A PRAYER FOR DISCIPLES

Text: Matthew 6:9-13.

Purpose:  To learn from Jesus how to pray: in humility, in supplication, in adoration.

Introduction

The model prayer, or the Lord's prayer, as it is sometimes less-wisely called, was in fact a prayer for the disciples. Jesus gave it in the Sermon on the Mount, in the course of teaching concerning prayer. In Luke, a disciple acts as spokesman in requesting that Jesus teach them to pray, and this prayer is the Lord's response. (Luke 11:1-4).

It is still the Lord's model for His disciples; not that they are to recite it, as parrots, but that they should learn from it and build their own expressions from its contents. Perhaps there is still "gold" to be mined from this text!

Body

I. This prayer is eternal in its appropriateness: faithful Jews could pray it then as well as faithful disciples.

   A. Every part of it can be found in form or in substance in the Old Testament. Compare the majestic prayers found, for example, in I Chronicles 29:10-19; Daniel 9:4-19; Ezra 9:5-15; Nehemiah 9:5-38.

   B. God never changes, nor does the fundamental principle of faith by which He is approached. We may properly see the New Testament as the fulfillment and goal of the Old, but that carries the equal responsibility to see the continuity between the two. Fulfillment requires connection; comparison calls for something in common.

II. The prayer has three parts: requests for God's glory; supplication for the disciple's needs; personal ascription of praise.

   A. Prayer for God's glory, addressed to "Our Father, which art in heaven."

        1. The prayer is that God's heavenly position may be acknowledged and realized also on earth. "On earth as it is in heaven, as in heaven, so on earth" (Luke).

        2. The same thing is stated three ways:

            Thy Name - may it be hallowed,

            Thy Kingdom - may it come (be present),

            Thy Will - may it be done.

        3. God's name is hallowed when His will is done, and that is what it means for His kingdom to be present. No one of these requests is possible without the other two. In the Greek, the parallelism between the phrases is clearer.

        4. Although the church is closely related to the Kingdom in the New Testament (Matthew 16:18,19; Colossians 1:13), God's Kingdom or Rule is far more inclusive than the New Testament church. It extended back through past ages (Psalm 103:19; 145:10-13) and will reach consummation only in heaven (II Peter 1:11). Preacher: an excellent biblical study on The Kingdom of God is John Bright's book of that title published in paperback by Westminster Press. He is Presbyterian.

   B. Supplication for the disciple's own needs.

        1. Necessary provisions for physical life - daily bread. We are authorized to ask for what we need, but God promises it only in daily rations to keep us humble and dependent on Him (see Exodus 16:4; Proverbs 30:8,9).

        2. Forgiveness of sins. God's forgiveness is celebrated through the Bible (Psalm 103:10-14), and is based on the saving work of Jesus (I John 2:1,2). It carries with it the responsibility to forgive those who sin against us (Matthew 18:21,22; Ephesians 4:32).

        3. Guidance and deliverance from evil. Just as we need God's daily blessings for physical life, and His forgiveness of our sins for spiritual life, so we depend on Him completely for guidance in right ways and protection from the evil work of Satan (see "deliver" in a concordance, in Psalms; Romans 15:30-32; 1 Peter 5:8).

   C. Personal ascription and acknowledgement of God's rights. In the doxology, the disciple (collectively, the church) confesses that God's position in heaven, prayed for on earth, is already true in his own heart and life.

        1. Thine is the Kingdom - "may it come,"

        2. And the power - "thy will be done,"

        3. And the glory - "hallowed be Thy Name."

Conclusion

The Christian disciple (or person of faith before Pentecost) acknowledges what the world as yet does not: that God is King. Therefore he hallows God's name by doing His will. In this relationship, God's Kingdom is truly realized.

The disciple may ask God with confidence for all his personal needs, praying for the same relationship to prevail over all the earth - as it is in his life, and fully in heaven.

To such a prayer, each one of us may humbly say, "Amen!"

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