Teach Us To Pray – Part 1
Luke 11:1-13 (1-2a)
March 24, 2019
We now enter a new segment in the gospel of Luke.
It’s the longest segment in Luke’s gospel and it might be called
“The Theology of Jesus”
Luke compiles for us the teaching of Jesus on a variety of subjects.
Things like:
• Demonic activity
• Seeking a Sign
• Hypocrisy
• Blasphemy
• Money
• Arrogance
• And a host of others.
And this segment begins with Jesus teaching about prayer.
Luke records, “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.”
From this we can gather, that
The disciples had observed the prayer life of Jesus
And had no doubt come to the conclusion
That there was much they could learn from Him about it.
We do know, from other passages, that
The very concept of prayer had become distorted in the nation of Israel.
Jesus directly confronted two major issues in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 6:5-6 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
• That was actually the prayer life of the spiritual leaders of Israel.
• They’re praying was more about being noticed than it was honoring God.
• No doubt with them being the teachers, we can assume that their influence had certainly trickled into the culture.
The disciples would have noticed however that
The prayer life of Jesus was nothing like this.
We read:
Luke 5:16 “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”
Luke 6:12 “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.”
It would have been readily apparent to the disciples that the prayer of life of Jesus was in stark contrast to that of the other religious leaders.
• It didn’t seem that Jesus was concerned at all about gaining glory for being such a dedicated prayer.
• Rather, when Jesus prayed, it seemed as though His primary concern was spending time with God.
I’m sure the disciples recognized the contrast and where thus curious.
Jesus also confronted another obviously distorted form of prayer.
Matthew 6:7-8 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
This would have been the example of pagan prayer
That the Jews had also witnessed.
It brings to mind the prayer of the 450 prophets of Baal during that great showdown with Elijah on Mt. Carmel
1 Kings 18:25-29 “So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, “O Baal, answer us.” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they made. It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.” So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.”
It was a pagan practice steeped in superstition.
• They prophets of Baal supposed they could awaken Baal by their continual chanting and even tempt him by leaping upon the altar or appease him through their cultural rituals of cutting themselves.
It was all manipulative in nature.
And no doubt the disciples had witnessed this type of prayer in their day.
People who assumed they could back God into a corner or persuade
Or even tempt Him with their various antics.
Jesus condemned that as an insult to the true God
Who already knows your needs and who is a father to you.
And certainly the prayers of Jesus were not like these.
It could very well be that the disciples were INTRIGUED by the prayer of Jesus, or possibly even CONVICTED
By both the GENUINENESS of His prayer life
And even the EFFECTIVENESS of His prayer life.
After all, JESUS PRAYED OFTEN as we read a moment ago:
Luke 5:16 “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”
And we know that JESUS PRAYED EFFECTIVELY:
John 11:41-42 “So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”
And because of things like this,
The disciples approach Jesus wanting to be taught to pray.
AND THIS IS SO VALUABLE FOR US.
In part because we are commanded to pray.
Ephesians 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,”
Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;”
1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing;”
If we are commanded to pray then certainly we need to learn how to do it.
But even more than that, we know that we serve a God who does in fact answer prayer.
Psalms 65:2 “O You who hear prayer, To You all men come.”
Psalms 18:6 “In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.”
Proverbs 15:29 “The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.”
We would be crazy not to take advantage of this blessing God has given us.
But even more than that, we are also told throughout the Bible how powerful and effective prayer can be.
We remember the intercessory prayer of Moses:
Exodus 32:11-14 “Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”
Amos prayed with similar effect
Amos 7:1-3 “Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord GOD, please pardon! How can Jacob stand,
For he is small?” The LORD changed His mind about this. “It shall not be,” said the LORD.”
Or certainly we remember the promise James reiterated to us:
James 5:17-18 “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”
And of course the entire point of that statement was:
James 5:16b “…The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
It is clear that God answers the prayers of His people.
Jesus made a remarkable statement:
John 14:14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Prayer a very important aspect of the life of the believer.
And because we are commanded to do it,
We greatly appreciate teaching from Jesus telling us how to do it.
A FEW GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
• Nothing is said about timing (when to do it)
• Nothing is said about posture
• Nothing is said about location (though Matthew 6 speaks of privacy)
• Nothing is said about length (though Matthew 6 also denounces the “many
words” theory)
And honestly we see examples with great variety in all these areas.
• You can find prayers in the morning, prayers at noon, prayers all night long.
• You can find people standing, sitting, and laying prostrate in prayer
• You can find people praying in their homes, in the synagogue, in the
wilderness
• You can find both long and short prayers
Those are not the issues that find priority with Jesus
When He sets out to answer this question.
Instead Jesus gives us what has become known as “The Lord’s Prayer”
It’s really not “The Lord’s Prayer”,
I would be more inclined to give that designation to John 17.
What we have here is “The Model Prayer”
Or as it has also been called “The Disciples Prayer”
So the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray and this is His response.
• First a pattern to follow.
• Then a parable to consider.
• And finally a principle to apply.
It will take us a few weeks, but let’s begin this study
As Jesus answers the request: “Lord, teach us to pray”
#1 A PATTERN TO FOLLOW
Luke 11:1-4
Jesus begins His instruction with the answer WHAT TO PRAY
(2) “And He said to them, “When you pray, say:”
At this point I do think there is need for some clarification.
Many have actually taken this prayer and turned it in to
Precisely the type of prayer our Lord said NOT to do.
Jesus told us in Matthew’s gospel
Not to let your prayers be mindless repetition, where you suppose you will be heard because you’re repeating the right words.
Now, that doesn’t mean
I have a problem with people reciting this passage from memory,
(It is Scripture after all.)
I just think it’s important that you understand that
This is NOT some magical statement that if you recite it,
You can automatically receive some sort of blessing or forgiveness.
Rather, this passage is Jesus giving you a guide for the heart.
Consider Matthew’s gospel, and the context he revealed.
• It begins with Jesus confronting the hypocritical prayer of the Pharisees who
pray on street corners so that they will be noticed.
• He then confronts the mindless prayer of the pagan who thinks they’ll be heard
simply because they said specific words.
And after that Jesus says:
Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way…”
It becomes clear that Jesus used this teaching
Not only as a guide for prayer
But also as a direct contradiction to the hypocritical and manipulative types of prayer He routinely saw.
This passage teaches us not only something of the CONTENT of prayer but also of the ATTITUDE of prayer.
It is not hypocritical, but if you simply recite this publicly as a means of impressing others then you’ve actually used this passage in a direct violation of the very reason our Lord preached it.
This prayer is not manipulative, but if you recite it because you think your quoting of it somehow obligates God to give in to your request, then you have also missed the very purpose of it.
What Jesus teaches is far more than just some prayer to recite.
Jesus teaches us about the heart of prayer.
MIGHT I ALSO ADD,
Because I think it’s important, and because I think there has been some confusion regarding the issue in recent years.
It’s no secret that charismatic theology has made inroads into Christianity.
• Part of this theology includes what has commonly been referred to as a
“private prayer language”.
• It is referred to as speaking in an unknown tongue or a “heavenly
language”.
• It is supposedly for the greater blessing of the individual who experiences it,
• Done without cognitive understanding,
• Just in blind faith that whatever language I am speaking is both coming from
God and is at the same time honoring to Him and pleasing to Him.
I certainly do not believe this to be of God, and I think in a confrontation of such practices one must consider this passage.
Here the disciples specifically ask Jesus to teach them how to pray,
And Jesus lays out a sensible, coherent, clear example of prayer.
He says nothing regarding anything mystical or confusing or incoherent.
Here we find prayer according to Jesus.
It is also easy to see a simple division in this pattern He gives.
• The first 3 elements point upward toward God.
• The last 3 elements point outward and include our fellow man (“our”)
But just for simple understanding,
Let’s work through this tremendous pattern Jesus gave us
And learn something of prayer.
There are 6 elements here that we can learn, let’s start looking at them this morning.
1) THE FOUNDATION FOR PRAYER (2a)
The foundation for prayer is found in the very first word.
“Father”
It is the title by which Jesus teaches us to address God.
You should know that this was a revolutionary thing for Jesus to teach.
Jews understood God to be the Father of Israel, or the Father of their nation, but it was UNHEARD OF for any of them to personally refer to God as their own Father.
In fact, the youth will recognize this passage:
John 5:18 “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”
It was unheard of to the Jews that Jesus would refer to God as His Father,
And certainly the notion that He would also teach His followers
To refer to God as Father would have been unheard of.
And yet, this is precisely what Jesus taught…over and over and over
Matthew 6:8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
Matthew 6:18 “so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
Mark 11:25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”
John 20:17 “Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'”
It wasn’t just that Jesus referred to God as His Father,
But He also taught His disciples to address God as their Father.
And not only that, but in the Aramaic (which they would have spoken)
The word would have been “Abba”,
Denoting a very intimate relationship. It would be akin to our English word “Daddy”
Mark 14:36 “And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”
Romans 8:15 “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Galatians 4:6 “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
The first thing Jesus taught His disciples about prayer is that
When they address God, they are addressing their Father or Dad.
From a theological sense you need to understand why.
John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,”
The reason we can be are allowed to address God as a Father or a dad
Is because we are “in Christ”.
NOW CERTAINLY SOME HAVE TRIED TO UNIVERSALIZE THIS IDEA
There is truth to the fact that because God is creator of all,
That in a sense, we are all His children. That is true.
Paul says in:
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.’”
We are all children of God in the sense that He created us all,
And we were all formed in His image.
But only believers are children in an intimate sense.
Only believers who are in Christ, refer to Him as their dad.
In fact, Jesus said:
John 8:42-44 “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Paul noted:
Romans 9:8 “That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.”
But as those are in Christ.
Who through His righteousness and atonement have been adopted into the family, Jesus tells us to approach God as our Father.
• Not some distant Lord
• Not some uncaring Master
• Not some domineering General
But rather Jesus tells us to approach God as a Father.
And this will PROVE IMPORTANT later in the text.
Luke 11:11-13 “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? “If you then, being 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?”
Much of what we must understand about prayer
Is rooted in the fact that when we pray we are approaching a Father
Who loves us and cares for us and who gives good gifts to us.
In Christ, we have been made His children,
And the love He has for us is the love that a Father has for a child;
Indeed we partake in the love the Father has for Christ.
If we can approach our earthly fathers with confidence that they will grant our requests, how much more can we approach our heavenly Father?
Since as Jesus points out, our earthly fathers are evil,
And our heavenly Father is good.
This is the foundation.
• When we pray, we are approaching One who loves us intimately.
• One who has adopted us by His sovereign grace.
• One who has atoned for us through His Son.
• One who has accepted us in Christ.
• One who delights in us.
• One who is committed to our good.
• One who has made plans to prosper us and not to harm us.
As Jesus first instructs the disciples regarding prayer
He wipes out any notion of a distant unconcerned God
Jesus reveals a Father.
Grab that first.
That’s the foundation for prayer.
Now, you do recognize that Luke does not include the phrase “who is in heaven”,
But it is clearly understood in the fact that we are praying.
After the foundation of prayer, we can move to the second reality Jesus addresses.
2) THE CHIEF MOTIVE FOR PRAYER (2b)
“hallowed be Your name”
This is also so important to our understanding of prayer.
Let me ask you, what is the purpose of prayer?
Why do you pray?
• Is it to impress others like the Pharisees did?
• Is it to manipulate God into action like the pagans did?
• Is it born out of some selfish lust like James talked about?
James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
• Is it just done sort of robotic basically because it’s something you’re supposed to do?
• Is it for the purpose of accomplishing something, even spiritual tasks?
WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW THE CHIEF MOTIVE BEHIND PRAYER?
THE GLORY OF GOD.
John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
The primary motive for prayer is a desire to see God glorified.
In one sense we glorify Him simply in the action of prayer.
• Praying to Him insinuates submission and reliance and need, and certainly that is glorifying.
But ultimately the motive behind our prayer is that
God may be glorified through what is accomplished.
In short, we are primarily asking for that which will glorify God.
Consider this prayer of our Lord:
John 12:27-28 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
• There Jesus prayed regarding the cross,
• But the prayer wasn’t to skip the cross so that He might have a longer life.
• The prayer was that God would be glorified, and if the cross was the means of
that glory, then so be it.
His prayer was for God to be glorified.
And this runs true for us even in the remaining requests of this prayer.
• We see things like “Your kingdom come”
• Or “give us each day our daily bread”
• Or “forgive us our sins”
• Or “lead us not into temptation”
But do you suppose we primarily pray those things for our own benefit?
And the answer is “no”.
It is true that we do benefit from those things, BUT THE PRIMARY MOTIVE of the prayer is not my enjoyment, it is God’s glory.
• That He is glorified in the growth of His kingdom.
• That He is glorified in the provision of His people.
• That He is glorified in the exercise of His mercy.
• That He is glorified in the righteousness of His people.
That is the chief motive behind our prayers, that God is glorified.
“hallowed” there is HAGIAZO
It is primarily the word used for “sanctification”
It means to be “set apart as holy”
And this is the reason for our prayer,
That God’s great name might be set apart and magnified.
Consider Moses’ intercessory prayer for a moment.
TURN TO: EXODUS 32:7-14
Now, because I know you’re likely curious, don’t fall into the trap that God here was hot headed and Moses calmed Him down and changed His mind. Not at all.
What you’re seeing here is God moving Moses to intercede.
But beyond that,
• You see that God told Moses He was about to annihilate the entire nation.
• And Moses interceded.
But notice the motive behind his prayer.
Moses’ only appeal is on the basis of the glory of God.
(12) “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, “With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth?”
Moses’ chief concern at the moment is the reputation of God.
His primary motive for that prayer was NOT the deliverance of the people,
It was the glory of God.
Consider the prayer of Daniel which he prayed in Babylon.
We’re going to consider it in much greater detail later, but let me show you simply the last part of it now.
Daniel 9:17-19 “So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. “O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
Did you catch that?
• “for Your sake”
• Because this city “is called by Your name”
• “For Your own sake”
• “because Your city and Your people are called by Your name”
The reason for his prayer was NOT
That his people might live more comfortable lives.
The reason for his prayer WAS that God might be glorified in his faithfulness and mercy toward Israel.
Or Elijah’s prayer on Mt. Carmel:
1 Kings 18:36-37 “At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word. “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.”
It was all about the glory of God.
Many times our prayer life is more about our own personal comfort
Or even our own fleshly lusts than it is the glory of God.
James nailed us pretty good when he said:
James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
We have a propensity to go to God praying for food and clothing and healing and safety and any other number of things,
But our primary motive is typically so that we will be comfortable.
And yet when Jesus prayed,
He prayed for the things which brought God glory.
“I see the cross, and I’m not about to pray to be saved from it. I’m going to pray that God would glorify Himself through it!”
In His great high priestly prayer, in John 17,
• He prays for things like protection from the enemy, for sanctification for His
people.
• That His people would have the common life that is in the Father and the Son.
• That His people would be granted to see His glory.
But why did He pray all those things?
Because He wanted us to have more comfortable lives?
Look at the end of the prayer:
John 17:25-26 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
It’s all so that through us the Father might be known.
The world doesn’t know Him.
The world doesn’t glorify Him.
Jesus prays that we will be set apart and sanctified and unified in common life so that the world will know the Father and glorify Him.
THIS IS THE CHIEF MOTIVE FOR PRAYER
That more than anything God’s name might be hallowed.
So we pray for His kingdom to come
• Not just because we are put out with our current government, but because we long for Him to be glorified as the reigning king.
We pray for daily bread,
• Not because we want the comfort of provision, but so that God may be glorified as our ever constant and faithful provider.
We pray for forgiveness of sins,
• So that God may be glorified as a merciful Savior.
We pray for deliverance from temptation,
• So that we not fall into sin and profane the name of our God.
Everything about our prayer life is primarily motivated by the glory of God
It is why we exist: SOLI DEO GLORIA
The Glory of God Alone
SO IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO PRAY AS JESUS PRAYED,
And if you want to follow His example, we find valuable insight here.
THE FOUNDATION OF PRAYER – that we appeal to One who is a Father
THE CHIEF MOTIVATION FOR PRAYER – that God’s name might be set apart and hallowed
We’ll continue on next time.
