The Lord's Prayer--a Bible Study

“The Lord’s Prayer”—Matthew 6.5-15

 

1.    How NOT to pray: Matthew 6.5-8

 

a.    Not like a hypocrite: for outward show

 

                                               i.     Error: Selfishness—obsessed with themselves

 

                                              ii.     Christians focus on God

 

b.    Not like a Gentile (unbeliever): mechanical or magical

 

                                               i.     Error: Mindlessness—just babbling on and on without thinking of what he is saying is doing

 

                                              ii.     Christians engage in prayer with humble thoughtfulness

 

2.    How to pray: “The Lord’s Prayer”

 

a.    Breaks down into two sections

 

                                               i.     vv. 9-10: God-centered focus

 

                                              ii.     vv. 11-13: Human need

 

b.    “Our Father who art in heaven…” (who we pray to)

                                               i.     “Father” (17xs in Sermon on Mount)

 

1.    Relational term

 

2.    Protector and provider

 

3.    Other passages to consider: John 1.12-13; Romans 8.14-17; 2 Corinthians 6.18 (“sons and daughters to me”); Galatians 4.4-7; Ephesians 1.4-5; 1 John 3.1

 

·     Acts 17.28 is a special case; “we also are his children” refers to the fact that God as Creator has made everyone.  Quotation by a pagan poet.

 

4.    “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his father.  If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.”  --J. I. Packer[1]

 

                                              ii.     “… in heaven”

 

1.    Place of power and authority: Psalm 115.1-3

 

2.    Not far removed or unconcerned

 

c.     God-centered focus: petitions relating to God’s name, kingdom, and will

 

                                               i.     “Name” = God’s nature and person

 

                                              ii.     “Hallowed”

 

1.    Seen as good and glorious

 

2.    All peoples everywhere to understand who God is and respond rightly

 

                                            iii.     “Kingdom”—God’s rule and reign

 

1.    Already/Not yet

 

2.    “To pray that his kingdom may ‘come’ is to pray both that it may grow, as through the church’s witness people submit to Jesus, and that soon it will be consummated when Jesus returns in glory to take his power and reign.”  --John Stott[2]

 

                                            iv.     “Will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

 

 

d.    Human focus—our needs

 

                                               i.     “Daily bread”

 

1.    All the things we need to sustain life

 

2.    What does it mean to pray for “daily bread” in the midst of plenty?  

 

a.    Deuteronomy 8: read whole chapter

 

                                                                                                     i.     Verses 11-14: full bellies can produce proud, forgetful hearts

 

                                                                                                    ii.     Verses 16-18: 

 

1.    v. 17: “Otherwise, you might say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.”

 

2.    v. 18: “…for it is he who is giving you power to make wealth…”

 

b.    An antidote to pride and forgetfulness is gratitude and thankfulness!

 

                                                                                                     i.     1 Thessalonians 5.17-18

 

Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks…

 

                                                                                                    ii.     Colossians 4.2

 

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving

 

                                                                                                  iii.     Philippians 4.6

 

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

 

                                              ii.     “Forgive us our debts”

 

1.    We need forgiveness

 

2.    1 John 1.9

 

                                            iii.     “Do not lead us into temptation”[3]

 

1.    Main issue: Asking God not to lead into areas of testing in which we will fail and be overcome by the enemy.

 

2.    “So behind these words that Jesus gave us to pray are the implications that the devil is too strong for us, that we are too weak to stand up to him, but that our heavenly Father will deliver us if we call upon him.”  --John Stott[4]

 

 

                                            iv.     The last three requests of the Lord’s Prayer presuppose something about as us, the praying people…

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

“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.  The tragic mistake of Pharisees and pagans, of hypocrites and heathen, is to be found in their false image of God.  Indeed, neither is really thinking of God at all, for the hypocrite thinks only of himself while the heathen thinks of other things.  What sort of God is it who might be interested in such selfish and mindless prayers?  Is God a commodity that we can use him to boost our own status, or a computer that we can feed words into him mechanically?

 

“From these unworthy notions we turn back with relief to the teaching of Jesus that God is our Father in the heavens.  We need to remember that he loves his children with most tender affection, that he sees his children even in the secret place, that he knows his children and all their needs before they ask him, and that he acts on behalf of his children by his heavenly and kingly power.  If we thus allow Scripture to fashion our image of God, if we recall his character and practise his presence, we shall never pray with hypocrisy but always with integrity, never mechanically but always thoughtfully, like the children of God that we are.”  --John Stott[5]

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     [1]J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1973), 182.

     [2]John Stott, Christian Counter-Culture (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1978), 147.

     [3]For a fuller study on this phrase of the Lord’s Prayer see Lead Us Not Into Temptation but Deliver Us from Evil--a Bible Study.

     [4]John Stott, Christian Counter-Culture (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1978), 150.

     [5]John Stott, Christian Counter-Culture (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1978), 152.