The Address of the Lord's Prayer.
I. This name by which we are commanded to call upon God is one of the most remarkable things in the whole prayer. There are the seeds of it, indeed, in the Old Testament, just as there are seeds of the other truths of the Gospel. Yet, even in those passages of the Old Testament, in which God bears that name, it is rather as the Father of the Jewish people. To fix upon that tender name, to choose it out from all God's other greater titles, and to appoint it as the special name by which Almighty God is to be addressed by all His sinful creatures, this was Christ's doing; this privilege we owe to Him.
II. Every privilege has its corresponding duty. Every gift is a talent and a trust, for which we are to make God a return. Let us consider, therefore, what duties the privilege, which Christ has bought for us, of calling God our Father brings with it. (1) The first and chief duty is the behaving to Him as children should behave to their father. If we are aware how great a privilege it is to call God Father, let us prove our sense of it by using it diligently. You need not be afraid of using it too often. Pray as often as ever you will; you cannot weary God with your petitions. To the prayer of the dutiful and godly heart His ear is ever open. (2) The knowledge that our Father is in heaven, and can do whatsoever He pleases, should fill us with faith and a courageous trust in Him. Moreover it should raise our thoughts to heaven, and lead us to think of it and to love it as our home. Though we have never seen heaven, yet we know enough of it from Scripture to enable us to think of it, till our hearts kindle at the thought into an active desire of going thither. We know that heaven is our home, the place we ought to be journeying to, the city of our destination, where our happiness is to consist in seeing our Father, and gazing on Him till we become like Him.
A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 396.
I. The form of address, "Our Father," is remarkable, because it was not the ordinary form of address before Christ came. The idea of a Father is not put forward in the Old Testament as the great all-comprehending idea of God, as it is in the New Testament. For I consider that this is emphatically the character under which God is revealed to us through Christ, namely, that of a Father. Consider (1) what is the meaning and extent of the privilege. We poof sinners, fallen from our first estate, can have no right to call God our Father. Yet our Saviour, when He taught us to pray, bade us say, "Our Father, which art in heaven." Therefore we may come as children, for Christ has given us leave; and I conclude from this permission that the chasm between God and us has been bridged over, that the wound of sin has been healed, that forgiveness of sin is possible, even from a just and jealous God. (2) The way in which we become possessed of this privilege. It was through the sufferings and death of Christ. When, therefore, you use the words of the Lord's Prayer, and say "Our Father," bear in mind how it has come about that you have been permitted to use these words; by using them you claim the benefits of Christ's Passion, you address God by a name which Christ, who taught you to use it, purchased with His own blood.
II. "Which art in heaven." The intention of these words is: (1) To impress upon our minds the exceeding majesty of God, and our own smallness as compared with Him; (2) to remind us of God's power, that we are praying to Him who is able to grant our requests, because He is the great God who governs all things, who by His words created the heavens, and who, by His power, sustains all things which He has made.
III. The address of the Lord's Prayer is to ourFather. Thus the prayer is to the Father, not of me or you only, but of all Christian people; and so the Lord's Prayer is a witness to the communion which ought to exist between the members of the Christian Church. Thus the Lord's Prayer brings before us our position as members of a body: it is the voice of a member of the Church, of one bound to his fellows by infinite mysterious ties, of one praying not for himself alone, but bearing upon his heart before God all those who are members of the same mystical body with himself.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,p. 19.
He is the best man, the most holy man, the most Christian man, who can use, with the greatest earnestness, these words. For he who would forsake sin and follow holiness, and who would avoid hell and obtain heaven, must have something higher before his eyes than merely his own advantage. The great all-sufficient motive with the full-grown Christian is the glory of God. It is the highest wisdom, as it is the most Christian act, to pray, first of all, that the Name of God may be honoured as it ought to be honoured, and hallowed in the hearts and lives of all men.
I. Think first of the Name of God. The Name of God is spoken of in the Old Testament in a manner calculated to excite the very deepest awe, and the most intense fear of polluting it. As in the case of the Israelites so in all others, the honour of His own most holy Name is the end of all the works of God. And as the glory of God is the guide of His own acts, so that same glory ought to be the end of all that His creatures do; whether they be angels or men, all who have gift of an intelligent soul are bound to make the glory of God the end of all they do.
II. Consider how a person ought to act who wishes to live up to His prayer, that God's Name may be hallowed. (1) A man does not hallow the Name of God who does not speak of Him most reverently. (2) The man who could hallow the Name of God should be very diligent in publicly worshipping Him; he who is diligent in attending on the public worship of God thereby honours God Himself. (3) Every man who would hallow the Name of God should so manage his whole walk in life, so conduct himself in business, in his work, in whatever he has to do, that it may be clear to all men that the honour of God is the rule of His actions. Christ our Lord said that His disciples ought so to act that men should see their good works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,p. 37.
I. What is this kingdom of which, in the Lord's Prayer, we pray that it may come? The kingdom which John the Baptist spoke of as being at hand implied a great change in God's government of the world, somewhat in accordance with those words of St. Paul, when he says, speaking of heathen times, "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." I should conceive, therefore, that, in one sense, the kingdom of God came upon earth with the coming of Christ, because with His coming a new order of things, in some measure, began. God began to show His power, and to influence the world by His Spirit more than He had before.
II. The kingdom of God may also mean the progress of the Church in the world. There is sufficient reason why we should still pray as of old, "Thy kingdom come;" there are, indeed, vast portions of the earth which are not even professedly members of the kingdom. And there are other gods who have part in Christ's kingdom in this Christian land, and who have a strong hold on these subjects, the flesh, the devil, covetousness, pride, sloth, intemperance. We have yet need to pray that amongst us the Kingdom of God may come.
III. A man who prays that the kingdom of God may come, prays and if he prays he ought to have it in his heart to wish that all men and all things may be governed by the laws of Christ, that everything contrary to the spirit of the Gospel may be banished from the world, that all bitterness, malice, evil-speaking, lying, slandering, may be utterly abolished, that all loving of pleasure, rather than loving of God, may be a thing unknown, that all worship of mammon that is, pursuit of gain only for gain's sake, may cease, that the Cross of Christ may be in reality the standard by which men measure all things else, that all things in this world may be judged of, not by any partial distorted standard of our own, but by rules such as Christ would approve. The coming of Christ's kingdom implies all this, and a man is not honest who prays for the coming of that kingdom, and is not ready to accept such a result as this, as the answer to his prayers.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,p. 55.
I. How is God's will done in heaven? (1) God's will is in heaven done willingly or heartily; that is, His servants there obey Him and do His will, not because they are commanded to do this and that, and darenot disobey, but because they do not wish to disobey; it is their happiness to do God's will, it is because they do it that they are happy, and they would grieve if they might not do it. (2) Again, God's will is done in heaven completely, perfectly; whatever is done is His will throughout, with no mixture of the will of any other; unlike earth, where the very best of things have generally, perhaps always, some mixture of evil. (3) Once more, the doing of the will of God in heaven is not only willing and complete, but it is universal; there is no division between those who serve God and those who serve Him not, because allserve Him.
II. The prayer, "Thy will be done," implies a complete surrender of self to the will of God, a desire to do the will of God, and that the will of God may be done whatever it may cost ourselves; a desire that the honour of God and not self may be the rule of action of all men, ourselves included; that the idols which now are worshipped and which are all in some way images of the great world idol, Self, may be utterly abolished, and that in place of them one God only may be worshipped, and that all (ourselves among them) may think nothing good and great but what tends to His glory, nothing contemptible and mean but what opposes His will, and is displeasing in His sight.
III. If we really desire to do God's will He will enable us to do it. There is no situation in life in which we may not do His will; in the ordinary path of life, in that life of labour to which God has appointed us all, there are abundant opportunities of putting in practice this rule, of doing God's will and not our own, except so far as our own agrees with His, and though it may be difficult to expel all selfish feelings and all rebellious wishes, yet constant efforts will be blessed, and we shall "grow in grace."
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,p. 73.
References: Luke 11:2. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 222; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,pp. 408, 418, 431; W. Wilson, Christ setting His Face to go to Jerusalem,pp. 246, 276; E. Thring, Church of England Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 195; H. N. Grimley, The Prayer of Humanity,pp. 12, 22, 31, 40, 50, 61, 74, 88; C. Stanford, The Lord's Prayer,Philippians 1:29,53,85, 112, 130.