Rev. David Holwick S Lord's Prayer, #8
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 2, 2013
Matthew 6:13c
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I. You need an old Bible.
A. Newer versions omit this verse.
1) (I read verse from the old communion table Bible.)
2) It is usually mentioned in a footnote that says the earliest
manuscripts do not include it.
3) You will find that some Christians don't say it when they
do the Lord's Prayer.
a) It is one of the easiest ways to identify Catholics and
Protestants at a wedding or funeral - Catholics
go silent after "deliver us from evil."
b) They don't even say "amen" like we do.
B. You can dispute the verse but not the content.
1) Several other Bible verses are similar.
2) Just as the Lord's Prayer begins by addressing God, it is
appropriate to end it by giving praise to God.
3) We need to remind ourselves who is really in charge here.
II. Why some verses are missing.
A. It is a serious issue.
1) The book of Revelation concludes with a curse - Rev 22:18-29
"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of
this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will
add to him the plagues described in this book.
And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy,
God will take away from him his share in the tree of
life..."
a) Many Christians expand this beyond Revelation, to say
that you should not add to, or cut from, the Bible.
b) That is why we reject the Book of Mormon, which Mormons
consider an inspired writing.
2) Most modern Bibles leave out a number of verses.
a) The usual argument is that the earliest Bibles do not
have them.
b) The scholars who composed them argue they are not
cutting verses from the Bible, but that earlier
monks ADDED verses to it.
1> There goal is to have a Bible that is just like
the original.
3) It helps to understand how the Bible has come to us.
B. Inspired by God, but copied by hand.
1) Until the printing press, all Bibles were handwritten.
a) Each was a little different.
b) The originals are now lost, so all we have are these
copies, plus early translations.
2) There is a tendency for certain things to creep in.
a) Slight differences between the gospels disappear in
later copies.
b) Consider the Lord's Prayer in Matthew and Luke.
1> Luke's version is much shorter - in modern Bibles.
A> Just like the Catholics, there is no doxology
or amen.
2> In the King James Version, they are about the same.
A> Monks deliberately harmonized these passages.
B> Handwritten Bibles that are more recent tend to
have more harmonization.
C> The King James reflects the late consensus.
c) Passages that were used in worship were embellished
to reflect current usage.
1> For the ending of the Lord's Prayer, some late
manuscripts add "for ever and ever."
2> Still others have "for thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory of the Father and the
Son and of the Holy Spirit forever. Amen."
C. Scholars put more confidence in the earliest Bibles.
1) We have entire Bibles from the time of Constantine, and
papyrus portions from the second century.
2) These few manuscripts from the earliest centuries carry
the most weight with scholars.
D. Don't think that the Bible is only a mishmash.
1) The total number of changes is small.
2) Scholars can draw upon thousands of ancient manuscripts
to come to their decisions.
3) They are confident that the Bible we have now is very
close to the original writings.
III. How do you end a prayer?
A. Most experts agree that the Lord's Prayer would have an ending.
1) Jews almost always did this.
2) The Lord's Prayer is a model prayer.
a) You follow the themes when you pray and add your own
material.
b) The ending is something you do yourself.
3) While the ending we use is probably not original, it fits
other prayers in the Bible.
B. David's doxology. 1 Chronicles 29:11
1) David wanted to build a temple for God.
a) He wasn't allow to, but he did compose the blueprints,
under inspiration, and gather building materials.
b) Other leaders spontaneously gave lots of gold and gems
for the work.
2) David responded by praising God in front of everyone.
"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the
glory and the majesty and the splendor, for
everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as
head over all."
a) In a nutshell, that is our ending to the Lord's Prayer.
1> God is great and powerful.
2> God owns everything.
3> God rules over everyone.
b) We should start our prayers by focusing on God, and we
should end them the same way.
IV. Things you should remember when you pray.
A. God is in charge.
1) All kingdoms belong to him, including America.
a) He rules the governments of the world.
b) The sober example of the Soviet Union.
About 100 years ago, a philosophy known as Marxism spread
across Russia.
Marx thought religion was the opium of the masses.
Faith kept everyone happy but stupid and enslaved.
The way to free people was to put them in communes where
they would share everything alike.
When the communists took over, they did everything they
could to stamp out religion.
Tens of thousands of monks and priests were killed.
Churches were converted into warehouses and factories.
Baptists were a small group, but most of the pastors were
put in prison.
Twenty years ago, the communists were thrown out of power.
The church there is stronger than ever.
You can fight God, but you cannot win.
Sermon #64031
2) God has a better government in mind, his perfect kingdom.
a) We don't see it yet, but Jesus has promised it.
b) When it comes, it will be ruled perfectly by God.
B. God has the power.
1) He is not limited, and he is not weak.
2) He can give us our daily bread, or anything else we need.
a) When we doubt or worry, we are saying God's power
is not enough for me.
b) If you believe that God does have the power, you
will have a different attitude.
c) When we don't get what we want, we must understand that
God gives us what we really need, when we need it.
3) God is not just the "God of the Good Times."
Some of us have constructed a God of the good times.
When our prayers are answered and life is going our way, we
say, "God is good."
Does that mean when our prayers are unanswered and the job
doesn't come through, or the disease doesn't go away,
does this mean God is no longer good?
If your God is only good during the good times, then your
God is not the God of the Bible.
A few years ago Rev. Ray Pritchard's oldest son and a few
friends survived a terrible crash in the family's van.
All of them ended up in the hospital and they could easily
have been killed.
During a Thanksgiving morning worship service Ray's wife
stood and said something like this:
"We are very grateful that God spared our son and his
friends.
Many people have said, 'God was certainly good to you.'
Ray and I believe that with all our hearts.
But I want to say that even if our son and his friends
had died, God would still have been good whether we
understood it or not."
Pastor Pritchard says he believes every word of that is
true, but he was unnerved when she said it.
As he gave it more thought, he concluded that faith is
not a feeling based on our circumstances.
True biblical faith chooses to believe that God is who he
said he is and that he will do what he said he will do.
Sometimes you choose to believe because of what you see,
often you believe in spite of what you can see.
Many things in life remain mysterious and unanswerable.
But if there is no God, and if he is not good, then nothing
at all makes sense.
Ray concluded:
"I have chosen to believe because I must believe.
I truly have no other choice.
Along with millions of believers across the centuries I
have learned through my tears that my only confidence
is in God and God alone."
#64122
4) He can give us forgiveness.
a) Only God can forgive sins.
b) When we forgive, we are really asking God to do the
forgiving.
C. God deserves our praise.
1) Glory is God's essential attribute - he glows.
a) Of course, it is about more than being radiant.
b) God's glory involves his purity and majesty and
2) He is to be hallowed by us.
V. God is forever.
A. Forever is a long time.
1) It is popular to think God is something people made up a
few thousand years ago, and no longer needed.
2) We believe he has always existed, and always will.
3) Our planet will one day be reduced to dust, but God will
remain.
B. Amen.
1) Amen is Hebrew for "so be it."
2) We cannot make our prayers come true, but we desire them
to come true.
3) We must leave it in God's hands, for him to decide.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
I am indebted to Rev. Dr. Ray Pritchard’s sermon “Praying From the
Footnotes” (March 1, 2009; Kerux Sermon #64031) for several areas of
my message. Ray’s website is http://www.keepbelieving.com.
#64122 “Not Just The God of The Good Times,” Rev. Dr. Ray Pritchard,
from his sermon “Praying From the Footnotes,” March 1, 2009.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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