Luke 11:1 “and it came to pass, that , as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples”.
Introduction: One thing that comes up time and again in the Christian life is Prayer. Because prayer involves our communication between us and God, as Christians, we are always interested in what the Bible has to say regarding prayer so that we can get better at it, and have a better communication with God.
In this passage, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Obviously, the disciples saw something in Jesus regarding prayer that intrigued them to want to know how to pray.
The disciples saw Jesus praying regularly and Jesus often emphasized prayer as one of the greatest needs of human life. The disciples saw the intimacy between Jesus as a Son praying to His Father. Lastly, John taught his disciples to pray and likewise, they wanted to be taught by Jesus to pray also.
Jesus Prayed:
I. When He was Sorrowful– Matthew 26:36-46 “and began to be sorrowful and very heavy… fell on his face, and prayed”. (very heavy- distressed, grieved, pained, troubled. Jesus Christ is fixing to be crucified that night vs 31, and He is sorrowful and very heavy, He is asking if it be possible, let this cup pass form me, meaning God’s wrath. There is no way that would happen and instead Jesus begins to pray in this very time.
- Luke 22:39-46- notice, after Jesus Christ prayed in vs 41, in vs 43 angel appeared to minister to Him and strengthen Him. I can just imagine what happens when we are sorrowful, and we take the time to pray earnestly, perhaps God sends ministering angels to help us.
- The prayer of Jesus Christ here teaches us to pray when we are sorrowful and very heavy about a situation or matter. Instead of taking matter into our own hands, or sharing with other people, or going out to other means for help, just pray. God knows exactly how to help us or He can choose to send angels to minister to us.
- One thing we know is essential in a desperate time of need, prayer and sharing our need with God. Nothing else will satisfy or help.
- God heard Jesus- Hebrews 5:5-7 “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him the twas able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared”.
- Luke 18:1 “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint”.
- I Chronicles 16:11 “Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually”.
II. Before Major Decisions– Luke 6:12-13 “to pray, and continued all night in prayer”. Jesus Christ here prayed all night just before Jesus went from many disciples to only 12 Apostles. Jesus needed to know exactly who to choose out of the big crowd of disciples.
- These men were now the ones that would follow Him the rest of His ministry and would preach and teach to the people. These would be “teaching all nations and baptizing them, and preaching the gospel to every creature.” 2 Timothy 2:2 “and the things that you hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit you to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”.
- These Apostles were chosen by the Lord himself while on earth, chosen to be with him during his earthly ministry, chosen to be trained by Him alone personally, chosen to be eyewitnesses of His resurrection, chosen to carry the message that came from the mouth of Jesus Christ.
- There are times that we come to a cross roads and or a major event, and we need to pray about a specific situation, this is a help and encouragement to us.
- The prayer of Jesus Christ here teaches us to get alone with God and pray about major events, even if we have to stay up all night. There are times that we cannot sleep for some “odd” reason, just get up and pray. This prayer worked, these men went on to do exactly what they were chosen to do.
- There are some decision in our life that are life changing, and unfortunately Christians don’t even pray about those decisions. If we do pray, lets be honest, we spend at most 5-10 minutes in prayers. Jesus Christ here spent ALL NIGHT praying.
- Mark 1:35 “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed”.
III. For A Persons Faith – Luke 22:31-32 In this passage we see the Lord Jesus Christ praying for Peter’s faith. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The devil wants to attack God’s people, and throw them off this Christian coarse. According to vs 31, to sift means to shake, (to separate the good grain from the chaff). The devil wants to separate us from God any possible way.
- The devil wanted to shake the disciples in this case Peter. To test and try their faith. To prove they were not genuine.
- I Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your advisory the devil, as a roaring lion, walkers about, seeking whom he may devour”.
- Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”.
- Aren’t you glad that Jesus is praying for us when we are tempted- I Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation take you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will no suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it”.
- Knowing that Jesus Christ was praying for Peter’s faith from the devil, this should lead us to pray for other peoples faith, especially those that are new in the faith. Our children little faith. Those going through a testing of faith. Those with little faith. Those with doubting faith.
- This should drive us to stand firm through all temptation no matter the cost- by faith in the power of the Lord.
Conclusion: The disciples of Jesus Christ asked Jesus to teach them to pray because they wanted to learn from someone who obviously knew how to pray. This lesson has taught us that no matter the situation in life, we can look at the ministry and prayer life of the Lord Jesus Christ and we can all learn something new or implement something we already know into our prayer life that will help us.