Jesus’ Life of Prayer
Text: Mark 1:35-39
Core Idea: Prayer was foundational to Jesus – a rhythm of His life. Jesus intentionally sought out a quiet, unhurried time with God in the busyness of His life knowing that it was a sure way of tuning His heart to the heart of God. May His zeal for prayer cause us to be zealous for prayer.
INTRODUCTION
Good afternoon, Lighthouse. Happy new year! Even though we’re not able to meet physically, I’m still thankful that we have this platform to meet together. I’ve been praying for all of you – more specifically through one of my favorite verses, Colossians 2:6-7, which says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” This is my prayer for you – that you will deepen your relationship with God as you continue to grow in the Lord this year. May we learn to root ourselves in the Lord.
It was good to explore through Luke 2 last few weeks. I hope that it was a fresh way of looking at the birth of Jesus Christ – an opportunity to unfold the true meaning of Christmas. Today, we want to pick up from where we left off – looking at the person and mission of Jesus Christ through the Gospel of Mark. So, if you have your Bibles, please turn to Mark 1:35-39.
If you remember, the previous passage showed us that Jesus was a man of authority – a power to captivate, convict; a power to give life. But Mark also showed us that Jesus was a man of compassion as He healed Simon’s mother-in-law. He showed Himself to be someone who deeply cared about all of our needs no matter how insignificant they may be – someone who not only had the power to give life, but someone who wanted to get close to us to breathe life in us Himself. The passage ended with the whole town gathering at Simon’s house that evening – and Jesus must have spent hours healing and driving out demons. Now, it’s important to remember this because it will help us understand how astonishing it is to see what Jesus does next. And through that, we’ll get a glimpse of what’s on Jesus’ heart – what’s really important to Him. And my prayer for you is that what’s important to Him would be important to you as well – that this would be something you’ll desire for yourself this year. Let me read this for us.
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for Him, 37 and when they found Him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
In this passage, Mark gives us a window into Jesus’ life of prayer. Then let me just share three things from this passage:
THE PRIORITY OF PRAYER
THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER
THE RESULT OF PRAYER
1) THE PRIORITY OF PRAYER
It’s helpful for us to note that this story comes in between two stories of healing. As I summarized already, the story before this shows that a huge crowd gathered as Jesus’ reputation spread in Galilee – who knows how many people He met and how long He had to minister to them. The story that comes right after our passage is a story of Jesus healing a leper. We’ll look at it more closely next week, but one thing to note is that after Jesus heals the man, He sternly tells him not to tell anybody about this. But we read that the leper in his joy literally tells everyone he meets, and Jesus finds Himself mobbed by the crowd who wanted to get something from Him, to make Him stay, or to make Him their king. Now, in between these two moments of chaos and busyness, we find Jesus pursuing solitude. In this moment of incredible opportunity, in this moment of overwhelming popularity and potential for influence, verse 35 tells us that Jesus woke up “very early in the morning, while it was still dark,” went out to find a quiet place, a solitary place in order to pray – to spend this unhurried time with God; to be in fellowship with the Father.
Now, it’s easy for us to think that Jesus did this because He is Jesus – “He’s the Son of God.” But I think Mark was trying to show us that this may not have been that easy for Him as well. When Mark was sharing all these details in verse 35, I think he was pointing out all the obstacles and challenges that Jesus had to overcome in order to do this. “Very early in the morning” – I think this alone would’ve stopped us from praying. It’s hard waking up early in the morning to do anything. But not only that, “it was still dark” – this would’ve taken away all motivation to do anything. Yet “Jesus got up, left the house” when everyone else was still sleeping – enjoying their rest. And “went off to a solitary place” – which meant that He had to walk for a while to find a place where no one was around. And remember that Jesus must have been exhausted by now. He was teaching, healing, casting out demons all day. People were demanding so much from Him. If anyone needed rest, it was Jesus – and yet He desperately, intentionally sought out solitude and silence in order to speak to God and hear from Him.
If we consider all these things, we can see how hard this may have been for Jesus because we understand what it means to be tremendously busy and exhausted in life. In fact, maybe you feel like this right now. It feels like there’s no space for yourself in your life – there are so many demands from everywhere: your boss, co-workers, and clients – deadlines after deadlines; your spouse, children, and parents – it’s crazy how there’s always something to do at home; your friends, neighbors, and church community. It feels like there’s no end to this busyness. It feels like life is giving us all the excuses to just check out. And if we’re honest to ourselves, in those times, the first thing that gets squeezed out of our lives is solitude, silence, and prayer. But Jesus, the busier He got, the more He prayed.
Brothers and sisters, then, let me ask you this (and I’m really preaching this to myself): Is prayer, is your time with God, your priority over every other thing in your day today? Let me rephrase this differently: Is Jesus’ priority your priority today? Or do you have priorities that are not only different but also conflicting with the priorities of Jesus? I want to encourage you, challenge you, plead with you to remember that there’s nothing more important, more valuable, more necessary than for us to spend that quiet, unhurried, distraction-free time with God. I know that this isn’t easy – you’ll find out how loud silence can feel if you’re not used to it. But we must continue to reason with our souls, fight with our souls to protect this time in our day. Pastor David Platt helps us to check our hearts by saying this: “What could be more important in our day than meeting with the One who gives us breath, who causes our hearts to beat, who loves us more than anyone else, who reigns over the entire universe with all authority, who has invited you to meet with Him? What more important thing do you have than this? What more valuable thing do you have to do in your schedule than this?” Jesus prioritized time alone with God over every other thing in His day.
Now, how did Jesus do this – in this moment of tremendous opportunity, in this moment of great pressure and need? He could’ve built a huge following to build a solid foundation to what He wanted to accomplish. But instead of planning and seizing that opportunity, He slowed down and spent that time with God. Don’t we all want this for ourselves? We want to be able to do this when the pressure is on us. We all know how important prayer is and how much we need to pray. Then how does He do this – especially when it mattered, when the pressure was on? He was able to do this because this was the rhythm of His life. Luke 5:16 says, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” If we read through the Gospel accounts, we’ll see that Jesus constantly prayed at the important junctions of His life: at His baptism, in the wilderness, before He chose the twelve apostles, at His transfiguration, after feeding the five thousand, at the Last Supper, at the Garden of Gethsemane, and even on the cross as He was dying – He was found praying. Prayer saturated His life. It gave Him structure to His life. And this practice formed Him to be who He is.
Practice is something you do repeatedly until it becomes part of you – it becomes your instinct. For example, no one accidentally learns how to play an instrument. No one accidentally becomes a great athlete or a dancer. It comes from the rhythm of their lifestyle – constantly and consistently practicing and honing their skills. When I was in grade 9, I saw my mom playing the guitar for the first time. She only knew how to play three chords (E, A, and B7), but I genuinely thought that was the coolest thing ever; so, I begged her to teach me. And I played those three chords literally every day, whenever I had the chance. I played them as we were watching TV, as we ate, as I was reading, as I was hanging out with people until my brother yelled at me to stop playing. He said he couldn’t stand hearing me play those three chords over and over again. But by then, because I played them so much, it felt like those chords were literally engraved into my fingers – I probably would’ve been able to play them in my sleep.
In the same way, Jesus must have repeatedly prayed until it became part of who He was – this really was why He was able to pray despite the pressures and demands from everywhere. Then the implication is this: if we want our lives to be saturated by prayer, if we want to prioritize prayer at all times, if we want to pray in the extreme busyness of our lives, we need to start praying and pray consistently and constantly. It means that it will take time and effort. It won’t happen overnight.
You need to know this: I’m not preaching work-based salvation. I’m not talking about how to be saved – I’m talking about how we are transformed. In order for us to become more like Jesus, to have His priorities as ours, it will require us to put in the work as we follow His leading. The best example of this is a picture of farming that Jerry Bridges shares. This is what he says, “A farmer plows his field, sows his seed, and fertilizes and cultivates – all the while knowing that in the final analysis, he is utterly dependent on forces outside of himself. He knows he cannot cause the seed to germinate, nor can he produce the rain and sunshine for growing and harvesting the crop. For the successful harvest, he is dependent on these things from God. Yet the farmer knows that unless he diligently pursues his responsibilities to plow, plant, fertilize, and cultivate, he cannot expect a harvest at the end of the season. In a sense he is in partnership with God, and he will reap its benefits only when he has fulfilled his responsibilities. Farming is a joint venture between God and the farmer. The farmer cannot do what God must do, and God will not do what the farmer should do. We can say just as accurately that the pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and the Christian. No one can attain any degree of holiness without God working in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it without effort on his own part. God has made it possible for us to walk in holiness. But He has given to us the responsibility of doing the walking; He does not do that for us.”
Brothers and sisters, it’s true that God will graciously continue to work in us. He will do this because He loves us and because He wants us to be more like His Son. But that doesn’t excuse us to do nothing and passively wait. No, He invites us to be intentional, active. Then ask yourselves, “What am I doing repeatedly every day? Being on social media? YouTube? Exercise? Read? Journal?” Once you’ve answered that, ask yourself, “As a result of what I’m doing, what kind of person am I becoming? Is this causing me to be more anxious, fearful, cynical, greedy, or angry – or is it making me more bold, generous, patient, and loving?” Jesus practiced a daily prayer that drew Him near to God – and it formed Him to be who He is. Then what is forming you today? Maybe God is asking you to stop doing something and start doing something else. Prayer for Jesus wasn’t an option – it was the very foundation of His life. He intentionally pursued after it. He overcame obstacles to seek God. Then may His priority be our priority this year.
Now, just a quick practical tip before we move to our next point. Some of you may be thinking, “I really have no time to do this. You don’t understand how busy I am.” That may be true. But I’m not asking you to carve out hours to do this. I hope that someday you will because you really want to – but I understand that it may not be realistic right now, which is why I’m inviting you to start small. For example, start with 5 minutes a day – read a verse and pray over that. That’s it. I’m pretty sure all of us can spare 5 minutes for God every day. But what’s important is that you do this every day until it becomes our second nature, until it becomes engraved into the rhythm of our lives. When this happens, prayer will saturate our lives. I know that this is not easy. It’s a difficult fight; so, find someone who can keep you accountable – not to guilt-trip you but to remind, encourage, and challenge one another.
2) THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER
Let’s turn to verse 36. Everyone is up by now and realizes that Jesus had disappeared – so, they begin to look for Him. And when they find Him, you can almost hear their irritation: “Everyone is looking for you!” They were essentially saying, “What are you doing here? This isn’t where you should be! Don’t you see how much work there’s to do? We don’t have time to do this. All these people need you.” As I was reflecting on this, I was wondering if Jesus was tempted to stay because it would’ve made things easier – He would’ve had a huge following very quickly. People loved Him – who wouldn’t want that? But obviously, Jesus didn’t give in. And this passage is here to show us that it was prayer that enabled Jesus to say no to these temptations – it was prayer that led Him to be in tune with God and His purpose. Through prayer, Jesus was able to hold onto the true reason for His coming – not to be a King over a few hundred people but to bring the good news to the world. See how He responds in verse 38: “Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” When Jesus was praying, He was reorienting, recalibrating His heart and His life to God. Prayer created a life that was not distracted by the comfort of life, the pursuit of pleasure, or the need for success and influence – it produced a life of clear mission. S.D. Gordon said, “Prayer wonderfully clears the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; sweetens and strengthens the spirit.”
Sometimes we forget why we’re fighting to live a life pleasing to God. Life gets tough. Life gets busy. Life gets boring. Life gets repetitive. Whatever the reason may be, it causes us to lose focus and we begin to question why we do the things that we do. We get lost on the way. So, we get tempted to make life about ourselves. We do things to satisfy our emptiness. We live to feel good about ourselves. We do things to make ourselves feel like we matter – that we’re important. Brothers and sisters, this is why we must pray because prayer makes the purpose of our lives clear – the reason why we live this way; the reason why we are fighting the good fight even when it feels like it’s not doing much. Do you want to hear from God? Do you want to know His will for your life? Are you desperate for His wisdom and leading? Maybe God is inviting you to enter into a season of prayer – get away, quiet your soul, and pray. He’ll make your purpose clearer – and more importantly, you’ll be in tune with God. It doesn’t mean that it will always be easy – there will be distractions and temptations that will constantly push you to compromise, to take the easy path. But prayer will strengthen you, encourage you to stay on course, to be faithful to our call.
3) THE RESULT OF PRAYER
Let’s go back to verse 38. “Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.’ So He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.” For some reason, a number of us have been led to believe that once we pray, we don’t have to do anything. This really is not true. It can’t be because Jesus didn’t remain passive. When Jesus practiced solitude and prayer, it didn’t lead Him to renounce the world, disconnect from the world. It wasn’t a way to escape from the world. When Jesus disappeared to withdraw in solitude, it was part of the rhythm of His life – in fact, He was always thinking of going back into the world. It was withdrawing in order to engage. He was breathing in to breathe out.
David Mathis says, “Silence and solitude are not ideal states, but rhythms of life to steady us for a fruitful return to people and noise. We don’t retreat from life’s busyness and bustle as an end in itself. We withdraw, like Jesus, to a desolate place to commune with God, and then return to the bustle of daily tasks and the needs of others. We were made for rhythms of silence and noise, community and solitude.” The truth is that when we pray, it compels and motives us to act because we know that that’s His will for us, and even more so, because we know that that’s exactly what Jesus had done for us. He didn’t just pray for us; He lived among us, died for us, rose again for us, and is now again interceding for us. St. Augustine said, “Like Jesus, we should pray as though it all depended on God but act responsibly and obediently as though it all depended on us.” Prayer must lead to action.
Mark tells us that Jesus traveled through Galilee, preaching and ministering with power. He wasn’t stationary. He was on the move. And as we continue to read through the Gospel of Mark, we’ll notice that Jesus is portrayed as someone who was constantly on the move, traveling somewhere. Commentaries tell us that this was the Gospel writers’ way of hinting at us that Jesus was marching toward the cross – moving closer and closer to the place where He would finally fulfill His mission. Jesus knew that the good news would not be good news without the cross. In order for the gospel to be good, there needed to be a demonstration of God’s holy justice against evil; there needed to be a payment of our sin that would satisfy the wrath of the Father. So, Jesus didn’t just pray for us, didn’t just preach the good news to us; He was traveling to the cross in order for Himself to be the good news to the world. On the cross, He conquered sin and paid the price of our sin. In that empty tomb, He conquered death in order to give us life and life to the full.
Brothers and sisters, then let me ask you, “Do you love the gospel? Are you broken by the offensiveness of your own sin against the Father? Are you utterly humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude knowing that Jesus paid the price for you?” It’s so important that you love the gospel because only then, Jesus’ priority will begin to look attractive for you. His zeal will be yours. It’s true that we have work to do in our spiritual journey – but always know that the moment the gospel becomes truly good in your life, the moment you realize that the gospel is your personal story, you’ll begin to experience the power of the Spirit working in you to make you more like Christ.
My prayer for all of us is that we will devote ourselves in creating a healthy rhythm of prayer in our lives this year. My prayer for you is that the Spirit will continue to enlarge our passion and love for prayer so that we would all enjoy deep fellowship with God which would then cause us to move out to the world with this life-giving gospel message in our hands.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, prayer was foundational to Jesus – a rhythm of His life. Jesus intentionally sought out a quiet, unhurried time with God in the busyness of His life knowing that it was a sure way of tuning His heart to the heart of God. Then as we begin this new year, I invite you to pray. One Christian author said this: “Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying.” Let’s not fall into this trap. Let’s be intentional in our time of prayer so that we will be in tune with the Father this year. Let’s pray for ourselves, for our family and friends, for one another, for this church – that we would all be “rooted and built up in Him” this year.