Matthew 6.9-15

Let's read this passage to start off today, it is probably a very common passage, so try not to just gloss over it, but really meditate on this passage and think about the words.


⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:
   “‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done
   on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² Forgive us our debts,
   as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.^[a]’
   ¹⁴ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.


Today, we are just going to examine this prayer, and the different aspects and intricacies of the prayer, then tomorrow, I am going to give you some practical tips on how to improve your prayer life, some things that some of my mentors have taught me. 


Let's dive into it.


This is called the Lord's prayer, which I think is a bad name for it. This was the prayer, that when the disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples", and Jesus taught them a prayer very similar to this in Luke 11.1-5. This is the same prayer, basically that is found in Luke 11, and it begins with Jesus saying to his disciples, "This, then is how you should pray." This should be called the disciples' prayer, for Jesus gave it to them as a model on how to pray.


Mark Moore says this: "Here, we have a model, not a recipe for prayer." This prayer gives us the main ingredients we need to use, but we don't have to say it exactly this way. Although I have found praying "the Lord's Prayer" very beneficial. One of the earliest documents called the didache (didakee), actually instructs the churches to pray this prayer three times a day. The reason it, this prayer is the model that Jesus gave his disciples how to pray. Maybe we should use this model as well. The four main ingredients are as follows:


Adoration, Submission, Confession and Supplication (or requests, things you ask God for and about). 


And that is how Jesus starts off, with Adoration for the Father. He says: 


"Our Father in heaven, Hallowed by your name."


There are three aspects of the adoration towards God that I would like to point out. 


1. Jesus prays "Our", not "my". It is a plural word, not singular. Prayer is a corporate thing, not a personal thing. We have turned so much of Christianity into my relationship with God, when it is more God's relationship with his bride, the church. 


2. He calls God Father. This probably corresponds to the Aramaic word, "Abba", which means daddy. It is a very intimate term, and although the Jews did call God Father, this term spoke of such a close and intimate relationship, that it went beyond the bounds of the Jews normal view of God. The Jews tended to make Jesus more untouchable, We as Evangelicals tend to make God irreverent, common, not to be feared. There is a balance that needs to take place. He is our daddy, but he also is the Judge, the Creator of the universe. 


3. God's name is Hallowed. This is the greek word: hagiazo, which means "to make holy". This term holy is somewhat of a slippery term that we don't really understand, we just throw around a lot. It's basic meaning is this: to set apart. If I am coaching a basketball team, and one of the players on the opposing team was really good, I would set apart my best defensive player to guard that player. I gave him a specific task, different from the other players. He is now holy, set apart, different than the other players. This is what holy means, to be set apart, different than everything else that isn't holy. This is what God is. There is none like him, he is completely set apart from everything else in the entire universe. He alone is creator, he alone is all-powerful, he alone is all-knowing, he alone is the sustainer and redeemer of the universe, God is one and there is no one else like him. And this is one of THE MAIN ASPECTS OF GOD that should be adored by us. 


So this first line is all about the adoration of God, his nearness as daddy, and his reverence, respect as holy. 


The next step in the model pray is submission. This is what Jesus says: 


"Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread."


Mark Moore explains this verse this way: "This is not merely a request for Jesus' physical return. It is a request that God's reign, purpose, and plans be realized completely on earth as they are in his throne room." 


Jesus is not teaching his disciples to pray that Jesus comes back with his kingdom, they are the kingdom here on earth. Jesus is teaching his disciples to completely submit to the will of the Father so that they can bring about God's kingdom here on earth. They don't have to wait for Jesus to bring the kingdom, they have been given the kingdom to take to the world, and so have you. He even tells the disciples to completely submit their daily needs of food, their daily bread, their material needs to the Father. Jesus teaches his disciples that in pray, you need to know who God is and who you are before you can begin confession and asking God for things. God wants your complete submission, one of the purposes of pray is to change you as much as it is to ask God to change things. 


After we, in our prayers, praise God with adoration and completely submit ourselves to his will, then we confess our sins. This line: "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors" is referring to our sins. Because we have sinned, we have broken God's law and owe God our lives. We deserve to be punished for our sins, but when Jesus came, he died on the cross and said, tetelestai, which is the one greek word for "it is finished." This greek word literally means, "debt paid in full." Jesus paid our debt for us. So as Jesus forgives us when we confess our sins, we ought to forgive others. John Stott explains this further, "This certainly does not mean that our forgiveness of others earns us the right to be forgiven. It is rather thatGod forgives only the penitent and that one of the chief evidences of true penitence is a forgiving spirit." This is why Jesus explains this further in Matthew 6.14-15 saying: "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (see Matthew 18.21-35). 


And so our model prayer includes our adoration of God, our submission to God, us confessing our sins to God and then we can ask God for things. 


Jesus ends this model prayer with a supplication, a request. He says this, "And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." 


This is when we can call on God to help us in our distresses and hard times and our day to day lives. Prayer needs to be focused on God, not on us. That is why begin praying through the Lord's prayer, adoring God for who he is and what he has done, submitting yourself to his will in your life, confessing your sins and then ask your loving father for help. He will always help, though probably not in the way you expected him to.