Opening Heaven

Each year as we approach this annual focus on prayer, I find myself struggling sometimes with how to approach things on the sermons I should be preaching, the focus for each of our additional gatherings for the week, and whether or not I am being too regimented and prepared as opposed to being completely open to and submissive to the Holy Spirit’s leading. This is sometimes very apparent and other times very challenging to discern.

Whether it was being influenced by the video series that Connie and I have fallen in love with, “The Chosen”, or my reading of the Gospels, or a combination of these things, or simply the leading of the Holy Spirit, I felt compelled to focus in some manner on the Lord Jesus Christ. Several weeks ago, I then typed in a search on my Bible software on the topic of prayer – the first passages that appeared in that search were the prayers of Jesus and the mentions of Jesus praying throughout the Gospel accounts.

So, while in past years we have focused on issues that we felt need to be addressed, such as evangelism, missions, outreach, etc., which are all worthy of our prayer focus and still can be included in our prayers this week, we will take our queues from just a few of the passages in which Jesus prayed – some of which have portions of His prayers recorded for us, and some of which we are not given the words He prayed but only that He prayed.

And while beyond this week of prayer I will not be shifting my sermons or the Wednesday evening Bible studies, I will personally be focusing on the gospels in my quiet time and devotional time, along with starting a study through the Gospel of John in the video devotions I do on Facebook each weekday morning, and later post to the church website. I invite you to join me in making this a year of fixing our eyes on Jesus, whether or not you watch the video devotions.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 3:21-22

Let’s pray.

Two short verses on the baptism of Jesus. Matthew’s Gospel gives a more detailed account, Mark’s Gospel is also brief, and John’s Gospel only alludes to this pivotal event, but the account we just read in Luke is the only one that mentions that Jesus was praying during His baptism. This caught my attention as I was reading through all of the passages that my aforementioned search brought up. I’m not sure that I had ever truly noticed that Jesus prayed at His baptism.

So, while the baptism of Jesus itself is important and the call for believers to be biblically baptized after our salvation is also important, and even though we have no idea what the content of this prayer is, I will be spending much of our time this morning on what happened as a result of Jesus praying and being baptized – heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and God the Father spoke for all to hear.

Before we dive in, I do not want you wondering why Jesus was baptized, especially in the sense of John’s baptism of repentance. Jesus was sinless, so a baptism of repentance does not make sense. In Matthew’s Gospel, when John protests to baptizing Jesus, Jesus says to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). At the cross, Jesus bore all of our sins, and as the sin-bearer, He had to enter into the sin of the people as the perfect Lamb of God – He took our sin, and in this way, He fulfilled all righteousness. He symbolically was baptized for our sins and not His, because He never sinned.

And one other quick issue as it can be confusing: The baptism that John was doing was different from what baptism represents after the cross. Baptism did not save anyone as John performed it and baptism does not save anyone today. John’s baptism was to indicate a turning away from sin. It was a public display of forsaking legalistic religion and turning to God for forgiveness. It represented a new way of life.

Baptism after the cross is telling the world that I belong to Jesus Christ, that I am identifying with His death, with His burial, and with His resurrection. It represents the reality that you are dead to your old way of life being enslaved to Satan and to sin, and that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus, and that you are free through the grace of God to live your life for Christ.

There is a whole sermon or two on the implications of baptism by immersion, but that is a basic and brief summation of what it represents, and how it was different from John’s baptism. I’m sure you have more questions, but they will have to wait for another time, or please check in with me later to discuss.

So, Jesus is baptized, and He was praying. The words of this prayer are not recorded for us, but there are enough clues for us to make some educated guesses, especially when we combine the three accounts from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Hold your place in Luke and turn with me in your Bible to the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 3:13-17

Still holding your place in Luke, turn with me in your Bible to the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 1:9-11

Luke 3:21-22

In all three accounts, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, and the Father audibly says from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” Also, while we did not read on, the next event in the life of Jesus was the 40-day temptation in the wilderness when Satan did his worst to get Jesus to sin. Also, this event marks the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. All of the miracles recorded for us in the Gospels happen after the baptism and the temptation.

Now, this does not mean that Jesus was not already indwelled by the Holy Spirit – He was sinless for about 30 years prior to this baptism and He was in human form. The baptism, the Holy Spirit descending, and God the Father speaking was the proclamation of His public ministry beginning, and the emphasis of God in Three distinct Persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all here together – this is not God manifesting Himself in three forms as some denominations teach. It is ludicrous to think that God is frantically jumping from manifestation to manifestation in these accounts, but there are some that teach such foolishness.

So, with that as a backdrop, what might Jesus have been praying about, for heaven to be opened, for His public ministry beginning, and for His impending temptation for 40-days looming?

I think we are safe to assume that Jesus was praying the same things that we should be praying for daily. I’ll pick out four things that were probably included in the prayer that Jesus prayed. Praying for guidance, praying for power, praying for victory over temptation, and praying for God’s will to be accomplished in the ministries He was called to.

Praying for Guidance

Psalm 23:3 tells us that Yahweh “guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake”, and Psalm 119:105 tells us that God’s “word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”. We desperately need God’s guidance in our lives yet most of us simply presume that God will guide us without hardly ever asking Him for that guidance. Or we only ask for God’s guidance when our way hits a dead end or blows up in our face.

Why do we need God’s guidance? Primarily because we are not in control of things, we are severely limited in knowledge and wisdom, we are far too often controlled by our sinful flesh, we are too earthly minded, we are selfish, we are too easily influenced by the things of this world, we don’t know the future, we make mistakes all the time, and we’re a mess most of the time. Other than that, we’re fine.

Quite honestly, there is absolutely nothing about our lives that we can do better on our own without God’s guidance – nothing! Yet we go it alone all the time without even giving it a second thought.

I cannot tell you how often that I am in the middle of preparing a lesson, a devotion, or a sermon before realizing that I never asked God for His help and His guidance. There are times that I have a lot of stuff typed out and I start over because the Holy Spirit takes me in a different direction once I stopped and asked. And that’s just with me preparations to teach and preach, what about everything else I do each day?

We not only play the fool and make everything infinitely harder on us, but we’re incredibly arrogant by going through our days without asking God for His guidance.

Praying for Power

We mistakenly assume that we are the primary reason for our accomplishments. We point to what we have done, to our education, to our efforts, to our resolve, to our gifts and talents, to our “natural” abilities, to our dedication, etc. We foolishly think that it’s the American way to depend on nobody but yourself, and if the job is going to be done right then it needs to be done by me alone. The pride that dwells within us is constantly shouting for you to resist asking for help of any kind. We have utterly deceived ourselves into believing that we have the power to do what needs to be done in our lives.

Moses had to remind the nation of Israel of this human tendency of thinking it is our own power that gets things done in our lives. He told them after listing many of the things that God alone had done for them – “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).

Beloved, by all means reach for worthy goals and expend great effort to accomplish them, but never think that it is your power alone at work. We accomplish nothing of any value in our own power. We must be seeking God and His power to accomplish anything at all. God’s power alone is sufficient to overcome all of the obstacles that you will face in any venture.

Praying for Victory Over Temptation

Praying for victory over temptation could also be praying for spiritual protection. We are promised victory over temptation when we ask for it and rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us through. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

We are promised victory over temptation when we flee from it. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:22, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” Notice the connection to fleeing and calling on the Lord in prayer.

But in both instances, we somehow think that we can handle temptation on our own. Let me give you a clue when it comes to temptation – you cannot handle it on your own. Satan is much to crafty, much too subtle, and much too powerful for you to handle on your own. Write that down somewhere that you will read it daily – I cannot handle temptation on my own!

If we spent the time to look at the account of the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness that Jesus faced, we would see that He not only prayed but He fasted. And he not only prayed and fasted, but He employed the power of God’s Word against every temptation. Jesus did not face temptation on His own in His humanness, why do we think that we can handle it in our own power?

Praying for God’s Will to be Accomplished in Our Ministries

Jesus was on the verge of a very public ministry that was going to upset Satan. Satan would then in turn place it in the hearts of his pawns and puppets and minions to attempt to thwart and derail and oppose and disrupt everything Jesus said and did. Satan hates the ministries that God instills within each of us to do. Satan wants you on the sidelines. Satan wants you to feel free to attend church, just don’t get involved in ministry. Satan wants all of you to just show up every week and then go back to your day-to-day existence without even considering ministry.

Now, be careful here. This is not a legalistic guilt trip that Pastor Al is plopping in your lap. Do not try to manufacture some kind of ministry just for the sake of having a ministry. The reason that most “ministries” fail is because they are manufactured by us instead of just following God’s call to what is in front of us. We look for ministries that to our own liking instead of the ministries that God has before us.

So, this is not a guilt trip to get busy. I just want for you to be awakened to the possibility that God has something for you – and beloved, He does. For some of you, ministry number one is to train up your children and/or grandchildren in the ways of the Lord. But genuine Christianity is not a spectator sport. God always has ministries for each one of us. God always has opportunities for us to follow Him into where we will need the gifting of the Holy Spirit to do.

When Jesus called the Twelve Disciples, He just said, “Follow Me”. Jesus never gave any long, drawn out details. He told the fishermen that He called that He would make them fishers of men, but He never described what that meant, He just said, “Follow Me”. And after the resurrection when Jesus recommissioned Peter for the ministry he was called to, Peter asked Jesus what John was going to be doing. Jesus said, and I absolutely love this reply, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” (John 21:22). In other words, it is no business of yours what I call other people to do, or what you perceive as other people not doing. You just follow Me and stop worrying about what other people are doing or not doing!

Beloved, God desires for each of you to join Him in ministry. It may not always be glamorous, it may not be anything that you ever thought you would be doing, it may be completely outside of your comfort zone, and it may be something completely out of the public view that nobody in the church realizes that you are doing, but God desires for you to join Him in ministry for His glory alone, not yours.

In our humanness we want the recognition for what we are doing. In our humanness we get tired of thinking that we are taken for granted. In our humanness we get upset that other people are not carrying their weight. In our humanness we grow weary in well-doing. In our humanness we want to make sure that others know what we are involved with.

All of that and more is why we must pray for God’s will to be accomplished in any ministry He calls us to.

Do you want heaven to be opened over you? Do you want the power of the Holy Spirit descending upon you? Do you want God the Father proclaiming that He is pleased in You? The example that we have in our short passage is to pray. And likely it is to pray for guidance, for power, for victory over temptation, and for God’s will to be accomplished in you whether or not anyone else sees what God is doing in you.

And all of these things come into play in your life the very moment that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved. He doesn’t save you to be a spectator. So, pray. Pray until heaven is opened to you.

Let’s pray.