Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we started Matthew 6, and we began to probe into this question that Jesus seems to be getting at - why do we do what we do?

We looked at two examples, both giving of alms or giving in general, and also prayer.

As we started into the section on prayer beginning in verse 5, we noticed a couple things.

First, Jesus doesn’t start the statement with “if you pray,” but “when you pray...”

There is an assumption of prayer on the part of the follower.

Prayer, like giving to the poor, would have been part of the regular ethic of the faithful Israelite in Jesus’ day.

And as we examine the New Testament, we see that it really is the assumption that the Christian will be a praying person as well.

The Question for Jesus, again, was not if his followers pray, but why they pray, and then also, how they pray.

Now, the why is important - just like almsgiving, if the reason that we do these things is ever “so that we may be seen by others” then we have missed it.

Jesus uses the word “hypocrite” which literally meant a play actor, a stage actor.

If we offer our prayers up, and the main intention of our heart is that others would hear us, then we have, as Jesus says, already received our reward.

We have put on a performance, but we have not truly prayed.

But, if we pray in secret - whether that be actually in secret, in a quiet place in our home, or silently in our mind and heart; but if we pray in secret, that is, focused on what prayer is - communication with almighty God - then the Audience of One - God Himself - will see us and hear our prayer, and we are told that He will reward us.

Now, maybe that reward is future, a heavenly reward, a crown that we may cast at Jesus’ feet, or maybe there are current rewards.

Maybe that reward is some answer to our prayer.

Not always the answer we initially desire, but that God hears and answers prayer is certainly a promise, and it is part of Jesus’ later teaching as well.

We may be getting ahead of ourselves here a bit, but in this same sermon Jesus taught these words.

James, the brother of our Lord, said this in the beginning of his letter.

All that to say this: our God is one who listens to the prayers of His people, He cares about the needs and requests of His people, and he gives freely and graciously from His own infinite supply of good gifts.

So we ought to pray, and we ought to pray only as to the Lord - not for the purpose of being heard by others, not to be seen by others, not to be recognized or lauded by others, but to communicate with God Himself.

As we continue with verse 7 and following, Jesus goes beyond teaching us not to be hypocritical or performative in our prayers, but he gives very meaningful, practical instruction on prayer.

Now, more words have been written on prayer than perhaps any other spiritual discipline in the Christian life.

That is probably true even among the false religions.

Much ink has been spilt over prayer rituals, prayer habits, prayer postures, prayer formulas, secrets of prayer, length of prayers, occasions of prayers.

There are books of pre-written prayers, there are books of ideas and prompts for prayers.

There are churches with prayer in their name.

There are rooms in hospitals dedicated to prayer.

There are candles for prayer, incense for prayer, clothes and robes for prayer, background music for prayer.

Now, some of these things are helpful, some probably not - but I meant to be a bit overbearing there to say this: we can spend all the time thinking, speaking, and learning about prayer that we want, but at the end of the day, the ultimate teaching on prayer in all the world is before us today in our passage, and it is really quite simple.

It is immensely simple.

I don’t want to give the notion that prayer is not spiritual or religious - it certainly is.

It is probably the greatest spiritual and religious work that we can do.

But I do want to squelch any idea that prayer is, to one extreme, mystical.

There is no incantation or special language needed for prayer.

And on the other hand, prayer is not ritualistic.

Prayers isn’t to be rote or disingenuous.

It is simply to be real.

Prayer is not a ritual or a tradition: rather, it is a simple, direct, and genuine communication with God our Father as we approach His Throne.

1. Prayer is not getting God’s attention - Vs. 7-8

Before we get into the Lord’s Model prayer itself, Jesus has a few more words on “what not to do.”

And I think it can be summarized with that simple point - in prayer, we are not trying to manipulate and grasp on to a corner of God’s attention.

Rather, we are simply speaking to our Father.

“Do not heap up empty phrases like the gentiles do.”

If you are familiar with this passage in the Old King James, you may remember this as “use not vain repetitions as the heathen do...”

What are empty phrases, or vain repetitions?

Well, prayer, again, did not exist only in Israel at this time.

Prayer, of some form, was common among Judaism and the false religions as well.

Prayer in much of the world, even today, is marked by its ritualistic and repetitive style.

Much of prayer throughout the world religions we would recognize more as incantation, formal invocation, or recital.

In that kind of religions action, the accuracy and the form of the act itself is more important than the attitude of the person praying.

With that mindset, prayer becomes a “secret code” or a “magic key” that unlocks access to whatever deity is being prayed to.

One really amazing illustration of this from the Old Testament is from the account of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

You recall the challenge between Elijah and many of Baal’s prophets, where the task was set forth to see who’s God would send down fire from heaven to ignite an altar.

Elijah deferred to the false prophets in letting the go first, and the record of their actions gives a good picture of the kind of false prayer Jesus is speaking against here.

Do you see this? Hours of prayer.

There is ritual involved.

They repeated over and over again, “O Baal, answer us.”

They cut themselves, the text says, after their custom.

They raved on, it says, for hours.

But what was the conclusion?

There was no voice.

No one answered; no one paid attention.

Now compare this with Jesus’ words.

“They think that they will be heard for their many words...” That is a sad commentary on the prayers of all the false religions of the world.

Whatever the ritual, whether mild or extreme, “they think that they will be heard.”

We are not to approach God like this, like the false gods that people hope to awaken with their shouts, their repetitive incantations, their cutting, their languages, their extreme length of time in prayer.

Rather, Jesus says “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

In comparison with the false gods and idols who do not hear prayer no matter how long or loud, Jesus tells his disciples that the true God is a Father who is already intimately aware of His children’s needs.

Prayer, then, is not getting God’s attention so we can inform Him of our difficulties.

Prayer is approaching a loving Father who is already aware of our needs, and it is casting ourselves upon His kindness, His mercy, His character.

This, then, leads into Jesus’ pattern prayer.

We find it in a couple places in the New Testament.

Here, and also in Luke 11.

Now, it seems that this is a different occasion, because in Luke it says that Jesus prayed, and upon hearing him, his disciples asked him to teach them to prayer.

The two records of the prayer differ slightly, but they are essentially the same, and they begin the same way, and the way it begins is very important.

Jesus’ bases his teaching on prayer here, and also in Luke 11, on the fact that we are praying to our Father.

2. Prayer is Approaching our Father - Vs. 9-13

Prayer to “Our Father” is not brand new in the New Testament, but as a pattern, it is something that Jesus really revolutionized.

Very, very few prayers in the Old Testament do we see refer to God as our Father in a personal way.

But almost every time Jesus prays, he addresses God as His Father.

And of course, we know that is quite true - Jesus is the very Son of God, the second person of the trinity.

But Jesus does not just himself pray addressing God as Father, but He directs us, His followers, to view and approach the God of Heaven as our personal, loving, Heavenly Father.

That should shape the way that we pray.

We are not approaching a despot who we need to appease.

We are not approaching a business mogul whom we need to convince of our ideas.

We are not approaching a professor in whos good graces we hope to secure a good grade or an extension on our classwork.

And we are not approaching an evil, abusive, sinful father who does not love his children.

We are approaching our good, holy, pure, heavenly father who loves and knows how to give gracious gifts to his children.

Now, with that said.

In order to not be guilty of becoming one who spends more time talking about prayer than actually prayer, I want to be succinct and practical with the remainder of this sermon.

This will be a little different than most of my sermons.

But I want to approach Jesus’ model prayer here as just that - a model.

It is not something to be repeated as rote.

Now, that is not to say that, in a time where you are lacking for words, that you cannot repeat these words verbatim.

But as a rule, Jesus’ words here are words of instruction and example.

He tells us to pray “like this.”

I have broken the prayer into 5 main concepts.

In my own prayer, I try to allow these to consciously and subconsciously shape the way that I approach prayer.

You have them as blanks in your outline.

I want to give you the blank, give a few practical words, and then pray.