The Gospel of Luke (45) Encouragement and Instruction in Prayer (1) 11/19/2023

And Dale is gonna come up in the place of Pastor Jason and read for us 1 John chapter four. And then if you'll pray for us, please.

1 John chapter four, I'll be reading from the ESV. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them.

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God.

And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So that we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love. And whoever abides in that love abides in God.

And God abides in him. By this is love perfected in us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

For fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God who he has not seen.

In this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word. And Lord, we just pray that as we sit under the teaching of this word, Lord, you would bless us and help us.

Grant us understanding in a spirit, Lord, to obey your word, to walk with you more closely and to give glory to you. Father, bless Pastor Lars as he brings the word. May you anoint him and help him and help all of us, Lord.

Give us understanding and may your illumination come upon us, Lord, that we would truly hear what you're saying to us this day. Father, bless us and help us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Luke’s Travel Narrative and the Setting for Prayer

Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 11. Beginning a new chapter in our working through this gospel. We're not halfway yet, and this is what, the 45th Lord's Day that we've been in Luke's gospel.

And today we'll begin to address encouragement and instruction in prayer. Now, we want to remind one another that before us, this passage is set in the context of the final journey of Jesus and his disciples traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Jesus, of course, knew and had foretold to his disciples this was a journey to his death when he arrived at Jerusalem. There he'd be rejected, suffer and die, but be raised the third day. And so this journey comprises a major portion of Luke's gospel, as we have emphasized.

It began with Luke 9 .51. He set his face to go to Jerusalem. And it concludes in Luke 19 .27, with the Palm Sunday, his formal entrance as a son of David into the city. Much of Luke's record of Jesus's teaching is found in this travel section of Luke's gospel.

It may be recognized, however, that a shift of emphasis in the account occurs when Jesus departed from Galilee. Luke no longer emphasized our Lord's interaction with the multitudes, but rather in this journey, Luke recorded the intimate relationship between Jesus and his disciples, and the personal instruction that he gave to his disciples.

And even the encounters with non-disciples recorded in this section seem to have been recorded by Luke in such a way as to provide instruction and encouragement for his disciples. And so the point is this, that as Luke's gospel unfolds, we may learn of more intimate and encouraging things with respect to our relationship with our God as disciples of Jesus Christ.

As the days of Jesus's life on earth drew to a close, he and his disciples drew closer together, and he drew his disciples closer to his Father. And if we follow his steps, their steps, we too, Lord willing, will be able to relive and experience for ourselves their deepening encounter and experience with him.

That's our hope. Now, we'll read the extended passage that addresses the matter of prayer, but we will be able to address a portion of this passage only today. Actually, we had addressed this passage not all that long ago.

I keep a record of every Sunday's message, and we addressed Luke 11, one through 13 about five years ago when the series, the ABCs of the faith, A Life of Prayer. And so we're gonna be repeating some of the same assertions that I made then, for they're just as true and relevant today as they were five years ago.

And so here is Luke 11, one through 13, and I'm reading from the New King James Version. Now, it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.

So he said to them, when you pray, say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.

And he said to them, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to set before him.

And he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me, the door is now shut, my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

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 for everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 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 Textual Difference Between Luke and Matthew’s Lord’s Prayer

Now we need to say a few words about our New King James Version in comparison with the English Standard Version. If you were following along in our reading using the ESV, you would have noted that there are several words and phrases in our Lord's Prayer that are in the New King James Version that are not in the ESV.

This is how the ESV reads, it's a much shorter version. Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, forgive us our sins. For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation.

And then again, for ease of understanding the distinction, we have the New King James Version again, but the additions I put in italic font. Our Father in heaven, in heaven are words added. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

And then this is added, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread, forgive us our sins. And we also, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

And so the New King James Version is longer. So how is this shorter version to be understood and explained? Well, it's quite certain that a scribe when copying Luke's Gospel sometime in the past had intentionally conformed our Lord's Prayer in the Luke and text to the word of the longer form of our Lord's Prayer recorded in Matthew's Gospel, which is in the Sermon on the Mount.

His changes to the text were then copied in later texts that were used in the early English translations of this passage, including the King James Version and then of course, the New King James Version.

We should understand that our Lord taught the shorter form on this occasion to his disciples, but it taught the longer form before the crowds in Galilee on the Sermon on the Mount. This effort to conform the words of one gospel to another gospel was unfortunately not an uncommon practice by some scribes.

Now our consideration of this passage, we will follow the New King James Version as read for even though these additional words were not spoken on this occasion, they were most certainly expressed by our Lord on earlier occasion and they're indeed the word of God.

In other words, some scribes felt the need to conform one gospel to the other and so they would add words, add a count sometimes while they're copying a gospel because they were familiar with the other gospel and they wanted to read the same.

We of course understand that these were different contexts. The Sermon on the Mount was given to the crowds in Galilee on the side of the mountain. This form was with his disciples as they were traveling to Jerusalem.

We shouldn't assume the Lord just taught these things on one occasion but he taught them, well at least there he taught this prayer on two separate occasions but in one, he gave a more fuller account than what is before us.

The Privilege and Duty of Christians to Pray

Well let's work through this. First let's consider the privilege and duty of Christians to pray. Prayer of course is both a wonderful privilege and an important responsibility for the believer in Jesus Christ.

God has invited us to come before him frequently and confidently with our concerns and requests knowing that he hears us when we pray and so we're to be diligent, we're to be faithful in prayer as the Holy Scripture constantly affirms to us.

Our Lord once said to his disciples, men ought always to pray and not lose heart and we'll eventually get to that in Luke 18 one. In order for us to follow Jesus Christ rightly as his disciples, we must be given to prayer.

If we are not praying frequently and faithfully, we cannot be following Jesus rightly. We are forfeiting the intimacy that we could be enjoying with him and we would certainly forfeit the good gifts that he gives to those who ask him.

Consider these verses to exhort and instruct us in prayer. Romans 12, 12, we're always to be rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Ephesians 6, 18, Paul wrote that Christians should be praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

That's pretty extensive. The apostle commanded the Church of Colossae continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. The Church of Philippi, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

James urged the brethren, confess your trespasses to one another, pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much and Peter wrote to disciples, but the end of all things is at hand.

Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. The mandate is clear and repeated frequently. We are to be a praying people. We are to be serious, deliberate, specific in our prayers. We are to be expectant, confident and grateful that our Lord hears us and that he will answer us when we lay our petitions before him.

This matter of praying of Christians should be so much a part of our experience. Jonathan Edwards once believed that if you're not praying, you're not a Christian. In fact, he said if prayer was not found in your life, then it revealed that you're a hypocrite, not a true Christian for true Christians pray.

In fact, he wrote a sermon and I tell you what, it's a convicting sermon. Hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer. Edwards wrote, how difficult it is to get a professing Christian to accept and acknowledge his lost condition, even though he may be quick to dismiss the claim of another whose life does not bear evidence of true Christianity.

Oh, he or she must not be a Christian, but I don't doubt myself. And Edwards is saying that once a person gets into this frame of mind, they're convinced they're a Christian, it's hard to convince them otherwise.

But this deficiency of prayer is a pretty good indicator and that's what his sermon declares. And so he wrote, I would exhort those who have entertained in the hope of their being true converts, and yet since their supposed conversion have left off the duty of secret prayer and do ordinarily allow themselves in the omission of it to throw away their hope.

Edwards, don't be assured of your salvation if you're not a praying person. Now I'm not talking about specific quiet time each and every day. I'm sure a number of us are not as faithful as we should be in that, but a Christian is a praying person.

Non-Christians go around talking to themselves. Christians go around talking to the Lord as just our nature. We're praying people. Edwards went on, if you have left off calling upon God, it's time for you to leave off hoping and flattering yourselves with an imagination that you're the children of God.

Probably it will be a very difficult thing for you to do this. It's hard for a man to let go and hope of heaven on which he has once allowed himself to lay hold and which he has retained for a considerable time.

True conversion is a rare thing. But that men are brought off from a false hope of conversion after they've once settled and established in it and have continued in it for some time is much more rare.

Those things in men, which if they were known to others would be sufficient to convince others they're hypocrites, will not convince themselves. And those things which would be sufficient to convince them concerning others and cause them to cast others entirely out of their charity will not be sufficient to convince them concerning themselves.

They can make larger allowances for themselves than they can for others. We're pretty quick and easy to find fault with others, but we tend to pass over it and excuse it in ourselves. They can find out ways to solve objections against their own hope when they can find none in the like case of their neighbor.

But if your case be such as is spoken of in the doctrine, in other words, hypocrites are deficient in the duty of prayer, it is surely time for you to seek a better hope, another work of God's spirit than ever you have yet experienced something more thorough and effectual.

When you see and find by experience that the seed which was sown in your hearts, though at first it sprang up and seemed flourishing, yet is withering away as by the heat of the sun or is choked as with thorns, this shows in what sort of ground the seed was sown.

Speaking about the parable of the sower, that it is either stony or thorny ground and that therefore it's necessary you should pass to another change whereby your heart may become good ground which shall bring forth fruit with patience.

If you're not a praying person, you never pray to God, you're not a Christian is what Edwards is asserting and I think he's right. Yet oftentimes true Christians fail to pray faithfully and consistently or else they leave off importunate prayer and what that means is persistent prayer until you get the answer.

We quit before we receive the blessing. We may do so because we're less than confident that God hears us or we doubt that he's willing to grant us our requests. The fact is it's a common spiritual problem of the Lord's people to doubt that God hears them and that he will answer their prayer and in this travel narrative, Jesus spends a lot of time assuring people that God is merciful and delights and is willing to hear and answer prayer of his people.

But this doubting God that he will not answer our prayers occurs for at least four reasons. There may be others, I thought of these four. First, some doubt that God hears their prayers and therefore leave off praying because of their personal failure before God and so you might think to yourself, my life falls so short of doing as well, how can I ask and expect anything from him?

And there's a certain element of truth to this conclusion for the scriptures do declare that through our own refusal or failure to meet the conditions that God has established, God may justly refuse to answer our prayers.

The psalmist in rejoicing that God did indeed answer his prayers stated one reason God might have refused to grant his requests. Psalm 66, come and hear all you who fear God and I will declare what he has done for my soul.

I cried to him with my mouth and he was extolled to my tongue, why? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. However, but certainly God has heard me. He is attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God who's not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me and so to regard iniquity in your heart would be to treasure a sin, refusing to acknowledge it as sin and refusing to turn from it.

God may justly choose not to answer the prayers of those who persist in sin and rebellion to him. God declared to Israel he would not hear their prayers due to their unrelenting and unrepentant sin. Isaiah denounced his people Israel in Isaiah chapter one.

He indicated God was not gonna answer their prayers. These were the people of Israel, Jews, and they were in the temple and God would not answer them. Alas, sinful nation of people laden with iniquity, a brood of evil doers, children who are corruptors.

You've forsaken the Lord. They provoke to anger the Holy One of Israel. They've turned away backward. When you spread out your hands, this is the posture of prayer. I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doing before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good. And in another place, Isaiah spoke a word to Israel telling them that God would not hear them due to their sin.

Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Your sins have hid his face from you. He will not hear. And so people who persist in their rebellion to God have no basis of assurance that God will hear and respond to them until they humble themselves and purpose to repent of their sin.

A second reason that we may doubt that God hears us is when we pray for things or for persons that God had determined he will not bless. He wants to bless you but he doesn't intend to bless the people you're praying for.

Jeremiah was faced with this reality. God would not hear his prayer to pardon, restore his people, the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. It was not because of Jeremiah's failure that God would not grant his request.

It was because God determined he would not bless Israel due to their sin. And so we read in Jeremiah's prophecy that he would refuse Jeremiah's prayer. Do not pray for this people. He doesn't say do not pray for my people.

They're no longer my people, they're this people. They had broken their covenant. Nor lift up a cry or prayer for them nor make intercession to me for I will not hear you. And later God said to Jeremiah, so do not pray for this people or lift up a cry for them for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to me because of their trouble.

And yet again God said, thus said the Lord to this people again, thus they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them. He will remember their iniquity now, punish their sins.

And then the Lord said to me, do not pray for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. When they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence.

One of my spiritual pet peeves is to hear so frequently the word in the Psalms, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Lord will bless you, you know, if you pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And so there are people all over the world praying for the peace of the city of Jerusalem.

Now I think we ought to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Okay, but why do you take that verse and ignore the verses in Jeremiah when they are under the wrath of God? Don't pray for this people, I'm not gonna hear you.

They're under the wrath of God because they're outside of Jesus Christ. Yes, we should pray for their conversion to embrace Christ. But right now they're without God. They're without the Lord and the world.

They need Jesus, their Messiah, their King. And we should pray to that end. A third reason that we may doubt that God hears us is when we fail to pray in faith. James wrote of God's refusal to answer prayer that comes forth from one who doubts God's ability to grant his request.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach. You need discernment, you need to know how to live, how to think. It will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting.

For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that man suppose he'll receive anything from the Lord, for he's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. We have to pray in faith.

Now, we don't want to follow into the error of the word of faith people, of course. And so we need to make a distinction between having faith in God's ability and having faith in God's will that he will grant a specific request.

We are never to doubt God's ability, never. The double-minded man that James writes about is one who errs in this matter. He doubts God's ability to answer his prayer. We are never to doubt God's ability to answer our prayers.

If we do doubt, let us not think that we'll receive anything from his hand. But though we may have no doubt of God's ability, we may have legitimate doubts of God's willingness to grant our requests. This is implicit in our prayer requests.

This is why we always append our prayers with the expression, if the Lord wills. We ask in confidence of God's ability to grant our request, but we ask humbly, submitting ourselves to his wisdom and purposes, because we don't always know if it's his will to grant the petition that we lay before him.

We can cite the example of the leper who came to Jesus. Behold, a leper came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. He had absolute faith in Jesus's ability. He wasn't too sure.

He suspected Jesus was willing. He'd done it to others. And Jesus put out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing, be cleansed. And immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. And so this leper did not doubt our Lord's ability to heal him.

However, he did question as to whether or not the Lord was willing to do so. We frequently offer prayers in the same manner as this leper, asking God to hear us and grant our requests, yet at the same time, not knowing if it's God's purposes that he do so.

This is not a lack of faith. It is recognition of God's prerogative to govern his world as he chooses. But there's a fourth reason some may doubt the willingness of God to hear and answer their prayers.

They do not doubt because of a possible failure of their own. They do not doubt because they suspect that God had determined that he will not hear a prayer respecting a rebellious person or people, nor do they doubt his ability, but they doubt the goodness of God and his general approachableness and willingness to hear them and answer them when they pray.

And as I alluded to earlier, we're gonna see in this tribal narrative, the Lord Jesus, in many different ways, the prodigal son, the lost coin, he's showing that the father desires and delights to receive and answer the prayers of his people.

God is not a hard taskmaster, unwilling to hear us. And so some of the parables we're gonna see is a parable of contrast. He's not like the unjust judge who might grant a request because of the persistence of the woman calling out to him.

God's not like that, but rather he readily comes and answers prayer when it's in his purposes. And so it was this fourth case of cause of doubting that our Lord addressed his disciples after he said before them a pattern of prayer.

Jesus sought to encourage, convince, and assure his disciples that their father would hear them and readily and speedily grant their request. Well, let's now work through this. Our Lord instructed his disciples.

And again, we read as in the New King James Version, the longer version, but he did teach this in the Sermon on the Mount. Came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he sees that one of his disciples, that him Lord, teaches to pray as John also taught his disciples.

We see this entreaty to Jesus to teach him how to pray. They stopped in a certain place and Jesus was praying. And I didn't put it in here, but Luke emphasizes Jesus prayed throughout his whole gospel.

There's an emphasis on Jesus praying. And apparently moved by hearing Jesus pray, one of the disciples gave a good request. Lord, teach us to pray. This reveals he knew the importance of prayer, but it also reveals he knew of his ignorance regarding prayer, at least in comparison to what the disciples of John the Baptist had known and practiced.

May we be as this disciple and fully realize the important role that prayer plays in our life, but further, may we be like the disciples of John the Baptist, once thoroughly instructed how to pray. Matthew Henry wrote, now the request, Lord, teach us to pray, give us a rule or model by which to go and go in praying and put words in our mouths.

Note, it becomes the disciples of Christ to apply themselves to him for instruction and prayer. Lord, teach us to pray. Is itself a good prayer and a very needful one. For it is a hard thing to pray well and it is Jesus Christ only that can teach us, by his word of spirit, how to pray.

Lord, teach me what it is to pray. Lord, excite and quicken me to the duty. Lord, direct me what to pray for. Lord, give me praying graces that I may serve God acceptably in prayer. Lord, teach me to pray in proper words.

Give me a mouth and wisdom in prayer that I may speak as I ought. Teach me what I shall say. That should be our desire. Let's consider briefly the importance as well as the instruction. Importance of prayer.

Why is prayer important? Several reasons. First, let's acknowledge that good things do not happen unless prayer is offered. God has ordained that he will work through the prayers of his people. He appoints the end but he appoints the means to the end and the means is praying.

He need not do so. He could, you know, work and grant us wonderful things regardless of prayer but he chooses to use prayer. Nothing will happen for good in your life or the life of your loved ones unless you pray or other persons pray for you or the Lord Jesus prays for you as a high priest or the Holy Spirit himself prays for you.

Intercedes on your behalf with groanings that cannot be uttered according to Romans 8 .30. But you can mark it down, you'll not receive from your father unless you or someone ask of him. James wrote, you do not have because you ask not.

Many live spiritually impoverished although they have great riches in store for them if they would but draw upon them. If only they would make request of the Lord who's willing to give his mounties freely and abundantly.

And second, we know that good things do not happen unless proper prayer is offered. Not just your prayers offered but proper prayer and by proper prayer, we mean two things. Prayer is answered by God when one pray and has proper motives.

God will not grant our requests if our attitudes and motives are not right. Again, James wrote, you do not have because you ask not and when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives.

Wrong motives will fail to receive responses from God. If God were to give good things to those who ask with wrong motives, he'd reinforce their errant desires and attitudes, wouldn't he? Proper motives are essential if we would receive good things from God.

In contrast to some parents who give good things to their little children even while they're exhibiting spirit of stubbornness, defiance, rebellion, God never trains his children in this manner. Your heavenly father loves you and will not reinforce you in your folly.

He would not train up a stubborn and strong-willed child by giving him good things at the wrong times. And then second, prayer is answered by God when proper things are requested. Prayer is offered, proper prayer is offered, proper things are requested.

It's also suggested in James, you do not have because you ask not, when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

They're selfish.

Thankfully, God does not give us everything we ask of him. He obliges himself to give us only good things. That is things which are for our temporal and eternal good. But it should be noted, he will only give us temporal good things if they will somehow bring spiritual good to us.

Otherwise, God is kind to us by withholding from us that which we want, but which may cause us harm. And so God obligates himself to give his children only that which is according to his will, those things for our ultimate good and his glory.

And then third, good things do not happen unless persistent prayer is offered, importunate prayer. Some people do not have their prayers answered for they stopped praying before God would have granted their request of him.

And this too is important, but we'll not address it now because that's really the subject of verses five through eight in Luke 11, importunate prayer. And so we see from verse one, therefore, at least one of the disciples knew the importance of prayer.