AN EXTRA THOUGHT FROM THE SERMON: “THE LORD’S PRAYER PART 1 – OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN” ON 11-6-22
To Whom do we pray – which Person of the Trinity? We pray to our Triune God and thus pray to all three “Persons” at once when we pray to God. For they are one in Being, Substance, Power, Glory, Perfections, Will etc. “But we are taught in The Lord’s Prayer by Jesus to say ‘Father’” … Yes, and don’t lose the significance of that privilege, but we can also call out to “God”, we can call out to “Jesus”, we call upon the name of “The Lord” … This goes back to the Old Testament (OT) and how God revealed Himself from the beginning – What is His OT Hebrew name – YHWH, “I AM”, and in the ancient Greek translations of the OT, the ones that New Testament (NT) writers quoted, thus validating its translation, that name is rendered “Ego Eimi” (Greek for “I AM”). This is significant because Jesus takes this exact name upon Himself on multiple occasions, two of which are recorded powerfully in the book of John:
1. John 8:56–59 (ESV) 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
So, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was I AM” … And then the Jewish religious leaders tried to stone him. Why? For, what was in their eyes, blasphemously taking the name of YHWH upon himself;
2. Another time was when the soldiers came to Gethsemane to arrest him,
John 18:4–6 (ESV) 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” … (Original Greek: Ego Eimi – I AM)… Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” (Again: Ego Eimi – I AM) they drew back and fell to the ground.
So, when he says, who are you looking for, and they say Jesus of Nazareth, he says “I AM” – This is saying Jesus of Nazareth is I AM (YHWH). To make sure we get the significance of the power of Jesus’ “I AM” statement again, John tells us what happened when Jesus said these words: “[the whole company of soldiers and leaders who came to arrest him] fell backward.” Jesus is I AM. Jesus is YHWH, the very God who revealed Himself in the Old Testament to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, etc. (Sometimes older English versions of the Bible translated YHWH as Jehovah, which is where we get the name Jehovah for God … Jesus is Jehovah).
The Holy Spirit is also called God in Acts 5:3-4 (Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, which Peter says is lying to God). So, when you pray “Father”, you are praying to the Triune God – 1 in Being, 3 in Person – 1 in 3, 3 in 1. Someone should say, “But Jesus is Son, not Father” – That is true and good thinking – As it pertains to God the Father, yes, Jesus is God the Son, not the Father, but as it pertains to us, Jesus is Son and also Father – Why? Because Jesus created us: Col 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. Also see John 1:1 – The Word (Jesus) was both WITH God and WAS God. If that blows our minds, it is as it should be.
The same is true of the Holy Spirit – as we see the Spirit involved in Creation in Genesis 1:2-3 And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
All Persons of the Trinity are involved in our Creation. Similarly, all Person of the Trinity are involved in our “New Creation”, that is the new spiritual person we become in our salvation by grace through faith. Someone should also say, “But Jesus is our brother”. And again, that is true and good thinking. Jesus, God the Son, incarnated as a man, is our brother as it pertains to his humanity (his human nature) … AND he is also our Father as it pertains to his divinity (his divine nature). Jesus is both God and man, meaning he has two natures, human and divine. This is Orthodox Christianity as worked out in the earliest councils of the Church – Nicea and Chalcedon – and reaffirmed in the Reformation and throughout the history of the Bible-believing Church.
All of that to say, when we pray to God, whether we say “God, Father, Lord, Jehovah, YHWH, I AM, Jesus, Holy Spirit”, we are praying to Him as Trinity. We don’t have to think about that too much, but that hopefully answers a question of “to whom we pray” that I know I’ve had and many of you may have also had.
Can you pray to a specific member of the Trinity if you want? – Yes, especially when it applies theologically to a situation … Maybe you say, “Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for me” … In Rev 5, there is distinct praise to the Lamb who was slain … Maybe you say, “Holy Spirit please guide me in truth, change me … or please convict so and so of their sin … But, it would also be perfectly right to have prayed that to God or Lord or Father as Trinity rather than a specific member of the Trinity.
So, as a general practice, we pray to our glorious, eternal, all sufficient, all powerful, all wise, altogether perfect, TRIUNE God. You may have noticed in our prayer of invocation at the beginning of every service, we are calling on God as Trinity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – to be present with us, acknowledging all that He is and distinguishing ourselves and our worship as Biblically Christian.
Our Triune God is our Father. The privilege of calling Him “Father” is a treasure purchased by the blood of Jesus on the cross and applied to those who are in Christ by faith. We should marvel at, be humbled by, and take full advantage of this relationship with God, our Father, in prayer.