This week I got to give the following talk twice on Tuesday for our church's mid-week services. I was also going to give it again on Thursday but the nursing home was in shut down mode due to some outbreak and there being a need to reduce the risk of infections for something. I'm sure that sounds cooler than what is going on.
Due to not having much notice, I cut down an old talk I gave in 2008. Below is a condensed version of that talk, with minor updates to deal with the NIV11 text.
J.C. Ryle (who I am a bit of a fan) once said:
I cannot see your heart. I do not know your private history in spiritual things. But from what I see in the Bible and in the world I am certain I cannot ask you a more necessary question than that before you - Do you pray?[1]So do you pray?
Is there a more important question that I can ask you today?
Do you pray?
Ryle argues that if you see someone praying you may not be able to tell if they are a Christian because there is such a thing as hypocritical prayer. But he says if someone doesn’t pray it is clear proof that they are not yet a Christian[2].How can you call God your friend if you don't talk to him?
Prayer is an important task for believers to do. It shows that they have faith in God. It shows firstly that they believe in a God and secondly they trust that He can answer their prayers.
So do you pray?
The main point (v1)
In the passage that we that today Jesus encourages us to always pray and to not give up. In fact, that is how this parable opens, verse one:
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give upHere Jesus is talking to the disciples and right at the start of this passage Luke tells us the whole meaning of the parable. He has given the punch line away.
This makes my job a bit easier.
The whole point of this parable is so that we always pray and we are not to give up praying.
Two Characters (v2-3)
Now let’s look at how Jesus makes His point. Verse 2 and 3:
He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
So Jesus is tells a story with two characters.
The first character was this nasty old judge that didn't care about God - or anyone else. The other character in this story was a poor widow who kept asking the nasty old judge for justice.
Normally back in those days, the courts were for men[3]. This lady didn't have a man she knew to defend her nor any money for legal representation. Her only chance for justice was for her to plead her case before the judge and hopefully, he would listen to her. But what chance did she have?
She had no money, no man to defend her and on the bench sat a bad judge who didn’t care about God or what people thought.
This mean old judge reacts to this poor widow’s request in verses 4 and 5:
"For some time [the judge] refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!'"
The heartless judge refuses to listen to the widow... well... at least for a while.
The widow’s persistence (v4-5)
The unjust judge eventually gives in and grants her justice for the ever so noble reason of: getting her off his back. She would come at him time and time again asking for justice, the judge was worn out from her persistence and it frustrated him. He granted her justice just so she would stop bothering him.
The widow’s shameless insistent cries to the judge has him feeling like he is going to get a black eye from the force of her requests. This poor widow was able to defeat this all-powerful, selfish judge by the weight and the force of her constant requests[4].
So, what is the point of the story? If we pester God enough, He will reluctantly give in?
Listen to the judge (v6-8a)
No, let’s see what Jesus draws out of this story; verse 6 to 8:
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly…"
Jesus tells us to focus on the judge and what he says.
Now the judge said in verse 4 and 5 "I don't care for God or what people think yet since this lady keeps bothering me I will still grant her request, so I can get some rest." How is that the take-home message?
Why does Jesus want us to focus on that bit, so that we will always pray and not give up?
In verse 7 Jesus draws a contrast between this unjust judge and God. Jesus moves from a lesser example to a bigger example. In this case we have a lesser example of the unjust, heartless, indifferent judge who grants justice reluctantly, and the greater example of our God who is not unjust, heartless or indifferent.
God is bigger and better than this unjust judge, how much more will God answer our cries?
God does care about us
This judge granted justice not because he had a reverent fear of God or because he cared about others, but because of selfish motives.
How much more will God grant us justice since he is God and does care about us?
God is already inclined to help us. This is the main meaning of the story.
We should pray because of who God is. We shouldn’t pray because we think we can control God, or because we think it will get us into heaven.
We are to pray always because God is just and is interested in us.
So, do we always pray and not give up?
What do we know about God?
I think we may struggle from time to time with praying to God, because we fail to remember who God is.
Up to this point I have been saying that God loves us and is interested in us. But why do I say this? Is it just a feeling, or a nice hopeful idea that I wish was true? No, I say this on the basis of looking at the historical Jesus who died on the cross and rose again after three days.
Luke, in this book that we are looking at, writes an orderly account of Jesus’ life so that we may believe in Him (Luke 1:1-4). The same guy who is telling us to pray always, is the same guy who died to forgive our sins. In fact when Jesus said this parable he was already on His way to Jerusalem (Luke 17:11) where he knowing was going to his death.
We even see later in this same chapter that Jesus knew and predicted that he was going to die and rise again (Luke 18:31-33). And then after all that he said would happen happened, at the end of this book, we see that Jesus showed people His pierced hands and feet to verify what he said was true(Luke 24:38-40).
Jesus took our place and punishment from God, so that we can be seen as right and clean before God. This is the God that we pray to.
Our God saved us from death and His wrath.
Our God adopts us as His chosen children.
While we were still sinner and far off, God made a way for us to be brought near to Him. God has removed all obstacles on His side for us to pray to Him. He then asks and encourages us to do so.
God says “Bring it on, cry out to me day and night. I want to hear your prayers.”[5] And you know what? God doesn’t get worn out by our requests, you can’t do it. You can’t wear God out. God is keen to hear from us.
Verse 7 says that God sees us as His chosen ones, His elect. God knows who His church is; in fact God picked the believers out.
He chose them.
God is not indifferent to us, like the unjust judge towards the widow. When we call on God He knows who we are. We are not strangers to Him. He has adopted us as His chosen children. He doesn’t have to ask who is calling, He recognises our voice.
God does love us and is interested in us.
Quick justice
Next Jesus says God will grant us justice and quickly.
Now I struggled with this bit in the passage as we are told to constantly, persistently pray to God and yet it says here that God will give us justice quickly. If God answered us quickly, then would there even be a need for us to be persistent?
Wouldn’t all our prayers be answered after our first request and so there is no need for us to be so relentless or insistent?
But I think verse 8 is saying that God will grant His chosen ones justice and when he does, when it comes, it will be quick. It will be like a twinkle in an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52), like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42-44), unexpected and fast. We may think that God’s timing is always late, but he is always on time.
God is on a different timetable than us.
Jesus leaves us a challenge at the end of verse 8:
…However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"Jesus asks if He will find faith when He returns. When He comes back.
Our duty
It is our duty to pray. We should to do it. Pray and faith stand and fall together. Jesus says the mark of His chosen ones are the ones that pray- those that cry out to God day and night.
Do you believe and trust Jesus in your everyday life? What would demonstrate this?
I would say consistent prayer would.
Now I don’t want to guilt you into praying, I want to encourage you to see that God has allowed you to pray to Him. This passage is an encouragement as it wants you to see who you are praying to.
You are praying to God, who has saved you from death, who has chosen you. God who has allowed you to approach Him. God who wants to hear your prayers.
Now, I’m not an expert in prayer, in fact at the start of this year I installed an app on my phone to remind me to pray and even then, I am not that good at listening to the alerts.
Prayer is private so no one may notice it. Since no one notices it (besides God) it may well get neglected.
Pray is hard and we come up with all sorts of excuses not to do it. We may even use our own theology as an excuse. We may say to ourselves that God is sovereign so why should we pray in the first place?
But isn’t because God is sovereign that we do pray? For if He wasn't, what good would prayer do? This passage tells us that God will give us justice. He couldn’t do that unless he was sovereign. It is a Christian’s duty to rely on God and to praise Him. It is something we should do, always.
Prayer is time well spent. This widow was able to convince an unjust man to act, how much more will our prayers be heard by our loving and caring God?
No one can pray your prayers for you, in the same way, no one can eat your own food for you[6]. You have to do it for yourself.
Do you have a set time to pray every day? If not, maybe you should think about when you could do that every day. There is no magical or special time of the day for prayer, God is ready anytime to listen to you.
Pray always and do not give up
We are to pray and to not give up.
This is the kind of faith that the widow had. This is the kind of faith that we are to have.
Do you cry out to God day and night?
Are you persistent in prayer?
When things look hopeless will you stand in your faith and pray to God?
It the duty of God’s chosen people to persistently cry out to Him day and night.
There are countless things that we can pray to God about, and He wants to hear them.
Some good advice I have heard is that if you feel prompted to pray, then do it; right then and there[7]. There is nothing greater or more worthy thing to do than to pray. If you put it off, you may very well forget.
Remember the widow who conquered an indifferent and unjust man by her persistence.
If an unjust judge responds how much more will our loving and caring God respond?
God is not like the unjust judge. His is not disinterested in us.
Please people, don’t listen to me; listen to Jesus: always pray and do not give up.
[1] J.C Ryle A Call to Prayer. This really challenged me and shaped most of this talk.
[2] Ibid
[3] John MacArthur said this in his sermon Persistent Prayer for the Lord’s Return. I think John overemphasise the second coming in this passage, but give good insight into the historical setting of this parable.
[4] I got this point from John MacArthur in his sermon Persistent Prayer for the Lord’s Return
[5] Santo Garofalo said this in Keep Believing and Praying (link seems to be dead now)
[6] This analogy came from JC Ryle in A Call to Prayer
[7] Joel R. Beeke in The Great Obstacles to Sanctification: Fighting Prayerlessness and Pride
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