Acknowledgment: Some of the material in this sermon has been borrowed from a sermon series by John Ortberg and John Stott's commentary 'The Sermon on the Mount'

The World’s Greatest Prayer

Just imagine that when you get home tonight you find a message on the answer phone from Tiger Woods saying that he wants to fly you out to America to play a round of golf with you on one of America’s finest courses and to give you a few pointers to help you improve your game!

Maybe your not a golfer, perhaps you prefer shopping. Imagine if the message on the answer phone was from Imelda Marcos and she wanted to take you shoe shopping!

Or even better, what if it was Gordon Ramsey and not only did he want to teach you how to cook but he would throw in a five course gourmet extravaganza! Surely any sane person would jump at the chance of getting top-flight instruction by the world’s greatest master in the area of their deepest passion?

The disciples had been watching Jesus for some time. They realised that everything he did was bathed in prayer. Jesus prayed when his schedule was demanding and before he made big decisions. He prayed when he was disappointed. Mt. 14 recalls how Jesus prayed when he heard the news of John the Baptist’s death. He prayed when he was worried about his friends. Lk. 22: 31-32 records him as saying, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” And he prayed when he faced his ultimate challenge in Gethsemane.

The disciples saw that Jesus was at home with prayer. It came naturally to him. The disciples would have said that prayer was the secret to Jesus’ success, that it was the most significant aspect of his life and ministry. Through it Jesus was filled with peace, wisdom, power and grace.

But I guess, perhaps like us, the disciples struggled with prayer. So after watching him for a long time they eventually pluck up the courage to ask him about it, to teach them to pray how he prayed. And the funny thing is, that was what Jesus was waiting for them to ask. God does not want us to struggle with prayer. He doesn’t want us to feel guilty about it. He wants us to relish it and become experts in it.

But I wonder, how many of us actually feel like prayer experts? How many of us find our minds wandering when we try to pray and feel guilty because of it? I think if we are honest we have a problem with prayer. Actually I think we have 3 problems with it. We have a “who” problem, a “where” problem, and a “what problem”.

Often our prayers demonstrate that we do not really know who we are praying to. We have a where problem because it sometimes feels like God is so far off from us that he cannot possibly hear our prayers so they just drift out into the atmosphere somewhere. And we have a what problem because we simply do not know where to start. We think some things are too trivial for him to care about and others are so big that he could not possibly do anything about them.

If that does not describe you that’s great but you can leave now because I want to speak to those of us who live in the real world. So lets look at these 3 problems in turn.

So should our prayer be addressed to? Jesus says it is to our Father in heaven. And this is important because knowing who we are praying to will help us with the problem of wandering thoughts or mindlessness. For some folk mindlessness is a problem that affects them sometimes in prayer, for others it is a way of life and it’s a big problem in prayer. Jesus counsells us not to babble like pagans or engage in mindless repetition. I want to just give you an example of this. I’m going to ask you a few simple questions and I want you to give me the answer as fast as you can. Ok? I ask the question, you answer, straight away. A tree that grows from an acorn is called an? (Oak) The dark vapour that rises from fire is called? (Smoke) The noise a frog makes is called a? (Croak) The white of an egg is called the? (not yolk!)

That’s mindlessness and it affects us all from time to time. Too often our prayers become silent monologues that just wander wherever they please. We need to stop and recognise that we really are speaking to someone and that someone is our Father.

Now when you use a name it often has the effect of expressing the nature of a relationship. If it is a formal relationship we usually say Mr or Mrs so-and-so. If it is an acquaintance we might use their first name. If it is a friend we may have a nickname for them, if it is a partner we might have a pet name. When I pick up the phone and ring my father and say those first words, “Hello Dad,” they set the scene for the conversation that follows. And so it is when we address God. Using the word Father establishes the context for the prayers that follow. And the aramaic word is “abba”. Its nothing to do with the seventies pop group. It’s a name of great tenderness. Jesus invites us to use it when we prayer to help us recognise that we are praying to a loving, caring and gracious God.

 
I wonder, what are the first thoughts that come into your head when you start to pray?
If they are, “I’m not very good at this,” or “I’m not sure if he’ll hear me,” or I feel so guilty because I have not prayed for so long,” then consciously set those thoughts aside. Start with “Father” because it defines the relationship you have with him and there is no limit to the goodness of his intentions towards you or to his power to carry them out.

So that’s the “who” of prayer but what about the “where”? Jesus tells us to pray “Our Father in heaven…” but how far away is that? Sounds like a silly question doesn’t it, “how far away is heaven?” But I guess that more often than not when we don’t consciously think about it we subconsciously think heaven is way out there in outerspace somewhere and that raises a difficulty for us as it seems like God is very distant and remote. It’s easy for us to feel alone. But Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always!”

John Ortberg tells the story of how a woman in his church asked him for some help with a fear of flying that she had. What a pastor could do to help he was not sure so he directed her towards a counsellor that he knew but then he said, “Well, we ought to remember that Jesus actually said, ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ so there really is no need to be afraid because Jesus will be with you. But the woman replied, “No, Jesus said, ‘Low, I am with you always!” Not only was she scared of flying she was a little confussed with her spelling.

But I want to just spend a moment dealing with the grammar of the sentence because it makes a real difference to our understanding here. The greek word used for heaven is “uranos”, where we get the name of the planet uranus from. But it is used in the plural not the singular, so we are praying to our Father, the one in the heavens. But when it is used in the New Testament it is used in the sense of ‘atmosphere’ or ‘sky’ or ‘the air around us’, not in the sense of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. What it is actually saying is our Father, who is in the heavens, the air all around us, who is closer than the very air we breath. So we are never alone. Our Father is right here, right now, not too distant that he cannot hear our prayer.

So that’s the ‘who’ problem and the ‘where’ problem. Then there’s the ‘what’ problem. What should we pray for? There is nothing too small or too big to pray about. God is concerned with all our concerns. But we should note that the very first request or petition that Jesus encourages us to make is this: “hallowed be your name!” A name in the Bible is never just a label it is a reflection of their character and to hallow means to attach appropriate value to something or to give it its due worth.

Here’s a story about attaching value. A man went into an antique shop to try and pick up a bargain and as he was looking round he spotted a cat drinking some milk out of a pretty little dish. And as he looked closer he was convinced that the dish was in fact a vase from the Chinese Ming dynasty. He was astonished to find something so rare being used for such a purpose so he came up with a cunning plan. He said to the shop owner, “That is a remarkable cat you’ve got there, I’ll give you £100 for it.” “Oh, I’m not sure about that replied the shop owner. “£100 pounds is a good price,” the man said, “but I’ll throw in a tenner for the dish as well.” “I couldn’t possibly do that,” said the shop owner, “the dish is actually a rare vase from the Chinese Ming dynasty but since I’ve been putting milk in it I’ve sold 18 cats!”

We are all used to attaching value to things but sometimes we don’t recognise their appropriate worth. And it is the same in the world’s relationship with God. Jesus tells us to make our first request, “hallowed be your name.” In other words, may the indescribable goodness of your person become so clear that you are regarded with unstinting affection and boundless love. May people realise how worthy you are and may it begin with me.

God has allowed the honour and holiness of his name to be bound up on earth with the character and conduct of his people – you and me. We are a reflection of God’s nature to the watching world. To pray these words and to mean them is to say “I will live each moment of each day in such a way that God can sign his name to it.” And the truth is that when we realise that we are led into a time of confession, forgiveness and renewing. And then we pray, “hallowed be your name – by everyone.” Can you imagine what kind of a world this would be if that were the case? That is what this, the greatest prayer in the world, is all about.

“Your Kingdom come, your will be done”

At our last section service at Kingsclere last month, we began looking at the Lord’s Prayer to try and help us discover more about this most wonderful of gifts. We focused on what I described as three problems. First there was the “who” problem. We recognised how often we do not concentrate well when we pray because we actually do not have a clear understanding of exactly who it is that we are praying to. We then talked of a “where” problem, and noted that when the Lord’s prayer says “Our Father in heaven”, the greek actually says “in the heavens” or “in the air that is all around us.” And that is important because it tells us that we are not praying to someone who is in a galaxy far, far away, but to someone who is right here with us now. And finally there was the “what” problem. And with this we noted that the first thing Jesus teaches us to pray for is the hallowing of God’s name, in other words we are to pray that each one of us and the world in which we live would come to attach appropriate worth to who God is.

So we have prayed, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Jesus’ next lesson in the school of prayer is this: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” How might we unpack this sentence so that it helps us in our prayer life?

The most obvious thing to say is that it is all about the reign of God. God’s Kingdom is where God’s will is done. Full stop, no equivocation. Now at the moment that is confined to heaven – there what God says, goes. But if we are to pray that God’s will be done here on earth in the same way that it is done now in heaven we need to actually stop for a moment and ask, “Well what is heaven like?

I wonder if anyone would like to share with us what your picture of heaven is like?

One picture of heaven, or what it will be like when God’s Kingdom comes in all its fulness is described for us right at the end of the Bible in Revelations  Ch. 21: 1-7 and we’re going to listen to it now.......

What a beautiful picture that is, permanently being in the intimate presence of God, knowing ourselves to be his children. A place where there is no more suffering. A place where God meets our every need.

What would our lives be like if that were the case now? Well I guess doctors would be unemployed instead of overstretched. There’d certainly not be the nightmare of roadworks at Chievely because we would know the reality of what Dick Whittington dreamed of – roads that were paved with gold. There would be no such things as power cuts to disrupt the normal routine of life because the glory of God himself would provide more than enough light and power for us all. There would be no such things as the burden of debt or interest rates and there would certainly be no questionmarks over the integrity of the one governing us. A far off dream? Well Jesus tells us to pray for it to come true, not necessarily in those details but I think you get my drift.

One of my favourite descriptions of what life will be like when God reigns in all his glory is provided by C S Lewis right at the end of his classic tale, “The Last Battle”, which is the final installement of the Narnia Chronicles. He puts it like this:

“The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

So we have just a glimpse of what God’s reign in heaven is like and what it will be like when his Kingdom comes in all its fulness. But when Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God it was not just in terms of the not yet but the now as well. He did not just speak about life in a magical Kingdom somewhere over the rainbow. As far as he was concerned the Kingdom of God is grounded in the here and now and the will of God is to be sought after and lived out on a daily basis. The prime example of this can be found in our next reading which is from Mt. 26.

What a lot there is to learn about prayer here in the example of the Master! First it teaches us the necessity of prayer even when the hard times seem intolerable. When the most crucial and demanding action in the world’s history was about to happen, it had to be rooted in prayer. Jesus knew it was essential.

Second, it teaches us the value of shared prayer. Jesus longed for the encouragement of sharing this prayer time with his disciples, but they were too tired, and they failed him.

Third it teaches us that there is value in repeated prayer. Jesus himself prays here three times for the same thing. He prayed with all his heart that the cup of suffering which he could see awaiting him might be taken away. Such prayer isn’t like the many words of the pagans who keep on babbling; such repetition Jesus himself condemns in the Sermon on the Mount. No, it is about showing God that we mean business. It is all too easy, shallow and cheap to pray and walk away and think no more about it. To keep on praying indicates both determination and confidence, and demonstrates a note of seriousness that is a vital part of intercessory prayer.

And finally this account discloses something to us of the mystery of unanswered prayer. This prayer of Jesus himself, who enjoyed the most intimate relationship with his Father, was not answered, at least not positively. There’s a remarkable passage in the letter to the Hebrews which tells us that Jesus “offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” He was heard. But the answer was not in the affirmative. Not for him the almost blasphemous suggestion that ‘anything you ask’ will be granted in prayer if you believe enough. He had utter trust, perfect relationship with God, passionate sincerity and he was heard. But he was not answered in the affirmative. Hebrews again says, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and… became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” That was it. God the Father, in his inscrutable wisdom had to say “No” to the content of his Son’s prayer. Otherwise there would have been no salvation for anyone and the Kingdom would have shattered in pieces. Jesus had prayed, “If it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” May your will be done, and the Father took him at his word. The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane shows that we can be close to God, live a holy life, and pray with faith, earnestness and expectancy, and yet not get what we ask for. But in a strange sort of way that is exactly what Jesus is talking about when he teaches us to pray to God, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It is a prayer teaching us to try and align our will with God’s. It is about submitting to the voice of God’s Spirit prompting us. It is Jesus telling us that when we pray we should pray that each one of us and the world as a whole would come to submit to God’s will. It is about asking him to hurry along the day when his will will be done on earth in exactly the same way it is done in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

“You’ll never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you’ve got!”I think Mother Teressa touched the heart of what this part of the Lord’s prayer is all about when she said those words. “You’ll never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you’ve got!” When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” I think he was encouraging them to live in daily dependence on God. And that is what is at the heart of both of our readings this evening.

The passage we heard from just a few verses after the Lord’s Prayer in Mt’s gospel makes it perfectly clear that if we live in daily dependence on God he will provide all we need and we will experience a huge decrease in the level of worry and anxiety that we tend to carry round with us in life.

And when Jesus said these words the minds of the disciples and the crowd would automatically have turned back in their history to the passage we heard from the book of Exodus – the story of God’s miraculous provision of food for his people. And it is a fascinating story. The Israelites have just been delivered from Egypt and the hand of Pharaoh. They have seen God’s hand at work through the plagues, the guidance provided by the pillars of cloud and fire and the parting of the Red Sea, so you’d expect that they would be quite happy to live in daily dependence on God but actually what we hear is, “if only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! At least there we had food to eat but now we are going to starve to death in the desert!” The children of God were acting like ungrateful, spoilt little children and like an angry parent Moses wants to tell them off. But then we see the gracious hand of the Lord at work, not just to feed his people but to teach them and all of us who follow in their footsteps a vital lesson about trust and dependence.

You know the story, and this is just fantastic news for me. No need for a diet because God provides my favourite breakfast cereal for them – frosted flakes. And this bread from heaven he calls manna. And as with his name “Yahweh”, which means “I am what I am,” so “manna” actually means “it is what it is!” It reminds me of those times when I sat down at the dinner table at school and a friend would say, “what is it?” of the unrecognisable congealed mess on offer. And you’d think, “I have absolutely no idea – it is what it is!”

And I guess the Israelites must have got quite creative with their menus. Imagine 40 years of nothing but bread and quails! Perhaps they had manna burgers, or roasted manna or manna cakes, or even manna pudding. God did not provide luxuries but he provided more than enough. And when you do the maths you get some quite astonishing figures. The passage tells us that the people gathered an omer of manna per person per day. An omer is about 2 litres. And experts estimate that there were probably between 2 and 3 million people. That equates to some 73 billion litres of manna over 40 years. That is one huge food mountain and it is an illustration of God’s generosity towards his people.

It’s quite a simple equation really. Dependence on God plus God’s faithfulness and provision equals the possibility of a worry free life. But we don’t tend to see it like that do we? We tend to think more along the lines of huge responsibilities minus limited natural resources equals stress related illnesses! If only we could truly come to terms with the idea that God is the creator and sustainer of life!

But what does this daily dependence on God actually refer to? Well there are all sorts of ideas about what Jesus was speaking about. My own view, for what it’s worth is that when he taught his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he was talking not just about literal food but about all that we need to live. And note I said need not want. I think he was very definitely talking about food. God provided it for the Israelites. Jesus provided it for all sorts of people throughout his ministry, most notably through the feeding of the 5000. And God continues to provide more than enough food to feed the whole world. The provision of food is not the problem but the distribution. Even in the Ex passage we saw the greed of people on display. That is an issue that we as members of the human family have to work on.

But I also think Jesus was speaking about life in general and even spiritual life. At the time that he was speaking to his disciples, most people worked on daily contracts as the parable of the workers demonstrates. They literally did not know whether there would be any work the next day and therefore any food. And when you add to that the whole thrust of the Sermon on the Mount you have to say that Jesus is encouraging people to place their whole lives before God in daily dependence. Then Add to that St. John’s teaching about Jesus as the true bread from heaven who gives life to the world through his broken body on the cross and I am convinced that asking God for our daily bread is also about the strength and grace to face all that life throws at us.

It seems to me that when we add this teaching to the previous phrases of the Lord’s prayer it places 4 issues before us about our attitude towards life and God. First it is about having an attitude of gratitude and not grumbling. When we actually recognise God’s provision in our lives the only appropriate response is thanksgiving and that brings joy and faith.

Second, it is about an attitude of submission not stubbornness. If we are constantly fighting with God’s plan for our lives then we will not know the peace that he offers. We will instead be plagued by worry.

Third, we should seek an attitude of dependence not determination. We have already prayed, “your will be done.” If we can submit ourselves to God to this degree we will be totally dependent on God. And that brings us to the fourth attitude. It is one of trusting not being troubled. Perhaps, like some of the Israelites we don’t actually trust that the manna will be there tomorrow and that causes worry to rise in our hearts. Worry is an enemy of trust but dependence builds trust. When you are used to relying on God and seeing his provision it becomes even easier to continue to rely on him.

Dallas Willard, an American theologian writes something which I think hits the nail on the head in terms of the attitude Jesus is encouraging in his disciples. He says this, “Today I have God and he has the provisions. Tomorrow it will be exactly the same.” It is a response that demonstrates an attitude towards God of gratitude, submission, dependence and trust. At the end of the day, if the God we are praying to is our Father in heaven, the creator and sustainer of all things and if we are seeking his will to be done in our lives as it is in heaven, then trusting that he will provide for our needs is not actually that big an ask. When we actually recognise who it is that we are speaking to we should be better able to put the concerns of this life into their proper perspective – we are loved and cared for by the creator of the very universe in which we live. He will not let us down.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

I want to talk about debt for a bit this evening because I think it is at the heart of the Christian gospel. So what does it mean to have a debtor? Let’s start on the financial level because debt is easy to understand here. When you incur a debt, who has to pay it off? Apparently it’s a bit trickier than I thought. Ok, how about this one: how many of you have ever incurred a debt – either a mortgage, or a car loan, or a credit or store card bill? How many of you have ever incurred a debt? And how many of you found that no one offered to pay it off for you? There’s a very simple rule about debt, you owe, you pay!

And you can test this if you don’t’ believe me. Next time you’re in town, go into the bank and ask to speak to the manager and say to them, “This debt that I’ve got, it’s just too much for me, it’s hampering my lifestyle and it’s just so depressing so I don’t want to pay it back, ok?” And see how they respond. People who loan money tend to be quite touchy about this kind of thing. You have to pay it back or you get a visit from some guy called Vito! We have a phrase for people on the street who lend money and are determined to get it back. It’s an aquatic animal metaphor. They are called a loan…shark. Not a loan bunny! Not some sort of pleasant little animal. They know the rule, you owe, you pay!

Now Jesus says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Debts means, “forgive us God for the way that we’ve sinned against you.” You and I have a mountain of moral debt that we can’t pay off. But you’ve also been sinned against. Each one of us has not just been the perpetrator of sin but the victim of it as well. We all have our debtors – people we thought we could trust who have hurt us or said bad things about us, or been jealous of us. Someone who belittled us or withheld affection or betrayed us.

Maybe someone in your church is a difficult person to get on with – there are some in every church. When I was in Lancashire at one of my churches we used to keep them all in a little group together – we called them stewards! We have all been victims of sin and this brings us to a spiritual crossroads of immense proportions. What are you going to do with people who have sinned against you? How motivated are you to extend grace to your debtors? Maybe, if we’re honest, the truth is that extending grace to our debtors is petty low on our order of priorities. And what's worrying is that we don't really seem to expect people to forgive others, even in the church. I regularly uncover stories of people who have been hurt by things that have happened within the life of the Church but no attempt at forgiveness has ever been made. Now I want every one of us here tonight to be perfectly clear on what Jesus thinks of this. I want to think not just about a single phrase but a bout a single word, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” I think it’s one of the most sobering words in the Bible this little word “as”.

Jesus is making a correlation here between the way you and I treat our debtors and the way that God will treat us. So let’s think about this parable that Jesus told which is, in effect, a commentary on this little word “as”.

Peter has a debtor and wants to know about forgiveness so as he often does Jesus tells a story. “Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.” And there’s one who owes him 10000 talents. He and all his family are to be sold as slaves because they can’t pay the debt. And let’s think about the size of this debt. In Jesus day one talent was a vast sum of money. In a whole year all the taxes collected in Judea and Samaria to go to Rome added up to 600 talents. So 10000 talents is a number too high to calculate. It’s like the gross national debt.

Now already at this point in the story several things would be very clear to the crowd listening. First, how would a slave come into possession of such riches, because Kings aren’t in the habit of giving national debt size loans to slaves? There’s just one answer – the King in this story is a character of staggering generosity. This is a King of the generous heart.

Then second, the crowd would be thinking what sort of slave would take such a huge sum of money and blow the lot without giving a moment’s thought to how he was going to pay it back. This is a character of unbelievable stupidity.

Then the third striking fact is that the King of the lavish provision is also the King of the settled account. He is committed to justice. He’s not the kind of King who is just going to overlook something like this. Now, Matthew understood about settled accounts. Its no surprise he is the only gospel author to record this story as he was a tax collector and tax collectors understand about settled accounts.

So the time comes for the pronouncement of judgement and the king says, “sell them all.” End of sentence, next case. And this judgement would have been of no surprise to Jesus’ audience because they knew the rule – you owe, you pay! But then it gets interesting. Something happens in the mind of the servant and he goes for broke. He fell on his knees and pleaded, “Be patient with me and I will pay you back everything I owe.” Now what are the odds of an unemployed slave being able to pay back a national debt size loan? It’s a joke; it’s just not going to happen. And Jesus’ listeners know what to expect, they know the rule – you owe, you pay. But then Jesus says the King is moved by compassion and he does 2 things. First, he releases the man, no prison; he saves his family and gives him back his home. But then he goes way beyond that and forgives the debt. Now this is a mountain of debt that isn’t just going to disappear. Someone has to pay the debt and take the loss. Who pays? The King pays. He’s offering a whole new system of debt management – you owe, I’ll pay! This is the economy of grace. The King says, “I will pay the unpayable debt.” It’s all grace.

Now how does this apply to us? Well, this is a story about the human race. This is your story. Jesus says, “There is a God who is lavishly generous and painstakingly just and human beings have accumulated a mountain of unpayable moral debt and you add to it all of the time through the way that you live. Everytime you tell a lie or withhold affection, everytime you fudge a tax return or tell a racist joke or don’t use a gift God has given you, every judgemental attitude you hold is adding to this mountain.” Now I’ve been in ministry for 7 years trying to encourage people in their spiritual growth and it took me less than 30 seconds to come up with that small list – you know why? Because my wife has done every one of those things! I’ll pay for that. No, I’ll be clear – that’s me, that list is me. But one day the King came to me and said, “You owe, I’ll pay” – and he comes to each of us and says the same. And it cost him the life of his Son. We owe everything to grace.

That’s the first act of this story. In the 2^nd act we see the forgiven servant go out and come across a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii. This time he is the one who is owed money and his fellow servant says precisely the same words to him that he had said to the King.

Now Jesus’ listeners would expect surely that he would show the same grace and mercy that he had received. They are both debtors. It’s not a slave and a King but 2 slaves. For a forgiven debtor to withhold grace from a fellow debtor would be unthinkable. And this time around the debt is eminently payable, its lunch money. The second debtor is making an infinitely smaller request and for the first to be forgiven a mountain of debt and to withhold an ounce of debt – it’s just unthinkable. Jesus’ listeners know this man would show grace because his life has just been saved by grace. In a tiny way he could do for this man what the King has done for him.

So imagine the shock of the crowd when in this man who had been saved by grace there is no compassion. He doesn’t forgive the debt or even give the man time to pay it back. He just has him thrown straight in prison. He violates in every way the King who has just shown him mercy. And here’s the deal – from the way Jesus told this story, I wonder if the man ever got grace in the first place. This first servant never actually asked for grace – he asked for the works plan. Remember he said, “I will pay you back everything I owe. I can take care of the debt myself.” And when grace was given there was no response of thanks or brokeness. He never really got grace he just wanted to get off the hook and there is a world of difference between wanting to be forgiven and just wanting to get off the hook.

But again, how does this apply to us? You know, I’m like the slave in this story. I know what it is to withhold grace and forgiveness. I know what words and actions will inflict the most pain on the ones I love and sometimes I go ahead and say them. And I’m like this slave because the debt that God has forgiven me is infinitely greater than those my debtors owe me. In fact, I’m the biggest debtor I know. I don’t know about your debts because they are between you and God but I know about mine. I know my failings as a Father and my shortcomings as a husband and as a Minister. I know the ways I’d like my character to be different. I know ways that sin keeps me from being and doing what God wants. I’m the biggest debtor I know. And you know what, you are the biggest debtor you know. And in light of that to withhold grace from some other poor debtor is just unthinkable, it’s just unacceptable.

The other servants see what happens and they are greatly distressed because this is someone who has been forgiven and saved by grace, someone within what we would call the Christian community. This is a parable about life inside the Kingdom, not outside it. And so we should be greatly distressed when we see grace and forgiveness withheld by people who are supposedly part of the Kingdom.

So in your church, when grace is withheld, do you get distressed by it? Do you talk to the King about it? Do you do everything in your power to make sure people live together in grace and forgiveness or do you just get used to gracelessness? In God’s kingdom it’s unacceptable and unthinkable.

And then there’s the final act. And this time it’s a different story. The King says, “You didn’t get it at all, did you? You have badly misunderstood me my friend. You thought grace meant that I was some kind of fuzzy minded incompetent that would let you get away with whatever you wanted. You thought you could just stay the same as you were before. You were badly mistaken. You were shown mercy, grace, love and forgiveness and it’s made no difference to you. Have it your way. Take him away,” the King says, “until he shall pay back the unpayable debt.”

Just look at verse 34, “In anger the King turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he payed back all he owed.” And then one of the most frightening verses in the whole Bible says, “This is how my Father in heaven will treat everyone of you unless you forgive one another from your heart.”

Jesus could not make it any clearer – forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. We’ve all got some debtors – what are we going to do about them? Are we going to follow the path of vengeance or are we going to wish them well before God? Amen

  II.  "I Have Prayed For You, Peter" (Luke 22:31, 32, 40-46; 23:34).

Luke 23:34 (New International Version)

III.  "Teach Us to Pray" (Luke 11:1-4).

Luke 11:1-4 (New International Version)

IV.  "Give Us This Day" (Matt. 6:11-13).
Matthew 6:11-13 (New International Version)

  V.  Jesus' Principles of Prayer (Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-14). 18:1-14).

Luke 11:5-13 (New International Version)

18:1-14).

Luke 18:14 (New International Version)