This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 5, 1989.

This morning our scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 6, we are reading verses 5 through 15. This is Matthew chapter 6, again the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus dealing with the three pillars of piety, almsgiving prayer and fasting. This morning we are reading the section on prayer once more. Heal the word of God.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. And when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.

After this manner therefore pray Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

The first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer concerning the Father’s name, the Father’s kingdom, the Father’s will. The first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are set to parallel each other. They are read in a line. We are to understand all three in the same light. If you understand one, then you will understand all three. In getting a handle on one, you have in your grasp the meaning of all three.

Now the light in which we are to understand these three petitions is given us in the fifth chapter of Matthew, the twentieth verse, Jesus speaking there about that superlative righteousness, that righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees. a righteousness that is so extraordinary that it is unlike any righteousness of this earth.

Rather, it is the very righteousness of heaven that is given to us by which we then must enter into the kingdom that is promised. Matthew 5 verse 20. This extraordinary heavenly unearthly righteousness is found nowhere but in and through Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, the One who has come from heaven, for the very purpose of making this righteousness plain and clear.

Presently, then, this righteousness asserts itself. It asserts itself to the end that there might be melded in us, that there might be harmonized in us our actions and our thoughts, our doing and our thinking. That consistency reflected in our teachers and also in all citizens, every disciple of the kingdom. This melding, this harmonizing of which I speak at this point is of a peace with heaven itself. Think of heaven. Your word will match your actions perfectly. There will be no contradiction between what you think and what you do in heaven. It isn’t so presently, is it?

Yet, that marvelous righteousness of heaven is asserting itself presently because of the ministry and power of Jesus Christ at work amongst those who are His. Heaven, then, where behavior perfectly matches attitude But even more now, our eyes having been directed to heaven, this righteousness of which we speak works itself out in my conformity to my Father who is in heaven. Verse 48 of that fifth chapter. This righteousness, one more time, works itself out in my conformity to my Father who is in heaven. Therefore be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

But at the very center of this, my conformity unto my Father above, is at the same time his inexplicable conformity unto me here presently in the world, through his Son, through Christ. that one who presently speaks, that one by whom the very administration of heaven is meeting. To the extent then, to which then, to the extent then, to which then, that conformity unto us is laid bare before us in the words of our Savior. To that extent, the love and the purity of heaven is also asserting itself, infruiting upon us here in this creation. The extent to which the Father will go in order to seal that love and purity from heaven in his relationship with us is the cross of Christ. the pattern then not only for his conformity unto us, but our conformity unto him.

He has laid aside all, as if forgetting himself for the sake of you, and now you lay yourself aside for his sake. He places others above Himself, seemingly. In order that His own may be redeemed, we place others above ourselves in conformity to Him. By that cross, the Father in Heaven interprets Himself to us. By that cross, also, I now explain myself to him.

Without that cross, there is no revelation of the righteousness of God from heaven. Without that cross, there is no obedience on my part here in the earth. Now it’s true. The cross at this point is as many as three years away from Christ himself in actual experience.

Yet its weight, its impressive shadow reaches backward and touches every aspect of his public ministry. He states to John the Baptist, at the Jordan River, that it’s necessary for him to undergo a baptism. Think of Jesus being baptized for his own sins. No, but that he might be made conformable even unto us who are sinners, who are in need of baptism. Even then, he says that it’s necessary in order to fulfill all righteousness.

We see the cross. in the baptism of Jesus. Moving on to his teaching, here, Jesus on the mount, delivering these words, speaking the Beatitudes, whether he is giving us the blessings, or expounding upon the law, or presenting his understanding of the three pillars of piety, almsgiving prayer and fasting, the cross is actually the supporting beam upon which the entirety of the message is constructed. Rip out the cross and you have nothing distinctive, nothing Christian. Jesus is just another Jewish rabble. Yet it is this cross that so many cannot see, and sadly even more, cannot accept.

It was, for instance, an earthly and cross-less kingdom the Jews of Jesus’ day expected. They anticipated the advent of the Messiah, the coming of the kingdom. They saw them, the Messiah’s coming, the coming of the kingdom, as one and the same. When the Messiah and the kingdom arrive, then, they judged, all hostility, all opposition, all shame for the people of God, for the nation of Israel will be liberally removed.

In their own convictions, Jesus’ disciples at this point are not especially distinguishable from those who are hostile to him, for they too are earthbound. They too cannot conceive of a crucified Christ. Far be it from thee, Lord, that you should die. But when Jesus speaks, when he gives his message here in the Sermon on the Mount, you see, he is assuming the cross.

His words are an exposition of it. It may not be apparent to us, but you see, it is as hidden as is His Messiahship. It is as hidden, at this point, as is His Kingdom. It’s laid between the lines. And it is the eye of faith that is poised, set, to receive all, to see all, that God would have for his children, that will in fact survey the whole of the territory while surveying the cross.

You see, Jesus, as this message to his disciples begins, talks as if the suffering of his disciples has an indefinite future. What kind of a message is this? What kind of an evangelist is this Jesus? What kind of a teacher is he? He starts out with a message about the indefinite future of the suffering of his disciples. He speaks of their privation. They are poor in spirit. He talks about their sorrow. They are those that mourn. He speaks about their humiliation, the meat. He speaks about their languishing, their hungry and their thirsty.

All of which, all of which are an application, but an application of the cross of Christ to the life of his disciples. The coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom, according to Jesus’ contemporaries, would initiate an era of universal righteousness in which the perfection and the finality of the law of Moses would be apparent to all. And by root of that, swift execution of justice would then be accomplished. We move on to the latter part of Matthew chapter 5 in Jesus’ treatment of the law. Jesus, however, talks as if the struggle for righteousness is ongoing.

This struggle resounds with the sentences of a higher court than even that court over which Moses would preside, scrutinizing not just the actions, but the thoughts of the heart. from the vantage point of heaven. And this court, which is convened in glory for all of its intolerance to sin, and that is apparent, this court, for all of its intolerance to sin, simultaneously, affectionately draws the disciples to that revelation of the Father in heaven, whose love and mercy is now mirrored back to him in a self-sacrificing, cross-bearing behavior.

Taking up the cross, so that you are concerned to the depths of your soul about the attitude that your brother has to you. And in cross-like behavior, you march out to meet him even before he is out marching to meet you. That’s Christ-likeness. Not loving your friends and families only, but loving your enemies too. That’s Christ-likeness.

When the Messiah and the Kingdom would come, it was believed by Jesus’ contemporaries that the goal of all piety, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, will have been reached, thus making all of them superfluous. In the Kingdom, with the Messiah, charity would be unnecessary, for there wouldn’t be any more. would become unnecessary because the prayers of the people will have been answered, and fasting in the celebration of that kingdom would be utterly and completely out of place. Jesus, however, sees no terminus presently for all of these acts of devotion.

He focuses them with respect to heaven above, that we perform our devotions, our acts of piety, with respect to our God, who sees in secret the secret seeing of the Father, then characterizing the age in which we live, inaugurated by Christ, until our faith is made sight, and until our God makes Himself visible to us. to reward us according to his word.

So then these acts of devotion spoken of by Jesus and reviewed here focus with respect to the Father in heaven and upon him turning away from the applause of the earth These acts of devotion assume that as the disciples themselves involve themselves in the practice of them, there will be a struggle to forget the world, to put the applause of men behind, to not be concerned about what other people think, but rather in self-denying acts of love and commitment, we demonstrate the cross before the world. The cross itself, then, is what I am intending now as apparent in the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. You see, it is precisely because the disciples bear the cross that they must pray that the Father’s name be hallowed. For as long as they bear that cross in this world, as long as there is that opposition to them because of their identification with the Father in Heaven and with His Son, that name of the Father will not have been hallowed in its perfection, in its completion.

So then, when the disciples pray in this manner, they are giving expression to their confidence that there is coming a day in which there will be the absolute hallowing of the Father’s name. And the arrival of that day will conclude the need of these disciples and all disciples to bear the cross anyway.

Bring the day, Lord, in which your name will be perfectly counted. Bring the day. May my heart be set upon that day, first of all, above all else. May that be the chief thing for me, for which I long, to which I look. The perfection of the hallowing of your name. Similarly with the next two petitions then. The arrival of the kingdom. Thy kingdom come. In view is the absolute form of that kingdom.

Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, the absolute implementation of the Father’s will here, bringing to an end all cross-bearing, all necessity for cross-bearing whatsoever for Christ’s disciples. But until that day comes, these petitions are quite appropriate and quite necessary as the prayer of all those who are now constrained to utter them from their own crosses, those crosses that they pick up daily in order to follow Christ. These petitions are your prayers from your cross. These petitions are your prayers from your cross. Which you now bear in conformity to Christ. Christ Himself is praying for nothing less from His cross. And now you pray. By these petitions then we give expression as our Savior has done before us to our confidence that the Father alone The Father alone can resolve our situation by His intervention and by our resurrection.

Now, I know the usual line which the exposition of these petitions takes. I know it well, I’ve learned it from the time I was a child. I’ve been taught it by the Reformed divines, no less. great men than that. But you see, the compromise which that instruction invariably entails is this.

It almost always sets at center or begins to move in the direction of seeing these petitions in terms of the activity in which I personally am involved. as if I was the one who was responsible for hallowing God’s name, bringing in his kingdom, and implementing the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven. That is not what Jesus is talking about, and that is not what he is encouraging his disciples to pray for. It is not you that stands at the center of these petitions, and it is not your ability that is being reviewed here so that you might think well of yourself somehow in hallowing his name, manufacturing his kingdom, accomplishing his will in the earth. As much as those sentiments may be proper in their own ten contexts, they are not proper here, for the intent of these petitions is to call upon the Father in heaven to perfect, to culminate his eternal purposes for his church. by bringing to an end, as only he can, every form of privation, distress, persecution, suffering, and prosperity. They having reached their goal in the glorification of himself. finally and summarily. And we are guaranteed that we shall achieve this goal, are we not?

Because God has done as much for his son who bore the cross and that one presently teaches us He will bring everything to conclusion for you. And the day of your cross bearing will most certainly end as surely as it did for Jesus. And you have Jesus’ word on that.

Let us pray. Set before us, Lord, is the sacrifice which you have made. But are we not beckoned by that sacrifice ourselves? Surely The sacrifice which you have made saves us. But now, Lord, because of our love for you, our devotion to you, and our union with Christ, we are made over. We are fashioned afresh so that the image which we have seen is the image we bear. And that which has been displayed is that which we are conformed unto presently.

O Lord, therefore when we survey the wonders cross, may we also realize that we are sacrificing our all. in a cross bearing which is our own in imitation of our great and eternal Savior. Keep our eye focused above Lord where Christ is at your right hand and while here in the world Lord may we be content to be servants even if we are suffering servants bearing our crosses until the day when you are pleased to bring everything to a conclusion. Until that day, Lord, we pray, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in the earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.