Our Father in Heaven
Notes
Transcript
If there is any action that might be considered central to almost any faith, it is prayer. It is central to Christianity as well, and last week we learned that in what is considered to be the Magna Carta of Jesus teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus put this prayer at the center, of the center, of the center, of the center of his teaching.
The Sermon on the Mount has three parts: an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion.
The main body focuses on righteousness as right relationships with God and with other people.
It also has three parts: looking at righteousness from three perspectives: The Law and the prophets, Religious practices, and right relationships.
Within Jesus teaching on religious practices he focuses on True Reward, True Devotion, and True wealth.
And lastly within that center section on True Devotion Jesus teaches on Generosity, Prayer, and Fasting.
So this puts it at the center of the center of the center of the center of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
So, with that as a recap, let’s jump in to the opening of this prayer, when Jesus begins teaching his disciples to pray:
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
The One and only Son of God invites his audience made up not just of his inner circle, but a crowd of people gathered to hear him. And he invites this crowd to pray the Creator God as “Father.”
The same way that Jesus Himself addresses the God of all creation is the way He invites us to address Him. That itself is stunning.
The Prayer of the Lord Chapter 2: Our Father in Heaven
The German theologian Joachim Jeremias, a New Testament scholar, did a study in which he searched through the Old Testament writings and existent rabbinic writings from ancient Jewish sources. He could not find a single example ever of a Jewish writer or author addressing God directly as Father in prayer until the tenth century AD.
He did find examples of God being addressed as “the Father,” but not directly as a personal address. Jesus invites us to address God directly.
I can’t emphasize this enough. Remember that in Jewish culture they could not bring themselves to say the Name of God out loud. Now Jesus invites them to address God directly as Father, the same way that Jesus’ Himself addresses God.
Again, looking at the words that open this prayer, Jesus begins with the word, “Our”.
Our - it’s plural, first person, possessive.
When we pray we come to God, and we do not come alone. We come as part of a community of faith. Whether we are praying this prayer in a group or we are praying alone we still pray “Our Father”.
When you and I pray no matter when or where we are praying from, we pray as part of a community of faith.
The teacher wrote in the book of Hebrews: Heb 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, …
Men and women throughout the centuries of faith, pray. Jesus did not tell us to pray, “My Father,” but “Our Father.” It’s a powerful thing to think about as we pray. We are not alone.
More than that, when we pray Our Father, we are reminded of what Jesus has done for us.
Every time we pray and say those words, “our Father” we are reminded of and are affirming our adoption that we have been grafted into Christ and have been placed in this intimate relationship with God, a relationship that we did not have by nature. This is a relationship won for us by the perfect obedience of Jesus. It’s not by our works of righteousness, but by what Jesus has done.
I want to go back to our reading from this morning:
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
We’re not slaves, no, we are children of God. John wrote in the first of his pastoral letters: 1Jn 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
The next two words are simply, “in Heaven.”
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
You and I tend to think of heaven as this ethereal place where God lives. We grow up this way. Heaven is up. As a child at about 6, perhaps the first theological question I ever asked was to my mom. “If God lives in heaven and heaven is in the clouds how come when the planes fly over they don’t knock Him off?”
My poor mom. To the Jewish mind and the New Testament culture, the heavens were above everything else. That’s why when translating this passage you may remember from last week’s Bible Project video, it was translated, “Our Father in the skies.” It’s saying that God is above all things.
Then we get to the last phrase in this verse:
… hallowed be your name.
Hallowed - there’s a word we don’t say very often.
Hallowed means holy, set apart, sanctified.
The request is NOT for the name of God to be made Holy, that it might be set apart, or sanctified. It already is all those things. No.
The request is for God’s name to be recognized as holy, set apart, and sanctified.
If we can look at the entirety of the verse again we read: Mt 6:9
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Our Father - head of our family, who is above all things, let your name be recognized as Holy and above all.
I want to focus on the last part of the verse here for a few moments.
How many of you remember the series M.A.S.H.?
M.A.S.H. was a television series depicting life at a mobile army surgical hospital during the Korean War. Late in the series a new character was introduced, Charles Emerson Winchester III. He often considered himself above the others by his pedigree. He often would say things were “beneath that of a Winchester.” Many episodes played into the theme of living up to the standards of the name. Reputation was everything.
One episode he actually goes to the chaplain of the MASH 4077 to hypothetically confess that he may not be worthy of the Winchester name if hypothetically speaking of course he may snore.
In speaking of God’s name being hallowed it is speaking of how God’s Name is represented by those who profess to have faith in this Father God.
The Jews were God’s chosen people. Throughout the journey of the Exodus we read Moses pleading with God to not let the Israelites be wiped out that it might harm God’s reputation among the other nations.
God’s anger burned against the Israelites and we read:
But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
It was protecting the Name of God.
Perhaps you’ve had someone in your family say, “We are (insert your last name here),” followed by something your family is known for doing, or perhaps not doing depending on the situation.
May Your Name be holy, pure, sanctified, set apart.
There is more to this, we need to remember we are image bearers of God. We are created in God’s image. May we reflect God to others. May others know who God is based upon their interactions with us.
…hallowed be your name.
is not an empty phrase! It speaks not only to God’s character and actions, but to the petitioner as well. How do I reflect God’s holiness, sovereignty, etc. to others in my own life?
If we are to pray for God’s name to be set apart, made holy, sanctified, then you and I as bearers of God’s image must strive to reflect that holy image in our own lives.
In the history of Israel we see times when to the casual observer it would seem that God was not on their side. I think of the exile. I think of the time the ark of the covenant was captured, and anyone familiar with the Old Testament and the history of Israel can no doubt name others.
So to summarize, just from this opening phrase:
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Our - we are in community
Father - We are part of God’s family - sisters and brothers of Jesus Himself.
in heaven - we’re praying to the One who is above and first of all things.
hallowed be your name - May our family name be recognized as holy, set apart, sacred.
That depends on all of us.
This simple prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, that rests at the center of the center of the center of the center of His great teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
As I’ve studied it, and we’ve studied it in bible study there’s a lot more here than one might think. I hope that you will take the time to not only be praying this prayer with regularity as Jesus taught his disciples, but also to be meditating on all that this prayer brings to us as to our identity, and our calling as disciples of Jesus.
Amen.
Let me pray for you.
