“The Lord's Prayer - Part 2”
Sermon Title: The Lord's Prayer - Part 2
Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV)
Introduction – Recap of pt.1
If you want to understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus and to live like Jesus, you need to learn how to pray like Jesus. Last week, we looked at the first two portions of the Lord’s Prayer: "Our Father in heaven”, “Hallowed be your name.” They speak of our personal, communal, and intimate relationship with a holy God who desires to embrace us with compassion, mercy, love, and forgiveness. How we pray will reveal if the desire of our heart is to hallow God’s name or hallow our own name.
The Prayer (continued)
1. "your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven" – this speaks of God's justice. This portion of the prayer is the most countercultural and it poses a serious challenge to our common understanding of the Christian faith because it recognizes two things:
a) Jesus calls us to be concerned more about His Kingdom coming on earth than about us going to heaven. This prayer is about recognizing that Christianity is not about us going to heaven. It is for God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will being carried out on earth.
- Many have been taught that entering heaven is the end goal of Christianity, but Jesus says nothing about that in this passage.
- Jesus prays the opposite; “… your will be done on Earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” This means the end goal of Christianity is not about going to heaven. Our final goal is the new heaven and new earth. This is not saying that we don’t want to go to heaven (we do!), but heaven is not the last stop.
- Understanding heaven as an end goal may be problematic because it may make you indifferent, detached, apathetic, and/or uncaring to the things that happening around you and in the world. Heaven becomes our escape or excuse to turn a blind eye to injustice, suffering, pain, and the brokenness of the world.
- When life gets hard, we are not to pray for God to take us up to heaven away from our troubles. Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
b) We are to recognize that we cannot passively wish for God’s kingdom to come, but we must actively do our part to see it happen. God desires us to move from passiveness to participation.
- Passiveness is just asking God to come and fix everything because we can’t do anything, but Jesus wants us to pray through the a “lens of participation.” We are to pray, “Lord, there is so much we can do, but only by your power!”
- God will make a new heave and earth; in the meantime, God invites us to participate in His will for the earth. Therefore, we pray this prayer so that we may know what is happening in heaven and manifest it here on earth. This is what Christian life is all about.
- In heaven, there is the fullness of God’s presence, genuine worship, joy, peace, love, hospitality, justice, unity, fellowship, and so much more. Our job as Christians is to ask God how we may manifest these things of heaven on the earth.
- Through this prayer, we are asking God to teach us how to participate in His kingdom on earth.
2. “Give us this day our daily bread” – God forms dependence within us through this part of the prayer.
- The prayer moves from a high place of exaltation, holiness, and majesty to something ordinary (to bread). Jesus gives us a space for us to be honest with God about our needs.
- It is helpful to consider the Middle Eastern mindset: bread is more than food; bread is about friendship, celebration, fellowship, and pleasure. Jesus is not talking about literal bread but all the basic needs – physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual – of human life.
- This prayer is to be our confession that we cannot live if God does not provide us with our needs.
- Some people act more spiritual than they really are and refuse to confess their needs. They prefer to figure things out on their own, but God invites us and desires for us to be honest about our needs.
- God forms in us a radical dependence upon Him through this prayer. When we pray, we recognize our total dependence upon God as the source of all our provisions. We confess that we have nothing apart from God.
- This prayer is countercultural – the world teaches us to be independent and self-sufficient. We are reminded that we are needy people regardless of our education, income, social status, and possessions.
- Jesus teaches us an important aspect of praying for “daily bread.” We are to be dependent upon God DAILY because we cannot thrive without a daily relationship with God (through daily prayer, daily Scripture devotion, and daily worship). Jesus teaches us to seek our “daily bread” because he knows that our human tendency is to seek our “monthly bread” because it is easier.
3. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” – Jesus wants our lives to be marked by GRACE.
- We cannot sweep our sins under the rug. We must confess our sins in all areas of our life. Just as God forgives us, we have people who we must forgive, and we have people from whom we must seek forgiveness.
- Our love for God is directly linked to our love for other people. If our love for our neighbours is messed up, then our love for God is messed up. We cannot simply move on.
- A wonderful aspect of this prayer is the order. We ask and receive God’s forgiveness first. Through this we can forgive others. Our forgiveness for others is a response and an expression of our gratitude to God for His forgiveness.
- God’s forgiving grace transforms us to be generous and gracious with forgiveness for others. What the world and all of us need desperately in our lives is to be more forgiving.
4. Clarification about forgiveness: What does it mean to forgive and what does it NOT mean to forgive?
(a) To forgive also doesn't mean that you don't feel pain anymore. When we are wounded, the pain can run deep. It will take time to heal.
(b) Forgiving doesn't mean that the person forgiven is no longer responsible for the actions done. When you forgive someone, that doesn't mean that you're giving them a "get out of jail free" card. They still need to take responsibility for their actions whether they're forgiven or not.
(c) To forgive does not mean reconciliation. Reconciliation takes two people who are willing to work out their problems. If the other is unwilling, you can still offer forgiveness and ask for forgiveness on your end.
- Forgiveness is about freedom for our own souls. The one who cannot forgive is the one who is truly hurt and bound in shackles. Corrie Ten Boom, who was a Dutch Christian writer, said – “Forgiveness is the key which unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” [1] Jesus invites us to live in forgiveness, so that we may experience the kind of freedom only God can give.
Reflection and Questions
As we pray “May our kingdom come and may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – God is inviting us to a life that longs for things to be made right in our lives. As we pray "give us this day our Daily Bread", God is inviting us to live a life that is radically dependent upon God over all aspect of our lives. And as we pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, God is inviting us to live a life of freedom in the grace that he gives. And he is also inviting us to live in forgiveness and forgive others, so that we may experience the freedom through grace that only God can give.
- What areas of your life do you need God’s Kingdom and His power to come and make things right? How may God be calling you to participate for His will to be done in those areas?
- How dependent and honest are you to God about your “DAILY bread”? What do you feel keeps you from seeking God daily for your needs?
- Is there a person or people in your mind right now whom you have not forgiven or have not sought out to receive forgiveness? If so, what do you feel is keeping you from accepting God’s invitation to experience the freedom that comes through forgiving grace? May the Holy Spirit help you in taking that first step towards God’s invitation.
To be continued in Part 3.
[1] From Tramp for the Lord – Corrie Ten Boom