When Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he didn’t give them a lecture on prayer; he gave them a prayer. Ever since, this prayer we call “The Lord’s Prayer” has had a special place in the prayer life of most Christian believers. Today as we consider the first part of that prayer, we will think about what these familiar words really mean.
MATTHEW 6:9: “OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME.”
INTRODUCTION
Some years ago I read a book by a young Russian woman, a Christian believer named Titania Goricheva.
This young Christian came to Christ via an unusual route. As a young philosophy student and atheist, she chose to use the Lord’s Prayer as a mantra for meditation.
As she repeated the prayer over and over again, the truth of Christ gripped her and she came to faith. I believe that she had never read the Bible or met a Christian.
She hadn’t been to church. But God spoke to her through this powerful prayer and brought her to himself.
I use the Lord’s Prayer in my prayer time, and when I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I try to feel the meaning of every word.
I find many other things to pray about, but I use the Lord’s Prayer along with my own.
This morning we’ll look at the first part of this prayer. Next time we consider the rest of it.
I. “Our FATHER…”
A. We could properly begin our prayer: “Almighty God,” “Sovereign Lord,” “Creator of the Universe,”…or any number of other proper titles.
We can quite properly come to God as servants to our Lord, as creatures to our Creator, as subjects to a King. But here Jesus bids us to come to him as children to our Father.
“Father” was Jesus’ favorite name for God. “Father” reminds us of God’s tenderness, his pity, his closeness.
In fact, we know that Jesus used the word “Abba” for the Heavenly Father. Abba was the most familiar term for “Father” in the Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.
It was like “Daddy” or “Papa,” one of the first words a baby could say.
You don’t need teeth to say “Daddy,” or “Papa,” or “Abba.”
When we call God Father, let us try to feel his arms around us.
As a good father, he understands our hurts.
Good fathers take pride in their children. They protect them and provide for them. They are kind.
(Some people have a problem with calling God “Father” because, they say, “My Father wasn’t very nice.” But when we think of our “Father in Heaven” we are thinking of a God who embodies all that is best in fatherhood.)
B. “OUR Father…”
Why our Father? Why not “My Father”?
It’s good to make our prayers personal. It’s good to pray, “My Father.”
But in this prayer Jesus tells us to say “Our Father…”
We say “Our Father” because when we pray this prayer we join with all the family of God’s sons and daughters.
When I pray this prayer, I pray for you and you pray for me.
When I pray “Our Father” I think of myself holding hands with my brother and sister believers all around the world—rich, poor, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, Chinese, Africans, persecuted, suffering, respected and despised—Christian people everywhere loving God and praying.
So when we say “Our Father” we pray as members of the family of God.
II. “...WHO ART IN HEAVEN”
A. When we say, “who art in heaven,” we don’t mean that God is far away, up in the sky somewhere.
“Heaven” means the dwelling place of God.
One could travel to the end of the universe and back and never find a place called “heaven” because heaven is another dimension.
When Yuri Gagarin returned from the first manned flight into space, Nikita Kruschev tried to make the space flight into propaganda against God. He said in a speech: “Gagarin flew into space, but he didn’t see God there.” He supposed he was saying something clever.
Yuri Gagarin never saw God in space because God is everywhere. He could have gone past the Milky Way and he would have been no closer to God.
As Paul said, “He is not far from us, for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28).
B. It is true that the word for “heaven” and the word for “sky” are the same in Greek, but the people of the Bible came to understand that the idea of God being “above us” was a metaphor for God’s infinity.
In Isaiah 57.15, we read:
“For thus says the high and lofty One
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit…”
So when we say, “Our Father who art in heaven,” we are not to think of a God who is far away, but of a Father who is very close.
III. “HALLOWED BE THY NAME.”
A. “Hallowed” is a very old world. It was an old word when the King James Bible was translated in 1611. They used that word because that was the old fashioned language people used when they prayed this prayer.
The Greek word for “hallowed” is usually translated “sanctified” or “consecrated” or “held holy.”
When I pray that God’s name be honored in this special way, I acknowledge God’s holiness.
I reverence God and tell him that I intend to glorify him by my obedience.
B. God’s “name” is his revealed character, his manifested nature.
When we were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we were bathed in the manifested love of God.
God’s “name” thus gathers together all of God’s attributes of kindness, power, wisdom, and glory as revealed in his righteous actions.
I always pause when I say, “Hallowed be thy name” and think of the magnificence of God. This as the place in the prayer where I pause to worship God.
When we say, “Hallowed be thy name,” we ask that God will abolish everything contrary to his holiness and bring to perfection everything that belongs to his glory—including me and you.
CONCLUSION
In this first part of the Lord’s Prayer we remind ourselves that we belong to a family of faith, that God is our Father and all believers are our sisters and brothers.
Our prayers should not be just for ourselves but for all the family of God.
We also worship God by lifting up his holy name and honoring him in our hearts.
We can help God answer this prayer. St. Paul wrote: “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 19:31).
In this way we help God to hallow his name before angels and people.
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