Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer – ; ()

In the life of Jesus prayer was the work, and ministry was the prize.

Jesus sweat great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane where He “offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death” () Why could He not approach this ordeal like His three sleeping friends?

Was the prayer the big deal or the aftermath?

Yet when it came to the events to follow it was not He who fell apart but His three sleeping friends who fell away.

Luke particularly is interested in Jesus’ prayer life, clearly intimating in 22:39 that prayer was one of Jesus’ customs, along with Sabbath day worship ().

In we find the disciples asking Jesus to “teach us to pray as John (the Baptist) had also taught his disciples”.

They did not ask for Him to teach them how to preach, or minister, or lead singing, or even how to evangelize, nor any other elements; just “teach us to pray”.

We have heard many times the title “The Lords Prayer” is a miss name, we instead point to the long prayer found in the Gethsemane account.

But do we realize the primary reason?

The Lord Himself would not pray this prayer because He could not have joined the petition to “Forgive us our” sins or debts or transgressions as He had none.

He could not pray lead us not to temptation, as He was specifically tempted to show us victory over temptation is a possibility.

He could not pray deliver us from evil, as that is exactly the ministry configuration of His mission.

In Luke, Jesus introduces the prayer by saying, “When you pray, say … ” (v.

2).

In Matthew, He introduces it by saying, “In this manner … pray … ” (v.

9).

This implies that Jesus intended it to be prayed both literally (Luke) and in principle (Matthew).

We will be focusing on the principles.

The model prayer is an outline of prayer content for the believer, but it is a specific prayer.

It has specific topics and an order built within its outline.

The first three topics are about God: His Personhood, His Program, and His Purpose.

The next three topics are about us: our Dependence -- His Provision, our Depravity – His Pardon, our Deviance – His Protection.

1. PERSON OF GOD –

“Our Father who art in heaven…”

New Testament prayer is based on understanding the nature of the Father and our relationship to Him.

Jesus begins our prayer not just with a greeting of familiarity, Our Father, but a conversation about who God is.

His name, which is His character (pregnant within our experiential formation), is addressed but then His character is exalted.

The focus of the address is not to whom, but rather to what as a whom.

He is The Sovereign Creator Sustainer God of the universe that we have in our relationship through Christ as a Father.

Not everyone can call God Father.

Only those who have come to grace in Christ can say with correctness “Father”.

(NAS But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,)

God does not exist some austere place off yonder.

He is a participant in all elemental aspects of existence.

John, first chapter, as well as other multitudes of scriptures makes completely clear His direct participation in the sustenance of the world.

His hand is clearly on every pulse of every heart in existence.

He is not aloof or removed; heaven may be His address, but His abode is in us. .

“In heaven” emphasizes His transcendence.

NAS By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

“Hallowed be Thy Name”…

We sometimes fail to acknowledge the hallowedness of God’s name as we call Him Father.

Holiness is a fleeting concept in the world and culture of our society.

Sanctification or holiness is too frequently glibly cast aside, and our prayer address “Father” sometimes misses the mark in realizing the magnitude of the expanse between our existence as sinful people and the exalted perfect Holiness of God, and just as significantly His wants and expectations for our holiness.

(; ) Inherent in the petition is an expression of committed worship, the petitioner making himself available to the Father through righteous living and availability to His service.

We must determine to let God be God of our whole life – all aspects – everything.

Because ours is an age of religious pluralism and syncretism (that is, a diluting of truth for the sake of unity), Christ’s lordship is deemed irrelevant by many religious groups that believe one religion is as good as the other.

His preeminence is denied by others that place the Christian stamp upon a fusion of beliefs from several religions; More recently dilute the Word of God in an effort to tickle the ears by errant doctrine.

() Usually hailed as an advance beyond apostolic Christianity, this blend promises self-fulfillment and freedom without surrender to Christ.

Paul’s use of the word “Lord” nine times in indicates that Christ’s supremacy impinges upon every aspect of their/our relationships and activities.

“Jesus is Lord” is the church’s earliest confession.

It remains the abiding test of authentic Christianity.

Neither the church nor the individual believer can afford to compromise Christ’s deity.

In His sovereignty lies His sufficiency.

He will be Lord of everything or not Lord at all.

(Adapted from: HAYFORD’S BIBLE HANDBOOK)

NAS And those who know Thy name will put their trust in Thee; For Thou, O LORD, hast not forsaken those who seek Thee.

The “awe” of God is diminished, even lost on many.

The Old Testament prophets and people of God did not dare considered Father an option.

The awe of God overshadowed any conception of the intimacy found in the Fatherhood of God.

Yet, the New Testament uses the title hundreds of times.

The intimacy of calling God our Father is only afforded to us by His gift of His grace and mercy and the faith He gives us.

NAS Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.

When we get the correct perspective in our relationship with our created-existence to the Creator God and Father by grace and mercy, it leads us to be able to participate in the next phase in the prayer outline.

2. PROGRAM OF GOD –

“Thy Kingdom come”

We note that the next focus of the model prayer is an element not devoted, to the persons of prayer but rather the focus is on the program of God – “Thy Kingdom come”.

It is founded in the hope in, and expectation of, the return of Christ to reign on earth, and the full manifestation of His rule.

History past, present, and future is not just a set of cogs moving endlessly in rhythm with no beginning and no direction or end.

Ralph Waldo Emerson dismissed history as “the biographies of a few great men”.

The Bible however is the story of God, and Jesus the Christ and his intervention in the workings of Holy Spirit.

Your Kingdom come is the expression of hope and anticipation for the day when the groanings of the earth will cease, when sin is removed, and God’s perfection will reign, and Christ eternal kingdom will be established.

The phrase however implores that our will shall be submissive to and subject to His will, and all our little kingdoms which matter so much to us shall be brought down.

Too frequently, we express desire for His return, but with the caveat not immediately.

The consummation of His Kingdom is a foregone conclusion – He is GOD, but our acceptance and indeed our anticipation of that completion is a life changing evolution.

In this is an implied request of the petitioner to live the kingdom ethics necessary to advance kingdom purposes.

If we are too attached to this world to anticipate, almost anxiously, the consummation of His perfect earthly reign, we have a grievous gap in our spiritual understanding of the disparity of our sin filled world and the richness of God’s love and desire for our life.

“Unless I am sufficiently concerned about God’s sovereignty to make my life His throne, and make it my daily purpose to bring every individual whose life I touch into willing and glad submission to Him, I cannot pray these words with integrity.

We dare not pray for His rule over others unless we honestly desire his rule over us.”

(Haddon Robinson)

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

(; )

3. PURPOSE OF GOD –

“Thy will be done”…

Unlike many of our praying habits, next in the prayer’s outline is not a list of requested concessions or even confessions, but rather a contemplation of His agenda and parlance of what He is about.

There is an acknowledgement of His supremacy and our submission to, and service to His will.

There is an overt recognition that there is a difference between our agenda, motivations and directions and His purposes, but yet we profess to desire His purposes in preference to our own.

Our subordination (not just our submission) changes our parlance in our prayer thinking and directs the orientation of our focus in prayer and life.

The “essence of evangelism is that people everywhere will hallow God’s name by allowing God to be God in their lives”.

(Haddon Robinson) This essence is the beginning of the principle of this element of the prayer outline: His will being done is the precept of all believers’ lives.

We frequently get our prayers topsy-turvy in so much as we have a list of requests we want God to do.

The real focus of a mature prayer is the seeking and pursuing of God’s purpose and will in our life and in the world.

Prayer is not asking God to fulfill my will; it is asking that God’s will be done in my life, and in my associates’ lives.

It is possible to pray for God’s will while resenting that God is God.

Many people despise God because He has not made them master of their fate, captain of their soul, and rulers of their own destiny.

But those who know God and have a relationship with Him can understand His love and grace and can take comfort in that all things work for the good.

If we are fulfilling the request thy will be done we can rest by faith assured He will take care of us.

Only when we possess that understanding and own it, i.e. make it our own, can we pray with sincerity thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And so pray that His name will be hallowed, and He will be God to us, and His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven

But in this prayer, we are asking for a line of fire to be directed at us, it is enemy territory in which we are praying.

Success in our own life is only possible through God’s provision.

4. PROVISION OF GOD –

“Give us this day our daily bread”…