Date of message: 11 December 2002
Subject: The Family Prayer - "Our Father"
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
Very soon we will be reaching the end of yet another year and we will
be thinking of what we had received from the Lord and counting our blessings
from Him. Indeed, this year had been a good and very blessed year for
my family and I believe it is the same for many of you my friends. I know
this year will be a year of good endings. Believe the Lord that He will
prosper you in time before the year is out.
Over the next few weeks, the Lord wants me to share with you some thoughts
on the Family Prayer ( or as most people would know it as The Lord's Prayer
). I am not calling it 'The Lord's Prayer' because this prayer was taught
to His disciples when they approached Him to teach them how to pray and
because the prayer concentrated a lot on the family, therefore I choose
to label this prayer as the Family Prayer instead ( this is only my personal
choice ). The real Lord's Prayer, I believe, is found in John 17 when
Jesus our Lord knelt in the Garden of Gethsemene and prayed for the unity
of the church.
This week I have chosen to concentrate on just the way we address God
when we pray. It is interesting the way Jesus, without hesitation, jumped
right in and started to teach His disciples and it is amazing how He wanted
to personalize the relationship that He wants each of us to share with
God the Father.
"Our"
Jesus chose the personal pronoun and He used the plural sense of first
person "I". He did not use the pronoun "you" because
He wanted us to own the relationship for ourselves. Next He wanted us
to possess the relationship for ourselves and therefore the "our"
pronoun was used. In addition, Jesus did not use the pronoun "it"
as the relationship is meant to be a living one. Interestingly the Lord
Jesus did not say "my" to address the Father. No, He wanted
us to know right from the start that the relationship is meant to be a
corporate relationship. I do not exist on my own; neither do you. We all
need each other and together we make up a family. Oh how I love the personal
pronoun "our"; it makes our relationship so much more meaningful.
"Father"
All family relationships must start with a father without whom there will
be no family. Of all the names that had been used to describe God, our
Lord Jesus came to introduce to us the most appropriate and intimate Name
that can be found - "Father". The names used in the Old Testament
could only describe the Lord from a distance and each name had its own
identity. But when Jesus came to introduce the Father to us, He not only
reveal Who the Father really is but also He showed us why the Father did
what He did because of His deep love for us. Jesus made a very profound
statement when He told His disciples in John 14: 9 - 11. Anyone who has
seen Jesus will have seen the Father because they are one.
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have
not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can
you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The
words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the
Father who dwells in Me does the works.
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe
Me for the sake of the works themselves.
What Jesus was saying to Philip was that he would have known what God
the Father is like by just looking at Jesus. He was full of compassion;
not one sick person who turned to Him was sent away not being healed of
their sicknesses and diseases. When He attended funeral wakes, He turned
these sad occasions around but raising the dead to life. Though He was
tired, yet when the Samaritan woman came to draw water at twelve noon
so as to avoid the village chatter, He ministered to her and changed her
life around. He multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed five thousand
men ( besides the women and children ). Many times, His disciples tried
to turn parents with children away from Him but He never rejected them.
He always had a special place for the children in His heart.
When we believed on the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and received
Him into our hearts, we immediately were accepted into His Kingdom as
a royal child and a priest so that we can have direct access to the Father
who is on the throne. Many of Jesus' parables were told using the family
as the setting. I could think of the parable of the prodigal son ( see
Luke 15: 11 - 32 ) and the parable of the vineyard owner who had two sons
( read Matthew 21: 28 - 31 ). The first son initially refused to work
in his father's vineyard but eventually repented and went to work for
his Father. What a beautiful relationship we have in Jesus and in the
Father.
Jesus showed us the Father in all His beauty. I believe it is so because
only when we understand that the Father is always supply-oriented can
we really grasp what a great Lord we have in Him. Of course the devil
would not want us to understand this great truth; he would rather than
we think and picture God as a demanding God who is reluctant to grant
us what we need and a God who exacts punishment on those who breaks His
laws. This can never be further from the truth. Our Lord God is indeed
a loving Father, ever willing to run towards us if only we would repent
and turn towards Him. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son,
He would be scouring the horizon every moment looking lovingly out for
us to turn around and then He will run towards us, embrace us and restores
us to our positions as children of the Most High God ( El Elyon ).
So when Jesus used the phrase "Our Father", He meant us to take
on the Lord as our own Father in heaven in a corporate sense and to enjoy
His presence amongst us. He wants us as family to embrace each other with
love. As He loves us, so we need to love one another as members of His
great and awesome family. In fact Paul pointed out (in Ephesians 1: 13
- 14) that the Holy Spirit was given to each one of us when we believed
Jesus and received Him into our hearts. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit
and He is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the
purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Someone once asked a dear sister in the Lord why there were so many different
types of churches in the world. This sister replied that there are many
different types of churches and she likened the variety of churches to
the variety of ice cream. Just like there are many different flavours
to ice cream, there are various ways of worshipping the Lord. Some churches
are great in worship while some are strong in the Word of God. Still there
are some who would be solid in their prayer walk. If we only would understand
that there are numerous giftings in the churches and learn to work with
these gifts, the church would be able to move on and achieve much. Indeed,
when we pray, "our Father", please remember that, as there are
numerous members in the body, so there are numerous ways of worshipping
the Lord and working out our salvation in the Lord.
My friend, have you made God your Father? It is indeed a great privilege
to be counted as His children and to enjoy His blessings on your life.
Why not take a few moments and pray this prayer and receive the Lord Jesus
Christ into your life.
Our Heavenly Father, our daddy God, thank you for the privilege to be
counted as Your children when we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Thank you that You loved us so much that even when we were still sinners,
You sent Your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, down into this world
to die for all our sins.
Lord Jesus, thank you that You came, You obeyed the Father, You died for
all on the cross, You conquered death and You rose again on the third
day. And now, because of Your death and resurrection, we, who believe
in You as our Lord and Saviour, will no longer have to die but we receive
Your eternal life. Come into my heart, I pray, and make my heart Your
home.
Thank you that because of what You have accomplished for us on the cross,
I am now a child of God the Father. I am eternally forgiven of all my
sins, greatly blessed as Your child, highly favoured as a joint-heir with
Jesus, deeply loved because of my position in Jesus and completely protected
because of You, Lord Jesus and in Your precious Name I pray.
Amen.
If you have prayed that prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family
of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important
that you are not alone facing your personal trials but that you can obtain
good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your own local
Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together? You will
be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father, for
fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all
your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 - 26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
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