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The Lord’s Prayer (Part 1): The Preface (Matthew 6:9a-9b)
I. After This Manner Pray
II. Our Father, Which Art In Heaven
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I bring greetings to all of you in the most blessed name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It's been quite some time since I last spoke to you and by God's grace and through your prayers, the brethren in Myanmar are doing well despite the many chaos and problems. And we want to thank you for your prayers tonight.
I want to thank the Lord for the privilege given to me to speak his word to you and at the same time my sincere thanks to Reverend Paul for allocating this portion of time to me.
Without further ado, let us turn our Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew 6:9-15. This is known as the Lord's prayer. We will be studying the Lord's prayer as detailed as possible.
So let me read it to you. Verse 9. “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:9-15)
The title of my message this evening is “The Lord's Prayer (1): The Preface”. In other words, tonight we are going to look at the preface of the Lord's prayer. It is the Lord's prayer, but since we want to study this part of God's word in detail, we will be looking at only the preface which is found in the first part of verse 9.
And let me read it to you again. “After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven.” And this constitute the preface of the Lord's prayer.
After this preface, we have three petitions which have to do with God, His name, His kingdom and His will. Three petitions and that is followed by another three petitions which have to do with us. So we have six petitions in the Lord's prayer. The first three pertaining to God, His name, His kingdom and His will. And the second part about our needs, the needs of humanity. And there and then we have the conclusion of the Lord's prayer.
So bearing that in mind, we will be focusing on the preface of this prayer. Our Lord says, “After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven.”
Let us further divine this preface into two parts so that we can better remember.
I. After This Manner Pray
Firstly, let us look at the phrase “After This Manner Pray”, “After this manner therefore pray ye” (Matthew 6:9a)
The first thing we want to note about this preface is the source and origin of this prayer. We know that Matthew Chapter 5, 6 and Chapter 7 constitute what is known as the “Sermon on the Mount”, given by the Lord Himself. In other words, this prayer comes directly from the mouth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It is not a prayer taught by pastor, priest, bishop or any other human being. It is a prayer taught by our Lord himself. He said, “After this manner therefore pray ye”, and those words fall out from the mouth of our Lord Himself. So that is the source of this prayer. This prayer is taught by our Lord and Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And it's interesting to note that this prayer was immediately recognised by the early Christians, and down the history of the church we find this prayer recited in many circles of the church. Of course, we know that there are some Christians who do not recite the Lord's prayer, but the reciting of the Lord's prayer has a long history, since the earliest possible date.
So we believe that there is nothing wrong to recite the Lord's prayer. It is only that we need to pay attention carefully to the content of the prayer. So when we give due attention to the words—the meaning of the words—then there's nothing wrong to recite this prayer.
In fact, in the first century, a document called the Didache mandated that this prayer ought to be recited three times a day. But, the important point we want to note here is that since our Lord says “After this manner therefore pray ye”, we are not taught to pray only this prayer. Rather we are taught to pray following this pattern and that is the meaning of the words “after this manner”. In fact, the original language in which the New Testament was written, has only one word for this phrase “after this manner” and the meaning is “does so”, “in this manner”, “on this way”—this suggests that we are not to say only this prayer, and then we don't have to pray any other prayer.
No, the idea is that this is the model, this is the pattern of prayer. “After this manner”, on this wise, we are to pray, we are to frame our prayers. And that is what is meant by the phrase on after this manner. So let us remember this. There are there may be people who believe that once you recite the Lord's prayer you don't have to pray anymore and that is sufficient. No, that is not the right understanding of this passage.
And in fact, it is interesting to note that in this prayer, we are clearly taught that whenever we pray, whenever we come to the Lord at His throne of grace, we are to remember these two things. The first is our prayer must be focused on God. We must be sincerely concerned of his name, of His kingdom and of His will. And that is the first three petitions.
In other words, whenever we pray, we are to follow this pattern. Meaning when we come to the church in prayer, or wherever it is, our focus and our attention must be given to God and God alone. Only when we give due respect, due honour, then we are ready to bring up our petitions. And that is what is taught in the last three petitions.
So in other words the Lord's prayer has two themes. The first theme has to do with the glorification of God, and the second theme has to do with the needs of humanity. When we give due praise, due glory and due honour and reverence to God, then we are also given the privilege to bring up our needs and our petitions. That is what we find in this preface and this whole prayer taught by our Lord himself.
II. Our Father, Which Art In Heaven
a. Our Father
And let us move to the second part of our message tonight. Our Lord continues, “Our Father which art in heaven”. So once we understand that we are to pray according to the pattern and model of this prayer then we are proceed to address our God as “Our Father which art in heaven”. And that's the second part of our message, “Our Father which art in heaven”.
Now how did God become our Father? Or conversely, how did we become his children? And what about all humanity all over the world? Can they also say “Our Father which art in heaven”.
Now there are two things that we need to note here. Firstly, there is a sense in which all human being may address God as Father because they are his creation. In other words, there is a sense in which we may say God is the universal Father of the entire creation. By being the fact that He is the creator of everything, He can be addressed by everyone as Father.
Acts 17:28-29 say, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.” Of course, these are the words of Paul to the Athens at Mars' hill. It reveals to us that every human being is created by God. In this sense, every human being has the right and privilege to call God as Father.
But the question is, is this the sense in which we are to address him as Father, as taught by our Lord in this prayer? I think that's not the sense conveyed in Matthew 6:9.
And what then is the second sense by which we can address him as Father? And that is what we may call special Fatherhood. The first is universal Fatherhood. The second is special fatherhood and this is applicable only to all the believers, and we became his children and God became our Father by regeneration and adoption. 1 John 5:1 says we are “born of God”. Born of God—in that sense, we become his children. And Galatians 3:26 says, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” In other words I will further say is that we become God's children, and we have the privilege to address him as Father, by means of faith and by means of regeneration and adoption.
And I want to look at the first one by faith. By faith we become his children and we have the privilege to call him Father. As I have just mentioned Galatians 3:26 tells us that it is by faith that we become his children. Everyone who believes the Lord Jesus Christ to be his or her own personal Saviour and Lord, sincerely and genuinely, has the privilege to call him as Father. On our part, we exercise the faith to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
So dear friends, tonight I would like to encourage all of you. If among us, if everyone who hears this message, if you are not still born again, if you have not still repented of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be the only Saviour and Lord, then may I sincerely and genuinely encourage you—repent of all your sins right now, and believe and accept Him as your own Saviour, your own personal Lord, and that sincere faith will be accepted by God and He will accept you as His children. Only then you can become his children and you can have the privilege to pray this prayer. And that is the part we need to do.
And the second part is God's part, and that is by regenerating us, or by adopting us as his children, then we become his children. Ephesians 1:5 says, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” In other words, out of his good pleasure and will, God himself takes the initiative to make us his children. And that is what is meant by the word adoption. We become his children by being adopted into Christ by God Himself.
And in another passage Romans 8:15-17 we read, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” What we receive is the Spirit of adoption whereby we have the privilege to call “Abba, Father,”—Papa, Daddy Father. That's what it means.
So how did we become his children? We become his children by God Himself, adopting us through the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So in the matter of salvation, we may say that God on his part predestinated us, as we just read in Ephesians 1:5, “according to his good pleasure and will”. He predestinated us before the foundation of the world that we would become His children and he actualised it in the Lord Jesus Christ by adopting us. And on our part we simply accept and believe all this to be true.
And even the faith that we exercise itself actually is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” In other words, the whole process, the whole thing whereby we become his children. From one point of view, we may say that we believe on our part. From another point of view, we may say He, Himself, adopted us.
Put together, everything about our salvation, everything about our being his children, that we have the privilege to call him Father—everything is accomplished by God himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is, I believe, the most important lesson we need to learn from the preface to this prayer, Our Father.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are you truly His children? Do you really have the privilege to call him Father? If not, repent of all your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Saviour and Lord, to rule over your life, and you will have blessedness, fulfilment and satisfaction in life because that is God's design for us.
In another sense, we may say that only when we become His children by faith and by adoption then we have the privilege to say this prayer. For all the other people, they may memorise this prayer, they may say this prayer many, many times—yet it is not meaningful. It is not accepted by God himself. Why? Because they are not His children. Only when we become His children, then legitimately we may say this prayer.
Now let me further go on this relationship. By faith and by adoption, we have this special privilege, father–son, or father–children, relationship with God the Father. Only those who have that privilege can pray this prayer effectively and meaningfully. So, for those of us who have already become his children by faith and by adoption, if He is truly our Father, do we give him due respect and honour and reverence? That is the thing that we need to examine in our life.
Do we really love our Father? Do we really fear our Father? Do we really make it a point to fulfil His will? In other words, do we love what He loves? And do we hate what He hates? God hates every sin. Do we hate sins? God hates every uncleanness, every unrighteousness. Do we do the same?
If we are truly his children, we must pay attention to all of this. And once we do, once we make it a point in our life that ‘because God is my Father, and because God hates sins and all unrighteousness, then in my life, I must reflect that truth. I must love the truth. I must hate the falsehood and lies and unrighteousness and all uncleanness’. Then it will be evident in our life that we are truly His children.
And I want you also to note that since we are to pray “Our Father”, that is a way of addressing. So when we pray, we are to address God, and God alone. We are not taught to pray, ‘Oh, ye saints and angels in heaven’, ‘oh, Mary’, ‘oh, ancestors’— that is not taught in the Scripture. In other words, the object of our prayer, the person to whom we pray, must be God and God alone. And He is expressed here as Father. Because we are to pray to our Father, implicitly, we are not to pray to any other human beings or spiritual beings or whatever it is.
I know that there are many people who love to pray to the saints, to Mary, and to their respected ancestors, or even to mountains or some magnificent creations, but that is contrary to God's Word. In this Lord's Prayer, we are to pray to our Father, to the Father, to God the Father. That excludes everything else. So, it is to God and to God alone that we are to pray here.
b. Which Art In Heaven
And let's move on to the last phrase of this preface, that is, “Which art in heaven.” “Which art in heaven.” After we call God our Father, we are to continue to address him as “Which art in heaven.”
Now what does it mean? What does it mean? I believe John Calvin's explanation is very sufficient. So let me read it to you, how he explains it. “When the Scripture says that God is in heaven, the meaning is that all things are subject to his dominions, that the world and everything in it is held by His hand, that His power is everywhere diffused, that all things are arranged by His providence. David says, “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh at them” (Psalm 2:4). And again, “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Psalm 115:3).
He continues, “When God is said to be in heaven, we must not suppose that he dwells only there, but on the contrary must hold what is said in another passage that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. This mode of expression separates him from the rank of creatures and reminds us that when we think of him, we ought not to form any low or earthly conceptions. For he is higher than the whole world. In the commencement of the prayer, he desired his own people to rest their confidence on the goodness and power of God. Because unless our prayers are founded on faith, they will be of no advantage.
“Now as it would be the folly and madness of presumption to go to call God our Father except on the ground that through our union to the body of Christ, we are acknowledged as his children, we conclude that there is no other way of praying aright but by approaching God with reliance on the Mediator.”
What John Calvin is saying here is this, when the Bible says God is dwelling in heaven, we are not to suppose that God's dwelling place is only heaven. In fact, as we know from other portions of God's Word, God is omnipresent, meaning he is present everywhere. And the Bible says “the heaven of heavens cannot contain him” (1 Kings 8:27). God is in heaven—Yes, definitely he is there. But He is also on earth everywhere. He is in Australia. He is in Myanmar. And He is in any place of the earth and the entire universe. There is no place where God is not. He is there. He is omnipresent.
If that is the case, what is the meaning of “Which art in heaven”? The words “Which art in heaven” emphasise the fact that God is sovereign. God is supreme. And God is most powerful. In other words, the word heaven speaks of God the Father’s power, majesty, and sovereignty. And it also speaks of God’s holiness. Why? Because, for example, in Isaiah chapter 6 we have Isaiah’s vision of a scene in heaven.
And how does he describe it? Let me read it to you, verse one to verse four. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.’ And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke” (Isaiah 6:1–4).
We have here a three-fold repetition of the word holy. “Holy, holy, holy”. And that is the scene in heaven. In other words, when the Bible describes God as dwelling in heaven, it is telling us that God is absolutely, completely, totally holy, totally different from us, the creatures.
To sum up, the phrase “Which art in heaven” has these two emphases. Number one, God’s power, majesty, and sovereignty. Heaven is high above the earth, how He has dominion and power over all His creation. That is the first point conveyed to us by the phrase “Which art in heaven”.
Secondly, His absolute holiness, His perfect holiness. He is a thrice holy God. He is a thrice holy God. Now bearing this in mind, “Our Father which art in heaven”, in our most sacred place, in our most holy place, in our most highly exalted place, when we come to God the Father in prayer, we are to have these two things.
Firstly, because He is the most powerful, He has the highest authority and power and sovereignty, we are to approach Him confidently. In other words, we are to go to Him in faith, as John Calvin described it.
When we pray to God, we must believe Him absolutely, that He is there, able to help us. He is absolutely able to help us. He has all the power to fulfil all our requests and petitions. That confidence, that trust, we must have when we pray.
Secondly, because He is a thrice holy God, because He is the perfectly holy God, all imperfection, all imperfect thoughts, all unholy things must be set aside. Our hearts must be pure. Our hearts must be sincere. And we must have a most reverential fear when we come to God. And that is the attitude that we need to have when we pray.
So to conclude our message, let me try to sum up what we have already said. This prayer, known as the Lord’s Prayer, in fact, is given different names by many Christians. For example, they call it the disciples’ prayer, the believers’ prayer, and so on. There is a sense in which that is true, because this prayer can be meaningfully and legitimately prayed by only God’s children, God’s people.
But the title, the Lord’s Prayer, is still accurate because it comes from the Lord Himself. It is the prayer taught by our God Himself. And it is a prayer, the model and pattern of prayer whereby we are to frame all our prayers. We are not to recite only this prayer. We are to frame all our prayers following this pattern, giving all first priority to God, His name, His will, and His kingdom.
We must give glory, honour, and majesty to Him, and to Him alone. Only then do we have the privilege to bring up our petitions and our needs. And we are to address Him as our Father, because by faith and by adoption we have become His children. We have this special Father–God relationship, a most intimate and truthful relationship, and because of that we can come to Him as children will go to their father. So we have this spiritual special privilege, and because God is set to dwell in heaven, we are to have this absolute confidence and trust that all our petitions, all our requests, can be fulfilled and accomplished by Him.
At the same time, because heaven is a most holy place and God Himself is the most holy God, we are to remove all unholy thoughts and imaginations. All unholy characters and lifestyles must be set aside when we come to the Lord in prayer.
Finally, let me say this to you. As we all know, prayer is one of the most important and essential practices of the Christian life. Without prayer, there can be no Christian life. In other words, you cannot live your life as a Christian if you do not pray. It is as essential as breathing is to life. And that is how Martin Luther remarked it. We need breathing to survive, so we need prayer to live the Christian life.
But let us remember also this. Our adversary the devil, is so eager, and so willing, and so bold to invade every aspect of the Christian life, no matter how sacred and holy it is. In fact, the more sacred and the more holy it is, the more he is willing to attack us. For example, prayer is a most sacred and holy thing that we do as Christians, because by prayer we enter into the very presence of God to bring our thanksgiving and petition. And even in that kind of environment, that kind of place, the devil can also attack us, so that our prayer is not right.
For example, in the immediately preceding verses, verse 5 to verse 8 of this same chapter, Matthew chapter 6, we find how our Lord teaches how we ought to pray aright. Even in prayer, even as essential as it is to the Christian life, we still can do it wrongly, from the wrong motive and in the wrong manner. And that is how things are.
For example, in the beginning part of this chapter, verse 1 to verse 4, we find our Lord teaching His disciples to give with the right motive. Giving is essential in the Christian life. We are taught to help the needy, the poor and needy. Yet we can do the right thing, yet we can do it with the wrong motive. So not only are we to do the right thing, but we are to have the right heart, the right mind, and the right motive. The same is true with prayer. The Lord’s Prayer and our daily prayer, our church prayer, anytime that we come to the Lord in prayer, we are to do [pray], absolutely it is essential. At the same time, we are to do it right. We are to do it right.
So in order to pray aright, let us remember this. The Lord’s Prayer is our pattern. It is our example. It is the most beautiful and succinct model of prayer. We give all glory and honour to Him, to God. Then we bring our petitions. Because it falls directly from our Lord’s mouth itself, let us treasure, let us love this prayer, and let us follow the pattern set forth in this prayer. If we do so, we are praying according to His will. 1 John 5:14 says, “if we ask any thing according to his will” our prayer will be answered, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14). So to pray the prayer that will be surely answered by God, we must follow the pattern of this prayer.
Finally, let us remember it is to God the Father, and to Him alone, that we are to pray. Not to saints, not to Mary, not to ancestors, not to any human being or any creation. We are to pray to God, and God alone. And we are to do so with confidence and faith, and with reverence and fear. May the Lord help us.
Let us look to the Lord in prayer.
O most gracious, most righteous, and most holy God in heaven, how we thank Thee for the privilege to come unto Thee as children. We thank Thee for the privilege that Thou hast given us through Thine only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and in whom Thou hast adopted us, giving us the privilege to become Thy children. It is on that basis that we are Thy children, that we can come to Thee calling Thee Father.
Help us, O Lord, in our prayer life, that we can pray aright, and that through our prayers Thy name will be glorified, Thy will accomplished, and Thy kingdom extended. For this is our prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thank you. The Lord bless all of you.