Jesus and Prayer
In His earth life,
Jesus ever kept in close touch with
the Father. This might be expected,
for from eternity They had been
co-workers, and were one in planning
both for creation and for redemption.
Of Christ it is written, “The
Lord possessed Me in the beginning of
His way, before His works of old. I
was set up from everlasting, from the
beginning, or ever the earth
was…. When He prepared the
heavens, I was there…. I was
with Him, as one brought up with
Him.” Proverbs 8:22-30.
God Himself bears this
testimony: Unto the Son He saith, Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever:
a scepter of righteousness is the
scepter of Thy kingdom…. Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundation of the earth; and the
heavens are the works of Thine
hands.” Hebrews 1:8-10.
If any reader is
perplexed over the statements just
quoted, which attribute creation to
both Father and Son, let him find the
solution in Ephesians 3:9: “God,
who created all things by Jesus
Christ.” And again, “To us
there is but one God, the Father, of
whom are all things, and we in Him;
and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
are all things, and we by Him.”
1 Corinthians 8:6.
Jesus and the Father
worked together in the work of
creation. Having worked closely
together at creation, They were now
working closely together in the part
of redemption which required Jesus to
come to this earth, and which would
eventuate in His death on the cross.
In all that Jesus did on earth, He
was guided by the pattern outlined in
heaven, which was being communicated
constantly to Him by the Father.
“I came down from heaven, not to
do Mine own will, but the will of Him
that sent Me.” John 6:38.
“The Son can do nothing of
Himself, but what He seeth the Father
do: for what things so ever He doeth,
these also doeth the Son
likewise.” John 5:19.
Even the doctrine
Jesus taught, He had derived from the
Father. “Jesus answered them,
and said, My doctrine is not Mine,
but He that sent Me.” John 7:16.
“And the word which ye hear is
not Mine, but the Father’s which
sent Me.” John 14:24. “As
My father hath taught Me, I speak
these things.” John 8:28. The
Father “showeth Him all things
that Himself doeth,” and
“what things so ever He doeth,
these also doeth the Son
likewise.” “I do always
those things that please Him.”
John 5:19,20; 8:29. The prophet had
said of Christ, “The Lord God
hath given me the tongue of the
learned, that I should know how to
speak a word in season to him that is
weary: He wakeneth morning by
morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear
as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4.
The Source of
Christ’s Power
We shall not go far
astray if we accept the view that in
Christ’s prayer, in His
communion with the Father, lay His
power. When He appeared before the
people, He was always calm and
composed. The future had been opened
to Him; He knew just what He would
meet; nothing could come to Him as a
surprise, and He was always master of
the situation.
Nathanael might in
surprise ask how He knew him when
they had never met before, and Christ
quietly answered, “Before that
Philip called thee, when thou wast
under the fig tree, I saw thee.”
John 1:48. The woman at the well was
so astonished at what Jesus revealed
to her that she completely forgot her
errand and left her waterpot at the
well, while she went into the city
and “testified, He told me all
that I ever did.” John 4:39. All
His power, all His composure, all the
authority of His words, all the
certainty of His statements and
predictions, stemmed from His
interviews with His Father. His power
lay in His prayer, His communion with
God.
It is interest to note
that before important events or
decisions, Christ spent the
proceeding night in the mountains
with God. Before His first preaching
tour He “departed into a
solitary place, and there
prayed.” Mark 1:35,38,39. Before
He chose the twelve disciples,
“He went out into a mountain to
pray, and continued all night in
prayer to God. And when it was day,
He called unto Him His disciples: and
of them He chose twelve, whom he
named apostles.” Luke 6:12,13.
At the time of the transfiguration He
took Peter, James, and John “and
went up into the mountain to
pray.” Luke 9:28. On this
occasion’ the fashion of His
countenance was altered, and His
raiment was white and
glistering.” Verse 29. At the
time of His baptism, He prayed. Luke
3:21. At the time of the Lord’s
Supper, He prayed; in the garden and
on the cross He prayed. Luke
22:19,41; 23:34. It may be safely be
said that on every important occasion
He prayed, and at times spent the
whole night in prayer.
These examples of
Christ’s prayers demonstrate the
possibilities of prayer. Jesus
prayed, and even His garments became
glistering. How different from our
time and lifeless prayer! Christ
prayed until even His garments were
affected.
The disciples could
not fail to notice that Christ had
sources of strength of which they
knew nothing. They would work all day
long and, when night came, fall
asleep exhausted. Jesus would forgo
sleep, going out to the mountains
alone, and when He came back in the
morning, He was fully refreshed and
ready to minister to the people
again. The disciples must have
wondered where He got such vitality
and how He could keep up His work. He
said very little if anything of His
night vigils, but it must have become
clear to them that there was a close
connection between His nights of
prayer and His days of strength. No
wonder they asked Him to teach them
to pray.
We have, of course, no
record of what took place in those
night seasons which the Father and
Son spent together alone. That it had
to do principally with Christ’s
work seems evident, but beyond this,
we cannot go. We know on the mount of
transfiguration Moses and Elijah
talked “of His decease which He
should accomplish at Jerusalem.”
Luke 9:31. These tow men had both
been on earth. One had died and had
been raised again; the other had not
tasted death. They were now
discussing with Jesus His impending
death. They had both been saved and
taken to heaven in anticipation of
the sacrifice Christ was to make, and
truly represented all the saved from
all ages, most of whom would taste
death, but some of whom would be
translated at Christ’s Second
Coming.
Beyond these few
facts, we know nothing of those night
seasons of prayer. They must have
been precious occasions, invigorating
to body as well as to soul. Jesus did
not always have eight hours of sleep.
He did not always have regular meals.
He had meat of which the disciples
did not know; He had sources of
strength form above.
The last few days of
Christ’s ministry on earth He
spent instructing His disciples and
forewarning them of events to come.
He concluded His instruction with
what has come to be called His
high-priestly prayer, dedicating them
as well as Himself to God.
Immediately after the prayer, He went
to Gethsemane.
This prayer is
recorded in the seventeenth chapter
of John and contains a resume of His
work. Lifting up His eyes to heaven
and addressing His Father, He said,
“The hour has come.” John
17:1. This was the hour that He had
looked forward to with apprehension
and He had even thought of asking the
Father that He might be saved from
it. He immediately rejected such a
suggestion, saying that it was for
this hour He had come into the world.
John 12:27. Would He be able to
glorify God in His suffering? Could
He calmly face torture and death?
This weighed on His mind. For
this would be His hour of glory if He
victoriously could meet it. All
creation was vitally and absorbingly
interested in this time when Christ
should enter the domain of death and
through death wrest from Satan his
prey. For Christ this would be the
supreme hour, and God would be
glorified if He triumphantly passed
the test. So He prayed, “Father,
glorify Thy name.” God answered,
“I have both glorified it, and
will glorify it again.” Verse
28.
The Hour Had Come
Now the hour had come
that would decide the world’s
destiny, and Jesus prayed,
“Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee.” John
17:1. This was a prayer not for the
glory to the Son as such, but a
prayer that God would sustain Him in
the ordeal, that when the hour of
darkness should come, Jesus would be
enabled to glorify God in His death
and that through His death Satan
would be defeated. Entering Satan
stronghold to liberate the prisoners,
entering alone to match powers with
the evil one, overcome him, and take
away from him his armor, would be a
wonderful victory and the deciding
one. Should Jesus fail, it would be
victory for Satan, and Jesus’
work would be in vain. Jesus trembled
as He thought of the momentous issues
defending upon this hour, and He
said, “Now is My soul
troubled.” John 12:27. But
receiving encouragement that God
would sustain and glorify Him, He
resolutely exclaimed: “Now is
the judgment of this world: now shall
the prince of this world be cast
out.” Verse 31.
Jesus had so far
finished the work given Him to do,
and He now asked God to sustain Him
in the dark hour ahead. John 17:4,5.
He assured the Father, “I have
given unto them the words which Thou
gavest Me,” and that they had
received them and had believed. Verse
6-8. Then He prayed, “Holy
Father, keep through Thine own name
those whom Thou hast given Me, that
they may be one, as We are.”
Verse 11.
“While I was with
them in the world, I kept them in Thy
name.” “I pray not that
Thou shouldest keep them out of the
world, but that Thou shouldest keep
them from evil.” Verses 12,15.
He prayed that they might be
sanctified, and for their sakes, He
sanctified Himself; and then He made
the momentous statement, “As
Thou hast sent Me into the world,
even so have I also sent them into
the world.” Verse 18.
This means nothing
less that that as Jesus was sent into
the world to reveal the Father, to
preach the gospel, and to heal the
sick, so we are sent. His prayer did
not apply to the disciples only, but
to them “also which shall
believe on Me through their
word.” Verse 20.
Thus, this prayer
reaches to the end of time and takes
in every soul who shall believe.
Jesus prayed for Peter. “Satan
hath desired to have you,” said
Jesus, “that he may sift you as
wheat: but I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not: and when
thou art converted, strengthen thy
brethren.” Luke 22:31,32. And
now Jesus said that He prayed for all
who shall believe on Him
“through their word.” John
17:20.
If we take this
literally, it means that Jesus has
prayed for us, for the reader and for
the writer, for all who shall
believe. And for what has He prayed?
– “That they all be one:
That the world may believe that Thou
hast sent Me.” Verse 21. The
unity of the church is here mentioned
as being effective in helping the
world to believe. How important then,
that there be no divisions among
God’s people, “all one body
we.” “By this shall all men
know that ye are My disciples, if ye
have love one to another.” John
13:35.
“Father, I
will.” Jesus wants His church
with Him, and He makes a definite
demand to the end. Then He closed the
prayer with the hope that “the
love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may
be in them, and I in them.” John
17:26. Then came Gethsemane.
It will be noted that
Jesus prayer is concerned with
others. He planned and prayed for
those whom He loved. He knew what
awaited Him. However, even in this
hour His thoughts were for others.
Memory Verse:
“And now,
Father, glorify me in your presence
with the glory I had with you before
the world began.” John
17:5.
Questions:
1. Can you
see from this lesson just how
important prayer really is? Explain.
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2. Are you
ready to share your faith with others
and testify about the soon coming of
Jesus Christ? Explain.
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