Jesus Prays Alone

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Well, if you have your Bibles, please open them with me and turn to the Gospel of Mark.
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And we're going to be looking tonight at verses 35 to 39 specifically.
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And the title of tonight's lesson is Jesus prays alone.
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Now, I want to give a little word of introduction before we read the text.
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Last week, we took an entire swath of the first chapter of Mark at a shot to try to point out that what we have beginning in verse 21 and going down to verse 45 is we have a series of events in the Gospel of Mark which are intended to move quickly through to show the astonishing power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And there was one word from last week that I said really encapsulates what we are seeing between verses 21 to 45.
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Does anybody remember what that word is? It's okay if you don't.
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Mark chapter 1.
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Mark chapter 1.
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The word that I pointed out last week was the word authority.
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Was that the verse 21 and 22, it says, and when he came into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
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And they were astonished at his teaching for he taught with one who had authority and not as their scribes.
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And last week, I focused on that because what we see beginning in verse 23 going down to verse 45 is expressions of that authority.
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Christ shows that he has authority over demons by healing a demon-possessed man, verses 23 to 28.
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He shows that he has authority over sickness by healing the mother of Simon Peter, mother-in-law, rather, in verses 29 to 31.
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He shows his power over sickness and demon possession again in verses 32 to 34.
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And then finally, he shows his power over organic disease in verses 40 to 45 when he heals a man with leprosy.
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And what we're going to see when we come back from the break, because we won't be meeting next week, but when we come back in the new year, what we're going to see is we're going to see in chapter 2 of Mark, we're going to see that this expression of Christ's authority is met with rebellion from those who saw themselves as authorities, with those biblical authorities, the scribes and the Pharisees.
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In chapter 2, immediately he's going to begin to run into conflict with those who don't recognize his authority or who challenge his authority or believe that he is receiving his power from Satan.
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And that's one of the arguments that they're going to make is he's doing this by the power of Beelzebul, right? So what we, what Mark is doing in chapter 1, verses 23 to 45, is he's showing us expressions of the authority of Christ.
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But in the midst of that, in the midst of that, we run into a passage which almost might seem out of place, but I think is again strategic, not necessarily because Mark was being strategic, but the Holy Spirit of God, who is the ultimate author of the scripture, always is strategic in what he does and nothing is ever by accident.
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We find a section in the midst of this where Jesus separates himself for a time of prayer.
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In fact, we're going to note tonight in the text that when he separates himself for this time of prayer, it almost seems to the apostles to be somewhat of not the right thing.
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They come searching.
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Where'd you go? You know, what are you doing? You got everybody in the world's waiting for you.
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Why are you out here all by yourself? And so to them, it seems like it's almost an imposition that Jesus has gone off by himself.
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They're hastening to do more ministry.
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I mean, they're in the most popular religious movement in history.
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And in one sense, people are really being healed.
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People are really being, demons are really being cast out.
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They're part of the real thing, not just a show.
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And then Jesus steps away from it all and takes some time for himself, for prayer.
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And they come to him and as we'll see in the text, everybody's looking for you.
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You know, what are you doing? So that's where we're at.
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We're going to look at verses 35 and 39.
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As I said last week, we skipped it because I think this section deserved an entire treatment all its own.
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And I'm not sure that we're going to spend all of our allotted time tonight on it.
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We may get out a little early tonight, but it's a small group and we're allowed to do that.
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But every time I say I'm going to preach less than normal, I tend to preach the same.
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So let's read verses 35 to 39 and then I'll offer up a word of prayer to the Lord.
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It says in verse 35, Father in heaven, I pray that now, as we seek to understand this passage, maybe a little better than we have before, I pray first and foremost, God, that you would keep me from error, Lord, knowing that I'm a fallible man.
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And I pray, Lord, that you would open up the hearts of all of us to a better understanding of the role of prayer in the life of our Savior and the role of prayer in the life of every believer.
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Lord, may we not be those who shirk the duty of prayer, but may we be those who invest in prayer, knowing that there is no greater investment that a believer can make than time spent in genuine fellowship with our Lord.
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And Father, we pray all this in Jesus' name and for his sake, Amen.
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So we find in the text right after verse 34, which says, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons.
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And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him immediately.
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That says, and rising early, very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed.
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So I've taken these texts tonight and I've put it into a threefold outline.
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We're going to look first at Jesus separating, then we're going to see the apostles searching, and then we're going to briefly discuss the fact that after this, they all move on.
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Jesus makes a point to say, we're going to continue going forward.
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So let's look first at Jesus' separation from the multitudes.
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One of the things that stands out to me in this passage is that this is not, this is not happening in a vacuum, but rather this is happening in the midst of Mark describing to us a very hectic schedule for our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Hectic might not be the right word.
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It's just the word that's in my mind, but we all know what hectic means.
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We all know how it feels to have a schedule that is just overwhelming.
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And when it comes to ministry, ministry can be overwhelming.
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Studies have shown, and very recent studies have shown, that men leaving the ministry is at numbers that are outrageously high to the point where it doesn't even seem like there are that many men in the ministry.
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But if you were to look up Google and Google how many people leave the ministry every month or every year, the number is ridiculously high.
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For those who have been in the ministry.
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But it is a truth to say that ministry can be overwhelming.
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And especially when it feels like you're being pulled, and again, I don't want you to think I'm, because I'm in the ministry, I don't want you to think I'm up here with some kind of martyr complex, like, oh, I'm all being pulled in every direction.
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No, the point of the matter is ministry is hard.
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And ministry does pull in every direction.
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And if that is the truth for modern preachers, how much more so would that have been true for the Lord Jesus Christ, that when he was ministering, he could not take a step where there were not throngs of people who were just looking, I mean, think about the woman who touched his garment, right? She did so in a group so big that Jesus turned and said, what? Who touched me? Right? There's so many people.
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It was Jesus had an entourage that was following him and for good reason.
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He was preaching the truth, and he was healing the sick, and he was casting out demons.
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He was doing things that were absolutely amazing.
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And no one had ever seen anything like it before or since.
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And so we come to this passage in verse 35, and it says, and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place.
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We can understand from a human perspective why that was needed, because we cannot forget that Jesus is fully God and fully man.
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And as God, he needs nothing, but as man, he has the same needs that all men have for food and for sleep and for rest.
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I mean, what was he doing when the storm was happening in the boat? He was asleep in the boat.
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And so Jesus slept.
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And that's one of the things that you will often hear the heretical movements that try to diminish the divinity of Christ will always point to things like that.
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And they'll point and say, well, Jesus slept.
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God doesn't sleep.
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Or they'll say, well, Jesus was hungry.
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God doesn't get hungry.
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You know, on the cross, he said, I thirst.
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God doesn't get thirsty.
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And what they're doing is they are missing the reality of that hypostatic union that I talked about on Sunday, that when we talk about Jesus, he is, remember the Latin vera homo vera Deus, he is truly God, truly man.
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And in his humanity, the need to divide from the throngs and the need to separate himself from the ever pressing mob was a was a legitimate need.
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This isn't just something that he did because it was something to do.
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This was a need to separate himself from the people and go and be by himself.
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I saw a study this week.
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And again, I don't know who does these studies.
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I have no idea who who who who who takes the time to do these.
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But I did.
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I tried to find the source on this and it was in various places.
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So I don't know who who in the world does this kind of stuff.
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But they said that preaching a 30 minute sermon is mentally equivalent to doing eight hours of work because you're on and thinking the whole time and having to focus that whole time.
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And I thought, well, that's interesting, you know, because I preach for an hour, so like 16 hours.
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No, no, no.
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No.
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But but at the same time, I thought about Christ.
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I was thinking about this passage and I was thinking about he's proclaiming the truth in the synagogues.
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He's casting out demons.
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He's healing the sick.
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He's doing these things.
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And there is a certain human exhaustion that that that sets in.
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And so he separates himself, not because he doesn't love the people and not because he doesn't want to be with them, but because even the Lord of Glory needed respite.
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And so he separates himself, but he doesn't just separate himself for no reason.
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He doesn't just go off and and and and sit and read a good book.
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Not that there were books, you know, he didn't just take a scroll out into the, you know, out into the field and sit and rest and read.
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But his his recovery from ministry, if we would call it that, his his strengthening was found in prayer.
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Now, I want to stop for a minute, and this is no way to challenge you, because I could say the same thing about myself.
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How many of us would really say that prayer is where we find our time of rest? Prayer is where we find our time of strength.
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Honestly, a lot of us, I think, probably look at prayer more like a discipline and it's like going to the gym.
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It's tough, right? You don't always want to go.
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Now, you feel better when you leave, but you don't always want to go because it's hard.
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And for some people, prayer is that way.
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It's not the place that they go for rest, but rather it's it's a it's a chore.
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I'm going to talk about that a little later because we're going to talk about ways to hopefully make our prayer lives better.
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I have some hopefully some practical things to share with you.
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But what I'm pointing out in all of this, and hopefully hopefully it'll make some sense, is that when Christ needed respite, when Christ needed strengthening, when Christ needed repose and rejuvenation, he didn't run from the presence of the father, but rather he ran from the presence of the mob.
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When I say ran, he departed from the presence of the mob and found himself in the presence of the father.
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And that's where he got his strength.
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It's a tremendous lesson to be learned there.
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We are actually more strengthened in the presence of the father than we are by staying away or by finding something else.
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You know, how do you rejuvenate yourself? You know, two hours on Netflix, an hour in a book.
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What? Or do you find your strength and building up in the presence of God? Martin Luther and Andy has quoted this a few times, and it's something that Luther said.
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If he had a long day and a difficult day, he would say, he said, my day is so hard.
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I have to pray at least three hours just to get everything I have to do done.
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I have to pray three hours just to get done with everything.
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So his his strength, Luther's idea was if I'm going to get through the day, if I'm going to get through with what I have to do, I've got to start this.
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And if that means I got to get up a little early, if that means I have to discipline myself to be with the Lord, if I'm going to get this done, if I'm going to do what needs to be done today, I'm going to do it in the power of God.
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And so when Christ separates himself to a desolate place, he prays, and therein, I believe he is receiving strength from the Lord.
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And if we think about this, this is not the only time in Scripture that we see Jesus do this.
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In fact, I was going to ask you, I looked up, I have a list here in my notes of all the times we see Jesus praying, but I wanted to sort of in your mind, can you think of times when Jesus separated to pray some specific times? What's some that come to mind? Yeah, that that probably is one of the most memorable, because when he separates to pray in that regard, we know what he prayed.
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You know, here in Mark one, it simply says he separated himself and he prayed.
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We have no idea what he was saying.
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We assume he was having fellowship with the father and he's able to pray.
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And how Jesus prayed differently than us, we'll never know in the sense that was, you know, was there was there dialogue between him and the father? Was there that kind of interaction? You know, because we don't have that when you if you hear God, when you pray, we might want to have a talk because I'm not I don't believe we have that type of dialogical prayer.
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And I'm not sure what Jesus had, but I know that in the garden we know at least one side of it, because in the garden, Jesus says, and we have recorded for us what was said and what would what did he say? Father, if it be thy will, take this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but I will be done right that that we and that even that raises questions like, wait a minute, does Jesus not want to go to the cross? Doesn't he say in other passages that that he had set his face like Flint to Jerusalem, like he knew what he came to do and he was going to do it.
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And he says, I must go to Jerusalem.
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And didn't he say, I came for this very reason to seek and save that which was lost? And how is he going to save him? He's going to save him on the cross.
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So so he knew what was coming.
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But yet on the night before the crucifixion, Jesus says these words in this prayer.
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It's an amazing thing to consider.
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But again, it shows the humanity and the divinity of Christ.
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And it shows that he is truly man.
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Even in his prayers, there is the expression of his humanity.
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And I do want to let me just say this, since it's on my mind, we should never think that Christ's prayers defy his divinity.
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Because there are people who say, well, if Jesus is God, why does he pray? You understand what they're saying? They're saying if Jesus is God, he wouldn't pray because who's he praying to? Is he is he schizophrenic? Is he talking to himself? I mean, please don't take that as me being blasphemous.
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I'm not.
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That's the that's what I've heard.
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Those who would argue against the divinity of Christ say.
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That if Jesus is God, then who does he speak to? And if he's speaking to himself, is he somewhat schizophrenic? I've heard I've heard the cults say that.
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And I say, one, watch your mouth, because what you're saying is bordering on blasphemy.
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But two, if you understood the nature of God as triune and that God is one in essence, but three in person and that those three persons bear a an eternal relationship.
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And within the eternal relationship, the father and the son and the spirit have communication with one another.
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Then there's no problem with saying Jesus prayed.
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And who is he praying to? He's praying to the father.
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He tells us that we're asked the question.
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Jesus was asked, teach us to pray.
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And what does he say? Our father who are in heaven, right, we know who Jesus is praying to.
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He says, you know, father, if it be that will take this cup from me.
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We know who he is praying to.
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And so we should never think for a moment that Christ's prayers are in some way diminishing his deity.
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They're not.
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But they are, in one sense, displaying his humanity in a way that is unique because he is the only God man.
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But he's fully man.
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I can't help but always feel the need to stress that because just as soon as I begin to get people to understand.
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And again, when I say I get people the Holy Spirit through the teaching of the word.
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But as soon as people start to understand that Jesus is God, they forget that he's man.
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And it's like we become, you know, we tend to be one or the other, that he's either fully God and therefore, you know, why is he praying or he's fully man and he's not God.
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And then therefore there's this.
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We don't see both.
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And in his prayer, we see his humanity on display without divorcing it from his divinity.
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So, yes, Brother Matt, certainly the Garden of Gethsemane.
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Is there any other place that we can think of where Christ separated himself specifically for prayer? That's right.
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We just talked about that a few weeks ago.
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And in fact, what's interesting in Mark's gospel, it says as he was praying, he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Right.
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So it mentions his prayer.
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And then, like you said, he goes into the wilderness for that time of of testing for that for that period where Satan presses upon him and tries to cause him to sin.
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And of course, he doesn't.
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So, yeah, exactly that time.
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What else? Is there another another time? It's OK if we can't.
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I mean, like I said, I don't want to just simply read down the list, but there's several times in the scripture where Christ separates himself.
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Think about the Mount of Transfiguration.
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I wasn't completely separated, but he had gone with Peter, James and John, separated from the other apostles there.
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And this miraculous thing that Peter even talks about in his letter, having seen the glory of Christ in the Transfiguration and seeing the Moses and Elijah.
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Yes.
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He spoke to the thief.
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There wasn't a prayer for him, but it was a speaking to him on the cross.
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He did pray on the cross.
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So that is that is one of the things that I have listed here.
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He prays from the cross.
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One, he says he prays Psalm.
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Is it Psalm 22 that he prays his father forgive? No, he says, why have thou forsaken me? That's that's a prayer.
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But that's a prayer psalm.
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So he prays a psalm when he when he says about not forsaking or father or my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I lay on my back tonight, which is the which because it's transliterated in the scripture.
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So that's a prayer.
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But also on the cross, he prays into thy hand.
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I commit my spirit.
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So we do see all throughout Christ's ministry from the beginning again at his baptism all the way to the end, there are prayers that we can read, but there's also these times of going away from the crowds.
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We don't always know what he's saying, but we know that he's away with the father.
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Remember there the time when they were doing that, when Jesus was walking on the water.
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But why was why were they in the boat? Why was because he had separated himself from them.
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And then then he goes walking across the water.
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So these times this isn't just a one time event, is my point in the in the Gospel of Mark.
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Jesus didn't just pray once.
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He was his life was filled with prayer.
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He didn't just separate himself from the crowds once.
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He did this several times.
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We see this happen before he chooses the apostles.
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There's this time of separation and prayer.
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And then he comes and he and he and he names them.
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That's in in Luke chapter six.
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We see that.
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So like I said, if if you know, if anybody's interested, you can always have a copy of my notes.
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But I have several instances here.
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We see him separating.
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And again, what does this show us? It shows us that Jesus is a man of prayer.
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He is not and it doesn't defy his deity to say that he is a man who prayed.
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One of the one of the great answers I've heard, someone asked Dr.
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James White one time, if Jesus was God, why did he pray? And I loved his answer, and I don't know if this will make sense right away, but but if you think about it, it's a great answer.
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He says James White's answer was Jesus prayed because he's not an atheist.
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And this is a funny answer, but it's a true answer.
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Like why wouldn't he pray? Who are the people that don't praise people who don't believe in God? Right.
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Jesus is praying because he is God, but he's also in communion with the father.
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And again, without a Trinitarian understanding of Christ, we do run into these questions.
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Modalism has a huge problem.
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And if you're not familiar with modalism, it's a second century heresy.
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It's also called Sibelianism, named after Sibelius, who was a heretic at that time.
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And Sibelius taught that the father and the son and the spirit are all modes of God's being, but that they are not persons.
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And therefore, God is the father in the Old Testament.
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He's Christ in the Gospels and he's the Holy Spirit now.
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And those modes of being change.
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But he's never all three all at once because those are not persons that interrelate to one another, but rather they are modes of God's being.
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And the problem with that is what Anna just referenced was the baptism of Christ.
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What do we see at the baptism of Christ? We see all three interacting with one another.
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The son is baptized.
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The father speaks and, you know, you think, well, if modalism is true, who's up there and who's down here? Is Christ a ventriloquist? I've heard that as a, you know, is Christ throwing his voice into the heavens? No, the father is there.
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The son is there and the spirit descends.
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And so, again, Trinitarianism is not optional.
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I remember a young man who's a member of our church now.
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He called me before he came to the church and he asked me, he said, you know, I just recently got saved, I want to visit a church, want to join a church.
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And I said, great.
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And he said, but I have I have some issues with the Trinity.
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I don't know if I believe the Trinity.
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And I said, well, I understand that's a difficult concept, but understand this.
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It's not an option for a Christian to say, well, I just don't believe in the Trinity.
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I said, now it may take you some time to understand it.
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And he does now and he fully affirms it and actually argues for it now.
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But the point is, Trinitarian theology is necessary for us to come to a right understanding of Christ and the father and the spirit.
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And when we start talking about Jesus praying, this is all part of it.
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It's all part of it.
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Understanding the God-man, the hypostatic union.
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We don't preach these things just to make ourselves sound smart.
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You know, me and Andy and Mike, we're not up here trying to make ourselves look like erudite ivory tower scholars.
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I believe this is honestly, I think this is this is this is dirt road theology.
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And what I mean by that is this is this is the stuff that every Christian should be able to wrap their minds around.
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Not that we can understand with fullness the doctrine of the Trinity, but we can understand that what we're saying is is is historic and orthodox and true.
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This is this is stuff that we all should affirm.
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So got a little off, got a little sidetracked there.
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But I do think when we think about Jesus praying, we have to consider this is another time where the doctrine of the Trinity has to be forefront in our mind.
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Who is the son speaking to, speaking to the father? And we're going to see later where Christ will do miracles.
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And he says, I do these by the power of what? The power of who actually? The power of the spirit.
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He's going to he's going to reference the power of the spirit in the midst of doing these things.
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He's going to say, if you speak against me, you can be forgiven.
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But if you speak against the Holy Spirit of God.
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Again, he distinguishes within the Trinity where the power is coming from.
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And you say, well, Jesus himself is filled with power.
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He's the manifestation of the person of God.
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Yes, but he is empowered by the spirit.
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And he says those things.
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And so we can't disqualify that or dismiss that.
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We have to recognize Christ is telling the truth and understand that within the Trinity there are certain economics that happen.
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The economy, the father elects, the son redeems, the spirit regenerates.
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That's key.
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Again, little side note on Trinitarianism there.
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But these are important.
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Now, Christ separates himself to a desolate place.
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He prays.
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He shows himself.
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Dependent upon the father by doing so.
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John six thirty eight says this.
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Jesus said, I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.
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Jesus shows himself dependent upon the father, both with the for the power to do it and for what to do.
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The father has sent him on a rescue mission and he is, in fact, doing what the father sent him to do to seek and save the lost.
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So then we come to verse thirty six and we see the apostles search for Jesus.
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They were excited and anxious to continue their ministry.
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They had seen people healed.
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They had seen miracles happen.
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They'd seen Simon's mother in law be healed.
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And so, Simon, it says in Simon, those who are with him search for him.
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And they said, everyone's looking for you.
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I just find that funny.
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Today, I was interviewed on Chris Arnzen's program and he was asking me about we're talking about Christianity and humor.
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And and he asked me what Bible verses I thought were funny, not funny in the sense like haha, but like like what what what Bible verses do I think are somewhat humorous? And and I said, you know, I always thought it was funny when when John writes that he outrun Peter to the tomb.
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I always thought that's funny.
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Like, why? Why include that? But but but it's there.
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And this is interesting.
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You know, it's it's kind of funny.
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Everyone's looking for you.
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But where are you? Where what are you doing? And again, we don't have the benefit of hearing Peter's attitude.
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We don't have the benefit of reading the the amount of sass that may have been included in this.
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Everyone's looking for you.
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We don't know if it was that way or if it was like everyone's looking where you've been.
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You know, we don't know the attitude, but we know this.
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Jesus is merciful to him.
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Jesus doesn't say, why are you looking? I'm with my father.
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Get away from me.
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I'm doing the you know, I'm doing what I need to do.
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Jesus is merciful to him.
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Verse 38, it says, and he said to him, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for this is why I came out.
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Now, I want to I want to show you something in another passage that connects to verse 38.
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If you would just quickly turn over to Luke's gospel and Luke chapter four.
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I want to show you something very briefly.
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All right.
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Luke chapter four, verse 42.
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We have the parallel passage to this because notice what he says in Mark one.
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You don't have to turn back.
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But listen.
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And Jesus said to them, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for this is why I came out, came out of what this is why I came out.
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I came out for for for strengthening.
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I came out for prayer, but I also came out for another reason.
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And look at Luke four forty two.
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And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place and the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving.
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That's the part I want to point out.
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But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom to the other towns as well, for this is the purpose for which I was sent.
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So what is Jesus saying there? So he did separate for for for respite.
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He did separate for prayer, but he also separated for another strategic reason.
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He separated because if he hadn't gotten away, the people would have kept on coming.
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So he's telling Peter, we're going to move on from here.
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You came to me.
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You say those people back there are looking for me.
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That's fine, but we're going to keep going because my mission is greater than what's going on here.
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And we do have a purpose to move into that's forward and not backward.
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So it's just interesting that from here, it says going back to Mark one, and he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
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So Jesus separates himself for the purpose of prayer.
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He separates himself for the purpose of, I believe, strengthening.
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But he also separates himself strategically because had he not, the people would have continued to throng and keep him where he was.
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That's what we see in Luke chapter four.
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So from this point, his ministry begins to move on.
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And as I said next week or in two weeks when we come back, we'll see that the next thing that happens is Jesus begins to run into opposition.
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Now, as we draw to a close, I said earlier I wanted to talk about some strategic ways to pray.
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And so the last few minutes I am going to spend talking about since we have seen Jesus's need to pray and the need to strengthen himself in the presence of God, I'd like to begin by asking a question.
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And I do want you to interact with me.
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What are some of the reasons and we've already said strengthening, we've already said, you know, finding our rest in the Lord, but what are some of the reasons why we pray? OK, say again.
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OK, prayer of repentance.
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All right.
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So we can pray to repent.
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All right.
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And you said, Daisy, talk it out.
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OK, I understand.
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I understand what you mean, but I want to I want to maybe clarify.
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So so so because you're saying basically to to to express your heart, maybe.
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OK, so so to talk to God and Corey, you said guidance, right? Pray for guidance.
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That's what you said, right? What are some other other reasons why we pray? Praise.
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OK.
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OK.
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Prayers of imprecation.
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I'll just put imprecatory.
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I'm pretty sure I just spelled wrong, but OK, pray for help because it is a command.
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It's good.
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We're commanded to pray.
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That's right.
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Anything else? How many of you have ever heard this phrase? Prayer changes things.
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Now, I think as reformed folks, we get real uncomfortable with that.
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Well, we will pray.
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We will continue to pray for Theodore.
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Yes.
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Thank you.
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So we remember the bumper stickers, right? Prayer changes things.
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And as I said, as a as a reformed Calvinist, you know, believe in sovereignty of God.
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Sometimes I think people get uncomfortable with that.
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But.
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From a biblical perspective, can we say that the Bible tells us that prayer actually does have an impact, that prayer actually does change things? From God's perspective, it's different from our perspective.
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And I would never say that my prayers can change the eternal decree of God.
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Would not say that.
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But I want to I want to remind you of a passage.
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And you can go there if you want.
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But I just want to read it real quick because we do want to try to end on time tonight.
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In James four, verse two, it says you desire and you do not have, so you murder.
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You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
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You do not have because you do not ask and you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
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So so what is James telling us there? One, he's telling us that often our prayers are woefully insufficient because we ask for things that are wrong.
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We ask for things that are sinful.
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We ask for things that are selfish.
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But he says there's also this passage cannot ever escape us.
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He says, you do not have because you do not ask.
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Guys, I believe in the eternal decree of God.
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I believe that God is sovereign over all things and that his decree is unchanging.
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But I believe that his decree includes the prayers of his saints as what we would call secondary causes as as part of the method that God has decreed for bringing about his will.
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Therefore, when we eliminate prayer.
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Or when we shirk prayer.
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What we are saying is this really doesn't matter and it doesn't change anything.
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That is a scary place to be.
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And I do fear that that's where some Christians end up who become so committed to their Calvinism again.
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I'm a Calvinist, but we can become so committed to our system of thinking.
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About the decree of God.
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That we forget that prayer is included as part of how God brings about his will and he calls us, as Dad said, you're right, he commands us to pray.
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What does he say? Pray without ceasing.
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That's a command.
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We are called to pray.
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And is it possible to say to someone.
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Is it possible to say to someone.
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That, yes, we failed to pray.
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And therefore, we don't have.
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And that what James says, I'll give you a good example of this.
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Several months ago, might have been a year ago now, but I had a I had a picture of a lady.
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I'm sorry, a picture of a man who's being baptized, and he was like 90.
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And he was being baptized by like three guys because the pastor was baptizing, but he had to have two other guys to hold him up because his legs wouldn't even hold him up in the baptistry.
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So there's like three guys surrounding this guy in a baptismal pool.
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And as he was being baptized, there was a little caption under the photograph.
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And it said, this man.
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Has a wife who has prayed for him for 50 years.
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He's 90 years old.
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And he's finally repented and trusted in the Lord.
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Praise the Lord.
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Well, here's the thing.
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I shared that on my page, social media page.
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And somebody wrote back to me a scathing rebuke, one of these hardened Calvinists, and again, I'm a Calvinist.
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But he wrote back to me and he said, her prayers didn't have anything to do with it.
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God is sovereign and God had already determined before the foundation of the world that that man would be saved.
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Why give any credit to his wife's prayers? And I said, shame on you.
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One, to think that God would command us to do that, which is useless.
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God doesn't command us to pray for no reason.
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But also to look at a wife who has pleaded with the Lord for 50 years, like the widow who went to the king every day and pleaded for justice.
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And what's the analogy there? God is the king and we're the ones coming pleading.
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And he says, will he not give justice to those who diligently come? I mean, beloved, do not for a minute discount the power of prayer.
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Now, again, can I say, yes, God decreed from the foundation of the world that that 90-year-old man was going to get saved and his, you know, that ain't even the sundown of life.
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That's like past the twilight.
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He's like past twilight.
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But yes, God decreed that from the foundation of the world.
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But God also decreed that he would have a wife who was on her knees for 50 years praying for him and that God would use that as part of what brought about that man's change.
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So my point is this.
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Don't ever let your Calvinism make you bad at praying.
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We ought not be bad at this.
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This ought to be what we're really, really good at.
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Because if we understand that prayer does, in fact, play into God's decree, that prayer, in fact, is worship, as what much of this is saying, Prayer is commanded by God.
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And last thought, prayer sanctifies us.
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If nothing else.
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Let's say I do pray for somebody's salvation and they don't get saved.
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It's happened to me.
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I've prayed and prayed and prayed and watched people die without Christ.
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I know that it happens.
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So I'm not saying everybody you pray for is going to come to the Lord.
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I'm not don't don't think that's what I'm saying.
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But I know this, that God sanctifies me in my prayers because he forces me to learn to depend on him.
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He forces me to learn to love him and to fellowship with him and to go to him when I need rest rather than to the world and what all the world has to offer.
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So there's so much we can learn from Christ about prayer, but certainly we need to understand that prayer should be a vital part of who we are and that our lives be saturated with.
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I have more I could say, but we're out of time.
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As I said, it's going to be short.
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Ha ha.
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No, it wasn't short.
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We took we're right on time.
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A good resource to look up if you're ever interested in wanting to better your prayer life, to deepen your prayer life.
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Martin Luther has something called a simple way to pray.
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You can look it up online and it was based on something he gave to his barber, his barber.
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Luther's barber was close to him and he wrote him a letter because he asked him how to pray and he wrote about praying through the Ten Commandments, praying through the Lord's Prayer and praying through the Apostles Creed and using those tools as as outlines for our prayers.
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And if we're given time, we could talk more about that, but you can look those things up on your own.
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All right, everyone, I want to say this.
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Thank you for coming tonight and hope you all have a Merry Christmas.
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Let's pray.
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Father, thank you for this time of study.
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I pray that it has been fruitful and that we would be encouraged by it, encouraged to be better prayers, Lord, that we would look to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God man, who himself needed time to separate and pray, Lord.
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And he tells us when we pray, go into our closet and and pray, Lord, may we be those who are diligent about the business of prayer in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Merry Christmas.