How Kingdom Citizens Pray: Our Father

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

We come hear preoccupied with massive things. Supreme Court hearings and fighting overseas and inflation.

Not to mention all the massive things that loom large in our own lives. Troubles at work, troubles with family, troubles with health, and more.

One effect of these gatherings is that God calms and quiets our souls. He reminds us that He’s in control, that He’s good, and that He loves us.

If you don’t know His love our prayer is that you will before you leave here this morning.

In just a moment we’ll hear a reading from the text for today’s sermon in Matthew 6:9-13. (Page 964 in black Bibles underneath the chairs)

While you’re turning, 4 quick announcements:

1) A word about PBC. We are Servants.

Member—serve in area of gifting, area of need

Constant area of need, children’s ministry

Sometimes that just means being a backup, or an extra adult in the room.

2) NextGen Training, tonight at 4:30

3) TableTalk at 5:30, “Be Kind to One Another” (Josh Winchell)

4) Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands class, April 10 at 9:15

Now look in your Bibles at Matthew 6:9 as Josh Laborte comes to read for us.

Scripture Reading (Matthew 6:9-13)

Prayer of Praise (God is imminent), Josh Laborte

I Stand In Awe

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

Prayer of Confession (bitterness), Stephen Keatts

Jesus Paid It All

PBC Catechism #13

Pastoral Prayer, Mike Lindell

SERMON

Long ago, in a small town in northeastern Germany lived a beloved barber. He was such a good barber that the entire town knew him simply as “Master Peter.”

One day as Peter was going about his usual business giving shaves and haircuts, a man entered the shop that Peter recognized.

Peter recognized the man as Germany’s most wanted outlaw. In fact, the government had promised a handsome reward for anyone who captured the outlaw or put him to death.

When his turn came, the outlaw sat down in front of Peter and asked for a haircut and a shave.

Perhaps someone other than Peter may have been tempted to capture or kill the outlaw right then and there and cash in on the reward.

But Peter wouldn’t dream of harming this man because he was Peter’s hero.

The outlaw was the great preacher and Reformer Martin Luther, who had stood faithfully on the truth of God’s Word against the errors of the pope and the Roman Catholic church.

Now if you had a celebrity like that, one of your heroes, sitting in front of you for twenty minutes or so and you could ask them anything, what would you talk to them about? If you could ask them anything, what would you ask?

Master Peter asked the great Martin Luther how to pray. [1]

Luther listened to his barber’s question. He thought about it carefully. And then, despite being a husband, a father, a pastor, a professor, a Bible translator, and a prolific author, Martin Luther took time to write a small book dedicated to Peter the barber called A Simple Way to Pray.

In that book, it’s no surprise that one of the first pieces of advice Luther gives on prayer is to learn the Lord’s Prayer and learn to pray through it. Not repeating the words verbatim, but taking each of the parts of the prayer as themes to guide you in your prayer life.

But the real hero for me in that story isn’t Martin Luther. It’s a simple barber named Peter who could’ve asked the great Martin Luther anything he wanted, but chose to ask about prayer. Because he wanted to grow in his prayer life.

That’s what I want for me, and that’s what I want for each of you here this morning. I want us to want to pray.

Turn to Matthew 6:9

Jesus is teaching His disciples about how to live faithfully as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, and He’s reached a section where He too is teaching His disciples how to pray

Four Simple Truths from Jesus’ teaching that should strengthen our desire to pray.

But first, let’s get a quick overview of our passage...

Often called “the Lord’s Prayer”

A better name for it might be “the model prayer” or “the Christian’s prayer” because there is a sense in which this prayer isn’t something that Jesus would’ve prayed

Matthew 6:12—“forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

It’s right and good for you and I to ask the Father to forgive us when we sin, but we know from Scripture that Jesus never sinned, so He wouldn’t have needed to ask for forgiveness

More important than what we call this prayer is what the prayer actually teaches us

Notice the prayer’s structure...

Introduction—“Our Father in heaven”

Six Petitions (requests)

1) Hallowed be your name

2) Your kingdom come

3) Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

4) Give us this day our daily bread,

5) Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

After the prayer in verses 14-15 Jesus teaches us a bit more about the importance of forgiveness

6) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

In some older translations like the KJV there’s a Conclusion

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.

Your Bible may reference this in a footnote

Notice also there’s a pattern to these six petitions...

The first three are about God—His name, His kingdom and His will

The second three are about us—our needs, our forgiveness, our holiness

We’re going to take several weeks to slow down and study this prayer.

I want to grow in my prayer life!

I want you to grow in your prayer life!

And there’s no better way to grow than sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to what He has to say about prayer

Four Simple Truths from the first lines of this prayer that should strengthen our desire to pray...

1) God is FATHER.

Matthew 6:9—“Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven...”

We’re so numb to this that it doesn’t stun us the way I think it should.

Think of all the different ways we could rightly address God...

Yahweh, Lord, God, Almighty, Most High, King of the Universe, Master, Creator, Ruler, etc.

Jesus invites us to call this God Father

The significance wouldn’t have been lost on Jesus’ disciples...

Yes, God was sometimes called “Father” in the Old Testament, but it wasn’t a major theme

15 times the OT uses the word “Father” to refer to God, but the NT uses this word 245 times [2]

We know, of course, that God doesn’t change. He doesn’t all of a sudden become Father in the NT. In the OT, the Fatherhood of God was visible in seed form, but in the NT it’s here in full bloom. Why?

John 1:11-13—“[Jesus] came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Calling God your Father is a right that nobody is born with

Ephesians 2:3 says by nature we’re children of wrath

John 8:44 says by nature we’re children of the devil

You were not born a Christian. You have not always been a Christian. You were born in sin, an enemy of God.

If you’re not a Christian, God is not your Father. He’s your enemy. But He wants to be your Father.

How? “Receive Jesus, believe in His name”

Galatians 4:4-5—“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Explain the Gospel—Jesus perfectly obeyed the law and died as a lawbreaker so that whoever trusts in Him can be adopted into the family of God

Until you genuinely trust Jesus, this prayer is never for you no matter how you live or what you do.

D.A. Carson reports that the early church forbid non-Christians from reciting this prayer as vigorously as they forbade them from joining with believer’s in communion [3]

Pray instead, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner”

[WHITE FLAG]

If you have genuinely trusted Jesus, this prayer is always for you no matter how you live or what you do.

A good dad is sometimes disappointed in his children. He’s sometimes grieved by their sin and rebellion. But a good dad will never say to even a wayward child, “don’t call me dad anymore.”

Maybe for you this is really hard because you didn’t have a good dad:

My dad’s dad—no hugs, never said “I love you,” didn’t want to be called “daddy”, ususally drunk

If you’ve experienced that or worse, I’m sorry.

Judge your feelings and your experience by the Bible, not the other way around

If you are in Christ, God the Father will no sooner reject you as His child than He would reject the sacrifice of His Son in your place. He is and forever will be your Father.

But He’s not merely our Father...

Matthew 6:9—“Our Father in heaven...”

Literally, “in the heavens”

The idea here is not so much the place where God lives, but the power that He has

In what is arguably the greatest Batman film of all time, The Lego Batman Movie, young Dick Grayson is adopted by Bruce Wayne. One day Dick is exploring Wayne Manor and he discovers Bruce Wayne’s alter ego, the Batman. Naturally he’s shocked and overjoyed, and then he says, “Wait, does Batman live in Bruce Wayne’s basement?!?” Batman replies, “No, Bruce Wayne lives in Batman’s attic!”

We can understand the sentiment, can’t we? To be adopted into a family is one thing but to be adopted by a dad who lives there?!? That’s incredible!

That’s how we should feel when we think about the God we’re addressing when we pray...

Our Father… is in heaven!!!

Before we move on, I want to address just briefly the push from progressive theologians that we update this language and begin referring to God as “mother”

The Bible does sometimes describe God with motherly characteristics

Like a nursing mother won’t forget her baby, God won’t forget His people (Isaiah 49:15)

Like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wing, God longed to gather His people (Matthew 23:37)

But the Bible never refers to God as mother, and neither should we

God tells us who He is and we submit to His revelation. It is the height of arrogance to tell God that we get to name Him!

We’ll grow in our desire to pray as we grow in our faith that God really is our Father.

2) We Are CHILDREN.

Although this isn’t explicitly mentioned in the text, it’s a clear implication of Jesus’ words. If God is our Father, then we are His children.

This might seem basic and obvious, and not worth mentioning, but I’m convinced this is incredibly important.

Kids pray for whatever comes to their minds, they bring their whole souls to God...

Ella praying that a mom we know [none of you!] would discipline her kids

Zoe praying years ago that we would find specific colors of eggs at an Easter Egg Hunt

Zeke praying for Jason’s house

Jesus regularly taught that we should approach God like children...

Matthew 18:1-4 —At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus is not saying that kids are naturally humble. They are corrupted by pride just like everybody else.

We still have a video of Jonah at around age 2 saying over and over again, “I’m the best, I’m the best!”

But there’s a type of humility that is more natural for children than adults...

Children are typically okay being dependent on their parents

Children don’t typically try to clean themselves up before they come to their parents with a request

One pastor said it this way, kids "bring nothing but empty hands, and only empty hands get filled.”[4]

I’m convinced that the first step to growing in your prayer life is not discipline but dependence

This is why we pray much more fervently when we’re suffering, because we feel like there’s nothing else we can do!

I don’t know that I’ve ever prayed more fervently than the night 20 years ago when my baby brother was dying in a hospital room in Atlanta, Georgia

We’ll grow in our desire to pray as we grow in our recognition that we are mere children.

3) We Are FAMILY.

Matthew 6:9—“… Our Father in heaven...”

When Ezekiel was adopted into the Boutot family, he didn’t just get a dad and a mom. He got a brother and three sisters. He became a part of a family.

So too with you, Christian. When you were adopted into the family of God you didn’t just begin a personal relationship with Jesus, you became a part of an extended family with countless brothers and sisters all over time, space, and history who have trusted in Jesus

It’s not enough to admit or believe this is true. Jesus wants this truth to shape the way we pray

Over the past few weeks, we’ve examined Jesus’ teaching on topics like murder, lust, divorce, oaths, loving our enemies, and more. In each of those sections Jesus is addressing the individual Christian.

You fight the temptation to lust

You be faithful to your wife

You tell the truth

You love your enemies

But here Jesus noticeable shifts to the plural and begins talking not to the individual Christian but to the group.

Our Father

Give us this day our daily bread,

Forgive us our debts

lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

There is not a single singular pronoun in this entire prayer. Jesus is teaching us that prayer is meant to have a corporate shape.

We could take this too far and say that private prayer isn’t important or necessary

But I think most of us are in danger of not taking this far enough

Maybe one reason we’re so bad at prayer is we’re trying to do it alone too much!

One of the first pieces of advice Luther gives to Peter the Barber in his little book on prayer is to go to church!

In those days, everyone lived in a small tight-knit community where they actually gathered regularly throughout the week. You may not be able to do that with the whole church, but perhaps you can do that with a smaller group of people.

What would it look like for you to more regularly incorporate other believers in your prayer life?

When showing hospitality; in Fellowship Groups; before serving together; before a worship service; in family worship

Prayer meetings

Even when we pray for or by ourselves, we should pray with an eye towards Jesus’ people

Jesus doesn’t tell me to pray for my daily bread but for ours

We’ll grow in our desire to pray as we grow in our awareness of the family we have received in the church.

4) God is HOLY.

Matthew 6:9—“...hallowed be your name.”

Not hollow, which is to remove the inside of something, like hollowing out a jack-o-lantern

To hallow something is to honor it as holy

By holy, don’t think only of perfection and moral righteousness. Think of God’s separateness, His otherness, His uniqueness.

And what are we praying to be honored as holy? God’s name.

God’s name stands for who He is

Psalm 20:7—“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

The Psalmist isn’t trusting in the combination of letters that make God’s title. He’s trusting in God’s person.

Herman Bavinck—“There is an intimate link between God and his name. According to Scripture, this link is not accidental or arbitrary but forged by God himself. We do not name God; he names himself. . . . Summed up in his name, therefore, is his honor, his fame, his excellencies, his entire revelation, his very being.” [5]

Not asking for God’s name to become holy, but for it to be recognized as holy

This is not just one prayer request among six. This prayer request is the foundation to everything that follows...

Why do we want God’s kingdom to come? So that His name will be honored. So that people will see and savor His greatness!

Why do we want His will to be done? Because when His will is done in the lives of His people, it honors His name!

Why do we want our needs to be met? So we can honor His name! And if God will get more honor out of me not getting the thing I ask for, then Lord don’t give me what I want. Give me what I need to honor your name!!!

Why do want our sins to be forgiven? Because God’s name is glorified when sinners are forgiven!

Why do we want to be delivered from evil? Because God when we live holy lives we shine a spotlight on our heavenly Father.

When we understand this petition, it will affect what we ask for

This is a request that the church be healthy and holy.

This is a request that the lost be saved

When we understand this petition, it will affect how we approach God

On the one hand, we’ll approach Him with reverence because He is holy

On the other hand, we’ll approach Him with boldness and openness because we’ll recognize the folly of trying to clean ourselves up on our own

When we understand this petition, it will affect how we respond to the way God chooses to answer our prayers

We won’t complain if He says no to a request because we truly want His name to be glorified even more than we want our own desires to be met

We’ll grow in our desire to pray as we grow in our belief that God is holy.

Nearly every major Christian denomination since the Reformation has incorporated the Lord’s Prayer into their catechisms. But none capture the simplicity and tenderness of this first line from the Lord’s Prayer better than Martin Luther in 1529...

Luther’s Small Catechism—“With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”

That’s my prayer for you, Christian. That you would believe that God is your dear Father who loves you, and that you would want to talk to Him.

My prayer for you, unbeliever, is that you would cry out to the God who invites you to call Him Father, but only if you’ll first confess your sin and your trust in the death of His Son in your place.

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

BENEDICTION (Ephesians 6:23-24)

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