Jesus and Prayer

Introduction

Well, again, good morning. To those of you who aren’t mourning people, to whom it’s a struggle to get awake, to get the kids ready, to get everything that has to be done, done so that you can be here for the 9 a.m. service. Welcome to the 8 a.m. service. But I appreciate so much your love for God and your love for one another and your interest in your soul and where it will spend in eternity and the interest in souls of others. That no impediment, that no obstacle would keep you from worshiping God. This morning I’d like for us to start just by thinking about Jesus. Thinking about particularly the 30 plus or minus years that he spent here upon this earth, and really let’s narrow it down to about the three years of his earthly ministry.

If you were to think about what activities dominated those three years, what would you think of? If you were thinking I was just going to randomly turn to one of the four gospels and just randomly to open up the page and read a section from the life of Christ, what do I think he will be doing on this page of the gospel story? I venture to say that we would probably come up with two that would dominate our thoughts. Number one would be teaching, that we would expect during the life of Christ and any of the gospel stories that chronicle his three years of ministry, that you’d expect to see him teaching. Whether it was a long discourse like the Sermon on the Mount, whether it was some personal one-on-one teaching as he was teaching either his disciples or other people, maybe in the marketplace, whether he was telling a parable, that you might expect Jesus to be teaching.

The other thing that would probably dominate our thoughts of what Jesus did while he was here upon the earth would be miracles. We would expect, if we just randomly turn somewhere in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, to read a story of Jesus performing a miracle. Maybe it would be his first miracle of turning water into wine. Maybe he would be feeding a multitude of people by multiplying the food miraculously. We might see one of those most unusual stories of him walking on water or raising the dead are one of the more typical miracles of him healing somebody of some varying disease. But what if I pressed you? That besides teaching, in addition to miracles, what other activity? If you had to give me a third activity that dominated the earthly walk of Jesus beyond his teaching, beyond his miracles, what do you think you might catch Jesus doing on any given day?

The answer would be praying. In one sense, we might be surprised, but then again, really not. If we considered how many times in the gospel stories we read about Jesus praying. It’s frequent. It’s frequent enough and it’s mentioned enough to catch our attention, to catch our eye, and to think that Jesus spent so much time in prayer. This morning I’d like for us to think about the life of Jesus as the life of prayer. And see what we can learn. We’re going to be looking at Jesus’ prayer life in the three years that he ministered. But we’re going to try to make application to our own prayer life. And how should I be praying? How can I better be praying and speaking to my Father, having learned from the example of Jesus?

You know, really, we might start here. And that is to consider two passages that really kind of describe or encapsulate the prayer life of Jesus. Mark tells us that now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. Jesus prayed in the morning. Many times, because of the furry of activity in Jesus’ life, he would have to get up early before anyone else arose and go and pray, because this might be the only time that day that he would have a moment to himself to pray. And so he would rise early in the morning to pray. Luke tells us this. Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God.

1. Why Did Jesus Have to Pray?

There’s two verses that kind of tells us that prayer meant a lot to Jesus. That he would rise early, extra early in the morning so that he could pray, and that at times he would spend all night praying to his Father. But let’s back up a little bit. Jesus, a man of prayer, a man whose life was dominated by prayer. We might even ask this question, though. Why? Why did Jesus have to pray? You ever think about that? Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, who, according to John’s introduction to him and his gospel, was God Himself. Why would He have to pray? The one who could control diseases, the one who could steal the stormy sea, the one who could walk on water, who could raise the dead.

He was the sinless, spotless Son of God, and as we said, he was God Himself. Why would He have to pray? Well, the answer to that question is really revealing and also speaks to why we should be people of prayer. Jesus prayed because he understood that even for the Son of God, even for God incarnate, this was God’s designed plan of communication to God. Look with me, if you will, in Mark chapter, or excuse me, John chapter 11. In the middle of the story of the healing of Lazarus, we’ve had an interesting conversation, if you will, with Jesus and his Father. Prior to calling for Lazarus to come forth, Jesus makes this statement. John 11, begin with me in verse 41. John 11, verse 41, and then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.

And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And I know that you always hear me. But because of the people who are standing by, I said this that they may believe that you sent me. Jesus says, Father, I thank you that you have heard me and that you always hear me. Jesus understood that prayer was his means while he was in the flesh, was his means of communication to the Father. Couple that with the fact that Jesus had an intimate relationship with his Father. And we easily answer the question, why would the very Son of God have to pray? Because he had a relationship with his Father, and while he was in the flesh, this is how he could communicate to his Father.

Then the question really becomes, why wouldn’t he pray? Prayer reveals, the prayer life of Jesus reveals starkly his humanity, does it not? Because this is the means in how he would have to communicate. And we can relate to Jesus maybe more in his prayer life than we can in any other arena of his life. His prayer, second maybe only to his physical suffering, his prayer highlights his humanity. Is that not displayed for us vividly in the most memorable prayer of Jesus? That’s the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, where three times in tears and anguish, he goes to his father and says, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. We see displayed there the humanity of Jesus. We can relate to this spotless Lamb of God.

2. Jesus Always Made Time to Pray

Because he’s man. Oh, yes, he’s divine, but he is now man in the flesh, and he is communicating the only way humans can communicate to the divine in prayer. And so he prayed because that’s how he could communicate to his Father. Another thing that we notice about the life of Christ is that Jesus always made time to pray. It’d be difficult to think of a human being who had a busier three years than Jesus. But I want to notice three couplets in his life that demonstrate how prayer became a priority. First of all, the first couplet is we notice that at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, we won’t turn over there, but the gospel writers record for us at what we might mark as the beginning of his three-year earthly ministry, that is his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, we see Jesus doing what?

The text says he prayed. At the beginning of his earthly ministry, Jesus prayed. Not coincidentally. What do we see Jesus doing at the end of his earthly ministry? He’s praying. He prayed in the garden, as we talked about. He prayed while on the cross. And so we see Jesus at the beginning and at the end of his earthly ministry. Praying. We’ve already seen the second of these couplets, and that is we see Jesus arising early in the morning to pray. He knew that on this given day that it was going to be difficult to find time in his busy schedule, being pressed by the throngs to be able to carve out time to pray. And so what does he do? He makes time to pray by getting up early in the morning.

We see Jesus praying at night, praying all night. And so we see Jesus at the beginning and the end of his ministry praying. We see Jesus in the morning and in the late hours praying. And sometimes Jesus prayed in isolation. Look with me in Luke chapter 5. As Jesus’ popularity grew. This became ever increasingly difficult, but Jesus would many times isolate himself to pray. Luke chapter 5 and in verse 16. Luke simply adds this explanation. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

And so he withdrew and prayed. But oftentimes we see Jesus praying not by himself, but with others. Look in Luke chapter 9 now. Luke 9 and in verse 28. Luke chapter 9. And in verse 28 it says, now it came to pass after eight, after these sayings that he took Peter, James, and John and went up to the mountain to pray. And so we see Jesus praying at the beginning at the end of his ministry. We see Jesus praying in the morning. We see him praying at night, actually all night. We see him going by himself to pray, and we see him praying with others. What’s the point of that? Jesus prayed. Now let’s make an application. If you haven’t already made it in your life.

What about your life? What dominates your life? We thought of three things that dominated the life of Christ: teachings, miracles, and prayer. What will your epitaph be? Kind of scary to think about it, isn’t it? At your funeral, if the family asks the preacher, we want you to sum up this loved one’s life by three things. What would those three things be? Be honest. What would the three things that would best encapsulate the life of you? If you’ve got one of those friends that is bluntly honest, ask them this question. But be prepared to hear the answer. Two layers of application. Number one is would one of those things be anything remotely spiritually focused. And then more immediate application. Could one of those things be prayer?

Could somebody be reflecting on your life saying, they pray? In fact, the first time I met them, they were praying. The last time I saw them, they were praying. They prayed in the morning. I saw them pray at night. I knew that many times they would go by themselves and make time to pray by themselves, and they often prayed with us. Jesus made time to pray.

3. A Purpose in Prayer

A purpose.

This is maybe where we fail in our life of prayer, because it’s my contention that most Christians have two, at least two arenas of their life in which they were better, which they wish they were better. Number one is personal evangelism, number two is prayer. We’ll save personal evangelism for another lesson. Why do we want to pray better and more and so often fail at that. This may be one of the reasons is that we struggle at having a purpose in prayer. Let’s be honest. Many times we pray just because we’ve been trained that we’re supposed to pray.

Now let me turn it on myself. I often say I just preach to myself and let y’all listen because I need this more than you do. That I fear that sometimes I model my prayers after the public prayers. Which does a grave disservice to my prayer life. Because the man who’s leading us in public prayer has limitations. Limitations that I don’t have in my personal prayer. He has at least two limitations. Number one is he’s having to pray for the entire congregation. And he doesn’t know most of the time the details of your life that need to be prayed about. And so he has to pray in vagaries, in generalities. He is limited by the constraints of kind of the social norms of what public prayer is to be like and how long is it to be and how it’s to be structured.

It’s the rare man who can step out of those kind of recipes and formulas of what public prayer is supposed to sound like. And so I take that and I say I’m supposed to pray. Supposed to pray before I eat, supposed to pray before I go to sleep. And there’s a couple other times there where I’ve kind of structured my life that I know I’m supposed to pray, and so this is a prayer time, and so I’ll check that box off, and I’ll bow my head, and what am I going to say? I tell you what, I’ll say what we say at the church building. And I pray in those vague generalities. I’ve missed the point of prayer. Prayer is not something that’s to be done ritualistically two or three times a day.

Because that’s what a Christian does. You pray before you eat, you pray before you go to bed, you pray. Let’s fit another time in there so we can be like Daniel and do it three times a day. And what do I pray for? I’ll go down the list, is what Brother So and so does because he prays a good prayer at the worship service. And then I wonder why my prayer life suffers. I even wonder why I quit praying. Because unlike Christ, I don’t have a purpose in my prayer. I’m just praying. Jesus never just prayed, did he? He had a purpose in his prayer. You could go throughout the life of Christ. Jesus, who prayed so much because he had so much about which to pray.

He praised and honored his father. He made requests of his father. He made intercessions for others. He prayed. Look at this in Luke chapter 6. You want to see a purpose in prayer? Luke chapter 6. Look at verses 12 and 13. Luke chapter 6, verse 12 says, Now it came to pass in those days that he, speaking of Christ, that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. We’ve referenced that verse already a couple times. Jesus went out to the mountain and prayed all night long. Before we even read the next verse. Don’t you imagine that there had to be some purpose to that? Was that just praying because that’s what you’re supposed to do? Or was that praying for a purpose?

Read the next verse. Luke 6, verse 13, and when it was day, after he had prayed all night long in that mountain, when it was day, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles. Why would Jesus spend all night in prayer? Because saved from his death, burial, and resurrection, this was going to be the most long lasting and important event he would do here upon this earth. Choose the twelve men who would carry on his mission. And so he prayed all night long. I’m assuming about it. Or at least that had to dominate that prayer. What did he pray about? All night long. We have to be careful in the arena of speculation when it comes to the scriptures.

But don’t you imagine that much of that prayer was like much of the prayer in John chapter 17 that he prayed for these twelve men? Maybe he prayed for himself and the work that he would have to do in these short three years of getting this ragtag bunch of men prepared for the work that they would have to do. You see, you had a purpose in prayer. Until we have these two things firmly ensconced in our psyche. Number one is, why are we praying? Until we’re dominated by the thought that must have dominated Jesus, and that is I have an intimate relationship with my Father, and this is how I can communicate to him, until and unless we have this ensconced in our psyche as well, that I have a purpose.

4. Jesus Always Submitted to the Will of His Father

Some temptation that was enticing you to sin. And you said, God, hear my prayer. Now we must conclude here. Jesus made time to pray. He had a purpose in prayer. But Jesus always submitted to the will of his Father. We think of that prayer in the garden. When tears and sweat as great drops of blood.

But the gospel writers tell us he concluded all three of those prayers with these words.

We pray. We pray with a purpose. We pray because it’s our means of communicating to our heavenly loving Father. But we ultimately submit to His will.

Conclusion

And He simply may not answer your prayer. But we learn another lesson from Jesus that we humbly submit our will to his. Because in praying to God, the very act and posture of prayer symbolizes our submission to Him. And so let’s pray. Let’s pray like Jesus Christ. Rise early in the morning. There may be times when you need to pray all night long. Pray with a purpose. But pray. Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Father, we marvel that you would humble yourself so much to incline your ear to hear our words. We’re humbled to think that we can communicate to you the same way that your Son and our Savior did. That we can bow our heads and come to you. And more than that, Father, we know that you hear.

And we know that you love us. And so, Father, hear our prayers. Hear our prayers for those that we love so dearly, that are struggling so much. Bless them, Father. Hear our prayers for those who are elderly and struggling with just the everyday life. We pray, Father, that they will not outlive their faithfulness. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling spiritually, for whom Satan is battling. We pray for their victory. We pray for your son’s return. And we pray that we might be found acceptable. Father, hear our prayer. Humbly, lovingly, willingly offer through your Son’s name. Amen. We’ll now be dismissed to our classes.