The Lord’s Prayer in Context Notes for November 28th 2011

THE LORD’S PRAYER IN CONTEXT

NOTES FOR NOVEMBER 28TH 2011

ISOM NEW LIFE RESTORATION CHURCH P.J.

KEEP THE BACKGROUND CLEARLY IN MIND

To understand the revolutionary way Jesus was living, ministering and speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven and of God we must always consider the attitudes, atmosphere and antagonistic spirit in which He lived.

 

1. The Roman Empire.  Cruel, powerful and also ruthless in the way it put down any rebellion that arose within its borders.
2. The proud Jews were a vassal people and resented the ‘kingdom’ of Rome.
3. Israel had been a mighty kingdom in days gone by.  David and Solomon, had not God brought His kingdom in, at least, a glimpse of it, during their reigns?
4. The nation was a shadow of its former greatness but there yet remained the unfulfilled promises of God and of a messiah to come who would bring the kingdom in fully!
5. Messiah’s had come, rabbi’s had come and these had each obtained a following, some had preached a kingdom of force, they took up the sword and attempted to throw off the Roman kingdom dominion, they were ruthlessly vanquished.  All were failures and were not the true Messiah.
6. Many of the religious leaders among the Jews were in political alliance with Rome, compromised and corrupt.
7. Some looked for, and taught others to expect a muscular messiah, who, with sword and spear would liberate the nation and through him the kingdom of God would come.
8. Expectation grew as some of this teaching increased.
9. There was a faithful, remnant people of faith who looked only to God to do things His way among whom was Mary who became the mother of our Lord.

 

JESUS CAME PREACHING THE KINGDOM

The kingdom Jesus taught and demonstrated in His life and work was essentially subversive of all the distortions and misconceptions that were being taught by the rabbi’s and would be messiahs.  No one really grasped what He was teaching, His kingdom was not ‘of’ and ‘from’ this world (John 18:36).

 

1. He calls it the FATHER’S kingdom.  Fifteen times at least in Matthew chapters five through seven He speaks of God as FATHER.  Language of intimacy and not distance.  Language of family.  Not ‘daddy’, the word ‘abba’ in those days was that of a child to his father and implied not only nearness and affection, but also profound honor and respect.  Not the casual ‘daddy’ of today who can manipulated by his children.
2. Jesus leads us in prayer to OUR Father, firstly HIS Father and after that, ours too  (Matthew 6:9).
3. OUR implies that He is still praying with us today, the things mentioned in the prayer still concern Him, He stands with us in prayer that the kingdom of OUR (both His and ours) will come.
4. We must remember that even though we might pray in our closet alone (Matthew 6:6) we are part of a host of praying brothers the chief of whom is the Lord Jesus.
5. We do not pray to GOD in this prayer, but God as OUR FATHER.  GOD suggests power and lends to us the idea of a muscular kingdom whilst FATHER keeps us in the truth that the realm of God means us being men and women, children of God who know Him as Father and are sharing and living in the laws of His kingdom house.

 

THE LORD’S PRAYER HAS A PERFECT FRAMEWORK

1. It has six petitions.
2. The first three are YOUR Name, YOUR kingdom and YOUR will be done.  We do not figure first, HE and HIS laws are the context in which we move to the other three petitions.
3. Now, with things in the good order of having Him first, we can ask our Father for OUR bread for the day, and to forgive us OUR trespasses and that He might deliver US from evil.
4. It is fundamental in His Kingdom that His things are priority, if we are sons of our Father our first passionate desire will be that His Name be known and reverenced, His kingdom will increasingly come on the earth and His will be done.
5. This cannot be accomplished if our bodies are not sustained by bread (which represents our most basic form of sustenance).  If we starve how can we live to be sons of the Father who both pray, manifest by our life and work His Name and Kingdom?
6. How can we possibly live His kingdom way if we are unforgiving and unforgiven?
7. How can we live in His way if we are under the bondages of temptation?

 

MUSCULAR OR MEEK?

The kingdom of God is described by the Son of its King as the place of being “blessed.”  Jesus opens up His teaching using the word ‘makarios’ nine times (Matthew 5:3-11).  We could translate it as soul happiness, happy, full of joyful satisfaction because we are prosperous in soul!

 

1. The kingdom is the place where the poor in spirit, those not confident in themselves are to be found.  They are the truly prosperous!
2. There the meek inherit their Father’s kingdom riches.
3. Their hunger and thirst is for Father’s righteousness, that He shall bring justice to all eternally.
4. This is not a kingdom brought in by a sword wielded by physically well-trained soldiers, it is first a spiritual kingdom, of the heart and nature of its Father!
5. Only the Father can bring this kingdom in through His Son and sons.  Only He has the resources, the wisdom, strength and power to do so.  Politicians of every stripe and kingdom methods of every kind cannot possibly accomplish peace on earth and equable life; they do not have the substance or wisdom to do it.
6. Everything Jesus taught in His sermon on the mount was contrary to the ideas of kingdom found commonly in those days and subversive of every concept that often found ready acceptance among the militant Jews.
7. Their ideas blinded their hearts so that they did not discern or understand either their King or His kingdom.

 

IS THE KINGDOM HERE ALREADY?

The kingdom of God is already established; it does not need to be brought in from above or from far off, it is here!  “The Lord reigns, Your throne is established from of old” (Psalm 93:1&2).  The earth is the Lord’s and always has been and always will be.  Though the floods of the rebellious have lifted themselves against Him and His wonderful rule (Psalm 93:3), He shall not be moved.

 

Picture in your minds the British Empire, with its rule spreading in so many parts of the world but there were areas where those opposed to their rule waged war in an attempt to throw the ruling kingdom off their necks.  So, there are those who resist the rule of God’s kingdom and set up their own, sometimes by popular vote and sometimes by the abuse of power.  God’s kingdom is here and always has been but Jesus came to reveal it.  He was the salt and the light (Matthew 5:13-16).  He was the Light that shone to reveal the nature of His Father’s kingdom.

 

God is king but pockets of resistance reject His rule of love.  They fight and struggle.  We ourselves have been rebels but are now accepting His rule joyfully and thus become salt and light in the world.  This is the calling of the church.  To be a place where the ways of His kingdom are seen.  Repentance implies a wholehearted acceptance of the true King Who reigns over all; it is the confession, “we will have this Man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14 in the positive instead of the negative).

 

When we pray “Your Kingdom come” we are not trying to bring the kingdom in but by our living and speaking we are opening a door and window that others might see and enter in to the Kingdom of God which is already here.  He reigns and always has done.

 

A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT KINGDOM

Carefully go through Matthew chapter five and consider “you have heard it said, but I say to you” (Matthew 5:21,27,31,33,38,43).

 

1. Jesus did not come to destroy the law God, the King of Israel had given His people from Sinai, but to fulfill all and to live the spirit of them; the law written on tablets of stone, the Old Testament Law given to the Jews, was an expression in words of the nature of God the King.
2. He shows that even anger against each other is not native to the Kingdom.
3. The Corinthian church was full of strife; they were even taking one another to a secular court to settle differences.  See Paul’s counsel and command to them, these words are the outworking of the kingdom ways of the heart of God.  “Why do you not rather suffer wrong and be defrauded” (1 Corinthians 6:7).
4. An eye for an eye and tooth for tooth was law to the Jews, (but even then, there was mercy and it was not always exacted).  The fact is that Jesus bore the eye that was for an eye and the punishment that we all should have had so that He tells us that in the Kingdom of God we turn the cheek instead of seeking restitution and exacting punishment.
5. “Love your enemies” and so “be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).  Note the context of ‘perfect.’  He is speaking of the perfecting of the Father’s kingdom love in us, love to all, enemies included, those who have abused us we will bless and so go far beyond the love practiced by those who live according to the life laws of this world.
6. Fight back, fight for your rights, we may have a case but contention does nothing to sweeten our spirit.  Instead of fighting back in kind, kingdom people bless, forgive and kiss the hand that smites them.

 

FORGIVENESS-THE CENTRAL LAW OF GOD”S KINGDOM

Jesus prays with us and helps us to pray about forgiveness, we His weak brothers, are taught to live in the kingdom way where right at the center is the grace to release that which is owed us as we have been released from that which we owed to God (and could never have paid)!

 

1. Let no one think they can dwell in God’s kingdom and remain unforgiving (Matthew 6:14).
2. Jesus is right there, always with us, to help us pray this prayer and live this way.
3. Not holding things against each other nor any one who has wronged us, this includes those outside God’s kingdom.
4. Forgiveness is the most powerful element in God’s kingdom and that means in the whole universe.
5. It breaks the barriers down.
6. Yes, it can be abused by others, but it strikes home to the conscience of those who are recipients of release from what they owed by the one to whom they owe it.
7. There can be no retention of anger in this kingdom.  There must be the labor of love.
8. Remember Gandhi in India and his policy of passive resistance where they refused to take the sword against the British kingdom and it brought deliverance.  He ‘caught’ that from Jesus! Though he never became a Christian believer.

 

OUR KING WOULD NOT SAVE HIMSELF

 

1. Our Father so loved that He would not, yes, could not save Himself from giving His only Son to die that there might be a family of sons.
2. When His Son came to earth and lived, He lived like His Father.
3. People who live this way are mocked, scorned as those who are weak and of no account.  There is no ‘muscle’ to them (Matthew 27:42) is the accusation.  He would not (could not) save Himself.
4. This is central kingdom law!
5. WE are sons of our Father, who give themselves, who will not and (cannot?) save ourselves.
6. His love is perfected in us through taking this path (1 John 4:17&18).
7. Love that extends beyond our ‘favorites’ or ‘our people’ but to our enemies to whom we render blessing for cursing (1 Peter 3:9).
8. In His kingdom He blesses the just and the unjust.  His face is toward all His creatures with generous love (Matthew 5:45).
9. We must have our Father’s Name written on our foreheads (Revelation 14:1)
10. Remember, at the heart of the Kingdom, on the throne is the One Who looks like a ‘slaughtered little Lamb’ (Revelation 5:6).  Calvary was the place where He reigned and it was His throne place on earth.  He ruled there, over every enemy and opened the way that we might enter into the Kingdom of God that has always been and ever shall be.
11. From that throne place, the kingdom ways and laws have been coming to the four corners of the world, people from every kindred have been entering into the kingdom of God through the light of the gospel that in our hearts must shine more and more to the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18).
12. Through the light shining through Christian people living here on this earth in God’s kingdom ways, others shall enter in to the rule of God that is already here!