Jesus Guys: What did Jesus pray? (week three)

Week 3 – What did Jesus pray? Welcome to Jesus Guys, a ten week series on following Jesus. This is a discipleship lifestyle. Here are the seven scriptures for reading this week.

Matthew 6:9-13 – The Lord's Prayer
Luke 22:42 – Take this cup
Matthew 26:26 – Jesus gave thanks
Luke 22:32 – Jesus prays for Simon’s faith not to fail
John 17:9-15 – Jesus prayed for disciples protection
Luke 23:34 – Jesus' prayer on the cross
Luke 23:46 – Jesus' last prayer

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Transcript

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This is Tim Dellis. Welcome to Jesus Guys, brought to you by menofbravery.com. This is week number three for Jesus Guys, a discipleship lifestyle. And I'm going to begin by asking the question for this week's theme, which is What did Jesus pray? I want to turn to the book of Mark, the Gospel, in chapter 1, verse 35. It reads, A very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. In the Gospel of Mark, he's almost like an observer by binoculars because he's seeing the behaviors of Jesus. And in this one verse, we get a snapshot of a discipline, I would like to say, a habit that Jesus had that showed what he believed to be important. And so I want to begin by asking this question as we learn what did Jesus pray? And the question is: if prayer mattered to Jesus, then prayer should matter to us. I mean, very early in the morning, he got up. He went somewhere where there was no one. There was no attention he was seeking, there was no interaction he was craving, except to be alone and to have relationship, connection, and communion with his Heavenly Father. Jesus was on a mission from God, and he knew his time alone with God was essential. So if it was that important for the Son of God, it should be that important for us. And so what did Jesus pray? A very influential part of the Bible for me is when I observed the disciples, those that were spending the most time with Jesus in proximity, began to ask him questions because the motive of those questions was because of something they observed and they wanted to go a little bit deeper. They wanted to understand what was going on behind the decisions of this man. And in Matthew chapter 6, verse 9, Jesus answers a question because the disciples came to him and asked, How should we pray? And then Jesus said, This is how you should pray. And then in this famous verse, well known, is the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. The Lord's prayer packages for us in essence the roadmap of our daily discipleship. And I want to begin by screaming as loud as I can. It's our Father, your daddy in heaven. Someone you can trust and you can lean on. In the backyard, I have an outdoor chapel, and I was very honored that a neighbor of mine who is extremely gifted in woodworking actually built me a cross. The original cross that was at the chapel, I had made out of a pine tree that I had cut down. And it wasn't a really thick pine tree, so it was kind of a little bit of a Charlie Brown kind of looking cross. And he saw it and noticed it, took note of it, and had some recycled beams from a barn that he ended up putting together and building a cross. And I was actually out of a town on a trip and came home to this large cross at this chapel. Early in the morning, I do have some hopefully good habits and routines I try to abide by, and one of them is going out in the morning with my dog and doing some water rowing and then walking out to the chapel and having some time alone in solitude. I don't tell you this to brag. I tell you this because I've seen it in the life of Jesus. And if I'm a follower of Jesus, then I should be exemplifying and doing what he did. And he departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. Recently there was a challenge that I was going through in my life, somewhat of some burdens of some other people that you know and are close to, and you just seek the Lord on their behalf through intercessory prayer. And I went out to the chapel early in the morning, and I didn't kneel, I leaned on the cross. Are we leaning on Jesus, our Father who art in heaven? Are we leaning into who he is for our lives so that we can then find our daily bread, we can find the strength to forgive those who have trespassed against us, seek his forgiveness, and then give him the glory forever and ever and ever. But one of the gems in the Lord's Prayer that I hold on to personally, and I believe as a discipler and follower of Jesus, we should is that is thy kingdom come, it is thy will be done. So when Jesus came and he spent time with his disciples on the night he was betrayed, he gave the communion cup and he gave the bread, and he talked about the sacrifice and the washing of the feet, and it was an exemplatory moment of teaching how to go serve. And Jesus knelt down and he washed his disciples' feet. We are followers of Christ to follow Jesus and serve others because it's his kingdom that will come, and it is his will to be done. So may we pray this prayer and may we learn this week in other readings and other prayers that Jesus prayed. But I want to leave you with this, and it's maybe something that could be personal to you in this moment, or maybe it'll come to you a little bit later. But the question I want to leave us with today is when and where do we pray? And for some of us, it is in the moment. Maybe you're driving, maybe you're walking. And I want to share, I actually have a prayer chair. This is something that's unique for me, and it may not be something you need to do. But I have found that I like having places for purposes that help me know that's what I do there. I do enjoy going outside and going for walks with my dog and praying during that time. But sometimes we need to go to a place for a purpose. I grew up in a home where my father was a pastor and someone that I knew, my mother, probably felt and observed the greatest challenges and burdens of life for the family. And I would witness my mother sneaking down the hallway opening this old wooden door and slipping inside a closet where she had a little wooden bench and she would kneel and pray. And the scriptures talk about having a place to pray in private and not to be seen in public. And so where is that place for you? For me, it's that chair, sometimes it's outside. But just as much as prayer was a priority for Jesus, and he modeled it, if prayer mattered to Jesus, prayer should matter to us. So where is it that you go and pray? Thanks for listening to Jesus Guys. I'm Tim D. Tellis and I look forward to being with you real soon.