Today we come to the part of the Sermon on the Mount that is referred to as the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus has been teaching us the surpassing righteousness of prayer, He has been very clear that we are not to pray like the hypocrites who do so to be seen by men or the heathen who pray to be heard by God. He has told us that when we pray we are supposed to “close the door, pray to our Father who is in the secret place” and be ever mindful that God does not hear or answer due to our few or many words but that He “knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Prayer is worship; it must be and is initiated by God and it must be done all for God. Our aim in prayer is God’s glory, our purpose in prayer is communion with God and the outcome of worshipful prayer is that Jesus is made known. Jesus then moves from negative examples of prayer and says “In this manner, therefore pray”. He is about to teach us how to pray much more than what we are supposed to pray. In the coming weeks we will discuss the magnitude of this prayer, we will look at its weight and its purpose, we will go line by line through it and we will study it from as many angles as we can but today we are going to start with the simple address that Jesus begins with, “Our Father”.
As I have studied, read, prayed and attempted to prepare for this section of the Sermon on the Mount I have come to the conclusion that nothing about the Lord’s Prayer makes sense if we don’t understand the relationship of the one praying to the One hearing. The prayer itself is only relevant if the relationship is grasped. God’s will and kingdom, my daily bread, forgiveness and deliverance are just formulated requests if the relationship of child to Father isn’t first taken hold of. Before we can learn from and apply the Lord’s Prayer we need an immersion into the Fatherhood of God. I can’t rightly pray if I can’t rightly address the One I’m speaking to, communing with and aiming to glorify. Jesus didn’t come to simply die for our sin and resurrect with victory over death, He came to restore all things, to redeem all things and to make all things new, He did this by revealing the Fatherhood of God and making a way for all orphans to be adopted forever by their true Father. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:15 “you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which you cry out ‘Abba! Father!’” In Christ we are all on equal footing, not simply because our sins are forgiven or because our eternity is secured, but our sins are forgiven and our eternity is secured because we have all been adopted, chosen, sought after and loved. Jesus came to show us the Fatherhood of God and then to become our Way to the Father. Nothing, including the Lord’s Prayer makes sense or can be complete unless and until we have an immersion into the Fatherhood of God. This morning I want to just take a few minutes to remind those that have heard and announce to those that have not, that God is, above all else, our Father.