Monthly Archives: April 2023

JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER

Christian Life, ,

JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites….And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans….this then is how you should pray.” Matthew 6:5,7,8.

Although Jesus gives specific teaching on prayer, the whole of the Sermon on the Mount is interwoven with principles which apply to our prayer lives e.g., unforgiveness blocks our fellowship with God, as does a critical and judgmental spirit, broken relationships with people, greed, worry etc. and even our attitude to Jesus’ teachings. Since most of us learn to pray by listening to and copying other people, we need a complete mind shift about prayer.

In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus clears the ground by using the illustration of two classes of people who had become role models for the ordinary people; religious people (whom He called “hypocrites”) and pagans (nationals or Gentiles).

Hypocrites (play actors) were people with more than one face, playing an assumed character to an audience. People who are praying to an audience are more aware of the people around them than of God. The antidote to people-awareness is solitude. Get away from people so that you can focus on God.

Gentiles were idol worshippers. Their problem was to get their gods to hear them. (e.g., Elijah and the prophets of Baal). Since their gods were deaf and dumb and without understanding, they had to use many words in their prayers.  Jesus called it “babbling” from the Greek word “to stutter”. We also easily fall into the trap of thinking that we must explain or repeat ourselves as though God were either deaf or retarded. Prayer is not about words. Prayer is about awareness.

Because we have the wrong idea about prayer, we think that the purpose for prayer is to make God aware of our needs. Words and needs are connected. We must use the right words to make sure God understands our needs. This concept of prayer is erroneous for two reasons. It ignores the fact the God is our Father, and it forgets that God knows our needs before we ask Him

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus teaches us how to view our needs. He said, “Take no thought…” This does not mean worry. It means do not allow thoughts to consume your mind to the exclusion of everything else. Your basic human needs are to be the concern of your Father, not yours.  You are of greater value than birds and flowers.  Let God fulfil His role as a true Father without your taking that from Him.

You are to have a different spirit from the Gentiles whose whole life is taken up with meeting their own needs. God’s way for us is to take care of the needs of others.  Then He will take care of our needs.

The first step in understanding what prayer is, is to recognise that prayer is not about words or needs but about becoming aware of God and moving into the environment of our Father’s knowledge and care of us. We should never approach our God in the same manner as the hypocrites or pagans who use their gods to suit their own ends. W come to our God one His terms as the great sovereign of the universe and we as His subjects.

JESUS’ THIRD TEST – WHO WILL YOU WORSHIP?

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JESUS’ THIRD TEST – WHO WILL YOU WORSHIP?

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”  Jesus said to him, “Away from me Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” Matthew 4:8, 9

The atmosphere of the third test is significant. The first two tests were subtle. Satan came with goads and hints. They were as much a test of who Jesus was as of what He could do.  The idea was, “Try out your power. Since you are the Son of God, if you really are, just turn on the power to prove it. You don’t need to trust God. You can do it!”

The third test is the evidence that the devil had lost the battle. There was no strategy in it. Satan blurted out his real intention with no subtlety at all. This is just the way a bully would act. It was all out in the open. He offered Jesus a trade-off, all the kingdoms of the world for the acknowledgement that Satan is “lord”. How subtle was that?

Again, embedded in this test was the core lie – Satan is lord – and Jesus did not fall for it. Satan wanted to prove his lordship by claiming and acting on his right to hand over to Jesus the authority to rule all the earthly kingdoms. But Jesus knew that was a lie. God gave the authority over the earth to man (Psalm 115:16)under Himself. Satan stole man’s allegiance so that he could rule through man. Jesus was assigned to win back man’s loyalty by paying the debt for man’s foolish choice and unmasking Satan as the usurper. There was no way that He would accept that authority as a gift from the devil. He would get back man’s allegiance by a fair fight and by exposing the devil for who he really is.

Jesus was committed to proving that God’s way is the best way to live. It may have seemed like weakness but, in actual fact, it was more powerful than Satan’s way of manipulation, deception and force. Jesus chose the way of love – submitting Himself unconditionally to the Father’s love and demonstrating that love by revealing that the Father’s kingdom – righteousness, peace, joy and power – was functioning on the earth through His life.

Jesus resolutely stood His ground against some very subtle manipulation by the devil. God’s Word was so entwined in His mind that He could not entertain the idea of acting contrary to what God had said. As a human being He had trusted the word of the Father and come out tops. And the proof?  When the dust settled, only one was left standing. Satan left and Jesus was declared the winner. How do we know that? God sent angels to take care of all His need!

JESUS’ SECOND TEST – TEST GOD

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JESUS’ SECOND TEST – TEST GOD

Then the devil took Him to the Holy City and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down….” Jesus answered him, “it is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:5-7.

The second test has a fairy-tale-like air about it. If the devil literally took Jesus to the highest point of the temple, how did He get up there? If it only happened in the spirit, what was the big deal?  The Bible does not indicate how it happened. We must take the Word at face value.

The first test was painfully real to Jesus because His hunger, after a 40-day fast, would have driven Him to do anything within His power, and do it immediately, to satisfy His desperate need.

The strength of the second test would have depended on the strength of the mission that was on His mind. “How am I going to get the people to believe in me and my message?” One supernatural act that would have fulfilled the people’s expectation, might have been enough to convince the crowds in the temple that He was their Messiah.  However, He did not want to be received because of a spectacular feat but because of an inner conviction that He was their Messiah.

Jesus did many miracles during His three-year ministry, but He was still rejected because He did not fit the image of Messiah in the minds of the people. They were looking for a Messiah who would make their lives more comfortable. They were okay with Him as long as He did stuff to relieve their misery, rather than self-denial and servanthood.

Jesus saw through the devil’s suggestion. God’s promises were not to be manipulated for His own ends. He could not force God to intervene miraculously to rescue Him. There could never be a shortcut to receiving the kingdom of God.

Jesus responded to this test immediately. He did not have to consider anything before He met the lies and countered them with truth. “The Message” puts His response very strongly. “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.” He was indignant at the very thought of challenging God’s word. Satan was trying to lure Him into a standoff with God by using the word of God to pit His will against God’s will. If God had wanted Him to get the people’s attention by doing something spectacular, He would have told Him, but that is not the way He works.

Satan got it wrong, and Jesus was quick to put him in his place. This was non-negotiable. He refused to manipulate God. He would obey God’s word, no matter what it took to fulfil His mission.

We do not live to test God. We live to co-operate with God, to find out what He is doing and to fit in with Him. We do not know what we really want. Unlike Jesus, we often “trust God” to do what we want in ways that are manipulative and arrogant.

JESUS’ FIRST TEST – YOU DON’T NEED GOD

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JESUS’ FIRST TEST – YOU DON’T NEED GOD

The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:3, 4.

Jesus was both man and God.  Would He use His power as God to meet His own needs or would He, as a man, trust God to meet His need?  For Jesus to act as God would have disqualified Him from earning the right to die for mankind. To pay the debt for mankind, He had to live as pure man and perfect man – totally dependent on God to meet all His needs.

Satan was aware of the power of Jesus’ words. Jesus only had to speak the word and it would be done, but He refused to say anything He did not receive from the Father. This was much more than merely satisfying a physical need.  This was about “Who is in charge – who is Lord?” Jesus always submitted to His Father’s authority. It was a simple matter for Him to multiply bread to feed thousands, but He refused to remake rocks into bread to feed Himself. That would have been tantamount to magic.

Jesus was never taken off guard.  His mind-set was to depend on His Father continually and to respond only to His word for direction in every situation. He refused to be lured into any action that would exalt Himself over the Father.

Jesus had to be put under pressure in the most extreme of circumstances to ensure that, no matter what the situation, His strategy and modus operandi would be clear. He would live under the Father’s authority and the Holy Spirit’s leading every moment of His earthly life. To act out of His position and power as God would have given Him an unfair advantage over the rest of humanity. Whatever His needs or the needs of the people to whom He ministered, they had to be met according to the rules of the kingdom of God. He had to demonstrate and declare the kingdom of God as a son of Adam.

At the heart of this test was His attitude and relationship to the Father and His word. God’s word shapes the universe and everything about our human life. He both created and sustains creation and provides for all the needs of His creatures by His word. Adam acted outside of God’s word and brought chaos into creation. Satan tried to lure Jesus into doing the same thing. Unlike Adam, Jesus knew the implications of disobedience and refused to take the devil’s bait. He remained resolute in His commitment to obedience.

The issue was that Jesus chose to trust His Father’s word over meeting a personal need at that moment because He knew that the Father would provide for Him at the right time. This was His chosen path for His whole ministry.

GOD HEARS THE BLEAT OF THE LAMB

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GOD HEARS THE BLEAT OF THE LAMB

“I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.”  Psalm 116:1, 2.

For some inexplicable reason, the people of Israel were bent on worshipping idols. Despite the prophets pleading, cajoling, and warning them, they persisted in their idolatry until things went badly for them and then they cried out to God for help. The prophets often tried to show the people how foolish they were to worship things they had created that were deaf, dumb, and immobile. In Isaiah 44, the prophet points out the foolishness of crafting an idol out of half a piece of wood and using the other half to bake his bread. How can something created by a woodcarver, or a blacksmith hear a cry for help? But they refused to listen.

The idol is a burdensome object that must be carried by a beast of burden because it cannot carry itself. But God said, “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and grey hairs I am He and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:3, 4.

In contrast to the powerlessness of an idol to do anything, the psalmist praised God for His tender love. He heard the bleat of the lamb and responded to his cry. It makes me think of Jesus – the Father’s personal representative on earth. How often He heard the faint sound of the lamb’s bleat and responded immediately.

Take the story of Bartimaeus, for example. Jesus was leaving Jericho, surrounded by an excited and noisy crowd. Bartimaeus was a blind beggar sitting on the roadside hoping for a handout. He heard the din and recognised the name of the healer who happened to be passing by. He began to shout to Jesus, crying for mercy and hoping He would hear him above the babble of voices. How could one voice be heard above the rest when Jesus was being mobbed by shouting people? The people tried to shut Bartimaeus up because, after all, he was nobody, unimportant, just a blind beggar, but Jesus heard him because His heart was tuned in to the bleat of the lamb.

Jesus always heard, and never turned away from a cry for mercy. He stopped and called him. The hostile mob immediately changed its tune. “Go, He’s calling you,” they urged him. Bartimaeus didn’t hesitate. He was up on his feet in an instant, flinging away his cloak and stumbling towards the sound of the voice that called him. – one voice responding to the other.

He had only one request, “I want to see,” and immediately Jesus responded, “Go, your faith has healed you.” Jesus hears every cry and answers it.