This week we will discover the meaning to the parable in Luke chapter 11!
Luke 11:1-13
KJV
Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer
111 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
3 Give us day by day [1] our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 For a friend of mine in [2] his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
7 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.
8 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.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11 If a son shall ask bread of 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?
12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer [3] him a scorpion?
13 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?
Notice, that this section of scripture begins with Jesus praying. The disciples noticed that Jesus is communicating with the father so excellent that they want to also be able to pray to the father.
So, The Holy Ghost wants us to acknowledge three things about prayer: Content, persistence, and object.
In the very first verse we see Jesus has just finished praying disciples approached him about how to pray. Let me ask you: have you ever needed help with prayer?
From the scripture we see Jesus being the example; so, we should pray. It’s helpful to note that the disciples knew the importance of prayer, because Jesus was doing it. Prayer is the time that we get to commune with God. God is the person that hears our voice and knows are thoughts. God is the perfect listener.
I believe the disciples looked at Jesus and wanted the relationship Jesus had with God. Haven’t you ever looked at another Christian and said I want what he or she has? Sometimes, people want that relationship; so, they get saved!
-And the beauty of it is that God is not a respecter of persons and we can have what someone else has just by seeking him. (Consider Acts 10:34)
This is the way that the disciples were thinking about prayer. I think they were reflection of all of us! We all desire to have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. we all know that prayer can be hard sometimes and I think we have all struggle with praying. Prayer is hard work! I think we could use a little bit more prayer time in our walk! I think all of the points that Jesus makes in this passage is critical to our walk.
My next bullet point was for us to consider the content of our prayers. Verse two begins, with what we identify as, the Lord’s prayer. Luke gives us just a glimpse of it. But notice Jesus tells us how to address God. Jesus tells us to address God as father! Now, only children of God can call him father. People who are unsaved, The big guy, or people who do not believe in God will say something like this: “the man upstairs or even the landlord.” The term father is a term of endearment. The term father means that we recognize that we are part of the family of God. The term father means that God has authority in our life and over our life.
All over the world we recite the Lord’s prayer, but I don’t believe that Jesus meant for us to use this scripture in the fashion. I believe, that the Holy Spirit has taught me, that lords prayer gives us a recipe for prayer. The lords prayer is a outline.
Prayer time is personal expression to God. Prayer time, enhances our relationship with the father. Prayer time, he is a time of communion. It’s a time of connecting. We are talking to our father and I think sometimes as Christian we get use to doing things in religious fashion and we forget Who we are praying to and the importance of it in Luke and verse two reminds us of its importance.
We are to begin our prayer time with hallowed be thy name. This means that we know that God is holy. Remember, there are angels in heaven that are constantly crying out holy, holy, holy is God! then, we are to say that he is we will be done. We are to get control over to God. to me, this is one of the most important prayers. There has been so many times in my prayer life that I haven’t known exactly what to say, but to say Lord I don’t know what’s going on here, but your will be done. Is in fact one of the best things that we can do. Giving control over our situation to God is the best thing we can do on this side of heaven. next, we see in verse three, we are to ask God to meet our needs. We ask for a daily Berean, but our daily bread may not be anything that we put in our mouth. your daily bread might mean that you need to drink for today. Your daily bread might mean that you need spiritual wisdom do a stay in the wiles of the devil. Your daily bread might mean that you need comfort, guidance, or peace. God invites us to come to him so that our needs will be met. Notice, here are also, that God wants us to come to him daily. He says to give us our daily bread. God desires a relationship with us and he desires to meet with us daily. God wants to have a relationship with us he does not want us just to come to him and say I need, I need, and I need, and Him give. It’s sad that for many of us our relationship with God is: “ I need, I need, and you give.“
In verse four, Jesus tells us to ask for forgiveness. To live a sanctified life we must die out of sin and walk by the spirit. We must crucify the flesh. And, each day it’s not so hard to say no to sin. We become more like Jesus And less like the world. When we pray and ask forgiveness we destroy the barriers that may be between us and God. Sin puts distance and coldness between ourselves and God. What do we need in order for this distance and coldness problem to end? Well, we need to come and ask for forgiveness. Scripture tells us that he will not cast us out! So if Jesus forgives us then we are to also to forgive others. We must also extend this forgiveness to our brothers and sisters.
Then, verse four says “lead me not into temptation.” Temptation literally means testing. In this part of the prayer, we are literally asking God to escape or help us through our time of testing. Again, The lords prayer is a type of outline. It is to help us understand how to pray. It’s a model prayer!
Our next bullet point was to be persistent. Perhaps, persistence is one of the disciplines that is hard for a Christian. Is it is difficult to wait an unanswered prayer, according to this model prayer is good for us to continue in seeking. Jesus wants us to continue and pursue to make this point we have the following parable. It’s a very simple parable about a man who goes to his neighbor and asks for some bread. Initially, the man that was awakened was unwilling to help, because it was too late. The man said that everyone was in bed. The lights are off and everyone’s in bed. I’m not going to give you anything! verse eight, tells us that the man will get out of bed to help his neighbor, just because he’s tired and wants to go back to bed. because of this guys shameless persistence he will ultimately get what he needs. For us, we are to continue to knock and keep knocking, and because of this persistence we will get what we need. Then, we find in verses nine and 10 the following:
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you;(A) seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
So, we are to be persistent in our prayers. Sometimes, we ask and we ask again, but we get discouraged when our answer does not seem to come.
Most of us even murmur I am complain, but We have to remember that our time is not the lords time. When we think it’s too late He is right on time.
Shameless persistence is the key. Don’t just ring the doorbell and run. Pray until you have prayed it through. Sometimes we just state something and it hasn’t even sank in our own heart, but if we pray from the heart God will hear and answer our prayers. The presence of the Lord is awesome! A breakthrough in prayer means to meet with the Lord. Sometimes, it’s great to be on the fathers lap!
Finally, we have came to the third and final bullet point in this lesson and that is the object of prayer. To explain this a little further let’s re-read it Luke chapter 11 verses 11 through 13.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
You see, the object of our prayer can always be God? We have some bizarre objects in these verses. These verses look at the object of our our heavenly father versus our earthly fathers. We see, that our earthly fathers have been corrupted by sin. However, when a good earthly father is asked by his child for something he binds over backwards to grant thier wish. A good earthly father always gives his children what they need. But in comparison, here is God, who has not been corrupted by sin, but is full of love, full of compassion, and full of wisdom. Our Creator God, what’s the best for each of us. This scripture says that we know
Our fathers have been corrupted by sin; therefore, they are not perfect! On the other hand, Parents realize that they love their children so much that they would do anything for them. So, if God is your father; realize the magnitude of his love!The ones that God calls his children -he looks out for them and goes the extra mile for them.
Woe To those who are not the children of God. – for they miss out on a more abundant life.
Woe to those who reject Jesus Christ!
Woe to those who die in their sins! For their fate is sealed and hell is their reward!
Would you please make Jesus Christ your choice today? Would you join the family of God today? Would you please be saved and sealed today?
Verse 13 is very important, because we find it in other scriptures in the Bible. For example, Matthew repeats it in chapter 7 which is the sermon on the mount. Matthew explains it so much better than I do so let’s read his account.
Matthew 6:11
“11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts(A) to those who ask him!”
For those that do not have godly earthly fathers aren’t we glad we serve a heavenly father; that is not corrupted by sin? He is never in a hurry, he is never mean, he is always loving, and ready to react on our behalf. It is always worth it; to go to God and pray. Hallelujah! We will find nothing but love there and he never rejects us! Knowing the character of God is important, because this draws us to him. For example, I would never go to my earthly father as a child, because he was not reliable, but I’m thankful that I have a heavenly father that desires of a relationship with me. Knowing this, it makes me run to place in prayer, because I love being in the presence of the Lord. so today, I understand that our heavenly father has absolute love for us. Understand his character so that you will want to commune with him. Tell all of your concerns to the father, because he is ready and willing to listen. Not only will he listen but he will react on our behalf. Prayer is our life line!
Let me end with a final thought for today!
Let’s just not do prayer, because it’s a religious thing to do. I don’t just want to say prayers, because it’s a religious exercise. For example, at many functions, I am now asked to say a prayer, but sometimes I would like for them to say a prayer, because we are supposed to call out to God from the depths of our heart. We are not to say a prayer just because it’s the right thing to do or because it’s scheduled! Prayer is supposed to be a cry of the heart. Prayer is supposed to be desired by the Christian, because we want a relationship with him. Prayer is not just an exercise!! prayer is not just a discipline that we practice! Prayer is communicating directly with our God!
