JESUS TEACHES DISCIPLES TO PRAY
August 13, 2006 - PENTECOST 10 - Luke 11:1-13
* * * * * * * * *
Fellow-Redeemed, Saints in the Lord:
Today the Lord wants to teach us. Last week Jesus invited us to come and sit at his feet. This week, he invites us to come and learn about prayer. Jesus wants us to learn about speaking to God and what it means to have a prayer filled Christian life. First and foremost it is important for us to remember, as believers, we can talk to God. We talk with him through prayer. We talk to him with our words of prayer, with our inmost thoughts and needs for prayer. All this is because by grace we are saved. It is only the believer who can talk to God. As believers we come before God not scared and frightened that he might not want to hear us. As believers and children of God, we come to him just as children who come to their father. We come with joy and thanksgiving, requests and pleadings, troubles and sorrows.
Hebrews tells us: "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). What a powerful thing that we have, the power of prayer. Jesus teaches disciples to pray. We heard towards the end of our text those familiar words, God’s formula for prayer.
JESUS TEACHES DISCIPLES TO PRAY
I. Ask II. Seek III. Knock
I. ASK
The setting as we began our text is real brief but important. Verse 1: "One day Jesus was praying in a certain place." The disciples noticed Jesus was praying in another place, again. We heard that in our Gospel Lesson, too. As he fed the 5,000, Jesus prayed. The disciples saw this and took note of it. Here was Jesus the very Son of God who took time to pray and to speak to his heavenly Father. "One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ’Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’" Probably the disciples noticed how much Jesus prayed. They probably also heard some of the words Jesus prayed. The disciples probably also realized how much they lacked in their prayer life. So they said to Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray." John taught his disciples.
In verse 9 of our text: "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you." Verse 10: "For everyone who asks receives." Jesus told his disciples to let their needs be known to God. Let God know what they want by starting with asking. Jesus then gives an example of asking in verses 11 and 12: "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? As you read different translations, they have different things that they ask for. The point is if your child asks for something that he needs to eat, you will not give him something that will harm him, a snake or a scorpion. We don’t know what a person wants unless he asks.
Jesus sums it up by saying: "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Jesus reminded the disciples they were evil because of their sinfulness. Still they knew what was good for their children. They knew how to give good gifts. The Father in heaven gives perfect gifts. Our Father in heaven does not change like shifting shadows. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray.
Jesus teaches us to pray by saying to us, "Ask." It sounds simple. Sometimes when we think back in our life, we realize that we got mad at people because they didn’t give us what we wanted. Why? If we stop to think of it, we probably didn’t ask. We sometimes think people know what we want; but if we don’t ask, they don’t know. Remember our sin causes us great problems – in life and even in our prayer life. Listen to James: "You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God" (James 4:2). James says that in our prayer life what stands between God and us is our sinfulness. He says we quarrel and fight. We kill and covet. In our second lesson today (Ephesians 4:1-7,11-16), it talks about the peace and unity in the kingdom of God. Our sins can block out our asking God.
We might feel unworthy to stand before God. Certainly, we realize that we are never worthy because of our sinfulness. Again, he says you don’t have because you don’t ask. Prayer very simply starts with asking. Jesus stated, "Ask God so that you might receive." His answer for you and I as believers is not to withhold his blessings, but to provide them, not to provide just a little bit of blessings, but great blessings. From John: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatsoever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him" (John 5:14,15). True, we don’t deserve to stand before God. Our sins condemn us. But the Lord invites us as his children that we should come with boldness and confidence. God hears us. The prophet Jeremiah wrote about the prophets the people made out of wood and stone and they had to prop them up. They did not have ears to hear, eyes to see or hands to help. Our only true God hears and sees and helps.
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, and tells us to ask so that it will be given, ask that we may receive. The next step is to seek.
II. SEEK
Verse 9 again: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find." It is easy to ask. When we lose something we need to seek. We ask someone where that object is; and if they don’t know, we start seeking. As we go back to the beginning of our text, you heard portions of the Lord’s Prayer, not all of the petitions. Certainly, that would be a good series of sermons. We are going to briefly touch on the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord wants the disciples to seek not just for their body, food and drink; but he wants them to seek the things that matter, the spiritual things. That really is the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer.
"So Jesus said to them, ’When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come." Jesus was getting back to the point he ended with that they would come as children asking their father. The disciples could come without fear. A simple request or hard request made no difference. Jesus starts with some of the spiritual things: "Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come." God’s kingdom would come on the Last Day. The gospel of God’s kingdom also comes at the present time. We should seek those spiritual things. Seek to live a holy life to glorify God’s name. Seek to preach the Gospel that God’s kingdom would come.
Give us each day our daily bread. This petition speaks about earthly things. The disciples knew day after day they had their daily bread (and we know, too). Are we concerned that we are not going to have enough to eat? Not really. Luther explained it: By saying daily bread we remind ourselves God provides for us day in and day out. We are thankful for our daily bread.
A few more petitions the spiritual things they are to seek: "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." Jesus speaks about forgiveness, what they needed to seek and find. Then the disciples would seek God’s mercy and grace, and they would find it. "And lead us not into temptation." The Lord does that a couple of ways. He keeps temptation away for believers. He leads believers away from temptation, and he also leads believers to resist temptations. God never tempts anyone. This we must always remember. But God, our Father, keeps temptation away or leads us away from temptation or leads us to resist. This is what he wants the disciples to pray for.
Jesus wants us to pray, coming to him day in and day out and ask and seek that we can find God’s spiritual gifts. We know ourselves we have plenty of physical blessings and gifts. Of course, we always want a little bit more. What about our spiritual gifts, patience, kindness, gentleness, hope, joy and contentment? We have heard this list time and again. These are the spiritual things that God wants us to seek. In this world in which we live, the world is not going to offer these gifts to us like God does. The world says we can have happiness, but it has very little to back it up. Jesus teaches us to seek him. It is through our prayers, this is how we seek him: "Lord, make us content, patient, longsuffering." As you seek that, you will find it. Jeremiah says: "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:12,13). Because of our sinful nature, we don’t always seek God with all of our heart.
We know that the Lord says: "Learn how to pray. Take time to seek the Lord with all your heart." We should seek his gifts as he says here to make God’s name holy, to preach God’s gospel, to be thankful for daily bread, to be forgiving as God has forgiven us, and to help us to resist temptation, to avoid temptation as we seek God’s will. Seek first his kingdom. Then the blessings that come we can’t measure according to any worldly standard. What is peace and contentment worth? A thousand dollars, a million dollars? God’s gifts are worth far more than we can ever imagine. When we seek out God’s will and his spiritual gifts, then we want to be ready when he pours them out. The Prophet Hosea describes: "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you" (Hosea 10:12). Get your hearts ready. Break up the unplowed ground. Our Father is coming with his unfailing love to shower his righteousness on you. We who are unrighteous and unloving are filled with God’s righteousness and our sins are covered up. Our unloving hearts of stone are made into hearts of flesh because of God’s love..
The Lord Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. He teaches us to pray by saying: "Ask, it will be given you, seek and you will find." Now he says to knock and the door will be opened.
III. KNOCK
Verse 9 and 10: "Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." Today, we ring the doorbell, but we may also knock. Sometimes that doorbell doesn’t work. In the example in our text Jesus teaches about the persistence of prayer. "Then Jesus said to them, ’Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’" Did you get that picture? The middle of the night, a friend is traveling, and there are no convenient stores to get his snacks. So he stops in at a friend’s house, knocks on the door -- and has to knock a lot. His friend is sleeping. That friend gets up and goes to his friend’s house that has bread and knocks on his door and has to wake him up. "Then the one inside answers, ’The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’" His answer here is "no." He gives the reason that his children are with him. If he got up, everyone in the house would be up. You know what a catastrophe that is when everyone is awake and try to get everyone back to sleep.
But Jesus goes on: "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs." This persistence, the original says "boldness," if he keeps on knocking, he is going to get up. It almost bothers him so much that there was nothing to do but give him the bread; so he could go back to sleep. That is what the Lord says. He is going to get what he needs, not because he is a friend or that he knows him, but he wants to get to sleep again. That is the persistence Jesus is talking about in this prayer. What does he give? Does he give a few bites of bread or a few loaves? "And he gives him as much as he needs." So he probably brought out the bread and other food and drink that were needed. This was not for the friend that was knocking on the door, but for another friend of his. We see here the Lord’s answers. Sometimes he does say, "no, yes, but in my own good time when the time is right," and sometimes he says, "yes."
There is another lesson I don’t want us to lose here. Jesus’ lesson is the fact that we see the persistence of this friend. The friend is not persistent for himself. He is bold and confident because of the need of his friend who is at his house. He is trying to help someone else. The only way he could help someone else, because he doesn’t have bread, was to get bread from someone else who has bread. That is a great blessing for us to remember that we pray for others. When we are busy praying for others, we don’t have to pray for ourselves, for our needs. Look around today and pick out three or four other people to pray for. Now if everyone else did that, you would not have to pray for yourself. Everyone is praying for everybody else. Believing people praying for other people and, with all persistence, boldness, and confidence. Ephesians reminds us: "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18). Keep on praying for all the believers. Paul says how, "Be alert and always keep on praying." We can listen. In our conversations in church or day-to-day among the people whom we know and the people of this world, they tell us things if we listen. They tell us things that bother them, how they have hurts and sorrows, heartaches and illnesses. When we are alert - listening then we can pray for them, persistently, boldly, confidently knowing the Lord answers.
Again, there is not one of us here who would not agree to the fact that God blesses us more than we deserve. Scripture says, "More than we can ask or imagine; the Lord provides for us." It is true sometimes we want a few more earthly things. We would like it to be a little bit wetter than it is, but the Lord blesses us in due time. Mostly what the Lord wants to bless us with is his spiritual gifts. We do not want to forget about praying for them, to grow in our Christian faith. Sadly there are more and more people around us who are not certain of their salvation. We live in such an enlightened society people try to save themselves which doesn’t work. People try to make themselves content, which doesn’t work. True, godly contentment comes by grace. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8).
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray and teaches us to pray. We know the much of rest of God’s word concerning praying. Pray without ceasing. The Lord has to encourage us to pray, because like the disciples we don’t pray enough. The Lord has to remind us to pray because of our sinful nature, which stands opposed to God and his, will. So we pray to the Lord asking him so he can give and we receive. We pray to the Lord by seeking from him so we can find, what he wants to give us in our life. We can find contentment in the midst of a world that is discontent. We keep on knocking at the Lord’s door until finally he even throws up his hands and says, "Here, this is what you want. Here is what you need."
Today, these verses remind believers to ask and seek and knock. Line those words up, ask beginning with "a," seek begins with "s," and knock begins with "k". These first three letter equals "ASK." The Lord teaches us to pray, he promises to hear, and he is overjoyed to answer. In John: "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:13,14). As we ask our Father gives. We seek and find God’s free spiritual gifts. We knock and the door is open by our heavenly Father who loves, cares for us and provides what we truly need.. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Pentecost 10 readings: EXODUS 24:3-11; EPHESIANS 4:1-7, 11-16; JOHN 6:1-15
