Persevering Prayer

And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary.

The story just got a little more intense. The widow would be the most vulnerable person in the city. The widow who would have very few resources, very few rights. The widow who would have very little leverage towards any judge, much less a judge who had no fear of God and no respect for man. Here we see this incredible contrast. This terrifying man of authority and this very vulnerable woman. And notice, she kept coming to him. She kept saying, give me justice. Then we see verse four.

For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself,

now, what's funny about this story is Jesus putting these words in the judge's mouth that make him somewhat self-aware, to be emphatic. The judge says to himself,

though I neither fear God nor respect men,

I have no regard for this woman, I have no regard for having to give an answer for how I'm going to judge others,

yet, because this widow keeps bothering me,

Because I want this to end,

I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.

Interesting story here. The widow, the person you're most terrified for, the judge no one wants to face, she wins him over. Not winsomely, just with perseverance. He wants this to stop. He's fully selfish in all of his motives, but he's very clear, I will give her justice. I will listen to her just so she'll stop coming to me. Then notice how Jesus turns this, verse six.

And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says.

Hear what the unrighteous judge says. This is very much like the unfaithful manager that's commended for his shrewdness. He's actually dishonest and he's unfaithful. He's deceptive, but yet he's praised for his shrewdness and the whole point there isn't that dishonesty's okay, but he's making a very provocative point. Here he's using this horrible judge and this vulnerable widow to make a point. Hear what the unrighteous judge says, verse seven.

And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night?

The point isn't that God is anything like this judge. The point is God is nothing like this judge. The point is that God seeks to listen. God is always hearing. God actually has an incredible respect for man. He made us all in his image. He has a great desire for justice. He has an absolute determination to bring about justice. Notice he sets the thing up that if a widow who has no right to speak continues to speak, even the unrighteous judge will be swayed. How much more will the God who created us in his image, who created us to know him, be known by him, Will He not eagerly listen? Will He not seek to hear us? God wants to hear us more than we want to speak to Him. Do we understand that? God desires to hear from us more than we desire to speak to Him. The call here is to be like this widow. Not because God is like the judge, not because God is nothing like this judge. We get to come to a God who's eager to hear, who's swift to bring justice, who's very quick to act for his elect. He's good. He's all powerful. He's not distant. He's not disinterested. He desires to hear from us. Jesus' parable is teaching them how to pray. how they ought always to pray, how they ought always to bring all things to God, how they ought to pray without ceasing, which is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us. Do we meditate and just realize how wonderful it is that we get to pray on this side of the mission of Christ? We get to pray to God as our Father because the Son is the right hand of the Father, interceding for us? Do we see the benefit that we get to come into the very presence of God, to praise Him, to see Him, to know Him, to love Him, to be loved by Him, to make our requests known to Him? Later, if you want to think about prayer more, there's numerous passages we could go to. John 14 to 16 teaches a lot about prayer. Romans 8, there's actually three ways the Holy Spirit intercedes. There's three ways the Holy Spirit intercedes. One, the Holy Spirit intercedes in us. According to Romans 8, 15, the Holy Spirit gives us access to God because of the Son, to call Him Father. The Holy Spirit who's in us gives us access into the direct, immediate presence of God. One way He intercedes for us is that He's in us. Another way the Holy Spirit intercedes is that He intercedes to us. He tells us we are actually children of God. He reminds us of that great identity we actually have. That's Romans 8.16. And maybe the most encouraging one is Romans 8.26. When we do not know how to pray, he intercedes for us. God desires communion with us. He desires that we would know him and be known by him so that the Holy Spirit's in us and communicates to us and even communicates for us when we don't know how to pray. This is just a sampling of ways that God has provided for us access by faith to pray. So we gotta press in. What are we too busy doing that keeps us from prayer? What kinds of things are taking such a priority that they're better than coming into the very presence of the glorious God who has saved us? Or who is it that we're talking to instead of God? The reason every religion has some kind of prayer, we all have some desire, we all have some need to communicate our problems, our concerns to other people. Who is it we're talking to instead of God? We're supposed to be talking to each other about Thanksgiving, celebration, confession. but never instead of God. Who is it that we talk to instead of God? Let's look at our last verse of this parable.

I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.

There's a sense that we might feel as if God is slow, but he is not.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, Will he find faith on earth?

If you've got to go back, remember, he's telling them, you'll want to see the state disciples, but you won't. But now we are living in the age where we're longing for and we're expecting Christ's return. Are we living as if we believe Christ is going to return soon? Notice, when the Son of Man comes, OK, he's coming. It's promised. As much as we believe he died on the cross and rose again as promised, he will come again as promised, the question for us, the question pressing on the disciples from Jesus, will he find faith? Will he find faith? Remember last week's key command, remember Lot's wife? Anybody recite that to themselves this week? Remember Lot's wife, easy memorization? It was a warning. Getting so bogged down, so focused on just the ordinary things of life that we're not looking forward to the promises of God. What will he find when he returns? We ought always to pray. I wonder as we ask this question, what would Jesus find What would he have found yesterday if he had returned from us? Or what day of the week, this past week, would you be terrified if Jesus would have returned? Are we living a life so that when Jesus returns, no matter when he comes, he would find us faithful? He would find us trusting, depending, obeying? The pressing in is that there's supposed to be an ought, always praying. Always faithful. Christian, it's difficult to learn how to pray. I do believe it's one of those disciplines that's easier to learn with others. It's better caught than taught. If you wanna learn how to pray, come to our Wednesday night prayer meeting. Come and listen to how all the different saints pray. Ask others to walk alongside you in prayer. One of the best ways we're gonna pray is by praying with others. And one of the best ways you can actually help others grow up in discipleship is teaching them to pray by praying with them. How would Christ find us? Finally, I wanna speak to those who are prone to lose heart. Notice here, there's two things. We ought always to pray and not lose heart. And I believe those two things go together. If we're prone to lose heart, we should be more focused on how we should learn how to pray. That seems to be a remedy, one of the solutions to those who would be quick to lose heart. Do you battle discouragement? Easily faint-hearted? Do circumstances load up and overwhelm us? Or are we living in a situation where there's very difficult circumstances or long-suffering kind of difficulty? Jesus, or God's word is very clear. When we face trials of various kind, any kind of trial, we ask for wisdom. In the midst of whatever kind of trial might cause us to lose heart, ask for wisdom. This is James 1. And what does God do if you ask for wisdom? With faith. He gives generously. He's not a stingy God. He teaches us how to pray. He tells us what to pray for, wisdom. We can even go along and learn how to pray with the Psalms.

How long, oh Lord, will you forget me?

That's the way God invites us to pray to him in the midst of faintheartedness. Seek to learn how to pray so that we are not prone to lose heart. The second section continues and focuses in on prayer yet again and faith. Here we see faith that confesses sin. Verse nine, faith that confesses sin.

He also told this parable, some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

Again, Luke is really helpful, isn't he? He's telling us what the point of the parable already is. The first parable for those who might be tempted to lose heart, well, we ought always to pray. Now he's giving a parable regarding those who would trust too much in themselves. They would trust so much in their own righteousness. And therefore, and notice how these two things so often go together. Trusting in your own righteousness will lead to treating others with contempt. Verse 10.

Two men went into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

All right, we've got our characters, we've got our setting, we've got our scene. Pretty important for us. We've just seen the Pharisees, the tax collectors a few weeks ago in Luke 15, remember? Only there, the Pharisees were judging Jesus because he was eating with sinners, specifically tax collectors. All right, tax collectors were not kind of our local IRS we're supposed to pay our taxes to. The tax collectors were instruments of the Roman government to bring about the power struggle, to emphasize on Israel. their power. There were Jews who betrayed their own people to take money, and because they became outcasts for doing this, they would typically take more than even the government asked, and therefore they could keep it for themselves. They were despised. And the Pharisees, I think we're probably all pretty familiar with Pharisees, they were the religious leaders, they were looked up to. Tax collectors avoided religious leaders looked up to. So here we are in the temple, you're expecting The Pharisee to be the hero, if you're a listener in Jesus' day. Jesus describes both of them. Notice verse 13, there's a contrast. But, let's first look at the Pharisee.

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus.

God, that's a good start. That's a good way to start a prayer.

Thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.

He starts with God, but as he talk about more. I, I. Here we see this Pharisee and we can already feel something kind of weird about this. To go to God and talk about yourself so much is odd. Now, there's another way we could go to God and we could talk about ourselves, and we'll discuss that in a moment, but here we already see there's a significance here. The Pharisee, he's gonna stand, and he's going to start praying, thank you, God, that I'm not like those people. That sounds so religious and it's so wrong. There's a way in which we could say, God, we thank you that we're not as sinful as we otherwise would be. We thank you that you've actually helped the sinful desires that reside in our hearts not take full fledge and let them take root and bear the kind of fruitful fruit or the sinful fruit that we're terrified of. We thank you that you and your grace have restrained our sin, but that's not what he's saying. Thank you, God, I'm better than them. I'm more righteous than them. He even goes so far as to remind God of all that he's done. What a weird way of boasting. And God, so you know, I have fasted and I've tithed. This man's religion is all about him. Now, let's be careful here. We wanna be very careful that we should be able to go to God and expect blessings. Not because I have done this and I have done that and I'm better than those people. That is not why we expect blessings. Why should we go to prayer and expect blessings? Because God promised them. It's two different religions. If we go to God and say, I expect this because I've done that, you're just a practicing pagan. You're treating God as a mere transactional figure. But if we go to God, say, God, you've promised. You've promised I can be forgiven. You've promised I can know peace. You've promised my heart can be unraveled of all the sinful desires that I've corrupted it with. I am going to come to you God and I'm going to trust your promises, not making some kind of boast because I've done this. It's important for us to understand the doctrine of original sin. We are all born in sin. All right, it might feel unfair, Adam sinned and now we're all born in sin. It's the truth that God's word tells us. We all have a tendency towards sin. We're all born with sin, with a disposition of sin, and we're all going to die as sinners. The key here is that we don't walk around and think, how are we a better person than others? No, we are all born into the same sinful problem of not giving God honor and not giving God thanks. This kind of jockeying as if we could try to find people, and it's not that hard, that we think are worse than us. And when we pray, we need to be mindful of our own sin. The tax collector does as he boasts of himself. He presents himself before God. Notice the tax collector, but the tax collector, the Pharisee standing by himself. Now you get kind of picture here. He's, he's aware of the tax collector who's behind him apparently, but he's aware of him. He's standing by himself. He's looking up to God, but the tax collector standing for all.

He would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.

He bows his head in an honor, in a respect, realizing he's not worthy. He beats his breast and he says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. If there's a memory verse for you today, it's this. It's a few more words than last week.

God, Be merciful to me, a sinner.

Notice there is an I. I'm a sinner. But that's so different than what the Pharisee has said. Notice everything about his prayer is focused on who God is and what he does. The Pharisee comes and he speaks of all the things that he's not. And he speaks of all the things he's done. The tax collector, he comes in with actually a right understanding of who he is. The key here is just the accuracy of understanding who he is over the Pharisee. The Pharisee is supposed to be the teacher of the law, he's supposed to know what the law does. It's a mirror, it shows us our sins so we can confess it. But instead he's corrupted the law and he's using all traditions to boast of himself as something better than he really is, whereas the tax collector, oh it's so clear, I'm a sinner. So what else can you do? except for go to God and ask for mercy. The story has to grip us here. We don't come to God insisting that he agrees upon our own self-understanding. We go to God and ask for his word to give us clarity about who he is, who we are. And trust me, there's something terrifying about that. There's something terrifying about coming to the one holy God and letting him truly show us who we are, because we're worse than we can understand. But when we confess our sin, he's always merciful to forgive us. That the power of coming to God and letting him show us our sin is that he shows us even more his mercy. Our sins, they are many. His mercy is? One thing I don't believe the tax collector is modeling for us is he stands far off. And I say this because we have an entire book of the Bible that tells us to do the exact opposite. Hebrews. Enter boldly into the presence of God. Not because of I. Not because he figured out how to decide you're better than someone else. No, because Christ, the perfect high priest, made the once for all sacrifice in the true holy of holies so that we can now go into the very presence of God without fear. The religion we have now because of Christ is not a distant religion of fear. It's a drawing near with joy and celebration, confidence, because we see how merciful he is. Christ died for us, all sinners. There's no more hiding in shame. There's no more keeping distance. No, there's an invitation. Come into his presence boldly. Verse 14, Jesus wraps this up. We've got this incredible contrast. He's flipped it around. They would have thought the Pharisees would be the model of prayer. The tax collector disdained because that's how they wanted to see it. Jesus flipped that around to make it very clear how they're to come. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus gives the clear conclusion. I tell you, this man, the tax collector, he went down to his house justified. And to make it clear, not the Pharisee. The tax collector left justified. The Pharisee did not leave justified. Why? Back to verse 9. He told the parable because too many people were trusting in their own righteousness. When we seek to be justified in ourselves, when we seek justice, when we seek our own righteousness, we're not going to get it. It's something only God gives. But the The tax collector, the despised guy, the outsider, the betrayer, the man full of treason against his own people. He asked for mercy. He asked for his sins to be atoned for. So he left justified. This is a legal declaration, this is a legal action. When we believe in Jesus Christ, when we come before God and say, forgive me for my sins because your son died for me, or we go to Jesus, Jesus, forgive me, I believe you died for my sins, we're forever declared not guilty for sin. It's an incredible action of God. It's an incredible, irreversible, legal declaration, forever forgiven. It's something declared about us. It's given to us. It's in no way earned. It's difficult for us to wrap our heads around this because God is and has punished every sin. He's equitable. God is equitable. He is perfectly just. Every sin will be punished. He sent Jesus so that we might not be punished for our own sin. Every sin will be punished. Justice is sure. Know that. When we know that, we're terrified of what justice means for us. The beauty of the gospel is that if we confess our sins, we're declared forgiven because they were punished in Jesus. If we refuse to confess our sins, we will face the punishment. If you're not a Christian this morning, the beauty of the gospel, you can come to Jesus and confess your sins. He has never rejected anyone who confessed sin. He's never punished or judged anyone for confessing their sin. When you confess your sin before Christ, he forgives. This is the warning of the gospel. If we come thinking somehow we have a boasting, an eye in the confession, justice still awaits. If our eye is anything other than I'm a sinner, justice awaits. Christian, the Pharisee is a warning for us. Be careful how we speak of ourselves in prayer. We're coming to God and saying, I praise you, I thank you, I confess my sin to you. We don't say I thank you that we're not like other sinners. We thank God for his grace that keeps us from being a worse sinner than we already are. The wonderful invitation is we can come before the merciful God and be saved. Look at the last part of verse 14. For everyone, here's the reason.

Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

This is the Lucan theme we've seen over and over again. It's a theme we just saw from 1 Samuel and Hannah's prayer. It's a theme throughout scripture. If you boast of yourself, God will bring you low. And notice there's a wonderful gospel grace in that. If we're boasting of ourselves, we're insane. God bringing us low helps us to actually confess who he really is and who we really are. We cannot be righteous before God if we're going to boast of ourselves. The humble are exalted, the boastful are lowered. There's a wonderful power to humility. God brings us to consider ourselves and know who we really are so that we might know him. As we consider that easy to lose heart, as we consider the difficulty of knowing how to actually confess sin, I encourage you this morning or later this week, read 2 Corinthians 7. If you're prone to despondency or self-pity, this passage is just so helpful. Because Paul there distinguishes a grief that leads to merely sorrow versus a grief that leads to repentance. When we come and we see our sin, we can't merely be sorrowful for it. That's what happens when we get caught. That's what happens when we just feel like we're trapped in it, we don't know the mercy of God. No, when we come and we see sin and we have grief and we see the mercy of God, we repent. Real gospel sorrow, which has to happen, leads to repentance, which leads to rejoicing. Oh, don't let the self-pity that is false humility take hold. No, what we see here with the tax collector is true sorrow and grief. He is a sinner, and he's doing the only thing a sinner can do, and that is go before God, who gives mercy. He is exalted for declaring his lowly estate that is accurate, but the Pharisee will be brought low. The last section, faith that depends on God. Notice we move away from parables, but we have an object lesson, we have an action.

Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them, and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for as such belong to the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter.

All right, we're gonna make sure there's some clarity of what's going on here. that the people are bringing infants to Jesus so that he would touch them to bless them. The people are seeing that Jesus is a great, powerful, wise teacher, and they are seeking a blessing. We don't know fully what this means, but the real clarity comes that we have to understand their culture versus our culture. Notice the disciples are saying, no, don't bring the children. That's not worthy of his time. In our culture, we need to realize we have an odd obsession with child likeness. We have this reverse against every other culture, most other cultures in the world, where we think children are where the wisdom is found somehow. That growing up is evil and something to be avoided. We optimize childish ways. Here in this culture, there are the opposite reverse problem. They didn't have a real value for children. They valued those who could contribute to society. They valued those who were responsible and dependable. Therefore, the disciples looking at these people bringing babies and children to Jesus, they said, stop. This isn't worth his time. And notice Jesus, when being rebuked by his disciples, that's a whole nother issue there. They're missing something. Jesus says, no,

let the children come to me and do not hinder them.

They believe Jesus was too important for these image bearers because of their role in society. Notice, let the little children come to me. not hinder them, do not keep them away, for to such belongs the kingdom of God." Now, church has gotten this really confused. There's a way in which we must come to Jesus as a child, but you're not supposed to come to Jesus and remain a child. Do we understand that? We're not called to childishness. There's something weird and gross about a grown adult child or an ungrown adult child. We come like a child and then we grow up in the faith. There's some implications for how the disciples should be receiving children, but that's not the point. No, Jesus receives children, but the real point here is that you cannot enter the kingdom unless you receive it like a child. There's all kinds of different opinions on what it means to be like a child. Some would say that there's humility. involved in being a child. Children are oftentimes trustworthy. They're trusting. I believe that the clue in the text actually shows there's just an absolute dependence a child has. There's a dependence, which involves humility and trust. Here's how a child comes. A child comes without a resume in hand. A child comes to the kingdom without saying, hey, I'll sign up, this is my contribution, this is what I can do for you, God. A child comes knowing fully they're dependent and that Jesus is dependable. There's humility and there's trust, but I believe the real focus here is that there's a desire to depend upon Jesus when they come. There's a desire and a need A child doesn't come and say, you're welcome. A child comes and says, thank you. The only way to come to Christ is to come recognizing our full need of him. We need to be very clear about this. God in no way needs us. He created us. God in no way needs our gifts and talents. He gave them to us. Does God call us to be good stewards of all things? And does God give us those things so that we would use them for his glory? Yes. But we come to the kingdom like a child, fully depending upon God and all he gives, not somehow boasting we're going to have something to contribute. The beauty of the gospel, we come like a child. And you grow up to be more like Christ. The more we actually grow up into Christ, the more dependent we see we are, the more dependable we see He is, and therefore, the more dependable we should come. This passage has been used in some weird ways. One of them, as a way of boasting, I'm going to remain like a child in the faith. Where over and over again, scripture teaches, no, you're supposed to grow up in a mature measure, to the mature manhood of Jesus Christ. You're supposed to grow up into him, to be more like him. We come fully needing him, trusting him, dependent upon him. And the more we grow in him, the more we see how trustworthy he is. Believer, are we depending upon Christ fully? Does our faith demonstrate an absolute dependence upon God by the way we pray? Does our faith demonstrate a dependence upon God in the way we confess our sin? And therefore, then, are we dependable? This morning, Christian, are we making known and encouraging others to know that God, who is always listening, And so we ought always to pray. Are we making known and encouraging others to know the God who is rich in mercy, who always forgives sinners who confess and repent? Are we making known and encouraging others to know the God who receives all who come to him and receive him? What a mission for us as parents to our children. Are we making this God known by the way we live and teach? By the way we're disciples and making disciples? Members of one another at Jefferson Park, are we making known this God by the way we confess our sin and pray with one another and pray for one another? Are we making this gospel and this God known to our neighbors? The real focus here, we cannot make this God known unless we know him. We cannot make this God known unless we know him. And the way he invites us to know him is to pray. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have made so clearly that we are not to be distant from you, fearful of you. We thank you that we can see the demonstration that even when Christ on the cross, the curtain of the temple's torn in two, making clear for us the sin that created boundaries and obstacles for us to know you that has been removed because of Christ's death. You've forgiven us and now you call us to know you, to draw near to you. Forgive us for lacking the faith to come to you because we're afraid of the sin we're aware of. Because we live in the shame of the sin that we're afraid of? I pray we would see from Christ's teaching, you are the God who desires to hear from us. It is the merciful God who will always forgive us. Lord, help us to be built up in our faith. Help us, Lord, to build each other up in the faith. To know you, the God who has made yourself known and helps us to know you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our song of response, leaning on the everlasting arms.