Jesus is on this multi month walk toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, toward his place of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. And along this journey, he stops at a certain place to pray. And in this moment, we get an opportunity to eavesdrop on Jesus’ prayer life; this sacred conversation between the father and the son . . . What a gift this is.
The disciples recognize this gift and even though they’ve been with Jesus for some time, and they’ve seen him pray before . . . they come to Jesus and ask, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John” . . . the baptizer who is also Jesus’ cousin . . . “taught his disciples to pray”.
And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father,hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
Now, in hearing this prayer, you might be thinking “that this doesn’t sound anything like the Lord’s Prayer that I’m familiar with”. Let me explain to you why.
There’s a longer version of this prayer recorded in the gospel of Matthew, which was written before Luke. So rather than including the whole prayer, Luke gives a brief summary of that prayer found in the gospel of Matthew and he uses this summary as a platform to help paint a much fuller picture of prayer.
So, if you’re familiar with the Lord’s Prayer and you say, “That doesn’t sound like it.” That’s probably why. The longer version is in Matthew.
So in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives this brief model of prayer which comes from Matthew’s gospel and then, he begins to tell some parables. A parable is a story, an illustration, a big idea through a word picture to communicate something about a theological concept.
Here’s the first story . . . Read Text
In that day, people would travel for days, oftentimes on foot to get from one location to another.
And along their journey they would need to find a place to rest for the night. They’re tired, they’re exhausted, they’re hungry, and they just want to kick back and relax.
But typically towns didn’t have a Motel 6 where somebody left the light on for you. Maybe there would be a small inn, but those places were seedy and dangerous . . . kind of like a Motel 6. You just didn’t want to stay there unless you absolutely had to.
So the best case scenario was to find a residence of someone you knew, a friend or even a friend of a friend. And you would go up and knock on the door and when you did, there was a cultural obligation of hospitality that they would let you in to stay at their house and to eat their food and to care for you while you were there.
But if you knocked on their door and they rejected you . . . they would lose face.
That’s what’s happening in this story but the problem is that the guy doesn’t have any food to give to his visitors. He didn’t know they were coming. They didn’t text him in advanced to let them know and its midnight and nothing’s open. He can’t just run down to 7-eleven to pick up some taquitos and diet coke because there isn’t a 7-eleven and there’s no late night pizza delivery service in town.
So the next thing you know, this guy finds himself in a shameful position.
What was he gonna do? Well, he’s gonna go to his neighbor’s house and make his problem their problem . . . maybe you have some friends like that.
And this is where Jesus picks up the story. He goes to his neighbor’s house and he starts banging on his front door.
The guy comes to the door and says, “Dude, what are you doing banging on my door at midnight?
And he’s like, “I’ve got these friends at my house and I need some bread”
And the neighbor says, “No, if I get up and start preparing a meal, I’m going to wake up everybody in the house, and the kids are gonna think it’s time to get up and they’re gonna want to wrestle and play wiffle ball all night long or log on to X-box and tomorrow will be a nightmare . . . so, no I’m not gonna open the door”
But the guy keeps knocking . . . “I’m not leaving until you give me some bread.”
And he just knocks and he knocks until finally the neighbor opens the door and gives him the bread.
And the point of the story is . . . “When you pray, pray like a rude neighbor until God finally gives in; “Ugh! Here. Now quit asking me for stuff.” NO . . . that’s not the point but it is close.
He’s saying that even though we are not the greatest children of God; we’re rude, inconsiderate, shameless, bossy, pushy and at times really annoying . . . God is loving and gracious and he’ll listen to us any time, day or night, 24/7. And he provides what we truly need at the time we need it.
He’s not unable or incapable or inconvenienced as a neighbor would be. So if we’re going to bug our neighbor for something, we should just go talk to God as well, anytime about anything and God will listen and he will provide. It’s OK to bring your problems to God, no matter they are or what the time is.
So Jesus gives us this parable and he follows it up with principle’s regarding prayer. He says that prayer is about three things; asking, seeking and knocking. That’s prayer.
- Asking is going to God and saying, “Hey God, here’s what I want, here’s what I need. God, this is what’s going on in my life and I really just need you to show up”
- Seeking is getting up and doing something and pursuing the answers to your prayer
- Knocking is going back to God with your request.
I think that most of us are good with the first part, we’re pretty good asking God for stuff but we’re not so good at seeking and so we find ourselves perpetually stuck in the same cycles over and over.
You say, “Lord, take this from me. I hate this about me. Please do something here . . . (look at watch), um, it’s still here, Lord. Please take this from me.” And before we know it, we’re shaking our fist at God. “Why aren’t you listening to me”
You see, you can’t just say I prayed about it and then sit around and do nothing, expecting God to sprinkle some kind of fairy dust on the situation. I’m not saying that he can’t miraculously do things but you’ve got to get up and do something about your prayers. You’ve got to seek and you’ve got to pursue answers to your request.
- If you’re struggling with your marriage, pray that God will heal your marriage and then go out and get some counseling.
- If you’re struggling with some kind of addiction, pray that God will heal you of your addiction and then go to recovery.
- If you’re struggling financially, pray that God will heal your finances and then take a Dave Ramsey course and discover way’s you can cut your spending and save money and then put those into practice.
- If you look at the world and you see famine and disease around the world and it really bothers you, pray that God will heal the land and bring forth vegetation and pray that God will heal diseases and then get involved in an organization that out in the world being the hands and feet of Christ in those places by providing food and medical care.
- If you look at the infant mortality rate in third world countries and it just makes you angry and you think that God should be doing something about it, then pray that God will provide resources for help those mamas, and then get involved in an organization or start your own my like my friend, Stefany Boster who created BEMM and become the answer to the your prayer.
- And if that just doesn’t seem to be working, and your prayer doesn’t seem to be answered, you just keep banging on the door. You keep knocking, and asking and seeking. And you keep doing this until you clearly hear God’s answer.
That’s what Jesus is saying. That’s the big idea. God loves you . . . no matter how annoying you are, God loves you and he always answers prayer; sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes later, sometimes it’s not the answer you want to hear but he listens and He provides the things that we really need.
Then Jesus tells another story . . . READ Text
A son comes up to his dad, “hey dad, can we have fish for dinner?”
The Dad says, “No, but here’s are some snakes”
Whoa, wait a minute . . . this is like some weird Tim Burton movie. You know that guy who scares kids for a living through his movies.
So, the kids says, “Ok, I see that the fish thing was a bad idea so how about some eggs . . . eggs would be good”
And the dad says, “No, how about this? Scorpions”
What? Dad, no, you’re freaking me out. Are you off your meds or something?
And the big idea here is this . . .
- If you go to your dad, even if he’s not a great dad, and you give a simple request, like, “I want a fish,” he’s not going to give you a serpent.
- If you ask for an egg, he’s not going to give you a scorpion.
- Even a not-so-great-dad knows if your kid asks for a good thing, you don’t give them a bad thing.
- Now what you give the kid may not be the thing the kid wants but it won’t be something bad.
God is a loving Father and he is good . . . and a good and loving father always gives to his sons and daughters what he sees and knows will bring value and depth and meaning in the life of His child.
Now, some of you may not be completely convinced God is good, and so you go to ask him for something but you’re fearful of what he might give you.
Maybe you have something in your life that you’re ashamed of; something you’ve said or done and you’re afraid to go to God and say, “Help me, forgive me, change me,” because you’re fearful that although you’re asking for a good thing, he’s just going to punish you and be mad at you and get violent with you and he’s going to do a bad thing even though you’re asking for a good thing.
And your conflict is, “You know, it sounds to me like I’m asking for fish and eggs, good things, but you’re giving me scorpions and serpents, bad things . . . so, I’d much rather not go to God with my problems.”
But the truth is, God is a good and loving father and you’re not going to come to a good and loving Father and ask for a good thing and get a bad thing. Whatever he gives you is a good thing because He’s a good God!
And some of you are going to go to God with some really big requests; health, life, removal of pain, or some for some kind of closure. And God who is good and infinite in knowledge will at times say “no”.
But you need to know this He doesn’t say “no” or not give you the things you ask for because he’s angry with you or because you’ve done something wrong. Or because when you were in college you did that one thing that one weekend and he won’t let you forget about it. It’s because he loves you and he can see what you can’t see.
I’m not pretending for a moment that you’ve got to understand everything. I would never put that weight on you and I don’t think scripture does either. I’ve been in plenty of situations where there is no understanding to be had and even years later, I still don’t understand.
So, I’m not saying you have to understand but I’m saying that you have to trust that God is good and for some reason in His providence he doesn’t answer prayer the way you wanted because he knew that if he did, it would hurt, or derail Him bringing all things new.
And there will be a day where everything makes sense, probably not while we are here on earth, but there will be a day where all of this makes sense.
And so we need to come to the Father, knowing that he can give good gifts, knowing that he loves to give good gifts, and just like a dad rejoices when he sees his kids being thankful and grateful, our God likes to hear and answer prayer and give us good gifts so that we can be thankful and joyful and grateful.
And then he says that the greatest gift of all is the Holy Spirit. That’s a big statement and it culminates everything that he’s been teaching about prayer.
The disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And Jesus says, “Ok, you’ll need the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
That’s the big idea. The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift to those who persistently ask, persistently seek, and persistently knock for His provision in their lives.
Let’s unpack this . . .
The Holy Spirit is the third member of the trinity. One God, three persons; God the father, God the Son, and God the spirit. They co-exist, sharing attributes, sharing love, communicating, glorying in one another. There’s no sin. No lying. No betrayal. There is only love and affection and connection in God. So when the three are together . . . there is nothing but happiness and joy!
And when we accept Christ into our lives, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us and he teaches us how to talk to God because he himself is God and he’s been in communion and union with the other members of the trinity forever. This is amazing. What a great gift!
And prayer is where we enter into conversation with the living, loving, communicating Trinitarian God of the Bible. That’s what prayer is. It’s just going to the Father through the Son and asking, “Could you please give me the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Can you please allow me to enjoy the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? And may Your Spirit guide me and lead me and give me understanding”
That’s the great gift and that gift brings us peace and happiness and joy . . . even in the midst of our circumstances because through the spirit we are better able to see things through the heart of God. What an amazing Gift!
So let me ask you a couple of questions . . .
What are the motives behind what you’re asking for? Because I think that some of us need to confess that we have no real interest in God being glorified in our lives. We’ve just got this thing that we want. And we have this picture of God as a genie or servant whose job it is to bring about whatever we want. And if he doesn’t, than we shake our fists at him asking, “How could you be a good God when I didn’t get what I wanted?”
What are the motives behind what you’re asking for and if your motives are pure . . . are you doing anything to pursue the answer? Are you seeking help where you need it? Are you being honest with anyone and asking for help? Are you relying on your brothers and sisters in Christ to be a source of comfort and guidance? The church is a place where we should pray with each other and for one another.
And are you being the hands and feet of Christ . . . asking God how you can be the answer to your own prayer? How you might make a difference in this world, one life at a time.
And are you desperate enough to knock and knock and knock and knock? Saying, “God, I just need you to show up – send me your Spirit and give me wisdom and courage and understanding through this”
But at the end of the day, more than you need your marriage fixed, your addiction overcome, your finances all lined up . . . you need to know and to see the power of Christ who walked on this earth in the power of the Spirit. If you can see that, than there is hope for the rest of it. The gospel is not if you love Jesus, then you get everything you want. The gospel is you’ll get Jesus and He’ll be enough no matter what.
Jesus is on this multi month walk toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, toward his place of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension so that you might be back in relationship with the father. And when you accept Jesus into your life and embrace the gospel . . . the Spirit of God will dwell within you to bring you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control . . . no matter what the circumstance . . . and that’s a great gift!