Bible Passage: Luke 11:1-13
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: July 24, 2022

Bulletin July 24, 2022

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

“Lord, teach us to pray.”  There is something very significant and profound about that little word “teach.”  It confesses something.  It confesses that we don’t know how to pray!  It is true that every human being comes into this world with what is called a “natural knowledge of God.”  People are born “theists,” not “atheists.”  People know there is a God.  There is even this impulse to want to have a relationship with this “god.”  There is an impulse to want to talk to him.  But we don’t know how.

The disciples had just seen Jesus pray.  A mystery, to be sure!  The God-Man Jesus prays!  And as the perfect man, his prayer life was perfect.  So who better to instruct about prayer than Jesus?  And so one of the disciples says to him, Lord, teach us to pray.  And Jesus does.  He will teach them what to say, and how to say it, and what they can expect when they pray.

Jesus begins, When you pray, say, “Our Father in heaven…” (v. 2)  Here we must pause already.  Prayer is children talking to their Father.  This Father/children relationship exists for one reason.  Paul wrote to the Galatians:  You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)  It is through faith in Jesus as Savior that we have been brought into God’s family.  It is through faith in Jesus that we are invited to address him as “Father.”

Hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (v. 2)  Notice the repetition of the word “your” and the absence of the word “my.”  Often in our prayers we are in a rush to talk about MY name, and MY kingdom, and what I want.  Jesus teaches our first concern is our Father’s name, our Father’s kingdom, our Father’s will!  We want the reputation of our Father to be a special holy thing here and everywhere!  We want his kingdom of grace to spread; we want more and more people to experience what it is to have the Lord Jesus sit on the throne in their hearts.  We want our Father’s will to be done here on earth, like it is in heaven.  “Father, dear Father, do things YOUR way, not mine!”

Jesus then teaches us to say, Give us each day our daily bread.  Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who sins against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (v. 3-4) We come to our Father as very needy children.  Our needs are very basic.  We need bread.  We need forgiveness.  We need help and protection and deliverance from temptation and evil.  Jesus teaches us to ask our Father for these things.

There is more to Jesus’ lesson on prayer.  After teaching about the “what” of prayer, he moves on to teach about the “how.”  He uses an illustration they would all understand.  Jesus sets it up this way:  It is the middle of the night.  A friend who is on a trip arrives at your house unexpectedly and asks to stay.  You are caught off guard and have no food so you go to another friend’s house and explain the situation.  At first he says, “This is not my problem!  Besides, it’s late!  My family is sleeping!”  Then Jesus adds, I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his bold persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (v. 8)

 When you first hear that, you say, “Who would do that?”  And that’s what Jesus wants us to think!  He wants to “shock” us a little.  Who would do that?  Who doesn’t have the self-awareness to realize you don’t knock on someone’s door in the middle of the night to ask for snacks?  You wouldn’t do that to your neighbor, but Jesus tells you to do that with God!  I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given to you.  Keep seeking, and you will find.  Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives.  The one who seeks finds.  And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. (v. 9-10)  When you lie awake in the late watches of the night troubled by this and that, Jesus invites you to knock on God’s door boldly and persistently!  He promises it will be opened.

He will answer, and his answer will be good.  That is the final lesson Jesus teaches us about prayer.  What father among you, if your son asks for bread, would give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, would give him a snake instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, would give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are 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? (v. 11-13)

Notice the movement of Jesus’ point.  Flawed, sinful, earthly fathers don’t give their children rocks for bread, or snakes for fish, or scorpions for eggs!  If flawed, sinful, earthly fathers know how to give good things when their children ask, how much more so does your heavenly Father!

Jesus says the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.  That seems puzzling.  Who was even talking about the Holy Spirit?  Yet what Jesus says flows nicely.  He has just made the point that the Father knows better than we do how to give good things to his children.  What is the best thing the heavenly Father can give his children?  A strong case could be made for the Holy Spirit!

It is the Holy Spirit who creates and strengthens faith.  And isn’t that really what we need most of the time?  Stronger faith?  When you are worried about something, you think the answer to your prayer is that God make that thing go away.  But can’t your prayer be answered by the Holy Spirit working in you stronger faith?  When you beg God to change your life in some big way.  “God, I need a change!” Can’t that prayer be answered by the Holy Spirit working in you peace with your station in life and patience to see where God might take you?  You pray for help in a relationship, believing the answer is found in God changing the other person.  But can’t that prayer be answered by the Holy Spirit working in you an increase of love and kindness and goodness?

Jesus was not just a lecturer on prayer.  He showed us the way.  He often woke early and he prayed.  He stayed up late at night to pray.  When he felt his soul on the rack the night before he died, he prayed…so hard he sweat blood.  He prayed while he hung on the cross.  And the last thing he did before bowing his head in death was pray, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.  And with that death, he opened heaven.   With that death, he made it possible for you and me to begin a conversation with the Lord God Almighty with the word, Father.  With that death, he made it possible for us to die praying!  Praying the same prayer he prayed, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.  Thank you, Jesus, for teaching us to pray!

Amen.