Week 24 "Teach us to Pray"

Video is normally posted early Sunday Afternoon.

Text: This week we’re covering Luke 10:38-11:13 which contains the encounter with Mary and Martha, and Jesus’ teaching the disciples (at their request) about prayer.

Other passages to read: There are only a couple of parallel passages to this section of four short parts in the other gospels.

·         Mary & Martha: (10:38-42)

·         The Lord’s Prayer: (11:1-4) Matthew 6:9-14

·         Parable on Prayer: (11:5-8) See Luke 18:1-8.

·         Ask, seek, knock: (11:9-13) Matthew 7:7-11

Points to ponder: In your study this week, you might want to think about one of these questions:

·         What is the main issue in the Mary and Martha passage? Is it busy-ness, hospitality, serving, or is it something else?

·         Is there a connection between this shortened for of the “Lord’s Prayer” and the journey Jesus is on with his disciples? If so, what is it?

·         Why does the man in the parable go and demand bread at midnight from his friend?

·         What is the prayer principle we need to draw from this parable, assuming it is not that God doesn’t want to get up and help us?

·         Is it significant that the man in v. 5 “calls” rather than “knocks”?

·         In v. 10 it says that “everyone who asks receives” so how do we handle those times when we don’t seem to get the answer for which we asked?

Questions to ask ourselves: The following questions are intended to help us move towards greater application of what we learn about Jesus…

·         What are we anxious and troubled by? What one thing would Jesus speak to us that is necessary?

·         When was the last time we asked Jesus to teach us to pray? If we read this section as Jesus’ answer to our request what can we learn about prayer?

·         Often our prayer can become unbalanced. Jesus’ prayer contains and balances at least 5-6 different elements. What elements are most common in our prayers? What are most scarce? Is there anything we should change?

·         What does it mean for us to “ask, seek, and knock”?

·         What is my perception of God when I pray? A cosmic curmudgeon, Santa Claus, Wizard of Oz, or Jesus Christ?

Pastor Randy’s Sermon Notes: "The Best Thing To Pray For"

Working the outline from the back to the front...

• The goal today is to grow in prayer and not to load us up with guilt.

3. A Priority in Prayer (Luke 11:11-13)

• If even earthly fathers give their children what they need, how much more will God do for his children?
• God loves to give the best thing...and the best gift is Himself in the Holy Spirit.
• “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?” (Romans 8:32)
• “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”(John 16:7-8)

2. An Illustration of Prayer (11:5-10)

• (v.8) – boldness (anaideia -an-ah'-ee-die-ah') or shamelessness, impudence.

• Be humble enough to admit what it is you really need.
• Bold asking brings honor to God.

1.      An Example of Prayer (11:1-4)

• Pray often and pray together.
• Ask Jesus to teach us to pray.
• The Holy Spirit is how we fulfill the mission of God.
• Apart from the Holy Spirit we couldn't pray for such massive requests.

Quotes & Commentary:

10:39 “Now, Mary is depicted as one who has begun the journey of discipleship by acknowledging through her posture her submissiveness to Jesus and by “listening” to his word…Culturally the problem of this pericope is not the portrait of a woman serving (for this is expected), but of a woman assuming the role of a disciple.” (Green, 434.)

10:41 In this situation, Jesus is serving the “meal” Sitting at his feet, listening to his teaching (see 10:23-24)

11:4 “Forgive Everyone who is indebted to us”: Joel Green points out that Jesus’ instruction here addressed a specific cultural issue, “A form of enslavement was built into the fabric of the Greco-Roman world, a pervasive ethic whereby favors done for others constituted a relationship characterized by a cycle of repayment and debt; this system condoned widespread exercise of coercive power by some persons over others. The prayer Jesus teaches his followers embodies the urgency of giving without expectation of return—that is, ripping the fabric of the patronage system by treating others as kin rather than as greater or lesser than oneself.” (Green, 443)

11:5-8 In the parable of the Friend who comes at midnight, Jesus’ words are arranged in two stanzas of six units each. Kenneth E. Bailey points out the structure as follows:

Stanza A (v.6-7)

Request (Give)

  Reason for request

      Appeal to Duty

      Duty Refused

  Reason for Refusal

Request Refused (Give)

Stanza B (v. 8)

Not Answer Request (Give)

   Arising

      Not for Friendship’s Sake

      But for Honor’s sake (shamelessness)

   Will Arise

Request Granted (Give)

“Bread is not the meal. Bread is the knife, fork, and spoon with which the meal is eaten…the common dish is never defiled from the eater’s mouth because he begins each bite with a fresh piece of bread…Village women cooperate in baking and know who has baked recently. There may have been some bread left in the host’s house, but he must offer the guest a complete unbroken loaf. To feed a guest with a partial loaf from another meal would be an insult….The crucial element in this first portion of the parable is that the guest is guest of the community, not just of the individual…thus the community is responsible for his entertainment. (Kenneth E. Bailey, Poet & Peasant ; And, Through Peasant Eyes: A Literary-cultural Approach to the Parables in Luke, 123)

11:9-10 The structure here is a simple ABC, ABC based on the words Ask, Seek, Knock.

11:11-13 The parallel structure changes to a AA’, BB’, CC’ around the son's request for a fish and an egg, and the father's responses to provide what is needed. The third paring is a comparison between earthly fathers and the Heavenly Father. Key phrase is "how much more."

Previously on Ponderables: In your study this week, perhaps you might have thought about  to following questions about the Good Samaritan passage last week:

·         Take time to diagram this parable looking for a seven-fold parallel structure between verse 10:30 and 10:35. What surprises you? Hero was not the one expected (the Jewish layperson) but an enemy.

1. Robbers: rob, strip, beat, and depart leaving him half dead.

  2. Priest: likely had a horse to transport man, but passed by. 17 mile trip.

    3. Levite: should have bound up his wounds and ministered to his needs, but passed by.

      4. Samaritan: Saw and had compassion. Costly, extravagant love was shown.

    5. Treated wounds (The Levite’s Failure)

  6. Transported the Man (The Priest’s failure)

7. Spent money on him (compensating for the robbers)

·         What did it really take for the Samaritan to do this neighborly work? He had to take time away from his regular business, get his hands dirty in the man’s wounds, it cost him his money and it very likely his life by going into the Jewish town of Jericho.  

·         What does it mean for us to be neighbors in the biblical sense of the word? It is not an issue of proximity, or of similarities in race, language or culture, but one of need. To whom will we show mercy? That one is our neighbor.

·         Why does Jesus make the hero of the story a hated Samaritan? The Samaritan was an outsider, in a sense Jesus was the ultimate outsider. Yes he was a Jewish carpenter from Bethlehem that grew up in Nazareth but on the other hand he was God come in the flesh. A Messiah very different than they expected.

·         Early church fathers saw Jesus in this parable as the Samaritan. In what ways is this true? What are the points of connection between this parable’s Samaritan and the work of Christ?   Jesus does for us spiritually what the Samaritan does for the wounded Jewish man physically. Jesus paid a great price to bring healing and wholeness to our lives.