Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, February 1

Along with Martin Luther, Philipp Malengthen was one of the great leaders of the Reformation.  Malengthen lectured on John 17 in the last lecture of his life.  In that lecture he said, "There is no voice which has ever been heard, neither in Heaven or in earth, more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime than the prayer offered up by the Son of God Himself." (AW Pink Exposition of John, p90)   

In John 17 Jesus is not talking to his disciples; He is talking to God.  Yet Jesus allows his disciples, and us, the opportunity to sit with him and listen in on this intimate conversation between he and his Heavenly Father.

As you prepare for worship this week please read John 17.  I would encourage you to read the entire ‘Farewell Discourse (John 13-17).  As we listen to Jesus pray we can see his heart and hear in his words the intimacy, oneness and depth of love that characterizes the Godhead.  In this prayer Jesus is praying for and inviting us into that same love and  intimacy.  “My prayer is . . . 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” (17:20–21).

As you prepare for worship I encourage you to pray for yourself.  Yes, pray for yourself.  But do so following the example of Jesus found in this week’s passage (Jn 17: 1-5).  Jesus is not reciting a list of personal of petitions.  There are no self-serving requests heard here.  There is one single theme: “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (Jn 17:1).  Jesus talking to his Father about his efforts here on earth to glorify God and to be obedient to his will.

We would do well to pray these same things for ourselves.

As a part of our worship we will sing Sweet Hour of Prayer.  It is one of those hymns I remember hearing and singing in church when I was a kid.  It seemed slow and boring (as did many of those ‘church songs’.)  But now these hymns take on much meaning and significance in my walk with Christ. 

As far as we can tell, Sweet Hour of Prayer is not based on any one biblical passage, but it is filled with scriptural truth. Cyberhymnal.org relates the following fascinating history of the hymn.  

“During my residence at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England, I became acquainted with W. W. Walford, the blind preacher, a man of obscure birth and connections and no education, but of strong mind and most retentive memory.  In the pulpit he never failed to select a lesson well adapted to his subject, giving chapter and verse with unerring precision and scarcely ever misplacing a word in his repetition of the Psalms, every part of the New Testament, the prophecies, and some of the histories, so as to have the reputation of “knowing the whole Bible by heart.”  He actually sat in the chimney corner, employing his mind in composing a sermon or two for Sabbath delivery, and his hands in cutting, shaping and polishing bones for shoe horns and other little useful implements.  At intervals he attempted poetry.  On one occasion, paying him a visit, he repeated two or three pieces which he had composed, and having no friend at home to commit them to paper, he had laid them up in the storehouse within. “How will this do?” asked he, as he repeated the following lines, with a complacent smile touched with some light lines of fear lest he subject himself to criticism.  I rapidly copied the lines with my pencil, as he uttered them, and sent them for insertion in the Observer, if you should think them worthy of preservation.”

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

That calls me from a world of care,

And bids me at my Father’s throne;

Make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief,

My soul has often found relief

And oft escaped the tempter’s snare

by thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

The joys I feel, the bliss I share,

Of those whose anxious spirits burn

With strong desires for thy return!

With such I hasten to the place

Where God my Savior shows His face,

And gladly take my station there,

And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

Thy wings shall my petition bear

To Him whose truth and faithfulness

Engage the waiting soul to bless.

And since He bids me seek His face,

Believe His Word and trust His grace,

I’ll cast on Him my every care,

And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

May I thy consolation share,

Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,

I view my home and take my flight:

This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise

To seize the everlasting prize;

And shout, while passing through the air,

“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”