594. The Lord’s Prayer Part 2: Our Father In Heaven

Continuing with our series on The Lord’s Prayer and why Jesus provided it for Jews to pray; we look at the opening to the prayer, which acknowledges the Father in heaven.  Some have believed the Jewish people under the law would not have understood the concept of God as Father, but there are a number of Old Testament passages that reveal otherwise.  The prayer intro was not a new revelation to His disciples, they understood God as Father, in heaven, and that His name was holy.  However, they didn’t have the concept that we now have in the New Covenant…That is, Christ in you.  A better covenant has revealed to us that God doesn’t abide just in heaven, but has relocated by His Spirit to abide in us.  Another clue this was a guide to be prayed only for those under the Old Covenant - Jesus did not instruct them to pray “in His name” as he would later tell the disciples to do under the New Covenant.