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MATTHEW 6:13
(Reading: 1 John 4:7-21; Matthew 6:9-13)
Praying for the Power of His Love
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
This verse 13 is the end of the prayer that our Lord Jesus himself taught us.
But it’s not the way we normally end the Lord’s Prayer, is it?
Don’t we usually say those extra words, “For yours in the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”
So why the difference?
It seems that the early New Testament church added those words to help round off the Lord’s Prayer in a way which they felt finished the prayer off by praising God.
You have a look down the bottom of your page in the Bible and you’ll see it mentioned there in a footnote.
And those words, “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, Amen” do round it off after all - don’t they?
It’s good to praise the Lord in our prayer - to acknowledge His Name, His Kingdom and His glory.
Mind you, if you have a look at verse 9 and 10, it’s what we’ve already prayed.
As well as that, the way Jesus ends this prayer does have all these things in it as well.
For even though we pray that we not be tempted, and that we be delivered from evil, just like we have already asked for our daily bread, and we had just before this verse asked forgiveness of our debts, there has been throughout the definite sense of looking to the LORD, also with what we ask for ourselves too.
After all - Who do we ask to feed us and forgive us, and now to free us too?
That is what verse 13 is about.
We pray that we might be free.
That ties in with so much with the theme of Matthew’s Gospel.
You see, this Gospel was especially written to Jewish believers to affirm Christ as their Messiah, the long awaited and divinely anointed Saviour King.
Matthew declares that his Kingdom has come.
He is here!
The signs and wonders are all there!
But let’s not think that there isn’t opposition to him.
The Jews would have known well enough of that other king from their own history which foretold to them the Messiah.
The history which recalled the Hebrew deliverance from Egypt - an event no Jew would ever forget.
For there in that ruler of Egypt, Pharaoh, was the same evil spirit in that other king.
It could only be his total defeat which really set God’s people free.
It was the same kind of evil which became seen when Israel worshipped those other gods in the Promised Land, instead of the Lord their God.
That was the evil which seduced God’s people with the promise of another type of power - the power which would distract the Hebrews away if they didn’t follow closely the Word of their King.
Isaiah in chapter 14 describes one of Israel’s enemies exactly like the devil - because that was the spirit he had!
Matthew had spoken earlier of this evil in chapter 4, when Jesus was tempted by the devil.
Then our Lord had quoted back the Old Testament Scripture to that other ruler, the prince of this dark world - the Great Usurper!
He had told Satan where to go then - now we are taught to pray the same also.
As the Heidelberg Catechism says, we ask the Lord to “make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we win the complete victory (A.127).”
There are two powers.
One is the King - the other a princely pretender.
And so we’ll see why we pray “deliver us from evil,” or “deliver us from the evil one” as other translations put it.
But before those words in verse 13 there’s the phrase, “And lead us not into temptation.”
This is a phrase which has caused believers a lot of worry through the ages.
It has been the source of much misunderstanding.
Can you see why?
What could it be about asking God not to lead us into temptation?
Well, don’t we wonder … DOES GOD TEMPT US?
In this way we come to our first point.
It is a fair question.
It was, after all, God’s Spirit who led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
Even very early in their history, when Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, wasn’t it God who tempted him?
So, friend, let me ask you … DOES GOD TEMPT YOU?
It’s interesting that people who don’t believe in God at all will sometimes say when they do wrong things - “Oh, the devil made me do it!”
It’s a silly excuse, because it’s not an excuse!
I mean, parents, when you lost your patience with your child - or perhaps even with all your children! - can you say, “Oh, God made me do it!”
Of course you can’t - you lost it, not God!
And, yet, you know, there are a lot of people in the world today who blame everyone else for the bad things they get into.
It was my parent’s fault; the school didn’t do enough; I didn’t get the right help when I needed it; my boss was a pain; I was bullied.
You can meet some people whose lives are a real mess - they’ve done the most awful crimes - but there was no way they were guilty!
How could they - it was always someone else’s fault!
So … DOES GOD TEMPT YOU?
No, God doesn’t tempt us by making us do the wrong things.
But God does test us.
The Lord does want us to be challenged so that we grow to trust him and follow him more and more in our lives.
Remember that we’ve already prayed in the Lord’s Prayer for our everyday food.
Then we have asked to be forgiven, which means we’re able to eat spiritual food.
Now we’re asking if we can start to eat that food too!
Our faith isn’t going to mean anything unless it means something when you’re out there in the everyday world.
It’s no good saying and singing all those nice things on Sunday if it doesn’t make a difference to what we do on Monday!
So, who’s responsible?
DOES GOD TEMPT US?
We do it - don’t we?
We are the ones who have to watch out.
There was a man who was suffering from a fatal and incurable disease.
He was going to die, and it was going to be very soon!
His boss noticed that he looked very ill, and so he asked him if anything was the matter.
That man told him about his situation.
The boss became very upset.
This man had worked for him for a long time.
He just didn’t want to believe this was happening!
“Are you sure?” he asked his worker.
“Have you checked with a specialist?”
The man replied, “I’ve been to one yesterday.”
“He said that’s what it is.”
“What about surgery,” his boss asked.
“Too late for that,” he said.
“If he had found out earlier then surgery could have helped.”
“But you didn’t have it a long time ago.”
“Well, not that I knew, that’s true.”
“But he says it was there all the same.”
“In fact, it’s always been there, a black spot, not even as big as a pin’s head, but waiting to spread and kill me in its own time.”
His boss got really upset, “It’s just so unfair!”
Then his employer said, “I don’t know about that.”
“The specialist said there’s that kind of spot in pretty well all of us, and if we don’t look out it gets us in the end.”
“NO! … NO! … NO!” his boss cried out.
But the dying man said more.
He continued, “The specialist called it that accursed thing.”
“I think he meant that we should know about it, and watch out for it.”
Dear friends, in each one of us there’s a weak spot.
If we don’t watch out, if we don’t look to the Lord and his Word, we’ll trip and fall.
I mean, isn’t this what the world loves to point out about Christians - these weak spots?
They use those spots to try and prove that we aren’t who we say we are.
As though somehow we’re no different than them anyway!
And sometimes it can seem those in the church are no different than those outside it.
When the latest scandal rips through a church, we’re shattered again.
Certainly the news media will make it appear terrible anyhow!
But we don’t need the world to tell us - do we?
We always have to remember whose we are, and, most of all, who is with us now.
So - who is with you now?
Okay, you could say to me, “Mr Preacher, I’m with my fellow believers in the Sunday morning service - that’s who I’m with!”
Is that all?
Just this congregation?
Are they going to help you live the rest of your life the right way?
Of course not!
Tomorrow we’ll have to get on with everyday things.
We have to live our own lives.
So, who is with you then who’s also with you now?
It’s not such a puzzle is it?
Who is it?
Ah, God - isn’t it?
Or, to be more specific, God the Father and God the Son, through the Holy Spirit.
He is the King of our lives; he has got the power to be right there with us wherever we are.
Mind you, what did we hear earlier in the sermon?
What happens at the same time that Jesus begins to reign in the hearts and lives of his people?
Ah, there’s that other power!
The prince of darkness - the old devil himself.
Or “the evil one” as some translations of verse 13 call him.
It is because this evil is so strong that Jesus wants us to end our prayers utterly depending on the Heavenly Father.
Thus we have our second point this morning.
It too is a question.
It asks … CAN EVIL CAPTURE US?
With this last phrase, “but deliver us from evil,” Matthew adds something to the Lord’s Prayer which Luke in his Gospel doesn’t do.
And I believe Matthew gives us this version from the Lord Jesus because of his focus on the clash of the kingdoms.
He wants to show the battle of two rulers for total domination - good against bad.
There’s a simple way to show how terribly vital this struggle is.
Let’s take the word “EVIL.”
Spell it out in your mind, E … V … I … L …
Now spell that word backwards.
In your mind do it the opposite way, L … I … V … E …
It’s as clear as that!
Jesus calls us to live in him.
He cries out to us, in the immortal words of John 10 verse 10: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Did you hear that - life to the max!
The God-Man who allowed himself to be killed, tells us to pray for life.
We have to - evil will spiritually kill us.
The evil one is the one who was the murderer from the beginning.
It is evil which not only kills us physically because it keep us from The Life, it will definitely slaughter the soul for eternity!
Don’t die - live!
Friend, don’t hate - love!
Hate will hurt you.
Love will heal you.
Only through the One who is the source of love - he who is the way and the truth and the life - can you be really free.
“But free from what?” you might well ask.
As a Christian you could feel bound in by more rules spiritually than communist Russia ever had politically!
Dear believer, in Christ Jesus you are free from the burden which creates all other burdens - you’re free from fear itself!
“There is no fear in love.”
The apostle John says in his first letter, “perfect love casts out fear.
“For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
To fear is to be bound.
It is a trap, because all the time you wondering when you’re going to get caught.
In fact - that fear has you trapped!
And however much people may try to make a thrill out of that fear, they know in their hearts they’re dead men walking.
It is love which makes us trust in the most lovely One - Jesus Christ.
It is love which makes us realise how weak and sinful we really are and how much we need him - right now!
In the words of the Catechism, “By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment.”
People can become so evil they refuse to acknowledge any sin whatsoever.
Their consciences have become so seared they live a life of lies - just like their spiritual father Satan does.
That’s why we must pray.
We need the Lord’s love more than ever.
Look what happened when the disciples at Gethsemane didn’t watch and pray!
That’s why Peter three times denied Jesus.
Jesus wasn’t King in his life then - and look at what happened!
But what a difference when Jesus was his King within - then he faced even other kings confessing Christ! And what a difference, congregation, when we believe this prayer, when we don’t fear, because we’re loving him who loved us first!
That’s living life to the max - the life that goes from this world to the next!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace … King Jesus do so reign in our hearts and lives that we will always pray and work for your victory.
Don’t test us beyond what we can endure, but do refine us to be the purest gold of service to you.
In Your precious Name, we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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