The Lord’s Prayer: Pray as Jesus did.Sunday December 4,2022The Lord has given us His life so that we can live just as He lived.
The night before the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spent the entire night in prayer.
Luk 6:12 It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
The next morning He chose the twelve (v. 13) and then gave His Sermon (v. 20). But notice how the people are so troubled with sicknesses and diseases and possession of unclean spirits and they are anxious to touch Jesus so as to be healed.
Luk 6:17-19 Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. 19 And all the people were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.
If we were sick or frail and we knew that we would be healed with a touch; we wouldn’t have acted any different. Whether you have an ailment right now or not, all of us are troubled people looking for a cure.
The Lord healed them.
And if that was all that was necessary for what He wanted for them, then that’s all that would have happened. But Jesus, the only sinless one among them, knows that their real trouble will continue after whatever unclean spirit is cast out or disease is removed.
Their real trouble is sin. But that is too broad a statement. Their real trouble is sin that causes them to conclude that life is mainly concerned with earthly, material things. It is a harsh reality that if some of them were not so poor then they would avoid the diseases and sicknesses that a good diet and a warm and comfortable home would have given them. The reality Jesus knows is that only a relationship with the Father is going to give anyone peace and joy.
Luk 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
So, to the anxious crowd who are pressing in for their cures, Jesus begins:
Luk 6:20-26 And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 "Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 "Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. 23 "Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. 24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. 25 "Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.
It’s not a sin to be rich or to have nice things, but it is a sin to be conceited. The Lord is pointing out a reality. In general, the rich are conceited and do not ever think that their next meal depends completely on God’s grace. The poor know an uncertainty in life in which survival is fully upon the foundation of God’s grace. (The poor at that time were a people in real danger. There were no government entitlements).
The Lord gives us everything we need to live this life, and then some. He models it for us. The gospels are the story of the life of Jesus Christ, the parts that Jesus Himself wanted us to know. He gives us His life by means of His death; He empowers that life in us through the Holy Spirit whom He gave us; He models that life in four beautiful gospel narratives; He further models it in the apostles and expands upon the truth of the life through their epistles.
Should be a slam dunk for every one of us.
Rom 7:24 Wretched man that I am!
The Lord Jesus has given us His life. He desires that we live as He does and pray as He does. It demands commitment of the deepest kind because a life like His cannot be lived casually or part-time.
In Luke’s gospel, the disciples had heard our Lord pray and then asked Him to teach them to do the same. This tells us that there was more to whatever the Lord was praying than the words He was using. Why did they ask Him how rather than what He prayed? They could have just memorized the words or repeated them, but they asked how He prayed. There had to have been something that was of a more methodical or characteristic way of praying that they had not known. And this becomes clear to us when we hear His reply. It definitely was not something related to the common OT prayers. This is something else. He is something else. What life exists that is like His? It has that strangeness that all real things have. He has invited us into it. He is going to show us how He used prayer to live a divine life in sinful world ruled by the devil.
And there is something in it that makes us honest, if we are listening. As He says at the end of the Sermon, “Either do it or don’t do it. I leave you no other option.”
Pray and say are commands (Matthew and Luke). The honesty of life comes upon us suddenly. Far more people would rather talk about life and contemplate life and debate the issues of life rather than actually living it. In reality, all you need is a chair and a tongue to debate life; but you need a whole lot more tools to actually live it out to the level that God gives to us. A whole lot more. The good and gracious news is that you can start living today if you haven’t up to now. The only prerequisite is faith.
We are each going to struggle with it. And for many of us, the problem isn’t that we reject His life or that we don’t want to live it, but that other things compete for our affection.
Gal 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Those who desire to walk by the Spirit find other passions, desires, impulses competing for their time and affection.
And prayer is going to be one of your greatest helps. In fact, I would confidently assert that without prayer – a good and proper and consistent prayer life – you won’t be able to live in the manner of the Christ-life. It would be like trying to live out a successful relationship of love without much expression of your love.
Right up next to prayer is going to be Bible study and more Bible study, and if we neglect our study then we don’t have a chance. And, just as prayer is with a real Person so Scripture is about a real Person.
Jesus is challenging us to enter into the reality of life with God and the life of God – to have more than knowing of it, but walking in it.
The Lord Jesus gives us six petitions. No one would be able to respond to Him, “I don’t have enough time for prayer.”
The prayer easily divides into two parts. 1) Praise of the Father for His Person and work. 2) Our contentment, forgiveness, and journey.
We must praise God daily. The opening is a doxology. Our Father who is in heaven, holy be your name.
The limits of our text are six petitions divided directly into two parts: praising God the Father for His Person and work (kingdom and will); petitions for our needs (satisfaction / contentment), confession of sins (anxious for nothing and not judging others), petitions for guidance and wisdom as we make our way on the narrow road.
It is prayer in the midst of instruction about the most important thing in life.
The petitions from the first part are inseparable from one another:
Mat 6:9-10 “Pray, then, in this way:
'Our Father who is in heaven, [the address] Hallowed be Your name. 10 'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
The fact that all the petitions are imperative (commandments) is simply a common way in the Greek language to request from a superior. We are not to read anything into it other than these are petitions.
Communion:
The word “bearing”
Bearing is one word that is capable of expressing the whole work of Christ, Isa 53:4-5. God bore all men and they weighted Him to the ground. The cross carried all of our sin and this carried us.
Isa 53:4-6 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Isa 53:11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.
Psa 38:4 For my iniquities are gone over my head; As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.
Psa 55:22 Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
Psa 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. |