Lend Me Your Life — Alan Redpath

The Parable of the Friend at Midnight

To you a very familiar parable. Luke chapter 11. First sight you may not think it has anything to do with this meeting, it's everything to do with this meeting. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, that is Jesus of course, when he ceased one of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

And he said to them, when you pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And he said to them, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.

And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

And I say unto him, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

If a son shall ask bread, if any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Prayer together. Thank you, Lord, for all that you've said to us already this morning, coming to us with such conviction and such assurance and authority.

Write it all upon us. Thank you for your word that we've just read. Lord, illuminate it to our mind, to our will, and may we leave this service this morning as those who love you, and therefore keep your commandment.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. I've had my troubles with this commandment, with this parable. Not so much with the parable, but with the commentaries upon it. Most of them, anyway, because most of them suggest that this parable is intended to teach us to be importunate in prayer, or persistent in prayer.

Now, I've no problem about that, because the whole New Testament tells us to be instant in our praying, always with all prayer and supplication. But you see, if this parable is to teach us that, then the man who knocks on this door is a picture of myself and yourself knocking on the door of heaven long enough, hard enough, until we wake up God.

But to make that interpretation a fit, of course, you have to say that just as a man in bed is unwilling to respond, and churlish, doesn't want to be disturbed, couldn't possibly be God, so God is willing to hear our prayer.

Obviously this man can't possibly be God. He only gets up to stop being troubled, and to keep his friend quiet, and shut him up. But then that undermines the whole principle of interpretation. It can't be a fair interpretation of Scripture to suggest that this parable is to teach me to be importunate in prayer, and then to take one verse and says it means exactly the opposite, in order to prove my point.

Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it's reying hold of God's willingness. That's what prayer is all about. And in that light, and in the light of all New Testament understanding, interpretation, I just have to reject the popular one.

Can't be a fair interpretation of Scripture. The only fair interpretation of Scripture, rather, is to take a text in its context, and in the light of the whole New Testament revelation. And therefore I must ask you lovingly to look at this parable in new light.

You probably may not agree with me, but I don't mind too much. I'm just telling you what the Lord has laid on my heart like a shaft from heaven. And if you don't agree, well I'm so sorry, but it will give you at least the wonderful opportunity to practice that all too rare but precious Christian grace of disagreeing agreeably and not breaking fellowship.

I hope you'll try and love me just the same. Who is this suppliant at midnight? Before I answer this question, just look for a moment at the context in which this parable is told. Jesus has been in prayer, verse 1, and the disciples have said, Lord, they've heard him pray, they said, Lord, teach us to pray.

Jesus’ Prayer and the Mission of the Church

So he does. First of all, he gives them the pattern prayer. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, his name, his glory, his will come first of all. But these priorities are broken down because of sin, and so the prayer follows with a great cry for forgiveness, for deliverance from evil, from temptation.

Because of our complete failure, there are two therefore tremendous streams of prayer in the universe. The prayer of our Lord himself, which goes on continually as he prays for his church today. And if we want to know what he prays for us, you just have to read John 17, the Lord's Prayer, and there you'll find out.

Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I've given eternal life to as many as have believed you. Father, keep them through your name. I'm leaving the world, but I'm leaving them in it, and I'm sending them into the world as thou didst send me.

I've given them your word, and I'm giving them your glory. You in me, and I in them, that the world may know that thou hast sent me. So I'm sending them into the world with your word and with your glory.

Father, keep them. The prayer of our Lord. The church, with his word and with his glory, the glory of his spirit in our hearts, sent into the world as Jesus was sent. That prayer, it doesn't seem often to get heard.

It isn't answered. That the world may know that you've sent me. That we all may be one. And there's another prayer in the universe. It's my little prayer, my people little cry to God. My people concerned for my own life, that he might use it and take it.

And that's the prayer that moves the hand that moves the world. And there are two prayers, two parables here. Yes, it's contrast, and it's all here. Verse 5 to 8, God pleading with you and me. Verse 9 to 13, our prayer to him.

Christ Knocking on a Sleeping Church

Who is this substant who comes at midnight and says he knocks on the door, friend, lend me three loaves? Isn't this Jesus himself? How often he would take a parable from his own experience. There's nothing so forceful in preaching as that.

Think of that Nazareth home. What poverty there was there. Don't you think that Joseph or Mary or even Jesus himself had gone to a neighbor often and knocked on the door and asked for help and for a loan of food and possibly received just the same answer?

Who is it in the New Testament is the one who comes at midnight? Didn't Jesus say in Mark chapter 13 and verse 35 for example to his disciples? Watch and pray. You don't know when I may come. Maybe, maybe it will be in the morning.

Maybe at evening time. Maybe at midnight. Maybe at the crock coin. Watch and pray. Isn't it Jesus who told the parable of the virgin? Five were wise, five were foolish, but they all slept. And at midnight the bridegroom came and they went out to meet him.

Why at midnight if the bridegroom comes it's the moment of his return. Friend, lend me three loaves. There's Jesus. Oh, but who's this man in bed? This well fed, well contented man who won't bother to get up.

Too cold and snug and uncomfortable. Don't disturb me. Have you seen my label on my door? Please do not disturb. And eventually to silence the noise and send his friend away he gives him not three, not four, not six, but as many as he wants.

Take as many as you can. Only for goodness sake leave me alone. Doesn't need much imagination to recognize that the whole neighborhood has been waking up. And everybody shouting, shut up. Don't make so much noise.

And this man in bed absolutely fed up. Can't get any peace or sleep. Has to get up and give him loaves to go away and keep quiet. Who's that man in bed? God? Of course not. He never slumbers nor sleeps.

At what door is Jesus knocking? The door of an unbelieving heart? Maybe. Maybe, and it may be there's such a heart here, been kissing all week and you still not believe or trust it. My dear friend, let me say to you with all my love in my heart for you.

He doesn't always knock on that door. My spirit will not always thrive with man. Now comes the moment when his voice is silent. What is it at the unpenitent door? No. Friend. It's a friend inside. Let me be alone.

It's a friend is knocking. And there's a friend in bed, inside, asleep. It was the virgins who slept. Remember, won't you? That it was a church door at Laodicea, where Jesus knocked. The generally accepted interpretation of the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3 are that they are prophetic history of a church between the first and second advent of the Lord, and Laodicea was the last one.

Christ knocking on the door of his church, rich, contented, increased with good, has need of nothing. You're wretched, poor, miserable, blind, naked. Knock! Wake up! Have you read recently the story of Bartimaeus in Mark chapter 10?

Bartimaeus and the Church’s Neglect of the Needy

Have you noticed its context? Lord Jesus, very near now to the hour for which he'd come. Faith set toward Jerusalem. Important discussions with the scribes, followed by a final word to the disciples. Suddenly, everything is stopped.

Hold it! Jesus! Jesus, son of David, have mercy upon me! Conversations, discussions with disciples stop. Everything is held up. The program of redemption is held up, while the Lord Jesus pays attention to one poor, blind beggar.

My dear friend, I don't want to get hot about it, but I tell you my heart bleeds. How we've loaded our churches with committees, organized out the Holy Spirit, programmed to death, and Bartimaeus hasn't got a chance, hasn't got a look-in.

Outside, because we've forgotten what Christianity is all about. One by one, contact with people to lead them to Jesus. Friend, lend me three loaves. Wake up! The church is asleep! Wake up! Friend, lend me three loaves.

The Cry of the Lost and the Sufficiency of Christ’s Sacrifice

Oh, but hold it! What's the fuss about? What's the fuss about? Why, there's somebody else in the story. There's another friend, lost in his journey. A friend of mine, in his journey, out of his way, is lost.

Lend me three loaves. Who's this man? Surely this man, who's lost, can be none other than a man without Christ. Never heard of him, doesn't know him. And you'll find all over the way, all over the world today, millions of them, a friend of mine, his cry has come to me.

And from all over the world, not least from our own country, there comes a cry to heaven. Oh, it's inarticulate. Possibly they just don't know what the crying about and what the desperate need is. There's a great cry that goes up to heaven.

God hears it. The Lord Jesus understands it. He knows. And it goes up from every country of the world. Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine in his journey is lost, and I have nothing to put before him.

That can't be God, can't it? God can do anything. Can he? Yes, of course he can. But he has so decreed to limit his sovereignty to do it through human instruments. Do you believe that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is adequate for the salvation of everybody?

From creation until now? That it's sufficient one sacrifice of his blood at Calvary, enough to save the world for all time? How will you answer that question? I would say yes. Yes, John 3 .16 is an example of that.

Of course. Adequate. Adequate for the salvation of all people. Then, do you believe that everybody will be saved? Because Jesus died on the cross, somehow everybody will get to heaven? I'd like to believe that, but I don't.

If I did believe it, I'd have to scrap the book of Revelation and the gospel of Matthew and whole chunks from my Bible. I'd have to tear that out. Effective for the salvation... Adequate for the salvation of everybody, but effective only in the lives of those who repent and believe?

Then, do I believe that anybody can get to heaven without hearing the gospel, without a preacher? I find myself in Romans 10. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they save?

How shall they hear? How shall they believe without having heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they're sent? My dear friend, I don't know. I trust that this grips your heart as it grips mine.

“Lend Me Your Life” for the Unreached

Here's the picture in my mind as I think of this parable. Here's God, the risen Lord, the risen Saviour, on the very verge of His return at midnight, almost about to break through and come back again.

And He calls, and He knocks at the door of His church that's sound asleep, comfortable, cushy, cosy. Friend, lend me three loaves. I have another friend. You don't see him. You don't see him. You don't hear him, but I do.

His cries come up to me like the cry of my people long ago in Egypt. And I've seen their affliction, and I've heard their cry, and I know their misery, and their emptiness, and their sadness, and their longings.

They don't understand it, but I do. And I've nothing. Nobody's put before them. No messenger, no nurse, no teacher, no doctor, nobody. Friend, friend, lend me your life. Did you see that program on Scottish television some time ago?

I can't forget it. God today, dug me. The program dealing with drug addiction. The man was interviewing teenagers who were high on drugs. And he had a girl in front of him, and he said to her, who's your mother?

Don't know, she said. She left me when I was two. Oh, how old are you? Seventeen. Who's your father? Don't know. There's lots of men around. You've just been dragged up? Yeah. Just dragged up. Are you on drugs?

Yeah. Are you high on them? Yeah. What are you taking? Heroin. Heroin? Aren't you afraid it'll kill you? And she turned round and looked straight at me in the face, in that television set. Looked at the face of two million others, probably.

And she said, I hope to God it will, and that quickly. Dear, and it's cosy, lovely, beautiful, lakes and convention. We're away from all that. But that's the society in which we live. Crazy, mad, helpless, inarticulate, quieter God, and I've nothing to set before them.

How are you going to reach them? Hymn, prayer, hymn, reading, notices? Sorrow, hymn, sermon, hymn, benediction? No! You're going to do it with a church program? No! You're going to do it with people who are filled with the Holy Ghost, and get out where the action is, and tell them about the Lord.

Friend, lend me your life. But the church is asleep. Programmed to death. Pardon me, it's not a chance. Not a chance. Oh, watch and pray, lest when I come, I shall find you sleeping. The passionate longing of Jesus, the prayer of a risen Lord for his people, and the contrast, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you, just like that.

The Eagerness of God and the Cost of Christian Discipleship

Just like that, for what earthly son would give a serpent if he asked for an egg or a stone for a fish? How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that asketh? My dear friend, Christian, isn't that the whole story of the Bible?

The eagerness of God to meet us? To forgive us? The prodigal in the far country comes to himself, and the moment he starts out home, his father knows it, and he's on the way to meet him. You have to beg your father to come and meet him, he's on the road already, and he's waiting to hug him.

The first longing to the Lord, that my life should be at his disposal, and he's there with the gift of his Holy Spirit, the first desire to wake up and live for Jesus, he's given me his word, he's given me his glory, the glory of his Spirit.

The first desire that I want that life to be his, he's there, and at this midnight hour he knocks loudly at the door of your life and mine and speaks to you about a friend of his who's lost in his journey and has nothing to put before him.

Oh, he may be in Bangladesh, he may be in India, he may be in Thailand, he may be in Cambodia, he may be in Manchester, he may be in London, he may be right next to you at your doorstep and have nothing to put before him.

Lend me your life, lend me your career, your education, your gift, and go and meet his need, because, you see, you are my friend, but I'm the friend of sin, and I want to say, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer, yes Lord, what a friend you are.

You are my friend, if you do whatsoever I command you. Are you his friend? Friend? Friend? Lend me your life? Oh, but I can't, I can't, I'm afraid, but the moment I say, Lord, I'm ready, he's there with all the supply of resources in the Holy Spirit.

He that loves his life, lose it. He that hates his life, for my sake, will keep it. And brethren and sisters, if I hate my life, I don't despise it, I don't despise it, but I tell you what I do, I put it to risk, I put it to risk and begin to live dangerously.

A Christian knows that ultimately he's secure, but in living for the Lord Jesus in society, they heal it dangerously, but the danger of caring, caring, if I don't care for people, I become invulnerable, hard, harsh, orthodox, correct, dispensational, communistic.

I believe it all, God will save those he wants to save, and all he wants to go to hell will go to hell, so I get myself off the hook, if I care, I'm vulnerable, I'm open to other people's hurts, and that's costly, be hard, be orthodox, be sound, and you'll save yourself an awful lot of pain, and you can sit in your armchair and criticise the church for doing nothing.

The Dangers of Caring, Daring, and Sharing

There's a danger of caring and a danger of daring, beloved friend, I wish that our church committees, parochial church councils, oversight, church boards, what have you, so conventional, so computerised, would get on their knees and ask for some spiritual shock treatment, and given half a chance the Holy Spirit would send through us a galvanising wave of vitality and rescue us from our ruts, so cosy, so smooth, pray to break into new forms, have it, have it, be my friend, we've done it this way for 50 years, have it, be my friend, no, says Jesus, danger, be your friend, live dangerously.

The seven last words of a dying church have never been done this way before. The danger of daring, and my friend, lastly, the danger of sharing. I don't know quite how to say this, I'm just beginning to understand a little of what it means in my life.

Put yourself in the place of another person, the person who's lost to Jesus, put yourself in his place, his race, his colour, his background, his position, that's dangerous, that's dangerous and disturbing, uncomfortable, because you see, if you care, you don't ask that wounded person how he feels, you become that wounded person.

Jesus did that, he became sin for us, I can never do that, but friend, lend me your life, means that I become identified with people wounded, hurt, lost, bleeding, go to hell. Friend, lend me your life, have you lent Jesus your life, your life, utterly, completely, absolutely, Lord, I've not quite seen it like that before, but you're my friend, and you're knocking on the door, and you're saying, lend me your life because you've other friends, that I don't know about, tell me what they are, where they are, but Lord, I'm ready for whatever my Lord the King will command, take my life.