When life becomes difficult or we face disappointments, we can falter in our faith. In Luke's Gospel Jesus told a parable to encourage his disciples not to give up. But to keep praying, even when it seems like God isn't answering your prayers. Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg examines this parable and explains what's really happening when we pray and when God delays his response. In coming to the first verse of chapter 18, it would be possible for us to do so in such a way that ignored everything that had gone before.
And to do that, of course, would be to create Uh a great error. Because verse 1 of chapter 18 Wasn't verse 1 of chapter 18 when it was originally written down because there were no chapter breaks for a start. These have been inserted along the way in order to help us navigate through our Bibles. Therefore, verse 1 follows directly on verse 37 of the previous chapter, and the context.
Some of you will recall, it said for us back in verse 20 of chapter 17. When Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, when is the kingdom of God going to come? Jesus had answered that question for the Pharisees, and then in verse 22, he had turned to his disciples and he said essentially, given that the Pharisees have raised this question about the coming of the kingdom, let me give to you a few more words of explanation. And he had then taken the time to provide the disciples With certain insights into the nature of the day when the Son of Man is going to be revealed. Having done that, he then in verse 1 of chapter 18 gives to these same disciples an illustration.
in order to show that they should always pray. and not give up.
Now the context would seem to demand this kind of assessment, namely I'm going to go away, Jesus is saying. There will be a time lag between my departure and my return. Given what I know about you fellows and your proneness to let your chins drop into your chest. I'm going to tell you a story here in order to help you to be men of prayer. rather than men who become downhearted and who falter.
Because in the journey that is going to ensue, and of course we know this as we read the Acts of the Apostles, these individuals were going to be buffeted from pillar to post. They were going to face challenges of all different kinds. And of course that has remained true throughout all of church history. And even some of us that have arrived here this morning have come out of a week in which there has been a genuine temptation for us. to be fainth-hearted, to be down-hearted, to be discouraged.
to respond to circumstances in such a way that we Faint rather than pray. And therefore, the word to the disciples in the first instance Is a relevant word, not simply to them, but it is a relevant word to all who follow in their wake. I'm telling you this parable, says Jesus. To show that you should always pray. and not give up.
Nobody is going to be able to determine in advance when I'm going to come back. Given that there is a significant delay, I want to make sure that you persist. in prayer.
Now, I want immediately to take a right-hand turn, as it were, or to go down a side street on the question of prayer. We've seen all kinds of uh gatherings convened in order that men and women might pray. Nobody, it seems to me, has done a very good job of articulating just what is supposed to be happening in those times of prayer. Nobody feels that it would be politically correct to raise your hand and say, excuse me, to whom are we all praying? And furthermore, If we happen to all be praying in the same direction, I wonder are we all praying via the same channel?
Because as we've noticed along the journey, It is not that the religions of the world disagree simply on the fringes of their convictions, but the religions of the world disagree at the very centrality of their convictions. Therefore, we've got a major problem. Because we can both be right. We're either right and they're wrong, or they're right and we're wrong. But when it comes to the issue of prayer, how in the world do we all get together in a big room and determine that whatever we're doing is all the same thing?
Clearly, it's not. And when I've spoken or listened to Christian people in these days try and articulate to their friends what they believe about prayer, I made a mental note to myself. I said, I'm not sure that Christians are very good at actually explaining to anybody what they believe about prayer at all. And I think that that is partly due to the fact that many of us as Christians haven't got a clue in the world what we're doing when it comes to the matter of prayer. In fact, some others don't spend more than 60 seconds a day praying.
Some of us go from one Sunday to another Sunday, and apart from every so often saying grace, there is no notion of prayer in our lives. How do I know that? Because it's so easy for me to do it. If you happen to find yourself doing the same thing, then you'll be able to identify. I've tried to remind myself this week of five things in relationship to prayer that I want to tell you in case you've never thought of these, in case your idea of prayer has missed this, and I believe that these five things will be a terrific hell.
Number one. When you and I engage in prayer, We are offering up our desires to God. I am telling God how I feel about things and what I long for. Secondly, Not only am I offering up my desires to God, but I am surrendering my will to God. In prayer, I surrender my will to God.
Our friends and neighbors may say to us, well, what actually happens in prayer? Because it seems to be mysterious. I say, well yes, there is no question but that there is a mysterious element to prayer. But let me tell you that when I pray, when I engage with God in the dialogue of prayer, number one, I'm offering up my desires to God, and number two, I am surrendering my will to God. Number three.
I am entering into conversation. with God. And fourthly, practicing the presence of God. Practicing the presence of God. Again in Psalm 27.
Sam 27 is a Wonderful psalm in this respect. I should have kept my Bible open there. One thing I ask of the Lord: this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I want to hang with you. The Sams S.
I want to be in your company. For your homework, go to John 14 and listen as Jesus says to his followers: the man or the woman who obeys me. will be loved by me And my father and I will come and live with him, or live with her. How in the wide world do we enter into the experience of the fulfillment of Jesus in John 14? My Father and I will love him and we will live with him.
How does that happen? In what context does that happen? Prayer. Peter?
So you see, when we don't pray, when we don't offer up our desires to God, when we don't surrender our wills to God, when we don't engage in conversation with God, we know nothing of the companionship of God. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it? And this takes it beyond the realm of something that you do, you know, over in a corner. The sort of businessman daytimer approach. You know.
Did it? Take, did you say your prayers today? Yes. Uh did you floss today? Yes.
Did you use the Q-tips today? Yes, okay, we're off to a great day. You know, we're ready and we're steady and we'll go. And then the guy launches out into the day. If he managed to pray for three minutes, then he tells you, and they tell me this all the time, my day didn't go so well today.
I only prayed for three minutes. And it only got me to here, you know. But on last Thursday, I prayed for seven minutes and it got me all the way over to here. What are you, a human cannonball or something? What in the wide world are you talking about?
What is this prayer you're doing? What is this? You talk to your wife like that? I spoke to her for three minutes today. That's enough.
Okay, honey, wrap it up. Three minutes, we're done. Try and keep this brief. I may be seeing this evening with another seven minutes this evening, but that's enough for now. I've got to go.
Thank you. Goodbye. What kind of relationship is that?
Now you say, well, don't you have special times in private? Of course. Do you think it's a bad idea to have a set time and place? No. But I'll tell you something: the idea that prayer is something that takes place in a moment in time in a special chair, which you then run away from into the rest of the secular day.
This is the point. And he walks with me. And he talks with me and he tells me that I am his own. How? In prayer?
Communing with God. He goes to the gym with you. He closes sales deals with them. He enters into disappointment with you. Lord, here we are again.
Thank you for this. I was thinking about that. What about him? Help me over here. It's the same way when you drive in the car with your spouse.
You can drive for miles if you're in love and never say a word and it's wonderful. Comfortable silence. You can't drive 150 yards if you're arguing. Because it's an uncomfortable silence. We all know the difference between silence and silence.
Some of us are here today, and what is where the reason we are where we are in our walk with God is because it's silence. It's not Silence. And it's the same issue. Usually for me, I open my fat mouth when I shouldn't, so it's silent. The only way back is to say, sorry, I own my fat mouth.
I do apologize. Let's talk. But as long as I want to live with my pride, as long as I want to live with my ego, then I can probably drive in silence for a good long time. And the same is true in our communion with God. Do you have communion with God?
And lastly, It is in prayer that we experience the peace of God. Philippians 4. In the living Bible, uh Tell God your needs. And don't forget to thank him for his answers. Which is preceded by don't worry about anything.
But pray about everything. Tell God your needs. And don't forget to thank him for his answers. Why don't I know the peace of God? Because I don't live in the presence of God.
Why don't I live in the presence of God? Because I never talked to God. Why don't I surrender my will to God? Because I've never met God. Why don't I offer my desires up to God?
Because it never once occurred to me. I give to God The expressions of the surrender of my will. I enter into conversation with God, I practice the presence of God, and as a result, I experience the priests of God.
Now, if you'll turn to one other place, I want just to give you another point here so that you can be helped in relationship to this. At least I hope you find it helpful. In Hebrews chapter 4. The writer to the Hebrews gives encouragement to his readers and he says listen Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Hebrews 4.14. Namely, Jesus the Son of God.
Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we don't have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence.
So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Now you'll notice that there are two imperatives there. One at the end of verse fourteen. Let us hold firmly to the faith We profess. And then verse 16. Let us then approach the throne of grace.
with confidence. I want to suggest to you that the order is essential. We must hold firmly to the faith we profess. We're not simply closing our eyes and thinking deep thoughts. We're not simply engaging with a higher power, with the notion that there must be somebody up there somewhere who is benevolently interested in what's going on.
And so we can all hold hands as an expression of our deep abnegation. We can all hold hands in the acknowledgement of our deep sense of solitude and awe. We can hold hands on a number of levels. We can comfort one another across every racial and religious divide. But when it comes to praying together, We are immediately divided.
For the writer says, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. What is the faith we profess? That Jesus Christ is the person that he claimed to be. That there is salvation in no other name given under heaven among men by which they must be saved. That He is God and Savior to us, that He is the second member of the Trinity.
That he's not a buddy of Muhammad. That he's not another religious leader on the smorgasbord of life. Therefore, I cannot go and simply engage in, quotes, prayer with all of these well-meaning people. Why? Because I have to hold firmly to the faith I profess.
Then I come boldly. to the throne of grace. And it is only in Christ that we can come boldly. Because he is the only one. who is able to intercede.
on our behalf.
Now that was a very long detour, and we'll go back to Luke 18, although Not for long. The reason for our approaching the throne of grace with confidence. Is because, to return to the illustration that Jesus uses here, God is not remotely like this unjust judge. He tells this story. Remember, he's explaining to his disciples, just in case you don't know why I'm telling you this story, let me tell you in advance.
I'm telling you this story in order that you would pray and not give up.
Now let me tell you, it says there was a judge in a certain town. And he neither feared God nor cared about men. Couldn't care less either about the widow that was before him, and had no concern about God who was above him. And the widow in the town, a picture of helplessness and hopelessness. She's concerned about justice.
She is an adversary. She keeps coming. She has only one string to her bow and she plucks it with persistence. Namely, I will keep coming again and again. Initially, verse 4, he refuses to hear her.
to grant her the response she requires, finally he says to himself, And notice, even though I don't fear God and I don't care about men, Yet For no higher motive than the fact that I want to get this woman out of my hair, I will see that she gets justice because if she keeps coming in here, she's going to be the death of me. And so, this troublesome stranger eventually receives justice. Jesus in verse 6 says, Listen to what the unjust judge says.
Well, what did the unjust judge say? I will see that she gets justice.
Now, his motors were impure, but he was finally getting to what he needed to do.
Now Jesus argues. If the unjust judge Is prepared to grant the request of this troublesome stranger. How much more will the heavenly judge, who is perfect in righteousness, see to it? That is chosen ones. are vindicated.
At the end of verse 7, he says, When the chosen ones of God cry out to him day and night, will he keep putting them off? That's the best the NIV can do with a tortuous little bit of Greek. The authorized version has the phrase: though he bear long with them. And it is in this process that there is a concern for the disciples. What is going to happen?
It seems so long between the cries of people and the response of God.
Well, the fact of the matter is that the delays of God we learn from the Bible are in order that men and women may come to repentance, and the delays of God may serve to strengthen his chosen ones. As they endure Hard shift. Why doesn't God answer your prayers? Why is it that you're still praying for the same thing after all this time?
Well, in the mystery, we must continue to do what we said prayer means: offering up my desire to God, surrendering my will to God, entering into conversation with God, living in communion with God, and discovering the peace of God. And the peace of God is not to be found in our instant generation by getting messages, as it were, delivered by a red telephone or dropped by a string down onto our breakfast table. Few things happen like that. Most of the things we're dealing with in life demand the long slog, the long continuance, the same unanswered questions. Why does God do that?
He does it. In part, because if he brought justice as of midnight tonight, It would answer the deep question of your heart, but it would remove every possibility for your brother-in-law to become a Christian. It would be the end of the world. It would be the end of opportunity. It would mean that the books were finally opened and settled and it was gone.
And God is patient, waiting for husbands and for wives to come to Him, waiting for children to finally give up their rebellion, waiting for the proud businessman to lay down his arrogance and trust in Christ. That's part of the reason for his delay. And the other reason for his delay is so that his believers, so that his chosen ones, through the dark days and the deep questions, and the uncertainties, and the hard business days, and the crash of the stock market, and the interference with your pension fund, and all of these things, so that he may strengthen us and fashion us. And he said, since it's going to be so tough. I'm telling you this story.
so that you won't chuck it. But so that you pray.
So that you will approach me when you rise in the morning.
So that as you exercise and as you play and as you negotiate and as you operate. You will do so. In my company. And for the chosen of God, even though it seems that his return is long delayed, when he returns, it will become apparent that a day with the Lord was as a thousand years, and a thousand years was as one day. Do you pray?
Have you ever prayed? Do you ever pray the first prayer? Do you know the first prayer? It's the prayer that the man prays in the next few verses. It's essentially this.
Lord. I'm a complete mess. Forgive me. and save me. That's where it all starts.
Of course, if you're arrogant, you won't pray that prayer. You'll be like the rich young ruler. You won't be like a child. And enter the kingdom. You'll be like an adult and walk out and say, I never heard so much bunk in all my life.
You will instead be like the richer ungraham rather than like blind Bartimaeus, who cried out, Lord, have mercy on me, there's nothing I can do for myself. Unless you come and help me, I'm done. I mentioned Chuck Colson earlier. What an amazing thing he said when, in front of the folks in the Pentagon. At one point he talks about Praying in the driveway of his friend's house after he had read C.S.
Lewis's chapter on arrogance. And how he gets out. If you've read Born Again, if not, go get it and read it again. He gets out into his car, and his friend has explained to him, Chuck, you are a mess and you need Christ. And he said, You know, I don't need anybody, I can fix this myself.
And he goes to put the keys in the ignition. And as he tries to put the keys in the ignition, he just floods with tears. And he can't get the keys in the ignition. And he sits in the driveway of his friend's house and he looked out on the folks in the Pentagon and he said this. I would have suffocated.
I would have suffocated. In the stench of my own sin. Had I not come to realize that Jesus Christ died on the cross. to be my Saviour. And there in the driveway of my friend's house.
I admitted Lord Jesus. I am a mess. Save me. That's where it starts. And if you will pray that prayer, I can guarantee you.
The Bible says he always, always, Answers that prayer. Without delay. And then from there. We'll learn to pray. rather than to give up.
We're learning how to pray and how to trust God's goodness on Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. And if you're walking through a difficult season right now, or struggling to trust God in your current circumstances, let me recommend to you Alistair's series, My Times Are in Your Hands. There are twelve audio messages paired with these twelve lessons that include prayers, reflection, questions to consider, and you can download the messages and the study guide today free. from Truth for Life. The series explains why God allows suffering.
why even as followers of Jesus we can find ourselves enduring trials and prolonged difficulty, These lessons offer a framework for seeing God's hand in disappointment, understanding His plan in the darkness. helping you better understand how to respond.
So, if you're experiencing a tough season, if you're feeling discouraged, or you know someone who is. Download the My Times Are In Your Hands audio messages and the study guide. Go to truthforlife. org slash my times. Before we're done here today, let me remind you that we love sharing the gospel message here at Truth for Life, and we'd love to have you join us in praying that God will use this program to bring unbelievers to saving faith, to bring believers into a closer relationship with Jesus, and to build up local churches.
Thanks for studying the Bible with us today. Tomorrow, we'll learn how our prayers can reveal the true condition of our hearts. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
