Praying as Our Lord Taught Us

Andy Osborne

Matthew: The Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Unauthorized Prayer

There is a striking truth in this text that most people probably don’t agree with, and if they do agree with the text they don’t understand it. It is that prayer must be done correctly. The words shall not or must not depending on your translation, signify a prohibition. You are not authorized to pray in the following ways if you want to follow Jesus. It brings us back to a truth that has been overlooked for far to long in evangelical circles, that Jesus can tell you what to do and you have to do it. You cannot have a relationship with God except through Jesus, and you cannot have a relationship with Jesus if you pray in an unauthorized fashion. We can look at the crazy things happening in various hyper-charismatic churches around the world and call it Strange Fire, but what is equally unauthorized worship is prayer that is not acceptable to Jesus Christ. If your prayers, and you will pray if you believe in Christ because he says when not if, your prayers will follow a pattern that avoids hypocrisy and pagan unbelief and embraces the model that is given to us in the Lord’s Prayer.

Hypocritical Prayer

The command about prayer given in this text remains in the context of 6:1. Jesus is speaking to the general practice of hypocrisy in religious practices. Hypocrisy literally comes from a Greek term that we might translate actor. A hypocrite is someone who does something, not as an expression of their heart, but their actions are done to make it appear that they are something they are not. A religious hypocrite is therefore not a truly religious person, but one who is not religious but puts on the pretenses and outward appearances of religion.

Christ instructs the Blessed Ones, those who would follow him as disciples, to not pray like hypocrites pray. He then goes on to explain why while showing us the specific ways in which we are not to be like them.

The main verb here is, they love… and this is the heart of what is wrong with their prayers. They pray, not out of love for the one to whom they pray, but because they are in love with themselves. They desire the religious pomp and respect that public, well spoken prayers can give. They are not praying to God, rather they are play-acting a role of someone who loves God. They are as close to being a true worshiper of God as Henry Cavil is to actually being Superman.

The Christian to whom prayer is “vital breath” and “native air” will pray when no one is around, and his (or her) public prayer will take character from habitual secret prayer. -F. F. Bruce

When the Puritans talked about the regulative principle for worship, this was their point. If prayer or any form of worship is up to our imaginations and interpretation, we are in danger of two things: hypocrisy and idolatry. That is why they separated from the Church of England in the seventeenth century. They refused to worship in churches when hypocrisy was not only allowed but encouraged. Where people were reading prayers from a prayer book, good prayers, that did not reflect the true heart of a child of God. The prayers in the Book of Common prayer, while beautiful in their content and wording, are not prayers but rather a script for a hypocrite to use in order to pretend they really love God.

Jesus offers an alternative to this kind of self-centred religious acting, which we will look at in a moment.

Pagan Prayer

The first prohibition addressed hypocrisy in religion, but he does not stop there. Next he warns of praying in a pagan manner, which is ultimately an expression of idolatry. While they are not motivated by false pretenses, they do not worship God in their prayers, but rather they worship a God of their own imaginations and this is expressed in the manner of their prayers.

This is not a new concept in Scripture. In the OT, Israel was given specific instructions for worship. This was not because God is picky, but rather they were given to make sure that Israel did not worship God in the same way that the nations worshiped their gods. When Aaron made the Golden Calves in Exodus 32, he claims that the two calves represented YHWH

Exodus 32:4–5 ESV

And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”

This all happened while God was directly instructing Moses about how worship was to be done. When Israel doubted God’s ways, they turned to a way of worship that they were more used to in Egypt. This would also be the case when Israel would later build high places to worship God in the same way, and the strange or unauthorized fire offered by Aaron’s sons. When worship is done in an unauthorized and pagan-inspired way, God does not consider it worship. Instead, it is a way to try to rebel and even control God.

The practice that Jesus may be referring to is the pagan tenancy to make prayers long and repetitive. They would do this for two reasons,

First, they believed that the longer their prayers were, or the more that they would used the name or title of their gods, the more likely their gods were to hear them. This stemmed from a belief that they needed to get the god’s attention and convince that god to help them in whatever their request was. This was also the pagan purpose of sacrifices.

When Christians pray this way, it is a sign of unbelief. Just look at the way that many of us have come to use ‘Lord’ in every second sentence in our prayers. It’s like we expect God to have the attention span of a toddler. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus only addresses God once, and that as Father. There is no need for elaborate titles, nor is there a need to repeat ourselves over and over again to God. To do so can easily, although not always, be a sign that we don’t really believe that God is listening to us. When a child is trying to interrupt their parents or think that their parents are not listening to them, they will repeat the same thing over and over again out of a sense of insecurity. But God’s attention is already on those who are described in the Beatitudes. He doesn’t need reminders, nor does he need us to constantly seek his attention. The first words in the Lord’s Prayer are Our Father. God is a heavenly Father to the Blessed Ones and when we don’t treat him like an always listening, always caring Father, we are praying in unbelief. This is why short but sincere prayers are often much more filled with faith than long ones. Long private prayer accompanied by meditation on God’s word may indeed be motivated by faith, Jesus himself prayed throughout the night on multiple occasions, but often long prayers can be a sign of a lack of faith as if God does not always hear us the first time.

Long, continuous prayers also have no place in public prayer or in prayer meetings. In such cases they have the dangers of discouraging other believers’ faith, promoting hypocrisy and showmanship, and leaving others without a chance to pray. Love must prevail in all things and the way that we pray when we are together is for the benefit of others, not ourselves.

Second, they thought that long and repetitive prayers had the effect of forcing the hand of their gods. The names of their gods could be used like a magic spell to manipulate the gods to do your bidding.

There is a kind of theology which we would label heresy which thinks that God’s needs our permission to act in the world, and that prayer is the act of giving God this permission. This is a pagan belief that has no place in the true church.

The prosperity gospel is highly influenced by this pagan idea, using prayer to get God to do things for us to get things for us rather than to worship him.

However, pieces of that theology can make its way into even the prayers of those with a more solid theological understanding. This is because for many Christians, prayer and theology do not go hand in hand. They seem to confess one thing, but pray another. Again as an example we can point to the example of using the word ‘Lord’ over and over again in your prayers. Chances are, you are not trying to consciously manipulate God. But the habit has made its way into your prayer life for a reason. Either we are using the glorious title Lord which in the OT is synonymous with YHWH the name of God, as filler between phrases which itself is not very respectable, or we may be using it motivated by a lack of confidence before the throne of God, or we may be using it because we secretly believe that using God’s title over and over will make our prayers more holy. The same could be said for lengthy, repetitive prayers. Inserting adjectives, adverbs, illustrations with fiery tone of voice may be a way to make your prayers more holy, more acceptable, or more powerful. This is dangerously close to the kind of pagan prayer Jesus is warning against.

I do want to clarify that the purpose of this command is not for you to go judging other people’s prayer habits. Don’t count how many Lords are in your brother’s prayer. This is rather a chance for self-examination. You cannot peak into your brother’s heart in prayer, but you can examine yours.

The Template of a Godly Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer, in contrast to both of these false models, is characterized by a few notable traits:\

It is simple. No flowery language is found here. It is short, to the point,

It is intimate.

It is primarily God-exalting.

It recognizes our weakness.

It recognizes our reliance on God and his ability to provide.

It is directly related to our normal Christian living. We cannot pray, hallowed by your name or let your name be displayed in a holy manner without actively seeking a holy life ourselves, one that is untainted by hypocrisy. This is most clear in verse 12 where the petition for forgiveness of sins in predicated on the one praying having already forgiven the sins of those who may have sinned against them.

The Address

The Blessed Ones, again those who have seen their spiritual poverty, mourned over their sins, hungered for the righteousness of God, and have received the changing work of the Holy Spirit through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross and risen from the dead, these have an enormous privilege. They need not address God in the manner a subject would address his King, but as a child addresses her Father.

This highlights the intimacy and personal nature of prayer. God receives prayers that are given in simple, childlike faith.

Three Petitions of Glory

The majourity of the prayer is not about our needs, but rather focuses on the glory of God. This is done in three statements.

Hallowed be your name takes the word holy and turns it into a passive verb. We may say it as let your name be made holy or more accurately, let your name be seen, revealed, and known as holy. Holiness, if you would allow me to give a very quick definition, is the summed up character of God. It is all that he is in his true nature, which we know through what he has revealed and what he has done.

If the glory of God is, as Piper defines it, the holiness of God put on display, this is essentially a prayer that God’s glory would be known in all creation and to all people. This is our first priority in prayer. The true child of God sees the gospel, a stumbling block and shame to the blind world, as something that displays this holiness through glory. Thus, they pray for the ultimate end of the work of God; revelation of who God is to the world, including those who are blind. Prayers for the lost fall into here, although it is not for the sake of the lost directly, but that God would receive the honour due to him because he is holy.

Your Kingdom come follows up on the first petition with the means by which God will make his name glorious in the world. The Church is this Kingdom, and it dwells in the hearts of believers.

Luke 17:21 ESV

nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

your will be done asks that God would carry out the means by which the Kingdom of God here on earth. The purpose of the church is to display the glory of God, already revealed in heaven before the holy angels, here on earth through the commands God has given us. If God’s Kingdom has truly come among his people, his people will live as those in that Kingdom. They will work for this King, pay tribute to him, obey his laws, submit to his will, and fight to expand the Kingdom to all that the King owns by right: namely, the hearts of men and women from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Petition for Daily Needs

The only time we pray for our physical circumstances in this prayer is here. The asking for daily bread encompasses the humble request that God give us all we need to continue serving him as his subjects here on earth. This has to be the focus of this request, as it rides on the coat tails of prayer centred on God. To pray for our daily bread is not a self-motivated prayer, but a prayer motivated still by the Kingdom. Jesus will go on later in the sermon to speak about how God feeds his people with more care than he feeds the sparrows. The brevity of this prayer makes it seem like an afterthought, and it is. There is no need to worry that if you didn’t pray for a specific need that God will overlook it, “for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matt 6:8). It is a simple acknowledgement of our need for God’s help in order to keep serving him.

This also isn’t a prayer for unnecessary luxuries. While God often gives us many things for us to enjoy, we are not to pursue them, not even in prayer. Instead, it reflects the heart that Paul expresses to Timothy

1 Timothy 6:8 ESV

But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

Forgiveness and Protection

Regularly coming before the Throne of God to ask for forgiveness of our known sins is part of repentance. Indeed, Christians do not need to be cleansed from sin anew, but we do need our feet washed. The sin that comes from our corrupted flesh living in a corrupt world but be constantly washed off until there is no longer any need for such cleansing. we still need our feet washed so to speak. This asking for forgiveness, coupled with the fact that we are practicing forgiveness in our own lives, continues to give us assurance of Christ’s finished work and gives us an opportunity for confession.

The prayer ends with a prayer from protection from the evil one. Christians are to fear no thing here on earth, but we are to fear the temptations that plague our hearts and threaten to ensnare us to eternal damnation. This also we bring before the Father, trusting he has given us the strength and grace by his Spirit to overcome any adversity if we trust him.

No Presumptive Forgiveness (14-15)

Conclusion

The main purpose of prayer is to exercise and increase our faith through fellowship with God and joining in the eager desire to pray for God’s glory to be shown through the manifestation of his Kingdom on earth through the Church. It increases our faith, refreshes our spirit, refocuses our conviction, and binds our hearts to our loving Father.

There is an interest for us as well. As sons and daughters of God, we are the inheritors of this Kingdom

Romans 8:17 (ESV)

and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

The prayer Jesus has given us should be the model for all our prayers; it’s focus, it’s simplicity, it’s childish faith, and its consistency with the lives that we live.

For unbelievers, prayer will do you no good. The password to the Throne of Grace is saving faith in Jesus Christ who died for sins. Look to him and you will have access to this loving Father’s ear.

But for believers, think of prayer as the breath of your soul, the language if your heart. Do not let yourself be suffocated by its lack. Pray when you are well and when you are sick, pray when you feel close to God and when he feels distant. Pray when you want to and pray when your flesh battles you. Pray in the hour of temptation and in the victory. Pray meekly, privately, quietly. Pray with fellow saints, not to bolster your pride but to encourage each other’s faith. Pray without ceasing. Pray to your Father secret prayers where ever you are, and your Father will gladly hear the requests of his child.

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