Lord, Teach Us to Pray

“It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.’ And He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed [αγιασθητω, “let it be made holy”] be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation”...if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?’” (Luke 11:1-4,13).

I’ve always been fascinated by the Gospel of Luke. The divinely-inspired compiler (1:1-3) is often “moved [φερομενοι, lit., “carried”] by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21) to record his material in a way that requires some careful consideration. That’s why I love this Gospel. It’s easy to read for all who come to it, but also invites us to meditate on the theme-relationships of the larger structure.

This week I was reading Jesus’ teaching on prayer in chapter 11 (which contains Luke’s recording of the “Lord’s Prayer”). In addition to the model prayer, the Lord also gives two illustrations highlighting the importance of perseverance in prayer and the willingness of the Lord to give to us through the means of prayer. Matthew records these elements separately from each other. This doesn’t confound me like it seems to confound others. I have no problem believing that Jesus taught similarly-worded material at different times and in varied contexts. Anyway, Matthew tells us that the Father gives “what is good to those who asked Him” (Matthew 7:11). Why does Jesus change the wording in His teaching recorded in Luke 11 from “what is good” to “the Holy Spirit”?

I think the answer to this question, and the key to a larger coherence in Luke 11:1-13, is found in the new covenant promise recorded by the prophet Ezekiel:

“Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, ‘Son of man...say to the house of Israel, “Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘...I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God’”’” (Ezekiel 36:16,17,22-28).

Just as Jesus begins His teaching on prayer with a concern for the holiness of the Father’s name and ended it with the giving of the Holy Spirit, Ezekiel does the same (“hallowed [αγιασθητω, “let it be made holy”]...Holy [αγιον] Spirit”). Jesus’ teaching on prayer is built upon the foundation of the Scriptures. He teaches us to pray the promises of the Word. I know that’s not a unique statement. There are a lot of teachers out there urging us to pray the promises of Scripture, and that’s good. I can appreciate anyone motivating us to get into the Word. However, there’s a nuance here that’s usually overlooked when we’re told to “pray the promises of the Word.” The promise of the Lord in Ezekiel is not individualistic, focused on the desires of the individual in their private life – their own self-centered world. The prophet records God’s Self-centered (capital “S”) plan to be glorified in the salvation of His people before the witness of the all the nations. It’s a world-wide Gospel plan about Him.

Is Jesus’ teaching on prayer any different than Ezekiel’s revelation of the Gospel?

“Your [not “our” or “my”] kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,

For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation” (Luke 11:2-4).

We (second-person plural pronouns, never first-person singular) pray for ourselves (again, as the Church) as a subset of praying for God’s coming Kingdom. This coming Kingdom is also the message preached by the Church (9:2; 10:9,11).

The Lord Jesus teaches us to pray the Gospel plan for the gathering of God’s people (the Church) from among the nations, the forgiveness of their sins, and their filling with the Holy Spirit – all for the making-holy of His name and the magnifying of His great glory. Even “our daily bread” falls under this heading. It’s all about His glory through His Son, the Savior-King.

“Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). May we be willing to hear His teaching, drawn from the Prophets, and make our regular petition the glory of the Father through the Gospel of His Son among all the nations by the power of the Holy Spirit.

"Praying at Gethsemane," by He Qi (1999)

Gog and the Lord's Prayer

I was going to read out 1 Chronicles this morning, and didn’t get very far.

“The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras” (1 Chronicles 1:5//Genesis 10:2, N.K.J.V.).

Having just finished spending most of the year preaching Genesis 1-12, these names were fresh on my mind. I knew a hung-over Noah had blessed Japheth not only with great numbers, but also a place in the tents of the covenant people of Yahweh (Genesis 9:26,27). But what about the rest of the family of Japheth, the ones who were not brought into the camp of the saints by faith? I know their story.

Ezekiel 38-39.

Revelation 20:7-10.

The peoples who do not enter the camp of the saints by faith will seek to destroy it by force. They will fail.

While reading the Ezekiel chapters again, I noticed a promise of God in the midst of it all. The Lord Yahweh promises to bring the unbelievers against His people (Satan and the nations only think they’re calling the shots) and then explains why He is doing it: “...so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes” (38:16).

The gathering of the nations against the people of Messiah, the Christ, is God’s providential answer to two things: a question and a prayer.

It is the answer to the question of the second song of the Psalter:

“Why do the nations rage,

And the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

And the rulers take counsel together,

Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces

And cast away Their cords from us.’

He Who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

The LORD shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,

And distress  them in His deep displeasure:

‘Yet I have set My King

On My holy hill of Zion’” (Psalm 2:1-6).

They “rage” and “plot” so that they will come to know God (not savingly, but know Him as absolute Sovereign and Judge) and "so that" He will be made holy before them.

This antichrist(ian) gathering is the answer to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer:

“Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9//Luke 11:2).

The citizens of the camp of the saints have prayed from the very beginning that God’s name be made holy. The answer from heaven to that fundamental and timeless prayer is the gathering of the nations to surround the camp of the saints, seeking their destruction. “...so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes” (38:16). The rallying of the nations against the camp is the granting of the First Petition, and the prayer of the First Petition results in the besieging of the camp.

It is God’s plan for the display of His glorious holiness before all the nations. Do not despair, but praise His holy name!

The First Petition, Our Great Need, & the Mediator

Last Thursday morning our Thursday Theology group was studying the holiness of God (we’ve been in the incommunicable attributes of God and were just starting the communicable attributes). Toward the end of class we spoke about the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name’” (Matthew 6:9).

The petition verb “hallowed” (αγιασθήτω) means to “make holy.” In the case of the Father’s name (note that the Son commands and teaches us to call Him “Father,” not the tetragrammaton), it is a request to exalt His name as unique and glorious above all things. In our discussion, we noted that the first petition of the prayer the Son commands and teaches us to pray concerns the Father’s absolute holiness; the Father is always manifesting His holiness, so the prayer is to re-orient ourselves to Him rather than to change His mind/actions. But then we noticed something amazing about this: the first petition has two seemingly contradictory ideas: He is Father and He is holy. How can these two exist together, and do so sinners' petition to Him?

Remember Isaiah’s extreme unraveling when made aware of the holiness of God: “In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.’ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts’” (Isaiah 6:1-5). Isaiah received faithful and righteousness (and fiery) cleansing from the Lord for this accurate confession of his own sinfulness before the holiness of God. The prophet did not call “the King, the LORD of hosts” Father when made aware of His holiness!

Intimacy is impossible between the sinner and the Holy One. Impossible. O, but sinner, God does the impossible – even the most impossible! “When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ And looking at them Jesus said to them, ‘With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:25,26).

How does God accomplish this impossibility? How is it that Jesus can possible command and teach us to pray God exalts His own holiness even as we sinners call on Him intimately as “Father”?

In this first petition we should be immediately made aware, as sinners before this Holy One Who is our Father, that we must have a Mediator. Someone must bear God’s righteous and just wrath against our sin for Him to be Father to us. Someone must lift us up and shroud us in an impossible holiness for us to call the Holy One “our Father.”

The first petition reminds us we must have Jesus the Son as Mediator between us sinful children and our Father Who is in heaven.

Someone must bear God’s righteous and just wrath against our sin for Him to be Father to us...and the petition is answered: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:8-10).

Someone must lift us up and shroud us in an impossible holiness for us to call the Holy One “our Father”...and the prayer is answered: “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification [αγιασμός, the being-made-holy], and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD’” (1 Corinthians 1:30,31).

As you pray as commanded and taught by the Son, asking Your Father in heaven that He exalt His own name as holy, may you be drawn closer to exalt the Mediator and praise Him above all things for what He has done – the impossible – to bring you to His Father and your Father:

• “Christ Jesus is He Who died, yes, rather Who was raised, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:34).
• “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...” (1 Timothy 2:5).
• “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens...” (Hebrews 7:25,26).