The Lord's Prayer: Adoration
Matthew 6.9
Introduction
Imagine that you’re going to visit a friend who lives in an apartment in Chicago that sits right next to the train. All of the sudden the train storms by with a force that shakes the apartment. You frantically yell, “what was that!” You’re friend responds, “what was what?” They’re so used to the company of the passing train that they don’t even notice it anymore; meanwhile it scared you to death.
Something similar has happened with the Lord’s Prayer. Many liturgical High Church Christians are so familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, from reciting it (possibly thoughtlessly) every week that they don’t even hear what it’s saying anymore. Meanwhile some Low Church Protestants – Baptists, Pentecostals, non-denominational churches –have overreacted and completely neglect the Lord’s Prayer. Then churches like ours are startled when the Lord’s Prayer comes up. Our reflex is to say, “we’re not Catholic, we don’t do that.”
Both of these responses are sin. As CS Lewis said, “the devil doesn’t send lies one by one, but two by two.” It is a good reflex to by cautious of Christians that thoughtlessly recite prayers. God doesn’t want us to do anything thoughtlessly, especially prayer. In Matthew 6.9 Jesus commands us to pray then LIKE this. He isn’t explicitly commanding us to recite the prayer regardless of whether we think about it or not.
But our overreaction is sin as well. Bob read from Luke 11 in our call to worship when the disciples asked, “teach us to pray,” Christ’s response was the Lord’s Prayer. The result for churches in our tradition is extemporaneous prayer that often wanders with little substance.
The Lord’s Prayer is the most important prayer in the history of the world. No collection of words has been recited by more people in history than the Lord’s Prayer. Remember from last week that Jesus’ concern isn’t so much method as it is mentality. So whether you recite the Lord’s Prayer word for word, as countless churches around the globe will do this morning, or whether you use the prayer as a sort of scaffolding to build your prayers, is not really the point. The point is that we must address God on his own terms. And Jesus as the eternal Son of God gives us God’s requirements. But as the only sinless human, he also shows us how to pray.
Ground
The address of the Lord’s Prayer reminds us of the ground for prayer, or the basis for prayer. People mean different things when they talk about prayer. Every religion in history has utilized some form of prayer. In our cultural vocabulary “keeping someone in your thoughts and prayers” is a way of saying think nice thoughts about them. But do we have any objective ground for prayer? How does the Scripture talk about prayer? What are some of the presuppositions that we’re assuming as we embark on the Lord’s Prayer?
Prayer is talking to God. A lot more can be said about prayer, but nothing less. And this inaugural phrase of the Lord’s Prayer gives us the ground for praying at all. We can pray because there is a God in heaven who listens. For all of redemptive history, and literal human history, God has spoken to people and people have prayed to God. Not only does he exist, but he wishes to hear from us. Our ground for prayer is that we do have a Father who is in heaven.
God
That brings us to the God to whom we pray. And Jesus reveals to us that we are praying to a God who is both personal and powerful. In English the Lord’s Prayer begins with the first person plural pronoun, our. In Greek it actually begins with the noun, Πάτερ – Father. The Israelites would not refer to YHWH as father in worship because they thought it too informal, but Jesus is showing them that reverence doesn’t necessarily mean distance.
When we approach God in prayer we do so as a child does their father. Tim Keller quips, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” We can approach the king of creation because we are his children.
How has God become our Father? It is exclusively through the gospel of Christ that we can bring adoration to God in prayer. Jesus the son is the way through which we know God as Father. Over 60 times in the synoptic Gospels and over 100 times in John Jesus calls God “Father.” Paul explains further:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4.4-7).
We are adopted as the sons of God because God sent forth his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us. If you have not repented of your sin and trusted in Christ alone, you are not a son of God.
But if you will look to Christ, if you will look to his death and resurrection, the Father will save you. Salvation means adoption into God’s family. God becomes your Father and Jesus your brother. God sends the Spirit of his Son into your heart so you too can cry, “Abba! Father.”
Matthew originally wrote the Lord’s Prayer in Greek, but that’s not the language Jesus spoke. He spoke Aramaic. The Aramaic Abba is the translation of the Greek Πάτερ, which begins the Lord’s Prayer. Paul is saying if you really want to pray the Lord’s Prayer, if you really want to pray as Jesus taught, you can only do so through faith in the gospel. John Calvin said, “to pray, ‘our Father’ is to pray in Jesus’ name.”
Jesus is teaching us that prayer is primarily directed toward God the Father. We’ve been intentional at Christ Community Church in the way that we structure our prayers. We pray to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that prayer is a Trinitarian act that is directed primarily to God the Father. That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong ever to address prayer directly to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit, for they are all God. But when the Bible in general, and Christ specifically, teach about prayer the norm is prayer to the Father. As one theologian wrote, “the Father is the destination, the Son is the road, and the Spirit is the car.”
And notice Jesus says that God is not just the Father but he’s our Father. The pronoun is plural not singular. Jesus doesn’t pray, “my Father,” but our Father. All of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer are 1st person plural. Jesus is teaching us that prayer is a community project. Prayer is meant to exist within the church. We pray with each other, we pray for each other.
Lest we get too comfortable and move into irreverence, Jesus reminds us that this personal God of ours is also powerful. We may have the right to wake the king, but we must always remember that he is the king. He is our Father in heaven. And even though Jesus is using new language for God liturgically, it’s not new historically. When YHWH led the people of Israel out of slavery in the Exodus he roared at Pharaoh, “Israel is my firstborn son…let my son go (Exod 4.22-23).” The Exodus is one of the most vivid demonstrations of the power of YHWH in the Old Testament, and as he’s doing so he refers to himself as the father of Israel.
That would not have fallen on deaf ears to these 2nd Temple Jews. Jesus is applying the language of the Exodus to God in prayer. The God who redeemed you from slavery in Egypt; this is the powerful God to whom you pray. And he has come to lead a new exodus. Another way to say adoption is to say exodus. Through Jesus Christ God has led us out of spiritual slavery and into life, through is power.
He is in heaven, above us. He is separated from us. He is holy. He is other. He is not created as the idols are. For centuries Christians have confessed together in the Creed, “We believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Jesus is teaching us that as we pray we must come with a mixture of adoration and acquaintance. Some people view prayer as a strictly emotionless religious exercise, others use a slogan like, “it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” There is no dichotomy because we pray to a God who is both personal and powerful.
Glorify
And then Jesus brings the first petition, hallowed be your name. The word “hallowed” is not common in contemporary English. And yet more contemporary translations like the ESV, NASB, and NIV all keep the word “hallowed.” It’s because we don’t have a word to convey what “hallowed” means. The verb hallowed is the Greek ἁγιάζω, which means, “to feel reverence for or to honor as holy.” Hallowed means, “to treasure above all else.”
This petition can be confusing because God’s name is intrinsically holy. His name is hallowed whether anyone acknowledges it or not. But Jesus is teaching us that we should also long for the worship of God’s name. Christ not only teaches us of the God to whom we speak, but he also instructs us in how we ought to speak about God. When God led Israel out of Egypt he gave them the 10 commandments at Mount Sinai, the 3rd commandment was You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
The Westminster Catechism gives helpful commentary on what hallowed be your name means:
In the first petition…acknowledging the utter inability and indisposition that is in ourselves and all men to honor God aright, we pray, that God would by his grace enable and incline us and others to know, to acknowledge, and highly to esteem him, his titles, attributes, ordinances, word, works, and whatsoever he is pleased to make himself known by; and to glorify him in thought, word, and deed: that he would prevent and remove atheism, ignorance, idolatry, profaneness, and whatsoever is dishonorable to him; and, by his overruling providence, direct and dispose of all things to his own glory.
And so we come to the main point of the first phrase of the Lord’s Prayer: prayer must begin with adoration. Let me give you a few practical points why Jesus is so kind in giving us adoration as the starting point for prayer:
(1) Adoration helps us avoid selfish prayer. How often do our prayers have begin by giving a quick nod to God but then move to us – what I want, what I need? There is nothing wrong with asking God for what we need or telling him what we feel, Jesus will teach us to do that later, but we must not begin there. He begins with adoration for the Father. He praises God for who he is. He petitions God to make is name hallowed. We must begin with God for he is the beginning of all things. Prayer that begins with praising God for who he is and what he’s done hallows his name in our own hearts and to our hearers. There really is no wrong answer on how to best adore God so long as it echoes the truth that God has revealed about himself in Scripture. Prayer mustn’t begin with us, but it must begin with God.
(2) Adoration helps us avoid aimless prayers. When prayer is merely petitions we wander. We make prayer a medical or social news report to God and often don’t know where to go. This is the problem with Low Church evangelicalism that values extemporaneous prayer. We are fallen creatures and we are easily distracted. Putting our focus on God first straightens our priorities.
(3) Adoration helps us avoid heretical prayers. I once heard a man begin a prayer, “dear Jesus,” and ended the prayer, “in your son’s name.” There’s no telling how much heresy has been uttered in Jesus’ name because of extemporaneous prayer. How we talk to God matters.
(4) Adoration helps us avoid boring prayer. How many Christians think prayer is boring? That’s because when all we do is talk about ourselves, it gets old. We were created to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our hearts will experience the deepest joy when we glorify God. Spend time telling God how beautiful he is, how powerful he is. It will stir your heart and prayer will be exhilarating!
Conclusion
If the Lord’s Prayer is that train, we don’t want to be so familiar that we don’t hear it. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name isn’t merely a religious mantra. It is adoration for our almighty Father who has adopted us through his Son and led us out of the slavery of sin. It is a plea for him to cover the earth with his glory like the waters cover the sea. But we also don’t want to be startled and scared of the Lord’s Prayer either. Jesus has both commanded us and demonstrated for us that we must begin our prayer with adoration to God the Father. Our Father is in heaven and his name is hallowed. May our prayers be filled with adoration for our Father!