Rev. Deacon Allen Batchelder
Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
July 28, 2013, Pentecost X
Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-15, Luke 11:1-13
From the Old Testament:
Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people, “ it shall be said to them, “Sons of the living God.”
From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians:
For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness of life in Him, who is head of all rule and authority.
And from the Gospel of St. Luke:
He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” [And He taught them the Lord’s Prayer.]
Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!
We are truly blessed to have a friend, a best friend; someone who is always there for us whenever there is a need; someone who will listen to us when we have a problem; and someone who will give us advice, even if we don’t think we need it.
All of us long to have a friend like that, someone who can identify with our circumstances and share in our day-to-day life. Prayer is just that – a personal experience and intimate connection with our loving Heavenly Father.
What is prayer? Prayer is our direct line with heaven. Prayer is a communication process that allows us to talk to God! He wants us to communicate with Him, like a person-to-person phone call. Cell phones and other devices have become a necessity to some people in today’s society. We have Bluetooth devices, blackberries, and talking computers! These are means of communications that allow two or more people to interact, discuss, and respond to one another. For too many people, prayer seems complicated, but it is simply talking to God.
We usually think of John the Baptist as a prophet and martyr, and yet our Lord’s disciples remembered him as a man of prayer. John was a “miracle baby,” filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born, and yet he had to pray. He was privileged to introduce the Messiah to Israel, and yet he had to pray. Jesus said that John was the greatest of the prophets (Luke 7:28), and yet John has to depend on prayer. If prayer was that vital to a man who had these many advantages, how much more important it ought to be to us who do not have these advantages!
John’s disciples had to pray and Jesus’ disciples wanted to learn better how to pray. They did not ask the Master to teach them how to preach or do great signs; they asked Him to teach them to pray. We today sometimes think that we would be better Christians if only we had been with Jesus when He was on earth, but this is not likely. The disciples were with Him and yet they failed many times! They could perform miracles, and yet they wanted to learn to pray.
But the greatest argument for the priority of prayer is the fact that our Lord was a Man of prayer. Thus far we have seen that He prayed at His baptism (Luke 3:21), before He chose the Twelve (Luke 6:12), when the crowds increased (Luke 5:16), before He asked the Twelve for their confession of faith (Luke 9:18), and at His Transfiguration (Luke 9:29). The disciples knew that He often prayed alone (Mark 1:35), and they wanted to learn from Him this secret of spiritual power and wisdom.
If Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, had to depend on prayer during “the days of His flesh” (Heb. 5:7), then how much more do you and I need to pray! Effective prayer is the provision for every need and the solution for every problem.
So when Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, it must have brought joy to Jesus’ heart. So Jesus taught them the prayer that has come to be known as The Lord’s Prayer, not because Jesus prayed it, but because Jesus taught it. There is nothing wrong with praying this prayer personally or as part of a congregation, so long as we do it from a believing heart that is sincere and submitted. How easy it is to “recite” these words and not really mean them, but that can happen even when we sing and preach! The fault lies with us, not with this prayer.
When I was a teenager in a church youth group, one day the youth director asked the group a question as part of an exercise. He asked us, “If there was something you could change about the worship service, then what would it be?” Well, there were a number of interesting suggestions. Then I raised my hand and said, “I think we should do away with all the repetitive things that we say by memory, such as The Lord’s Prayer or the Apostles Creed, because people just recite them and they don’t have any meaning.” Well the youth director responded very calmly and said, “Well, that may be that reciting prayers like The Lord’s Prayer have no meaning to some people, but how is it with you?” I learned a very important lesson that day. You get out of the worship service, what you put into it.
The Lord’s Prayer is a “pattern prayer,” given to guide us in our own praying. It teaches us that true prayer depends on a spiritual relationship with God that enables us to call Him “Father,” and this can come only through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:1-7).
President Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary, Bill Moyers, was saying grace at a staff lunch, and the President shouted, “Speak up, Bill! I can’t hear a thing!” Moyers quietly replied, “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.” It is good to remind ourselves that when we pray, we talk to God.
The Bible says we should pray for each other. Jesus set an example for us on what to pray. He prayed for His disciples and for every generation to come that would follow Him. His prayer was that God protect and strengthen them as long as they were in this world. Jesus also prayed for those who would come to believe in Him through the Gospel message (John 17).
We should also pray with faith. “So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Heb. 11:6).
And we should pray with worship and reverence. “Exalt the Lord our God! Bow low before His feet, for He is holy!” (Psalm 99:5).
True prayer also involves responsibilities: honoring God’s kingdom and doing God’s will (Luke 11:2). It has well been said that the purpose of prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on earth. Prayer is not telling God what we want and then selfishly enjoying it. Prayer is asking God to use us to accomplish what He wants so that His name is glorified, His kingdom is extended and strengthened, and His will is done.
Jesus often shared the importance of prayer with His disciples. We often think of the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus’ model prayer, but He shared much more about prayer with His disciples.
Jesus told His disciples, “Until now you have asked for nothing in my name.” It is not as though the disciples had not learned to pray before this. Jesus prayed with them regularly and often taught them about prayer.
Curiously, before this Jesus had not suggested that the disciples pray in His name. The Lord’s Prayer includes no such statement. But as they stood at the threshold of a whole new life era, Jesus instructed them to pray in His name – to ask the Father on behalf of the Son. When they walked out the door of the upper room about fifty days later on Pentecost – their world would be vastly different. They would have entered into a whole new realm of spiritual warfare. The evil one, whose heel had been bruised at the cross, would escalate the spiritual conflict as the church of Jesus Christ was established on Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told them in the upper room that a radical change was coming in regard to prayer: “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (John 16:23). Why will the Father give us what we ask in the name of Jesus? The answer is simple enough: he will do this if and when we are engaged in fulfilling the mission that Jesus gave us.
The process by which the Father will give us what we ask is directly linked to our appointment to go and bear fruit. The Father will give us what we need in order to accomplish this primary task of bearing lasting fruit for the kingdom of God. He will answer prayers in Jesus’ name when we are fulfilling Jesus’ mission – to help complete the purchase of people for God from every language and tribe and people and nation.
It is important for Christians to know the Word of God, for there we discover the will of God. We must never separate prayer and the Word (John 15:7).
Once we are secure in our relationship with God and His will, then we can bring our requests to Him (Luke 11:3-4). We can ask Him to provide our needs for today, to forgive us for what we have done yesterday, and to lead us in the future. All of our needs may be included in these three requests: material and physical provision, moral and spiritual perfection, and divine protection and direction. If we pray this way, we can be sure of praying in God’s will.
Also in our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells His disciples a parable, about going to a friend and asking to borrow three loaves of bread. In this parable, Jesus did not say that God is like this grouchy neighbor. In fact, He said just the opposite. If a tired and selfish neighbor finally meets the needs of a bothersome friend, how much more will a loving Heavenly Father meet the needs of His own dear children!
Jesus told us that the Father cares about us. We are, after all, more valuable than the birds of the air that He cares for, feeds, and clothes (Matt. 6:28-32). Paul instructs us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil. 4:6-7).
We have already seen that prayer is based on sonship (“Our Father”), not on friendship; but Jesus used friendship in this parable to illustrate persistence in prayer. God the Father is not like this neighbor, for He never sleeps, never gets impatient or irritable, is always generous, and delights in meeting the needs of His children. The friend at the door had to keep on knocking in order to get what he needed, but God is quick to respond to His children’s cries (Luke 18:1-8).
The argument is clear: If persistence finally paid off as a man beat on the door of a reluctant friend, how much more would persistence bring blessing as we pray to a loving Heavenly Father! It was the custom of the day to provide hospitality to strangers (Gen. 18:1ff). If a person refused to entertain a guest, he brought disgrace on the whole village and the neighbors would have nothing to do with him; so he got up and met the need.
Why does our Father in heaven answer prayer? Not just to meet the needs of His children, but to meet them in such a way that it brings glory to His name. “Hallowed be Thy name.” When God’s people pray, God’s reputation is at stake. The way He takes care of His children is a witness to the world that He can be trusted. Phillips Brooks was an Episcopal priest and Bishop in the early 1890’s. He was known for being the lyricist of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” He said that prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of His highest willingness. Persistence in prayer is not an attempt to change God’s mind (“Thy will be done”) but to get ourselves to the place where He can trust us with the answer.
The power of prayer is not the result of the person praying. Rather, the power resides in the God who is being prayed to. 1 John 5:14-15 tells us, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” No matter the person praying, the passion behind the prayer, or the purpose of the prayer – God answers prayers that are in agreement with His will. His answers are not always yes, but are always in our best interest. When our desires line up with His will, we will come to understand that in time. When we pray passionately and purposefully, according to God’s will, God responds powerfully!
What are the promises for prayer? “Keep on asking…keep on seeking…keep on knocking.” In other words, don’t come to God only in the midnight emergencies, but keep in constant communion with your Father. Jesus called this “abiding” (John 15:1ff), and Paul exhorted, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17). As we pray, God will either answer or show us why He cannot answer. Then it is up to us to do whatever is necessary in our lives so that the Father can trust us with the answer.
The emphasis is on God as Father (Luke 11:11-13). Because He knows us and loves us, we never need to be afraid of the answers that He gives. If an earthly father gives what is best to his children, surely the Father in heaven will do even more.
The Word of God is full of accounts describing the power of prayer in various situations. The power of prayer has overcome enemies (Psalm 6:9-10), conquered death (2 Kings 4:3-36), brought healing (James 5:14-15), and defeated demons (Mark 9:29). God, through prayer, opens eyes, changes hearts, heals wounds, and grants wisdom (James 1:5). The power of prayer should never be underestimated because it draws on the glory and might of the infinitely powerful God of the universe!
You will know with confidence that God can hear you when you pray, so open that line of communication! Pray, knowing that no matter how far you roam, your connection with Him can never be lost!
Let us pray:
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. AMEN!