Word of Salvation – Vol. 48 No.15 – April 2003

 

Jesus – A Man of Prayer

 

Sermon by Rev B G Aldridge

on Luke 11:1-13

Scripture Reading:  John 17:1-26

Suggested Hymns:  BoW 65; 86; 424; 439; 241

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I wonder what I would do if God said to me, “I will give you whatever sort of congregation you want, but they must all be gifted in only one area of ministry”. What sort of congregation would I ask for? All evangelists? All leaders? All teachers? All givers? All encouragers? All healers? All missionaries? All preachers? What would I ask for if I could only have one type of person in my congregation?

If all you people could only have one gift, I would ask that you all be pray-ers.

Why? Two reasons:

1. Prayer is the most important and vital of all Christian ministries. I know that Paul said that ‘prophecy’ is a most desired gift. I do not want to argue with him, but if it had been me writing, I might have said ‘prayer’.

2. Jesus is supremely the Man of Prayer. Sad thing is that we hear so much about Jesus the healer, Jesus the miracle worker, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Saviour, Jesus the preacher. But we hear so little about Jesus the Pray-er.

Why is Jesus so important in relation to prayer? Two reasons:

1. Without Jesus there is no effective prayer

The Bible is clear: Christian prayer is to the Father, through the Son and by the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:18). There is plenty of non-Christian prayer around. Surveys show that more than 50% of the Aussie population pray; but who to? Why do I say that most of this prayer is not Christian? Because in prayer, as in salvation, Jesus is the only way to the Father.

We need salvation because our rebellion against the rule of God has created a gulf between us and God. The gap is bridged by and through Jesus. We are brought together in and through Jesus.

It is the same with prayer. Because we are sinful and God is holy, our fellowship and contact can only be through Jesus. Jesus is the great High Priest who makes intercession for us. This is why we say, “in Jesus name”. Not a formula that guarantees our prayer will be heard, but our acknowledgment that we go to our Father through Jesus. The gap can only be bridged by Jesus.

We are heard by God and God speaks to us not because of the correctness of our words, nor the way we use Scripture, nor the beautiful sound of our language, nor the desperation of our need, but only in and through Jesus.

During the Civil War in the USA, a young soldier received bad news from home. He went to his commanding officer and asked for compassionate leave. Because their situation was desperate, the offer refused. He went to the commanding General and again the request was refused. Being stationed in Washington, he decided to go to the Commander-in-Chief and approached the White House.

The guard at the front door refused to let him in, stating that the President was far too busy to deal with such a matter. While he was sitting on a nearby park bench, a young man came by and noticed the tears running down his face. Having ascertained what the problem was, he invited the young soldier to come with him. They went around to the back door of the White House, past the guard, through the house and into President Lincoln’s office. “Dad”, he said, “there is someone here whom you should speak to.”

The soldier had immediate access to the father through the son. So it is with Jesus. He is our only and immediate way to God. So when we have such a privilege, why do we not make more use of it?

2. Jesus is THE man of prayer

Now when you last decided that you wanted to know more about prayer, what did you do? Don’t answer, let me guess. You went to the Christian bookshop and bought a book about prayer. And who wrote the book? And whose prayer was it about? I will guarantee that it was about some great one and his prayers and his method of praying and his secrets of prayer and his examples on how God had his prayers answered. True? So you went and tried to follow the great one’s example, and what happened? Don’t answer, let me guess?

My friends, who is the greatest pray-er in the world? Who is THE man of prayer? Who is the One who can teach us the most about prayer? Who is the ONLY One who can give us direct access to God? Who is the One who can guarantee us personal relationship and communion with God? ONLY JESUS.

Jesus is not only a gospel preaching, radically living, miracle working, paradigm shifting, salvation bringing, spiritual leader. He is supremely ‘the man of prayer’. His whole life was steeped in prayer. His ministry was strengthened and His mission sustained through prayer. So when you became all fired up about prayer, why did you not go to Jesus? Why did you not look at his example? Why did you not consult the expert?

If your car breaks down, you do not go to the person who writes the DRIVE column in the Age. You do not go out and buy a manual and tools and try to fix it yourself. You take it to the experts – to the people who made it. So when you want to know about prayer… go to the man who makes prayer possible: JESUS.

So let us look at Jesus THE man of prayer.

Jesus prays early and late. In Mark 1:35 we read, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” We find Jesus alone in a solitary place, very early in the morning, praying. In Mark 6:46 we read, “After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.” After feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, He leaves His disciples and goes up on to a mountainside to pray.

Jesus actions are surrounded by prayer. In Luke 9:18 we read, “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am?'” He asked them this question while He was praying.

Jesus’ personal experiences were surrounded by prayer. Luke also records that, at His baptism by John in the Jordan River, it was “as he was praying” that heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him, and the voice from heaven proclaimed Him Son of God (Lk 3:21). It was also “as he was praying” that the appearance of Jesus’ face changed and the glorious event occurred that we call the transfiguration (Lk 9:28-29).

Jesus reveals something of His private intercessory ministry for His inner circle of followers in Luke 22:31-32 when He says to Peter after the Last Supper, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

John characteristically presents a unique profile of Jesus in prayer. In John 11:41-42, as the stone is rolled away from the entrance of the tomb of four-days-dead Lazarus, Jesus looks to heaven and prays, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” And then, at a word from Jesus, life returns to the dead body of Lazarus.

In John 12:28, amid dialogue with a multicultural crowd, the Apostle records an extremely brief prayer by Jesus: “Father, glorify your name!” Heaven responds in a thunder-like voice: “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” C S Lewis once said, “Often when I pray, I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address.” It was not so with Jesus: He was in immediate and profound communication with God.

Finally for John, in perhaps the most theologically significant of all the prayers of Jesus apart from the Lord’s Prayer, John records a 26-verse prayer of Jesus warranting a series of expository sermons in its own right (Jn 17:1-26). Here Jesus prays for Himself (vss 1-5), for the disciples (vss 6-19), and for all believers (vss 20-26). We don’t have time to unpack the treasures of this prayer today, but we have included this prayer of Jesus in our Scripture readings before the sermon.

This leaves two very significant sets of prayers: those in Gethsemane, and those on the cross. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus contemplates the cross and prays three times in agony of spirit; and on the cross He prays three more prayers in agony of spirit and body.

In Mark 14:35-42 (parallel passages: Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46), after leaving the Upper Room, Jesus crosses the Kidron brook and draws Peter, James and John aside. Ascending the gentle slope of the Mount of Olives, He motions them to stop. Going a little further, He falls to the ground and prays, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (vs 36).

Twice Jesus returns to the three, and twice He goes back to pray. And as He finishes, amid conflicting emotions, the footfalls of Judas and the crowd armed with swords and clubs fall on His ears – and those of the slumbering disciples.

Then, the very next day, nailed to a cross raised outside the City of Peace, Jesus utters seven sentences – three of them prayers. He witnesses soldiers at the foot of the cross gambling for His clothes. He casts His pain-tormented mind back on all that had befallen Him since that night of joy and hope in Bethlehem three decades before. And amid all that, Jesus breathes this amazing prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34).

Later, after three hours of supernatural darkness during which He endured the holy wrath of God against the sins of the world, absorbing in His own body all the world’s moral darkness and injustice and pain, Jesus cries out in a loud voice a very different and terrible prayer: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46).

As the sun reappears, and the great curtain in the temple is torn in two, Jesus calls out again with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46). Matthew adds, “He gave up his spirit” (Mt 27:50b).

Now you know why Jesus is called the “MAN of PRAYER”.

3. What do we learn from Jesus’ example?

a. Prayer is personal communication with God like that of a son with his father. Jesus said, “My father, I thank you”; “Father, if you are willing.” I know that not all communication between children and parents is good, but communication with your heavenly Father is deep and wonderfully satisfying communion. You never come away from spending time in the presence of God feeling lonely, upset, depressed or like your world is falling apart. Sometimes, like Moses, you glow. And because it is communication, it must be two-way. Amazing how many people think prayer is one way communication. You must allow God to speak to you. If you want God to speak to you, then speak to Him.

b. Prayer is the most valuable and necessary of all Christian ministries. If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we. Let me ask you this: When a missionary comes to speak and people ask what can they do, what is the almost universal answer? It is this: “I want you to pray for me.” They do not ask for your money. That does not mean they do not need your money. They do. But first and foremost, they want your prayers. Why? Because that is the most necessary thing.

c. Prayer can be made at any tine in any place under any situation. One of the most frequent mistakes we make as Christians is to say, “Jesus spent all night in prayer, so will I”. So you sit down and start to pray. Five minutes later, you find yourself thinking about how Collingwood lost the Grand Final, or you fall asleep. True? I find it so difficult to just sit down and talk to God. Because I am like that, I find it easier to pray when I’m doing something else. Like walking the dog. Or washing the dishes. Or in short bursts at different times: like when you finish speaking to someone on the phone, stop for a moment and offer a prayer for that person. The point is not, “do you spend an hour in prayer each day?”, but. “do you pray… regularly, definitely, frequently, and for all people?”

d. God hears and answers the prayers that are made through Jesus because He hears and answers Jesus. There are prayers that God does not get to hear because of the blockage of sin or they are not according to His will. Or they are not appropriate, or the motive is wrong. But those prayers God hears, God answers. God said “No” to Jesus’ request in the Garden of Gethsemane. But many times He answers before we ask.

e. Finally, one of the most wonderful things about prayer is this: prayer is the only ministry in which every Christian can take part. Whether you are old or young, the youngest child in the family, blind, deaf or even dumb, you can still pray. You don’t even have to know what to say. In Romans 8:26 the promise is that even when we do not know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groaning that cannot be uttered.

Conclusion:

So, if you want to learn to pray, I have this simple solution for you. Put aside all your books. Go to the Man of Prayer. Go to Jesus. Ask Him to teach you to pray.

Use His prayer as an outline:

1. Our Father… thank God for being your Father.

2. Hallowed be your name… praise and give thanks for all He has done.

3. Your Kingdom come… seek for His rule to be established over personal, church, national and world events.

4. Give us this day… should not be too hard to find many things to ask your Father for yourself and others.

5. And forgive us our sins… also here there should be plenty of material for prayer.

6. And lead us not into temptation… seek God’s help with every aspect of what you do, and His protection from the evil one.

7. For thine is the Kingdom… declare your confidence in your God to bring all things under His rule and control.

When you use His prayer as an outline, you will find plenty to talk about with your heavenly Father.

But I also want to say this – God will not force you to pray, but when you do not pray, you miss out on one of the most wonderful blessings that God has for you.

Amen.