Catechetical sermons preached in PCC Evening Worship Services, Feb 2013 to Dec 2017
WSC 107 of 107
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen
Matthew 6:13b
WSC 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer teach us?
A. The conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer—(which is, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, amen1)—teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only,2 and in our prayers to praise Him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to Him.3—And, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.4
1Mt 6:13; 2Dan 9:4, 7–9, 16–19; 31 Chr 29:10–13; 41 Cor 14:16; Rev 22:20–21.
e have come to our final sermon in our series on what we believe based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This is also the last message on the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer is a pattern for prayer, which our Lord taught his disciples.
It comprises a preface, six petitions and a conclusion.
The preface is in the words, “Our Father which art in heaven.” This teaches us to approach God as our loving heavenly Father, ready to receive us and to answer our prayers.
The First Petition is “Hallowed be thy name.” This reminds us to approach God as altogether glorious and holy, and to petition Him to continue to glorify Himself by all means and to enable us to see His glory and labour for His glory.
The Second Petition is “Thy Kingdom Come.” According to our catechism, this teaches us to pray for the downfall of Satan’s kingdom, the advancement of the kingdom of grace and the hastening of the kingdom of glory.
The Third Petition is “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” We should ask God to help us know and obey His Word and to submit to His providence.
The Fourth Petition is “Give us this day our daily bread.” We must acknowledge that all we have for daily life comes from the Father. And He is pleased when we come unto Him humbly to ask Him for all that we need with His blessing.
The Fifth Petition is “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” This reminds us that we are debtors to the Father. So we must ask Him to forgive us. As we do so, we must seek to forgive all who offend us, knowing that our Father forgave us for far greater crimes. We can have no assurance of God’s forgiveness unless we forgive those who trespass against us.
The Sixth Petition is “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This teaches us to pray that “God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.”
But we come now to the concluding statement of the prayer. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Mt 6:13).
Our Lord is the God-Man. Unlike imperfect men, His words are always carefully chosen. Never does He say anything that has no meaning. So when he teaches us how to pray, we can expect that every word is carefully weighed.
So, we must not simply gloss through these concluding words of His prayer. But what can we learn from these closing words? Well, the closing words of our Shorter Catechism give us the answer:
WSC 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer teach us?
Answer: The conclusion of the Lord’s prayer—(which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, amen)—teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him.—and, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.
This is perhaps one of the best short expositions of the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer available in the history of the church. Therefore, as we conclude our study of the texts underlying the Westminster Shorter Catechism, it is fitting to use it as an outline to expound the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer.
With that in mind, let us consider the conclusion under three heads:
1. Let us pray with assurance, or “to take our encouragement in prayer from God only.”
2. Let us pray with adoration, or “in our prayers to praise [God], ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him.”
3. Let us pray with amen, i.e., “[to end our prayer with Amen] in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard.”
1. Pray with Assurance
The conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, once again, is “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Notice the little word “for.” It speaks of reason or basis. Our Lord has taught us to pray six petitions. But notice how He would have us learn to conclude our petitions with an appeal to reason for confidence.
For [because] thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever
Mt 6:13
That is to say, We make these six requests because the kingdom, power and glory belong to you, God our Father. We take our encouragement to pray from you alone because of who you are.
Without looking at what kingdom, power, and glory refer to yet, can you see how our Lord is teaching us “to take our encouragement in prayer from God only”? We must find it in our hearts to pray with assurance because of who God is rather than what others say about Him. Neither should we pray based on a false notion that prayer itself is therapeutic or magical.
Kingdom, power and glory belong to God. He alone has the prerogative and power to answer our prayers. All others, be they angels, men, or any other creatures, depend upon Him. This is why we pray to Him, not to man or any other creature.
In prayer, we are powerless creatures coming into the presence of the sovereign, omnipotent, and altogether glorious God.
This should humble us to the dust. We do not deserve to be heard. But at the same time, we are encouraged to pray—knowing that in Christ, God has entered into a covenant relationship with us and adopted us as His sons and daughters.
God, sovereign, omnipotent and glorious, has made us His children! What shall we do but come unto Him confidently, knowing He is pleased to hear our prayers and can answer our prayers?
We can hope in prayer because the result or answer to our prayer is not dependent on ourselves or our worthiness. It is dependent on God alone.
Thus, when we come to prayer, we must have the confidence that God is able and willing to hear our prayers, and able and willing to answer our prayers according to His own will (cf. Eph 3:20–21).
In September 1853, the missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, boarded the sailing vessel Dumfries for China. The journey was quite an eventful one. One day, the ship was near New Guinea when the wind died. The captain despaired as a four-knot current carried them swiftly toward some reefs near the shore. “Our fate is sealed!” he cried, for cannibals were known to inhabit the Island. They could even see them lighting their fires, apparently preparing for a feast. The captain tried everything he could to avoid the disaster but to no avail.
Taylor recorded what happened next in his journal:
The Captain said to me, ‘Well, we have done everything that can be done.’ A thought occurred to me, and I replied, ‘No, there is one thing we have not done yet.’ ‘What is that?’ he queried. ‘Four of us on board are Christians. Let us each retire to his own cabin, and in agreed prayer ask the Lord to give us immediately a breeze.’
Taylor prayed briefly and then, confident that the answer was coming, went up on the deck and asked the first officer to let down the sails. Taylor continues:
’What would be the good of that?’ he answered roughly. I told him we had been asking a wind from God; that it was coming immediately.
Within minutes, the wind began to blow, carrying them safely past the reefs.
Taylor explains:
Thus God encouraged me ere landing on China’s shores to bring every variety of need to Him in prayer, and to expect that He would honour the name of the Lord Jesus and give the help each emergency required.
Notice how Taylor speaks of taking his encouragement in prayer from God. He is speaking, though, of how his experience of answered prayer helped him. That is good, and sometimes these experiences help. But what if we have no such experience? And what if Satan cast doubts on our experience? Thus, the most potent and reliable encouragement in prayer cannot be found in our experiences. It must be found in the character and perfection of God. This is why our Lord teaches us to acknowledge that power, kingdom and glory belong to the Father in our prayer.
Let us, therefore, pray with faith and assurance!
2. Pray with Adoration
We have seen how our Lord’s conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer teaches us that we should pray with confidence and assurance unto the Father alone, for to Him alone belongs the kingdom, power and glory.
But notice that the Lord is not only teaching us how to pray, but actually suggesting the words to use. He is not just saying, “Pray with confidence and assurance because to God alone belongs kingdom, power and glory.” Instead, He is suggesting, “Use these words or the equivalent in your prayer. Say, ‘we ask all these, for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever’.” This is why our Catechism reminds us that the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer “teacheth us… in our prayers to praise [God], ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him.”
Thus, we have entitled our second point: “Pray with Adoration.” Even though the Lord’s Prayer is predominantly composed of petitions, we must not forget to praise the Father in our prayers.
Most of us know how to pray petitions. When we sense a need in our heart, we know how to cry unto the Lord, even as a baby knows how to cry for its milk.
But the Father is pleased not only to hear what we wish from Him. He is also pleased to hear our heartfelt thanksgiving and praise. Where do we begin?
The Lord suggests we praise Him for His sovereignty, power and glory. Let’s consider each of these perfections:
Firstly, our Lord teaches us to praise the Father for His sovereignty. Is this not what He means when He teaches us to pray, “Thine is the Kingdom.” The kingdom belongs to Him: He is the ultimate King, the Sovereign.
The kingdom refers to God’s people. It also refers to everything in this universe, for God is ruling over everything in this universe.
Thus, saying, “For thine is the kingdom,” we acknowledge: “For Thou art sovereign. Thou art the ruler over all things in this universe”!
All things belong unto God to order for His own glory, so God has the authority to give us all things that we need according to the desires of our hearts.
Secondly, our Lord teaches us to praise the Father for His power. “Thine is the power.” Power, the ultimate power, belongs to God alone. God is not only sovereign; He is also omnipotent. Therefore, He not only has the right to do what He wills, but He is able to do all His holy will.
Thus, in saying, “Thine is the power,” we acknowledge that God can answer our prayers according to our desires—if He chooses to do so. And therefore, if He does not do so, it must be for good reasons. We must believe that He does all things well.
Thirdly, our Lord teaches us to praise the Father for His glory. Glory belongs to God alone. He alone is significant. In saying, “Thine is the glory,” we acknowledge that at the end of the day, all that truly matters is God’s glory. So, we submit that He has a right to glorify Himself in all things.
But why do you need to do that? Why do we need to ascribe kingdom, power and glory to God? Doesn’t God know everything about Himself? Well, He knows, but do you know?
Let me try to illustrate that. One day, years ago, when my eldest daughters were very young, I brought them out for a run. But along the way, one of my daughter’s shoelaces kept coming undone. We kept having to slow down or stop for her. It happened again when we were nearing our destination. At that point in our route, I was sure my two daughters knew where we were. And so I told them that I would run ahead, and they would need to run straight on along the path until they came to an open patch called the hardcourt, and I would meet them there. My daughters agreed.
So I ran on. I reached the court, and I started to run around it. Once, twice, thrice, and they were still not there! I started running back along the track to where I left them. They were nowhere to be found. I was getting a little concerned. I ran to our destination, the playground under our apartment, to see if they were there. Well, to cut the long story short, I finally found them. I asked them what happened. One of my daughters started to cry, “We didn’t know what you were talking about! We got confused when the path forked” “Did you not see the hardcourt?” “We did not know what the hardcourt is” “Why didn’t you ask me then?”
You see, my daughters assumed they understood my instruction. And I assumed that they understood. But they did not. Had they reiterated what I said or asked questions, they would have known they could not follow my instructions since they did not understand it. Indeed, when they came to that junction that confused them, if they had paused to think: “What would daddy be thinking about? Would he make us cut through those busy coffee shops?” they would have known to continue running on.
Such is the case with prayer. Though God knows everything and His understanding is perfect, that is not the case for us. So, it pleases God for us to reiterate what we know about Him. Doing that magnifies His name and corrects our attitudes towards Him so that we may pray aright.
Therefore, let us remember in our prayers to ascribe kingdom, power and glory to God. Children, do not pray mechanically. Learn of the Lord. Learn to pray: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.”
But finally, let us not forget the word “amen.” This is also part of the Lord’s Prayer!
3. Pray with ‘Amen’
The final words of our catechism teach us that “in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.”
The word ‘amen’ is not an English word. It is instead a Hebrew word. It is a word that the people of God have used since ancient times.
It has been used by the people when a curse or blessing is pronounced. It was used to respond to the reading of God’s Word. It has been used in response to statements of praise. It was used to conclude prayers or to assent to the prayers of others. It is a word that the people of God use in public assemblies to indicate their agreement with anything said in public.
It was used by God’s people when they spoke Hebrew. It continued to be used without translation, even when they began using Aramaic and Greek in their worship and daily conversation. Today, it continues to be used by God’s people everywhere. ‘Amen’ has become the most well-known Hebrew word, and indeed the most well-known word in any language in the world!
Whether you speak Hebrew, Latin, English, Dutch, French, Chinese, Arabic, Malay, Tamil, Slovenian, or Russian, you would know and use the word ‘Amen.’ Whatever language the people of God speak, they almost invariably close their prayers with the word ‘Amen’, or a derivation of it such as “Amina” in Swahili, or “Ameni” in Chichewa. The only exceptions I am aware of are Thai, Bangla and Hindi.
This phenomenon undoubtedly came about because our Lord teaches us to close our prayers with ‘Amen.’ The Lord’s Prayer was recorded in Greek, but the closing word is Hebrew.
What does this word mean? Some take it merely as a final punctuation to end our prayers. For these individuals, the word has as much meaning as a full-stop. But to use the word in this way is to misuse it. For the word has a meaning.
It means simply, “so be it,” “Let it be so,” or “Let it truly be so.” It is a word that is closely related to the Hebrew word ‘aman’ (אָמַן), which means “I believe.” When you say ‘amen’ at the end of your prayers, you are saying, “I believe what I say is true,” or “I desire that it be so.”
When you hear someone pray, and you say ‘amen’, you declare, “I agree with him; his prayer is my prayer too.”
Thus, you should listen whenever others are praying, and you should pray along and then sound your ‘amen’ together with the person praying when he concludes—that is, if you agree with what he is saying.
The apostle Paul refers to this practice in the early church when he urges the Corinthians to pray with the common language of the people so that they can follow the prayer.
Look at 1 Corinthians 14:15. The Corinthians church was very gifted, but it had a problem with false tongues and abuses of tongues. To control the situation, Paul does not ban tongues altogether. Instead, he sets some crucial guidelines, one of which is that there should be no prayers in strange tongues. He says in verse 16:
Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit [or with unknown tongues], how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest
1 Cor 14:16
Notice how Paul speaks of saying ‘amen’ as something Christians are expected to want to do? Even the unlearned coming into the church would want to do so.
This was already an established tradition in the days of the Corinthian church. And it continued in the Christian church. Perhaps during the medieval ages, when the services were conducted in Latin, the practice became hypocritical since the people did not understand what was happening. But it was a practice revived during the days of the Reformation. It is still observed in many evangelical and Reformed churches in the UK and US. It is a practice that we should reinstate.
If you are praying, end your prayer with ‘amen’ as a testimony of your desire and assurance to be heard.
If someone else is praying publicly, follow the prayer and then say ‘amen’ audibly with him at the end. Of course, you cannot say ‘amen’ if you do not agree with the prayer or cannot understand it. But if you agree with the prayer, do not keep the ‘amen’ to yourselves. Say it aloud that all may hear. We must not be shy!
The psalmist says:
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD
Ps 106:48
Let us take heed to the call. Please!
But why do we need to say “amen”? We need to say “amen,” as our catechism puts it: “in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard.” That is, saying “amen” is really an expression of our heart’s desire and faith. When we say “amen,” we are not only saying “we agree.” We are saying, “we believe.” Remember how “amen” is related to “aman” (אָמַן), which means “I believe”? Prayer is meaningless if we don’t believe whom we pray to, whom we pray through, or what we pray for. Therefore, let us use the word “amen” and use it meaningfully.
Conclusion
We must conclude. Once again, “What doth the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer teach us?”
Answer:
The conclusion of the Lord’s prayer—(which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, amen)—teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him.—And, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.
How should we apply this instruction? Well, that is what we have been considering for the last half an hour.
Firstly, let us pray with assurance, or “to take our encouragement in prayer from God only.” We must know that God alone can answer our prayer, and God alone has given us the privilege of prayer. We do not take our encouragement from saints or angels. Nor do we find encouragement in prayer from our good works or our status in the church. It is enough to know that God has received us as His sons and daughters, and our Mediator is Christ. It is enough to know that to God belongs kingdom, power and glory. Therefore, let us pray with assurance and confidence, not doubt or double-mindedness.
Secondly, let us not forget “in our prayers to praise [God], ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him.” Let us remember to praise God even as we pray.
Thirdly, let us end our prayers with a hearty amen “in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard.” Let us use the word “amen” meaningfully in our prayers. Let us begin right now when we conclude with prayer. Amen.
—JJ Lim
Edited by: LPS