Pilgrim Bible Study
The Prayers of the King Mark 1: 35-39
Welcome to episode 5 of the Pilgrim Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Chris. Today we explore the prayers of Jesus Christ and their impact on His ministry as well as the importance of prayer in the Church today. Join us as we delve into Mark chapter 1 verses 35-39 and discover how our own personal prayers can lead to revival and spiritual awakening in our lives and communities. So now we're up to a part in Mark, let me try to fix my tripod here. Where we look at the prayer of Jesus Christ and we also see His continued work. It would be easy if you just passed by verse 35 because you see the day before you see Jesus being very busy. He's driving out demons in the synagogue, he's healing, latent to the night, he's working and we see this passage ending with them again going out and healing the sick and working. And it would be easy just to look at verse 35 as a footnote, but it's important that we do not do that because prayer was vital to Jesus Christ, which means the prayer needs to be vital to the Church. So Jesus after a very long day we were looking last week about how people pressed on him late into the night. It said, it sounded like all of the Pernium came to ask for help from Jesus and he turned nobody away. He drove out demons and he healed those that were sick. It was a late night, and you wouldn't blame him for being tired the next day. I'm going to tell you something that you may or may not have known, but when we used to do youth retreats every year, I always took that Monday after the youth retreat. I took a vacation day, because I'm like, I can't face work. That's the way I felt. I was like, I can't face work. I've had a long weekend with teenage boys that don't like to sleep. I don't know if you can say amen to that. Remember what that's like. And by the time Sunday night rolled around, I was so grateful that I had taken off the next day. And you know Jesus from the physical standpoint was just like you and I, he got tired. We find out that we see instances where he was asleep so heavily, the disciples couldn't wake him up. He got hungry. He got thirsty. He is truly the God man. And so, you wouldn't blame Jesus if he had slept in, but he didn't do that. When you look at verse 35, you see that it was early morning while it was still dark. So think about when the sun finally comes up, right? He went out while everybody else was asleep. Prayer was a priority to the ministry of Jesus Christ our King. Prayer was a priority. Is it for you? Is it for me? Is it for this church? It's really important that we ask ourselves that question because when we seek the Lord, we are really and truly seeking his glory. It says that we are dependent on him. It says that my efforts aren't enough. My intellect is not enough. What I can bring to the table is not enough. I need you Lord. But is that reflected in our prayers? I remember years ago when we used to have Wednesday night prayer meeting. Phil Entema, who was the head of the NAB conference at that time, is the director. He came and said, "Hey, close attention as a church to your prayer meeting because the prayers of the saints are the heart of the church. It says that they're dependent and he said, "As go your prayer meetings, so go your church." That's a warning. And that's for us to think about. Now, in this case, we're looking at the private prayers of Jesus, but we're also going to look at the corporate prayers that we see of the saints as well. So if you have private time with the Lord, then amen. Continue to do it. Do it even more. But Jesus saw that he needed this. In between the busyness of all that the Lord was calling him to do, that the Father was calling him to do. He felt that he needed to be with the Father in prayer. Now that is the Davening. How much more do we in our weakness need to be more frequently in prayer, both privately and together, appropriately? Romans 829 says that those he foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. So as we see that as a priority, then we know that our prayer life should more closely reflect the prayer life of Jesus Christ does it. That's a question that I want you more to think about than anything else. And if you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior, you're not sure. If you're listening to this or watching this today and you're not sure, I want you to understand that when Christ died, he did a remarkable thing for the church. He opened up the way to come directly to God that we can come boldly, that we can come confidently to the Lord when we have a need. And if you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior that understand this, that the Book of Acts says there's no other name given under heaven by which men may be saved. It is only in Christ. If you would trust in him today, then this access, this ministry of access that Christ has given us to the Father is yours. And if you have this access today and you're not tailing yourself a bit, then the real question is why, what other things are taking up the hours of my day. In some ways, we're all very equal. We all have the same amount of hours and a given day. What's not equal or what's not the same about all of us is the way we choose to use that time. And you know, I was talking to a sister of Christ last night, and I said, you know, when I look back over my years, especially when I was really busy with work with those long days that I used to have. I said, I fear that the greatest sin I've ever committed is wasting God's time. And I'm saying that applies to me. You can only answer for yourself if that applies to you. I feel that I've wasted God's time on lesser things, trivial things, things that are not kingdom centered. Now, if that's a thing of reckoning for you, then face it, deal with it, ask for the Lord for your prayers to be awoken. We're going to look a little bit more later that prayer really is at the center of revival. Do you want to see Christ glorified in a new way, do you want to see his name used as a name of honor in this neighborhood, instead of the curse word. I sent you do. I do too. And prayer will be in the center of it. Jesus, as another display of what prayer meant to him, in Luke 612, before he chose the disciples, it said that Jesus went to a mountain, and he prayed all night long. All night long. Don't forget, we went some years back, I think it was 96 or 97, through a promise keepers meeting and shade stadium. And when we got there, we were told that a Korean youth group in New York had prayed for our meetings, and they were up all night long praying for us. That was really encouraging to me because that made me more sure the Lord is going to move because he answers the prayer of the saints. And Jesus was so committed to prayer that the disciples watching their master day in and day out, only really asked him one thing to teach them. And that is in Luke 11 one, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. Now this is right after Jesus had prayed, they could have said a lot of things, they could have said, Lord, teach me to do miracles. Now, he did use the apostles to do miracles. They didn't ask that. They could have even said, Lord, teach us to preach, teach us to preach better. No, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. They sensed the power that Jesus got to do the things that he did, came from his communion with the Father. We're going to see two things here that are priorities to the Lord Jesus Christ. One is prayer, and the second is the ministry of the word, and that is very much in line with the whole of God's word. And so, as a church, that's our challenge. As we have a business meeting and we look at the upcoming year, our challenge really is to live for that. To make prayer and the word, our priorities, our growth, and God's personal glory and your life and a mind depend on that priority. Now, I want to look at when Jesus did teach them about prayer, the model prayer. And, you know, I've heard some people just recited, you know, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We know that, right? It's not really a prayer meant to just be repeated. It is more of a framework for prayer and what prayer should look like. So, let's take a quick look at this framework for prayer. First of all, Jesus said before anything else to address God as our Father. And I want you to understand what the Aramaic word here is for Father, it's "Haba", which is like "Papa" or "Daddy". It's very loving, it's very familiar. It's saying this is a God who in Christ is now approachable because you are clothed with the righteousness of his Son. You know, I think I say this verse every week. He made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. And so, with the righteousness of Christ, we can come before the Father as our Daddy, our Papa. You know, I remember when I was a kid, you know, when I was afraid, I always came to my Dad. I was pretty sure my Dad was some kind of Superman and I used to be really afraid of the dark. And my Dad would just sit in the room and his presence in the room was enough for me to go to sleep because I knew he was there. And how much greater is our Father in Heaven? Now, I understand when I say "Dad", not everybody has a good impression of the word "Death". I understand that. For some people, the word "Father" or the word "Papa" might actually be a stumbling block. So, what I challenge you to do is do this. Think of the best Dad that you can think of. The nicest, kindest Dad who is there for his kids who does all these wonderful things. And I want you to understand that that Dad, the best Dad you can think of is utterly eclipsed by our loving Father in Heaven. King David said in the Psalms, he said, "Even if my own Father and Mother forsake me, the Lord will take me off." So David declares boldly, "Even greater than the love of Father and Mother is our Father in Heaven, our Papa." So, think of that first. And then, let's look at the things that Jesus says that we should be asking for. And the first three things Jesus says we should be concerned about is God's name, God's kingdom, and God's will. But it says, "How would be thy name?" That's really a word. And when he said the name Jesus Christ, a brother in the Lord, who was really passionate about the holiness of the Holyness of God. I remember a friend at Cardone years ago, who, when we were outside taking our break, and somebody used Jesus Christ as a curse word. And when he said the name Jesus Christ, a brother in the Lord, who was really passionate about the holiness of the Word of God in his name, he said, "Is Lord?" And I hope he's your Lord someday too. And I was always encouraged by that, because he wasn't going to let it just pass by. And so, do you care about the holiness of God's name? Do you want to see God's name held holy in this neighborhood, in Longcrest, on the city of Philadelphia? Do you want to see the holiness of God's name be spread? And the second is God's kingdom, the advancement of the kingdom. Do you care about the advancement of the kingdom, or do you care more about your own checkbook? That's hitting a little close to home, isn't it? But that's the fact. We are to put God's kingdom first. Jesus said, "See first the kingdom of God in his righteousness." And then the other things that you need will be added to you. God knows what you need, but he's calling you first and foremost to be part of advancing the kingdom of God. And you know what? He doesn't need us. Whatever remarkable thing. He doesn't need us, and yet he chooses to use us. E.M. Bounds put it this way. And by the way, if you want to read some great stuff on prayer, read some books by E.M. Bounds. It's fantastic. He said that men are God's method. Men are God's method. And then he said, men are searching for better methods. God is searching for better men. And so, do you want to be used by the Lord? Seek the holiness of his name. Seek his kingdom in prayer. And then finally, seek God's will. That God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do you know how God's will is done in heaven? Automatically by the holy angels. No question. No hesitation. When you love to see that happen here, that's what revival by the way looks like. When the church begins to fall in love with Christ all over again and honor Christ and seek his kingdom first and his glory first. Well, God will honor those prayers for revival. You know why? Because you're not seeking your own. You're seeking his kingdom. You're seeking his glorious name. You want to see Christ get all the glory in your city and your life and your church and everywhere you go. And then finally, you know, you got God's name, God's kingdom, God's will. Then finally, you get to material needs. He says, give us today our daily bread. And by the way, what is he asking for? Just our daily basic provisions. He's not giving us permission that some of the name and claim that people say is not giving us permission to ask for a Tesla car. Yeah, or a bigger house or a great material possessions or Italian suits or Rolex watch. That's garbage. I want you as Christians. I want all of these Christians to realize that the material things that men wear themselves out for are trapped. I want to share it to the kingdom of God. They're worth nothing. And what's sad is so many people live and die pursuing that nothingness. They give the last of their energy for it. We should burn ourselves out instead for God's kingdom. And watch how he honors the prayers of the saved when they seek to honor him first. We have permission to ask for a daily provision. And you know what? Over the years, I have a big family. And we've had tough times too. When I first started working at Cardone Industries, I was a assembly line worker with a wife and a baby. And I made $7 an hour. That's not very much money. But guess what? We always had food. It wasn't always the best. Sometimes we didn't spaghetti multiple nights in a row. But God frees the Lord. Always put food on the table. Always put a roof over our heads. Those basic needs were met. God is so good. He's so kind to us. When, you know, he doesn't really have to be, but he chooses to be. And then forgiveness, we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. It's really interesting how Jesus would phrase that. Are you comfortable with God forgiving you to the extent that you've shown grace and forgiveness to others? You can't see with that? You may not be because you might not be a very gracious person. You may not be a very forgiving person. If you're a believer in Christ and that mentions you, then you want to repent of that now. Because we who have experienced the grace of God in Jesus Christ have no right to not extend it to another. Have no right to not forgive another. Nobody could ever do anything to me like I've done to God. Nobody could ever offend me that way. And yet God in his graciousness loves me. I'll never know why I've never done anything to convince myself to him. God's just a gracious God. And he chooses to give us such grace and such forgiveness that we need to pass it on to others. And then finally, to deliver us from evil. And God is wonderful that way. We've said in Ephesians 6, 10, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. In Hebrews 2, 18, it says that Jesus, because he was tempted, knows how to deliver those that are being tempted. So when you're going through your struggle, don't be discouraged. I had a Christian friend tell me before he said, "Chris, if you struggle with sin, don't be sad, because dead things don't struggle." And that's the truth. Before I came to know Christ as my Lord and Savior, I just lived in sin and had no consciousness of it whatsoever. Suddenly, I became aware of sin when I came to know Christ as my Lord and Savior, and he will deliver you from the evil one. I want to take a moment just to look at some prayers that we see from the saints in the book of Acts. And now we're going to look at some corporate prayers as well. And the reason why I talk about specific prayers is I want us to think about the things that we pray for and what things are biblical. Honestly, when we pray, we should have an open Bible before us. That's really the best way to pray, because you don't want to pray, God's will. So prayer is not so much getting God to do what you want him to do. Prayer is God getting your mind and your heart adjusted to his word. That's what it is. It's to bring you around, not to bring him around. So listen to this. And Acts 4, 29 through 31, I would love to have been at this prayer meeting. This is when persecution starts against the saints, and they could have asked for what we often do, protection, keep us safe. That sounds logical, right? That doesn't seem like an evil thing to do to ask for safety, but they weren't concerned about that. Maybe we ought to think about that in our own prayers. It says, and now Lord, take note of their threats and grant that by bond servants may speak the word with all confidence. While they'll just extend by hand to heal and signs and wonders take place through the name of the Holy servant Jesus, and when they had prayed, the place that they gathered together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. Do you see that when you see his kingdom first, you get a powerful prayer life. When your will and your desires are in line with God's will and God's desires, you can start to pray with increased confidence. The place that they were at, shaken by the power of God, how exciting. I want you to see the teachings of Jesus lived out in the prayers of a man named Stephen. Stephen was stoned to death for his testimony in Christ. As a matter of fact, they couldn't stand to cheer him, say what he was saying. When he called them stiff neck, they stopped their ears, they didn't want to hear it. And there's people when you share the word of God, they're not going to want to hear what you say. But listen to Stephen's response, they stone him to death. And before he dies in verse 60, Acts 7 and 60, and falling his knees, he cried out the lab boys board, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep. Who does that sound like? In the gospel, Luke, that's just what Jesus said. He said, "Lord, they have no idea what they're doing." He wanted to forgive his enemy. And, you know, enemy love, that's a teaching of Jesus Christ. Not a popular one, by the way, because that's one of the hardest commands that the Lord has ever given us to pray for, to bless, and to love our enemies. But we need to do it. Stephen got it, and we're blessed by his prayer. We see in Acts 12, 5, persecution starts to ramp up, and James, the brother of John, has put to death. And it looked like that's what would happen to Peter too. But in Acts 12, 5, it says, "So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the Church of God." Now, God's freedom, the funny part is, they're faith in their prayers must have been so so, because they didn't believe it was Peter when he came to the door. They said, "Oh, it must be his angel. It must be a ghost." You know, they couldn't believe it was Peter, but they prayed for him. This is an okay thing to pray for, to pray for your brothers and sisters. And I believe God answered those prayers, as he still does. In Acts 14, 23, we see the establishment of leaders in the Church, and this is Barnabas and Paul, and it says in Acts 14, 23, it says, "When they appointed elders for them in every Church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed." So, fasting is still a reality. Jesus never commands it, but he assumes you're going to do it. He does. He just assumes that if you look at the text, he says, "But when you fast, not if you're going to fast, Jesus says, "When you fast, fast like this, don't do it to show off." But here we see Paul and Barnabas appointing elders with prayer and fasting. And maybe there's things here in this Church that we need to be praying and fasting for, for the advancement of God's kingdom. And the last one from Acts I want to look at is Acts 16, 25. And this is Paul and Silas' engine. Imagine being in the stocks. They're very uncomfortable. They have an uncertain future ahead of them. They have no idea what's going to happen to them. But it says that about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. What a testimony about the goodness of God. Because many of us, we say, when God answers in prayer, God is good. But is he still good if he doesn't answer in the way that you'd hoped answers, of course, yes. And they sold the goodness of God because there they were in jail and they were praying. They were asking for God's help, but they were singing praise to God. Maybe that's where really, truly it is the sacrifice of praise when it's not easy. So that's where prayer and praise come in as well. Paul prayed for the churches. And he always gave thanks for his brothers and sisters in Christ. He prayed for their wisdom. He prayed for their hope. He prayed for their power and the Holy Spirit. He prayed for them to know the love of Christ. He prayed that their love may grow. He prayed their knowledge of God's will may grow. These are all examples of prayer to our prayers line up with biblical prayer, the prayers of our king. And so I want to just share a story. By the way, it was Psalm verse 35. I'm not going to take real long in the other verses because of that, but I felt like this key about prayer was so important. I want to talk about revival. Okay, and I want to share story of the person who is not an ordained minister, but a businessman, a businessman, you know, who's involved in business. And his name is Jeremiah Lamfier, and in 1857 he felt God put it on his part to start a prayer meeting. And at that first prayer meeting, he put notices throughout the neighborhood where he was having it. And that first prayer meeting, the first half hour, nobody came. So he was praying alone, not very encouraging. By the end of the prayer time, it was an hour, six people trickled in. So that was the beginning. Okay. The next thing that we see is the following week, there were 20 people following week, there were 40 people, you might be beginning to get the idea of what is happening here. By 1858, there were 3000 people, 20 prayer meetings going on in New York City, at the same time, at the lunchtime hour in New York. And then other people were gathering together to seek the Lord, and this led to a nationwide revival, right before the Civil War broke down. You long to see God move for his glory. I hope so, because that's why this church exists. As I said in Acts 2028 it says that Jesus bought the church with his own blood. So as we gather to do business as we gather to worship, it's all for him, and it has nothing to do with us except that we're a part of that we're a part of the living body of Jesus praise. But he calls the shots, he declares what the church is what it should be, and we should be people of prayer, seeking a bubble, not that the Democrats help us, not that the Republicans help us, but that this nation is invaded by the Holy Spirit. As God's people fall in love with Christ and serve him, and the Spirit works through God's people, seeing God's name, God's kingdom advancing, God's will done. Let's pray for it now. In the city of Pyongyang, which is currently the capital of North Korea, there was a revival in 1907, and Pyongyang that revival was characterized by early morning and all night prayer. The Welsh Revival 1905 traces part of its roots to a young minister named Evan Roberts, praying to God, God give me whales, God give me whales waking up early every morning praying for it. In addition, we can see other people like John not praying God give me Scotland, or Jonathan Edwards God give me New England, and the point was God's glory. So now let's move on to verses 36 and 37. He went out to pray and it says Simon and his companions hunted for him, because they couldn't readily find him you really went to a quiet place you and I need to find quiet places to come before the Lord as well. But lately I've been real blessed by being able to come to the office here. It's very quiet in this church, and I've been able to pray more than I've ever prayed before. God's word, because if I wasn't praying a lot, I would be completely unfit for this job and wouldn't be able to do it, because it's the Lord's work, not mine. So, they found them though they hunted for them and they found them and they said everyone's looking for you. Oh boy, there comes the day, the days rushing on Jesus, and the people have been so blessed the night before they want a more blessing, and they wanted, they wanted to see him and Jesus needed to move on. It says here that he said let's go somewhere else. I love that he said let's go somewhere else to the towns nearby in order that I may preach there also, for this is what I came out for. And understand what that means, he's saying, I came to preach the ministry of the word that's what he's saying, my priorities to preach, because I preached here, and I need to go other places and continue to preach. And it says he went to their synagogues throughout all Galilee preaching and casting out demons. So I'm going to close with this preaching, and the ministry of the word was Jesus in prayer. And to the apostolic church in Acts 64, they declared that the ministry of the word and prayer was their priority. This church's priority, it better be, it needs to be the ministry of the word, and prayer, because that's biblical, that's what God wants for. So as we get ready to go into our final hymn, I just want to challenge those who need to, and they see something needs to change, that you would repent and be part of prayer in the ministry of the word seek the Lord in a new way, and watch a move. And never trust getting Christ did your Lord and Savior understand this, the Bible is very clear, Jesus said I'm the way the truth in the life, no one comes to the Father, but by me, there is one way, and the Father loves you. And believe in him today, trust in what he did for you on the cross today and repent of your sins, don't delay, don't wait one more day tomorrow is not a promise, I beseeged you be reconciled with God. Amen. Thank you for joining us in this week's episode of the Pilgrim Bible study podcast with Pastor Chris. As we seek to follow his example, let us also prioritize these aspects in our lives and in our church. If you've never repented and placed through your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, today is the day to do so. The Lord loves you and wants to give you eternal life. Amen.