Jesus Teaches His Disciples About Prayer
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Introduction
Introduction
Explain prayer mini-series.
Our text today is about the disciples being taught by Jesus how to pray. There are two texts with what is typically called The Lord’s Prayer; ours today is the passage in Luke.
Big idea: This passage will not only deal with how to pray, but it will build to a conclusion showing we can trust our Father will hear us and give us His highest good.
Read Luke 11.1-13
1 And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”
2 And He said to them, “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 also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
5 Then He said to them, “Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything.’
8 “I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “So I say to 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 he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
11 “But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 “Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Let’s Pray!
Our text immediately follows the first visit of Jesus to the home of Martha where she welcomed Him.
You may remember that her sister Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to His teaching and Martha complained that Mary had left her with all the preparations (likely the disciples accompanied Jesus to Martha’s home).
Jesus told Martha she was so worried about many things, but Mary had chosen the only thing really necessary which was listening to the words of Jesus.
These are the words of Jesus about prayer.
The Disciple’s Request About Prayer
1 And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”
Jesus was praying alone but within sight of His disciples.
When He was done, this was the question: “Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.”
The words were of an individual disciple but they were asked on behalf of all of them.
John had taught his disciples to pray and this disciple wanted Jesus to teach them.
Do you think they had seen Jesus pray before? In just the gospel of Luke, Jesus had prayed six times and in at least three of the six some or all of His disciples were there:
18 And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
Before Peter’s confession
28 Now it happened some eight days after these words, that taking along Peter and John and James, He went up on the mountain to pray.
29 And it happened that while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.
At the transfiguration.
21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
A prayer offered after the 70 had been sent out and came back rejoicing.
Jesus Provides a Model Prayer (vv. 2-4)
Jesus answered his request.
2 And He said to them, “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 also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
How do we begin?
“When you pray, say . . . .”
Is prayer to be silent and done just with the mind or is he/she to speak? The Greek word Jesus uses here translated “say” means to speak, to tell. It’s verbal.
When I have pray aloud, like here, my focus on what it is I’m praying is zeroed in.
When I’m praying at home or in the car silently, distractions often overcome me. There is an advantage to praying aloud.
The first three phrases are focused on our Father
Jesus said to start by addressing prayer to the Father.
Why? This is an address of intimacy. It is He to whom we belong. Jesus is instructing them to address His Father as He does.
For any of you for whom there is a negative image when you say or think of the word “father,” let me encourage you not to allow that part of your past to impact calling upon God as your Father.
How do you know the God of creation is your Father?
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
He is your Father and at the heart of His character is love. John tells us in 1 John 4.8 that God is love.
He calls you His child. You belong to Him. He loves you with the love of a father that you may never have known.
I don’t pretend to understand what some of you may have experienced with those who were a father or step-father to you.
But what I do know is that God loves you just as you are. Nothing you have done can separate you from His love. It transcends what we experience as humans with our earthly fathers, even for those of us who had the privilege of having good fathers.
Jesus is saying, when you pray just talk to your Father.
What do we say to Him?
“hallowed be Your name”
“hallowed” means to regard His name as holy, to revere Him as holy.
Think of Isaiah when he sees YHWH sitting on His throne, high and lifted up with the train of His robe filling the temple and he exclaimed:
5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts.”
When we come to Him, we enter His holy presence, His holiness, His purity makes us conscious of our sin. We can be there only because we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus.
When we think of His name, it brings up who He is; it speaks of His character.
6 Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;
“Your kingdom come”
This is asking for God’s rule to be fully present on the earth. John the Baptist and Jesus have been announcing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is a request that it come in its fulness.
What to Ask of Him
3 ‘Give us each day our daily bread. 4 ‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
For our daily bread EACH DAY—an expression of our continual physical dependence on Him. This helps us remember that we have nothing apart from His gracious provision.
For forgiveness of our sins—another expression of humility. Believers like the disciples had already been forgiven for their sins. This is speaking of seeking forgiveness, of confessing sin, to maintain fellowship with the Father.
We need to forgive others—if we fail to forgive others what does it say about our understanding of our need for forgiveness. In forgiving others we learn the lesson of loving others, of not needing something in return for our forgiveness.
Not be lead into temptation—Luke uses a word that can mean to tempt or to test, but we know from James that God does not tempt anyone to do evil
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
This is more like the protection Jesus told Peter to pray for in the Garden of Gethsemane when He said:
38 “Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
At this point, Jesus knows He must address how they/we can know He will hear and answer what is prayed.
JESUS SHARES A PARABLE ABOUT WHY A DIFFICULT REQUEST WAS ANSWERED (VV. 5-8)
Legacy Standard Bible CHAPTER 11
5 Then He said to them, “Which of you has a friend and will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7 and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot rise up and give you anything.’ 8 “I tell you, even though he will not arise and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence/shamelessness (avoiding shame) he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Jesus asked them to use their imaginations.
vv. 5-6 set the stage. That’s our hypothetical situation Jesus gives.
vv. 7-8 show us the response of the sleeping friend.
He will respond to avoid the shame in an Near East honor-shame culture.
If the sleeper refused to give the host what he needed the host would go to other neighbors and the whole community would find out the sleeper was inhospitable.
The word “anaideia” (an i de a) seems to have been mistranslated early on. There is no evidence of persistence in the parable.
The word actually means “shameless” and in the parable it takes on the idea of avoiding shame.
If the sleeper is willing to arise and meet the need of the host just to avoid embarrassment, how much more will God come to the aid of those who come to Him with their needs.
Jesus Promises Answers to Consistent Prayer Requests (vv. 9-10)
9 “So I say to 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 he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
So, I say to you . . .
Each verb, ask, seek and knock is different, similar but different.
Each is a present imperative which means keep on asking, seeking or knocking.
Unlike our sleeper, our Father invites us to come to Him with our needs with a sense of expecting to be given what we ask for, to find what we are seeking, and to have an opening where none had been.
But, why would Jesus want us to keep on praying for something?
Sometimes the consistent prayer for the same thing over time finds us changing that for which we ask or getting.
It also can lead us to a place where we can accept how God is answering our request.
Paul prayed three times to the Lord asking for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. God didn’t take it away but He answered it in a way that has brought great glory to Him and effective ministry to Paul
9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
The Father’s Highest Good
In v. 9 there was a challenge; in v. 10 there was a promise of a response.
Jesus now assures us that our Father will give us His highest good.
11 “But what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish?
12 “Or, if his son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
The commitment of human dads is to give good things to their children, things that nurture them, help them. They know not to treat their children poorly.
The point is that if human fathers know how to make good choices for their children, how much more our heavenly Father knows what good to share with us.
Here we’re moving from the lesser to the greater in Jesus’ instruction.
In this instance, He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!
Remember Jesus has not ascended back to heaven. we’ve not yet reached Acts 2.
Unlike the disciples at this point, we have the Holy Spirit.
2 This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
5 He saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
The point here is that Jesus was telling the disciples that God loved them enough to give Himself to them through the Holy Spirit. A member of the Godhead living within us.
Think about the impact the Spirit in us can have in our prayer life.
How do we apply what Jesus has taught here?
We know to whom to pray
We know how to address our Father
We know what to pray
for the coming of His kingdom
for our daily needs
for forgiveness of sin as we forgive others who have sinned against us
for protection from temptation
We are assured He hears us and will respond with what will be an answer that reflects His highest and best for us.
