Teach Us to Pray Part 5 By John McCallum

Gospel of Luke chapter 23 and we want to read from verse 26 down to verse 49. Luke chapter 23 starting from verse 26. As they led him away they seized Simon from Cyrene who was on his way in from the country and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say blessed are the barren women the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will say to the
mountains fall on us and the hills cover us. For if men do these things when the
tree is green what will happen when it is dry. Two other men both criminals were
also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the
skull there they crucified him along with the criminals one on his right the
other on his left. Jesus said father forgive them for they do not know what
they are doing and they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood
watching and the rulers even sneered at him they said he saved others let him
save himself if he is the Christ of God the chosen one. The soldiers also came up
and mocked him they offered him wine vinegar and said if you are the king of
the Jews save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read this
is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults
at him aren't you the Christ save yourself and us. But the other criminal
rebuked him don't you fear God he said since you're under the same sentence we
are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve but this man has
done nothing wrong. Then he said Jesus remember me when you come into your
kingdom. Jesus answered him I tell you the truth today you will be with me in
paradise. It was now about the sixth hour and darkness came over the whole land
until the ninth hour for the sun stopped shining and the curtain of the temple
was torn in two. Jesus cried out with a loud voice father into your hands I
commit my spirit. When he had said this he breathed his last. The centurion
seeing what had happened praise God and said surely this was a righteous man.
When all the people who had gathered to witness his sight saw what took place
they beat their breaths and went away. But to those who knew him including
sorry but all those who knew him including the women who had followed him
from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Amen.
Let us turn this evening to the gospel according to Luke in chapter 23 and
reading at verse 34. The gospel according to Luke chapter 23 at verse 34. Then said
Jesus father forgive them for they know not what they do they do not know what
they are doing. I want this evening to consider this text and to look at this
text in the light of a general teaching concerning the ministry of prayer
because what we have here is the Lord Jesus Christ continuing his earthly
ministry and especially he is continuing the ministry of prayer. The Lord Jesus
Christ is in the act of the crucifixion and in order to understand all that took
place at the time of the crucifixion we need to read the four Gospels because no
one gospel gives us all the details but as we read the four gospel accounts we
have a full and a detailed a picture of all that transpired and as far as we can
judge all that Jesus said on the cross of Calvary and we know from the four
Gospels taken together that Christ uttered a seven sayings called the
seven sayings of the cross and each of these seven sayings is a most
instructive thing in itself and what we have here is not simply one of those
seven sayings but we have indeed the first of those seven sayings and you
will find that all the commentators agree that Christ's first words of
utterance whilst his enemies were crucifying him was indeed a prayer on
the behalf of those who were crucifying him. Father forgive them for they know
not what they do and I think that we should keep this in mind as we come to
consider finally this evening our general theme of the conference teach us
to pray because I'm suggesting to you that in these words of Christ we have
certain very important things that he teaches us concerning how we also ought
to pray he is once again giving to us an example of a man of God praying to God
and these things are written in the scriptures to make us wise unto
salvation and to give us a full and a rounded picture of the person and the
work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and here we have another example of the
wonderful ministry that he has performed on behalf of sinful men and women and so
we turn then to these words this evening and I want first of all to draw
out from these words of Christ and bearing in mind that he is here an
example to us of the ministry of prayer I want to draw out first of all the
truth that is being brought before us here concerning when it is that we
have to pray or when we can pray and this portion of scripture it seems to me
is reminding us of something that is emphasized in various other places in
the Word of God and that is that there is no time that we cannot engage in
prayer when the Apostle Paul commands the Thessalonians to a pray without
ceasing he is giving a very broad and comprehensive commandment to us as
Christians and there are many implications in what the Apostle is
saying but one of the implications is that there is no time when we cannot
implement that particular injunction to pray without ceasing and that surely
supremely is revealed in the prayer of Christ because let us remember that when
Christ utters this particular prayer he is nailed already to the cross of Calvary
he is in the hands of wicked men and they are doing to him the ultimate evil
that can be done putting to death the Lord of glory and I think that you and I
need to keep this in mind because there are those times when we don't pray
because we imagine that somehow or other this is not the time to pray and we
perhaps say make excuses in terms of not praying because we imagine that there
are those other times to pray and this particular circumstance that we find
ourselves in is not conducive to pray and therefore somehow or other we are
not obligated to pray I'm suggesting to you that this experience of our Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross is a contradiction of any such idea in our
mind there is no circumstance in our lives that will ever come to us God will
never put us in a time of stress or sorrow where it is not incumbent upon us
to pray if any man could be excused for not praying because of the afflictions
of his experience in life surely that man would be our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ and here we have him in the extremity and in the agony of Calvary
and yet we find him in those circumstances continuing to pray and I
would say further this not only are we being reminded that there is no time
that we cannot pray but also that there is no place that we cannot pray our Lord
Jesus Christ here is in a situation in life where it is perhaps for him the
most uncongenial place to pray he is in the cross of Calvary and yet again I
would emphasize it is in that experience of life that we find him a uttering this
particular prayer and that is a reminder and indeed an encouragement to you and
to me that we will never be in any place there will never be any time in our
lives where it is ultimately impossible for us to pray no matter where we are no
matter when we are it will be for us as Christians a time when we can give
ourselves to pray and I think that we need to keep that in mind one is
reminded of the story the true account that you find in the biography of Robert
Murray McShane for example and as you know Murray McShane was subject to
frequent illness and he was very frequently as a young man laid aside and
he used to resent very much those occasions when his particular illness
would overtake him once again and there was one occasion when Murray McShane was
laid aside in bed of sickness and of pain and he was resenting this and
longing to be up and doing as he imagined in the work of the Lord and he
was longing to be up in his pulpit and preaching in st. Peter's in Dundee in
Scotland and it suddenly came to Murray McShane that it wasn't God's will for
him to be in the pulpit of st. Peter's it was God's will for Murray McShane to be
lying sick and laid aside in a bed of sickness and of pain and it was God's
will for Murray McShane that he should not be preaching the gospel on that
particular occasion but there was something that Murray McShane could do
even in as he was lying in his a sickness and in his isolation and that
is that he could pray and Murray McShane tells us of how suddenly he began to
understand that in those times of affliction God was laying him aside to a
different kind of ministry and the ministry was not the public preaching of
the word but the private secret prayer that is incumbent upon all the people
of God and that is the principle that we must learn to apply to our lives
because no doubt there are in our minds those ideas about Christian living and
Christian service that have to do with the great things of life and have to do
with the public ministry and the temptation for all of us is to imagine
for example that Christian service is public Christian service something that
is seen by men something that is done in the presence of other men and there
is far far more Christian service done and for the good of the gospel than we
will ever know done by men and women who secretly and in the quiet place are
praying to God for their families and for their church and so on and that is
the situation in which we find our Lord Jesus Christ as he prays here because he
is closed in as it were now on the cross of Calvary from performing those other
services in his ministry we see him doing many mighty things we hear him
speaking to the multitudes on some occasions and to private individuals on
other occasions and all that was part of his God-given ministry he must be
working the works of him that sent him and there were those occasions and
opportunities when he went about preaching the gospel and the gospel of
John emphasizes for us that Christ did many more things which are not written
in John's gospel or in any of the gospels Jesus Christ did many other
miracles which are not recorded in these Gospels but the point that I'm
emphasizing is this that these opportunities for Christ these occasions
are now gone he cannot now go about preaching the gospel he cannot now go
about laying his hands on men and women and healing them of their sickness and
their diseases there is no other of a avenue of service open to him now
looking at it from the human perspective but that does not mean that there is
nothing that he can do and that's the point he cannot do the great miracles
now we might say the opportunity for traveling and preaching is gone but the
opportunity for prayer is not gone and the point that I wanted to emphasize is
that there are going to be times in our lives as Christian when the only thing
that God requires of us to do is pray the only open door for us is going to be
the door of prayer God is not always asking us to do great things he is not
always asking us to be out and about speaking to men and women or even
speaking to our families that is a misunderstanding of the Christian life
but when all those other opportunities are not available to us and when we are
closed in even with pains and afflictions in our physical frame there
is still in those circumstances the opportunity to pray when other service
for God is not possible there is still always the possibility for praying to
God there is nowhere there is no place that we cannot pray a to God and we
should emphasize this also not only can we still continue to pray even when
other opportunities for service are no longer available to us but when there
are no other Christians the present and when perhaps all around us we see no one
but our enemies now we know that around the cross of Christ there were those
women who followed him from Galilee and who stood and they beheld those things
and we do believe that the Apostle John was standing somewhere on the fringe and
observing those things so the crowds who were gathering around and watching
Christ and the others who were crucified that day they were not all entirely
those who were against him but the vast multitude of those who were observing
Christ crucified were his enemies and the gospel tells us that that they were
sneering at him they were mocking him and even those casual ones who were
passing by they were joining in the mud in the mockery and in the ridicule and
so when Christ was being crucified what he was seeing was a sea of hostile faces
and hearing a clamor of hostile voices and there were no friendly faces towards
him there was not one voice raised in his defense or in his a support they
were all with a loud cry clamoring that he be crucified and so on and yet in the
presence of none but his enemies he still gave himself to prayer he wasn't
overawed by the circumstances he wasn't deviated he knew what he must do and
whether he was in the company of those who were Christian believers or in the
company of those who were God rejectors it made no difference he would still
continue to pray whatever the company was he would continue to pray and that
is the lesson when we are trying to emphasize this great truth when to pray
I'm saying we can pray anytime and anywhere it is not dependent upon having
congenial company or congenial circumstances now why is that so why am
I emphasizing that I'm emphasizing it for three specific reasons and the three
reasons are these first of all no matter where we are or what the circumstances
of our lives may be the throne of grace is always there wherever we are we can
come to the throne of grace and God tells his people again and again in the
Old and New Testaments that what their difficulties are wherever these
difficulties come call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver you I will
hear you I will listen to you when you cry to me and there are times when all
that you and I have access to in this world is the throne of grace but that is
all we need to have access to the throne of grace is open everywhere at all times
to anyone who cares to come for mercy and for grace and the second reason I'm
emphasizing this when to pray is for this reason the spirit of prayer and
supplication is always present with a Christian if you and I are Christian
believers this evening what marks us out is the possession of the Holy Spirit we
have become renewed by the Holy Spirit but we have become indwelt by the Holy
Spirit and the gifts of God are without repentance and when the Spirit of God
comes into the hearts of God's children he has never ever taken away and there
are many things that are spoken about the Holy Spirit of God in the life of a
Christian he is the spirit of holiness he is the spirit of adoption he is the
spirit who is our teacher and our comforter and who leads us into the
knowledge of the things of Jesus Christ but he is also the prayer of the the
spirit of prayer and supplication and that means that when the Spirit of God
takes up his abode in the heart of a believer there is not only the
potentiality it to pray there is the desire to pray and Jesus Christ on this
occasion is praying not simply out of a sense of duty but out of a sense of love
out of a sense of understanding of his circumstances and what his enemies are
doing to him an understanding of the great cosmic implications of his own
crucifixion and the great issue above all of the mercy of God for sinners
these are before his mind when he prays with the spirit of prayer and
supplication father forgive them they know not what they do and so it is in
principle the same with you and with me if we have been born of the Spirit of
God he has come and he will lead us to pray and there will be those
circumstances in our lives when we cannot but be constrained to cry upon
the name of the Lord and the third reason why I'm emphasizing this when to
pray is that the subjects of prayer are always present before us there are
always those around us who need to be prayed for there are always things that
need it to be pray for sometimes in prayer meetings we find that people are
struggling to consider what things to pray for if we would only allow our
minds to roam freely over our neighborhood over the churches over all
the activities of our lives we would find that we could spend all the hours
of all our days praying to God the needs are so great and our Lord Jesus Christ
as he looked at the multitude who were hammering him to death in immolation he
saw them not simply as a mass of hostile creatures he saw them as men and women
darkened in sin ignorant as to what in reality they were doing and the terrible
danger that they were in in exposing themselves to the wrath of God in laying
their hands upon him he saw their need here was something that need to be
prayed about and he is praying forgive them in the midst of their curses he saw
them as men and women made in the image of God in a few short years at the most
going to enter into a lost eternity unless they found the mercy of God and
his concern is the concern that constrained him all the days of his life
he has come to call sinners to repentance and to seek and to save that
which is lost and so it is in principle the same with you and with me there are
many other things that we could say about that but you see the point there
and what I'm trying to say is that Christ here in this portion of scripture
is reminding us of when to pray all times all places the throne of grace is
always there the spirit of prayer is always there the subjects of prayer they
are always there that's the first thing in general that I want to emphasize but
there's a second thing that I want to emphasize this evening from this portion
of scripture and it is that in this example of Christ he is in fact showing
us a not only when to pray even in the depths of his own pain and affliction
but he is also showing us how to pray and I'm emphasizing that because here
again we are reminded of the intercessory nature of much of prayer
now of course the only intercession was not the only kind of prayer that our
Lord Jesus Christ ever uttered and I've already touched on that in past sessions
but the point is that intercession does play a large part in our prayers to God
and it is intercession in particular that our Lord Jesus Christ is engaging
in here father forgive them for they know not what they do now this is
simply another example of our Lord Jesus Christ doing himself setting an example
doing what he has commanded his disciples to do because you and I if we
are Christians we are commanded by Christ to pray for our enemies he is
praying for his enemies on this occasion and we are commanded to pray
for our enemies also in the gospel of Luke for example chapter 26 a chapter 6
at verse 28 where we have the sermon which is a akin to the sermon on the
mount the sermon on the plane and he says this at verse 28 but I say unto you
which you love your enemies do good to them which hate you bless them that
curse you and pray for them which despitefully a use you and what I'm
saying therefore is that Christ here is saying that when we are praying we must
be very careful that we do not limit our prayer simply to our nearest and dearest
to those who are co-religionists with us those whom we find congenial those whom
with whom we are on good terms those who fight with whom we find very much in
common our prayers our intercessions must extend to our enemies and that is
the very first thing that Christ utters in his experience on the cross of Calvary
are concerned to pray for his enemies now what is the logic behind that I want
there are many look there are many things we could say but one of the Lord
one of the reasons why we should pray for our enemies is this in order that
they will be convicted of their sin in order that they will be converted to
Christ in order that they will cease to be our enemies that they will become our
friends and our brothers and our sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ because when
you and I are considering our enemies we so often consider our enemies in terms
of God's enemies we tend to imagine that because they are against us they are
against God and often we are dead right but let us remember that we ourselves
were once the enemies of God let us remember that we too were just like the
multitude here and without that prayer of intercession on our behalf that
Christ has made in principle here and is making at the throne of grace when he
makes intercession for all who will come unto God by him we ourselves would still
remain enemies of God unreconciled enemies to the people of God and what
I'm saying is that therefore when we see our enemies we mustn't simply look at
them in terms of their enmity to God we must look at them in terms of the
possibility of their salvation their solvability because our enemies are
people with souls and they are those who have feelings and they are those who
have fears and who have needs and every human being that you and I will meet
they may appear to be so gone in evil and so almost invincible in their sin
that is the appearance of thing but they are only men with all the fears and the
failings and all the terrible danger of men and we must learn to look at our
enemies with new eyes to see them as Christ saw the multitude as sheep
without a shepherd many of those who are enemies today are going to be the
friends of Christ tomorrow many of those who are blaspheming the name of Christ
tonight are going to be praising the name of Christ before they leave this
world and it won't be done unless the people of God begin to look at them with
the eyes of Christ as those who need salvation as those to whom we owe
something to be done for their salvation and the point is that you and I can't
convert them we can't convince anybody of anything I can't convince you I am
not trying tonight to convince anybody of the existence of God I can't but I
can speak the truth and pray to God that he will convict and convert and the
point is this that whilst we cannot change anyone's mind about anything to
do with the Christian faith we can argue them into kinds of intellectual ascent
but that's not Christian conversion someone wiser than we are will come and
argue them out of it again conversion must be of the Lord and conversion is
the doing of the Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ is asking the Father to forgive
them and so in principle so must you and I and we must pray that God would do
for our enemies and for his enemies what we cannot do and he doesn't ask us to
convert the world but he does ask us to bring before him at the throne of grace
the needs of men we have families who need to be saved our children perhaps
are not saved they are enemies to God our neighbors are not saved they are
enemies to God and we owe them in our family and localized circle intercession
but then the wider vision the wider world we are what we are rubbing
shoulders with men in the wider world and some of them would try to silence us
and to suppress the gospel and obliterate the name of Christ from the
earth as the multitude here we're seeking to do and yet our concern must
be to pray for them we are forbidden we are forbidden to curse those who would
curse us and deliberately and despitefully use us bless those who
would curse you do good to them that would despitefully use you pray for them
who would hate you and so on and Christ here is setting before us that supreme
example of praying for those who are publicly and corporately against the
kingdom of God in this world pray for their a conversion but I want to extend
this slightly further because when Christ is praying here of course he's
praying for his enemies but let us remember that it wasn't simply for his
enemies that Christ prayed in the days of his flesh in John chapter 17 we have
the great high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ and in verse 9 and
verse 20 of John chapter 17 we are told specifically for whom Christ prays in
verse 9 we're told there that he prays for those who were with him those whom
the Father gave him he doesn't pray for the world on that occasion he prays for
those whom God gave him out of the world those immediate disciples they needed
the prayers of Christ and he interceded for them in John chapter 17 and then in
verse 20 of that same chapter I pray not only for them the ones immediately
present now but also for all those who shall believe in me through their word
in other words he prays for the enemies of God and so must we but he also prays
for the people of God and so must we and the point is the people of God are in
peculiar danger we've already touched this I don't want to be repeating those
things but I wonder how much of our prayer life is taken up with praying on
the one hand for our enemies and on the other hand for the people of God the
wider the immediate community of God's people and then the wider community of
God's people let me illustrate something very important there is a relationship
between the holiness the consistency of the Christian Church and the degree of
prayer that is practiced in the Christian Church you have not because you
ask not says James and sometimes when Christians fall into sin and Christians
do fall into sin sometimes a congregation can rise up with holy
indignation righteous indignation against an individual who falls into sin
and that may well be in order if done according to biblical parameters but we
must ask ourselves the question have we been praying that those individuals
would not fall into sin because that is what Christ is praying for in John
chapter 17 not that his people would be taken out of the world no they have to
remain in the world and they've got to face the world but they've got to be
kept from the world they've got to be kept from those evil influences of the
world because the evil influences of the world are all around us in the sights
and the sounds and the smells of this world and we're all susceptible and I
need to be prayed for and you need to be prayed for every one of us and it is a
good intercession for us to make at the throne of gays that God would keep his
people clean and pure and consistent and often it is my after conviction often we
fall into sin because there is no one praying for us that we would be upheld
in the midst of our temptations and all those sins that rise up and will
dominate us if given a free rein they must be suppressed we must pray one for
another and that is why the Apostle Paul exhorts Christians to pray for all the
Saints pray for preachers pray for preachers I would ask you because Christ
remembers praying for preachers when he prays for those whom God has given these
were apostles these were men who had a public Christianity to proclaim and the
whole ministry of the gospel in the world is connected intimately with the
character of those who will be the bearers of that gospel and do you know
that there is an alarming rate of casualty among the ministry I remember
hearing a story a true story it's not a story it's an account of a minister who
was visiting Australia and he was telling me this account of how at one
time he was in England and he was in a restaurant and he was having his meal
and he observed a man sitting at a table a fairly close to him and he noticed
that this man had a very simple meal bread and water or something very very
plain and this minister observed that this other gentleman bowed his head and
thanksgiving before he ate his meal and he noticed with interest and with
approval and no doubt greatly encouraged to see another man giving thanks to a
higher power and on his way leaving the rest when he passed this other
gentleman's table and he paused and he said I noticed that you gave thanks to
the master before you partook of your meal and the other gentleman looked at
him and he said I don't think my master is your master and apparently they got
talking turned out this other gentleman was a Satanist and he was quite candid
that the Satanists are praying that Satan would destroy the domestic life of
Christian ministers now why would Satan and his cohorts seek it to disrupt the
domestic life of Christian ministers because Satan knows if your minister
falls into sin that is a greater degree of gravity public scandal on this
congregation and what I'm saying is that when the Apostle Paul is saying pray for
all the Saints and for me don't forget to pray for me Paul is not making some
selfish claim Paul has at heart the gospel ministry in its period that I may
open my mouth boldly to make the gospel plain as I ought to speak do you know
there is an alarming rate of adultery amongst clergy a casualty rate of
drunkenness men sometimes fall into sin and we come down on them quite rightly
with church discipline but have we prayed for them Satan hath desired to
have you and to sift all of you like wheat sift you out it says our Lord you
remember a to the Apostles but I have prayed for you that your faith failed
not and I'm saying this that Christ here in this agony of Golgotha is
praying he's continuing to intercede he's praying for his enemies to be sure
but throughout his life he was continually upholding his disciples you
and I have a duty to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ that they
would be kept from falling and if they do fall to pray that they would be
repentant and restored those of you who are spiritual says Paul to the Galatians
in Galatians chapter 6 at first one if a man be overtaken in a fault and a
Christian when he falls is overtaken Christians don't want to sin that's the
point Christians hate sin and oh if we could be done with sin but Christians
are overtaken with sin we who are spiritual are to restore them again in a
spirit of meekness looking to ourselves lest we also be tempted and here our
Lord Jesus Christ is making intercession for the sins of men his enemies and
they're all around him and he is our example and you and I really must take
to heart that there is going to be no place no time where we cannot pray that
the enemies of the gospel they are there for our concern and our intercession and
the friends of the gospel they too are the burden of our hearts we must pray
one for another Christ again is our example even when he is involved in such
horrors as the crucifixion father forgive them the final point that I want
to make this evening is this from this text it is why should we pray why is
Christ praying yes he is praying with compassion seeing the multitudes but let
us remember also something else about Christ and then relate it to ourselves
Christ is our great high priest and what is Christ doing on the cross of Calvary
why is he on the cross of Calvary he is on the cross of Calvary making
atonement for the sins of the world for the sins of men he is a propitiation
before God he is a sacrifice a sweet-smelling savour he is bearing sin
being made sin he is offering a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to God
as a great high priest the high priests of the Old Testament what was their
ministry their ministry was twofold first of all to make atonement for sin
that is why Christ is being crucified that is what this gospel is emphasizing
perhaps there are some here and there wondering well what is the significance
of the crucifixion of Christ is it so that we can have sentimental thoughts is
it something that is mysterious and cannot be understood the Bible tells us
the meaning of the cross of Calvary and why Christ died he died bearing the sins
of men Christ is dying in our place making an atonement a sacrifice making
reconciliation between God and men by experiencing the guilt of men and the
wrath of God for that guilt of men that is why Christ is dying on the cross of
Calvary now but the ministry of the high priest was more than making an atonement
it was making intercession you remember the high priest in Leviticus chapter 16
he went into the holy place with blood atonement but he also went into the
holy place the holiest of all with incense representing intercession and
prayer before God and on the cross of Calvary Christ is the great high priest
he is not only the sacrifice he is the officiating priest he is fulfilling an
official ministry when he is dying for our sins but a baking intercession for
the sins of the people this is a high priestly prayer that Christ is father
forgive them do you remember the terms of forgiveness in the Old Testament
Leviticus if a man
unwittingly there was a sacrifice for various kinds Leviticus I think chapter
7 speaks of this clearly various kinds of sacrifices if a man sins unwittingly
in ignorance there was no sin there was no sacrifice for the sin of the
high hand if a man sins deliberately then is to be cut off from amongst the
people of God but if a man sins in ignorance there is a provision of a
sacrifice for sin that's the Old Testament ritual and that is what Christ
is saying father forgive them they don't know this is not the unpardonable sin
that these men are committing crucifixion of Christ is not the
unpardonable sin they know not what they do and Christ is following through the
principles and the patterns of Old Testament high priesthood on the day of
atonement the sins of the people father forgive them and he comes forth and God's
blessing you remember rested upon the people once again the Apostle Paul
speaks of this in first Timothy you remember speaking of Christ this is a
true saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners of whom I am chief and then Paul speaks of the fact
that he had received mercy because he did it in ignorance and in unbelief God
sets him forth as an example I did it ignorantly and in unbelief I didn't know
what I was doing in reality when I persecuted the Lord Jesus Christ's
Church in the world that's the principle and it's the same with you and with me
we are not required to make an atonement for sin we are required to offer
ourselves as living sacrifices and we are required to make intercession we are
priests and to God Most High first Peter chapter 2 verse 5 speaks of that
revelation chapter 1 at verse 6 speaks of that made us priests unto God and it
is becoming to all God's priests to come into the presence of God with sacrifices
of praise sacrifices of ourselves but sacrifices also of intercession for
others those who would despitefully use us must be brought by us into the
presence of God and prayed for there because we are priests and to God Most
High and it is becoming on priests to make intercession on behalf of the sins
of the people do you know that if you are a Christian humanly speaking you are
a Christian in all probability there are exceptions to the rule I know but in all
probability you're a Christian because someone prayed for you have you ever
thought of that it may have been your mother or your father or your
grandparents maybe your parents wouldn't pray for you but maybe your grandparents
it maybe your neighbor was praying for you maybe your colleague at work in all
probability your conversion and mine is due to the fact that someone was praying
for us I was amazed to find after I was converted many years ago that a man whom
I despised as a Christian and I used to join in those who were mocking him and
laughing at him in the workplace that man was praying for me for years that's
why we should pray because how do we know that that one who is despitefully
using us may not be broken in a moment and come to the feet of Christ because
that's the way that God uses the prayers of his people the righteous prayer the
fervent righteous prayers of a righteous man a failed match God uses the prayers
of his people and this prayer of Christ I'm suggesting to you was answered why
should we pray because God answers prayer God answered the prayer of Christ
on this occasion that's the point the dying thief 39 down to verse 43 those
two criminals one continued to mock but the other one was listening to Christ
and he was observing the demeanor of Christ Jesus remember me when you come
into your kingdom and Jesus said in verse 43 verily I say unto you today you
shall be with me in paradise there's the first fruits unto God the first convert
of the atonement of Christ within a matter of three hours then you have the
Roman soldier we have him in verse 47 now when the centurion saw what was done
this was a hardened Roman soldier remember and he knew the realities of
death and he said this was a righteous man his mind about Christ was changed
and there is a tradition I don't know if this man was converted or not I'm not
going to say he was I would love to think that he was and I think that in
the scripture when we have this kind of confession from the lips of men it is an
encouraging thing for us to believe that perhaps it was a true and a saving
change that came over this man's life certainly this was a righteous man
others of the gospel said this was the Son of God I like to think that he was
converted there is an early tradition that he indeed became a Christian but we
don't know for certain but he certainly recognized that Jesus Christ was one to
be reckoned with as a good man and that what he had been a participator in doing
a participant in doing in crucifying Christ was a great evil this was a
righteous man and I'm an unrighteous man to put him to death and then you have
the crowds and all the people verse 48 that came together to that site beholding
the things which were done they smote their breasts on the return home they
saw the death of Christ they saw the darkness they heard Christ he wasn't
reviling when he was reviled and they knew that something strange had taken
place that day they had seen and heard things the likes of which they had never
imagined and they went home smiting their breasts with conviction something
has happened today in which God has had a hand and I believe that that conviction
that that we are told about in verse 48 of this chapter of Luke is part of the
explanation as to why some 50 days later on on the day of Pentecost 3000 people
were converted to Christ they had gone home and they had remembered Christ
remembered what they had heard him saying from the cross and when the
gospel was explained to them by Peter on the day of Pentecost you took him you
wicked men with your wicked hands you crucified the Lord of glory you did it
now you come to him and you believe in him he has been raised from the dead you
come and you will be saved from your sins and they came and they were saved
from their sins and when Christ was praying for these people father forgive
them many of them undoubtedly were amongst the 3,000 converted on the day
of Pentecost because God is the hearer and the answer of prayer that's why we
should pray in all the circumstances of life you will never be anywhere that you
cannot pray you will never be in a time of life when you can't pray and even
down to the very closing moments of our life in this world in the final
expenditure of our strength as Christ is here now in his earthly ministry coming
to an end he is about to die and yet up to the end of his earthly life as the
servant of the Lord he is praying and interceding for men that surely is not
only instruction for us but encouragement for us to pray without
ceasing Christ is a wonderful Savior and he is a wonderful servant and he has
done for us such wonderful things that eternity will not exhaust our praise or
our admiration or our indebtedness and not least is the fact that he in his
earthly ministry and in his heavenly ministry makes intercession for sinners
and if you come to him he will receive you and you will be prayed for and you
will be safe and he will have a concern to pray that you will enter in to the
kingdom of heaven he has come to seek and to save men that are lost that's you
and me may God bless his world