Transcript
“Lord, teach us to pray.” An unusual thing to hear a group of devout Jewish men say to the rabbi they’re following because they think he’s the Messiah. They must know how to pray, right? They, like any devout Jew in the first century, prayed regularly, at prescribed hours, with recited prayers or blessings, like the Shema. They also prayed in times of need, but they weren’t so much free-form praying as they were reciting what was their liturgy. They knew how to pray.
But Jesus’ prayers didn’t look like theirs. They often observed him go off to a quiet place to pray. Imagine them looking over at him and noticing how different his prayer posture was. First, he’s praying for a long time! And it doesn’t look like he’s just reciting Scripture. There are moments when he’s clearly praying boldly and with authority, and yet there are moments of intimacy, when he’s clearly silent and actually appears to be listening to God speaking to him! What’s happening in Jesus’ prayer time that looks so different from their prayer life? It’s no wonder they ask Jesus to teach them to pray!
In response, Jesus offers them what we call The Lord’s Prayer, which probably all or most of us know by heart. Both Matthew and Luke record this famous prayer. Matthew, who was undoubtedly present when Jesus spoke these words, situates the prayer in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, kind of like the Hit Parade of Jesus’ best teachings.
Luke, who wasn’t present when Jesus spoke these words, but was equally inspired by the Holy Spirit in writing his gospel, situates this prayer in such a way as to create a broader narrative around prayer. Without the chapter breaks that were added later, the Martha/Mary account of Chapter 10 flows right into the Lord’s Prayer, which flows right into the parables of the Persistent Friend and the Good Father. Luke gives us a well-balanced meal on prayer, as he uses this whole section of his gospel to unpack Jesus’ radically new prayer model.
Today I want to talk about prayer. Prayer is quite simply communing with God—with or without using words. The whole point of prayer is to build intimacy and trust with the Lord; and to participate in the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. Prayer is the most central part of our walk with the Lord, yet for many of us, it’s the hardest aspect of our spiritual life.
What is Luke trying to communicate to us about prayer by situating these scenes together? Five things. 6 really. Effective prayer is: persistent, intimate, offered with authority, bold, and shared in community. And all points to a kingdom. “Lord, teach us to pray.”
1.Persistance
If we want to be effective in prayer, it helps to begin by noticing what blocks us from praying. We find a clue to the greatest challenge in our prayer life in Luke 10, where Jesus and his disciples have gathered at Martha’s house for a meal. You remember the story—Martha is super busy getting everything ready, while her sister Mary is quietly sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to him teach.
Read Luke 10:40-41 “But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Jesus and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? / Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Do you see it? Distraction is the enemy to persistence in prayer. Before Luke even offers us the Lord’s Prayer, he tells us what Jesus says is the #1 impediment to prayer—distraction. Martha is distracted because she is worried, botheredabout so many things.
She was distracted, unable to concentrate, because her mind was preoccupied. Think about it—the Son of God was teaching in the adjacent room and her mind was fixed on her to-do list. We do the same thing in prayer – only Jesus—who has saved us from our sin if we’ve put our faith in him— isn’t in the next room. He’s right with us, through his Holy Spirit, and yet we still allow ourselves to be distracted by so many trivial things, unable to set our gaze on him for even a short time of uninterrupted prayer.
By contrast, Mary chooses what Jesus calls the “good part” —to sit quietly at the Lord’s feet, in a posture of listening to his every word. Listening is prayer too! In the verses that follow the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus spends more time describing what persistence in prayer looks like than he does describing what our prayers should sound like, because he knows how distracted we get!
2.Intimacy
We’re so familiar with the Lord’s Prayer that it’s hard to imagine how new, personal, and intimate it sounded to first-century Jewish ears. Shockingly, intimately, Jesus addresses God as Father. This is a radical shift from only addressing God as Yahweh or El Elyon. Mary also approaches Jesus with a spirit of love and intimacy as she listens intently to his every word, undistracted by her own to-do list. Jesus wants us to model Mary’s posture of intimacy; that’s why he tells us not to neglect “the good part.” And this whole section on prayer ends with Jesus inviting our intimacy with the Holy Spirit by telling us to ask the Father to give us the Holy Spirit. Intimacy with the Lord—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is essential if we hope to have a vital prayer life.
3.Authority
Our prayers begin to shift when we believe we have been given authority in Jesus’ name. Looking back at chapter 10 again, Jesus says in verse 19 that he has given us authority to tread on serpents (meaning Satan) and scorpions (meaning the sting of death) and over all the power of the enemy. Did you get that? You are to pray like one who has been given authority over all the forces of evil, sin, and death. Jesus describes what happens in the spiritual realm when we move in the authority he has given us—“I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
That’s what happens when we step into the authority he has given us, and yet how often do we pray from that place of authority? We’re more comfortable praying in conditional phrases—could you, would you—instead of commanding evil to be gone in Jesus’ name. Authority means the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. That authority is what Jesus has given his followers over the powers of evil!
4.Boldness
When Jesus tells us to ask for what we need, he uses three similar phrases—ask, seek, knock—to describe the same thing. This is that ancient literary device we see of often in the Psalms of repeating a concept using different words to drive home a point. The meaning here is to beg, to ask repeatedly, shamelessly for what we need. And ask, seek, and knock are also all in the continuous tense, meaning we are to keep on asking! This is praying with boldness.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’ve prayed over and over for the same thing, I grow weary of praying. But Jesus wants us not to grow weary of praying. He wants us to believe we are called to pray/ask/beg with boldness.
I just want to add a word here—if you’re in a season where prayer words seemed to have dried up, just keep showing up. Sometimes boldness is praying with persistence and authority, and sometimes boldness is sitting quietly before God when you don’t feel much of anything. Remember, prayer doesn’t require words. Often in these dry seasons God is inviting us into a deeper surrender so we can experience him more intimately and without the expectations we so often carry into our prayers.
5.Community
And finally, praying in community is also an important aspect of praying effectively. Did you notice everything in The Lord’s Prayer is plural— our Father, our bread, our sins, we forgive, our temptations? What does Jesus mean to convey by inviting us to pray for our personal needs and yet praying in the plural? His prayer reminds us we exist in community, as the Body of Christ, just as the members of the triune God exist and support one another in loving community. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18 that when we gather together in prayer, the presence of God is especially strong among us. Jesus’ vision was for us to spend significant time praying collectively.
6. What does Kingdom Come Prayer look like?
So that’s a picture of effective prayer when we persist in prayer that’s intimate, steeped in the authority he has given us, bathed in boldness, and frequently shared aloud in the company of the body of Christ.
This whole section on prayer begins with, “Thy kingdom come…” and builds to a final climax in the parable of the Good Father, where returning to the Father theme, Jesus invites us to ask the Father to give us the Holy Spirit. Everything in this entire passage builds to the most ancient prayer of the Church—Come Holy Spirit!
The power behind persisting in effective prayer is the Holy Spirit, and of all the things we could ask God for, chief among them should be fresh infillings of his Holy Spirit. In the parable of the Good Father, the snakes and scorpionsof Chapter 10 reappear, but not as something God would give us. Ours is a Good Father who doesn’t hide from us and won’t give us evil things, only good things.
The Father wants to give us the fresh power, life, and vitality that can be ours through the Holy Spirit. And he wants to give it to us daily! Minute by minute! Holy Spirit is the fuel to our prayer life, and only by his continual infilling will we experience true effectiveness in prayer—his kingdom on earth as in heaven.
Maybe you’re here and you don’t know what it means to receive fresh infillings of the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps even if you’ve been baptized, you don’t know if you’ve ever truly surrendered your life to Jesus. You can settle that today. The most important prayer you could ever pray is to surrender your life to Jesus so he can cleanse you from your sin, fill you with his Holy Spirit, and restore you to a right relationship with the Father.
Would you quiet your hearts with me now in response. Close eyes, maybe hands out – posture of receiving from the Lord. Perhaps you want to ask Jesus to be your Lord and savior. Quietly pray a simple prayer of Sorry, Thank you, Please. I’m sorry Lord for the things I do that are not pleasing to you. Thank you, Jesus, for dying for my sin. Please forgive me, be my Lord, and fill me with your HS. Perhaps you yearn for a fresh filling of the HS. A simple prayer: Come HS.
Let’s just wait in his presence.
