Your Name, Your Kingdom, Your Glory

Matthew 6:7–15 ESV

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Prayer is Reflective

This passage orbits around the topic of prayer. And we’ve seen a pattern emerge almost from day one: How you pray reflects what you believe about God.

I’ll show you two examples

If you often pray in public, but rarely pray in secret, you believe...

…that God doesn’t really hear you

…even if he hears you, he doesn’t care

…that even if he cares, you don’t need his help anyhow

…because the respect of people is really all you need.

If you mindlessly repeat empty words, you believe...

…that God is distant

…that God is a fool

…that God is easily manipulated

…that God is easily distracted.

Jesus says that how you pray matters. It reflects what you believe about God.

But there’s more. There’s another pattern, and we’re going to see it in our passage this morning. And if you take it seriously, this pattern can radically shift how you live and what you believe — What you pray reflects what you believe about you.

Our prayers — the things that we ask God for — reflect what we think we need.

And that, friends, is a dramatic understatement. Because what you pray for reflects what you believe you need at the most fundamental levels, and that has global implications.

A profound mistake

I want to tell you what I think is the point of this passage by reading a commentary that, I think, misses the point altogether. Let me give you some context.

When we first spoke about this prayer, I mentioned that it’s divided into two halves. You can see it clearly enough at first glance.

Your Name | Your Kingdom | Your Will

My needs | My Debts | My Temptations

The first half of this prayer seems to focus exclusively on God — his glory, his kingdom, his will. And the second half of this prayer seems to focus exclusively on us — our frailty, our foolishness, our desperation.

And the trick of understanding this prayer is to see the relationship between the two.

Now I want to read a single line from one of my favorite commentaries — one of the most celebrated commentaries on Matthew — because I think that it think profoundly misses the mark.

“The prayer seeks first God’s glory, not the petitioner’s own needs.”

…first God’s glory — NOT the petitioners own needs.

There it is. In a single word, a profound mistake that misses the point of this passage, and this prayer, and this book, and this Bible, entirely.

Because the glory of God IS our most profound need.

Every other desire we foster, every other need we feel, no matter how acutely, is

less fundamental,

less central,

less significant than God’s glory.

The first half of this prayer is not mere decorum. It is not a civil nod. It is not the ceremonial trappings that precede the event.

The first half of this prayer IS the event.

The problem is when you see God’s glory — and what I mean when I say that is the celebration of his holiness and the restoration of his reign, and the submission of all creation to his will — when you see God’s glory as something other than, something apart from your needs. That’s the mistake. And though I suspect it was an unfortunate accidental implication in this writer’s case, I’m afraid that misstep highlights a fundamental crack in our faith and our practice and our prayers.

And by way of that misstep we arrive at the point of this passage.

God’s glory IS your most fundamental need. You — you individually — more than anything you’ve ever longed for, stand in desperate need of God’s glory.

The structure of this prayer is a lesson in priorities. God’s name honored, God’s kingdom come, God’s will done — in other words, God’s Glory — is the sun around which all of our lesser needs orbit.

Addressing our hunger, our debts, our temptations, outside of the framework of God’s comprehensive reign, is a meaningless exercise.

That’s why this prayer begins with a plea for God to be seen as he is, and for his righteous reign to come, and for his will to be done. Because his glory is the beating heart of our hope.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s read the passage together.

Matthew 6:7–10 ESV

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

The Preface

We spent a lot of time last week thinking about the preface to this prayer, so I don’t want to devote too much time here.

It’s enough to remember that God is not not deaf, and he’s not dumb. He isn’t like the Greek gods whose attention is won by many mantras.

God, rather, is your father. He knows you, he loves you, and he cares about you — so much so that he knows what you need before you ask him.

That’s there on purpose. Because the love of our Father is the cornerstone of this plea for his name and his kingdom and his will.

If you stood as an enemy of God, his reign and will would be your nightmare. But if you are Christ’s disciple, then you stand reconciled to God. All of the love of the Father for the Son, who stood as your representative, is poured out on you.

And because you stand reconciled to God, because you stand in his favor, his honor and his reign and his will is your good.

Our reconciliation to God, our adoption in Christ, is so central to our faith that every prayer should start and end in its reflection.

Our Father

So Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father.”

The way Jesus uses these words is fascinating.

Did you know that when Jesus is reflecting on our need for forgiveness, he says, “your Father.” Because Christ has no sin.

And when he’s teaching his disciples about his unique, eternal relationship with the Father, he says “my Father.” Because we are creatures, and we are adopted into sonship.

And after he’s crucified and raised again, he comforts his disciples by assuring them that he goes to “my Father and your Father.” Because his victory over death is the foundation of our adoption.

We’re told, then, to pray to “Our Father, in Heaven.”

This is not only a reflection on God’s love, but the first in a series of reflections on his distance. Not in a negative sense — Jesus has comforted us with a promise that the Father is not far from us. He’s with us in secret as we pray. He sees our secret righteousness.

But in some sense this is a reflection of God’s distance. His impermanent distance. You’ll see what I mean if you keep reading.

“May your name be hallowed”

“May your kingdom come”

“May your will be done”

Where? Here. Like it is in heaven.

The implication, then, is that his name isn’t honored here. His kingdom hasn’t yet come here. His will isn’t yet done here. At least in the way it’s done in heaven.

So even when we cry out to our Father, our cries are anchored in our longing that he would dwell, once again, with his people.

Hallowed be your name.

What does it mean, to “hallow” something? And why should his name be hallowed?

What does it mean to “hallow something?

“Hallow” is a verbal form of “Holy,” and holy means something like “set apart.” When we call something holy, we mean it’s other-than in a significant sense, often in a moral and spiritual sense.

To “hallow” something, then, is to honor it. This word appears in 1 Peter 3:15

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”

To hallow someone or something is to recognize how holy it is, and to treat it so.

What all this about God’s name?

In the Scriptures, and in many ancient contexts, a name meant something. Bound up with a person’s name was his character, his works, his legacy.

To honor someone’s name was to honor all they are, all they’ve done, all they’re about. It’s a reflection on their authority, their power, their significance.

So to honor God’s name is to see him as he is, and to celebrate him as he is.

And this is a request that God would make it so. As such, it’s an admission that we can’t make it so without God. In other words, if the world is going to see him and celebrate him as he is, He’ll have to do it himself.

Your Kingdom Come

This plea proceeds logically from the last one.

If God is all that he is — if he’s righteous and good, if he’s kind and compassionate, if he’s powerful and loving — then his kingdom is our only hope.

From the outset of Jesus’ ministry, we’ve heard that the kingdom is here in some sense.

Since Jesus’ birth, we’ve had glimpse of the coming Kingdom. It’s already among us in his miraculous work, when God rescues people and changes hearts and miraculously provides. Those are foreshadows of the coming Kingdom.

But the Kingdom isn’t here, not yet. We long for the day when our King reigns, when his glory covers the earth, when the curse of sin is finally and fully undone.

Here, even more explicitly, the pleas of God’s people follow an ancient melody. We long for the darkness of the fall to be undone. We long for God’s nearness, God’s glory, God’s kingdom — the new birth of the earth, the return to spotless creation.

Perhaps more than any other aspect of this prayer, this longing is captured in the prayers of the saints throughout the new testament.

“Come, Lord Jesus!” has been an anthem of God’s people since Christ promised to return. It is the longing of the faithful to see King Jesus return to consummate his kingdom.

Your Will Be Done

Why long for God’s reign? Why is God’s kingdom come such good news?

Because in his Kingdom on Earth, God’s will will be done.

On Earth, God’s will isn’t done — at least not in the same way it’s done in Heaven.

If there isn’t a place in your understanding of God’s sovereignty for that dichotomy, I encourage you to make room for one.

God reigns sovereign over all creation.

No purpose of his can be thwarted. (Job 42)

He does according to his will in the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. (Daniel 4)

Our God is in the Heavens, he does what pleases him. (Psalm 115)

Yet God’s will isn’t done on earth as it is in heaven.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (Ezekiel 18)

God does not want anyone to perish in their sin. (2 Peter 3)

God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2)

So how can God simultaneously have his way, and also desire things that don’t happen?

Many things that God hates, he permits. He is sovereign over the death of the wicked, the crucifixion of his son, the war which will be waged against the returning Christ. All of these things God hates, but he permits them.

God permits things he hates because his ultimate purposes will never be thwarted. His purposes, for example, to redeem a people, to demonstrate his character and power and might, to usher the praise of his glory forever and ever — these are the chief end of all creation. These are the purposes according according to which he foreordained all things.

The answer is in Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” God reigns in heaven, where there is no sin, no pain, no rebellion. God reigns presently and directly in heaven. We long for that sort of reign, here on earth.

We live in the world between the fall and the Kingdom. And God’s purpose here involves permitting, for a time, the darkness to be and do what the darkness is and does. This plea is an expression of longing for that period to end.

On Earth, as in Heaven

The cornerstone of Christian hope — embodied in this prayer — is that God’s glory would fall upon the Earth.

The Glory of God is our greatest good...

His Name Hallowed — We who were created to see him, to know him, to walk with him, and to praise him, long for the fullest revelation of him.

His Kingdom Come — Every glimpse of his character and power and work has taught us to hope in his present reign, where there is no darkness.

His Will Be Done — We long for the day when the righteous decree of our earthly king is also the cherished will of our beloved Father.

So the Glory of God should be the cornerstone of our prayers.