Sunday Sermon: Our Father in Heaven (Matthew 6:9-10)

You're listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book.

On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday. Each Sunday, we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe.

The Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6

Matthew chapter six, beginning in verse nine. Pray then like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy 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.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

Thank you, you may be seated. Prayer does not change God's mind. Prayer changes mind. That's something that I shared on social media about a month ago, and it's exactly what scripture tells us. Moses wrote in Numbers 23, 19, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind.

Samuel said to King Saul that God is not a man that he should have regret. In Psalms and in Hebrews, we read that there are things that God has sworn and he will not change his mind. That's Psalm 110 verse four in Hebrews 7, 21.

And my friends, we can take great comfort in that. We are at peace in knowing that all things are in God's hands and there is nothing happening outside of his control. A God who changes his mind is a God who does not know and a God who does not have control.

One person responded to my statement online and said to me, I would never pray to a God whose mind I could not change. And I simply responded, I wouldn't pray to a God whose mind I could change. R .C. Sproul said the following, the mind of God does not change for God does not change.

We have that in the book of Hebrews. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Dr. Sproul continues, things change. Have we not seen that this year? People change according to his sovereign will, which he exercises through secondary means and secondary activities.

And the prayer of his people is one of the means that he uses. So let me ask you this, does God change things through prayer?

Absolutely.

Prayer is one of those things that God uses to change things. He does not change, but he will use the prayers of his people to change things. We do not change God's mind. God changes ours. My friends, we didn't invent prayer.

It's not a human invention. We didn't come up with it. God gave it to us that our minds would be changed and our minds would be conformed to the thinking of God. Here are some of the other comments that I received in response to this particular statement.

A student at Harvard University said to me, yes, prayer evidently changes your mind into one belonging to an imbecile. Paul from London said, it must be so tiring to pretend that any of this makes any sense.

You have to jump through so many hoops. God is just so useless. If you could prove that he exists, I wouldn't bother. What's the point? Dave from Florida said, it's cute that you think you have a God that has a mind.

Greg from England said, praying is just a way to make yourself feel like you're actively participating in a situation when all you're doing is talking to yourself. Therefore, it is a selfish act rather than the selfless one that Christians make it out to be.

But my friends, prayer is one of the most selfless things that you can do. For you are acknowledging to God that you have no control, but acknowledging before him also that he is sovereign and he is in control of all things.

To not pray is the selfish thing to do. And I gave you the example of Ahaz a couple of weeks ago. Isaiah comes to Ahaz and says, whatever you ask for, God will give it to you. Let your request be as high as heaven or as low as Sheol.

And Ahaz response was, nah, I won't bother God. I've got this figured out, I can do this on my own. That was a ridiculously prideful statement for Ahaz to think that he could do it and he did not need God's help.

Jesus himself said in the same statement where he says, I am the vine and you are the branches. He says, apart from me, you can do nothing. And our prayer before God is to humbly acknowledge how powerless and out of control we are and submitting ourselves fully to his will and his design, which is why our Lord Christ taught us to pray here.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Dr. Albert Moeller, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said this about the Lord's Prayer. It is a manifesto for revolution.

It makes extraordinary claims, topples earthly powers and announces God's reign over all. Now, as I've said to you in recent weeks, the Lord's Prayer here is a blueprint for us on how to pray. And so now we come to the Lord's Prayer and we are gonna look exactly at its structure this week and next week.

And here's how we're gonna break this up. Today, we're gonna look at the introduction to the Lord's Prayer, our father who art in heaven. Then we're gonna look at the first three petitions, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, and the third petition, I'm sorry, the second petition is your kingdom come and then the third petition, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Next week, we'll look at the next three petitions and the conclusion to the Lord's Prayer for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. And these things from our Lord Christ to teach us how to pray.

Our Father in Heaven and the Meaning of Abba

So let's look first at the preface to the Lord's Prayer or what we call the introduction to this prayer. And that is, you might refer to it as the greeting, our father who art in heaven. What are we praying when we say this?

And why is this so significant to understand to the beginning of the prayer? The Baptist Catechism says this, this preface to the Lord's Prayer teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence as children to a father, able and ready to help us that we should pray with and for others.

Recognize first, the very first word in the Lord's Prayer is what? What's the very first word? Somebody said two words. I said the first word. What's the first word? Our, so who are we praying to? Our father, not just my father who is in heaven, but our father.

So we understand prayer is not just something you do individually, it is a corporate enterprise. And we understand that the father that we come to is not just my personal God, but he is our father who has called us to himself and adopted us by faith in his son, Jesus Christ.

That he might be the firstborn of many brothers as it says in Romans 8, 829. He's the firstborn of many brothers, meaning that there's gonna be many others and all who come into this family of God through faith in Jesus Christ, we are brothers and sisters in Christ with one father, one God and father of us all who is over all and through all and in all as Paul says in Ephesians chapter four.

So this is our father who art in heaven. Now what's the second word in this greeting? Father, okay, now you're getting used to counting here. Our is the first word, the second word is father. Now this was huge.

This was huge for Jesus to be teaching his disciples to call God father because nowhere else in the Bible until we get to the Sermon on the Mount do we have God addressed as father. Now there are a couple of passages that come close.

The closest one in the Old Testament referring to God as father would be Isaiah 63, 16 where it says this, you oh Lord are our father, our redeemer from of old is your name. But this is still a description of God.

It's not actually an address to God humbly submitting to him as our father in heaven. As I said to you in previous weeks, Jesus is the one who shows us the father. We do not know the father until he is introduced to us by the son.

As we will see later on in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus says, no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. We read in John chapter one that Jesus came to show us the father.

He who is at the father's side, that's Christ, has made him known. So we know the father through the son. We have this intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ that we know God as triune. He is father, he is son, and he is Holy Spirit.

One God, three persons. But you don't see this beauty of the trinity of God until he is revealed to us through the son. It might be some words on a theological page describing who God is, but you don't intimately know him in this way except that he is revealed to you in this way by the son.

And it was amazing for Jesus to refer to God as father, so amazing that the Pharisees hated it and wanted to kill Jesus because he was equating himself with God by saying that his father was in heaven.

But Jesus furthermore says to us that we can call upon God as father if we are adopted into the family of God by faith in the son.

So this is huge.

It's amazing for us that we can call upon God as our father. There are a couple of other places in the Old Testament where God is referred to as a father. One of the most notable is Isaiah 9, 6, where it says, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, the prince of peace.

But this is in reference to Christ. It's actually not in reference to God the father. This is a prophecy concerning Christ. So does that mean that the son is the father? No, that's not what that means because these titles are all references to a king.

Remember that Isaiah 9, 6 says, the government shall be upon his shoulders. So when we read that he is the wonderful counselor and the mighty God and the everlasting father, these are titles that you would give to the federal head of a kingdom, specifically the king.

So these are titles of kingship. It's not a reference to the son as being God the father. We also read in the Psalms that God is a father to the fatherless and a helper of widows is God in his holy habitation.

But again, this is not an address to God as father. It's describing him as being like a father. We truly come to know God as father through Jesus who called him father. In Romans 8, 15, we read, you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, father.

And we see these same words used by Christ to address his father in heaven. Mark 14, 36, when Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane, he says, Abba, father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but as you will.

Now these two particular words, Abba, father, we see the apostle Paul refer to God this way in Galatians as well. This has been twisted by some to mean something that wasn't meant when the scriptures use these words.

Let me just say to you plainly what we are being told when we read in the New Testament this title of God as Abba, father. Abba is father in Aramaic. Where we have father in English, that's translated from the Greek word pater, which is the Greek word for father.

So all we have here when we see this title, Abba, father, we have the Hebrew word for father and the Greek word for father side by side. What have we been told about the gospel in Romans 1, 16? I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the, who?

The Jew first and also to the Greek. So when the New Testament gives us Abba, father, here's effectively what's being communicated here. Doesn't matter whether you're Jew or you're a Gentile, you can know God in heaven as your father through Jesus Christ.

Same God over all, the Jew and also to the Greek. That's how we're supposed to understand that. But unfortunately, there are people who read too much into this and will take it out of context and twist it into some different meaning and here's how this has been taught in the emergent church for about the last 20 years.

It has been said that because Abba was this title that like Hebrew children would use to refer to their daddies. It was like we in English might call our father, our earthly father, daddy. That's what Hebrew children would do when they would say Abba.

So therefore we can call God daddy or something that's very popular in the emergent movement is to call him Papa. This is what William Paul Young did in his book, The Shack, where he made God the father out to be a woman whose name was Papa.

It was kind of ridiculous. But this is common among the emergent church movement to refer to God as Papa. Now this comes from a man by the name of Yoachim Jeremias who was a German teacher in about the mid 20th century.

In 1971, he wrote the following, Abba was the chatter of a small child, a children's word used in everyday talk, disrespectful and indeed unthinkable to the sensibilities of Jesus contemporaries to address God with this familiar word.

So there are some that have taken that teaching from Jeremias and they've twisted it to mean that we can refer to God as daddy. But the funny thing about this is Jeremias actually renounced this particular teaching a little bit later on.

So they grabbed this teaching from 1971, but not realizing that later on he said, no, I was wrong, I was mistaken. He says, one often reads, and I myself at one time once believed that when Jesus spoke to his heavenly father, he took up the chatter of a small child to assume this would be a piece of inadmissible naivety.

Even grown up sons address their father as Abba. So why do I even mention this? What's the point? It's simply that you understand this, my brethren, that God is not your cosmic dad, right? He's not like my dad, we would get together on the living room floor and wrestle, okay, tussle his hair, poke fun at each other, call each other names, all right.

You have an earthly father for that. God, our father in heaven, what an honor and privilege it is to refer to him as our father. But he's still God. And we should not handle his name irreverently. For you know that in the 10 commandments we are told, do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

That's the third commandment. We teach the commandments to our children, even my three-year-old knows the 10 commandments. Last night at dinner, Miss Sonia even came over, helped us cook some wonderful chicken.

We're gathering together at the table, the kids are always seated first because the adults are still getting plates and cups and all that kind of a thing. My three-year-old has gotten into the habit of sitting down and starting the prayer before anybody else comes and sits down.

And we've told her to be patient, wait for all of us to be seated. So now what she's doing is she's sitting there with her hands folded and she's going, God, God, God, like waiting for that time when we're all seated together and we can just start in the prayer with her.

But last night I had a talk with her about this. It wasn't scolding, I didn't rebuke her, but I said to her, handle that name reverently. My three-year-old doesn't understand reverently. So I explained to her what this means.

And I said to her, you know what the 10 commandments are, right? We go through the 10 commandments together. And she said, yes. And I said, remember the commandment is, do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

This means that we love God's name. And whenever we use it, we handle it with the utmost care because we love this name, because it is the name that is above all names. So don't carelessly sit there and say, God, God, over again, unless you really mean it.

And her eyes lit up and seemed to indicate to me, at least when I was communicating this to her, that she understood what I was saying. How do you begin your prayers when you pray? Let me tell you, because I already know.

It's the same way I start my prayers, right? You pray like this. God, we thank you for this wonderful day. And we just want to come before you now, right? What did I do there? I quickly rushed the name right at the beginning of the prayer, right?

You do it, I do it. It's kind of like we've become so uniform to beginning prayers this way. We don't think about what we're saying as we start our prayer. But recognizing that this name that we are addressing when we pray is once again, the name that is above every name.

And what a privilege it is that you get to speak the name of God, my brethren, and he doesn't strike you down in judgment because you speak his holy name with unclean lips. What a privilege that we get to call God by his name and he receives us as his children instead of looking at us with scorn, because we feeble creatures would dare to utter the holy name of God.

He has made us righteous in Christ so that in Christ Jesus, when we call upon that name, God listens to our prayers. Now, there are many others in this world who are using the name of God and they're using his name irreverently.

They are using it as a curse word. Would you want your name referenced when somebody curses somebody else? And so we should not treat God's name that way. When they speak the name of God, they are speaking that name unto their judgment if they do not repent and come to faith in Christ.

So we need to understand that when we use that name, it is to glorify God. It is to exalt his name as wonderful. And that brings us to the first petition of the Lord's Prayer. We say our Father in heaven and then our first petition here is, hallowed be thy name.

The Baptist Catechism says this, we pray that God would enable us and others, because once again, corporate prayer, praying to our Father in heaven. We pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he makes himself known and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.

I think oftentimes we look at this statement, hallowed be your name, and we just think that it's carrying over from the greeting or the introduction, our Father in heaven, his name is holy. So we're gonna say your name is holy.

That's actually not what's being said here. It's not hallowed is your name, it's hallowed be your name. So this is a petition. We're actually asking of God, may your name be proclaimed as holy in the earth and all things be brought in subjection to that name.

Consider these words that we read in Psalm 67, verses one through three. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us that your way may be known on the earth. Your saving power among all nations.

Let the peoples praise you, oh God. Let all the peoples praise you. And that's what we're petitioning when we say, hallowed be your name. We are saying unto the Lord, may all the nations of the earth praise this holy name.

Do you know that God's name is good? Do you understand the character of God that is attached to that name when you hear it.

And when you use it?

So don't you want all peoples of the earth to hear this name, to know the goodness of God that is attached to this name and that all the earth would praise this name.

Amen?

And so we pray and we understand, hallowed be your name. May your name be proclaimed as holy in the earth. Now, surely you know the messianic prayer that the apostle Paul gives in Philippians chapter two.

If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Philippians two. And I'm gonna begin reading in verse one, just because these instructions are so beautiful. As we understand the character of God and what is attached to his name.

So may we be imitators of Christ in this way. Philippians two, starting in verse one. If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Why?

Why are we being told to behave this way? Well, because it's how Christ showed his love for us. The next words in verse five, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. In other words, have the mind of Christ.

What does having the mind of Christ look like? Verses six through 11. Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God is highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that at 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. I had a unique privilege this morning to share the gospel online with Chance the rapper.

And it wasn't just a thing where I was contacting Chance and hoping that he would read it. He was actually interacting with me online. So I pray for this man as I shared the gospel with him and I hope that he comes into subjection to the name of Christ, that he understands the name of Jesus is the name that is above every name.

This interaction began because Chance was asking why more preachers were not standing in their pulpits on Sunday morning and preaching against racism. And somebody attached my name to that comment. I don't know why, but they said, maybe Pastor Gabe can share more about this with you.

And so he began interacting with me on Twitter and I was able to have an exchange with him. And one of the things that I was trying to point out to him is that true unity that we will have only comes through Christ.

My addressing the racial disparities that exist in our nation is not going to solve the division that exists between us as a people. You know why people discriminate against other people because of the color of their skin?

Because we're all hateful sinners.

That's why.

How do we solve that problem? Through the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have to be changed from the inside out before you see a person on the outside as being one who is made in the image of God and one who is desperately in need of the gospel of Christ to cleanse the sin that is within you.

The only true unity that we have is gonna be in Christ. But recognize in these instructions that we've been given here in Philippians chapter two, followed by the hymn of Christ that goes from verse five through verse 11, that our unity, our subjection, even our consideration of one another, of being in one accord and of one mind, doing nothing from selfish ambition and conceit, but in humility counting others more significant than yourselves.

This obedience flows from an understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's where it starts. That his name is above every name. And so being one in that name, we serve one another following the example of our Lord Christ who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

My friends, it is only by faith in this gospel that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave. And whoever believes in him will have eternal life. It is only by faith in this that we will ever be unified and ever overcome our differences.

And ever see that picture that we have given to us in the book of Revelation of a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth, praising God forever in glory. This statement that we have in Philippians 2 of Christ's name being the name that is above every name, it even comes from Isaiah 45, 23, where God says there, to me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.

My friends, you will bow or you will be made to bow. So now in these moments, submit yourself to Christ, our King who reigns over all, even in these moments. And so knowing this, we come to the second petition of the Lord's prayer.

And that second petition is this, thy kingdom come. The Baptist catechism says, we pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it, and that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

Now that's kind of interesting that the Baptist catechism describes this petition in that way. We pray that Satan's kingdom would be destroyed. Really? I didn't see that in the Lord's prayer. It doesn't say your kingdom come, Satan's kingdom be destroyed.

But that's exactly what we're praying for when we pray your kingdom come. You understand that when John says at the end of the book of Revelation, it's the last prayer that we have in the entire Bible.

It's just four words. You know what prayer it is I'm referring to? Lord Jesus, come quickly. Or you can go the other way around. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, I guess, depending on your translation. But this is the final prayer in the entire Bible.

We've prayed it together. Do you understand what we're asking for when we say, Lord Jesus, come quickly? It's not just that we would be delivered out of this world, although that's certainly attached to that.

I'm sure you long for that as well as I long for that. At least I hope so. Don't be so attached to this world that you are not ready at any moment for Christ to return and we be gathered with him together in glory.

We're not only asking for that, we're also asking for judgment to come. For the promise in Scripture is that when Christ returns, that's what happens. Those who are of the kingdom of God will be gathered together with him in glory.

And as it says in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, we will be forever with the Lord. We will be one with him forever. But those who are not followers of Christ, when God's kingdom comes in, Satan's kingdom has to go out.

And all who followed Satan cast into the fiery abyss because these two kingdoms cannot exist in the same place at the same time. What fellowship does light have with darkness? Now you might be saying, well, Pastor Gabe, we are of God's kingdom now and we are here in this earth and isn't Satan's kingdom here in this earth?

Yes, it absolutely is. But we do not occupy the same space. Remember what Jesus said about the church in Matthew chapter 16, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. My friends, when people are brought into the kingdom of God, when they come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have added another member of the kingdom of God and God's kingdom is expanding on this earth.

We are storming the gates of hell when we do that and rescuing sinners unto the kingdom of God. But the gates of hell do not come against the kingdom of God. We invade Satan's space. He does not invade ours.

Jesus said in John chapter 10, no one will snatch them out of my hand. The father who gave them to me is greater than all and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. At the end of Romans chapter eight, we read that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

So every time we preach the gospel, we are storming the gates of hell. And every time someone comes to faith in the gospel of Christ, they are rescued from the jaws of hell and the snare of Satan into the kingdom of God, no longer an enemy of God, but now a friend of God through faith in Christ.

So when we pray, your kingdom come, that's what we want. The kingdom of God expanding on this earth until that day ultimately that Christ returns to usher in that final and perfect kingdom and removing Satan and his followers once and for all.

We know that day of judgment is coming, hence why we should be all the more diligent to preach the gospel for it is only by the hearing of the gospel and by faith in Jesus that anyone is saved from the judgment of God.

Consider these words in Revelation 12 verses 10 and 11. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God.

And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their lives even unto death. By praying also that God's kingdom would come, this is a petition that we make unto God as though to say your life over mine or understanding as John the Baptist said, I must decrease so that he may increase.

It is asking for Christ to reign. Psalm 68 verses one through three, God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered and those who hate him shall flee before him as smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away.

As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God. But the righteous shall be glad, they shall exult before God and they shall be jubilant with joy. That brings us to the third petition.

God's Will on Earth as in Heaven

And finally, this petition that we look at today and we'll pick up the rest of the Lord's Prayer next week. So we've looked at the introduction, our Father in heaven, the first petition, hallowed be thy name, the second petition, thy kingdom come and the third petition, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The Baptist catechism once again, we pray that God by his grace would make us able and willing to know, obey and submit to his will in all things as the angels do in heaven. Or another way that I have described this third petition is in this way, we pray that we would realize God's will in the earth as perfectly as his will is realized in heaven.

See, we don't really know what God is doing right now. Like you trust in God, I hope that you do. You have faith in God, you trust in him that any of these moments that are going on, whether they are in your life personally, there are things that you're struggling with or you're just looking at the general state of the world and going, God, what are you doing in the midst of this time?

You put your trust in God, but you don't know. You don't know how these things are unfolding ultimately for your good and to his glory. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the love chapter, at the end of that particular chapter, something that we read there is that we see now in part as though through a glass darkly, but soon we shall see face to face and we will know just as we are fully known.

So we're gonna know, we're gonna get to the other side and we're gonna know how God was working at all these things. We don't know that now, we kind of have a dim picture of it. There's something there, but we can't quite make it out.

It's not until we get to the other side, we will be able to look back and we will see clearly just how God was working in each and every one of these circumstances that we don't understand right now. In 1 John chapter two, it says, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

That's what will happen when we get to the other side. So for now, we see as though through a glass darkly, but soon we'll see face to face. Very often I'm asked as a pastor, Pastor Gabe, what is God's will for my life?