WWUTT 2383 Jesus Teaches His Disciples to Pray (Luke 11:1-4)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, and as he taught his disciples to pray, so we learn to pray, how we may address

00:08

God who created the entire universe, for he loves us when we understand the text.

00:25

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

00:34

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

00:40

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we are up to chapter 11 today.

00:45

And this chapter begins with the Lord's Prayer, as Luke records it. So let's go ahead and read here the first four verses.

00:54

Hear the word of the Lord. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him,

01:02

Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, when you pray, say,

01:10

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.

01:26

Now, from here, Jesus tells a parable about asking of the Father. And then after that, we have various encouragements to ask of the

01:35

Father. We'll save those parts for next week. For now, we're just going to focus on the prayer as it is here in these opening verses of Luke 11.

01:44

But before getting to the prayer itself, let me establish a little bit of context. I don't think I put the account of Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary, which we read yesterday.

01:54

I don't think I really put that in context. And that comes right after the parable of the Good Samaritan. So if you'll remember on Monday, the parable of the

02:02

Good Samaritan, I had mentioned that the parable comes right after Jesus had said to his disciples, or rather, the way that Jesus prayed to the

02:12

Father. Okay, so we have Jesus' prayer there. And then he's praying again at the start of chapter 11.

02:19

And this is where the disciples come to him and say, teach us to pray. We've seen you pray.

02:24

We would like to know how to pray the way that John taught his disciples to pray. So between these two, right after Jesus prays and he says in his prayer, again, this was in chapter 10, verse 21, he said,

02:39

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

02:46

And then what we have in the parable of the Samaritan is one of these wise and understanding, a lawyer who tries to test

02:55

Jesus, but he does not understand what the law means when it says to love

03:00

God and love your neighbor. And so Jesus teaches him a lesson there. Now one of the things that Jesus says at the end of that parable, when he tells the lawyer and anyone who is listening that they are to go and love their neighbor, he says at the conclusion, you go and do likewise.

03:20

Now what we have in Martha and Mary's home is Martha busying herself with work and Mary is sitting at the feet of the teacher.

03:30

Now these two would be as children. So you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding talking about like the lawyer, the

03:40

Pharisees, those who were considered to be important know it all. We have, we have the law and the prophets figured out, and yet they don't know who the savior is because the father has not revealed it to them.

03:54

He has revealed it to the disciples, which Jesus refers to as little children. But even Martha and Mary here get included as little children.

04:02

Now Mary recognizes the savior and sits at his feet and desires to learn. But Martha is busying herself with other stuff.

04:11

So then right after that, we have the Lord's prayer where the disciples come to Jesus and say, teach us to pray.

04:19

So they want to come to the master's feet and learn from him. How do we talk to our father who is in heaven?

04:27

And so Jesus teaches them this prayer, and you'll notice that it's shorter than the prayer.

04:34

The Lord's prayer is we have it in Matthew chapter six. Jesus said to them, pray like this.

04:40

Father hallowed be your name. Now you're used to that beginning. Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

04:48

That's all it has in Luke, whereas in Matthew six, it says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

04:55

And then in Luke's account, give us today or give us each day our daily bread.

05:01

In Matthew six, it's give us today our daily bread and then forgive us our sins as we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

05:11

In Matthew chapter six, it's forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then

05:17

Luke and Matthew both share the line, lead us not into temptation. But in Matthew chapter six, it's deliver us from the evil one.

05:26

And then you have that portion that has been added from David's prayer in Chronicles for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

05:35

Amen. That's not in the original manuscript. That was a later addition, but you do have a longer prayer there in Matthew six than in Luke 11.

05:44

Now, in the chronology of the things that are happening here, as Luke is laying them out in his gospel, this is when

05:51

Jesus and his disciples are on their way back to Jerusalem. So they've already completed the mission in Galilee.

05:59

And in Matthew chapter five, it says that the Lord's prayer or rather the sermon on the mount is delivered on a mountain in Galilee.

06:08

So how is it that from that place where Jesus taught his disciples to pray and then to hear, which is probably a year or two later, where now they're on their way back to Jerusalem and this is the journey at the end of which

06:22

Jesus is going to be arrested and crucified. So how is it that in that span of time, they've forgotten how to pray and they're asking

06:30

Jesus to teach them. And now Jesus is teaching them the same prayer that he would have given on the sermon on the mount.

06:37

I've had this question asked of me before. Remember that Luke is not necessarily writing things down chronologically.

06:44

He's putting things in a certain context in a certain order, but it doesn't mean that all of these things happen exactly in that successive order.

06:53

So it's possible that this precedes the sermon on the mount. And so the disciples ask

07:00

Jesus to teach us to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. And so Jesus teaches them this prayer.

07:08

And then in the sermon on the mount, it's the same kind of prayer, though a little expanded.

07:14

And it may have been that even here when he teaches his disciples to pray, it was longer than this, but Luke accounts only this much.

07:22

So Luke has a reason why he sets it where he does. And it fits the context of the narrative that he is laying out.

07:30

Remember, when you go back to Luke chapter one, he's writing to Theophilus and he says that it was necessary for me to write an orderly account of these things to you, oh, excellent

07:40

Theophilus. An orderly account is not necessarily every one of these things that happens is happening in this particular order.

07:48

It's an orderly account, but not necessarily in that order. Make sense? So that could be the explanation of this prayer, why the disciples ask him to teach them to pray when

08:01

Jesus had already delivered this in the sermon on the mount. So once again, we look at the different parts of this prayer, and I'm not going to break this down or spend as much time on this as I did when doing the

08:13

Lord's prayer in Matthew chapter six, where you have the different petitions. You can go to most catechisms and read of the petitions, the

08:20

Westminster catechism, the Baptist catechism, which I use with my kids. The questions toward the end of that catechism are focused on the

08:30

Lord's prayer, the different parts of the Lord's prayer. Martin Luther also taught on this, the different petitions in the

08:35

Lord's prayer. And those petitions are taken from the parts of the Lord's prayer as they appear in Matthew chapter six.

08:42

So we're not going to quite give this the same amount of focus, but still want to understand what it is that Jesus is teaching his disciples here so that, my friends, hopefully it will improve even your prayer life.

08:55

So previously in the account of Martha and Mary, you have

09:00

Mary coming to the feet of Jesus and desiring to listen to him. And Jesus even says, this is the one necessary thing.

09:09

This is the portion, the good portion, which Mary is partaking in.

09:16

She is listening at the feet of the master. What we have next is Jesus teaching his disciples, here's how you pray to the master, specifically even how you pray to the father who is in heaven.

09:30

Now when Jesus gives them this prayer, we call it the Lord's prayer, but it's more accurately called the disciple's prayer.

09:39

I've criticized some of the headlines that we'll tend to give to these different sections of the gospels, and I'll criticize another one when we get to the parable of the prodigal child, because that shouldn't be the name of that either.

09:51

But anyway, with the Lord's prayer, it's really the disciple's prayer. This wasn't necessarily how

09:57

Jesus prayed. It's Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray.

10:02

Here's how you're going to pray. And here's a prayer that you can have together corporately, especially when you consider that in verse three, it says, give us each day, our daily bread, forgive us our sins.

10:14

So you see this being prayed collectively, and it would not be limited to just the disciples that Jesus is teaching.

10:22

It would also be for everyone, all of us as disciples who are learning from the master himself.

10:30

So once again, Father, hallowed be your name, is the first line.

10:36

It is the opening of this prayer. We greet our Father who is in heaven, and we revere his name as holy.

10:43

Not only that, but we desire for his name to be spoken in a holy manner in the earth.

10:51

You may be aware that there is a recent trend on social media to say

10:56

Christ is king. And one of the reasons why Christ is king has become so popular is because there are people who have been using it in an anti -Semitic way.

11:06

There are even Muslims who are saying Christ is king. Why? Well, because they hate

11:12

Jews, and they hate Jews more than they hate Christ. So they're willing to say

11:18

Christ is king, even though a Muslim might be saying it in a sense in which they look at Jesus as a prophet, not as the son of God, because it's very much against their religion to believe that God has a son.

11:30

So they'll say that term, they'll say that expression, because it weeds out the Jews.

11:36

The Jews don't believe that Christ is king. So there are those who are, they're kind of cultural

11:42

Christians, or they have a Christless Christianity, a cultural

11:47

Christianity, and then Muslims who are even on board with saying it. And I'll see some Christians defend it and will say, yeah, even though they don't really know what it is that they're saying, and they're taking the

11:58

Lord's name in vain, yet we should be delighted in it. We should be happy about it because the name of Christ is spreading.

12:05

And I just don't share that sentiment at all. I don't care for it at all. The Lord's name is to be spoken in reverence.

12:13

And we even desire that the Lord's name would be spoken in reverence. Father, hallowed be your name.

12:20

Your name is holy. It is set apart. It is higher than every other name. So we don't want to see the name of Christ blasphemed and used in a catchphrase that's hateful toward another people group.

12:34

We would desire that the name of Christ would be revered, just as we should also speak the

12:41

Father's name in a holy and reverent way. Whenever you speak the name of God, may it be with reverence and respect.

12:50

We are never going to give his name the highest due that it deserves.

12:56

We are puny creatures. We are imperfect. We're not even worthy to utter the name of God.

13:02

We've been called to say the name of God. So it's not like we should shrink back and say, well, I don't really want to say the name of God because it's so sacred to me that coming out of my mouth,

13:11

I just don't do it justice. That shouldn't be our approach. But recognizing humbly that we could never give it its highest due, yet God in his grace instructs us to call upon his name and to revere his name as holy.

13:30

Jesus teaches us to pray and address the Father. And so we must, so we should.

13:36

But when you do speak his name reverently and desire that his name would even be considered holy and reverent in the earth,

13:45

Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. We would desire that God's kingdom would expand in the earth, that there are many who would come to faith in Jesus Christ and so be added to the kingdom of God.

14:00

Now the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. I'm quoting

14:06

Jesus there when I say that Luke chapter 17 verses 20 and 21. This is what we'll get to later on.

14:13

But Jesus said, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, look, here it is or there for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

14:25

As there are people who come to faith in Jesus Christ and add to the number of the citizens of God's kingdom, the kingdom is expanding.

14:34

It is in the midst of us. This is the way we can observe it, but it is a spiritual observance.

14:41

It is not a material kingdom that exists in this world. It's not the church expanding out and conquering everything.

14:48

That's not what's going on because Christ is already conquered and he already reigns over everything.

14:54

He cannot reign over everything more than he already reigns. We desire to see his kingdom advance in the hearts of people.

15:04

And so your kingdom come, oh Lord, verse three, give us each day our daily bread.

15:12

So we pray and ask for our material needs that they would be met, that our father would meet our needs.

15:19

Now I know that there are people who will spiritualize this and say, give us each day our daily bread. It's a spiritual bread.

15:25

So we're asking for our spiritual needs to be met. I don't think it's wrong to necessarily interpret it that way, but don't leave it to that interpretation because it primarily means this is exactly what

15:36

Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray. It primarily means, please provide for those things that I truly need to live today, bread.

15:46

I need food. I need sustenance. And our father who is in heaven will provide us these things.

15:54

He loves us and we'll give them to us. And Jesus will go on to make that point further in verses five to 13, which we'll get to next week.

16:02

But this is the meaning of that petition. Give us each day our daily bread. Now it's quite interesting whether you're reading the

16:12

Lord's prayer in Matthew six or you're reading it here in Luke 11. It's interesting that Jesus teaches his disciples first to say, give us each day our daily bread before they say, forgive us our sins.

16:28

And so we're, we're saying in this prayer, God, I trust you to provide for me today.

16:37

I know that you will give me sustenance. I know that you will provide for my every need, and I trust you to provide for my need.

16:47

And then when we ask forgiveness for our sins, at that point, you may say,

16:53

Lord, forgive me for not trusting in you enough. I haven't trusted in you to care for me and provide for my needs.

17:02

So forgive me for those times that I have not come to you and asked you to provide for me.

17:08

I've, I've failed to come to you in prayer. We get to the request for the forgiveness of our sins next.

17:16

Verse four, forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

17:25

Now, the word sins, the word indebted, or the word debts, rather, are synonymous with one another.

17:31

It's, it's, you've done something wrong against somebody and you owe them because you have wronged them.

17:37

No one will ever owe you as much as you owe God because of your sin against him.

17:45

So we first ask for God to cleanse us, forgive us our sins. But this, this works synonymously or, or like in sync with our forgiving other people.

17:58

We ask for God's forgiveness because we have hearts that are willing to forgive other people.

18:04

We ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

18:09

We forgive everyone who is indebted to us. There's no qualifications that are given here.

18:15

We have a heart that is not embittered. It doesn't hold grudges.

18:20

It doesn't keep a record of wrongs because we know that we have been forgiven. And if we have been forgiven, then from our hearts, we are willing to forgive anybody who has done any wrong against us, no matter what that may be.

18:35

Because again, no matter what wrong someone does against you, it's still not as great as the wrongs that we have committed against God.

18:42

The high cosmic treason we have committed against the king of the universe.

18:48

But he is forgiving toward us. So we must be forgiving toward each other.

18:54

And then Jesus says, lead us not into temptation.

19:01

As J .I. Packer has said of this particular phrase, this likely carries the sense, allow us to be spared from difficult circumstances that would tempt us to sin.

19:13

We know from James 1 .13 that God does not tempt believers, but he may lead us in a place to where we would be tested, not tempted, but tested.

19:25

And in that testing, we may face temptation. But as Paul said in 1

19:31

Corinthians, that God will never allow us to be tested beyond our ability to resist.

19:38

He won't allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist. He will always provide the way of escape.

19:45

So no matter what we face, no matter what temptations may come our way, there's always a way out.

19:51

There's never a reason why we have to give in to that sin. Well, I had no other choice. You always do.

19:58

God always provides the way of escape that we may draw near to God, resisting the devil, and he will flee from us.

20:08

And so as Jesus taught to his disciples, may we request this also from God, lead us not into temptation, forgive us our sins, and lead us not into a place where I may be tempted to sin again.

20:24

But we would desire, as also implied by this, we would desire to live holy lives before God, doing those things that are pleasing unto the

20:33

Lord, growing in sanctification and in the Spirit of God that has been given to us.

20:40

Now from here, like I said, Jesus gives a parable to the disciples on asking of the

20:49

Father, and then after that, encourages us to ask of the Father. And that's what we'll come back to next week.

20:54

Something else that I want to do, I want to look at all of the prayers of Jesus that we have in Luke's gospel, and the different ways that Jesus has taught on prayer, even in this gospel.

21:06

This is not the only place that Jesus has taught his disciples how to pray.

21:13

But we hear from God whenever we read his word, and he hears from us whenever we pray.

21:20

Just as I said yesterday regarding the account of Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary, we must make that time to be at the feet of the

21:30

Master and hear from him. But we must also make that time away from any other distraction that the

21:37

Father may hear from us, that we spend time with him in meditation and prayer.

21:43

Doesn't mean it has to be a sweet hour of prayer, as we sing about in the hymns. There are wonderful sweet hours of prayer, but that doesn't have to be every time you pray.

21:52

But portion out time that you spend with God, hearing from him according to the word, and then speaking to him in prayer.

22:02

Let us close here for a moment of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your patience toward us, and we thank you for loving us and teaching us how we may communicate with you.

22:12

How can we mortal men communicate with the Creator of all things? And yet you condescended yourself to teach us these things.

22:21

Jesus, the Son of God, even putting on flesh and dwelling among us, and through his human form as the

22:28

God -man, teaching his disciples how to pray, that we also may learn how to pray, calling upon you as Father.

22:37

Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread.

22:43

And forgive us our sin, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

22:49

And lead us not into temptation. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

22:56

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

23:03

New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.