Our Father which art in heaven.
The Divine Father
I. In what sense God is a father.
1. With relation to Christ, as the Son of God: so the first Person is called the Father, as He is the fountain of the Deity.
2. With respect to us: for the first Person is not only the Father of Christ, but our Father. We share with Christ in all His relations: as God was His God by covenant, so He is our God.
II. By creation God is a Father. To establish the relation of a Father, there must be a communication of life and likeness. A painter that makes an image or picture like himself, he is not the father of it; for though there be likeness, yet no life.
III. What advantage have we in prayer from this common interest, or general respect of God’s being a Father by virtue of creation?
1. This common relation binds us to pray to Him. All things which God hath made, by a secret instinct they are carried to God for their supply.
2. It draweth common benefits after it. Christ saith where God hath given a life, He will give food.
3. It giveth us confidence in the power of God. The Creator who made you out of-nothing can keep and preserve life when you have nothing.
IV. How will God Perform the parts of a father?
1. In allowing us full leave to come to Him in all our necessities.
2. In supplying all our wants (Isaiah 49:16).
3. In pitying our miseries. Many times we forget the duty of children, but God will not forget the mercy of a Father.
4. In disciplining us, and treating us with much indulgence, wisdom, and care. A father takes a great deal of pains in forming his child, fashioning its manners and behaviour: so God doth with His children.
5. In providing able guardians for His children. None so attended as God’s children are. They have a guard of angels to watch over them.
6. In laying up an inheritance for them. (Thomas Manton, D. D.)
Our Father
I. That we should in our prayers consider and acknowledge the universality of God’s power and goodness.
II. That we should not in our conceit proudly and vainly appropriate or engross the regard of God unto ourselves, but remember that our brethren have an equal share with us therein.
III. That in all our devotions we should be mindful of those common bands which knit us together as men and Christians.
(1) The band of nature and humanity;
(2) The more strict ties of common faith and hope; of
(3) manifold relations unto God that made us, and
(4) our Saviour that redeemed us, and the
(5) Holy Spirit that animateth us and combineth us in spiritual union.
IV. That we should bear such hearty goodwill and charitable affection toward others as not only to seek and desire our own private and particular good, but that of all men.
(1) Especially of all good Christians who, in a peculiar manner, are
(2) God’s children and (b) our brethren. (Isaac Barrow, D. D.)
Lessons of the Paternoster
I. The Divine Fatherhood.
II. Christian sonship.
III. Human brotherhood. What great lessons in such little compass. (T. Spencer.)
Our Father which art in heaven
1. In prayer we address One who sustains the relationship of Father to us.
2. In prayer we direct our thoughts to One who is above us.
3. In prayer we confess that we form members of one family.
4. In prayer we depend upon and confide in God as children. (F. Edwards, B. A.)
God a Father
I. The character in which God is represented as approachable in prayer. The common Parent of all men, the bountiful supplier of their wants, His people’s covenant God and Father in Christ.
II. The privilege which this title imports, Relationship, access, protection, direction, expectations.
III. The duty connected with this privilege. To pray to Him, to glorify Him, reverence, trust, submit, love Him, and look for His coming. (Dr. Cope.)
The Invocation
I. The divine fatherhood.
II. The Fatherhood of God by creation.
III. The Fatherhood of God by redemption.
IV. The blessings involved in the Divine Fatherhood.
1. Love.
2. Sustenance.
3. Protection.
4. Education.
5. Discipline.
6. Consolation.
7. Intercourse.
8. Inheritance.
V. Universal brotherhood in the Divine Fatherhood. We pray for others; we share in the prayers of others. This brotherhood extends to the various conditions of social life. It embraces nations. What a bond to our otherwise dissevered humanity is this word “ our.”
VI. The majesty of the Father. These were added that there may not be anything earthly in our conception of the heavenly majesty of God. “In heaven”:-
(1) It is suggestive of dignity;
(2) power;
(3) knowledge;
(4) purity;
(5) mystery;
(6) constancy;
(7) nearness.
VII. Practical lessons:
1. Filial confidence.
2. Reverence.
3. Gratitude.
4. Resemblance.
5. Assurance.
6. Hope.
7. Prayerfulness. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
The Paternity of God
In our nature are quenchless affections. These call for something more than God the Creator, the Ruler.
1. We should recognize that God is our Father, in order that we may have right views of religion.
2. It is important to realize the truth of God’s paternity, because of its consolations.
3. This truth furnishes us with the profoundest motives to obedience. (E. H. Chaplin.)
The invocation
I. From the title father we know that God is a Person.
II. OUR Father belongs to God as the Father of all mankind.
III. God is our Father through Jesus Christ.
IV. In teaching us to pray “Our:Father,” Jesus would remind us of our brotherhood.
1. The fellowship that knits together God’s elect.
2. It is a word of love that takes in all men.
V. Which art in heaven, means Father in perfection.
1. Perfection of love.
2. Perfection of help.
3. Perfection of nearness and observation.
4. Perfection of homeliness. (Dr. Stanford.)
The doctrine of the invocation
1. God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him the Father of all who believe in the Saviour.
2. Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren, Head of the Church, the centre of union. In Him we say “Our Father.”
3. Jesus has opened to us heaven; and, risen with Christ, we seek the things which are above, we pray to our Father in heaven.
4. “We say Our Father, because the Holy Ghost is given unto us, as the Spirit of adoption. (Dr. Saphir.)
The spirit of the invocation
I. The filial spirit.
1. It rests upon the Fatherhood of God as the source of all blessings.
2. It is a childlike spirit, earnest, unsuspicious, submits to discipline in faith.
3. As a spirit of dignity and perfection.
4. A spirit of separation from the world.
II. The brotherly spirit.
III. The heavenly spirit. All spiritual blessings are treasured up for us in :heaven. Our storehouse can never fail. (Dr. Saphir.)
In heaven
1. Power.
2. Authority.
3. Omnipresence.
4. Wisdom unsearchable.
5. Mercy unspeakable. (Downame.)
Our Father
1. A revelation.
2. When faith says “Father,” love says “Our.”
3. Contrast between earth and heaven.
4. We can speak to our Father in heaven, and yet be audible. (Dr. C. J. Vaughan.)
The opening address
I. The views here furnished of the character of God.
1. The title “Father” belongs to God essentially: as part of His nature He must be the Parent of all being. We are indebted to Him not only for life, but for likeness; He made ’us partakers of a spiritual nature.
II. The affections and emotions these views of the Divine character are fitted to inspire.
1. Admiring gratitude.
2. Confidence and trust.
3. Submission.
4. Contentment.
5. Reverent awe.
6. Purity and elevation in our desires.
7. We should remember that our inheritance is “in heaven.” (D. Moore, M. A.)
The filial spirit of the Lord’s Prayer
1. Christ confirms the fact of God’s Paternity.
2. Christ was also the personal and visible representation of the Father.
3. Christ also reveals the Paternal character of God.
4. Christ also revealed the Paternal heart of God.
Father:-
1. It is the language of the believing heart.
2. It is the language of filial love.
3. It is the language of the spirit of adoption in prayer.
4. The filial spirit exhibited not less in times of trial than in seasons of communion. (Dr. O. Winslow.)
“Our Father”
The catholic spirit of the Lord’s Prayer. The Paternal relation involves the fraternal; no engagement so uniting as prayer. Considerations for fraternal union:-
1. The equality of love with which the Father regards all His family.
2. The same spirit of adoption dwells alike in all the children of God.
3. That our Father is bringing us all to one parental and eternal home.
4. This topic belongs essentially to practical Christianity.
5. How uniting this truth upon the family institution. (Dr. O. Winslow.)
“Which art in heaven.” The celestial spirit of the Lord’s Prayer
In ascribing locality to God we must not forget that He is everywhere. How appropriate heaven as the dwelling-place of God.
1. Heaven is a glorious place.
2. It is a holy place.
3. It is a happy place.
4. It is a prepared place.
Practical lessons:
1. We are instructed to look up, the whole soul should be in the ascent.
2. To seek heavenly blessings. (Dr. O. Winslow.)
The Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man
Prayer a most exalted privilege-connected with the richest blessings; but is liable to abuse.
1. Christ admonishes His disciples to avoid the ostentatious formalities of the Pharisees.
2. To avoid the vain tautologies of the heathen.
This is to be our model prayer:-
1. Simplicity.
2. Brevity.
I. The fatherhood of God.
1. By an act of creation.
2. By an act of adoption.
3. God is in heaven.
II. The brotherhood of men.
1. The whole human race constitutes one family. They belong to different classes, climes, ages; all sprung from one Father.
2. All Christians constitute one family. (J. Morgan.)
The Paternal relationship of God to us
1. It confers noble privileges (1 John 3:1; Romans 13:7; Psalms 113:5; 1 Samuel 2:8).
2. Such a name and title we could never have dared to take upon us had not God permitted.
3. This is no barren title (Romans 1:21; Isaiah 49:14-15; Isaiah 63:16).
4. This first word of the Lord’s Prayer is designed to give us access with confidence to God (Ephesians 3:12; Psalms 81:10).
5. This sonship has its duties. (F. C. Blyth, M. A.)
Children worthy of the Divine Father
It is recorded of Alexander the Great that to one who bore his name he gave this admonition, “Remember thy name is Alexander;” implying that such a remembrance would keep him from doing anything that would stain and tarnish, and so render him unworthy to hold it.
The title of Father enables us to understand God
Luther was one day catechising some country people in a village in Saxony. When one of the men had repeated these words, “I believe in God the Father Almighty,” Luther asked him what was the meaning of “Almighty”? The countryman honestly replied, “I do not know.” “Nor do I know,” said the catechist, “nor do all the learned men in the world know; however, you may safely believe that God is your Father, and that He is both able and willing to save and protect yourself and all your neighbours.”
Fatherhood indicative of Personality
You never say Father, to a force; Father, to a law; Father, to a mist; Father, to a mile, nor to infinite millions of miles in a line; “Father “ is not the name for Thought apart from the Thinker, nor for Friendship apart from the Friend; nor for a Link, though the first link in a long chain of grand phenomena. If we mean more than a figurative father, we mean by that word a living Person. (Dr. Stanford.)
The Lord’s Prayer an intercession for others as well as for ourselves
It was a law among the Romans that no one should approach the Emperor’s tent at night, under penalty of death. One night, however, a soldier was found near the royal tent, holding in his hand a petition which he meant to present to his master and thereupon he was sentenced to death. But the Emperor, hearing voices, and asking what was amiss, and hearing that a soldier had intruded within the forbidden bounds to present a petition, and that they were about to deal with him according to the law, said-“If the petition be for himself, let him die; but if for another, spare his life.” It was found that it was for two of his fellow-soldiers that he had come to intercede, who had been taken asleep while they were posted on the watch. The Emperor, well pleased, commanded that he should escape death, and that they also should escape punishment.
The look of the soul ever toward its heavenly home
It is related of Cicero when he was banished from Italy, end of Demosthenes when he was banished from Athens, that they wept every time they looked towards their own country, so great was their love for their fatherland, and so keen their desire to return thither: so should our soul long after our home above.
Which art in heaven
I. The residence of God. Heaven is the seat of His government; the region of holiness and enjoyment; the abode of angels and saints.
II. His stupendous concerns. Arranging all the affairs of the universe; receiving the homage of the celestial inhabitants (Revelation 4:2); issuing His commands and executing His threatenings; attending to the supplication of His people; protecting His Church” (Zechariah 2:5).
III. The influence of the subject upon our mind. Humility, reverence, spiritual desires, confidence, expectation, joy. (Dr. Cope.)
Looking up to God
“in heaven,” showeth us:-
(1) Prayer is an act of the heart, not of the lips. It is not the sound of the voice which can enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts, but sighs and groans of the Spirit … The commerce and communion of spirits is not hindered by local distance.
(2) The work of prayer is to lift up the heart to God; to withdraw the heart from all created things, that we may converse with God “ in heaven.” (Thomas Manton, D. D.)
Which art in heaven
I. Our Saviour, to oppose narrowness of opinion, requires us to pray to our Father which art in heaven, showing by this, that our petitions have equal access to Him from all places.
II. This acknowledgment of our Father in heaven, shows His great kindness in suffering us to approach Him. Though distant in station, and unprofitable in our service.
III. By calling God our Father we express the greatness of those blessings we have received; and by professing this our Father to be in heaven, we own the great dignity of the person that hath conferred them upon us; and the sense of both these together will naturally prepare our hope, reverence, and attention, to send up the following prayer. (Thomas Mangey.)
Hallowed be Thy name.-
How and when may God’s name be sanctified?-
(1) Upon us, by the righteous executions and judgments of His providence;
(2) By us, in our thoughts, words, and actions; in our hearts, and life. Not only when we speak of the name of God, but when we think of it;
(3) When in straits, difficulties, and dangers;
(4) When we speak of the Lord with reverence;
(5) In our actions;
(6) In our worship;
(7) In ordinary conversation. Let this be your care, and let these be your directions in hallowing and sanctifying the Lord’s name.
1. Be holy.
2. Study His name if ye would sanctify it.
3. Submit to His providence without murmuring.
4. Live to public ends. Allure others, and recommend God to them.
5. Be fully sensible when God’s name is dishonoured by yourselves and others; not enduring the least profanation of it. (Thomas Manton, D. D.)
Hallowed be Thy name
As to the substance of this particular, we may consider, that sanctity implying-
I. A Discrimination;
II. A distance;
III. An exaltment in nature or use of the thing which is denominated thereby. (Isaac Barrow, D. D.)
The Sanctification of Jehovah’s name
I. The objects of the petition. The name of God denotes His titles, perfections, etc. To hallow His name denotes-A reverential acknowledgment of God; profound veneration for His Being, attributes, ordinances, word, etc.; sanctification of Him in thought, word, and action; the diffusion of His name through the world; removal of the causes which prevent His name from being hallowed.
II. The sins deprecated. A thoughtless and irreverent use of His name; appeals to God in common conversation; perjury.
III. The grounds on which this petition rests. God is jealous of the glory of His name; He has commanded it to be reverenced; punishment is annexed to a violation of that command. (Dr. Cope.)
Hallowed be Thy name
1. This prayer is a confession of our ignorance.
2. It is a supplication for knowledge.
3. It is an acknowledgment of our sin.
4. It is an entreaty for holiness in ourselves.
5. It ought to be increasingly comprehensive. (F. Edwards, B. A.)
The first petition
I. The place of this petition.
II. The meaning of the petition.
III. What is involved in this petition.
1. Honour to Jesus, as revealing the name of the Father.
2. Appropriate thoughts of God.
3. Suitable emotions towards God.
4. Reverential use of the name.
5. Confession of the name.
6. Private and public worship of the name.
7. Observance of special institutions: sacraments.
8. Subjection to the name.
9. Making known the name.
IV. Reasons for offering this petition.
1. The welfare of the world.
2. For the good of ourselves.
3. For the glory of God. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
The first petition
I. What do we mean by the name of the father.
1. His name is the expression of Himself through the language of nature.
2. It includes the further expression of Himself through the medium of inspired words.
3. His name is perfectly expressed in the language of the Incarnation.
II. How can we hallow it?
1. In the language of the Old Testament to hallow a thing is to set it apart ceremonially, as a thing sacred.
2. Hallowed be Thy name by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in us.
3. By our trust.
4. In the spirit of our prayers.
5. In our lives.
6. In our language.
7. In Thy Church by the ascription to Thee alone of honours due.
8. In the overthrow of idolatry. (Dr. Stanford.)
Hallowed be Thy name
I. In breathing this prayer we ask that God would hallow his own name, or cause it to be hallowed. It is not the tribute which we pay to mere power and magnitude. Nature appears in forms of greatness; we do not reverence her. Nor do we reverence mere kindness. A full knowledge of God is necessary in order to hallow His name. To avoid superstition. Terror is not reverence. Some view the Divine Being as too good-natured to punish; the guilt of sin is not felt. By this theory God’s name is acknowledged, but not hallowed.
II. We can also pray that we and all men may hallow the name of God. We should consecrate His name-
1. On our lips.
2. In our lives.
3. In our hearts. (E. H. Chaplin.)
The fundamental petition
I. What is meant by the name of God? God has revealed His name-
1. In creation.
2. In Israel.
3. In His Law.
4. In the sacrifices.
5. In the names of His servants. Elijah means, Jehovah is my strength.
6. In the face of Jesus.
II. Halllowed be Thy name. All the works of God glorify His name. The petition implies-
(1) The desire to know God’s name;
(2) To treat it as a reality;
(3) To rejoice in it;
(4) To separate it from our corrupt thoughts and desires;
(5) To regard it as inviolable in its unity;
(6) That we be manifestations of God.
(7) This prayer is universal; there is no health for the nation or family but by the knowledge of God’s name. (Dr. Saphir.)
The reverential spirit of the Lord’s prayer
This petition takes precedence in the Lord’s prayer: all things must resolve themselves into a manifestation of the Divine glory.
1. God’s name is Holy (Leviticus 22:2).
2. He is jealous of it (Ezekiel 39:25).
3. God notices the hallowing of His name by His people (Matthew 2:5).
4. God has hallowed His own name
(1) in His revealed word;
(2) in the Lord Jesus Christ;
(3) in His dealings with His saints. How is God’s name to be hallowed?
We cannot make it more holy, yet may hallow it
(1) By a deepening sense of its holiness;
(2) By bringing it into the daily exercise of faith;
(3) By a meek, submissive spirit, under the discipline of our Father’s correcting hand;
(4) By a full trust in the name, Person, work of Jesus. (Dr. O. Winslow.)
The first petition
This prayer directory for the matter and order of our desires.
I. What we should include in this prayer.
1. Just and worthy apprehensions of the Divine character and attributes.
2. That fresh accessions of glory may be constantly accruing to that name from the Person and work of Christ.
3. That in everything which pertains to God, due regard may be had to the sanctities of His holy nature.
4. To emphasize the utterance of the sacred name by some act of mental worship.
5. A reverent observance of His ordinances.
II. What we may learn from this petition.
1. That in all our prayers, regard must be had to certain fixed principles of moral government.
2. The law of subordination according to which we are to frame our desires.
3. He may not allow praise to be given to any other name. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The Holy name
I. The name.
II. The holy name. Who so worthy of honour:
(1) He is the God of Nature;
(2) of Providence;
(3) of Grace;
(4) of Glory.
(5) The redeemed saints in glory honour and venerate Him; the angelic host worship Him.
(6) The other Persons in the adorable Trinity honour Him-“He shall glorify Me.”
III. How can we honour Jesus?
1. By giving Him the first place in our thoughts and affections.
2. By a reverential use of all the appellations by which He is distinguished from all other beings.
3. By solemn and grateful acts of worship.
4. By keeping holy the Sabbath day.
5. By living holily before our fellow men.
6. By praising, and recommending Him to all who dwell around us. (J. Morgan.)