Jesus Prays
Luke 22:41, “ And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and ykneeled down, and prayed, 42 Saying, Father, if thou be †willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” [1]
I. Separate
A. People
B. Place
II. Submissive
A. Position
B. Purpose
III. Surrender
A. Pride
B. Person
Introduction: If you have been to church much at all you know that Jesus taught His disciples to pray. They asked Him to teach them to pray and so Jesus gave this model prayer that we will now recite.
Matthew 6:9 "After this manner therefore pray ye:
kOur Father which art in heaven, lHallowed be thy name. 10 mThy kingdom come. nThy will be done in earth, oas it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our pdaily bread. 12 And forgive us our qdebts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 rAnd lead us not into temptation, but deliver us sfrom evil: tFor thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." [2]
The model prayer is always appropriate. Some folks actually pray the model prayer as part of their morning devotional. That is a good way to start each day. There is nothing in the model prayer that does not need to be prayed each and every day. Yet this is only the model prayer.
When we pray for the lost we are interceding for someone else. Jesus is right beside God the Father now. He is praying for us. Can you imagine the conversation that is happening now as Jesus and The Father are calling your name? What do you suppose they are saying about you?
There are other times when we pray that we don’t understand what is happening in our own lives. Jesus knows! The Father knows! In those times we should always ask that our will would match God’s will. As we go back and consider the model prayer; that is covered as we acknowledge, “For thine is the kingdom.” Everything is God’s including us. If we are not in His will then He will only wait until we are in His will. That is where free will comes into play.
When Jesus prayed for Himself in the garden of Gethsemane it was a much different prayer. It was a pleading prayer. Jesus knew what must be accomplished yet He dreaded what that meant. He would carry our sin on the cross. God the Father is holy. God the Father cannot and will not look upon sin. When Jesus carried our sins that day Our Heavenly Father had to look away as He does when we sin. Jesus knew that the familiar relationship that He had with Our Heavenly Father would be strangely distant for that time. Jesus pleaded that if there was any other way to accomplish His passion without feeling that strange feeling of abandonment that Our Heavenly Father would reveal it to Him. There was no other way. God’s will was accomplished. Now we can pray.
Scripture: The focal scripture today is Luke 22:41-42. Please stand if you’re able.
Prayer: Let us pray. Be seated.
Message: The idea of separation for prayer is not one that comes naturally to people. We are cordial beings for the most part. Yet some people and maybe even most people are fearful to be in front of others and would rather be dead then to give a speech in front of an audience,
When I was a child I hated birthdays. People would put me on a pedestal and sing to me and I would hide under the table to get away. So when I was in high school after the ball games we had a rock and roll band that would draw a crowd after each game. After graduating high school I took a course in commercial broadcasting. With the FCC license to talk on radio and TV I had the afternoon radio show on a little station in Sanford that has long since gone away.
Now we are here after all my years of running. The messages that God brings seem to come before I can finish preparing the one that is upcoming. What is the difference from when I was a child to now? Some people never get over that fright.
There is separation and then there is being alone. Jesus knew that He must speak before crowds of people. He enjoyed the times that He was apart from the crowds with those closest friends. Often He found a way to separate them to Himself away from the crowds. There were other times when, though He wanted to know that His disciples were OK; Jesus wanted to be alone with only that special one. For Jesus He was God the Father. Jesus could not ever separate Himself from the Holy Spirit and He never wanted to feel apart from God the Father.
Jesus was apart from the three about a stone’s cast; not too far but far enough to be nearer to God the Father. Jesus was far enough away from people in a place where He could only feel the presence of God.
Sometimes it is hard to find such a place. It is awesome sitting beside the water thinking of nothing except, “is a fish going to bite” but yet there is that distraction. Maybe that’s why Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me more than these.” These what? These people or these fish? If there had been something in that place that distracted Jesus from His purpose of praying then it would not have been secluded enough.
Point two in the outline: Jesus knelt. There are times when it is right to stand as we are proud to be a part of something that is bigger than we are. We stand when we pledge our allegiance to the flag of our nation. We don’t stand as though we have made a god of a flag or even a nation for that matter. We stand to say yes; this is my nation that loves God and I want others to know that I stand as a part of this nation.
Jesus knelt. He was in the presence of God and He knelt in reverence to Him to show His submissiveness to the One who we all owe everything. When we are on our knees we have positioned ourselves for God to see our reverence to Him and for Him. Jesus is and always will be the Only Begotten Son of God. He kneeled!
Jesus knew that His purpose was the cross. He never denied why He came here but really why did He come? Jesus came here for His Father’s purpose to bring people back to a place where we could have a relationship with our Creator. Jesus showed that the purpose for Him to be here was to fulfill His Father’s purpose for Him and no other reason.
When we stand in defiance of a thing that we know we are meant to do it is as if we are saying, “I’ll do it but I am resisting doing this.” Jesus knelt in position of perfect submission for the purpose for which He came.
Read on… Luke 22:43 “And there appeared zan angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in aan agony bhe prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” [3]
Last point, surrender: from this account; we don’t know how many times Jesus prayed for an alternative plan but we know it was more than once. Each time Jesus prayed He surrendered His pride to the truth that God the Father is the source of all. It is not because Jesus was the Only Begotten Son of God that made a difference. This must be done and it had to be done by Jesus.
Sometimes we would like to believe that it really doesn’t make any difference who does a thing as long as some person does it. We look at an opportunity that is ours that we don’t really want to do and put it out of our minds. Yes someone else will do the thing but the blessing knowing that it was yours and you decided against what God had for you will be remembered. That is a promise. One day at the judgement seat of Christ we all will hear about those things that we let another person do that we could and should have done. It is called surrender.
Jesus prayed that there might be another way. There was no other way. He separated Himself so that He was not distracted from anyone or anything. He wanted to be there in that place only for the sole purpose of prayer. In that prayer Jesus surrendered what pride He might have as a person and was absolutely submissive to The Father’s will. That is how Jesus prayed. How do you pray?
Prayer:
Invitation: We have preconceived notions about how God must answer a prayer before we pray. There is no need to separate our ideas from our prayers because we expect God to do that which we feel is right. We don’t know what is right. Only God knows what is right.
Jesus knew what was coming and yet even Jesus didn’t know how He was going to handle the one part that He dreaded. We all face those things. Personal things such as health are things that we feel we know more about than God because we are only human; right? Isn’t that what we say and think? How can God know how this feels? He is eternal God and I am temporary.
That was Job’s argument. This is not fair! I don’t want this to happen! Yet it does happen. Things beyond our control happen all the time and there is nobody in control except God. Can God be reasoned with? Can God be questioned? Does He get upset when we want something other than what we think is going to happen?
God loves me! God loves you. Often God brings us to a dilemma to cause you to come kneeling to Him because often that’s the only way you will come. We as a community are in such a place right now. Things that make sense are completely different than we know they could be and we seem to have no control. So what are we doing? It is time for us to come and kneel before God and admit that we are not able to stand while our community is taken away and changed from what has been comfortable for so long.
This is an example of an appropriate prayer for this time: Let this pass God if it be thy will. Nevertheless whatever your will is in all of this life, let Your will be done. We know that what we want that is against Your will is not going to be good for us in the end so help our unbelief in this thing right now. Let us show the world that we know that You alone can be trusted and let us continue to be Your people wherever You may take us. Amen…
y See Acts 7:60.
† [Gr. willing to remove]. For marg. see Gen. 30:27.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Lk 22:41–42). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
k To ver. 13, Luke 11:2–4. See ch. 7:11.
l Isai. 29:23. Comp. Ecclus. 36:4. 1 Pet. 3:15.
m See ch. 3:2.
n ch. 26:39, 42. Acts 21:14.
o Ps. 103:20, 21.
p Prov. 30:8 marg.
q Rom. 4:4. So ch. 18:21–35.
r ch. 26:41. Mark 14:38. Luke 22:40, 46.
s Rather as ch. 13:19, 38. John 17:15 (Gk.). 1 John 2:13, 14. & 3:12.
t See 1 Chr. 29:11. & 2 Chr. 20:6.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Mt 6:9–13). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
z See Acts 12:7.
a 2 Macc. 3:14.
b Heb. 5:7.
[3] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Lk 22:43–44). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
