Parables of Jesus: A Friend in Need

Welcome:

Good morning, and welcome back as we continue our “Parables of Jesus Series!” As I’ve said before, I’ll say it again, parables are not unlike allegories and metaphors; they are analogies that communicate a truth; however, due to their connection to the life and ministry of our Lord, we call them parables. But they’re those teaching examples that communicate a life principle that are passed down to generations of disciples and become somewhat engendered linguistically, creating its own culture. You may have heard of some of what we say or how we talk, referred to as “Christianese.” Last week, I used a colloquialism that someone “saw the writing on the wall.” My daughter, who has little familiarity with the Book of Daniel or the context of Belshazzar’s feast, proceeded to play 20 questions as kids will do. All I want to say is that if we don’t pull at the strings of what we buy at face value, most of that richness is lost. That being said, I think it’s worth of exploration!

Recap & Overview:

So, last week, we looked at The Good Samaritan, and that message was brought by Chaplain Choi. This week, we examine Luke 11:5-13: A Friend in Need. They don’t, at first, seem connected in any way, shape or form. And that’s intentional, I think, in some form or fashion; this part of Luke’s Gospel, and much of his Gospel for that matter, is a collection of a bunch of historical narratives, while itself not necessarily a succinct narrative. What I mean to say is this is very storyteller-like; most of these pericopes, which are what we call a set of verses that form one coherent thought, are not necessarily connected to one another chronologically; rather, they make a thematic point.

Transition:

Look at the beginning of the section of text right above where chapter 11 starts, “While they were traveling…” Only five verses later, it says, beginning chapter 11, “He was praying in a certain place…” Our Scripture for today begins, again, five verses later. It says, “He also said to them,” and the next section, without introduction, conclusion, or otherwise notice of a change of scenery, or genre, or subject matter, “Now he was driving out a demon that was mute.”

Intro:

What I’m getting at is that this is a highlight reel. This is not necessarily meant to be understood to be sequential, and if we maintain that it is so, we are the ones who change what the text says about the life and ministry of Jesus. So, that’s important to note. Also, if you’re confused as to why I’m even talking about Luke 10 in a sermon that is supposed to be about chapter 11, verses 5-13, please understand that the incredibly helpful numbering system wasn’t conceived of all at once, it was the famed English church leader Stephen Langdon, in the early 1200’s, who divided texts into the chapters we know, and not until the 1550’s that the Geneva Bible adapted the verse numbers conceived by Robert Estienne. And we’re incredibly indebted to these church fathers for their work in doing these things, as the ancient Greeks did not have an equivalent to our modern punctuation. The books we know may as well have been a run-on sentence.

Transition:

The highlight reel motif also fits the purpose of Luke’s work, which is this kind of grandfather figure’s story time. He even begins his Gospel in verses 1-4, saying quite literally, ‘since other people have put together accounts of the things which we have born witness to, in the same way as the texts which we have now were recorded and entrusted to us, by eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I also, with another perspective and lens, am relaying what I have investigated and know to be true.’

Scripture:

Our Scripture in your bulletins has us beginning in verse 5, but it’s clear that Luke is talking about verses 1-4. And while this parable only occurs in Luke, this prayer, what we refer to as the Lord’s Prayer, although it looks a little different here, as well as a comparison very much like this parable and explanation of it, occur elsewhere.

And I’m going to paraphrase because we’re keeping it casual. I don’t want you standing up or anything; you can follow along if you want to check me. (Luke 11:5-13):

He says, “Imagine you go to a friend in the middle of the night and say, ‘(My guy, ‘Bro, homie, whatever you call your tribe…) lemme borrow, like three loaves real quick. My other homie (my cuz?) –The relationship here isn’t that important—just stopped by,’” I’m imagining it’s like a no call ahead kind of thing, but he says, “I don’t have any food, and he’s hungry, and I don’t want to be a bad host.”

So, in verse 7, the friend answers, which is, in this hypothetical, God, “Dude. It’s late. I’m not wearing any pants, the door is closed,” and we’re not talking like Master Lock or Folger Adams… this is like a complex blocking and bracing situation, imagine like a medieval castle with gates and drawbridges and creaky and clinky heavy wooden or metal parts and a complex system that takes several minutes… “And my squad is chillin’ in bed;” my kitchens on the roof, maybe, or I got fam sleeping in what doubles as my kitchen,” I don’t know, “but I can’t hook you up.”

Illustration:

Because we put ourselves in this situation, right? This is why Jesus does this hypothetical; imagine you receive a phone call at midnight. What’s the first thing you think? “Who’s calling me at this time of the night?” They call again. This time, you might check the caller I.D. But you don’t answer the phone, or do you? You say to yourself, “I wonder what they want?”

Nevertheless, you roll over thinking, ‘It can wait ’til morning.’ Then the phone rings again. So, you think to yourself, ‘They’re not going to leave me alone. I better answer the phone!’

It’s the caller’s persistence that gets the assistance.

Scripture:

So, Jesus says in verse 8, “I’m telling you, even if he won’t get up and give his friend what he needs just because they’re tight, because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking, waking neighbors, he’ll get up and get you whatever you need. He’ll get up and give it to him because his friend keeps bugging him for it. He’ll hook him up with whatever he wants, even if it’s just to shut him up. Because it’s what friends do.” It’s about the nagging—and the friendship, that too.

If I throw you something, would you not probably catch it? There’s something instinctual, even suggestible; if I put my hand out, wouldn’t you shake it? We get in lines because other people are in lines, same author, Acts 1:11, Jesus has just ascended, some angels come up, and looking at the people look up, they ask “What are we looking at?”

Jesus explains himself in verse 9, “Here’s what I’m saying: Ask, and you’ll receive; Seek, and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.” Because the only way you’re going to receive it is if you ask; the only way you’re going to find something is if you’re out there looking for it; the only way that door is opening is if you knock!

In verses 10-12, the neighbor becomes our Heavenly Father. Jesus says, equating Him as the best of fathers,’ even asking who among you would turn this into a game of gotcha’ when your kids are in need?

“If,” he says, “as bad as you are, you wouldn’t do such a thing, being at least decent to your own children. Don’t you think the Father who created you at the foundations of the world, who, by the way, looked down each day after creation and called His works ‘good,’ conceiving you in love, calling you apart from eternity for such a time as this and numbering the hairs on your head; how much more prepared is He to do the one thing He already wants to do—reconcile His own creation which He made in His own image to Himself—by giving you the Holy Spirit when you ask for Him?”

Interpretation:

Well, when you put it like that, right? And these guys, they’d been with Jesus for some time, and I think, like this, we receive it closer, probably, to what they heard when He answered them; closer than what is evoked within us by what we have written in the text. That’s why I wanted to do the Scripture like that, but Jesus is saying in verses 9–10, “Ask … seek … knock.” Those are continuous verbs. These are actions we’re supposed to start and not stop.

Illustration:

A magazine fulfillment firm in Chicago sent out renewal and expiration notices for hundreds of magazines. One September day in 1999, there was a malfunction, and a rancher in Powder Bluff, Colorado, got 9,734 separate mailings informing him that his subscription to National Geographic had expired.

The rancher dropped what he was doing and traveled ten miles to the nearest post office, where he sent money for a renewal along with a note that said, “I give up—send me your magazine!” What we see here is that that kind of a request breaks down any sort of resistance. For reasons known only to God, that is true also of prayer.

Exposition:

This parable isn’t like other parables we’ve encountered yet. It’s not simply some abstract yet wholly applicable truth about life or a paradigm-shifting thought process. It’s a practical discipline meant to accompany and aid our walk! A practice we are meant to integrate.

Transition:

This parable is about prayer. Starting with a format, we can see the A.C.T.S. method of prayer illustrated in verses 1-4. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, ask one of the brothers here, and its followed with ‘The House Divided,’ a kind of sub-parable that I guess we didn’t include in our series but serves as an explanation of the fact that when we’re working towards His priorities and His will, we can experience His blessing, and we can be assured of success, as it’s written in John 15:7, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.

Now, that comes with strings, and this is not that message. Just know in a very practical way that there are many wonderful promises in the Bible, but not many of them are meant for this lifetime. Also, there is real punishment, and nothing you are going through is that. All of the disciples experienced adversity; we are no different, and they all died. If what you aren’t receiving is relief from something, or something you want is being withheld. It’s not an unanswered prayer. It is, perhaps, a sign that maybe you aren’t abiding.

Illustration:

And abiding is hard. Robert Robinson wrote a hymn about it. The point he makes is that when we focus on what we want, we tune our hearts to it, whatever ‘it’ is. So, he offers a prayer in song form, “Come thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace.” He asks to be taught a melodious sonnet, “sung by flaming tongues above!” He’s asking to be able to pray a prayer in line with heaven! Later, he confesses “O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be! Let that grace now, like a fetter,

bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.”

Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, it’s all there, and what a beautiful prayer indeed!

Transition:

This is one of three parables about prayer, all in Luke, too, I might add. It’s becoming apparent why he felt it necessary to write another account, “‘since other people [had] put together accounts of the things which [they] have born witness to;” the other Synoptics having likely come first, that is.

Points:

If put side by side, these parables illustrate three common hindrances in our prayer life. The last two appear side-by-side in Luke 18, which we’ll get to in September, the first being The Parable of The Persistent Widow, where Luke identifies the hindrance of growing weary in our prayer because of an assuming profitability of unrighteousness.

The next is The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, where the pharisee compared himself in all his perceived righteousness to what Jesus conflates as a more genuine, albeit perhaps unorthodox prayer. He assumes a sort of self-sufficiency, but what Jesus is saying is that, if nowhere else, in our prayer of all places, we ought to be humble and express genuine thanksgiving rather than our judgments of others.

In our parable today, the hindrance we encounter is the underlying feeling that the Lord is indifferent to us and our prayers; we doubt the Lord’s concern about our everyday issues.

Transition:

Let me ask you, I forgot the chapter and verse; where does it say again that the Lord will never give us something we can’t handle?

Illustration:

In Matthew West’s song ‘Strong Enough,’ he proposes, “Maybe that’s the point, to reach the point of giving up, ’Cause when I’m finally at rock bottom; that’s when I start lookin’ up, and reachin’ out; I know I’m not strong enough to be everything I’m supposed to be…” So, he responds to his own plight, and this is how you lament, by the way, and I encourage letting yourself do it; it’s biblical, but allow yourself to perceive God’s answer, from what we know about Him, from how we read about Him answering prayer in Scripture, I can promise you He’s never silent, but he [Matthew West] says, “…Hands of mercy won’t you cover me, Lord right now I’m asking you to be, strong enough for both of us.”

Application/Takeaways:

So, three things about prayer:

1:Do our prayers inform God of anything He does not already know?

No, they don’t. And we know that because Jesus says as much in Matthew 6:8. He’s talking about the Pharisees and how they go on and on, each one holier than the next. He says, “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

A.W. Pink was an author and pastor who wrote an excellent book on the Sovereignty of God. In it, he says, “Prayer is not designed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of need.”

We are to tell God what we need, and although He won’t learn from us, He tells us He will listen to us.

2: Do our prayers change God’s mind?

Also, no! For instance, if we all got together and asked God to allow everyone into heaven, would that work if we prayed about it, maybe fasted about it, and hope that God would hear us and listen?

Is it going to change God’s mind? Well, no, because it goes against what He has decided is just and what He has unchangingly decreed.

This is why you can’t use verses like Mark 11:24, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours,” to make God into some sort of a wish-granting genie!

Which leads us to the third takeaway if we’ve answered “no” to the first two:

3: Do our prayers change anything?

Absolutely, yes, they do! I’ll give an example: in Exodus 32, God was talking to Moses after the golden calf incident, and he said, “I’m just going to wipe them all out and start over with you.”

Now, was that an idle threat? I’m going with no. God was going to destroy all of the Israelites, and He was going to make good on his deal with Moses and start over with him.

So, why didn’t He do it? Moses’ prayers. He said, God, please don’t do that; for your own honor and your own glory, please don’t do that, and forgive them. And God said, ok!

Did God change His mind? No, the circumstances changed because Moses prayed. When we read in Jonah about Nineveh, God was going to destroy it too, but Jonah went and preached, and the city repented; so, did God change His mind about destroying Nineveh? No, the circumstances changed. And so, He didn’t carry out the judgment that He was going to.

So, prayer does make a lot of difference. We can’t change God’s mind on His eternal purposes and decrees, but we can change circumstances through prayer.

Point:

To the point of today’s parable, one might ask, due to their belief that the Lord is indifferent to us and our prayers or because we doubt the Lord’s concern about our everyday issues. “If God is going to do what is right anyway, why should we pray in the first place?”

Because God will accomplish what He wants to accomplish through various means anyway. James 4:2 says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” Listen to this part, “You do not have because you do not ask.” In other words, if you change the circumstance of not asking to the circumstance of asking, God will give you what you’re looking for.

So, the Bible teaches us that God is immutable and unchangeable, but it also teaches us that prayers can and do change real things around us. God accomplishes what He wants to accomplish through means like the prayers of the saints!

Transition:

So, what’s an appropriate response to this passage? You’ll remember I presented this parable as a part of three parables about prayer, and they were presented as hindrances. This parable is one of three that aren’t simply abstract truths, but about disciplines.

The problem with our prayerlessness is our wrong or small thoughts of God. Our hearts portray Him as a less-than-friendly neighbor. Or that He stands idly by amid injustice. That He perhaps doesn’t delight in mercy. The Gospel message is that there is nothing between us and God. The truth here is how easy prayer really should be and how accessible God is to us!

Summary:

It’s about having a Christ-minded outlook, tuning our hearts to sing Thy grace!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 instructs us to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Not feeling that the Lord is indifferent to us and our prayers, not doubting the Lord’s concern about our everyday issues.

Ask, and you will receive; Seek, and you will find; Knock, and the door will open.” Because the only way you’re going to receive is if you ask; and the only way you’re going to find something is if you’re out there looking for it; and the only way that door is opening, is if you knock!

How much more prepared is He to do the one thing He already wants to do—reconcile His own creation, which He made in His own image to Himself—by giving you the Holy Spirit when you ask for Him?

Matthew 7:11 ends this same saying of Jesus with, “How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.” Luke gets more specific: “How much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

God gives His children the best answers to their prayers. He gives himself. He gave His Son to us on the cross, and he gave His Spirit to us for daily living. He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not—along with Him—give us every good thing?

Doubt that the Lord is truly concerned about us can be such a crippling thing for believers. This is why Luke took up his calling to write his Gospel. Despite how often the Lord has heard and answered our prayers, we still imagine that God is unconcerned about us. This feeling can overwhelm believers to the point that they do not pray—or do not pray in faith.

Close:

So, if you would quite easily disturb your friend in an emergency and expect that he would help you, is there then not even more reason to go to the Lord, who neither sleeps nor slumbers (Ps. 121:4)? He cares more for believers than any friend could. Should we then be reluctant to pray? It’s no wonder that the Lord follows this parable with these words: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”