Teachings of Jesus (Part 15) How to Pray
Luke 11:1-13 In today’s lesson we will be looking at when Jesus taught his disciples how to Pray. He actually did this on two different occasions; In Matthew 6:9-13 in His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and then here in out text today in Luke 11: 1-13. READ “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.[c] And lead us not into temptation.’”
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] 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!” (NIV)
Luke’s version may be a bit different than the one you’re used to in Matthew 6:9-13. Most all of us are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, and some of us have attended churches where it was recited every Sunday. But did Jesus intend for us to repeat this prayer verbatim? I think not. There are at least four reasons why we are not required to recite it today.
1. This prayer is recorded twice in Scripture and the wording is different in each prayer. If Jesus was giving us a prayer to be memorized and recited, He would not have given us different words the two times He gave it.
2. The disciple asked to, “teach us to pray” not “teach us a prayer.” It’s one thing to read or deliver a prayer; it’s something else to know how to pray. 3. Jesus warns us against repetitive prayers. In fact, in the verse immediately proceeding the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:7, the NASV says “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”
4. This prayer is repeated nowhere else in the New Testament. We have no record of believers using this prayer in any of the other prayer passages in the Bible. Clearly, Jesus was not intending to give the disciples some sort of prayer that they could memorize and then just deliver. It’s much deeper than that. Jesus wanted to give His followers a model or pattern to follow when addressing God so that we can learn how to pray like Him.
This profoundly simple model captures everything we need to know about prayer. If we follow Jesus model here we must begin with God when we pray. We don’t always do this. Sometimes we just jumped right into a long list of requests without taking the time to worship and praise our holy Father.
Let’s begin by looking at Luke 11:1: “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.’” Jesus was a continual source of amazement to His followers. They watched and they listened to everything He did. I can picture the scene. Jesus is praying again and the disciples are standing around watching and listening.
After He said, “Amen,” one of them courageously asked the question they were all wondering about: “Lord, teach us to pray.” The disciples were not known for praying. I don’t know of anywhere in the Gospels where the disciples were characterized as men of prayer. They often watched Jesus pray but we don’t read about them praying themselves. The question voiced by this one disciple shows that prayer is not only needed, but that there was a deficiency in his live and in the life of his friends. Some of us are not much different? We know prayer is important, we know Jesus modeled it, but most of us fall far short. If you want to pray like Jesus prayed, let’s learn along with his disciples.
Verse 2 begins with, “When you pray, say (or when you address God say), “Father” This was probably the most common term we use in prayer, and rightly so, because that is how Jesus addressed His prayers to God. He used the phrase more than 70 different times.
This term. ‘Father’ denotes a childlike trust in our heavenly Father who will not only hear us but longs to listen to our requests.
When we become Christians, Romans 8:15 says “The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” This word “Abba” is an endearing Aramaic word meaning “daddy.”
As such we don’t have to approach Him with big churchy words or formalities. Jesus wanted us to embrace Him as our Father, to come to Him without fear of retribution or shame. He wants us to come boldly into His presence, having the confidence that He is eager to hear the prayers of His children. What a privilege this is!
After acknowledging God as our Father, Jesus then instructs us to see Him as holy: “Father, Hallowed be your name.” The clause “hallowed be your name” means “may everyone regard your name as holy” (cf. Lev. 22:32; Ps. 79:9; 111:9; Isa. 29:23).
This prayer is as much an expression of worship as it is a petition. It regards Him as holy prompting us to revere and obey Him rather than blaspheming and sin against Him.
Even though He is my loving father, my first words to Him should not be on my personal behalf, but rather on His. Praying, “hallowed be your name” honors Him and is a safeguard against being a totally self-seeking prayer. To “hallow” God’s name therefore is to hold Him in awe and veneration so that we will believe what He says and obey Him because He’s worthy.
When we pray the third part of this prayer, “Your kingdom come,” we are saying, “Almighty Father God, take control of my life and do what you will for your glory.”
Prayer should not be about asking God to conform to my will; it should be about us conforming to His. Praying the Lord’s way is not about letting God into our plans, but calling for God to fulfill His own. The word “kingdom” in the Greek means “rule” or “reign.” I think this is a better translation than the word “kingdom” because this word makes us think of castles and knights.
We know that God is the supreme ruler in all the universe; it’s all His domain. To pray, “Your kingdom come” is a prayer accepting God’s supreme reign in our lives and over all things
As believers, we need to daily respond to the royal One residing in us and bow before His lordship in our lives. We need to check to make sure Jesus is at the center of our lives. It’s not about us, not anyone, nor anything else. The bottom line in prayer is this: ‘God, because you are King, do what you want in my life and in the lives of others, and I accept your reign.’
We’ve seen here that the first half of this model prayer is more God-ward. The second half is more personal. Once God is given His rightful place in our prayer, and we have a proper perspective toward ourselves we can bring our needs before Him. This magnificent section of the prayer covers our whole being: body, soul and spirit: “Give us each day our daily bread” relates to our body. “Forgive us our sins” speaks to our soul. “And lead us not into temptation” deals with our spirit.
“Give us each day our daily bread” at first glance seem irrelevant to most of us. While there certainly are people right here in this community and in other countries that are not sure where their next meal is coming from, most of us have plenty to eat. This request has more to do with the totality of our physical well being. The word bread is really a broad term referring to all of our physical needs.
When we pray, “Give us each day our daily bread,” we are saying that we trust God as the source to supply all the physical needs of our lives, and we affirm that He will take care of everything we need. Notice that this trust in God for these needs is for ‘each’ day. In the first century, bread had to be made on a daily basis. They couldn’t just buy a couple loaves and put them in the freezer. Like manna that comes once a day, God provides one day at a time.
Do we pray for our daily needs? Do we take time to ask God to meet our physical needs or do we at least give thanks for them? Sure, we might say grace before every meal, but these prayers can easily become just a sanctimonious way of saying, “It’s time to gather and eat.” Friends, if we don’t ask God to give us what we need every day we will gradually succumb to the delusion that we actually can provide for these needs ourselves. Here’s the danger in thinking like this: pride can swell up within us and we can subtly pull away from trust in God.
The next phrase of the prayer goes like this: “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” Forgiveness of sin is the greatest need of the human heart and soul. Only God can grant us a pardon from punishment and guilt. It’s been my observation that there is one thing that troubles Christians more than anything else. It’s guilt. We kick ourselves for our failures and punish ourselves relentlessly.
We pray this prayer, asking God to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Romans 8:1 declares that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Let’s claim it and live without being paralyzed by guilt and shame. But if you take note of what it says here, Jesus says that our forgiveness should be conditional; we are to also forgive others. This verse teaches us that it is wrong to ask from God what we are not willing to give to other people.
Let me ask you a question. Is there anyone who comes to mind right now who is in need of your forgiveness? Have you been holding someone captive? Is there someone in need of grace from you? These are serious questions. When we fail to forgive someone, we set ourselves up as a higher judge than God Himself. Another way to say it is that our relationship with the Lord cannot be right until our relationship with others is made right.
We have to at least do our part in making those situations right. Read: Matthew 5:23-24 & 18:15 which teaches us about making things right with others when they are not.
Have you been wronged by someone? Have you sinned against anyone else? Meet with the person face-to-face. Express yourself. Then let it go by giving the gift of forgiveness. Most of us grossly underestimate how important this is to God and ultimately to us.. And finally, we come to the last part of learning how to pray the Lord’s way: “And lead us not into temptation.”
Most of us know that we live in a fallen world that pounds against us with one temptation after another, and that we can not always resist in our own power. The Greek word translated temptation is neutral and can refer to a test or a trial. This phrase should read, “And lead us not into trials or testings that can turn into temptation.” And so, we are to ask God to keep us from falling into the power of trials and temptations. We are not strong enough to handle all of these on our own.
Will God answer a prayers like this? You bet He will.
1 Corinthians 10:13 gives us a wonderful promise. It says: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
Brothers and sisters, ask God to lead you away from temptation. When you’re faced with an enticement to sin, look for the way out. God is faithful and will not leave you to face your temptations alone. Pray for His protection and keep your guard up. Conclusion:
So as I wrap up this lesson I would like to share with some thoughts an unknown author wrote as a great summary of this Prayer. He wrote:
I cannot say “our” if I live only for myself. I cannot say, “Father” if I do not endeavor each day to act like His child. I cannot say, “hallowed be your name” if I am playing around with sin. I cannot say “your kingdom come” if I am not allowing God to reign in my life. I cannot say “give us this day our daily bread” if I am trusting in myself instead of in God’s provision. I cannot say, “Forgive us our sins” if I am nursing a grudge or withholding forgiveness from someone else. I cannot say, “lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in its path.
In closing Jesus concludes His teaching on prayer with 2 stories. One is about a persistent friend who asks for bread, and on about a son who asks his dad for a piece of fish to eat which is provided. Because God loves us He says,
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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
So may I suggest that in your prayer that you first honor God and then believe that because He loves you your Father in heaven will bless you.
Based on a sermon by Brian Bill
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