THE LORD'S MODEL PRAYER (Matthew 6:5-15)
INTRODUCTION:
Happy Father’s Day to all of our dads and grandfathers this morning. On Mother’s Day I just continued on in 1st Thessalonians and did not do a specific Mother’s Day message. This morning I am not doing a specific Father’s Day message, but we will not be in the book of 1st Thessalonians, I will go back to 1st Thessalonians and finish it up in the weeks to come. I have had several people ask me in the last couple of years about prayer and how we should pray so this morning I want to look at what Jesus said about prayer and how we are to pray. I think this is a pertinent topic having just looked at Paul’s command to pray without ceasing and when we go back to 1st Thessalonians, we are going to be looking at Paul’s closing prayer in his first letter to the Thessalonian church.
Several years ago, I read a book on prayer that was written in 1904 and I want to share a quote from the opening chapter of this book by S. D. Gordon. He writes, “The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is pray. It is not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the possible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray right, he must first be right in his motives and life. And if a man be right, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence of God.”[1] Mr. Gordon exerts that prayer is the most important thing that we can do if we are in a relationship with the sovereign God of the universe. He says that the practice of praying if it is given the proper place in our life will bring every other part of our life into order under the authority of God and within His plan and purpose for our life. Every area of our life will display the presence of God.
So where do we start in making this the most important part of our life? A good start would be to look at the teaching of Jesus Christ on prayer. In the book of Luke where there is the parallel passage to the one we will be looking at this morning in Matthew, Luke tells us that this teaching was the result of one of the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray. Before turning to our passage in Matthew this morning let’s pray and ask God to teach us from His word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 6:5-15 and if you have a Bible that has the words of Jesus in read then you will see that this passage is all red. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Matthew 6:5-15,
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is 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 do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:5–15, NASB95)[2]
PRAYER IN PRIVATE BEFORE PRAYER IN PUBLIC (Matthew 6:5-6)
Jesus begins His teaching on prayer by warning us not to be hypocrites. Jesus describes praying hypocrites as those who love to make a show of their prayers, who love to pray in public places so that people see them praying and think that they must be so righteous and in tune with God. Now understand that Jesus is not saying that public prayer is wrong, but rather it is the motive behind praying in public that can be wrong. If you are praying in public so that you can show others how righteous or pious you are, then you are praying with the wrong motive. Prayer is a privilege that has been given to us so that we might communicate with God, so that we may converse with our heavenly Father. This is an intimate gift in which we can share our deepest hurts, our greatest desires, our hopes, our dreams, our emotions with the Creator and Sovereign of the universe. Jesus says that those who use this gift as a display of their righteousness before men have their reward in full. In other words, they can expect no other payment or service to follow at the close of the transaction. Jesus is simply saying that their reward is the praise of men, and they could expect nothing past that, there would be no blessing from God, no answer to their prayers, they are paid in full by the praise of men.
After instructing us how we are not to pray, Jesus then instructs how we are to pray in verse 6. He says, “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6, NASB95)[3] Jesus teaches us that prayer is an intimate, private conversation between you and your heavenly Father. Go to a private place and pray, in this way you can pour out your heart to God, because your focus is on God and not on what men will think about you when they see you praying. Our Father who is in secret, or hidden, or unseen will reveal Himself to us when we come to Him in secret. Then unlike the hypocrites who receive their reward in full from the praise of man; we will receive our reward from our heavenly Father when we pray in secret, and He will reward us with fellowship, with answers to our prayers, and with blessings.
PRAYER MUST BE SINCERE (Matthew 6:7-8)
Jesus continues to teach us by giving us another example of how we are not to pray. Jesus instructs us that when we pray, we are not to use meaningless repetition. Prayer is not some magical formula that if you repeat the same words over and over you will get your prayer answered. Jesus is not teaching that we do not repeat our requests or our petitions, but rather that our prayers do not become something from rote, and we just say the exact same thing every time we pray. Jesus is teaching that when we pray, we need to be sincere. How many of us, when we pray lapse into our spiritual jargon, into spiritual cliches? See if you have heard some of these or if you have used them? I admit that I am as guilty as anyone. How many times have you heard or said: “lead, guide, or direct us; bless all the missionaries; bless the gift and the giver; bless this food to our bodies, etc.” Charles Swindoll writes, “Christians seem to have developed the use of trite, hackneyed words and phrases into an art. Cliché is a French term, really. Originally, it meant ‘stereotype,’ and Mr. Webster defines stereotype: ‘To repeat without variation; frequent and almost mechanical repetition of the same thing…something conforming to a fixed pattern.’ Like a broken record…a pull string doll with ten pre-recorded phrases…the ceaseless droning of parking regulations at an airport.”[4] Jesus said that this was how the Gentiles prayed to their pagan gods. We do not need to pray this way because our heavenly Father knows what we need even before we ask Him. Be sincere in your prayers, be focused. We do not need to use the theological jargon or spiritual cliches, or endless repetition when we pray. Pray to your heavenly Father the same way in which you would talk with a trusted friend in everyday words and with a sincere heart that desires to do God’s will. These are the prayers that God hears and answers.
PRAYER MODEL (Matthew 6:9-13)
After teaching us how not to pray, Jesus then gives us a model prayer; a prayer that has all the elements for us to use when we pray. I do not believe Jesus intended us to memorize this prayer and repeat it over and over, since He just told us not to use meaningless repetition which this would become if we repeated it over and over as our prayer. Instead, He said, “Pray, then, in this way:” (Matthew 6:9a, NASB95)[5] In other words, “Use this example prayer to shape your prayer life.
He begins, “Our Father, who is in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9b, NASB95)[6] teaching us to begin by addressing our prayer to our Father, to the One who rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into His kingdom of light. To the one who adopted us into His family and made us heirs with Jesus Christ because of our faith in Him. Paul writes in Galatians 4:4-7, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4–7, NASB95)[7] God’s throne is a throne of grace because of the shed blood of His Son on our behalf and because of our adoption as sons and daughters of God. Notice that we are to address God as “our Father” recognizing that we are a part of God’s worldwide family of believers. Because of this truth we have no right to ask for anything for ourselves that would bring harm to another member of God’s family. If we are praying according to God’s will, the answer to our prayers will bring glory to God and blessing to His family. When we address God as our Father, we are acknowledging that we have a relationship with Him; but then we acknowledge that it is not like the relationship we have or had with our earthly fathers because God is not of this earth, but of heaven. We raise our hearts to where He dwells which speaks of His majesty, His holiness, and His sovereignty.
“Hallowed be Your name.” (Matthew 6:9c, NASB95)[8] Hallowed means to recognize or honor someone or something as holy. This is showing reverence to God, who is holy and perfect in who He is and in what He does. As we come to our heavenly Father, we must come reverently because of whom He is, we must never forget how He has revealed Himself to us in Scripture as the Holy Creator and Sovereign of the universe and we must acknowledge this when we address Him in prayer.
Our first petition concerns God’s interests, God’s purpose and plan. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10, NASB95)[9] Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The purpose of prayer is to glorify God’s name, and to ask for help to accomplish His will on earth. This prayer begins with God’s interests, not ours: God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. Robert Law has said, ‘Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done in earth.’ ”[10] We pray that more souls are brought into the kingdom through salvation, and we pray for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth, when Jesus Christ will sit on the throne and God’s purpose and plan will be fulfilled on this earth, just as it is fulfilled in heaven today.
After looking to the interests of God, we may then turn our petitions to those needs which we have ourselves. “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11, NASB95)[11] This phrase is used to express our needs. Everyone needs food to survive and the wording of this phrase in Greek means to give us the bread that we need to sustain us daily. As this is a model prayer, Jesus used this one phrase as an example of how we are to pray for every physical need that we have in our lives. As we express our needs to our heavenly Father, we need to thank Him for His blessings and for His fulfillment of our needs.
The next aspect in Jesus’ model prayer is confession, seeking God’s forgiveness for our sin, for our failing Him, or dishonoring Him, or grieving Him when we have taken the bait of temptation and followed after our own lusts rather than following after God. This confession of sin and the forgiveness and removal of guilt should also stir our hearts to do the same for those who sin against us. So, our prayer is that God will forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us. Paul taught this same thing in Ephesians 4:32 where he writes, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32, NASB95)[12]
This model prayer teaches us to end our prayer by asking for God’s guidance and protection spiritually. James 1:13 clearly teaches that God does not tempt us or lead us into temptation. Rather this petition is asking God to guide us so that we will not get out of His will and get involved in a situation where we will be faced with temptation. The second half of this petition is that God will deliver us from the evil one. That we would be victorious in our Christian life by surrendering to the will of God and be victorious in Him in the circumstances that we face each day, that in the face of temptation we would be victorious in Christ as we resist and overcome it. In the spiritual battle we would be victorious in the Lord Jesus Christ as we stand firm and do not let the satanic forces of evil overtake us because they are powerless when our strength for the battle is in the Lord of heaven and earth.
Depending on your version this last phrase may be in the text, or in brackets, or in your footnotes. “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13b, NASB95)[13] This is in brackets or in the footnotes because some of the earliest manuscripts of Matthew did not have this final phrase and it only appears in later manuscripts and because of this some believe it was added by some copyist as a benediction to the prayer. Now whether this was originally spoken by Jesus or not, it directs us again to recognize the sovereignty and holiness of God at the close of this model prayer given to us by the Lord Jesus.
PRAYER’S POWER (Matthew 6:14-15)
Jesus ends His teaching on prayer by returning to His section on forgiveness. Now upon first reading, it would seem that Jesus is teaching a contradiction to the rest of Scripture, but we must look at these verses in light of the rest of Scripture. Jesus is not teaching that salvation is earned when we forgive others, if this is what He was teaching, then this would truly contradict that salvation is the free gift of God given through the mercy and grace that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather what Jesus is teaching in these verses has to do with prayer and the fellowship that is ours with God through prayer. Fellowship is broken when we do not forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ when they sin against us. If I am not in fellowship with a brother of sister in Christ because I am unwilling to forgive them for some offense committed against me, then my prayers will be ineffective. When I forgive my brother or sister, then I can confess my sin of pride and of an unforgiving spirit to God and be brought back into fellowship with Him through His forgiveness. Let me read another quote from Warren Wiersbe, he writes, “Since prayer involves glorifying God’s name, hastening the coming of God’s kingdom (2 Peter 3:12), and helping to accomplish God’s will in earth, the one praying must not have sin in his heart. If God answered the prayers of a believer who had an unforgiving heart, He would dishonor His own name. How could God work through such a person to get His will done on earth? If God gave him his request, He would be encouraging sin! The important thing about prayer is not simply getting an answer, but being the kind of person whom God can trust with an answer.”[14]
CONCLUSION:
In these verses Jesus teaches us how to pray. First, He teaches two ways we are not to pray. We are not to pray to receive praise from man, rather our prayer and our focus is to be directed to God and to His glory. Second, we are not to pray with meaningless repetition, our prayers are not to be memorized spiritual phrases that we spew out without thought. We are to pray with a sincere heart, considering our words and praying specifically in accordance with God’s will. In other words, let’s be intentional, passionate prayers. I came across an acrostic a few years back that helps me remember what we need to pray, and it follows quite closely to the model of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples. The acrostic is called the Acts of Prayer. The letters of ACTS stand for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Begin your prayer with adoration or worship, then confess and ask forgiveness, then give thanks for God’s goodness, faithfulness, and blessings; and finally bring your petitions and requests to your heavenly Father. Remember the words of James, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16b, NASB95)[15]
[1]Gordon, S. D., Quiet Talks On Prayer. New York, NY : Fleming H. Revell Company, 1904.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]Swindoll, Charles R., Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life. Portland, OR : Multnomah Press, 1983.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[10]Wiersbe, Warren W., The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Mt 6:5.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[14]Wiersbe, Warren W., The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Mt 6:5.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.