The Lord’s Prayer
Luke 11:1-13
February 20, 2022
I’m going to start off with a kind of crazy what if question . . . .
If Jesus happened to walk up to you, you see, it’s kind of outlandish in a way. If Jesus were to walk up to you and sat down and you shared a meal with Him, and you could only ask Him one question . . . what would you ask Him?
We might ask about our loved ones who have died. We might ask about heaven. Maybe we’d ask what something really means in the Bible. We’d maybe ask if He had a Calvinist or Arminian theology. Maybe which mode of baptism is right? Or should we still tithe? We might ask about what heaven’s like!
I know one person who’s told me he’d ask why sharks get new teeth and we don’t! There’s one to wonder about. That’s something to think about, and maybe you can ask it in your prayer.
This is our last week looking at prayer and the Lord’s Prayer. Today, we’re looking at it from Luke’s passage in chapter 11. But we’re going to go beyond just the Lord’s Prayer, and look at what Jesus says after that, because I believe He’s giving us some help in how we approach God in prayer.
The great Welsh preacher, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, once said that prayer is “the highest activity of the human soul.” If this is true, then why do so few pray?
Ted Olsen wrote an article in 2012 called Go Figure in Christianity Today magazine. Olsen said the percentage of Americans who say that they pray daily is 59%. He added, the average American spends 9 minutes per day in religious and spiritual activity. 9 minutes per day. I calculated that. . . .
That’s not much. It’s disappointing. That’s .6% of our day.
Is it possible that our Christian lives aren’t as impactful as they could be because we really don’t have a very good connection with God? That’s really what this series has been about. Connection! How do we better connect with God. I really believe God wants to give to us. And I hope we’ll see that today!
So, let’s jump into the story. Luke tells us - -
1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” - Luke 11:1
If you read the NT, you know Jesus prayed on a regular basis. Luke tells us Jesus was praying and His disciples were there. They were watching. They knew Jesus was committed to prayer and connecting to His Father. They’re watching!
It’s also interesting that John the Baptist was doing the same thing.
This is so important! As a parent, what and how are you teaching your children? Do they see you pray, read the Bible, control your anger / bitterness? Do they witness how you talk about others? Are your coworkers and classmates aware of your faith by the way you demonstrate Christ’s power and grace?
We have an amazing opportunity to show the world around us, whoever that might be, who Jesus is in our lives. Jesus and John modeled prayer for their disciples.
Again, what’s interesting in all the time the disciples spent with Jesus, this is the only request for teaching. They didn’t ask how to preach, teach, or evangelize. No other teaching requests. They wanted to know how to pray. What they saw in Jesus, they wanted for themselves. It was how can I better connect with God.
Jesus simply responded to them and said - - -
2 “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” - Luke 11:2-4
We’re not going to go through this prayer as we just did that with what we read in Matthew 6.
As a quick recap, and then we’ll move on. There’s great points to remember through the Lord’s Prayer - - -
We start with honoring and praising God the Father. We proclaim Him as holy, awesome, majestic. We seek His kingdom over ours. We pray for our needs, our daily bread. We seek forgiveness for our sins, just as we ask for the power and strength to be able to forgive those who sin against us. And finally we ask God to give us strength to withstand the temptations of the world, as we put on the full armor.
OK, that’s the Lord’s Prayer in a nutshell. But I want to focus on what Jesus says after the prayer. He wants us to understand, to believe in what God is offering us.
It seems like Jesus goes off on a tangent, but I believe He wants us to grasp what the Father desires to give us. So, He tells an absurd parable - - -
5 “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,
6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him;’
In this crazy parable, Jesus described something that would never happen in that culture to illustrate God’s desire to hear and act on our prayers.
Now, we need to keep in mind the culture they lived in. People had small - one or two room homes. And the family all slept in the same room, often in the same bed. Sounds fun . . . maybe for a day or two.
Add to that what happens with travelers. Now the man says a friend has come by. In the Greek the word is what we saw last week, philos. So, it’s a good friend. Obviously, he couldn’t text or call him. Maybe he showed up unannounced. It would have been unthinkable and discourteous not to show hospitality.
So, he just wanted to get some bread to feed his friend before they went to sleep. There were no all night convenience stores! So, he went to his neighbor for bread.
It’s a simple request, but at a late hour - - -
7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything?’
That could have been the end of the situation. He didn’t want to wake the kids up, but they were probably now up, anyways. But the neighbor continued to ask. Jesus had a point He wanted to make. So, Jesus continued - - -
8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend,
yet because of his IMPUDENCE he will rise and give him whatever he needs. - Luke 11:5-8
He was persistent. The man was not going to take no for an answer. This is the only time this word IMPUDENCE is used in the Bible.
Lots of versions use the word persistence to describe the man. But that’s a poor rendering. The NIV amazingly does it right, saying
because of your SHAMELESS AUDACITY he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
The man didn’t stop after he was initially told no. He persisted. But more than that, the Greek word for impudence is only used once in the Bible. It means “insolence, audacity, shamelessness.” The idea is that the man had a shameless boldness in going to his neighbor and pressing him until he got the bread to feed his guest.
In ancient Greek literature, the term means “lack of sensitivity to what is proper. So, the neighbor was shamelessly and boldly awakening his neighbor to get what he needed.
Jesus is teaching two aspects of prayer. On the one hand, we are to go to God with a shameless boldness. Ask away, which is what Jesus is going to get to in a moment. Because unlike the reluctant neighbor, God is eager to hear our prayer.
I also believe, and this is sometimes a tough one, but I also believe God wants us to beat down His throne room in prayer. God wants to know if we’re serious about what we are asking for.
Too many times, we make a quick request and drop it. When we do that, what are we really telling God about our situation. It doesn’t mean we’re going to get what we want, but there’s power in our boldly going to God with belief.
The diary of George Mueller, a Christian social reformer in the mid 1800's wrote about his impudent prayer.
In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land, on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day, I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted.
Thirty-six years later he wrote that the other two, sons of one of Mueller’s friends, were still not converted. He wrote, “But I hope in God, I pray on, and look for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.”
In 1897, fifty-two years after he began to pray, these two men finally accepted Jesus, long after Mueller had died. Mueller understood what Jesus meant when He told His disciples they should pray with impudence because of the eagerness of God to hear and act on our prayers.
Sometimes our prayers are not answered on our timing. That’s something I believe we all struggle with, because we want what we want and we want it now.
Now Jesus tells us how God will answer our prayers. He said in verses 9-10 ---
9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Jesus teaches His disciples the certainty that God will answer prayer.
Have you ever realized that it’s hard to keep praying on and on for something that God does not seem to be giving. It’s tiring and it can be frustrating when your prayer seems to be for a noble purpose. You want healing, you want wholeness, you want a job, you want to save a marriage, you want help for your child.
It all makes sense to us, yet, there seems to be silence from God. Yet, we need to resist the temptation to give up on our prayer. We need to be resolute, even impudent on returning to God again and again as we seek to hear His answer.
And remember, part of prayer is listening. It’s not just our talking to God, but it’s also our listening to God for His answers to our petitions.
To encourage us to keep praying, Jesus gives us powerful encouraging words to keep the impudent prayer going.
Jesus used three different words in the present tense, ASK / SEEK / KNOCK. That means it should be an ongoing process. We are to keep asking and seeking and knocking. And if you notice it moves in greater intensity from asking to seeking to knocking. With the promise that God will answer the prayers. We may not get what we want, yet we are called to trust in God’s wisdom and plans.
And finally, Jesus teaches us about God’s goodness in answering prayer, saying - -
11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” - Luke 11:1-13
Jesus asked a rhetorical question in verse 12. Then goes on to say, if we, who are evil, in other words, we’re sinners, if we know how to give good gifts, then consider how much more God will give to those who ask, seek and knock!
The answer is obvious. Of course a parent, a good parent will certainly provide for their child. Sometimes we even give our kids more than necessary, but we’re not going to deny them and when we do, it’s because we see the future better than they do.
When they want to drive the car when they’re 12 years old . . . we say no.
But when they’re 15, we start the driving lessons. The answer ultimately is a yes, but there’s a time to wait. In some respects, even though that may be a weak example, God is like that as well. Sometimes we don’t get what we want, but Jesus said God wants to give to us. It’s not always in the ways we want, but God promises to never fail us.
We can add to this in closing that Jesus also invokes the Holy Spirit into the conversation.
The greatest gift God gives is the Holy Spirit. As J.C. Ryle said, “The Holy Spirit is beyond doubt the greatest gift which God can bestow upon man. Having this gift, we have all things, life, light, hope and heaven. Having this gift we have God the Father’s boundless love, God the Son’s atoning blood, and full communion with all three Persons of the blessed Trinity.”
Ultimately the call from Jesus is to pray with impudence.
With that in mind, let us commit ourselves to prayer. Let us pray with a shameless boldness.
