LORD's Prayer

Good morning One River,

A few weeks ago, we looked at prayer as our main weapon in the fight of spiritual warfare. We learned that we have only two types of prayer at our disposal in this fight; deprecatory prayer – This is when we ask God to cast out demons or evil spirits. And Imprecatory prayers – this is when we, under the authority of Jesus, command a demon or spirit to leave.

Imprecatory prayers come from the Psalms. They are commands. They are typically associated with the idea of praying for Yahweh’s judgement on someone, curse of someone or the overt command that something bad happen to one’s enemies. But this is not always the case as we’ll see in a minute.

The New Testament and Jesus do not really use imprecatory prayers in this traditional sense, save for the casting out of Demons, and they usually stop short of sending them to a specific place or wishing destruction upon them. But they do choose to model a form of them slightly differently for us.

We’re told to love one another and forgive our enemies. We’re told to ask for forgiveness, not wish condemnation on others.

I have always found the sections in the Gospels on prayer interesting. The Apostles are a large group of generally good Jewish boys. They’ve been saying their prayers since they were old enough to speak. But in Matthew and Luke we see that they come humbly to Jesus and ask him to teach them how to pray.

Jesus’ response is astounding for several reasons. Let’s look at this passage in Mathhew 6:5-15

Matthew 6:5–15 (NIV)

Prayer

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.’

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Jesus starts this with a juxtaposition. Do not pray, like you see others pray. Do not pray loud, in public so that others see you. This is not piety. This is not how we genuinely pray from the heart. He advises them to keep their prayers unseen.

We only see this in the Matthew account. It’s not echoed in Luke. I think there’s a few reasons for that. In Matthew this falls in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is telling the people this in the middle of a large crowd when he’s presenting a picture of the upside-down kingdom. He’s setting this model for prayer against what the general population sees performed by the religious leaders of both the Jewish sect and the pagans. Huge public displays, more for show than for actual appeal to a deity.

Jesus is emphasizing a personal, intimate relationship with Yahweh. He’s also telling this group, likely for the first time ever, that they are worth and capable of praying to Yahweh. That he hears their personal prayers, not just their formulaic ones.

Interestingly, this is exactly what we’ve done with the “LORD’s Prayer”. We’ve made it formulaic. Now personally, I have no problem with formulaic prayers if they express the sentiment that you’re going for in the moment. There are much better prayer warriors than I am, and thank God, they’ve written their hearts plea down and shared it with us. Frankly, because sometimes I have no idea what to say or how to pray.

Verse 9 here, is interesting, and I think often overlooked. “This, then, is how you should pray.”

Jesus’ is giving us an example, not a script. This is the model we should use, not the exact words.

So, what can we learn from this model? There’s some really interesting vocabulary in this prayer. Let’s break it down.

Our Father in Heaven- This is interesting because it moves the hearer back to a verse in Jeremiah 3 where God explains that He was hopeful that the Jewish people would begin to see Yahweh as their Father. As we know the OT does have it’s references to Yahweh as the father, starting in Exodus. But the Jewish people became so reverential for Yahweh they almost never referred to Him as such. As we see in Jesus’ journey, this becomes a type of heresy to them.

The Greek here is both personal with the term Father (Pater) and yet distinguishing for one’s earth father with the term (in Heaven).

The next verse is (hallowed by your name) a more common modern translation is something like Holy is your name.

The Greek vocabulary here is a little enlightening. Older versions of this prayer say things like May you name be Hallowed, May your Kingdom Come, May your will be done.

Anyone know why?

The language used here in the Greek is actually an imperative, it’s a command. Like we talked about at the beginning of today. But when we preface it with something in English like the word ‘may’, it becomes what’s known as an entreaties. An entreaties is a command done in a diplomatic way to someone who outranks you.

There is obviously still reverence here. Jesus loves Yahweh, but this is how he’s teaching us to pray. This is the power of the Gospel message. Jesus is respectfully commanding Yahweh to be holy, to make His will be done ‘on earth’ which is personalized. He’s asking that it be done through us. This is not a passive request. This is not, Oh God fix this for me.

This is God use me, may your will start with me. So that Your kingdom on earth will manifest like your kingdom in heaven.

Even here, before Jesus own death and resurrection, we see what the plan is. Reunification of heaven and earth. Yahweh always getting His way.

Now we get to verse 11. The temper of the prayer seems to shift. This is where it becomes more personalized. So denominations will say that all prayers must focus solely on Yahweh and His majesty so the couch the following parts of this prayer in something like ‘well, we’re still making our appeal for God to act here in accordance with His will.’

That is true, but I think it’s alright to pray for yourself in the eyes of Jesus and Yahweh.

This is where that language gets more interesting.

‘Give us this day, our daily bread.’ – The NIV links this verse to proverbs 30. Which basically says, dear LORD, don’t let me be rich or poor. Just give me what I need each day. I accept that I am dependent on you alone for my very survival.

The word ‘daily’ here in the Greek. Is unclear. In all of Greek literature there is no other place this word is used. As such, we don’t actually know what it means. We’re asking Yahweh to give us each day, some type of bread. There’s an argument that it may mean tomorrow’s bread. Give us just enough to prepare for the next day. But we don’t really know.

However, it’s clear, this is a statement of dependence. We need Yahweh for our earthly survival.

‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.’- This is well known. And Jesus knew this would be a stumbling block, which is why he finished the prayer and immediately explained in verses 14-15 that he meant exactly that. We must forgive, or God will not forgive us.

We are indebted to Yahweh for the forgiveness of our sins. Only be forgiving the sins of others can we truly appreciate the act the Jesus has performed for us.

Then it closes out with ‘lead us not into temptation (or testing), but deliver us from evil (or the evil One).

Temptation has a more open moral meaning. Temptation can just happen. But testing is seen as something orchestrated. The overt will of God the we be tested. The Greek word here can mean either so depending on your personal theological beliefs that’s usually how we recite this prayer.

The final word in this section is ‘evil’, there is no one attached. Again, this is a theological issue. The word in Greek here is ambiguous. It can mean Evil in general, or the evil one (Ha Satan).

Again, this goes back to your understanding of the Divine Council Worldview. Does all evil in the world come directly from Satan? Or are there other culprits as well?

Some new manuscripts have added verses between 13 and 14 here. ‘For yours is the Kingdom, power and glory, forever and ever. Amen’

I personally grew up in the Roman church so this verse is stuck in my mental computer. But it’s not actually in any of the older texts, and it doesn’t show up in the modern Bibles. I don’t think it does any theological harm to the prayer. But there are some serious questions as to weather or not Jesus actually said them.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Well, two reasons. First, I’ve been promising for a while to walk us through the LORD’s prayer. But also, because I want you to see the power here.

In this prayer, Jesus is calling for Yahweh to act in our lives. This would have been a foreign concept to the ancient Jewish population. Jesus is reworking the model of prayer that would have been used at the time. No one had any idea they could pray with command, with authority. We are able to pray with the authority of Yahweh, of Jesus.

Yahweh will act, if we ask Him to. Did you guys know this prayer is actually a call to action. We’re begging Yahweh to act in our lives; to protect us, to forgive us.

This entire section starts with “this is how you should pray.”

We often take this to be a script for prayer, it’s not. It’s actually a model for the way we should pray. Pray, like you have the authority Jesus gave you. You have the authority to politely, yet commandingly ask Yahweh to work in your life.

He is the king; we are the subjects. He is the Father; we are the children. But, as such, we have the authority to, diplomatically, demand protection, provision and the like.

We’re big in this country about demanding our rights.As citizens of this country, we have certain rights granted to us by our constitution. We have the ability and responsibility to demand those rights from our rulers.

I know, I know, our rulers are supposed to be duly elected servants of the people. But I think we all know better, At the end of the day, they rule over us.

We as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, have the ability to strongly request protection, and provision.

Jesus was modeling this for us. “This is how you should pray”.

It was revolutionary thinking for the time. I think in many churches today, it’s still revolutionary thinking. Yahweh loves you. Not just as a citizen, but also as a child. Request things from Him. Even strongly worded. He will respond.

We are invited into relationship, as such, we should strive to have active and candid conversations with Yahweh about our needs. He doesn’t mind. You’re not overstepping or putting upon Him. Ask, just ask!

When we relate this to the DCW and Spiritual warfare, this is an important piece of the equation. No Yahweh is not obligated to do whatever you ask. He’s still not a slot machine. But He genuinely desires the best for you. Ask, even dynamically. Yahweh wants more of you.

Know the positions of authority you hold, and what you don’t. You cannot command the supernatural world. Demons and wicked elohim are not required to do what you ask. But if you prepare yourself, if you ask in Jesus’ name and if the subject of supernatural affliction is ready to release their relationship with evil, then you can cast out the enemy.

Jesus tells us to ask for protection from evil. He knew supernatural conflict was coming. He worked this into the model for prayer, he showed us.

Your greatest weapon in this life is prayer. Use it to its fullest.

Questions?