Meeting Jesus in Luke’s Gospel P1 Jesus Teaches Us How To Pray Luke 11:1-4

Introduction: We have in recent messages found ourselves journeying with Jesus on His way to Jerusalem. Luke 9:51-19:44 records Jesus’ journey from Galilee to the Eastern roadway along the Jordon River to Jericho to Jerusalem, where in six months He would be crucified. Along this route Jesus delivered important lessons about discipleship or following Him. In our recent messages we’ve heard Jesus teach us about spiritual dullness (Luke 9:51-56); evangelism (9:57-10:17); the joys of following Him (10:17- 24); the need to be born-again (10:23-27); and having our faith settled in Him, the abiding life (Luke 10:38-42). We now enter Luke 11 to go to school to learn what is among the most important lessons from Jesus – prayer. The late Bible teacher A.W. Tozer wrote a marvelous book years ago entitled “Man, the dwelling place of God”. In the book he highlights what he calls “three degrees of knowledge” as it relates to God. The first is by the light of reason and observation. Everybody knows there is a God by observing the outside world and their internal design, even those who suppress such knowledge by denying they do (Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:18-20). Then the Holy Spirit draws sinners to trust in Jesus Christ to enter upon a second degree of knowledge – the light of faith and sound doctrine. Tozer notes, “Divine revelation through the inspired Scriptures offers data which lie altogether outside of and above the power of the mind to discover” (I think here of Deuteronomy 29:29). Then a third degree, not just knowing of God or embracing truth from God by faith, but what Tozer calls “knowledge by direct spiritual experience”. It is in this third level of knowledge that we come to know God by prayer. Over the course of these next two messages, we’re going to do what one of the disciples did in Luke 11:1 “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.’” Today’s message will deal with the privilege and pattern of prayer. Next time we will then handle the practice of prayer. Sermon outline: 1. Privilege of prayer. Luke 11:1 2. Pattern of prayer. Luke 11:2-4 Sermon exposition: 1. Privilege of prayer. Luke 11:1 Why do I call this first lesson taught by Jesus on prayer “the privilege of prayer?” Before what we know as the “Lord’s Prayer” was taught verbally by our Lord, He taught by His life. Let me ask you this question: have you ever heard a Christian who really loves the Lord and has followed Him for many years pray? I recall hearing my father pray many times growing up. When he prayed, he would sometimes weep. He talked to 2 | P a g e the Heavenly Father as if he were the closest friend anyone could have. There was a reality to His prayer life. My dad approached his prayer time with confidence because he knew the Sovereign King Himself had invited Him – the richness of prayer. Prayer is a privilege. These disciples had opportunity to hear many pray in their day. In the days of Jesus, every Jew would had prayed a special prayer at morning and evening that involved 18 blessings as taught by their foremost teachers. One could had heard prayers lifted-up in the Temple or Jewish meeting place called the Synagogue. However, the way Jesus prayed and John the Baptist prayed was different. Often the prayers they prayed or that we often pray are programmatic, routine, or “doing it just to say we did it”. What these disciples desired was to pray with richness and reality, sensing the privilege of being in the presence of Almighty God. Prayer is a privilege. Jesus’ shows us how much of a privilege prayer is in the following three truths He taught throughout His teaching ministry and life. First, the access to God we have in prayer. Matthew 21:22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” In the parallel passage of Matthew’s Gospel to what we find here in Luke 13, Jesus says these words in Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Notice another reason prayer is a privilege, our Almighty mediator in prayer. In prayer, we have access to God the Father through the mediatorship of God the Son as God and man (compare 1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus in His earthly ministry was ever praying, Mark 1:35 “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” When we evoke His name in our prayers, that name represents all He is and does on our behalf, connecting our prayers to Him and He taking those requests to the Father. John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Our Lord Jesus Christ following His ascension is ever praying on our behalf, Hebrews 7:24-25 “but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Think of what we’ve seen thus far in terms of prayer’s privilege – access to God for the Christian, 24 hours a day, and our Almighty Mediator, ever praying for us. Let’s not forget one more privilege, involving the Third Person of the Trinity – the advocacy of the Holy Spirit in prayer. Prayer is such a privilege because I’m not alone in prayer. Jesus taught this in John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” How does the Holy Spirit advocate or help me in prayer? Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Adrian Rogers once noted this about prayer’s privilege, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it’s laying hold of God’s willingness. It’s part of God’s grand scheme that He has given us the privilege to cooperate with Him in prayer.” Adrian then noted the following, “prayer is our greatest privilege and our greatest failure, which knowing this, 3 | P a g e God gave the Christian the Great Helper, the Holy Spirit.” Jesus then has already begun this lesson on prayer by showing us the privilege of prayer. Now let’s hear Him teach us about the pattern of prayer. 2. Pattern of prayer. Luke 11:2-4 We’ve seen prayer’s privilege modeled by Jesus in how He prayed. Now He is going to lay out prayer’s pattern. Luke 11:2-4 And He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. 3 ‘Give us each day our daily bread. 4 ‘And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ [The NKJV best handles how this prayer ends “but deliver us from the Evil One”, thus I will include it in this overall pattern by Jesus]. Let me just make a quick note here before we identify the pattern of prayer taught by Jesus. Most of your English translations render the final words of the Lord’s prayer here in Luke 11:4 as we find it in the NASB. I won’t go into all the technical details of what is going on in the Greek text underlying our English translations. Suffice to say, the KJV handles this verse better than the NASB with what I see as the true ending of the Lord’s prayer here in Luke, “but deliver us from evil.” If you have a NKJV, it best handles the evidence of our Greek manuscripts best with its rendering, “but deliver us from the evil one.” [If you must know, there are almost 3,000 Greek manuscripts of Luke’s Gospel. Of those, all but around six of them contain the reading “but deliver us from evil” or “the evil one”. Those six manuscripts are high quality, ancient witnesses, however, similar ancient witnesses and far more ancient translations such as the Syriac and Coptic versions render the text like we see in the KJV and NKJV, leading me to the conclusion I draw in this sermon]. We’ll keep this observation in mind as we go along. What is pattern of prayer? A. Awareness of God. Luke 11:1 “When you pray”. I get this from the word translated “pray”. The term translated “pray” speaks of petitioning God. I like how one ancient translation renders it, namely “leaning oneself toward God”. When we pray, there ought to be an awareness of God which is only possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit operating in our hearts. The New Testament commonly uses the phrase “in the Spirit” to describe this awareness. For example, we read in Luke 2:27 how the old man Simeon entered the Temple in Jerusalem “in the Spirit”, discerning the arrival of the infant Christ brought by His parents. Do you and I confess any known sin, examine our hearts, or take time to dwell on God before we pray? Or do we rush right into our “prayer list”? David M’Intyre in his classic book “The Hidden Life of Prayer” illustrates how we turn our minds to the presence of God, “As the electricity which is spread throughout the atmosphere becomes concentrated in a lightening flash, so the presence of God becomes vivid and powerful in our prayer-time.” B. Adoration of God. Luke 11:2 When you pray, say: ‘Father’ To adore God means a deep, deep love for God as God. Only a follower of Jesus Christ who has had their hearts changed by the new birth in saving faith can call God their “Father”. The adoration here is a personal adoration. Is God personally known by 4 | P a g e you? The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray from saving faith forward, leading us to call Jesus “Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:1-3) and the Heavenly Father “Abba”, which is an Aramaic word meaning “Daddy”. We adore personally and then we adore God as He executes His providence. This same term “Father” speaks to how God is the source of all creation who executes His will in the governing of all things toward His will. Deuteronomy 32:6b “Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.” Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” C. Awe for God. Luke 11:2 “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name.” We could literally render this “how holy your name must be regarded”. What is God’s holiness? Three truths. God is separate, Sovereign, and spotless. He is separate from everything else. Exodus 15:11 “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” Second truth about holiness - God is Sovereign. Isaiah 6:3 “And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” Third truth about God’s holiness – God is spotless, that is, perfectly pure. Leviticus 11:44a (also 1 Peter 1:15), “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” God’s holiness in those three respects (set apart, Sovereign, spotless) is what makes Him worthy of our awe. We too often assign that word “awesome” to just about everything today. However, only God alone is worthy of our awe (again Exodus 15:11; also Revelation 4:8). D. Approaching Kingdom of God. Luke 11:2 “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.” We’ve seen the pattern of prayer as awareness of God, adoration of God, and awe for God. Jesus turned our eyes heavenward, now He turns our hearts ahead. Do you and I think often of Jesus’ second coming? Whenever we remind ourselves of the Lord’s coming kingdom, such truth places another horizon in our prayer-life other than our immediate personal life or even the horizon of this age. To know there is a third, ultimate horizon of the world to come that shapes how the first two come to pass reminds me God is in control. The King is coming to catch up to Himself His Church, all true born-again Christians. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” This first stage of Christ’s second coming, the rapture or “catching away”, has no preceding signs, which means it could happen at anytime. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.” This is why the early Christians greeted each other by the Aramaic word “Maranatha”, meaning “The Lord is coming” or as it would be in a short prayer, “Lord, come” (see 1 Corinthians 16:22b). Let’s move to a fifth truth in Jesus’ pattern of prayer – amazing provision of God. E. Amazing provision of God. Luke 11:3 “Give us each day our daily bread.” 5 | P a g e Notice how deep into this prayer Jesus has us asking for our needs. We so often worry. Let’s do what the older Christian writers urged us to do, “plead the promises of God”. Two come to mind. Philippians 4:6-7 and Matthew 6:30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!” F. Appeal to forgiveness from God. Luke 11:4a ‘And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” To forgive means “to let go”. Did you know the Bible nowhere tells us to “forgive ourselves”. I get the sentiment, however “forgiving oneself” won’t bring lasting peace to the soul. What is often urged instead is the reception of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ. When we appeal to His forgiveness and receive it, the grace of God takes what Christ achieved on the cross and washes away the sin that separates us, the guilt that shames us, and self-hatred that stains us. Ephesians 1:7-8a “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.” If you and I have received that forgiveness, then forgiving others will not only make sense, but will be the only way we let go of bitterness we often harbor against others (Ephesians 4:31-32). G. Ask for help against the adversary of God. Luke 11:4 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” We’ve witnessed the following pattern of prayer from Jesus: awareness of God, adoration of God, awe of God, approaching kingdom of God, amazing provision of God, and appeal to the forgiveness of God. We come to our seventh and final piece of this pattern: asking God for help against our adversary. There is an old saying, “God tests, Satan tempts”. Why would Jesus teach though, “And do not lead us into temptation?” This isn’t so much a prayer of preventing temptation as it is prayer for protection through temptation. It is the “Evil One”, Satan, The Devil, who does the tempting. We know for example Mark 1:12 “Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.” God led Jesus to the Tempter to be tempted, while God administered the test. Oftentimes God will ordain situations in which we are tempted to have us see where we need to still grow. Deut. 8:2b “to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” Often such terrible testing drives us to pray! God did this to King Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32:31b “God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.” Arguably the best commentary on this final part of the prayer is 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Lord Jesus, teach me to pray!