The Pattern of Prayer - And Forgive Us Our Sins

NOTE: This is part five in our series from Luke 11:1-4

Intro: We are continuing our study of what has often been called “The Lord’s Prayer” although, as we have already stated it might be more accurate to title it “The Disciples Prayer.” This is because the prayer was given by Jesus to His disciples in order to teach them how to pray.

It was common for first century religious leaders to teach certain prayers to their disciples to give them a means of remembering and reflecting the doctrine of the teacher. This is the context in which Jesus taught this prayer to His disciples.

Luke 11:1
1 And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples."

This prayer was given to the disciples as a pattern or example of how to pray so that when they did, they could reflect the teaching of Jesus. There is no evidence that Jesus Himself ever prayed such a prayer (cf. “Forgive us our sins”). The real Lord’s Prayer is found in John 17.

Nevertheless, for those who have become His disciples we have been given a pattern to follow when we pray. This pattern prayer is way for us to reflect the teaching of Jesus in our own prayer life.
I would also add that while it is not wrong to recite this prayer verbatim in our worship and devotions, just as it would not be wrong for us to use any portion of God’s Word in those activities; there is no evidence that Jesus ever intended for it to be used only in that way.

In fact, in the parallel passage in Matthew 6, just prior to giving His version of this prayer there, Jesus warns about using vain repetitions in our prayers (Matthew 6:7). As John Bunyan has said: “When you pray, rather let your heart be without words, than your words be without heart.”

The point is this; we don’t want to treat this prayer as a formula prayer rather we want to see it as a pattern prayer. Because it is a pattern prayer we are to seek to understand the truths and principles that Jesus was trying to convey to His disciples about prayer, and what great principles we find there!

Each phrase of this great prayer is full of meat and meaning, each phrase is full of New Testament truth, and each phrase it meant to teach us something about how we are to view the privilege of prayer.



Previously we learned that prayer according to Jesus is .........

I. An Intimate Relationship with the Father - “Father”

II. A Reverent Response to the Character of God - “Hallowed be Your name”

III. A Submissive Recognition of the Kingship of God -
“Thy Kingdom Come”

IV. A Humble Reliance on the Provision of God -
“Give us day by day our daily bread”

This time we will discover that prayer is…….

V. A Penitent Request for the Forgiveness of God -
“And Forgive us our sins”

There are four things I want you to see about this penitent request........the Petitioners, the Problem, the Plea, and the Priority.

A. The Petitioners - “And forgive us our sins”

The first thing that we need to establish here is that this petition is given to His disciples, men, who while they didn’t understand everything about Jesus, were nonetheless believers. Previously, they had acknowledged and confessed that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Luke 9:18-20; Matthew 16:16-20).

I emphasize that because there are those today who would deny that the disciples were Christians at this point. They do this because their particular theology teaches that we as believers do not need to ask for forgiveness. We have already been forgiven so it is redundant to ask! However, in order for them to teach this theology, they have to relegate the Disciples Prayer to an Old Testament dispensation.
Therefore they say that this petition in the Disciples Prayer is not valid for US as believers today.

We have already established that there are two kinds of people in the world...Children of God and Children of the Devil.

1 John 3:10
10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

Everyone who is born into this world is born into it as a child of the devil.

Ephesians 2:1-3
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

But by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ we are able to enter into the family of God.

Ephesians 2:4-9
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

John 1:12
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

Now, it is clear that Jesus considered the disciples as children of God or else He would not have told them to address God as Father.
(Remember how unique this concept was, the Jews were not generally taught to address God as Father in a personal intimate way). That Jesus had us in mind as well can be surmised from His words in John 17:20-26 (His High Priestly prayer). There Jesus prayed not only for His current disciples, “but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”

We can be very certain then that this pattern prayer was given first of all to His disciples and then to all other disciples to come. What do we have in common? We are able to address God as Father.

Romans 8:15-16
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

If they (the disciples) as believers had to ask for forgiveness then we must conclude that we as believers must ask for forgiveness as well.

In addition, we are given clear confirmation of the fact that Christians must ask for forgiveness, subsequent to salvation in

1 John 1:8-2:2
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.


1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

Who is John writing to? “My little Children” - v.2:1

This letter was written to Christians to teach them not to sin, but when they did sin, to confess it and seek forgiveness! So the petitioners are all of God’s disciples because all of us will from time to time need to pray “And forgive us our sins”

B. The Problem - “And forgive us our sins”

We have already established that the problem that all of us face as Christians is sin but what kind of sin do we struggle with? And what are its consequences now that I have been saved? Before we answer those questions however, we need to discuss the problem of sin in general! There are several Greek words for sin used in the New Testament, for example (John MacArthur, The Disciples’ Prayer Study Notes, pp.72-72),

¨ Harmartia (to miss the mark) – This is the most common word for sin used in the New Testament.

It is an archers word that was used to describe how an archer’s arrow would miss the mark by falling short of its target (Romans 3:23). What target do we miss? God’s standard of perfection (Matthew 5:48)!

¨ Parabasis (to step across the line) – This word is often translated as transgressions (2 John 9).

It reminds us that God has drawn a line for us between right and wrong, and yet we continue to step across that line.

¨ Anomia (a = not or no and nomia = law) – This word speaks of lawlessness

It is used to describe a flagrant disregarding of God’s law. It has in it the idea of open rebellion (1 John 3:4).

¨ Paraptoma (to slip or fall) – The word is sometimes translated as trespasses (Matthew 6:14).

It emphasizes the passion of the moment, the momentary loss of self-control, being swept away by sin.

¨ Opheilema (debt) - It speaks of what is owed, an obligation, it points to a failure to pay what is due (Matthew 6:12).

In other words, when we sin we owe God a consequence for our sin.
Our sin racks up a very large debt to God that is one day due and payable!

These five words describe the totality of man’s problem.

· We all miss the mark of God’s perfection....
· We all step across the line between right and wrong....
· We all at times flagrantly disregard God’s law....
· We all slip and fall by getting caught up in the passion of the moment…
· We all have a huge debt to God that we could never repay!

What we need more than anything else is forgiveness!
That’s what Salvation is all about.....The work of Christ on our behalf!

Romans 3:20-26
20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The moment you repent of your sin, place your faith in Christ and invite Him into Your life, your sin is placed on Him and His righteousness is put on you and God declares you to be justified. As a result you experience redemption and forgiveness.

This aspect of forgiveness is sometimes referred to as Judicial or Forensic forgiveness! It speaks of full, complete, positional forgiveness granted to us by the Sovereign, moral Judge of the universe at salvation! It is what every man, woman and child needs if they want to experience eternal life! And it is based on the work of Christ (Hebrews 10:10-17)!

· Because of Christ’s work on our behalf, God now sees the perfection of Jesus Christ in us instead of our own self-righteous efforts that fall short and miss the mark!

· Because of Christ’s work on our behalf, God now sees Christ’s righteousness in us instead of our own transgressions, trespasses and acts of lawlessness!

· Because of Christ’s work on our behalf, God now sees the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a sufficient price to pay the debt for our sin!

Amazingly, because His work is finished God will never change what He sees when He looks at those who have been saved by Jesus Christ! Romans 8:28-39 describes our position after we have been saved! Now you say, “That is great Pastor Jim, but if I have been redeemed completely and forgiven comprehensively why do I need to continue to ask for forgiveness?”

C. The Plea - “And forgive us our sins”

The forgiveness that Jesus is talking about here is not a judicial - positional forgiveness that comes at salvation but rather a practical - parental forgiveness that comes after salvation. Once we have been saved and become His children we no longer deal with God as the righteous Judge, rather we now deal with Him as our loving Father.
Our relationship with Him has been changed dramatically! So too, has the effects of our sin.

No longer does our sin bring with it the eternal consequences of guilt and debt and damnation, rather now our sin brings with it the loss of peace and joy and intimacy with God. This is illustrated for us in Psalm 51. Because David had sinned and not confessed it he had lost the sense of peace and joy in his life that comes when one is experiencing an intimate relationship with God.

What David needed to do and did do, was confess his sin and seek the mercy and forgiveness of God! What he was missing in his life was not salvation, but the joy of his salvation! Judicial forgiveness takes care of the fact of salvation and parental forgiveness takes care of the joy of salvation!

Remember the passage we looked at earlier in 1 John 1 and 2?
John says to his readers at the beginning of his letter, “These things I write unto you that your joy may be full!” John wanted them to learn how to deal with their sin so that they could experience the full joy of being in fellowship with God.

Now, in both in Psalm 51 and in 1 John 1:9, the key to receiving parental forgiveness and being restored to joy involved confession of sin. The word confess (homologeo) means to say the same thing. It speaks of agreeing with God about our sin, acknowledging that it was wrong, and admitting that we are guilty as charged. It also has in it the idea of repentance and forsaking!

What kind of sins are we as believers still guilty of? Sometimes we still miss the mark and fall short of God’s Word. Sometimes we step across the line between right and wrong. Sometimes we flagrantly disregard His law of love. Sometimes we stumble and slip in a moment of passion and lose our self control. Sometimes our actions bring about serious consequences to our lives and others (as David’s did to his newborn son, his kingdom and Uriah the Hittite)!

Our sins now have to do with our stumbling and failures as we work out our salvation day to day (Philippians 2:12). Just as we are to ask God to give us daily bread because each day requires new nourishment. So too we are to ask God for daily forgiveness because each day we fail to live in perfect obedience to His word.

Here is a great truth my friends.....Our Heavenly Father never wearies in forgiving us!

Nehemiah 9:17
17 "And they refused to listen,
And did not remember Thy wondrous deeds which Thou hadst performed among them;
So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.
But Thou art a God of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness;
And Thou didst not forsake them.

Micah 7:18
18 Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity
And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?
He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in unchanging love.

Romans 5:20
20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

Romans 6:1
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

D. The Priority - “For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us”

The point here is that a heart that asks for forgiveness from God must be a heart that has and continues to forgive others.

The word indebted (opheilema) speaks of a debt or obligation. Remember, there are consequences to sin and sometimes we experience the consequences from the sins of others. But just as God has forgiven our spiritual debts so too we ought to forgive the spiritual debts of others. The phrase is in the present tense i.e. keep on forgiving.......

Robert Louis Stevenson in his book “Picturesque Notes of Edinburgh” tells the story of two unmarried sisters who shared a single room.

As is often the case with siblings who live in close quarters they had a falling out, which Stevenson says was on “some point of controversial divinity.” In other words they had a disagreement over some aspect of theology. The controversy was so bitter that they never spoke to one another again. No words either kind or spiteful, just silence!

For whatever reasons, possibly financial, they continued to live together in that single room dwelling. They simply drew a chalk line across the floor to separate their two domains. Even going so far as to divide the door way and fire place so that each of them could go in and out or do her cooking without stepping into the territory of the other! For years they co-existed in this hateful silence, every night going to bed listening to the heavy breathing of her enemy!

These two sisters, however theologically astute they were, never experienced the daily forgiveness of God, because they themselves were not willing to forgive!

Matthew’s version of this prayer is even more startling for it say’s “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Oswald Sanders said that Jesus here is “stating a principle in God’s dealings with His children. He deals with us as we deal with others. He measures us by the yardstick we use on others.”

Luke 6:38
38 "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."

2 Corinthians 9:6
6 Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.

God deals with us the way that we deal with Him and He will deal with us the way we deal with others! In case you think the previous verses are only dealing with giving. Listen to the following.

Matthew 6:14-15
14 "For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 "But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Matthew 5:7
7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

James 2:13
13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 "For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 "And when he had begun to settle them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 "But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 "The slave therefore falling down, prostrated himself before him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will repay you everything.' 27 "And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you owe.' 29 "So his fellow slave fell down and began to entreat him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you.' 30 "He was unwilling however, but went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 "So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 "Then summoning him, his lord said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. 33 'Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?' 34 "And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 "So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart."

Thomas Watson said:

“A man can as well go to Hell for not forgiving as for not believing”.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

“Unless you have forgiven others, you read your own death-warrant when you repeat the Lord’s Prayer”

Lord Herbert adds:

“He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass”.

A forgiving spirit is a sign of a true believer. An unforgiving spirit is a sign of an unbeliever!

Our call this morning is to seek God’s forgiveness in prayer, but before we can do that we need to forgive others first! One of the reasons that we need to seek God’s forgiveness by confessing our sins is so that we will be constantly reminded of God’s mercy. In the midst of that reminder we will be more prone to forgive others.

Thomas Manton wrote,

“There is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves; for they know how gently God hath dealt with them”

Matthew 5:21-24
21 "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' 22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23 "If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

Ephesians 4:29-5:2
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Colossians 3:12-17
12 And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

* “And forgive us our sins, Lord, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us”