Great Commission Ministry Bible Study 3

The Disciple’S Prayer

The Disciple’S Prayer

‘So, then, pray in this way:

Our Father in heaven, let your name be held holy:

Let your kingdom come:

Let your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth:

Give us today bread for the coming day:

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors:

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For, if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you too; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 228). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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Before we begin to think about the Lord’s Prayer in detail, there are certain general facts which we will do well to remember about it.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 228). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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We must note, first of all, that this is a prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Both Matthew and Luke are clear about that. Matthew sets the whole Sermon on the Mount in the context of the disciples (); and Luke tells us that Jesus taught this prayer in response to the request of one of his disciples (). The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer which only a disciple can pray; it is a prayer which only those who are committed to Jesus Christ can take upon their lips with any meaning.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 228). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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The Lord’s Prayer is not a child’s prayer, as it is so often regarded; it is, in fact, not meaningful for a child. The Lord’s Prayer is not the Family Prayer as it is sometimes called, unless by the word family we mean the family of the Church. The Lord’s Prayer is specifically and definitely stated to be the disciple’s prayer; and only on the lips of a disciple has the prayer its full meaning. To put it in another way, the Lord’s Prayer can only really be prayed when those who pray it know what they are saying, and they cannot know that until they have entered into discipleship.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 228–229). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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We must note the order of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer. The first three petitions have to do with God and with the glory of God; the second three petitions have to do with our needs and our necessities. That is to say, God is first given his supreme place—and then, and only then, do we turn to ourselves and our needs and desires. It is only when God is given his proper place that all other things fall into their proper places. Prayer must never be an attempt to bend the will of God to our desires; prayer ought always to be an attempt to submit our wills to the will of God.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 229). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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The second part of the prayer, the part which deals with our needs and our necessities, is a marvellously created unity. It deals with the three essential human needs and the three spheres of time within which we all move. First, it asks for bread, for that which is necessary for the maintenance of life, and thereby brings the needs of the present to the throne of God. Second, it asks for forgiveness and thereby brings the past into the presence of God. Third, it asks for help in temptation and thereby commits all the future into the hands of God. In these three brief petitions, we are taught to lay the present, the past and the future before the footstool of the grace of God.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 229). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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But not only is this a prayer which brings the whole of life to the presence of God; it is also a prayer which brings the whole of God to our lives. When we ask for bread to sustain our earthly lives, that request immediately directs our thoughts to God the Father, the Creator and the Sustainer of all life. When we ask for forgiveness, that request immediately directs our thoughts to God the Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour and Redeemer. When we ask for help for future temptation, that request immediately directs our thoughts to God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Strengthener, the Illuminator, the Guide and the Guardian of our way.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 229–230). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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In the most amazing way, this brief second part of the Lord’s Prayer takes the present, the past and the future, the whole of human life, and presents them to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, to God in all his fullness. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to bring the whole of life to the whole of God, and to bring the whole of God to the whole of life.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 230). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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The Father in Heaven

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Our Father in heaven.

It might well be said that the word Father used of God is a compact summary of the Christian faith. The great value of this word Father is that it settles all the relationships of this life.

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(1) It settles our relationship to the unseen world. Missionaries tell us that one of the greatest reliefs which Christianity brings to the minds and hearts of those who hold a primitive religious belief is the certainty that there is only one God. For those who hold such beliefs, there are hordes of gods; every stream and river, and tree and valley, and hill and wood, and every natural force has its own god. Their world is crowded with gods. Still further, all these gods are jealous, grudging and hostile. They must all be placated, and people can never be sure that they have not omitted the honour due to some of these gods. The consequence is that the people live in terror of the gods; they are haunted and not helped by their religion.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 230–231). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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The most significant Greek legend of the gods is the legend of Prometheus. Prometheus was a god. It was in the days before people possessed fire; and life without fire was a cheerless and a comfortless thing. In pity, Prometheus took fire from heaven and gave it as a gift to human beings. Zeus, the king of the gods, was mightily angry that they should receive this gift. So he took Prometheus and chained him to a rock in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, where he was tortured with the heat and the thirst of the day and with the cold of the night. Even more, Zeus prepared a vulture to tear out Prometheus’ liver, which always grew again, only to be torn out again.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 231). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

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That is what happened to the god who tried to help men and women. The whole conception is that the gods are jealous, vengeful and grudging; and the last thing the gods wish to do is to help the human race. That is the pagan idea of the attitude of the unseen world to human beings, and it means that people are haunted by the fear of a horde of jealous and grudging gods. So, when we discover that the God to whom we pray has the name and the heart of a father, it makes literally all the difference in the world. We need no longer shiver before a horde of jealous gods; we can rest in a father’s love.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 231). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

(2) It settles our relationship to the seen world, to this world of space and time in which we live. It is easy to think of this world as a hostile world. There are the chances and the changes of life; there are the iron laws of the universe which we break at our peril; there is suffering and death; but if we can be sure that behind this world there is not a capricious, jealous, mocking god, but a God whose name is Father, then although much may still remain dark, all is now bearable because behind all is love. It will always help us if we regard this world as organized not for our comfort but for our training.

(2) It settles our relationship to the seen world, to this world of space and time in which we live. It is easy to think of this world as a hostile world. There are the chances and the changes of life; there are the iron laws of the universe which we break at our peril; there is suffering and death; but if we can be sure that behind this world there is not a capricious, jealous, mocking god, but a God whose name is Father, then although much may still remain dark, all is now bearable because behind all is love. It will always help us if we regard this world as organized not for our comfort but for our training.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 231–232). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

Take, for instance, pain. Pain might seem a bad thing, but pain has its place in the order of God. It sometimes happens that people are constituted in such a way that they are incapable of feeling pain. Such people are a danger to themselves and a problem to everyone else. If there were no such thing as pain, we would never know that we were ill, and often we would die before steps could be taken to deal with any disease or illness. That is not to say that pain cannot become a bad thing, but it is to say that more often than not pain is God’s red light to tell us that there is danger ahead.

Take, for instance, pain. Pain might seem a bad thing, but pain has its place in the order of God. It sometimes happens that people are constituted in such a way that they are incapable of feeling pain. Such people are a danger to themselves and a problem to everyone else. If there were no such thing as pain, we would never know that we were ill, and often we would die before steps could be taken to deal with any disease or illness. That is not to say that pain cannot become a bad thing, but it is to say that more often than not pain is God’s red light to tell us that there is danger ahead.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 232). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

The eighteenth-century German scholar G. E. Lessing used to say that if he had one question to ask the Sphinx, it would be: ‘Is this a friendly universe?’ If we can be certain that the name of the God who created this world is Father, then we can also be certain that fundamentally this is a friendly universe. To call God Father is to settle our relationship to the world in which we live.

The eighteenth-century German scholar G. E. Lessing used to say that if he had one question to ask the Sphinx, it would be: ‘Is this a friendly universe?’ If we can be certain that the name of the God who created this world is Father, then we can also be certain that fundamentally this is a friendly universe. To call God Father is to settle our relationship to the world in which we live.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 232). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.v

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The Father in Heaven

Our Father in heaven.

It might well be said that the word Father used of God is a compact summary of the Christian faith. The great value of this word Father is that it settles all the relationships of this life.

(1) It settles our relationship to the unseen world. Missionaries tell us that one of the greatest reliefs which Christianity brings to the minds and hearts of those who hold a primitive religious belief is the certainty that there is only one God. For those who hold such beliefs, there are hordes of gods; every stream and river, and tree and valley, and hill and wood, and every natural force has its own god. Their world is crowded with gods. Still further, all these gods are jealous, grudging and hostile. They must all be placated, and people can never be sure that they have not omitted the honour due to some of these gods. The consequence is that the people live in terror of the gods; they are haunted and not helped by their religion.

(1) It settles our relationship to the unseen world. Missionaries tell us that one of the greatest reliefs which Christianity brings to the minds and hearts of those who hold a primitive religious belief is the certainty that there is only one God. For those who hold such beliefs, there are hordes of gods; every stream and river, and tree and valley, and hill and wood, and every natural force has its own god. Their world is crowded with gods. Still further, all these gods are jealous, grudging and hostile. They must all be placated, and people can never be sure that they have not omitted the honour due to some of these gods. The consequence is that the people live in terror of the gods; they are haunted and not helped by their religion.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 230–231). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

The most significant Greek legend of the gods is the legend of Prometheus. Prometheus was a god. It was in the days before people possessed fire; and life without fire was a cheerless and a comfortless thing. In pity, Prometheus took fire from heaven and gave it as a gift to human beings. Zeus, the king of the gods, was mightily angry that they should receive this gift. So he took Prometheus and chained him to a rock in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, where he was tortured with the heat and the thirst of the day and with the cold of the night. Even more, Zeus prepared a vulture to tear out Prometheus’ liver, which always grew again, only to be torn out again.

The most significant Greek legend of the gods is the legend of Prometheus. Prometheus was a god. It was in the days before people possessed fire; and life without fire was a cheerless and a comfortless thing. In pity, Prometheus took fire from heaven and gave it as a gift to human beings. Zeus, the king of the gods, was mightily angry that they should receive this gift. So he took Prometheus and chained him to a rock in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, where he was tortured with the heat and the thirst of the day and with the cold of the night. Even more, Zeus prepared a vulture to tear out Prometheus’ liver, which always grew again, only to be torn out again.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 231). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

That is what happened to the god who tried to help men and women. The whole conception is that the gods are jealous, vengeful and grudging; and the last thing the gods wish to do is to help the human race. That is the pagan idea of the attitude of the unseen world to human beings, and it means that people are haunted by the fear of a horde of jealous and grudging gods. So, when we discover that the God to whom we pray has the name and the heart of a father, it makes literally all the difference in the world. We need no longer shiver before a horde of jealous gods; we can rest in a father’s love.

That is what happened to the god who tried to help men and women. The whole conception is that the gods are jealous, vengeful and grudging; and the last thing the gods wish to do is to help the human race. That is the pagan idea of the attitude of the unseen world to human beings, and it means that people are haunted by the fear of a horde of jealous and grudging gods. So, when we discover that the God to whom we pray has the name and the heart of a father, it makes literally all the difference in the world. We need no longer shiver before a horde of jealous gods; we can rest in a father’s love.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 231). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

(2) It settles our relationship to the seen world, to this world of space and time in which we live. It is easy to think of this world as a hostile world. There are the chances and the changes of life; there are the iron laws of the universe which we break at our peril; there is suffering and death; but if we can be sure that behind this world there is not a capricious, jealous, mocking god, but a God whose name is Father, then although much may still remain dark, all is now bearable because behind all is love. It will always help us if we regard this world as organized not for our comfort but for our training.

(2) It settles our relationship to the seen world, to this world of space and time in which we live. It is easy to think of this world as a hostile world. There are the chances and the changes of life; there are the iron laws of the universe which we break at our peril; there is suffering and death; but if we can be sure that behind this world there is not a capricious, jealous, mocking god, but a God whose name is Father, then although much may still remain dark, all is now bearable because behind all is love. It will always help us if we regard this world as organized not for our comfort but for our training.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 231–232). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

Take, for instance, pain. Pain might seem a bad thing, but pain has its place in the order of God. It sometimes happens that people are constituted in such a way that they are incapable of feeling pain. Such people are a danger to themselves and a problem to everyone else. If there were no such thing as pain, we would never know that we were ill, and often we would die before steps could be taken to deal with any disease or illness. That is not to say that pain cannot become a bad thing, but it is to say that more often than not pain is God’s red light to tell us that there is danger ahead.

Take, for instance, pain. Pain might seem a bad thing, but pain has its place in the order of God. It sometimes happens that people are constituted in such a way that they are incapable of feeling pain. Such people are a danger to themselves and a problem to everyone else. If there were no such thing as pain, we would never know that we were ill, and often we would die before steps could be taken to deal with any disease or illness. That is not to say that pain cannot become a bad thing, but it is to say that more often than not pain is God’s red light to tell us that there is danger ahead.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 232). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

The eighteenth-century German scholar G. E. Lessing used to say that if he had one question to ask the Sphinx, it would be: ‘Is this a friendly universe?’ If we can be certain that the name of the God who created this world is Father, then we can also be certain that fundamentally this is a friendly universe. To call God Father is to settle our relationship to the world in which we live.

The eighteenth-century German scholar G. E. Lessing used to say that if he had one question to ask the Sphinx, it would be: ‘Is this a friendly universe?’ If we can be certain that the name of the God who created this world is Father, then we can also be certain that fundamentally this is a friendly universe. To call God Father is to settle our relationship to the world in which we live.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 232). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

(3) If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to one another. If God is Father, he is Father of all people. The Lord’s Prayer does not teach us to pray My Father; it teaches us to pray Our Father. It is very significant that in the Lord’s Prayer the words I, me and mine never occur; it is true to say that Jesus came to take these words out of life and to put in their place we, us and ours. God is no one’s exclusive possession. The very phrase Our Father involves the elimination of self. The fatherhood of God is the only possible basis of human relationships.

(3) If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to one another. If God is Father, he is Father of all people. The Lord’s Prayer does not teach us to pray My Father; it teaches us to pray Our Father. It is very significant that in the Lord’s Prayer the words I, me and mine never occur; it is true to say that Jesus came to take these words out of life and to put in their place we, us and ours. God is no one’s exclusive possession. The very phrase Our Father involves the elimination of self. The fatherhood of God is the only possible basis of human relationships.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 232–233). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

(4) If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to ourselves. There are times for each and every one of us when we despise and hate ourselves. We know that we are lower than the lowest thing that crawls upon the earth. The heart knows its own bitterness, and no one knows our unworthiness better than we do ourselves.

(4) If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to ourselves. There are times for each and every one of us when we despise and hate ourselves. We know that we are lower than the lowest thing that crawls upon the earth. The heart knows its own bitterness, and no one knows our unworthiness better than we do ourselves.

The writer Mark Rutherford wished to add a new beatitude: ‘Blessed are those who heal us of our self-despisings.’ Blessed are those who give us back our self-respect. That is precisely what God does. In these grim, bleak, terrible moments, we can still remind ourselves that, even if we matter to no one else, we matter to God; that in the infinite mercy of God we are of royal lineage, children of the King of Kings.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 233). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

(5) If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to God. It is not that it removes the might, majesty and power of God. It is not that it makes God any the less God; but it makes that might, and majesty, and power approachable for us.

(5) If we believe that God is Father, it settles our relationship to God. It is not that it removes the might, majesty and power of God. It is not that it makes God any the less God; but it makes that might, and majesty, and power approachable for us.

There is an old Roman story which tells how a Roman emperor was enjoying a triumph. He had the privilege, which Rome gave to her great victors, of marching his troops through the streets of Rome, with all his captured trophies and his prisoners in his train. So the emperor was on the march with his troops. The streets were lined with cheering people. The tall legionaries lined the streets’ edges to keep the people in their places. At one point on the triumphal route, there was a little platform where the empress and her family were sitting to watch the emperor go by in all the pride of his triumph. On the platform with his mother, there was the emperor’s youngest son, a little boy. As the emperor came near, the little boy jumped off the platform, burrowed through the crowd and tried to dodge between the legs of a legionary and to run out on to the road to meet his father’s chariot. The legionary stooped down and stopped him. He swung him up in his arms: ‘You can’t do that, boy,’ he said. ‘Don’t you know who that is in the chariot? That’s the emperor. You can’t run out to his chariot.’ And the little boy laughed down. ‘He may be your emperor,’ he said, ‘but he’s my father.’ That is exactly the way the Christian feels towards God. The might, and the majesty, and the power are the might, and the majesty, and the power of one whom Jesus taught us to call Our Father.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 233–234). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

So far, we have been thinking of the first two words of this address to God—Our Father; but God is not only Our Father, he is Our Father who is in heaven. The last words are of primary importance. They conserve two great truths.

So far, we have been thinking of the first two words of this address to God—Our Father; but God is not only Our Father, he is Our Father who is in heaven. The last words are of primary importance. They conserve two great truths.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 234). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

(1) They remind us of the holiness of God. It is very easy to cheapen and to sentimentalize the whole idea of the fatherhood of God, and to make it an excuse for an easy-going, comfortable religion. ‘He’s a good fellow and all will be well.’ As the German poet Heinrich Heine said of God: ‘God will forgive. It is his trade.’ If we were to say Our Father, and stop there, there might be some excuse for that; but it is Our Father in heaven to whom we pray. The love is there, but the holiness is there, too.

The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1 The Father in Heaven (Matthew 6:9 Contd)

(1) They remind us of the holiness of God. It is very easy to cheapen and to sentimentalize the whole idea of the fatherhood of God, and to make it an excuse for an easy-going, comfortable religion. ‘He’s a good fellow and all will be well.’ As the German poet Heinrich Heine said of God: ‘God will forgive. It is his trade.’ If we were to say Our Father, and stop there, there might be some excuse for that; but it is Our Father in heaven to whom we pray. The love is there, but the holiness is there, too.

It is extraordinary how seldom Jesus used the word Father in regard to God. Mark’s gospel is the earliest gospel, and is therefore the nearest thing we will ever have to an actual report of all that Jesus said and did; and in Mark’s gospel Jesus calls God Father only six times, and never outside the circle of the disciples. To Jesus, the word Father was so sacred that he could hardly bear to use it; and he could never use it except among those who had grasped something of what it meant.

We must never use the word Father in regard to God cheaply, easily and sentimentally. God is not an easy-going parent who tolerantly shuts his eyes to all sins and faults and mistakes. This God, whom we can call Father, is the God whom we must still approach with reverence and adoration, and awe and wonder. God is our Father in heaven, and in God there is love and holiness combined.

(1) They remind us of the holiness of God. It is very easy to cheapen and to sentimentalize the whole idea of the fatherhood of God, and to make it an excuse for an easy-going, comfortable religion. ‘He’s a good fellow and all will be well.’ As the German poet Heinrich Heine said of God: ‘God will forgive. It is his trade.’ If we were to say Our Father, and stop there, there might be some excuse for that; but it is Our Father in heaven to whom we pray. The love is there, but the holiness is there, too.

It is extraordinary how seldom Jesus used the word Father in regard to God. Mark’s gospel is the earliest gospel, and is therefore the nearest thing we will ever have to an actual report of all that Jesus said and did; and in Mark’s gospel Jesus calls God Father only six times, and never outside the circle of the disciples. To Jesus, the word Father was so sacred that he could hardly bear to use it; and he could never use it except among those who had grasped something of what it meant.

We must never use the word Father in regard to God cheaply, easily and sentimentally. God is not an easy-going parent who tolerantly shuts his eyes to all sins and faults and mistakes. This God, whom we can call Father, is the God whom we must still approach with reverence and adoration, and awe and wonder. God is our Father in heaven, and in God there is love and holiness combined.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 234–235). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press

(2) They remind us of the power of God. In human love, there is so often the tragedy of frustration. We may love people and yet be unable to help them achieve something, or to stop them doing something. Human love can be intense—and quite helpless. Any parent with an erring child, or any lover with a wandering loved one, knows that. But when we say Our Father—in heaven, we place two things side by side. We place side by side the love of God and the power of God. We tell ourselves that the power of God is always motivated by the love of God, and can never be exercised for anything but our good; we tell ourselves that the love of God is backed by the power of God, and that therefore its purposes can never be ultimately frustrated or defeated. It is love of which we think, but it is the love of God. When we pray Our Father in heaven, we must always remember the holiness of God, and we must always remember the power which moves in love, and the love which has behind it the undefeatable power of God.

(2) They remind us of the power of God. In human love, there is so often the tragedy of frustration. We may love people and yet be unable to help them achieve something, or to stop them doing something. Human love can be intense—and quite helpless. Any parent with an erring child, or any lover with a wandering loved one, knows that. But when we say Our Father—in heaven, we place two things side by side. We place side by side the love of God and the power of God. We tell ourselves that the power of God is always motivated by the love of God, and can never be exercised for anything but our good; we tell ourselves that the love of God is backed by the power of God, and that therefore its purposes can never be ultimately frustrated or defeated. It is love of which we think, but it is the love of God. When we pray Our Father in heaven, we must always remember the holiness of God, and we must always remember the power which moves in love, and the love which has behind it the undefeatable power of God.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 235). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.