Church Sermon - April 2, 2006

LEARN OF JESUS CHRIST TO PRAY

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Jeremiah 31:31-34
Gospel Lesson; John 12:23-33
Sermon Text; Hebrews 5:7-9

Six years ago, at a small Christian college in Nashville, Tennessee, a 6’2" freshman, star, basketball player on the women’s basketball team, (who was leading that little college’s team in a winning season), called her mom one night. She said, "Mom, I think I have the flu. I have the chills. I am sweating. I am starting to throw up."

The next day that young lady, named Kaia Jorgensen, was taken in an ambulance to the hospital, unconscious, and in critical condition. She had a unique form of meningitis that caused a bacterial infection in her blood.

The student body at that small Christian college began to pray. They would pray for her in the morning. They would pray for her in the evening. They would pray for her during classes. It was not long before some of the students decided to arrange for a prayer vigil, where they would pray for Kaia Jorgensen 24 hours a day. People would take turns, for ten minutes, morning, afternoon, and evening, all day long, 24 hours a day. (They had so many people sign up to pray that they had too many people signed up to pray!)

And, they were all praying the same thing. They were praying that God would restore Kaia to complete health, that she would be able to walk back into the classroom, and that she would be able to be back on the basketball court, again some day. And, they knew God’s promises, concerning prayer. They knew that the Bible says,

And they were praying without ceasing.

They knew Jesus, in the Bible says,

They were asking for complete healing. They were asking that she would be back on the basketball court. And, they knew the Bible’s promise.

And so, they prayed.

Seven days later, the campus was crushed, when they got the word that both of Kaia’s legs had to be amputated in an effort to save her life. She was not going to walk back into the classroom. And, she was not going to be back on the basketball court.

On campus, questions began to float around and be asked of the professors. "Why, when so many people were praying for complete healing, praying that she would be able to be back on the basketball court, why didn’t God answer those prayers?" "Why didn’t God respond to the prayers of His people?" And, "Does God answer prayers?"

Those are good questions.

Maybe you have been through that in your own life. Maybe, at nighttime, for nights on end, you had laid on your bed, with tears on your pillow, as you pleaded with God, pleaded with Him, "Dear God, please restore my failing marriage."

And yet, in the end, your marriage broke up. And you wonder to yourself, "Why? Why, when I pleaded so desperately with the Lord that He restore my marriage, why wasn’t it restored? Doesn’t God answer my prayers?"

Maybe you have sat at your kitchen table, at the end of the month, with the bills spread out all over the place, and your checkbook. And you know the bills are bigger than the money that is in your checkbook. And that has happened month, after month, after month.

And, month, after month, after month you have folded your hands in prayer, and prayed, "Dear God, please somehow, make it to work so that I have enough money to pay the bills."

And here, still today, you are still in that same situation. And you ask yourself, "Why, when I pray so fervently that God give me relief from these financial struggles, why doesn’t He do it? Does God not hear and answer my prayers?"

In order to find the answer to those questions, we need to go smack dab to the Garden of Gethsemane. At the Garden of Gethsemane, we find our dear Savior praying, desperately praying. As our text says, "During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death."

Look at what our Savior was facing. We know from scripture that as Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He tells us His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even to the point of death. He was in so much distress and so much agony, that He was almost ready to die. The Bible tells us that when He went into the Garden of Gethsemane, He fell down, with His face to the ground. He was lying with His face in the dirt, praying to God. The Bible tells us that He sweat, as it were great drops of blood. The distress and agony that our Savior was going through is beyond our comprehension.

And why all the distress and why all of the agony? Because He saw what was coming. He knew that He was about to bear the sins of the entire world. He knew that He was about to go forward, to suffer physically, emotionally, spiritually more than anyone of us here could even begin to endure. He knew He was about to be betrayed by Judas. He knew He was about to be flogged, crowned with thorns, mocked, nailed to a cross, suffer (beyond what we can imagine), and take the shame and guilt of our sin. And, His human nature recoiled at what was about to happen.

And so, we find our dear Savior, pleading, pleading with His Father in Heaven, three times, (the Bible tells us). He went into the garden and He pleaded, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me."

The first thing we learn about prayer, from our Savior, in that situation is that in times of deep distress, in times of deep agony, in times of sever temptation, our Savior teaches us to pray. And, what did He call God? He said, "Father, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me."

In your hour of deep distress, agony, and temptation, our Savior leads us to God. He teaches us to pray to Him, and to call Him Father. Even in the hour of deepest distress, He is our Father. Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father, who art in Heaven."

I love Martin Luther’s explanation to that in the Catechism. He says, "What does this mean?"

His explanation is: "God hereby tenderly, tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father, and we are His true children, so that we may ask Him, with all boldness and confidence, as children ask their dear father."

And so, Christ teaches us to come to God, as children come before their dear father, boldly and confidently. Jesus prayed, "If it is possible, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but Thy Will be done."

Was it possible for that cup to pass from Christ? Did Jesus need to go to the cross, in order for Himself to be saved? The answer to that is absolutely not! Jesus is the one person on this earth who was perfect, sinless, spotless. And, He was the one person on this earth who deserved to be in Heaven, deserved to have eternal salvation. It was not necessary for Jesus’ sake that He went to that cross. "If it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but Thy Will be done."

And, what was God’s answer to His dear Son? His answer was, "No Son, no. I will not let this cup pass from you."

Why? It is awesome to think that when God answered His Son’s prayer, He was thinking about you.

He answered His Son’s prayer on your behalf. Jesus said, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from me." The Father knew that it was not possible. The Father knew that it would not be possible for you to be in Heaven, unless He said no to His Son’s request to let that cup pass from Him. The Father knew that if the Son did not go through the suffering He saw was about to come, then, you today would be headed headfirst to Hell. Out of profound love for you and your salvation, the Father, knew that there was no other way, no other way. He could not require of you to earn your way to Heaven, because He knew it is impossible, absolutely impossible for you and me to somehow earn or deserve our way to Heaven. The only way we could be saved is if God’s own dear Son took every single one of our sins and paid the immense price that you and I cannot pay for our sin, went to the cross, and died, so that our sins are freely forgiven.

Look at the love of the Father for you, as He answers His Son’s prayer. If you and I were standing out on Milwaukee Street, right now, and a car was about to run over me, would you throw yourself in front of that car, pushing me out of the way, to save me? Oh, in moment of bravery, you might do that. But, what if between you and me was your dear little son, or your dear little daughter? And what if you knew the only way to save me was to push your son or your daughter so they would knock me out of the way, and they would get run over by that car? Would you do that? Our own child’s life is more dear to us than our own. And yet, look at how God so dearly loves you. He so dearly loves you that when His Son pleaded, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from me," He pushed His Son, for your sake, to die in your place, so that you could be saved.

Do you have any doubt that when you pray to God He will not answer your prayers? If He loves you that dearly, He most certainly hears the prayers of His people.

Let’s imagine prayer is like writing a check and taking it to the treasury of Heaven. And so, if I ‘wrote a check’ (asking God for something), and I signed my own name to it, do I have enough in my ‘treasury in Heaven’ that God would say, "Ok. You have earned it. You have done enough good things. You have been kind enough. So, you can have what you asked for?"

A ‘check’ signed in my name would be worthless. I have not merited anything, or deserved anything from God other than punishment and condemnation, which is why Jesus tells us to pray in His name. When I go to the Father with a request, which is signed, not in my name, but it is signed with the blood of Jesus Christ, in His name and I present that request to my Father, Jesus has earned God’s favor, God’s merit. He has earned the forgiveness of my sins. And when God sees us come to Him in Jesus’ name, trusting in Jesus, depending upon Jesus’ merits, God answers us, for the sake of His dear Son.

Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed, "Let this cup pass from me, if it is possible, nevertheless, not my will, but Thy Will be done."

There we learn another very important thing about prayer. When we go to God in prayer, and we ask for something that is necessary for our salvation, (the forgiveness of sins, for example), do I have to go with the understanding, "God forgive my sins, if it is Your Will?" I don’t have to say that, because I know it is God’s Will.

I know that it is God’s Will

that my sins be forgiven.

They stand forgiven.

So, anything necessary for my salvation, I already know is God’s Will.

However, many of the times we come to God in prayer, it is for things that are not necessary for our salvation. Let me give you some examples.

And so, when it comes to things that are not necessary for our salvation, there we must always pray, with the understanding, "nevertheless, not my will, but Thy Will be done…not my will, but Thy Will be done."

We trust that our Father in Heaven knows what is best for us. He sees into our lives. He sees into our future. He knows whether the things we ask for will be in one way or another be beneficial for our salvation, or whether they will be detrimental for our salvation.

What if I prayed to God that my checkbook was balanced, He answered yes, and finally my checkbook got balanced, but in the process I became a little more confident in myself than I should. And then, I started to fall away from feeling a need for God, started to fall away from going to church, started to fall away from using the Means of Grace, and in the end fell away from my faith. Let me ask you this, would you rather have your checkbook be balanced and end up in Hell, or would your rather have your checkbook never balance, and be in Heaven? We all know the answer to that question.

On the other hand, maybe I prayed to God that my checkbook balanced, and He did grant that. His answer was yes. And in the end, although my checkbook is balanced, maybe some other trouble comes into my life that causes me to depend more and more on God, and grow stronger and stronger in my faith.

Or perhaps, because my checkbook is balanced, it permits me to give to church, so that some other soul may be won for Christ.

In the end, God answering yes to my prayer, in one way or the other benefits my salvation or someone else’s salvation. We trust that God, in His grace, knows what is best. He is our dear Father. He sacrificed His own dear Son. He only will do what is best for us. We pray, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Thy Will be done."

About a week after the students at that little college in Nashville, TN found out Kaia’s legs had been amputated, one of them was talking to a reporter and said, "I guess that Kaia will never play basketball again, but I believe that God has something better in store for her."

Yes, He does. Yes, He does! We trust that God’s Will is always best for us.

When you are in a boat and you toss a rope to the shore, you don’t try to pull the shore to you, you try to pull yourself to the shore. In prayer, when we toss a rope to God, we don’t try to pull God’s Will to us, but rather we pull our will to God.

Amen.

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