Uncommon Prayer

RECORD

For the last little bit we have been taking a look at those aspects of the life and ministry of Jesus that set Him apart from others around Him, that made Him uncommon

I hope that you realize that at the same time that Jesus walked the Earth preaching the kingdom there were many others that were doing the same thing

There were others who were teaching, there were others who were preaching, there were others who were confronting the religious norms of the day, there were even others that were travelling around doing miracles

But the life and ministry of Jesus was different and so far we have looked at how it was different in the way that Jesus loved, in the forgiveness and the grace that He showed, and of course last week we looked at the hope that can be found in Him that can not be found in any other, still to this day

Well this morning I want to look at what might just be the most important difference shown in the life and ministry of Jesus…Prayer

Luke records in chapter 11 of his gospel, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray...’”

Now I can assure you that any person who was raised Jewish was taught from a very young age how to pray

The Jews were “good” at praying and had no problem doing so in an open, public venue making a huge ordeal and using great and flowery language

Yet with all of their knowledge about and experience with prayer, the disciples recognized that the way that Jesus prayed was different, it was uncommon, so much so that they asked Him to teach them how to pray

That fact alone should clue us in on just how important this issue should be in the life of a believer

Let me explain, absolutely nowhere in the gospels is it ever recorded that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to preach and teach that way that He did

Nowhere in the gospels does it say that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to preform miracles the way that He did

Nowhere in the gospels does id record that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to cast out demons the way that He did, or calm storms the way that He did, or do any of the amazing things that only Jesus did

But right here in we have it in black and white that the disciples did indeed ask Jesus to teach them how to pray like He did because He prayed in an uncommon manner

tells us

Luke 5:16 NIV

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

And in when Jesus was about to pray for Lazarus to be raised from the dead, John records,

John 11:

John 11:41–42 NIV

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “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.”

There was an uncommon intimacy in the way that Jesus prayed, there was an uncommon urgency in the way that Jesus prayed, and there was an uncommon potency in the way that Jesus prayed and the disciples recognized all of that and wanted to know why

Before I get into my 3 points here this morning allow me to encourage you this morning, there are 2 things that are absolutely crucial to the life of every believer

Oh there are lots of things that are important but there are only 2 that are crucial, Prayer and the Word

You may never be healed or used to heal others, you may never speak in tongues, you may never preach a traditional sermon in a traditional context and all will be okay between you and God

But you cannot make it if you are not immersed in His Word and if you do not have a healthy prayer life

I’ve said this before and I still stand by it because I have yet to be proven wrong, The only reason you are here today and experiencing the grace of God in your life is because someone prayed for you

Maybe a parent or a grandparent, or maybe a coworker or a Sunday School teacher, but someone prayed for you

So let’s take a brief look at what made Jesus’ prayer uncommon and how that applies to us

I’ve already told you that His prayers were intimate, urgent, and potent and that in of itself is great and would make a great sermon I think but this morning what I want to talk about is more along the lines of why His prayers were that way

So to that end the first point that I want to make this morning is that, like Jesus, we pray to the Father

Let’s go back to where the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and move on to the next verse

Luke 11:2 NIV

He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

And in the lead up to this same teaching in Matthew’s gospel he includes some additional teaching,

Matthew 6:6–8 NIV

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6:6-

Now this might seem like an obvious thing to you, that we as evangelicals that we as evangelicals do not pray to the saints, at least I hope that that part of it is obvious, but that is not what I am getting at here

We…you and I…we are supposed to take our prayers straight to God the Father, straight to His throne, something we don’t always do

But the problem that we have is not a new one, it goes back a long way, actually to 3 months exactly after Israel left Egypt

Exodus 19:16-20

Exodus 19:16–20 NIV

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up

now let’s jump down a chapter,

Exodus 20

Exodus 20:18–21 NIV

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

Because of our sinfulness we are afraid to approach the all holy, all knowing God for we are unworthy to be in His presence and so we find it easier to speak to another, less intimidating, like Jesus, or, and I believe that many Christians do this, we just kind of lay our prayers out there into the air and hope that God picks them up without us having to come directly before Him

Hebrews 4:16 NIV

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews

Some day we may have the courage to ask Him why so many of our prayers went unanswered and He will respond, “Because you never asked me”

That’s point one we pray to the Father

Point number 2 is this, we pray through the Son

You see the reason that we can enter into the presence of the Father with a confidence is because Jesus made it possible to do so

Let’s read again but let’s back up a couple of verses

Hebrews 4:

Hebrews 4:14–16 NIV

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

It is because Jesus Christ opened the way to the Father and made it possible for us to pray directly to Him rather than having to have someone else, an earthly high priest, speak for us

Matthew tells us what happened at the moment Jesus died

Matthew 27:50–51 NIV

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split

Matthew 27:

The curtain of the temple was more than 60 feet high and 30 feet across and it’s purpose was to divide the inner part of the temple or the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant was kept and God’s presence was from the out part

To do that Jewish tradition states that the curtain was a handbreadth thick or about 4 inches and was so strong that 2 horses could not rib it

Under the former covenant mankind was deliberately and properly kept from entering into God’s presence, but through Jesus and Hid death which provided us with a new covenant, we are now able to enter into the presence of God because the righteousness of Jesus is imparted to us

When we accept the death of Christ as payment for our sins we become righteous in the sight of God and have the invitation and ability to come into His presence

When we pray, “In Jesus name” it is not some magical phrase that makes things happen, it is our way of stating that we acknowledge and accept that it is because of the death of Jesus Christ we can come to the Father with this prayer

Please don’t use the name of Jesus like some sort of incantation or like a promissory note that requires fulfillment of a promise just because you said it

Instead let it be a constant reminder that it is through Him and the price that He paid that has given us this incredible opportunity to be in front of the Holy Father

So we pray To the Father, Through the Son, and our final point, we pray, In the Spirit

Now I am NOT talking here about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues

That’s a different subject that we will deal with at a different time

What I am talking about here is that when we pray we do so in conjunction with the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and who knows us better than we know ourselves AND He also knows the plans and purposes of God because He IS God

So when we “pray in the Spirit” we are praying in a way where we are listening to Him and allowing Him to direct us in the way that we should pray

I love this part in Acts where some false teachers are going around in the name of real apostles and spreading some bad teaching

In the leadership sends a letter to those areas effected to give them proper direction and in that letter they say,

Acts 15:28 NIV

It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:

Acts 15:

‘We’ve been praying about this and this is what we have come up with in partnership with the Holy Spirit’

Praying in the Spirit is praying in partnership with the Spirit

And when we find ourselves in a situation where we can’t figure out what to pray or how to pray it, the Spirit steps up on our behalf and helps us in our hour of need

Romans 8:26-

Romans 8:26–27 NIV

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

We need prayer warriors more than ever today because not only is the world in need of prayer more than it has ever been before but we have lost a couple of generations of people who understood the power of prayer and dedicated themselves to it

But what we don’t need is empty, powerless prayers

What we need are a generation of believers who will pray To the Father, Through the Son, and In the Spirit

Let’s pray