Jesus Teaches Us How to Pray
People all over the world pray. They pray to different gods about different things. Some pray without really knowing whom they’re praying to. They most often pray when they’re hurting or afraid. Regardless of differences in prayer, it is a universally understood practice.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught a lesson about prayer. It’s a general guide for how we should pray. Christians know that they should pray, but we sometimes need the Savior to help us to know how to pray.
The words of this section, sometimes called “The Lord’s Prayer,” were for generations ingrained in the hearts of people across America. Now there are some who have never heard this section of Scripture. But Christians need to revisit the Lord’s teaching on this subject as well. This lesson takes us inside the things Jesus mentioned that should be in our prayers.
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- Scriptures: Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-13
- Teachers Annual Lesson Commentary 1953, Lesson 10, June 7: Prayer—Matthew 6:9-15
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
“Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” That’s Matthew chapter six, verses nine through 13.
It used to be said in grade schools and high schools across the nation, but that of course was before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prayer to be unconstitutional in our public schools. Sometimes we call this the Lord’s Prayer, and it is probably one of the most well-known sections of Scripture in the whole Bible.
It’s like the Ten Commandments, or the 23rd Psalm. If people know any part of the Bible, it’s usually one of those three sections. And it’s actually not a prayer that Jesus prayed, but it’s a lesson on how to pray. And that’s why many people call it the Lord’s Model Prayer. And before we look at the words of that prayer and then explain them and apply them to our lives, I want to turn to a passage which is a great commentary.
It is a wonderful background to what Jesus is talking about. It’s found in Luke chapter 11, beginning in verse 1. The Bible says, “And it came to pass, that as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.’”
So here’s a situation where Jesus is praying. Sometimes Jesus would lead a prayer with all kinds of people with him. He would lead that prayer with them and for them. But there were other times where Jesus prayed by himself. Here the Bible says that He is praying. He’s not so much praying with the group because they wait until He’s finished and then they ask Him this question.
So, Jesus is praying and the Bible says when he stopped or ceased praying, one of His disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” I think a lot of Christians don’t really realize the importance of learning how to pray. I think that sometimes when we say we need to have some lessons on prayer that Christians say, “Well, I know how to do that. You just talk to God and you say ‘in Jesus name’ and that’s basically it.”
But there’s much more to it than that. Just think about what we read here in Luke chapter 11, verse 1. The disciple asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray as John,” that is, John the Baptist, “also taught his disciples.” So, it was so important for these people to be taught to pray that John the Baptist taught them lessons about prayer.
Now, remember, we’re talking about Jews. We’re not talking about pagans. We’re not talking about Gentiles. We’re talking about Jews who were in the habit of prayer. These were religious people. And yet, they needed to be taught more about praying. And this disciple says, as a request, of course: Lord, we want You to teach us to pray just like John taught his disciples.
So this is very, very important. This is a good example, and this is a great commentary on what Jesus is doing. Matthew chapter 6, is a matter of fact, is very similar to it. You’ll find the wording that He’s about to give here in Luke chapter 11 verses 2 through 4 to be very close to what we just read in Matthew chapter 6.
“And he said to them, When you pray, say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”
So this account of what Jesus said is shorter than what we find in Matthew chapter six. And it does not appear that this is the same kind of situation anyway. There are just some things that He repeats here on this occasion. In Matthew chapter six, He’s on a mountain and He’s teaching these people. He’s teaching the multitude in the Sermon on the Mount.
But here in Luke chapter 11, He’s praying. And when He stops praying, this disciple asks Him to help them to pray and to teach them to pray just like John taught his disciples. So Jesus repeated some of the same things that He said in the Sermon on the Mount here in Luke chapter 11. And then He taught a lesson that many Christians need to be taught and reminded of, and that is, be persistent in prayer. Keep on praying. Be regular in prayer. Don’t just pray one or two times and then give up. Don’t pray part of the time and then quit. But keep on praying. And then He gives this illustration beginning in verse 5. “Which of you,” He said, “shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to say before him.’ And he from within shall answer and say, ‘Trouble be not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give you.’”
Jesus said in verse eight, “I say to you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend…” In other words, he’s going to do it. He’s going to give this man what he asked for, but it’s not because of friendship. He says, “Yet because of his importunity…” That’s what the King James says. The word “importunity” in the King James means persistence. Because this man kept asking him, because he was persistent about it, He says he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
So therefore Jesus says in verse 9, “And I say to you, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asks, receives, and he that seeks, finds. And to him that knocks, it shall be opened.”
There’s a similar story in Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 8 that also teaches the idea of persistence in prayer.
This is one of the most needed lessons for Christian people today, because sometimes Christians think, “Well, if I’ve prayed a few times, then that must mean that God is not going to give me what I asked for.” These passages say that you need to keep on asking. Let God take care of the timing. You see, sometimes we want to put a limit on it.
Sometimes we want to decide how many times we pray to God before He’s going to answer us. The Bible says you keep on praying as long as it’s right. As long as that prayer is scriptural, then be persistent in it. So I would really encourage you to read Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 13. Remember that and apply it to your prayer life, because that is an important element of prayer.
And that is just one of those things that Christian people need to be taught. It’s not so much that it’s something new. It’s not that it’s something you’ve never thought about or never heard about. But it’s something that you need to be reminded of. That’s oftentimes the case in Christianity. When we look at the word teaching, we oftentimes think, “Well, that’s something that I didn’t know before, and so I need to be taught that.”
Teaching is often being reminded of what you already know. And sometimes we just need to be reminded and challenged, and sometimes rebuked and corrected, so that we’ll do the right thing. So in Luke chapter 11 verses 1 through 13, you have a great complimentary passage to Matthew chapter 6 verses 9 through 15.
But let’s go back to the Sermon on the Mount and look at Matthew chapter 6 beginning in verse 9. Remember the setting of the Sermon on the Mount here. Jesus is talking about people who are hypocrites and he gave three examples. He says these hypocrites want to be seen when they do a good deed and when they pray and when they fast. So in verses five through eight, He talks about these hypocrites and how that they wanted to show out with their prayers. And He said don’t be like them.
Now, beginning in verse nine of Matthew chapter six, He says, “After this manner therefore pray you.” This is how you’re to pray. Not by using these vain repetitions that he talked about, not by acting like that (God does even know what you need before you pray), not by showing out in front of others, but by saying this kind of sincere prayer. So pray like this. Jesus says in verse nine, “Our Father, which art in heaven hallowed be thy name.” The first thing that he says is “Our Father, which art in heaven. He calls God the Father.”
God is the Father. He is the provider. He is the protector. And we are His children. We’re children compared to Him. And we are totally dependent on Him. Sometimes today people ask you for tax purposes, “How many dependents do you have?” Well, God has billions. Now everybody is dependent on God in that sense.
And so God is a father to the human race in that way. The Bible says in Acts chapter 17 verse 28, “We are also his offspring.” And Paul is quoting a pagan author there that recognized that we are all the creation of God in that general sense. But Christians are the children of God in a special spiritual sense.
The Bible says in first John chapter three, verse one, “Beloved. Now are we called the children of God.” Jesus said, pray “Our Father, which art in heaven.” God is in heaven. He’s everywhere in one sense, but in a real special sense, in his essence, God is in heaven. He is in a totally different realm. We are on earth and we are of the earth.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 5 verse 2, “God is in heaven and you are upon the earth.” Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.” Now the challenge for man is to lift his mind above what he sees in this temporal world, in this material universe, to what he cannot see.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 that it’s all a matter of faith. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence” or a conviction “of things not seen.” In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18 the Bible says, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” That’s where God is. That is God’s throne. He says, pray, “Our Father which art in heaven.” That idea needs to be in your mind. You’re not talking to a friend here. You’re not talking to somebody that’s just a companion. You’re not talking to somebody who’s a stranger. You’re talking to Almighty God. And so when we approach God in prayer, there needs to be reverence in our voices. There needs to be reverence and respect for God in our hearts. In the last 50 or 75 years, people have become so disrespectful. They’ve become so irreverent that you will find even preachers and people in churches addressing God in a way that really is almost sacrilegious.
I’ve heard some prayers that were made into jokes while people were allegedly talking to God. Jesus never did that. You never find Jesus talking to God like He’s some kind of little buddy or something like that. God is our Creator. God is our provider. God is our Father. And someday, He will be our judge through Jesus Christ,His Son.
Think of it in this way. How do you talk to someone who’s a very important person? What kind of attitude do you have? What kind of tone do you use? What kind of words do you choose to speak to that person that you consider to be a very important person? If we show respect to men on earth in that way, then how much more should we show respect to God when we address God in prayer?
The Bible says, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Do you know what the word hallowed means? It comes from a word which means “to separate from things profane and dedicate to God, to consecrate.” It means “to render or to acknowledge or to be venerable.” In other words, when you talk to God, this is a different kind of talk.
When you talk to God Almighty, you’re not talking to an individual here. You’re not talking about simple, everyday things of life. You’re lifting yourself up to God. And that means that you ought to look at Him as being one who is hallowed. “Hallowed be your name.” God is to be thought of and spoken of and to in a different way than how we think or talk about common things.
There’s to be a reverence. There’s to be respect there. There’s to be a grave attitude and never a light, flippant, carefree disposition. And do you remember what the Bible says in Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, one of the Ten Commandments? “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Just the name of God, when we say that, should cause a certain frame of mind to arise in us.
And in a day when people use God’s name to cuss and to say it with no thought at all of who he is, it’s sometimes amazing to hear Christians talk like this. This is surely needed. “Hallowed be your name.” It ought to be set apart. We ought to say the name of God—anytime we say “Lord” or “God” or any other name attached to God, we ought to say it with the utmost reverence and respect in our hearts and in our voices.
In verse 10, Jesus said, “Thy kingdom come.” Now the kingdom had been promised already in the Old Testament. You read about that in Isaiah chapter 9, Isaiah chapter 11. Daniel 2:44 says that this would be the kingdom which would stand forever. And the Jews knew those Scriptures. They may not have been able to quote them necessarily, but they knew that the kingdom had been promised to the Jewish people. They were looking for it. They were expecting it. And when you read the book of Luke especially, you’re going to find these Jews anticipating that kingdom of God that had been promised in the Old Testament. Listen to Luke chapter 17, verse 20. The Bible says, “And when He was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God comes not with observation, Neither shall they say, lo here or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’”
The Jews were right in believing that the kingdom was coming, but they had a misunderstanding of what that kingdom was. They thought it was a political empire. They thought that it was some nation, just like any nation on earth today, that is, an earthly, political kingdom. Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. But my point is that their perception at the time that He taught the Sermon on the Mount was that the kingdom was going to be some kind of political kingdom.
That’s the kingdom that they had in the Old Testament and they wanted that kind of kingdom again. They believed that the Messiah, the Christ, was going to lead them to be their king and they would be the greatest power on earth. They would be the greatest nation on earth, and they would overthrow the shackles of the Roman Empire. They would become that independent superpower that they once were in the Old Testament. But what we find in Luke chapter 19 is interesting also in verse 11. The Bible says, “And as they heard these things, He added and spake a parable because He was near to Jerusalem and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.”
This was just, again, the common perception of these people. In Luke chapter 23, verse 42, the Bible talks about the thief on the cross who said these words to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Even he knew that the Christ was come to set up a kingdom. They just misunderstood what kind of kingdom that was. That was the problem.
Then the Bible says in the same chapter—in verse 51—it says these words about Joseph of Arimathea. This is Luke chapter 23, verse 51: “The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.” So they were in great anticipation of that kingdom.
Now when John the Baptist came preaching, what did he say? He said that the kingdom—Matthew chapter three, verse two—”Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus said those very words in Matthew chapter four, verse 17. So in Matthew chapter three, when John the Baptist talks about the kingdom, he talks about it being near, but still in the future.
In Matthew chapter four, when Jesus talks about the kingdom, he says it is near, but still in the future. Then, in Matthew 6, verse 10, when Jesus prays, “Thy kingdom come,” He’s speaking of the kingdom still as being in the future. So in Matthew 6, verse 10, when Jesus said pray like this, He’s talking to people who lived at a time when the kingdom had not come yet.
Later in the New Testament, you find that the kingdom is spoken of as not being in the future, but in the present. It was present. In Colossians 1 verse 13, the Bible says that the saints at Colossae had been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son. That’s Colossians 1 verse 13.
Paul said that those saints, those Christians, those members of the church were in the kingdom. You also find in Revelation chapter 1 verse 9 that John said that he was in the kingdom. Hebrews 12 verse 28 says that they were receiving the kingdom. So we don’t pray that same prayer in exactly those words today.
Now we can pray for the furtherance of the kingdom or the church, and that’s what the kingdom is. We can pray that people will be receptive to the message of the kingdom, but the kingdom has been established. That’s what Jesus came to do. And his kingdom was established in the first century. That is the church of the living God.
He says in verse 10, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Now let’s start with heaven. How is God’s will done in heaven? How is it done and by whom is it done? Well, the angels are in heaven. In Matthew chapter 18 verse 10, the Bible talks about the angels of God in heaven. They are always obedient to God. They’re ready to do what God tells them to do. Now some in the past were not, but the bad angels had already been thrown out. Second Peter 2 verse 4 says that God cast “the angels that sinned” down to hell, the King James says, or to Tartarus. Jude verse 6 says the angels that “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” had been delivered into chains of darkness.
So when the Bible says, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” that means that these angels that are there are the faithful angels, the good angels. They do what God tells them to do. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14 that those angels are sent forth. That is, they’re sent from heaven to earth. And Hebrews 1 verse 14 says that they are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation, that is, for Christian people. So theirs is a very important work and they do what God tells them to do.
Someday, God will send his Son and the holy angels will be sent with Him. So, the angels of heaven do God’s will. God’s will is done and our prayer ought to be that God’s will be done in earth just like it is in heaven. Now God’s will is done in the creation because the sun, the moon, the stars, the seasons, the clouds, the birds, the seas, the vegetation–all these things—do exactly as God wants.
But what about man? Most people don’t. And what about us? What about we who are Christians? Is it thy will or my will? This is a very hard thing for us to do, that is, to surrender our will to God, to trust Him completely. Sometimes we say these words “Thy will be done” and we’re not even thinking about what we’re saying. And sometimes when we say it, we really don’t mean it. We’re just repeating a set of words that we’ve heard or that we’ve read. And many times, it takes a severe crisis in life, it takes a lot of pain and a lot of heartache, to get us to see that we really were not practicing what we were praying and what we were preaching when we said, “Your will be done and not mine.”
When we say it, we must mean it. But it takes a lot of experience in life to be able to see exactly how that applies in our lives. In Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6, the Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”
Sometimes our will is not God’s will. Sometimes our will goes contrary to God’s will. We don’t like to admit that, but sometimes it does. Do we practice Matthew chapter 16, verse 24? Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” In Proverbs 16, verse 9 the Bible says, “A man’s heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” In James 4:13, the Bible talks about those who say, “Today or tomorrow, we shall go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.” And James says in verse 14, “Whereas you do not know what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.”
Let’s go to Matthew 6 verse 11. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Think about how simple that prayer is.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 7 and 8, “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, let us be therewith content.” He says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This day is all you have. Not tomorrow. That’s not here yet. And you have absolutely no guarantee and no promise that tomorrow will come. In Matthew chapter 6 verse 34, Jesus said, “Therefore take no thought for tomorrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” We’ll talk more about that when we get down to verse 34, Lord willing.
In James chapter 4 verse 14, the passage that we just referenced, James said, “You do not know what shall be on thee tomorrow.” In Proverbs chapter 27 verse 1, the Bible says, “Do not boast yourself about tomorrow, because you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
Verse 12 talks about another basic about our prayer life. It says, “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” And in verse 14 and 15, Jesus put these words at the end of this prayer. He said, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.”
Now, remember what Jesus said in the Beatitudes? He said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” This is just an elaboration on that very point. Forgive us—this should be a part of our prayers constantly. This verse, like the one before it, underscores what we really need. He talks about the need for the physical in verse 11. Now he’s talking about these spiritual needs in verse 12. Now, this is what Jesus commended the publican for in Luke chapter 18, verse 13. That publican, the Bible says, “Smote upon his breast” and would not even look up to heaven and said, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” What a great prayer that was.
The condition of forgiveness on our part is if we forgive others. If we’re forgiving to others, God will be forgiving to us. But if not, then God will not forgive us. The Bible says in James chapter 2 verse 13, “For he shall have judgment without mercy, who has shown no mercy.” In order to obtain mercy, then we have to show mercy. Now of course, there are conditions implied. To be forgiven by God, we have to repent. In order to forgive other people, they need to repent. Luke chapter 17 verse 3: “If your brother trespass against you, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him.” But this means when we pray that we’re not just talking to God, and we’re not just looking at or thinking about other people.
But it also means that we have to look inside. Because in order to forgive and show mercy, you have to look inside yourself. Now, this is why I say that we have to be reminded of these things. I don’t care how many times you say these words. I don’t care how many times you’ve read them or how many times you’ve heard them or how long you have known them and been able to quote them. You need to hear these words and you need to think about these words on a regular basis. Do I forgive other people? If I want God to forgive me when I say “Lord forgive me” then I have to be willing to forgive other people. That is a condition of forgiveness And no matter how long you’ve been a Christian you need to hear those words
The same thing is true in verse 13: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The word temptation in the King James Version means a test. It means that you’re being tested in some way.
Now, there are two basic kinds of testing in the Bible. Number one, there’s the kind of test where you go through a hard situation in life. We call it a trial. Most of the time the King James Version will use the word temptation even though it’s talking about some kind of trial or hardship, as we would call it, in life.
And God does allow us to be tested in that way. God allows us to go through hardships in life. We can’t just pray this prayer and expect God to take away all of the problems that we have in life. We need some of those problems. And if God were to take away every kind of temptation or test in this life, then this life would not be what it is. This life is a test. Life is a trial. But at the same time, we can ask God to take away some of those things. We can ask God to minimize those sufferings. We can ask God to comfort us and to comfort those that we love.
The second way that this word is used in the Bible is the devil tempting us or testing us. That’s usually what we think of when we hear the word temptation. But the word temptation means a test. The devil is testing us. He’s trying to get us to break the law of God. He wants us to disobey God. That’s what Satan does. And Satan is going to tempt us in this life. God is not going to remove all those temptations because life is a choice. It’s a choice between heaven and hell. It’s a choice between God and the devil. But, God sometimes in the Bible hears our prayers to minimize those kinds of temptations so that we don’t have to undergo that kind of test. You’ll read about a very interesting example of this in Exodus chapter 13 when the people of Israel left Egypt. You also read about Jesus talking to Peter and James and John in Matthew, chapter 26, verse 40. He said, “Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.” So here the Bible says that Jesus told the disciples to pray that they did not enter into temptation. In other words, don’t wait until the temptation comes and then pray. Pray that you won’t even get to that point because He says, “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” That is Matthew 26:41. And before that, in Luke chapter 22, verse 31 and 32, Jesus told Peter, “Satan has desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.”
Jesus prayed that Simon Peter would not give in to that temptation. So this is a prayer that we need to pray. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” And some translations say the evil one in that passage. So Jesus says, begin your prayer by honoring God: “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” And end your prayer by giving glory and praise to God: “Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.”
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