Here Comes That Pain In The Neck Again Series

Luke 18: 1 – 8

Here Comes That Pain In The Neck Again

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, 2 saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ 4 And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” 6 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

In the city of Philadelphia we have certain ways in which we communicate. For example, if you want to fit in as a Philadelphian then this is how you greet another person. You say, ‘How you doin?’ Now, the key point to understand is that we do not really care how you are doing, it is just a greeting. So, you answer back with the emphasis on the ‘You’. You respond, ‘how You doin?’

Another term in which we use is ‘straight up!’, which means that I am going to tell you the truth without any artificial sugar coating. So, as we begin, I am going to tell you straight up, that I have a hard time with these verses. I believe in the bible. I believe that every word is true and I know that Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High is Supreme. We will see how our Lord will state the possibility that there will not be any faith in any one by the time He returns.

You see I have been praying for over 20 years day in and day out for a woman to get a man from God Himself. This woman is pretty. She is Godly. She is outgoing. She is a school teacher. She is intelligent. She has remained pure and through all this time I see all these ugly women and women who will not wait for God get themselves a husband and their life is just pinky keen. This woman that I speak about is my daughter. As a temporary father, for God Himself Is her father, I see week in and week out the heartbreak of a faithful woman.

I know that God can do all things. What is filling my mind is that God just doesn’t want to bless His own daughter with the same thing that He has given to ever other woman whether they are a believer or not, their basic fulfillment. Can you see my issue? Sometimes I just want to say the heck with it and stop praying for her, yet I wind up beseeching the Lord over and over and over again on her behalf. Hey, I’m a Pastor, a servant of Him. I am suppose to have an inside track with Him, right? In many cases I go back to the book of Job. Even thought I am hurting, I answer myself, ‘Although He still will not answer my prayers, yet I believe in Him. I worship Him as the only true and living God. And even though He has not answered my prayers for over 20 years, I still believe that all good things come from Him and I will still keep knocking at His Heavenly door.’

Well, that is me, and more importantly let us look to His Word and find our answers.

In considering this parable we might well ask, why did our Lord Jesus not use the illustration of a righteous judge? And the answer is that our Master and King, our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to build into the parable the notions of delay and the need for persistence. Neither should occur with a righteous judge. They might occur if he was overwhelmed with work but our Lord Jesus would hardly want us to see God as overwhelmed with work.

The overall point, apart from the need for us to be persistent in prayer, is therefore that God will give His people justice, and will answer their cry at the most suitable time. This may sometimes be locally, but whatever happens there, in the end it will be true at the final consummation. So their future is guaranteed, but as regularly in Scripture, it is to go hand in hand with their persistence in prayer and their faithfulness in life. We pray knowing that we will receive what we ask for, because our praying is a part of how He brings it about.