The Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Scripture Reading: Matt 6:9-13
Scripture Reading: Matt 6:9-13
Matthew 6:9–13 (NASB95)
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. ‘Give us this day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
This evening we are taking a short break from Pastor’s series on Daniel, and we will do an overview of the Lord’s Prayer, line-by-line. The Lord’s Prayer is usually something we study about once every two years, so for many of us this is going to be a recap.
Our Father who art in heaven
Our Father who art in heaven
Our Father. These two words are the most expensive and costly words in all of creation. And they summarize the entire Gospel.
God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father has sent His Son to us, so that we can be adopted as sons of God.
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
How could this happen? Because Jesus took away our slavery to sin, and He took it upon Himself as He died on the cross.
Crucifixion back then was reserved usually for slaves, and it was known as the slave’s death.
On the cross, Jesus died the death of a slave so that we could receive the life of the Son. And on the cross He cried out ‘My God my God why have You forsaken me”
At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
This is the first time in His entire life that Jesus has ever addressed God as “God.” For His whole life He called God “Father.” But on the cross He gave us His right to pray this prayer, the right to call God “Our Father.”
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
And it is important that we are adopted as sons of God, not as daughters. Why?
Back then the sons were the ones who would inherit the estate of the father.
So when we say “Our Father who art in heaven,” we’re confessing that God is our Father, and we will inherit His estate. And what is the estate of the Father? Heaven. So we’re confessing that heaven belongs to us.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Hallowed be Thy name
Hallowed be Thy name
We don’t use this word anymore, but to hallow something is to make it holy. To set it apart from the rest. So the opposite of holy isn’t unholy. The opposite of holy is common or profane.
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.
So when we pray ‘Hallowed by Thy name,’ we’re asking God to exalt His name above all other things. Make Your name uncommon. Make it special. Make the world see that Your name is above all other names.
This also means that if something bears the name of God, that thing will also be lifted up. This includes the church. And this includes us, the people of God who bear His name.
Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.
So by praying ‘Hallowed by Thy name,’ we are asking God to exalt His name, and all the saints who bear His name.
So every time we pray this prayer, we’re asking God to stick His hands into the ground of our hearts, grab the sin by the roots, and yank it out. It’s a scary prayer right? But that’s what it means when we ask God to hallow His name. He’s going to purify the church, and He’s going to purify us.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
What does it mean when we pray ‘Thy kingdom come’?
Luke 17:20–21 (NASB95)
Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
What we see here is that the kingdom of God is not a place, and it’s not a people, but it takes place among people. It is the will of God being done in people and in their situations. And so the kingdom is more than just people or place. It is God taking over.
And right now we’re living in the overlap between two kingdoms. St. Augustine said that we are citizens of the city of God, but we’re living in the city of man. The city of God is heaven. The city of man is the earth, a place of sin, otherwise known as the domain of darkness.
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
And so Jesus gives us a task. We need to think, “How would this situation play out if God is fully in control?” And we need to pray for that to take place, for God to take over.
Take over what? Our situations, our homes, our workplaces, our church, and even our planet.
That God’s kingdom will come into the lives and hearts of those around us. That every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
But many times what happens is we pray the opposite. We pray ‘My will be done.’ Or we think that we’re praying for what God wants, when it’s actually what we want.
So how can we discern what’s my will and what is God’s will? It’s simple. We need to know the heart of God in His Word. And we need to ask the question, ‘Whose name is being hallowed?’ ‘Whose name is being lifted up?’
May we truly pray, ‘Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.’
Give us this day our daily bread
Give us this day our daily bread
Daily bread here symbolizes what we need. What sustains us. So that means that when we pray this sentence, we are confessing two things. First that God knows what we need, and second that God alone gives us what we need.
What do we need? Food, water, shelter, sleep, medicine, friendship. And whether we know it or not, God provides all these things.
But as human beings we are more than just physical bodies. We are spiritual beings.
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
So what that means is that our spirits also need to be cared for. We need physical food and we need spiritual food. What is our spiritual food? It is the Word of God.
Matthew 4:3–4 (NASB95)
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ”
And this goes beyond just the Word of God in the Bible. This also talks about Jesus Christ Himself, the bread of life broken for us.
John 6:54–55 (NASB95)
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.
So when we pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ we’re praying for God to give us Jesus. We’re praying for more time with Jesus. Whether that’s through reading the Bible, listening to sermons, coming to church, and so on. Our souls need the Word of God.
And it’s not easy to confess that God knows what we need.
Can you imagine a boy who goes to his dad and says, ‘Dad, I know what I want, but you know what I need. Give me what I need.’ It’s impossible right?
But we need to humble ourselves like this when we pray the Lord’s prayer. Lord, You know what I need. Give me not what I want, but what I need. Not my will, but Your will be done. Hallowed be Your name. Look at this proverb.
Proverbs 30:8 (NASB95)
Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion,
Or in the ESV, it says ‘Feed me with the food that is needful for me.’
Proverbs 30:8 (ESV)
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
Here we confess our need for forgiveness. From the moment we believe in Jesus we’re saved from the penalty of sin. But we’re still at war with the power of sin. And this struggle is part of the Christian life.
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
When we say the Lord’s Prayer, we always say ‘trespasses.’ The Greek word is opheilema, which means debt. As in something you owe to another person.
So what is our debt to God? We owe Him our obedience. How many of us tonight have been fully obedient to God so far this week?
Back in those days, prisons were not filled with criminals. Criminals would usually be executed or sent somewhere else to work. Prisons back then were filled with debtors. People who owed a debt but couldn’t pay up. And unless your debt is paid, you are locked up. So your family and loved ones would scramble to put money together to redeem you.
Likewise, if no one pays our spiritual debts, then our spirits remain locked up. But we have a person who paid our debts. His name is Jesus.
Now, there’s a right way to read this, and there’s a wrong way to read this.
The right way is ‘Forgive us our trespasses in the same way that we forgive those who trespass against us.’
The wrong way is ‘Forgive us our trespasses because we forgive those who trespass against us.’
If you read this the wrong way, then you’ve turned forgiveness into a currency. So someone sins against you and you forgive them. And then you take that forgiveness and wave it before God like a dollar bill, saying ‘Forgive me of my sin, because I forgave that person.’
That’s how many other religions work, but that’s not the Gospel. The Gospel says that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So we who have been forgiven, are then able to forgive others in the same way. When someone sins against us, we have to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus. Follow the Jesus way. Jesus died so that we could have forgiveness, so we need to die to ourselves so that we can give forgiveness to others.
And notice with me that the debt is not forgiven. The person is forgiven. Forgive us our debts. The debt isn’t simply forgotten or erased. Someone has to pay the debt. Someone who was fully obedient to God.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
So now that we’ve prayed regarding the sins we’ve committed in the past, Jesus now teaches us to pray against the sins of the future.
This is one of the more confusing parts of the Lord’s prayer. In order to understand this correctly, we need to distinguish between tests and temptations.
God tests. Satan tempts. God tests people for the purpose of revealing their faith. He tested Abraham on Mt. Moriah, and He tested the Israelites in the wilderness.
In fact, the Psalmist prays for this kind of test from God.
Examine me, O Lord, and try me;
Test my mind and my heart.
God tests us to reveal our faith.
On the other hand, Satan tempts us for the purpose of destroying our faith. This is the kind of temptation that James talks about.
James 1:13–14 (NASB95)
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
And Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s protection against Satan’s traps and snares.
Luke 22:31–32 (NASB95)
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
“Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus knows that God is able to protect us from the attacks of the devil. In fact, Satan can only tempt us if God allows it. And there are two people whom God allowed to be tempted by Satan. The first is Job, and the second is Jesus.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Why did God allow them to be tempted? Because God knew their faith. God knew they could overcome. And for those of us who are not Job and Jesus, we need to pray for God to shield us from Satan.
And we can end our prayer with ‘Deliver us from evil’ because God delivered His Son into evil. All of this would not be possible without Jesus’ death on the cross.
So let us conclude by praying the Lord’s prayer together. Slowly this time. And let us really say it with intention. Let us really mean it this time, knowing how much it cost. Each word was purchase by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.