Praying Like Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Today is Idop
For those of us who may not be aware, the IDOP is an initiative of various Christian organizations around the world to focus churches (half a million) attention on the plight of the believers around the world who face persecution because they have chosen to follow Christ
Specifically, it is an opportunity for churches to pray for God’s care, protection, deliverance and vindication of the brothers and sisters in countries where following Christ can lead to singificant repercussions, from the state, from society and from other groups in society. That may take the form of violence, legal injustice, financial oppression, societal shunning and more, and the consequences can be significant; from loss of job and economic opportunities to being ostracized by friends and family to , as we saw in the video, violence, unjust imprisonment and even death.
So the focus of this day is for us as communities of the one faith to remember our brothers and sisters afflicted by persecution in prayer.
And as a community, this is a day that we have highlighted in years past and certainly the plight of our fellow believers in these situations should be something that should be in our minds and hearts constantly and consistently be a matter of prayer and hopefully, this day is just a spark to help us remember and pray for them continually.
It is certainly difficult for us, in our privileged position as those who reside in a country like Canada, where we take the right of free exercise of religion for granted, where we do not have to fear state violence or social violence, where in fact we have a tendency even to regard slights and insults for our faith as persecution, it is difficult for us to truly empathize with those who lives are at risk because they have boldly made the choice to live for Christ in cases where it may be illegal and frowned upon, even at the risk of losing their very lives.
In that sense, these believers we remember and pray for today, closely emulate the situation of the Christians of the early church, a situation we find repeatedly highlighted and addressed in the New testament.
And there is no lack of resources on the Internet and other mediums for us to gather information on the plight facing the global persecuted church today and I hope that it is not something that goes out of sight, out of mind tomorrow and after
We need to keep remembering them in prayer as a visible testimony of our call to share the burdens of our brothers and sisters in Christ
Certainly, the verse that was highlighted in the video is a call to a lifestyle for those who are persecuted but also for us Rom 12:12
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Today, I wanted to speak on prayer because it is the idop but i also wanted to tie it into the context of our ongoing series of becoming mature by increasing towards Christlikeness.
What does it mean for a Christian to pray? And i want to eventually tie it to the context of praying for the persecuted church but i think it is important to understand it in the framework of Biblical prayer
See, everyone , atleast those who claim to be followers of a religion, prays
“There are no atheists in foxholes” is a saying often used to highlight that in life, certainly all people come to situations where they have to seek help from a higher power
But is prayer just seeking help? Is it always in the context of wanting something taken care of? or is it just a part of religion
Because while prayer has those aspects in mind, to restrict prayer to just those aspects as a Christian is to make our prayer just like the prayers of anyone else
Yes we may say we pray to the true God as opposed to someone else but it is not just the recipient of our prayers being the true God that makes our prayers Christian but rather the content and the attitude with which we pray that makes our prayers Christian
And we read today this passage from Lk 18 and its two parables that focus on prayer.
Luke’s gospel is unique in the central focus it gives to prayer. Together with Acts, also written by Luke as one book, you will see that Luke really wants to highlight the importance of prayer in the Christian life and indeed as part and parcel of how God works in this world and how God is bringing about his plan of salvation and redemption
One way Luke does this is to showcase prayer in places the other gospels do not put focus on
Luke is unique in noting that Jesus prayed during several crucial moments in his ministry. Luke is also unique in having the three parables of prayer, the two we read, and one in Luke 11, which is the parable of the friend who pesters another friend at midnight because he is hungry after a journey, and that parable comes immediately after the Lord’s prayer is set out in chapter 11.
And what i want to do today is to look at the topic of prayer from Luke’s gospel and highlight the following three points
Jesus as the model for prayer
The attitude of Christian prayer
How we can pray for the persecuted church
Jesus As The Model For Prayer
Jesus As The Model For Prayer
Certainly, when we think of Jesus in prayer, we already have a lot of material to go by throughout the gospels. wednesday meeting
Indeed, the lord of the lord’s prayer was a man of prayer.
And even here, Luke adds a lot of color to our understanding of Jesus at prayer
For example, only Luke recounts in Luke 5:16 that after he heals the leper and before he has a confrontation with the Pharisees
16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Another incident unique to Luke is before the choosing of the 12, Jesus spends the whole night in prayer Luke 6:12
12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
Now typically when we talk of Jesus as the model for our prayer life, we may think about the Lords prayer but very often we think about timing.
when do we pray? how long do we pray? do we pray alone? do we wake up early or stay up late?
And these aspects are very important but to reduce the extent of Jesus example to the mechanics or process of prayer is to not fully understand how he models Christian prayer
It is similar to saying that understanding driving is restricted to how to do a proper three point turn, or parallel parking, or maintaining speed limits
Lots of excellent drivers never drive; their car sits in the garage because the mechanics have to be matched with purpose
And that purpose cannot be just utilitarian or time bound; i need to get from point a to point b. because when we are in a pandemic, guess what, your car stays in the garage
so there needs to be a higher purpose, something that can drive (pardon the pun) the practice, that can make use of our knowledge of the process and makes us have a passion and dare say enjoyment of prayer
And so we look to how Jesus engaged in prayer from Luke’s gospel
only Luke mentions that at his baptism, Luke 3:21-22
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened,
22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
the Holy Spirit was given as a response to Jesus prayer
at the transfiguration, jesus went up on the mountain to pray with Peter and John and james and then the transfig happens in Luke 9
in the garden of gethsamane we know he prays in light of the suffering death he was about to die for his people on the cross, he prays Luke 22:42
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
and even at the very end of his life, he commits Luke 23:46
46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
I picked all these verses along with the examples given before to show that for Jesus, prayer was a reflection of the intimacy he shared with his Father. It was communion and fellowship with the Father, not merely driven by i need this or i want that but he wanted to walk lock step, unwavering, in the will of the father
and so, at the beginning, end and the most momentous occasions in his ministry, he says to God I want to take the privilege of this intimacy to be an active participant in the unfolding of your will in my life. And God honors that with the responses we saw, so through prayer Jesus brought about the fulfillment of God’s will for his life. And like in gethsamane, that will may not have been to his comfort and desire, so he is bold to pray for the cup to be taken away but humble to say your will be done regardless my Father
And then we see how Jesus prayed for others
Luke alone mentions Luke 9:18
18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
and peter responds with the messianic confession you are the Christ
earlier Luke says in Luke 8:10
10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
but Peter’s response was brought about by Jesus active prayer that indeed they would understand the secrets of the kingdom of God
in the account of Jesus predicting Peter’s denial, Jesus knowing what will happen nevertheless intercedes on Peters behalf Luke 22:32
32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
and we know on the cross he prays for those who are persecuting him, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they do”
So Jesus actively, continually prays for others and he prays that God’s will be done in their lives, that they conform to God’s will, and even when they go astray, that God would bring them back and even in discipline use that for his glory and for their encouragement and the encouragement of others. And in his prayer on the cross, jesus models that truly no one, not even the most ardent of persecutors is beyond the grace of god and they also are to be prayed for.
So through the rich tapestry/fabric of Jesus’ prayer life, we get so much of a framework for how we are to approach God in prayer
The attitude of Christian prayer
The attitude of Christian prayer
And then these two parables further give us clarity on the attitude with which we are to pray as Christians
These parables are very familiar, clearly detailed so I wont spend too much time on the details of the story but highlight some key aspects of Jesus teaching on prayer in these two parables
But first, we have to lay a bit of context about the setting in which Jesus says these parables
In chapter 17, Jesus talks about the coming of the kingdom and specifically about the persecution that disciples will face in those times Luke 17:22
22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
And so we see the parables are in relation to how they are to live in times of persecution Luke 18:1
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
One of the reasons why Luke puts so much emphasis on prayer in this gospel and also in Acts is because the early church which was the recipient of his writings were more likely than not undergoing severe persecution from the empire, from the Jewish leaders and from society. So hence the message of Luke-Acts to them is to keep praying in persecution. And we who are today focusing on praying for the persecuted church can learn about the attitude of prayer from these parables as well.
And in these two parables, we can see four aspects of a Christian attitude to prayer
Persistence
Hopefulness
Faithfulness
Dependence
If there is a single theme that underlies all of Luke’s writing on prayer, it is persistence (ought always to pray v1). The same idea is expressed by Paul
1 Thess 5:17
17 pray without ceasing,
And in the parable of the widow, we can see that primarily it is her persistence that is highlighted
The unrighteous judge was swayed by the widow’s constant approach (v3, kept coming, v5, keeps bothering me, beats me down by her continual coming)
The topic of how God is not like the unrighteous judge is a separate discussion we can have but Jesus point is that just like his example, prayer must be persistent, continual.
And persistence means to pray always but also to pray continually about things that are important in our Christian walk. There is this aspect of praying for the same thing over and over without tiring
So the widows prayer was for justice and Jesus point was that God hears the continual cry of his saints Luke 18:7
7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
The second aspect of this attitude is one of hopefulness. Christian prayer must be rooted in hope
The widows persistence in coming to the judge over and over, though knowing his character, is because she still has hope that she will receive justice. That is hope even when the weight of evidence says you should not have hope
Hopefulness in prayer is important because Christians, especially Christians like us, can have a tendency to become fatalistic. Fatalism is the idea that all things that happen in our life are inevitable so we must just resign ourselves to fate.
You might ask how do Christians become fatalistic? Honestly, as bad as it sounds, it is because we know the Bible too well.
We know that God is sovereign over all things, and that nothing happens outside his will. And if God says for eg., you are sure to face persecution in this life, and injustice and scorn and even violence, why pray for those things not to happen to us or to any other Christian? Why not just pray that God’s will be done and leave it at that?
Thats why there is a difference between knowing the Bible too well and knowing the Bible well enough
There is undoubtedly nothing wrong with any of the things I mentioned but too often we forget that a) we have been given a glimpse into God’s sovereign outworking of his plan and purposes but we do not know all the xs and ys. We should be humble enough to admit that God knows all things and we dont and we should not be brash to say that because we have been given the privilege of having a glimpse into the mind of God, that somehow the knowledge we have prevents us from doing the will of God which is to pray persistently and hopefully. Christians should not portray that ignorance is bliss, that we would rather not know more about God so that we can pray in ignorance b) we have to remember that the prayers of his people are part of God’s will to bring about his purposes as we have seen in the life of Jesus and c) lastly, yes God uses evil for good and injustice for his purposes, but evil is still evil and injustice is still injustice. they are characteristics of a broken world, we do not have to be resigned to them even if we are not defeated to them. we can still cry out God why is there evil and injustice in this world, it does not reflect the intent with which you created this world and mankind, and we have the hope and sure knowledge that you are able and willing to push back evil and injustice in this world and the next. Christians should never be ok with bad things no matter what our understanding of God’s sovereignty is
And hopefulness is tied to faithfulness . Jesus ends the first parable by tying hope with faith Luke 18:8
8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
in the are of prayer, faith is tied to the confidence that God will indeed answer the prayers of his people, and that our hope may be delayed but it will never be denied because our God is a good God.
And faithfulness has to be thought of in terms of time, will your faith survive if the answer to your prayer is delayed? Is your faith dependent on the answer to prayer or on the character and promises of God
Another aspect of faith in the context of persecution is that it is eschatological, that means it is tied to understanding that God will one day for sure put an end to all evil and injustice. Thats why Jesus says, when i return, when for sure all evil and injustice will come to an end, will i find that the faithful have endured?
The faithful knows that even as we pray, God’s answer may be delayed but his answer is sure that one day at the return of Christ all our cries for relief and vindication from the evil of this world will be met with a resounding answer, and those who endure in faith in this life and the life to come are the ones who will be vindicated. They are the ones who understand that in light of eternity, a delay in our time of physical existence in this fallen world is but a short interlude to the glories of the life that is yet to come.
This is a primary characteristic of the faith of the heroes of Heb 11:35 , who were ordinary people crowned with extraordinary honor because of their enduring faith in God’s promises
35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.
So hopeful prayer is also faithful prayer.
Lastly, for lack of time, the second parable teaches us about the attitude of dependence we need to have when we approach God in prayer
The Pharisee took pride in his knowledge, his status, his religious piety and practices and enters into the presence of God feeling justified so that his prayer is not really prayer but a testimony, not of God’s grace but his own merit.
The tax collector on the other hand is the one who is aware of his own inadequacy before God’s presence and throws himself wholly onto the mercy of God.
He is fully dependent on God’s grace and not on his own knowledge or anything he has done but on what God has done and is able to do
And Jesus says this man’s prayer was counted righteous in God’s sight
As Christians, we can be bold to enter into the presence of God, to call him Abba Father, but boldness should not go hand in hand with brashness but rather with humility with an understanding of our limitations, our complete dependency on God and our need for him to fulfill all the cries of our heart and our awareness that his ways are not our ways but he will indeed do good for us
And this attribute of persistent, hopeful, faithful and dependent prayer is exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, the one who in the garden of Gethsemane prayed, take this cup from me but may your will be done not mine
How we can pray for the persecuted church
How we can pray for the persecuted church
tying all this together, and understanding the mandate that we are to share in each others burdens, even the burdens of those who we do not know by sight or relation but rather through awareness, just as the apostle Paul asks many of the churches he writes to in the epistles, pray for your brothers and sisters in other churches you only know of through my writing, so we can pray specifically for the persecuted church
may i provide a few things we can pray for for them
We can pray that the evil and injustice of violence and oppression and mocking be taken away and not continue to be inflicted on them. we desire and we pray that they can experience the goodness of God’s grace in their lives and have the opportunity to live a life free from fear of injustice and persecution, that they will not be denied opportunities that are their right because they are citizens of their countries but even more so, because they are human beings made in God's image and they have the right like anyone else to be treated fairly and justly by those in power
We can pray that in situations where there is continual evil and injustice, their faith will continue to grow strong and endure, that their churches and communities will prosper and grow and mature even when the world beats them down and shuts them out. And we are thankful to God that though in our countries where we have no fear of persecution, our churches grow dimmer, our faith grows weaker, we see the work of God in upholding and growing the church in these countries that propagate the severest persecution of Christians
We can pray that there will be opportunities for our persecuted brothers and sisters to continue preaching the gospel, of sharing Godly testimonies in word and in deed, and that the church may continue to grow in those places through the addition of souls to God’s kingdom
lastly, we can pray that Christians will never seek vindication through evil, violence or injustice perpetrated by themselves, even if they are reacting to persecution. We can pray that those with influence, including countries with influence like the US and Canada, will plead the case of persecuted Christians and strongly react against those who persecute Christians (and any religion for that matter) and we can add our voices to that both here and outside. But may our brothers and sisters find vindication at the hands of God and wait on his justice, in this life or the next, and we pray that their testimony will only be enhanced by their faithfulness in suffering.
Before I pray today, I will ask a couple of brothers to pray for the persecuted church