Text: To pray and not to
give up..... Luke 18.1 (NIV)
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Here in Luke's gospel,
we have such a story told by the Lord Jesus. The Lord tells of a woman who
calls at the door of a
judge every other day asking him to sort things out for her - it might be a
dispute over a cow or some chickens, we don’t know. The judge eventually does
what she asks - settles it, makes a ruling, makes sure she gets what she wants,
not out of any great consideration for the principles of justice, but
simply because he is driven up the wall
by this widow, and fed up, does what she asks. That was probably what normal
everyday life, in
And the Lord Jesus
teaches this:
if even a crooked
judge listens, and eventually does something -
how much more when we turn to the
living God, will He the Holy, Righteous One, hear the prayers of His
people, when we cry to Him !
Jesus told this story
to the disciples, so that they would pray and not give up.
Jesus teaches, we can
rely on the living God, trust in Him, bring our prayers to Him, because He
listens to our cry, to our prayer,
and He will act.
Jesus teaches that we
can rely on God, trust in Him, bring our prayers to Him, He listens to our cry,
to our prayer, and He acts. A wonderful message !
And - do we not see
this so clearly, so wonderfully in Jesus Himself ? Look at, listen to, the
prayer of Jesus ! He prays and never gives up, through all the twists and
turns, through the burdens, sorrows and agonies of His life He trusts His
Father, relies absolutely on His Father in prayer.
Jesus is Himself the Lord's chosen one (Luke
18.7)...... crying out to the living God day and night, and when we look at
Jesus we see that what He teaches about prayer is seen in all its light and
glory and splendour in Jesus Himself !
Jesus prays to His
Father in Heaven. He prays and never
ceases, never gives up,
perfect in trust,
leaning on, resting in His Father for all things.
Read the gospels ! Again
and again we read of Jesus withdrawing to a secret place, a place of peace, in
a quiet hour before dawn when He can speak to the Father in Heaven.
Here, He pours out His
heart and mind and soul in prayer for the day ahead, for the sick
the comfortless, the
lost He will meet that coming day.
look at Jesus in
prayer....... and see ! how the Father hears Him
John 11 tells us that
Jesus went to the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus, and gave a command..........
to open the entrance
to the grave.............
the gospel tells us
what happened - So they took away the
stone. Then Jesus looked up and
said, "Father, I thank you that
you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I say this for the
people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
When he had said this,
Jesus called in a loud voice in prayer to the Father,
"Lazarus, come
out!"
Lazarus: the dead man came out, his
hands and feet wrapped with
strips of linen, and a cloth around
his face. Jesus said to
them, "Take off the grave
clothes and let him go."
That is Jesus in
prayer, receiving great power, the power of life from the Father..........
or listen to the prayer of the Lord Jesus in
Luke 22 tells us: Jesus withdrew about a stone's throw
beyond the disciples, knelt
down
and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet
not my will, but yours be done." And
at that moment, an answer came: An angel from heaven appeared to him and
strengthened him in those dread moments. And being in anguish, he prayed more
earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he
rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep,
exhausted from sorrow.
“Not my will, but
yours be done”. We see Jesus in prayer, His perfect relying on His Father, perfect trust in the Father, who listens to
the cry of His Son, and acts.
Raising Him from the
dead............. We could go on, but
there is not enough time,
if we look at Jesus,
we see Him in prayer, relying on, trusting in His Father........
But there is a key
moment in John’s gospel, a key signal in John’s gospel in John 17,
where Jesus promises a
new life of prayer that will come..........
This is what He says
to the disciples of that new life of prayer:
“In that day you will no longer ask
me anything. I tell
you the truth, my Father will give
you whatever you ask in
my name.”
What does this mean ? What the Lord
is saying here is that there is coming a day when men and women will be able to
share His own life of prayer, relying on, trusting in the Father, as He Himself
does !
Let us take a step
further....................
In the letter to the
Hebrews, the author sets out before us how this happens.............
the writer to the
Hebrews tells us this: that in old
bringing all the needs of the people before the living
God…………. confessing their sins in God’s presence......... So - through that
man, the High Priest, on that one
day, the whole people were brought before God......
Think of it......once a year............
on that day, those whose sinful hearts ached
those looking for
comfort, all, all were brought before God through the High Priest and
knew themselves
renewed, refreshed and restored
as a people to
fellowship with the living God......
Now, proclaims the letter to the
Hebrews, in Jesus we have just such a
High Priest !
He has gone into the presence of God not here on earth, but
in heaven
Hebrews declares that in Jesus we have a High Priest, who
knows us,
He knows human life, this life of ours, through personal
experience, He understands us.
And though there may be times, when we feel far away from
God,
in Jesus we have a High Priest there in God’s presence who
understands us......
Who knows what it is to live human life,
He knows what it is to call upon the living God in the
midst of troubles,
He knows what it is to leave everything entirely in God’s
hands and
He has gone into the presence of the living God for us,
knowing our hopes, all our needs,
carrying all these into the presence of the living God,
so now, through Jesus, we are brought into the
presence of God......
through
Jesus we are restored to communion with
the living God......
through
Jesus who is there in the presence of the
living God, for us !
And there, declares the Word of God, Jesus prays for us -
unceasingly,
He lives now, to pray for us,
when we can hardly pray, because our hearts are so heavy
Jesus,
who prayed in the gathering darkness of Gethsemane
now
prays in the full light of God’s presence,
He knows these cares that weigh us down, says Hebrews,
and He lives to pray for us. And right up to the moment
when we draw our last breath
Jesus prays for us, and through Him blessing upon blessing
comes to us through Him
In fact, we are taken
up into a great moving current of prayer from heaven to earth and from earth to
heaven. Jesus takes our broken, wandering, frail prayers on earth, and transforms
and completes them, bringing them before the living God,
From heaven Jesus
sends His Spirit upon us to catch us up, to draw us
into the worship which
is there in God’s presence in heaven........... So Jesus Himself
leads the worship of
the whole Church, through all times, through all the world
all of this through Jesus..............
this is why when we
pray we say - through Jesus.
As you can hear, there is a wonderful message here for the
Church today............
Just look at the range, the depth of prayer through Jesus
Christ !
through
Jesus our prayer is taken up into God’s
presence,
through
Jesus, our morning worship finds its
direction
for
through Jesus, we are brought
into the presence of God......
through
Jesus our hearts are lifted into communion
with the living God......
through
Jesus who is there, there, in the presence
of the living God, lifting up our frail, broken, stammering words of
prayer............
And
in turn praying, ever praying for us !