Lord's Prayer (cont'd)/Lord's Supper

C) What should our prayer be like? Read Matthew 6:9-13. Jesus gave His followers a model/template/outline on how to pray.

How did Jesus begin the Model Prayer? Verse 9

1) Praise. How often do we go right into our prayer by telling God what we want rather than take the time to praise Him? What did Jesus praise God for? His holiness. What do you praise God for?

Read verse 10

2) Humility – Whose kingdom come? Whose will be done? We must come to God in prayer with a spirit of humility. Otherwise, God is not going to pay any attention to us. Example – Pharisees. We must bring our requests to God in a spirit of humility. We are not to impose our will of God. “God, this is what I want you to do and how I want you to do it.” God will not respond to such a prayer. I John 5:14-15. Always remember, we are not rulers of the Kingdom, God is.

Read verse 11

3) Needs – Did Jesus say “Give us this day our daily T-bone steak?” No. How important was bread to people living in Jesus’ day? It was a vital part of their diet. They needed bread in order to survive. What is Jesus saying here? What are we to pray for? Needs. What are needs? What is the difference between a need and a want? A need is something you have to have in order to survive, to live day-to-day, to serve God and others. A want is something you do without. It is not necessary for your survival, to live day-to-day, to serve God and others. Problem is sometimes we consider our wants to be needs.

Read verse 12

4) Confession/Repentance – When we come before God in prayer, we must do so with a pure heart. God is a holy God. He does not acknowledge the prayer of someone who is living in a state of disobedience. Before we pray, we must examine ourselves to see if there is any hint of sin in our hearts. If there is, we must confess, repent, and seek God’s forgiveness. There’s a condition to God’s forgiveness. What is it? Forgive others who have wronged us. What if we do not forgive those who have wronged us? Read verses 14-15. See also Matthew 5:23-24.

Read verse 13

5) Guidance and Deliverance – Example of Sacajawea. What was her job? Her job was to guide Lewis and Clarke across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. She was to direct them to the safe paths and avoid dangers. Lewis and Clarke would ask her do we go left or right? Do we cross upstream or downstream? Do we take the mountain pass or go through the valley? In the same way, God is our guide. He knows the paths we are to take, the choices we are to make in order to avoid temptation and sin. But in order for us to know, what must we do? Ask Him! If we’re stubborn enough to take the wrong path, make the wrong choice, who is their deliver us from the Evil One if we cry out for help? God!

The above is how Jesus taught His followers to pray. What is your motivation to pray? Are you motivated to pray? Does your prayer incorporate the above elements? Is there an element lacking in your prayer life? Is there an element you place more emphasis on than others? Example - Needs vs. praise. Remember – the key to prayer is the quality of your heart not the quality or quantity of your words. Prayer was vital to Jesus during His time on earth. It should be equally vital to us.

The Lord’s Supper – Read Matthew 26:26-30

It also referred to as the Last Supper, the Eucharist, and Communion. It was the last meal Jesus shared with His disciples. The meal took place at the time of the Jewish Passover. A sacred time on the Jewish calendar when the Jews remembered how God freed their ancestors from slavery in Egypt by the shedding of blood (read Exodus chapters 11 and 12.) Jewish families gathered to gather for a meal of unleavened bread and wine. Jesus and his disciples gathered in an upper room in a home in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. During the meal, Jesus established a custom that Christians of all denominations have followed to this day although in various ways.

Jesus first took a loaf of bread, broke it, gave thanks (eucharisto), and gave pieces to his disciples to eat. What did the bread represent? His body. Then Jesus took a cup with wine, gave thanks, and offered to His disciples telling all of them to drink from it. What did the wine represent? His blood. Specifically, His blood of the covenant for the forgiveness of sins. The covenant Jesus is referring to is the New Covenant … New Testament. According to the Old Covenant/Old Testament, forgiveness of sins came how? Through the shedding of animal blood. At the first Passover, the firstborn of the Israelites were saved from death by the blood of lambs. According to the New Covenant/New Testament, forgiveness of sins came how? Through the shedding of Jesus’ blood.

Ever since, Christians have continued to observe what became known as the Lord’s Supper. Why? Read I Corinthians 11:23-26. Proclaim to the world what Jesus did for humanity – died so that they might be saved. How communion is performed varies from one denomination to the next. Catholic Church and Anglican Church – unleavened wafers and wine are used. They are given to congregation by priests only. Performed at every church service/mass. Protestant churches (Baptist, Methodist, etc.) – unleavened wafers or crackers and grape juice. The ritual is overseen by pastor but lay people pass out the wafers/crackers and juice. How often Protestant churches practice the Lord’s Supper varies greatly depending on the church – weekly, monthly, quarterly.

The Lord's Prayer pt. 1

Introduction: Read Matthew chapter 6:1-4

Who do you think the hypocrites are that Jesus refers to? The Pharisees.

For what purpose were the Pharisees giving to the needy? To bring attention to themselves. They wanted everyone to be sure they knew how godly they (the Pharisees) were.

For whom are we to do good works? To whom are they to bring attention to? Ourselves or God? God! Read Matthew 5:14-16

I. Prayer

What is prayer? A conversation with God.

What is the purpose of prayer? Why do you pray?

II. How we should/should not pray

A) How are we NOT to pray? Read Matthew 6:5, 7-8

To bring attention to ourselves

a) in the way we pray – How did the hypocrites, i.e. Pharisees, pray? Read Luke 18:9-14

b) Babbling prayers/lengthy repetitious prayers like the pagans (people who worshipped other gods.) They would use fancy words and religious sayings over and over again for long periods of time. Purpose was to impress their gods and the people around them with how religious they were. ex. I Kings 18: Contest between the priests of Baal and the prophet Elijah to determine who was the true god of Israel. Each would pray to their god to send fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifice. The god that answered would be the god of Israel. The priests prayed to their god Baal. For six hours, they prayed “Baal, answer us!” They cried out fancy religious sayings. They danced, screamed, and even cut themselves. After six hours of this, Elijah said, “It’s my turn.” He built an altar to God and prayed a one sentence prayer: “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Immediately fire came down from heaven. Read Ecclesiastes 5:2. Pharisees also guilty of this type of praying. Read Mark 12:38-40. Jesus was not condemning long prayers. There were times when Jesus prayed all night. He condemned the person’s motive for praying long prayers.

B) How are we to pray? Read Matthew 6:6

Alone in a secret place. Why? No distractions. Your complete focus is on God. You can share with God your most intimate words. Your place of prayer should be somewhere where it is just you and God. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a closet. Jesus’ favorite place to pray was a mountain. Matthew 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Mark 6:46; Luke 5:16

Sermon on the Mount (cont'd)

B. Temporal versus Eternal -

Read Matthew 5: 19-34. In Jesus’ day success or failure was measured by possessions, wealth, clothing, big house, etc. Consequently, people made pursuing these things a priority. If people failed to attain this definition of success, what would they feel? Anxiety. Jesus taught that one should pursue the eternal because the eternal produces security.

Beatitudes – The Beatitudes is the title given to the declaration of blessings that begin Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The word “beatitude” is Latin for blessed or happy. The Beatitudes set the tone for the rest of the sermon. They show how different Jesus’ teaching would be from that of the Pharisees. Read Matthew 5:3-12. The impact these words had on the people who were listening to Jesus cannot be understated. It had the impact of a spiritual atomic bomb. The majority of the audience consisted of people who were hurting physically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually. They were poor, hungry, homeless, hopeless, weak, etc. They did not feel blessed or happy. Their spiritual leaders (Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.) did not provide them with words of comfort or hope. In fact, they offered the complete opposite – words of condemnation. The spiritual leaders taught that a person who was poor, hungry, or suffering from a disease was cursed by God because of some sin they committed (ex. Book of Job). They held in low regard characteristics such as humility and mercy. They were for the weak. The proper response for someone who insults you or persecutes you is to respond in kind.

The Beatitudes of the Pharisees

Blessed are the rich, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who are happy, for they will never know sorrow.

Blessed are the proud, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who have plenty of food and drink, for they will constantly be filled.

Blessed are the ruthless, for they will be victorious.

Blessed are the followers of the Law, for they will see God.

Blessed are those who strike back at those who caused you pain, for vengeance is a sweet nectar to be enjoyed.
Blessed are those who are perfect in their righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people praise you, acclaim you and say all kinds of wonderful things about you because of your faithfulness to the Law. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.

The above was the predominant teaching of the day – a teaching that alienated the vast majority of the populace. Then Jesus came along teaching the complete opposite of the Pharisees. He took what the Pharisees regarded as negative characteristics and made them positive. He took negative experiences that the people were going through and related to in order to explain spiritual things. In the process, Jesus gave them something to hope for. Imagine, after centuries of being told you have been cursed by God this man Jesus is now teaching that you are blessed because one day you will know happiness.