The Spiritual Life of Jesus

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Edited March 26, 2008

The Spiritual Life of Jesus Rich Nathan March 8-9, 2008 Spiritual Growth: How a Christian G.R.O.W.S. Series Luke 3:21-22 I would like to begin today by asking you a question: Have you ever talked with someone who constantly complains about how hard their life is, but they won’t do anything that is necessary to actually change their life? So, you have a friend or a relative who is constantly complaining about how hard things are for them financially, but they won’t actually put a reasonable budget together, they won’t go to budgeting classes, and they definitely won’t cut back on their spending, or cut up their credit cards. But they keep complaining about how hard their lives are, and perhaps by implication, manipulate you into feeling guilty because your financial house is in order. Or you talk with someone who says that they are just so lonely and isolated, they don’t have any real friends. But every suggestion you make about connecting with one of the church’s small groups, or getting involved in our singles ministry, or getting involved in volunteering in some fashion, whether here in this church or out in the community, so that they can meet other people is met with a series of reasons why this won’t work, or that won’t work. They are the one person on earth with no choices at all regarding their schedule or their priorities. Have you ever talked with someone who complains all the time about an issue in their life, but does absolutely nothing to make a change? They’ve got all kinds of aches and pains, but beginning a sensible program of diet and exercise is something they are simply unwilling to do. Some people complain about some issue in life but won’t make the changes necessary to fix our lives. We meet those people every day in the mirror. Those of us who consider ourselves to be Christian are often unwilling to change. To be a Christian means to actually attempt in your own life to adopt Jesus’ words as your standard of living. You actually attempt in your own life to love your enemies because that is what Jesus told you to do. You actually attempt in your own life to not lust in your heart because you are a follower of Jesus. And you attempt to forgive everyone for every single hurt they’ve caused you because that’s what Jesus taught you to do. And you make a serious effort at not being anxious because Jesus told you to not be anxious. Unfortunately those of us who claim to be Christians and who claim Jesus as our Savior, and leader, and the best teacher of how to do life well have so many different ways of avoiding changing in the direction of Jesus’ words. Well, when Jesus says that we are to love our enemies, that’s an ideal for another era. It is for the age of the millennium. It is for special people like the saints, for professional Christians who are paid by the church to be Christians.

If you or I claim the title of Christian, if you say, “I am a Christian,” and you believe that about yourself, then we are supposed to actually do what Jesus told us to do. The problem is we can’t do what he tells us to do. We can’t stop being anxious. We can’t stop being angry. We don’t want to be kind to people who have been mean to us. We can’t stop lusting in our hearts. How do you change? How do you become the person that Jesus wants you to be? Let me share with you a little illustration. I remember when I was 10, 11, or 12 years old in New York City playing basketball. Before we actually got off the court, we would pretend that we were pro basketball players. So the last thing I would do is to say, “OK, it is the 7th game of the NBA finals. The Knicks are down by one. Nathan has the ball. The clock is ticking down – 3…2…1…Nathan shoots. Scores! The crowd is going wild. The Knicks have won the playoffs. The Knicks have won the playoffs…” Of course, there is absolutely no way in this universe that I or any of my friends could actually hit a buzzer-beater in an NBA title game. We couldn’t do it in a Junior High School game. Yet, we pretended to be Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, or some other player. The next generation did exactly the same thing. They pretended to be Michael Jordan. But as Dallas Willard, the former chairman of the philosophy department at Southern Cal, is a very profound Christian thinker on spirituality. He points out in books like The Renovation of the Heart and the Spirit of the Disciplines that we can’t play basketball like Michael Jordan not only because we simply don’t have Michael’s talents. But we can play basketball like Michael Jordan because we don’t do what Michael Jordan did to prepare for doing what he did. We haven’t put in four hours a day of practicing shooting for the last 20 years. We don’t watch everything that we eat or run stairs or lift weights, or on and on. Even if you have the talent, you can’t hope to play like Michael Jordan played unless you live Michael Jordan’s life. And you can’t play the piano like Van Clyburn, or Chopin, or Rachmaninoff unless you not only have their natural talent, but also disciplined yourself to practice as much as they practiced. The same thing applies to the Christian life. We can’t do what Jesus told us to do simply by wearing a little bracelet that says: WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? Wearing a bracelet is a good thing. It reminds us that being a Christian involves imitating Jesus. But we won’t be able to imitate Jesus unless we specifically put into our lives the practices that enabled Jesus to do what Jesus did. You can’t just say, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to just love my enemies. I’m going to stop being anxious. I’m going to stop lusting. I’m going to just forgive people whenever they hurt me.”

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This brings us squarely back to the series I’ve been teaching that I’ve titled How a Christian G.R.O.W.S. And throughout the series I’ve said that just marking time as a believer in Jesus will not bring about spiritual growth in your life. Just because you are older doesn’t mean that you are getting better. You might be growing more bitter. And the five specific habits of life that we find in Jesus’ life and in the lives of all the great Christians who have lived before us are contained in this acronym G.R.O.W.S. I’ve used the acronym G.R.O.W.S. to talk about the disciplines we need in our lives. G.R.O.W.S. G=Giving R=Relationships O=Outreach W=Worship S=Spiritual Disciplines Today we are going to talk about spiritual disciplines which could be a heading for all of the disciplines we’ve talked about. But we are going to focus more narrowly on a few of the key disciplines that enabled Jesus to do what he did. What I want to do this week and next is to laser in on Jesus’ habits of life. I’ve called today’s talk, The Spiritual Life of Jesus. Let’s pray. Luke 3:21-22 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The practice that we are going to focus on today, that enabled Jesus to live the life that he lived – prayer. And if there is one secret to doing the Christian life so that you and I could actually put into practice the words of Jesus, to imitate his life, that practice would be prayer. Every great Christian writer and thinker for the past 2000 years has said that there is nothing more important than a Christian person do in order to grow as a follower of Jesus than to learn to pray. Richard Foster, in his great spiritual classic called The Celebration of Discipline – and if you are going to read just one or two books on developing your spiritual life, I certainly would recommend at the very top of your list Richard Foster’s book, The Celebration of Discipline. This book is absolutely the gold standard when it comes to books on spiritual practices that will change your life. Some of you might say, “Well, Rich, I don’t know if I’m up to a gold standard book yet. Do you have something that is more of a bronze standard right now? I’m more like the brass or paper mache kind of standard. Is there something a little easier to digest?” There is a wonderful little book by John Ortberg called, The Life You Always Wanted. It is an easier read. Either of these two books would be a great encouragement for your

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spiritual lives. Take 15 minutes each day to read a section of one of these books and I think you would profit immensely. But Richard Foster points out in his book, The Celebration of Discipline, how important learning to pray has been for every follower of Jesus who’s made a difference in this world. Here is what he says: Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. Of all the spiritual disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father. Meditation introduces us to the inner life, fasting is an accompanying means, study transforms our minds, but it is the Discipline of prayer that brings us into the deepest and highest work of the human spirit. Real prayer is life creating and life changing. “Prayer – secret, fervent, believing prayer – lies at the root of all personal godliness,” writes William Carey. To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a notable characteristic of our life. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God, the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ. If we desire to conform to the image of Christ, we will learn how to pray. One of the major themes in Luke’s gospel is prayer. Luke is the great New Testament theologian on prayer. We find more references to Jesus praying in the gospel of Luke and the disciples praying in the book of Acts than we find in the rest of the New Testament. In fact, of the gospel writers, only Luke notes that Jesus was praying during his baptism. Luke 3:21-22 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” It was as he was praying that he heard his Father’s voice and he experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit. Now, I call what is going on in this prayer at Jesus’ baptism the prayer of identity. The prayer of identity You could call it the prayer of orientation. What is going on in this prayer is that God the Father addresses the most basic issues in Jesus’ life and since Jesus is our example, we need to study this prayer because God our Father is addressing the two most basic questions in all of our lives. What are the two most basic questions in our lives? 1. Who am I?

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2. What am I for? That is the question of our identity. That is the question of our calling. Who am I? We’ve heard in this gospel various witnesses speaking to us about who Jesus was. Luke records the words of the Angel Gabriel, who spoke to Jesus’ mother about the identity of the child she was going to conceive. Here is what we read in Luke 1:26-33: Luke 1:26-33 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” It is certainly not a stretch to imagine that Mary must have told Jesus the story of his miraculous conception and what the angel said to her dozens of times as Jesus grew up. I mean is there anyone here who hasn’t heard from their mothers their own birth stories? If you were adopted, you’ve heard the story of how long your adopted parents waited for a child and what they did to get you and how they felt when they first saw you and what you looked like. And if you grew up with your natural parents, you’ve heard the stories of what time of day you were born, how big you were, and how long it took for you to come, how miserable you made your mother by delaying your entrance into the world. Jesus had the testimony of the Angel Gabriel and very likely his own mother’s testimony concerning his own identity. He was aware of those things growing up. And we also have the witness of Mary’s relative, Elizabeth, concerning who Jesus was. Luke 1:39-43 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Finally, a whole choir of angels told the shepherds and us who Jesus is. Here is what we read in that very familiar Christmas story passage from Luke 2:8-11:

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Luke 2:8-11 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Despite these incredible testimonies from the Angel Gabriel and Elizabeth and choirs of angels, and likely from Mary herself, here at Jesus’ baptism for the first time he hears a voice from heaven – the voice of God the Father himself speaking to Jesus and saying: Luke 3:22 You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. What do we learn from this? What’s happening as the result of Jesus’ praying? We learn that no matter how many other people tell you that you are special, no matter how many people tell you that you are wonderful, no matter how many awards you’ve won, or how many successes in life you’ve experienced, there simply is no substitute for God himself speaking words of love and affirmation to your soul. I don’t care who you are, or how successful you’ve been in life, or how many degrees you have after your name, or how large your bank account is, if you haven’t heard the voice of God your Father saying to you what he said to Jesus, “You are my son or my daughter whom I love, with you I am well pleased,” you don’t have the foundation for living a free, whole, healthy, centered life that you need. Whenever I stop hearing the Father’s voice, when I don’t go to God to hear that voice of identity, that voice of orientation that tells me that God loves me and tells me that God accepts me, then I find myself living life of a slave to all the other voices. Henri Nouwen described the slavery to all the other voices in his wonderful book which is an extended meditation on the parable of the Prodigal Son called, The Return of the Prodigal Son. Here is what Nouwen says: And here is the question: “to whom do I belong? To God or to the world?” Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.

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As long as I keep running about asking “do you love me? Do you really love me?” I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with “ifs”. The world says, “Yes, I love you if you are good looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.” There are endless “if’s” hidden in the world’s love. These “if’s” enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. The world’s love is and always will be conditional love, I will remain “hooked” to the world – trying, failing, and trying again. It is the world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest cravings of my heart. …I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. Why do I keep ignoring the place of true love and persist in looking for it elsewhere? Why do I keep leaving home where I am called a child of God, the beloved of my Father? These are searching questions, friends. Do you see yourselves in these words? All of us do to a large degree, if we are honest. Someone you respect says something that is even mildly critical of you and you get depressed. We can be thrown off balance by such trivial things – a friend’s whose house is nicer than ours, a colleague who gets praised a little more loudly than we do, a person who uses a slightly condescending tone when speaking to us or correcting us. At the foundation of so much of our internal stress and distress is the simple reality that we have not personally and recently heard God our Father say to our souls, “I love you unconditionally. You are my beloved daughter. You are my beloved son. I am delighted in you.” And friend, unless you and I personally go the well of God’s love for ourselves and drink from that well, we will always be thirsty. No secondhand water that anyone else gives you will ever satisfy your thirst for unconditional love. No secondhand water from your spouse, no secondhand water from your lover, no secondhand water from your boyfriend or girlfriend, or parent, or small group, or children, or best friend – no secondhand water can ever quench the raging thirst that we have for God our Father’s unconditional love. So many of our mental health issues and so many of our unhealthy attachments find their root in this one thing – that we have a bottomless need to feel OK about ourselves and a bottomless need to be loved. You can deny that. You can say that you don’t have this bottomless need for love, but friend, you are denying yourself. As someone made in the image of God, you have a need for God’s love. You have to hear on a regular basis that the living God, who is your Father, absolutely loves you and will always love you. If you don’t hear that voice, then you will look for love in all the wrong places and find yourself manipulating others, pulling and pressing, and pushing. Let me ask you this question: Have you on a regular basis – once or twice a week – just sat quietly in the presence of God and say, “God, I need to hear your voice. Will you speak words of love and affirmation to me? God, I’m so thirsty for your love.” Do you, friend, on a regular basis say to God, “Right now, for the next 5-10 minutes, I just

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want you to fill me up with your love for me. I need to hear your voice.” I know I just don’t do well if I don’t hear my Father say to me all the time, all the time, “Son, I love you!” And then we have what I call: The prayer of calling So, in Luke 3:21-22 we read this: Luke 3:21-22 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Now, you may not know that this phrase in verse 22: You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. …is actually taken from two different texts of scripture, Psalm 2 and Isaiah 42:1. God the Father speaks to Jesus by echoing to Old Testament texts. Parenthetically, it is interesting that the two great charismatic high points in the New Testament, the two places that the Holy Spirit shows up in the most visible way – at Jesus’ baptism and then in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost – the way God speaks is not so much with new words, but by freshly applying old words. God speaks the words of the Old Testament on both occasions. But in Jesus’ baptism and on Pentecost, he gives those words fresh application. And this, friend, is the primary way God will speak to you, through the scriptures as you read the Bible on a regular basis and you pray to God before you read and while you read saying, “Father, please, by the power of the Holy Spirit, speak to me. Let me hear the truth that is in this passage. Run me through. Help me to see myself in this text. Here I am, I am just like the chosen people of Israel grumbling about my life circumstances all day long. There I am at Mt. Sinai dancing in front of idols – the idol of myself, the idol of my lust, the idol of my career. Here I am, Lord, I am Eli tolerating evil in the world and never saying a word about it. I am Esther. I think I have no responsibility for what my government does. God, speak to me through the words of scripture, your Word. Let me see myself in this text. Let me hear your voice. And particularly, Lord, let me hear your voice regarding my calling and my destiny.” We sit before the Lord and we ask God to speak a word of love to our souls. “Anchor us, Lord. Give me your love so that I am not madly running around looking for acceptance, looking for other people’s approval. But I also need, Lord, to hear your calling. What am I for? What is my purpose in life?”

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And so God the Father speaks to Jesus from Isaiah 42:1 which says this: Isaiah 42:1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.” Now, Isaiah 42:1 is one of the four songs in the book of Isaiah. They are called Servant Songs found in Isaiah 42, 49, 50 and 53. And what God is saying to Jesus is, “My son, you are the servant that my prophet Isaiah spoke about 700 years ago. You are the one who is going to lead my people back to me. You are the one. You are the suffering servant who will die for people’s sins.” Friends, you have to hear the voice of God regarding your purpose. It is not going to be as grand as the purpose of Jesus. You and I are not responsible for the salvation of the world. But we do have a purpose. And we have to hit our central purpose – what is it that you are here for? God has called you to be a mother or a father, a daughter or a son. God has called you to be a friend, to do a great job on behalf of your customer or client. God has called you to be available to listen to this person’s problem. To live out of a sense of calling is to live a life that is meaningful. But you can’t get that calling except by going to God because there are a million other voices that will tell you that you are a consumer. Your purpose is to buy as much stuff as we want to sell you. Or you are a sex object; your purpose is to be attractive to men. Or whatever box someone else wants to define for your life as a woman, as a single person, as a retired person. You say, “No. I’ve heard from the Lord. I know what my calling is during this season of my life.” I regularly check in with God to hear him say that same thing to me again. Here is the third prayer in the book of Luke. It is what I call the prayer for guidance. The prayer for guidance Luke 6:12-16 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Again, Luke records Jesus praying. Now this is the only time in the gospels where we find Jesus spending the whole night in prayer. Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

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Jesus is modeling for us the absolute necessity of spending extended time praying to know God’s mind when we are faced with a major decision in life. How many times have you made a major decision in life, perhaps up to and including marriage, but you haven’t prayed about it; or at least you haven’t prayed sufficiently to gain God’s mind. We move from one home to another; we buy a $300,000 home, but we haven’t heard from God about the neighborhood we’re to live in. We leave behind churches and relationships, we take jobs, we leave jobs, we enter dating relationships, we buy cars, and we make major decisions in life. And often these are done without us praying long enough to hear the mind of God. God promises to give wisdom in James 1:5: James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. And so we here we find Jesus in prayer. Why do we need to pray? I think of Isaiah 11:2-3: Isaiah 11:2-3 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord — 3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears. This passage from Isaiah 11 is a prophecy concerning the future coming of Messiah, who is God’s instrument to bring about justice in this world. How will Messiah bring about justice? How will Messiah put the world to rights, set everything back in its proper order under God? It is not by counting on his own evaluation of things, or relying on his own intuition, or trusting his own smarts, or his own senses. He will make his decisions by hearing from the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 11:2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord. And it was in prayer that Jesus got the idea of choosing other people to multiply his ministry. It was in prayer that Jesus got the idea of choosing 12 others to form a New Israel. And it was in prayer that Jesus got the idea of choosing these 12. None of these things were obvious. Certainly, Jesus could have continued on and never chosen any apostles. He could have just taught the crowds. Or he could have chosen 6 apostles. Or he could have chosen different people. Choosing fishermen and tax collectors and revolutionaries as a foundation for a global movement is not obvious. If you are talking about a football team, Jesus’ recruitment was certainly not an obvious blue-chipper.

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Friends, some of the best plans God has for your life are not obvious either. They are not just a matter of weighing the pros and cons. You have to spend time seeking God’s face in prayer. God is wise. In fact, we read that last week in Romans 16:27: Romans 16:27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. God alone sees the future. He knows what’s best for your life, for your love life, for your kids, for your spiritual life, for the growth of his kingdom in your and through you. Only God knows what’s best. And only God knows the best means of attaining what is best. Our wisdom can be frustrated by circumstances outside our control. We have these great plans for securing our financial future, or plans for our family, or plans for our romance and things don’t work out the way we plan. But God’s wisdom cannot be frustrated – ever. God is not only wise. God is powerful. No one can frustrate his plans. Here is what it says in Daniel 2:20: Daniel 2:20 and said: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. And here is what it says in Job 9:4: Job 9:4 His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? And in Job 12:13: Job 12:13 To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his. And I can tell you, friends, that virtually every major decision that has affected the life of Vineyard Columbus in a significant way has come about by people praying and hearing the voice of God that is wiser than anyone’s counsel in this world. Whether we are talking about my own calling to pastor here, or how we bought the land here on Cooper Road, or how we got the money to build, God’s call to us in world missions, or God’s call to plant different churches, or God’s call to Vineyard Columbus to be a multicultural, multi-ethnic church, or God’s call to build our community center – these decisions weren’t made by just simply doing cost benefit analyses. There comes a time when after you’ve heard everyone else’s counsel and you’ve sought out other people, and you’ve listened to them, there comes a time when you need to hear the voice of God on a major decision. So you pray. And if you want to do what Jesus did, then we must pray and seek God’s face for wisdom when we face major decisions. And finally, Luke records Jesus praying on the Mount of Olives in the place the other gospel writers call “The Garden of Gethsemane.” The last model prayer as we look at

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the model prayers of Jesus in the book of Luke, but this last model prayer that we are going to look at today is found in one of the most poignant scenes in the entire Bible. I’m calling this type of prayer, the prayer of submission. The prayer of submission Luke 22:39-46 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” Luke records that Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives as usual. This habit of Jesus was the reason Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, knew exactly where to bring the Temple guards to arrest Jesus. Jesus regularly went to this particular place to pray. And what you see in Jesus’ life is regularity in his prayer. Regularity in prayer Joan Chittister, a wonderful writer, who writes about the practices of the Catholic Benedictine Order, says this about regularity in prayer: [Regular prayer that we find in Jesus’ life] is not a matter of mood. To pray only when we feel like it is more to seek consolation than to risk conversion. To pray only when it suits us is to want God on our terms. To pray only when it is convenient is to make the God-life a very low priority in a list of better opportunities. To pray only when it feels good is to court total emptiness when we most need to be filled. The hard fact is that nobody finds time for prayer. The time must be taken. There will always be something more pressing to do, something more important to be about than the apparently fruitless, empty act of prayer. But when that attitude takes over, we have begun the last trip down a very short road because, without prayer, the energy for the rest of life runs down. The fuel runs out. We become our own worst enemies: we call ourselves too tired and too busy to pray when, in reality, we are too tired and too busy not to pray. Eventually, the burdens of the day weigh us down and we no longer remember why we decided what we’re doing: work for this project, marry this woman, have these children, minister in this place. And if I cannot remember why I decided to do this, I cannot figure out how I can go on with it. I am tired and the vision just gets dimmer and dimmer.

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So if we are going to live Jesus’ life, we have to be engaged in regular prayer. It can’t just be a hit or miss event. It’s like showering is not a hit or miss event unless you want to be smelly. Or sleeping isn’t hit or miss unless we want to be exhausted. Or eating is not hit or miss. We need to pray because without prayer we lose our center. We lose our sense of purpose. We lose our reason why we are doing what we are doing. We lose the voice of God. And here Jesus prays in the midst of severe trial: Luke 22:40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” This scene could hardly have been made up by the early church. It was one of those scenes that confirms the Bible’s historical accuracy. There is no reason why the early church would have wanted to portray Jesus as struggling, or suffering, or agonizing, trying to find a way around the cross, unless the event actually took place. The Jews had lots of stories of martyrs who faced martyrdom bravely; martyrs who allowed their limbs to be cut off and laughed at their persecutors. Here is Jesus, all too human, all too honest. It is one of those scenes in the Bible that tells us that what we are reading is actual history. We have Jesus going back to God over and over in this trial. Jesus speaks of a time of trial in verse 40 the word that the Bible uses for trial is temptation. Behind the trial Jesus sees the hand of Satan. He knows he and the disciples are facing severe demonic assault. And the only way he is going to get through it is to hang onto God in prayer. You know, sometimes you or someone you love is under such severe demonic assault that the only way you are going to persist, the only way you are going to be able to continue is to hang onto God in prayer. Why did Jesus keep asking God the same thing over and over again? Why do you need to ask God the same thing over and over again? Because you know that apart from God, you will give way to temptation. You know that apart from God, your strength will give out. Sometimes when you are at the end of your rope, you may even fear that you will be tempted to turn your back on God, or get into some really horrible escape as so many people have when they’ve gone through severe trial or temptation. So you pray. And it says here that there was a strengthening of Jesus in prayer as an angel was sent by God. Luke 22:43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. Let me make this point, friends. You know, sometimes when it seems like God is doing absolutely nothing - you’ve prayed a hundred times, a thousand times for something to

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change, you’ve prayed more times than you can count for a loved one to be saved, or to repent, you’ve prayed for a family member to be healed, or for God to allow you to get pregnant, or to end your loneliness as a single adult - sometimes when it seems that God is doing absolutely nothing, you need to reflect on verse 43: Luke 22:43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And thank God! Maybe you haven’t seen an angel, but have you ever considered that you being who you are with the little strength that you have, have you ever considered the question of how is it that you’ve been able to persist in prayer? You know and I know how utterly unreliable we are, how inconsistent we are. You know and I know that our faith is often like the morning dew - it burns off when the hot sun comes up. And the very fact, friend, that you have been able to pray a hundred times, or a thousand times for something, that very fact is proof that God has been at work in your life strengthening you to believe, to hang onto God, even though you haven’t obtained what you wanted. But you know, there does come a time when you have to surrender, when you have to yield control of the situation or the person or the request back to God. Surrender in prayer Now, I do not see Jesus in this text praying the way many 21st century Christians pray when we want something. Sometimes I picture 21st century Christians praying while we sip a latte from Starbucks. There is no energy, no passion, no persistence. I’ve heard so many Christians over the years pray for a healing saying, “Father, if it be your will, heal this person” thinking that they are imitating Jesus. But what they really mean is “I don’t think, Father, that you will heal at all. In fact, I would fall over dead in shock if I really saw you do something tangible as a healing! I know I’m supposed to pray, so God if it is your will - but I know it isn’t - heal this person, which you won’t.” Jesus prays to God believing that God may actually provide another way. He is in agony. He is pleading. He is begging God. His sweat is pouring off of him like drops of blood. And it is after pleading, it is after crying, it is after persistently praying, it is after many tears, it is after pouring out your guts before God, and not before that, we then say, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours.” It is after you’ve poured yourself out repeatedly before God, there is a time, and there is a point after we’ve sought God for a miracle, after we’ve sought God for a change, after we’ve sought God for his intervention that we surrender to the will of God. So you say to God, “God, I’ve prayed to you about this dozens and dozens of times – perhaps hundreds of times – to get pregnant and it hasn’t happened. I surrender. I surrender. And if prayer is offered, I will take it absolutely.” I’m not saying that you will come to a place of saying, “No, don’t pray for me anymore.” Personally, I am never going to turn down prayer. But you say to God, “God, I’m not going to spend the rest of

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my life on this roller coaster every month: ‘Did we have intercourse at the right moment? Did the treatments take? Are you going to have your period this month or not?’ I just can’t take going up and down and my faith being cast to the ground and then trying to hang on believing you for a miracle. I surrender.” And so after you’ve sought the Lord, after you’ve cried out, after you’ve begged God to bring along a marriage partner, and if he still hasn’t, there does come a point where you say, “God, I’m turning this whole area over to you. I certainly will receive prayer about it. I may occasionally pray, but, I’m praying differently now. I realize my life is not wrapped up any longer in whether I get married or not. My life is wrapped up in you, Father.” But I will tell you, friend, you can’t do that until you’ve poured yourself out repeatedly before the Lord. And there is a point of surrender. So you pray for the repentance of a prodigal child, or whatever it has been for you that you’ve sought the Lord on repeatedly and you say, “I give up, Lord.” I have experienced this personally. I’ve personally experienced this prayer of submission in my own life in a very dramatic way. I’ve completely melted down before God. One night on a prayer walk when there was no one around, after praying about a matter repeatedly over and over for years, I finally gave up before God. And I said to the Lord as I just wept in the dark, “I give up any thought that my fasting, my strategies, my plans, my prayers are going to make this happen. I know deep in my soul that if something is going to happen in this situation, it is only going to be you.” And friends, something dramatic changes when you surrender. You are no longer fighting. You are no longer wrestling. The peace of God comes. You will know, without trying to convince yourself, you will know that you know that the matter is turned over to God after you pray a prayer of submission. So, those of you who consider yourselves followers of Jesus, if you really have your heart set on trying to be obedient to Jesus, then our only hope is to attempt to do life the way Jesus did life and that means that we learn to pray. Let’s pray.

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The Spiritual Life of Jesus Rich Nathan March 8-9, 2008 Spiritual Growth: How A Christian G.R.O.W.S. Series Luke 3:21-22

I. Two key truths of the spiritual life A. Spiritual growth is not automatic B. The most important spiritual discipline is learning to pray II. The prayer of identity (Luke 3:22) III.

The prayer of calling (Luke 3:22, Isaiah 42:1)

IV. The prayer of guidance (Luke 6:12-16; Isaiah 11:2-3) V. The prayer of submission (Luke 22:39-46) A. Regularity in prayer B. Surrender in prayer

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