Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #42
Jesus and the Prayer Lesson – Luke 11

Introduction: Lincoln praying.

Abraham Lincoln liked to tell the story about his own prayer life. It started with two Quakers who were in spirited discussion concerning himself and Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. The first said, “I think Mr. Jefferson will win this war,” “Why dost thee think so?” “Because Jefferson is a praying man.” “Yes, but so also is Mr. Lincoln a praying man.” “Yes, that’s true,” answered the first, “but the Lord hearing Mr. Lincoln will think that is just telling another joke.”

The Stories of great Christian heroes are also stories of great prayer.

DAVID BRAINERD, missionary to the North American Indians, 1718–1747, declared, “Lord to thee I dedicate myself. Oh, accept of me, and let me be Thine forever. Lord, I desire nothing else; I desire nothing more.”

THOMAS À KEMPIS, 1349–1471, said, “Give what Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt. See me where Thou wilt, and deal with me in all things as Thou wilt.”

DWIGHT L. MOODY implored, “Use me, then, my Savior, for whatever purpose and in whatever way Thou mayest require. Here is my heart, an empty vessel, fill it with Thy Grace.”

In the early days of the Republic, a stranger once asked at Congress how he could distinguish Washington. He was told, “You can easily distinguish him when Congress goes to prayer. Washington is the gentleman who kneels.”

“I have so fixed the habit of prayer in my mind that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without asking God’s blessing, never seal a letter without putting a word of prayer under the seal, never take a letter from the post without a brief sending of my thoughts heavenward, never change my classes in the lecture-room without a minute’s petition for the cadets who go out and for those who come in.” – quoting Stonewall Jackson, E. M. Bounds in Purpose in Prayer,

Prayer is important, prayer is fundamental, prayer is vital, prayer is essential, prayer is foundational, prayer is indispensable for us as Christians and as the body of Christ here in Athens, Texas. We would all agree with these statements and yet, we don’t pray as we should do we. Not as individuals and certainly not as a church. Prayer is the key to succeeding as a child of God, but we don’t pray as we should nor as often as we should.

Yet we know that Jesus prayed. in fact He is the greatest example of praying and the proof of the need for prayer. Jesus prayed at every major crisis point in His life. He prayed at the time of His baptism, and at the time of the choosing of His disciples. He was often alone praying and he invited his disciples to prayed with Him. He prayed for those he loved, like Peter, and He prayed in the garden before His betrayal. He most powerfully prayed on the cross when He prayed “Father, forgive them. If Jesus so needed to pray during His earthly ministry how much more then should we understand our own need to pray while we, the church, continue His ministry now that He is gone.

One of His disciples seeing and hearing Jesus pray and realizing how important prayer was to Him, asked Jesus to teach us to pray.

Taught by the Teacher Luke 11:1-4

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.

Lord, Teach Us To Pray

We are not told who this disciple was and for us that is probably good. This unnamed disciple stands in for us all asking the Lord, teach us to pray. The Bible is God’s Word and it is a supernatural book, a revealing of the will, the attributes, the character and the teaching of the Lord. We were not there that day personally ask the Master to teach us to pray but by the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit's work through the Gospel writers we can be there and hear the lesson about prayer that Jesus taught that day.  Nothing is lost in the time or translation, for God's Word is as preserved as pure truth and is as dynamic in our ears today as it was in the ears of those who listened to Him 2000 years ago.

So, we must ask ourselves, “Am I willing to learn from Jesus Himself this morning? “ Will I listen with an open mind and an open heart as the Lord teaches me how to pray? Here is what Jesus taught then and what Jesus is teaching today.

 A Platform for Prayer – Luke 11:2-4

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.  Give us day by day our daily bread. 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.

The Model Prayer

I know that I don’t have to tell you that this is and the very similar teaching in Matthew 6 is not the “Lord's prayer.”  He did not pray it to His Father, nor would Jesus ever have needed to ask for forgiveness. There are many prayers of the in the Bible and the one most deserving of that title would be in John 17, when Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before his arrest and crucifixion.

This is not really a prayer, but is a lesson about prayer.  It is a framework upon which we should build our own personal prayers.  It is very simple in construction, as any framework should be and it leaves room for us to raise up our own house of prayer where we can meet with God.

That’s look first at the entrance.

The Door of Relation

Our Father which art in heaven

The first thing that we see is that this prayer is to Our Father in Heaven. The Father is who we are sending our prayer to and Heaven is the address where He sits upon His throne. When Jesus said, “Our Father” he used a child's word for father, equivalent to our word for "daddy" it is the same word used in Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

What this tell us is that there must be a relationship with God before we can enter into effectual prayer. The one praying must be a child of God. They must be saved, redeemed, born again. It also tells us that in prayer and in our life we are to understand God as our “Abba” Father, this means we share a very personal, and intimate relationship with the One who rules and reigns over all the earth.

Jesus is telling us that the tender, close relationship that He shared with the Father is the same relationship we should have with the Father, our Abba in heaven. The closer you are to your Heavenly Father, the more you draw near, trust and share with Him, the more effectual will be your prayers.

There is no real prayer without a real relationship with the One we are praying to.

The next phrase brings us to the next place we journey as we step into our house of prayer. It is a kind of entryway or hall after we have entered through the door of our relationship. It is important but usually it is also the most undeveloped place in our houses of prayer. It’s like walking into a house and finding the walls unpainted, the floor unfinished and the lights missing. It is the entry of Adoration.

 The Entry of Adoration

Hallowed be thy name.

Jesus in his lesson on prayer teaches the disciples to praise the Father. He uses the words, "Hallowed be Thy name." 

So, what exactly does this mean?  Is it just a phrase which we repeat in order to make sure our prayer is going to be heard?  Is it just a rote repetition, No or course not, it is meant to be a part of the model upon which our own prayers are to be constructed.

The word "Hallowed" is the verb form of the word holy. In the Greek it is ἅγιος hagios; which means something that inspires awe, something sacred and pure. Here in the model prayer it is an acknowledgment of the holiness, the sanctity of God's name and thereby God Himself. The phrase in our model for prayer is a place for worship and praise to the One we are praying to.

In our own prayers this place is often absent.

We are so programmed to ask things from God in prayer that we neglect to spend time with God in prayer.  To praise God is to honor Him, to commune with Him, and render to Him what is due as the Creator of the Universe, and as our Father in heaven. It is to acknowledge the only One who can intervene  through time and eternity to help us.

Examples of praise and prayer in the Bible

David - Psalms 86:7-10 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. 8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. 9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.  10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.

Peter and the early church - Acts 4:24 they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:

I have not found a prayer uttered by the saints of God in God’s Word that do are not filled with praise. Praise that precedes and outranks petition.

The Nation of Israel as they came to the Temple.

Psalm 100:1-5  was one of the Psalms that was sang by Israel as they come into the Temple on the Holy Feast Days.

Psalms 100: Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.  Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Prayer means coming into God’s presence and it should be preceded with passionate praise. One day when we stand in the presence of God in heaven, praise will pour from us as the only proper thing in His presence. May we understand that truth in our prayers today.

The Room of Submission

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

The next part of the model prayer is about submission. Jesus constructed it in two sections, God's Kingdom and God's Will.

"Thy kingdom come" had a very real meaning to the disciples of Jesus.  The prophets had promised a kingdom of God ruled by the Messiah.  God's kingdom was first and foremost that promised kingdom. It was not established yet or Jesus would not have told them to pray for it to come. It was however, on its way and would someday be established over all the earth with Jesus Christ as King. This petition would fill the Roman dominated Jew with hope as he endured under the rule of a pagan kingdom.

For us, this is both petition for a coming and an arrived Kingdom of Heaven.t reality. Both a future hope and a present realization. When I pray is there a place in my prayer for the return of Jesus to establish his kingdom, the one that is yet future waiting for His return as King of the World, but also the one that is now possible in the hearts of the lost, in my heart, in my home and in my church.

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is in us.” When salvation comes to a lost soul, then they enter into that coming Kingdom. We should be praying for that coming of the Kingdom as well. Pray for the Kingdom of Heaven that is coming with Jesus and pray for the Kingdom of Heaven that come with believing in Jesus.

Jesus added this qualifier, "Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven." 

In heaven God's will is carried out instantaneously by vast armies of angels. They speed to do His will. That is how God’s will is done in heaven, but angels aren't earthly creatures so who is to do God's will here? We are of course! We are His servants on earth tasked with doing his will.

When I pray like this, how will it affect and change me? Praying in this room of my house of prayer this means I must completely yield myself to God's will and remove my own will. It means submitting my life, my future or my possessions to the will of God. To pray this is to make a vow of personal servitude to God. Every prayer becomes a surrender of myself to God.

Listen to this prayer of dedication by Jonathan Edwards, the preacher who sparked the First Great Awakening that made our nation into a Christian nation.

“I claim no right to myself- no right to this understanding, this will, these affections that are in me; neither do I have any right to this body or its members-no right to this tongue, to these hand, feet, ears or eyes.

I have given myself clear away and not retained anything of my own. I have been to God this morning and told Him I have given myself wholly to Him. I have given Him every power, so that for the future I claim no right to myself in any respect. I have expressly promised Him, for by His grace

I will not fail. I take Him as my whole portion and felicity, looking upon nothing else as any part of my happiness, His law is the rule of my obedience.  I will fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil to the end of my life. I will adhere to the faith of the Gospel, however hazardous and difficult the profession and practice of it may be.

… Henceforth, I am not to act in any respect as my own. I shall act as my own if I ever make use of any of my powers to do anything that is not to the glory of God, or to fail to make the glorifying of Him my whole and entire business.

If … I do anything purely to please myself, or omit anything because it is a great denial: if I trust to myself: if I take any praise for any good which Christ does by me: or if I am in any way proud, I shall act as my own and not God's. I purpose to be absolutely His.  -Jonathan Edwards.

That is what full submission to God is and what praying They Will be Done means.

The next phrase asks God for daily bread.  Certainly this looks to our food which ultimately comes from God, but within the framework of this model prayer it goes much further.  

The Room of Recognition

Give us day by day our daily bread.

Bread was the "staff of life."  It was the most important part of the middle eastern diet. Meat, fresh vegetables and fruit were luxuries at most tables, but bread meant they would not starve.

"Daily bread" is that which is necessary to sustain our lives daily. In prayer it means we trust the promises of God to care for his children and provide for their needs. It does not presume upon tomorrow except to believe that God will as always provide for us once we are there.

This room, in the building of my house of prayer, is more than the simple idea of "daily bread." It is an affirmation of God's promise for the necessities of life, it is recognizing that it is God who gives and sustains life itself.

Manna, was the daily bread of God to his people during Exodus.

Exodus 16:15  And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.

The lesson of the manna to the Israelites was that it showed God's provision and also showed the people their need for faith in Him. God would only provide enough for that day, they had to trust him for tomorrow's provision.

Thanking and praying to God for our daily bread, is an object lesson about God's care for us. The greatest thing isn't the physical bread on the table but learning to trust God for life itself. 

The Lesson of Daily Bread - Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

The Room For Reconciliation

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.

Next, Jesus instructs that each prayer should have a place in which our forgiveness from God is acknowledged and our forgiveness of other is offered.

Now, very few prayers omit asking for forgiveness of sins from God. We now that as the Bible says that God is gracious and willing to forgive us, but we often ignore that same sentiment in us. We accept forgiveness but often neglect to grant forgiveness. 

Yet, here Jesus tells us that these two acts of forgiveness are tied together. It should be impossible for us, who have been forgiven our debt to  Jesus Christ, to be unable to forgive others no matter the sin, slight or offense they have committed.

Remember the parable told by Jesus about forgiveness in Matthew 18:23-35? 

A lord called his servants to account and found one that had stolen 10,000 talents, to us millions of dollars from him. He was ready to send him to prison, when the man pleaded for forgiveness which the lord granted without no obligation to repay the amount he owed. But that same servant went out found another servant that owed 100s of dollars and when he pleaded for time the forgiven servant refused and cast him into debtor’s prison.

Vss 32-35 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

We who have been forgiven our unpayable debt to God, should be willing to forgive those who have sinned against us. To refuse to do this is to mock and count as nothing the much greater forgiveness we have received through Jesus our Lord.

Understand that Jesus is talking to disciples, they are saved. So the forgiveness spoken of here is not unbelief against God. That forgiveness is not conditional upon anything except the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and my accepting His death on my behalf. 

But my continued forgiveness from God may be hindered if I cannot forgive those around me. Why? Because in practice, the fact that I will not forgive someone keeps me from going to God in prayer. I do not wish to be reminded by the Holy Spirit while in the presence of God through prayer that I am once again asking for forgiveness while at the same time refusing to grant it to someone else. The result is I quit praying and I never ask for the sin of unforgiveness in my heart to be forgiven.

I would rather imprison someone who sinned or hurt me in my own prison of bitterness, never realizing that I am also imprison there as the unforgiving warden.

The final phrase which the disciples were instructed to pray dealt with temptation and deliverance from that temptation. 

The Room of Humiliation

And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

The word temptation can mean both temptation to sin and a test.  Indeed, a temptation to sin is a mora test.  Jesus is not however saying that God tempts man to sin. 

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

James makes it very plain that God does not tempt in the way Satan tempts. 

Here the model prayer expresses an attitude needed by the child of God. It began in petitioning God for His kingdom to come and proceeds with our submission to His will.  Now within that submission to whatever God brings into our life, we turn to the One into whose hand our entire life and future has been entrusted and we ask Him to remember that we are human and dependent upon Him for our life and future.

“Lord, keep us from temptation, protect us in the midst of trials, for we are weak, easily swayed and in our own power easily defeated.”   

This room in the prayer is one of humility which is entered from the previous room of submission to God. In the room of submission, we show our willingness to accept whatever God’s will is in our life, in the room of humiliation we confess we need God’s protection and strength to succeed in that submission.

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Without humility my prayer is incomplete and ultimately powerless. I must recognize that I am incapable of anything unless God intervenes, unless God is at work, to keep me from being defeated by the evil all around me. Humility is not weakness, it fact true humility is the key to real strength. For God's strength is not given to the proud but only to the lowly.

Once again James the brother of Jesus said, in James 4:6 6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Real strength is mine when I realize how weak I am and how much I need God.

 Conclusion

How do I make this model my own House of Prayer, the place where I can meet with my Father In Heaven?

Look again at the rooms within the house. These are the elements that are modeled in this lesson on prayer, and they must be real places, real actions in house of prayer. What is my relationship like with my Father in heaven? How can I adore Him as I pray? Am I willing to truly submit my life, will and future to Him. Do I recognize Him as the source of life now and eternal life when I die. Do I seek reconciliation with others because I have been reconciled with my God who I was once a rebel and willing outcast from? Do I understand the necessity of humility when I pray and as I live for Him.

Prayer is the key to the power of God in my life, my family and my church but it must be the key shown us in the Model Prayer. If not then we be locked outside our own house of prayer, while God waits inside to be with us.