Ask, Seek, and Knock
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last week, we saw that Jesus’s disciples came to him as asked him to teach them to pray. And we studied what is commonly called The Lord’s Prayer. The theme of prayer continues on to the passage this morning, but the focus is different. Whereas last week, we saw our part in prayer—that we are to pray, this week, we are seeing God’s part in prayer—that he is to answer. So while we do see Jesus telling us we have a part, his focus in more on the Father doing his part. The focus of this text is on the answering of prayer and it is important that we keep that in mind.
So as we open up this text this morning, I want us to see that God answers prayer for one main reason, but we’re going to divide it into two sub-reasons. The first sub-reason is that God answers prayer for his name’s sake. The second is that God answers prayer for his goodness’s sake.
God answers prayer for his name’s sake
God answers prayer for his goodness’s sake
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
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’?
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.
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.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
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!”
God answers prayer for his name’s sake
God answers prayer for his name’s sake
The first reason for answered prayer that we need to understand is that God answers prayer for his name’s sake. When we go back to The Lord’s Prayer, we remember that the first request we actually make has to do with our acknowledging that God does everything for his name’s sake. “Hallowed be your name.” That’s what we say in the Lord’s Prayer. We want God’s name to be seen as holy. We want it to be made much of. We want it to be revered.
And so, as we see Jesus expanding the disciple’s understanding of prayer, we see him elaborating on why God would answer prayer. And so he tells a parable.
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
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’?
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.
Let’s break this parable down for a moment. Remember that this whole section is mainly about answer to prayer and not to the prayer itself. But obviously if there is going to be an answer to prayer, then a prayer must be made.
Jesus asked a question to those who were listening. And to understand the question, we need to understand the culture a little bit. Hospitality in the Middle East is huge.
God commanded the people of Israel a fifteen hundred years prior to this parable.
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
This was toward a stranger! If it was a friend, one was obviously expected to take care of every need. Hence John would write in his epistle:
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Not to show hospitality was akin to saying God’s love was not in the person. So when a brother, a friend showed up at midnight, one was obligated by both law and love to take care of him. The problem was that this host did not have the world’s goods. He had no bread and so he had to go and borrow bread from his neighbor—his friend. And it would have been unthinkable for the friend to deny his friend and neighbor that which was needed.
So when Jesus asked this question, no one would have answered, “Yeah. I could see that happening.” Everyone would have thought the question ridiculous. Think of the question this way:
Can you imagine going to your friend at midnight and asking to borrow three loaves of bread because another friend had suddenly shown up at your door and you had nothing to feed him and then the friend you’re asking tells you that he wouldn’t help you because he’d already gone to bed and he didn’t want to disturb his family? In our day, we could say, yeah. I can totally see that happening. But in first century Palestine, there was no way someone would say that.
And then Jesus gave the point of the story. And there are three ways that this point has been understood. I will give you the two ways that I think are incorrect first and end with what I believe is the correct interpretation.
So let’s read the verse to refresh our minds.
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.
The first way to understand it is that the friend knocking on the door was so persistent that the man inside finally gave in. I think this is what most Christians think of when the think of this story. And it is partly, I think, because of the ask, seek, and knock comments Jesus made in verses 9-10. But here is the problem with that interpretation: the Greek word, translated as “impudence” in the ESV and “importunity” (meaning annoyingly persistent) in the KJV did not come to mean “importunity” until about four hundred years after Luke was written.
Impudence was one of the meanings. We don’t use the word impudent very often today. It can carry the idea of boldness, or as the CSB says, shameless boldness.
Christian Standard Bible Chapter 11
8 I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
So the first interpretation cannot be correct as it relies on a meaning that it could never have meant. But that idea of shameless boldness could be correct. The problem I have with the CSB is that it interprets the “his” as “his friend’s.” The Greek just says “of him.” The translators are taking it to mean that the shameless boldness “of him” refers to the shameless boldness of the friend of him.
This is possible. The host would be calling to his friend in the middle of the night, quite possibly making a fool of himself in front of the entire town. And so the friend who has gone to bed then says to himself, “Man, this guy really wants some bread. He wants it badly enough to allow no sense of shame to stop him from boldly asking me.” That’s possible, and if that’s what you believe is the right understanding, more power to you. Let me give you a quick application then:
Go boldly to the thrown. Don’t let anyone keep you from asking for what you need no matter how big or how small. Don’t let anyone shame you by saying, “Don’t bother God with such trivial matters.” Don’t let anyone shame you by saying, “God has more important things to do than answer that request.”
That understanding is possible and if that’s your understanding, fantastic. But I don’t think it’s right. In part, because of the word used. Even though we are called to go to the throne of grace with boldness or confidence, it is a completely different word that is used to describe our actions. But the main reason is based more on why I think the next interpretation is right than why I think this one is wrong.
As I said, the Greek word translated as “impudence” could mean “shameless” or even “boldness” but was always a negative word. This is the only time in the New Testament that this word is used. But in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT) it is used 16 times and is always negative, such as Israel shamelessly went after other gods or Nebuchadnezzar shamelessly ordering the killing of the wisemen in Daniel 2. In every other type of literature that this word is used, it is always used in the negative sense. Thus someone who is shameless isn’t bold in a good way, but in a bad way. He disregards decorum, disregards goodness and rightness and justice, etc. He is shameless when he ought to be ashamed. The Greek word is in fact the word for "respect/reverence” with the prefix meaning no in front of it. Thus, he has no respect/reverence. He is shameless.
But more than that. If we look at the question in verse 5, we see that Jesus asks which of them had a friend that he would go to. The friend in verse 5 is the same friend mentioned in verse 8. Because the man in the house is the friend of the host.
So let’s understand what Jesus says in verse 8 and I hope this isn’t tedious, but bear with me.
I tell you, though the man inside his home sleeping will not get up and give to the man asking for bread because the man in the house is his friend, yet because of his impudence the man inside the house will rise and give the man asking for bread all that he needs.
I say it that way because, in that we see that everything is actually falling on the man inside the house trying to sleep. He’s the one not getting up. He’s the one not giving. He’s the friend. He’s the one who finally gets up and gives all that is needed. It seems only right that the word “impudence” goes with this man, not the one asking. But if the word impudence was changed then the interpretation of the CSB doesn’t cut it. Rather than impudence or shameless boldness, the word really ought to be “shameless.” Remember that until the fourth century, this word had only negative meaning. No shame, no respect, no reverence.
Thus, what we see is that the man in his house who would not get up and give even though he was a friend to the man asking, because of being seen as shameless—because he would be accused of something shameful, because he was at risk of losing respect or reverence—he got up and gave all that was needed.
In other words, because of his name’s sake—because he cared about his name being honored and revered, he got up and gave the man who asked.
This goes along with the Lord’s Prayer. Not only does it go along with the first request, “hallowed be your name,” but the fourth as well,
Give us each day our daily bread,
Or as we saw last week, “Give us enough bread each day.” For the sake of his own name—so that he would not be shamed—he gave all that the man needed.
God answers prayer for his goodness’s sake
God answers prayer for his goodness’s sake
So we see that the first reason God answers prayer is for his name’s sake. He will show his name as holy; he will not be blasphemed; he will not be shamed. But the second is similar, but it is different: God answers prayer for his goodness’s sake. He answers prayer to show forth his goodness. One can be evil and work so that his name is not maligned or blasphemed. As Kim Jong Un—dictator of North Korea. One cannot speak a bad word against him without penalty of death even though he is an evil man. But in God’s case, he works both so that his name is not blasphemed and because he is good.
We read in
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.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
These are some of the most well known verses when it comes to prayer. And it may be that you’ve heard preachers say that these commands are in the present tense: Ask, Seek, Knock and thus we are to continually ask, seek, and knock. They would not be wrong in saying this. But again, I don’t think that these verses are teaching persistence. Jesus does not seem to be saying that we are to continually ask for the same thing as if we will wear God down. Nor does it seem to be saying that God is wanting to see how badly we want what it is we are asking.
Instead, it seems to me that Jesus is saying that God is the giver of all good things. If we are ever in need, it is to God that we ought continually turn. That’s the whole point of the next couple of questions.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
Notice who it is that Jesus addresses: fathers. Remember that Jesus taught us to pray with the same address. “Father.” So Jesus is comparing God with earthly fathers. And in so doing, he asks what kind of father when asked for fish would be so mean as to give his son a snake or give a scorpion when his son asks for an egg? Again, this is the same kind of question he asked about the friend. “Which of you who has a friend...” “What father among you...” The answer to these two questions would most certainly be none of us would do that! The whole idea was ridiculous, just as it was ridiculous to think that the friend would refuse to answer the request for bread.
The earthly son need only ask the earthly father and the father will give as the son needs. He won’t give less than what the son needs and he certainly won’t give bad things to his son.
And then Jesus says something a bit bizarre: he calls these men evil. And really what he means is sinful. All of us have been known on occasion to be a little devious. We’ve played some practical jokes that were mean, even if unintentionally so. So the father’s have it in them to be mean, but even with the potential, what Jesus was asking was ludicrous.
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!”
So those who have evil in the heart can give good gifts to their own children. God has no evil at all in his heart. There is not an ounce of sin or deviousness in his entire being. So if evil men give good gifts in spite of their deviant hearts, God gives that which is so much better because he himself is good!
God gives good gifts because God is good. He doesn’t do it in spite of his nature. He does it because it is his nature. This is similar to what God said through Isaiah in
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
It would seem impossible for a mother to forget the child whom she has carried and nursed for so many months. But it could happen. But in contrast, God promises he will never forget his people. Thus as impossible as it may seem that a father would give something bad to his son in need, there may still be a 1% chance that it might happen. But never with God! God acts out of his goodness!
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we conclude this text, I said that these were sub-reason of one main reason. God answers prayer because of his name and his goodness’s sake. Those fall under the umbrella of God’s character. God answers in line with his character. Or, if you’d like, God’s will. God will not answer a prayer that brings shame to his name or betrays his goodness.
This is why James brought up
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Or why all the caveats are out there that we put on prayer over and over again about asking according to the will of God. We see that very thing in this passage, but just in different form.
God does not answer prayers that bring shame to his name or betrays his goodness. In other words, God does not answer prayers that will go against his character or his will. Even if God does a work and the result is that he is blasphemed (as we see in Revelation or in the next passage of the leaders blaspheming the Holy Spirit) it is ultimately that which brings glory over and against the blasphemy. God not only looks at the blasphemy from the few in a moment or time, but the glory and reverence of eternity.
The man at the beginning of the story had a need. As part of God’s people he was to show God’s love and kindness to friend or stranger alike. But when the opportunity came upon him, he realized he was in need and asked. So it is with us. Every moment of need we are to ask, seek, knock on the door of God without hesitation.
There was no scheming. There was no pulling himself up by the bootstraps. There was asking. There was calling on his friend. But God is more than a friend. He is our Father and in his goodness and for the sake of his name, he hears and answers our call.
Prayer
Our Heavenly Father,
May we never doubt your goodness in our lives. May we know that your goodness is so enwrapped in your character that we know that all you do, all you say, all you give is in line with your being good. May we believe that every good and perfect gift comes from you, our Father. May we believe that you will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly.
May we seek the glory of your name even as you do. May we come to you boldly, yes, but may we come boldly but needy as a child asking for food from his father, and may we know that you shall give us exactly what we need when we need it. And may we truly believe that we are not a bother to you. We are not an annoyance to you. But we are a beloved child to whom you turn your fatherly face in kindness and goodness.
In Jesus’s name. Amen.