12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Introduction
This is a simple statement about the life and ministry of Jesus, so commonplace that you might be reading the gospel of Luke and pass right over that statement about Jesus in prayer.
I was in the pastor’s home of the First Baptist Church in Odessa and I saw on the wall a plaque that I’m sure you’ve seen before. It said, “Life is precious, handle it with prayer.” And it reminded me again of the importance of prayer in the life of every believer. In fact every great servant of God has been a person of prayer. Moses came down from the mountain where he had received the law of God and the children of Israel had transgressed against the Lord. And he prayed this prayer: “Lord, forgive these people of their sins. And if not, then blot my name out of the book of life.” Daniel, that young man who as a teenager was transported far from his home in the distant land of Babylon, who eventually became the prime minister of the land was a man of great prayer. And even though the king had issued an edict saying that anyone who prayed to any god, except the king himself, would be put to death. The Bible says that Daniel knelt before his window and he prayed three times a day as he had before. He would not let even the threat of the king on his life keep him from the appointed hour of prayer. Elijah, the great prophet of God, met the prophets of Baal in a theological shootout on the top of Mount Carmel. And he prayed a very simple prayer: “Lord, will you let all of Israel know that you are the one true God.” And when he prayed that simple prayer the fire from heaven fell and the sacrifice was consumed and Israel knew again that God not Baal was the true God of all of Israel.
The apostle Paul’s writings are filled with prayers. He not only talks about prayer, but he actually records some of the prayers that he prayed for the saints in his day. But I suppose the greatest argument for prayer is Jesus Christ on his knees. When you see the Son of God kneeling in prayer continuously throughout his ministry, when you see him praying all night long, when you see him praying over great decisions, when you hear him call upon the name of God the Father, then you know that prayer has to have an important place in the life of every believer. So, this brief statement, “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”
There are three simple things about the prayer life of Jesus that I want you to note in this passage of scripture. It speaks to us about the place of prayer. He went out into a mountain. It speaks to us about the period of prayer. He prayed all night long. And then it speaks to us of the person of prayer. He prayed to God.
Out in the mountain, all night long, and speaking to God. And that experience from the life of Jesus gives us some reminders—not new insights, not something we have never heard before, but old reminders of how we ought to pray and why prayer is so important in our lives.
1. We must find a place to pray.
I want you to think, first of all, about the place of prayer. The Bible says that Jesus went out into a mountain. It would make an interesting study for you to take one of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and to go through that gospel reading to learn specifically the various places where Jesus prayed. I think you will be surprised to find all of the different places where he prayed. He prayed on the hillside one day when he broke the bread and the fish and he fed the multitude of 5,000. He prayed in the Upper Room when he inaugurated the Lord’s Supper. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). He prayed on the Mount of Transfiguration as God transformed his appearance before those disciples and he took on the glory of heaven itself. And he prayed from the cross of Calvary, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” When you study the life and the ministry of Jesus you soon discover that Jesus prayed everywhere because he knew that God could be found anywhere. And wherever God is, wherever God can be reached, there is the place of prayer.
I think the most significant thing about Jesus in prayer on this occasion is that he got apart from the busyness of life and he found a quiet place where he could be alone with God. The most important thing about the place of prayer is not where it is, but that it is a place where you can talk without interruption to God. Jesus had such a busy life. People pressed upon him continuously. They were there for healing. They were there for advice. They were there just to touch him. They were there to listen to his words. And he found it increasingly difficult to find a place where he could be alone with God. And so on this occasion Jesus went out into the mountains where there was no one else and there all night long he talked with God.
It is difficult for us in today’s world to find that quiet place where we can be alone with God. In a busy household, in a small apartment, in a crowded college dormitory room, it may be difficult to find that quiet place to be alone with God. Let me suggest to you that somehow, some way, you must find such a place. If you neglect that quiet time with God, talking with him as Jesus did, then the power and the vitality of your life will be drained from you and you will not be able to fulfill the will of God as he intends you to do. So, the experience of Jesus speaks to us of the necessity of finding a quiet place where we can be alone with God to speak to him.
2. We must determine how long to pray.
Luke 6:12 speaks not only of a place of prayer, it also speaks to us of the period of prayer. Jesus went out into the mountain to pray and the Bible says that he continued all night in prayer. Jesus did not pray all night or all day every time he prayed. This was a special occasion. It was on his heart that he should call out his 12 apostles. Jesus had many disciples who were following him. But Jesus felt a need for some apostles. There is a difference in a disciple and an apostle. The word disciple means a learner. The word apostle means one who is sent. Jesus had around him many disciples, many who listened to him, many who learned of him. But he needed a special group that he could train, that he could instruct and send out to preach during his earthly ministry. And then when he had been crucified on the cross and ascended into heaven, those disciples would go to the earth to preach the Gospel everywhere. With that burden on his heart, to choose the right men, to choose these twelve who would carry on his work when he was gone, Jesus felt the need to pray all night long on that mountainside as he talked to God.
You will understand that the important thing about prayer is not the length of prayer necessarily. It is rather the intensity of prayer. Jesus taught us one time to pray like this, “Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”
You can pray it in less than fifteen seconds. So when Jesus taught us to pray he did not teach us to pray long prayers necessarily. You read the prayers of the apostle Paul in his epistles and most of them are short and simple prayers. They could have been prayed in a matter of two or three minutes at the most. The publican who prayed one day in the temple, “Lord, be merciful unto me a sinner” prayed a one-sentence prayer and yet the Lord said concerning that man that he went down to his house justified. A period of prayer, the length of prayer, is not necessarily the important thing. It is rather the intensity of prayer and the practice of prayer that is so vital and important.
There will be times in your life and in mine as there were in the life of Jesus when we need to spend extended periods of times in prayer. But there will be times when we may need to pray for just a minute or so, just a few seconds to make contact with God, to share the heartbeat we have with him. And in those moments if we are communing with him, the important thing is that we have made contact and not how long we spend in prayer.
I talk with a lot of people from time to time about the importance of a quiet time in their life. And I remind them as I want to remind you that the important thing about a quiet time is not how long it is. It is rather that you establish the discipline of meeting God every day in Bible study and in prayer. It takes less than five minutes to read most chapters in the Bible. If you would spend five minutes reading a chapter of God’s word every day, and then you would spend two minutes in prayer, those seven minutes would become the important seven minutes of your life. Jesus realized that he could not live his life victoriously and triumphantly without prayer. So in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life he got away from the crowds, away from his disciples, away from the multitudes and spent some quite time with God. Though he prayed all night long on this occasion, most of his prayers were short, simple prayers that could be prayed in a matter of just a few minutes.
3. We must know whom to pray to.
Not only does this passage teach us about the place of prayer and the period of prayer, it teaches us about the person of prayer. It says that Jesus went out to the mountainside, he prayed all night long, and he prayed to God. You remember ever and always that our prayer is to God the Father.
In that model prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “Our father which art in heaven.” On the cross he prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The apostle Paul voiced one of his prayers in the book of Romans 10:1. He said, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” And in the book of 2 Timothy 4:16, he is talking about his arrest and his imprisonment and his trial in Rome. He says, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.” Again and again the scriptures teach us that our prayer is to God the Father. But we today pray through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said on one occasion, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). We cannot approach God in salvation except through Jesus Christ. We cannot approach God in prayer except through Jesus Christ. We cannot approach God through the confession of sin except through Jesus Christ. There is no way for any of us to reach God except through the Lord Jesus Christ. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
In the book of 1 Timothy, Paul says there is one God and there is one meditator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. The only person who stands between you and God is Jesus Christ. When you come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, when you pray your prayers in Jesus’ name, that prayer reaches God because God is the one to whom we pray and Jesus is the one through whom we pray. In the book of Ephesians 2:18 Paul says, “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” He is talking about Jesus Christ. And he simply reminds us that through him, there is access, through him the way has been opened, through him there is complete liberty to go into the presence of God. Jesus Christ has made that way possible for us.
Jesus taught us the same thing. In the gospel of John 14:13, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Have you ever wondered why do we close our prayers by saying, “We pray this in Jesus’ name”? It is because that through the name of Jesus, through faith and trust in him, that access to God has been made available to us. So he tells us, “Whatsoever you ask in my name, God will do it.” And then in the book of John 16:23, Jesus speaks again: “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” So the Bible teaches us that we pray to God the Father. But our prayer is through the Lord Jesus Christ who has made that way open and possible for us. So this simple experience from the life of Jesus simply reminds us of the importance of prayer in the life of every believer. We must find a place, a quiet place to be alone with God. We must talk with him until we have said all we need to say. It may take a few seconds. It may take a few minutes. It may occasionally take all night long. As we talk to God the Father, we remember that the way has been made possible for us through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Somebody has said that God had only one Son who lived without sin. He had no sons who lived without prayer. The very fact that the Son of God prayed so often, so diligently, so faithfully reminds us that prayer must have a vital part in our lives if we are to be effective in the service of God.