The Real Lord’s Prayer — Introduction

Text: Luke 11:1-13

Theme: If Jesus needed regular prayer, my soul, how much more do we need imitate the master in this area of life.

How do we learn how to pray? Some of you here this evening, grew up with your parents by your bedside each night helping you with your prayers. I suspect that most of you have learned how to pray by listening to others in the church pray — a Sunday School teacher, a Deacon, or the Preacher. ILLUS. Mark Rollings. One of the ways we ought to learn how to pray is by listening to Jesus prayer. We’re going to do that be listening to the prayer of Jesus in John 17.

The prayers Jesus prayed give us insight into His nature, His heart, and His mission on earth. The prayers of Jesus also inform and encourage us in our own prayer lives. Far more important than where He prayed, when He prayed, and in what position He prayed is the fact that He prayed. The theme of His prayers is instructive for all of us.

I. THE LORD’S PRAYER LIFE

1. it’s obvious that the disciples caught something in the cadence of Jesus’ spiritual life that lead them to the conviction that he had insight into God that they needed

2. there was something in Jesus’ prayer life that they wanted in their own prayer life

a. our Lord’s prayer life had a freshness that was lacking in their own

b. Jesus talked to God as though He personally knew Him

c. it was prayer as they had never prayed nor heard prayed before

3. the result was that the disciple came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, teach us how to pray“

a. and he did

b. what is often called “The Lord’s Prayer” is actually a teaching tool of Christ as part of His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9–13)

c. in this model prayer, Jesus teaches us to

1) approach God as “our Father”

2) to hallow God’s name

3) to pray for God’s will to be accomplished

4) to ask for daily provision, daily forgiveness, and daily spiritual protection

a) if you are regularly praying for those things you have a biblical and a successful prayer life

4. but regardless of how many years you’ve been praying as a Christian there is much you can still learn from Jesus about prayer

a. so few of us become sanctified and skilled petitioners because we do not continue in the school of prayer

5. our desire this morning needs to echo the words of the disciples: “Lord, teach us to pray”

a. and if Jesus could verbally respond to us this evening, I think he’d say, OK, then listen to my prayers and imitate me

A. PRAYER WAS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF JESUS’ EVERYDAY LIFE

1. it was as indispensable to him as breathing

2. the gospels reveal much to us about the prayer life of our Lord

3. 1st, We Find That Jesus Had a Regular Routine of Prayer

“And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.” (Luke 22:39–43, ESV)

a. did you catch that phrase in verse 39—”as was his custom”?

b. it was our Lord’s “usual” practice to spend time in prayer

1) Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the Eternal One, Jesus the Living Word needed communion with God and guidance from the Father

2) if He need it, and oh my soul, how much more you and I need it

c. Jesus had a regular routine of prayer

4. 2nd, Jesus Almost Always Sought to Be Alone with His Father When Praying

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35, ESV)

“And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.” (Mark 6:46, ESV)

ILLUS. James Stalker, in his book on the life of Christ, wrote that the first thing Jesus sought out when he entered a village was the nearest lonely place.

a. it is when we are alone with God that we can best shed the cloths of self-righteousness and self-consciousness and bear our souls before God

b. God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our feelings within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him

1) the only way to clearly hear Him is to get alone with Him as often as possible

ILLUS. Susanna Wesley was the mother of John and Charles Wesley, the two men who were instrumental in starting the Methodist movement. We forget that she had eight other children — a total of ten. If you had visited the Wesley home, depending on the time of day, you might have seen a woman sitting in a chair with her kitchen apron pulled up over her head while ten children read, studied, or played all around her. Susanna Wesley, who assumed this odd posture for two hours almost every day. What was she doing? It was her alone time with God when she prayer for her husband and each of her children by name. Sitting in a corner with her apron pulled up over her head was the only “lonely place” she could find in a home of ten children.

c. there is a time for public prayer and there is a time for group prayer, but most of our praying needs to be done alone with God

5. 3rd, Jesus Would Often Do Without Sleep and Food in Order to Pray

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12, ESV)

a. there were moments in our Lord’s life when time with God was more important than anything else

6. in all of this the disciples saw something different between their own prayer life and Jesus’

a. “Lord, teach us to pray” was their request

II. THE LORD’S PRAYER LIFE CONVERGED ON THREE CONCERNS

1. when we see Jesus praying, we see Jesus praying about three things: timing, spiritual insight, and power

A. JESUS PRAYED ABOUT THE TIMING OF HIS CHOICES

“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.”” (Luke 3:21–22, ESV)

1. from a very young age, Jesus knew what his mission was all about

ILLUS. Remember the story from our Lord’s childhood when his parents took him to Jerusalem. On the return trip home they cannot find him and Joseph and Mary hurriedly return to the city to find him. For three days they look and finally find him at the Temple talking with the religious leaders. When they confront him, his response is, “And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”” (Luke 2:49, ESV)

2. Jesus knew what his mission was, but when to begin?

a. Luke is the only gospel which records Jesus praying at his baptism

b. it is also Luke who portrays the humanity of Jesus better than any other gospel

c. in his humanity even the Son of God had to pray to discover the “when” of God’s will

3. one of the greatest products of prayer is in this area of timing

a. when to do something

b. when to wait

c. when to take a particular stand

d. when to do nothing

4. prayer can bring a sensitivity to timing some of life’s most important decisions

B. JESUS PRAYED FOR SPIRITUAL INSIGHT ABOUT HIS CHOICES

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:” (Luke 6:12–13, ESV)

1. prayer is critical for gaining insight into our choices

a. here we find Jesus praying about who that inner circle of twelve men will be — and he still chose Judas!

1) this passage has Nominating Committee and Pastor Search Committees written all over it

b. can you imagine the heartbreak and problems churches could avoid if they would only bath their choices in prayer

c. can you imagine the heartbreak and problems we could avoid in our personal lives if we prayed for spiritual insight into our choices?

2. we often make terrible errors in judgment because we think we are omniscient in the area of choices

ILLUS. The Forgotten Spurgeon is a book dealing with some of the crises in Charles Spurgeon’s ministry at Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England. Toward the end of his life, Spurgeon, one of the most powerful preachers of his era, was concerned about the successor to his pulpit after his death. In America there was an equally powerful preacher. His name was A.C. Dickson. Spurgeon frequently invited Dickson to come to London to preach at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. When he did, Spurgeon would put out all the signals, “I think this is the man you ought to call.” The only problem is that A.C. Dickson was Presbyterian. When Spurgeon died, A.C. Dickson was baptized in a Baptist church and the Metropolitan Tabernacle called him as pastor. On his first Sunday as pastor, half the congregation walked out of the service and the Metropolitan Tabernacle ceased to be an evangelistic force for Christ.

a. the leaders of that great church had not prayed for spiritual insight into their choice and it lead to disaster

3. we do not pray in order to change His will, but to bring our wills into harmony with His

a. this is why we must pray for spiritual insight

B. JESUS PRAYED FOR POWER TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES

“And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:39–44, ESV)

1. the agony of Jesus prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was to find the strength to do what, in his humanness, he did not want to do

2. in prayer we find the power to take the will of God and translate it into daily action

ILLUS. R. A. Torrey lamented the average believer's indifference to prayer when he wrote: “How little time the average Christian spends in prayer! We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little... the power of God is lacking in our lives and in our work ... Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God's infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer. R. A. Torrey

3. to pray is to have power

III. THE LORD’S PRAYER LIFE CONTINUES EVEN TODAY

1. Jesus continues to pray for His own from His exalted position in heaven at the right hand of God

a. Scripture says He makes intercession for those who belong to Him

“Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34, ESV)

CON. Jesus prayed because he needed to pray. Jesus prayed because he obviously believed that God heard him and answered him.

Over the course of several Sunday evenings we’re going to look at the prayer of Jesus in John 17. It contains the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in any of the Gospels. Jesus prays this after He finishes His final instructions to the disciples and before He is betrayed, arrested, and crucified.

First, Jesus prays for Himself

Second He prays for His disciples

Third He closes the prayer by praying for all future believers.

This intercessory prayer is commonly called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.