never prayed before.  They were Jews.  They were used to hearing prayers spoken at the synagogue or in their homes or at great Feasts such as the Passover.  But when they saw Jesus pray, they saw something so compelling that they wanted the same thing.  And it is in this request that we too learn how to pray.

Also, there are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer, one in Matthew 6 as a part of the Sermon on the Mount and the one here in Luke 11.  Most scholars believe this is the same prayer taught in two different instances for differing circumstances.  But as you’ll see, outside a few differences, they’re virtually the same prayer.  And so I’ll be drawing from both accounts in Matthew and Luke for the next few weeks.

It is my hope that as you learn from Jesus how to pray, you will be richly blessed not only in knowing how to pray, but in knowing just how good and gracious the God you pray to truly is.  And so in verse 2, Jesus tells them, “When you pray, say…”

Prayer to Our Father

First, when we pray, we must pray to “our Father.” I have been trying to teach our kids how to pray because.  And one of the things that I had noticed about their prayers was how they began their prayers.  They would say, “Dear God…”  The funny thing is that we had never taught them to pray that way.  Somewhere they had picked that up.  And you could almost sense the detachment of their prayers from God, as if they were doing nothing more than writing a letter to some far off deity.  Perhaps that’s your prayer as well.  Has prayer become nothing more than a formula.  Do you even know why you pray the way you pray?  I have heard people call God all sorts of things in prayer, from Dear God to Father Lord to Father Lord Jesus to Father Lord God Jesus Christ.  Perhaps we all need to learn how to pray from Jesus.

We see that Luke doesn’t include the pronoun ‘our’ but Matthew does (Matt 6:9) and Matthew’s version is the one that we have learned.  The disciples had continually heard Jesus refer to God as His Father.  And the Gospel of John reveals how often Jesus called God Father, which must have really startled them at first.  After this was the same God of the Old Testament, the God that appeared to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  This same God was so holy that Moses could not view His face and live.  This is the God who rescued the Israelites from the Egyptians and parted the great Red Sea.  This was the God who rescued Jonah by commanding a large fish to keep him safe.  The was the same God whose mere words spoke the universe into existence.  He was the God of their great ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He was the same God whose name was so holy, that the Hebrew language did not even give His Name vowels so that His name would be unpronounceable.  And now Jesus was calling Him Father?  How could this be?

This was Jesus’ picture of His relationship as the second person of the Trinity.  Jesus is not some sort of deity that co-exists with God.  He is not an angel like Michael or Gabriel.  He is not a prophet or patriarch.  No, He is God incarnate.  As John tells us in John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Jesus as the Son of God is the revelation of the fullness of the Father and all of His glory.  The claim Jesus is making by this first line of the prayer is mind-boggling for all of His disciples.  But as wondrous as this first claim is, there is something even more spectacular, and it is the pronoun ‘our’ in Matthew 6:9.

Jesus tells us that not only is the God of the universe His Father, but He says we should pray as though He is OUR Father as well.  There is nothing more marvelous than this statement and it is every reason why prayer is such a powerful weapon for the Christian.  Why is this so?  Because when we pray to God as our Father, we are praying as those who are adopted into His family.  We are not mere servants of God.  Paul reminds us of this in Galatians 4:6-7: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”  And because we are praying as sons and daughters of God, He will hear us.  Jesus tells us so in Matthew 7:9-11: “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Also, when we pray to God as our Father, we are praying as those who are loved by God as much as Jesus is loved by God.  J. I. Packer puts it well when he says: “In some families containing natural and adopted children the former are favored above the latter, but no such defect mars the fatherhood of God.”[1] That is, God does not love us second to His Son.  His adoptive love is perfect and so when He loves His adopted children, He loves us with the love He has for His Son.  Thus, when we pray to God as OUR Father, we pray to Him as one who loves us in this way.

When we pray to God as our Father, we are praying together as part of His family.  He is not only MY Father, He is OUR Father.  It’s every reason why we should not only pray alone, but we should pray for one another and with one another.  We should treasure praying together and asking people for our prayers.  I am so excited that so many of you have been doing this.  You have been asking people for prayer, and I want to commend you to do so even more.  In fact, I would like to let you know of something we are going to begin this year.  If you are interested in having people pray for you, you can email prayer@wellspringsg.org and you will have people pray for you weekly.

Also, when we pray to God as our Father, we pray as ones who have been brought into God’s family through the work of God’s Son Jesus Christ.  We must never forget that it took Jesus’ work on the cross for sinners to be brought into His family.  Again, Paul tells us in Gal 4:4-5: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”  Jesus died on the cross to make sure that when we pray, God would love to hear our prayers, no matter how faulty, how measly those prayers are.  Do you know that your prayers are not accepted by God because of how good you are?  If this were the case, when would God ever hear your prayers?  Isn’t it funny how there are times we feel we can go to God with our prayers because we’re ‘doing well with Him’ and are ‘holy enough’ for God to listen to us?  This simply means we think we are far better than we think we are.  And conversely, let us not make the mistake of thinking that we can’t go to God because we are angry or depressed or have failed to read God’s Word that day or have yelled our parents or have been impatient with our children.  This is why theologian Graeme Goldsworthy says:

Whenever and however we fail, we have an advocate to take our place and plead our cause.  He does this on the basis of his own righteousness, not on the basis of our fervor or piety…In Christ we cannot be condemned as inadequate or ‘failed’ pray-ers.  I should not think, because I don’t pray as I ought, that God is less inclined to listen to me than he is to listen to some great prayer warrior.”[2]

Do you see?  God listens to your prayer because of Jesus and what He is done for you.  Because God has brought you into His family through His Son’s blood, and therefore, He listens to your prayers.  And so, let us say OUR FATHER with thankfulness and boldness and delight.  Oh how good God has been to us that we can come to Him with such prayer.

Prayer to Our Father In Heaven

Second, we must pray to our Father who is in heaven which is found in Matthew’s version.  This little prepositional phrase  speaks so much about the character and nature of our Father.  As Paul tells the Athenians in Acts 17, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24-25)  God in heaven means God is absolutely in control over all things.  He was not made by anyone and His greatness knows no end.  Do you know how important it is to know that your Father is in heaven, that He is great and above all else?  Well, if God were not such, then why pray to Him?  Why should we pray to our Father when we go through suffering if He is powerless against sin, against Satan, against suffering?  A child will bury his face in his father’s chest when something frightens him.  One time my son Jack was on the monkey bars, hanging from them, realizing that he couldn’t make it across.  He hung there and called out my name.  He didn’t call his sisters names.  He called mine.  He knew that I was strong enough to help him.  Knowing your Father is in heaven should give you comfort and confidence when you pray.  You should know that there is no such thing as something that God is unable to do.  God is mighty and the fact that He resides in heaven is a reminder to us that He reigns Supreme.  And oh how we need to remember this when we pray.  We must never forget that we are not speaking to merely to our pal, our teacher, or even our earthly father.  We have to realize that this is the God who is powerful and mighty, robed with splendor.  Or as Psalm 50:1-6 so beautifully describes our Father:

The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.  3 Our God comes; he does not keep silence;  before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest. 4 He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5 “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” 6 The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge!

Prayer to Our Father’s Name to Be Holy

Finally, we must pray to our Father who is in heaven whose name is to be holy. Notice that this is not merely stating the fact that God is holy, but rather, Jesus’ prayer tells us that we should ask God to hallow or make holy His name.  In other words, “Father, reveal yourself to be the holy One you are to myself and to all the world.”  Psalm 83:18 has the same sentiment: “[Let the world know] that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.”  This is not to say that God’s name isn’t already holy.  But the Father’s children want all the world to hallow His name.  Think of how often God’s name is taken in vain in this world.  God’s name is representative of who He is.  And so when His name is defamed, God is made to be nothing more than any one of us.  He becomes ordinary and truly not a God in heaven.  And so to hallow God’s name is too long for God to be worshipped and glorified as the Father that He is.

Think of it this way, if you know how precious it is to call God your Father, if you know what it took for you to even consider God to be Your Father, and you know how great your Father truly is in heaven, then more than anything you need, any petition or request, your greatest request will be that God this same God who has been beyond description to you, would be made holy and glorified throughout the whole world.  Worshipping such a God will be such a delight, that you will want God to glorify Himself more than anything else.  This is why Jesus spoke this similar prayer in John 17:1: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”  Children of the Father who pray to Him desire God to glorify Himself, to hallow His own name.

Phil Ryken illustrates this sentiment this way: The story is told of a wise and benevolent king who was loved and honored by all his subjects.  One morning each week he opened his throne room to the general public.  On that morning he would hear grievances and listen to petitions, making himself available to meet the needs of his people.  There was one man who faithfully came to see the king week after week.  Yet he never bothered the king with a single complaint or request.  He simply stood at the back of the throne room.  After a while this began to puzzle the king.  Who was this man who came every week?  And why did he come, if not to ask for help?

One day the king summoned the man to approach his throne and inquired after his business, “Your majesty,” the man said, “when I was a young man I committed a crime and I was sentenced to death.  Yet as I was dragged through the streets to the gallows, I saw you riding on your horse and I cried out for mercy.  Since I was such a young man you granted me a royal pardon and commanded me to be released. That is why I come to stand in your presence every week.  I do not come to ask for anything.  What more could I ask for?  You have already given me my life and my freedom.  I come only to pay you , to homage, to honor you as your devoted servant.”[3]

And so when we pray, ‘hallowed be Your Name,’ we are saying essentially that we are so enamored by God’s grace, by God’s character, by God’s holiness, that we want nothing more than God to be glorified in our lives and in this world.  And it is one thing that we will do forever, to join with all of the heavenly host as John records in Revelation 4:8 saying: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”  Hallowing the Father’s Name is joining to sing heaven’s song.

Conclusion

Oh what a privilege it is to pray, despite ourselves, despite our sin, our faulty, lacking, prayers.  And so when Jesus says, “When you pray, say…” how many of us are so thankful to pray to such a God who would love us in this way?  This is why prayer is so precious and we must never forget it.  In this month of prayer, I want remind you of the different ways we will be praying to our Father in heaven whose name is to be holy:

1.         Saturday Morning Prayer

2.         Fast and Famine (1/31 – Fasting (food-duration, media, tech, etc.; Food Collection)

3.         Missions Prayer

4.         Praise and Prayer

---

[1] J. I. Packer, Praying the Lord’s Prayer, 28.

[2] Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, 50.

[3] Phil Ryken, When You Pray, 70-71.

?