May 24, 2023
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
May 24, 2023
“My sheep here, my voice and I know them.”
John 10:27
There's a
wonderful thought that the shepherd hears the voice of the sheep. We
should hear the voice of the shepherd, if we are true sheep. And so as
we hear the word of God, it's always good to keep in mind if we're sheep
we will hear the Word of God and seek to apply it to our lives.
“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished
one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray as John
taught his disciples.’ And he said to them, “When you pray, say,
‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Give us each day our
daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone
who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” And he said to
them, ‘Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say
to him, Friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on
a journey and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he will answer
from within, ‘Do not bother me. The door is now shut and my children are
with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you,
though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his
friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever
he needs. And I tell you, ‘Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and
you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks,
receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will
be opened.’ What Father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will
instead of a fish give him a serpent. Or if he asks for an egg, will
give him a scorpion. If you then who are evil know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask him?’”
Luke
11:1-13
I think it's safe to say that there's no prayer that has helped God's
people pray more than the Lord's Prayer and who better to teach us than
the Lord himself. And you see his disciples here in Luke 11 coming to
Jesus. Why? Maybe they forgot and maybe they needed a refresher course
and humbly acknowledge that they are still on a learning curve.
I
think if you were to ask the older saints. That they would tell you
that the older they get, the more they feel their inadequacy when it
comes to prayer. We're always on a learning curve. So we always have to
be asking the Lord, teach us how to pray. We never arrive, we never stop
learning. I trust we are always growing and learning more and more how
to pray.
But here's a question that I've asked (and maybe you've
asked the question), I think I ask this question more than I ever did,
when I open my Bible, “Where do I see Christ in this portion of my
Bible? Where can I find Christ?” When you come to the Lord's Prayer,
he's not explicitly mentioned here.
So where is Jesus? And my
answer to that question would be this, Jesus is here in every which way.
How? I think that question can be answered by the way of those three
offices. Remember? Christ is prophet, priest, and king. Jesus as the
prophet teaches us prayer. Right? The catechism question, “Why do I need
Jesus as my prophet?” And the answer is, “Because I am ignorant.”
That's why these disciples are coming to Jesus, they realize their
ignorance, they are asking him, “Teach us how to pray.” And Jesus, the
prophet of prophets, teaches them how to pray.
But we can also
say this in light of the Lord's Prayer, where is Jesus in this prayer?
Jesus is the priest. Again the catechism question, “Why do I need a
priest?” “Because I am simple.” This prayer tells us that we can receive
forgiveness from God, and why is that? Well, the only reason we can
receive forgiveness is because our debts have been paid because of what
Christ accomplished on that cross. Without the shedding of blood there
is no forgiveness of sin. So when we come to this prayer we have to
realize it's a blood bought privilege; it's only because of Christ that
we can be assured of forgiveness of sin.
Then the third thing,
he's the prophet, he's the priest, but Christ is our king. And one of
the very first petitions has to do with the kingdom, Thy kingdom come.
When Jesus came into the world what was he preaching? The kingdom of
heaven, the kingdom of God is here. Jesus was and he is the embodiment
of the kingdom because Jesus is the king. He's the king. So when we come
and pray, “Thy kingdom come,” if we think of God the sovereign king.
God the triune God is the king, I realize that, but Jesus in a very
special way, he's the king. He came to establish his kingdom. And every
time we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” what are we praying? We're praying
that a sinner get saved. When a sinner gets saved, the kingdom has come;
when you grow in holiness, when you become more like Christ, the
kingdom is coming. Not only do we pray in light of the continuing coming
of the kingdom, but the ultimate coming of the kingdom, which is when
Jesus comes back again.
So when we pray, “Thy kingdom come,”
we’re thinking of Jesus, aren't we? We're thinking of Jesus the King who
reigns and rules right now, but who will ultimately come back and
establish his consummate kingdom. So again the question, “Is Jesus in
this prayer?” I would say yes, from three perspectives, prophet, priest
and king. You could also say this, no one spoke to God the Father as the
Father more than Jesus. Over a hundred times I think in the Gospel of
John alone, Jesus addresses God as his father. So Jesus sets the pattern
for us as well, “Our father, which art in heaven.”
So as we go
to prayer Brethren, we certainly should remember our Lord Jesus Christ
and why we so desperately need him. Because we are ignorant, he is the
prophet; because we are sinful, he is our priest; because we are weak,
he is our king.
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