Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on giving, praying and the Lords Prayer

The Christian religion can be summarised in this way. God, the Creator of the universe, is a Father. And He has always had one child, a Son, who He loves, but He wanted more children to love, so He sent his Son, Jesus, to Earth with an invitation to all of humanity who He had made, come and be adopted into my Father’s family. 

A poet once said ‘The world is an orphanage full of people without a father.’ That’s true. Until you know Jesus Christ as saviour you are a bit of an orphan, you are in a big universe without a Father. But when you know God as Father, then the universe becomes a very different place. It is a cold universe until you know God as your Father, and then it becomes a home. 

I think of the story of the little girl sitting in a railway carriage all by herself and a person saying to her; ‘Aren’t you afraid to be traveling alone?’ She replied ‘Of course not, my daddy’s driving the train.’ This is the feeling that we have as children of a heavenly Father. Aren’t you afraid about this great big universe? Are you afraid of global warming? Aren’t you afraid of Vladimir Putin? Aren’t you afraid of death? No off course not, my Father is directing the universe.

My Father is driving the train.

And this morning we are learning from Jesus, the Son, some things about his heavenly Father and ours. Jesus uses the words ‘your Father’, ‘your Father’, ‘your Father’ so often in this part of his Sermon on the Mount. 

Jesus is telling us about our Father and what He wants from us and what He wants to do for us.

Jesus mentions 3 things in particular- give to the poor. That will please your Father. Speak to him, pray to him, that will please him. And fast sometimes, that too will please him. 

You might be surprised by that third thing. Fasting. But there it is, Jesus assumed his disciples would fast and he tells us how to do it in the right way! 

‘Don’t show off’, he tells us. Don’t show off your piety, your devotion to God. When you give to the poor and needy, don’t blow a trumpet, don’t put it on Facebook. Don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing! In other words do it real privately, so nobody knows about it, not even your close friends or family. So nobody praises you for it. But your Father will see it and reward you for it. You won’t get the reward of being praised by other people for being a generous person, but you will get a reward from your Father who sees what you do in private. 

And when you pray, don’t put on a very holy face and do it publically so everyone around thinks; ‘wow he must be very spiritual’. Just go into private room and pray. That way you are genuinely praying to your Father, not praying so other people will hear. But when you pray, get to the point Jesus says, you don’t need to use many words. Just ask your Father what you need. Don’t try and impress God with lengthy prayers. Use the KISS principle- Keep It Simple Stupid when you pray!

Gordon Bailey once said ‘Can you imagine a little boy who has his thumb jammed in the door saying ‘O father, make haste to help me!’ Using old fashioned words in his cry for help? ‘Dad help!’ he would cry.

Probably most of us want to pray better. Most Christians realise there is more to learn when it comes to prayer and most of us want to be more effective in our praying. Well Jesus gives us some really clear instructions what to pray for and how to pray. 

He gave his disciples a prayer that we call ‘The Lord’s prayer’ or the ‘Our Father’ which is a model prayer for us to pray. And this model prayer tells us a lot about what prayer is and how to do it.

Notice that the Lord’s Prayer is a list of requests. When we pray it, we are asking God for things. 

And Christian prayer is basically speaking to God and asking for things. It’s not meditation, sometimes Christians say a higher form of prayer is meditation, but that’s not what Jesus taught. If you go through everything Jesus said about prayer, 95% of it is asking, 95% of it! To Jesus prayer was talking and asking, not thinking. There is a place of meditation In the Christian life, which is to meditate on God’s word, on the Bible in particular, but Christian prayer is speaking to God and asking things from him.  

Why ask, if God knows what I need already, even before I ask? Why is there a need to pray when God loves me and knows what I need already? 

Let me give you a classic illustration which answers that question. 

There was a famous violinist who had a daughter. She learned the violin too, but not from his father, he learned from another violinist who was not nearly as good as her father. And someone said to the father, why is it that you are not teaching your daughter? Why is she going to a much poorer musician? He replied ‘There is nothing I would like more than to teach my daughter the violin, but I must wait until she asks me. There are things I cannot impart to her till she is ready for them and comes to ask.’ 

Now that is the true relationship of father and child. God knows you need something, but there are things he does not do for you until you are ready to receive them, and you will be ready when you come and ask. Never get the idea that prayer is not asking. 

If we don’t pray, then God will so often, not intervene. God is waiting for our prayers, before he will intervene in a situation. Prayer is vital. 

Most people in this world say their prayers. Prayer is universal in all religions and all parts and cultures of this world. There is nothing specially Christian about praying. But the big difference between Christian prayer and the prayers of people of other religions is that we are praying to someone who we have a father/child relationship with. 

You know I could write a letter to Buckingham palace and ask for an audience with King Charles. I probably wouldn’t get very far. I’m not his son. Probably the King wouldn’t even see the letter, it would only get as far as one of his secretaries. But Prince William or Harry can go right in and speak with the King whenever they want. They are his sons. When you turned to Jesus, you became a son, a daughter of the king of kings. The greatest king. Your prayers come right to God in his throne room because he is your Father. You are praying to someone you are related to, that makes all the difference and it means you will get many answers to your prayers. 

And he is waiting for you to come. He invites you to come. His book, the Bible, invites us to come boldly to his throne. 

The gospel of Luke in the Bible also has the Lord ’s Prayer in it, very similar to Matthew’s gospel and in Luke’s version Jesus says to his disciples; “When you pray, say’

‘When you pray, say.’ 

Here is a question for you- Do you think your prayers in your head or do you speak out loud your prayers? 

Here is a tip! If you struggle with praying when you are on your own, and your thoughts wander off the subject all the time or your thoughts go round and round, then stop thinking your prayers but speak out your prayers. Say them out loud. It’s easier to keep your prayers focused when you are actually speaking them out, rather than just thinking them. That’s my advice.

But the Lord ’s Prayer is prayer that is designed for group prayer. It’s designed for a group of Christians to pray, it’s for the church when it comes together, for small groups. Yes you can pray the Lord’s prayer on your own, and its good to pray it on your own, but Jesus tells us to pray ‘our Father’, ‘give us today our daily bread’. He didn’t say ‘my Father who art in heaven’, ‘give me today my daily bread’, ‘forgive me my sins’. 

And in the morning service we pray it every week, every Sunday morning and we know if off by heart. In my family growing up, my mother taught the four of us children to pray it before each evening meal, a different one of us each day. So we learned it early. 

Not that I really understood it, I have to say! I didn’t really know much of what I was praying! But it was good that we at least learned it when we were children. Parents, that’s a good one for your children, teach them the Lord’s Prayer- it will stick with them all their life. 

I heard a testimony of a man who was dying in an ambulance after being stung by a poisonous jellyfish and he became a Christian in the back of that ambulance. He was fighting to keep conscious in that ambulance and he thought he was going to die. And in that moment he remembered the words of the Lord ’s Prayer that his mother had taught him as a child- and he turned to the Lord through the words of the Lord’s prayer. He asked God to forgive him his sins as the prayer says and he forgave those who had hurt him and he became a Christian there and then. He recovered and he came to a church in Edinburgh once to share his testimony and I heard it. He converted because of the memory of that Lord’s prayer that his mother had taught him as a child.  

Now we can be quite selfish when we pray and we can focus on our own needs. God wants us to pray for our own needs, but here Jesus is teaching us to begin by praying not for what we want but for what God wants. The Lord ’s Prayer begins with several requests for what God wants and then it ends for several things that we want or need. 

You know, we should be praying for what God wants to see done before we start praying for what we want.

The Lord ’s Prayer beings;

‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.’

‘Hallowed be your name,’ that is a request that God would make his name respected. That people would see God as being really holy, really exalted, and really hallowed. It’s also really saying that his name is holy and exalted. So it’s also an expression of praise. 

Then the prayer goes ‘may your kingdom come’. 

What does that mean? What is the kingdom of God?

Well the next line tells us;

‘May your will be done on Earth as in heaven.’

The kingdom of God is where God’s will is done on Earth just like it is being done in heaven.

In heaven, God’s will is being perfectly done. But here on Earth there are lots of things happening which God doesn’t will, he doesn’t want. So the Kingdom of God is God’s will being done here on Earth in the same way that it is being perfectly done up there in heaven.

What does the kingdom of God look like? Well it looks like Jesus ministry – Jesus is God’s king and when he came to Earth he brought the kingdom. He brought his rule and reign. And wherever Jesus went- he healed people by the power of the Holy Spirit and he cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit. He set people free by the power of the Holy Spirit. There was rejoicing and great joy! It was the kingdom of God breaking forth into our world finally!

Jesus said ‘But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.’

Actually wherever the Holy Spirit is moving, there is the kingdom of God. And boy was the Holy Spirit moving in Jesus’ earthly ministry!

Paul said ‘the kingdom of God is …righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ Romans 14:17

Wherever you saw Jesus in his 3 years of ministry, you saw righteousness, you saw peace and your saw joy, great rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. King Jesus was bringing his kingdom to Earth. The joy of heaven, the peace of heaven the right living of heaven was coming to Earth.

The freedom of heaven was coming to earth. 

The kingdom of heaven is God’s will being done on earth as in heaven. Its heaven coming to earth as Jesus rules and reigns and overcomes Satan. 

Satan is ruling in this world, that is why there is so much evil and sin and lack of peace and lack of joy, but the kingdom of God is now able to break through because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Well, you might be thinking; ‘I thought God was already ruling in this world. You started your sermon Duncan by saying that God is in charge, our heavenly Father is driving the train.’ 

Well yes God is in ultimate charge, but because humanity turned away from God in rebellion and didn’t want to be his children and instead have chosen to turn to evil, Satan has been given great authority in this world. 

We are living in a world where there are two kingdoms or two rulers in conflict. The kingdom or rule of Satan and the kingdom or rule of Jesus. And the Lord ’s Prayer shows us that we have a role to play in praying that Jesus’ kingdom comes. 

One day, Jesus is going to come physically to earth and he will rule and reign on planet earth and finally and totally defeat Satan and his kingdom will fully come. So we are praying for that ultimate victory of the kingdom. But even before then the Kingdom of God comes in different ways. For example: 

When David came to the front of the church last year and we prayed for his sore knee and the pain went. That was the kingdom of God coming upon David’s knee! The rule of Jesus through his Holy Spirit overcame the pain and the injury. 

When you are tempted to be dishonest in your tax returns but the Holy Spirit taps you on your shoulder and you decide to do the right thing. That is you submitting the kingship of Jesus. That is the kingdom of God breaking through in your life.

When you’re relative in Hong Kong who you have been praying for years, starts going to church, that is the kingdom of God in operation. Jesus is pulling him or her through his Spirit. 

Jesus said the kingdom of God is amongst us already. Where the Power of the Holy Spirit is moving, there is the kingdom of God. 

And so Jesus taught us to pray for the kingdom to come. And so we should bring that into our prayers as individuals and as a congregation. Pray it for Corstorphine, pray for the kingdom to come to Edinburgh, pray for God’s will to be done in Hong Kong as in heaven. Pray down the kingdom!

So the first requests in the Lord ’s Prayer are for God’s priorities to happen. For his name to be honoured, for people to submit to his kingship and for the blessings of his kingdom to be experienced in this world. They are his priorities.

The second half of the Lord ’s Prayer are requests for what we need. 

Give us this day our daily bread. Not give me my daily bread, but give all of us everyone in our church, in our cell group, our daily bread, our food for the next 24 hours. In Jesus’ day, food was a problem. In our culture we tend to not to need to worry about food, we have fridges and freezers stuffed with it and Morrisons supermarket just down the road if we run out. But we have other practical needs and Jesus is saying that we are to pray for our practical needs. 

There was a dear old lady in the Shetland Islands who lived in a little croft house that had a downstairs room, and an attic loft where she slept on a mattress on the floor. There was a vertical ladder up the wall to the upper room. She was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and the next door neighbour used to pop in occasionally at night. One night she was there when the old lady went to bed. She saw her go to the foot of the ladder and get hold of it, then stop, put her head down and close her eyes. 

The neighbour asked ‘What on earth are you doing? Are you alright?’ 

She replied, ‘I’m just asking the Lord to help me upstairs.’ 

The neighbour said, ‘Well you don’t think God’s bothered about you getting up a ladder, do you?’

The old lady then said a profound thing. ‘If he could not help me in little things, I would not trust him for the big things. If he could not help me in earthy things, I couldn’t trust him for heavenly things.’

Now she had a profound understanding. There is no detail of our life too small, too practical to be outside of God’s concern. If we have a real need, it does not matter what that need is, we can bring it to God in prayer. 

Do you pray when you lose your house keys, your phone? Do you pray when you need a parking space? Involve God in these things.

We should pray for one another if we know others in the church are struggling with paying their bills, their rent whatever. Give us this day our daily bread, what we need.

I discovered that there is a lot to say about this little prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. It’s a small prayer, but very help. We will finish looking at it next time I’m on to preach. But in the mean time, I’d recommend us praying it, on our own and in our cell groups. And applying the principles in it to our prayers generally. 

But lets pray it now together, in English or in Cantonese

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.