Divine Petitions, Part One Series

Turn your Bibles to Hebrews 5:7

Title: Divine Petitions

Theme: Examining the Prayer Life of Christ / Part # 1

Series: Grasping the Foundational Truths of Prayer

Introduction: Matthew Henry wrote: “All repetitions in prayer are not to be counted as vain repetitions…” The New International Dictionary tells us, “Prayer is the spiritual response, spoken or unspoken to God, who is known. Not merely to know He exists, but, He has revealed Himself and has invited His creation to have communion with Him. Thus prayer covers a wide spectrum of addressing and hearing God. Interceding with and waiting for the Lord as we petition our Father in heaven.

Proposition: I would propose to you that the promises found in God’s word are not to supersede prayers. They are to serve only as guides for our desires and are the grounds of our hope as we learn to pray as Jesus prayed.

Interrogative Sentence: Just when and how did Jesus pray?

Transitional Sentence: There are at least seventeen Scriptural references to Christ praying and they may be placed into four groups. They are 1.) Prayers at Critical Moments. 2.) Prayers During His Ministry. 3.) Prayers at His Miracles and 4.) Prayers for Others. Today we will look only at prayers prayed at critical moments in Christ’s life. Next week we will consider the other three groups.

A Holy Spirit illuminated Christian approaches Jesus as one of the disciples did in Luke 11:1 saying, “Lord, teach [me] to pray...”

A sure way to learn about anything is to study about it and observe the life of someone who does what you want to learn to do. Learning about the powerful ministry of prayer, necessitates taking note of what the Bible teaches about the prayer life of Christ. Today’s text says this about Jesus and His prayer life.

Listen as I read Hebrews 5:7, “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, and He was Heard because of His reverent submission.” Pray!!!!

Transitional Sentence: “Prayers” (deesis) here means prayers offered in great detail for the circumstance at hand. These petitions were offered to make known to God a particular need.

Jesus did not pray generic prayers and neither should a Christian. I am convinced Christians are to be specific in their prayers as long as they are for building of God’s kingdom and especially if they are for building a deeper personal relationship with Christ Himself.

While here on this earth, Jesus prayed in loud cries, meaning an outcry of lamentations in the sense of a cry for help of one who is deeply distressed or in danger. It is like a person who is in bondage or in a trap and is calling out for help to those he may see in the distance.

Today’s text points out that Jesus’ prayers were heard. Heard (eiskakouo) means to hear favorably, to grant the petition. In John 11:42 we read of Jesus saying that His Father always hears Him. Even in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus’ most heartfelt felt prayer was heard and answered just as Jesus had prayed for.

The prayer that was heard and expressed the true heart of a real prayer warrior was, “...Yet not my will, but as you will.” (Matthew 6:39) Our text today also tells why Jesus’ prayers were heard, “...because of His reverent submission.” (Hebrews 5:7) As God in the flesh, Jesus received the cross and death well. Christ fully realized and understood that submission is obedience on one side and fellowship on the other.

A mature Christian who has been taught of Christ about prayer, knows that prayers which are heard are prayers prayed as Christ prayed. Through sweet fellowship with Christ by feeding upon and obeying the written Word of God, Christians are able to pray according to God’s will.

The Holy Spirit moved the beloved John to write, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we ask of Him.”.... (1 John 5:14-15)

Transitional Sentence: Christians who have seriously studied the prayer life of Christ from the beginning of His ministry have found that Jesus “Prayed at Critical Moments of His Life.”

In Luke 3:21 we see Jesus praying at a time just before He is to be tempted by the devil for forty days. Luke wrote, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as He was praying heaven was opened.” Verse 22 goes on with “...and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove.” It is important to note; Jesus was not praying prayers of repentance of sin here. Jesus knew that He needed the Holy Spirit’s power at this critical moment of His life as He was about to be tempted by the devil.