The Lord's Prayer

Head- What does it mean?

v. 5-8

v. 6

Don’t be like the hypocrites (Jews)

v. 7

Love to pray in public to be seen; self-exaltation.

Don’t be like the Gentiles

v. 8

Babblers, speaking in meaningless repetition, thinking they’ll be heard for their many words

Both (All) people are botching up this prayer thing ()

Instead, Jesus tells His followers:

Pray in secret

Pray with meaningfulness and let yours words be few and drenched with intention ()

Jesus then proceeds to teach His disciples what their prayers should sound like:

v. 9-10

Written in the third person aorist passive imperative

v. 9

Our Father who is in heaven,

God is a Father, what’s more is that He is OUR Father, this means to be His child is to have a personal and intimate relationship with the Creator.

Jesus’s prayer begins with OUR. Not My. This invokes that a notion that prayer is not only to be said in private, but in community.

Our Father is in heaven. Heaven is a place of goodness, righteousness, and holiness. If this is so, then our Father must be too good, right, and holy to be there.

hallowed be Your name.

The present clause is not then a request that it be made holy, as the traditional translation “hallowed” properly means—it is holy already. Rather it is that people may recognize and acknowledge its holiness, by giving God the reverence which is his due

France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 246). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co.

v. 10

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Our Father has a kingdom. He is a king. He is a good, right, and holy king. When we pray, this is Who we are speaking to.

To ask that His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven, we must assume that His will is not being done on earth, otherwise, why should we petition for this?

v. 11-13

Written in the 2nd person aorist active imperative

v. 11

Give us this day our daily bread.

Daily dependence; a child daily depends on their parent. We too depend on God in the same manner.

How does this apply to Christians who walk into a galley where the Navy has provided their meal?

, after Jesus had fasted, after being led by the Holy Spirit to be tested by the devil (), the first trial

v. 12

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Imbedded in this petition is the expectation that as we ask God to forgive us, we too also forgive.

v. 13

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]

Christ is teaching His followers to petition that they would be led away from trials and testing, to be delivered from the evil one.

The petition expresses a single thought: “Life is a spiritual minefield; amid such dangers we dare not trust ourselves; Father, keep us safe.”

This prayer concludes with words of praise to God for His glory (doxology).

Heart- Do I buy it?

Is it possible to say the Lord’s Prayer like the Jews and Gentiles Jesus warns us against?

In looking at v. 8 and 10, knowing that God knows what we need before we ask Him and asking that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, how does it make sense to ask God to act in accord with our prayers?

Why pray at all if He already knows what we need or are going to ask?

Is it our asking for God’s kingdom to come and will to be done on earth that moves God to assert His will?

Perhaps here is as good a place as any to pause and ask what we mean when we say that we petition God. If the Christian tradition is right to call God unchanging, then what sense does it make to ask God to act in accord with our prayers? Is it the case that our asking for God’s kingdom to come and will to be done on earth is what moves God to usher in the kingdom and assert His will?

Martin Luther was one of many Christians who saw clearly that the point of petitionary prayer is not to try to convince God to do something He otherwise would not do. Luther insisted that instead, asking for God’s kingdom and will to be made manifest—which they would be, regardless of our efforts—is about stretching our hearts so that we may learn to desire truer, greater realities. As C. S. Lewis says in the stage play and film Shadowlands, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

3. How do we reconcile v. 13 with ?

3. In looking at v. 10, what expectations come from asking that God’s will be done on earth?

a

Read Matthew 26:36-42

Note, the exact wording of , your will be done, is seen in , your will be done.

And the way that prayer is answered, of course—the way the Father’s will comes to be done on earth, in that hour—is that Jesus is not rescued from His fate. He is arrested, tried, bound, scourged, and crucified. This doesn’t look like the peace of heaven dispelling the darkness of the earth so much as the reverse.

Hill, W. (2019). The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father (p. 43). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

What does this communicate about the will of God on earth as in heaven?

Just so: in a world marked by sin and death, for the will of God—the wholeness, life, and love of God—to take root on earth requires the vanquishing of that sin and death. It won’t do to say that God is only found in moments of obvious health, beauty, and joy. God must also be at work in suffering, in darkness, in torment, because the triumph of God’s love can be assured only if God confronts the horror we’ve made of the world, bears it, and removes it. Only if the will of God mysteriously includes Jesus’ death on a cross can the will of God be guaranteed…

If the heavenly will of God is to be enacted on a sin-scorched earth, then it must also be the will of God for Jesus to enter fully into the pain of that earth. The way to God’s will being done lies through Jesus’ suffering, not through its avoidance. Only by entering into and overcoming the world’s evil can Jesus usher in the healing we pray for.

… If the heavenly will of God is to be enacted on a sin-scorched earth, then it must also be the will of God for Jesus to enter fully into the pain of that earth. The way to God’s will being done lies through Jesus’ suffering, not through its avoidance. Only by entering into and overcoming the world’s evil can Jesus usher in the healing we pray for. The will of God that is done in heaven is clearly the perfect, eternal love of Father, Son, and Spirit, unmarred by any suffering or dying. What is less intuitive—but what Gethsemane and, later, Calvary force us to notice—is that the will of God is also the way of the incarnate Lord into the far country of our suffering and dying, where He is mocked, spit upon, strung up, and left to suffocate. That is what it looks like for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven because that is the only way our earth can be saved.

Just so: in a world marked by sin and death, for the will of God—the wholeness, life, and love of God—to take root on earth requires the vanquishing of that sin and death. It won’t do to say that God is only found in moments of obvious health, beauty, and joy. God must also be at work in suffering, in darkness, in torment, because the triumph of God’s love can be assured only if God confronts the horror we’ve made of the world, bears it, and removes it. Only if the will of God mysteriously includes Jesus’ death on a cross can the will of God be guaranteed.

The will of God that is done in heaven is clearly the perfect, eternal love of Father, Son, and Spirit, unmarred by any suffering or dying. What is less intuitive—but what Gethsemane and, later, Calvary force us to notice—is that the will of God is also the way of the incarnate Lord into the far country of our suffering and dying, where He is mocked, spit upon, strung up, and left to suffocate. That is what it looks like for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven because that is the only way our earth can be saved.

a

Hill, W. (2019). The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father (p. 44). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Just so: in a world marked by sin and death, for the will of God—the wholeness, life, and love of God—to take root on earth requires the vanquishing of that sin and death. It won’t do to say that God is only found in moments of obvious health, beauty, and joy. God must also be at work in suffering, in darkness, in torment, because the triumph of God’s love can be assured only if God confronts the horror we’ve made of the world, bears it, and removes it. Only if the will of God mysteriously includes Jesus’ death on a cross can the will of God be guaranteed.

4. In looking at v. 11, How does this apply to Christians who walk into a galley where the Navy has provided their meal?

Hill, W. (2019). The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father (p. 44). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

, after Jesus had fasted, after being led by the Holy Spirit to be tested by the devil (), the first trial was turning stones into bread. Christ’s response:

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ”

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

5. What is the significance of bread in this prayer?

, ,

6. How do we reconcile v. 13 with ?

But the God we see in Jesus Christ isn’t like that. God is the One who rescues us from sin, who makes us long for holiness and goodness—not the One who incites us to go against the grain of His loving will. James again: “One is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it” (). We aren’t tempted by God.

“Test” or “trial”—that is, a situation that reveals how far you are able to go right and avoid going wrong—is the idea behind the word. The driving test, which (believe it or not) is designed to enable you to show that you can do everything right, is a “temptation” in this sense.

God permits His children to be hammered on the anvil of suffering “so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”

But the God we see in Jesus Christ isn’t like that. God is the One who rescues us from sin, who makes us long for holiness and goodness—not the One who incites us to go against the grain of His loving will. James again: “One is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it” (1:14). We aren’t tempted by God.

God permits His children to be hammered on the anvil of suffering “so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”

Hill, W. (2019). The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father (p. 76). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Now, any educational or training program must of necessity include periodic tests for gauging progress, and the experience of taking and passing such tests can be very encouraging to the trainee. In God’s program for the spiritual education and growth of Christians, the same applies. God does and must test us regularly, to prove what is in us and to show how far we have come. His purpose in this is wholly constructive, to strengthen us and help us forward. Thus he “tested” Abraham by telling him to sacrifice Isaac, and after the test promised him great blessing “because you have obeyed my voice” (, ).

Packer, J. I. (2007). Praying the Lord’s Prayer (p. 86). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

a

Hill, W. (2019). The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father (p. 72). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

7. Why, then, if temptation is beneficial, should we ask to be spared it?

First, whenever God tests us for our good, Satan, “the tempter” (; ), tries to exploit the situation for our ruin. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (). Jesus knew from his wilderness experience how mean and cunning Satan is, and wished no one to underestimate him or to court a meeting with him. (Our modern occultists would do well to take this to heart.)

“Test” or “trial”—that is, a situation that reveals how far you are able to go right and avoid going wrong—is the idea behind the word. The driving test, which (believe it or not) is designed to enable you to show that you can do everything right, is a “temptation” in this sense.

Packer, J. I. (2007). Praying the Lord’s Prayer (p. 85). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Second, the pressures in times of trial can be so appalling that no sane Christian can do other than shrink from them, just as they shrink from the thought of having cancer. For both reasons Jesus was as right to start his prayer in Gethsemane with “Father, remove this cup” as he was to end it with “yet not my will but yours be done” (cf. ). Temptation is no picnic!

Third, knowledge of our own proven weakness, thickheadedness, and all-around vulnerability in spiritual matters, and of the skill with which Satan exploits our strong and weak points alike, mixing frontal assaults on our Christian integrity with tactics of infiltration and ambush, so that while avoiding one hazard we constantly fall victim to another, compels us to cry, in humility and self-distrust, “Lord, if it be possible, please, no temptation! I don’t want to risk damaging myself and dishonoring you by falling!” Temptation may be our lot, but only a fool will make it his preference; others will heed Paul’s warning to the spiritually reckless: “let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” ().

Packer, J. I. (2007). Praying the Lord’s Prayer (p. 86). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Packer, J. I. (2007). Praying the Lord’s Prayer (pp. 86–87). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

8. Why is it important to conclude pray with praise?

“So the more you praise, the more vigor you will have for prayer; and the more you pray, the more matter you will have for praise.”

Prayer and praise are like a bird’s two wings: with both working, you soar; with one out of action, you are earthbound. But birds should not be earthbound, nor Christians praiseless.

So the more you praise, the more vigor you will have for prayer; and the more you pray, the more matter you will have for praise.

(The Prodigal Son)

Prayer and praise are like a bird’s two wings: with both working, you soar; with one out of action, you are earthbound. But birds should not be earthbound, nor Christians praiseless. The

So the more you praise, the more vigor you will have for prayer; and the more you pray, the more matter you will have for praise.

To praise the kingship, the dominion, and the splendor of this Father is to praise the kingship of humility, the noncoercive dominion of nurturing love, and the radiant splendor of stooping and touching and embracing. To praise this Father “for ever and ever” is to acknowledge that such self-giving divine love is the fount of creation and redemption in eternity past and will be the theme of [our] songs into eternity future.

Packer, J. I. (2007). Praying the Lord’s Prayer (p. 106). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

To praise the kingship, the dominion, and the splendor of this Father is to praise the kingship of humility, the noncoercive dominion of nurturing love, and the radiant splendor of stooping and touching and embracing. To praise this Father “for ever and ever” is to acknowledge that such self-giving divine love is the fount of creation and redemption in eternity past and will be the theme of the lost son’s songs into eternity future.

Packer, J. I. (2007). Praying the Lord’s Prayer (p. 106). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Hill, W. (2019). The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father (p. 101). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Hands- So What? How then should I live?

Walk with God

Keep Christ first

Keep sin out of your life

The Lord's Prayer

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