I THANK THEE, O FATHER: A Study on the Matchless Prayers of the Incarnate Word of God

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1:  The Meaning of the Our Father

Chapter 2:  The Adoration and Thanksgiving of the Son of Man

Chapter 3:  John 17 and the High Priestly Prayer

Chapter 4:  Praying On Great Occasions

Chapter 5:  Times and Places of the Prayers of Jesus

Chapter 6:  But I Have Prayed For You

Chapter 7:  Disproving Atheism by the Prayers of Jesus:  The Sinless God-man Worshiped God the Father

Appendix 1:  Christian Prayer

Appendix 2:  Hypocrisy and Prayer

Appendix 3:  A Brief Rational and Scriptural Response on Prayers to Saints and Angels

Appendix 4:  The Humanity and Deity of Jesus Christ

Appendix 5:  The Subordination of the Incarnate Son of God

Appendix 6:  The Mediator as the God-man

Chapter 1: 

The Meaning of the Our Father

                The Our Father is an excellent, heavenly divine prayer.  It was given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.  This prayer is given to us in the context of how to pray.  We ought to use the Our Father as a heavenly prayer to teach us to pray.  Let us examine Matthew 6:8-15:

8"So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

9"Pray, then, in this way:
         'Our Father who is in heaven,
         Hallowed be Your name.
    10'Your kingdom come
         Your will be done,
         On earth as it is in heaven.
    11'Give us this day our daily bread.
    12'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
    13'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]' (NASB).

If the Our Father is said in a meaningful fashion, not from mere form, then it has great value in the service of a church.  It is not commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ that it would be said in church services, but I see great comfort when it is said.  I think meaningful repetition of the Our Father in church services has a place. 

We see in the Our Father that Jesus addresses His Heavenly Father (v. 8).  His object is God the Father.  Where did Jesus (the example in all things) pray to any other?   He was committed to exclusive prayer to God the Father.

 We are included in the people who are His (that is, Our Father).  We are His people.  We are also told in verse 8 that we are not to be like the hypocrites in His day.  We are told that the Father knows what we need before we ask Him.  God the Father is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.  He knows our minds better then we know them.  I submit that the Son and the Holy Spirit are omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.  But the Lord Jesus addresses the Father in His prayer.  The Father resides in heaven with His saints and holy angels.  It is not that the Father is in heaven only.  Rather He is everywhere, and He is deeply concerned with His people.  We ought to draw near unto our Lord because He is God.  We ought to have deep confidence of His Fatherly goodness with unwavering reverence.  We ought to be child-like in our petitions unto our Lord.  We ought to contemplate His sovereign power, majesty, condescension.  We ought to pray with other Christians and for other Christians.[1]

J. R. Miller author of Come Ye Apart wrote on Our Father which art in heaven,

This is the golden gate of the temple of prayer.  When our Lord taught his disciples how to pray, it was thus he said they should begin.  They were not to come to infinite power, or to unknowable mystery, or to inaccessible light, but to fatherhood.  This precious name at the gateway makes the approach easy.  The name assures us of love and care.  Does a true parent have care for a child?  Much more does our Father in heaven care for his children on the earth.  He cares even for the flowers, weaving for them with threads of light the lovely robes they wear.  He surely cares more for his children.  So the precious name assures us that we shall never be neglected nor overlooked in this great world.  It gives us assurance also of unhindered access to the Divine presence.  The children of a great king are not kept waiting at their father’s door as strangers are.  God’s children have perfect liberty in his presence.  They can never come at an untimely hour.  He is never too busy to see them and to listen to their words of love and prayer.  In the midst of the affairs of the vast universe he thinks of his humblest child in this great world, and amid all its confusion and noise hears and recognizes the faintest cry that rises from the lips of the least and lowliest of his little ones.  This name interprets also for us the grace and mercy of our God.  We are always conscious of sin.  How, then, can we gain access to a holy God?  Ah! he is our Father.  We know that even an earthly father does not shut the door on his erring child.  The candle is left burning in the window through the long dark nights, that the wanderer out in the blackness and longing to return, seeing the bright beams may be assured of love and a waiting welcome.  Infinitely more gracious is our Father in heaven.[2]

We see that the first petition is Hallowed be Your name.  The name of God is holy.  In this Jesus prays the holiness of God’s name.  To be holy means to be set apart.  God is set apart from His unholy creatures.  How often do we petition God about His holiness?  Do we pray that God’s name would be hallowed?  How seriously do we take the holiness of God’s sacred name?  Do we flippantly approach the God who is set apart?  Do we pray knowing who we are and who God is?  We have an inability to honor God aright.  We are weak, fallen, frail, feeble.  We need the super-abundant grace of God to honor Him aright.  We pray God would enable and incline us to pray aright.  We ought to know, acknowledge, highly esteem Him for who He is.  We ought to highly esteem His titles, attributes, ordinances, word, works, making of Himself known.  We ought to be people who honor Him in our thoughts, words and deeds.[3]  The Larger Catechism says, “that he would prevent and remove atheism, ignorance, idolatry, profaneness, and whatsoever is dishonourable to him; and by his over-ruling providence, direct and dispose of all things to his own glory.”[4]  J. R. Miller said, “We should not rush into his presence as we do into the presence of an earthly parent.  We should remember his infinite greatness and holiness, and should come always with reverence.  His name is to be hallowed.”[5]

                We see that Christ would pray for the name of God to be hallowed.  He was dedicated, committed, devoted to the holiness, righteousness, goodness of God.  When we read the Lord ’s Prayer we get a taste of how Christ prayed unto His Father.  Christ took the holiness of God with the greatest, highest, limitless seriousness, importance, significance.  He never engaged God flippantly, sinfully, wrongfully.  His prayers honored, magnified, glorified His Heavenly Father.  There was no ignorant sin, no idolatrous worship, no profane language, no dishonorable words, but sheer, committed, dedicated devotion, zeal, passion.  Oh, what a God we serve!  Holy, majestic, awesome, great!  Amen. 

                The second petition is Your kingdom come.  J. R. Miller said, “It pleads for the extension of God’s spiritual realm in this world—his power over men’s hearts and lives, the subjugation of earth’s kingdom to his sway.”[6]  As fallen creatures we need to acknowledge our nature.  We need to remember that all mankind is under the dominion of sin and Satan.  We pray for the kingdom of God, and the destruction of the kingdom of Satan.  We pray that the glorious gospel be proclaimed throughout a fallen world.  We pray that the Jewish people, for whom Paul prayed, would be drawn to the Father, and the fullness of the Gentiles brought in.  We pray that the church would be equipped with gospel-officers and ordinances.  We pray that the church would be purged from corruption.  We pray that those in their sins would be converted.  We pray for true Christians would be confirmed, comforted, built up in the faith.  We pray that our Lord Jesus would rule in our hearts.  That He would hasten the time of His Coming.  We pray that we would reign with Him in glory forevermore.  And we pray that He would be well-pleased to rule in His kingdom in all the world.[7]

                Here we see that Christ was dedicated, devoted, committed to the coming of the kingdom of God.  Christ prayed from a heart that was sinless, spotless heart of heavenly purity, holiness, righteousness, peace, greatness.  Christ never had a corrupt, sinful, fallen nature; His was really, truly, totally human, yet He was sinless, spotless, without blemish.  I suggest to you that Christ was committed to prayer about the destruction of the kingdom of Satan.  In His ministry, He saw Satan fall from heaven.  Christ was sinlessly devoted, dedicated, committed to a super-abounding joy, God-exalting truth, grace-abundant ministry.  Christ was the true, holy, righteous Master who equipped, taught, instructed His disciples.  Through the ministry of Christ conversion abounded, truth exalted, sustained, kept His success in ministry, based firmly on the Word of God.  Christ had the Father’s will rule in His heart as the magnificent, glory-bound, splendorous King of kings, Lord of lords. 

                The third petition is Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  By nature human beings are unable and unwilling to accomplish the will of God.  We see that the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly accomplished the will of God in His matchless life.   We see that in our nature is a commitment to rebellion and sin.  Do we see the desperate need of repentance?  We see that His Word is the farthest thing from our hearts.  We murmur and complain against His excellent providence.  Do you see the work of God in every detail of our lives?  Do we seek to accomplish the will of God in righteousness and truth?  By nature we are entirely inclined to our sinful flesh.  Do we live according to the Spirit of holiness?  By nature we are completely inclined to live in accord with the Satan.  We are desperately depraved.  Do we see the victory that comes through our Lord Jesus Christ?  Have you prayed that God would remove our blindness, and the remaining corruption in our flesh?  Do you see your weakness in your flesh?  Have you prayed for help?  God has provided redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ.  All-sufficient grace solely comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord that we do not go through Mary to Jesus.  By nature we are indisposed to the true things of God. We have perverse hearts that can be stirred by grace alone.  By grace alone we are able to willingly submit to the will of the Father through His Beloved Son by His Spirit.[8]  May we submit to His blessed will “with the like humility, cheerfulness, faithfulness, diligence, zeal, sincerity, and constancy, as the angels in heaven.”[9] 

                Here we see the center of Christ’s devotion, commitment, dedication.  He prayed that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Oh, what splendorous devotion, glory-bound mind-set; passionate, unfeigned, unhindered dedication!  I suggest to you that Christ was Incarnate Grace, and He prayed fervently, passionately, sinlessly about the will of God.  It was His greatest passion, highest commitment, purest petitions.  How majestic, holy, righteous, good, pure!  Oh, Christ of the will of the Father; come; come, and rule, reign, reside in our hearts!  Of, come divine Savior, Lord, King!  Reign, reign, reign!  Oh, matchless deity!  What depths of heavenly purity, sinless devotion, perfect zeal!

                The fourth petition is Give us this day our daily bread. We are sinners, and deserve nothing.  We have fortified outward blessings that pertain to this.  We are sinners in Adam; fallen and depraved.[10]  But God in His common grace extends to people outward blessings.  We are taught here to live a life of continual dependence.  We are never to think we will get along in life without our Heavenly Father.  We are to live by the day; not by weeks, months and years.  This does not mean we do not plan ahead for things, but that are dependence is upon God for the day.  Tomorrow will take care of itself.  We are not to be anxious for tomorrow.  Are you anxious for tomorrow?  Think about the heavenly care of your Blessed Father.  When tomorrow comes, we can think of its cares, but until then we have a whole day to think about. [11]  Our Heavenly Father will extend to us His blessings according to His good pleasure. 

                Here we see Christ pray for daily bread.  He was the Living Bread; He is Eternal life.  He gave Himself for His elect only, and belief in Him is eternal life.  Christ lived in poverty, without home, wandering from place to place.  The Father sent the Bread of Life to reign in the hearts of men.  How majestic, splendorous, glory-bound!  What a God we serve!  The God-man never worried sinlessly about the next day.  He was free of sinful, spotted worry.  May we live like the Son of God who lived a life free of worry!  Amen.

                The fifth petition is And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  Isn’t it easy to say these words?  People may harm us; but do we forgive them as God forgives us?  J.R. Miller says, “God has linked blessing and duty together in this petition.”[12]  Sinners are guilty of serious sin.  God cannot tolerate the smallest sin.  He has provided us forgiveness through, in and by Christ Jesus our Lord.  Sinners are guilty of original and actual sin.  There is no human being (except for Jesus Christ) who was not a sinner.  Sinners deserve the justice of God.  God will punish sin if it was not placed upon the Divine Substitute.       God is just and holy and good.  We cannot see God in our state of sin because God is superlatively holy.  But as fallen sons and daughters of Adam we cannot make satisfaction for our sin.  Christ Himself made complete satisfaction for our sins:  He satisfied divine justice in our behalf.  It is through the perfect obedience and satisfaction of Jesus Christ that God gives us His grace.  If a person is in Christ Jesus we will be acquitted of our sins.  We are to live by faith from above.  His elect only are accepted into the Beloved of God.   We are accepted in Christ.  If we continue in His goodness, by His all-powerful grace, we will continue in His favor.  The Lord God Omnipotent through the Son of Man pardons our sins, transgressions, iniquities.  May He fill each of His beloved saints with joy and peace!  If we have assurance of our forgiveness in Christ Jesus our Lord, we will be able to bestow forgiveness to others: Christians, family members, enemies.  We are to imitate the Lord Jesus who forgave His enemies at the cross.  With repentance, forgiveness follows.[13]  God will surely chasten His people who remain in impenitence.  If we do not forgive, and remain in a state of un-forgiveness, it could incur the chastening of God. 

                The Son did not come to confess sin before God or before men.  Rather He came to take away sin from His people.  He came to bring reconciliation for His people.  He reconciled estranged sinful sons and daughters of Adam.  He was the spotless, sinless, blemishless Lamb of God.  Behold, here is the Lamb of God, come, and believe.  Here the Father proclaims through His people the sinless, exalted, glorified Son of Man.  

                The sixth petition is And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  God is the wisest Being in all of creation.  He is most wise, gracious, righteous.  Sometimes we do not understand what is happening to us.  God may order events in a way that we are assaulted and tempted by Satan, the world, the flesh.  Yet the ordering of events by God is never an excuse to engage in the least to the greatest sins.  We must remember that Satan, the world, and the flesh are ready to try to draw us aside, and entangle us.  We still have remaining corruption in us.  We are weak because of sin.  We need to receive grace from God to enable us to withstand temptation.  God never tempts His people.  If you ever thought of God tempting us, have we sincerely repented of your sins?  Sometimes we are unable and unwilling to withstand temptation.  God may do this to teach us a lesson, but we never can excuse ourselves to sin.  We ought to live lives of godliness.  Yet we are surely worthy to be left in them, because we are undeserving sheep.  But we pray that God would rule in our hearts, subdue our sinful flesh, retrain Satan.  J. R. Miller wrote, “It is impossible to live in this world and escape temptation.”[14]  We ought to remember that Jesus Christ suffered temptation.  He was God Incarnate, and God did spare Him temptation.  He was perfect in our place.  We may be tempted and fail, but Jesus Christ our Redeemer and King, sinlessly endured outward temptation.  There was no possibility for the Lord Jesus to fall: He was the Impeccable Christ.  We ought to pray that God by His providence keeps us from being lead away in temptation.  We need the Spirit of truth to enable and help us withstand temptation.  If we should fall, the Spirit will be there to help us recover.  But we should never presumptuously sin, or presume upon the grace of God.[15]  We ought to pray that our “salvation may be perfected, Satan trodden under our feet, and we fully freed from sin, temptation, and all evil, for ever.”[16]

                Here Christ knew well the test of temptation.  He endured temptation by Satan. He did this in our place, in our behalf.  We have fallen; we have failed.  But He perfectly, sinlessly, spotless endured temptation!  It was an outward temptation, but He never inwardly sinned.  Oh, what a selfless, sinless, splendorous Lord, Redeemer, Savior we serve!  Oh, how He endured temptation: flawlessly, perfectly, without hindrance!  Oh, may we be like the King of glory!  May endure temptation with success, victory, glory!  So may it be, Lord. 

                The conclusion is For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.  Do you pray to our Lord with arguments?  We ought to pray, using arguments for our case.  But we ought not to use arguments for unlawful purposes.  We must keep in mind we have no worthiness in ourselves.  Worthiness is in God.  He alone is worthy.  We are unworthy creatures, but we are made in the image and likeness of God.  We are “to join praises, ascribing to God alone eternal sovereignty, omnipotency, and glorious excellency; in regard whereof, as he is able and willing to help us, so we by faith are emboldened to plead with him that he would, and quietly to rely upon him, that he will fulfil our requests.  And, to testify this our desire and assurance, we say, Amen.”[17]

                Here Christ prays for that the Father’s kingdom, power, glory would be forever.  We are promised in divine Scripture that God will bring about His heavenly kingdom.  That He would have the power and glory.  Here is the goal of the prayer of Christ.  Notice well, dear reader, that Christ prays the certainty of God’s Word back to His Father.  Christ prayed for His Father’s kingdom, power, glory.  Here we see the God-man in a splendorous work, exalted conclusion, glorifying statement of sheer power, magnifying ending statement!  Oh, what depths of deity, heavenly splendor, glorious passion!

               

Chapter 2:

The Adoration and Thanksgiving of the Son of Man

25At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

26Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. (Matthew 11:25-26 KJV)

The Lord Jesus Christ speaks words more precious than gold and silver.  It is more precious then the possessions of this world.  It is more precious than the pleasures of life.  It is more precious than life itself.  The words of the Lord Jesus Christ are forever treasured in the hearts of God’s people.  It is more precious then money, and its lasting value is eternally precious.  He answers with all-wise truth to His Heavenly Father.  When He speaks, a fragment aroma arises from His lips; purer then life itself; purer then the sun; purer then the whitest garment on earth.  When He speaks, it is the words of God’s all-powerful grace, wisdom, righteous truth.  His words are the purest; the loveliest; the greatest; the most magnificent.  When He speaks treacherous waves, cease; winds stop; prayers are answered; the mouth of enemies cease; the demon-possessed freed; the humble exalted.  His prayers are more beautiful than a sun rise; more comfortable than the comfort of the world; more life-transforming than lifeless knowledge of the world.  He speaks from the depths of His sinless heart in the richest purity, grace abounding words of the purest wisdom, truth abounding riches.  His heart speaks the grace, truth, righteous words that our Father longs to hear.  He never refused a prayer from the Lord Jesus.  His prayers are more beautiful then the finest music, the most eloquent speaker.  He speaks words of glorious wisdom, spiritual abounding riches, all-encompassing, heavenly treasures.  His words are unlike the teachers of His day; dead, lifeless, graceless.  His words are richly filled with super-abundant grace, life-transforming truth, grace-anointing words of truth, God-exalting truth that surpasses the wisest of men. 

                The Lord Jesus thanked the Lord.  Oh, the depths and the riches of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ!  How unsearchable His wisdom!  How glorious His truth!  The Lord Jesus expresses His thanks in unadulterated prayer, sinless devotion, unwavering commitment, confidence in the absolute goodness of God the Father.  The Lord Jesus perfectly thanked the Father in a spirit free from worldliness, ingratitude.  Are you a person struggling with worldliness, and ingratitude?  Be committed to God’s restraining grace.  Surrender to His will for your life, and live in new obedience.  If we lack thanking God, we may be selfish.  It can hinder our thanks unto God.  The Lord Jesus was the most selfless Man who ever lived.  He was committed to God-honoring, God-exalting, God-abounding selflessness.  He was a Picture of sinless selflessness. 

                The Lord Jesus identified God the Father as the Lord of heaven and earth.  The Lord Jesus worshiped our Blessed Father with unfeigned adoration.  It is also proper to identify the Son and the Holy Spirit as the Lord of heaven and earth.  As Trinitarians, we joyfully worship all three distinct persons.  Cyril of Alexandria wrote, “For he confesses him as ‘Lord of heaven and earth’ and at the same time he calls him as ‘Father.’  But the Son of God who is ruler of all is in every way with him the Lord and Master of all, not as one worse or differing in substance, but as God from God.  He is crowned with equal renown, having substantially with him equality in everything whatsoever.”[18]  The Lord Jesus delighted in the Father of all grace and truth.  He submitted to God the Father.  The Lord Jesus demonstrated as the sinless God-man that prayer is an act of unwavering submission.  Nothing happens under heaven, except by the Lord of heaven.  As Christians we ought to have the same praise on our lips.  We ought to worship God in and through Christ.  We may sin when we pray.  But if we pray through Jesus Christ our Savior, we will pray pure words, pleasing to our Heavenly Father.  We have access to the throne of grace whereby we communicate to our Father the depths of our hearts.  We ought to engage in the language of Jesus Christ: The Father is Lord of heaven and earth.  If we use exalted language of God, and about God, we honor and please Him. 

The Lord Jesus has revealed what the reason was for the lack of belief of His enemies.  God has hid the gospel from the wise and prudent.  The God of the Old and New Testament hides the gospel from them.  You might to want say:  He hides the gospel on whomever He pleases, and He reveals the gospel on whomever He pleases.  He does not hide the gospel from babes.  The babes offer nothing in themselves.  But God hides the gospel from the wise and prudent.  It is in accordance with His infinitely wise counsel.  God is pleased to hide the gospel from the wise and prudent.  God is also pleased to reveal His glorious gospel to babes.  The Lord Jesus thanked the Lord of heaven and earth because He does whatsoever He pleases.  He has a sovereign purpose that cannot be frustrated.  Nowadays we see teachers presenting a God who is inactive.  Divine Scripture teaches a God who hides His matchless gospel for His own purposes.  God’s purpose is not the purpose of men.  Rather God’s purpose is holy, good, just, righteous.  God’s purpose deifies our understanding.  As Christians we ought to thank God for His actions of righteousness in absolute truth and holiness.  If God hides His gospel from the wise and prudent, He does not commit wrongdoing.  Everything God does is right.  These-days people think they should become believers because God needs them.  Oh, the arrogance and presumption of men!  God accomplishes awesome purposes without wise and prudent men.  But we see God using wretched people.  For example, God used the apostle Paul as a chosen instrument for His blessed cause.  God chose him according to what seems good to Him. 

                What is the reason of the Father to hide His gospel from the wise and prudent?  Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.  The reason is simple: it was well-pleasing in the sight of God the Father to hide His gospel.  If we are to say God hides His gospel, we can say that God intervenes to save His people by the effectual call of God.  God opens, changes and radically transforms the heart, but He also hides the gospel.  God is to be glorified unto the praise of His glorious mercy and God is to be glorified unto the praise of His glorious justice.  The reason for God’s hiding of the gospel is because it pleased the Father.  God acts in accordance with His good pleasure.  His good pleasure is not wicked, corrupt, sinful, fallen.  The Lord Jesus recognized the hiding of the gospel was because it pleased the Father.  Here our Lord and Redeemer speak the purest words of wisdom, the sweetest prayer: divine, heavenly, splendorous.  Oh, the sweetest song!  Men fault men for disbelieving, and rightly so.  Yet God hides His gospel from wise and prudent men.  The negative consequence of hiding His gospel is disbelieving. The action of God in hiding the gospel is the reason they reject the gospel.  They do not belong to Christ.  Disbelief is a manifested outcome of the hiding of the gospel.  Yet men are responsible for their impenitence.  The Lord Jesus did not become discouraged.  He knew well that the Lord of heaven and earth is the God of predestination.  But men object at a God who does whatsoever He pleases.  But we say, who are you, oh man, to reply against God?  Submit to the God who is all-wise and sovereign. 

                The Lord Jesus found the purpose of God in all things.  He could say there was nothing that did not have a purpose.  The Lord Jesus thanked His Father for His action of hiding the life-transforming message of the gospel, and the embracing of the gospel by mere babes.  God chooses to hide His gospel unto the praise of His sinless justice.  God chooses babes to gain the most glory unto the praise of His mercy.  Men would reply that God is sinfully seeking glory to exalt Himself.  If men respond this way to God’s ways, what does that say about their sinful hearts?  God has purposes that do not yield to sinful men.  The Lord Jesus recognized the all-wisdom of God in His thanksgiving, adoration, submission.  The Lord Jesus understood why the Father hid and revealed His gospel.  It is because it was pleasing in His sight.  How could the Lord Jesus say this in His prayer if it is up to man’s mighty will?  The Lord Jesus could say this because He recognized the truth of God’s all-powerful actions.  He recognized that men do not have libertarian free-will.  He recognized that God does whatsoever He pleases.  He rejected the notion that men cooperate with God in accepting the gospel.  But men will be willing only by regeneration.  Jesus was committed to the freedom of God.  Here the Lord Jesus portrayed the exalted doctrine of predestination.  The Lord Jesus taught the freedom of God in dealing with men.  Why did Jesus thank the Father?  Because it was the Father’s plan to hid and reveal His gospel.  Christians ought to thank God that He is working out His purpose.  The Lord Jesus knew who was elect and non-elect.  He knew who was damned, and who would be redeemed.  God’s people do not know the identity of God’s elect.  He preached the gospel where it seemed good to Him.  Those who were damned and rejected the gospel will receive a greater judgment.  God’s pre-converted people will respond in genuine faith because of the Word and the Spirit.  Where did Jesus thank the Father?  He thanked the Father in the midst of God’s divine actions, and the pleasure of His Father.  He also thanked the Father in how it manifested among the sons and daughters of men.  Men may try to stop God’s purpose but it is without frustration.  He acts according to His good pleasure in all-wisdom. 

                The Lord Jesus speaks the purest words.  He speaks from a heart adorned with heavenly majesty.  He speaks from a blameless, sinless, selfless heart that is unparalleled in His unwavering devotion to God, His teachings, will.  He speaks from a heart adorned with glorious beauty.  He is more beautiful then the finest handiwork of God, and He is more beautiful then the greatest of saints.  He prays words to His Father of the highest wisdom.  He does not pray as a mere man to His Father.  The prayers of Jesus are in the context of the God-man.  Oh, His prayers are sweeter then honey; richer then the wealthiest men; more committed then the most devote men; submissively committed to the will of the Father; passionately praying God’s Word to His Father!  Oh, what depths of the purest wisdom, truth, goodness!  What heavenly delight His Father has who hears prayers from the Sinless One!  Oh, how we ought to imitate the Lord Jesus.  Let us passionately pray like Jesus in all wisdom, truth, goodness, righteousness.

John 11:41-45 records the event of the Lord Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead:

 41Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

42And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

43And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

45Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. (KJV).

The resurrection of Lazarus from the dead was a mighty miracle.  The signs in the Gospel of John attested to the reality of the divine Messianic identity of Jesus Christ.  In this miracle, they took away the stone from the place where he laid.  Immediately Jesus raised His eyes to heaven.  How pleasing it was to God the Father!  He went to His Father.  He did not go to men but to God Himself.  Jesus lifted up His eyes in an act of pure, righteous, holy faith.  This surely delighted God the Father who Christ served with ceaseless passion, commitment, dedication.  The eyes of Christ were lifted up unto heaven because His heart was sinlessly devoted to His Father.  The commitment of His eyes came from His sinlessly committed heart.  In Revelation, the eyes of Jesus Christ are described as a flame of fire.  There are no purer eyes then that of Jesus Christ.  His eyes are a taste of the heavenly face of God though veiled in His heavenly humanity.  His glory was seen in the Transfiguration.  He is the Incarnate Lord of glory.  But His eyes were the purest, humblest, wisest.  His eyes could read the mannerisms of men better then any man that ever lived.  His eyes could see through the hypocrisy of men.  His eyes stood for a Man who was sent from God.  His mission was to preach, lived a sinless life, died an atoning death to His Father for His people.  His eyes were lifted up to pray unto His God.  He would never lift His eyes to pray unto another.  Oh, what matchless commitment we see in Christ Jesus our Lord!  His eyes did not look around in confusion.  He knew exactly what to do, and who to pray to.  He lifted His eyes to heaven, and beheld the face of His Father.  This was the purest act of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Every act of Christ is pure, especially when He prays unto His Beloved Father.  We ought to lift up our eyes to heaven.  We ought to be committed to praying unto our Father.  We ought not to look in confusion around about us.  We have a Father in heaven that is willing to listen to us. 

                The Lord Jesus spoke after He lifted up His eyes to heaven.  The Lord Jesus spoke heavenly words.  We ought to look to heaven when we are faced with a troubling situation.  The Lord Jesus did not speak words of familiarity.  He did not pray flippantly unto God.  He spoke with unfeigned, spotless, sinless words of divinity.  He was the holiest of men; He was God speaking to God.  His eyes were a heavenly glance unto the heavenliness. His sinless speech was grace-given, holy utterances, perpetual truth; a righteous song unto God.  Prayer by the Lord Jesus Christ was an act He regularly accomplished.  It was not something that was new unto Him.  He prayed with ceaseless thanks, adoration, divine devotion.  When we read the words of Christ, it is like reading a song from heaven itself.  His words are majestic, magnificent, holy, divine.  We do not see men utter words of this heavenly and sinless sort.  When Jesus prays it is not a mere man conversing with God.  The Lord Jesus prays all-powerful grace unto His Father.  His Father eternally loves the words, devotion, unhindered zeal, holy commitment unto His Father.  Do we lift up our eyes to heaven, and speak God’s Word unto our Heavenly Father?  Do we lift up our eyes in faithful confidence that He will hear our prayer?  The Lord Jesus lifted up His eyes with faithful devotion, and committed unfeigned utterances unto His Father.  We would do well if we did the same.  

                The Lord Jesus prays unto God.  He calls His God Father.  We would act righteously if we called God our Father in truth.  Lord of heaven and earth is the God of Jesus Christ.  We do not see Jesus Christ praying unto the dead saints of old.  We do not see Him praying on the basis of the tradition of men.  We see Him addressing our Father in heaven.  We do not see Christ praying to the Father as an exalted Man.  We do not see Christ praying to the Father in a worldly fashion based on the doctrines of demons.  He was committed and zealously devoted to His Father.  The prayers of Christ are a super-sweet fragrance unto God.  The Father welcomes His spotless prayers.  He welcomes and longs to hear His petitions.  He wants His ceaseless and heavenly commitment to righteousness, goodness, holiness, seen in His Only Beloved Son.  He speaks the truest words of heavenly inspiration that you will ever see.  He calls His God Father, and the Jews hated it. 

                He prayed Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.  Here we see the purest of thanks; the truest of words.  The essence of true thanks is the absence of worldliness, selfishness, ingratitude.  His Father is not like the dead idols.  His Father is not like the foreign gods of His days.  His Father is actively concerned with what His Only Beloved Son does.  The Son perfectly fulfills the Father’s work, will, plan.  The Son knows the Father hears Him, and thanks Him that He has heard Him.  Here we see that Jesus Christ is heard by God the Father.  The Father hears the prayers of His Beloved Son.  In eternity passed, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had heavenly fellowship.  The Son knows the Father, and the Father knows the Son.  The Son is heard by God the Father, and the Son completely follows His Father’s will.  There is no man on earth nor shall be who served the Father with sinless, ceaseless, spotless thanks.  The Christian needs to learn to thank God as Jesus thanked His Father.  If we learned this deep in our souls, oh, what glory God would receive!  Thanking and praising God are lacking in the life of Christians.  If we imitate Jesus Christ our Divine Substitute, we will be committed to zealous devotion, committed praise and thanks, unwavering passion for the things of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer.  May we live out in our lives the unfeigned dedication of the divine Son of Man!

                The Son of Man was heard by His prayers.  This reminds me of when Jesus spoke of His prayer in John 14.  Christ says He will pray that the Father would send the Holy Spirit.  There is eternal friendship, and fellowship in the Godhead.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit love each other in perfection, sinlessness, spotlessness, flawlessness.  The fellowship and friendship in the Godhead is eternally precious, divine, heavenly, holy.  In John 14:16 Christ says He will ask the Father that He would send the divine Comforter: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever…” (KJV).  Christ asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit.  First, the purpose of God was to use the prayer of Christ to send the Spirit of God.  Second, Christ divinely knew of the answer of His prayer.  The prayers of Christ are always pleasing, acceptable, agreeable to the Father’s will.  The Father heard the Son, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  The Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son is a fundamental, essential, basic truth of God.  But here Christ prays for it nonetheless.  Here is a divine, heavenly, sacred demonstration of the certainty, actuality, assurance of the answered prayer of Christ.  We can learn something vital here.  We ought to pray for the certainties of God’s written Word. 

                The Lord Jesus prayed And I knew that thou hearest me always.  The Lord Jesus was always pleasing to God the Father.  There was never a time that Jesus Christ did not please His Father.  Christ could rightly say that He was always heard by His Father.  As Christians we have access to the throne of grace because of Jesus Christ.  But we could not say that the Father always hears us.  If we are engaged in sin, that will prevent God from hearing us.  We are corrupt sinners, but Jesus Christ is sinlessness itself.  He was always heard by His Father.  He never confessed one iota of sin.  He was Incarnate Perfection.  Jesus uttered heavenly communication; spotless adoration; sinless words of the wisest; the purest words of truth.

The Lord prayed but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.  The Son gives a reason for His petition unto His Father.  He was a Man who has doubtless, unfeigned, unspotted belief in the all-sovereign, all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, ever-present Father.  His Father was there to hear the prayer of His Son.  The God of Jesus Christ is there to hear our prayers.  This same interpretation can be applied to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  The Holy and Blessed Trinity is there to hear our prayers.  Sometimes we think that God does not hear us after we have prayed unto Him with all our hearts.  Do you think God is closed off from us?  How do we live concerning prayer?  Do we pray unto God when we are faced with a hard situation?  We ought to pray unto God more often when we are faced with the smallest of matters.  Here Jesus Christ prayed unto His Father in the biggest of situations.  What was too hard for the God-man?  There was nothing too difficult for Him.  The ultimate purpose of the prayer of Jesus Christ was the belief of His people.  The purpose of His sign was to be used as a means for their belief.  God works through His means to accomplish His purposes.  God sent the God-man who accomplished His blessed will.  The Lord Jesus was perfectly confident; sinlessly faithful; spotlessly committed to the purpose of His Father.  He spoke of the truth of His sign.  The manifested sign of Christ was already spoken by Christ before He accomplished it.  The prayer of Christ was answered: the pre-converted elect came to Him in belief after the manifestation of His sign (v. 45).  See the sinless zeal; the spotless passion; the perfect faith, belief, trust of the Son of God.  Are we people who are confident, faithful, committed to the purpose of our Father?  Christ speaks truth-exalting; purest grace; grace-given pronouncement; heavenly communion; glorious zeal unto His Father.

And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.  Here we see the fervent, dedicated, committed, spotless Lamb of God intercede on behalf of His beloved friend by calling Lazarus forth from the dead.  This is exactly what happens when God’s people are born again.  God calls us by name.  When He regenerated me, He said, Michael, come forth.  He regenerates the heart by the Spirit of God and the Word of God.  It is only by the Spirit of God that the stony heart of man was changed into a heart of flesh.  We see that the raising from the dead of Lazarus was the divine intention of Jesus Christ.  It was the purpose of His Father who ordered the events for His glory.  This divine miracle by the Lord Jesus Christ was preordained by Him before the world began.  He was glorified by His chosen means for His beloved people for His majestic, glorious, miraculous glory.  God does not share His glory with anyone.  Jesus Christ was glorified in the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead.  Do we have faith that God works all things out for our good?  Do we have faith that He is able to accomplish His divine purposes for His glory?  If we were there with Jesus, would we be the doubters?  There is question on why the Lord Jesus wept (11:35).  Did Jesus weep because of His friend’s death?  Or did Jesus weep because of their unbelief?  The chief concern for Christ was the belief of His people.  This was the deepest, most important, most fundamental in their lives.  He encourages their belief in John 11:20-27 and 11:38-44.  The Lord Jesus wept because of their unbelief.  The belief of His people is most precious, most holy, most righteous, most just, most essential to Him.  It is a truth of God that Christ wept because of their unbelief. 

And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.  Here is the actuality of the prayer of Jesus Christ.  His prayer was assuredly answered by His Heavenly Father.  Here is the power of prayer by Jesus Christ realized!  The dead man cam forth, wearing His grave clothes.  We see that Christ spoken immediately after the aftermath of His miracle.  When Jesus spoke it was a statement of unwavering; unspotted; full belief in His Father.  Do we believe that our Lord and Savior were able to perform this miracle?  Do we believe that His prayers are always answered?  Do we live like we believe it?  We have the power of God at our disposal: free access to His throne.  We have prayer which reaches to His glorious, magnificent, awesome, heavenly throne.  He is there to answer our prayers; hear our burdens; lift our burdens; bestow super-abundant grace.  We ought to pray as the Lord Jesus prayed.  Ceaseless thanks; unwavering belief; perfect allegiance; zealously devoted: this is the ways of the Sovereign and Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.  The sign of Christ caused people to believe in Him.  This was the mission of Christ when He first announced it (11:4).  The Lord Jesus did not make a mistake in v. 11; Lazarus was dead (v. 14).  He meant that death would not be final.  The Lord Jesus triumphed over the grave by raising Lazarus from the dead.  The purpose was the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it (11:4).  The ultimate purpose of the mission of Jesus in this was their believe (11:14).  The ultimate aim of Christ was God’s glory, and the glory of the Son.  The Son was honored, glorified, exalted by the miracle of God.  Are we people of faith?  Are we committed to the Jesus of the New Testament?  Let us strive to share the Incarnate Redeemer with a lost world.  Let us share the great signs He accomplished so that people may believe.  May people this day be converted by the testimony of Scripture about Jesus Christ! 

Chapter 3: 

John 17 and the High Priestly Prayer

We will study John 17:1-26 as we go along.  It marks the day of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer:

1Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,

When Christ spoke, it was the sweetest song, music to the Father’s ears.  He lifted up His eyes to heaven.  This was a common practice of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was deeply committed to the practice of God’s sacred truth.  When we speak, we ought to speak heavenly, sacred, divine words of Scripture.  This was the practice of Jesus Christ.  He spoke the living, active, penetrating Word of God.  He would speak God’s exalting truth, grace, comfort unto His Father.  He looks up to heaven because He seeks spiritual communion with His Father.  He looks up to heaven because this is where He was before He came down to earth.  He did not simply pre-exist the creation, but He was and is the self-existent One.  He cries out to His Father about the appointed hour.  The Son is glorified by the Father, and the Son glorified the Father.  The Son receives the glory of God.  This would mean that the Son is divine.  God does not share His glory.  The Son brought glory to the Godhead by His Incarnation, sinless life, atoning death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement.[19]  The Son was glorified at His death because He accomplished the will of the Father, bore the sin of His people, and brought life-transforming, life-giving, life-eternal to His beloved few.  Here the focus of His prayer is glorification.  Are yours prayers focused on God’s glory? 

2even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.

Through Him, and to Him be glory now and forevermore. Amen.  It is by Him that all things were created, and for Him that all things were created.  Through Him God created all things, and there was nothing made without Him.  He is the fullness that fills in all in all.  Through the Son alone comes eternal life, and it is through on one else.  Here the prayer of the Son of God exalts God’s truth, establishes His sure Word, shows His authority in all things.  Do we provide prayer that exalts God’s truth, Word, authority?

3"This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Eternal life is found in the Father and the Son.  The Father is the One true God.  It is also proper to identify the Son as the One true God, and the Spirit as the One true God.  We profess the Trinity of God.  The Father is the First Person of the Trinity, the Son the Second Person of the Trinity, and the Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity.  God sent forth His Only Beloved Son to save many people.  The Son was fully submissive to the Father, and the Father is well-pleased in His Son.  If the world rejects the Son, they reject the Father.  In the days of Jesus, and nowadays, people claim to believe God as their Father, but they reject His Only Son.  Rejection of the Son is rejection of the Father.  The Father and the Son are two distinct persons.  The Son does the will of the Father, and the Father and Son harmoniously agree regarding the plan of redemption.  The Father does not oppose the Son, nor does the Son oppose the Father.  We see the Son praying about eternal life in accord with the Father’s will.  Do you pray that people would be converted in belief of the true God of Scripture?

4"I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.

The Son has made an infallible observation of Himself.  He has spoken the truth on glorifying His Father on earth. The Son accomplishes everything He does with perfection, sinlessness, spotlessness, glorification.  The Son preached the good news through Him alone; the gospel was preached at His appointed time, at His appointed places.  The Son has perfectly accomplished the mission of His glorious Father.  Are we prepared to accomplish God’s mission?  Do we seek to bring Him glory, honor, praise? 

5"Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

The Son petitions the Father of glorifying His Son.  The glorification of the Son was a reality before the world was.  The Son was glorified, honored, highly esteemed from everlasting to everlasting.  The glory of the Son points to His deity.  The Father and the Son are glorified in truth, righteousness, holiness.  Do you pray like Jesus?  Have you included in your prayers truth-exalting, grace-abounding, heavenly concepts?  We must pray to God His truth, and the reality of the eternity, glory, honor of His Son.  The Son is superior to the angels (Hebrews 1), equal with God (Philippians 2:6), the Living Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8, 11; 17-18).

6"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

The Father’s name was proclaimed.  Here Christ unites His ministry and God’s truth.  The ministry of Christ was the preaching, proclaiming, declaring of His matchless truth.  Here Christ refers to what He accomplished in behalf of His glorious, holy, righteous Father.  The name of the Father was proclaimed to His chosen people.  The elect are in the world but not of the world.  God’s people live in the world, but are not to be spotted by the world.  We ought to have a prevailing, penetrating, revealing influence on the world.  The chosen men of Christ belong to the Father, and the Father has given them to His Son.  The chosen ones have kept the word of the Father.  The word of the Father is the word of truth, grace, comfort, righteousness, holiness, peace.  Do you thank and praise God for the people He has chosen?  Do you praise God for keeping His people?  All of God’s people are kept by the Incarnate Word of life.  Oh, the marvelous, glorifying, honoring God we serve! 

7"Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;

The Father has given all things to the Son, and it is from the Father to the Son.  Do we passion ourselves on the plan of our Father?  Do we live to do as He commands, and do we praise, honor, glorify Him through His Son?

8for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.

The words of the Father were the words of the Son.  The Son according to the Father’s will has given His word to them.  The Father sends the Son, and the Son accomplishes the Father’s blessed, beloved, perfect will.  The disciples believed that the Father sent the Son.  If you are a believer, has not the Father a purpose for your life?  The Father sent the Son to accomplish redemption; He purchased His own out of the world. 

9"I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;

10and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

The Son asks on behalf of the His people.  He does not ask on behalf of the world.  The Father has given the Son a people, and those people are His.  This shows God has reserved for Himself a particular people whom Christ purchased out of the world.  And who is the Son’s is the Father’s, and who is the Father’s is the Son’s.  The Son has been glorified in His people.  Can God say that about you?  Have you glorified, honored, esteemed the Lord of glory? 

11"I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.

The Son is going to be lifted up, and His people remain in the world.  The Lord Jesus uses the term ‘Holy Father.’  It is the only time it is used in the New Testament by Jesus.  The people of God are kept in the Father’s name.  Here I think the Lord Jesus uses a title appropriate only for God Himself.  We see in our day that Romanists call their pope ‘Holy Father.’  Do we not see how Christ used that exclusively of His Father?  Do you use exalted terms: holy, righteous, just words about your Father in heaven?  The Father is not contrary to the Son, and the Son is not contrary to the Father.  The Father and the Son are one, and both of them are equally divine, eternal, uncreated.  

12"While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

The Son was with His disciples: He lives, breathed, taught God’s Word.  His voice was the voice of the Word of God: pure, exalted, trustworthy words of peace, love, hope, judgment.  The people of God are kept by Jesus Christ.  There is no one who is more trustworthy, more capable, more equipped.  No one shall detach us from Christ.  His all-powerful and all-wise keeping of His people is permanent, irrevocable, unchanging.  The Son protected His people, but the son of perdition was lost.  It was God’s purpose to blind, hid, the gospel from him.  He was in the midst of Incarnate Mercy, Wisdom, Deity.  The purpose of it was to fulfill divine Scripture.  Christ had the deepest, highest, greatest devotion, dedication, commitment to Scripture.  Scripture is the Word of God, and Christ never abandoned it for the ways, purposes, plans of men.  Do you revere Scripture that way?  Are you committed, devoted, dedicated in prayer, using God’s Word? 

13"But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

The Son is on His way to the Father.  His mission will soon be complete, perfected, accomplished.  The Son’s words are for the benefit of the Father’s children.  The purpose of the words of the Son was to make the joy of His people complete.  Do you speak words of wisdom, instruction, knowledge to God’s people?  Is the purpose of it for their joy?

14"I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

The Lord Jesus taught, declared, proclaimed His word to His disciples.  The world hated them because they were not of the world.  The Son was not of the world.   The world despised Christ: here we learn of an essential truth of God.  The world receives its own, but the Son is from the Father; His home is heaven; His message divine in origin. 

15"I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17"Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.  

18"As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

19"For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

 20"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

21that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

The Son did not ask the Father to take His disciples out of the world.  The Son prays that they would be kept from the evil one, Satan.  The Son and His people are not of the world.  Christ prays that they would be sanctified in the truth.  The Father’s word is God’s truth.  The Father sent the Son into the world, so, too, the Son sent His disciples into the world.  The Son sanctifies Himself that His people may be sanctified in truth.  The Son prays for those who believe based on the written Word of truth.  We possess the written Word of God.  His prayer is that they would be one as the Father and Son.  God’s people are possessed with God; we are hid in the mercy of Christ.  It is a testimony to the world.  God’s people are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer (Galatians 3:28).

22"The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;

23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

The Son is in His people, and the Son does the will of His Father.  The Son prays for the unity of His people.  The Son prays that the world may know that He was sent by His Father.  The Father loved the people of the Son.  It is the same love between the Father and the Son.  The unity of the Son and the Father is perfect, and it cannot be defiled.  It is flawless, sinless, spotless.  Here we ought to note the eternal distinction of the Father and the Son.  The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father.  The Lord Jesus was not praying to Himself, but to His Heavenly Father.  Moreover, it is my brief that the entirety of John 17 denies Modalism (that is, Oneness Pentecostalism). 

24"Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

The Father gives His people to the Son.  The Son desires that God’s people will be with Him.  The purpose of it is so His people will see the glory of the Son.  The love of the Father and the Son was before the foundation of the world.  The love of the Father and the Son is timeless, eternal, unchangeable. 

25"O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;

The Father was described as holy.  Now He is described as righteous.  The world does not know the Father.  The Pharisees believed they knew the Father, but they were of the world.  They did not know the Father.  The Son knows the Father, and the Son reveals the Father.  The Son revealed the Father to His people.  He made it known to them. 

26and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (NASB).

The Son’s mission was to preach God’s divine truth.  He made the Father’s name known to His people.  The Son’s accomplishes redemption to the Father.  The love of the Father and the Son is eternal, precious, timeless.  The love of the Father and the Son is in His people.  There is no division between the Father and the Son.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Chapter 4: 

Praying On Great Occasions

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21-22 ESV).

Christ was baptized; He began to pray.  The Lord Jesus began to pray at the great occasion of His baptism.  Do we pray on great occasions?  Or are we so worried about it that we lack prayer unto our Father?  The act of the baptism of Christ was done to fulfil all righteousness.  Divine righteousness is foreign to even the greatest of men, even John the Baptist.  Christ decided, and even insisted upon His baptism.  Eventually John the Baptist conceded to Him to be baptized. 

The NKJV says “and while He prayed, the heavens opened” (Luke 3:21).  When He prayed heavens opened, miracles abound, super-abounding grace extended.  These days Romanists will say that Christ opened heaven, but they have little regard for His substitutionary atonement.  His prayer is all-powerful, moves mountain, unveils the heavens. The prayer of Christ brought forth the radiant Spirit of God, the splendor of the Father’s voice, the voluntary devotion of the Lamb of God.  

We see that Christ identified with sinners by undertaking John’s baptism.  Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer was not a sinner Himself.  He was free from original sin, and actual sin.  He did not confess sin as sinners do.  The Lord Jesus affirmed, defended, stated His sinlessness, and His apostles also maintained it.  In his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.  The Father from heaven called Him, His own Son, whom He was well-pleased.  The Father is wholly pleased in His Son.  The Father is not pleased in another.  The Son is the Only Beloved of the Father.  The Father is not pleased in Zoroaster, Confucius, Mohammed.  The Father is exclusively pleased in His Son.  The Son freely gives Himself as an ultimate offering for the life of His sheep. 

In His baptism, the Lord Jesus began His vocation as the Anointed One.  Do we see why He would pray on such a great occasion?  He was committed to prayer, dedicated to righteousness, zealously submissive to His Father.  I might suggest to you that Christ prayed for the Father’s will.  Here God the Spirit approved His ministry, and God the Father pronounced His pleasure in His Beloved Son.   His prayer was God’s will.  The essence of His prayer is the deepest devotion, highest commitment, greatest zeal of doing the will of His Beloved Father.  He was concerned not with the will of men, but the will of God for His life.  Do you see the super-abundant success of His ministry in the unfolding pages of His precious life?  Do you see that God works through prayer?  Sometimes people wonder why they should pray.  The Son of Man prayed unto His Father.  Isn’t that reason enough?  Prayer was necessary even for the very Incarnate Lamb of God.  The Lord Jesus was diligently zealous, fervently committed.  He cried out to His Father, and His Father revealed He was well-pleased with His Beloved Son.  At one point in His ministry, the Lord Jesus said that the voice from heaven was more for the people then for Himself.  The actions of the Son, Spirit, and Father encourage belief.  What radiant majesty!  What glorious splendor!  What wise, pure, holy words of heaven!

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor (Luke 6:12-16 ESV).

Here was the glorious, sinless, spotless Christ praying unto His Father.  The great occasion was choosing the twelve apostles.  The Lord Jesus ventured to a lowly place to pray.  He traveled to a mountain.  This was the pattern of His holy routine regarding great occasions.  He did not pray for twenty minutes but for the entire night.  Do we not need to pray long to our Lord in a meaningful fashion?  He continued in prayer to God.  This was the holy, righteous, just routine of Christ that He accomplished.  The prayer of Christ was to accomplish the will of His Father through the twelve apostles.  Here are the men who were set apart for ministry.  It marked a great occasion. The prayer of Christ was the will of His Father.  The Gospels show us the victorious, triumphant, mighty ministry of Jesus Christ and His friends.  What we see in the Gospels are the fruits of the prayers of Jesus Christ.  That is, that God’s purpose would be fulfilled in His appointed time.  His prayers were the cleanest, holist, purest, dedicated prayers ever seen.  Christ had the highest loyalty, the greatest devotion, the leading commitment to Holy Scripture.  It might be that Christ also prayed for the loyalty, devotion, dedication of the eleven apostles.  When we look at the eleven apostles in the ultimate scheme of things they matured in loyalty, especially after they deserted Christ.  If you are an elder, do you pray before choosing teachers in your church?  Do you pray when people are chosen to teach?  We ought to be like Christ who prayed for His children.  Christ mastered self-discipline in the pursuit of devoted, dedicated, disciplined prayer unto His Father. 

Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white (Luke 9:28-29 ESV).

Oh, the glory, splendor, magnificence, marvelous transfiguration of Christ!  We ought to see the God-exalting, God-glorifying, God-honoring purpose of Jesus Christ.  Christ took Peter, John and James with Him.  He ventured to a mountain to pray unto His Father.  As Christ prayed the appearance of His face changed, and His clothing became dazzling white.  Here was see the glorious glory of Christ.  The transfiguration of Christ was a change in form.  It crossed the natural with the supernatural.  Moses had reflected glory, but Christ was the glory of God Himself.[20]  It might be that the transfiguration of Christ was the fruit of the prayer of Jesus Christ.  The purpose of it was the glory of Christ.  Christ spoke with Moses and Elijah about His death in Jerusalem.  Moses and Elijah stood before Christ (Luke 9:32).  God’s people will stand before Him in the righteousness of God the Son.  Moses and Elijah looked ahead to the cross, and we look back at the cross.  We surely see the power of the prayers of Jesus Christ.  What prayer can compare with His Almighty prayers? 

 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray." And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done."  (Matthew 26:36-42 ESV).

It is appropriate to solely call Christ a Man of sorrows.  It was in the Garden of Eden where Satan triumphed over man’s nature.  In the garden, we saw the fall of man.  Man is now totally depraved, corrupt, fallen.  Christ embraced the will of the Father where we could not have (any sinful human being could not have accepted the mission of atoning for sin).  That is, He sinlessly followed His Father to the end, and only He could atone for sin on the Cross.  The Son of Man accepted the mission of His Father throughout His ministry, and embraces the bitter cup of sorrow.  The Son of Man embraced the Father’s will in perfection.  But it was in the Cross (not in the Garden of Gethsemane) where people receive the imputed righteousness of Christ, and it was in the Cross (not in the Garden of Gethsemane) where Christ was our Substitute for sin.  He fully drinks the cup of sorrow at the Cross.  Christ did not suffer for sin in the Garden, but in the Garden the soul of Christ was very sorrowful, even to death.  He asked His disciples to watch with me, but they fell asleep.  The Lord Jesus went a little farther and fell on His face.  His soul was stricken with deep grief, suffering, pain.  He lifted up His deepest, hardest, committed prayer unto His Father.  He embraced the Father’s will.  In the Gospel of John (John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20) we see that His hour was not yet.  That is, His hour had not yet come.  Christ was faced with the appointed time throughout His ministry.  He was zealously committed, deeply devoted, passionately in line with the will of His Father.  Has there been a time when you struggled with embracing God’s will?  Christ is our sinless, spotless, perfect example: turn to Him, and learn to embrace God’s will.  Peter fell asleep, and he could not watch one hour with Him.  The flesh bears no trust of goodness.  We need to be revived by grace to remain watchful.  He had to drink the bitter, sorrowful, painful cup to die to His Father, and save His wandering sheep.  The prayer of the God-man was perfectly, sinlessly, spotlessly submitted to the will of His Beloved Father.  May we submit with confidence, diligence, passion to the will of the Father!  Amen.

He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:41-42 NIV). 

Oh, what depths of agony and great suffering!  Here we see the prayer of Christ.  Luke does not mention the failings of Peter, James and John, but Luke focuses on the prayer of the Lord Jesus.  Touching the humanity of Christ the bearing of the sin, filth, corruption of His people was going to be a horrifying experience.  The Lord Jesus had full knowledge of the reality of bearing the sin of His people and being forsaken by His Father. [21]  Here we see that kneeling of the Lord Jesus.  How this pleased His Father!  What sweet occurrences of His voice, heart, soul!  Here dear reader, consider the sweetest submissiveness, the glorious commitment, the adored obedience!  What dedication, allegiance, persistence!  The prayer of Christ reveals divine allegiance of Christ.  His allegiance was to His Father.  In eternality passed, the Father and the Son agreed that the atonement of Christ was the means of purifying His people.  Christ embraces the preordained plan of God in time and space.  Dear reader, where is your allegiance?  Are you committed to God’s will or man’s will?

                I suggest to you that the prayers of Jesus Christ give us a taste of heaven, deity, glorious God-exalting words that testify to the passion, commitment, dedication of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The God-man prayed the will of God in all His glorious, heavenly, divine prayers.  The Lord Jesus Christ had the presence of thanks, praise, supplication, adoration, blessing, rejoicing (with the absence of confession of sin) to His Heavenly Father.  I suggest to you that it might be that Christ prayed for His followers, the fulfillment of Scripture concerning Judas, the success of His gospel, miraculous good works, His overall ministry, the future advancement of the kingdom of God.  Christ never ceased praying the Father’s will, and the above would not be contrary to the Father’s will.  If Christ always prayed the Father’s will, I am sure that He prayed about it to His Father.  As the life of Christ always pleased the Father, so, too, did the prayers of Christ always pleased His Righteous and Holy Father!

I suggest to you that what we see in the Psalms (with the omission of repentance and sin) is a clear, plain, pure illustration of what the hidden prayers of Christ were like (cf. Matthew 27:45-50).  The purest, wisest, holist words of the prayers of Christ were always God-exalting, God-centered, God-glorifying, God-pleasing, God-purposed.  Scripture provides the presence of divine prayers by Christ, and from it we can understand what His prayer life was like.  Divine Scripture provides a clear indication on how Christ prayed (Luke 23:46).  Here when Christ was on the cross, He committed His spirit to the Father.  We ought to model after Christ; Christ trusted His Father.  The Son was going homeward, onward, to the heavenliness.  We ought to learn that He faithfully, sinlessly, spotlessly obeyed every instruction about pray in the Old and New Testament.  Since the Spirit of truth breathed out Scripture, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, it is plainly, clearly, purely obvious that Christ obeyed what the Spirit inspired.  Christ was God from everlasting to everlasting.  He is divine as much as the Father and as much as the Spirit.  The Spirit of Christ is the same Spirit that inspired Scripture, and therefore, Christ never disobeyed the teachings on prayer in the New Testament. 

The prayers of Christ were much more purer, higher, greater then mere prayers of mere men because Jesus Christ was Incarnate Deity.  From the heart of His prayers precede holiness, deity, heavenly majesty.  The prayers of Christ surpass our thinking.  I suggest to you that God’s children in heaven engage in the prayers of Christ.  That is, God’s glorified people are worshiping, exalting, glorifying, magnifying God.  Christ was and is sinless, spotless, clean.  He was and is the Lamb without blemish, spot, wrinkle.  We see in divine Scripture in the prayer life of Christ an experience of heaven.  In heaven, glorified saints will no longer confess sin, but we will give ceaseless, unadulterated, unfeigned, spotless prayers unto our Heavenly Father.  We will behold the face of God as glorified, sinless, clean saints.  We will be glorified in heaven because of God alone.  Without God it would be impossible for us to be glorified, perfected, without blemish.  We will become like our sinless Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, but He will always be our Master, Teacher, Instructor.  We will always be submissive to Him.  He will forever be set apart as the God Incarnate, and we will passionately, fervently, consistently (without failure, sin, blemish) worship our great, mighty, exalted Trinity as finite, limited creatures in eternity where Christ will shine brighter then the sun.  Amen. 

Chapter 5: 

Times and Places of the Prayers of Jesus

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35 ESV).  Here we see not a one time routine of the Son of Man.  But we see a consistent commitment to heavenly communion with God the Father.  The Lord Jesus Christ did not rise early in the morning to pray to Allah.  Rather He rose early in the morning in dedication to submissive prayer to His Heavenly Father.  Christ Jesus our Lord prayed unto the God of Job, Noah and Habakkuk.  Do we rise early in the morning to pray unto our God?  Here we see a dedicated, devoted, zealously committed action of prayer by the Lord Jesus.  We see the Lord Jesus daily routine when He begins His day.  It was still dark outside when He arose to pray.  He was sinlessly committed, zealously devoted, spotlessly fervent, diligently obedient in His actions leading to prayer, and the action of prayer itself.  Do we pray while it is dark?  Do we pray while the world sleeps?  Do you depart to pray?  Where did the Lord Jesus venture too?  He ventured to a desolate place.  He went to be in a place where there were no distractions.  The prayers of Jesus were hours on end.  He was a Man who was obedient unto death in the will of His Father.  Do we pray in a desolate place?  Are we hindered with distractions?  The Lord Jesus was not hindered with distractions; He was committed to praying in a desolate place.  He was in the presence of God.  He understood this precious truth.  He was committed to pray in a place where it was solely Him and His Holy Father.  Do we seek to be alone with our Lord and speak with Him about our concerns of ministry?  Do we lift up praises and thank as Jesus did?  Is He the focus of our day?  Let us take the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and apply it to our lives.  Let us live as He lived in zealous dedication to the commitment of prayer for His glory. 

“But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16 ESV).  This is the picture of the life of the Lord Jesus.  He would withdraw and go to desolate places.  We ought to withdraw from our daily activities, and pray unto our Father.  Do we do this consistently, diligently, frequently in a zealous fashion?  Do we really understand that our labor is not in vain?  Do we put into practice what King Jesus accomplished in His prayer life?  How dedicated are we?  Do we live each and every day in an unwavering commitment to through Christ to the Father?  Do we let distractions hinder us in worship of our Lord?  How often do we commit ourselves to pray?  We ought to be characterized by our prayer.  The Christian is characterized by his or her prayer life.  We have a grand, heavenly, supernatural opportunity to commit our hearts unto God.  When is there a time to speak to the Almighty?  We are always in His presence.  There is never a time where God is too busy to respond.  He hears us in our prayers unto Him when it is through Jesus Christ.  Let us be committed to venture into desolate places, and pray unto our Triune Lord. 

“And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”  (Luke 9:18 NKJV).  Here we see that the Lord Jesus Christ prayed alone.  He was the Master of His disciples.  He disciples came to Him.  But He was the One who asked them a question.  We see that Christ asked His disciples a question that was on His mind.  I suggest to you that in the context it might be reasonable to suggest that Christ was praying for them.  We see that Peter answered correctly (Luke 9:20; Matthew 16:16), because it was revealed to him by God the Father (Matthew 16:17).  The Father revealed the identity of Jesus to Peter.  I do not believe it is unreasonable to suggest that Christ prayed for His disciples.  When Christ prays, His prayers are answered.  Their Master was committed to their spiritual well-being.  God used the means of His Beloved Son to guide Peter’s heavenly confession.  All the disciples knew that Jesus was the Incarnate Son of God (Matthew 16:20).  We see that Jesus prayed before He asked a most important question to His friends.  Do we pray before asking spiritual questions to our neighbor?  I suggest that Christ prayed that they would make an accurate, divine, heavenly confession.  Are we committed to prayer about God’s truth?  We ought to be committed to prayer for our friends about God-honoring, God-exalting, God-focused truth.  The prayer of Christ led the situation for Christ to proclaim that He was the Rock, and that all of hell will not prevail against His Beloved church.  Christ pronounced a self-testimony about Himself, and about His bride.  Do we see the results of righteous prayer?  Do you see the fruits of committed diligence?

“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."  (Luke 11:1 ESV).  The Lord Jesus prayed in a certain place.  We ought to learn to pray in certain places.  We ought to find a quiet place, or a place we are familiar with; and pray unto our God in Christ.  One of his disciples asked Him about prayer.  His disciples’ desire was to be taught about prayer.  Do you desire to learn about the Word of truth?   We learn about prayer in the Word of God.  The disciples sat at the feet of Christ, waiting for instruction.  As children would gather to their mother for food and water, the disciples hungered and thirsted for the food and drink of His heavenly wisdom. They craved wisdom as the sweetest honey, and they were loyal to His divine teachings from above.  We see that Jesus Christ practiced what He taught His disciples.  Are you an elder?  And do you practice what you preach without hypocrisy?  Your life is to be consistent with what you preach.  The Lord Jesus lived a life of sinless perfection, spotless living, diligent passion.  His life was completely consistent with what He preached.  The Lord Jesus is the Ultimate Shepherd.  God’s elders are to shepherd His people by the instruction of the plain testimony of the Word of God.  We see that Christ was not only immersed in diligent prayer, but He was immersed in the Word of God.  God’s chosen people are to diligently pray, fervently read, study His most precious Word.  We see that Christ was Incarnate Wisdom: as He prayed He spoke the wisest words; and as He preached He taught His people the wisest, purest, holiest words of exalted, heavenly beauty. 

“And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone…”  (Matthew 14:23 ESV).  The Lord Jesus was committed to the work of divine ministry.  He dismissed the crowds, but which of His followers would want to leave His presence?  He would speak all-attracting, super-abundant, life-transforming grace, truth, righteousness.  I know I would want to spend all of the time I had with the Lord Jesus.  To be in His Incarnate Presence would be the most heavenly splendor one can think on.  The Lord Jesus went up to a mountain by himself to pray.  We ought to understand that Christ wanted to be isolated for the work of His ministry.  Christ was a Man of prayer, and this was the power of His ministry.  Men in ministry ought to be people of dedicated, righteous, unwavering prayer.  There is joy in private prayer that overflows the depths of the heart.  It is deep communion with our God.  Are we quick to leave prayer, and venture onto other things?  The Lord Jesus prayed while it was evening, and he was there alone.  Do we find ourselves alone in the evening, crying out unto God through Christ Jesus our Mediator and Redeemer?  Do we have holy pride about the holy instrument of prayer?  May we ever live praying unto our great God, and experience the fruits of the work of God from our dedicated prayers. 

Chapter 6: 

But I Have Prayed For You

Luke 22:31-34 marks the account of the prayer of Jesus for Peter:

31"Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;

32but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

33But he said to Him, "Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!"

34And He said, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me." (NASB).

We see that the Lord Jesus Christ mentioned Peter’s name twice.  “The repetition gives solemnity and emphasis.  It is a form of intimate, personal address.”[22]  The Lord Jesus had an intimate relationship with Simon Peter.  They were friends.  The Lord Jesus made known to Peter of Satan’s demand to sift him.  Satan wanted to sift all the disciples.  Satan cannot act outside the permission of Christ.  This reflects the story of Job.  Satan had to ask for permission to destroy him.  Satan desired to destroy Simon Peter above all, and undo him, but Christ prayed for him.  His faith did not fail.  He lets Satan sift us for our good.  He works all things out for good for those that love Him.  After a Christian has been sifted by Satan, it is his or her duty to strengthen the brethren.  A person who has been sifted ought to strengthen other believers in Christ.  This is the purpose of God in it.  I remember a time when I was sifted by Satan.  It is a hard time to endure, but we can think of the prayer of Jesus for Peter, and take it as our own.  Without the prayer of Christ for us, there is no hope.  No believer could endure sifting were it not for the matchless, sinless, heavenly, God-exalting prayer of Jesus Christ.  Satan is not all-powerful, but he is far more powerful then human beings.  But against the Almighty Christ, he is nothing.  Christ has prayed for us, and we will endure in genuine, lasting, living faith.  And Peter was restored by Christ in John 21.    In passing, let me say, that there is no support of the papacy in this text, but the sovereign power of Christ is seen in the keeping power of God regarding His own.

The prayer of Jesus for Peter was a prayer for every believer.  My friend in Christ, He has prayed for you that your faith may not fail.  Every person who is a believer, Christ has made His petition in your behalf.  The Lord Jesus Christ never prayed for Judas, but He prayed for Peter.  Peter was a believer in Christ, but his faith did not fail, but his strength.  There was never a time when the faith of Peter failed.  It was simply his strength that failed.   But Peter was overconfident.  Was there a time in your life that you have been overconfident?  We ought not to be overconfident in our human wisdom, but we are to be in line with the Word of God.  The Lord Jesus spoke of when Peter would betray Him.  It was a bitter experience for Peter.  But let us keep in mind that Christ prayed for him, and as Christ prayed for him, He also has prayed for us.  There is heavenly hope against Satan because of Christ’s prayer.  The prayer of Christ is the power of God.  We ought to see this as the Almighty prayer of Christ.  His prayers are all-powerful, all-sufficient, super-abundant grace, soul-penetrating.  His prayers are grace-centered, truth-honoring, grace-abounding, super-efficacious, God-pleasing.  Let us remember the victory we have through Jesus Christ our Lord over Satanic forces, and let us praise, thank, worship our Triune Lord to give Him the most glory!  Amen. 

Chapter 7:

Disproving Atheism by the Prayers of Jesus:

The Sinless God-man Worshiped God the Father

                The very essence of prayer to God flies in the face of atheism. The nature of prayer is a call to God in Jesus Christ powered by the Holy Ghost. Within this chapter, we shall see the essence of prayer form the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall see the prayers of Jesus demonstrate God’s existence, God’s teaching, God’s communion with His Son, and God’s omnipresence and supports the explicit possibility and actuality of prayers of God’s people to the Triune God.  This is merely a brief presentation of the true reality of Christian prayer supported and confirmed by the King of Israel. 

The question arises, why did Jesus of Nazareth pray to the Father, if such a person did not exist? Moreover, why did Jesus of Nazareth communicate to the Father in prayer, if such a person, could not hear, comprehend and understand the mere prayer intentions of Jesus? If there is no justification for the prayers of Jesus, why would Jesus engage in them? Why would a man who claimed to be God Incarnate, and taught in accordance with God’s ancient commandments, and manifested perfect humility, lie or erroneously give the outward impression of praying to God, when such an activity of submission is genuinely bogus according to atheism? Is atheism right to claim, that Jesus did not communicate to a supernatural person? That the Gospel accounts in general are merely religious myth?

The Christian Scriptures are a collection of books; therefore it is not circular reasoning. Within the totality of the Christian Scriptures is an inspired special revelation from God through the work of holy man by the Spirit of truth: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NIV). Jesus Himself declared that His word is truth (John 17:17).  The burden of proof is upon the skeptic who denies the trustworthiness of Holy Writ.

                Atheists claim that the supernatural prayer or uncanny accounts in the New Testament Gospels are not genuinely true. If Jesus is not who He claimed to be, then the atheist has right to substantiate and cast serious reservation on the statements of Jesus opposed to His claims abut God’s existence, claims about Himself, prayer and other profound values of Christianity. However, if the claims of Jesus are true, the atheist ought to acknowledge the Truth. The atheist argues that morality can be known apart from God’s existence. If the atheist rejects Jesus, the chapter attempts to demonstrate that the atheist has betrayed his own principles, and thus shown by the face of reality itself to be inconsistent.  The prayers of Jesus speak to the reality of existence about prayer itself.  The atheist is inconsistent because he denies the reality of the Incarnate King.  The reality of Jesus is a plain and real reality that the atheist has no business rejecting because it is true based upon inerrant Scripture.

The prayers of Jesus reflect profound philosophical, theological and historical truth. Before we investigate the significance of the prayers of Jesus, we must turn to the examination of the identity of Jesus. For the identity of Jesus will demonstrate the validity, trustworthiness, legitimacy of His claims. What Jesus says is true because He is God incarnate.  The Holy Scriptures records significant essentials about the identity of Jesus. Christianity acknowledges the Hypostatic Union of Jesus refers to his two natures: human and divine in one person, Jesus Christ. In Christian thought Jesus is fully man and fully God. Jesus is not partially man and partially God. Jesus is entirely man and entirely God. Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  The theology of the Trinity is that, God is one in essence, three in person. The three persons are co-equal, co-existing, co-eternal. The three persons existed as Jehovah God. Jehovah refers to the being of God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In regards to Jesus, he always existed as God. There never was a time when Jesus was not God. Jesus entered into humanity through the Incarnation (John 1:1-4; 1:14 cf. Phil. 2:5-8). Jesus pre-existed before His birth in Bethlehem (Ps. 2:7; cf. John 8:58). Jesus took upon Himself the nature of man (Phil. 2:5-11). Jesus Himself acknowledged His own divinity (John 20:28-29). The apostles taught the divinity of Jesus (Col. 1:15-19 cf. Heb. 1:8). The testimony of Jesus about Himself is sinlessness. Jesus said: “Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?” (John 8:46 NASB). If Jesus is sinless, He is free from error, and if He is free from error, what He speaks is absolute truth.  His apostles proclaimed the sinlessness of Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21 cf. 1 Peter 1:19). Therefore if Jesus is fully God and fully man apart from sin or error; He must be acknowledged as possessing (divine truth without error) as totality of Holy Scripture possesses of which atheism objects.

                God the Son existed before man existed.   It is hardly inconsistent for the God-man to be submissive to the God the Father; for the God-man humbly submitted to His Beloved Father.  Within the family, a wife is submissive to her husband, yet both are equal in value.  So too, then, the God-man is co-equal with the Father yet submissive.  The Holy Spirit is submissive to the Father and the Son yet co-equal with the Father and the Son.  What a radical Christian thought it is for the God-man to converse to the Father!  If you wish to understand prayer, look to Jesus.  If you wish to comprehend how to pray, look to Jesus.  Why, oh man, do you deny His example?  Perhaps you call Him a good teacher, yet you do not follow His good ways.  How inconsistent!  Your ways of rejecting the gospel light is a sure indication of divine judgment.  This does not demonstrate three “Gods,” but One God Who is Eternally Self-Existent.  Jesus said “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30 KJV).  Jesus is of the same substance as God the Father.  He is the God-man who died and who lives forevermore.  God created the “heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The Incarnate Son of Man demonstrates who he is by His divine words and actions. Jesus believed He was God in human flesh. Jesus believed in the existence of the Father (John 17) and in the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2). Jesus spoke of God on many occasions. He was called Immanuel which means “God with us” (Matt. 1:23; cf. Is. 7:14). Jesus makes a plethora of statements of the pronouncement of God’s existence. In Mark 12, Jesus rebukes the religious leaders because of their bogus tradition, which was alien to Him, His teachings, the written Word of God. In accordance with what Jesus said, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mark 12:24 NIV).

                The New Testament exhibits unique circumstances of prayer by Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Scriptures define prayer in basic terms, as a request and general communication to a heavenly God on behalf of the believing individual. The New Testament provides actual accounts of Jesus’ prayers. The New Testament demonstrates prayer by Jesus in connection with the existence of God. Jesus in the New Testament Gospels provides confident models of prayer of the existence of God and the legitimacy of prayer. The prayers of Jesus demonstrate that, communication between God and man is a genuine actuality. The prayers of Jesus displays further that, prayer is an opportunity to establish, possess, maintain a personal relationship with a transcendent God.

                The consistent demonstration of Jesus in the action of prayer exhibits Jesus’ commitment to a work of obedience. The nature of the prayers of Jesus are thanksgiving (John 11:41-42), adoration (Matt. 11:25-27) and intercession (John 17:1-26). If Jesus is God incarnate as the Gospels reveal, is it not true that the Father is real?  There is perfect unity between the Father and the Son.  Jesus prayed in the act of intercession for His people. The prayers of Jesus are always answered in accord with the will of the Father; for He always does what is pleasing to the Father (John 8:29).  Jesus is the Impeccable One; He did not have the capacity to sin or error.  His prayers represent perfect efficacious petitions.  Jesus committed Himself to the Father in righteousness, trustworthiness, high esteem. Jesus gave adoration to the Father. Jesus worships God as He Himself appropriately commands (John 4:23). Jesus also prayed at His baptism by John the Baptist (Luke 3:21- 22), previous to choosing the apostles (Luke 6:12-16), at Jesus’ transfiguration (Luke 9:28-29) and within Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-42). Jesus prayed on a mountain (Matt. 14:23), in secret (Luke 5:16) and taught about prayer (Luke 11:1).  As Jesus prayed to the Father, Christians ought to pray to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

                Jesus believed and acknowledged the existence of God in recorded history in the New Testament. Jesus Himself believed to be God incarnate. His signs attested His divine identity in a sure divine fashion.  Jesus provided credible substantiation of His resurrected self, and spoke about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). Jesus by His own testimony is sinless, free form error or mistake. His bodily resurrection guarantees His teaching about Himself and other profound religious matters are necessarily true. Ipso facto! Therefore all the teachings of Jesus about Himself and His overall teaching vitae are propositionally true. If the atheist truly holds to morality or ethics, the atheist cannot deny the truth for the reality of truth itself (i.e., the preponderance of Jesus’ evidence in Holy Scripture) and, ethics by which he claims to philosophically hold. Jesus Christ is Incarnate Truth.  Submit, then, to the King of truth!

                Dear atheist, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a message of good news.  The good news is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  His gospel is about grace, truth, forgiveness.  Repentance is turning from sin to Christ.  Confess your sins to God through Christ crucified:  “…repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 NASB).  Will you surrender to Christ and give your life to Him?  Will you live a life of faithful obedience to Him?  Will you be zealous in constant and faithful repentance?  Does your life fall under the approval of Christ?  Is your thought life consistent with godliness?  Turn from your life of sin.  I rightly assume you are sinner.  We are moral creatures, and there will be a sure Judgment.  It approaches; the question is, will you be ready?  You stand now in the spiritual clothes of a sinner.  How shall you stand before a sinless, holy, just, righteous God?  Tell me, you suppose your scheme will avail before God if such a judgment is true?  No mere human argument conceived can get you out of His judgment.  You must turn to Christ, and be forgiven.  Do not think “I choose what to do with Christ.”  No, my friend, it is Christ Who will choose what to do with you.  But all of humanity has the sure responsibility to repent: “…repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 NASB).

Appendix 1: 

Christian Prayer

                Christians pray unto their Lord.  The New Testament solidly demonstrates the Christian action of obedience to God.  One of the actions of obedience to God is prayer.  The Christian teaching on prayer is conversing with God.  Prayer is a work of submission by the believer in Christ.  The submission of the believer in Christ acknowledges the state of man in comparison to God.  The submission of believers to God is an act of conformity to His delightful commandments.  Believers know that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, holy, just, good, sinless.  Therefore believers trust God. 

The Christian perspective of prayer is one of the basics in Christian thought.  Yet it is a profound essential in the Christian walk with Christ.  Christian prayer is beneficial in the Christian life.  Third John indicates John’s prayer intentions for Gaius (3 John 1:2).The intention of the believer is to petition to God for another individual.  This is the essence of intercessory prayer.  Intercessory prayer is a good work in Christ.  Intercessory prayer is not the same as asking saints in heaven to pray for people.  We ought to walk in prayer with Christ.  Christian intercessory prayer reflects the Christian’s commitment in love, in truth, in hope, in dedication, in diligence.  It is solely based on God’s written Word.  We should not use pray instructions if it is not derived from God’s Word. 

We pray for others; be they, theist or atheist, friend or enemy, brother or sister, mother or father.  Intercessory prayer is a deep request for another.  You may pray for someone’s salvation, job opportunity, home life.  These are things people pray for unto God.  Romanists will pray for the dead, but this kind of teaching is absent from divine Scripture.  Petitions to God the Father through Christ powered by the Holy Spirit will depend upon the request of the spirit-filled Christian.  Prayer is a unique privilege, honor, delight.  It is a glorious time to correspond unto God.  It provides a momentous opportunity to truly address God.  We may be faced with times of deep distress, trail, tribulation.  But by God’s grace Christians maintain diligent persistence in God, for God and to God. 

Prayer enables Christians to communicate unto God.  We do not communicate unto God because of the goodness of man.  Rather we communicate unto God because of the work of the Holy Trinity.  Christian prayer is a weapon of goodness.  It is the instrument of God for His beloved people.  It is a weapon against evil, sin, persecution, Satan, the world, the flesh; protection from the wicked, assistance, help from God in tribulation.  It is for God’s people.  It is for the faithful, persistent, dedicated followers of God in Christ. 

Holy Scripture is filled with abundant examples of prayer to God.  Jesus Himself prayed to God the Father to sanctify His followers through God’s truth.  Divine Scripture shows the basis for the Christian obedience to God in prayer.  It is shown to us by Jesus Christ.  He is the eternal, uncreated, sinless Savior and God.  The Incarnate Word of God teaches that prayer is a time of communication to God.  We are to pray unto our God as Jesus did for His beloved people.  Truth was a fundamental focus of the prayer of Jesus.  Christ Himself in the New Testament taught the Our Father.  As we have already seen the Our Father has many profound examples to us to use in the Christian life.  Initially, Jesus Himself acknowledges Who He is praying to and where the Father is (e.g., Our Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9).  Jesus Himself praises and acknowledges the utter and complete holiness of God the Father (e.g., Hallowed be thy name).  The statement of Jesus Himself shows a dedication to the Father’s will on “earth and in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  The Our Father indicates God’s prayer that ought to be pursued by Christians (e.g., Thy will be done).  The other important aspects of the Our Father demonstrate God’s love (Matthew 6:11), God-fearing believers engage in confession and a willingness to forgive (Matthew 6:12), deliverance from temptation, evil, sin, acknowledgement of God’s powerfulness (Matthew 6:13).  This is the obvious truth: prayer is a good work of God.  The Sinless Alpha and Omega gives us a glorious prayer.

                When Christians pray we have a unique and unusual privilege to enter into the very presence of God.  Christians enter into a profound spiritual state of Coram Deo in the Christian prayer life.  Christians have the grace-given motivation to pray because of God’s beloved and truthful promises.  Christians are in the presence of God.  Prayer usually ends with an Amen (1 Corinthians 14:6).  Justin the Martyr was a convert, evangelist, apologist.  He said that the word amen means so let is be.  Christians proclaim amen to strongly agree with God’s will alone. 

                Intercessory prayer is explicitly found in Scripture.  But the Roman understanding of intercessory prayer is not found in divine Scripture.  The apostle Paul asks the believers in Rome to pray for him on his behalf (Romans 15:30).  Paul asks for intercession for himself and for other believers (2 Thessalonians 3:1; Ephesians 6:18-19).  Paul mentions in 1 Timothy 2:1-17 of prayer offerings for all men to God.  Christians pray in the name of Christ (John 14:13) because true prayer acknowledges His office as Mediator (2 Timothy 2:5).  Prayer gives Christians courage in what we stand for in Christ. 

                Divine Scripture indicates several prerequisites to Christian prayer.  True believers in prayer ought to have a pure and sincere heart (Psalm 66:18-19).  A pure, bold, sincere heart of a believer to God through His Son shows reverence, commitment, deep adoration, agreement to His will.  These words of Christian worship in prayer describe what is good to act upon in the Christian walk with Christ.  These words of Christian adoration ought not to be interpreted as mere words in life.  Rather, these words of Christian worship ought to be words in action.  We are not to be prayerless.  Prayerlessness is based on gracelessness.  Graceless prayer is prayerless prayers.  We are to be committed to grace-abundant, grace-centered, grace-exalting truth in our prayers.

                Christians ought to pray on a consistent basis to God.  The believer’s commitment to prayer will demonstrate God’s work of super-abundant grace.  Do you wish to please our great, mighty, awesome God?  Give Him thanks and praise from a pure heart of grace, truth, love, hope.  We ought to pray to be an example to others.  We ought to be dedicated, diligent, disciplined about our prayers.  Communication between God and man is because of Christ as Mediator.  Christians have opportunity for supplication (1 Timothy 2:1-3), confession of transgressions (1 First 1:9), and intercession (James 5:14).  We can pray to God in the quiet chambers our hearts.  We can also communicate to out loud.  We ought to have a heart dedicated to deep reverence, owe, adoration. 

Trinity Thou art brilliancy

Always waiting for me,

In times of difficulty,

Even through misery,

And times of suffering.

To Thee I confess

And summit too openly

In whatever state I may be.

Protect and rescue me,

As in the past,

Now in the present,

Or future state Thy hast purposed

Hear and remember me,

Oh, precious Trinity of my memory,

Amen and amen. 

Christians may sin in prayer.  We may speak flippantly to God in our prayers.  When we sin, we ought to repent of our sin.  It is good if we recognize it when it happens.  We need a soft heart.  We ought to avoid mocking to Him.  We ought to be prompted to give one’s self in humility to God.  Christians ought to remember His righteousness, holiness, justice, awesomeness, supreme majesty.  The holiness of God is superlatively set apart, extraordinary, fantastic, wonderful, awesome, blessed, pure, magnificent.  Prayer of Christian worship may reflect the knowledge of the nature of God.  We are fallible, limited, fallen, sinful.  We ought to know who we speak to.  God knows to whom He instructs By His Spirit. 

                Divine Scripture shows prayer in different manners.  Prayer is in secret (Matthew 6:6), in a group (Matthew 18:20), in a family structure (Acts 10:2), in public (1 Corinthians 14:14-17).  Prayer by the Holy Spirit changes lives, heals wounds, restore families.  God in His infinite wisdom knows what is best for us.  Can a sinful creature dictate what he wants?  Isn’t God infinite in knowledge, perfection and purpose?  We ought to be committed, devoted, diligent, dedication to Christ, and sing…

Christ Thou art my focus

As the apostle Paul concedes

I come before Thee humbly

With Thy grace Thou enabled me

How gracious Thou art to me!

Savior and Lord, who is with me,

The Second Member of the Trinity!

To Thee I come on bended knee,

A gentle slave of Thee,

So pleased to imitate Thee,

Wounded as a soldier could only be,

Only by heavenly means this could be!

Thankful for Thy blessings,

Looking up to Thee so desperately,

As an infant in incapacity

With crying eyes of tremendous suffering,

A heavy heart, burdened so drastically,

Do what You will with me,

Gracious Advocate who watches over me.

In owe I am of Thee, my Blessed Lord who loves me.

Have mercy upon me,

Of all I am I cry out to Thee,

According to Thy will grant such things for me,

My blessed Lord who sustains me,

Amen. 

The Blessed Trinity is active in Christian prayer.  It is the means He uses to accomplish His purposes.  We can plainly see this in the life of Christ.  Christians profess God as our great, mighty, awesome deliverer, refuge; trust (Psalm 62:5-8).  Christ intercedes for His people (Hebrews 7:25).  Christ ought to be our focus (Hebrews 12:22).  The Holy Spirit also intercedes for His people (Romans 6:26-27).  Prayer demonstrates that God is personal, moral, merciful, just, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present.  Prayer to the Blessed Trinity is to experience God as King and Sovereign of all things.  Christians ought to worship God aright.

Appendix 2:

Hypocrisy and Prayer

                Let us examine Matthew 6:5-7:

5"When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

6"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

7"And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.  (NASB).

The Lord Jesus never engaged in hypocritical prayer.  His prayer was a fragment aroma to the Father.  It was well-pleasing to God the Father.  What Jesus taught, He practiced.  Jesus never sinned once in prayer to God the Father.  You would not find the Lord Jesus hypocritically standing to pray in the synagogues and on the street corners.  His prayer was flawless, spotless, ceaseless adoration, perfect utterances of the purest sort.  He prayed in perfection, righteousness, holiness.  There was never a time He offered a prayer that was sinful.  There was never a time when He prayed contrary to the will of the Father.  The Lord Jesus never used meaningless repetitions, empty phrases, foolish prayers.  He prayed in secret without sin; He prayed in public without hypocrisy; He prayer was the purest, most righteous, most fervent devotion; divine words to His Heavenly Father. 

                J. R. Miller author of Come Ye Apart wrote,

One of the most important things we ever do in this world is to pray.  No business transacted anywhere so deeply touches the interests of our lives.  We ought therefore to learn to pray aright, so as to be sure of answer.  We ought to be eager to get every smallest fragment of instruction about prayer.  In our word for to-day we have one of our Lord’s plainest and most significant instructions about the manner and nature of prayer.  He is speaking, not of public prayer, as when the minister leads the congregation, but of personal prayer, when the child of God wants to talk to his Father of his own affairs, and lay at his feet his own individual burdens.  We should seek to be alone in all such praying.  Other presences about us disturb our thoughts and restrict our freedom.  So we are to go into our closet and shut the door.  This shutting of the door is significant in several ways.  It shuts the world out.  It secures us against interruption.  It ought to shut our worldly thoughts and cares and distractions, as well as worldly presences.  Wandering in prayer is usually one of our sorest troubles.  Then it shuts us in, and this also is important and significant.  It shuts us in alone with God.  No eye but his sees us as we bow in heart’s feelings and desires.  Thus we are helped to realize that with God alone have we to do, that he alone can help us.  As we are shut up alone with God, so also are we shut up to God.  There is precious comfort in the assurance that when we thus pray we are not talking into the air.  There is an ear to hear, though we can see no presence, and it is the ear of our Father.  This assures us of loving regard in heaven, also of prompt and gracious answer.[23]

We are to pray as the Lord directed.  The instruction the Lord Jesus is relevant to us today.  God’s Word is timeless.  We are not to pray as the hypocrites of His day.  He says what not to do.  The hypocrites of His day would love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners.  Their purpose was to be seen of men.  Hypocrites received a reward from men as they sinfully prayed in public.  All sinful prayer is an offence against God.  This kind of prayer is the prayer of the wicked.  The pattern of the hypocrite was to sound a trumpet before giving to the poor.  That is, they would have people notice and receive a reward from them.  They sought after human rewards and satisfaction.  Their display of “righteousness” was honored by men.  It was not honored by God.  They received their reward in full.  They will not get a reward from God.  There is no reward from our Heavenly Father if we seek to be honored by men.  Divine Scriptures speaks of what is honored by men is an abominable before God.  Chrysostom wrote,

While pretending to pray to God, the hypocrites are looking around for human praise.  The elaborate garb they wear is laughable, and hardly that of a sincere supplicant.  One who is earnestly offering a supplication looks exclusively to the One who has the power to grant the request and lets all other claims recede.  But if you leave behind the one you are petitioning and immediately go wandering about looking everywhere for others’ approval, you will depart with empty hands.[24]

We are to do good works in secret, and our Heavenly Father will reward us.  As Christians we are not to stand and pray in church so that we may be seen of men.  We are not to even read Scripture to be seen by men.  We are not to seek to be honored by men.  When Christians pray on Wednesday nights, do we seek to verbally announce our prayers to get esteem from men?  Do we live our lives in the pattern of the hypocrites of old?  Do we live our lives in consistency of doing the Lord’s will?  The characteristic of the hypocrite is worldliness, and settling for earthly treasures.  Do we seek to store up treasures where moth and rust corrupt?  Do we seek to store up treasures in heaven?  We ought to pray in a secret room.  It ought to be where no one sees us.  We ought to pray to our Heavenly Father in secret.  Where no one sees, is where our Heavenly Father sees us openly.  Our Heavenly Father who sees us in secret will reward us.  Chrysostom wrote, “Your inner will cannot be hid.  This is why Jesus did not say, “They shall not receive a reward” but “They have received their reward”—already!  Their reward comes from those from whom they themselves cannot desire to get it.  God does not desire this. For God preferred to bestow upon humanity the grace that comes only from himself.  Those who seek their reward from people cannot receive another reward from the One for whom they have sought nothing.”[25]

The Lord Jesus spoke of when we pray.  He does not want us to use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles did.  We are not heard because of our many words.  Christians may pray for an hour or so.  We ought to keep this in mind when we pray for long periods of time.  We could easily slip into this serious sin.  We ought to pray with meaningful words.  An example of meaningless repetition is the Rosary.  Catholics repeat the prayers of the Rosary.  It is a stench in God’s nostrils.  The prayers of Jesus are the farthest thing from what we see in Romanism.  The Lord Jesus used meaningful prayers in holy desperation in harmony with the will of God (but not meaningless words over and over again).  Chrysostom wrote,

We have an example of just how great a distance there is between the wordy and the humble and simple prayer in the story of the Pharisee and the publican.  The prayer of the Pharisee vaunting himself in his abundance of words was rejected.  The humble and contrite publican, on the other hand, asking forgiveness for his sins, came away more justified then the self-boasting Pharisee. In this we find fulfilled what was written: “The prayer of the humble penetrates the clouds,” reaching God who is ready to hear the request of the one who prays.[26]

We can learn greatly from how the Lord Jesus prayed.  He never used empty phrases or vain sayings in prayer.  When we are desperate we ought to pray to the Lord.  Do you remember what happened to Saul?  In his desperation, he turned to the occult for answers.  But we see the Lord Jesus prayed unto His Father.  He prayed according to the will of God the Father.  He did not pray to change the Father’s will.  Rather, He prayed in conformity to the will of the Father.  Nowadays some theologians deny that all of the prayers of Jesus are answered.  There was never a prayer of Jesus Christ that was not answered.  All of the prayers of Jesus Christ are answered (Luke 23:34 cf. Acts 2). 

I remember a time in my life when I was a little boy.  A distinguished professor wondered about the matter of praying in the will of God.  He wondered if we should pray according to our will, or the Father’s will.  It was his understanding that we ought to pray according to our will.  He voiced His objection about praying according to God’s will alone.  But the Christian Bible is clear: we ought to pray according to the will of the Father.  I had a Catholic professor and priest who made it sound like we ought to pray the way this man desired.  The traditions of men over-throw the Holy Scriptures.  We ought to pray as the Lord Jesus.  We ought to say as He did; saying to the Father, “Thy will be done.”  May we joyfully sing!

My Jesus, as thou wilt! O may thy will be mine; into thy hand of love I would my all resign.  Through sorrow, or through joy, conduct me as thine own; and help me still to say, my Lord, thy will be done.  My Jesus, as thou wilt!  If needy here and poor, give me thy people’s bread, their portion rich and sure.  The manna of thy Word let my soul feed upon; and if all else shall fail, my Lord, thy will be done.  My Jesus, as thou wilt!  Though seen through many a tear, let not my start of hope grow dim or disappear.  Since thou on earth hast wept, and sorrowed oft alone, if I must weep with thee, my Lord, thy will be done.  My Jesus, as thou wilt!  All shall be well for me; each changing future scene I gladly trust with thee.  Straight to my home above I travel calmly on, and sing, in life or death, “My Lord, thy will be done.”[27]

The example of the Lord Jesus is not to be abused.  The Lord Jesus never engaged in hypocrisy and sinful prayer.  We see in Romanism an example of abuse regarding prayerless prayers.  We are not to be praying meaningless repetition.  The Lord Jesus is an example in all things to us.  The Psalmist engaged in meaningful praise (e.g., “Praise the Lord”) when he prayed (Psalm 150:1-6).  We do not want to pray with mindless and meaningless sayings.  We ought to be very careful how we pray, what we pray for, and why we pray for it.  Hilary wrote in another sense, “We are asked to pray with the bedroom door closed, as it were, and we are taught to poor out our prayer in every place.  The saints’ prayers were undertaken in the presence of wild animals, in prisons, in flames, from the depths of the sea and the belly of the beast.   Hence we are admonish not to enter recesses of our homes but the bedroom of our hearts.  With the office of our minds closed, we pray to God not with many words but with our conscience, for every act is superior to the words of speakers.”[28]  We ought to take the example of Holy Scripture, and not the example we see in Romanism.  We see nuns in their attire, and priests wearing black, praying repetitious prayers.  The clothing wrecks of hypocrisy, and the meaningless prayers uttered.  Meaningless prayers can be prayers to God and saints and angels.  Such prayer only enrages the God of Holy Scripture.  The only One worthy of prayer is the Lord of heaven and earth. 

Appendix 3:

A Brief Rational and Scriptural Response on Prayers to Saints and Angels

                The unanimous consent of Sacred Scripture is prayer to God alone.  Divine Scripture reveals the truth on prayer.  It never gives a single reference in support to prayer to saints and angels.  In fact, we discover, quite quickly, of the explicit reality of apostolic disapproval of it, and the approval of prayer to God alone.  This is meant as brief presentation against prayer to saints and angels.  I think an entire book on this subject is forthcoming.  Every verse used to support prayer to saints and angels are refuted by the meaning of divine Scripture.  I hope to provide simple Scripture verses that explicitly, clearly, plainly refute this man-made tradition.  My prayer and hope is that people would embrace the plain testimony of Divine Scripture! 

                I have come across Romanists who believe this following kind of twisted logic.  I believe it is worth responding to.  Romanists will sometimes say that they ask the saints to pray for them, but they are not praying to them.  Does this make any logical sense?  Let us consider it for a moment.  If someone asks a saint in heaven to pray for them, are they not speaking to them to ask them?  Since they believe asking for prayers to saints in heaven is basically the same as asking people on earth to pray for you, let us entertain this for a moment: If I ask brothers in Christ on earth asks to pray for me, am I not speaking to them and asking them?  If a person asks another to pray for them, they are, in fact, speaking to them.  How is it that they are not speaking to them?  We see that in the blind zeal of Romanists they will advocate this position.  They have zeal but it is not according to divine, sacred, trustworthy knowledge. 

Let us listen carefully to what is being divinely stated in Divine Scripture:

Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:10 NASB).

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.  But he said to me, "Do not do that I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God."  (John 22:8-9 NASB).

On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him.  But Peter raised him up, saying, "Stand up; I too am just a man."  As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled. (Acts 10:24-27 NASB).

We need to understand that prayer is worship.  Here we see John worshiping the angel, but he was forbidden to do it.  Both times the angel commanded him to worship God alone.  We also see that Peter did not accept worship.  We see that the angel commanded John, and Peter commanded Cornelius to worship God alone.  These are explicit verses that speak to the truth of worship.  We ought to not worship angels or saints.  It is a practice forbidden in Divine Scripture.  May we be devoted, committed, dedicated on prayer to God alone!  Amen. 

Appendix 4:

The Humanity and Deity of Jesus Christ

The Lord Jesus Christ had two natures: human and divine.  The Lord Jesus “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52 NIV).  The human nature was like us in all respects, but He was completely without sin:  “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV).  The divine Word took on flesh: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 KJV).  In Christ dwells the deity in bodily form:  “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ…”  (Colossians 2:5-11 KJV).

The Lord Jesus Christ has a divine nature.  He was fully divine.  He fully possessed the attributes of all-knowing, all-wisdom, all-powerfulness, omnipresence, holiness, righteousness.  The Lord Jesus was God in human flesh.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3 NASB).  He was the Word Incarnate, the Prince of Peace, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God.  He was the great I AM of Exodus: “Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."  (John 8:58 NASB).  He is the God over all:  “whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:5 NASB).

The humanity and deity of Jesus Christ is an essential truth of Scripture.  Denying it leads to eternal doom, but embracing it in the gospel is eternal life.  We must be aware of eternal importance of this sacred doctrine.  This doctrine is perfectly consistent with the prayers of Jesus Christ.  The Lord Jesus prayed in context of being the God-man.  We must not deny the Incarnate Word of God, and what the written Word of God says about the prayers of Jesus Christ.  The Scripture provides harmonious truth that speaks to the humanity and deity of Christ, and the authentic prayers of Jesus Christ.  The prayers of Christ fit with His ministry, life, purpose.  May we live in conformity with these truths of Scripture!  Amen. 

Appendix 5:

The Subordination of the Incarnate Son of God

“Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34 KJV).

“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30 KJV).

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8 KJV).

“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 5:8-10 KJV).

“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:5-10 KJV).

We must handle the doctrine of the subordination of Jesus Christ with tender care.  People nowadays think subordination and inequality are the same.  In the Trinity, however, there are three distinct persons in one true being.  All the persons are equal in nature, in honor, in glory.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are eternal and self-existent.  They have divine character and attributes.  When we use the term ‘subordinate’ we do not mean the Lord Jesus Christ was inferior.  The Son is co-equal, co-essential, co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit.  The Son is subordinate to His Beloved Father in the economy of redemption.

                The Son voluntarily takes a submissive role to the Father.  This is done in the plan of redemption.  The Father sends His Son into the world.  The Son perfectly obeys the Father to come to earth.  The Son perfectly does the will of His Father.  The Son was not forced in being sent into the world.  The Son was not reluctant to fulfill the Father’s will.  The Son freely went on behalf of His Father.  The Father and the Son have one will.  The Father and the Son both want redemption.  The Son’s meat and drink was to do His Father’ will.  The subordination of Christ was not only in suffering.  It included all His work, and ultimate glorification.  It pleased God from His eternal purpose to chose Christ as the Mediator, Prophet, Priest, King, Head and Savior of His Church, heir of all things, Judge of the world.  Christ submitted to the Father’s will.  Christ did for us what we will unwilling and unable to do for ourselves.  The complete life of Jesus Christ demonstrates His sinless obedience unto His Father.  Because Christ sinlessly obeyed the law, He was qualified to be our Redeemer.  The Son is the Lamb without spot.  He did not atone for His sins but the sins of His people. The Lord Jesus “earned the rewards God promised to all who keep His covenant.  He merited the rewards of heaven that He bestows upon us.  As the subordinate One, He saved a people who had been insubordinate.”[29]

                I mention this essential doctrine because the life of Christ was seen in a life of fervent prayer unto His Father.  He prayed unto God in an act of prayerful submission.  His prayers demonstrated that the Son was freely submissive.  The prayers of Christ were according to His Father’s will.  Christ never opposed the Father’s will.  When He prayed it was truth-exalting, grace-abounding, life-giving words unto His Father.  May we live lives subordinate to our Father’s will through His Son by His Spirit!  Amen. 

Appendix 6: 

The Mediator as the God-man

                The doctrine of the mediation of the God-man is an essential truth of the Christian faith.  It is basic to the Christian faith.  But we see in our day a denial of it in Romanism.  We see the elevation of Mary as our Mediatrix and Advocate.  Jehovah’s Witnesses deny that Jesus Christ is the God-man.  This fundamental denial of sacred truth is catastrophic to their scheme.  We see a departure from the Christian faith about the mediation of Jesus Christ.  Let us briefly consider this truth with the help of God the Holy Spirit as our Beloved Teacher.  Oh, Spirit come work, revive, stimulate, penetrate our minds that we may exalt, glorify, honor the Father’s Beloved Son! 

                Let us consider the sacred verses that speak to this precious truth of Scripture:

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us (Romans 8:33-34 NKJV).

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus… (1 Timothy 2:5 NKJV).

And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: “The LORD has sworn and will not relent, ‘ You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’”), by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.  Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:20-25 NKJV).

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.  Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.  For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”  Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry.  And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. (Hebrews 9:11-22 NKJV).

In Scripture we learn that Jesus Christ is the go-between.  The God-man stands between two parties because of the need of reconciliation with God.  Christ is the perfect Mediator who is able to make peace between God and man.  We have peace through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).  His work of meditation is superior to Moses of the Old Covenant.  Christ was counted worthy of more glory then Moses (Hebrews 3:3-6).  Fallen, unsaved sons and daughters of Adam are at war with God.  Unregenerate people are children of enmity, wrath, disobedience.  Totally depraved sinners rebel against a holy and just God.  We revolt against the law of God, and we refuse to obey it.  We have fallen in Adam, and because of it we have God’s wrath on us.  It is indeed a catastrophic situation.  We must be reconciled to God through the God-man to be redeemed.  Redemption is necessary for fallen creatures. 

                The Son was appointed by the Father to reconcile a people unto Himself.  The Son was sent to be the Mediator of His beloved people.  Christ is not simply human, but He is divine.  The Son is the God-man; He brings to us the majesty of God.  God the Son took upon Himself a human nature; He submissively, freely submitted Himself to the law of God.  In terms of reconciliation, the Father was not persuaded by the Son.  The eternal counsel of God reveals that the Father and the Son are in total agreement that Christ would be the Mediator.  Here is where Jehovah’s Witnesses fail: Christ could not represent us to God if in fact He was an exalted angel.  No, only God the Son could represent Himself to God. 

                God the Son became man to accomplish redemption.  Christ lived a life of sinless obedience to the law of God.  He satisfied God’s demand of wrath.  Christ positively and negatively satisfied the heavenly requirements.  The New Covenant was brought about by His blood, and He intercedes for us.  Christ is our Great High Priest.  He is the perfect, complete, all-sufficient Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, Divine Substitute.[30]

  

End Notes

---

[1] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly.  (Glasgow:  Free Presbyterian Publications, 1998), p. 43

[2] J. R. Miller.  Come Ye Apart: Daily Readings in the Life of Christ.  (Alabama: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2002), May 2.

[3] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 43.

[4] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 43. 

[5] Miller, May 3. 

[6] Miller, May 4.

[7] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 43. 

[8] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 44.

[9] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 44. 

[10] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 44.

[11] Miller, May 6. 

[12] Miller, May 7. 

[13] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 44. 

[14] Miller,  May 8. 

[15] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 45.

[16] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, p. 45. 

[17] The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly,  p. 45. 

[18] Manlio Simonetti., Ed., Ancient Christian Commentary, New Testament 1a, Matthew 1-13, (Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2001), p. 230.

[19] RC Sproul.  New Geneva Study Bible.  (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), p. 1696.

[20] RC Sproul.  Essential Truths of the Christian Faith.  (Illinois:  Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992), p. 94.

[21] RC Sproul.  New Geneva Study Bible, p. 1649.

[22] RC Sproul.  New Geneva Study Bible, p. 1648.

[23] Miller, May 1. 

[24] Manlio Simonetti., Ed., p. 127.

[25] Manlio Simonetti., Ed., p. 127.

[26] Manlio Simonetti., Ed., p. 129.

[27] Trinity Hymnal.  Baptist Edition.  (GA:  Grant Commission Publications, Inc., 2000), Hymn 572.

[28] Manlio Simonetti., Ed., p. 127-128.

[29] RC Sproul.  Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, p. 80. 

[30] RC Sproul.  Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, p. 99-100.  A special thanks to RC Sproul.  His work is always useful to me, and I am eternally thankful for his expertise, guidance, direction in his works. 

Herein is a study of the wondrous, amazing, awesome prayers of the Son of Man.  We discover the splendorous, glory-bound, fantastic prayers of Christ.  The prayers of Christ were the power of His sacred, blessed, holy ministry.  Through the testimony of divine Scripture we learn of the divine, heavenly, glorious principles of Jesus’ prayer life.  Here you will learn sound, solid, foundational truths of the prayer life of Jesus Christ.  It is my hope and prayer that you will grow, mature, develop a sound prayer life from the awesome, God-glorifying, God-magnifying prayers of Christ in the New Testament.  Dive into the depths, riches, graces of the prayers of Incarnate Grace.