Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:1-18
OK, well then you can turn to Matthew chapter 6. Tonight we'll specifically look at verse 9a. I know that's a very isolated portion, but it is the preface to the Lord's Prayer. So before we get into the particular petitions of which there are six, we'll look at the preface, but I do want to read the larger context.
So I'll pick up in chapter six, beginning in verse one, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But you, when you pray, go into your room. And when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place. And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him. In this manner, therefore, pray, our father 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 forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your father who is in the secret place.
And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Amen. Well,
Introduction
in this particular section, verses 1 to 18, the Lord Jesus is dealing with religious observance or acts of piety. He deals with almsgiving, specifically in verses 1 to 4. He deals with prayer in verses 5 to 15. And then, of course, He deals with fasting. in verses 16 to 18.
And one of the interesting things about the almsgiving, the prayer, and the fasting is that Jesus assumes that these are things that the people of God will undertake. He assumes that these are things that religious people, people that imbibe the true religion of God Most High, will engage in charitable deeds. The children of God will be a people of prayer. The children of God as well will be those who occasionally fast, who set themselves to pray in extended seasons, giving up food and those sorts of things.
So the assumption is there, what he is addressing or what he is giving here are particular rules, or not rules in the sense of pick up your socks and put them in the hamper, but instructions on how not to do it and instructions on how to do it. And the emphasis is on the internality or the internal nature of the exercise. Don't give alms so that people can see and say, what a great person you are. Don't fast and walk around all day and tell people I'm fasting.
Rather, do it unto the Lord. The same thing with reference to prayer. He gives two specific cautions in verses 5 to 8. He speaks, first of all, with reference to the motivation.
Verse 5, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward." So your motivation ought not to be just to be seen to be a man of prayer. Rather, your motivation is to go into the secret place and to find communion with God Most High.
Then he deals with the manner in verse 7. He tells us not to be like the hypocrite. He tells us, secondly, not to be like the heathen, verse 7. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
You're not heard by God because you say things over and over and over again. You're not heard by God because you spend 13 minutes at the throne of grace. You're heard by God because He's gracious, merciful, and kind, and He is your Heavenly Father. So you see, He cautions us against praying like the hypocrite, He cautions us against praying like the heathen, and it's in this context that He gives us this particular model prayer.
And that second caution concerning the heathen helps us to understand how we ought to approach this prayer. One of the things that the Roman Catholic Church does is use this prayer in the manner that the heathen prays. In other words, they recite the prayer over and over again. Well, Jesus just condemns that manner of using prayer.
You don't just take it like it's a lucky charm, or like it's a holy horseshoe, or a three-leaf clover, four-leaf clover, and employ it before God in that manner. What we find in this model prayer are petitions that call us to consider these are the things that we ought to pray for. We ought to pray concerning God's name, God's kingdom, God's will, God's provision, God's forgiveness, and God's protection. So we don't just recite these things in some sort of an empty manner, but rather we take them, we ponder them, we consider them, we see how they apply in our own lives as individuals, we see how they apply in our own church context, in our family context, how they apply outside of that with reference to society as a whole.
So it's not just a matter of learning the prayer and then reciting it over and over again. Certainly learning the prayer is absolutely crucial, but it's taking those petitions and internalizing them, thinking through them, and praying them back to God in an informed manner. We're not to be like the heathen. We're not to We're not to check out when it comes time to pray.
Rather, we're to engage our minds, our hearts, our souls, our strength so that we may rightly worship God. Calvin says this with reference to these six petitions. He says, Christ embraces, therefore, in six petitions what we are at liberty to ask from God. Nothing is more advantageous to us than such instruction.
Though this is the most important exercise of piety, yet in forming our prayers and regulating our wishes, all our senses fail us. No man will pray a rite unless his lips and heart shall be directed by the heavenly master." That's a very excellent way to approach this particular prayer. Note what Jesus says. He says, in this manner, verse 9, therefore pray.
Again, that prohibits this idea of vain repetition that the heathen engages in. And then I think we ought to observe the particular order, just before we jump into the preface. The order is very conspicuous, it's very specific. Hopefully all of this is a reminder to you so that when you go to prayer Tomorrow or tonight you can remember these things and be consciously aware of it.
God comes first in the petitions Not only the preface our father in heaven. It's as if Jesus wants us to stop for a moment and contemplate our Father in heaven. I think what Jesus is teaching us is that theology proper, or our understanding of who God is, ought to affect the way that we pray. In other words, we don't just run into the presence of God and start throwing out our requests.
We need to ponder our Father in heaven. We need to consider who he is. We need to understand something about his majesty. And then we present our petitions.
And the conspicuous order is that his concerns or his glory comes first. His name, his kingdom, his will precedes our food, our forgiveness, and our protection. Spurgeon says, does not the daily bread often come in before the kingdom? That's a legitimate observation.
Does not our prayer for bread come in before a petition for God's kingdom to advance and to thrive and to flourish? Ryle says the glory of God is the first thing that God's children should desire. Now, this is what grace teaches us, because outside or apart from grace, we think we come first. We think everything is about us.
We think God exists simply to bless, to give, and to pour things upon us so that we may benefit and prosper. It is grace that teaches us what Ryle says here. The glory of God is the first thing that God's children should desire.
The Preface: Our Father in Heaven
Now let's look at the preface. After giving a bit of introduction, in this manner, therefore pray, he says, Our Father in Heaven. The Westminster Larger Catechism says this, and we'll sort of follow this, at least loosely. What does the preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us?
The preface of the Lord's Prayer, contained in these words, our Father, which art in heaven, teaches us, when we pray, to draw near to God with confidence of His fatherly goodness and our interest therein. with reverence and all other childlike dispositions, heavenly affections, and due apprehensions of his sovereign power, majesty, and gracious condescension, as also to pray with and for others. Great, great summary statement. Notice it's our Father in heaven. This is a prayer to be sure that you can utilize in your closet, but it's absolutely legitimate to utilize it at a Wednesday night prayer meeting.
It's absolutely legit for a pastor to implement it in the long prayer, the pastoral prayer, on a Sunday morning or Sunday evening. This is legit. It is a corporate expression of these particular petitions to our God. So let's look at our Father in Heaven.
Two Elements: Presence and Power
There's two important elements involved. First, God's presence, and secondly, God's power. He says, our Father. As I've already alluded to, theology proper, when I say theology proper, that means specifically the doctrine of God.
We understand the word theology to mean the study of God, the science of the study of God, the knowledge of God, that sort of thing. When we say theology proper, however, we mean specifically the doctrine of God. Who He is, what He does, how he does it, and for his own glory, the fact that he does it. We're going to be studying theology proper in the next several weeks at our Sunday morning services from 9.30 to 10.30.
I highly encourage everybody to be here for that. It's good stuff from our confession of faith. I trust that it will be helpful for us to see afresh who our God is, because as we see in a prayer like this, Understanding who God is affects us with reference to prayer. It affects us with reference to worship.
It affects us with reference to family, society, everything. If we don't have a proper understanding of God, we are not going to be the people of God that He calls us to be. So the two elements involved is presence, first of all. There's just several things I want to bring out in this section.
Our Father Is Personal
Our Father, first of all, is personal. We're not addressing faith when we come to pray. We're not throwing out holy horseshoes. We're not just hoping for the best of luck.
We are addressing our Father. He is personal. He loves us. He looks upon us with favor.
No two words could better invite the child of God to pray than this title of God, Our Father. This is a term of affection, it's a term of kindness, it's a term of goodness, like the Catechism says, to draw near to God with confidence of His fatherly goodness. The Lord Jesus addresses God as Father whenever He prays except in the cry of dereliction, when He says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The Lord Jesus bears a relationship unlike ours, Matthew 11, 27, in terms of unity and communion. But because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, he brings us into this blessed sphere of union and communion with his Father.
What Christ is by eternal generation, What Christ is, by virtue of His very essence, we are brought in and adopted as sons. Now, we don't partake of deity the way Jesus does, but we are sons. We have a filial relationship, and we can call God our father. We are not addressing blind fate.
We are not addressing impersonal power or some other entity. We are to go to prayer as a child goes to his father. So that's at least one thing that is expressed in this two words, our father.
Our Father Is Gracious
Secondly, our father is gracious to us. The fact that we can call him father, this speaks grace. The Bible teaches us that we are by nature children of wrath. For us to move from children of wrath to a place where we can address God as Father indicates that He has done something for us and has done something to bring us into this particular place.
We are dead in trespasses and sins. We are completely alienated to the life of God. We have no union, we have no communion, and yet God brings us out of darkness into marvelous light. In Ephesians 1.5 it says, He predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
So before we take up these petitions, it might not be a bad thing for us to rehearse some theology in our minds and hearts in a prayerful disposition. We consider the reality that our father is personal. He hears us, he understands us, he knows us, he looks upon us and he pities us as a father pities his children. As well, we consider the fact that he's gracious to us.
The very reason I can go before him and address him as father speaks of the reality that he has begraced me. He has first loved me and brought me in with reference to this particular position." This is a prayer for the believer. D.A. Carson makes this observation in his commentary.
He says, the early church was right to forbid non-Christians from reciting this prayer as vigorously as they forbade them from joining with believers at the Lord's table. Now, the question comes up, do we teach our children to pray? Yes, we teach our children to pray. What we need to appreciate about this particular prayer, however, is that what God is telling us is that this is a prayer that is specially designed for the disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So our Father is personal, our Father is gracious to us. Thirdly, what we are taught here, at least by implication, is that our Father hears us, right? Isn't that beautiful? Does Dagon hear the prayers of the Philistines?
Does Baal hear the prayers of the prophets when they're gashing themselves and dancing around the altar, praying to Baal to rain fire down upon the sacrifice? Of course they don't. Of course Baal doesn't hear prayer. He has ears, but he can't hear.
He has eyes, but he can't see. He has a mouth, but he can't talk. See, we read Psalm 115, we read 135, and some of that seems a bit odd to us because we don't think in those terms, but this is precisely what the psalmist is doing. He is mocking the idols of the nations around them.
Go ahead and pray to your God. He has eyes, but He can't see. He has ears, but He can't hear. What's the implication?
Our God has eyes and He sees, not physically. The Bible tells us He is spirit. He does not have body like man. but there are those anthropomorphisms, things the Bible says about God in our language so that we can get our minds wrapped around it. He has eyes that see, he has a mouth that speaks, and he certainly has ears that hear.
And so when Jesus says, go into your secret room, or go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. I love that passage. because it doesn't indicate anything about our disposition. I'm convinced that we don't think it's a good prayer meeting unless we feel good. I'm convinced that we don't believe God answers our prayers unless our hearts are warmed.
I'm convinced that we put more stock in the feelings connected with our praying than in the praying itself. Jesus simply says, when you go into your room, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. It's a no-brainer. It follows.
No, I'm not suggesting we should be like cold dead fish. I'm certainly not encouraging that disposition or model of prayer. But brethren, it's not about your warm heart. It's not about how did God bless the prayer meeting.
Did Brother so-and-so pray? For how long were the prayers offered up? When we list our petitions to a gracious God, He is merciful to hear us and to bless us and to answer according to His most glorious will. They have ears, but they do not hear.
Not the God of Israel. You can turn to the Psalter, specifically Psalm 4. We'll just trace through a few of these passages that indicate this blessed reality that our God hears. And this is something that the saint of Christ needs constant reminder of.
Because, as I say, if it is the case that we don't pray unless we really feel like it, then we're going to leave off. We pray because God commands it. We pray because it's an act of worship. We pray because it is good for us.
We don't pray when we feel like it. We don't pray if we feel like it. We don't pray consistently or commensurate with the reward that we get. Our task is to pray.
And God's task is to hear and to answer. Psalm 4, verse 3, but know that the Lord has set apart for himself him who is godly. The Lord will hear when I call to him. You say, well, that works if you're godly, but I'm a pretty ungodly guy or gal.
You're godly in Christ Jesus. If you are in Christ, you have access to the throne of grace. The Father is your Father, and He has committed Himself to hear you when you pray. Look at 6, 8, and 9. 6, 8, and 9.
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. Maybe no one else has. Maybe you've been in your closet crying out. Nobody knows.
Nobody understands. You've got the ability to put on a good game face. You go out into the day. You go about your tasks.
Nobody knows the sorrows or the difficulties you are going through. But in that inner place, when you go before the High King of Heaven, when you offer up in our Father, we have this confidence. The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. Verse 9, the Lord has heard my supplication.
The Lord will receive my prayer. Psalm 18 verse 6, In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears. Isn't that beautiful?
Your cry ascends into the temple of God Most High and it comes to His ears. The imagery is beautiful. It's illustrative. The picture is strong.
Call upon the Lord. Let your cries be known unto Him. This is what the psalmist is telling us. Psalm 28 verse 6.
Psalm 28, verse 6, blessed be the Lord. You know, when God blesses us, that means He does good things for us. He multiplies good things on our behalf. When we say blessed be the Lord, that means to ascribe praise to Him.
It means to speak well of Him. It means to honor and glorify Him. It means what Christ is going to tell us in that first petition. Hallowed be thy name.
Hallowed be thy name is sort of new covenant language for what we find scattered throughout the Psalms. Blessed be the Lord. Notice, because he has heard the voice of my supplications. You're sitting there amongst the people, and you've got a big smile on your face, and you say, praise God.
And they say, why? Because he's heard the voice of my supplication. He actually listens to me. I wrote a letter last week to the prime minister about a particular court case that's going on.
And I got a piece of mail today that said, office of the prime minister. It wasn't from him. It was from one of his cronies that said, we got it, and we're going to make sure whoever needs to see it sees it. Now, for a brief moment, I felt pretty good, right?
I mean, people, by and large, we don't use that process anymore. So we think they don't care. And I pretty much think that. But I still try, by God's grace, to use means.
Anyway, so I get this thing, Office of the Prime Minister. Well, that's pretty nice. How does that pale in significance to the reality that the high king of heaven listens to me any time I speak, any time I come to him, any time I call upon him as father? He's there.
He answers. He hears. I mean, that's what the psalmist is amazed with, 34.6. 34-6, this poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them.
Verse 17, the righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. Again, your righteousness is bound up in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an imputed righteousness by which we call God, Abba, Father, and in which we can pray. We come before the Lord clothed in a righteousness not our own, and he hears us for Jesus' sake.
Psalm 55 verse 17. Psalm 55 verse 17. Verse 16. As for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me.
Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud. And he shall hear my voice. You see, it's an assumption. It's a presupposition.
The child of God knows this. When he goes to the father, he understands that the father hears. It's like when your kids are little. When they come to you and they say, Dad, I need to talk to you.
Do you say, go away, beat it. Maybe you did. Maybe I did. God will never do that to us.
He'll never tell us to beat it. He'll never tell us, I'm busy right now. He'll never tell us, I don't have time for you. He's not this God that's kind of listening over here at China in the midday and over here, you know, at night, He'll be in Chilliwack.
That's not the God of Holy Scripture. He hears His children when they cry out to Him. Look at Psalm 116, verse 1. I wonder if we've ever employed this kind of language.
Psalm 116 verse 1, I love the Lord because... That doesn't seem right. I love the Lord. I'm supposed to.
I love the Lord because He commands me. I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Certainly, He commands me to love Him. He first loved me.
All those things are true. But it's legit to tell the people of God, I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplication. I was facing a difficult situation. And the Lord God came in.
He didn't swoop me out of the difficult situation. I had to go through it. But He was there with me every step of the way. And I love Him for that.
He's heard my voice. He's blessed me. And as a result of that, I love Him. Because He has inclined His ear to me.
Verse 2. Therefore, I will call upon Him as long as I live. He's going to listen. I'm going to pray.
Right? If you ever met somebody, if you're going to listen to me, I'm going to talk. I'm going to just keep talking. You know, sometimes we listen to others, and then it's their turn to listen to us.
And it's like, all right, I got two barrels full. I'm going to let you have it. Just listen. I don't want to hear anything.
Just listen. God listens to us. He listens to the prayers of his people. The Lord Jesus said that when we go into our secret place, the Father who sees in secret will hear us and reward us openly.
He is personal. He is gracious. He hears us.
Our Father Hears and Cares
Fourthly, He cares for us. Now all those other ones indicate this to be sure, but there are specific texts that indicate this. 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. A lot of texts that I think are good for us to be reminded of so that we will be in earnest when it comes to this issue or this matter of prayer first Peter chapter 5 verse 5 likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders yes all of you be submissive to one another and excuse me be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time casting all your care upon him for he cares for you Now, as you consider the world, I mentioned just a few of the events that are going on that are just, you know, a lot of things. I don't know if you just even look at the news occasionally.
There's a lot of unrest in the world. I think it's typical for a believer to say, wow, I'm sure God's got his hands busy over in these things. He doesn't want to hear from little old me. That's a pagan conception of God.
That's a Roman Catholic conception of God, not all Roman Catholics. But that's the mindset I think I imbibed or I learned. He was the cosmic operator that he could only do so much. So he appoints some mediators, not the mediator, his son, the Lord Christ, through whom we come.
But he appoints Mary and he appoints others to kind of help in this work of mediation and prayer and petition. The scripture tells us we are to cast all our care upon him. for he cares for you." And of course, that comes from the Psalms as well. God cares. That's a reason to pray.
Notice, when we just take those two words, our Father, I don't think it's a stretch to see these concepts contained in those two particular words. Roll these things around in your head. Consider these things in your heart. First, understand who God is, and then go to pray.
I think this is helpful. Now, this doesn't mean that if you're about to go off a cliff, you stop and ponder Westminster Shorter Catechism No. 4, get yourself in the frame, and then pray. No, you pray. But on a regular basis, we need to remind ourselves of these basic truths concerning who God is.
You see, this is the essence of Christianity, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. You know, we're told today that Christianity is about going out and doing good things for others, and I certainly agree we ought to do good things for others. But when Christ defines eternal life there in the high priestly prayer, its essence is that they may know God, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. It is good for us to rehearse theology proper and use this as a means to go to him in prayer.
So he's personal, he's gracious, he hears, he cares.
Our Father Loves His Children
And fifthly, our father loves us. Doesn't the very language of father bespeak this? Now there are fathers out there that unfortunately do not love their children. a horrible, you know, blight on this creation. But for the most part, even nature, even animal kingdom, the fathers typically love their offspring.
And when Jesus tells us to bid God our Father, or call upon Him as our Father, this bespeaks of His loving character. 1 John 4.8, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Isn't that beautiful? You've probably heard us talking about impassibility and immutability, and sometimes people get scared. And they think, well, that just means God is some big motionless rock.
No, God can't change. God doesn't change. And God doesn't suffer because God is always all that He is. And He's love.
Our confession says He's most loving. He can't grow in His love for us He doesn't get more loving toward us tomorrow. When we call upon him today, we get all of the love of God that is at his disposal poured out upon his elect. This is something we need to appreciate.
And we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. 1 John 4, 16. Thomas Watson says, God loves his children with such a love as he loves Christ. It is the same love for the unchangeableness of it.
God will not more cease to love his adopted sons than he will to love his natural son. It's a great implication. We have been adopted as sons of God Most High. What Watson says, and I think the New Testament and Old Testament bears forth consistently, is that God doesn't stop.
This idea that somebody can be born again and saved and then lost is of the devil. It is not of Paul. It is not of the apostles. It's not of Moses.
It's certainly not of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because when God sets His love upon a sinner, when He brings that sinner into saving union with Christ, that sinner is loved forever. There's no end.
Prayer Is Directed to God Alone
And then sixth link. What Jesus is teaching here, as well, underscores the exclusivity in terms of prayer. Our Father alone. We're not to pray to saints.
We're not to pray to Mary. We're not to pray to ourselves. We're not to pray to our religious leaders. We are to pray to the Father, to God alone.
Some say, can you pray to Jesus? Can you pray to the Spirit? Yes, they are, in essence, God most high. But I think our confession captures the biblical teaching with reference to prayer.
It says, but that prayer may be accepted. It is to be made in the name of the Son by the help of the Spirit according to his will. So the idea is, and I think we see this in several places in the New Testament, we come to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Now, that doesn't mean we can't ever say, Jesus, save me, or Jesus, help me.
I'm not suggesting that we can't do that. I'm not suggesting that we can't say, Holy Spirit, come upon us and revive your people. I'm not saying that's necessarily wrong. But what I'm saying is that when we look at the scripture, we go to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.
And I think that this helps us in another element of theology proper as well. It continually reminds us, it continually sets before us the triunity of God. You see, our God is one who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we come to the Father through the Son, by the Spirit, we are self-consciously being Trinitarian.
I think that Pastor Cam does this. I seek to do this as well in praying and sometimes in preaching to remind us that we're Trinitarians. A Jew or a Muslim, certainly not a Muslim, but a monotheist shouldn't be able to come into our church and be happy. A monotheist, which we are, there is a difference, however, between the monotheism of Christianity and the monotheism of Judaism and Islam.
They're not Trinitarian. We are Trinitarian. And so this means, pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, gives conscious attention to each of the three persons of the Trinity. Because what happens sometimes?
We can be functional modalists. That means that God was the Father, He became the Son, and now He's the Spirit. We can be functionally wrong in our Trinitarianism if we are not reminded of our Trinitarianism. The two errors that people slip into with reference to the Trinity is that modalism, or it's a monad, that God the Father is supreme, and that Jesus and the Spirit are somehow lesser, somehow junior gods, or some other such nonsense.
But the Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches us there is one God. There is but one God. But this one God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
So Father, Son, Spirit in our prayer is a good thing. We give due appreciation for each of the persons of the Godhead. and the one true and living God. I hope that's not confusing, I hope that's helpful. So again, Spirit, please come, bless this prayer meeting, is legit.
Jesus, save this person, that's legit. But in terms of our regular, ongoing praying, going to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, is a very helpful means by which we give due honor to each of the persons in their distinctness. So we have our Father.
In Heaven: The Power of God
But then notice the second part of the preface, in heaven. He is our Father in heaven. And I think this underscores his power. So our Father presence, in heaven, power.
Where is our God? He is in heaven. He is in a position of absolute authority. He has the ability to hear us.
He has the ability to come to our rescue. I was thinking about this recently, and again, we're going to hear about this in the weeks to come in terms of impassibility and immutability. Impassibility is just another word, just like immutability. It means God doesn't change.
Impassibility specifically means God does not suffer. And that's good. That is excellent. When you're going through the valley of the shadow of death, you want God with you, not as a co-sufferer, but as a sustainer and as a rock.
You don't want God to cry with you, you want God to bring you through it. You want God, in His omnipotence, to be there to sustain you in the midst of all trial and all suffering and all difficulty. And again, I believe Pastor Cam will bring these things out. We won't get too involved in all of it, but enough to let you see, or hopefully all of us will see, how glorious this truth is, that our God is immutable.
He doesn't change. He is impassable. He doesn't suffer. Of course, the God-man suffered, but as man, Christ, Jesus, not in the essence of deity.
Anyways, don't wanna steal Pastor Cam's thunder there. But with reference to his power, or this little phrase in heaven, it suggests three things, at least.
God's Transcendence
First, his transcendence. Now, using a few words today, but hopefully you're trying to define them. Transcendence means that God is removed from us. God's not shocking and jiving with us.
I mean, God is omnipresent. God is with his people, always, to be sure. But the beauty of God is that he is in the heavens and that he does whatever he pleases. And it's glorious that he occupies this position of transcendent authority so that he can come to the aid of his people in their distress and in their trials.
The apostle brings this out in Acts chapter 17. with reference to the transcendent-ness, the other-ness of God. You remember there is a distinction between the creature, us, and the creator, God. And that's what this whole idea of transcendence highlights and that this phrase in heaven underscores in Acts 17 verses 24 to 25. verse 23 in the middle, therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you God who made the world and everything in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything since he gives to all life, breath and all things. You see he's removed from us There's a real practical implication here as well.
When we come to our father and we consider the fact that he is in heaven, hopefully this understanding will affect us in the proper way. Let me just try and explain. We are not coming to the next door neighbor and asking to borrow a cup of sugar. We are not coming to an equal and suggesting that he just do us a solid.
We are coming into the presence of the High King of Heaven and that ought to frame our hearts in a position or in a posture of reverence. It ought to promote in us fear, not a fear like, I've got to hide from God because He's going to get me. When I mention fear, I mean reverence, reverential awe, considering who God is and how we ought to act in His presence, the fact that He is transcendent. When you drop down in this particular section, what is the apostle condemning here?
He's condemning idolatry. He's in the city of Athens. His spirit is provoked within him as he looks at the city given over to idols. As he highlights the transcendent character of God, as he highlights the fact that God is the creator, God is the governor, God is the Lord of all, notice his therefore in verse 29.
Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. What's Paul's point? Having a proper understanding of who God is should shatter this vain attempt to make idols and fashion our God into something like that. You see, theology proper is very practical for the Apostle Paul here at Mars Hill.
He uses this as a way to attack the idolatry that is going on in this particular city. He says in verse 30, truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. What's he saying? Yes, repent. of the lustful look that you took of the young woman earlier today.
It's not about idolatry primarily. He's in a city given over to idols. They've got an altar constructed to the unknown God. What's Paul saying?
Based on the reality of who this real, true, and living God is, you need to repent and forsake these idols and cast yourself upon the mercy of this one who transcends the creation who is over it, who has made it, who sustains it, who governs it, and who by Jesus Christ has redeemed his elect. So you see, understanding who God is also helps promote the proper disposition in prayer. You see, we need that. We come to our closet, we cry out to God, we confess our sins, we agonize, all that stuff, but we never forget who he is relative to us, or who he is distinct from us.
He is our Father in heaven.
God's Sovereignty
That little phrase in heaven also underscores his sovereignty. He's transcendent. That means he's removed from creation, but he is sovereign. The scripture says that not only is our God in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases.
You know a good passage to read before you go to pray sometime? I don't want to make rules here tonight. I'm not into that. Now, tomorrow night, when you go to pray, make sure you read this.
I'm not going to do that. But you know, it's not a bad idea to rehearse some of these passages afresh before we pray. Imagine if you have some particularly difficult situation in your life. You have a scenario that's causing you a bit of grief, maybe frustration, just whatever the issue may be.
Imagine reading Nebuchadnezzar's statement at the end of Daniel 4. You say, well, how could that ever help me pray? How could it not help you pray? Verse 34, and at the end of the time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned to me.
And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, no one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? Hopefully that'll put a little spring in your prayer step the next time you consider a difficult situation and whether or not our God has the power, the sovereignty, and the ability to come to our aid and to our rescue.
You see, just a few moments reflection upon these four words can fill out or can illustrate for us some sound theology proper for us to consider before we take these petitions to him. And if you consider these things, our Father in heaven, the rest of it all seems to fall into place. Because he is our Father in heaven, we ought to pray that his name be hallowed. I mean, if He is that glorious and that majestic and that wonderful, it's a no-brainer that we pray His name is hallowed.
If He is who the Bible says He is, we ought to pray that His kingdom would come. If He is what the Bible says He is, we ought to pray that He would indeed cause His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. If our father in heaven is what the Bible says he is, then I can come to him with my petition for daily bread. And if he's my father, I can certainly ask for forgiveness, because I'm an evil man.
But when my son or my daughter says, could you please forgive me, I forgive them. Certainly, he being a holy, gracious, merciful God that was pleased to set forth his own son as a propitiation through his blood so that he might receive me unto himself. Certainly, when I ask for forgiveness, he's going to forgive me. and then with reference to protection. Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.
This God that Nebuchadnezzar confesses in Daniel chapter 4 certainly has the power, the ability, the omnipotence to hedge me in and to keep me from the attacks of the evil one. You see, this prayer is so tightly knit together, it's so well woven together that you can't have a part of it without all of it. And you desperately want all of it because it's all so wondrous as our God has given it to us.
Prayer Must Be Intelligent
So the importance of the address, we've seen the elements of the address, the importance of the address. Prayer is to be intelligent. Prayer is to be intelligent. Our confession again says, prayer is to be with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance.
Now whether we always think through all those things. Did I have enough love? Did I have enough humility? You get what they're saying.
Prayer is to be intelligent. You see, pagans and heathens stop thinking when they address their gods. They typically worship their gods from the waist down, not from the neck up. They don't use their minds.
You see, Christianity is about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I think the confession is spot on here. Prayer is to be with understanding. Who is God?
Who am I under God? And what are the legitimate expressions or the legitimate petitions that I can bring to him? And this Lord's Prayer fills that in for us. The practice of Christian prayer is not emptying one's mind and approaching the idol in a spirit of ecstasy and carnality, but understanding who God is and approaching him accordingly.
You see, this is important because today, whether it's the charismatic movement or the Pentecostal movement, sometimes effective prayer or effective worship is gauged in the amount of activity that the people are going through. In other words, if they're jumping up and down or they're clapping their hands or they're raising their hands, that's true worship. Where the scripture says, you with the mind engage with the God of heaven and earth, see him as our father in heaven, and present your petitions unto him. with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance. As well, prayer presupposes knowledge.
Our Father in Heaven. You need to know our Father in Heaven before you go to pray. Obviously, you need to be born again. You need to be converted.
The Lord Jesus must save you from your sins. As Paul says, Galatians 4, we need to receive the spirit of adoption so that we can address the Father as Father. We must know Him. Again, I think these next four weeks in our study in the Confession, you know, it's not just to inform our minds concerning theology proper, as important as that is, and I give that a, you know, a great big hurrah, but to promote worship and prayer.
You see, it's the people who know their God that worship Him accordingly. You don't know God, you don't worship Him accordingly. Your two-year-old says, I love you, Daddy, and that's great, and we appreciate that. But when he's 22, he has a much more informed manner about which or about why he loves you.
I love you because you've been there for me, dad. I love you because you bailed me out of these circumstances. There's an understanding, there's an information that produces the proper response. And when you know who God is, the proper response ought to be earnest, fervent prayer and faithful worship.
Application: Using the Model Prayer
Well, those are just some thoughts on the preface, just a couple of concluding thoughts. The use of the model, note the use of the plural hour. Again, this is something that we could pray together in our prayer meetings, our Father in Heaven. We could just take each of these petitions and we could pray these right back to God and apply them very specifically to our situation.
You know, I hope that brethren pray before a Sunday service, God, we pray that your name will be hallowed when we meet. I mean, it ought not to be the case that our first petition is, Lord, when I come to the house of God, help me to hang out with my friends. That's not wicked. It's not wrong.
But God, may your name be hallowed, may your name be praised, may your name be honored. Why are we here? We're not elks, we're not moose, we're not lions. We're here because we're Christians, blood-bought by the Savior himself to worship God.
So our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, is very appropriate to pray for the church. Frantz says, it is the prayer of a community rather than an individual act of devotion. even though its pattern would also appropriately guide the secret prayers in the storeroom. Certainly would, but again, he's giving it corporately, our father. It's all plural pronouns that is used throughout this particular prayer.
The comprehensive nature of the Lord's Prayer, the preface, and the six petitions provide in a simple and brief compass a very comprehensive manner in which to pray to God. Have you ever wondered, or have you met people, I don't know what to pray about. I don't know what to pray about. Well, there you go, right there.
Pray for God's name, God's kingdom, God's will, your provision, your forgiveness, your protection. That'll keep you busy. There's enough there. You say, I don't pray very long.
Pray the Lord's Prayer. Again, not just recite it, but think about it. Think about people that you know and love that perhaps are far from the Lord, somebody that's unsaved. God, please take hold of their lives and teach them the fear of the Lord.
Teach them that you are the Father, that you are in heaven. Cause them to hallow your name. May your kingdom come, God, and may it be so by the adding of this sinner to your kingdom. May your will be done in his life.
I'm tired of this son or daughter or friend or wife or father who's continually rebelling against the Lord. God, put it in them to fear your name and to do what you call them to do. I think of all the petitions that we pray in terms of people that are physically hurting. What is that?
Give us this day our daily bread. It's not just a piece of hot bread. It's all temporal things. It's medical health.
It's physical health. It's spiritual stamina. It's all things necessary to keep us alive and stabilized on this earth. So in a sense, we are utilizing this particular model.
We ought to pray for forgiveness. Do you ever go a day without sin? No. So you should never go a day without asking God, please forgive me.
Again, it's not as if he cuts us off, but that 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's the fatherly smile that we're seeking in that fresh forgiveness. Help us to forgive others. It's not always easy, is it, to forgive other people.
Remember that instance, it's specifically in Luke's Gospel. I think it's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where Jesus teaches them to forgive seven times. Seventy. Remember?
Peter, Lord, if my brother sins against me, should I forgive him seven times? I've got to think, Peter thought he was being very benevolent. That was good, right? I mean, it's hard to forgive someone seven times.
You hit my thumb with a hammer seven times in a day, Jonathan. By the eighth time, maybe not. I may just say, forget it. Give me the hammer.
I'm going to hit your thumb now. And then we'll call it even. But seven times seems, you know, the number of perfection. Peter's probably thinking in terms of Bible numbers and symbolism, it isn't this great.
What does Jesus say? 7 times 70. You haven't even begun to scratch the surface. You know what it says in Luke's gospel after Jesus says that? They say, Lord, increase our faith.
Why? Because it doesn't come naturally to us to forgive somebody 7 times 70. Increase our faith. And then, of course, protection.
We need protection from the devil, from the evil one, from the evil of our own hearts. God, protect us, watch over us, and lead us not into temptation. So that's the preface. God willing, in the next few weeks, we'll take up the petitions in particular.
So why don't we close now in a word of prayer?
Closing Prayer
Our Father in heaven, we do give you thanks for your glory and for your majesty. We thank you that you are one God and three glorious persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. We pray that you would teach us to pray through this great prayer recorded in Matthew's Gospel. We thank you, Father, that you inform us, that you instruct us, that you educate, and that you teach us who you are so that we don't come like the pagan to his dumb idol. that we come as ones informed by the grace of God, taught the fear of God, and able to come to the God of heaven and earth and to present our petitions to you.
Again, we just pray tonight for the Slootweg family. We just commit them to you. We pray that they would know your nearness and your kindness and your goodness in the midst of this tragedy. We pray that your grace would see them through.
We pray that you would increase their faith as a result of this, and that God, they would just be worshipers of you, the true and living God. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.