Encouragement and Instruction

Now we open to John 17 where we find our Lord Jesus praying, and this is to me an amazing thing that God is praying to God. When our Lord Jesus Christ was in heaven, of course, He had no need to pray. But when He came to earth, He humbled Himself. He became man; He took upon Himself sinless human flesh. And being man, He had to depend totally upon His Father in heaven. He had laid aside the independent use of His own attributes. He said, "I’ve not come to do My will but the will of My Father." The words that I speak, these are the words of My Father. The works that I do, these are the works of My Father. When our Lord was on earth, it was important that He pray. 

Perhaps the greatest encouragement in the Bible to prayer is the Lord Jesus Christ. How does the Lord Jesus encourage us in our praying? Well, in three ways: by His example, and by His teaching, and by His present intercession in heaven. Now let me just say a personal word to those of you who are praying. I mean you are what we call prayer warriors. Your pastor depends upon you; your missionaries depend upon you. Those of us who are in media ministry depend upon you. Thank you for letting God use you in this tremendous ministry. 

Now to those of you who are, oh, somewhat spasmodic in your praying. May I encourage you to establish a systematic prayer life? I mean by that a definite time, a definite place each day where you especially meet with God. We don’t have to wait for a crisis to come along to talk to Him. The very desires of our hearts are prayers that go up to God. But it is so important to have this definite, systematic prayer life. I suggest not only a definite time and a definite place, but I suggest a definite list of requests.

I don’t expect you to do what I do, of course, because each of us has to work out his own pattern as the Lord leads us. But I have a prayer list for every day of the week. I found I had so many different things and and people and projects to pray about that I divided it by seven, and I have seven different prayer lists. Then I have one that I pray about every day. And then, of course, each day I wait before the Lord for those things He lays upon my heart. In this way, I can systematically pray for people. And if I say to someone, "You know, I’m praying for you," I can keep my promise. 

Now let's talk about our Lord Jesus Christ encouraging us in prayer. First of all, He encourages us by His own example. I went through the four Gospels, and I think rather carefully, and I found nineteen different occasions of praying in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. When did Jesus pray? Luke 3:21 we’re told that when He was baptized, He was praying. There are those high and holy hours in our lives when we must pray.

Now when Jesus was baptized, heaven opened, the Holy Spirit came down like a dove, God the Father spoke from heaven. You’d think in such a high and holy hour, Jesus would not have to pray. My friend, that’s when you need to pray. Because the very next thing the Scripture tells us is the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Write this down and remember it: whenever you have a high and holy experience with the Lord, some great victory, the devil is right around the corner. You better pray. Don’t let your victories turn into defeat. 

He prayed when He was baptized. He prayed at the transfiguration on the mountain when God’s again spoke from heaven and when our Lord’s inner glory came shining through His countenance and His clothing—even the cloud was in glory—He prayed. Again, here’s a high and holy hour, and yet our Lord was in prayer. In Luke 10, when the seventy returned to report on their mission, the Lord prayed. He praises His Father and He prayed. I read in Mark 1:35 that He prayed early in the morning. He got up before anybody else was up and went out to pray.

That’s a great experience, you know. There have been times when you meet God early in the morning, and then you have Him all through the day, don’t you? In Luke 6:12, I notice He prayed all night. I have been in some all-night prayer meetings. We used to have some wonderful all-night prayer meetings. I used to go home in the morning just blessed from the soles of my feet to the top of my head. Jesus prayed all night. He was about to choose His disciples, and He prayed for guidance, I’m sure. 

He prayed when He was facing the cross, John 12:27, when He was looking forward to being crucified. He prayed in the garden in Luke 22: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done." He even prayed on the cross: "Father, forgive them"; "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." Our Lord Jesus prayed in the circumstances of life—the glorious ones and the difficult ones. 

For what did He pray? Well, our Lord Jesus prayed for the children in Matthew 19:13. He told Peter that He was praying for him and for the other disciples. He prayed for the disciples when they were in the storm. He was up there on the mountaintop interceding for them. In John 17, He prays for the whole church. At the grave of Lazarus, He prayed that the Father would be glorified and that many would believe when He performed that miracle. And that miracle did bring about the conversion of many people.

Our Lord Jesus, by His own example, encourages us to pray. Our Lord prayed and gave thanks when He broke the bread. Are you thankful for your food? Are you thankful for all that God provides for you? Jesus encourages us to pray by His own example. Now if our Lord Jesus, who was perfect, had to pray, where does that leave us? If when He was in the difficulties of life with all of the power that He had, He had to pray, what about us with all of our imperfections and all of our weaknesses? How much more do we need to pray? 

Secondly, our Lord encourages us to pray by His own teaching. In Matthew 6 and Luke 11, He gives to us the pattern for prayer. He didn’t say pray in these words; He said pray after this manner. Now, I’m not opposed to the praying of the Lord's Prayer; I’m opposed to the reciting of the Lord's Prayer. You don't recite a prayer; you pray it. I don't think the Lord's Prayer was ever given to just recite routinely. It’s a pattern for prayer. And He taught us to pray, "Our Father, hallowed be Thy name." In many of His parables, our Lord teaches us about prayer. Luke 11, the man who came at midnight; the woman, the widow woman who wanted to get help from the judge. He said if your children come and ask you for bread, you won't give them a stone. In His parables and in His teaching of the Lord's Prayer, our Lord teaches us to pray. 

But I think the greatest thing about His teaching is the promises. Our Lord Jesus gives us so many promises in prayer. "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you." "Ask and it shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." "If you ask anything in My name." You see, the Lord gives to us promises concerning prayer, and without these promises, of course, we cannot pray.

I think it was Charles Spurgeon who used to say that the Bible is the checkbook in the bank of faith. Every one of God's promises is a check. Now Jesus has already signed His name to these promises, but it’s up to us by faith to sign our names to these promises and to claim them. If you write me a check and I go to the bank and give them the check, they say, "Well, sir, would you please endorse it?" Oh, that’s interesting. Endorse it? What’s that mean? Well, take it for your own. Sign your name to it. Well, how do I know it's going to it's going to pass? Sign your name, let's find out.

The people who criticize prayer are people who don't pray. I have yet to meet a Christian who really has a vital prayer life who raises questions about prayer. He may have some mysteries he doesn’t understand. In fact, the longer I study and the longer I pray, the more mysterious prayer becomes. But I have yet to meet a Christian who has a dedicated, consistent, vital prayer life who raises questions about the promises of God. I have to sign my name to that check. Well, that’s what you do when you claim God’s promises in prayer. 

Our Lord encourages us to pray by His example. If He had to pray when He was here on earth, how much more must we? He encourages us to pray by His teaching. And finally, He encourages us by His present intercession in heaven. Our Lord says in John 17, "I pray for them." That’s what He’s doing today. In Hebrews 4:14-16, the writer informs us that we have up in heaven one who prays for us. Let me read it to you: "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession" or our confession. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." His present intercession for us in heaven encourages us to come and to pray. 

Now, I don’t know what your problems are today or what your burdens, your needs, but I know this much: God answers prayer. And God delights to answer prayer. And so I would encourage you, and I would encourage my own heart to have a definite, consistent prayer life because Jesus encourages us to pray. 

"These words spoke Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.'" John 17:1. Well, I think that our Lord in this first verse here suggests to us some important instructions to follow if our prayer life is going to be effective. Instruction number one: we should pray to the Father. He lifted His eyes to heaven and said, "Father." Now the Bible pattern for prayer is that the believer pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We’re told in Jude 1:20 to be "praying in the Holy Spirit." Romans 8 tells us that the Holy Spirit of God groans within us, interceding, for He knows the will of God. The Bible pattern is to pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. So I think that when we come to prayer, we shouldn’t just rush into the presence of God. I like just to pause a bit and make sure my mind and heart are focused on the Father, that there’s nothing in my life that would keep me from coming in the name of the Son, and that the Holy Spirit is working as I pray. 

Six times in John 17 the Lord Jesus addressed the Father. In John 17:11 He calls Him "Holy Father." In John 17:25 He calls Him "Righteous Father." It isn’t wrong to put descriptive adjectives to the Father’s name; just don’t overdo it. Privately, you may want to talk to the Lord like that, but be very careful in your public praying not to give people the impression that you are closer to the Lord than maybe you really are. I have to be careful of that myself, don’t I? In the Bible, people prayed to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

Now when Stephen was being martyred, he lifted up his eyes and he saw the Lord Jesus glorified in heaven and he said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." There he prayed to the Lord Jesus. Now the Holy Spirit is God, and Jesus Christ is God, and the Father is God, and therefore technically we can pray to each one of them. However, the pattern, the basic pattern in the Bible and the pattern that our Lord taught us is to pray to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. I cannot find anywhere in the New Testament a prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit. Now, it’s possible that Paul’s prayer in 1 Thessalonians 3 can be interpreted that way, but that would only be one small example. I think our best praying is to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit’s power. Pray to the Father. 

Secondly, we should pray yielded to God’s will. He says, "Father, the hour is come." Now what hour was He talking about? Well, the hour when He would die on the cross. The hour when He would complete that marvelous work of redemption that He came to earth to do. As many of you know, because you are good Bible students, this "hour" is mentioned a number of times in the Gospel of John. John 2:4, for example, when Jesus was at this marriage in Cana and His mother Mary came to him and said, "They have no wine." John 2:4: "Jesus saith unto her, 'Woman,'" which was a title of address; He was not being unkind to her. "'Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.'"

Now at the very beginning of the Gospel of John, we are introduced to this concept of the hour—this hour that was marked out for the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. John 7:6, there was a feast of tabernacles and our Lord’s brethren were going up to the feast, and Jesus said to them in John 7:6, "My time is not yet come; but your time is alway ready." That’s interesting. The unsaved crowd is not on any divine timetable; you and I are. John 7:6. Then John 7:30: "Then they sought to take Him" to arrest Him, "but no man laid hands on Him because His hour was not yet come." John 8:20: "These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the temple, and no man laid hands on Him for His hour was not yet come." 

Now when you get to John 12, you discover that the scene changes. Up until now, our Lord and John have been saying "My hour is not yet come; His hour is not yet come." Now John 12:23: "Jesus answered them saying, 'The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.'" I would have said crucified, but our Lord looked beyond that—glorified. John 13:1: "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come." Now John 17:1: "Father, the hour is come." The Lord Jesus Christ prayed yielded to the will of God.

Remember this now: it is impossible to pray effectively unless we are living in the will of God. The purpose of prayer is not to get man’s will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on earth. And that believer who is living all of his life in obedience to God is the believer who can pray effectively. Pray to the Father. Pray yielded to God’s will. 

There’s a third instruction here: pray that God will be glorified. "Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." We learn this in the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." The very first thing in the Lord's Prayer is that God’s name be glorified. God answers prayer because He is glorified in answering prayer. Which says to me, I had better not pray anything that will not glorify God.

Now when our Lord Jesus prayed for Himself—"Father, glorify Thy Son"—He was not praying a selfish prayer. He was praying, "Oh God, through all that I’m going through—arrest, beating, shame, crucifixion, death—bring it out to Your glory." He’s actually praying for resurrection and ascension, isn’t He? He’s saying, "Father, I’m going to look beyond the cup, I’m going to look beyond the cross, I’m going to look to glory. Be glorified in all that happens to me in these next few hours."

Back in John 12 He said, "What shall I say?" Now, not what shall I do—He knew what He was going to do—what shall I say? "Father, save me from this hour? But for this hour came I into the world." The cup that He drank was the cup the Father prepared for Him. Never be afraid of any cup that God puts into your hand. He knows how to mix it, He knows how to give it to you, He knows how much you can take. We should pray so that God will be glorified. 

There’s a fourth instruction suggested here: we should pray by faith. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was here on earth, lived by faith. He prayed, He trusted God, He yielded all to the Father and trusted the Father to work it out. He’s praying here by faith. If you were to look at this scene through human eyes, you’d be discouraged. When our Lord looked back, what did He see? His nation rejected Him. He tried, He witnessed, He ministered, He preached, He performed miracles; they wouldn’t receive Him. Suppose He looked around. His disciples are sleeping. They’re going to fail Him; they’re going to forsake Him and flee. Suppose He looked ahead. Suffering, the cross. But faith always sees what the eyes of humankind cannot see. Faith sees the invisible, and that’s why faith can do the impossible. 

When our Lord looked back, He didn’t see a nation that rejected Him. He said in John 17:4, "Father, I’ve finished the work You gave Me to do." That’s faith. When He looked around, He did not see disciples who were going to go to sleep and then forsake Him and flee. He says in John 17:10, "I am glorified in them." That’s faith. When He looked ahead, He didn’t see suffering and the cross; He saw glory. "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified." That’s faith. We pray to the Father, we pray yielded to His will, we pray for His glory, and we pray by faith. Now, that kind of praying will enrich your life, and God will send you the answers.