The Lord’s Prayer
Housegroup w/c 20th February 2022
Matthew 6 v5-15: The Lord’s Prayer
Questions are in italics.
1. Introduction
What were your views / experiences of prayer as a child, teenager, young adult?
e.g., school assembly / rote / boring, church, others, different situations, example of others, formal, informal, public / private.
How has your view and experience of prayer changed?
How do other people view prayer? Other religions?
Com Res Surveys in UK:
· Just over half of all adults in the UK pray, 20% regularly (at least once a month).
· 1 in 20 adults have started to pray during the lockdown, despite not praying before.
Read Matt 5 v5-15. See also Luke 11 v1: The disciples had seen Jesus retreating for times of prayer with God, and the importance he placed on that and came to him and said, “Teach us to pray”. Words to use and a framework to copy.
2. v5-9, How is Christian prayer different?
What comparisons does Jesus make with the way others pray? What are we to avoid? Why?
· Scribes and Pharisees – In it for what they got out of it in terms of public approval.
· Pagans (i.e. non Jews) – Feel that they have to earn God’s attention by much speaking, repetition, heaping up empty phrases.
Have you come across any instances of people sincerely praying like this? e.g., Many religions use prayer beads / wheels to count the number of times they repeat a prayer.
As we consider the opening words of the Lord’s prayer, what is the distinctive difference that Jesus brings to how we address God when we pray?
· ‘Our Father’ – we come as children. The word used is ‘Abba’, an everyday, secular word, and the way a small child comes to their Dad. ‘Abba’ and ‘Imma’ are the equivalent of our ‘Da-da’ and ‘Ma-ma’ - the first sounds a child stammers.
· Professor Jeremias, a respected German theologian and Jewish historian comments: ‘I have examined the prayer literature of Late Judaism -- a large, rich literature . . The result of this examination was that in no place in this immense literature is this invocation of God as ‘Abba’ to be found. . . No Jew would have dared to address God in this manner. Jesus did it always, in all his prayers which are handed down to us, with one single exception, the cry from the cross . . . when he uses the words from Ps 22v1. . .Most astonishing of all, however, Jesus authorizes his disciples to repeat the word ‘Abba’ after him. He gives them a share in his sonship and empowers them, as his disciples, to speak with their heavenly Father in just such a familiar, trusting way as a child would with his father. Yes, he goes so far to say that it is this new childlike relationship which first opens the doors to God’s reign: "Truly, I say to you, unless you become like children again, you will not find entrance into the kingdom of God" (Matt. 18:3).
· Personal – while everyone is ‘made in the image of God’ and his love is for all, we have a special relationship, as children adopted into God’s family. John 1 v12.
What difference does knowing God as our Father make to us when we pray? Reflect on a young child’s relationship with their parent.
· We can come to God with confidence and talk with him because we are his children, it is our right, part of our identity and status, and we know it is his character as a perfect father to hear and respond to us. The parent - child relationship is the unique foundation for our prayers as Christians – we come simply, intimately, securely. (see also, Romans 8 v14-16).
· Our access to God is not dependent on the length, correctness, or sophistication of our prayers.
What is the significance of the term ‘Our Father?
· ‘Our’ not ‘My’ (later on ‘Give us . . lead us . . deliver us’): We are part of a bigger family – all who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
What do we mean when we say, ‘Our Father in heaven’?
· v6 ‘Your Father who is unseen’ - God being above and outside of his creation, with authority and power, as creator, sustainer and ruler of all things, not bound by space, time or resources.
3. Our initial focus
v9 ‘Hallowed be your name’. What does this tell us about ‘our Father’?
· Hallowed – to treat something as sacred, worthy, special, unique, holy. ‘His name’ – equivalent to his title and character, e.g. President of the USA, Queen of England. Honoured be your name.
How significant is it that Jesus focuses our attention firstly on God, through worship? Do we miss out on this in our own prayers? How can we reflect on God’s name and character?
· The role of scripture (God’s names, actions and character), psalms, hymns, worship songs, meditations as part of our prayers. (Eph 5 v18-20)
How do we hold together God as our ‘Dad’ and his greatness, holiness, and power?
· There are iconic photos of JF Kennedy in the Oval Office engaging with his son and daughter. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/194242;. https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/john-f-kennedy-jnr-under-the-resolute-desk/.
v10: ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven’. What does this mean? For us personally? How counter-cultural is this? What was our ‘aim for the day’ before we became Christians? How much have we let ‘his kingdom’ become our new agenda? How much does it figure in our prayers?
We desire, first and foremost, God’s rule and reign:
· In our lives – rather than ‘My agenda, my way’.
· In our actions – driven by God’s values, truth, and love.
· In our world - his justice and peace, and that others come to know and love him.
4. Our requests
How is a parent’s love reflected in their actions towards their children?
· Provision, enjoyment, discipline, training, protection.
What do your children ask you for? If you could have 3 wishes / requests, what would they be? (Health, wealth, and happiness!?) Where does Jesus focus our requests? Are these areas where we think we can be self-sufficient?
Physical provision: v11 ‘Give us today our daily bread’. Recognising our ultimate dependence on God as creator and sustainer and while he normally uses human means of production and distribution it is God who gives the growth. ‘Bread’ typifying the ‘necessities of life’
What might be other necessities? Physical and emotional resources (Philippians 4 v6-7), wisdom (James 1 v5).
What is the significance of it being ‘daily’? To meet the practical demands of each day.
Spiritual health: v12 ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors’. In v14 Jesus relates ‘our debts’ to ‘our sins’ (see also Luke 11 v4). The idea is of a debt being cancelled. Colossians 2 v 14 says ‘God forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross’.
Our forgiveness is a fact – when we first put our trust in Christ; and also part of our on-going experience of being aware of when we ‘miss the mark’ and seek God’s forgiveness (1 John 1 v8-9). In both cases its reality is shown by our willingness to forgive others as highlighted in the parable of the two debtors in Matt.18 v21-35. Those who are truly forgiven, truly forgive.
How can we avoid glossing over our own failings before God? Psalm 139 v23,24.
What will help us to be willing to forgive others?
Moral strength: v13 ‘And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one’. When considered with other scripture (James 1 v13, 1 Cor 10 v13) the focus is perhaps on us seeking God’s strength to overcome temptation and testing that on our own we would not withstand, and be paraphrased as ‘Do not allow us to be led into temptation that it overwhelms us, but rescue us from the evil one.’ (John Stott). ‘Do not let us fall into temptation’ (Catholic version June 2019).
How does this prayer help us to prepare for each day? Recognising our dependency on God’s power within us.
5. Concluding doxology in later usage
‘For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.’
These words were used as part of the prayer in the Didache, the oldest surviving written catechism and reflect the words in 1 Chron 29 v11, ‘ Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.’
What aspects of prayer will you ‘take away’ from this study?
As is appropriate to your group, provide opportunity to ‘pray through’ the Lord’s prayer, encouraging spoken or silent prayers for each line.