The Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed Be Your Name
The Lord's Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Scripture reading: Matt 6:9-13
9 Pray then like this: “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 this day 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 evil.
Today we are continuing in our study of the Lord’s Prayer. Two weeks ago, we looked at the first line, “Our Father who art in heaven.” Today we’re looking at “Hallowed be Your name.”
To hallow something is to make it holy. To set something apart. To lift something above all other things.
So when we pray “Hallowed be Your name”, what we saying is, “May Your name, Your reputation, who You are and what You have done, be thought of and acknowledged as holy.”
And what this tells us is that prayer is for God and not for you. Prayer is for God and not for you. Prayer is for God’s action, for God’s purpose, for God’s glory. It is for God and not for you.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
So when we pray, the priority of our prayer must be to hallow the name of God. Our attitude must be one in which we prefer God’s glory to our own. And if that is the case, then we share in the mind of Christ. Isn’t that so precious and wonderful?
I’d like us to really think about this.
Jesus’ entire life fulfilled this prayer of “Hallowed be Your name.”
He only lived to declare the holiness of God. And this is seen most clearly on the cross, where He died for the glory of God.
You see, from the perspective of holiness, sin really says “God is not so glorious.” That’s what sin really says. When we sin, we’re declaring with our actions, “There is something better than God. There’s something else more desireable. There’s something else more worthy.”
So sin mocks the glory of God.
But in order to bring about justice and redemption for sinners, Jesus came forward as the propitiation. He alone could atone for sin. Anything less would be an insult to God’s glory.
Can you imagine getting robbed, and the court decides that it’s enough to compensate you with a chocolate bar? That’s what it’s like if you think the blood of lambs and goats can atone for sin.
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
But Jesus Himself, most holy, most precious, most pure, He died on the cross. Nothing else could atone for sin. And so His death hallowed God’s name and demonstrated God’s glory.
This is most clearly seen in Ezekiel 36:22
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
But some people say, “Isn’t God being selfish or egotistical, that He only wants to glorify His name?”
What is our response? What does the Bible say?
What we see in the Bible is that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the Spirit never seeks to glorify Himself, but always seeks to glorify the Son. The Son never seeks His own glory, but always seeks to glorify the Father. And the Father shares that glory with the Son and the Spirit. One God, three persons.
Let’s look at some bible verses.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
So God isn’t egotistical or self-absorbed. He is love.
Now, finally, when we pray “Hallowed be Your name”, we are also praying for the things on earth that bear God’s name.
This includes God’s church, and this includes the saints.
29 that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.
3 And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
So all of redemptive history moves toward the glory of God. And at its consummation, God shares His immeasurable glory with the saints, because they call God “Our Father”, and that means they are part of God’s household and have inherited God’s name.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
So what this means is, when we pray “Hallowed be Your name”, we’re praying “God, examine my life. Is there anything in me that dishonors Your name? Is there anything in me that is unworthy of Your name? Take it out, remove it, that Your name may be hallowed and glorified.”
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
