Daniel was not in Israel anymore.  No, he was a long way from home.  God’s judgment had come upon his homeland, and most of the Israelites had been carried off to Babylon, including Daniel and his relatives Hananiah,  Mishael, and Azariah (also known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego).  Through the providence of God and the faithful obedience of these young men, they been selected to serve in the king’s court.

But, Daniel’s tenure as a “wise man” in the king’s court looked to be short lived.  Because the king had suffered a nightmare and had sought an interpretation of it, only to be frustrated by the inability of his wise men, the King had given orders that all the wise men of Babylon be killed.  Daniel, however, knew something that the Babylonian king did not.  In the midst of the turmoil, at the risk of his own execution, Daniel sought an audience with the king and then prayed with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that God would provide an interpretation of the king’s dreams.

What did Daniel know that king Nebuchadnezzar did not?  Listen to these insightful words from Daniel’s prayer, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.  He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings…” (Daniel 2:20).  Daniel understood that God is the one who establishes kings into their role of authority, and God is the one who removes them.  Regardless of the outcome, Daniel knew who ultimately is in control of all things, including authority.

Daniel would go on to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and be appointed to be ruler over the Babylonian province and as the chief prefect of the wise men, but regardless of the appointment and the accolades, Daniel knew, by God’s grace, who was really behind all authority, and he gave praise to Him alone.   Similarly, in his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul provides guidance in understanding authority, Christian’s responsibility to it, and God’s sovereignty over it.

Who institutes, who appoints, and who enforces authority?  According to Romans 13:1-7, the answer is God.  God institutes, appoints, and enforces authority.  It’s what I call a “Sunday School answer.”  You have three choices:  God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit.  So, you probably got the answer to this question right, but in practice do you really believe this?  I have found that although many Christians believe this truth on Sundays, they rarely do after their candidate fails to win an election, or when a supervisor reprimands them on the job, or when a teacher is overly critical or is a hard grader, or when a parent withholds privileges.  In other words, our theology of authority is often dictated by our contextual situation, rather than God’s Word.

Therefore, in Romans 13:1-7, we are confronted, as the original Romans readers were, with the truth that God is glorified by obedience to authority, as authority demonstrates His sovereign reign.  Let’s examine then each of these three characteristics of authority.

1.  God institutes authority:  “…there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1).  Paul explained to the Romans that all authority comes from God and that even the institution, or appointment, of authority is from God (Romans 13:1), and God reminds us that we are not in control of authority, but God is, even the establishment of it.

Consider again the example of Daniel.  He was a foreigner serving the most powerful king of his day.  He was a Israelite, chosen by God, and was under the authority of a pagan king.  And yet, God used Daniel to not only serve and influence king Nebuchadnezzar, but he too was put in a position of authority.  The comparison is interesting.  Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan addicted to self-promotion.  Daniel was a child of God consistently faithful to give God glory, and yet God used them both, simultaneously.  In fact, the first four chapters of Daniel are a comparison and contrast between these two very different men, and yet in the case of both, God established them.

2.  God appoints authority:  “…whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed… (Romans 13:2).  Paul explained to the Romans if and when they resisted authority they were actually resisting God, because God appoints authority (Romans 13:2), and God reminds us that when we disobey authority, we are actually disobeying Him, because He appoints authority.

Saved from mob violence by the Roman guard, the apostle Paul was turned back over to the Jewish council for questioning.  In a moment of intense, and illegal, questioning, the high priest Ananias ordered the Paul be struck on the mouth.  In response, the quick-witted and well-spoken Paul responded, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” (Acts 23:3).  The action was illegal, according to Jewish law, and Paul was in grave danger for his life.  If ever there was a moment to respond venomously to the authority figure this was it!  Or, was it? 

Luke writes in Acts 23, “Those who stood by said, ‘Would you revile God’s high priest?’ And Paul said, ‘I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people’” (23:4-5).  Paul knew the law.  In fact, he quotes Exodus 22:28 verbatim to the Jewish leaders, but Paul knew something else, something that he would later teach the Roman Christians.  He knew that God is the one who appoints authority, and so Paul’s self-correcting response was appropriate.  God was the one who had appointed Ananias, and Paul knew it and acknowledged his wrongdoing.

3.  God enforces authority:  “for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).  Paul explained to the Romans that those who were in authority were actually acting as God’s servant to enforce authority and acting for their good.  However, their saving relationship with God would not save them from His discipline when they disobeyed, and God used those in authority to carry about his discipline for those who disobeyed (Romans 13:4).  God providentially orchestrates authority, even its enforcement, and uses those whom he has appointed to authority as His servants.  When wrong is done, even by a Christian, God uses those in authority to carry out His discipline on them. 

In the Spring of 1750, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah, waited patiently for the decision of the Hampshire Association of Churches to make their decision concerning the church of Northampton’s request that Edwards’ employment as the pastor be terminated.  The vote was 8 to 7 against Edwards.  This remarkable decision followed the Great Awakening, of which Jonathan Edwards played a key role, by only 10 years.  While today Edwards is known as one of greatest minds of our country’s history, as well as one of its greatest theologians, Edwards was not without a good reputation in the American colonies as well.  Edwards had pastored the church at Northampton, preached throughout New England during the Great Awakening, and published books and sermons, one which many modern Americans remember from high school English, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” 

Despite Edwards’ great mind and ability, he struggled with work outside of his study.  He could engage his mind for 13 hour days in his study, but often neglected the personal attention his flock needed, and apparently desired.  And so, when a dispute arose within the Northampton church over the administering of the Lord’s Supper, Edwards’ adversaries sprang into action finally achieving a petition signed by 200 persons within the community requesting Edwards’ removal.

There are several interesting points that history tells us about in this disciplinary action that was carried out on Edwards.  First, there is Edwards’ reaction.  Although Edwards and his family were dejected, Edwards’ accepted the churches decision as his authority, even though he disagreed with it.  In fact, one of the church members who had opposed the disciplinary action, tried to assist him in starting another church, but Edwards would have nothing to do with it.  Elisabeth Dodds recounts,

Colonel Dwight offered to share half his income with Edwards if he would stay on as pastor to the families who had adhered to him.  Edwards turned down this offer, though he found it touching, for he did not wish to split the congregation.  The church, the gathered followers of God’s will, was in his view still much more important than one man’s hurt feelings.[ii]

In fact, a friend and observer of Edwards’ would later right of Edwards’ conduct during this time with admiration: “The calm sedateness of his mind, his meekness and humility … his resolution and steady conduct … were truly wonderful.”[iii]

The second interesting result was what resulted from Edwards’ dismissal.  To be clear, the Northampton congregation was not without fault.  History has shown that many would repent of their actions later, and the ring leader would publish a paper stating his misconduct ten years later.  But, Edwards’ immediate need to work at the time of his dismissal was real, and the options were many.  Edwards was offered numerous other positions in the colonies as well as in Europe, where he had become famous from his writing.  Edwards chose to become a missionary instead.  Specifically, he and his family became missionaries to the Indians of Stockbridge on what was then the American frontier of the colonies.

While many saw this new role as beneath Edwards’ abilities, in his new role Edwards’ needs would be met, and he would write the greatest works of his life, works that today continue to challenge the theologically-minded.  What would have happened had Edwards not become a missionary to the Indians with the free time to think and write?  What would have happened if he had remained in Northampton and retired?  While we cannot answer these questions for sure, we can see how God providentially used the disciplinary action taken against Edwards as well as Edwards’ response for God’s greater purpose.

Therefore, when we have done wrong and the Lord disciplines us, let us trust him all the more.  May God give us the grace to respond with a greater love for him, not responding in rebellion to him or to authority, but knowing that God loves us because “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6).  Do not rebel against His servant or His judgment, for “he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).  So, brother and sister-in-Christ, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6).

Authority is instituted, appointed, and enforced by God, and He is glorified by obedience to authority, as authority demonstrates His sovereign reign.  This is not to say that sometimes there is a need for civil disobedience.  Consider again the book of Daniel and the civil disobedience of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Their faithfulness to God and their unwillingness to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol placed them in direct rebellion to authority, and God honored their actions and saved their lives.

In addition, our Lord Jesus, in his triumphal entry, was confronted by the words of the Pharisees from the crowd who commanded him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples” (Luke 19:39).  The verb “rebuke” here is in the imperative mood.  They aren’t simply asking.  To obey their command, Jesus would have rebuked his disciples.  However, he did not.  Instead, he responded, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:39-40).

There are times when obedience to authority is right, and there are exceptions when disobedience is right.  Church history is full of good and bad examples.  Our responsibility is to submit ourselves to the authority and example of the Word of God, seeking wisdom by the clarity of the Holy Spirit, and check everything against the ultimate responsibility to glorify God above all else.  Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).  God’s glory through our actions is paramount.

Sometimes God-ordained governing authority is good and is a blessing to those who submit, and sometimes God-ordained authority is bad and can be a curse to those under it, but in all of these cases the Bible is clear:  God is sovereign.  Today, we may be blessed by those to whom we submit, or we may be cursed, but one day there will be one supreme authority to whom every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Romans 14:11).  God the Father has appointed Jesus Christ the Son to reign upon the throne as the ultimate authority in the new heaven and earth.  So, while we may look upon earthly authority today and see its faults, one day “no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.  …they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5).  May God bless you as you subject yourself to His authority.

In 2004 the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) held a press conference at the New York Public Library.  NEA chairperson Dana Gioia stated the obvious:  “America can no longer take active and engaged literacy for granted.”  She then reported on a reading-related research project of seventeen thousand adults in the United States.  Only one in three American men is reading literature of any kind, and women are not reading like they used to either.  In fact, over the past twenty years, 20 million people have completely stopped reading.  That means that, at this rate, we are losing the capacity to communicate with a million people a year using literate means.  The largest drop in reading rates was among young adults, age eighteen to twenty-four, compared to the rest of the adult population.  Overall, less than half of all Americans read literature such as the Bible.  Only an elite 14 percent still read extensively—and two-thirds of college graduates fail to read with proficiency.  A 2004 study reports that “literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young.”  This reflects a significant shift toward nonprint media for entertainment, information gathering, and education.[i]

Now, as a Bible-believing, Bible-reading Christian, if this startles you a bit, have no fear!  Help is on the way.  To remedy this drop in “engaged literacy,” a new plan is afoot to help you:  story time.  Instead of directing you to the inspired written word of God, there is a movement focused on taking the Bible and teaching it via stories.  Because you and I are apparently unwilling to read, yes, in fact, unable to read, we are incapable of reading and studying God’s word for ourselves.  We must have someone else, who purportedly can read, regurgitate God’s word back to us in a more “imaginative,” “creative,” and “interactive” way.  It is argued that we need to “press God’s biblical truth hooks into our sensory loops, through personal interaction and vicarious experience.”[ii]  By allowing others to read the Bible for us and then gives us stories based on the Bible, we need no longer trouble ourselves with actually reading God’s word for ourselves.  Heaven forbid that a generation or two from now no one is reading God’s word for themselves.  At least we’ll have good storytellers.

Hopefully, you are picking up on my sarcasm!  The concern that I have with this overly pragmatic response to the national drop in literacy is multi-faceted:  inevitably it removes a generation from the written word of God, it substitutes a manufactured alternative for the real thing, and makes the wrong assumption that you are not willing to actually read the Bible.  Furthermore, hopefully you are picking up on how the enemy, Satan, could use such a movement to distance one generation, and then the next and the next, from God’s word.  I encourage you to challenge this stigma with action, but I’m not simply encouraging you to read just for sake of reading.  Literacy is important, but even more important is the ability to read the Bible.  Yes, read it.

Therefore, I want to take this Sunday, early in January, and ask you to not make a “New Year’s Resolution,” but instead to make a “Life Resolution.”  I’m asking you to, in fact I’m praying that you will, resolve from this day forward to fall in love with God’s word.

Specifically, I am referring to a grouping of books we call the Bible, which consists of an Old Testament, or Old Covenant, which is made up of individual books from Genesis to Malachi, and a New Testament, or New Covenant, which is made up of individual books or letters from Matthew to Revelation.  All of this is the inspired Word of God.  Because all of this is the Word of God, you should nourish yourself on all of it.

So, why should we fall in love with God’s Word?

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  Contextually, Paul was referring to what we would refer to as the Old Testament, but as Scripture was being added to what we have today as the canon of Scripture, Paul’s reference to “all Scripture” applies to all of the books we have in our Bible, Genesis through Revelation.

To answer our question, we should look at the phrase “breathed out by God,” which in the original Greek is actually one word, theopneustos.  This is the only verse in the Bible where this unique word is used, and it tells us something very special about Scripture.  While God used Paul and others, using their own unique styles and experiences, ultimately God inspired them to write His word.  Theologically, we refer to this as plenary verbal inspiration, which simply means that God used men to write the complete words of Scripture.  Therefore, we should fall in love with God’s word because it is literally “breathed out by God.”

What do we gain by falling in love with God’s word?

Again, consider 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  Not only is Scripture from the mouth of God, but it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…”  Let’s consider these four benefits that Paul lists:

1.  Teaching.  Do you desire to know God’s will?  God’s revealed will is contained in Scripture.  To know it, to obey it, you must learn it.  Teaching here can also be translated as “doctrine” and means the instruction that comes from God via Scripture.  Frankly, this is one of the reasons why we put so much emphasis on and take so much time each week at FOCUS to study the Bible.  We believe that it is of the utmost importance to know what God’s word says, and therefore it is right to dig into it meticulously and diligently.  I suppose we could spend more time worshipping the Lord in song, and that would not be bad.  I suppose we could spend more time in prayer, and that would be good.  I suppose that there is merit to life application devotional material that could be covered more in our weekly worship services.  But, we choose to spend the bulk of our time together each week digging into Scripture, just as we are doing here with 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  If we believe that Scripture is literally God-breathed, then we should hunger to be taught and to study God’s word.

2.  Reproof.  Have you ever been convicted of something you are doing that is wrong simply by reading Scripture?  Many of us have.  If you haven’t, it’s time to commit yourself to more time reading the Bible.  Reproof here has the connotation of a rebuke for sin.  The book of Hebrews describes the intricate nature of this reproof:  “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13).  When Scripture rebukes us for our sin, our response should be to confess our sin and to repent.  This is why reading Scripture is more than reading.  It is truly an interactive experience, if we truly submit ourselves to it.

3.  Correction.  Based on our modern use of the word “correction,” it is easy to see it as synonymous with reproof.  We often use the word correction as meaning disciplinary action, but here Paul is using it in the natural flow in his argument.  What follows reproof?  Correction, which here can be defined as a turning in the right direction or more precisely “correcting restoration.”[iii]  We can be thankful that God uses his word not only to reproof us, but He also uses it to direct us back to His plan for our life.

4.  Training in righteousness.  Because God is preparing us for our eternal home, because this life is only temporary, this world is a training ground.  And, what is God’s training manual for growing into what He desires us to be?  The Bible.  Are you living in this world without studying the training manual?  Have been deceived into believing that this world is all that there is?  God’s plan is eternal and so is His word:  “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Now, if the reason we should fall in love with God’s word is because it is literally God-breathed, and if what we can gain from falling in love with God’s word is teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (among other things), then what is the result of falling in love with God’s word?  Consider 2 Timothy 3:16-17:  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  God’s word can complete you and it equips you.  Not just for some good works, but for every good work.

God’s word is fully sufficient for your life.  No, God’s word won’t tell you who you will marry.  It won’t tell you what job you should take.   It’s not a crystal ball or mathematical code for deciphering.  However, it will teach you to be wise and faithful, which will by God’s grace provide you with what you need to determine who you should marry.  It does give specific instruction on faithfulness and hard work in the work place, which will give you guidance for your career.  And, these two limited examples are just the beginning of the penetrating work of God’s word in our lives.  In fact, the breadth of God’s word is so wide and its storehouses so full, that you can spend a lifetime mining it and only scratch the surface of its depth and richness.  In fact, I would encourage you to make it your life resolution:  fall in love with God’s word!

This is one of the reasons why at FOCUS we encourage you to read through the entire Bible every year.  Our favorite method is using the ESV “Every Day in the Word” plan.  Following this plan, each day you will read from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms, and Proverbs.  This is the plan that I use in my own personal quiet time every morning.  But, sometimes in your reading you need a little more insight.  One way of dealing with this is to use a good study Bible.  I’ve looked at quite a few, used several, and the best one that I think is on the market today is the ESV Study Bible.  In fact, I am stunned that so much valuable and reliable information is available in one Study Bible.

Another practical idea is to incorporate God’s word into your prayers.  This was a favorite method of George Mueller.  He found that his prayer time tended toward wandering thoughts until he incorporated Scripture.  Mueller wrote,

The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God…The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it…[iv]

If you haven’t tried this before, I encourage you to try it.  It can be truly enriching time of prayer.

In addition, we should seek to internalize God’s word.  David wrote in Psalm 119:

How can a young man keep his way pure?  By guarding it according to your word.  With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!  I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you (Psalm 119:9-11).

To store God’s word in our heart is to memorize it and meditate on it.  While not a popular method today, history is rich with examples of Saints who dedicated large passages of Scripture to memory.  To assist you with this wonderful discipline, we are going through Fighter Verse’s Set 2 this year at FOCUS.  You can also download the Fighter Verse iphone or android App at their website.  Following this plan, you will memorize 52 verse selections in 2012.  I encourage you to make this part of your 2012 resolutions and start this week!

As I mentioned before, time in God’s word is one of the reasons why we put so much emphasis on teaching the Word in our weekly worship services.  One of our primary objectives at FOCUS is to make sure that you are exposed to God’s word in a deep and meaningful way each week.  In addition, this is also why we encourage you to plug into a weekly FOCUS group.  A weekly FOCUS group is an excellent way to get together with other Believers and to talk about God’s word in a smaller and more intimate setting.

Now, at this point, if I have convinced you that you need to fall in the love with God’s word and begin immersing yourself in it, let me stop and provide some caution:  Falling in love with God’s word is pointless if you do not have a love relationship with the God through Christ.  Perhaps it is interesting to note that the Bible is perhaps the only book in which its meaning an application are predicated on an intimate relationship with the Author of the book.  Do you placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?  If not, the Bible will never be anything but a dry, academic, historical piece of literature for you, but when you place your faith in Christ by God’s grace, the Bible will come alive and you will see it for the treasure it is!

If you do have a saving faith in Christ, then here is my next caution:  Falling in love with God’s word means that you go to it out of love for Him, not out of compliance with an obligation.  It is so easy for us to see the value of reading and studying the Bible, but we are quick to turn it into a type of Law, as if we are somehow earning God’s favor because we are reading the Bible.  Instead, we should treasure God’s word and go to it like we do someone we love intimately.  This doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when you must discipline yourself to read even when you don’t want to read.  But, just like in marriage, discipline breeds faithfulness, and in the garden of faithfulness love grows.

Do you love your heavenly Father?  Do you love the Lord Jesus?  Do you desire to know God more?  Hear from Him?

Perhaps one of the greatest minds to live on American soil was the Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards.  Among many things, Edwards is remembered for his long list of resolutions.  Not New Year’s resolutions, but resolutions to last a lifetime.  It was a list that he started as a teenager and maintained his entire lifetime.  At the age of nineteen, while working on his initial list, Edwards summarized his devotion with this resolution:

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.[v]

And, this is my prayer for you and I as well.  May we resolve by God’s grace and enablement to fall in love with God’s word with a lifetime of devotion for the sake of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

In answer to these questions, allow me to answer with a question:  What is your favorite poem?  While a love for poetry is waning in the post-modern world, most everyone has at least heard a poem that they have enjoyed.  Maybe you can’t remember the name, but you recall the beauty of the words.  One of my favorites is Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.[i]

Despite the beauty of these words, I wonder if Ms. Browning could have conveyed her intent more literally?  If she wanted to get express her love, wouldn’t it have been better to approach the topic more pragmatically?  More factually?  Because of this, I have decided, in a moment of creative inspiration, to provide my rendering of Sonnet 43:

I have a difficult-to-explain feeling and intent to dedicate myself to you.  The equation to express this results in infinity.  This feeling, however, is contained to the three-dimensional measurements of width, length, and height of my internal being.  This emotion can be at times unexplainable, but remains contained within me and my optimistic perspective.  Because of my apparent need of this emotion, essentially on a daily basis, specified precisely as from the morning and into the night.  I am not restricted and can express this emotion to you, which is comparative to following the correct course of action in life.  This emotion is not contaminated with other emotions.  Furthermore, this emotion is similar to emotions that I recall from difficult times in my past as well as moments where I involved myself with religion.  Because of the elusive nature of this emotion, it can come or go, but I am currently experiencing it.  The dedication that I derive from this particular emotion leads me to express it to you by way of my use of oxygen, my muscular facial expression of positive emotion, the secretion of my tear gland, and my existence as a human being.  Scientifically, I anticipate maintaining this emotion.

 I haven’t given this love poem to my wife yet.  What do you think?

Hopefully, you think that I’ve lost my mind and would never give my wife this paragraph (I won’t insult poetry by calling it a poem!).  What’s missing?  The creative element.  In other words, it’s missing the poetry.  It’s missing the rhyme that our ears have come to associate with poetry.  It’s missing the beautiful words that say so much in just one word.  It’s missing the beauty of that which can’t be calculated, manipulated, analyzed, or subjected to the scientific method.  It’s missing the simple structure of a Sonnet.  And yet, we can all read Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s introduction and know the power of those words:  “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

Similarly, Matthew’s genealogy is after something much more important and much more beautiful than a statistical spreadsheet.  In fact, the structure of Matthew’s entire gospel has led New Testament scholar Mark Strauss to refer to Matthew as “a skilled literary artist.”[ii]  Therefore, we must remove our post-modern obsession with data only, and experience the poetry of Matthew’s genealogy.

We can enjoy Matthew’s commencement with Abraham, because we know the story behind Abraham and God’s promised blessing through his lineage.  We can enjoy the unexpected encounter of women in a male-dominated culture, and marvel at a foreign prostitute like Rahab in the lineage of Jesus.  We can be surprised that the incestuous Tamar is listed right along with the historical fathers.  We can smile to see the faithful foreigner Ruth listed right alongside her devoted husband.  We can blush to see Matthew label Bathsheba “the wife of Uriah” rather than the wife of King David.  And, we can weep to see Mary a godly young women become God’s chosen one to carry and give birth to Jesus, the pre-existent Son of God.

Understanding Matthew’s literary talent can also help us appreciate his poetic structure.  Perhaps comparative to a Japanese haiku poem, Matthew’s practice of gematria (D + V + D = 4 + 6 + 4 = 14), and the precise placement of David as the 14^th name on the list, tells the story of Jesus as the Messiah, “the son of David, the son of Abraham,” through a structured picture much more beautifully than an encyclopedic entry.  Furthermore, our lack of familiarity with Matthew’s intentional structure can cause us to not appreciate this work as much as we should.  This would not have been lost on Matthew’s original audience, however.  As Mark Strauss notes, “This was a common practice in Jewish genealogies and was intended to develop a memorable structure or to emphasize certain individuals.”[iii]

Matthew’s creative expression does not nullify the inspiration of his gospel, however.  Rather, it leads us to appreciate the verbal, plenary inspiration[iv] of Scripture all the more, as Matthew was “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21, ESV).  We can, in fact, rejoice that God chose this Hebrew tax collector to pen not only one of the four eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life, but to also use his unique literary skills to do it in such a beautiful way, and we can learn truth from Matthew’s gospel while simultaneously appreciating its poetic beauty.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations (Matthew 1:1-17).

Matthew begins his gospel account with these words, “The book of the genealogy…”  Interestingly, the literal translation of this phrase (biblos geneseos) means “book of genesis,” and it is in fact an echo from the book of Genesis.  In Genesis 2:4, we are introduced to the creation with these words, and in Genesis 5:1, we are introduced to an account of Adam’s descendents to Noah with these words.  In fact, when the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek in the Septuagint, these words were used.  Therefore, Matthew begins his account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ notifying his reader that this genealogy is of Biblical reference and importance.

In fact, Matthew’s genealogy sets the tone for the rest of his gospel account.  At the outset, with a strong Jewish orientation and highly structured writing style, Matthew introduces us to Jesus the son of King David.  Matthew makes it clear that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies; He is the Messiah.  This is why early churched fathers, like Augustine, symbolized Matthew’s gospel with the picture of a lion.  And so, this genealogy in Matthew introduces the lineage of the Lion of Judah.

What does Matthew’s genealogy of King Jesus initiate?  Consider the second chapter where the “wise men” come in search of Jesus asking this question:  “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2).  In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He speaks with authority describing a new law of his new kingdom.  After the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew records Jesus’ teaching thirteen descriptive parables of His “kingdom of heaven” on earth.  In fact, throughout Matthew, there are over forty Old Testament passages referenced in order to fully demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah.  Even at His crucifixion, Jesus is providentially titled “the King of the Jews.”

Matthew’s genealogy is a carefully structured account consisting of three groupings of fourteen, or as he describes it, “So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations” (Matthew 1:17).  In actuality, Matthew does not include all the generations since Abraham, but rather provides more in keeping with what we would call a summary account (“The actual number of generations in the three parts to the genealogy are thirteen, fourteen, and thirteen, respectively; but ancient counting often alternated between inclusive and exclusive reckoning”[i]).  There are several generations that are missing from Matthew’s account, and he includes other names of interest, such as the women Rahab and Tamar.  Therefore, after looking more carefully at this genealogy, we can conclude that Matthew’s intent is less statistical and more theological in purpose.

As to Matthew’s three sets of fourteen, some Scholars believe that Matthew is actually using the Jewish practice of “gematria” in which numbers are assigned to consonants.  Because the focus of Matthew’s genealogy is Jesus’ fulfillment of the lineage of the Messiah, as the heir of David’s throne, it is interesting to note that David’s name in Hebrew equals 14 (D + V + D = 4 + 6 + 4 = 14).  Interestingly, David’s name is the 14^th name on this list.  Whether this was an intentional design of Matthew, which is appears that it is, or not, the fact that Jesus is “the son of David, the son of Abraham” rightly positions Him as the Lord Jesus, the Christ!

Just as Matthew’s genealogy is a testimony to Jesus as the Christ, it is also a retelling of God working through His people for His greater purpose.  As we examine the list, Matthew wants to make sure that we do not miss the eclectic sort that makes of the lineage of the Messiah.  For example, just from Abraham to David, we have a repetitive liar, a cheater, an adulterer, and a murderer.  Furthermore, consider the unexpected names that appear in this list:

Tamar:  a widow who disguised herself so that she might have sex with her father-in-law and have children to shame her father-in-law and carry on her deceased husband’s lineage.

Rahab:  a foreign female prostitute of Jericho who assisted the Israelites by virtue of her location on the wall of Jericho.

Ruth:  a Moabite women who was faithful to her mother-in-law despite her husband’s death and became the unexpected wife of the great-grandfather of King David.

Bathsheba:  a woman who Matthew does not name, but rather refers to her as “the wife of Uriah,” and who becomes the wife of David and the mother of King Solomon.

Mary:  a young, obscure virgin who gave birth to Jesus, the King of Kings.

Matthew lists five women in a male-oriented genealogy.  Two of the women were not Jewish by descent, two performed acts of prostitution, and one committed adultery which led to her first husband’s murder.  But, the deeds of Jesus’ lineage did not get better with age.  In fact, the acts of the kings preceding the deportation to Babylon made Tamar’s one night of prostitution seem like nothing.  With the exception of a few, like Josiah, wickedness permeated almost every generation.  This should make us appreciate even more Jeremiah’s prophetic words:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness’”(Jeremiah 33:14-16).

So, why does Matthew provide this colorful genealogy?  Why not a purely statistical account without the structure of fourteens or the mention of foreigners or prostitutes?  Why not a sterile picture of the lineage?  In verse sixteen we read, “Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).  “Christ” (Christos) is the word for “Messiah” or “Anointed One.”  And, he brought redemption in His coming.  The Apostle Paul writes, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).  And, this is the picture that Matthew paints for us in the lineage of King Jesus:  a lineage of redemption.

But, the Family Tree doesn’t stop here.  If you have a saving faith in Christ, you have been adopted into the family of God through Jesus Christ.  We now find ourselves in a lineage of kings, by virtue of our adoption.  This makes God’s promise to Abraham all the more telling:  “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore…” (Genesis 22:17).

How can the King of heaven and earth come from a line of corruption?  Only by the redeeming work of God through that very King, Jesus!  We are not meant to look at the lineage of Jesus and see its greatness.  We are meant to look at the lineage and say, “But for the grace of God…”  We are to be astonished that foreign prostitutes and cowardly and idolatrous kings can point toward our redeemer.  In fact, we are to look at this account from Abraham to Joseph and think that it is impossible.  There’s no way.  It can’t be.  Even the fact that Jesus was not Joseph’s biological son would cause us to assume that all hope is lost.  But, just as Jesus was miraculously born of a virgin and adopted into the lineage of Joseph’s ancestors, so we “receive adoption as sons.”

Furthermore, the unexpected characters of Jesus’ lineage point to the gospel.  We are so much more like Rahab, than Mary.  Before Christ saved me, I was a foreign prostitute.  I was the citizen of another kingdom.  I was enslaved to the ways of that kingdom, and my body was a slave to that kingdom’s lusts.  It was only through God’s irresistible grace that I saw my sin and my need to escape to a new kingdom and to be ruled by a new King.  You see, just like Rahab, I have been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and I have been adopted into His kingdom forever!  What about you?  Are you still a foreigner enslaved to the ruler of this world, or are you a child of God saved by grace through faith in Christ alone?

Therefore, the genealogy of Jesus Christ demonstrates Jesus as the rightful heir to the throne of David and in complete fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy establishes Him as the true Messiah.  Within this structured genealogy we also see a glimpse of God’s greater purpose in redeeming a people unto Himself.  Not a people of Jewish ethnicity alone, but rather a people of various races (like Rahab and Ruth), a people of various classes (from Rahab to Solomon to Mary), all finding their redemption in one person:  Jesus Christ.

Understanding the significance of Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew, now listen to these traditional Christmas Bible passages and celebrate the Christ!

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:26-33, emphasis added).

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”

            (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25, emphasis added).

And, so let us sing the hymn anew:

Hark, the herald angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King,
“Peace on earth, and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled.”

Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Veil’d in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with men to appear,
Jesus Our Immanuel here.

Mild He lays His glory by;
Born, that men no more might die;
Born to raise the sons of earth;
Born, to give them second birth.

Come, Desire of Nations, come!
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s promised Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Glory to the new-born King!
Let us all the anthem sing,
“Peace on earth, and mercy mild;
God and sinners reconciled.”[ii]

Watch this short video.

How is it that someone who has been wronged so much can forgive?  How is it that while being stoned to death, Stephen could pray out loud, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60), or how is it that Jesus, who committed no sin yet while being crucified could pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  Is this an act of super Christians, or Christ himself, or is this something that all Christians can do?

The Gift of Christ and Justification

Forgiveness is not only something that all Christians can do, forgiveness is central to the Christian message, the gospel:  “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).  As Paul wrote to the Romans,

…God put forward [Christ] as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:25-26).

Or, as he wrote to the Corinthians, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Theologically, we refer to this forgiveness as justification.  Because of what Christ has done on our behalf, we have been justified before our holy God.

And, it is why Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father in heaven…”  The Christian is a child of God.  The Christian can now acknowledge God as his Father.  However, the Christian is not a Christian by church membership, or baptism, or going through a ceremony, but rather you are saved by the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ: “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

By placing our faith in Christ, we are accepting the forgiveness that God extends to us, and we are transformed:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  And, as this new creation, the Holy Spirit resides within us immediately and permanently:  “…you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16), and “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14).  And, by virtue of what God has done for us, and empowered by His Spirit within us, we in turn are freed from sin to live lives of righteousness unto God.  We are also empowered to forgive…

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

At the conclusion of Jesus’ outline on prayer, he immediately turns to forgiveness, perhaps expanding on 6:12:  “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  Undoubtedly, forgiveness is essential to our walk with Christ, but in reading this conditionally-phrased sentence, may we conclude that the act of forgiving earns our forgiveness with God?  If I have not given others when they have sinned against me, does God withhold his forgiveness from me?  Is God’s forgiveness conditioned upon my forgiving others?  The answer to these questions must start with the question of what does Jesus mean by “forgiveness”?

To understand what Jesus means by forgiveness we must start by understanding our relationship with God?  It is important to note that Jesus says “your heavenly Father.”  While many today believe that everyone on the earth is God’s children, this understanding doesn’t come from the Bible.  In fact, for those who did not believe in him, Jesus confronted them with these strong words:

“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God” (John 8:42-47).

And the Apostle Paul describes life before one comes to a saving faith in Christ like this:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3).

So, not everyone is a child of God.  Not everyone can call God “Heavenly Father.”  Therefore, in Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus is teaching about a forgiveness, and a lack of forgiveness, that a child of God can exercise and experience.  In other words, Jesus is not talking about justification.  He is not talking about our standing in righteousness before God.  As the Apostle Paul further explains to the Ephesians:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:4-10).

The Gift of Christ and Cleansing

So, what kind of forgiveness is Jesus talking about?  And, how does this forgiveness or lack of forgiveness cause God to respond accordingly?  The answer is that exercising forgiveness is obedience.  Just as God has forgiven, we are to exercise forgiveness toward others.  As a child of God we are called to obedience…

In Hebrews, we are given an insightful picture into the how God responds to our disobedience:

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?                                                  “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,                                              nor be weary when reproved by him.                                                                             For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,                                                                   and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:5-11).

Understanding that in God’s love He disciplines us, we are to confess our sins to God seeking to be cleansed:  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  This doesn’t mean that we are being justified by God again, but rather as Jesus explained to Peter in the teaching moment of washing his feet, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean…” (John 13:10).  Similarly, we are to confess our sins to God as His children seeking cleansing.

The problem is that in our flesh it is easy to drift away from routinely confessing our sins and walking faithfully in obedience.  And, forgiveness can be subtle.  We often think of “greater” sins that we have committed that need to be confessed, while ignoring our heart attitude of a lack of forgiveness.  This is the driving point behind Jesus’ teaching here in Matthew 6:14-15.  If you have a saving faith in Christ, you are a child of God.  You have been forgiven so much.  In return, glorify your Father by being a forgiver.

When you have a forgiving heart and exercise forgiveness, you are glorifying God.  When you do not have a forgiving heart and do not exercise forgiveness, you are disobeying and the benefit of a “cleanness” of walking in obedience to God is withheld.

The Gift of Christ and Giving the Gift of Forgiveness

So, are you a forgiver?  If you do not have a saving relationship with Christ, you are not a forgiver.  You must first be forgiven.  Place your faith in Christ alone, and accept the forgiveness of God:  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  By placing your faith in Christ, you are accepting the eternal forgiveness of your sins.  You are also accepting the power that only God can give to forgive others.

So, are you a forgiver?  If you have a saving relationship with Christ, then you have been forgiven.  You have been justified.  This standing with God cannot be altered.  To argue that your actions could change your justification is to argue that Christ’s death was insufficient, and it was not.  Because of this eternal relationship, however, you have been given the gift to forgive as well.  You bare the likeness of your Father, since it is His Spirit dwelling within you.  In other words, there is nothing keeping you from exercising extraordinary forgiveness to everyone.  Do not allow your flesh to keep you from this remarkable attribute.  Rather, “Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).  Allow the Lord to use you as vehicle for His forgiveness to bring Him glory.

I have never purchased The National Enquirer, despite my enquiring mind wanting to know.  However, I have spend plenty of time in the grocery check-out line where I have learned about celebrity divorces, weight loss, weight gain, marriages, extra-marital affairs, adoption of children, child abuse, and even ratings on who has the worst swimsuit photos!  Some of it is funny, most of it is tragic, and all of it is so very different than my life, which I suppose is why I’m always interested to look at the front page while standing there.  In fact, if I examine myself, I find that there is even an air, perhaps condescension occasionally, in my thinking:  “Thank God that’s not me!”  But, here is the danger in this thinking:  it could be me…

Of course, I’m not referring to the celebrity aspect of the front page of The National Enquirer as much as I’m referring to our human tendency to see ourselves above certain sins, and certainly above certain sinners.  Here then is the myth.  It is by God’s grace that we do not commit the worst of sins.  As Nicholas Batzig points out,

Bernard of Clairvaux once mentioned an old man who, upon hearing about any professing Christian who fell into sin, would say to himself:  “He fell today; I may fall tomorrow.”  The Apostle Paul commended the same mindset when he wrote, “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). [ii]

Or, in the words of Jesus to his disciples, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).  That night in the garden Peter prayed, but soon fell asleep, while Jesus sweat drops of blood in anguish submitting himself to God’s will.  Of course, you and I are like Peter.  We likely believe that there are sins that we would never commit.  We might say something like, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away (Matthew 26:33).  And yet, we, like Peter, when faced with the pressure of trials in life and temptation to sin.  In fact, we find that things aren’t quite as simple as they are when we’re standing in the checkout line staring other people’s problems.

So, let us consider the Disciples’ Prayer and our state as the disciple:

1.  We acknowledge our saving relationship with God through Christ by our ability to pray to God:  “Our Father in heaven.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

2.  Recognizing that we now have fellowship with God through Christ, we praise Him.  We adore Him.  We verbally acknowledge who God is and how great He is when we pray:  “hallowed be your name.”

3.  Celebrating our relationship with Him and his greatness leads us to proclaim his sovereignty and our sincere desire for the experiential fullness of his reign:  “Your kingdom come.”

4.  We are led from proclaiming his sovereignty to desiring His will be done right here in our lives:  “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

5.  We display our total dependence upon God by glorifying Him with our requests for his provision for our needs:  “Give us this day our daily bread.”

6.  Our forgiveness toward others demonstrates the authenticity of our repentance and a saving faith in Christ, by which we can pray, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

We cannot truly, authentically pray this way and it not impact the way that we petition the Lord.  To pray for God’s glory, God’s reign, God’s will, God’s provision, and God’s forgiveness places us in submission to the Lord and reminds us of our state before Him, and it is our dependence upon Him that leads us to pray:  “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

And lead us not into temptation

Understanding our weakness, Jesus concludes his teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:13 with these words, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  When was the last time you prayed a prayer like this?  The kind of prayer that assumes you will face difficulties hypothetically?  A prayer displaying your dependence upon God and your need for his deliverance of something that has yet to occur?

In fact, God’s providential care is woven throughout this prayer.  The verb translated here as “lead us” (eisenenkes) means “to cause someone to enter into a certain event or condition, bring in.”[iii]  Jesus’ language here is a testimony to God’s sovereignty and His providential work in our lives.  We are not aimlessly wandering through this life, but rather God is at work leading us into His plan to mold and to make us into the image of Christ:  “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29).  He is actively involved in our lives leading us according to His will.

But, if this is the case, then does God lead us into temptation?  To best understand this we need to understand the use of the word translated “temptation” (peirasmon) in this context.  On the one hand, this Greek word is versatile and can also be translated as “test, trial,”[iv] such as its use in 1 Peter 4:12:  “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”  The word translated “test” here is the same word translated “temptation” in Matthew 6.  So, context influences the meaning of this word.

On the other hand, the word temptation fits here since it is something we are seeking to avoid; in fact, praying to avoid.  The best understanding then is to see this as what may be called a “litotes, a figure of speech which expresses something by negating the contrary.”[v]   An example of this would be if I said, “You are not a bad singer,” which of course means I am telling you that you are a good singer.  This is characteristic of Jesus’ language and teaching style, and the force of this expression then is to put our focus on where we should be going; what we should be pursuing.  As D.A. Carson points out:

“Into temptation” is negated:  Lead us, not into temptation, but away from it, into righteousness, into situations where, far from being tempted, we will be protected and therefore keep righteous.[vi]

Therefore, we can pray “And lead us not into temptation” as a poetic way of praying lead me “in paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3).

Further proof of this likelihood is contained in James 1:13, which states, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”  No, God does not tempt us, nor does He lead us into temptation.  Therefore, our prayer is to be focused on God’s deliverance and his directing us toward righteousness, as Peter reminds us, “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials” (2 Peter 2:9).

This does not mean that we do not ever fall prey to temptation and sin.  Unfortunately, we do.  But, it is not because we had no other choice:  “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Does your prayer life reflect this kind of dependence on God?  Or, does your prayer life display self-dependence?  Have you become so confident in your good conduct that you don’t pray desperately seeking God’s provision?  Maybe you wouldn’t ever say it this way, but perhaps your prayer life reflects it.

The problem is that we don’t see ourselves as needy as we are.  As Nicholas Batzig writes,

If an innocent man could choose a piece of fruit over the infinitely valuable God (Gen. 3:6); if the most righteous man of his day could get so drunk that he passed out naked before his sons in his tent (9:21); if the most faithful man of his day could father a child with his wife’s handmaiden (16:1-4) and twice hand his wife over to other men (12:11-15; 20:1-2); if the mother of promise could laugh at the words of the God of promise and then lie to Him about doing so (18:9-15); if “righteous Lot” could greedily pick the most materialistic and sexually depraved place for himself and his family to live (13:8-13), and could hand his daughters over to the sexually perverse man of the city (19:4-8); if the son of promise could show partiality to his oldest son because he liked his hunting skills (25:28), and he, too, could hand his wife over to another man (26:6-11); and if the namesake of Israel could swindle his brother for a birthright (25:29-34), then so could I.[vii]

Therefore, our prayers are to reflect our dependence upon the Lord, not only for his daily provision for our needs, but also for our spiritual victory.

but deliver us from evil

If God does not tempt us, then who tempts us?  Interestingly, in Matthew 4:3, Satan is actually labeled “the tempter.”  The devil is our tempter, and it is from his evil that we are to seek deliverance.   In fact, the word translated “evil” (tou ponerou) here can also be translated “evil one.”  Peter instructs us, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).  We are to be aware of our need for God’s protection, and to pray for it even before it even occurs, being “sober-minded” and “watchful.”

Do your prayers reflect a need to be delivered from the devil and his evil ways?  Do your life’s actions reflect a need to be delivered from the devil and his evil ways?  Or, are you quick to run to evil?  Consider your weaknesses, and pray that God will deliver you from your enemy and his knowledge of these weaknesses.

In all of this we must acknowledge that “nothing good dwells in us” (Romans 7:18), and that apart from Christ we “can do nothing” (John 15:5).  Therefore, we pray “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” because “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

We move this week into our fourth look at the Disciples’ Prayer and specifically into the  petition:  “…and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  However, as we have done previously, let’s look briefly to what leads us to this specific petition in this model prayer Jesus has given us:

1.  We acknowledge our saving relationship with God through Christ by our ability to pray to God:  “Our Father in heaven.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

2.  Recognizing that we now have fellowship with God through Christ, we praise Him.  We adore Him.  We verbally acknowledge who God is and how great He is when we pray:  “hallowed be your name.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

3.  Celebrating our relationship with Him and his greatness leads us to proclaim his sovereignty and our sincere desire for the experiential fullness of his reign:  “Your kingdom come.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

4.  We are led from proclaiming his sovereignty to desiring His will be done right here in our lives:  “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

5.  We display our total dependence upon God by glorifying Him with our requests for his provision for our needs:  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

We cannot truly, authentically pray this way and it not impact the way that we petition the Lord.  To pray for God’s glory, God’s reign, God’s will, and God’s provision places us in submission to the Lord and reminds us of our state before Him, which is precisely where this part of the prayer lands:  “…and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

…and forgive us our debts…

In reading and praying this prayer, it is so easy to breeze right past the little words, like the conjunction “and”.  However, to do so misses the importance of the connectedness or cohesiveness of this prayer.  This conjunction is not an addition by the translators.  There is a conjunction (kai) here in the Greek.  The importance of this conjunction is that it links the petitions of this prayer together.  In other words, it is right to see our petition for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done and God’s provision for our needs to be connected to our attitude of repentance and forgiveness, as we will see more clearly as we look further into this verse.

In addition, it is interesting that more than half way through this prayer we find the petition for the forgiveness of sins.  Why do we not find this at the beginning of the prayer?  When I was a young man, I was taught that when I sin, while my relationship with God is not hindered, my fellowship with God is broken.  I was troubled for a long time by this teaching especially when reading this prayer and wondered how can someone pray and petition the Lord without first asking for forgiveness?  Did Jesus get the order wrong in this model prayer?

Jesus did not get the prayer wrong!  The real issue is a misunderstanding of the word fellowship and what really happens when we sin.  John MacArthur has helped me tremendously with this issue.  He writes,

Some people say that confession is important because it restores fellowship with God, which they believe is broken by sin.  We sin, fellowship is broken; we confess, fellowship is restored.  But that is not what Scripture teaches.  Our fellowship with God never changes, regardless of how we fail.  Genuine fellowship cannot be broken by sin and therefore cannot be restored by confession.  We have been led astray the usual understanding of the word fellowship.  We use it to mean “friendship, intimacy, relationship between persons.”  But the Greek word is koinonia, meaning “partnership.”  Our partnership with God can never be broken by sin, Satan, or anything else in the universe (see Romans 8:32-39).  Something does happen when we sin, but it is not broken fellowship.  It is forfeiture of joy.  “These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.”  (1 John 1:4, KJV).  Although our fellowship cannot be broken, we can foul up our lives so that we lose our joy.  Many, many Christians have done that very thing. 

I don’t deny that in sinning, a believer loses a certain intimacy, a warmhearted experience, a sense of nearness to God.  Something does go away, but Scripture speaks of it as lost joy rather than lost fellowship.[ii]

I am hopeful that this has the same powerful effect on you as it did on me.  To understand our fight against sin as a fight for joy, rather than fellowship, is liberating.  It also helps me better understand why we are praying for forgiveness at this place in this model prayer.  Our fellowship with our Heavenly Father is not broken if we are a true child of God, but our prayer for forgiveness of sins is no less urgent than David’s cry in Psalm 51, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit (Psalm 51:12).

Furthermore, Scripture is abundantly clear that confession of sins is a regular routine of the believer.  As John wrote specifically to believers:  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  In fact, Jesus’ words, “forgive us our debts,” is in summary confession.  We are to ask the Lord to forgive us, which includes the confessing our sins.  Forgiveness is not conditioned upon confession, but rather confession is the act of the believer who agrees with God, specifically, about his/her sins.  Confession is a characteristic of a maturing Christian, because it demonstrates a spiritual sensitivity to specific sins in one’s life.

But, why is the word “debts” used here instead of “sins”?  Is Jesus talking about sin or is he talking about a financial arrangement such as a loan?  There are several reasons we can be confident that Jesus is talking about our sins.  First, we must understand the use of language and translation.  For example, Jesus spoke and likely taught here in Aramaic.  Interestingly, the word “debt” in Aramaic carries a double meaning, unlike Koine Greek, and therefore the word debt meant both to owe someone something or sin to be forgiven.[iii]  In addition, in Luke’s rendition of a similar prayer, he does not use the word debt, but instead writes, “and forgive us our sins” (Luke 11:4a).  Therefore, the apostles, when likely translating into Koine Greek, understood Jesus’ use of this double-meaning word.  In addition, Matthew switches from “debts” to “tresspasses” when Jesus elaborates on this topic in verses 14 and 15:  “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).  We will also see Jesus demonstrate the double-meaning of the word in his parable in Matthew 18.

…as we also have forgiven our debtors.

The verb here is translated “have forgiven” in all of the modern English translations, which is interesting given its tense.  The verb here is in the Aorist tense, and would not be typically translated as “have forgiven.”[iv]  An alternate translation, in keeping with the tense, could be “as we also herewith forgive our debtors.”[v]  However, the English translators in choosing the words “have forgiven” are trying to convey in English the sense that the offended party not only forgave the offender, but remains in an attitude of forgiveness.

The importance of noting this is because like many of the verses in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, this verse has been misunderstood and misapplied often citing verse 12 as a technical equation for forgiveness.  For example, if you look at this verse technically and out of context, you might derive this type of equation:

X must forgive Y before Z can forgive X[vi]

This is further seemingly supported by verses 14 and 15:  “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  So, is Jesus teaching that God forgiving us is contingent upon us forgiving others?

To answer this, let’s allow Scripture to help guide us in our understanding.  For example, in Romans Paul writes,

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9).

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Romans 10:10).

Therefore, it is clear from Paul’s letter to the Romans that our ultimate forgiveness, that is our justification, is not contingent upon our forgiveness of others, but rather we are justified by faith in Christ.  So, is Paul’s teaching in contradiction to Jesus’ teaching?

Here we can learn a lesson within a lesson:  Contrary to what some might say, Scripture does not contradict itself.  As Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  All Scripture is literally God-breathed, and as Hebrews states, “…it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18).  Therefore, as we are faithful to search the Scriptures, we can be confident that there is no contradiction.  The problem then is not with Scripture, but with us.  Some things are not clear to us, and we must simply pray for illumination, and we must continue to diligently study the Scriptures.

In this case, we find that Jesus does not contradict Paul, because Jesus chooses to provide a parable to further clarify his teaching on forgiveness.  In Matthew 18:23-32, Jesus responds to Peter’s question on forgiveness:

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:23-35).

As noted earlier, Jesus’ use of the word “debt” contained a double-meaning.  Likewise, we see that the teaching of forgiving a “debt” in this parable teaches us much about the forgiveness of sin, and a forgiving heart.  When we examine this story and its main character, we find one obvious flaw:  the lack of authentic repentance.  Although his master had graciously forgiven him, he chose not to repent but rather demonstrated the true condition of his heart by his actions.

Similarly, as Jesus teaches us in this model prayer, our forgiveness toward others demonstrates the authenticity of our repentance and perpetuates an attitude of forgiveness.  God has demonstrated his love to us:  “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Furthermore, he who died for us cried out, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).  Therefore, we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins (Romans 3:24-25).  By virtue of this, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).  We now have a new identity and are seen in union with Christ.  And, as God promised in Ezekiel, through Christ we have been given a new heart, and he has put a new Spirit within us (see Ezekiel 36:26).

Furthermore, we find that authentic conversion leads to actions of obedience.  As James clarified,

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead (James 2:18-26)

Therefore, while forgiveness is not contingent upon our forgiveness of others, nor is there some form of forgiveness equation leading to the result of forgiveness, we find that forgiveness flows from and is a result of a converted heart.  Only those who have a saving faith in Christ have been forgiven of their sins and are justified before God forever.  And, only those who have a saving faith in Christ have the capacity to show authentic forgiveness to others.  Only those who know and have experienced the burden of sin lifted have the gift of eternal life.  In the story of our Christian life, Christian is the name of the character who plays the opposite role to the character of Jesus’ parable.  Christian is the one who being forgiven of much, freely forgives.

If you have not repented and believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you do not know forgiveness and you cannot truly show God-given forgiveness.  Place your faith in him now and experience the forgiveness of your sin.  It is only in union with Christ that you can be forgiven and truly forgive.

If you have a saving faith in Christ, but have not been obedient in faithfully forgiving others, confess your sin to the Lord.  Accept his forgiveness and celebrate joyfully forgiving others.  I’d also like to encourage my brothers and sisters to see life through what Kevin DeYoung calls the “glasses of grace”:

With these glasses on you’ll reckon that most days are a whole lot better than you deserve. And on the really hard days, you’ll fight to believe that God is working even this for good. With the glasses of grace, you’ll smile when other people succeed. Instead of experiencing life as a series of disappointments and occasions where you were not given the treatment you deserve, you’ll experience life as a gift. You’ll see grace all around you. You’ll celebrate the grace you see in someone else or given to someone else. It’s a profoundly different way of viewing the world.

When you look at life with nothing but fairness goggles, you will constantly feel like you’ve been put in last place when you deserved to be first. But when life is seen through the glasses of grace, you’ll learn the joy of feeling like you’ve been put first even when you know you are last.[vii]

May we focus not on what has been done wrong to us, but through the “glasses of grace” may we glory in what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, and then may we truly pray, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Some people say that confession is important because it restores fellowship with God, which they believe is broken by sin.  We sin, fellowship is broken; we confess, fellowship is restored.  But that is not what Scripture teaches.  Our fellowship with God never changes, regardless of how we fail.  Genuine fellowship cannot be broken by sin and therefore cannot be restored by confession.  We have been led astray the usual understanding of the word fellowship.  We use it to mean “friendship, intimacy, relationship between persons.”  But the Greek word is koinonia, meaning “partnership.”  Our partnership with God can never be broken by sin, Satan, or anything else in the universe (see Romans 8:32-39).  Something does happen when we sin, but it is not broken fellowship.  It is forfeiture of joy.  “These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.”  (1 John 1:4, KJV).  Although our fellowship cannot be broken, we can foul up our lives so that we lose our joy.  Many, many Christians have done that very thing. 

I don’t deny that in sinning, a believer loses a certain intimacy, a warmhearted experience, a sense of nearness to God.  Something does go away, but Scripture speaks of it as lost joy rather than lost fellowship (The Keys to Spiritual Growth, 103-104).

I am hopeful that this has the same powerful effect on you as it did on me.  To understand our fight against sin as a fight for joy, rather than fellowship, is liberating.  Our fellowship with our Heavenly Father is not broken if we are a true child of God, but our prayer for forgiveness of sins is no less urgent than David’s cry in Psalm 51, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit (Psalm 51:12).

Is it right to petition God for our provision?  Hasn’t He provided in such a way that we need not pray?  Isn’t He sovereign and all-providing?  What good does it do to petition the Lord?

While these questions may sound absurd immediately following reading the Disciple’s Prayer, these questions (perhaps subconsciously) may very well be behind a lack of or inconsistent prayer.  But, does the Bible speak clearly to this subject?  Are we to petition God for our provision?

Give us this day our daily bread

In Matthew 6:11, Jesus transitions the prayer from adoration to petition.  He specifically instructs us to pray to God:  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  The verb here is again an imperative in mood, similar to the verbs in the previous verses, and makes it clear that this is in the form of a request:  “Give us…”  A little further in this his discourse, Jesus will elaborate on this topic:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11).

And, interestingly, the half-brother of Jesus, James, answers our question succinctly:  “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2b).  The Biblical evidence, of course, does not end here.  The Bible is full of example after example of praying to God for His provision.  What then keeps us from praying for God to meet our needs?  Let’s look deeper into this verse for the answer.

There are two words in this short verse to which I want to draw your attention:  “this day” and “daily.”  The words “this day” (semeron) is one word in the Greek and can also be translated as the one word “today.”  The second word “daily” (epiousios) is a little more difficult, since it only appears in this form here in this verse.  Greek scholars believe this word has a similar connotation to today, but is forward looking.  D.A. Carson translates it as “of the day that is coming”[ii], which is helpful given the Jewish view of a day.  In other words, your morning prayer would be a prayer for provision for today, and your evening prayer would be a prayer for tomorrow.  In any event, both words reference a time frame in the very near future.

Why are the words “this day” and “daily” important to encouraging our prayer life?  Because they are referencing an immediate need, which is an act of dependence, immediate dependence.  Consider the example that would most likely have come to mind in the Jewish listeners of this prayer:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily” (Exodus 16:4-5).

In the wilderness, God miraculously provided for the children of Israel…daily.  In fact, the Israelites were instructed only to gather up for tomorrow one day a week in preparation for the Sabbath.  If they did not, then the manna would spoil.  In this picture, we see God providing in an amazing way, but creating a scenario of daily dependence upon his provision.  And, this is a picture of how we are to pray as well:  “give us this day our daily bread.”

In the U.S. we are so unfamiliar with true hunger that is most likely that we pray more for “annual bread” than for “daily bread.”  The extraordinary blessings that we experience blind us from seeing both the needs of others in the world and our need to be dependent upon God.  Unlike our affluent culture, the original students of Jesus’ teaching on prayer would have been very familiar with daily needs:

In Jesus’ day, laborers were commonly paid each day for the work they had achieved that day; and the pay was frequently so abysmally low that it was almost impossible to save any of it.  Therefore the day’s pay purchased the day’s food.  Moreover, the society was largely agrarian:  one crop failure could spell a major disaster.[iii]

How then are we to respond to this prayer for daily provision in our own cultural context?  Are we to expect manna to fall from heaven?  I suppose it’s possible, but I doubt it.  Are we to work?  Most certainly we are.  Is it necessary to go back to a daily subsistence environment to truly appreciate this prayer?  I don’t think so.  But, in our working, in our planning, in our shopping and gathering, in our personal acts of feeding ourselves, we are to do it with an attitude of dependence upon the Lord—yes, a prayer of daily dependence!

One my favorite recent examples of this kind of daily dependence is George Mueller.  Mueller (1805-1898) was a pastor in Bristol, England and is most famous for his caring for orphans and the documentation of faithful prayer life and answers to his prayers.  I’d like to share with you one example that occurred in 1857.  Mueller recounts,

…I was most unexpectedly informed that the boiler of our heating apparatus at No. 1 leaked very considerably, so that it was impossible to go through the winter with such a leak [“No. 1” was one of the orphanages that Mueller had helped to build and operate]…

     The boiler is entirely surrounded by brickwork; its state, therefore, could not be known without taking down the brickwork…  But suddenly, and most unexpectedly, at the commencement of the winter, this difficulty occurred.  What then was to be done?  For children, especially the younger infants, I felt deeply concerned, that they might not suffer, through want of warmth.  But how were we to obtain warmth?  The introduction of a new boiler would, in all probability, take many weeks.  The repairing of the boiler was a questionable matter, on account of the greatness of the leak; but, if not, nothing could be said of it, till the brick-chamber in which it is enclosed, was, at least in part, removed; but that would, at least, as far as we could judge, take days; and what was to be done in the meantime, to find warm rooms for 300 children?  …At last I determined on falling entirely into the hands of God, who is very merciful and of tender compassion, and I decided on having the brick-chamber opened, to see the extent of the damage, and whether the boiler might be repaired, so as to carry us through the winter.

     The day was fixed, when the workmen were to come, and all the necessary arrangements were made.  The fire, of course, had to be let out while the repairs were going on.  But now see.  After the day was fixed for the repairs a bleak North wind set in.  It began to blow either on Thursday or Friday before the Wednesday afternoon, when the fire was to be let out.  Now came the first really cold weather, which we had in the beginning of that winter, during the first days of December.  What was to be done?  The repairs could not be put off.  I now asked the Lord for two things, viz., that He would be pleased to change the north wind into a south wind, and that He would give to the workmen ‘a mind to work’; for I remembered how Nehemiah accomplished in 52 days, whilst building the walls of Jerusalem, because ‘the people had a mind to work.’  Well, the memorable day came.  The evening before, the bleak north wind blew still; but, on he Wednesday, the south wind blew:  exactly as I had prayed.  The weather was so mild that no fire was needed.  The brickwork is removed, the leak is found out very soon, the boiler makers begin to repair in good earnest.  About half-past eight in the evening, when I was going home, I was informed at the lodge, that the acting principal of the firm, whence the boiler makers came, had arrived to see how the work was going on, and whether he could in any way speed the matter.  I went immediately, therefore, into the cellar, to see him with the men, to seek to expedite the business.  In speaking to the principal of this, he said in their hearing, ‘the men will work late this evening, and come very early again tomorrow.’

     ‘We would rather, Sir,’ said the leader, ‘work all night.’  Then remembered I the second part of my prayer, that God would give the men ‘a mind to work.’  Thus it was:  by the morning the repair was accomplished, the leak was stopped, though with great difficulty, and within about 30 hours the brickwork was up again, and the fire in the boiler; and all the time the south wind blew so mildly, that there was not the least need of a fire.

   Here, then, is one of our difficulties which was overcome by prayer and faith.[iv]

This is just one of many stories of answers to Mueller’s prayers, but point is not to direct the attention toward Mueller.  No, the point is to show that we too are to pray, like Mueller did, dependent upon the Lord’s provision, or as Mueller wrote, “Think not, dear reader, that I have the gift of faith…the faith I am enabled to exercise is altogether God’s own gift…the self-same faith which is found in every believer….”[v]

In practice, we typically overlook this simple faith that Mueller describes.  Because of God’s goodness, we typically think in two extremes:  either we are to expect manna to fall miraculously from heaven, or we are to go out and make something happen on our own.  But, the Bible doesn’t agree with this either/or mentality.  Rather, we are to see God as the provider of all things.  The Psalmist wrote:

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

… all look to you, to give them their food in due season.  When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things (Psalm 104:14-15, 27-28).

God provides for food, and our drink, and even for our cosmetics!  Therefore, we are to see and acknowledge:  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

Therefore, we are to be dependent.  We are to be daily dependent.  And, praying for our “daily bread” puts in that place of dependence.  In his biography of George Mueller, A.T. Pierson described our dependence this way:

We profess to cast ourselves and our cares upon the Lord, and then persist in bearing our own burdens, as if we felt that He would be unequal to the task of sustaining us and our loads.  It is a most wholesome lesson for Christian workers to learn that all true work is primarily the Lord’s, and only secondarily ours, and that therefore all ‘carefulness’ on our part is distrust of Him, implying a sinful self-conceit which overlooks the fact that He is the one Worker and all others are only His instruments.[vi]

Praying today for our daily needs also speaks about our human state.  We are given no guarantee of tomorrow in this life.  To assume too much about tomorrow can lead to over-confidence and even arrogance.  As Proverbs 27:1 states, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring,” or as Jesus taught, “…do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).  And James reminds of tomorrow’s uncertainty and our frailty:  “…you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

This does not mean that we should not plan or prepare, nor does this promote the existential philosophy summarized as: “Eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow we die!”  Instead, we are to turn to God in prayer, daily prayer, sustaining prayer, dependent prayer, asking for his provision for what we need.  As Jonathan Edwards wrote, “

…we have no grounds of dependence on another day. We have neither any foundation to depend upon seeing any particular things come to pass another day, which we may hope or wish for, nor upon enjoying another day in this world. We have nothing for a foundation of dependence that we shall not be in eternity before to-morrow, as both reason and experience show.—We have no promise of God that we shall ever see another day. We are in God’s hands; our lives are in his hands; he hath set our bounds; the number of our months and days are with him; nor hath he told them to us. We see that the life of man at longest is very short, and nothing is more uncertain; and it is a thing universal among mankind, that they know not the day of their death.[vii]

Edwards’ words remind us that we must see each day as a gift from God and pray accordingly.  Have you become some consumed with your plans, your agenda, your calendar that you have lost sight of the gift that is today?  Does your worry of tomorrow destroy your enjoyment of God’s provision today?  In a beautiful picture of daily provision, Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).  God provides, and his provision is sufficient for what you and I need for today.  So, take your needs to him in prayer.

Next, for what are we to pray?  What is “daily bread”?  “Bread” here is both literal and metaphorical.  Most certainly bread was ready and sustaining stable in the first century diet, but the Bible is full of examples of using this one word to mean both food of all kinds, or even a broader meaning, which is implied here, of daily needs.  For example, Proverbs 30:8 states, “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me.”  The ESV translates the Hebrew word broadly as “food,” while the NIV translates the word “bread.”[viii]  This expression, given the context within Jesus’ teaching on prayer, likely holds an even broader meaning to include our needs in general, not just food.

So, Jesus instructs us to take our daily needs to God in prayer.  You must determine your needs.  Jesus does not spell it out for you.  In addition, Scripture is very clear about what we are not to take to the Lord in prayer:  “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:2-3).  We are to pray for our daily needs, not our daily greed.  Examine yourself on this matter.  Are you praying daily asking for the Lord’s provision?  When you pray are you praying for things that are not Godly?  Is your time in prayer wrapped up in your selfish ambition?  Take this time to pause and examine your heart.  Ask the God to give you clarity on this subject.

Finally, as you examine your heart on this matter, let me remind you what we have learned through our study of the Disciples’ Prayer:  “…the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).  Therefore, let’s examine what leads us to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

1.  We acknowledge our saving relationship through Christ by our ability to pray to God:  “Our Father in heaven.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

2.  Recognizing that we now have fellowship with God through Christ, we praise Him.  We adore Him.  We verbally acknowledge who God is and how great He is when we pray:  “hallowed be your name.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

3.  Celebrating our relationship with Him and his greatness leads us to proclaim his sovereignty and our sincere desire for the experiential fullness of his reign:  “Your kingdom come.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

4.  And, we are led from proclaiming his sovereignty to desiring His will be done right here in our lives:  “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  This has an impact on our hearts and leads us to authentic prayer.

We cannot truly, authentically pray this way and it not impact the way that we petition the Lord.  To pray for God’s glory, God’s reign, and God’s will sets the stage for us to ask our Heavenly Father to supply our needs.  Does this describe your prayer life?  I hope it does.  But, if it does not, or if you need encouragement in this area today, let me direct you to the one who spoke these words to His disciples.  For, it is only through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ than we can pray like this, and it is only through His Spirit dwelling within us and our dependence upon His Spirit that we can pray authentically.  Trust in Him as your source and take joy in your prayers as He meets our daily needs.

Knowing the struggles of many Christians in their praying, I conclude with these words of encouragement from George Mueller:

The joy which answers to prayer give, cannot be described; and the impetus which they afford to the spiritual life is exceedingly great.  The experience of this happiness I desire for all my Christian readers.  If you believe indeed in the Lord Jesus for the salvation of your soul, if you walk uprightly and do not regard iniquity in your heart, if you continue to wait patiently, and believingly upon god; then answers will surely be given to your prayers.  You may not be called upon to serve the Lord in the way the writer does, and therefore may never have answers to prayer respecting such things as are recorded here; but, in your various circumstances, your family, your business, your profession, your church position, your labour for the Lord, etc., you may have answers as distinct as any here recorded.[ix]

Last week we began our study of some of the most simple yet beautiful words every spoken.  We learned, as disciples of Jesus, that this is a model that we may follow as we pray in this manner.  We learned that we were unable to pray or even call God our Father apart from faith in the Christ.  Through Christ we have become children of God.  We learned that to call God is not only a family right and joy, but it is also an act of reverent worship.  God is not our “homeboy.”  He is our “Father in heaven.”  In fact, we learned that his very name is holy and communicates to us who he is and our relationship to him.  If you missed last week, you can find it here.  So, as we move into the next verse, do not lose sight of the fact that it is through the sovereign work of God in sending his only and unique Son to die to redeem us to him that we might become children of God.  It is then our joyful privilege, as believers, to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Your kingdom come…

As we pray to our Holy Father worshipping him for who he is, we are told to pray that his kingdom come.  In fact, in the Greek text the verb begins this sentence, and it is in the imperative:  “Come!”  We are strongly requesting that this occur.  What is it we are strongly requesting?  We are requesting that God’s kingdom come.

What is God’s kingdom?  If we are to pray that it comes, then what is it?  In both the Hebrew and the Greek, “the kingdom of God” describes the summary concept of God ruling.[ii]  We often refer to this by stating “the sovereignty of God.”  But, isn’t God sovereign over all?  Why should we pray for something that already exists?  Of course, God is most certainly sovereign over all, but he is not honored and obeyed by all…at least not yet.  Scot McNight further clarifies,

Get out your Bible and find the references to kingdom and you will discover that it refers to a society in which God’s will is done, with Jesus as the King, where the Story of Israel finds its completion in the Story of Jesus and where that same Story of Jesus shapes everyone. Kingdom refers to that Davidic hope for the earthly world where God sets up his rule in the Messiah and where people live under that Messiah as God’s redeemed and liberated and healed and loving and peaceful and just people.[iii]

To summarize:  “God’s kingdom consist of God’s rule over God’s people in God’s place.  God has established His King, Jesus, and by His Spirit He gives life to His people through His Word.”[iv]

Therefore, our prayer is to pray for what Jesus is in fact introducing:  the kingdom.  In Matthew 3:2, John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  This verb translated “is at hand” literally means “come near, draw near, approach”[v] and is in the perfect tense, meaning that it has happened.  The kingdom of God, his ruling reign over the hearts and lives of his children through the perfect work of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has been introduced to this world.  Jesus will use similar words later in Matthew.  So, what happened?  The incarnation of Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection is the introduction of the kingdom of God.  You and I, as believers, are citizens of this new kingdom.

However, much of the New Testament refers to the kingdom of God in the future as well.  So, you and I experience the kingdom life now, but we will fully inhabit it and enjoy it forever in the future.  As Paul encouraged the Romans:  “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).  One day Christ will return and fully consummate the new kingdom with a new heaven and a new earth.  Or, as Zechariah prophesied in the Old Testament:  “And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9).  This has led many New Testament scholars to refer to the kingdom of God as “already, but not yet.”  Or, “the kingdom has already come, but it has not yet arrived.”[vi]

Furthermore, our strong words in prayer are not to be misconstrued into a demand by us of God.  As if we are to demand that God hurry up!  No, we instead are praying that what God has started he will finish, not only on earth, but in us as well.  For believers, we have been born again (regeneration) and we are now in the process of sanctification, God’s work of molding and making us into the perfect image of Christ.  This is a life-long process in which we grow in holiness, as we are faithful in obedience to the Lord, but we never reach a state of perfection.  Of course, my prayer is that you will grow in holiness, that your spiritual maturity will be greater next year than it was this year and so on.  If you are not growing, then you are not living a life of faithful obedience to the Lord.

Despite our growth, however, we never reach a state of perfect holiness, but one day when God fully consummates his kingdom with a new heaven and a new earth, we will be glorified.  We will have new bodies and will know no sin.  We will be sinless as Adam and Eve were before the fall.  So, yes, our prayer is strong.  It is urgent.  It is requesting that God finish what he has started, that his new kingdom that has been introduced in our hearts and lives be fully consummated in all of creation.

As weighty as this concept is, please don’t let it pass by you as simply academic.  Consider the burden of your sin, consider the burden of your fallen humanity, consider the struggles of this life, consider the week before taking finals (in college), consider the last time you had the stomach virus!  My point is simply that we cannot pray “Your kingdom come” with the intensity it deserves unless we pray it considering the burden of our flesh and the victory of Jesus.

… your will be done…

As in the previous phrase, the verb, translated here as “be done,” is an imperative:  “Be done!”  This is strong language emphasizing the importance of God’s will.  It’s obviously important that God’s will be done, but what is God’s will?  Scripture provides a picture of what theologians, dating back to Thomas Aquinas, have used to describe God’s will:  God’s sovereign will (or God’s will of decree or His secret will) and God’s moral will (or God’s will of command or His revealed will).  Unfortunately many people will interchange these two when they speak of desiring to know God’s will for their life.

God’s sovereign will is described well in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which states, “The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.”[vii]  It is the will in which God has decreed all that has and will happen.  God’s sovereign will will happen.  Period.  Just as the prophet Isaiah wrote, “…for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.  I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.  (Isaiah 46:9-11)

God’s moral will, in contrast, can be revealed through God’s Word, or as Deuteronomy 29:29 states, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”  So, we have the “secret things” (God’s sovereign will) and “things that are revealed” (God’s moral will).

Scripture provides an interesting picture of both God’s sovereign will and his moral will in the example of Pharaoh’s interaction with Moses.  You may recall from the book of Exodus that God had called Moses, former Prince of Egypt and later obscure shepherd, to return to Egypt and lead the children of Israel out of the bondage of slavery and back to their promised land.  You may also recall that this was not a popular idea with Pharaoh.  However, in the Lord’s directing Moses on this life-changing calling, we learn some very interesting things about God’s will.  Consider Exodus 8:1:  “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me.’”  We see here an example of God’s moral will, a command literally from God.  God is commanding that the children of Israel be freed.

However, also consider Exodus 4:21:  “And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.”  Clearly, this is an example of God’s sovereign will.  He is showing precisely what would later be penned in the Proverbs:  The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.”  (Proverbs 21:1)  So, we see God’s moral will and His sovereign at work in freeing the children of Israel.

It is noteworthy to stop at this point and state that some Christians believe that there is a third “will of God”, which may be referred to as an “individual will—an ideal, detailed life-plan for each person.”[viii]  This is often the “will of God” that many people are thinking of when they pose questions or make statements about wanting to find God’s will for their life.  A blend, if you will of God’s sovereign will and our own ability to ascertain that which is secret.  Unfortunately, for everyone seeking this elusive “will of God,” the Bible emphasizes God’s moral will, not an “individual will.”  In addition, Scripture never describes an “individual will” that governs our decision making.

So, in Matthew 6:10, how would we best describe this phrase, “Your will be done”?  Is this an example of God’s sovereign will or God’s moral will?  Based on the fact that we are to pray for it, and based on the fact that it is coupled with an earnest plea that God not tarry in the consummation of his kingdom, I believe this is referencing God’s moral will.  In other words, God’s sovereign will will be done regardless, but obedience to God’s moral will is most certainly our heart’s desire.  It is our prayer.  Our desire is that this “good and acceptable and perfect” will of God be done, in our hearts as well as of the hearts of others (Romans 12:2).

…on earth as it is in heaven.

In addition, this prayer is very practical.  We are not praying that God’s will be done some time in the far distant future.  We are praying, emphatically, that God’s kingdom come and God’s will be one on “on earth as it is in heaven.”  Think about the majesty of this picture!  Consider the picture words Isaiah’s vision:

I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

            “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

            the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6:1-4).

In heaven God’s kingship is fully acknowledge, but not so much here on earth.  In fact, after seeing this vision of God in his throne room, Isaiah responded:  “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

We cannot pray these words haphazardly.  We must pray these with Isaiah’s vision.  We must pray earnestly asking that the holiness of God permeate every bit of us.  We pray asking the Lord’s kingdom to come and the Lord’s will to be done in fullness of his holiness.  We are to pray that God will enable us to honor him, accept his lordship over us and proclaim it, and we are to follow in obedience to his revealed will for we are true citizens of the kingdom of God.

And, we pray these simple yet beautiful words knowing that we are able to do so through our union with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came from heaven to earth and lived a sinless, perfect life.  In his perfection, in obedience to the will of Father God, he died a sacrificial death as the final sacrificial lamb on behalf of sinners like you and me.  But, death could not hold Him, for as He said He would, He arose from the grave conquering sin and death forever.

If by the grace of God you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ alone, then you are a child of God, a citizen of the kingdom of God.  If you have not, then you are separated from God, and you are a citizen of Hell.  But, there is hope!  If God is convicting you of your sin and your need of a savior, you may place your faith in Him, as saving faith, right now.

In fact, if you are under conviction, you may pray these words:

Lord God, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe that He, God in flesh, died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin, rose again, provided perfect satisfaction, and I receive the gift of salvation in His name, turning from my sin I commit myself to follow Him. Pray that prayer and may true salvation be yours this day. Amen.