Home

Booklets


Other Booklets

Teach Us To Pray

Who art in Heaven

    Jesus said unto them, “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven.”   It is hard to say what concept the disciples had about “heaven” at this stage in their training.  They may have thought, like so many people today, that “heaven” is the reward of the “saved.”  Jesus begins by establishing the fact that the realm of the Father’s rule was not confined to the kingdoms of this earth.  The disciples would come to understand that the “kingdom of heaven” is the brilliant, spiritually ruled, limitless kingdom of the Father.  In Matthew 13:39-43, Jesus told them that at the end of the world:

    “The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

    Jesus had just explained to them in Matthew 5:20,48 that God’s throne was in heaven – Matthew calls it the “Kingdom of Heaven” – and that if the disciples were going to be a part of God’s eternal plan, they would have to strive for Godly perfection.

    “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

    “Become ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

     Example after example, describing the Kingdom of Heaven, was given to the disciples so that they could grasp the vital need for Godly conduct over worldly ways.  One such example is found in Matthew 13:24.

     “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field...”

    These insightful lessons were shared only with the disciples, who didn’t understand the parables until after Pentecost 31 AD.  In Matthew 13:11, they asked Jesus why He spoke in riddles.

    “He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”

    The world doesn’t know God’s purpose “in bringing many sons to glory ”– literally becoming members in God’s Family.  Religions today believe a completely wrong concept about “heaven” being a reward in the sky where men’s souls go after they die.  Some might picture heaven as a place of little angels with harps floating among puffy little clouds.  Others see “heaven” as a place where men and angels will continuously behold the “face of God” in a “Beatific Vision.”

    Although Christ’s disciples’ perspective of heavenly things was extremely limited, it was necessary that a foundation be laid that could be built upon, once they were converted.  Later as apostles, they would realize that God is sovereign and that there is none greater.  The Father’s supreme sovereignty means that He possesses absolute power.

    Jesus revealed the glory of the kingdom of heaven to the disciples so that they could know that the Father reigns supreme over all beings – physical and spiritual.  One Scriptural reference that shows this is Hebrews 12:9.

     “Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”

    The Father’s Heavenly Throne surpasses the heavens of this earth and the universe to encompass even the entire spiritual creation.  In 2 Corinthians 12: 2, Paul called the kingdom of heaven the “third heaven.

    “The Heaven is My throne, and earth is my footstool.” (Isaiah. 66:1, quoted in Acts 7:49)

    Our physical eyes, even with great telescopes, can only see the physical universe.   The stars that we can see number in the billions of billions!  To humans on the earth, they are impossibly immense, distant and, for now, beyond our reach.   If the physical heaven is vast beyond comprehension, how great must the kingdom of heaven be?  It is infinite – it is eternal!

    “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy;   I dwell in the high and holy place.”  (Isaiah 57:15)

    “Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite.”  (Psalms 147:5)

    The kingdom of heaven is the infinite, eternal domain of the Father.  It surpasses the measureless physical universe.  We know that the stars were created by His hand and distributed across the universe by Him for a purpose. The boundless universe is associated with our ultimate destiny.  Our inevitable destiny began in the Garden of Eden when God said,

    “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion… over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

    Furthermore, we understand from Hebrews 2:8 that our future destiny as spiritual beings will extend to the totality of the universe.

    “You have put all things [the universe] in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.”

    So, we see that it is our incredible destiny, as resurrected saints, to rule with Christ over absolutely everything that God created, including the universe – and still, we will be subject to the Kingdom of Heaven.

    God wants us to think about these things.  That’s why He asks questions like those in Isaiah 42:5.

    Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it?

    When Christ added this passage “Who art in heaven” for His disciples, they couldn’t begin to understand the profound depth of meaning contained in those words.  It would take not only the three and a half years they had with Jesus, but well into their years as apostles to appreciate the unimaginable magnitude of the Father’s Heavenly Realm.


Chapter 5 - The Holiest Name


Teach Us To Pray