The Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 6:9-15/Lesson 7
Matthew 6:9"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name’” “Pray, then, in this way”: Jesus is not giving us a prayer that we must precisely follow, word by word, for this prayer is given in Luke 11:2-4 in a different form. Furthermore, although they prayed often neither Jesus nor His disciples were ever reported to have prayed this precise prayer (Matthew 11:25-26; 26:36-44; John 17; Acts 1:24-25; 4:23-31). Rather, Jesus intends that this prayer be a format or outline upon which we build our own prayers. The basic elements in this prayer need to be in our prayers. “One important element omitted from Jesus’ model, which He added later when His disciples were more prepared to receive it, was the signature ‘in My name’ (John 16:23-27; 14:13; Matthew 18:19,20; Colossians 3:17)” (Fowler p. 342). “Our Father”: Only children of God have the right to address God as their Father (Galatians 3:26-27). If we are rebellious, then our father is the devil (John 8:41). This first reveals that God is personal. “One of the reasons for rejecting the attempts of modern radical theologians to reconstruct the doctrine of God is that they depersonalize Him. The concept of God as ‘the ground of our (human) being’ is simply not compatible with the notion of His divine Fatherhood. God is as personal as we are, in fact more so. Secondly, He is loving. He is not an ogre who terrifies us with hideous cruelty, nor the kind of father we sometimes read or hear about— autocrat, playboy, drunkard—but He Himself fulfils the ideal of fatherhood in His loving care for His children” (Stott p. 146). Here is motivation to pray! If I am a Christian, then God cares about me and what is happening in
my life. God wants me to express my concerns and worries with Him (1 Peter 5:7). “Who art in heaven”: This denotes His authority and power. He can do something about our worries, because the Father to whom we pray is the Creator of the Universe and the ruler of all things. “Hallowed be Thy name”: The term “Father” must never be cheapened to an easy sentimentalism. The word “hallowed” means to treat as holy, to reverence, thus to respect the name of God means to respect God Himself and treat Him as holy. We do this by approaching Him with respect and by asking first, “Thy will be done” (Leviticus 10:3). “When we have taken time and trouble to orientate ourselves towards God and recollect what manner of God He is, our personal, loving, powerful Father, then the content of our prayers will be radically affected in two ways. First, God’s concern will be given priority (“your name, your kingdom, and your will”). Secondly, our own needs, though demoted to second place, will yet be comprehensively committed to Him (“Give us, forgive us, deliver us”) (Stott p. 146). “In telling us to address God as ‘our Father in heaven’, the concern of Jesus is not with protocol (teaching us the correct etiquette in approaching Deity), but with truth (that we may come to Him in the right frame of mind). It is always wise, before we pray, to spend time deliberately recalling who He is. Only then shall we come to our loving Father in heaven with appropriate humility, devotion, and confidence” (p. 146). The inference is that many men and women do not give God the proper respect. “To hallow means to set apart from everything common and profane, to esteem, prize, honor, reverence, and adore” (Lenski p. 266). Many people miss this all-important first step. “People so often say, ‘You know, I prayed and prayed but nothing happened. I did not seem to find peace. I did not seem to get any satisfaction out of it’. Most of their trouble is due to the fact that their approach to prayer has been wrong. We tend to be so self-centered in our prayers that when we drop on our knees before God, we think only about ourselves and our troubles and perplexities” (Jones 51). Some feel that the only benefit of prayer is psychological reasons, yet Jesus disagrees. The first step in prayer is realizing that we are coming into the presence of the Creator. “The first three petitions in the Lord’s Prayer express our concern for God’s glory in relation to His name, rule, and will. If our concept of God were of some impersonal force, then of course He would have no personal name, rule, or will to be concerned about. Again, if we were to think of Him as ‘the Ultimate within ourselves’ or ‘the ground of our being’, it would be impossible to distinguish between His concerns and ours” (Stott p. 147).
Do we treat God as holy? Are we ardently concerned about giving Him the place He deserves, seeing His will honored, and His word obeyed? Are we zealous for His reputation, and do we oppose those who ridicule His word or His existence? Matthew 6:10 “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” “Thy kingdom come”: The kingdom did come (Mark 9:1). It is the same relationship as the church (compare Acts 2:47 with Colossians 1:13-14 and Acts 20:28 with Revelation 1:5-6). When we pray today, we should pray that the kingdom would increase and spread. People in the kingdom are those who have completely submitted themselves to God’s rule. Such an expression immediately reminds us that there is another kingdom on this earth, that is, the rule of evil, which is opposed to God and His purposes. What am I presently doing to see that people can escape from the domain of darkness and enter into the kingdom of God’s Son? (Colossians 1:13-14). Do I earnestly desire to see men and women bow before God and give Him the praise that He deserves? Do I long to see God receive His proper respect among men? “What unworthy ideas and notions this world has of God! If you test your ideas of God by the teaching of the Scriptures you will see at a glance what I mean. We lack even a due sense of the greatness and the might and the majesty of God. Listen to men arguing about God, and notice how glibly they use the term. We should all have a consuming passion that the whole world might come to know God. It means a burning desire that the whole world may bow before God in adoration, in reverence, in praise, in worship, in honor and in thanksgiving. Is that our supreme desire?” (Jones pp. 60,61). “So that when we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come’, we are praying for the conversion of men and women; we are praying that the kingdom of God may come today in Britain, in Europe, in America, in Australia, everywhere in the world” (Jones p. 64). 6:10 “Thy will be done”: This is what happens when people submit to God’s rule, in other words, it is what happens when an individual becomes a member of this kingdom. “In these simple words rests the simplest statement of man’s deepest commitment, his most far-reaching confession and his most satisfying decision. Each time man prays this way; he aligns himself with the ultimate Creator and Governor of stars and sparrows, of men and morals! There exists no greater religion than to pray these words sincerely and to walk consistently in the light of their implications” (Fowler p. 346).
Years ago someone reminded me that one can pray a “lie”. Anytime we pray, “Thy will be done” and we are not doing God’s will ourselves, we are lying to God. “The will of God is ‘good, acceptable and perfect’ (Romans 12:2), for it is the will of ‘our Father in heaven’ who is infinite in knowledge, love, and power. It is, therefore, folly to resist it, and wisdom to discern, desire, and do it. It is comparatively easy to repeat these words like a parrot. To pray them with sincerity, however, has revolutionary implications, for it expresses the priorities of a Christian. We are constantly under pressure to conform to the self-centeredness of secular culture. When that happens we become concerned about our own little name (liking to see it embossed on our notepaper or hitting the headlines in the press, and defending it when it is attacked), about our own little empire (bossing, ‘influencing’ and manipulating people to boost our ego, and about our own silly little will (always wanting our own way and getting upset when it is frustrated). But in the Christian counterculture our top priority concern is not our name, kingdom, and will, but God’s. Whether we can pray these petitions with integrity is a searching test of the reality and depth of our Christian profession” (Stott pp. 147148). 6:10 “On earth as it is in heaven”: “Doing God’s will is not a matter of perfect obedience when we are finally ushered into His presence at the end of time, but a practical putting into effect His slightest wish on earth right now!” (Fowler p. 347). This means that God’s will can be done in my life. “Can we really pray ‘Thy will be done’, if we question His wisdom, deny His right to our obedience or resent any of His commands? Further, can we pray thus, if we have made little or no effort to search His Word for every indication of His will as it touches every phase of our life?” (p. 347). Some have always argued that restoring the New Testament Church is an impossible task or an idealistic task, far removed from reality. Yet being Christians and Christians only, and seeing that we follow God’s revealed will (the Bible) in all things, is nothing more than the application of this prayer. Being the Church that Jesus established and refusing to add or subtract from God’s word is “Thy will be done”. In light of this prayer, what are we to say about professed believers who ridicule the Bible, seek to undermine its authority, stand as critics over it, or argue that we can’t understand it or understand it alike? There is no use even praying, if we do not have a burning desire to see God’s will done, especially in our own lives (Matthew 7:21). When we really examine this prayer, Jones notes, “Does it not make us feel in a sense that we have never prayed at all?” (p. 66).
Matthew 6:11”Give us this day our daily bread” We have a transition in this verse, from thinking about God’s glory to our needs. We see the change from “your” to “our”. “Having expressed our burning concern for His glory, we now express our humble dependence on His grace. A true understanding of the God to whom we pray, as heavenly Father and great King, although putting our personal needs into a second and subsidiary place, will not eliminate them. To decline to mention them at all in prayer (on the ground that we do not want to bother God with such trivialities) is as great an error as to allow them to dominate our prayers” (Stott p. 148). Be impressed with the needs that Jesus mentions, as daily bread, forgiveness, and protection from the evil one. The prayer is far removed from “give me fame and glory”, or see to it that my will is done. 6:11 “This day”: All the time we have is “today”. Here is trust. The prayer is not for a year’s supply, but rather that we would be provided for this day. The prayer that God “give” us food does not, of course, deny that people have to earn their own living, and that farmers have to plough, sow, and reap to provide basic cereals. Instead, it is an expression of ultimate dependence upon God. That is, even with all our hard work, without God’s blessings, we would starve. “It seems Jesus wanted His followers to be conscious of a day-to-day dependence” (Stott p. 149). If we are living from pay-check to pay-check, then we should not pity ourselves or feel that we are not blessed. God is providing the daily bread. I think that many of us feel that we are not blessed unless we have a huge surplus. 6:11 “Our daily bread”: This was an uncommon expression even in the ancient world. It might be translated, “bread for the current day”. Used in the morning, this petition would ask bread for the day just beginning. Used in the evening, it would be a prayer for tomorrow’s bread. Thus, we are to live one day at a time. Are we happy and satisfied with “daily bread”? Of course the word “bread” stands for all our physical needs. Fowler notes, “Ours is a humble dependence upon God. It is for ‘bread’ that we ask, not luxuries. What a rebuke is this of our constant struggle and straining after more and more” (p. 349). The expression “daily bread” also reminds us of the fragile nature of life and the thought that we might not be here in the next moment. All luxuries are meaningless if we don’t have food. Here is trust that cancels anxious worries about the distant and unknown future (Matthew 6:34; Psalm 127:2). We are also reminded here, that daily bread is not earned by mere hard work. Without God’s providential care and blessings of rain and sunshine, all our work would be for naught.
Matthew 6:12 “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” “Having asked God to provide food that we might live, we immediately confess that we have no right to live. By asking His forgiveness for not having lived perfectly, we admit that it is only by His grace that we could even hope to live” (Fowler p. 350). Before we can ask for forgiveness, we must honestly look at our own lives and own up to our sins. “If we view our sins as only a disease, only a human weakness, merely a social embarrassment, or an impersonal moral deterioration in the race, then we need not bother God with prayers like this” (Fowler p. 350). 6:12 “Our debts”: We cannot blame anyone or anything for our sins. These are sins we committed, and we are responsible for them. We cannot blame Adam, genetics, environment, or our parents. In addition, sin is a debt that none can afford to repay (Luke 7:35ff; Matthew 18:23ff), and sin is likened to a debt because it deserves to be punished. “Forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is for the body” (Stott p. 149). We cannot do enough good works to pay for these debts; the only hope of canceling such debt is God’s forgiveness. 6:12 “As we also have forgiven our debtors”: First, forgiving others does not automatically earn forgiveness for ourselves. Rather, God only forgives people who are repentant, humble and contrite; one of the chief evidences of true repentance is a desire to forgive others who are asking for our forgiveness (Matthew 18:23ff). Our forgiving people who have repented (Luke 17:4), is a condition of being forgiven ourselves. God does not require of us a forgiveness that He does not even practice, for God will not forgive people who are defiant and who refuse to repent (Romans 2:1-5). In like manner, while earnestly desiring to forgive someone who remains defiant, we cannot act like they have changed. True forgiveness can only be extended when someone has repented. “Jesus offers a simple safeguard against our over-evaluation of men’s praise. If we remember that they are sinners in need of God’s mercy as well as our forgiveness, this fact greatly reduces the value of their praise in our eyes. What difference does it make to a condemned man whether his fellow criminals think highly of him or not?” (Fowler p. 351).
Matthew 6:13 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen]” “And do not lead us into temptation”: “The sinner whose evil in the past has been forgiven longs to be delivered from its tyranny in the future” (Stott p. 150). On the surface, it seems we have a perplexing situation here. Jesus says, “Do not lead us into temptation”, but James says that God never entices anyone to sin (James 1:13). So what is the sense of praying that He will not do what He has promised never to do? The word “temptation” can also mean “test”, but Jesus cannot be saying, “Do allow us to be tested”, for such testing is good for the Christian (James 1:24; Romans 5:3-5; 1 Peter 1:6-8). Hence, Jesus is not saying we should pray for a protection from trial or temptation, for such is impossible. Lenski notes that this prayer is the opposite of false security or presumption. That is, Jesus clearly believed that His disciples and Christians can be tempted to the point that they are led astray. This portion of the prayer does contradict a false sense of security and the feeling that God’s grace will just protect us, even against our own will. Both Stott and Lenski conclude that Jesus is here telling us to pray that God’s providential care would keep us out of temptations which would be at this time beyond our ability to overcome (1 Corinthians 10:13). “Do not allow us to be led into temptation so that it overwhelms us” (Stott p. 150). The prayer is obviously given by a person who doesn’t want to be tempted! Is this our attitude? There is a warning here about looking for temptation and secretly desiring that it would come our way. 6:13 “deliver us from evil”: This seems to mean about the same thing as “lead us not into temptation”. The prayer admits that without God’s help, evil would conquer us. Some translations regard the term “evil” as neuter: “from the evil”, not as masculine: “from the evil one”, and yet one cannot talk about evil without talking about the father of all lies, the devil. Here we are talking about not only Satan, but also evil in every shape and form. Do we long to be delivered from every form and kind of evil? “Why should we ask that we may be kept from evil? For the great and wonderful reason that our fellowship with God may never be broken” (Jones p. 77). How earnest is our desire to have a relationship with God that never will be broken? The same is true concerning the relationship we have with our parents, children, spouse, and brethren? Are we determined to eradicate all evil in our lives?
6:13 “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen” This doxology is found in some ancient manuscripts. While some feel that these words are not genuine, I am always hesitant to say that part of the Bible is not authentic, especially in light of the fact that God promised to preserve His word (1 Peter 1:23-25; Matthew 24:35), and God was very successful in preserving every jot and tittle of the O.T. (Matthew 5:17-18). We should note that without this ending, the prayer doesn’t really have an end. Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15"But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” “For”: Jesus pauses to explain one element of this prayer, that is, the verse concerning forgiveness. Notice, our forgiveness is conditioned upon our willingness to forgive others. Notice, the word “men” includes nonChristian men who ask for our forgiveness. In addition, “our transgressions” are just as bad as “their transgressions”. If we have an exaggerated view of the sins of others, it proves that we have minimized our own. See Matthew 18:23-35 for the best commentary on these two verses. Thus, God’s forgiveness puts us under an obligation to be forgiving (Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13). Maybe we have a great insight here into why some people balk at becoming a Christian, for they know that being forgiven will require them to forgive others, and this is something they don’t want to do. Closing Comments What a contrast here with prayers that we find in the world: 1. The hypocrite in prayer is obsessed with his own self-image and how he looks in the eyes of others. But in this prayer, Christians are obsessed with God, His name, His kingdom, and His will. True prayer is always a preoccupation with God and His glory—our needs second. 2. The pagan has a mindless prayer. He just goes on babbling, and he does not think about what he is saying, for his concern is volume but length and not content. Over against this, Jesus tells us to simply and clearly make our requests known to God.
“It will be seen that the fundamental difference between various kinds of prayer is in the fundamentally different images of God which lie behind them” (Stott p. 152). In other words, when we have the right view of God in our minds and hearts—prayer will come naturally.