Episode 58: The Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer

The Introduction: Our Father who art in heaven. What does this mean? 

With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.  

1. Why Should Christians pray? Luther from the Large Catechism
   1. First, because God commands us to pray.
      1. [5] And the first thing to know is that it is our duty to pray because of God’s commandment. For that’s what we heard in the Second Commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” [Exodus 20:7].
      1. Prayer is just as strictly and seriously commanded as all other commandments: to have no other God, not to kill, not to steal, and so on.
      1. But it is our duty and obligation to pray, if we would be Christians, just as it is our duty and obligation to obey our parents and the government.
   1. Second, because God promises to hear us and bless us.
      1. In the second place, we should be more encouraged and moved to pray because God has also added a promise and declared that it shall surely be done for us as we pray. He says in Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.” And Christ says in the Gospel of St. Matthew, “Ask, and it will be given to you; … for everyone who asks receives” (7:7–8).
         
         
2. Who taught us the Lord’s Prayer? Why is it called the Lord’s Prayer? (See Luke 11:1-4 and Matthew 6:7-15)
   1. Therefore, there is no nobler prayer to be found upon earth than the Lord’s Prayer. We pray it daily [Matthew 6:11], because it has this excellent testimony, that God loves to hear it. We ought not to surrender this for all the riches of the world. LC 3:23
3. Why is it comforting that Jesus invites us to pray, “Our Father?” (See Matthew 6:25-33; 7:9-11; John 20:17; Psalm 103:13)
   I know that with all boldness and confidence I may ask God as dear children ask their dear Father.

1. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:25-33
   1. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! Matthew 7:9-11
   1. John 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
   1. Psalm 103:13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.