Sermon Central
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Ascension 2019 And Prayer
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Jun 2, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: Why is the ascension of Jesus so important to our prayer life?
Ascension Sunday 2019 - Prayer
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
“They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
“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.
“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Please open your Bibles to: Acts 1:4-11
(The Life of the Son of God)
The Eternal Trinity (brief description)
Jesus, the Son of God, has come into the world; “And the Word (the second person of the Triune Godhead) became flesh and made His dwelling place among us.” John 1:14
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth and during His ministry He was based in Capernaum.
During the three years of His earthly ministries Jesus performed many signs and wonders showing that He was the Son of the living God.
He taught many things about the way of salvation and about how we should live in relationship with Him and with one another.
Very near the end of His earthly ministry when He was having His last meal with His twelve chosen disciples it says in John 13:3 that, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God.”
Shortly after that Jesus was arrested by the Jewish leadership, turned over to the Romans on false charges, crucified, dead and buried.
Three days later Jesus rose from the dead and was seen by the apostles and other disciples. 1 Corinthians 15:6 even says that, “… He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time ….”
Let’s continue the story by reading from: Acts 1:4-11
May God bless the reading of His Word!
(Prayer for help with today’s message)
OK. So the great incarnation has happened
God the Son came and lived among us.
God the Son, also being the Great High Priest offered Himself as the one and only perfect sacrifice on the cross to atone for the sin of the world.
He was raised in mighty power and has ascended into heaven.
Why?
Well, one reason is so that He could be our Mediator!
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people - this has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”
When would this happen? It would happen and did happen when Jesus ascended to the Father 40 days after His resurrection.
When Jesus said, “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “ in John 14:6 was He just talking about salvation or was He talking about prayer as well?
Let’s talk about prayer OK? First, who DON’T we pray to?
We don’t pray to Mary the earthly human woman who was chosen to be the conduit through which the eternal Son of God would enter into humanity.
We don’t pray to any “saints” who have been venerated by any church.
And, we certainly don’t pray to false gods or mother nature or anything else that would set itself up as a god.
How do we know this? We know this by the Word of God.
Acceptable prayer to anyone other than the LORD God Himself is not found anywhere in the Bible.
Prayer to any false god or idol or person in the Bible is looked upon as grievous sin.
So, how does prayer work?
Each of the 3 persons of the Trinity have a function.
(The Holy Spirit)
Ephesians 6:8a says,
“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
Jude 1:20 NLT says,
“You, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray(ing) in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit is instrumental in:
- calling us to prayer
o at our regular personal prayer times
o whenever we see or hear of a tragedy
o whenever we see the hopelessness of a life being lived without Christ
- directing our prayers
o when we don’t know what to pray
? the ambiguity of someone’s broken marriage
o whenever we feel helpless
o when we pray for those who may be attacking us
