THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. Matt. 5, 6, 7 (26)

January 5, 2019

26-6-18

Key: SCHAFF: “When the Lord open his mouth, we should open our ears and hearts” 

GOOD WORKS WITHOUT OSTENTATION. Matt. 6:5-15 … Prayers …3

Theophyl says “What then, shall I not pray in Church? By all means, but with a right intention, and without display, for it is not the place that hurts, but the manner and the aim. Many in fact, when praying in secret, are doing it to please men.” It was hypocrtical prayers, a desire to be seen by men, a pretended act of homage to God that was condemned here. The manner of prayers should first, be in privacy; second, without useless words or repetitions, thirdly, having forgiven those who trespassed against us; and fourth, with that unselfishness which places the glory of God and the good of others in advance of our interests. 

  1. Matt. 6:7 “But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do…”
    1. Let us look at examples Baal prophets in 1Kg. 18:26, 28 ” O Baal, hear us…”, and the multitude in the theatre at Ephesus for two hours shouting “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” Act. 19:34. Let us compare Mak. 12:20 and Eccl. 5:2. The use of a rosary in use by the Roman Catholics, is a Buddhist practice, which came through Mohammedans to the Spanish christians. The Roman catholics think it very devout to repeat many times- often fifteen, and in some cases a hundred and fifty times-the Ave Maria (Holy, Mary) and the Pater Noster (Our Father, i.e The Lord’s prayer).
    2. In Lk 6:12, we saw our lord spending a whole night in prayers, and he encouraged perseverance in prayers Lk. 18:1-8. Long-continuous prayers is not itself improper. It is also not necessarily wrong to repeat the same words- a thing sometimes very natural when we are deeply in earnest- for in Gethsemane Matt. 26:39-44.
  2. Matt. 6:9-13. “In this manner, therefore, pray:…” This specimen, an arrangement, an expression, a model is put in contast with that of which he has just been speaking. It is a comprhensive and simple precept of prayer.
  3. Compare Matt. 6:9-13 with Luke 11:1-4
    1. Wieseler, Clark’s Harmony- The harmony of the gospels makes it highly probable that the occasion on which Luke gives the prayer was long after the Sermon on the Mount, during the last few months of Christ’s ministry in Judea. If the prayer was given on two occasions, he gave it in two different forms, that means, it was not intended as a form of prayer to be repeated in the same words.
    2. If on the other hand, it be supposed that he gave the prayer only once, the writers- the Evangelists did not understand it to be a form of prayer, they could not have recorded it in different forms. It is indeed a model prayer.
    3. There is no important difference in the substance of the two prayers.The petition, “Thy will be done…” only brings into special prominence something that is involved in “Thy kingdom come” and the petition “But deliver us from evil one” only give the other side of the forgoing “And bring us not into temptation” 
  4. It continues