(July 19, 2024) Dr Jim McClure concludes his teaching on the Lord’s Prayer…

We have previously seen that the Lord’s Prayer falls into two main sections — The Lord’s Prayer-Part 1 God’s Dominion (Matthew 6:9-10) and The Lord’s Prayer-Part 2 Our Dependency (Matthew 6:11-13a).

The prayer concludes with the words ‘For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen’  (Matthew 6:13KJV and NKJV).

We describe such declarations which acknowledge God’s greatness and declare His praises as doxologies. Such as Ephesians 3:20-21, ‘Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’

And Jude 1:24-25— ‘To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.’

Matthew 6:13 Doxology
Although I quoted KJV and NKJV translations’ ending, this phrase is omitted from most contemporary translations because it is not included in most of the earliest Greek manuscripts nor in the writings of major early theologians. Nor in Luke’s Lord’s Prayer record.

However… those words echo 1Chronicles 29:11— ‘Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.’

• Whether or not the doxology was originally included in in Matthew 6:13, it is nevertheless a fitting and powerful declaration of praise that acknowledges who God is.
• And rejoices in the fact that we may have a relationship with Him.
• Let’s then consider strong doctrinal affirmations contained in this doxology— 

1. God’s Majesty —  ‘Yours is the kingdom’
This short declaration affirms God is King, and His authority— the ultimate authority. God rules over all nations, all cultures, all tribes, all creation.  He alone is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

King David described Him in these words, ‘The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all’ (Psalm 103:19).

Paul described Him as ‘God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords’ (1Timothy 6:15).

There is no one with whom Almighty God may be compared!

(i) Personal Profession
The apparently simple statement ‘Yours is the kingdom’ is profound in its significance.

In  praying  these four words we are not only acknowledging God’s vast authority but are also confronted by the challenge of self-examination and ultimately our need of personal profession. God is indeed the King overall and His authority extends over all — but we often ignore that fact and, as it were, make ourselves the ruler over our own lives. 

We know how God wants us to live — aware of His values, instructions and directions. But we violate them because we want to ‘do our own thing’ and ‘go our own way!’

There is a stubbornness in our character that often prompts us to say and do the wrong thing. We become kings and queens in our own little kingdoms and ignore the most basic truth of our Christian discipleship which Paul spelt out to the Corinthian Christians— ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price’ (1Corinthians 6:19-20). In those words we see a similarity to Jeremiah’s comment, ‘Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps’ (Jeremiah 10:23).

When we pray ‘Yours is the kingdom’, thereby acknowledging God’s authority over our lives, we also need to recognise that there are times when we defy God’s authority. We then need to confess our rebellion. In the presence of God our own little power bases and kingdoms must fall as we affirm Him as Lord of all.  

(ii) Present Reality
While we declare before God ‘Yours in the kingdom’, recognising that He alone is ‘Lord of all’, we are also aware that God’s sovereignty is often rejected throughout the world. 

The  evidence  is  seen  in news reports every day. The world is unstable at many levels — international aggression, social disruption and moral disintegration.  Many countries have discarded basic ethical values, embraced perversions and rejected the truth.  Political and moral unrest increases throughout the world as God’s majesty  and authority are being denied and discarded. 

We are living in an age of revolution in which God’s authority is denied.  That is the condition of our world today and only our sovereign God can turn it around. Our prayer ‘Yours is the kingdom’ is both an acknowledgement of God’s supreme authority and absolute power over all things and also an appeal to God to intervene and change the hearts of men and women. He has done it in the past and can do it again!

(iii) Prophetic Anticipation
The phrase is also an anticipation based on prophetic words of scripture which tell us about the coming time when God’s majestic purposes will be accomplished. 

God told Isaiah, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. … What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do’ (Isaiah 46:10-11).

And in Revelation 11:15 we read about the coming time when God’s majestic rule will be fully established throughout the world — ‘…  there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.”’ 

He is the eternal God we worship.

2. God’s Might — ‘Yours is … the power’
Not only is God the King over all, but the doxology also affirms that He has power over all!

The Greek language has four words that can be translated by the English word ‘power’ which includes concepts of authority and control. But the Greek word used in this doxology is dunamis from which the English word ‘dynamite’ comes. It means it is an intrinsic and essential aspect of God’s character.

In Mark’s gospel we read that Jesus stated three times that what we may consider impossible is in fact possible with God (Mark 9:23,10:27,14:36). The word translated as ‘possible’ in those verses is related to this dunamis ‘power.’ In all things God is powerful!

• After Moses was given the Ten Commandments by God, he led the Israelites to the foot of Mount Sinai where God revealed to them His tremendous power that could shake mountains. ‘Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently’ (Exodus 19:18).

• Our God can not only shake mountains, but remove obstacles that can stand in our way! When the Israelites were being pursued by the Egyptians, God made a way through the Red Sea— ‘The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground’(Exodus 14:22).

And when, at the end of their travels through the wilderness, the Israelites needed to cross the River Jordan which was in flood, God opened a way for them through the river into the Promised Land (Exodus 14:21-22).

In life God can open paths and resolve problems for us in ways that we could never have imagined!

• Our all-powerful God made that point to Jeremiah: ‘Is anything too hard for Me?’ (Jeremiah 32:27). We need to grasp this truth about God. Nothing is too hard for Him!  Too often we have a very limited concept of who God really is and what He can do.  The words ‘Yours is the power’ prompt us to remember God’s powerful character.

Paul wanted the Christians in Ephesus to grasp this also— ‘I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know … His incomparably great power (dunamis) for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms …’ (Ephesians 1:18-20). 

This is the God we worship— Lord God Almighty!

3. God’s Magnificence — ‘Yours is … the glory’
The splendour of God’s character is seen in His glory.

We are very familiar with the word ‘glory’ because it is frequently used in both testaments… but what does it mean?  It’s a word that is rich in meaning.  In the Bible ‘glory’ is frequently ascribed to God and is associated with the manifestation of  His presence — but it is a characteristic of God that is beyond true definition.  No human being can view the fullness of God’s glory without being utterly overwhelmed.

Ezekiel gives this staggering description of that glory, ‘I saw that from what appeared to be His waist up He looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down He looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around Him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord’ (Ezekiel 1:27-28).

God manifests His awesome and glorious presence  in various ways, emphasising His complexity and awesomeness. Although the appearance of His glory is described in the Old Testament in various ways… such as cloud, fire and brilliant light, our words are inadequate in describing the glory of God.

King David proclaimed, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ (Psalm 19:1).That is to say that the astonishing beauty and complexity of the universe gives us a glimpse of that glory. 

In the New Testament we read that there was a further manifestation of God’s glory in His son, Jesus.  ‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being’ (Hebrews 1:3). The glory of God is seen in Jesus, in His—

• Character.
• Teachings.
• Miracles.
• Love for all humanity.
• Crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. 

In Jesus we begin to understand something of that glory of the God whom we worship. John 1:14 declares, ‘We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’  God’s glory is seen not only in His grandeur but also in His grace.

4. God’s Mystery — ‘for ever’
Those simple words, that so easily trip off our tongue, express a profound mystery — the mystery of eternity!  This is something that we cannot fully grasp. We are familiar with the word ‘eternity’ but have difficulty understanding what it truly means. 

We live in a time capsule. Time plays a dominant role in our world.  We arrange our lives around time—seconds, minutes, days, hours, years are so important to us and critical in the way we arrange our lives. The seasons of the year, birthdays, marriage anniversaries, holidays, Christmas and so on are all regulated by time.

We remember some past  events in our lives and can read history books about many things that took place before we were born. And that there was a starting point when time began— ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’(Genesis 1:1).  And,‘The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth’ (Isaiah 40:28).  Only God existed before time began.  He never had a beginning and will never have an end. He is not bound by time.

When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush and instructed him to return to Egypt to lead the Israelites from captivity, Moses asked what His name was. God told Him, ‘I AM WHO I AM (Exodus 3: 14).  ‘I AM’ — that is, ‘Yahweh’ — a name that expresses the unchanging and eternal presence of God.

A.W. Tozer wrote in his Knowledge of the Holy, ‘God dwells in eternity but time dwells in God. He has already lived all our tomorrows as He has lived all our yesterdays.’ The words ‘for ever’ at the end of the Lord’s Prayer affirm that God exists outside the time-boundary that limits us. 

Jesus said to Nicodemus, that ‘everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:15-16).

Such a relationship with God will last forever. He invites us into eternity through — an invitation humanity would be foolish to ignore.

Conclusion — ‘Amen’
After declaring God’s majesty, might, magnificence and mystery, the doxology ends with just one word – ‘Amen!’  But what a word! 

We usually finish praying with this word using it as a kind of verbal fullstop. But that’s not what it signifies. Some say that the word means ‘So let it be’…  but it means so much more!

It is a word of positive affirmation. It means ‘Yes!’  It’s a word that is probably better expressed not in a pious whisper but in a loud affirmation — ‘YES!’

And how fitting that affirmation is when we confidently place everything into the hands of our heavenly Father whose steadfast love for us never fails. Great is His faithfulness. 

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Dr Jim McClure, author of several books and Bible studies, offers them free in electronic version in EPUB, Kindle and PDF formats.

Looking for Answers in a Confusing World is particularly recommended. Questions seeking enlightenment on biblical perspectives are welcomed. Link: jbmcclure@gmail.com
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