THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Reading: Luke 11:1-4.

Over the past couple of years the Lord’s Prayer has been very important and precious to me. These words of Jesus, ever so simple, seem to touch on every type of prayer and make it into a pattern that is easily understood. The more we understand this pattern, the more we pray in line with it, the more powerful our prayers become.

 One of the disciples said ‘Lord teach us to pray’. Didn’t the disciples know how to pray?

 They had been brought up in the faith and practices of their Fathers. You would have thought they were spoilt for choice when it came to prayer! They didn’t need to ask about the importance of prayer they had Jesus as their example.

We see this in verse 1.  

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Here we have a good example of Jesus praying. Jesus taking time to talk with his father.

What prompted this question was the fact that they did not possess the secret ingredient. Whatever it was that happened, was it the way Jesus prayed, between him and God that made his prayer effective, that clearly transformed him. The disciples are asking to be taught in the same vein. They need to understand the secret of effective prayer, and so do we. The disciples recognised how important the place of prayer in the life of one devoted to God and he want to share in it. The questioner wants some of it. Jewish teachers often used to teach about prayer. This disciple refers to the time when John the Baptist taught his disciples about prayer. And Jesus, the Son of God, fulfilled this life of devotion perfectly in every way. He was a man of prayer.
 “Lord, teach us to pray…”

Jesus answers this request by replying with a pattern for prayer. Look at verse 2:

Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say…”

note that Jesus is laying down a pattern for prayer, a plan.

This plan isn’t definitive, the prayer is only 57 words long. Yes, our prayer lives often involve more than this but they should never involve anything less. And that is something that we need to remind ourselves of, because very often the Lord’s Prayer is treated a bit like a set piece, isn’t it? Often said parrot fashion without any thought to what is being said. In our worship services and our small groups quite often the aim is to get it said and then move on to the real prayer. And that is, as we shall see, to entirely miss the point.

Jesus responds to the plea with teaching:

"Lord, teach us to pray…”

From this teaching, we have a pattern of what prayer to Almighty God should look like, the themes that are the most important, the principles that should dictate how we pray. We should be learning and practising what we see from this prayer in our daily lives.
 

So, with the place of prayer, its practice and pattern shown, we will look at the teaching that Jesus gives. We will look at the teaching under two headings:

Firstly, PRAY WITH GOD IN HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE (verse 2)

secondly, PRAY WITH THE RIGHT PRIORITIES (verse 3 & 4).


So firstly, PRAY WITH GOD IN HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE

Verse 2 says:

Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come…”

Jesus begins this pattern for prayer with God: and see the person of God, the perfection of God and the purpose of God. Let’s look at those in turn:

God’s person

In verse 2, we read, Jesus said that when you pray, say ‘Father’. This would have been startling to the disciples, Jesus uses the ordinary, intimate title that Hebrew children would have used in their families: ‘Abba’, ‘Daddy’ ‘Father’. And when Jesus is recorded as praying he uses that title, ‘Father’. And the intimacy of that name is remarkable, isn’t it? Jesus is teaching his disciples that they are to come before the living true God, the God who has created all things, who rules over this universe, and call him ‘Daddy’ or ‘Father’.

What do you think of when the word ‘father’ is said? Some of you will have positive thoughts and feelings such as warmth, love, affection; while some will have negative feelings such as remoteness, sternness or even unconcern. Some people will have happy thoughts and some people will have unhappy thoughts. I believe that this is why Jesus after giving the pattern of prayer, goes on to teach, through the parable of the friend who came at midnight, just what God really is. He is not only a Father, said Jesus, but a Friend. Jesus knowing the word father might have negative associations, attempted to fill it with a deeper content, by showing God as Father and Friend. Our concept of God should be a positive one, because if it isn’t, then we will never be able to come to God and trust him.

I have two sons who are classed as ‘able-bodied’ and one son who is labelled ‘disabled’, they are all my sons, all part of our family. The same with us able-bodied or disabled we are all part of God’s family if we are Christians. And that is something we can easily forget. We often can treat God as though he were unapproachable and really not that pleased to have us speak with him, as though we were sort of wasting his time, as though he is someone who can stand our presence only for a short while. If we are young believers we can easily catch ourselves thinking that God will find us a bit unrefined and immature. And older believers can be tempted to think that, well, God has heard us on these issues so many times before and we’re too inconsistent and tiresome to speak with. Sometimes we can distance ourselves from God, thinking that he’s too mighty and frankly pre-occupied with running the universe.

And that is all simply untrue. God is our loving heavenly Father. He doesn’t need to have his arm twisted up his back to make him listen to us. You know he loves it when you speak with him. And that’s the point. Prayer begins, this prayer begins, with a relationship, a relationship with the living God. He is the focus, the reason, the means of our prayers. Prayer is not an end in itself, like a duty or a formula, (‘I should pray more’), something to be done either before or after we have read the Bible. It’s much more than that, because it’s the activity of a relationship between God the Father and his children. What a spur to prayer that is!
 

Yes, our Father, God, loves to hear us pray and we need to come to him as his children, but also mindful as we do of his perfection. Look at verse 2 again:
Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say “Father, hallowed be your name…”
We see here the chief aspect of God’s character - his holiness. That’s what that word ‘hallowed’ means, regarded as holy, set apart. You see God’s character is utterly perfect and devoted to seeking his own honour and glory, which means his name is to be hallowed, revered.

And of this approach to God there is a shadow of a parallel with our earthly fathers. Of course earthly dads are not perfect, although they like to think they are sometimes. But when I will spend time with my children, it will always be with the respect of a father to his son. I respect my children for who they are and that shows in my treatment of them.

The Lord’s Prayer teaches that when we come to God we should always remember that we are talking with the holy God. Our desire should be that God should be honoured and respected and treated as he ought to be treated, that this hallowing of his name be seen in all the world. And often when we pray it is easy to forget that. Sometimes, God forgive us, it means that we come flippantly, half-heartedly, so we pray, say, with our minds on the things that need to be done that day - the milkman needs paying, have I took all my medication today, somebody needs a new pair of trainers or a hospital appointment.
 

The prayer ‘hallowed by your name’ causes us to think carefully about what we say and how we say it, to ponder what is appropriate, what is reverent and honouring to God, so that we come to God recognising his person and his perfection and also his purposes.

Look at verse 2 once more:

Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come…”

Jesus is showing us the purposes of God – ‘your kingdom come’. Now, of course God rules over all the kingdoms of the earth, but the phrase ‘kingdom of God’ describes God’s reign over a people who willingly submit to him in love and obedience. So all followers of Jesus are part of God’s kingdom, though their love and obedience is imperfect. We see that  God’s kingdom is ultimately a future thing, where God will reign unopposed over a new heaven and earth, because everything and everyone that opposes him will have been removed.

So the prayer ‘your kingdom come’ is an all-encompassing God purpose-driven prayer. It concentrates on the work of God in establishing a kingdom now, as people turn to Jesus, and the completion of his kingdom when Jesus shall return again. This lends itself to the question – are God’s purposes at the centre of our prayers? Do they show in our requests, in our petitions, in our prayer for others and thanksgivings a desire for the establishing of God’s kingdom? What are we really thinking when we do pray? How often do we pray for the purposes of health, wealth and happiness so that our ailments, bank accounts and children govern what we pray for, rather than the establishing of God’s kingdom?

This then is how Jesus teaches us to pray. Pray with Godin his rightful place, with his person and perfection and purposes in view. That’s what our prayer should be based on.

Since I have been studying The Lord’s Prayer I purposefully come before God with his character and his purposes in view, but in no time at all what I am praying about has changed and I am the one who my prayers are revolving around. I become absorbed with the person and character and purposes of Paul Jenkinson.

My conversation with God often becomes ‘me’ centred, about my needs and wants, so that God becomes some type of Aladin’s genie - which is why we need, which is why I need, to learn from the teaching of Jesus, to hold it before us when we pray.

Some examples of ways we could do this are:-

a) having a Bible open before us, say this prayer and pray it carefully through.

b) We might think write down prayer points before we pray.

c) We may encourage one another as we pray to keep God and his glory at the centre of all that we say.

When we do come before God with our genuine requests about jobs and visit to the specialist clinics, children, future anxieties for example, our requests are shaped by God’s character and purposes and not our own, so that our prayers display the teaching of Jesus:

When you pray say ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come …’

From this passage, this pattern prayer begins with the God in his rightful place, but Jesus continues by focussing our attention on 3 specific requests that we should pray for ourselves. So let’s look at those secondly, under the title:

PRAY WITH THE RIGHT PRIORITIES

As we’ve seen, it is easy to skew priorities in prayer and here Jesus’ teaching focuses on 3 prayer requests, that deal with our provision, our problems and our perseverance.

So let’s look at those. Look how Jesus speaks about our provision in verse 3:

… give us each day our daily bread…

It’s easy for us as modern day listeners to miss the point of this prayer. When we need some food we just go to the supermarket. But to the first hearers of Jesus bread was their staple diet, it was what was needed to live. When Jesus teaches us the request:… give us each day our daily bread…

he is speaking about what is needed to go on living in God’s world, not the luxuries that we pamper ourselves with and make out that we can’t do without. For example, how many bedrooms or cars do we really need?

Jesus’ teaching arranges our thinking about what we need. This prayer for provision reminds us that God is the provider of good things. He will take care of you. He has committed himself to that, but not to giving us what we think we need or what we want. So let’s pray to that end, because it is all too easy to shift away from God’s will. And Jesus draws attention to that next when he looks at our problems. In verse 4. Jesus says:

…forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us…

Sin is wilful rebellion against God. Everyone who has ever lived is a rebel. It’s only through pleading forgiveness and trusting in the death of Jesus on the cross and following him that we find peace with God and enter into God’s family. But the fact is that every follower of Jesus fails to hallow God’s name in their daily lives. We fail to live as children in God’s kingdom. The Christian life is one which aims constantly to please God and yet which constantly fails to do so, which means that forgiveness, secured by the death of Jesus on the cross, is an ongoing need. We need to constantly confess our sins, asking forgiveness, trusting in what Jesus has done for us. And Jesus ties that very closely with our forgiveness of others. Did you see that in verse 4?

…forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us…

You see, if we are unforgiving towards others, it means we have no real sympathy with them for their need of God, in their need before God. And that lack of sympathy shows that we haven’t actually understood our own need for forgiveness. It shows that our saying sorry has been empty and insincere. For if we were genuinely convicted of our problem, our sin before God, then our plea for forgiveness will  contain in it the willingness to forgive others, after all they are in the same boat as us. So Jesus is teaching us not to underestimate our problem, our wilful sin, and to ask for God’s forgiveness. And that means that we should surely keep short accounts with God. Examination and confession should be part of our prayer lives, we need to spend time searching ourselves, realizing what wrongs we have done and asking  God for forgiveness – not holding any grudge against anybody else, but rather forgiving them as the Lord has forgiven us.

So Jesus teaches us to pray by recognising the priorities of our provision from God and our problem before him and, finally, our need for perseverance, the second part of verse 4, where Jesus said:

…and lead us not into temptation…

A natural question would be – is this saying that God leads us into temptation? Well no, it can’t. The Bible doesn’t teach that. For example in James chapter 1, we read that God does not tempt anyone. What Jesus is saying is that God has the sovereign power to keep us from yielding to temptation. Because by nature we don’t have the power to hallow God’s name, to seek his purposes in our lives, we need the daily strength to do that. So this is a request for spiritual protection. Have you prayed for protection recently? Perhaps a situation or meeting with certain people that lies ahead, where we know we are prone to go our own way, to do that which will upset God. Some people are prone to particular temptations: perhaps to gossip or to speak the untruth. Jesus teaches us to pray about these situations beforehand, to ask God to protect us, to strengthen us, to

…lead us not into temptation…

that we might persevere in the purposes of God and live rightly as children in his kingdom.

Here then are the priorities that Jesus teaches to us. We need to make sure they don’t disappear from our prayer lives.
 

                                               
We have a God who provides for us, a father who cares for us. Here is a God who wholly has met us in our deepest needs through his Son and who will keep us, in his kingdom, till we see him face to face. This is the point in this prayer, each of these requests is God-centred. Their aim is to his praise and glory. Jesus teaches us to pray to our loving father, recognising that we live in this world, depending on him, so that our priorities in prayer are mixed with God put in his rightful place.

This teaching of the Lord Jesus on prayer is the cornerstone to our prayers. It teaches us a pattern what to pray for. Sometimes during the day there will be a need for ‘arrow’ prayer -  one or two sentence prayers when we speak to God with a thanksgiving, a request, a need. But the point of the passage that we have just looked at is that our prayer lives as a whole should show God-centred themes. So that when we say the Lord’s Prayer together, on our own or in a group:

Father, hallowed by your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, forgive us our sins for we also forgive those who sin against us and lead us not into temptation we are summarising how we pray. today there is a need for prayer. As people talk about it, as churches talk about it, it seems to be the thing that we do least.

Remember the reading from 2 Chronicles chapter 7?

If my people, who bear my name, will humble themselves and pray …

I would like to thank to thank the following for their ideas helped me formulate this sermon:-

Rev.Simon Price for a sermon in 2002 at Jesmond Parish Church on Luke 11.

Rev. Margaret Herbert for a sermon on Trinity Sunday 2005 at Meersbrook Park URC.

Selwyn Hughes book 'The Lord's Prayer' CWR, Farnham Surrey 2002.