Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.38 – September 1966

 

God Answers Prayer

 

Sermon by Rev. H. Boer on Luke 11:5-13

Scripture Reading: Luke 11:1-13

Psalter Hymnal: 95; 174:1,2,3; 242:1,2,3; 423 or 465; 466

 

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

The teaching of the Lord Jesus, which is recorded here, in the gospel of Luke, we also find in Matthew’s gospel.  In both cases nearly the same words are used.  The only difference is in the last verse, where Luke says that God will give the Holy Spirit as an answer to prayer, while Matthew speaks about “good things” in this connection.

Further there is the difference in context.  In Matthew this teaching is part of the well-known ‘Sermon on the Mount’.  But here, in Luke, it was given at another occasion.  When and where that was, Luke does not say; apparently it was not important.  The only thing of importance was the contents of Jesus’ words.  The Lord Jesus had been in prayer, privately, and that had taken some time.  It would appear that the disciples were impressed by that praying of their Master.  At least one of them asked Him: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also has taught his disciples.”  They felt themselves unable to pray in the right manner.  They wanted the Lord to give them a prayer, one which they could always use.  John the Baptist had done the same thing.  He had given his pupils a certain prayer-form, a fixed set of words, which could be learned by heart, and used repeatedly.  Such a formula Jesus’ disciples now also wanted.  Then they would have a prayer which was good as to its contents, which would always be well-pleasing to God, and in which only necessary things would be asked.

Well then, we read that Jesus complied with this request.  The Lord indeed gave His followers a prayer-formula, namely the so well-known Lord’s Prayer, sometimes called the Perfect Prayer.

But Jesus also added something to this.  First He dealt with prayer itself – first He taught His disciples how and what they should pray, but after that He spoke about God’s answer to that prayer, about the prayer’s result.

And the most striking, the most outstanding characteristic of that answer of God to prayer, was the element of absolute certainty.  Jesus gave His disciples the assurance that, when they pray to God in the manner He just had indicated, they certainly would receive the fulfilment of their petitions.  That was the mighty thing He made clear to them; the greatly comforting message which is recorded in our text for this morning/evening, a message which thus also is meant for us.

God’s answer to, His fulfilment of a faithful prayer is absolutely sure.  There is no doubt about it.  It is a great and wonderful reality; it is a fact!

We must be aware of that, congregation.  God is a God Who answers prayer, Who also wants to answer our prayers.

And how richly is this revealed!  It is said by the Lord Jesus Himself.  And Jesus did not just mention it, just like that, in one sentence, but He treated the subject extensively.  He wished to bring it home to the disciples; they had to be fully convinced of it.  They had to understand the principle well; they had to keep it in view always, so that they could live according to it.  That was what the Lord wanted.

Jesus begins His teaching with a parable: A certain traveller arrives, during the evening or night, at the place of a friend.  He asks for some food and for lodging.  A bed to sleep on – that will be alright.  However there is just at that moment, not a crumb of bread in the house.  But the owner of the place has yet another friend; and to that man he goes, to ask for three small loaves of bread, which he then can give to his guest.  (The loaves of bread, which were in use in those days and in that country, were only small, they were about the size of what we call ‘buns’ nowadays.)

Will he indeed get help from the other friend?  Or will the answer be: ‘Please, go away, don’t disturb me at this hour of the night.  I and my children are already in bed for a long time.  They are all asleep, and I do not like to wake them up for your sake.  Sorry, but I cannot help you now.  You had better go home.’

Would the man say that?  No, not at all.  Nobody would say such a thing.  The Lord Jesus wished to make it very clear that the man from whom help was asked, would indeed give that help.  Although friendship was not his motive, still he took the trouble to get out of bed.  He would at least do it because of the shamelessness of the person who knocked at his door.

Now we wonder maybe: ‘Where did the man with the guest get the courage?  How did he dare to ask a thing like that?’

It was this: He found himself really in a difficult position.  His guest had to be taken care of.  He had to show Eastern hospitality.  And then, he expected so much from the friendship which existed between him and the other man, he relies so much on it, that, though he came at that very late hour, he still was convinced that he would be helped out of his difficulty.  Of course, his friend would give him what he asked for, even when he came at such an inconvenient moment.  He was sure of that.  And just because of that great trust in that friendship, the other man would give the bread.  Be it then not out of friendship itself, but only to get rid of his nocturnal visitor, whom he could not decently send away with empty hands, though he had to upset his whole household for it.  Such a great trust he could not possibly put to shame.

Ah, but now the meaning of Jesus’ teaching becomes so much clearer for us.  Even an imperfect human being gives help in those circumstances, in spite of the trouble it caused him.  But how much more will God do that, God, Who never lets Himself be led by motives which are less noble, but Who is full of love and mercy.  We can go to Him at any time of day or night.  And always He listens to us; He inclines His ear to our petitions.  He always wants to help us in our need, however inconvenient the circumstances may be.

We wonder how the man in the parable dared to ask his friend for some bread during the night.  But do you perhaps wonder sometimes what it means when we ask God for His favour?  The circumstances could not be more unfavourable.  We, people who are sinful all through, little, insignificant human beings who live on the earth, on that tiny spot in the immeasurable universe; small human beings, who always sinfully and self-conceitedly oppose God’s will, they ask things from the endlessly high and holy God, Who sits enthroned in heaven, and Who has created the whole universe.  It would be fully right if God should destroy them with one single breath, because they grieve and insult Him terribly, numerous times.

Still God hears their prayers.  He listens even to them especially.  Because the Almighty Lord in heaven has directed Himself, has as it were adjusted Himself to give answer on those prayers.  And that has cost Him unspeakable much.  It cost Him His Own beloved Son.  He let that Son take upon Himself the form of such a small earthly human being, to suffer terribly and to die, for other human beings, for sinners.  That great sacrifice God made for us; so He revealed to us His grace, And so it became possible for us to pray to the holy God, because we can do it in the Name of His dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  So it also became possible for us to expect from God the answer on our prayers.  God looks down on us in Him, Jesus.  Because of Jesus’ atonement, because of that perfect sacrifice made on Calvary, God inclines His ear, and grants us the fulfilment of our petitions.

O no, God does not answer us in order to get rid of us.  Not in the very least.  His motive is even not that of friendship, that word, that expression is much too weak here.  God is driven by love, by endless divine and merciful love for sinners.  That comes very much to the fore here, in this parable,

But Jesus goes yet further.  Very simply and directly He says (and we have it here in black and white): “Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”  ‘I say that to you, I, Jesus.’  The Lord gives that much stress.  He puts Himself forward as the guarantee of the truth of His words.  And three times He gives expression to the same thought: “Ask,… seek….. knock.”

That repetition in itself already makes Jesus’ words so powerful.  And then three times: “…it shall be given unto you…. you will find…. you will be opened.”  Could it be said in a more profound way?  It is so fully and wonderfully true: God, our gracious God, Who answers our prayers!

And again Jesus says it in a somewhat different form, so that we might be even more penetrated by this great message: “For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh shall be opened.”

When we think deeply about it we start to wonder even more: Is it then really so?  Do we indeed have that wondrous certainty?  ‘Yes’, says Jesus.  Everyone who really prays, who asks from God in true faith, will receive the good.  That is absolutely sure.

Jesus Himself is the guarantee, ‘I say that to you’, Jesus says.

And knowing our weakness, our little faith, He once more underlines His words, by means of the second parable.

First our Lord had referred to God as the heavenly, perfect Friend.  Now He calls Him the heavenly Father.  If, says He, even an earthly father, one with sins and shortcomings, will not put worthless things in his son’s hand, like a stone for bread, or dangerous things, like a serpent for a fish, or a scorpion for an egg, instead of the necessary things for which that son asks him, how much the more will God, the perfect heavenly Father, give the things His children pray for, and which they need.  How much the more will He not give the Holy Spirit, the greatest and most important gift in which all the other gifts are included?  Does God not wish the very best for His children?  Would He not give it to them in great compassion?

Not for nothing does the Lord lay so much emphasis here on that relation between a father and his child – on the relation between God the Father and His children here on earth.  God looks down on us in a fatherly love which has no end.

And children of God – we are such when we pray to Him for that which is good – that implies: when we believe in Him, and in His grace in Christ; when we have accepted His Son as our Redeemer, and base our life, our whole existence on Him.  Children of God – that is what we are when we trust God blindly and reckon on His love.

That must be the case with us anyway, because when we would not have that complete trust, we never could pray in Jesus’ Name with our whole heart.  It is certainly true: A true prayer can only be a faithful prayer, one uttered by a true believer.  Real, unwavering faith – that is the condition.

That not only stands to reason, but it also clearly appears from the text.  First we have the man who went to his friend for bread.  He got the bread because he fully trusted in the friendship of the other.  And so it is also with the believer.

His trust in His Lord in heaven, the certain knowledge that the Lord will help him, that gives to his prayer depth and strength, that only makes him to pray earnestly, and humbly, and fervently.  Nothing else will do it.  Not his own piety, or his own choice of words, or his own decent daily life.  If we depended on that then it would be better for us to stop straightaway…!  We only can reckon on our God in heaven Who answers us.

True, faithful prayer it gives strength and comfort, because it is aimed at its fulfilment, at the fact that God surely will give what we need.

And when Jesus then says: “Ask, and it shall be given unto you”, then He means an asking with one’s whole heart, a pleading in which the strong desire to receive is present, and which is therefore not something of a momentary nature, or couched in vague and general terms (as is so often the case with us in our daily prayer-routine), but that it is truly a beseeching, a sighing, in which one indeed pleads his case with God seriously.  That is prayer which continues, in which one perseveres, until God has given an answer.

This though is strengthened yet by what follows: Jesus speaks of ‘seeking’ – a person who seeks something does his utmost to find the object that is missing.  And the Lord uses the word ‘to knock’, to knock namely in a repeated, persistent sense.  That has the element of urgency in it.  Somebody who for a long time is hammering on your door forces you as it were to run to the front to open the door for him.

That makes us think of Jacob, That man wrestled with God.  ‘I do not let you go’, he said, ‘before you bless me.  And it makes us think of David, of his psalms of penitence, in which he asked God so earnestly for forgiveness of his sins.  And we read about Hannah, Samuel’s mother, who prayed such a long time for a child.

When we really pray like that, like David and Hannah, when we pray out of need, when we have an open eye for our need, then we may be sure that God listens to us.  Such a prayer is well- pleasing to God.

No child of God may call that in question.  When we do it we commit a serious sin, Then we dishonour God, because we do not take Him seriously.  For we do not fully trust that He will answer our petitions, we in fact regard Him as less loving and faithful than an ordinary earthly father, or even less sympathetic than an ordinary earthly friend or acquaintance.  How could we ever think about God in such a manner?  Still we do when we are not convinced that He will answer us.  Then we indeed call His grace and His Holy Word into question.

God knows very well what we need; He knows exactly what we need for our eternal well-being.  He knows that much and much better than we ourselves.

The man in the parable needed that bread.  He had to show his guest all possible hospitality.  That was a great duty in the East.  And the man got what he needed, he received that which he really could not do without.

That is also an important point here.  Oure heavenly Father is so merciful and so wise, that He surely does not fulfil all our wishes.  No, He wishes to give us only the very best, only that which is good for us, that which is necessary, and which we cannot do without.

Now it is possible that we ask the wrong thing from Him, something which would do harm to our spiritual health.  And not knowing better we can even pray for it with our whole heart, with an earnest longing.  But God will not give it, at least not literally.  However, He still answers such a prayer in His Own way.

The apostle Paul also prayed if God would take away that awful ‘thorn in his flesh’.  Paul thought that he then would be able to do much more for the Kingdom of God.  He prayed fervently, even three times.  And he received an answer.  His prayer was heard by God.  “My grace be sufficient for thee” – that was the answer.  Also for the rest of his life Paul had to carry on with that thorn in his flesh.  Otherwise he would have become haughty, and that would have done great harm to his work as apostle.  Not his health, but God’s grace, that was what Paul needed to serve his Lord.  And that was after all what he wanted himself.  He did not get what he asked literally, yet his prayer was answered.

God gives the Holy Spirit as an answer.  He always does.  And then not in this sense that we receive the Holy Spirit instead of all the other things.  And neither is it so that we have to pray for the Holy Spirit only, leaving out all other things which are necessary for our life.  For the Holy Spirit, yes, He certainly is by far the greatest and best Gift of God.  But He is also the One Who brings about all of life, and all that is needed, for He is, says the Nicene Creed, “….the Lord and Giver of life…!”  The Spirit gives us all that we need for our temporal, and our eternal existence.  He bestows on us earthly gifts, like bread, and milk, and meat, and rest at night; and He gives spiritual good: the Gospel, faith, comfort, and the assurance of salvation.  Therefore it is so utterly necessary that we receive Him, the Spirit of God.

And now we also see that the two evangelists, Matthew and Luke, do not contradict each other in any way, when the one says that God the Father will not withhold ‘good things’, and the other that God will not withhold the Holy Spirit from His children, when they, in spirit and truth direct their prayers to Him.

But let us then do our utmost in letting our prayers be always well-pleasing to God.  It is of such great importance.

Let us all trust fully in this, that God will perform for us that great, that overwhelming wonder: the giving of His Holy Spirit, when we ask for it, in humility.

The Holy, Eternal God – O great wonder – He answers our prayers!

Do you believe that?

Amen.