Oct. 16, 2016 Afternoon Service Beatitudes Part 14 by Pastor Josh Sheldon

The Lord’s Prayer and the Fatherhood of God

In Matthew's Gospel, and as it has been our practice, even though we were very much slowed down in our pace of going through the Sermon on the Mount since we've come to the Lord's Prayer, or the Model's Prayer, or the Disciples' Prayer, all of which are valid and good titles for this, and we have slowed down and we've taken off just small pieces of it as we go through this prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us.

And we will continue that until we get through this prayer. And come into the rest of this sermon. But each time, even though we're only talking about a small piece of it in the preaching, we're going to recite the entire prayer.

Of course, I mean the royal we. I will read it to you, and we'll start. It's the word of the Lord, from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to us, pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Pardon me. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And let's finish this with the last part that the Lord Jesus gives. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.

So we pray to God as our Father, as something we discussed last week. Because by Father, we acknowledge that our very being is because of him. It is he, it is God, who created all mankind. We have the privilege of going deeper.

We, being in the church, we being believers in Jesus Christ, go deeper than simply being created by him. If simple that can be, which it is not. But we, who know him by faith in his Son Jesus, go deeper than just acknowledging him as the maker of all.

God is our Father by the rebirth he accomplished in us by his Spirit. And very much part of what Jesus is teaching to Nicodemus in John chapter three, very famous, where he speaks of the Spirit going where he will.

Don't you understand these things? Jesus says to him, the Spirit is the one who determines. The Spirit is the one who brings the gospel upon you. The Spirit is the one who regenerates souls, changes hearts, and incites and excites faith within us.

We pray to God in that way. We, who have been reborn by the Spirit of God, we, who by the Spirit of adoption call him Abba, Father. We spoke about that some length last week, and now we want to proceed to the name of God.

Hallowing the Name of God

His name. And Jesus doesn't give us here the name. He tells us really how to treat the name of God. What do we wish for the name of God? How are we towards that name? And would wish others to be. And it's right here.

In our English, it's just four words. Hallowed be your name. Hallowed be your name. The petition is for his name to be hallowed, and it uses the word agiazzo. Agiazzo, which means to sanctify, to make something holy.

It is a petition that God would show himself as just that, as holy, as gracious, as merciful, as mighty. Hallowed be your name. Show yourself for who and what you are, that that name that you have represents.

Holy, separate from all else. A name in the Bible, of course, depicts something of the person's nature or character, or is even, in many cases, a prophecy about the person. Isaiah and Hosea and their children would teach us that, as the name of each child was given as symbolic of the coming work of the Lord, as a prophecy of what God was soon to do with his people.

And so these names, not just in those cases, and so many in the Bible, have great depth, have great meaning, not just symbolic of the person's nature, but also sometimes even prophetic. As far as God our Father, he revealed his name at various times, in various ways, and for various purposes.

I'll talk about some of those this morning. Abraham needed a substitute for his son Isaac. In Genesis 22, God says, take your son, your only son, the son who was promised to you, the son who came to you in your old age, your only son, who you'd yearned for, for nearly a century, with your barren wife, Sarah.

Take that son, and bring him to the mountain, I will show you. And of course, we know what happened there. As God commanded Abraham to bring him as a burnt offering. And I love the way the scripture shows how God put a halt to that.

Because as the knife was raised, do you remember the angel comes to him and says, Abraham, Abraham, but it wasn't just one Abraham. Say, Abraham, I need your attention for a moment. It was nothing like that.

It was Abraham, Abraham, to halt him, to stop him. Because the knife was ready to come down, so obedient was the man ready to slay his only son. What does all this do with the names of God? With hallowing God's name?

Let me read to you from Genesis 22, 13, and 14. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, now this was after the angel stopped him. The knife was ready to come down, the angel stopped him.

Behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide.

This is a name of God. This is a name of God to be hallowed by his people. The Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. What do we say here? What is this name of God that we've learned here?

Yahweh ra-ah. Yahweh, your ra, your ra-ah in the Hebrew means to see. And so it's the Lord who sees, the Lord who saw that Abraham needed this substitute for Isaac. The Lord didn't just see, though.

As you and I would, we would see something. Do we do anything about it? The Lord saw and he provided. And that's why it's called the Lord provided. The Lord sees and the Lord provides what is needed. To Moses he revealed himself as Yahweh, a name of God that should be hallowed in all the world, but most especially among his people.

Yahweh is, I am, the unchangeable Lord who keeps his covenant promises. After Israel defeated Amalek, his name was given as Yahweh Naseh, which means the Lord, our banner, the Lord who can be seen, the Lord who brought victory, because as they looked upon him, they were able to defeat the enemies of God.

Now it was Moses, of course, who had his raised arms and that's what they saw, but the name ensured that the victory was properly credited to God, that his name, not Moses' name, much less their own, would be the one to be hallowed.

Yahweh Tzevaot is the Lord of hosts who directs the armies of heaven where he will, and there they know only success. So many we could go through in the names of God, because he's also Adonai, which is Lord, Master, Sovereign One.

He's Elohim, which is the first name of God we read in Genesis 1 .1. In the beginning, it was Elohim who created the heavens and the earth. Well, Jesus is teaching us here in the model prayer that God's name must be jealously guarded by God's people.

It must be jealously guarded. If we wish his name to be hallowed, where must it first be hallowed but here? And if it's to be hallowed here in this place, where must that start? In each of us, in the heart of everyone who claims Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

That's where it must first be hallowed. This is what Jesus is teaching here. A child must be profoundly concerned with their father's name. Even on a human level, a boy might take insults and teasing, but don't you dare speak ill of my father, not my daddy.

How much more would this apply to our heavenly father? See, the responsibility is first here, with us, with you, with me, in our daily walk, in our testimony by our lives, of what Jesus Christ means to us, what the name of God communicates to us and therefore from us, what we think of God.

Responsibility is ours first. We should know God's names. We should know what they meant at the point of history where they were first revealed. He is the Lord who heals or he is the Lord who forgives.

We need to look in the scripture to see the description of this person and his works and see what's attached to the name. It's a wonderful meditation. It's a wonderful prayer for us. It's a wonderful way for us to learn individually and if individually, then together, what it means to hallow God's name.

Such studies are easy to find. You can do it with any concordance. Those three I gave you, Adonai, Yahweh, Elohim and then the constructs, Yahweh Tzva 'ot, the Lord of hosts, these sorts of things. Pick one at a time, meditate upon them, hallow them and let hallowing God's name, holding it as high, as sanctified, as holy, as separate from all others, let that become part of your worldview, part of your ethos, if you will.

We must know God's names and study God's names. We can even pray God's names the way we pray his promises and then we will hallow, we will hold as high, as sanctified, as holy, all that it means. If God's name is to be hallowed, if God's name is to be sanctified, it has to begin here.

Sanctifying Christ in the Heart

First Peter 3 .15 tells us, but in your hearts, honor, and that's our word, sanctify. In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. How much more clear can it be? In your hearts, hold as holy the name of Christ that is holy, hold him separate and holy in your hearts.

Sanctify him, make him holy. Then Peter says in chapter four, verse 17 of his first epistle, he says, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

In all ways, everything the scripture inheres and demands of humankind, all humankind, in their relationship to God, it must begin here with us. Primarily, most profoundly, most personally, hallowing God's name, individually and as a body.

You see, it is the church, it is us, it is we that are first accountable for this. The church at Pergamum was commended this way, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

What did they hold on to? What is Jesus saying here specifically to this church in Pergamum? They held on to his name. They held on to his name. What does his name mean? What are the works of God that that name conveys to us?

Jesus, he was named that for what? The angel told Mary, you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from his sins. We hold Jesus' name as holy. We shudder when we hear it misused in media or in conversation or in jokes, why?

It's just not Jesus, like our dear brother, Jesus, he's named after Jesus, of course, and we can call him Jesus, we can even poke a little fun at him in a gentle and godly way, can't we? But not Jesus, because the name of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal son of God, that name means something.

It was prophetic of him when he was born. He shall save his people from his sins, and we, on the other side of the cross, look back at this holy name and say, he did save his people from his sins, he saved me.

The son of God gave himself for me, says the apostle. And each one of us who are here this afternoon to again attend to God's word, the communion table and the like, they held fast to his name and all that it means.

If we fail here, failure here leaves us with Paul's rebuke in Romans 2, verse 24. For as it is written, the name of God is blasphemed among gentles because of you. The name of God, the name of Jesus, blasphemed by his people.

Now what does that mean? Does that mean we're using it as a curse, the way the media does, the way the jokesters do? No, no, and we will get there, Lord willing, soon enough in the preaching through Romans in the morning part of the service.

What does it mean that the name of God is blasphemed? It's because of the way we implicitly hold it, by the way we live out the gospel. He speaks of their outward profession. They're boasting in the law, all the while violating it every turn, violating the name of God which they claim.

They tarnished his name. Far from honoring Christ in their hearts, they blasphemed. Far from having any part in his name being hallowed, they caused it to be derided, ignored. By their claim as children and their conduct as rebels, they showed his name to be a light thing, something to be set aside and disregarded.

And so Jesus begins this prayer right where it has to be. Hallowed be your name. This twofold is for God to hallow his name, for God to sanctify his name, set it apart and show himself as all the things we've been speaking of already.

And it is personal, individual, one by one. Hallowing, holding holy, the name of God our Father. The word drools so easily off our tongue, but how often do we stop and consider the responsibility that those words inherit to us?

Jesus said earlier that our good work should cause others to glorify our Father in heaven. But his glory will only proceed from us in so far as his glory is our first concern. His glory will only be shown in us to the extent that we are really, truly, and primarily concerned with his glory.

As the apostle says, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. As the catechism says, what is our purpose? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. All that we do glorifies his name. It must glorify his name.

Now it's synonymous, that's the same thing as hallowing his name. Showing it as holy. Otherwise, I would suggest to us, it is our own glory we seek. It is our own name that we would then be promoting, if not God's.

The Glory of God and the Name of Jesus

In John chapter 17, verse six, Jesus said, I have manifested your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. He manifested God's name in his works, in his words, and in his sinless perfection.

That is what it means for us to manifest God's name, to obey his word, to do the works of God that he laid out for us in advance that we should walk in them, Ephesians 2 .10. One way of seeing this first petition is that we are praying that God makes us holy.

We're asking God to grant that we hold his name in due regard. D .A. Carson puts it this way. Make me holy. Grant that I may reverence you. Work in me and in other men so that we will acknowledge your unsurpassed and glorious holiness always.

I think he gets it right there. Let me say it one more time. This is from D .A. Carson. Make me holy. Grant that I may reverence you. Work in me and in other men so that we will acknowledge your unsurpassed and glorious holiness always.

You see, but the petition ultimately is about what? It's about God more than us. Now, true, we must hallow God's name. We must sanctify him in our hearts, as Peter put it, so we do have responsibility.

But the ultimate goal, the highest priority, is God's glory. It's God's name. This outstrips the importance of even our own holiness. God's glory in all we do, as the apostle tells us, has to be, pardon me, has to be paramount.

Why do we do good works? So men will see his glory. Why do we sanctify him in our hearts? So men will see what God has done in his people and give him, give God the glory. Why do we want to become more and more and more and more holy?

So we can know God's glory all the better. So we can know God's glory. God reveals so much of himself by his names. They tell us about his nature. They tell us about his works. They tell us about his person.

As the psalmist put it, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Your name, not men's name. Not the men of Babel who wanted to make a name for themselves, and the Lord had the whole thing collapse and disperse them all.

Your name, by a people together, speaking the single language of the one gospel, of the one true God. Seeing that name as majestic. Jesus' name, that wonderful prophetic name. A prophecy when he was born, a completed prophecy from our side of the cross.

Jesus is, of course, the Greek for the Hebrew Yeshua. That's where we get Joshua, which is my name in English. That's the word for salvation. This is the name that Peter meant when he quoted from the prophet Joel in Acts chapter two and verse 21.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Yeshua shall be saved, shall know salvation. The name of the Lord is Jesus. This is the name by which God hallows himself more than any other.

It is the name by which he receives the ultimate glory. Jesus. Many of us carry that name. Jesus has that name, I have that name. For my part, it was my parents' favorite rabbi at the time when I was born up in Portland, Oregon.

Lots of us are named after Jesus in that sense, but only one who has that name can lay claim to this. Acts chapter four, verse 12. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Jesus, his name means salvation. But more than just a meaning behind his name, it's an act accomplished in history. He did save his people from their sins. How so? How so? By the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ saved his people from their sins by going to the cross.

Why the cross? On the cross as he hung their helpless, that's when God made him to be sin who knew no sin. That we who were always sin might become in him, in Jesus, the righteousness of God. That's how he saved his people from his sins, from their sins.

Excuse me, let me say that again. That's how he saved his people from their sins. By taking in himself the full weight of God's wrath, rightly deserved for sin. By making him sin and therefore rightly pouring out wrath upon him.

By Jesus Christ who knew no sin, who had no part of sin to pay for himself, thus was able to put all of his perfect self as a sacrifice for our sins and therefore a complete and adequate and infinite sacrifice that saves completely.

There at the cross, God's glory was most displayed. There his holiness, his hallowedness that demanded wrath against sin, even if that wrath was against his own son, was shown to all. There his mercy mingled best with his judgment.

His anger with his nature to forgive. All this met at the cross of Jesus Christ which this morning we remember. We take the Lord's table to strengthen our souls as Jesus Christ commanded us to do. And we do this every Sunday now since about the middle of summer.

We remember here at this memorial mill where Jesus Christ suffered his body to be broken on our behalf. We think of the tortures that he endured from the moment he was arrested until the cross was put up.

And here we have the broken bread. To remind we whose faith is in Christ of the awful penalty that Christ paid in fulfillment of his name, that name that we hallow, Jesus, who will save his people from their sins.

On the cross, he in fact, in time and space, in history, died. This is what it means that his blood was poured out. We know that the Roman pierced his side with the spear and out came blood and water.

The blood were distinctly, excuse me, the wine here, more distinctly than that represents his life, his life, his blood poured out, his life given up for us. This is the name of Jesus that we hallow, that we hold as holy, that we sanctify in our hearts as Peter put it.

In a few moments, we take this memorial meal. By coming to this meal, we come to God by commandment of Jesus Christ who instituted this supper for us. We come to God whose very name is holy and we come to him in the name of his son, Jesus, the one called the Holy One of God, the sanctified one of God.

This is the one we worship here this day. In Philippians 2, verse nine through 11, this is very familiar to us. We preached on this not long ago. It has something to say about the name of Jesus Christ.

This name which we remember now in this memorial meal, in this special way, therefore God has highly exalted him, therefore meaning because he humbled himself to the point of death, even the death of the cross, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And no less must God's people say, hallowed be the name of your son, Jesus, the name that you, God the Father, has lifted up as higher than any other name.

It's a name that is above every name and at that name, this name above all names, at the name of Jesus who saved his people from his sins, every knee shall bow, every knee shall confess that he is Lord and what's this to?

To the glory of God our Father. Even Jesus' very name, the name above all names, even the name brings glory to God our Father. He says our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And prayer here is simple.

May his name be hallowed by us and in us as we go on about this life. May his name be hallowed as we serve and partake of the elements in the Lord's Supper that was commanded to us, instituted by Jesus Christ.

May, as we partake in a worthy way, we speak to those who are the community of faith, who have made a credible profession of faith, who have been baptized in obedience to Jesus Christ and come here as our guests to partake with us by command of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, of whom we say with the ancient church fathers, there never was a time when the Son was not.

Jesus Christ never wasn't. This Jesus is the one we come to the table around. May his name be held as holy, as high, and as sanctified as we partake, amen.