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Scripture Reading: Matt. 6:5-18; 7:7-8
II. The divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man in the record of the synoptic Gospels concerning the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens, the Slave-Savior in God’s gospel service, and the Man-Savior in God’s salvation:
B. In His supreme teaching on the mount, the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens taught His disciples twice concerning prayer:
1. The first time is in the central part of His supreme teaching, unveiling to His disciples the heavenly vision concerning the prayer that is critical to the kingdom life, with four negative charges as warnings — Matt. 6:5-18:
а. The prayer: “Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (vv. 9-13). This brief but critical prayer covers:
1) The Father’s holy name to be sanctified.
2) The Father’s heavenly kingdom to come.
3) The Father’s divine will to be done on earth as in heaven.
4) The care of the supply of our necessity, our daily bread.
5) The Father’s forgiving of our debts as we have done with our debtors.
6) Not bringing us into temptation but delivering us from the devil, the evil one.
7) Recognizing and praising reverently that the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to the Father forever.
Note: Such a critical prayer surely increases our seeking of the kingdom of the heavens as the Father’s heart’s desire and affords us our need of the divine supply of grace to fulfill all the supreme and strict requirements of the kingdom of the heavens for the Father’s good pleasure.
b. The four negative charges as warnings — vv. 5-8, 14-18:
1) His disciples should not pray as the hypocrites do, loving to make a show publicly that they may be seen by men and receive glory from them according to the lust of their fleshly desire; the disciples should enter into their private room, shutting their door and praying to the Father in the heavens to be seen by Him in secret and repaid by Him — vv. 5-6.
2) Neither should they pray as the Gentiles do, babbling empty words, supposing that in their multiplicity of words they will be heard; the disciples should not do like them, for the Father of the disciples knows the things that they need before they ask Him — vv. 7-8.
3) If His disciples forgive men’s offenses, their heavenly Father will forgive the disciples also; otherwise, their Father will not forgive their offenses. This annuls their prayer to their heavenly Father — vv. 14-15.
4) His disciples should not fast like the sullen-faced hypocrites, disfiguring their faces so that their fast may appear to men. The disciples should fast by anointing their head and washing their face so that their fast may not appear to men but to their Father who is in secret and who sees it and will repay them — vv. 16-18.
2. The second time is in the conclusion of His supreme teaching concerning the kingdom of the heavens, when He promised the seekers of the kingdom of the heavens in Matthew 7:7-8 that they:
а. “Ask [indicating the prayer at a distance] and it shall be given to you.”
b. “Seek [indicating the pursuit of what is prayed for] and you shall find.”
c. “Knock [indicating the reaching of the goal of what is sought] and it shall be opened to you.”
Note: Such a promise assures the seekers of the kingdom of the heavens that they will be given an open door to enter into all the blessings in the kingdom of the heavens.
We want to continue to see the divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man, who was a man of prayer. His mystical human life was a divine realm, and this realm is the kingdom of God. The genuine and proper prayer should always be divine, not just spiritual. This means that the Triune God prays with us and that we pray by living with the Triune God. He is indwelling us and is one with us. The New Testament reveals clearly that the consummated Spirit, the Spirit of God as the life-giving Spirit and the Spirit of Christ, indwells us (Rom. 8:2, 9-11). Second Timothy 4:22 says that the Lord is with our spirit. The consummated God today as the compound life-giving Spirit indwells us. We are human beings, no doubt, but the divine person has been added to us.
For us to be spiritual is inadequate. We have to see that God has made Himself one with us and made us one with Him. Thus, each of us believers is a God-man. In this sense we are God in life and in nature but, of course, not in His Godhead. This is because we have been born of Him to be of His species (John 1:12-13). We are one kind with Him. Based upon this revelation we can see that genuine prayer should be the divine expression. If we pray by ourselves, that is the human expression. If we pray by living with God and moving with Christ, we pray from this person, and our prayers are divine. I feel that this is a new revelation to us in these days.
Only a divine person could pray, “Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified” (Matt. 6:9). A divine, human person is a mystery. He is altogether mystical. There is a realm in this universe that is divine and mystical. The worldly people do not know this realm. They are in the physical, fallen, sinful, evil world. But we have been separated from being common; we have been sanctified and separated unto our God, who is holy. Now we are in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit.
Matthew’s record is concerning the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens. We have seen the divine fact of His fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. Now we want to see His supreme teaching on the mount concerning prayer. Many Bible scholars call this the Sermon on the Mount, but I do not like the word sermon. Instead, I use the term supreme teaching. No teaching in human history is higher than this one. In His supreme teaching on the mount, the first God-man as the King-Savior in the kingdom of the heavens taught His disciples twice concerning prayer. The first time was in the middle of the supreme teaching, and the second time concluded His supreme teaching.
Many so-called churches today recite the prayer that the Lord taught us to pray in Matthew 6 (vv. 5-18), but most do not understand the real significance of what they are reciting. This prayer is critical to the kingdom life, a life that lives in the kingdom of the heavens. This one prayer also is accompanied by four negative charges as warnings.
The prayer is as follows: “Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (vv. 9-13). The praying ones must be children of God, born of God, so they have the authority, the right, to call God their Father. We cannot call a person our father if we are not born of him. We have a Father in the heavens who has begotten us. This brief but critical prayer covers a number of crucial items.
To be sanctified means to be separated and distinct from all that is common. On the fallen earth there are many false gods. The worldly people consider our God as being in common with those gods. If we pray for our Father’s name to be sanctified, we should not just utter this with our words. For His name to be sanctified, we should express Him in our living. We must live a sanctified life, a daily life separated from being common. To pray such a prayer requires us to be sanctified persons, those who are separated from being common. We should be distinct, separate, from all the people around us. In other words, we should be holy. As sanctified people, we should pray, “Our Father, Your name be sanctified.”
Today the world is not God’s kingdom but His enemy’s kingdom. This is why the Bible says that Satan is the ruler of today’s world (John 12:31). In Satan’s kingdom, the world, there is no righteousness, no peace, and no joy. Romans 14:17 says that the reality of the kingdom life is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. In Satan’s kingdom today, there is no joy, because there is no peace. In the United Nations, peace is talked about all the time, but there is no peace, because there is no righteousness. Peace is the issue of righteousness. In his second Epistle, Peter says that the unique thing that dwells in the new heavens and new earth is righteousness (3:13). In the coming kingdom, the millennium, the primary thing will be righteousness. There is no righteousness in today’s world, because this is the kingdom of Satan, the evil ruler.
Today Satan’s will is being done on the earth through evil men. Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin tried to carry out his will along with most of the rulers on this earth today. Thank the Lord that Satan’s will is not fully carried out. Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were destroyed. Napoleon wanted his will to be done, but he did not succeed. We need to pray for the Father’s divine will to be done on earth as in heaven. This is to bring the heavenly ruling, the kingdom of the heavens, to the earth. Then the Father’s will surely will be done on the earth.
These three things — the name, the kingdom, and the will — are the attributes of the one Triune God. The name is of the Father, because the Father is the source; the kingdom is of the Son, and the will is of the Spirit. To pray in this way is to pray that the Triune God will be prevailing on the earth as He is prevailing in the heavens.
In His prayer the Lord covered our daily necessity. He taught us to pray for our bread only for one day. We are to ask our Father to give us today, not tomorrow or next month, our daily bread. He does not want His people to worry about tomorrow. He wants them to pray only for today’s needs. When I was younger, we co-workers in China sometimes came to the end of our material supply, and we did not know how we would live the next day. Something always came to meet our need for that day. The Lord is faithful to take care of the supply of our daily necessity.
In the Lord’s prayer we see that we need to take care of our relationship with others. As we ask the Father to forgive us our debts, we should forgive our debtors. We are in debt with God, and we also have debtors who owe us something. To maintain a peaceful relationship with others, we have to forgive them. Thus, we have to clear up any separating factors between us and God and between us and others.
Sometimes our God, who is faithful and who takes care of us, brings us into a situation of temptation to test us as the Spirit of God did the Lord Jesus (Matt. 4:1). But because we know our weakness, we should pray, “Do not bring us into temptation.” This indicates our knowledge of our weakness. To pray for deliverance from the evil one is to deal with Satan. The Lord’s prayer takes care of the Triune God, of our daily necessity, of our relationship with God and with others, and also of Satan.
The prayer to the Father concludes in this way: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (6:13). Here is the realization and praise of God’s kingdom, power, and glory. This also refers to the Triune God. The kingdom is of the Son, which is the realm in which God exercises His power. The power is of the Spirit, which carries out God’s intention so that the Father can express His glory. This indicates that the prayer that the Lord taught us to pray begins with the Triune God, in the sequence of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and ends also with the Triune God, but in the sequence of the Son, the Spirit, and the Father. Thus, the prayer taught by the Lord in His supreme teaching begins with God the Father and ends also with God the Father. God the Father is both the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.
Such a critical prayer surely increases our seeking of the kingdom of the heavens as the Father’s heart’s desire and affords us our need of the divine supply of grace to fulfill all the supreme and strict requirements of the kingdom of the heavens for the Father’s good pleasure. On the one hand, we are seeking for something according to the Father’s heart’s desire. On the other hand, we have the supply to fulfill something for the Father’s good pleasure.
The Lord warned His disciples not to pray as the hypocrites do with a mask. They love to make a show publicly that they may be seen by men and receive glory from them according to the lust of their fleshly desire. Instead, the disciples should enter into their private room, shutting their door and praying to the Father in the heavens to be seen by Him in secret and repaid by Him (vv. 5-6). We have to learn to be secret persons. We should pray in our private place to be seen by the Father in secret, not by others for an outward public display. If we pray properly, God will repay us as a reward. The hypocrites have received their reward already, but we want to receive our God’s repayment.
The disciples should not pray as the Gentiles do, babbling empty words, supposing that in their multiplicity of words they will be heard. This is because the Father of the disciples knows the things that they need before they ask Him (vv. 7-8). Some have accused us by saying that our pray-reading of the Word is repetitious, but pray-reading is spiritual breathing. Breathing is always repetitious. If we do not repeat our breathing, we will die.
If His disciples forgive men’s offenses, their heavenly Father will forgive the disciples also; otherwise, their Father will not forgive their offenses. This annuls their prayer to their heavenly Father (vv. 14-15).
His disciples should not fast like the sullen-faced hypocrites, disfiguring their faces so that their fast may appear to men. The disciples should fast by anointing their head and washing their face so that their fast may not appear to men but to their Father who is in secret and who sees it and will repay them (vv. 16-18).
Now we want to consider the second time the Lord taught the disciples concerning prayer in His supreme teaching on the mount. The second time is in the conclusion of His supreme teaching concerning the kingdom of the heavens, when He made a promise to the seekers of the kingdom of the heavens in Matthew 7:7-8. The Lord said, “Ask [indicating the prayer at a distance] and it shall be given to you; seek [indicating the pursuit of what is prayed for] and you shall find; knock [indicating the reaching of the goal of what is sought] and it shall be opened to you.” Such a promise assures the seekers of the kingdom of the heavens that they will be given an open door to enter into all the blessings in the kingdom of the heavens.
When we read the supreme teaching of the Lord on the mount recorded in Matthew 5—7, we may be disappointed and think that we cannot make it because of the supreme, strict requirements. So at the conclusion, there is a prayer that is actually a promise. The Lord promised us that if we ask, we will receive; if we seek, we will find; and if we knock, it will be opened to us. If we ask, seek, and knock, we will enter into all the blessings in the kingdom of the heavens for our supreme and strict kingdom life. This promise affords us the grace that we need to fulfill the supreme and strict requirements. The door will be opened wide for us to enter into all the blessings of the kingdom of the heavens.
