2. Precepts of Prayer – Our Father

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Matthew 6

Matthew 6:9-13 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 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.

Hymns: 360 My God Is Any Hour So Sweet, 355 Day by Day 334 Still, Still with Thee

 

Our Father In Heaven

 OUTLINE

  • The Adoption
  • The Authority

 

INTRODUCTION

The Lord’s Prayer provides eight pertinent elements of prayer. Our Lord is giving us the precepts or principles of prayer. The believer is to express his prayer based on these precepts or principles. This is a simple and yet most profound outline on the doctrine of prayer.

(1) Preface (v 9b): Our Father which art in heaven,

(2) Praise (v 9c): Hallowed be thy name.

(3) Preach (v 10a): Thy kingdom come.

(4) Power (v 10b): Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

(5) Provision (v 11): Give us this day our daily bread.

(6) Pardon (v 12): And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

(7) Protection (v 13a): And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

(8) Praise/Pronouncement (v 3b): For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Jesus says, “After this manner therefore pray ye…” by a command and by a commitment, to make this your life habit – the spiritual man prays and he prays in this manner.

We begin with the first “P”, the preface of the Lord’s Prayer. The opening address, the invocation, “Our Father which art in heaven,” tells us who this prayer is directed or addressed to.

When we visit Jerusalem and go to the Mount of Olives, there is the Church of the Paternoster. “Paternoster” is the Latin for “Our Father,” the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer. The church was built in the 4th Century and reconstructed in the 12th Century and 20th Century. The garden walls of the church are lined with the Lord’s Prayer in 62 different languages.

Two thoughts: (1) The Adoption (2) The Authority

(1) The Adoption

We are born into the kingdom of heaven by believing that Jesus, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again the third day victorious to give us eternal life. We become the sons of God through adoption.

Apostle Paul affirms this in Galatians 4:4-7: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

 The prescribed way to pray therefore is to the Father in the Spirit, through the Son. Herein is the Pattern.

I want us consider the vast universe and then consider puny man in the midst of this vast universe.

As the psalmist observed in psalm 8, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the starts, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”

And to ask yourself this question:

Is there anyone up there who cares for me?

Is there anybody up there who watches over me?

Is there anybody up there who knows my name?

And the answer comes back: Yes. Yes. Yes. – “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with honour and glory.” (Psalm 8:4)

There is a God in heaven who cares about you!

And he is called Father.

It answers the deepest problem of humankind – the problem of fatherlessness. Who do we belong to? Where do we come from? Who made us?

The Lord’s Prayer reminds us that if we know Jesus Christ, we are not orphans in the universe.[1] We have the Father in heaven who loves and cares for us.

And so, this first thought tells us that our God, whom we call Him Father, is One in heaven who hears and knows and understands and cares for you. The Greek word “Abba” (Gal. 4:7) is a term of endearment, signifying a close and intimate relation existing between a father and his children. Whatever a good father on earth would do for his children, that’s what God in heaven will do for his children. The difference, He is infinitely more powerful to help, compared to the earthly father.

The very word “Father” connotes an intimate Father-Son relationship. Jesus is the perfect example of this Father-Son relationship. Jesus, the Son, communes with the first person of the Trinity, God the Father.

The word “Father” is not a common expression used in the Old Testament ascribed to God, used only 13 times.

“Our Father” is used to refer to God as the Father of the nation of Israel.

1 Chronicles 29:10 Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.

Isaiah 63:15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?

 Isaiah 63:16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

Psalm 103:13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

And in the New Testament, Jesus called God “Father” more than 60 times.[2] Why so? Because the revelation of God our personal Father is based on the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. God is Father to those who come to the Lord Jesus Christ by Father as we see in Gal. 4.

He is Father because the Source of all that we are and have – as we sing in the doxology “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”Acts 17:28 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.

 He is Father, signifying His exalted position with regard to us. He is Father and we are children. He is in charge and we are not. He is God and we care not. He does whatsoever He pleases, none can stay His hand. He is a good Father. He rules with infinite love. We can trust in His care.

He is Father, signifying His faithfulness, His loyal love to all His children. He will never leave us nor forsake us as His children no matter how terrible mistakes we may have made. We can come back to Him. He is the Father who calms our fears, cheers us on, provides what we really need, let us go our own way and welcomes us back from the far country.[3]

Notice also, its “our Father” and not “my Father”.

This is a personal as well as a corporate or congregational prayer pattern. “Our Father” teaches us that we belong to the same family and community of God’s people and also that we do not pray alone, we pray with others.

“Our Father” signifies the common bond and privilege of believers to approach God at the throne of grace. Martin Luther, in his small catechism, explains, “He is our true Father and we are His true children, so that we may with all boldness and confidence ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said well, “We are approaching the almighty, eternal, ever-blessed holy God, who not only knows all about you also in the sense that a father knows all about his child. He knows what is good for the child. Put these things together. God in His almightiness is looking at you with a holy love and knows your every need.”[4]

(2) The Authority

Our Father in heaven tells us that He has the authority and power to hear you and help you when you pray.

Heaven is the abode of God the Father. Heaven is “Paradise” where God dwells. It is the eternal refuge promised to the dying thief on the cross who called upon Jesus, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). It is where the Father’s ultimate blessings await His children. Jesus gave to us a glimpse of Paradise when He said in John 14:1-3: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

The reality of heaven comes most vividly to us when we go to the house of mourning. We feel so helpless and are at a loss for words to comfort the bereaved family. It brings us face to face with our life’s ultimate enemy. It challenges us to take God at His Word that we will see our loved ones who “sleep” in the Lord again in heaven! The comfort of this truth causes us to seek refuge at the throne of grace, calling to our heavenly Father for solace and comfort. The Father resides in heaven and yet He hears our prayers. This is a mystery of mysteries to the unregenerate mind. But to the spiritual man, it is the greatest privilege.

The phrase “in heaven” refers to heaven as the centre of the universe and the seat of all authority, power, dominion and greatness. God the Father in heaven is in the seat of all authority and all power.

Therefore, when we pray, “Our Father in heaven”, we are proclaiming that He has authority and power to hear you and to help you when you pray.

The psalmist in psalm 121 speaks in faith to His Maker, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” The LORD indeed is our Helper. So often in trial and testing, we look for help everywhere other than God. The psalmist affirms that the origin and author of his help is God, the unseen Father in heaven. This is seen by the phrase, my help “cometh from.” In the original, it consists of two prepositions “from” and “with” or “beside.” My help is from God who is not far away but by my side! Will you not call to Him?

“Let us draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children of a father, able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.” (Shorter Catechism)

 

An Eye That Never Sleeps

There is an eye that never sleeps,

Beneath the wing of night;

There is an ear that never shuts,

When sink the beams of light;

There is an arm that never tires.

When human strength gives way;

There is a love that never fails,

When earthly loves decay.

—Selected[5]

CONCLUSION

May God give to us understanding as we seek Him. It must give to us much comfort and strength and hope through the hardness of life. Amen.

[1] Ray Pritchard, And When you Pray, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002, 41.

[2] R. Ken Hughes, Abba Father, Crossway Books, 1986, 18.

[3] Ray Pritchard, And When you Pray, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002, 36-7.

[4] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, IVP, 2003, 372.

[5] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (488). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.