Surviving and Thriving in Corporate Prayer

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.

Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

Mark 14:32-42 (TNIV)

We’re familiar with the story

Jesus before being arrested goes to pray in Gethsemane – a place where he was known to frequently come (John 18:2) which is why it was convenient for Judas to catch him there

It’s the eve of his crucifixion and he desperately needs to commune with the Father

On this night he takes the inner circle of his disciples – Peter, James and John – with him to the garden leaving the other eight off somewhere at a distance and then he brings them near and leaves them instructions to watch while he goes off a little further to pray.

Three times the trio are admonished to watch and/or pray while Jesus struggles in the garden and three times the disciples find that they aren’t up to the task.  James and John disappoint Jesus with their inability to persevere with him, but Jesus’ hardest words are reserved for Peter.

“Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep?

This is Peter’s story.

The Gospel of Mark, like Matthew, Luke and John, is all about Jesus – but it’s Jesus from Peter’s perspective. We get more of Peter than anywhere else in the Gospels – at many times in Mark it’s like we’re listening to an aged apostle recounting the amazing story of how he met the God of the universe as a well intentioned but bumbling and blustery young man desperately in need of seasoning and wisdom. And it is in the Gospel of Mark that we get one of the most palpable expressions of Peter’s failure.

Just verses earlier Peter was in full bravado mode when he insisted “Even if everyone else abandons you, I will not.”

And when Jesus rebukes his bluster with a sombre warning Peter ratchets up the rhetoric: “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

But we know how the story goes.

That night, like every night – as dawn approached the rooster did what God designed him to do – and as he crowed for the third time he announced not the dawn of a new day – but the defeat of a disciple.  Peter – who had been so assured of his own invincibility in conviction – was defeated by his own misplaced confidence.

So assured of his call, so confident of his importance, so comfortable with his role, so complacent in discipline, so ruined by his shame – Here is a frightening thought for us – if we are not careful, this could be our story too.

We are in the middle of a series right now on becoming a people of prayer here at Estevan Alliance Church and this week we are going to look at “surviving and thriving in corporate prayer.” How do we move from being a church that survives in prayer to a church that thrives in prayer? How do we take that which is supposed to be at the centre of the church’s life and practice and restore it to its rightful place before the rooster crows three times and we find ourselves ruined and disgraced? How can we avoid a similar fall and what does corporate prayer have to do with the story of Peter or Jesus in the Garden? To answer all those questions I’d invite you to join with us and journey with me through the Scriptures this Sunday as we look toward being a church that is not content to merely survive in corporate prayer – but instead become one that thrives.

See you on Sunday.