Spirit Help Us Pray Lesson 7

“The Spirit Helps Us Pray”

A Biblical Theology of Prayer

Lesson 7

Prayer in the Life and Ministry of Christ

Who Jesus Said He Was He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Title Verse(John)

Old Testament

New Testament context

Significance


Title Verse(John)

Old Testament


Significance

“I am the bread of life”

6:35, 41, 48, 51

BREAD OF THE PRESENCE

After Jesus had fed the five thousand and the people wanted more free food

As bread sustains physical life, so Christ offers and sustains “all” life


Title Verse(John)

Old Testament


Significance


6:35, 41, 48, 51




“I am the Light of the world.”

8:12 LAMP STAND After an encounter with the Pharisees about an adulterous woman they wanted to stone.

Light serves to guide us out of darkness, Christ offers himself as our guiding Light.


Title Verse(John)

Old Testament


Significance


6:35, 41, 48, 51







“I am the gate.”

10:7-9 GATE TO THE TABERNACLE

During a discourse with the Pharisees in which Jesus declared them unfit to lead.

Jesus is declaring that He is the only way into God’s presence


Title Verse(John)

Old Testament


Significance


6:35, 41, 48, 51







“I am the gate.”

10:7-9 GATE TO THE TABERNACLE

During a discourse with the Pharisees in which Jesus declared them unfit to lead.

Jesus is declaring that He is the only way into God’s presence

“I am the good “Shepherd

10:11,14

PSALM 23, ISAIAH 40:11

Jesus declared twice who he is and what He has come to do: “lay down his life.”

Unlike hirelings who might run away, Jesus is committed to caring for His people.

Who Jesus Said He Was Title Verse

(John) Old Testament


Significance

“I am the Resurrection and the Life.”

11:25 Psa. 16:8-11 After Lazarus had died and Jesus prays for him to be restored to life.

Jesus is the Lord of all life and possesses the power to raise the dead.




Significance




“I am the way, the truth and the life. “

14:6 THE VEIL (It was only through the veil the High Priest could enter God’s presence.)

When the disciples where confused about Jesus statements about heaven.

Jesus is the new and only way to the Father. He offers the very life of God. We enter God’s presence through Him.




Significance




“I am the way, the truth and the life. “

14:6 THE VEIL (It was only through the veil the High Priest could enter God’s presence.)

When the disciples where confused about Jesus statements about heaven.

Jesus is the new and only way to the Father. He offers the very life of God. We enter God’s presence through Him.

“I am the true Vine.”

15:1, 5 Israel had been God’s vine (Psalm 80:8, Isa 5:1-7, Ezek 15, Hosea 10:1)

In the Upper Room discourse on the night of His arrest.

By attaching our life to Christ we enable His life to flow in us and through us. Then we will bear fruit.

Read Hebrews 10:19-25

Jesus Our High Priest Read Hebrews 5:1-10 • A Priest is chosen by God to represent the people before God

Every high priest is chosen from among men. He is appointed to act for them in everything that has to do with God. He offers gifts and sacrifices for their sins.

• A Priest must be able to relate to and with the people as one of them“He is able to deal gently with those who have gone down the wrong path without knowing it. He can do that because he himself is weak.

• A Priest is an honored position appointed by God

“Even Christ did not take the glory of becoming a high priest for himself. God said to him…You are a priest forever, just like Melchizedek”

• A Priest primary function is to pray

“Jesus prayed while he lived on earth. He made his appeal with loud cries and tears….God heard him because he truly honored God”.

• A Priest is called to a life of obedience

Jesus was God's Son. But by suffering he learned what it means to obey. 9 In that way he was made perfect…. He saves all those who obey him.

Jesus Our High Priest Read Hebrews 4:14-16

• The Place of Our High Place – He passed through the heavens

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens”

• The Position of Our High Priest - He finished His work

“Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”

• The Preeminence of Our High Priest – He is supreme

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.”

• The Perfections of Our High Priest – He was sinless

“but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.”

• The Purpose of Our High Priest – He is all we need

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Prayer of our High Priest Jesus Highly Priestly prayer

I. Prays for Himself

II. Prays for His Disciples

III. Prays for His Church

Read John 17:1-5 - Jesus prays for Himself- know His time – “Father the hour has come.”

- knows why He had come – “…that Your Son may glorify You.”

- states His mission - “to give eternal life to as many as believe.”

- declare His success – “I have finished the work.”

- proclaims He is God - “Glorify Me, together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world began.”

Prayer of our High Priest Read John 17:6-19 - Jesus prays for His Disciples

- cites what he has accomplished – “I have revealed you (Your Name) to those whom you gave me out of the world.”

- states His successful mission – “Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.”

- declares His unique relationships - “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.”

- makes His requests – “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.”

- announce His fulfilled prophecy – “None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”

- proclaims He is the source of joy – “but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”

- states the true position of His followers - “…the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.”

- intercedes for divine protection - “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”

Prayer of our High Priest Read John 17:20-26 - Jesus prays for His Church

- intercedes for all His future believers – “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message”

- prays for the Unity of His Body – “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

- declares His profound truth – “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.

- expresses His desire for His Church – “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

- implies His unique relationships - "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

- completes His earthly mission - "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that….

I myself may be in them."

Who is our Suffering Servant Read Isaiah 53 • He was nothing special in appearance

OT: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2)

NT: “Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.” (Mark 6:3)

• He was and will always be widely rejected

OT: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

NT: “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (John 12:37-38)

• He will bear our sins and sorrows

OT: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4)

NT: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:25)

Who is our Suffering Servant • He will make a blood atonement

OT: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

NT: “God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear.” (Romans 3:25- The Message)

• He will be our substitute for the penalty rightly do us OT: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) NT: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

• He has voluntarily accepted our guilt and punishmentOT: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) NT: “"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

Who is our Suffering Servant • His work was finished as payment in full

OT: “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.” (Isaiah 53:8)

NT: “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2 ESV)

• He was buried in a rich man’s tombOT: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9)

NT: “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away.” (John 19:38)

Who is our Suffering Servant • He will justify many from their sins

OT: Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes [c] his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10-11)NT: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.” (Romans 5:18)

• He has overcome death and has taken his rightful placeOT: “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)

NT: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

Prayers of our Suffering ServantRead Mark 14:32-42

• Jesus proves both his humanness and God’s suffering

“He began to be troubled and deeply distressed….”My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to the point of death.” (v 33-34)

• Jesus demonstrates the enormity of the reason for His prayer

“He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed.” (v 35)• Jesus recognized God’s omnipotence but also His relational Self

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.” (v 36a)• Jesus understands God’s sovereignty and that He is the Deliverer

“Take this cup away from Me.” (v 36b)• Jesus reveals to us the perfect example of surrender

“…not what I will, but what you will.” (v 36c)• Jesus makes known that prayer is preparation for action

“Rise, let us be go…”

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Part III - New TestamentChapter 7

Prayer in the Life and Ministry of Jesus

Pages 183- 205

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Spirit Help Us Pray Lesson 7