Title: Jesus teaches you to pray!
Text: Matt. 6:1-6
The Lord’s Prayer, Introduction.
Our Father who art in Heaven.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Deeply immersed in meditation during a church service, Italian poet Dante Alighieri failed to kneel at the appropriate moment. His enemies hurried to the bishop and demanded that Dante be punished for his sacrilege. Dante defended himself by saying, "If those who accuse me had had their eyes and minds on God, as I had, they too would have failed to notice events around them, and they most certainly would not have noticed what I was doing."
Today in the Word, March 10, 1993.
Jesus teaches you to pray!
The Lord's Prayer begins with the introduction and as the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household.
Our Father who art in heaven.
Luther then asks the question: What does this mean?
And answers:
God would thereby [with this little introduction] tenderly urge us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may ask Him confidently with all assurance, as dear children ask their dear father.
God, our heavenly Father asks us to call on him and today our text begins:
6 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
We are creatures who crave praise. Those who came before us too craved praise. So much so that in our lesson today Jesus taught his first followers about true humility. There has always been the need to receive reward and here Jesus points out that the true reward is known by the Father in secret.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
The tendency for some, and especially for the Pharisees to want their good works seen by others, and to receive just praise for their charitable work is quite a contrast to doing good works in secret.
Ill.
Almost 20 years ago I had an interesting situation with regards to this. The church I attended did some outreach musically. The pastor was a gifted musician on keyboard and singing and also played guitar. When we went out the guitar he took with him was very poor and of low quality. Working in the music store as I did I went and talked with my wife and we decided to buy him a good guitar. I received a sizable discount as an employee and picked a good quality Gibson acoustic guitar with a nice case.
On the night I was to give him the guitar I was very aware of the scripture about not letting the good you do to be seen by men and seeking a reward. I wrote a note in an envelope and addressed it to the pastor attempting to be anonymous. After our mid-week music practice and when the pastor was out of the room I placed the guitar in the case where he would see it and proceeded to head for the door and home. As soon as he opened the case, he was overjoyed and began calling all of the people around him and before I could get out of the building he caught me and thanked me for the gift. He then proceeded to call everybody else and show what I gave him.
I felt a bit awkward to be sure. I had not looked for praise … but just to give back as I had been blessed. And that is what Jesus was getting at. Not seeking the reward. The Father knows what I did in secret. However we at time are recognized for what we do and there is nothing wrong with that.
Our dear Father in Heaven joys with us as we serve the needs of others giving to our neighbor out of the blessed abundance that we have been given. And one of the greatest blessing we have been given is fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and in that he teaches us to pray.
Our Father who art in heaven; our loving God in Christ is there to hear our prayers. At times the prayers are for our own needs and at times our prayers are for the needs of others.
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Prayers do not require that they be seen by man. Quite prayer - to God by you silently - is heard by the Father and mediated by Christ is just as relevant and beneficial and those in church said allowed by all in attendance.
It is the dialog that God desires from his beloved children to their dear Father.
Jesus teaches you to pray!
Why is it so hard to pray? Why is it so hard to hear the voice of God through his word? Is it just that we only need our Father when we've really messed up or something really bad has happened? Or is it simple that when we mess up we expect God to be like our earthly fathers who too mess up and at time continue to bring the weight of the Law down on us.
“I knew that I shouldn't have expected you to get it right.”
“Well, now that you've mess this up I’ll have to see how I can fix it.”
Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer. 17:7 KJV
Ill.
When I was at St. John the school principle Dr. James Bolt told a story during Bible Study of coming home and turning into his driveway to be met by his wife and son. The younger boy had been practicing moving the car in and out of the garage, as he had a drivers permit. On this day as he practiced in pulling into the garage unfortunately hit the gas instead of the brake and pushed Dr. Bolt’s table saw through the garage wall and into the family room. He asked the class, “Do you think my son needed to hear from me about what he did wrong?” He said, “I could have gone on and on about why he shouldn't have been doing this or that but when I saw his face and how … he knew all that he did wrong I just went up to him put my arm around him and said, Son, you’re lucky your mom and I love you.”
The Father loves you and that is not due to luck.
Jesus calls us all by the working of the Holy Spirit to believe and by faith in Christ we have peace with God. He gives us by faith confidence to ask our dear Father as dear children for anything according to his purpose and he has already given us everything that we need, in Christ … faith, salvation, and an eternity in heaven with him.
Jesus has taught you to pray to your Father!
In Christ, the Father is well pleased with you!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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