Real Righteousness - Praying (Part One)
Matthew 6: 5-15
Introduction
If you have been following us along you will know that we have been going through the Sermon on the Mount, as contained within chapter five, six and seven. Today we come to one of the most famous passages in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter 6: 8-15. I will begin as usual by reading the entire passage we are going to look at of the next 2-3 days and then return a work through it expositionally, meaning verse by verse.
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
How Not to Pray.
I am sure you will have noticed that included in this passage is a well know passage we commonly refer to as the Lord’s prayer. Actually, that is a bit of a misnomer because this isn’t the prayer the Lord prayed. Technically the Lord’s prayer is recorded in John chapter 17, when Jesus is seen to pray for himself towards Father God. This one could more accurately called the disciples prayer for in it he is telling his disciples then, and us today how we should pray.
The overall passage as just read could be divided into two parts. First, he tells us how not to pray and then he tells us how to pray, So very simply let’s begin by asking what we should not do, and let’s look at Matthew chapter six verse five where he says.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (Matthew 6: 5)
He says when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites, now as I have already explained the word hypocrite was originally used of an actor in a good sense of the term. A hypocrite was simply an actor, that is someone playing the part of another. But overtime that word came to be used in a negative sense of someone pretending to be somebody they’re not, and that’s the way Jesus is using it here. He says don’t be like the hypocrites, don’t pretend you’re doing something when you’re really not doing and then he explains how se hypocrites love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the street so that they can be seen by other people.
The first thing he tells you to not do is pray so that you can be seen by other people, and he mentions two places where this is often seen. He says don’t act like that in the synagogue, the equivalent today would be a church service. In that day the faithful would meet in the synagogue and someone led the prayer, and that person would stood up to pray. So that Jesus is saying don’t be like a hypocrite when you do that when you motivation is just to be seen doing it.
The key phrase is seen by men. The other thing he mentions is doing it in the street. Now, we don’t think of people praying in the street these days but in Christ day they had times of fasting where they met and prayed in the street and some have suggested that this is a reference to those public prayers, particularly the prayers that the Jews did at certain times during the day. They would stop what they were doing, and they would pray openly at specific times. Some have suggested that the Pharisees would time their day so that they could be in the most public place when that time approached so that they could be in the middle of the street or the marketplace, and that hour would come, and they would pray so that everybody could see them. Jesus is saying don’t do that, don’t pray to be seen by people
Some years ago, a man went to hear a preacher in speak in Belfast, the speaker prayed a very ornate and elaborate prayer and the visitor said he prayed the most eloquent prayer ever offered to a Belfast audience. But what Jesus is saying is you shouldn’t pray to the audience that’s what some do even today.
I think this automatically brings up the question what does that mean? Does it mean you should never pray in public? The answer is of course not. There are many illustrations in the Old Testament as well as the New where people prayed out loud and in frount of others. The idea here is not that you are seen by people, but that you are not to pray in order to be seen by other people. The issue is not that you are seen, it’s that you have a desire to be seen praying. OK now we should take notice what he says in verse six.
. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6: 6)
He says go to your room and don’t leave the door open deliberately probably meaning that you should be praying to the Lord and not for other to hear. Don’t even say grace in the restaurant loudly so as to catch the attention of anyone on the adjoining tables. So, the wrong way to pray is to do it so you can be heard by people and not just God.
Somebody has said the secret pray is that if you pray in secret God is going to reward you in ways you will openly recognize. But if you pray to be seen of people then you will only gain the reward you were really after, the plaudits of people.
That implies that you won’t get the answer to the prayer because what you were doing praying to get the attention and applause of people and you will only the centre of attention you were seeking and probably not the answer to the prayer that you wanted. You got your reward, the attention of other people. However, if your posture of heart was addressed towards the Lord and you want him and his attention then the promise is that if you pray, even in secret, then God will reward you openly. So that was the first wrong way to pray.
Jesus also says there is a second wrong way to pray, look at verse seven.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. (Matthew 6: 7 NKJV)
The second thing he says you should not do is you should not use what he calls here “vain repetition” like the heathen do. The second thing you should not do while praying is use vain repetition. What does that phrase mean? Bible experts will tell you the Greek word translated, vain repetition, means to repeat idly repeatedly the same things. Many people down the ages have grappled with this phrase to try to figure out what it is talking about. It is translated in many different ways, but I feel vain repetitions most accurately communicates what Jesus is trying to say here. Other translations say that it means babbling or making meaningless sounds or to speak thoughtlessly or by mumbling incoherently. Words that are abundant but they’re meaningless or thoughtless just using words and they’re not coming from out without even thinking about what you saying as being prompted by the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus day some Jews were required to pray 18 different specific prayers three different times a day. I remember reading once that at that time somebody had produced a summary of those 18 prayers for the person who didn’t have the time or the memory to recite all 18
The repetition of those 18 prayers became nothing more than a sort of superstitious incantation, like that of a spell. But notice what Jesus said, some are praying thinking they’re going to be heard for their many words and interestingly enough we have some records from ancient times where one rabbi taught and I quote, “whoever is long in prayer is heard by God” or another, “whenever the righteous make their prayers long their prayer is heard”. Length became more important that going before God with a humble penitent heart. Jesus is saying that’s not it folks it’s not saying a lot of words it’s not praying long prayers and it’s certainly not praying meaningless prayers it’s not vain repetitions.
Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6: 8)
A Correct Understanding of the Lord’s Prayer.
Now I have a final observation to make today. It has always struck me as interesting that Jesus says don’t pray with mindless repetition and don’t just pray words by rote but then he tells us how to pray and that prayer is used publicly and prayed in churches all over the world today.
It’s just always struck me, didn’t he just said don’t do that, and that’s what we do with the very prayer he gave us. I’m not opposed to reciting the Lord’s prayer, but I am afraid that a lot of times where it gets reduced to an empty ritual and people are reciting words from memory and they’re not praying so the very thing he said don’t do they turn around and do. There is no record in ancient times that this repetition of the Lord’s prayer was ever done as part of a church service like we do it today. So, we will begin to look at that prayer next time and consider how Jesus taught us how to pray, not just what to pray. Jesus taught us to pray with your mind and heart engaged in what we are saying. So, if that’s the case how do we pray. I would assume based on what I’ve said thus far that I adopt what Jesus means in that we should pray to the father thinking about what we are saying. So it is about it being honest and meaningful about where we are and what is happening in our life and how we see our life unfold around us and before us, and try not to be meaningless in what you say.
Prayer should be thoughtful and not thoughtless and the thought that goes into the prayer should be like, well wouldn’t it be helpful if we had a sample prayer. How would you like for me to give you a sample prayer if I give you a sample prayer that gives you a pattern for how you can model your own prayers from now on, how useful would that be.
This, then, is how you should pray: (Matthew 6: 9a)
In Luke account also we see in the prefix to the prayer is a request by the disciples to teach them how to pray, not what to pray. We shall look in more detail at How Jesus taught us how we should pray in the next episode.