FULL CIRCLE!

Rev Sjirk Bajema

 

Sermon 2 on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 52 (Q & A 128-129)

Scripture Reading: Psalm 115

 

Church of the Lord Jesus Christ…

 

Before we consider the way we end our prayers, let’s reflect on what has made up our prayer so far. We note that we began praying by looking up to where the Lord is – “Our Father who art in heaven.”

Here is child-like faith. We know our place. To sum up, this is HIS POSITION.

 

And as we do that we know that we have to respect Him for who He is. So the first request is, “Hallowed be thy name.”

He is worthy of all our praise. What He does proves it. The way we treat His Name shows if we believe that. This way, dear believer, we put it all in HIS PERSPECTIVE.

 

From there we ask that He, and all the greatness of who He is, continue to move in this world. For the second request is “Thy kingdom come.” We want to be part of what He’s doing, because by faith it’s exactly what we are doing. That’s HIS PROCESS. It’s through His Kingdom, and by us as citizens of His Kingdom, that He rules as Sovereign LORD.

 

But that needs to come from within. There has to be the power below that there is above. So we pray next, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Congregation, this is HIS PRESENCE. It’s what makes the difference so that we can work as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven.

 

And then there are HIS PROVISIONS. Now we pray asking direct practical help through giving us our daily bread, forgiving our debts, and by keeping us away from temptation, for we need to be delivered from the evil one.

 

It’s a handy summary – HIS POSITION, HIS PERSPECTIVE, HIS PROCESS, HIS PRESENCE, and HIS PROVISIONS. But what then?

 

Well, by the earliest and most reliable original manuscripts, the Lord’s Prayer ends right here. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” was where it ended. And, actually, it’s where it can end! Because everything is covered in this.

 

Yet, some time in early New Testament church history a scribe added those words we have before us now. He wrote, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

Somehow he wanted to round it off. He wanted to bring it back to who God is – to HIS POSITION.

For many centuries this is how the Church said it. Though we know it doesn’t directly belong, we can still use it if it’s scriptural. And so we ask the question: Do the prayers in the Bible often end this way?

“Yes,” we say, “they do.” The Psalms, Revelation, and the end of Romans 11 shows this.

Why do they end this way? “Ah,” we say, “because they’re going to end their prayers respecting God’s position.”

 

You see, we don’t want to leave without saying goodbye. We have come before Almighty God; we began by addressing His majesty and grace; and that’s the way we want to end.

If we have a meeting with the Queen, we don’t act correctly by just leaving when we’ve had enough. We humbly ask for her ‘leave.’

We’ve deeply appreciated meeting her; she is important; she did invite you; so you kindly mention that you are leaving. It’s a simple courtesy. And not only for her, this should be done for whenever we leave a function to which we have been specially invited.

 

We can use this last phrase in the Lord’s Prayer in this way as well. For it is, in the first place, LIFTING IT UP. And, then, secondly, praying this way means, LEAVING IT UP. LIFTING IT UP… LEAVING IT UP.

 

Lifting it up

Firstly, LIFTING IT UP. That’s what we do when we pray, “For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.”

Looking beyond the way in which God provides for our needs, we raise our praise to the Lord. In the words of Psalm 115:1, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”

He is the Almighty and all-loving One. And looking at this last phrase we declare why He is. To Him belongs “the kingdom.”

 

And let’s not think here of a world power – with land, people and wealth. This is “the kingdom” because of the King! This is where God is King, Jesus is Lord, and He has the royal power. Who are we but humble subjects before His Majesty?

 

And His is “the power”. In the Greek this is ‘dynamis’. Today we use that in the word ‘dynamite’! So it’s explosive. It definitely changes things!

From God’s Word, the Bible, we know this to be the power that made the world and everything in it. This is the power that works wonders. This is the power which will bring judgment. This is the power which defends His people.

There is no power like God’s power. In contrast, how powerless we are!

 

A man who was one of the world’s most powerful at one time, Napoleon Bonaparte, was speaking with General Bertrand when he was in exile on the Atlantic island of St. Helena. That general was saying that Jesus, intelligent though he was, was yet only a man. To this Napoleon replied, “I know men, and I can tell you that Jesus is not a man… You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, and their conquests, and of the enthusiasm they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests with an army faithful and totally devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me, even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power! A single battle lost crushes us, and adversity scatters our friends.

I have so inspired multitudes that they would die for me… the lightning of my eye, my voice, a word from me, then the sacred fire was kindled in their hearts. I do, indeed, possess the secret of this magical power, which lifts the soul, but I could never impart it to anyone. None of my generals have learned it from me; nor have I the means of perpetuating my name and love for me in the hearts of men. Now that I am at St. Helena, now that I am alone… who fights and wins for me?”

 

Napoleon acknowledged his own weakness and frailty. He knew that he would never be like Jesus Christ!

 

And God’s is “the glory”. He is all worthy and completely impressive. And we need to say that he’s always like that – even the man or woman with the most glory amongst us only achieves a tiny fraction of this by human achievement.

But God’s glory isn’t only what He has done, it’s who He is! His glory is established in His very nature. That’s what He is!

So great is this glory that no one can see His face. And when His glory filled the tabernacle and temple, no-one else could be there!

 

It’s this glory we can see all around us. In the words of Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.’

LIFTING IT UP. As our Confession in Answer 128 concludes, “your holy name, and not we ourselves, should receive all the praise, forever.” As we pray, we are utterly genuine about what we pray. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.”

 

There’s so much that sense of everything which we aren’t! Even that word “forever.”

We are like the flowers of the field. For a short time they bloom and then they die. That’s how the apostle Peter pictures us in his first letter. But when he comes to describing the Lord Peter acknowledges that He is the complete opposite! He always blooms! “The word of the Lord stands forever,” he says.

 

Leaving it up

So our prayer closes by LIFTING IT UP. And we must conclude LEAVING IT UP. Our second point.

The prayer ends – “Amen!” The strongest possible affirmation to all that we’ve just communed with our Lord about.

 

Prayer isn’t wishful thinking, or talking into the air. We know who’s there, listening. We believe He’s going to answer it the right way.

But let’s also admit something. How often haven’t we taken this “Amen to mean “it’s over,” “it’s finished,” “the end”? Some people think “Amen” means “the end” because it’s the “Amen” that wakes them up at the end of the sermon!

But “Amen” is much more than that! It is so rich and so full. By saying “Amen”, we express that what we have just prayed is firm, dependable, certain, and true.

 

In the Old Testament when the word was used, it was usually in the response of the people to some warning or promise given to them by the LORD. In Deuteronomy 27:15-26, at the end of each verse there is an instruction: “Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’”

 

In the Gospels our Lord Jesus often began His teachings by saying, “I tell you the truth.” Literally He was saying then, “Amen, I say to you.” It’s the strongest way of saying that what our Lord was about to say was certain and reliable.

 

And when “Amen” is used in New Testament letter at the end of prayers, it’s like an exclamation mark, or bold print, or underlining. “This is sure to be!” it says.

Answer 129 quite scripturally reflects God’s Word. And how much aren’t we LEAVING IT UP when we confess, “It is even more sure that God listens to my prayer, than that I really desire what I pray for.”

 

Congregation, by faith we leave our prayer with God. This is what Paul means when he says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

 

How can we be so sure? Simply because of Him who is our surety! Through the blood of the Lamb who sealed the promises of God we have that direct line with the Heavenly Father. Any time, any place, any where – He is there.

 

Not that He’s waiting for us anxiously, somehow dependent on our choice. He’s not the God some Christians say needs us to affirm Him before He can act in our lives. He’s the God who humbles us onto our knees – He who’s position, perspective, process, presence and provisions, make us eternally blessed by faith in Christ, He is sure to listen.

 

Here is the reason we often end our prayers with another special phrase. Can you think of it? Is it only ‘Amen’ that we say at the end of our prayers?

 

Ah, we also often say, “in Jesus’ Name,” don’t we? Through our Lord we have had the way opened for us to the Father. By the doing and dying of Jesus Christ the curtain hanging between us and God’s throne has been forever torn away! It’s pleading upon His sacrifice that is the only requirement for being able to enter into God’s presence. Through Christ, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:20, “the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

It’s through Christ’s Name that our greatest humbling occurs. For that really puts us in our place! Then we see things as they truly are!

 

In the words of Horatius Bonar,

 

“I bless the Christ of God;

I rest on love divine;

And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Saviour mine.

‘Tis He that saveth me

And freely pardon gives;

I love because He loveth me; I live because He lives.”

 

We cannot get away from this. And when we properly finish our prayer to God we will always confess it.

 

Think about it. If that’s how He ends His Word to us in Scripture, we should be blessed by doing it, too. For there it is in Revelation 22: 20-21, the very last verses in the Bible – both in our physical books and historically. There in the very last words of revelation written, the Spirit says, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with God’s people. Amen.”

 

 

PRAYER:

Let’s pray…

O Heavenly Father, You are so far beyond anything we could ever imagine or do, and yet You who has come near in Christ Jesus, Your dearly loved Son and our Saviour; please so move our hearts by the Spirit that our prayer, our communing with You, is a lifting up, and a leaving up!

Please forgive us for the many times we were not humble. Make us Your children again. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.