Introduction to the Lord's Prayer

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul
• Call to Worship — Deuteronomy 6:4-9
• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul (continued)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Nicene Creed
• Scripture Reading — Luke 7:1-10
• Hymn — Just As I Am
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn of Preparation — The Lord's Prayer
• Sermon
• Prayer of Application
• Hymn — Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Introduction to the Lord's Prayer

Scripture: Matthew 6:7-15

I. The Lord's Prayer Is for Dependent Children on the Father

A. Calling God "Father" was audacious in the Jewish context of Jesus's day

1. The Hebraic scribes would not even write the name Yahweh, substituting Adonai out of reverence
2. Yet Jesus instructs his people to address this holy God intimately as Father

B. The prayer is rooted in total, childlike dependence

1. The Greek word for father (pater) conveys the helplessness of a child dependent on parents
2. The petitions — give, forgive, lead — are comprehensive verbs of dependence, not a laundry list of wants
3. Psalm 63:1 pictures the soul's desperate thirst for God alone
4. Matthew 18:3: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven"

C. The context of Matthew 6 frames prayer as dependence on God's glory, not man's

1. "Your father who sees in secret will reward you" — repeated in verses 4, 6, and 18 — contrasts with the hypocrites who have already received man's glory as their reward
2. The competition is not between God's provision and man's provision, but between God's glory and man's glory
3. The serpent tempted Eve not with starvation but with glory (Genesis 3)
4. Prayer is a mini worship service: we brag on the Father's all-sufficient glory apart from ourselves

II. The Lord's Prayer Is for the Discipled Community of the Son

A. The prayer is cast in the first-person plural — our, us — marking it as a communal prayer for disciples

1. Matthew presents Jesus as the greater Moses and the true Israel
2. Matthew 2:15 quotes Hosea 11:1 ("Out of Egypt I called my son") and applies it to Christ
3. Jesus is tempted 40 days in the desert, echoing Israel's 40 years in the wilderness (Matthew 4)
4. Jesus ascends a mountain and gives the law to his new covenant community, echoing Moses at Sinai (Matthew 5–7)
5. Deuteronomy 18:18: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you… and I will put my words in his mouth"

B. In Luke's account, the disciples ask, "Teach us to pray as John taught his disciples to pray"

1. Jewish communities of the day had communal prayers taught by their rabbi; the disciples ask Christ for theirs
2. This marks the Lord's Prayer as an exclusive prayer for the new covenant community bonded to the Son

C. Christ as our great High Priest intercedes by means of this prayer

1. Hebrews 7 — Christ always lives to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father
2. Hebrews 3 — Moses was faithful over God's house as a servant; Christ is faithful as a Son
3. Just as the incense of Israel's high priest carried the prayers of the people to Yahweh, so our prayers united to Christ's intercession become a sweet aroma to the Father
4. Our prayer life is to be wedded to the intercession currently going on between the Father and the Son on our behalf

III. The Lord's Prayer Is for Direct Communication in the Spirit

A. Luke closes the Lord's Prayer section with a promise about the Holy Spirit

1. Luke 11:11-13: "How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him"
2. Matthew 7:11 gives the parallel: "How much more will your Father… give good things to those who ask him"
3. Matthew and Luke interpret each other: asking for the Spirit is asking for every good thing; asking for good things is asking for what the Spirit brings

B. The prayer Jesus teaches is after the Spirit, not after the flesh

1. Satan tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the earth — a prosperity gospel in the desert
2. The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert (Matthew 4:1); it was in the Spirit's power that Jesus refused earthly treasure and clung to heavenly treasure
3. Christ therefore teaches us to pray for Spirit-wrought, heavenly kingdom treasures, not earthly ones

C. James 1:17 — "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change"

1. A perfect gift is complete and unchangeable, coming from the immutable Father
2. These are treasures that neither moth nor rust destroys, because they are grounded in the One who does not change
3. Every good and perfect gift flows from the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit

D. Concluding illustration: a child who loses his parents would choose his parents over any inheritance

1. "A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere"
2. No earthly comfort can satisfy the believer's soul — only the presence of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit