When Jesus said In the Lord's Prayer, give us our daily bread. What do they actually mean? Hey friends, this is Michael Brown. Welcome to the line of fire. Delighted to have you with us.
If you're watching on YouTube, And you're not one of our subscribers, then by all means, click that subscribe button there. And when you see the bell, click on that. Because that way whenever we post a new video, it could be in this series, it could be a debate with a rabbi, it could be a live Q ⁇ A show, whenever we post a new video, you will be notified and you can join in right there. We've been looking at the words of Jesus. We've been looking in the Sermon on the Mount as a starting point.
The first extended teaching of Jesus that we have in the Gospels. And we're in the Lord's Prayer, the pattern of prayer. that Yeshua gave us. We have it in Matthew 6, and we also have it in Luke the 11th chapter.
So he begins by telling us, don't pray like the hypocrites. Public, they want to be seen, they put on a long show. Look at how pious am I pray these long, holy praise because don't. Girls are gonna answer you 'cause you you talk so much and keep on babbling. This is your Father, your Heavenly Father you're talking to.
You shut yourself in private. No one sees. Doesn't mean we can't pray together in public, but the goal is not to be seen. And there's power in corporate prayer, but most of our daily prayer is going to be by ourselves. Get alone, shut yourself in.
Pray to your Father who sees in secret. He'll reward you. even openly.
So this is how you pray. We pray these very words, which is great. and we can use them as a pattern of prayer. as well.
So Our Father. Even though you're all by yourself praying, you say hour because you're part of a body, you're part of a family, something that would be just normal pattern for a Jewish person. Our Father in heaven. He's not bound here on this earth. He's not bound by time and circumstance.
He's eternal God. in heaven sees all, knows all, has the power to do all. May your name be holy. Maybe the people of this world recognize you as holy. as sanctified, as set apart.
as beautifully good and pure and righteous and just. May may your name be associated with that. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come So the rule and reign of God, it is advancing. Every day, more and more people recognize his name as holy, recognize who Jesus is. The same way his kingdom is coming and advancing.
But we're praying for that ultimate day when he returns and establishes his kingdom. And causes his name to be hallowed through the whole world. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Just Just as. Just as your will is carried out in heaven with perfect obedience.
Let it be the same on earth. Let it be the same on earth. Let it begin with your people. Those who profess to be your followers, let it begin in each of our own lives. That's what we covered in our last teaching on the revolutionary nature of the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing that.
His kingdom coming means the displacement of all the earthly kingdoms. But his words are also revolutionary in that they come from such different angles. And call us to walk in such different ways.
So there are parts of these, of his prayer. which were known Jewish prayers in that day. Remember, he is rabbi, not reverend. This is Yeshua the Messiah. And he was teaching Jewish people.
His disciples that came to him, the Sermon on the Mount, those listening to him, they're all Jews. And Some of the prayers he's praying were familiar. We have snippets of his words, or these same words, I should say, in other ancient Jewish prayers. A lot of this is familiar, but his emphasis. and the way he taught and who he was.
We come to the end of Matthew 7. We'll see he taught with authority, not like the religious teachers.
So what do we say? Give us to day Our daily bread.
Some would translate it literally as our bread for the morrow. Mm. Before what okay, what What does it mean? You'd be amazed how many different interpretations there are. One is just Whatever we need each day, supply it.
So the food, the drink, so bread being comprehensive for food, sustenance. Give us what we need, and for today. That's an obvious meaning of it, and certainly certainly a valid meaning of it. Absolutely a valid meaning. Of praying for daily provision.
Just, okay, let's brass tax. We live in this world. We're praying for these lofty, glorious themes, but also on a basic level, we're. praying let our needs be met. day by day, Not Lord.
I'd like $10 million in the bank so I never have to think about money again, but Lord, meet our needs today. That's that's one valid understanding. Others think of the bread as the bread of the world to come. And we're praying kind of an eschatological end time prayer. What seems more likely than that to me is the spiritual meaning of give us our daily bread spiritually.
Give us our daily bread spiritually. One of my favorite Old Testament passages to quote because you can break it down in Hebrew and go back and forth into English easily. is Deuteronomy 8.3. at the end of the wilderness wanderings. Moses says to the people via Ancha.
and he God. humbled you. Vayari Vecha. and he caused you the hunger. For Yalchio Cha et Haman, And he caused you to eat this manna, a shirloyadata, which you didn't know, voloya duna votecha, and your parents, your fathers didn't know.
Lama'an Hodiacha, in order to teach you, that man doesn't live by bread alone. But by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God does man live. And there is this reality. that if we don't live by bread alone. What we live on is whatever God says we're going to live on.
In this case the manna in the desert.
So There is nothing to eat here. I'll provide what? You've never seen it before. Whatever I decree is what you're going to live on. But we don't live on bread alone, but we live on every word.
that proceeds out of his mouth, When I start every morning in the scriptures. reading a certain number of chapters from Psalms and and then Proverbs, and then the New Testament. When I do that because it's it's been a pattern. that established some time back to just start the day in a very specific way. Whenever I wake up.
And as the very first thing I'm going to do. get out of bed and have my overnight oats for breakfast. I'm just going to store it. Reading scripture. Whatever happens, that's going to be the foundation of the day and then prayer.
So it's just A fixed habit that that I've only implemented Or within the last an X number of months. Don't know exactly how far back. But X number of months.
So I don't want it to be a ritual. Of course, I've been in the Word all these decades, right? But just starting the day, this particular way, with particular readings systematically.
So I'll often pray before I start, Lord, give me my daily bread. I'm c I'm gonna read your word. And you could just be habit. Or my mind could be distracted. Or I could be in a rush.
Give us this day our daily bread, so not just our physical sustenance. but our spiritual sustenance. It's a beautiful concept, isn't it? And it's just it's just a good habit. Before we feast on the Scriptures, Lord, feed me.
Op open my heart to receive life giving truth from you. You ever been, especially like a kid? You're in the summer. Maybe in the old days your parents would set up a sprinkler. And this days before people had irrigation systems and stuff, and maybe you still just have, you put the sprinkler down and it goes back and forth and it's hot in the summer, so you get your bathing suit, you're six years old, and you run back and forth in the sprinkler, and then sometimes you just stop and like, and you keep your mouth open and just you just drink it in as it's coming down just drink in the water there There's this beautiful sense of, okay, God, I'm going to come feast.
I want to eat and drink at your table. And your words, the words of scripture, words of life. Words of sustenance. Words that build our faith. You know, you eat healthily every day, it affects your body.
Nancy and I were helping one friend that had had high blood pressure and high cholesterol for years and was on medication. And I think within two weeks of making a radical lifestyle change, getting rid of all bad foods and only eating the healthy foods that Nancy suggested to him, if I'm correct, it was within two weeks. His blood pressure got normal, and he was off his meds. It was that quick, three weeks at the outside. Not everyone has those same results that quickly, but my point is.
You're not consciously doing anything. You're just taking in the healthy stuff and getting rid of the unhealthy stuff.
So you you put aside the other things of this world. You put aside the other distractions, the things that feed your soul that are unhealthy. And you take in the healthy, life-giving words of God. Give us this day our daily bread. There's something to that, not just the physical application, but the spiritual as well.
And then He says, and forgive us our debts. as we forgive our debtors. In Hebrew and Aramaic concept, sin was considered as a debt. And When we sin, we become indebted to God in that way. Not that we can pay it back.
The Greek word for forgiveness, the most common one used in the New Testament, means the release of a debt.
So forgive us our debtors as forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. is really not talking financially but spiritually. It's another way of saying forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Now Some will say But this violates what happened on the cross. There are some teachers, I've included them in the category of hypergrace, brothers and sisters in the Lord that love the Lord and are born again, but we have strong differences on these points. that they say that the words of Jesus before the cross are not for today. And the Sermon on the Mount was just to reveal To the Jewish people listening, their bankruptcy and the impossibility of being justified by the law and their need for grace.
Well, obviously, the Sermon on the Mount. drives us to God and shows us our need for His empowering grace. But these are things that the Lord really did speak to us. that he really did call us to. And you say, yeah, but if he died on the cross once and for all for our sins, why are we asking forgiveness?
It's a valid question. What it's saying is this. There is the once and for all redemption that takes place on the cross that... is never done again. Jesus doesn't ever need to suffer again for our sins.
And we don't need to be endlessly born again, again, again, again, again, again. I blew it. You don't understand? I blew it. I I I lost my temper at work.
You don't understand. I I the guy cut me off in the car and I laid on the horn and like I just tailgated them right after that. I kept hitting the horse. You don't understand. Or you don't understand me.
I just I thought some really gross thoughts, some really ugly, lustful thoughts. Yeah, yo. We may sin. But Jesus doesn't die on the cross for us again, and we don't have to be born again again. You say, but what about those things?
Ah, so. There is the forgiveness of salvation. Once and for all, Doesn't Ever had to be duplicated again? And there is relational. forgiveness in our daily walk with Him.
Jesus in John 13 went to wash the feet of the disciples, and Peter said, You'll never wash my feet. And Jesus said, If I don't wash your feet, you have no part in me. He said, Well, then, not just my feet, but my whole body. Jesus said, the ones who've been bathed don't need their whole bodies washed, just their feet. In other words, in the ancient world, you didn't have.
baths and showers in your home with running water. And if you were going to bathe, You would walk down to the river. You would walk down to the public bathhouse in certain cities. and you would bathe there. Get all clean.
and then walk home. And as you're walking home, either barefoot or in sandals, your feet get dirty. Certain parts of the ancient world there were there were paved roads and role and things, but you go on villages and other places and it's just dirt.
So your feet get dirty. You get home, you think, Oh, no, I gotta go back and No, no, you don't go all back to the river or the bathhouse. It's like getting saved all over again. You don't have to do that. Oh, God, I'm the most terrible person on the whole earth.
Please save me. He already saved you. You're already forgiven in that regard. But relationally, your feet got dirty. In this world our feet get dirty.
1 John 1, 7, as we walk in the light, as He God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Why is He continually cleansing us from sin? The Greek is present continuous. Why is He presently, continually cleansing us from sin if we're walking in the light? Because walking in the light doesn't mean perfection.
It means when we sin, we're quick to repent and turn from it and continue to follow him. That's walking in the light. Oh, I've stumbled here. Getting back on the path and moving forward. Turning from that sin, turning back to God, and our feet get washed in that sense continuously.
So this is relational. It it's just like if if I was insensitive to Nancy. She needed to share something with me and I got defensive and pushed back and left the house and And went to the store and I come back, we're still married. I don't have to propose to her, would you marry me? I don't have to ask you to do that.
But I do need to say, honey, forgive me. I was completely insensitive to you. I was selfish, insensitive, immature. My response, please forgive me. And when when whenever you're ready, I I d I do want to know what's going on because obviously Something's on your mind.
Okay, it's relational. That's why 1 John 1 says, Talking to us as believers. This is for the believers. This is us, we, in 1 John, which is us, the family of God. Not the heretics, not the unbelievers, they're on the outside.
Us, we. If we confess our sins, again, present continuous in Greek. He will forgive us our sins. and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
Not just faithful, but just because our sins were paid for at the cross.
So, this is an ongoing relational thing. It's not saying. that if you fall asleep at night, And you remember every single sin you ever committed and confess every single sin to God and you die in your sleep, you go to help. No, you're forgiven, you're saved. That's not the issue.
It's relationally. It's keeping the doors open. It's not hardening our heart. It's not holding on to something from day to day. And it's not forgive me so I can go sin again.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And then he says And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from the evil one. What does that mean? Lead us not into temptation is kind of a Hebrew way of saying things.
For example, Isaiah 54, 17. which we say in English, no weapon formed against you will prosper. What does it say in Hebrew? Every weapon formed against you will not prosper. That's the way you say it in Hebrew.
Lead us not into temptation. You're praying for the opposite. Of Of that which is desired. Or you do not want the bad to happen, so you're saying don't lead us that way. It means lead us away from those things.
Some would say it also means don't lead us to a place of testing that's too difficult for us. And the Greek and Hebrew words for testing and temptation and trial overlap in meaning. But if we understand this rightly, lead us not into temptation. It's saying, lead us away, be gracious, be merciful. God does not tempt us with evil.
So he will not, it's not his nature to lead us to sin.
So we're saying lead us away from sin. and deliver us from evil or from the evil one. Even though we have all authority over Satan in Jesus' name, we still pray, God, deliver us from evil, deliver us from the evil one. Then he says this: for if you forgive other people, When they sit against you, Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive Others there sends Your Father will not forgive your sins.
Some versions of the Lord's Prayer, some texts say, before this, for yours is the kingdom, the glory, and the power forever. Amen.
So amen to that part. But continuing in in the text that we have. What does it mean if you forgive others, God will forgive you. If you don't forgive, he won't forgive. Again, relationally.
Read Matthew 18 and the parable there about forgiveness. which is very intense, very powerful. And this is how our Heavenly Father will treat us if we don't forgive others from the heart. If he forgives us the vast amount he's forgiven us, and we turn on others and won't forgive them. God will discipline us.
God will discipline us. So yes, relationally, if you harden your heart, Relationally. If you refuse. Two. Forgive.
It's going to hurt your relationship with God. It will hurt your relationship with God. It's a fact. And forgiveness. not just blesses them.
But it sets you free. as well.
Hey. One more thought I want to share with you, but first can I ask you a question? All the resources that we have, the podcast, our Thurley Jewish Thursday broadcast. the the other special teachings we put out. the sermon videos, the debate videos.
all the other material, the articles that we have. weekly articles, at Times, daily articles. If if you had to pay a dollar a day to get those, would you? Would it be a I hope you'd say, oh, sure, worth a lot more than that.
Well, we're not charging. Everything that we're putting out is free. It's one thing if you're taking a class in a school and you pay to be in the school, but everything we're putting out online, there's no paywall, it's free. It's free because of the support of others. If you're benefiting from it freely.
It's because someone else paid the bill.
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Church, local church, same as in your own family.
So as family together, if we've been a blessing to you, Especially over the years, maybe your regular radio listener, now podcast listener. Would you stand with us? to help us reach out. We've massively expanding our Jewish outreach. And obviously the Jewish community is not going to pass to reach them.
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Thank you for standing with us, but thank you for helping us bless so many more people. We are indebted to you together. We're making a difference. All right, one last thought. on the issue of forgiveness.
It's really important. that we recognize how much the Lord has forgiven us. It's so important that we recognize the height and depth of God's forgiveness. how unmerited it is. how on the best day we've ever lived, we don't merit His forgiveness.
Some of us live really wicked lives before we were saved. Put my name in there. And all the times we've stumbled and fallen short as we seek to walk with the Lord over the decades. His mercies are new every morning. As high as the heaven is over the earth, that's how far he's removed our transgressions from us.
What a merciful, forgiving God. And he's saying the way I forgave you. You forgive others. What you have to do is say, Lord, I want to. I choose to.
and he will give you the grace to make it real. He will give you the grace. And you find it not only releases others, but it'll change you. It'll free you up. Bitterness is destructive.
Bitterness is like rot in your bones. Bitterness is beneath you on every level. Forgive as he's forgiven you, and oh. What a flood of life will come out of it. May the Lord bless you.
We'll continue with the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in the next broadcast.
