Sermon Transcript - March 4, 2006
I would like to have you as we start the sermon today, consider the following four scriptures. There's a theme, I think contained in them: Jeremiah 10:23 is the first one. I'll read that to you.
Jeremiah 10:23 - "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." That was Jeremiah 10:23 - "I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his (own) steps."
I Kings 3:7 is the second one - "Now, O Lord my God, You have established (made) Your servant the king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or to come in." That was the words of Solomon. "... You have set (made) Your servant the king instead of my father David, but I am just a little child; I do not know how to go out or to come in." Now that's an expression, go out and come in, that represented leadership. Oftentimes you would see it described for a king or a leader in Israel as one who went out and then came in before the people of God. And here Solomon was saying, "I don't know how to do that."
Matthew 5:3 is the third one - Jesus himself said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." People who are aware of their own poverty when it comes to dealing with God, or serving God, or walking before God and then the final one, the fourth one of this opening group that I want to see if we can think about what is the theme or the commonality between all four of these scriptures.
Mark 10:15 - Again, the words of Jesus - "... whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter" the kingdom of God.
Now, what is a common element in all four of these passages? Well, I would describe it as this.
It is a description and an illustration or an exhortation to be a certain way. It's an illustration or a description of a person who was aware of his own deficiency, inadequacy, when it comes to the things of God. A person who is aware that certainly he, but more generically all people are born incomplete. People are not born complete when it comes to going in and out before God. We do not by nature have the knowledge or the skill or even the inclination, by nature, to do things right in the sight of God or in the service of God.
And in all four of these cases Jesus was describing it a couple of times, and in two other cases individuals praying to God with this very much in the forefront of their minds, their own inadequacies. But they didn't by nature have the skill, the knowledge, even the inclination to do things right in the sight of God or in the service of God.
Now the disciples got things right on occasion. They didn't always mess up and on at least one occasion the disciples of Jesus were aware of this about themselves. They were walking and talking and going in and out with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and as they watched Him, at least on this one occasion, it became apparent to them how inadequate they were by comparison. And so at least on this one occasion, they simply dropped all pretense of self-sufficiency and they, as a little child... A little child isn't ashamed to ask even the simplest of questions or to ask for help in what we, as grownups think would be the simplest of things. You know, "Help me do this,
"Daddy, help me do this. Mommy, and so, at least on this one occasion the disciples adopted that frame of mind, at least in the words that we have recorded, dropping all pretense of self-sufficiency and they simply asked for help in something that is so fundamental and is so basic that a proud person would be ashamed to admit that they didn't inherently have the ability to do that. Let's look at that in Luke 11 and from this verse we'll get the title that I've given to this sermon.
Luke 11:1 - "(And) it came to pass, (that,) as He, Jesus was praying in a certain place, (when) He ceased, (and) one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.'" There must be something in the air. We've had some messages recently about praying, and this is going to be another one, but we'll come at it with a slightly different angle.
I think I'll arrive at some of the same conclusions, but from a slightly different angle. "... Lord, teach us to pray..." We don't even know how to do that.
Now at one level, at the intellectual level, a person could reason, "Well, all praying is, is talking, isn't it, thinking words directed to God?" Surely we were born with the inherent ability to do that, weren't we? Well, no we weren't. Not the right way. We don't know how to go out and come in with God. It is not in man that lives to direct his own steps. Blessed are those who receive the kingdom of God like a little child.
You know, Mommy, how do I put my socks on? How do I do this; how do I do that? We need to be taught. Jesus, or Lord, help us to pray. They asked Him for that.
And Jesus proceeded in this particular chapter to give the well known, what we call outline of prayer, and that has been very well and very thoroughly explained and expounded in recent times and over the years. But of all the methods of teaching, what would you think is the most effective? Well, isn't it personal example?
Master electrician, teach me to wire this house. Well, the master electrician could write a manual for you, and give wiring diagrams, and write out instructions, and I suppose for a person who's a good student of the written word, that would be of great help, wouldn't it? Or could just not even write it down, could just verbally, "Here's what you do. You do this, you do that, you do this, you go get these tools, you have these supplies, you get these permits," and could just orally explain.
But wouldn't it be far more effective - "Yes, come with me. You just watch. You stand right here and I'm going to show you exactly every step along the way. Wouldn't that be by far and away the most effective means of teaching? Well, I contend that it would be. Living examples, you can be right there, see it done, not just hear about it, read about it, but see it done by a master electrician, a master plumber, a master carpenter, an expert.
Who's the greatest expert in prayer who has ever walked the face of the earth? Obvious answer, Jesus Christ. So, in the sermon today, you know, have you ever wondered, "Well, if I could have only been one of the disciples."
What a unique opportunity, to have actually walked and talked and gone in and out with Jesus Christ, right there, seen Him, not just read about Him. Or not just have the spirit of God, not to minimize that, to having Him living in me by the spirit of God, by this invisible process, but what if I'd actually been there, seen God in the flesh, and watched what He did, how He responded, how He controlled His emotions, how He did this, how He did that. How He answered questions. What an impact that would have and what an effective teaching method. And those who were to be the pillars of the church, the early twelve apostles, they were given that opportunity for three and a half years, to do that. You might say a unique, one of a kind opportunity to learn.
Well, we get the next best thing, because in the sermon today we're going to look at seven prayers, not where Jesus or a servant of God was praying. We, overhearing them, but overhearing, listening, "What's that you say?" We're going to listen to Jesus pray to the father. The greatest pray-er, the greatest one who prayed in the history of the universe, and we'll just listen to how He prayed, and in doing so I think it will open up whole new vistas of understanding about the specific topic of prayer, about the mind of God, and a whole lot of things. And I hope this is as helpful to you as it was to me in going through it.
Seven prayers of Jesus that we're going to eavesdrop on and I hope learn a great deal from. Let's start with maybe the ultimate prayer, in one sense the last one, not counting the short utterances that we have recorded when He was on the cross, but the garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 26, the last night of His life as a human being.
This is mining a gold mine, and I've got a few nuggets that I want to share with you, but I would be very surprised if, in going through this you don't find a few nuggets of your own that I won't articulate here. This is a goldmine because it's the greatest teacher by personal example showing how to pray.
Matthew 26:36 - "Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to the disciples, 'Sit here while I go and pray over there.'" The very first thing that leaps off the pages to me is that obviously Jesus was well aware of the fact that He was about to enter the greatest of all the many, great trials that He faced as a human being. This was the ultimate trial, drinking of this bitterest cup of all the bitter drinks that He ever had to imbibe, this was the bitterest, and it was full. It wasn't just a sip. He had to drink it all, and there it was in front of Him.
All right, what do humans do when they face, with great anxiety, difficulties? Well, all sorts of things, but probably the last thing many people do naturally is pray to God, so kind of -
Lesson number one - When Jesus was facing trials, He prayed. He went to the source of the ability to endure and get through the trial. And the lesson is too obvious to spend more time on, saying it is probably the threshold lesson.
When facing trials, when facing difficulties, we know that there is going to be a greater strength needed than we have within ourselves, and we go and we get that strength, that additional strength just as Jesus did.
"You sit here and I'm going to go pray." One of the accounts said He went a stone's throw. What's that? How far can you throw a stone, depends on how strong you are; fifty yards, a hundred yards? I don't know. But He went a way so that He could pour Himself into it. He was alone. Most of our prayers should be in a private place, alone, where we can really get into it with our emotion, with our intensity of thoughts. "You sit here while I go over there and pray."
Now He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and then He left them at a way station and then He went on further to be absolutely alone. And he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed,
Matthew 26:38 - "... And (Then) He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, ..." Now some people when faced with great anxiety try to endure it or get through it with, fill in the blanks - alcohol, sleep, a friend, grumbling, but no - prayer. And so "...He said, ... "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. You stay here, and watch with me.
Verse 39 - " And then he went a little further..." He got all by himself. The companionship of His disciples is something that He did receive a certain amount of comfort from, but when rubber met the road, it was time to be alone in prayer with the Father. " And so H e went a little further, and He fell on His face, and He prayed, saying, 'O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me:...'" Next word out of His mouth, "... nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
When we listen in to the master pray-er of all the universe, we're initially struck by how it's the Father's will that He is seeking, not His own. He's able to make His requests; He's bold. He does start off with a request that if there is any other way where He wouldn't have to drink this bitter cup, but the Father's will was tantamount, was first and foremost in His mind.
Well, all right, He went through that exercise. Now wouldn't you think that the Son of God, God in the flesh, after praying a prayer like that, that would have been enough? He came to the disciples, wouldn't God have answered that prayer? Wouldn't that be enough?
Verse 40 - And "(Then) He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, 'What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?
Verse 41 - "'Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation...'" In passing, we see another thing about prayer. Prayer is the thing to do when a person is self-aware enough, when they're not blinded by ego, when they're not blinded by self-righteousness. It's a thing to do when a person is self-aware enough to know themselves, to know what their chinks in their armor are. To know what their weaknesses are, to know what tempts them, and they ask God often to lead them away from those things where they're weakest.
Again, they come to the table with an acknowledgement that they don't bring anything except needs. A person who is self-aware and has been around awhile and who has had the spirit of God working in his or her mind knows what his or her weaknesses are, knows what His or her things are that tempt them are and prays about those things.
Jesus said, "Pray about those things so that you don't enter into that temptation." That is part of the model prayer. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." And I suspect that's one of the things that we tend to forget about in our day to day lives on a daily basis, asking God to direct us away from those things that will overpower us in our weaknesses, but that we see in passing.
That's another thing to pray about; that God would lead us away from those things that are stronger than we are, and that assumes, as I say going in, that you know what your weaknesses are. Now we're all sinners. I don't mean to say that some people are perfect in any area; but if you're honest, you'll know that some things are a greater test for you, that you have fallen more times, a just man falls seven times and rises up again, four hundred and ninety times that we'll be forgiven if we go to God.
So there are some things that we are repeat offenders in more than other things. Is it a weakness of the flesh? Is it a pride matter? Is it a control of the tongue matter? And we're entering into the time of the year when it's very appropriate for us to sort of take inventory. So those things that in our aware moments we realize are the areas that we offend most often are things that we should be praying about that God would lead us away from those temptations in those areas. Anyway,
Verse 41 - "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." And in some areas I'm weaker than in other areas. In some areas you're weaker than in other areas, and in some areas you're stronger than in other areas. That's part of being a self aware Christian.
But that was an aside; the point that I was raising earlier, that we come to in Verse 42 - "No!" To answer my question, that wasn't enough, not in the mind of Jesus, not in the mind of the greatest prayer in the history of the universe, one time wasn't enough. Even He had to go back for a second helping of special help. As it says,
Verse 42 - " He went away (again) a second time, and (He) prayed, saying, 'O my Father,'..." He repeated the same words; He had to just really connect with the will of God, and He had to really look at His own desire to not go through this and yet His greater desire, that the will of the Father be maintained. So He went through it a second time. Are we better, stronger, more mature than Christ? Well, I speak as a fool. So there are times we need to go back a second, and as He did a third time when dealing with a crisis situation. Once is not enough. "He went (away again) a second time and He prayed, (saying,) "Oh, My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Thy will be done."
Verse 43 - "(And) He came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy."
Verse 44 - "So He left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words." You see now, that's not vain repetition. It's the same words, the same thoughts, but if Jesus Christ, God in the flesh needed to go back again and again, so do we need to, especially when facing great difficulties. In the parallel account over in Luke 22:40, let's look at that for a moment. We'll pick it up -
Luke 22:40 - "When He came to the place, He said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation." We've commented on that. That assumes a person knows what does tempt them and they pray about those things specifically, that God would steer them away from them, not let them dabble in them. Not in our human pride say, "Well, you know, I think I've overcome that. I'll go dip my toe back in that water." View it as a thing you don't even to even be within a mile of. Well, the ability to be afraid of that water so that we're not tempted to get as close as possible is again, a gift from God, a help from God that He'll give to those who ask Him for it. Well, it says -
Verse 41 - "(And) He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and ( He) prayed,
Verse 42 - "saying, "Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup (away) from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."
Verse 43 - " Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him." Now what is one of the results of Christ like prayer? Well, spiritual help not only from the Holy Spirit, but angelic help, and then in -
Verse 44 - "(And) being in agony,..." I was just struck by that, and it's quite appropriate, knowing the taste of the contents of that cup. Who would not be in agony? But "(And) being in agony, He prayed more earnestly:..." Now Jesus had the experience that we should not be startled if we have from time to time. Big problem ahead, trying to follow His example; we go, we pour our hearts out to God. The words are right the first time around, "... not My will, but Yours (will be) , be done."
Any way that this can be taken away I certainly would appreciate it; nevertheless, Your will be done. But have you ever had the experience of even when you're doing that and it's the right thing, and you're just right on track, you're thinking about this thing and it seems to even grow more frightening and more ominous and more terrifying as you think about it, and you get to the point of at least temporarily being more anxious about it even in the middle of the endeavor, of praying about it that God will help you. Well that happened to Jesus. So, when it happens to you or to me, He's been there before, and He can help us.
It seemed to get worse. It seemed to be more pronounced, more horrifying, what was ahead of Him. And so what was His reaction? He even prayed more earnestly about it then. He ratcheted it up a little bit. He ratcheted up His prayers. He wrestled with God, the Father over this matter. He didn't cave in to this growing, even greater sense of anxiety that appeared in His mind in the process of praying for help in the first instance. But as He saw it getting bigger He even fought harder, and it says He even "... prayed more earnestly:..." and that's when we read that, "... His sweat became like great drops of blood falling (down) to the ground."
When the trial seems only to grow in frightfulness when we reflect upon it, even in prayer about it to the point of agony, Jesus' example for us is to even pray more earnestly about it, to wrestle with God about it. "I'm not turning loose until I know that I've got the help I need to get through it," and it took Him apparently three rounds of this. So we're only kidding ourselves if we think that there will never be a time when it will take more than one round. It took Him three in this one.
I think we learn here to pray explicitly about the temptations ahead; that we would not enter into them. As I said, this of course, assumes that person, A. knows himself well enough to identify what tempts him, assumes B. that he cares about pleasing God and not himself enough not to fall into them, and 3. doesn't plan to presume on God's mercy.
"Oh, you know, I've been down this road many times before. I've failed many times before. I've repented every time before. I know God will be merciful to me when I repent." That's called presuming on God's mercy. Go ahead and plan it out, do it and say then, "I'll repent to God." That is not the example.
All right, that was the first prayer of Jesus that we could listen in on, and I think we gained some valuable insights from it. Let's go to another, Mark 1:35. I think there's a different lesson here. "...Lord, teach us to pray,...'"
"Okay, listen, I'm praying," He says. He has it recorded for us.
Mark 1:35 - He says, "I'll show you how to do it, just listen, watch" - "Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed." Now what jumps off the page? Not that it's a one hundred percent recipe, that there could never be a time to pray at night or otherwise. Because we do hear about "praying without ceasing, three times a day." Well, what was the norm, apparently for Jesus? It was starting the day with prayer. Nothing new about this; you've heard about it hundreds of times, but as we watch the master prayer pray, we see that He's doing it in the morning as He starts the day. "...In the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed." Now, let's see what the effect of that was.
Verse 36 - "And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.
Verse 37 - "When they found Him, they said to Him, 'Everyone is looking for You.'
Verse 38 - "But He said to them, 'Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.'" What is the effect on Jesus of praying? Solitary, starting the day. Well, I would put it this way. It filled Him, or maybe we could say refilled Him with a sense of His mission from God. I don't think it's an accident. We see Him early in the gospel of Mark praying. The next words out of His mouth that "I gotta get back to the job." It refilled Him with a sense of the mission.
Now I wonder if our prayers on a daily basis have that effect on us? Do they fill us or refill us with a sense of our mission? We have a mission before God in this life. "Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added." Go into the world, and make disciples and preach the gospel. Tend to those that God called.
We're aware of a mission as a church, but do we individually have a mission? The answer is, "Yes," and it's the same mission. The church is a collection of each of us individually, but praying to God on His terms about His will should make crystal clear to us the fact that we are not just drifting through life. It's not just seventy years and out. Say your lines and get off the stage, you know. It's not an exercise in futility, but there is a mission. There is a reason, and the people of God, the people of the church of God, the called out ones, should have more of a sense of mission in their life and purposefulness than anybody else on the earth. And yet we do find people unassociated not only with nominal Christianity but religion in any sense; we do find people that are filled with a sense of their personal mission. How much more ought the people of God? And one of the effects of the right kind of prayer, Christ-like prayer is to fill us with a sense of mission, that we're not just passing time.
Now it doesn't matter the particular part of the body we are, that's what Paul makes clear in I Corinthians. We all have a very important part to play in the work of the body. We are all involved in mission work, and we live purposeful lives, and prayer should elucidate that in our minds.
Let's go to a third prayer of Jesus, Matthew 11:25. Now Jesus, earlier in this chapter had been giving a warning part of His preaching to the impenitent cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida down in verses 20-22, Tyre and Sidon, and giving a very strong witness, that was part of the preaching of the kingdom of God, and right in the middle of that it just seems verse 25, He just sort of breaks out into this prayer.
Now whether it was heard by the entire audience or just the disciples or how that worked, I don't know, but -
Verse 25 - "At that time," it says, right in the middle of this preaching, very strong preaching, "Jesus answered and said, 'I thank You, Father,...'" All right, thankfulness about the workings of God is part of a Christ-like prayer. Now what do I mean by that? "I thank You, Father,..."
What is He thanking Him for? In the midst of preaching He was quite aware that most of the people were utterly unable to receive into their hearts the message He was giving them. He knew that. He knew that their minds were not open and that was all a part of the plan of God.
Now to many people, the workings of God are utterly nonsense. He commissions people by giving them first, understanding of His plan and then He tells them to go out and from the rooftops express that plan, and preach it to any who will listen, but He tells them ahead of time hardly anybody who hears you is going to accept your words, but do it anyway. And it was sort of in that context where He was talking about these impenitent cities, these masses who he knew by and large weren't going to receive His message. He stopped in the middle and,
Verse 25 - "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things...." He wasn't thanking God because there was mass conversion, that there was mass positive reaction to the words of His preaching. He was actually thanking God as He meditated on the fact that most of the people He was preaching to did not have the wherewithal to accept it all, and He thanked God for what you might say is the inscrutable workings of God.
You and I wouldn't have devised a plan like this, would we? Tell people the truth and then tell them to go out and tell other people, and tell them, "By the way, why nobody's going to believe you, but tell them anyway." "...You have hidden these things...," that's what He was thanking God for. That's part of what He was thanking God for. He wasn't complaining that, "Nobody seems to be responding to what I say." Well, that's been the lot of those serving God for the last six thousand years. Very few people respond. "...You have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent but have revealed them to babes.
Verse 26 - "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." Rather than mentally kind of argue with God about the way of God, He thanked God for the way of God, even those things that seem inscrutable and hard to understand. And this is a common theme throughout six thousand years of human history: Old Testament, New Testament, it doesn't matter. By and large, as I say, God opens the minds of one or two, a few, a tiny few, first fruits, loads them up with ammunition, says, "Now, fire away." And says, "You're gonna to miss the target ninety-nine and a half times out of a hundred, but don't worry about it. That's my plan."
Jesus set the example of saying, "Thank you, Father that you're working that way." Not only that You've hidden it from the many, but also certainly, I don't want to deny that He was also thanking that He had revealed it to a few, the babes, the ones who received the kingdom of God like little children. People that were open-minded because they'd been given the gift of God to be open minded, and the truth had penetrated all the human ego and pride and resistance to truth, and a few, the little ones, could understand the truth, and He was thanking God for that.
So, I think one lesson we can take from that is when considering even the inscrutable things of God, Jesus was thankful and set us an example in that regard so as not to, sort of complain to God about the way He does things.
Let's go to a fourth one, John 11, so these hints, and these some obvious and some not so obvious lessons from listening in to Jesus' prayers can maybe help us take stock about the quality of our prayers, and we can become better electricians, better carpenters, better pray-ers by watching a master and following suit.
Now John 11:38, this is the account of when Jesus resurrected His friend Lazarus, who had been dead for several days.
John 11:38 - "(Then) Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
Verse 39 - "Jesus said, ' Take away the stone.' Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, 'Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.'
Verse 40 - "Jesus said to her, 'Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?'
Verse 41- "Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted (up) His eyes..." Let's listen in. What did He say? What did He say to the Father? "...He said, 'Father, I thank You that You have heard Me,' and
Verse 42 - "'I know that You always hear Me...,'" Now when we pray, is there a certainty in our minds that God is hearing us? Even if He doesn't give us exactly what we ask for, in the time that we ask for it, do we know that He has heard us? Jesus did. And He said, "Whatsoever you ask the Father in My name believing, He'll give it to you." At least He'll give you an answer.
When we pray, it says, you know, the prayer of a double minded man, we should not be doubting when we ask God. At minimum we should not be doubting that He's hearing us because if He doesn't hear us, then He's a liar because He said he will hear us. Jesus, before he even saw the answer, He said, "I thank You that You've heard me." He knew that God heard Him. It's kind of hard to express that, as powerfully as I wish I could, but the fact that you know He's listening sometimes needs to be enough, because it's plenty. You know, the God, the Creator of the universe is listening and maybe nobody else will listen, but you know God's listening. And He thanked God, because,
Verse 42 - "You always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." He thanked God for hearing His prayers. Do we thank God that He hears our prayers? Well first of all, it assumes that we pray. Second, it assumes that we know that God hears us, and third, that we're thankful that He hears us even though he doesn't always give us exactly what we want. He gives us what we need.
Luke 6 would be the fifth of these prayers of Jesus that we'll listen in on, see what we can learn here. This is a similar but slightly different lesson that we can learn, or at least one of these is a slightly different lesson that we learned from the garden of Gethsemane prayer. Luke 6:12, let's remember the history. Jesus did not start His three and a half year ministry already having selected the twelve apostles. It took awhile. There was a larger group of disciples who followed Him. And a certain period of time went by and then we come to this story in:
Luke 6:12 - "(Now) it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray,..." Again, getting by Himself, acknowledging implicitly that He needed direction from God in arriving at a very important decision. The decision would be from among these disciples who were going to be the twelve, the apostles? "... And He continued all night in prayer to God." There are some things that are so important they are elevated in importance above the normal needs we have. And Jesus recognized this as a big-ticket item. This was a big decision.
Now what I think we have to take from that is it was not obvious even to Jesus originally when he had this group of those who were following Him, who the final twelve were going to be who would be the apostles. That's at least the lesson I take from this because before naming them He spends all night in prayer to God. And what was the result of that all night prayer? Well, then He had the confidence, He called His disciples to Him, and from His disciples, it says,
Verse 13 - "...He chose twelve, whom (also) He named Apostles;" and here are the names of them. I think we can take from that again that there is some things that we need to spend more time in prayer than just a quick, "God, help me do this." There are some things that are more important than, there are certain critical decisions we have to make in life that are more important than just a quick, "Please help me."
Now in Gethsemane he went back three times to be close enough to God, and to be filled enough with God's help that there was no longer any doubt that He could drink that cup. Here He just needed to be sure, and God helped Him before a crucial decision.
You looked at some other scriptures, and you become aware that, again, this is a big-ticket item. These twelve translate twelve minus one who was then replaced, Judas, who was replaced by Matthias. They were going to have very, what was hard-wired in God's plan was that they would have a very foundational and important part in the work of God, not only in the first century but for all eternity.
You read in Revelation, maybe we could hold our place and go over to Revelation 21:14 that these twelve, minus one, plus one. Twelve minus Judas plus Matthias are foundational in nature. Revelation 21:14, in the government of God, in the kingdom of God. It talks about this New Jerusalem beginning in verse 9. It talks about these twelve gates in the wall around this New Jerusalem.
Verse 14 - "(Now) the wall of the city (this is New Jerusalem) had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." Now maybe God, the Father knew from the word, go. I guess I'll confess, this is a little bit of speculation, but what it says to me is maybe God, the Father knew from the word go who were the twelve, but Jesus needed to be sure that He understood the Father's will of who the twelve were.
Go back over to Luke 22, there's another aspect of this. So He spent all night, Luke 22:28, He's speaking again on the last night of His physical existence. He says, "You," to His disciples, these apostles,
Luke 22:28 - "You are those who have continued with me in my trials;
Verse 29 - "And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me,
Verse 30 - "That you," now that you in the Greek is the plural you, He's addressing all of them. You look that up in a lexicon, that's the plural you, "that you," plural, all twelve of you, the plural you, twelve minus one plus one, "You may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." It was important to get this right, so He spent all night in prayer until He was confident that the Father's will had been made clear to Him.
All right, let's listen to another prayer of Jesus; coming near the end, number six is Luke 22, right there where we are here. I want to get another aspect of this, though. The sixth prayer of Jesus,
Luke 22:31 - "(And) the Lord said, Simon..." Okay, right after addressing them in the plural, in verses 28-30, and talking about their destiny if they were faithful to their calling, which we have every reason to believe eleven of them were, and then replaced by Matthias,
Verse 31 - "(And) the Lord said, Simon, Simon!" (Addressing one of the disciples,) "Indeed, Satan has asked for you, (that word "you" in the Greek you is the singular.) Jesus was aware through His spiritual perception that Satan had asked God, the Father that He could get His hands on Simon.
Now we don't believe in the primacy of Peter, but we do understand that He was a leader. He was a leading one among the disciples, the apostles, and in the early New Testament church. Satan wanted him and he had made a, he had sent in a p. o., a purchase order. I want that one, and somehow Jesus was aware of this. Satan has asked for you, singular, " that he may sift you as wheat." And we could just let our imagination run wild in the nature of the trials that Satan, if He had been given permission, would have put Peter through. A sifting process, hoping, Satan hoping that at the end of the process Peter would have been disqualified, would have been found to be a rock in the midst of the flour, chaff in the midst of wheat.
He had his eyes targeted on Simon and Jesus was aware of it, so what did Jesus do in response to that? Do you and I ever do this, or anything similar to it? He says,
Verse 32 - "But I have prayed for you...," And what was Jesus prayer to the Father? "... That Peter's (your) faith should not fail; and that when you have returned ..." The original King James Version says, "When you (thou art) are converted, you will strengthen your brethren."
Verse 33 - "But he said to Him, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death."Now this was not one of those times when Peter was accepting the things, the kingdom of God and the words of Jesus like a little child, because Peter was masking some fear with some braggadocio and some bluster. "Well, I'll suffer with you and nobody's going to, if you, I'm going down with you, I'm going down with ya, Lord."
Christ said, "You don't even understand yourself, Peter."
Verse 34 - He said, "(Peter,) before the cock (will not) crows this day, you will deny Me three times," that you even know me. That must have taken Peter aback if he even believed that. But the point is, what did Jesus pray in the knowledge, or with the knowledge that somebody He cared about, somebody who had great potential, but who had weaknesses, and Satan was after him, and Satan wanted him. Satan wanted to get his hands on him. What did Jesus pray? He prayed to the Father a counter prayer. "Cancel the p. o. Please don't let him have him. Don't let him sift him like he wants to."
Now to the parents among us, do you ever prayer that prayer or that type of prayer for our children perhaps before they are converted? You think Satan wants to sift our children? Or others? There could be other applications that we could take some hopeful hints from in this example of overhearing Jesus' prayer. He wasn't just thinking about himself. He said, "God, please keep Satan's hands off of him to the full extent that he wants to get his hands on Simon. Protect him. Simon isn't even aware of his own weaknesses and he has no idea what would happen to him if Satan was given full access to him." He prayed a prayer very much like that. Do we ever pray prayers like that?
I find it also interesting in this particular example in Luke 22, the Greek word for prayer. Now there are many Greek words that are translated into the English word prayer, about a half dozen of them in the New Testament there and they have different shades of meaning. The one here is one where a person is aware of a real need; you know, generically we always have needs, but they know that there is a need and the only way that that need can be fulfilled is by God's intervention. That's the sense of this word pray that is used here in Luke 22, where Jesus said, "I have prayed for you, Peter."
It wasn't Jesus' need it was Peter's need and Peter didn't even know it. One source even goes so far as to say, you could translate this beg. Now that may be overstating it a bit because I don't see Jesus begging the Father.
But there's that sense, I've got this need. My hand is out. You know a beggar knows his health is such that he cannot get out and beg and take care of his own needs. I mean he can't work. He's disabled in some way and the only way he's going to eat that day, you know, in these times, is to have a cup and have it out and hope that somebody would put some money in it there so that he could buy some food. It's that sense. We're now down to the last possible and the only possible solution to this problem. That's the sense in which Jesus was praying for Peter, that God would not let him be sifted.
Now I've saved, in one sense, the longest for the last. The real time, when we can just listen in not just a few words or a verse or two, but what we've come to call the real Lord's Prayer and the lessons for us in that, John 17.
The master prayer of the universe and we get to listen to a couple of minutes of uninterrupted prayer. So let's just listen in as we begin to wrap this up. The hour has come.
John 17:1 - "...Glorify your Son that Your Son may (also) glorify You." In our prayers, if we're going to follow this example, we express to God from time to time that we're aware that it's His timing, that it's His will, that it's His plan that is important, not our timing, our plan, and our will. The first words out of His mouth:
John 17:1 - "Father, (Your time) has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son (also) may glorify You,"
Verse 2 - and " as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him." It was always about the Father's will, the Father's plan, the plan of salvation as devised by the Father and that those who followed Jesus who were going to be instrumental in the church, they belong to the Father. He had given them to Jesus, but He got them from the Father. "No man can come to Me except the spirit of the Father draw them."
Verse 3- "(And) this is eternal life, that they may know You,..." not Me, the Son of God, but You, the Father. This is eternal life. So in this early few verses of this prayer we see that Jesus, aware of how great His need was, first reminded the Father that foremost in His mind was that the Father would be satisfied, the Father's plan would be fulfilled and that Jesus would not fail to, you know, do what the Father wanted. What an incredible example for all people for all time.
Verse 4 - "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work, which You have given Me to do. (More of the same)
Verse 5 - "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." He wanted to be back in the presence of the Father as He had been for all past eternity, but only after completing the job that the Father had given Him to do.
Verse 6 - "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world...." Now the only I, the only self in this is His relationship to doing the Father's will and His relationship to serving and helping and preparing the ones the Father had given Him to be the Church. See, His mind is on the Father's will and now it turns to specifically the ones that the Father had given Him out of the world. So, as I say, if we just sort of listen in we see how much of our prayers should be on things other than just our wants, but on God's will, on God's church, on the work, on those others that we can help. "...They were Yours, You gave them to Me, " an egotistical Christ would have said, "Boy, my preaching was such that - 'Look, look at all these ones that I bring to you.'" Didn't approach it that way. "They were Yours, You gave them to Me and I am really wanting them to be given the strength to carry on after I drink this cup and I'm no longer with them physically ."
Verse 7 - "Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.
Verse 8 - "For I have given to them the words which You have given to Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me." What an example for us.
Verse 9 - "I pray for them...." Now the next words are among the most shocking in the BIBLE. "...I do not pray for the world..." He was focusing on those few babes whose minds had been opened to the truth of God, not on the vast majority whose time it is not yet to understand the things of God. His mind was focused where God was focused. I don't pray for the world, "I pray for them ...You have given Me, for they are Yours.
Verse 10 - "And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
Verse 11 - "Now I am no longer in the world..." Now in Jesus' mind He was looking beyond His own resurrection and He is thinking about them left for what human eyes could see as orphans, left alone. So, He was thinking about that, they're going to be alone. "(Now) I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world (and) so I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be (one) as We are." He was praying for them. Now He knew that night they were going to abandon Him. He was looking way beyond that weakness. See, they went to sleep. They didn't pray that they wouldn't enter temptation even though He told them to. They didn't realize how weak they were. They didn't realize that they were "sunshine" patriots, you know, fair weather friends. They didn't realize that about themselves.
Even Peter, "I'll go to death for you."
"No, you wouldn't. You'll deny you know me three times to save your own comfort." But Jesus was looking way beyond that because He knew that they would repent of that and that they would then move ahead, so He was looking at that.
Verse 12 - "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You have given Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled." Now something that jumps off the page is the ability of Jesus to look beyond the failings even when it hurt Him and disappointed Him of those who were His disciples and He knew they were going to fail Him that night, but He was looking beyond that and He was finding the positive and He was focusing on that.
Verse 13 - "I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
Verse 14 - "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Verse 15 - "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one." Just like He had prayed earlier, specifically in the singular for Peter that God would not permit Satan to sift Him the way He wanted to. He was praying that God would keep them from the evil one and that is to be part of their prayers, your prayers, my prayers on a daily basis. Deliver us from the evil one, don't let us be sifted, help us to be aware enough of what tempts us that we'll steer clear of it and you'll lead us away from it. That's all included in this.
Verse 16 - "Th ey are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." Because He knew the plan of God was to select a few first fruits out of the world and work with them. And that's the way God viewed them even though they were a horrible failing that night.
Verse 17 - "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." So, do we ever find ourselves asking God to sanctify the Church or strengthen the Church through the way that the word of God is taught and preached in our services and through the individual BIBLE studies? I mean, it's just a way, it opens up vistas of things we can pray about if we're gonna follow the master prayer of all the universe.
Verse 18 - "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
Verse 19 - "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they (also) may be sanctified by the truth. So He prayed a little bit, a few verses about His relationship with God and He gave all the credit to God and thanked God. And He prayed about His immediate disciples. Now He starts praying for His disciples down through the ages, including those who live in 2006. What did He pray for those who live now and have lived for the last two thousand years? Well, He said,
Verse 20 - "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
Verse 21 - "That they all may be one..." Now, one of the things that discourages the people of God in the year 2006 is how we're scattered on a thousand hills and we all feel utterly unable to change that, but we can still pray about it in His time, in His way, probably in ways we can't even anticipate, God will answer this prayer. But "That they (all) may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they (also) may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me."
Verse 22 - "And the glory which You gave Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one:" Now how many times does He have to say it as we listen in before we realize, this must be important. This must be very important to the Father and to Christ. It's what they talk about, at minimum; we can pray in our prayers that the people of God be one and grow more in that way. The honest ones among us will admit that we're not too much that way. I'm not, many of us aren't very perfect in this, but we can at least pray about it and work on it and then realize that it's going to take a miracle of God to really bring this to the fullness of what it can be.
Verse 23 - "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Verse 24 - "Father, I desire..." now what do we tell God we desire if we're gonna follow Christ? "..., I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me;" Now when's that going to happen? When are people who are Christians going to be with God and Christ in His glory? Well, in the kingdom of God! He's praying for the coming kingdom of God and that these people will successfully navigate the minefield of life with God's help. I mean that's a generic prayer that God would help people fulfill their mission if they are first fruits and would be in the kingdom of God in the first resurrection.
There are many, many ramifications to that prayer, but that's really what He's praying for, not that they would go to heaven with Him that day as some people read this, but he's got His mind forward on the happy ending, the kingdom of God. "... For You loved Me from the foundation of the world.
Verse 25 - "O righteous Father! The world has not known You," and He acknowledged that that was the way it is. Only a few are called. "... but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.
Verse 26 - "And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." Now certainly implicit in all of that, desire for unity, desire for oneness, is the notion that love is that which Godly love, agape love is that which makes that possible.
So, we know that those who are Christians are Christ-like, and a person who wants to pray like Jesus should listen to how Jesus prayed and try to emulate Him in their prayers.