The Day You Learn to Pray
Notes
Transcript
Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Prayer, Belief and
A tavern was being built in a town that until recently had been dry. A group of Christians in a certain church opposed this and began an all-night prayer meeting, asking God to intervene.
Lightning struck the tavern building, and it burned to the ground. The owner brought a lawsuit against the church, claiming they were responsible. The Christians hired a lawyer, claiming they were not responsible. The judge said, “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not.”
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”
Jesus, with Peter, James and John, comes down the mountain from where Jesus while praying, was transfigured before them and God the Father confirmed His status as His Beloved Son.
So they come down, and as they do so, they see a crowd and hear a tumult. As they get closer, they see the disciples engaged in an argument with scribes. Not exactly earth-shattering news, but when Jesus asked what was going on (and I think that the text indicates that His question was directed to the disciples, not to the scribes), a man responds and tells Jesus about his son’s need for deliverance from an unclean spirit - a demon. The man had come seeking Jesus for help, but Jesus was not there, so he turned to the disciples, who tried to do what they had seen their Teacher do, but without success. Remember, back in Mark 6:7-13 Jesus had sent them out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, giving them authority to do, among other things that indicated the presence of the Kingdom, this very thing:
7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Nothing in the text indicates that this event marked a permanent change in their status as disciples - learners - who needed to be instructed by Jesus. At the same time, nothing indicates that they had any reason to know that the authority which Jesus gave them was only temporary. The man who speaks from the crowd clearly thought that they had the “strength” to handle his request when he turned to them, and the fact that they tried to minister to his request indicates that they thought so too. Both sides were disappointed at the outcome, and, perhaps, the scribes were arguing that there was a reason in God’s Law as to why they failed - that is, after all, the scribes “field of expertise.”
Jesus addresses all of them in Mark 9:19
19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”
The problem isn’t a moral one; it is a “faith” problem. But, it also isn’t a problem of trusting for God to do a particular thing. It is a problem of trusting in God to do what is good, holy, and righteous.
20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
As an old saying goes, “there is no failure in God.” People look at this world, with its trials and tribulations, with the struggles and disappointments that are a part of living in a fallen creation, and ask, “Why does God allow…?” We ask that because we don’t know the depths of Satan’s hatred that he harbors against the children of Adam. As Jesus told Peter on the night He was betrayed:
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
There is nothing of either the joys or the sorrows of life, that our Lord has no knowledge. He was tempted in all points like us. He knows, even better than we, the painful results of sin.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
The only way that we can understand the work that God has done in, with, and through the events of our lives is when we see them in the light of His revelation, the Word of God.
As Isaiah the prophet wrote in Isaiah 50:4-7
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 5 The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 7 But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
Sometimes, we are able to grasp and rejoice, after we have learned to trust in Him regardless of the way our flesh responds. Other times, we have to fall upon the grace and mercy of God in repentant confession of our weakness:
23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
There was a period in my life when every effort that I made to construct my life in a way that would bring me pleasure fell apart. Eventually, I found the word of the Lord that brought me to the beginning of understanding:
68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.
It was only then, when I laid the foundation of life on God’s Word, instead of putting the foundation of God’s Word on my life, that I began to understand that even my trials, even my struggles, even my disappointments, were all woven by God, just as my triumphs and times of ease, and if I trusted in Him, it would all work together for good.
There is another lesson that we can learn from our struggles against our adversary the devil, a lesson which the disciples began to learn that day:
28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Prayer, the taking of God’s Word of promise and making it the structure of our conversation with Him, is powerfully described by Paul in his beautiful description of the full armor of God as the final element in our taking hold of God’s Word in order that it would transform us by the renewing of our minds. Every piece of our spiritual armor is made of God’s Word, applied to the role described in this passage, whether that of securing us, guarding our hearts, giving us stability in our walk, blocking and disabling the attacks of Satan, protecting our mind, or attacking the kingdom of darkness itself. Prayer brings us before the throne of grace to obtain mercy. Prayer brings our mind into conformity to the mind of Christ. Prayer is the way we “Cast our cares upon Him,” as the Spirit reminds us that “He cares for us.” Therefore, we are commanded to pray. Dr. Luther taught this in the Large Catechism regarding the Lord’s Prayer:
The Book of Concord (Large Catechism, Third Part: The Lord’s Prayer)
[8] To pray, as the Second Commandment teaches, is to call upon God in every need. This God requires of us; it is not a matter of our choice. It is our duty and obligation to pray if we want to be Christians, just as it is our duty and obligation to obey our fathers, mothers, and the civil authorities. By invocation and prayer the name of God is glorified and used to good purpose. This you should note above all, so that you may silence and repel any thoughts that would prevent or deter us from praying. [9] Now it would be improper for a son to say to his father: “What is the use of being obedient? I will go and do as I please; what difference does it make?” But there stands the commandment, “You shall and must obey!” Just so, it is not left to my choice here whether to pray or not, but it is my duty and obligation on pain of God’s wrath and displeasure.
Whether we apply it in our own lives, the lives of those who bring their burdens to us, or bring the needs of the Kingdom of God and of His Church before His throne, it is through prayer that we begin to see the hand of God at work as the Holy Spirit prays with us.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Jesus prayed, and He taught His Church how to pray, with boldness and confidence, knowing by faith that God hears us and answers graciously and righteously, for our good, not as a servant to our whims, but as the Lord of glory Who knows the end from the beginning because He is “the Alpha and the Omega - the beginning and the end.”
And the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.