Sermon Tone Analysis

Parallel Passages

Within these passages we have two areas of variation - this does not change the meaning it merely includes different examples:

does not have a corresponding verse in

Matthew 7

does not offer a corresponding verse in

The core of these verses are identical in concept:

Compare with

Compare with

Does Prayer Change Things?

Do you believe prayer changes anything?

Let me assure you that you must or you have no reason to pray.

Have you ever prayed and God did not answer your prayer?

I have had this occur - was a passage I read while my first wife lay dying in the hospital.

Bethany died later that week.

R.C. Sproul makes these comments:

How can prayer change things?

God, we know, is absolutely sovereign.

He has predestined everything that comes to pass.

Since God is sovereign, why pray?

First of all, God’s sovereignty does not interfere with our prayers of praise and adoration.

God does not need our praise, but it is good for us to praise him.

Moreover, God does not need to hear us confess our sins, but it is needful for us to do it.

In these areas of adoration and confession there is clearly no conflict between prayer and the sovereignty of God.

The question arises in connection with prayers of intercession and petition.

If God predestines all things, why ask him to change things?

This is a question that only arises in a context of abstract philosophy because anyone who knows the Bible knows God commands us to pray for things to change.

Thus, our speculation is somewhat idle because God demands and requests our petitions.

How can prayer change things?

God, we know, is absolutely sovereign.

He has predestined everything that comes to pass.

Since God is sovereign, why pray?

First of all, God’s sovereignty does not interfere with our prayers of praise and adoration.

God does not need our praise, but it is good for us to praise him.

Moreover, God does not need to hear us confess our sins, but it is needful for us to do it.

In these areas of adoration and confession there is clearly no conflict between prayer and the sovereignty of God.

The question arises in connection with prayers of intercession and petition.

If God predestines all things, why ask him to change things?

This is a question that only arises in a context of abstract philosophy because anyone who knows the Bible knows God commands us to pray for things to change.

Thus, our speculation is somewhat idle because God demands and requests our petitions.

Remember, for instance, the time Peter was thrown into prison.

We read that “the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (Acts 12:5).

The next verses tell us an angel of the Lord delivered Peter from prison.

What are some examples of this occurring:

Peter in prison:

The sick and the elders:

Elijah:

God’s promise to strip the land in .

What happened in this passage?

When God came to judge Israel, he gave Amos a vision of locusts stripping the land.

Amos cried, “Sovereign Lord, forgive!

How can Jacob survive?

He is so small!”

Then we are told in that God mercifully relented from the judgment due to Israel.

The God of providence responds to our prayers.

How God’s interaction with us relates to his sovereign decree, I don’t know.

That is a mystery having to do with the being of God himself, and it is not for us to know.

The God of providence responds to our prayers.

The LBCF states

5:1 God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom, upholds, directs, arranges and governs all creatures and things,1 from the greatest to the least,2 by His perfectly wise and holy providence, to the purpose for which they were created.

He governs according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and unchangeable counsel of His own will.

His providence leads to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness and mercy.3

5:2 All things come to pass unchangeably and certainly in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God,4 who is the first cause.

Thus, nothing happens to anyone by chance or outside of God’s providence.5 Yet by the same providence God arranges all things to occur according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or in response to other causes.6

5:3 In His ordinary providence, God makes use of means,7 though He is free to work apart from them,8 beyond them9 and contrary to them10 at His pleasure.

Sproul, R.C.

Before the Face of God: Book 2: A Daily Guide for Living from the Gospel of Luke.

electronic ed.

Grand Rapids: Baker Book House; Ligonier Ministries, 1993.

Print.

The Command Within This Passage

Notice the simplicity of these commands (they are present active imperatives), Ask, seek, knock.

Calvin has these words to say:

It is an exhortation to prayer: and as in this exercise of religion, which ought to be our first concern, we are so careless and sluggish, Christ presses the same thing upon us under three forms of expression.

Calvin notes, “Such is also the design of the promises that are added, Ye shall find, it shall be given to you, and it shall be opened.

Nothing is better adapted to excite us to prayer than a full conviction that we shall be heard.

Those who doubt can only pray in an indifferent manner; and prayer, unaccompanied by faith, is an idle and unmeaning ceremony.

Accordingly, Christ, in order to excite us powerfully to this part of our duty, not only enjoins what we ought to do, but promises that our prayers shall not be fruitless.”

The Promise Within This Passage

Your Father will give you good things!

What is taught here?

That he may give us nothing more than he knows to be advantageous.

Calvin notes, “We must not think that he takes no notice of us, when he does not answer our wishes: for he has a right to distinguish what we actually need.

All our affections being blind, the rule of prayer must be sought from the word of God: for we are not competent judges of so weighty a matter.