Praying to Be Like Jesus [A]

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Well, this morning we’re going to be in Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. Toward the middle of the last century, there was a young man, a teenager, I guess, in a tiny village in Romania.

And he left his village as a teenager, ran away from home, I think may be the appropriate way to say it, and ran away to the big city of Bucharest, which was and is the capital of Romania. And at that time was, I’ve heard people say, was the Paris of Eastern Europe. I’m not sure how accurate that is.

People are always saying such and such city is the Paris of Southeast Asia, the Paris of Africa, the Paris of Oklahoma. I mean, everything can’t be Paris. But it was a big city for somebody who had grown up in a tiny little village with nothing to do but farm.

And he found a job working as an apprentice to a shoemaker. And he was supposed to spend his time watching the shoemaker, learning from the shoemaker, doing what the shoemaker did, and imitating the shoemaker, learning his skills so that one day he could be a shoemaker as well. The problem with this particular young man wasn’t that he wasn’t smart enough to do it or that he couldn’t learn.

He didn’t apply himself. He didn’t pay attention to the shoemaker, didn’t even go to work much, didn’t learn what the shoemaker tried to teach him, didn’t follow the shoemaker’s example. And as a result, well, not as a result of not listening to the shoemaker, but by and large because of the other things that he was involved in, instead of doing his job and doing what he was supposed to do, the young man ended up in prison and was in and out of prison for much of his adolescence and ended up getting involved with the Communist Party there in Romania.

And eventually, some of you may already know who I’m talking about, rose within the next 10 years or so to become the dictator of that country. The man’s name was Nikolai Ceausescu. And if you recall your Cold War history at all, I was just a little person at the time that the Berlin Wall came down and all that, but the Cold War has always fascinated me as a time of history.

And Ceausescu was an interesting figure because out of all of the just horrible, horrible people that ran some of the Eastern Bloc countries, He evidently was the worst of the worst. Brutal and repressive, ended up being the only former communist in Eastern Europe to be overthrown in a violent revolution in 1989. Now, I submit to you, you may think, why is he talking about Romanian history, Nicolai Ceausescu? Because Ceausescu’s problem was that he, instead of doing what he had set out to do, watching the shoemaker and learning from the shoemaker and doing what the shoemaker did, he got mixed up with criminals and radicals and revolutionaries.

And yes, he ended up being the leader of the country for a long time, but he ended up his own people turned on him and killed him. Folks, he probably would have been all right if he had stuck to watching the shoemaker and learning from the shoemaker. And I’m struck by how many people, just as an aside, how many people in politics started out at something else and failed.

Stalin was in seminary to become a priest and couldn’t do that. And I look at some of these people and I think they couldn’t handle a real job, so they went into politics. Sounds about right, doesn’t it?

He just should have stuck to watching the shoemaker. You’re never going to become a shoemaker by getting involved in criminal activities and never going to work. Folks, if you want to become a shoemaker, if you want to be like the shoemaker someday, You watch the shoemaker and learn from what he does, and you do what he does.

Same thing if I wanted to make watches one day. Now, I’m probably not smart enough, but if I wanted to make watches one day, how would I do that? I would watch the watchmaker, learn what he does, and do what he does.

Knowing that I was called to be a pastor and wanting to preach someday, I started watching what other men did who already were doing it. Wanting to be a good father, I looked around at other men who were doing a good job at being fathers. Many of you started out in jobs years ago where you had to be trained by somebody and you had to watch them and learn what they did.

And this is not a foreign concept to us, is it? If you want to be a shoemaker, you watch the shoemaker. Folks, there’s something even more important that we as Christians are called to do and to be like rather than just our jobs.

There’s more to the Christian life than me just looking at other preachers and seeing what they’re doing. There’s more to your life than just looking at somebody in your occupation and doing what they do, whether it’s learning how to make really good roads and watching what somebody else does, or learning how to work on telephone lines and watching what somebody else does, or some of the other jobs that some of you have done in here. Brother Mike, I’m sure you went through intense training to be in law enforcement.

But folks, there’s more to our lives as believers than just watching somebody for our occupation. We are called to emulate and to imitate somebody much higher and much more important. That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning, because Romans chapter 8 tells us that whom he did foreknow, that means whom God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

And now I could read the rest of the passage to you, and I have before, unless you think I’m taking it out of context. That’s Romans 8, 29, and you can go look at it later. Some people, I believe, have taken that out of context and said, see, it says predestination right there.

That means God picks some people to go to heaven, some people to go to hell. It has nothing to do with you having faith. It’s just that God picked and He predestined.

What that verse is actually saying in context is that the ones He foreknew would come to faith in Jesus Christ, He predestined, he set aside what his goal was for us, and the predestination is not who is saved and who is not. The predestination is that those who are saved will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. It’s not talking about God’s plan being salvation for some and hell for others, and we have no decision to make in the matter. God’s plan, what has been predestined for us, is that once we come to faith in Christ, once we have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ and we are no longer our own.

His plan for us is to grow to be like Jesus Christ. When I see that word conformed, I think of Plato or Silly Putty or Gumby or something like that where you can mold it and shape it into it. Folks, we are supposed to be shaped continually by God to look more and more like Jesus Christ. That’s our job as believers. It’s important in our everyday lives that we’re learning by watching people and what we’re supposed to do in our job or in our families, in our relationships, in all of those things.

But it is infinitely more important that we be looking to Jesus Christ and learning from Him and following His example. Now the message that we’re in today, here in Mark chapter 14, we’re only going to get the beginning of this morning. You’ll have to come back tonight for the rest of it.

This is not the end of our series on prayer, but this is the end of the list of reasons why we pray. And I think it’s my favorite of all of them. That we pray to be like Jesus.

And by that, I don’t mean just praying and asking God the Father, help us be like Jesus. I mean we pray because it’s something that Jesus Christ did. And if it is our job as Christian believers to grow each and every single day, to be conformed, to be molded by God, to be more and more like Jesus Christ, if it’s our job to follow his example, then we need to spend more time in prayer than what we do.

You can’t flip through the pages of the four Gospels and not come across an instance where Jesus prayed. What we’re going to look at today is one of the most notable times that Jesus prayed, but it’s certainly not the only time, because Jesus spent more time in prayer, I believe, than any other person who’s recorded in the Bible. Mark chapter 14, starting in verse 32, and this is where they’re in the garden of Gethsemane, right before Jesus is betrayed by Judas.

And it says, And they came to a place which was called Gethsemane. And he saith to his disciples, sit ye here while I shall pray. And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and very heavy.

And saith unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry ye here and watch. So he goes out to the garden of Gethsemane, and he takes Peter, James, and John with him, and he says to them, sit here while I pray.

Sit here while I pray. And I’ve often wondered what the reason was for having them sit there. it could be that he wanted them to keep watch, but from what?

I mean, he knew he was going to be arrested and put on the cross. It’s not as though he was going to try to fight his way out. And we know that because shortly after this, they come to arrest him, and Peter draws a sword from somebody and chops off an ear of one of the guards, and Jesus tells him, put his sword away and puts the man’s ear back on.

I mean, if Jesus had wanted to fight his way out, Peter was ready to go, and Jesus wasn’t having any of it. I don’t think Jesus was wanting them to sit there and keep guard over Him. I believe Jesus told them to sit there and wait with the idea that they would see Him in prayer and that they would follow His lead.

But He took with Him Peter and James and John. He told them to sit there, and it says He became sore amazed. He became greatly amazed.

And at what point in His human earthly existence He realized He was going to the cross, I’m not sure. Some people have said, oh, even as a baby, He had to have known. I don’t know.

He may have grown up a little bit before he realized who he was. I don’t know. But by this time, certainly, Jesus already knew where he was headed.

He had already told them in so many ways. He had told them implicitly when he’d make little statements about where he was headed. He would tell them explicitly and say, this temple will be torn down and raised again in three days.

He would tell them that he needed to go to Jerusalem to suffer. Folks, he knew what he was doing. But I think as he drew near to the situation, as he drew near to the cross, I think the gravity, the weight of the situation occurred to him in its fullness.

Now, as God, I believe he understood completely what was going on. As a human being, I think the realization grew as he went to the cross. It says he became greatly amazed and began to be very heavy.

Folks, that word heavy means depressed. It means depressed. It means heavy hearted.

as he knew what was about to befall him, he became very heavy-hearted and even says to them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Sorrowful. He wasn’t just sad.

He was exceedingly sad. He was in great distress and he was sorrowful unto death. And I think it’s rare for most of us that we feel such an extreme sorrow and pain in our heart that we feel like we might die from it.

But folks, he knew that this sorrow that he was feeling at this very moment would for him end in death. And so he told them, Terry, ye hear, and watch. Watch me.

And he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed. Folks, he went forward and he fell on the ground. Now, I don’t believe you have to do this every time you pray.

We probably should do it more than we do. I can tell you some of the best prayer times in my life have been where I have gotten on my face before God. It’s a mark of humility.

It’s a mark of submission that we are low in contrast to Him. And nothing in this passage should be taken, and nothing in my presentation of this passage should be taken as implying that Jesus Christ is somehow less than God. That somehow Jesus Christ is less than the Father.

In terms of His human nature, God the Son had submitted Himself to the will of God the Father, but God the Son is no less God than God the Father. Can we be clear on that? but in his human nature, here he is on his face before God the Father, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

And people ask all the time. Great theologians have asked all the time why he would pray such a thing, why he would ask this, why he would ask what we’re going to see in the next verse. And I think, really?

You can’t figure out why he would pray that this would pass from him? And he says in verse 36, and he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And as I said, theologians have wrangled for centuries over why he would pray that the cup pass from him. Because he was about to be nailed to a cross, ladies and gentlemen.

It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to figure out why he would not want that to happen. Anybody in here want to be nailed to a cross? I don’t.

And it wasn’t just the nailing to the cross. It was everything else that he was about to suffer through. He was about to be nailed to the cross, sure, but he was going to be beaten before that.

And according to the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 53, written 700 years before the fact, which describes the crucifixion in such vivid detail that I’ve heard preachers call it the gospel of Isaiah. According to that depiction, Jesus was beaten to such an extent that he was not even recognizable to those who knew him. And he was going to be whipped and he was going to be spit on and he was going to be mocked and humiliated.

He was about to go through all of that. And folks, He knew what he was about to go do. But even more than that, I’m convinced.

What worried Jesus, what he looked on, I shouldn’t say worried Jesus, but what he looked on with dread was the fact that he who was sinless, let’s never forget he was God in human flesh. He was without sin, he was without imperfection, had never sinned in the history of eternity, and has never sinned and never will sin because he’s God. And yet God was about to take on Himself the sin of all mankind.

And I don’t know about you, but when I sin, I feel guilty about it. I feel dirty and I feel shameful before God the Father. Folks, imagine all of the sin of your entire life.

And now multiply that by all the people who have ever lived. And Jesus, who had never sinned, Jesus, who had never experienced separation from God the Father, had never experienced the weight and the shame and the gravity of sin. Was about to take on his sinless person the weight of all of our sins.

Was about to feel that guilt and that shame and that burden for you and me. And on top of that, folks, our sins have separated us from God. That’s why Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay for them.

And Jesus was about to feel the weight of God’s justice and displeasure. That’s why he prays also, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me when he’s on the cross? Because for the first time in history, the sin of mankind, I can’t even begin to wrap my head around this, but it’s what the Bible teaches and I believe it.

The sin of mankind was on God the Son, and God the Son felt a break in the fellowship with God the Father. Now it doesn’t mean he was any less God. So as I said, I don’t understand how all that works completely.

But he knew there was about to be the weight of this sin on him. He knew he was about to experience the justice of God, the punishment of sins. He knew he was about to experience the wrath of a holy God.

And looking down at that, looking ahead at what was about to happen, he says, Father, I know all things are possible with you. If there is any way, take this cup away from me. If there’s any other way, don’t make me have to go through this.

He says, nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And for all of those who are non-believers in our world who say that God the Father is hateful, that the idea of God requiring the sacrifice of His own Son is hateful, there are even supposed Christians who stand in pulpits this morning all across our country who have said things about God the Father that He is a cosmic child abuser, that He’s a moral monster for this very thing, as though Jesus Christ was forced at bayonet point to go to the cross. He does pray here, let this cup pass from me, but Jesus says, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.

Folks, Jesus was not forced to go to the cross. And God the Father was not a child abuser and is not a moral monster. God the Son came willingly to the cross.

God the Son knew before He stepped out of heaven and put on human flesh that He was going to the cross. The Bible says that Jesus Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. That means that before God ever created us, He knew, that means God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit knew that we were going to fall, that we were going to sin, and we were going to be separated from Him, and that a sacrifice would be required to pay for our sins.

And before we ever were created, God the Son knew that He would go to the cross to pay for our sins. Don’t tell me that God the Father is some monster who forced God the Son to the cross. Because He says, nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt.

It says in verse 37, And he cometh and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst not thou watch one hour? He comes back and finds them asleep.

And if you’re anything like me, this won’t be that unusual to you. I fall asleep praying all the time, and I feel bad about it. But he says, are you asleep?

Could you not even stay awake one hour? He says, watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. If ever there was a time, You need to be prayed up and prepared.

It’s now. He says, watch and pray so that you don’t enter into temptation. And Peter was about to be tempted in a myriad of ways.

He was about to be tempted to try to thwart God’s plan and trying to fight his way out of there for Jesus. He was about to be tempted to deny Jesus. He was about to be tempted with unbelief.

The Gospels record that all of the disciples fled and hid, and I really believe it’s because they weren’t sure themselves whether Jesus was coming back or not. Folks, there were all sorts of temptations that were about to come to Peter. And if ever he needed to pray, it was now.

And Jesus said, Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. He says, And this is true not only of Peter that day, but it’s true of us today. The Spirit is truly ready, but the flesh is weak.

So often we know the things that God has called us to do. We know the things that God has expected us to do. And something within us is ready to go when God calls and ready to do what He’s called us to do and yet making ourselves do it.

God, I know You want me to go talk to my neighbor about Christ, but I think I’ll just sit here instead. I really want to go talk to him, but it’s easier just to sit here. God, I know You want me to give money to support that missionary who came to visit, but house payments due this week, and I just don’t know.

And how many times do we have good intentions We know what God has called us to do, and we think, I want to do what God’s called me to do. I want to do the right thing this time. And yet, when the rubber hits the road, the flesh is weak.

We just can’t bring ourselves to do it because we know it’s going to cost us something. And again, he went away and prayed and spake the same words. And when he returned, he found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.

We can all relate to this. Neither wished they what to answer him. So when he comes back, And he goes back and prays after he’s just told them, watch and pray.

The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak. And he goes back and he prays some more, and he comes back and they’re asleep again. And he says the same thing.

Are you asleep? Could you not even watch for one hour? Could you not even pray for one hour?

The Bible says they didn’t know what to answer him in verse 40. So in verse 41, And he cometh the third time and saith unto them, sleep on now and take your rest. Fine, go ahead and sleep. It’s enough.

the hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go.

Lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand. And Jesus, there again, Jesus walks out willingly to meet Judas who would betray him and the soldiers and the guards who were about to take him away to be tried and to be crucified. He went willingly.

But what I notice in this passage is that three times in this passage, Jesus goes off to pray. And just looking at the context, I’m guessing he prayed about an hour each time. I just want to ask one very simple question of me and of you, and you don’t have to answer because I haven’t come to a satisfactory answer and probably never will.

But if God the Son, we cannot forget in all of this that Jesus Christ is God the Son. If God the Son came to the most difficult time of his life and realized that he needed to spend this much time in prayer, this much effort, this much energy, this much passion in prayer, before God the Father. What makes frail, feeble beings like you and me think that we can get through each day without spending that kind of time in prayer before God the Father?

You don’t have to answer it because I can’t answer it. Jesus came to a situation like this and He needed to pray. I don’t know where on earth I got the idea that I can handle this on my own.

I don’t need to pray. Folks, if I want to be like Jesus, and let me tell you, I want to be like Jesus. I know that I fall so far short on a daily basis, but I do want to be like Jesus.

It’s another case of the spirit being willing and the flesh being weak. But if we want to be like Jesus, folks, we can’t go through a prayerless life. We need to spend time in prayer because it was the example set for us by the one we’re supposed to be trying to emulate.

It’s His example. This isn’t the only time He prays. He prays numerous times in the New Testament.

But I can just about guarantee you, had I been in his shoes, not being the Son of God, but knowing I was about to be crucified, just knowing the way I am, my response would have been more like Peter’s. I would have been trying to think, how can I fight my way out of here? How can I get out of this?

What can I do to arrange this? He didn’t do any of that. He went to God the Father and said, if there’s any other way, God, if there’s any other way, their sins can be paid for.

If there’s any other way that your justice and your holiness can be intact, If there’s any way, any other way, that you can show them grace and mercy, Lord, let’s do that, but not my will, but thy will be done. And as a believer, I need to have that same kind of prayer toward God the Father. If Jesus needed to pray, then we need to pray.

If Jesus prayed and we’re trying to be like Jesus, then we need to pray. A few things that we can see from this prayer this morning, and we’re only going to get through the first three this morning, but why it helps us to follow Christ’s example, why it helps us to follow Jesus’ example and pray, first of all, is that prayer draws us closer to the Father. Prayer draws us closer to the Father.

Now, Jesus said, my Father and I are one. And I don’t believe that just meant a relationship. I believe He really was referring to being part of the Godhead when He said, I and my Father are one.

You see, there’s never been any disagreement. There’s never been any cross-purposes. There’s never been any difference in nature or will among the three members of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Never any disagreement. So when he says, I and my Father are one, he was referring to telling the Jewish people around him, I really am one with God the Father. But at the same time, we read through the Gospels and we notice a closeness between Jesus Christ and God the Father.

We notice that Jesus says all the time, I’m about my Father’s business, But my job here is to do my Father’s will. And strangely enough, Jesus always seemed to know where God the Father wanted Him to go. What God the Father wanted Him to do.

I have trouble with that. Knowing exactly where God wants me to go. Talked a few weeks ago about praying to find God’s will.

I don’t always do a great job at that. Jesus always seemed to know where the Father wanted Him to go. Jesus always seemed to know what the Father expected from Him.

Jesus also seemed to know what the Father was thinking. Now think about this from the perspective of the Jews at that time. The Pharisees and Sadducees and all the various different groups were always fighting about what they thought God thought on a matter.

And they would look at the Scriptures and they would all come up with these different interpretations and quite frankly, they all got it wrong. And yet this one man came and always knew what the Father was thinking. And had the Scriptures to back it up, had the miracles to back it up, had the power to back it up.

It’s because of his close relationship with the Father. There has never been so intimate a relationship between a man and God as there was between Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, and God the Father. Part of the reason for that, that closeness in relationship, not only the fact that he’s God too, but that he spent time in prayer.

Jesus prayed like nobody has ever prayed before him or since. And we see that closeness here in the way that he refers to him in verse 36 as Abba. The word Abba in the Aramaic or Hebrew is Daddy.

We see a lot of people throughout the Bible who have a close relationship with God the Father, but we don’t see many of them referring to Him as Daddy. There was a closeness between Jesus Christ and God the Father that I think was strengthened through prayer. I saw a sign on a church marquee several years ago that has always stuck with me.

I think a lot of them are intended to be funny and just, I don’t know, by the tenth time you’ve read it at a different church, It’s just not funny anymore. But one of the little sayings that has stuck with me through the years is the saying that if God feels far away, he’s not the one who moved. If God feels far away, he’s not the one who moved.

God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. And we’re the ones who wander away from him. If you don’t feel the closeness with God the Father that you used to have, if you don’t feel the closeness with God the Father that you believe you ought to have, Let me ask you, how much time have you spent in prayer with Him lately?

How much time have you spent in prayer with Him lately? If you still feel that closeness lacking, then it’s not enough. But Jesus prayed to God the Father regularly, and as a result was able in this time of great distress to call out to Him, Abba, Daddy.

So prayer draws us closer to the Father. Second of all, prayer strengthens our faith in the Father. Prayer strengthens our faith in the Father.

And you may be thinking, well, shouldn’t I pray because I have faith? Well, yeah, we should pray because we have faith. But also at times I believe we ought to pray because we lack faith.

And I’m not saying that Jesus lacked faith in the Father. But I can tell you many, many times I have prayed to God saying, I know up here that you’re in control of all of these things, that you’re in control of this situation. But I look at it and it looks like such a mess to me that I don’t see how you possibly could work this out.

And some of you may be in a situation like that today. We know in our heads God is in control of all things, but in our hearts it feels like this is such a mess nobody can sort it out. And in those times when I’ve been smart enough to pray about it instead of just worrying about it, God has strengthened my faith and reminded me that He can take care of it, that His grace is sufficient, that His strength is made perfect in my weakness.

Jesus prayed here to God the Father an expression of faith. He said, all things are possible unto thee. Jesus expressed the fact that he believed God the Father could handle anything and sometimes I believe what prayer does for us again I’m not saying Jesus lacked faith here he expresses faith but for us sometimes prayer is what is required for us to get the focus off of ourselves and off of our situation and focus on the God who controls it all because I can worry I can worry about my finances I can worry about my job I can worry about my family and say, God, this problem just looks so big, it’s insurmountable.

How can you possibly fix it? But when I pray about it, it forces me to step back and stop looking so much at the problem and look at God. And what I’m reminded of, you know what I’m reminded of when I do that?

That I serve a big God. I serve a big God. You serve a big God.

And He is able to do things that we can’t even imagine. He is able to work out situations and problems in ways that we can’t even imagine. And I can tell you from personal experience even lately, He doesn’t always answer things the way we want Him to.

He doesn’t always answer them in our time. But folks, we serve the same God who parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could pass on dry land. Do you realize that?

We serve the same God who by the words of His mouth spoke the entire universe into existence. and all the things that science does and doesn’t understand, and subatomic particles, and why things move the way they do, and how they’re attracted, and how matter even holds together, we still don’t even understand how gravity works, and God started all of it with just the words of His mouth. Folks, we serve the same God who no matter what the evil is and the wickedness of this world, one day with the words of His mouth, He’s going to put an end to all of it.

One day He’s going to establish perfect justice and peace. Folks, we serve a God who when the problem of sin looked insurmountable and man looked at it and we realized there was nothing we could do to repair the relationship that had been broken between us and God the Father because of our sins, knew from eternity past how to provide the sacrifice for our sins in the person of His Son so that our sins could be forgiven, so the sin could still be dealt with, and God could remain holy and just and yet express His mercy. Folks, there is nothing consistent with God’s nature that God cannot do.</