Untitled Sermon (10)

We don’t like waiting. It doesn’t matter if it’s McDonald’s employees or the Lord Almighty. We’d prefer to get our solutions and our McRib’s quickly.

In Acts 1 (also written by Luke) we read that Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem…wait until they had received the Holy Spirit. It’s been 40 days since his resurrection…it seems about time for Jesus to set up His Kingdom. But this sounds strange…uh, okay. We’ll wait in Jerusalem—but uhmmm…where are you going?

Is now the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel? “It’s not for you to know that....but and here is Acts 1:8...”you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Stay in Jerusalem. Wait for the Spirit. When the Spirit comes upon you in power—then you’ll be my witnesses. Then all of a sudden Jesus is taken up to heaven.

So now we have all the disciples waiting in Jerusalem…we see they are gathering together regularly…and a week or more has gone by and still nothing. No “coming of the Spirit”. What do you think those 7 days looked like? We know they picked another guy to replace Judas....but what else was happening? Were they praying?

Were they getting discouraged? We don’t know for sure…but I think our text this morning would have certainly been informative for them…and it’s informative for us. Why do we pray? Why do we keep praying? How do we pray? Luke 11:1-11 gives us some answers to this…and I think it would have shaped the disciples as they awaited the day of Pentecost:

Luke 11:1–11 ESV

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” 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;

Sermon Introduction:

Lord, teach us to pray. Lord, teach me to fish. Lord, teach me to play basketball. Lord, teach me to bake a cake. These are all similar. You don’t learn these things solely by reading about them, hearing about them, etc. you learn these things by doing them.

What we have here in Luke isn’t all there could be said about prayer. But we have the content of prayer—the call to persistent prayer—and the fuel for prayer. But again—the best way to learn “how” to pray is by praying…so we’ve switched up our order of service a bit and we are going to give some time to concentrated prayer at the end of our service. But I think Luke 11 is informative for us and so I want to share what Jesus says here to help guide our prayer.

What is prayer—from Luke 11 I’d give it this definition “a shameless persistence of asking the one who always gives good gifts”.

But before we look at that I want to ask a question. When we go through seasons of prayerlessness why is that? Or when our prayer is rote, emotionless, void of relationship—maybe just praying before a meal…getting stuck saying the same things over and over again not even realizing what you are doing. What causes that?

Just not knowing how. Getting bored.

A subtle self-dependence. Being confident that I can accomplish things apart from the Lord.

A relational fracture and a faulty view of God. Is God really good? Do we have the same definition of good? Do I trust him? Is he even there? Is he listening? Does prayer even matter?

I know our desires conflict. I know that God isn’t going to approve of what I’m asking for and so it’s a type of rebellion.

Theology wrongly applied. God is sovereign. It doesn’t matter. What ever will be will be.

I think most of these concerns are dealt with in this passage so lets walk through it and then let’s apply it.

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Now Jesus was praying…he was praying often. Now that has to tell us something about that wrongly applied theology, right. And also says something to our self-dependence. If Jesus prayed…then we’re not being very good theologians by not following him in that.

Lord teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. Something about Jesus’ praying causes them to want to follow. And so the Lord just gives them a model prayer.

I’ve read whole books on the Lord’s prayer. It’s a great thing to take a deep dive on. You could do a whole sermon series on this. But I want to just somewhat quickly sum it up for us this morning.

Notice a couple of things in common throughout this prayer. First, notice how it is God-ward. It starts with God—it starts with His holiness. It starts with redirecting our hearts to his kingdom. But secondly, notice how much dependence we have here in this passage. We need God for our physical needs, emotional, relational, spiritual, social, psycho-social, psychological, on and on. That’s what we’re meant to catch here. We are dependent creatures and we need God.

The content of this prayer is an acknowledgement of a desperate need for God’s good gifts. We can get caught up in the specifics—and again it’s a wonderful thing to study in depth—but big picture that is what Jesus is doing here. He’s giving the disciples the posture of prayer.

But I want you to notice one more thing about this prayer. It’s communal. Give US…OUR daily bread…forgive US…OUR sins. WE OURSELVES…indebted to US…lead US not into temptation.

There is a leveling and a uniting that takes place here. This is part of why we do what we do every Sunday morning when we have a lengthier time of prayer. We believe what Jesus is teaching here. Yes, you could pray this at home in your prayer closet. Yes, you can get alone with the Lord. But there is something powerful and something commanded in praying together with fellow believers. As we come together—acknowledging our dependence upon God.

We are dependent upon God.

So why in the world would that not drive me to prayer? Do we believe that perhaps we’ll need to find that daily bread from another source? Do we think we’re on our own? We realize our desperation but do we believe that God will meet those needs.

Now Jesus tells us a bit about the heart of God through a parable.

It’s midnight. Everybody is asleep. Probably a one room house. Everybody is sleeping in the same bed. Kids are asleep. Somebody comes over and you don’t have any bread. You’re caught off guard you’re going to be a bad host. So what do you do…?

In this parable you go to your neighbor…at midnight…and wake him up. Now if this is a picture of God what are you expecting. The friend in the parable is a representation of God. So what you expect to read is.... “Sure. I love you. Of course, you can have bread.” But that’s not what we read.

Dude, my kids are in bed. If I open the door it’s going to wake up my family. You’re going to wake up my kids. I can’t give you anything. He doesn’t call him friend or anything. He seems put out.

So does God get sick of our praying? Is that Jesus’ point? Is he trying to show us that God is really busy and if you ask him at the wrong time he is going to slam the door in your face? No, not at all. Jesus is teaching a different point here. He is teaching a point about persistence. The word is impudence. It’s a word that is rarely used…in fact this is the only time in the NT. In secular literature it refers to being shameless. In the context it seems to be talking about persistence.

This is where I get the phrase “a shameless persistance...” This is the guy who has the bread, he’s the only one who can fill this need, I’m going to keep on asking and asking and asking until I get it. Ask, seek, knock.

Do you see what’s happening there? What is knocking on the door going to do? It’s going to wake up his kids. It’s shameless. Jesus is teaching us to be that shameless friend who won’t give up.

We stumble over that verse a bit because we’re thinking of it relationally. We’d give up and say, “ah, this guy isn’t much of a friend. He’s a cold-hearted person. He’s not my friend. I’m going to go away…I’ll have to lose two friends tonight. He’s disappointing me, his disappointing my guest. He’s not the good friend that I thought he was.”

No, that’s not what Jesus is showing us. This parable isn’t to highlight the friend…and I’ll show you that in just a second. This parable is to highlight the shameless persistence of the guy who just keeps knocking and says, “dude, I know you’ve got bread and I’m going to bust down the door until I get it.”

Jesus is saying. Pray that way. Everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

THEN he tells us about the heart of God. If your kid asks you for a fish are you going to give him a serpent? If he asks for an egg are you going to give him a scorpion? Of course not. You love your kid. You aren’t going to take the things that he needs and damage him instead?

Even an evil person knows how to give good gifts to their children. So how much more do you think the heavenly Father will give to those who ask him? God is good and he loves to give good gifts. He will always give good gifts.

Did you notice what I left out in that passage. Your heavenly Father gives the HS to those who ask him. Wait, I thought we were talking about bread and fish and eggs…and my daily needs. What do you mean the Holy Spirit?

Now when you first read this you can think....ah, yes. Okay God just cares about the spiritual stuff. Forget about the bread, forget about those needs and desires you have and just focus on the spiritual stuff. But that’s not what he’s doing here.

There are a couple of things I’d have you notice here. First, this is an argument from greater to lesser. If God doesn’t withhold the best gift…don’t you think he’s going to provide the lesser stuff too? Giving you the Spirit is the greatest gift…if he isn’t willing to withhold that from you…then don’t you think he’s going to provide the other stuff as well?

But secondly, I’d have us notice what this is really saying. Let’s not divorce this gift of the Spirit from who the Spirit is and what the Spirit accomplishes.

Who here wants love?

Do you want joy?

What about peace?

Patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control?

You want those? Guess where those come from? Those are the fruit of the Spirit. When God gives to you the Spirit he’s giving you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

That bread that you’re longing for…that thing that you are asking God for…or maybe what you used to ask God for....it was connected to all those things, likely.

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God gives good gifts. Always.

I could just stop right there. Put a bow on this, get a big “amen.” And then move into a time calling for bold prayer. God gives good gifts. He’s always good. Pray boldly.

All those are true. But I can’t. I can’t go there yet, there are too many Psalms and there is too much human experience that such a neat little bow is only going to further your pain.

You asked God for the fish of good health and you go the serpent of cancer. You ask God for the egg of a good marriage and you received the scorpion of an abusive spouse. You asked for the bread of healing your beloved family member and you received the stone of death and earthly separation. You can’t hear, “God gives good gifts, always” in the same way.

And that, I believe, is sometimes why we stop praying....or rather we stop praying with shameless persistence—asking the One who always gives good gifts. Because we’ve been bit by a serpent, stung by a scorpion, crushed by a rock.

This is why we have psalms of lament. And maybe that’s what needs to happen for you this morning. Take those snake bites and scorpion stings to the Lord. There are answers to all of those questions. But you don’t need them from me. You need them from him. Go to him with your grief this morning. Tell him why you are struggling with praying. Tell him that you feel betrayed. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Or maybe you are at a different spot this morning. Maybe you can pray boldly and shamelessly. Maybe that’s why Jesus told us to pray in community? Perhaps there are some among us who are so broken and hurting and burned and maybe even wrestling with bitterness…that shameless persistence feels like an impossibility. Well—intercede for them. They might be the friend who came to your house at midnight asking for bread. Go to your friend in shameless persistence on their behalf.

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We started in Acts 1 this morning…the disciples, confused, hurting, then excited about Jesus resurrection…are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel. Is this when we get the great gift? Is this when we get to see “your kingdom come” and “your will be done”....then Jesus says to pray for the Spirit. And all of a sudden Jesus is physically gone. And it’s been a week and they’ve been praying…and nothing…but they kept asking, seeking, and knocking.

Acts 2:1–4 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And with this utterance they fulfilled what Jesus called them to do in Acts 1:8. To be witnesses to the ends of the earth…and here we are today some 2000 years later, gospel in hand, because of that work of the Spirit…and all of it is marching towards this one great climax.

Friend, I don’t know where you are on the continuum of shameless persistence. But I know this. God is good. And God loves you. Yes, prayer matters and shameless persistent prayer works. And yes, it’s connected to our growth in the Spirit. But ultimately—it’s connected to the work of Jesus.

Jesus saves even those who are weak in praying. He gives good gifts even when we’re so burdened that we don’t know how to pray for them. Yes, he’s marching us along to that great day when he will wipe away every tear from our eye…that day when every tongue will confess…that day when we will no longer need the sun in the sky because the glory of God will shine so brightly…when all of our pain ceases…when all of this is light and momentary affliction.

But we aren’t there yet. And so that’s why we continue to pray. Give us this day our daily bread.

MOMENT OF ASKING FOR BOLD PRAYER

I’m going to be down front…available to pray. But I’m also going to hand this over to Russell now for our time of prayer.