The Lord's Prayer: Part One..."Our Father in Heaven..."
by James Lincoln on January 8, 2006
For the next few weeks I want us to take a close look at how Jesus taught His disciples to pray from the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 5 and Lk. 11. I have a couple of reasons: First, I need to do some more work on Romans 9-11 before we return to our lesson in Romans. Second, one of our goals as a fellowship is to be a praying church which only means that we want to be more like Jesus. From time to time I get hungry to expand my own faithfulness in prayer. This is one of those seasons for me and so I want to pitch my sails to this wind for a few weeks and see we can lay hold of the love of God who has already laid hold of us. .
If we are serious about our faith we'll all want to grow in prayer. Jesus said in Luke 18:7-8:
"And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" NIV
Real faith shows up in those who seek Him or in those who cry out to God with a daily diligence even though God's "quick" response may seem slow from our perspective.
To Join Him and Identify with Him
Luke suggests that one reason His disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray was that they saw Him praying (Lk.11:1). They sensed that wisdom, power, courage, beauty, love and compassion was an outcome of His communion with God the Father. His prayers reveal His theology or what He thought and believed about God. They revealed the way in which He understood Himself and His mission. And so they wanted to know God like He did and lay hold of His blessings like He did. So when He teaches them to pray He was inviting them to join Him and share with Him His theology and His mission.
span class="service">How, not What, to Pray For
But notice that Matthew doesn't say that Jesus taught them "what" to pray...instead He taught them "how" to pray or to pray, "...in this way." It's a model or a pattern of praying with the emphasis on the content not the form. It's not a mantra or magic formulae like, Ali Baba's, "Open Sesame". It's theology about how Jesus understood God and His kingdom and how we fit into it. He's far more concerned that the words we pray reflect what we really believe about God and are seeking from Him than that we just repeat a formula. He's not encouraging them to say "a prayer" as if the prayer has intrinsic value. He is encouraging them to pray.
"OUR" Father in Heaven
Now, the very first word surprises us. You would think that nothing would be more private and personal than prayer. And yet Jesus didn't say, "When you pray say, "My" Father in heaven. He said, "Our" Father in heaven. When you were first taught to pray were you taught to say, "Our Father" or were you taught to say something like, "Dear Jesus or Dear heavenly Father or Dear God?" When you pray how do you start off with God? My guess is that many of us miss Jesus' lead here. He teaches His disciples to begin their prayers not as an isolated individual or even a private individual. Rather, He calls His disciples to address God as a member of a community of faith, as a member of a family or even as part of an historic fellowship.
Prayer is never just about me, or my needs, problems, plans and my business. He forces us to consider that fact that we are always part of a family, community and a body.
People have gone before us who have known God as their Father. We have been folded into a long and great heritage of people who have found God to be faithful in prayer. He's the father of Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Job, David, Hannah, Ruth, Rich, Greg, Debby and more. When we pray we should remember how God has dealt with His people and smile at the record His faithfulness. Joshua who prayed said, "Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." 21:4.. Job who prayed said, "Lord gives and the Lord takes away but blessed be the name of the Lord."
Hab. 3:17-19:
though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights."
By His grace we have been adopted into His covenant love like all the others who have believed in Him. We are never alone in our communion with God. He is OUR Father in heaven.
When we begin our prayers with OUR Father it also drives us out of the tendency to make me and my concerns or you and your concerns the center of gravity around which everything in life must orbit. When we ask the Lord to meet our daily needs we're also aware that there are Christians in Sudan asking for the same thing in the presence of horrific persecution. So, it gives us perspective. My needs, my problems, my plans, wishes and my business are at the least to be considered in connection with the needs, problems, aspirations hopes and dreams of others who are in this pilgrimage with me.
When we focus too much on ourselves disconnected from the people of God both past and present we get depressed. Instead our lives are bound up together with the faith, hope and concerns of others. It's what the Apostle's Creed calls the communion of the saints. And we'll never know God's love and will if we seek to know it through some kind of self-centered, desperate pursuit of our own individual business and blessing.
Paul, picks up on this same idea and says that We are the Body of Christ and each one a member of it. And then he writes about how absurd and arrogant it is for one member of the body to act as if he didn't need the other members of the body. Can the eye say to the hand I don't have any need for you? Can the hand say, "Oh, I'll make a cameo appearance ever once in a while but I don't really need you.
The first word of Jesus' prayer is both a goad and a tether. It pushes you out from considering yourself as the center of the universe and ties you or tethers you to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the rest of the redeemed people of the Lord. In this respect it is wisdom. Jesus said, pray in this way, "OUR Father in heaven."
Father
The second thing He says is to address God as our heavenly Father.
There are many ways to address God that would be appropriate. But here, Jesus picks up Israel's fundamental identity and then He applies it to His disciples. The most prized and favored relationship Israel had with God was that Israel was His adopted first-born son. Out of all the nations of the earth God chose Israel to be His firstborn son.
When Paul defines Israel's identity and privileges in Rom. 9:4 he said the first privilege Israel enjoyed was that to her, "belongs the adoption as sons."
Paul was reminding them of that time when God told Moses to tell Pharaoh (Ex. 4:22), "Israel is my son my first born son...so, let my son go that he may serve Me." The Fatherhood of God over Israel meant two things: First it meant that God had unconditional and irrevocable authority over her and Second that God would save her by His power and His tender mercies. That's what Fatherhood meant to Israel. God had chosen her out of all the nations. God had expected unconditional obedience and that He would save her by his awesome power and tender mercies.
The prophets picked up on this unique relationship.
Jer. 31:9: I will make them walk by streams of waters on a straight path in which they shall not stumble for I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is My first born son."...
Jer. 3:4: "Have you not just now called to Me saying, "My Father...but behold you have done evil things and you have had your way."
Deut. 32:6: "...Do you thus repay the Lord O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has bought you. He has made you and established you."...
Mal 1:6: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?"...
Ps 103:13-14: "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust".
By telling His disciples to pray, Our Father in heaven, Jesus is offering them and us that unique privilege and favor that had been given to Israel and now He opens it up to all who will believe in Him. To be God's first born son was Israel's vocation and calling. To, obey Him and to rest in and marvel at His saving grace and tender mercies.
But here's the deal and what everyone knew: Israel failed to live up to covenant obligations as God' son. She broke the covenant big time and forfeited the covenant right to be God's son. Mal 1:6, "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?"...
So, Israel went into exile and came back to a mere shadow of her former glory. The Maccabean revolution failed to bring in a new day of salvation. The Hasmonian dynasty was as corrupt as others. Rome was still oppressing her. The Pharisaic religion was hypocritical. Herod's temple was magnificent but everyone knew it was built with dirty money and was a monument to his glory and not God's. For all practical purposes Israel was still in exile; they weren't free and walking in the blessings of God's first born son. Something was unfinished.
Jesus tells them to pray, "Our Father" but hadn't Israel forfeited that status. The prophets declared that she had. The Mosaic covenant was conditional. Obedience would bring blessing and disobedience would bring curses (Mt. Ebal and Gerazim) How can Israel claim God Father? If God's covenant promise is based on an obedient son (and it was) and Israel failed, how could Israel ever recover?
What's Jesus proposing here? He is saying to these Jewish men that there is a way they can call God their Father with all the blessings that go along with that.
What Israel needed was a son who would be that obedient son and live up to the covenant obligations. Jesus was that son. And He did for Israel what Israel could never do for herself. Jesus was unconditionally and irrevocable obedient to the Father. He is the son that Israel was not...and He invites them and us all through faith in Him and His accomplishments to enjoy the status as sons and call God our Father.
God promised to King David that one of his sons would rule over God's people and whose kingdom would never be shaken. Of this king, God said to David, "I will be his Father and he shall be My son, (2Sam.7:14). Jesus is this son.
To call God our Father means that we have an unconditional and irrevocable obligation to obey God but here's the problem: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But John gives us the hope of the gospel.
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, 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 NAS
1 John 3:1:
"See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are." NAS
What did it mean for his disciples to call God their Father? It meant that, in Jesus, God was coming to Israel again to call out again a people for Himself... who would call God their Father. Except this calling/adoption wouldn't be based on pedigree or ethnicity or even our record at keeping our covenant obligations. This time it's based on the record of Jesus Christ who is the perfect Son of God and who has fulfilled all the covenant obligations of Israel as God's first born son to the letter. It's for those who are born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.. but of God. This sonship is for all those who believe in Jesus and receive the gift of His obedience and grace on their behalf.
Through the great love and obedience and tender mercies of Jesus, Israel can once again Call God their Father. And so can we.
What does it mean to call God our Father and to call on God as our Father? Three things:
1. It means to make God's glory and grace the gravitational pull of your prayers and not yourself. Listen to your prayers. Are they anchored to the glory of God and tied to the glory of the Father or are they simply shopping lists? In Prayer, seek God's glory as our Father before anything else.
2. Second, to call God our Father means unconditional obedience. Now this blessing/relationship isn't established on our obedience ...However to call God our Father means that we are called to obey him unconditionally and irrevocably. In the first century and in the Middle East the word Father would have evoked a since of obligation and duty that it may not evoke in our day. In that culture a son was apprenticed to his father. He learned his trade by watching what the father was doing. When he runs into trouble he checks back with his father to see if he's getting it right.
"When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. Hos 11:1-2
Beloved, to claim God as our Father and not honor Him by obeying Him is just foolishness. To call God your father will cost you and bless you at the same time. When Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane He called God Abba Father. He was turning around and checking with His Father to make sure he was doing what was His Father wanted Him to do. And later Jesus said of His disciples, "As the Father sent Me so I send you."
So, to call God Father is to commit to him your unconditional obedience.
Finally, to call God our Father means to marvel in His tender mercies and His saving grace.
Ps 103:13-14 "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust".
In a few weeks Rich is driving up to Minn. In the dead of winter to help his son move into another house in downtown Minn. Why? Because Andrew is his son and he needs help.
What person can come to the king and ask him to tie his show laces? Only one. ...His son. God the Father is full of love and compassion.
Paul asks, "If He didn't spare His only son, how will He not also -with Him- give us all things?
In the story of the Prodigal the son who wasted his life in excessive living and found himself in the muck and mire of a pig sty hopeless and helpless finally comes to his senses and says to Himself,
7 "But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! 18'I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men. "' 20 "And he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him, and kissed him. 21 "And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 "But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23 and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.' And they began to be merry."
NAS Luke 15:17-24
Who will ever love you like that? No one has been more compassionate.. Jesus prayed that God would dwell with His children, ..." That the world may know that You loved them with the same love that you have for Me." He loves His children with the same love that He loves Jesus.
How much love do you think God has for His Son Jesus? It's beyond measuring. And yet, by His grace our lives have been hidden in Christ and are in Him...He loves us with that same vast, unmeasured and holy, boundless love with which he loves his Son Jesus.
So, no one can love you like Jesus and our Father. Believe in Him, sanctify His name or hallow his name which means to set apart His name. Prize it at the center of your heart and prayer, cherish it, honor it, rest in it, treasure it, believe it elevate it... and love it, glory in it and rejoice in it every day. He is worthy of all of this. He is your Father in Heaven.