![見出し画像](https://assets.st-note.com/production/uploads/images/87439911/rectangle_large_type_2_62af6b6ca9e0dce339375ee1bc525d6e.jpg?width=1200)
Reflecting the Father - The Lord's Prayer (En)
Today we are sharing with you a translation and summary of the May 6, 2022 Power City Church service message.
📖2 Timothy 2:15 KJV
“15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Paul calls the Old Testament "the word of truth," but also says it must be "rightly dividing" ("rightly taught" above Japanese is "rightly dividing" in the King James Version). The Old Testament is the word of truth, but it must be rightly divided in the different styles of writing and reading. Dividing = "Ototomios" in Greek means to cut open the parts.
🟢Now, we have discussed the concept of "father" as an idea that Moses used to communicate to his listeners. The first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, recorded Moses' teachings. After Moses preached his message to the people, it was recorded in books for us to see. When Moses said to his audience, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)," he was not talking about a physical heaven above the earth. Moses was using a parable to convey a spiritual reality. And so did Jesus.
📖Matthew 6:9-13 KJV
“9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
🟢Today’s churches have sometimes replaced the word "bread" in this verse with a house or a car and said it means to be provided. No, that is a metaphor. The Greek word for "daily bread" is epousios, which means "give us the bread of the next day/the day to come”.
“Bread of the coming day" is a figurative expression. What is the coming day? May the Kingdom come. These are connected sentences, so "Give us the bread of your kingdom to come”. Jesus uses the word "bread," but he is teaching from the Old Testament, so where do you find the bread in OT?
📖Deuteronomy 8:3 KJV
“3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”
Now, "manna" is a food like bread or pastry, but in Hebrew it means "What is this?". What is this manna?
📖Psalm 78:1-3, 24 KJV
“1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, And had given them of the corn of heaven.”
🟢What does it mean? It means that manna was a riddle (parable). Psalm 78:2 says, "I (God) will speak in riddles (parables, riddles) my (God's) words, which have been hidden from the world since ancient times”. So, "living by every word that comes from the mouth of God," manna was given to them as food, so that they were able to know that God's word is food.
In other words, manna symbolizes the Word of God, which is the food of the spirit. Thus, they were able to know that they do not live by food, physical sustenance, but by every word of God.
So what is God's word in Deuteronomy? It is the promise of eternal life. God's word is the promise of the Spirit. God's Word is the promise of the Promised Land. God's Word is the promise of salvation and deliverance.
In other words, when Jesus prayed that prayer, he said, "Give us the bread of the coming day (the promised word of the coming day), the bread of your coming kingdom (the promised word), the bread (word) of the promise you made to Abraham in Genesis 12, the promised word of that coming kingdom”.
In other words, one lives by "God's promise”. Therefore, such a form of prayer is a prayer of the Kingdom, a prayer that recognizes God's promises in the Old Testament.
It is a promise of deliverance, a promise of salvation, a promise of atonement (redemption), and a promise of eternal life. This is not a promise for clothes, a house, or a car. He has already said that even human fathers know that they can give to their children the good things like houses, land, money, food, and clothes, but what the Father in heaven gives is Christ, salvation, and the kingdom (Matthew 7:9-11).
📖Exodus 20:11 KJV
“11 for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
🟢Sabbath, the day do not work and remembering only the what God has promised. That was the Sabbath. And today, many people who do not read the Bible carefully have decided on a specific day as the Sabbath. But when God spoke to them about the Sabbath, He was not talking about a day, but about a "person," and He used the day to symbolize a person. When Jesus came, the Sabbath came. He said, "Come to me, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)”. The day you came to Christ, you entered the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not one day, but One Person.
🟢“Thy kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
And today our Heavenly Father gives us the bread of the coming Kingdom, which is clearly the bread of resurrection life, the fulfillment of the promise, the Christ. Yes, it has now come.
Let us now look at what the bread does. Matthew 6:12, "And forgive us our debts.” That is what the bread does.
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? These words sound as if God will not forgive you if you do not forgive others. That is not possible. There is a translation problem.
The original text says, "Because you forgive, we are able to forgive others because of the example you set.”
This is because the prayer is, "Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
So we are copying what we see in heaven to reproduce it on earth. Therefore, when Heavenly Father forgives, we learn forgiveness from Heaven and we give forgiveness on earth. In other words, when this prayer is answered, we begin to reflect our Heavenly Father. Then the will of our Heavenly Father will be done among us on earth, just as it is done by our Heavenly Father.
The father is not a follower. Father is a role model. The Greek word for father is “pata”. Pata means the originator, the root, the source, the archetype, the originator of love. God the Father is the source of love, the beginning, the source of forgiveness, the source of blessing for those who have done you wrong. Therefore, he told us to be perfect, holy, and loving, like your Heavenly Father.
So, who is to set the example, the son or the father? The Father. Where do we model our heavenly Father? In the resurrection. Because in the resurrection, we become his children.
What does our Heavenly Father do in the resurrection? He forgives. And we forgive. We forgive because our Heavenly Father in the resurrection has forgiven us. We copy what the Father does, even in our prayers, which we call "the Lord's Prayer”. It is a revelation of God's character that we are to reflect. The Father forgives so that we can forgive. The Father saves us from evil and leads us not into temptation.
🟢I am like my father. I reflect my father. He forgives and I forgive. He loves and I love. He blesses and I bless. Father prays for aggressive, mean and uncaring people. I pray for those who try to take advantage of me.
What has our Heavenly Father done? He showed His love for us by sending His only begotten Son, Christ, to die for us while we were still sinners and enemies. Christians are now endowed with the same spirit as his heavenly Father and Christ the Son. We can reflect the same mind.
(From the tract distributed on July 9th, 2022)
![](https://assets.st-note.com/production/uploads/images/87440783/picture_pc_b8c1bee5b4cc3ae485488a3302e80297.png?width=1200)
![](https://assets.st-note.com/production/uploads/images/87440786/picture_pc_2c3a0c67856d1e333d3216bf7d5a08f4.png?width=1200)
この記事が気に入ったらサポートをしてみませんか?