Dear friend, welcome back to the course.
Today, we’re going to study a very familiar prayer and passage typically known as, “The Lord’s Prayer.” Jesus gave this prayer as an example to His disciples which is the base and basic of all prayers. This prayer is not meant to simply be repeated as we read it but rather we are to pray it in remembrance of the cross on which Jesus died. Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray and therefore this applies to all believers; how we should likewise pray. Jesus is teaching us how to pray with ”the power of the cross” that purchased The Church, rescues souls, forgives sins and makes us part of the body of Christ.
Before Jesus taught how to pray, He first teaches two ways we should not pray.
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them” (Matthew 6:5 NLT).
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again” (Matthew 6:7 NLT).
We are not to pray to be seen which would puff us up as if we were some sort of super prayer warriors, nor babble like the Gentiles thinking we will be heard by vain repetition or our many words. No, we bow our knees before the Father who sent His Son to die our death, pay our penalty and rescue us from Satan and sins power. So, we bow in humility on bended knees as we come and let our requests be known.
“Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:9-13 NLT).
Question 1: Jesus is teaching believers how to pray and in this teaching whose Father is in heaven?
All believers are part of the family of God having been adopted, not by a court through the legal process of this world, but by the highest court in heaven—purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. We are adopted into the body of Christ whereby God became “Our Father”. “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT).
Our Heavenly Father loved us so much that He adopted us as sons and daughters, through Jesus Christ. And friend, we have been loved by Jesus the same way in which our Father in heaven loves His very own Son. “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love” (John 15:9).
This love of Jesus took Him to the cross, where He was in a sense, disowned by God, forsaken by His Father as the relationship between them was broken because of our sin. Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), experiencing the abandonment of His Father as Jesus carried our sin and took our judgment.
Notice, Jesus did not use His usual term, “Father” but rather “my God.” He was rejected and forsaken by His Father so that you and I could call God “Father” as we enter His family by faith in the finished work of the cross.
"...when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir." Galatians 4:4-7
The important point is this: we are no longer "slaves" (John 8:35) or “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) or “children of the devil” (John 8:44), but rather children of God and can call God “Father”, or call out "Abba, Father.” “See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are!” (1 John 3:1 AMP)
We can pray “Our Father in heaven” because of the cross!
“Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.” (Matthew 6:9 NLT)
The last part of verse 9 says, “may your name be kept holy.” Only One who was sinless and holy could keep God’s name holy (Leviticus 11:44-45) which begs the question: how might God’s name be kept holy? What event would take place where God’s name would be “kept holy”?
God’s name kept holy in Christ: "Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are." John 17:11 (NLT)
God’s name kept holy in us through Christ: At Jesus’ death and resurrection where He would “depart from this world,” we were united with Jesus, just as He and His Father are united as One. Only while on the cross was Jesus ever separated from His Father, fulfilling the rescue mission, so we could be united as one with Him. Jesus became sin for us as if He were the one unholy, but the unholy ones were clothed in His holiness through the sacrifice of the Son of God. “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time” (Hebrews 10:10).
“When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names.” Philippians 2:8-9 (NLT)
“May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10 (NLT)