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August 12, 2001
Pentecost 10
Luke 11:1-13
Pastor Joel Zank

Lord, Teach Us To Pray!

(Luke 11:1-13) One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."2 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 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'"5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for 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!"

In Christ Jesus from whom and through whom we have the ability to pray, dear fellow redeemed,

How's your prayer-life these days? Do you pray often? Do you pray for the right things and with the right attitude? Are your prayers being heard? Are they being answered? If you're thinking that your prayer-life isn't everything that is should be, you're not alone. I say that, because among the best selling books in our country these days is a book entitled "The Prayer of Jabez." During the past year alone, more than seven and a half million people have purchased this "how to" book about prayer.

Wanting a better prayer-life is nothing new. Today we find Jesus' first disciples expressing this same desire, but rather than wasting their time with a "how to" book, the disciples go to the "Master of Prayer" himself, the Lord Jesus. Let us follow their example and make their words our own as we pray this day: "Lord, Teach Us To Pray." Teach us to pray for the proper things and in the proper way.

From the four gospels we learn that our Savior had an active prayer-life. He spent many hours in prayer with his Heavenly Father. His disciples must have had many opportunities to listen to these perfect prayers and in doing so, must have become painfully aware of the weaknesses of their own prayer-life. They wanted their prayers to be more like those of Jesus. So who better to teach them to pray than Jesus? Jesus answered their request for help by giving them the words of a prayer-not necessarily a prayer to memorize and use by rote, but a model prayer to help guide and shape all their future requests of God.

These words of our text, often referred to as the Lord's Prayer, appear in an expanded form in Matthew 6, indicating that Jesus did not always pray this prayer using the same words, but he did follow a prayer pattern. We will want to do the same, understanding that we put the Savior's prayer to good use, not just when we are repeating his words, but even more so when we use them as a guide or template for all our prayers.

As we look at this model prayer, Jesus teaches us that the first aspect of praying for proper things is knowing whom we are addressing in prayer, how it is that we can talk to him and why we want to. All this is accomplished with one word, "Father."

What a revealing "word" this is! Do you realize that our failure to pray as we should springs from our sinful roots? By reason of our birth as sinners, we once viewed God as the "enemy." We came into this world with a natural hatred for God. The last thing we wanted to do was acknowledge any dependence on him by turning to him prayer. And even now, after his grace has found us and made us his people, even now the sin that clings to us threatens to hinder our prayers.

No doubt you've experienced this for yourself. At times a sinful spirit of fierce independence keeps us from praying. In our pride we don't think we need or want God's help. We regard prayer as an emergency measure to be employed only when all else fails. At other times, we don't turn to God because there is some sin that we are cherishing in our heart, something we are doing or thinking that is contrary to God's will for us and we know it. The last person we want to talk to is the holy God who condemns our sins and who refuses to listen to the impenitent. And, then, when his righteous anger over our sin and his threat to punish us in hell cause us to see our sins for the deadly, damning things they really are, we again fail to go to God in prayer, now because of feelings of great unworthiness. How true are the words of Isaiah the prophet: "Your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not listen" (Isaiah 59:2).

Sin is the great prayer-barrier. Where there is sin, there cannot be prayer. But Jesus smashes the barrier of sin completely with one word, the word "Father." For with this one word Jesus reminds us of all that God has done to reconcile us to himself in Christ. God removed from us wretched people the sin that made us his enemies by charging the guilt of our sin to Jesus and punishing him for it in our place. God has changed our status completely by taking the holy life his Son lived on earth and declaring it our very own. Through Jesus, through the blood he shed for us and the righteousness he earned for us, God declares us sinners forgiven. He regards us as saints; and he invites us to come before him in prayer as his dear children. This is the Bible's good news for us, news that Jesus has won us a place in the family of a Father who loves to hear from his children. This is the good news that prayers are made of. So if you wish you were doing a better job of talking with God in prayer, you will want to begin by doing a better job of listening to the promises he makes to you in his Word. These promises will not only inspire you to pray more often, they will shape the very content of your prayers as well.

God's saving promises have given us new spiritual life. This life will become the focus of our prayers. Look at Jesus' model prayer. He teaches us five requests to make of God (seven in Matthew's Gospel). Notice that of all these requests only one is for material blessings, and even this request is phrased in such a way that we are asking God to teach our spirits to depend on him completely. For we pray, "Give us each day our daily bread." We're asking God to grant us all our physical needs but only on a daily basis so that in the abundance of our material possessions we do not forget where they come from. All the other requests in Jesus' prayer are for spiritual blessings; and notice that none of them is born of selfishness. You'll never find the words I, or me, or mine in the entire prayer-not that it is wrong to pray for self, but in this model prayer Jesus teaches us to pray for all people.

For example, in the first two petition Jesus teaches us to pray for the spiritual welfare of all people: "...hallowed be your name, your kingdom come." The Lord's saving name is "hallowed," that is "kept holy" when we share it with the unbelievers of our world. As they hear the good news about Jesus' sacrifice for their sins, the Holy Spirit works faith in their hearts and God's kingdom of grace comes to them.

In the last petitions of his prayer Jesus shows us how to pray for our fellow believers, asking that God grant all of us forgiveness for all our sins and with his forgiveness, work in us all a loving and forgiving heart so that our hatred does not destroy the peace God has established between us and him in Christ. At the same time we pray that God keep us from temptation so that sin does not regain a foothold in our lives and rebuild the barrier that could separate us from God for all eternity

Jesus teaches us the best and most proper things for which to ask of our God in prayer. But he does not stop there. When we petition him, "Lord, Teach Us To Pray," the Savior also shows how to ask for these good blessings in the proper way

Jesus does this by means of a parable: "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs" (vv. 5-7).

By these words Jesus teaches us to pray with bold persistence when we ask our God for his blessings. Such persistence will pay off! If an unwilling human being can be persuaded to wake up his entire household in order to give a petitioner whatever he needs, not because that person is his friend, but because he is persistent, how much more won't a willing Heavenly Father give what is needed to his persistent children on earth. Christian, go back to God with your requests again and again. Be bold in your prayers! Remember, you are going in the name of Jesus, by his merits and by his urging. For his sake you will be heard and for his sake you will be answered. That's what Jesus says: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (vv. 9-10).

You see, the proper way to pray is not only persistently but also confidently. "Ask," "seek," "knock" these are all metaphors for prayer. And when Jesus says, "It will be given to you...you will find,...and the door will be opened," this his triple assurance that every one of your prayers will receive an answer from God; and not any old answer, but the best answer; and it will come at the best time. Perhaps there have been occasions when you have thought that your prayers have gone unheard or unanswered, but that has never been the case. You may not have gotten what you asked for when you asked for it, but if that's true, you got something better: God's answer. For as Jesus points out in the closing verses of our study, if we who are sinners, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father in heaven give the best gift of all to his children, the gift of his Holy Spirit!

When your children ask for good things, you don't give them something harmful instead do you? Our Father in heaven has already demonstrated the greatest love of all for us. He gave us the Savior from sin at a time when we had no love for the Father and no desire to be saved. What confidence this brings to our prayer-life. As Paul says in Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all??how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"

Friends, today our Savior has answered our prayer. He has taught us how to pray. What he has for us in these verses is better than anything you will find in any "how to" book on prayer anywhere. I've looked at some of those books, including the one I mentioned earlier, "The Prayer of Jabez." If you have in mind to read this book, do so with a discerning eye. Its theology is misleading and dangerous because it says things about prayer that Scripture does not say, while it fails to mention things that God wants us to know about prayer. Please understand that your prayer-life will not be improved by repeating someone else's prayer or by trying to pray with more conviction or loyalty of heart. It will be improved only by God's Holy Spirit as God gives him to you through Word and sacrament, assuring you through these blessed means that you are God's dear child and he is your dear Father who is ready, willing and waiting to hear and answer your every prayer, always for Jesus' sake. Amen.