Righteous Prayer Focuses on the Honor of the Father, Part 1

Hi, this is the Human Proclaim podcast, The Messages of John Fonville. You're listening to season 4 called Pray This Way: The Divine Pattern of Righteous Prayer. Here's message number three in the series called Righteous Prayer Focuses on the Honor of God the Father, Part 1. We're going to continue our study in the Lord's Prayer. And we're looking in Matthew chapter 6, verses 5 through 15.

And let me just quickly, for those of you who may not have been here, just give you a quick review of where we have been to give you some context.

So in Matthew chapter 6. Verses 5 through 15, what Jesus is doing is he's contrasting two fundamentally different ways that we can pray. In chapter 6, verses 5 through 8, we see how Jesus condemns unrighteous prayer. And he condemns the unrighteous prayers of the scribes and Pharisees because. Their understanding of God.

was distorted. In other words, They had a distorted understanding of God as their Father. The problem with their practice, that was their almsgiving, their prayers, which we're looking at, and their fasting, the problem with their spiritual disciplines. Was this, is that they did not know God as Father.

So listen, Jesus is teaching us here in the Sermon on the Mount a very, very important principle about the Christian life, which is this. How we live the Christian life depends upon our theology. how we think about God. I want to say that again. How we live the Christian life, how you practice spiritual disciplines, that is, prayer, since we're talking about prayer, how you pray.

The way that you pray Is determined by how you think about God. That's what Jesus is teaching us here.

So your theology How you think about God. Determines your practice, how you live the Christian life.

So when people say, oh, don't give me all that theology, give me something practical. What they're saying is, don't tell me how to think about God, just tell me how to live for God. But you cannot live correctly for God unless you think correctly about God.

So theology matters.

Someone gave me a book this week. And the very first thing that they gave me was a caveat. They held it up and said, oh, this book is amazing. You have to read it. But understand, John, there's no theology in it.

It's not about theology. But it'll change your life. That's what they said to me and I just I was like Everything is a theology. Of course there's a theology in this book. And so Jesus is telling us here at the outset of the, as he's teaching.

The Lord's prayer to us in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, how we think about God, determines our practice.

So in contrast to the unrighteous prayers of these scribes and Pharisees who did not think about God the Father correctly, Jesus commends to us righteous prayer. In chapter 6, verses 9 through 13. This is commonly known as the Lord's Prayer. He is commending to us. a pattern of righteous prayer.

And it is righteous prayer because it is based upon an undistorted understanding of God the Father. In fact, listen, This divine pattern that Jesus gives us. Focuses on six major themes. Six major themes. All those themes center on God the Father.

They tell us something that is true about God the Father. And so all of these themes that focus on the God the Father reveal the true character of God the Father and shows us how God's adopted sons pray to their Father.

So the first thing that we saw last week was that righteous prayer focuses on the knowledge of God as Father. Verse 9, look what Jesus says. He begins this model prayer with this filial address or familio. Filial means son, familio means family. A family address is a son.

He says, pray then like this, our Father in heaven. And so this form of address, Our Father, is intended to encourage us to pray. This is adoption-driven prayer. This is the very first truth that Jesus would have us to know to get us to pray rightly, genuinely. It's to know that when we come to God in prayer, prayer is an expression of childlike trust and reverence in God the Father.

In other words, we are living like Jesus lived. This is how he related to his father. And so, in contrast to the scribes and Pharisees who have these self-regarding motives, wanting to be noticed and glorified by men for their prayers. Jesus teaches that the manner and motive of genuine righteous prayer is rooted in the knowledge of God as our Father. In other words, righteous prayer is rooted in the highest privilege of the gospel, which is adoption.

Righteous prayer belongs to the adopted sons of the Father.

Now, listen, because God's sons are loved by the Father. God's sons in turn love their father. We love 1 John chapter 4 because. He first loved us. Right.

So we pray because He loves us. We don't pray to get him to love us. We pray because he loves us. That's what Jesus is teaching here. But listen.

Knowing that we're loved by the Father. Makes us respond to love the Father and come to Him in prayer, and then to possess as His adopted sons. A desire to see his name treated as holy, both in ourselves and throughout the whole world. Which leads us to the second theme that Jesus teaches. Look what he says.

Righteous prayer secondly focuses on the honor of the Father. Look what Jesus says. Jesus teaches us to pray. Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Following this address, Our Father in Heaven is the first petition of six petitions that Jesus instructs us to pray. This is an ascription to the Father. Hallowed be your name.

Now, I want you to notice a couple important observations before we look at this further. It's important to note that this whole prayer, this pattern of prayer that Jesus commends to us. It is patterned in such a way so that throughout this whole prayer, God the Father's honor, that is, His glory, is to be given chief place in this prayer. To emphasize this point, the first three petitions that Jesus gives to us to pray are particularly assigned to the Father's honor, to the Father's glory. The priority of the Father's honor is in contrast in the Sermon on the Mount to the self-regarding, showy, hypocritical, works-based religion of the scribes and Pharisees.

who didn't seek the father's honor, but sought to be honored themselves by their religious practices. And so Jesus teaches us that before we ever petition our Father for our needs, our daily provision, our forgiveness of sin, our victory over the evil one. Jesus would have us first of all petition our Father's honor, our Father's kingdom, and our Father's will. And so, this divine pattern, listen carefully, I want you to see this. Jesus' divine pattern begins by rooting righteous prayer in the highest privilege of the gospel possible, which is adoption.

Our Father in heaven, Now notice carefully what he teaches us. When the good news of the gospel. The highest privilege possible, adoption, when that spirit of adoption is permeating my heart. Fills my heart and informs my understanding of God the Father. I'll be motivated to live for and pray for his honor.

Adoption-driven prayer leads to the glory of God. The gospel and the glory of God are inseparable. You are created. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and the gospel makes that possible. Adoption-driven prayer is the expression of God's sons, this desire in our heart.

Because adoption is filling our heart and forming our thinking. It is an expression for the honor and glory of our Father. That's what Jesus is teaching us. The gospel always takes dead aim at the glory of God. And so to pray that God's name be hallowed, it means to treat Him as holy, to reverence, it means to honor Him.

Those who have been adopted into the Father's family, Jesus says, are driven by this gospel awareness, our Father in heaven. to see their father's name honored in their family. Martin Luther writes this, he says, say, hallowed be thy name, and then say, oh yes, Lord God, dear Father, hallowed be thy name indeed. Make it holy among us and throughout the whole world. That's what the gospel drives you to pray in your heart.

And when Jesus says, hallowed be your name, your name is simply a reverent way to refer to God's person because God's name reveals who he is.

So, to honor the Father's name, to hallow the Father's name. is to honor him. It is to hallow him.

So what I want to do this week And unfortunately next week, because I tried as hard as I could to make this into one message, and because of my incompetence, I couldn't.

So I'm going to have to do part two next week, because there's just too much here. But what I want you to do is this, see is this, is that I want to suggest to you three ways that we honor our Father's name. Three ways that we honor our Father's name and therefore honor him, and it comes right here in the context of what Jesus is teaching us.

So here's where we're going to look at this today, just the first one. Let your name be honored in our theology. That's the first way we honor God with the way we think about Him. Our thoughts, our theology, how we think about God. When we say, Hallowed be your name, Lord, let your name be honored in how I think about you.

Let your name be honored in our theology. In question 122 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the question asks, What is the first petition? And here's the answer.

Well actually here's the first part of the answer. Hallowed be thy name. That is, enable us to rightly know you. To rightly think about you, to understand how you have revealed yourself to us. Theology.

When we say, hallowed be thy name, Lord, enable us to rightly know you, that is to hallow, magnify, and praise you in all your works, in which shine forth your power, wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy, and truth. That's theology. Misrepresenting, Jesus teaches us here, misrepresenting the Father's name through false theology, wrongly thinking of him in our minds. dishonors, it profanes rather than honors his name. A first century Jew would have immediately gone back to the Ten Commandments at this point.

Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Right? The scribes and Pharisees, the third commandment. The scribes and Pharisees. We're distorting the truth of the Father's name in the context of what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Rather than hallowing God's name, fulfilling the second commandment. The scribes and Pharisees were profaning and disgracing God's name. Why? Because they thought of God the Father as a reluctant deity. They thought of God the Father as a slave driver.

A tyrant rather than a caring, loving father. And that's how they represented their God. to the people. And so they dishonored the Father's name by dishonoring who he is, and they prevented others from coming to know God the Father as filled with love, grace, kindness, and forgiveness. And so, to honor the Father's name, we should never think of him as being exceedingly harsh.

We fail to treat God's name as holy by distorting his image. This is why Jesus reserved his strongest words of condemnation for the scribes and Pharisees throughout his entire life. Listen to what he says in Matthew chapter 23, verse 13. He says to the scribes and Pharisees, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.

Now that gives you a little bit of a different take on WWJD, doesn't it? What would Jesus do? You shut the the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. That's what he would do to hypocrites. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Why? Because they dishonored the name of his father by misrepresenting him to people who said he is like a slave driver who you've got to carry these heavy burdens and earn your way into the kingdom. And if you don't tell the line, you don't get the blessing. And the Father's glory, His honor is bound up, Jesus teaches us. Listen carefully.

The Father's glory. The Father's honor is bound up in the fact that He is gracious. to sinners. I'm so thankful for that. I am so thankful for that.

Rather than thinking of God the Father is exceedingly harsh, like these scribes and Pharisees. I want you just to think a moment from Luke 15. We'll come back to the Sermon on the Mount and see God the Father there, but I want you to just think a minute from Luke 15. about how Jesus teaches us How to think about God the Father. In Luke 15, Jesus gives us three parables, the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, or the prodigal son that is popularly called.

And he shows us from these three parables what God the Father is like. He shows us, listen carefully. that God the Father pursues and he shows grace and forgiveness to sons who are lost and who break his law. That's amazing, isn't it? But in Luke chapter 15, verse 2, listen to how he begins.

Luke says These Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. Why? Because they were acting just like the image of the God in their thoughts. Do you see that? You have a tyrant who you think about in your mind, and that's how you live towards others.

They grumbled. They grumbled. saying this man receives sinners and eats with them. And then Luke goes on to contrast the grumbling of the scribes and Pharisees with God the Father who rejoices. What an amazing contrast.

Over here grumbling. And over here, rejoicing. In Luke chapter 15, verses 6 and 9, Jesus tells us that our Father. calls for rejoicing when a lost sinner is found. He calls for it.

He says that God the Father is like the shepherd who finds his lost sheep. God the Father is like the woman who finds her lost coin. Like the shepherd or the woman, God the Father says, Call together your friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me. This is your Father in heaven. Rejoice with me.

For I have my sheep that was lost. I have found the coin that I had lost. Rejoice with me. In Luke chapter fifteen, verse ten, Jesus says. I tell you there is joy.

Grumbling Rejoice with me, joy. Our God the Father is filled with rejoicing and joy. What brings him joy? I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Jesus is not saying that it is the angels of God rejoicing in heaven.

He does not say, I tell you, there is joy by the angels of God. That's not what he says. He says, there is joy before the angels of God. Who is rejoicing before the angels? God the Father.

He is rejoicing when a sinner repents. And do not think of that as decisional first time, make a decision, come down for it in the church, regeneration. He's talking about you every time you repent of your sin. God the Father is filled with joy. In contrast, when the father welcomed the lost prodigal son home, Jesus says, the older brother, which were the scribes and Pharisees, became angry and refused to join in the Father's rejoicing.

So I want you to listen throughout Luke 15 to the descriptive phrases that Jesus uses to enable us to rightly know, to rightly think about our Father in heaven. Verse 6, rejoice with me. Verse 7, there is joy in heaven. Verse 9, rejoice with me. Verse 10, there is joy before the angels of God.

Verse 23, let us eat and celebrate. Verse 24, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. Verse 25, the older son, the scribes and Pharisees, they heard music and dancing.

Verse 27. The Father has received him back safe and sound. Verse thirty-two: it was fitting to celebrate and be glad. For this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.

Jesus says, this is your Father in heaven. This is how you think about him. Isaiah chapter 62, verse 5: As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride.

So shall God rejoice over you. Do you hear that? Your Father rejoices over you like just like a bridegroom on his wedding day is rejoicing over his new wife. God the Father rejoices over you. Let us celebrate and be glad.

And Jesus is teaching us in the Lord's Prayer, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, that you know that your Father receives you back safe and sound and rejoices over you. every time you repent. That's where repentance comes from. Repentance is grounded in the gospel of God the Father who rejoices over his children. This is how you think and honor the Father.

It is by this way of thinking theology that God's children honor, hallow, glorify their Father's name. And the question is, how do we know for certain that God the Father is going to be like this to me every time? How do I know that I'm just not making something up that just sounds too good to be true? Again, listen, God's name is a reflection of who He is. And the answer is that God's revelation of his name, the Father's name, culminates in the person and work of His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.

God's name is God Himself. To know His name is to know Him. How has God revealed himself? Just quickly, I'm going to take you through a redemptive Trip through history. Let's go all the way back to the Old Testament.

God revealed himself to Abraham as El Shaddai. God Almighty. The God who would save Abraham's people, Exodus chapter 6 verse 3, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, El Shannai. But by my name, the Lord Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them. But God listened, revealed himself to Moses and to the people of Israel in a far deeper way.

than he did to Abraham. As you go through redemptive history and you get to Moses. God in Exodus chapter 3 and Exodus chapter 5 reveals his covenant name Yahweh to Moses. Which means I am? That I am.

Or I will be what I will be. And I want you to see what he will be for you in his covenanted name.

So turn, if you would, just for a moment to Exodus chapter 6. And I want you to listen because this has everything to do with Jesus. How has God revealed himself as Yahweh? And I have remembered my covenant. What covenant?

The covenant he made with Abraham. I have remembered my covenant with Abraham. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, that is Yahweh, I am what I am. I will be what I will be. What will God be?

He will be the one who I will bring you out. From under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment because I am El Shaddai God Almighty And I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, because I am the covenant promise-keeping God who is almighty. And so by this name, God is emphasizing his unchangeable covenant faithfulness toward his people. I will be what I will be.

I will be faithful to my covenant. I am the Lord who makes himself known to his people as the one who will deliver them from slavery. I have heard their groaning. I will redeem them with an outstretched arm. I will do this because I am.

And because of his prior covenant with Abraham, Yahweh will do this. Every time he makes a covenant, every time he makes a unilateral promise, he keeps it. He's the promise-keeping and performing God. And so, and then he says, what does he do after he delivers us? After he delivered the people of Israel with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment, then he promises: here's the good part: he doesn't just deliver you.

He brings you into his family and he says in Exodus chapter 6 verse 7, I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. That is the heart of God's covenant promise to his people right there. I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. This covenant, the heart of God's covenant promise, finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. How do we know this?

Fast forward all the way to John's Gospel in the New Testament. And John gives us these I am statements, eight of them, in his gospel, which are astonishing witness to the deity of Christ. And he reports how Jesus, with his own lips, professes the covenantal name Yahweh, I am. Jesus self-consciously applies this covenantal name Yahweh to himself. One example in John 8:24, listen to what Jesus says.

He says to the Jews who refused to believe that he was the Messiah, the great I am, the Yahweh of the Old Testament, fulfillment of all the promises of God. He says, I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am. You will die in your sins. When Jesus said that to those Jews, he was communicating to them that he is the same I am, who will be, well, I will be, the same God. that Moses met at the burning bush, the same God that Moses met on Mount Sinai when he received the two new tablets of stone, and God revealed his name to Moses, and he said, Moses, I am.

Jesus says, unless you believe that I am. You will die in your sins. And of course, we go on to see in John's Gospel that John says that Moses wrote. of Jesus. And in John chapter 1, verse 18, John tells us that Jesus, the incarnate Son, has perfectly revealed God the Father to us.

He says, No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, He has made him known. Do you want to know the Father and what he's like? You've got to look at the Son. Because he has perfectly made him known, because he came from the Father's side.

John chapter 14, verse 8, Philip says to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. And Jesus replies, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me? Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. What is our Father like? He's just like Jesus, the Son, who reveals him to us perfectly.

In Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, the author opens up his book to these persecuted Jewish believers. And he says that in the last days, the last days is simply the whole period of the days of the apostles until Christ returns. We're in them now. He says in chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 that in these last days God has definitively and finally revealed himself in his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, His incarnate Son, is a supreme revealer of the Father.

To man. He is the supreme revealer of God the Father's name to us. And so here's the point of all this quick historical biblical theology. To address God as our Father that Jesus is teaching us in prayer is to put forward the name of Christ. How we know the Son determines how we view and know our relationship with our Father.

It determines how we come to our Father in prayer. The incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, reveals and makes known how incomprehensibly loving, gracious, kind, and forgiving our Father is to us.

Now, I want you to look back at the Sermon on the Mount, and I want you to see what your Father is like. And Jesus teaches it to us very explicitly right here in the Sermon on the Mount. He opens up with the Beatitudes, which is the gospel in the Sermon on the Mount. You need to understand that. They are just simply pronouncements of unilateral blessing on sinners who haven't merited anything and done anything.

They just sit there and receive blessing from the Father. That's what your father is like. He says, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. What is our father like? He is like the father who pronounces blessing on children who don't deserve it.

He is like He is like, what is our Father like? This is who he is. He sends Jesus to be man for us in order to live the kind of life for us that we've never lived. He fulfills the law for us. Matthew 5, verse 17, do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. What is my father like? He's like a loving father who will send his only son to become incarnate and be a man like me to live a life that I've never lived on my behalf. That's what our father's like. What is our father like?

Chapter 5 at the end of verse 43. He loves his enemies. That was you and me. He's perfect. He has a perfect love for his enemies.

Chapter 6, what we're looking at, what is our father like? He is like a father who loves to pour out rewards on his children who don't deserve them. This is what Jesus tells us. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Chapter 6, verse 6, your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

In other words, listen, we know we're not earning these rewards by merit because the whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to show you that you can't merit anything.

So, how does God the Father reward us? He doesn't reward us on merit, He rewards us on grace. That's what my father's like. He loves to give good things to his children who haven't earned anything. When you pray, Jesus says, don't worry, don't be anxious, because your father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6, verse 8. What is my father like? He's like a father who perfectly provides every need that I have, and he knows what I need before I even ask. That's what my father's like. That's why he says later on, he says, Don't be anxious.

Why? Because the Father knows what you need, he's going to provide it. He cares for you. He says again in fasting, chapter 6, verse 18: Your father who sees in secret, he will reward you. He will forgive your trespasses and sins.

He will provide everything that you need. He will keep you from the evil one. This is your Father in heaven. Kind. Gracious, loving.

And so we see that hallowing God's name, honoring God the Father, Jesus teaches us, has its foundation in the gospel. Psalm 130, the psalmist says this: He says, Oh Lord, if you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared, that you may be honored. Simply put, The one who fears God the Father, that is, honors Him, hallows His name, is the one who knows that God the Father doesn't mark His iniquities, but forgives them. You You cannot begin to hallow God the Father's name until you begin to see that He doesn't mark your iniquities, but forgives them.

And if you think he marks your iniquities rather than forgives them, you dishonor rather than honor his name because he sent his son to take away your sin so he could forgive your sins, not mark them. And so, like the Pharisees, we may dread God as some harsh tyrant judge. But we'll never honor him until we know him as our Father who pursues and shows grace and forgiveness to sinners who have broken his law. You will never be motivated to glorify God. To fulfill the purpose for which you were born, to honor Him as Father, until you have first recognized His grace.

And his grace is a person. Jesus. How do I know that? Because this is what John said in his gospel: the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Grace and truth reveal the nature of God's glory. John tells us that the glory of God the Father is supremely his goodness shown towards sinners for Christ's sake alone. When John says, We have seen this glory full of grace and truth, do you know what he's referring to? Exodus chapters 33 and 34. He's referring to when Moses says to God in Exodus 33:18, Show me your glory.

And the Lord replies, Listen, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. That's Yahweh. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And then Moses stands before the Lord on Mount Sinai as he receives the second tablets of the stones. And the Lord, it says, descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

Yahweh proclaimed his name to Moses and revealed his name, his person, his character to Moses. And it says, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, what did he proclaim to Moses for Moses to see his glory, which is what Moses asked for? Here's his glory. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. That's the glory of God.

That's the glory of your Father. And the glory that was revealed to Moses when the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed his name is the same glory that John says that he and his friends saw that came from the Father in the incarnate word, the Son. And so God the Father will be seen as forgiving. Gracious. Where Christ is recognized as being full of grace.

and truth. What is the father like? Look at the Son from the Father, and there you see what the Father is like perfectly. And so coming to understand God the Father is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, forgiving transgression, forgiving sin, seeing that, understanding him like that is how we hallow his name and pray this first petition.

So here's the question, is this how you think of God the Father? Are these the images that are uppermost in your thoughts when you come to your Father in prayer? This is what drives us to pray. This is what motivates and encourages my heart to pray. Our Father, out of love, sent the Son to redeem and adopt us so that we might be brought back into a loving relationship with Him as His beloved adopted sons.

And as we come to the Lord's Supper this morning, we see that the Lord's Supper seals and guarantees this unfathomable gospel truth. You know what this Lord's Supper does for us? As we finish, this is what it does. The truth of Isaiah 62.5 is guaranteed by this sacrament. And what is that truth?

As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice. Over you. Um Thanks for listening to the Hymn to Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville. Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fondill of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com.

We look forward to next time.