If you would take your Bibles and turn with me to Luke chapter 11. You can find that on page 869 in the pew Bibles. I believe this is our 20th sermon in this series on the gospel of Luke, but this is the first time we are going to focus especially on prayer. And I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that because Luke’s gospel has been called “the gospel of prayer.” Listen to this description on the importance of prayer in this gospel – Luke emphasizes prayer more than either Matthew or Mark. He records 9 prayers of Jesus, 7 of which are only found in Luke. He associates prayer with the most important moments in Jesus’ life. Jesus prays at His baptism, He prays after a day of working miracles in Luke chapter 5, before choosing the Twelve. Jesus spends the night on the mount in prayer, before Peter’s confession of faith and Jesus’ prediction of His death, Jesus prays alone. Jesus goes to the Mount of Transfiguration to pray. He prays with gladness and thanksgiving after the mission of the 72 disciples. And His example, as we’ll see in Luke chapter 11, His example in prayer leads the disciples to ask Him to teach them how to pray. Jesus also prays at His agony on the Mount of Olives and during the crucifixion. And that’s not all. Luke alone records two special parables about prayer, he alone presents the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in prayer at the temple, and he states that Jesus exhorted His disciples to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.
So what gives? Why have I not emphasized prayer more during our study of this gospel, especially when our teaching theme from last year was prayer? Why is that? Well, I guess this is my own confession of my own inadequacy, but it just never seemed to fit with the main point of the sermons before now, and I thought, “Well surely we’ll get to it sooner or later and focus more down the road.” Isn’t that, in some ways, an illustration or a parable of our own prayer lives? That prayer doesn’t quite fit into our busy schedules or the commotion of our lives edge out the time that we can spend in prayer. “And surely we’re going to get to it sooner or later.” And yet that’s easier to say than to do, isn’t it? And I’ve quoted it before; I’ll say it again tonight – what Martyn Lloyd-Jones says about prayer. He says that, “Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.” Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. And so, we need to say again tonight with Jesus’ disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
So let’s see what Jesus teaches us about prayer from Luke chapter 11. We’ll do it by looking at these verses along two lines. We’ll look first at the Lord’s praying and then the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s praying and the Lord’s prayer. Before we read God’s Word, let’s ask Him for His help.
Our Father God, we come before You tonight with the example of Jesus before us, the example and teaching to us of prayer. We pause to pray. We will read shortly that You promise to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Would You give us the Holy Spirit? Help us to understand Your Word. Help us to be pricked by Your Word, to be moved to prayer and obedience and faithfulness for Your glory and for our good, through Your Word. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 11, the first twenty-six verses:
“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; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,’ while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.’”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
The Lord’s Praying
Now in light of what I just said a few minutes ago about the emphasis on prayer in Luke’s gospel, it should sound familiar to us when we read in verse 1 that “Jesus was praying.” Luke states it very matter of factly. He doesn’t dwell there in any particular way, but take a moment to really think about what verse 1 is saying to us. That Jesus was praying. I’m not sure that we really grasp the significance of this simple fact that Jesus prayed. Now think about all that we’ve been told in the gospel of Luke so far about who Jesus is – that He is the Son of God, He is the Lord, the Christ. He is Savior and King. He is the one who comes as light to the Gentiles and glory for Israel. He is the one who brings near the kingdom of God. And He prays. He takes the posture of humility and dependence. He submits Himself to the will of His heavenly Father. He looks in faith to the Father for provision and protection, for direction, and He relies upon the Holy Spirit to enable Him to do all that He came to do.
That’s really the question that comes later in these verses. How is it that Jesus casts out the demon that was mute? How did Jesus heal and perform such signs and wonders? What did they say? “Some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul.” Some of you may remember reading The Lord of the Flies in junior high school. I don’t remember much about that book; maybe some children chanting and a pair of broken glasses, but I do remember learning that Beelzebub or Beelzebul is known as the Lord of the Flies. There’s a history, there’s a background there that connects this figure, Beelzebul, with the worship of Baal in ancient times, but really all of that is not that important for understanding what they are saying here about Jesus’ power and His wonders that He works. What they are doing is they are using Beelzebul as an alias for Satan. Verse 15, he is called “the prince of demons.”
What’s the point? The point is that some people are attributing Jesus’ power to demonic forces. And one of the most difficult topics in the Bible is that of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It’s not mentioned in this passage. We will get to it; Jesus talks about it in the next chapter, in chapter 12, and maybe it will be easier not even to address that difficult topic tonight but if we were to look at the parallel passage to this one, the parallel passage to Luke chapter 11 that’s found in Matthew chapter 12, when Jesus is accused of casting out demons by Beelzebul, and then after He says, “Whoever is not with me is against Me and whoever does not gather with Me scatters,” then Jesus says this – He says, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” This is the so-called unforgivable, unpardonable sin. There are many people who have sensitive consciences, believing that they may have committed this very sin.
And there are different opinions about what exactly Jesus means when He says this about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But what you notice in Matthew chapter 12 is that Jesus says it in response to the accusation that His power came not from the Holy Spirit but that it came from the prince of demons. So blasphemy against the Holy Spirit seems to be calling the work of the Holy Spirit demonic. I think it’s good to remember what J.I. Packer says. “If there is anyone who is concerned about having committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then certainly you have not committed that very sin.”
But I say all of that to call attention to the fact that Jesus carried out His ministry by the work of the Holy Spirit. Now think back in the gospel of Luke. He was baptized by the Holy Spirit. People received His teaching by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. He healed and He cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we go forward to the end of the gospel, we will find that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is raised from the dead. You see, Jesus is in a conflict of kingdoms. He is engaged in spiritual warfare. It’s the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan. And it’s not that Satan’s kingdom is divided against itself. No, it requires one that is stronger and mightier and more powerful to overthrow the dominion of evil. So what Jesus says in verse 21, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.” Jesus is going against the strong man. He is going against the one who is fully armed guarding his palace. But Jesus is stronger. He has the power of the Holy Spirit to go against and to overcome the forces of evil. The stakes are this high. The conflict is that intense. And the enemy is that strong, but the Holy Spirit is stronger still, and so Jesus prays. Jesus, who was made like us in every way yet without sin, He relied in every way on the Holy Spirit to overcome the opposition of Satan and to accomplish the mission that He had come to accomplish.
The Lord’s Prayer
We have to ask ourselves this question. If Jesus prays, how much more do we need to pray? If Jesus prays, how much more do we need to be constant in prayer? That’s exactly what these verses, this passage is really about. What we find is not just Jesus praying, but we also find Jesus teaching His disciples, He is teaching us how to pray. And so these verses contain Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer as well as other teaching from Jesus about prayer. We have the Lord’s Prayer here. And it would be hard to overstate the significance of this little prayer. Here we have three verses and only a few lines. And while we usually say the version that we find in Matthew’s gospel in the Sermon on the Mount, this prayer holds a treasured place in the life of God’s people. It has been used for centuries across cultures and languages and denominations.
Kenneth Bailey, in his book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, he tells the story of a woman who came up to him after a lecture that he was teaching. She was from Latvia, when the days when Latvia was under communist oppression. And she says that in that time, in those days, churches and Bible studies were not allowed; they were illegal in her country. But at funerals, at funerals, because of tradition, they were allowed to recite the Lord’s Prayer together. And as she recited the words to the Lord’s Prayer, she didn’t know what she was saying, she didn’t really know what it meant, but she said later, when freedom came, when communism fell, she set out to discover what those words meant. She said this. She said, “When you are in total darkness, the tiniest point of light is very bright. For me, the Lord’s Prayer was that point of light. By the time I found its meaning, I was a Christian.” It’s through the Lord’s Prayer that she came to faith in Christ as her Savior, as her Lord, saying the Lord’s Prayer.
See, it’s because this prayer gets at the deepest desires of the human heart. It points us to the rich blessings of the Gospel and of salvation. It almost seems wrong that we would only spend part of a sermon thinking about what Jesus teaches us here. And at the same time, because it’s so familiar to us, we could almost skip over it so quickly. While on the one hand it’s hard, we might not grasp the significance of Jesus praying, we have to stop and take a moment and grasp the significance of our praying, that we pray. Jesus says, “When you pray.” To recognize that we have access to the Father by prayer. This is the great blessing of our salvation – that we as sinners are restored to God. One of John Piper’s books is called, God is the Gospel. That in the Gospel, we get God. “I will be your God and you will be My people.” Don’t forget the blessing and privilege of knowing God and of being in a relationship with the one, true and living God and relating to Him by prayer. It really is shocking. It should be shocking to us.
And I think that is the point of the parable that Jesus tells in verses 5 to 8. He says this story about, “Which one of you, if you go to a friend at midnight because someone comes to him, and you go to this friend at midnight and say, ‘Give me some bread,’ and that friend says, ‘No, I’m in bed. I can’t be bothered. Please go away.’” No – a friend wouldn’t do that. He says that even though he might not get up because he’s his friend, he’ll get up because of the impudence of the one asking.
One of the gifts of having small children is the gift of sharing the stomach bug. When we lived in Memphis with small children, we got the stomach bug from time to time, maybe weekly it seemed like! But on one occasion, the grownups, the parents, us, we got dehydrated and needed to go to the hospital at two o’clock in the morning. We had two small children sleeping in their beds and we didn’t want to wake them up. So we called our closest friends and asked them if they would get up in the middle of the night and come stay in our house while our kids slept so that we could go to the hospital and get the treatment we needed. And they came. Of course they did. They would have come not just because they were our close friends; they would have come because of the audacity of the favor that we are asking at that time of night.
And I think that’s something of what Jesus is saying in His story. He is highlighting the audacity of prayer. The word is “impudence.” It means something like “shamelessness” or “being outrageous.” He’s wanting us to see that there is a wonder, it is a wonder that we would approach God in prayer. And if a neighbor will hear us when we come to them, how much more will God hear us when we go to Him? And how much more will God be gracious to answer us? “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” We oftentimes hear that as an encouragement to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, to keep on knocking, to be persistent in prayer. But really, I think what Jesus is doing there is, it’s more focused on the One who hears, on God Himself, rather than the one who is praying. The One who hears our prayers is the God who is abundantly generous and gracious and good. It’s like what we read in Isaiah chapter 30. “The Lord waits to be gracious to you.” Or in Malachi, “Put Me to the test, says the Lord. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” Try that. Ask, seek, knock and see if God will not give, if you will not find and He will have the door opened to you. God is not like some terrible father who will not give to his children. He is not like a terrible father who would deprive his children. And Jesus says that if sinful, imperfect – or what He says in verse 13, “evil fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will God give good gifts to those who ask Him?”
I’ve been around several conversations lately of first time parents of college students. As they’re getting ready to send their children off to college, one of the questions they ask is, “Do you need anything else? Can I get you anything? Would you like anything else to take with you?” “No, I’m good.” “No, really! Anything that you need, I want to give to you!” is what mother’s usually say. But there’s a picture isn’t it, of being willing to give. A generous parent wanting to take care of their children. And God is more gracious than we are oftentimes even to ask. Jesus, in this passage, He’s more or less provoking us. He is provoking us to go to Him and He promises the heavenly Father, verse 13, “the heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” Let’s not get into all of the blessings of the Holy Spirit right now, even though there are many of them. The Holy Spirit gives conviction and illumination and faith and wisdom and comfort and guidance and love, joy, peace, and so on and on we could go. Let’s not get into all of that right now, but just think about this one thing. Let’s recognize this one thing – that prayer, prayer brings us into fellowship, communion, into the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That in prayer, we come into the enjoyment of the triune God. How could we ever lose the wonder of prayer or neglect the practice of prayer? Jesus is inviting us in. He is inviting us to pray. It says, “When you pray, say this…” “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.”
I was talking to a church member a few days ago and he told me that his mother, several years ago, had said to him in her later years, her old age, that she had begun to make it more and more of her pattern and habit of prayer to pray the Lord’s Prayer, not just using it as a model, but also as her own prayer. And he said that as he found himself entering into his later years, that he began to turn more and more often to pray the Lord’s Prayer as the model for his prayer and as a prayer himself. Not so much because of what his mother had said and the example of his mother some years before, but he said he just found that he himself was gripped more and more by the simplicity and also the depth of the Lord’s Prayer.
I’ve quoted F.W. Boram before. He wrote that, “Sublimity and simplicity always go hand in hand, and when life approaches to sublimity, it always expresses itself in simplicity.” He says, “As we grow old and draw near to the gates of the grave, we become more and more simple.” Isn’t there sublimity and simplicity in the Lord’s Prayer? That in just a few words the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s glory and for our humility. He teaches us to pray for this world and for the next, for time and for eternity. He teaches us to pray for physical and spiritual needs and all of it with a view towards God as our heavenly Father and us together as members of God’s family. Surely every praise and request, every gratitude and confession that we could make could find itself in the bounds of this simple prayer, which should against fill us with wonder. Jesus prays, we pray, and Jesus guides us in prayer with words that a child can learn and yet it may take a lifetime to fully grasp and appreciate the gift and the blessing of prayer in general but this prayer especially.
How much do these verses tonight encourage us to pray? And how might these verses tonight encourage us to pray specifically for the mission of God’s kingdom in this world? The apostle Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. He says, “Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of flesh and blood but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” Or in Ephesians chapter 6 he writes, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, authorities, the cosmic powers over this present evil darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” That’s what’s on the line.
And we have spent the last four weeks with an emphasis on evangelism, about telling others about salvation in Jesus Christ. And we haven’t even gotten to the actual practice of evangelism. We’ve talked about noticing others and having an outward focus wherever we go. We’ve talked about the sovereignty of God in changing hearts and bringing about new life. And we’ve talked about that whatever we do, we do it out of a devotion for Jesus, with love for God and love for our neighbor. Well tonight, what we must remember in evangelism is prayer. In evangelism, we are not going against flesh and blood but against the kingdom of the evil one. And in evangelism, we are not going in our own strength, we are not going in our own flesh and blood, but we are going in the power of God. We are going in prayer. So let’s pray what we find in this passage. Let these truths be our prayer. Let’s pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the gift of the Holy Spirit in our ministry to others but also in others’ receptiveness to the Gospel. Let’s pray for true heart change and not just for behavior modification, which actually, Jesus says, puts one in a worse condition than they were in before. Let’s pray for the defeat of Satan, for the defeat of sin and evil, and for the deliverance from temptation for those who are dead in their sins and trespasses. And let’s pray for the victory of Jesus, for the advance of God’s kingdom in the lives of unbelievers. And let’s pray on our own but also let’s make this our prayer together, corporately. You notice in the Lord’s Prayer that the pronouns are plural, that this should be our prayer together, that we should be offering up evangelistic prayers to God for the salvation of sinners, and for the spread of the Gospel.
George Muller, he had five people that he started praying for in his 30s. And they were not Christians at the time, and he prayed for them every day, every day. And it wasn’t until 18 months later that one of them became a Christian. And he thanked God and he continued to pray. Five years later, the second person came to faith in Christ. Then six years after that, praying every day, the third person believed and was saved. So he thanked God and he continued to pray. For 52 years he prayed for them. And it wasn’t until after his death, shortly after his death, that both of the men for whom he had prayed 52 years turned to God and received the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Surely any work of evangelism must have prayer at its very heart. And as one writer put it, “Before we talk to people about God, we need to talk to God about people.”
So let’s close in prayer tonight. If you would pray with me, and then we will finish our prayer by praying the more familiar Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew’s gospel. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we come before You tonight. We confess our own weakness and frailty in prayer. We oftentimes neglect it in our homes and in our church and we ask that You would restore to us the wonder of fellowship with You and the gift of prayer and the Holy Spirit in our lives. And would You lead us and call us to prayer that we would pray for those who do not know You and who are lost in their sin; that You would use us in praying and going to bring about the advance of Your kingdom and the glory of Jesus Christ. And we pray all of this as Jesus taught us to pray, saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”