October 27, 2024
What a Disciple Must Understand
Matthew 6:12-13
We live and operate much of our lives with a limited understanding of what is really going on around us. When we were children, we had to trust our parents in these situations, but things could still be scary. Take for example when you had your first haircut you didn’t understand why a stranger was coming at your face with sharp scissors that you had been told not to play with. Many times you were terrified, so you had to listen to what your parents told you at that moment. They would have told you things like they are not going to hurt you and that it will all be ok and over soon. But you still had to trust them and of course, it all came out fine. Then you get a little older and electronics become a larger part of your life. For the most part you have a very limited understanding of how they work. It doesn’t stop you from turning on the light switch, turning on the TV, or using a cell phone. You still operate in our world just fine with a limited understanding of electricity, because you have followed the directions of those who do know. When you turned 15 and got your driver's permit. You started to have others teach you how to drive properly and you started learning to drive by yourself. You had no clue how an internal combustion engine worked, how disc brakes cause you to stop once you get going, or what in the world a constant velocity joint is, but that doesn’t stop you from driving every chance you get. We make it through because we listen to those who do know in all these situations, we listened to our parents when we got that first haircut and by the time we are at least in our teens we stopped crying every time we had to see a barber. We watched and listened to those who knew about electricity and those who knew how to use electronics and we were able to operate in the overwhelmingly electronic world. We listened to the one who taught us how to drive and once we passed the test, we were able to drive ourselves around. This same principle applies to us as followers of Jesus as well. In our Christian lives we are always going to be operating with a limited understanding of the things in and around our lives because we have not been told everything, but what God has wanted us and needs for us to know He has revealed to us in His Word. Therefore, we need to understand the importance of everything that God has chosen to reveal to us and the importance of obedience in those things. This is a major part in the discipleship process and why we have been looking at the prayer Jesus shared in Matthew 6 during this sermon series. Not only does it show us how to pray, but the truths that are revealed in these verses also help us in our limited understanding of who God is, as well as what we are to do in this world and help others to do the same as we carry out the Great Commission. The fact that we have limited understanding of many things in our Christian lives is especially so in the last part of this prayer as Jesus reveals a world that is beyond our natural world.
A Disciple must Understand there is more than the Natural. - Matthew 6:12
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Every part of the prayer that Jesus has shared so far with His followers has been stated as stand-alone statements. As He finishes up the last of the prayer, there are three thoughts that start with the simple word “and”. These linked statements started in verse 11, when Jesus encourages us to pray for our daily needs. Realize that we need to rely on God for all things that we need physically day-to-day, but physical needs are not our only needs nor are they our most important needs. We have spiritual needs as well and we are going to have to trust God when it comes to these needs because these things only exist in the spiritual realm. The Bible is clear about the existence of another realm that is outside of our natural world (or supernatural) and this is seen throughout the entire Bible starting in the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1. It’s here that we see that God exists outside of time, space, and matter because He created them all as described in that verse. The verse in and of itself presupposes that God existed before these things did. This shows us that God exists in a supernatural or spiritual realm since He was the one who created the natural realm, and a creator must exist outside of His creation. In the New Testament, John 4:24 backs this up by telling us specifically that God is spirit or outside the natural world. It’s not just God that exists outside the physical world. Jesus says that His Kingdom exists outside of the natural world (John 18:16). We are told of angels (or messengers of God) that existed in the supernatural realm that rejoiced at creation (Job 38:6-7). We are told of fallen angels who rebelled against God that exist in this realm as well (Revelation 12:4). Even though we exist in the natural world, we too have a supernatural element within us that we call the soul. We see the soul mentioned throughout scripture as well. The earliest is when Rachel was dying in Genesis 35:18 all the way through Revelation 6 when we see the souls of the Martyrs crying out from under the throne of God. However if we are left by ourselves, we have very little understanding of the realities of the supernatural realm and spiritual realm. It is in this realm that we all will be spending eternity in one of two places, and we would only know that fact through the revealing of God in His Word. Because there is more to the world than what we see, when God reveals the things and truths of that world, we need to make sure we pay extra close attention so that we can understand. Trust and obey what God is calling us to do when it comes to the supernatural, especially the truths He reveals with the two linked statements that He uses to finish off this prayer as He speaks about two weaknesses that we all have.
A Disciple must Understand Sin. - Matthew 6:12
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
The second of the linked statements that Jesus shares with those there that day, speaks of a debt, which (as we will see) can be understood in the natural realm as well, but has much greater consequences in the supernatural realm. The word Jesus used for debt is synonymous with sin in the Jewish culture of that day. Jesus seemingly used the word “debts" here not only because it would have been well understood by those present, but because of the imagery that forgiveness of debt would have had. Cultural understanding is not the only reason we know that the word “debt” is synonymous with sin because sin is the word used in Luke’s account of this prayer as well. There are a few truths about sin that Jesus revealed here in this statement. Before we get into that, I want to address why we can’t call this the Lord’s Prayer. Rather should refer to it as a prayer the Lord shared or even call it the Disciple’s prayer, the reason is right here in this statement about sin. Jesus could never pray this prayer because Jesus could never ask for forgiveness of sin because Jesus was perfect and sinless. We are not just told this once in scripture, but we are told this repeatedly in the New Testament. Instead of citing each instance I think that the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 7:26 sums it up perfectly when he says, “Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” Jesus was sinless and that was what makes Him the only one who can be an all-sufficient savior. It's because of His perfect sacrifice that His disciples can pray this prayer and find forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:28). We need to understand that this prayer is not meant to be one that will result in a salvific experience because based on the other parts of this prayer that would have had to occur before this prayer was prayed. One reason for this is that the community that Jesus refers to even here in this part of the prayer by using the word “our” cannot happen unless one puts their faith in Jesus first. Another reason is because without a saving faith in Jesus we cannot call God our Father just as we are encouraged to do in the earlier part of this prayer. We also know that this petition is not one for salvation because this part of the prayer is meant to be used every time we pray, and we know that once we are truly saved, we are saved eternally (John 10:28). In this part of the prayer, instead of speaking about salvation, Jesus is speaking of relational forgiveness to maintain our relationship with God. This is just like a relationship you have with your children. They can make an offense against you, but even though they have offended they are still your child, and nothing can change that (so this is not in reference to salvation), but the offense will damage the relationship until the one who is in the wrong, repents and asks for forgiveness. This is what John speaks of in 1 John 1:9 when He says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” This is a prayer to address our own sins and bring them before God to forgive them to maintain our daily and personal relationship and walk with Him. We must know that God is the only one that can forgive sins, but forgiveness is an interesting word and is sometimes hard to understand. Parts of the Bible have been translated into over 3,600 languages and in all those languages, translators have said they have the hardest time translating the word we know as “forgive”. They say it’s hard to get across the entirety of its meaning with a single word and that’s the reason I believe that Jesus used the term “debt” with this crowd when referring to sin because of the picture that it paints of forgiveness of debt. It goes back to the Old Testament principle of indentured servitude. When someone was bankrupt, destitute, and homeless they would have the opportunity to become a servant to the one they owed and they would either work hard to pay off their debts and get back on their feet, or in the 7th year of their service they would be released from their debts and set free. That’s the idea that Jesus was showing when we seek and obtain forgiveness from God for our sins. This principle works for forgiveness on a salvific level, as well as a relational level with God. When we are forgiven, we are set free and released from the consequences that our sins have on our relationship with God, just as the servant was released from their bonds of servitude. God is the only one who can deal with our sins properly so we must take them all to Him.
Then Jesus moves on to how we are to treat others who have sinned against us. He does so by comparing our forgiveness with how God has freely forgiven us. This tells us that since God has forgiven us so freely, we are to forgive or set free those who have wronged us as far as we are concerned (Colossians 3:13). Remember it is only God that can forgive sins so that is why Jesus says we forgive the debtor instead of the debt. There might still be consequences for those sins against us, but God will take care of those. When we do forgive freely, God delights that His children are living in His image as they demonstrate His forgiveness. That's why the “we” Jesus uses here is emphatic because we must forgive others who have sinned against us just as freely as God has forgiven us. What an insult to a Holy God it would be for us to refuse to forgive others while constantly petitioning the throne of God for forgiveness of our sins just like in the parable of the unforgiving debtor in Matthew 18:21-35. This should also be a reminder to us that everyone we come across is a sinner and needs forgiveness not just from us but ultimately from God. We are the ones God has entrusted to share that Good News with them, so not only should we forgive those who have wronged us, we need to share the forgiveness that is only found in Jesus Christ with them as well. We might have a limited understanding of the power and wickedness of sin, but with just what God has chosen to reveal to us about it in His Word, we should know how deadly it is and how good God is to give us a way to be forgiven for it all no matter how large the offense.
A Disciple must Understand we have an Enemy. - Matthew 6:13
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
As Jesus finishes out this model prayer, He does so by speaking about a topic we have a very limited understanding of and that is our enemy, the Devil. The first topic Jesus teaches us about here is temptation. We must understand that God does not tempt us ever. James says in James 1:13 "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone". This is not a petition for God not to tempt us, but rather it is for God to spare us from temptation of our enemy. Jesus understood that temptation is hard because He Himself was tempted by Satan, but He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean that we can’t resist them. Scripture does tell us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” This does not mean that it's not going to be painful or a hard decision to make when we are tempted, but we are promised that there will always be a way out of it. This is the reason that Jesus adds this to the prayer. We all have temptations, and it is perfectly normal to ask God to spare us from getting into situations in which we might experience a temptation that we could resist and that will lead us into sin because we don’t trust ourselves in those situations. Our enemy is a very tricky one. He’s been at this for a long time, he’s much smarter than we are, so we need to understand that it’s not us that can outsmart the Devil. It’s our reliance upon God that is always paramount during these fights with the enemy when it comes to temptation as well as everything else, he throws our way.
Before we trusted in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, Jesus tells us that we were children of the Devil (John 8:44). When we put our faith in Jesus, and we are adopted into the family of God and Satan no longer has a claim on us anymore. Satan is furious so he will make sure he does everything in his limited power to derail us off the path to the Kingdom and make us less effective in that Kingdom and does a pretty good job of it. Therefore we need to pray daily to be delivered from those attacks, but like we have seen many times throughout this prayer, not only do we need to pray, but there are actions that God calls us to in obedience to back up those prayers. We are called to flee and resist the temptations that Satan sends our way (1 Corinthians 6:18, James 4:7). We are called to put on the full armor of God and then take a stand against the Devil's schemes (Ephesians 6:11). We have work to do when it comes to our enemy and his attacks.
It’s within this very simple prayer that we have seen many principles of discipleship that we must apply to our lives. Do we understand it all? No, but we do have a Father who does and who loves us and wants only what’s best for us. We need to understand the best we can, obey His Word, and then go and make some disciples with the knowledge Jesus has shared with us. If we don’t have anyone to disciple, we need to be sharing the Gospel, and then when someone responds we need to bring them under our wing to equip them to be disciples themselves who will then go and make disciples as well. It all starts with us and our willingness to be a disciple who will go out and make disciples.
