The first three petitions of Jesus's model prayer call upon God's holy name to establish HIS kingdom as HIS heavenly will is done on earth.

This petition of the Lord's Prayer is actually a prayer of evangelism. God's kingdom is not a political overthrow of opposition parties in the government. Instead God's kingdom is established in the hearts and lives of sinners. The prophecies of Jeremiah and of Daniel call for a future kingdom that will be more powerful than any earthly kingdom. This kingdom is God's kingdom of heaven established in the hearts of sinful humanity.

God's kingdom comes partly through the preaching of HIS Word and partly by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit.

Please remember that the Lord's Prayer is a fervent prayer of reverence and of evangelism. May God's will be done as he establishes the kingdom of heaven in the regenerate hearts of his people. Amen.

Jesus teaches that the model prayer should begin with a genuine faithful heart of reverence toward God [to whom we are praying]. This is in stark contrast to the methods of the hypocrites and the pagan idol worshipers who have no genuine reverence for their god to whom they pray.

The genuine prayer of the faithful heart is one that acknowledges at the outset of the prayer who is being addressed. Since God the Father is the holy and almighty God the supplicant (the one praying) is to address HIM as He reveals himself to be. "Our Father" is a term of familiarity and trust. It is a relational title that contradicts the false prayers of the pagan idol worshipers and hypocritical performance prayer.

God is due honor. His name is holy. His name is to be hallowed. All prayer must begin with genuine humility and reverence even to the familiar loving God who reveals himself as Father.

Jesus' teaching in this section of the Sermon on the Mount repeatedly emphasizes that the depraved state of the human heart keeps us from coming into God's presence. Likewise, the same depraved nature keeps us from genuine prayer. The only path to genuine prayer is the same path to genuine salvation. It is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ himself that we can know how to pray.

We are reminded in Psalm 34:45 that "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry." Since God's ears are open to only the cries of the righteous, it is then imperative for the heart of genuine prayer be that of righteousness. Faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ is the only path to righteousness.

Jesus emphasizes in this passage of scripture that the hypocrites pray with 'vain repetition.' But we must also admit that the faithful Christian can sill fall into this trap of vain words in prayer. When one prays in this manner, it is evidence of a lack of genuine faith that our Father in Heaven is actually listening much less will reply with an answer. Instead, Jesus calls upon the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven to pray in such a way as faith directs the dependence upon God for the words and the heart necessary for genuine prayer.

The final words of Jesus in the fifth chapter of Matthew speak to an impossible standard for all Kingdom Citizens to meet. Jesus commands that all Kingdom citizens "must be perfect." This is of course impossible to do. So what does Jesus expect of His people? The wisdom of God in this call to perfection is similar to the command in Leviticus 19:2 for Israel to be holy as God alone is holy. In order for the sinner to be perfect requires that one repent and surrender to Christ's atoning work on the cross. The perfection that Jesus calls for is that faithful dependence upon Christ because Christ alone is perfect. God alone is Holy.

This final passage of the fifth chapter of Matthew's gospel concludes with the final teaching of how to love one's enemy as a neighbor. Why do the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven love this way? It is for the same reason that God loves his enemies ... and those enemies are every one of us. As we are all born under the sin of Adam, we begin our lives as sinful enemies of God; also known as the doctrine of total depravity. Jesus addresses the truth of God's Law that every human being is our neighbor and should be treated as such. Love of neighbor applies especially to our enemies as we are all under God's common grace (Matthew 5:45). It is Saving Grace that grants the redeemed as citizens of the kingdom of heaven the ability to love all ... even enemies. So, which enemy can you love today?

No one likes to be attacked. It is an evil that brings with it a justified response. Yet Jesus is teaching a radically approach to injustice. Jesus reminds his disciples that it is the governing authorities that have the responsibility and right to dole out justice and to protect the people. In no way does God permit His people to take God's law (Leviticus 24:17-20) into their own hands. Instead Jesus reminds his disciples that although judges and governing authorities have the right to seek justice, we are to wait patiently with the injuries suffered in attacks from another. Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are to allow God's rightful justice to be issued as needed rather than for individuals to take God's Law into their own hands.

Jesus saw a problem with the casual way in which grand promises were made that had no intention of being kept. He directly addressed the dramatic way that eloquent people would promise many grand things for the purpose of impressing or persuading people. The most dangerous aspect of this was that the oaths were simply foolish talk by foolish people out to be more important than they really were. Jesus in essence is saying, "Don't let this foolishness ever touch you."

So, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Never swear by God as your witness as God is not to be reduced to a co-signer on a flamboyant promise that will never be kept.

Jesus clearly sees divorce as a tragedy. Divorce is therefore a failure of divine purpose as the marriage covenant has a direct connection to God's covenant. So divorce is extremely difficult to advise or to condone for the Christian while Matthew's gospel does include what has been termed "the exception clause" (except on the ground of sexual immorality). Jesus addressed the extreme distortion of God's Law by the rabbinic tradition even in his discussion on divorce. Divorce is so horrendous that God hates any hint of it (Malachi 2:16). Yet the religious leaders of the rabbinic tradition had so expanded the exceptions for divorce from Deuteronomy that divorce had become ridiculously easy and abusive, especially toward women. Jesus makes his teaching clear and precise. If adultery is so horrendous, and used as a reason for divorce, then consider the consequences. Divorce makes the parties of the marriage adulterers. More importantly, divorce breaks the most sacred of vows taken before God. As God witnesses this holy union, God witnesses the sinful consequences of breaking the marriage vow.

In this passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses a very common but very serious sin. Adultery is a sin of breaking the marriage covenant. Far too often men get away with the exploitation of women through lustful acts that are hidden. The abuse of the female body in this way is an abuse of the image of God. Likewise, the body and the spirit are not separate things at all. What damages the body also damages the soul.

The sin of perversion is the origin of adulterous behavior. Jesus clearly reminds the religious among us that it is not the literal obedience to God's law that matter. Literal interpretation of acts can also be corruptly interpreted for sinful ends. It is the Spirit of God's Law that changes the heart. Thoughts of the heart are the foundation of actions. Therefore, if adulterous acts occur, it is the adulterous heart that causes them.

Jesus explains very clearly that murder is the result of anger toward one another. While murder is unapologetically horrible, it is the anger within one's mind toward another that literally murders the image of God that is in all of humanity. The right way to obey the Law of God is to reconcile with someone whom we have anger toward. In doing so, we imitate Christ and imitate the true gospel. Just as we forgive and reconcile with one another, God first reconciled us to Himself through Christ and forgave us therefore putting away HIS wrath against our sin.

The Sermon on the Mount from Jesus teaches about what the true citizenship of the Kingdom of Heaven is. In this text, Jesus begins to explore the damage that the extra-canonical teachings of the Rabbinic Law has done to the original and purest intent of God's Law. The "you have heard that it was said" passages are partly from the Decalogue of Moses (10 Commandments) and also from the Levitical law of the Old Testament Pentateuch. Jesus now takes the literal expectations of obedience imposed by the Rabbinic teachers and uncovers God's design that the Law was to lead to a change of the inner heart.