Pray Like Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
On May 27, 1943—in the midst of World War II, a B-24 Liberator dubbed The Green Hornet went out on a mission to search for a plane and its crew that went down in the Pacific Ocean. While on mission, The Green Hornet also crashed killing half the crew. Three men survived and were able to float on a life raft with sharks constantly swimming around them, without food or water for some time. One of the crew ended up dying 33 days at sea. The other two survived another two weeks—47 days in total—before a Japanese ship spotted them and picked them up as POWs. At one low point on the raft, when it seemed that all of them would perish from dehydration, one man who had never been a religious person, whispered a desperate prayer to God. “God if you will save me, get me home, I’ll seek you and serve you.” That night a storm came over the raft and they were able to not only drink that night, but were able to save the water to drink for days to come.
That man was Louie Zamperini. A book was written about his harrowing life, focusing mainly on his time in the raft and in war as a POW. When he came home, Louie was falling apart. He had flashbacks, night terrors, and was losing everything he held dear because he was becoming a drunk. One day, he was tricked by his wife into going to a Billy Graham crusade that was only supposed to last two weeks, but ended up lasting eight due to the response. He went, left in anger, went home and drank through the night. He relented and went to a second night, internally angry at all the Graham was preaching. When the invitation was being given, Louie grabbed his wife to leave. When he reached the aisle, something happened. He had a flashback there an then. He was back on the life raft, dying all over again. And suddenly he heard himself praying that little prayer, “God if you will save me, get me home, I’ll seek you and serve you.” He came to, and in his own words,
I dropped to my knees and for the first time in my life truly humbled myself before the Lord. I asked him to forgive me for not having kept the promises I’d made during the war, and for my sinful life. I made no excuses. I did not rationalize, I did not blame. He had said, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” so I took him at his word, begged for his pardon, and asked Jesus to come into my life.
From that moment on, there was not another nightmare, not another flashback, no more drinking. His life was restored. The book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand goes through this entire moment in Louie’s life. Not surprisingly, the Hollywood movie version, skips it.
Why do I tell this story? Because in two moments of this man’s life, we see the power of prayer. Most Christians do not seem to understand such power. We take prayer for granted. Rather than pray without ceasing, many Christians pray without thinking. We do not think about the God to whom we pray and his power. We do not think about the person for whom we pray as if he/she were us. We do not think about the possibilities if our prayer is answered or declined. We simply pray ho hum, lack-luster prayers. Prayer-time: check. That’s not all of us, but many of us Christians.
Jesus prayed altogether differently. And if we, being disciples of Jesus, are supposed to pray and are going to pray, then as disciples, we should pray as he prayed. And we get a glimpse of how he prayed this morning. As we look at the text, we find four principles that we can use in our own prayer lives. The first principle is have a Place of Prayer. Second: have a Partnership of Prayer. Third principle: have a Presumption of Prayer. And finally, have a Passion in Prayer.
Place of Prayer
Partnership of Prayer
Presumption of Prayer
Passion in Prayer
And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.
And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,
and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Have a Place of Prayer
Have a Place of Prayer
The first great principle that we can learn from Jesus is to have a place of prayer.
And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.
Now, to be sure, Jesus did not only pray at the Mount of Olives, but it does seem to be his custom while being in Jerusalem to go out to the Mount of Olives. If we were to go back to chapter 21, we find that Jesus would teach in the temple, but then every night he would go back to the Mount of Olives. Judas knew that this would be where Jesus and the disciples would be because they came out this way every night.
But this wasn’t the only time we find Jesus finding a place to pray. Even in the beginning of his ministry, Jesus separated himself to pray in the wilderness. In the midst of his ministry, after feeding the 5,000, Jesus separated himself and went up a mountain for the purpose of praying. One could take this and think, we can pray anywhere. We can pray in the wilderness. We can pray on the mountains. We can pray anywhere and God will hear us. And that is true. But if we think about it, we see Jesus is actually particular about where he is praying. He separates himself from the people to go to the wilderness in peace. He separates himself from the chaos of the crowds and goes up to the mountain to pray. He separates himself from Jerusalem and goes to the Mount of Olives to pray. He is particular about his places of prayer. So while we can pray anywhere; it is wise to have a separate place to pray.
There used to be these places called prayer closets. There aren’t many prayer closets anymore. One of the Kendrick Brothers movies came out a few years ago called The War Room and it was all about having a prayer closet, a secluded place to pray. The lady in that movie literally cleaned out a close just so she could pray.
Suzanna Wesley, mother to John and Charles Wesley, had committed herself to spend two hours of prayer every day with the Lord. However, with two small children and a small house, it was difficult to find a place to pray. She decided then to make her own place. She would take her apron and place it over her head and she taught her children that when she had her apron over her head, she was meeting with the Lord and was not to be disturbed. Even in the midst of chaos, Suzanna knew she had to get away to focus on the Lord.
Beloved, do you have a place of prayer? Is there a place that you have away from distractions? Away from your phone, away from your television, away from food? Do have a place that will give your prayers a fighting chance? It’s hard to pray with fervency when we are distracted by the frivolous. So for prayer’s sake, find a place of solitude. Figure out where that place is and deem it your place of prayer. Call it your place of prayer. Go to it and pray when you need to pray so that as time goes on, when you pass that place, you are pulled to spend time with the Lord.
Have a Partnership of Prayer
Have a Partnership of Prayer
The first principle is to have a place of prayer. The second principle is to build a partnership of prayer.
And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
While Jesus will be praying for himself in this prayer, he is still inviting his disciples into his prayer life. You may remember what Jesus told Peter just a few moments before.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,
but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
As Drew pointed out last week, Jesus used the plural form for the you in verse 31. Jesus is speaking to Peter and mentions that Satan asked to sift the disciples like wheat—not just Peter, but all of them. Then he prayed specifically that Peter’s faith would not fail.
We know Jesus prayed for his disciples in the upper room by what we read in John 17. Now Jesus is seeking the disciples to join him in that same kind of prayer. Pray that you do not enter into temptation. He actually says it twice, showing it’s vital importance. One could even argue that in the midst of his own prayer, the disciples could have been a part. The cup of wrath that God had for him would not only be brought about at the cross. That would be the apex of his wrath. But it gradually became greater. Just as Adam and Eve and all humanity abandoned God and suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, so now the disciples would as well. Abandonment was just the one sip of this cup God had for him.
Brothers and sisters, it is imperative that we have others praying with us. We need a partnership of prayer. If Jesus, the very Son of God—perfect in every way—encouraged his disciples to pray with him, then who are we to think that we only need to pray on our own? It is difficult to open up and ask others to pray. What if they don’t? What if they forget? What if, I don’t know, they fall asleep and don’t understand how badly we need them at our side? Join with them anyway—just as Jesus did.
Tertullian, my favorite church father, described this kind of prayer like this: “We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This violence God delights in.” God delights in the partnership of prayer. He delights in our coming together and praying with and for one another.
James commands us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we may be healed. It is imperative, literally and figuratively, that we have a partnership of prayer.
Have a Presumption of Prayer
Have a Presumption of Prayer
This takes us to the third principle of prayer. The first is to have a place of prayer, then a partnership of prayer. This now, we need a presumption of prayer. We normally would not hear a pastor say that we ought to presume upon God, but that’s what I am saying. When it comes to prayer, we ought to maintain a presumptive attitude. We must presume that God knows best even when we may not like his methods.
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,
saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Jesus went to the Father expressing his own desire and yet confident in his Father’s goodness and in his perfect will. I do believe that many Christians fail at this. Rather than focusing upon the goodness of God and the perfect will of God, we focus on the circumstances to come. And if we were honest, we don’t so much even focus on the actual circumstance, but on how that circumstance affects us. So in reality, we do not focus on God; we do not focus on his perfect will; we do not focus on the circumstance; we focus on ourselves. But even if we do focus on the circumstance, we know that our focus is still in the wrong place.
We presume upon ourselves—how will we ever get through this affliction, this circumstance, this suffering? Or we presume upon the circumstance that it will work out exactly as we imagine it. There is still that natural instinct to suppress the truth in unrighteousness—the truth that God is good even in our affliction, the truth that God knows best when he gives us suffering, the truth that God’s plan and will is greater than us and our will.
One of the greatest set of verses that helps us with this concept comes from 1 John.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Notice the word confidence there. We have this confidence toward God. Whatever we ask according to his will, he hears us. We can presume upon God’s listening ear. We can presume—presuppose, before we ever pray, that we have the requests we ask, when we ask according to his will. You may think that is of little to no comfort. But in reality, it ought to bring great comfort.
We need to listen and listen carefully to this: God will not do anything that would conflict with his goodness even for the children he loves. To go against his will, even for his children’s requests, would put his children in danger.
He has promised in his word that all that happens is for our good. God being good and doing good for our good, that’s what we can count on every time we pray. We don’t know if our prayers are right or wrong. But the Father does. We don’t know if our prayer will do harm rather than good, but God does. So we can have confidence, we can come to prayer with the presumption that God will always do good and be good—even if that means our suffering.
Have Passion in Prayer
Have Passion in Prayer
Which leads us to the fourth principle of prayer. Because when we are suffering, we ought to approach prayer with passion. First we have a place of prayer, then a partnership of prayer, a presumption of prayer, and finally passion in prayer.
And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Luke makes it a point to show that an angel came to minister to Jesus. This just shows us the amount of agony Jesus was in. We see in Mark 1, that there was a time angels ministered to Jesus. It was soon after the temptations from Satan. Jesus had been fasting for forty days and then under immense pressure of temptation. We find once again that temptation was facing him again. Mark tells us in the fourteenth chapter that Jesus’s soul was extremely sorrowful. So Jesus was suffering, sorrowful, or as Luke puts it, in so much agony, that his sweat became like drops of blood. Most likely, he did not sweat blood, but rather his sweat was so great that it resembled blood dripping from a wound.
We don’t sweat like that being still. You might see football players, basketball players, or boxers, sweating profusely. But it is not natural for people to sweat in such a manner without exerting so much energy. Jesus was. There on his knees, speaking to the Father, suffering so greatly and praying so earnestly that he sweat profusely. His soul was tortured. And so, he prayed. He prayed all the more earnestly. He prayed fervently. He prayed passionately.
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote
James 5:13 (ESV)
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
But notice where the disciples were. While Jesus felt agony, the disciples were overcome with sorrow. But what did they do?
And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow,
We have a choice to make: we can allow our sorrow, our agony, our suffering to lull us to sleep or launch us to prayer—fervent prayer, passionate prayer, earnest prayer. When Hannah was in such agony of having no son, she prayed with earnestness and God heard her prayer. When Elijah saw the evil of Israel, James said he prayed fervently and it did not rain for three and a half years. Then he prayed again and the heavens gave rain.
Now we need to be cautious here. Fervent prayer is often portrayed as if God is looking to see how passionate we are when praying and that then determines whether or not God answers and give what we want. If that were true, then the cup would have passed from Jesus. But as Matthew Henry pointed out: the greater the agony, the more earnest and passionate the prayer. In Hebrews 5 we see what this passionate prayer looked like and how God answered his prayer—not in the way expected, but in the way he willed. He took him through the suffering of the cross, in order to come out victorious on the other side.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish this section of Luke, we’ve seen how Jesus prayed and the principles we can learn from it. We’ve seen how we ought to have a place of prayer, a partnership of prayer, a presumption of prayer, and passion in prayer. But what led to such earnestness of prayer in the first place? What was Jesus’s agony all about? What led to this sorrow?
Some take it that Jesus was afraid. But agony doesn’t mean afraid, neither does sorrow. It means a struggling. It was used in the secular world in sports—something done in the arena or stadium. It was something done in war. So when we are talking about Jesus’s agony, we are referring to his struggling in the moment. There was a spiritual battle going on. And there was a sorrow that God would forsake him on the cross. He who was without sin would take upon himself the wrath of God against all who would repent and believe in him.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
No person has ever suffered the agony that Christ suffered in a span of just a few hours. How did he handle it? He handled it through prayer, leaving us an example for our suffering.
Spurgeon once said, “God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart. When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes. The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but his love.”
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Improve our prayer life. Give us the places we ought to pray, the partners with whom we can pray, the presumption that you hear our prayers and answer according to your good will, and a passion in our prayers. Thank you that Jesus was willing to do your will, bear the agony and sorrow, that we may have access forever and ever to you and your goodness.
In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen.
