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A Friend in the Middle \\ \\
Luke 11:5-8
February 5, 2006
* *
*Opening*
The voice on the telephone sounded desperate.
"My store keeps getting robbed, and there are drug dealers in front of my place day and night.
I'm calling you, pastor, to ask you what you are going to do about it."
No one was more surprised at this abrupt question than Alex, the Pastor of Park S*lope Christian* Center.
Park* slope had* *always* tried to care for the needs of the community but had never received a call like this from a non-believing storekeeper.
Pastor Alex's first question was "Why don't you call the police?" to which the storekeeper answered, "I did call the police, but they don't know what to do about it, so I am calling you."
Then Pastor Alex remembered the /Lighthouses of Prayer /that his church had begun planting in the neighborhood.
"I'll tell you what," he said, "if you will let me come down to your store once a week with a group, we will pray that God will intervene.
Is that okay with you?"
The storeowner agreed, and that Thursday afternoon, shoppers looked curiously about as they heard a strange sound coming from the back of the store.
Pastor Alex and his group prayed in earnest that God protect the store and that the drug dealers would be dealt with.
Within four weeks, four drug dealers were arrested!
Not only that, but two families that
frequented the store were led to Christ, and one began attending Pastor Alex's church.
Did you notice that there were three main participants in this drama—a person in need, persons who interceded, and a Person who met the need?
It's a story that closely parallels the story Jesus told about a friend at midnight; a story I like to call "the friend in the middle" story.
Jesus' story in Luke 11:5-8 is an object lesson, a kind of word picture, of the place and ministry of an intercessor.
*Scripture*
* *Turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 11 and follow along as I read starting at
verse 5: Then, teaching them more about prayer, Jesus used this story:
/"Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, `Friend, lend three loaves of bread, because (a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.
'/
/"Then the one inside answers, 'Don 't bother me.
The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed.
I can 't get up and give you anything.
' But I tell you, this, if you keep knocking long enough he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence”/
/—Luke 11:5-8/
/ /
Persistence in prayer is for our sake not God’s.
It changes our heart and mind, not God’s.
It helps us understand and express intensity of our need.
Persistence in prayer helps us recognize God at work.
When we are persistent we watch for the answer to our prayer, don’t we?
*Topic Sentence*
An intercessor is a friend-in-the-middle who, on behalf of another person, pleads persistently and boldly for help with the One who can provide.
*1.
**The Friend in Need*
• Here are some first-century realities
Travelers relied on the hospitality of friends.
There were no motels or 24~/7 convenience stores in first-century Palestine.
It was not unusual for people to travel at night to avoid the heat of the day, so it may be common to be woken from your bed to look after a need.
Each household baked its own bread which, without preservatives, lasted only a couple of days.
Travelers needed regular stopping points.
In B.C. you can still visit the remnants of wayside inns placed strategically along the gold-rush trail.
Mind you, these inns did charge for their provision of a bed and meal plus board and feed for horses.
· Bur Hospitality—providing lodging and food for a visitor—was considered a sacred duty in Bible times.
They were needy people, but
· We still live in a very needy world, don’t we?
800 million people worldwide live in abject poverty; 100 million have no shelter; 10 million are refugees.
In the United States 6.5 million are enslaved to alcohol; 1 out of 400 persons is in prison; over 100 million do not know Jesus Christ as Savior.
Closer to home, hundreds of people right around us are physically or emotionally ill, experiencing relational difficulties, loneliness, anxiety, fear, or addictions.
· /We /cannot meet most of the needs of the people around us.
- The needs of our world seem overwhelmingly beyond our reach.
Loved ones who do not know the Lord will not listen to us.
What can we do?
- Friends have marital difficulties or get divorced, and we stand by helplessly.
- People in the church are depressed and discouraged, and nothing we say seems to make a difference.
Like the friend in Jesus' story who beat on the door of his neighbor because he wanted to help his friend, we have nothing to set before them.
*2.
The Friend with Bread*
In a small Palestinian village first century neighbors would likely know who had bread in the house and who didn't.
But these house wouldn’t be like ours.
- Homes were typical one-room structures, and the whole family would sleep on
the floor in the same room.
- Doors were open during the day and closed at night.
- Opening a door was a noisy affair that could easily waken a whole family.
In this story Jesus is teaching us that his heavenly Father (see Luke 11:13) is the One who is always able to supply the needs of those around us.
He is the Supreme Friend with bread.
- We can come to God at the most inconvenient times and expect to receive what we ask.
- While we are impotent when it comes to meeting a need, God is omnipotent.
He is the all-sufficient One able to supply any and every need that can possibly arise on earth.
· The /gracious /response of the Friend with bread
God, more gracious and more willing than a reluctant earthly neighbor, is never reluctant or bothered when we ask for help.
He is always willing to hear us and is eager to meet our need (see Luke 11:9-10, 13).
Luke 11 continues in verse 9. Read with me, /“And I tell you, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.
Keep on seeking, and you will find.
Keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who seeks, finds.
And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”/
/ /
God wants to be asked because he wants to give in response to our asking.
The Father's willingness to hear and his ability to provide are foundational
to intercessory prayer
*3.
The Friend in the Middle*
The story of the friend in the middle is Jesus' portrait of an /intercessor—one /who pleads with the Person able to meet the need on behalf of the person who has the need.
This person stands "in-between."
In the first century, people ordinarily went to bed at nightfall in order to save lamp oil.
By midnight this neighbor may have been in bed several hours.
As you know, it is not easy to fully wake up when you are sound asleep.
Marcy and I live 100 feet from the train tracks and are never awakened by the shrill whistle outside our walls.
But hospitality in the first century was such a strong obligation that a person in this predicament would naturally be driven to shameless persistence to meet the need of another.
Let’s look more closely at the intercessor.
First,
· The /position /of the intercessor
Intercessors are "in-betweeners."
They stand between the friend in need and the Friend with bread—God, who is able to meet the need.
It's as if the intercessor has one hand reaching down to a needy world and the other hand reaching up to their gracious God in an attempt to link the two together.
Their bold pleas release the grace to meet the need.
That is the figurative position of an intercessor.
Imagine yourself with one hand on the head of your unsaved relative or friend and the other hand reaching up to heaven.
That is what an intercessor does.
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