’WAKE UP, O SLEEPER!’
INTRO:
I want to begin this morning with a quote:
"At a certain meeting of ministers and church officers, one after another doubted the value of prayer meetings; all confessed that they had a very small attendance, and several acknowledged without the slightest compunction that they had quite given them up. What means this? Are churches in a right condition when they have only one meeting for prayer in a week, and that a mere skeleton?"
That’s not from this week’s Baptist Times, or anything like that, but is from an article written by Charles Haddon Spurgeon in 1887. And yet the same concern surely applies to much of the western Church today, and the situation is, almost certainly, even more serious than it was 117 years ago. This morning, as we again consider the topic of prayer, we’re going to ask "Does the Church take prayer sufficiently seriously?"
First, let’s take a look at the passage from Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to His arrest and crucifixion.
SLEEPING ON THE JOB:
It’s impossible for us to comprehend what Jesus went through during that last evening of His human life on Earth. He had known all along that He would give up His life for the sake of the world – a perfect sacrifice that would save, rather than condemn, us – and yet the agony He experienced as the time of His execution, and of His abandonment by His Father, approached is completely unimaginable; but we do get some idea of its depth from what we see in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus and His closest disciples, except for Judas Iscariot, have left the room in which they celebrated Passover and they walk just outside the city, over the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives with all its olive groves, and arrive at a garden called Gethsemane, which itself means ’olive-press’. It was probably a walled or fenced garden owned by a believer who let Jesus and the Twelve use it as a place for retreat and prayer – we know from John 18: 2 that "Jesus often met there with His disciples", so it’s not at all surprising that, later, Judas Iscariot also knew where to lead the troops to arrest Him.
When they enter the garden, Jesus leaves eight of His disciples there at the entrance, taking just Peter, James and John on further. Then, feeling deep distress, he asks these three friends to wait while He goes to pray on His own – "Stay here and keep watch with me," He says to them. Now, it’s pretty obvious that, when Jesus says "Keep watch", He means "stay awake" and, although He doesn’t explicitly tell them to pray as well, I’m pretty sure that’s what He would be hoping they might do – after all, He’s told them just a short time before that He’s about to be betrayed and killed, and, right at that moment, He’s clearly in great distress. For me, ’keeping watch’ with someone means keeping someone company and participating in what they are doing; but Peter, James and John certainly don’t follow their Master’s example – while He prays in anguish, they doze off to sleep.
When He returns to them and finds them sleeping, He rouses them and asks Peter, "How is it that you three were not able to keep watch with me even for one hour? Keep watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Whilst it is He who will face the ultimate test in just a few hours’ time at Calvary, Jesus knows that the only way that His closest friends will endure their own testing, when it comes, is through concerted prayer. And yet here they are, unable to stay awake long enough to utter a single prayer for their Master, or for themselves. You might have thought that Peter, having already been told by Jesus that he would deny knowing Him three times before the cock crowed twice, would spend some time praying for strength and resolve – but his body is tired and he succumbs to his sleepiness.
Jesus goes off to pray again and what the Bible account shows us is the perfect example for us to follow: first of all, Jesus responds to temptation with prayer and, then, He agrees to abide by His Father’s will – that’s exactly what we should do, but so often we try to mould God’s will to fit ours. Anyway, when Jesus goes back to the three disciples, again He finds them asleep, but this time there’s no suggestion that He wakes them up. Instead, He prays again, in exactly the same way as before, and then He gets them up, just in time for the arrival of Judas Iscariot and the armed guard.
What becomes obvious from the events that follow is that Jesus was prepared for what He faced because He had spent a lengthy period in prayer; but the disciples were not. For example, take Peter: when the guards come to arrest Jesus, Peter cuts off the ear of the servant of the High Priest with his sword – not the right thing to do at all; and, later that night, Peter was to deny knowing Jesus three times. I suggest that Peter was not spiritually prepared for all that happened to him, because he had neglected to pray. And the same goes for all the disciples: verse 56 says that "all the disciples left him and ran away." Why? Because they were not spiritually prepared by spending considerable time in prayer, and had to rely on their worldly human instincts, instead.
IS THE CHURCH ASLEEP, TOO?
This episode is undoubtedly a true story, but I believe that it can also be regarded as a kind of parable which poses the question: "Is the Church asleep when it should be praying?" We may read this passage in Matthew’s Gospel and be quite critical of the disciples that fell asleep when they should have been watching and praying; but should we not take a good look at ourselves and at the Church first? Have we, like the ministers and church officers that Spurgeon spoke of, given up on prayer meetings? Sadly, it seems to me that many Christians and many fellowships have. Spurgeon bemoaned the fact that, in his day, many churches had only one prayer meeting per week and that usually poorly attended – well, today, many churches have no more than one, poorly attended prayer meeting per month. If Spurgeon was unsure about the condition of churches in his time, how would he evaluate the condition of our churches?
Why is the modern Christian seemingly so uncommitted to prayer, especially group prayer? Is it that we think prayer is ineffective; that God no longer responds to our cries? Actually, I don’t believe that’s the case at all – I still have many, many people telling me how they have received a real answer to prayer, how God has blessed them in some special way following prayer.
I don’t think there’s a general crisis of confidence in the effectiveness of prayer, but it’s probably true to say that the modern Christian allows the busy-ness of life to crowd out prayer. Modern life seems so fast and so pressured that many of us try to squeeze a few minutes of prayer into an already hectic schedule at home and at work, and, on the occasions that we manage to do that, how many of us actually do more drifting or dozing than praying?! Sadly, it doesn’t work very well, if we approach it like that. Jesus, on the other hand, made time to pray, whether it was first thing in the morning or last thing at night – He knew that He wouldn’t be properly prepared for what lay ahead of him, if He hadn’t spent time speaking and listening to His Father in heaven. No doubt He also snatched whatever chance He had for prayer during the day, but it was His longer periods of prayer that He depended upon.
Unfortunately, churches may also allow their busy-ness to impede their prayer lives. The excitement of starting new projects, coupled with the hard work of maintaining existing ones can take up most of the time of the most active church members, leaving little time for frequent prayer meetings – by the time they have fulfilled their church responsibilities, they’re far too tired to pray together. And, believe me, I’m talking from personal experience here, so I’m not excusing myself – but it really is a cause for regret. If, and when, churches prioritise prayer over projects, they will see their work, their outreach, bear more fruit, because God honours those who seek His face in prayer.
But I think the biggest impact that a half-hearted commitment to prayer has upon the individual and upon the church is a lack of preparedness for whatever Satan throws at us and, ultimately, for the return of Christ in glory. I spoke a little last week about the first of these, and we see during the arrest of Jesus and its aftermath the effect that unpreparedness has: when Peter lashes out with his sword, he is going against all that Jesus has been teaching him about loving one’s enemies and turning the other cheek – he gets it wrong, very wrong, because he has been sleeping instead of praying; when he’s at Caiaphas’ house and he’s accused of being one of Jesus’ associates, he denies it three times – again, he lets himself down, perhaps because he’s been sleeping instead of praying. If the twenty-first century Church is going to stand up to the trials that face it at the hands of Satan, she has to be praying instead of sleeping.
And, on the second reason for needing to be prepared – the return of Jesus in glory – let’s remember what we heard in our first reading today (Luke 12: 35-40). Jesus told His disciples: "Be ready for whatever comes, dressed for action and with your lamps lit. ... How happy are those servants whose master finds them awake and ready when he returns! ... And you, too, must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting Him." That’s a clear warning to Christians everywhere and to the whole Church, as well: we simply must be ready for the Lord’s return, staying alert, sharing the gospel with the world, and praying, praying, praying.
Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that it’s unlikely that Jesus will return in our lifetimes, and lose our sense of urgency – Christ could come back at any time and He must not find us sleeping. If you are at work and your boss finds you sleeping on the job, then the chances are he will fire you – instant dismissal. It would be a tragedy if the Lord returns and catches any of us sleeping; and remember that one day we will all have to face Him and give an account of what we have done during our lives on Earth – how much happier it will be if we can tell Him how committed we have been to prayer, prayer that honours God and that intercedes for the world. Remember that Jesus Himself is at the right-hand side of God, interceding for us, surely the very least the Church can do is to keep watch with Him in prayer, until He comes.
So, if you are sitting there this morning, knowing that you are a Christian sleeper, do rouse yourself and come along to prayer meetings at church – we meet here each weekday morning at 6.45 a.m. for prayer, and we have regular evening prayer meetings. Whatever you do, don’t get caught out! Amen.
