Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Last week we began a short study on the subject of prayer.

As we consider this subject of prayer, I’ve chosen to do so by taking a look at what is commonly referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Last week was an “introductory” look at prayer.

We considered things such as “WHAT IS PRAYER”, “WHY DO WE PRAY” and also “HOW SHOULD WE APPROACH PRAYER”.

This week we are going to start our look at “The Lord’s Prayer” itself.

As we do that, I’d like us to recall the fact that this is a prayer that Jesus taught to His disciples when one of them asked Him to “teach us how to pray” (Luke 11).

As such, we need to realise and keep in mind that this prayer is a “Model Prayer.”

Being a “Model Prayer”, we should realise that this is not so much a prayer to be used to repeat after Jesus over and over again (although saying the prayer as is, is certainly acceptable) but rather it is a prayer that should be used to guide us in terms of the structure that may be wisely applied as we bring our petitions before God.

It is in this model prayer that Jesus teaches His disciples the FRAMEWORK for their prayers going forward.

And He has graciously left us with that framework, as recorded in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, so that we may be guided in our own prayers.

With that in mind, today we are going to be considering just the first line of the model prayer: “OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN”.

In this first line of the prayer, we see who it is that we are addressing as we come to prayer, and also where He is positioned.

We will thus consider this opening line under 2 main headings:

1) God’s Paternity in Prayer

2) God’s Position in Prayer

As we do this, I’d like us to keep in mind that if we fail to properly comprehend WHO IT IS that we address in prayer, it will dramatically affect our attitude with which we approach prayer, and also our expectations of what God would choose to do through prayer.

We MUST get this right!

1) God’s Paternity in Prayer

The “Paternity” of God speaks of Him being a “father.”

Christ teaches His disciples that when they come to pray to God, they should address Him as “Our Father.”

Perhaps we are so familiar with the term, and so used to calling God “our Father” that the significance of the phrase is in fact lost on us.

But we must realise that there are significant implications for us as we address God as our Father.

As we consider this manner of addressing God as our Father, I want to point out 4 important aspects that we should keep in mind as we address God as our Father.

1.1) God’s Paternity is Christ-Centred

As we think about ourselves addressing God as our Father, we need to remember that this is only possible in its truest sense because Jesus Christ was the only begotten of God.

I say “in its truest sense” because in a very broad sense, people tend to consider themselves and ALL people as sons/daughters of God.

In that very broad sense, the prophet Malachi asks the question in Malachi 2:10:

“Have we not all one Father?

Did not one God create us?”

There is that very broad sense in which all created people can speak of God as “Father.”

But that is not the typical and more narrow sense in which God is usually referred to as Father, and specifically I don’t believe that this was how Jesus intended His disciples to be addressing and referring to God when they prayed to Him.

Truly speaking, there are two groups of people in the world: Those who are truly of God their Father in heaven, and those who are of their father, the devil (John 8:44).

What’s interesting and important to realise is that Jews didn’t personally refer to God as their father.

They only did this in a nationalistic sense: God was the Father of Israel.

R.C. Sproul writes this:

“Joachim Jeremias, the German New Testament scholar has done research on the prayers of the ancient Israelite people, and it is his conclusion that there is not a single example anywhere in extant Jewish literature, including the Old Testament, the Talmud, the Targums, and so on until the tenth century A.D. where a Jewish person addresses God directly as “Father.”

That is, it simply wasn’t done.

People would speak of the fatherhood of God among the Jewish people, but no one would address Him directly as, ‘Father.’

Jeremias says you don’t find it until the tenth century A.D. in Italy.

Yet in the New Testament we have the record of a Jew, a Jewish Rabbi, who has many many prayers recorded for posterity, and that in every prayer that he prayed, save one, He directly addressed God as ‘Father.’

And that is Jesus of Nazareth.”

In fact, to drive this very important point home, recall the words in John 5:18 –

“For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

Jesus Christ came into the world and claimed to be the very Son of God, which in the minds of the Jewish people was nothing short of blasphemy.

Psalm 2 is a Psalm which speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ, and it says in verse 7:

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are my Son, Today I have begotten You.”

The word “begotten” does not mean that Jesus was created!

In that well-known hymn, ‘O Come Let Us Adore Him’, we are reminded in one line that Christ was “Begotten not created.”

In John 3:16, if you read it in the KJV or NASB, you will find that it says that “God so loved the world, that He gave his only Begotten Son…”

The word in the Greek speaks of “the only one of its kind within a specific relationship” or simply of being “unique in kind.”

There is NO OTHER SON OF GOD!

In the opening chapter of the book of Hebrews, the writer boldly declares how far exalted the Son is in comparison even to the angels.

He asks the question in Hebrews 1:5,

For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father”?

Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”?

And then in verse 6,

And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Indeed, Jesus Christ is the One and only Son of God.

He was the One who was with God in the beginning, and who WAS God in the beginning (John 1:1).

That then leads us to the consideration that we are sons and daughters of God, and we call on Him as our Father, only when and because we are in relationship with the Father through the only Begotten Son Jesus Christ.

In John 14:21, Jesus says,

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

In the book of Hebrews the writer speaks beautifully of the way that has been opened up for us by the blood of Christ so that we may enter the very presence of God.

Hebrews 10:19-22…

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

It is through the blood of Christ that we have this way opened up for us.

It is through the sonship of Christ that we are able to call on God as our Father, as we are in Christ.

Paul says it these words to the Galatian believers in Galatians 4:4-5…

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Dear brothers and sisters, as we come before God and call on Him as our Father, first and foremost we must remember that it is because of the work of Christ, from His incarnation, through to His crucifixion, His burial, His resurrection, and then His exaltation to the right hand of the Father, that we may approach God as our Father.

As we consider these amazing truths, we must agree with the Apostle John, and he says in 1 John 3:1-3…

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

And that is what we are!

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son.

We are sons and daughters that have been adopted into the family of God through Christ.

As such, every time we call on God as our Father we must do so with deep thankfulness because it reminds of the work of our Saviour on our behalf.

1.2) God’s Paternity is Hope-Giving

When we come to our heavenly Father in prayer, we should do so in much joyful anticipation because of what it means to call on a Father.

There is relationship that we have with God, and that relationship is pictured for us as a Father-child relationship, wherein we may benefit from all of the privileges of being a child of that Father.

What are some of these privileges?

1.2.1)

Our Father Loves Us

If there is one thing that any good Father does, it is to love His children dearly.

And while there may be very poor earthly fathers, let us remain assured that our heavenly Father is perfect in every way, and He loves His children deeply.

God is deeply concerned for the well-being of His children.

In Psalm 103:12-14, we read,

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

Our Father loves us deeply, and He has compassion on us because he understands our frailties and our weaknesses.

He is patient with us, as He tenderly nurtures and cares for us in our spiritual growth.

He longs that we may grow and mature, that we may become wise and live holy lives.

But He understands that this is a process.

He’s a loving Father.

The words of a hymn speak well to this:

1.

The tender love a father has for all his children dear

Such love the Lord bestows on them who worship him in fear.