Teaching Sermon: Introduction to Prayer

When teaching about prayer, Jesus says, “don’t be phony.” We talked last Sunday about Jesus makes it possible to talk to God. Jesus opens the way for little, ol’ people like us to talk to the Lord God Almighty enthroned in heavenly glory and holiness.

Today’s first message about prayer is that you’re invited to be authentic. No need to put on a show! If your goal is to impress people with how holy you are or how well you pray, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

Mt 5, 6, & 7 is often called the “Sermon on the Mount” because, as Matthew tells it, Jeus went up a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came and he taught them.  

As he teaches, Jesus corrects misunderstandings about prayer and people’s relationship with God. Looking at examples in their religious culture gave Jesus’ disciples some wrong ideas about how to pray. Jesus addresses the way the religious elites, particularly members of a religious group called the Pharisees, earned their reputation for being holy.

Let’s zoom out a little. In the first lines of Mt 6, Jesus introduces the theme of the chapter:

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. Matthew 6:1 (NIV)

Let’s read the topic sentence from the following sections:

Matthew 6:2 (NIV)

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others.

Matthew 6:5 (NIV)

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.

Matthew 6:16 (NIV)

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.

Each time Jesus says,

“Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

What do you think he means? (pause)

If you’re doing good to gain a reputation among people, that’s all you’ll get. God won’t reward people if it’s not done for him.

Is there a wrong way to pray then? Yes!

If my purpose in praying is to get people to say, “Wow, is Harold ever good at praying!” that’s a far as my prayer gets.

If my goal is human praise, am I even praying?

Who is the audience?

Prayer, by definition, is “talking to God.” If I’m mainly trying to impress people, I’m not really praying at all. It’s a speech. It’s not really talking to God. It’s no longer prayer. It’s phony.

Jesus warns his disciples against being sanctimonious.

Don’t “make a show of being morally superior.” Don’t be a religious phony, not with any good deeds, and certainly not with prayer. You can be an example in giving, prayer, and fasting. But it’s only helpful if God is your primary audience.

The gospel-writers, Mt, Mk, Lk, and Jn, describe Jesus’ example: giving food to thousands of hungry people, praying privately and publicly, and Jesus fasted, most notably for 40 days in the wilderness immediately after his baptism. Jesus did it all with pure motives and not even a hint of sinful pride.

Its not just Jesus’ examples in the Bible. In the NT book of Acts, Luke records the apostles giving, praying, and fasting too.

In Acts 4, Barnabas sells a field and gives the money to the church. Another couple in the church, Ananias & Sapphira, get in trouble with God for copying him to earn human praise. You can read the details in Acts 5.

Also in Acts 4, when Peter and John were released from custody after being arrested for preaching, the believers “raised their voices together in prayer to God.”

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Acts 4:31 (NIV)

In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas fast after being set aside as church planters and again in Acts 14 they go without food before appointing elders in the churches they planted.

These examples show Jesus’ disciples authentically worshipped God. It’s not sanctimonious displays for others.

In my experience, Jesus’ warning makes the wrong people worried. It’s ministers, elders, and high-profile leaders who are most tempted to act sanctimonious. People who worry about drawing attention to their good deeds aren’t usually virtue-signalling in the way Jesus warns against.

When I was in gr. 4, our class was taught how to write a letter. We started with how to address the letter: “Dear Grandma.” That’s also where Jesus starts teaching about prayer: “Dear Father in heaven.” We’re taught to address God, not the people who might be listening.

In a recent new members’ class, I was asked how to pray. Now that we’ve figured out how to address God, what do we say?

Jesus gives disciples a model prayer, often called “the Lord’s Prayer.” We’ll work our way through it briefly.

We won’t dig as deeply as we could. More than once, I’ve done a 10-part sermon series on this prayer.

This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

“Our” – communal prayer, not solo. Faith is a team sport!

Right off the top, there’s a mix of intimacy and reverence. Because of Jesus, you can call the Lord God Almighty, “Father.”

Kind of funny: the pope is called “your holiness” but you can call God Almighty, enthroned in heaven, simply: “Father.”

Yet the first request is, “hallowed be your name.” We’re expressing our hope and desire is that our heavenly Father gets the respect and honour he deserves. Not just from others, it’s a request that God helps us to uphold God’s reputation and honour with our words and actions.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This is a request that God is recognized as Lord and ruler of every part of the world. It’s on a big scale: nations, multinational companies, and continents are subject to God.

And it’s on a small scale: our homes, cars, and pocket change are all part of God’s kingdom, under his authority. It’s all to be used according to God’s instructions. We’re asking for God’s help to be as obedient and faithful as God’s angels in heaven.

To pray: “Give us today our daily bread” is a confession that everything we need comes from God. The Lord knows what we need, but like a parent who makes their child a sandwich of lunch, our heavenly Father expects his children to say please and thank-you. And it’s not just bread, of course. We’re asking God to take care of all our physical needs. We admit that everything we need and everything we have comes from God. We’re trusting God alone to provide for us.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9–13 (NIV)

Jesus reminds us of the problem of sin. Sin divides us from the people around us. Sin separates us from God. God punishes sin.

There’s nothing we can do to fix our relationship with God than to accept God’s offer of forgiveness through Jesus. It’s an amazing swap: Jesus takes all our sin, guilt, and shame to the cross. He dies for our wrongdoing.

In exchange, Jesus offers forgiveness and renewed relationship with God. Jesus’ heavenly Father becomes your heavenly Father. Restored relationship! We get to talk to God!

As we grow in faith and are renewed and transformed by God the Holy Spirit, we’re invited to do something difficult. It’s tough to pray: “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Yet we’re call to forgive those who sin against us.

Much later in Mattthew’s gospel, ch. 18, Jesus tells a parable to show the importance of forgiving others as we have been forgiven:

A man owed the king 10 000 bags of gold. He couldn’t pay, so the king ordered all his stuff, including him and his family, sold to at least get pennies on the dollar of his enormous debt. The guy begged for more time. The king relented. He forgave the whole debt: all 10 000 bags of gold – didn’t have to repay any.

On his way out from the king, the man encountered a guy who owed him 100 silver coins – not much compared to 10 000 bags of gold!

He demanded his buddy pay it back immediately. When his buddy asked for more time, he had him thrown in the poorhouse until he paid back the debt.

The king heard about this and called his servant back in:

‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’

In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Matthew 18:32–35 (NIV)

The Lord’s Prayer teaches us about our relationship with God. It is a model prayer. It’s a prayer you can use regularly. At home our family prays this prayer in unison after supper, just as we did in my parents’ home growing up.

But as a model prayer, it is also helpful for shaping the prayers you pray in your own words. Think about the structure:

Personal address,

praising God, concern that nobody disrespects him

yearning for his kingdom to rule over all creation,

requesting that God provide our daily needs,

But also, that God shapes our response to the gospel: the amazing forgiveness of our sins and the gift of reconciliation with God. It’s not enough just to be reconciled to God; we’re expected – in reliance on God’s transforming work in our hearts – to fix broken bridges with others, even when they’ve hurt us badly.

It's tough. I’m still working on it too.