Click here to download in pdf format.
Sermon Notes of Rev Dr Ivor J.W.Oakley (17-9-2000
Guisborough Evangelical Church)
Additional Reading 1 Chronicles 29 v 10-20
The Lord’s Prayer is in two distinct parts. Unlike so
many of our prayers, it begins with God. Our Father, only father of believers in
intimate sense. His name i.e. his character and nature, to be hallowed. His
kingdom, his saving rule, to be established. His will be done on earth, first of
all through me. I must aim to please him in everything, and accept the way he
orders my affairs. If really prayed that prayer, with passion for God, it would
empty us of self and create a revolution in our lives.
Now the second part, which is
usually our first part. Our provision, pardon and protection. Covers present,
past, and future. Also bears a relation to each part of the trinity. Reference
to bread – our present dependence on the Father, creator and sustainer.
Forgiveness – dependence on the Son, our Saviour, for forgiveness of our past
sins. Future protection – dependence on the Holy Spirit, our strengthener,
guide and guardian. Thus the whole of life is brought to the whole of God, and
the whole of God to the whole of life. God is concerned with our total being.
Why tell God what he already
knows? Prayers are not to inform God. Prayer is a relationship between father
and child, and keeps us in touch with God. Though we don’t understand fully,
God wants us to tell him our needs, and looks forward to our speaking to him.
Consider how an earthly father would be wounded if his children just took all he
provided, but never bothered to speak, have fellowship and have contact. A
father wants his child to speak to him. Reasonable that the father of heaven and
earth, dependent on nobody, maker of all things visible and invisible, from
eternity to eternity, likes to listen to one of his feeble and insignificant
creatures.
The phrase “For thine is the
kingdom, the power and the glory” does not occur in the NIV, but is there in
most ancient manuscripts. Bible translators are divided about its inclusion.
Great Protestant translator, William Tyndale, excluded it from 1526 edition, but
included it in 1534 edition. Would it be safer, then, to omit it? Not at all. It
is based on 1 Chronicles 29:11-13, and probably entered some New Testament
manuscripts via ancient liturgies which ended with the phrase. We can certainly
ascribe this to God because taught in 1 Chronicles, and we will end with it.
So three petitions about ourselves – provision, pardon and protection; present, past and future. In other words, all of our life to be brought to God in prayer.
It seems obvious to us what Jesus is referring to, but
for centuries there has been enormous controversy over this. Does “daily
bread” refer to (1) the bread of the Lord’s Supper, (2) the Word of God,
since the Word can be thought of as bread for our souls, as in the hymn “Break
thou the bread of life”, or (3) Jesus Christ himself, who said “I am the
Bread of Life”, and on whom we feed?
While all of these may be true,
they are not the obvious and natural meaning. John Calvin said such
spiritualizing of the words was absolutely absurd. The obvious meaning is that
this is a request to God to supply our material needs, our daily food,
everything necessary to preserve our life. Luther took it to mean food, healthy
body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government and peace.
Let us examine these words
“Daily bread”. There are 6 different words in the Greek for “daily” used
by New Testament writers. epiousios is
used only in the Lord’s Prayer, by both Matthew and Luke. Origen thought
Matthew and Luke must have made the word up, because it was not otherwise known
in Greek literature. But recently, papyrus fragments have been found containing
a woman’s shopping list, a note to remind her of supplies of food for the
coming day. This same Greek word was used for bread for the coming day.
Prayer in the morning – asking
for bread for the following hours. Prayer in the evening – asking for food for
the next day. Living in daily dependence on the Lord. God does not give us
everything we want all at once, or else we might forget him. He gives it in
daily instalments. To live one day at a time, and not worry about the distant
and unknown future. God is concerned with our bodies as well as our souls, with
our physical as well as our spiritual welfare. Concerned to the minutest detail.
Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered; … You are worth more
than many sparrows (Matthew 10:30-31).
God will supply all our needs,
not luxuries; daily bread, not cake. We need to be reminded of daily dependence
on God in our materialistic age. People talk of “independent means” – but
none of us really has that. We cannot command the harvest – God gives it. All
the tractors in the world would be so much useless metal if God did not quicken
the life in the seed. Our daily bread does not come from the farmer or the
supermarket, but from God.
“Back of loaf is snowy flour
And back of flour
is mill,
And back of mill is
sun and shower
And wheat and the
Father’s will”
At the same time, this prayer is
no excuse for idleness. It does not rule out the need for human effort needed to
make God’s gift our own. Someone once said “God feeds the sparrows, but he
does not put the crumbs into their mouths”. If a man will not work, he
shall not eat (2 Thess. 3:10). Prayer and work go hand in hand. Prayer, like
faith, without works is dead. Two basic truths: without God we can do nothing;
without our effort and cooperation God will do nothing for us.
Wonderful that God the Creator
and Sustainer, to whom all nations are but a drop in a bucket, is concerned with
me and my little needs, to the minutest detail. Times, health, existence are all
in his hands. Cannot live a day without him. And he is trustworthy. I have
never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread (Psalm
37:25), said David in his old age.
Now the prayer moves from the physical to the spiritual.
The word “debts” is still used in Scotland. The word “trespasses” is not in the Bible, but from the Prayer Book of the Church of England. There are several words in the Bible describing sin – missing the target, stepping across between right and wrong, lawlessness. Luke uses amartia which means missing the mark. Here in Matthew the word is ofeilhma meaning debt. Debt is failure to pay what we owe. Not being faithful to God or man. Failure to meet obligations.
We ask forgiveness because we are in debt. When we came to the Lord we were saved, justified, accounted righteous, forgiven, brought into God’s family, once and for all. But we still sin and fail because we are not perfect. Sin does not break the union, but it breaks the communion. We do not need to be saved again, but we do need to get back on talking terms with God, confessing and receiving forgiveness. Keep the channel of grace clean once it is cut, to prevent it from getting silted up again.
Ask for forgiveness – even as we forgive others. God forgives us when we repent of sin and forsake it. Cannot be forgiven if holding on to spite and malice. So willingness to forgive is proof we have repented. Therefore we are forgiven. Another way of saying If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened (Psalm 66:18). G. Oglethorpe said to Wesley “I never forgive”. Wesley replied “Then I hope you never sin”.
Forsake sin, or else you will not be forgiven. R.L.Stevenson, in his Southern Sea Islands residence, conducted family worship every morning, and ended with the Lord’s Prayer. One morning in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, he rose from his knees and left the room. His wife followed him thinking he was ill, because his health was precarious. “Anything wrong?” she asked him. “Only this. I am not fit to pray the Lord’s Prayer today”. Whether we say the Lord’s Prayer or not, we are not fit to ask forgiveness if we have not forsaken and confessed sin.
Forgive us our debts. Need sense of sin and true penitence to pray this prayer. And the closer we are to God, the more we are aware of sin and failure.
Another problem verse. How can it be reconciled with: God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone (James 1:13). But “temptation” also means “test” peirasmos So some will argue that we are to pray that God may not allow us to be tested because he knows our weakness to give in. But better to link “lead us not” with “but deliver us”. Therefore it is a prayer to be rescued from evil, or the evil one, the Devil, that we may overcome temptation and be victorious in battle with evil. Evil is about us, in us and around us. We are too weak to face up to evil but our hope is in God if we call on him. Request to know power of God. God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (2 Cor. 9:8). When we are kept from evil, our fellowship with God will be unbroken.
These three petitions are wonderfully comprehensive. All our need, material, spiritual and moral. Totally dependent on God in every area of life. And confidence he will not fail us. Inexhaustible supply. From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another (John 1:16).
So we may indeed close with ascription of praise – “For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory”. Can we pray this prayer in all sincerity? Convicted of need to depend on God totally and completely every day of life? Grateful because every good and perfect gift comes from heaven? Aware of sinfulness and guilt? Do we long for forgiveness and deliverance, aware of our weakness and our danger?
How urgent it is that when we pray and sing hymns and preach and talk about things of God, that our hearts should keep in step with our lips. Lest the Lord should say of us – These people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me (Isaiah 29:13). Happy men who can call God “Father” because of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And can say heartfelt “Amen” to all the Lord’s Prayer contains in praise and petition.
