Brother Rushmore, I know you are extremely busy and I appreciate all you do! My question is this, I am hearing or reading more and more talk of people being encouraged to pray to Jesus. I recently spoke to a kind sincere brother who believes we are going around our mediator when we seek to pray directly to the Father and not Jesus. We discussed several passages and he continually refered to Stephens pray to Jesus in Acts 7. His point about a mediator and the definition of what a mediator does is valid yet other scripture clearly points to prayer being addressed to the Father. I would appreciate your thoughts on this. In Christ, Roy Williams
The New Testament, of course, must be the resource to which one appeals (exclusively) to furnish the appropriate biblical answer for every religious question (1 Peter 3:15). Resorting to the New Testament or Gospel under which everyone now living is amenable and by which we will be judged at the end of time (2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:11-15) relies upon the once for all delivered faith (Jude 3, ASV), the truth that frees man from sin (John 8:32) or the saving Gospel (Romans 1:16). No other resource besides the New Testament can assure one relative to the choice he makes or ought to make in this life and what he therefore should believe, teach or do. There are at least two biblical points respecting the question whether one may or ought to pray to Jesus.
New Testament instruction or direct statements teach one to pray to God the Father. When our Lord’s disciples asked him, “teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1), Jesus responded, “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven…” (Luke 11:1; see also Matthew 6:6, 9; 7:11). That alone is sufficient biblical instruction to settle any question regarding to whom one ought to pray. General instruction regarding our communication to Deity and the relationship of Jesus Christ to the Father in those communications to Deity (i.e., address the Father through Christ) appears in Colossians 3:17: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” The addressee of our prayers is the Father, which prayers are authorized to be prayed with the legitimate prospect of being received by the Father, based on our salvation, due to our relationship as Christians through the Christ. Anywhere one turns in the New Testament, biblical instruction says respecting the addressee of our prayers, “ask the Father in my name [Jesus Christ]” (John 16:23-24, 26; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
The incident of the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 where Stephen addressed Jesus Christ may not be a prayer at all. During our Lord’s earthly ministry, it would hardly have been considered a prayer to Jesus each time someone spoke to him. Who would argue otherwise? In the context of Acts 7:55-60 the martyr Stephen is afforded the opportunity to peer into the very depths of heaven and to see Jesus Christ (Acts 7:55-56). Subsequently, Stephen spoke to Jesus whom he saw, saying:
“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59-60).
Therefore, primarily in view of biblical instruction to pray to the Father through Christ, it is safe to continue this long understood practice and avoid variances from this divinely sanctioned procedure in prayer. In addition, references to Stephen in Acts 7 are insufficient to dislodge the clear teaching of other New Testament passages respecting prayers to God through Jesus Christ, especially since the context of Acts 7:55-60 may not strictly speaking contain a prayer at all.
