“Some years ago I got up one morning intending to have my hair cut in preparation for a visit to London, and the first letter I opened made it clear I need not go to London. So I decided to put the haircut off too. But then there began the most unaccountable little nagging in my mind, almost like a voice saying, ‘Get it cut all the same. Go and get it cut.’ In the end I could stand it no longer. I went. Now my barber at that time was a fellow Christian and a man of many troubles whom my brother and I had sometimes been able to help. The moment I opened his shop door he said, ‘Oh, I was praying you might come today.’
And in fact, if I had come a day or so later, I should have been no use to him.
It awed me; it awes me still. But of course one cannot rigorously prove a causal connection between the barbers' prayers and my visit.
- C.S. Lewis The Efficacy of Prayer
Prayer is the work.
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Luke 6:12-26
“Spiritual Zeros”
Big Aim - We want to pray
as Jesus Prays, and invite as Jesus invites
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Three movements -
• Demonstrates the Kingdom of God is for lowly
Invites His dudes
“People had high expectations from a rabbi because he taught them how to interpret, but also how to live the Torah. Disciples would willingly submit to rabbis’ interpretations because it was an honor to follow a rabbi…”
Maritina Gracin - Discipleship in the Context of Judaism in Jesus’ Time Part I
Invites His dudes
“…Covered in the dust of your rabbi…”
Maritina Gracin - Discipleship in the Context of Judaism in Jesus’ Time Part I
Invites His dudes
- Think like their rabbi
Invites His dudes
- Think like their rabbi
- Talk like their rabbi
Invites His dudes
- Think like their rabbi
- Talk like their rabbi
- Walk like their rabbi
Invites His dudes
•Simon/Peter - big mouth, ambitious, ignorant, impatient
Invites His dudes
•Simon/Peter - big mouth, ambitious, ignorant, impatient
•James and John - inappropriate amount of zeal
Invites His dudes
•Simon/Peter - big mouth, ambitious, ignorant, impatient
•James and John - inappropriate amount of zeal
•Matthew/Levi - Tax collector, elected to be on Roman payroll
Invites His dudes
•Simon/Peter - big mouth, ambitious, ignorant, impatient
•James and John - inappropriate amount of zeal
•Matthew/Levi - Tax collector, elected to be on Roman payroll
•Simon the Zealot - wants to overthrow the Roman Empire
Invites His dudes
•Simon/Peter - big mouth, ambitious, ignorant, impatient
•James and John - inappropriate amount of zeal
•Matthew/Levi - Tax collector, elected to be on Roman payroll
•Simon the Zealot - wants to overthrow the Roman Empire
•Thomas - Doubted Jesus’ resurrection
Invites His dudes
•Simon/Peter - Big mouth, ambitious, ignorant, impatient
•James and John - Inappropriate amount of zeal
•Matthew/Levi - Tax collector, elected to be on Roman payroll
•Simon the Zealot - Wants to overthrow the Roman Empire
•Thomas - Doubted Jesus’ resurrection
•Judas Iscariot - Betrayed Jesus
“...Accordingly, when they had continued with Jesus as long as was necessary for this end, he sent them out by two and two into Judea, on the important work of preparing the people for his reception, who was the true shepherd. Hence he named them apostles, that is, persons sent out.
But the name was more peculiarly applicable to them, and their office was raised to its perfection, after Christ’s ascension, when he sent them out into all the world with the doctrine of the gospel, which he enabled them to preach by inspiration, giving them power at the same time to confirm it by the most astonishing miracles.”
- Benson’s Commentary
Invites His dudes
•Simon/Peter - Big mouth, ambitious, ignorant, impatient
•James and John - Inappropriate amount of zeal
•Matthew/Levi - Tax collector, elected to be on Roman payroll
•Simon the Zealot - Wants to overthrow the Roman Empire
•Thomas - Doubted Jesus’ resurrection
•Judas Iscariot - Betrayed Jesus
Invites His dudes
Deut. 7:7-8, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
17And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
“For up until now, we have been tackling the whole question in the wrong way, and on the wrong level. The very question ‘Does prayer work?’ Puts us in the wrong frame of mind from the outset. “‘Work’: as if it were magic, or a machine—something that functions automatically. Prayer is either a sheer illusion or a personal contact between embryonic, incomplete persons (ourselves) and a utterly concrete Person.
(Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine.) In it God shows Himself to us. That He answers prayer is corollary—not necessarily the most important one from that revelation. What He does is learned from what He is.”
C.S. Lewis, The Efficacy of Prayer
(Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine.) In it God shows Himself to us. That He answers prayer is corollary—not necessarily the most important one from that revelation. What He does is learned from what He is.”
C.S. Lewis, The Efficacy of Prayer
Three movements -
God is for lowly
Big Aim - We want to pray
as Jesus Prays, and invite as Jesus invites
Take Aways:
• Sit with the Lord in a place of prayer
Take Aways:
• Sit with the Lord in a place of prayer
• Press into community/build community