Translation: 11.1And it
happened while He was in a place praying, as He stopped, one of his followers
said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just like John taught his followers. 2And
He said to them, “Whenever you would pray, say, ‘Father, make Your Name treated
as holy, make Your Kingdom come. 3Give us our daily potion of food
that we need for today. 4And forgive our sins for us, because we
ourselves forgive everyone who owes us. And don’t bring us into testing.’”
5And He said to them, “Who of you has a
friend and goes to him in the middle of the night and would say to him,
“Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because my friend arrived
from the road to me, and I don’t have what I will set before him. 7And
that person to answer from the inside of the house would say, “Don’t cause me
trouble/bother me. The door is already closed and my kids are with me in the
bed. I can’t by getting up give to you.” 8I say to you, even if he
wouldn’t give to him by getting up because of being his friend, for sure
because of his rudeness after getting up he will give him whatever things he needs.
9And I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you
will find, knock and it will be opened for you, 10because everyone
who asks receives and who seeks finds and for the person who knocks it will be
opened. 11But your son will ask which one of you who is a father for
a fish, and instead of a fish will give him a snake? 12Or even he
will ask for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? 13So, if you who
are truly evil know to give good gifts to your children, how much more the
Father from Heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
The Point
I’m Stressing: Ask and Get an Answer From God, Don’t Let anything hold
you back from asking, just Ask God, because He is your Father in Heaven and He
will answer!
Interpretation
1.
Structure
a.
Intro: Teach us to pray
(v.1)
b.
Model Prayer (vv.2-4)
c.
Prayer will be answered
i.
Parable of Two Friends
(vv.5-8)
ii.
Application of the Parable:
Ask and Get an Answer (vv.9-10)
iii.
Assurance of an Answer:
Comparison to Earthly Fathers (vv.11-12)
iv.
Conclusion: God will give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask (v.13)
2.
Themes
a.
Asking
i.
The whole relates to
asking, actually while there are times when you can have a conversation with
God in prayer or praise God in prayer, this whole passage main presents prayer
as asking our Father in Heaven for stuff we want/need.
ii.
All of Jesus’ model prayer
is just one request after another, all of them are requests
iii.
The parable is all about a
person who is shameless in his asking
iv.
The application of the
parable is that we should ask, seek, and knock, which is a way of say really
ask
v.
The analogy of a son asking
a father for food is still about asking
vi.
The conclusion is all about
asking for the Holy Spirit
b.
Relating to God as our
Heavenly Father
i.
The model prayer has us
assume a posture of approaching God as our Father
ii.
The analogy to earthly
fathers assumes we should be relating to God as our Father
iii.
The assurance in the
conclusion is that God the Father is our Good Father who will give good gifts,
specifically the Holy Spirit
c.
Prayer
i.
This is the overarching
theme of the whole section, clearly introduced by the first verse of the
chapter.
ii.
Prayer here is main
explained in relationship to asking for things
d.
Rudeness/shamelessness
i.
The person begging his
friend in the middle of the night doesn’t seem to notice that he is being very
rude, he is oblivious to the fact that it is in the middle of the night and not
a good time to ask, because he needs an answer, so he asks
ii.
Jesus says that even if his
friend wouldn’t provide what he needed because of their relationship, the sheer
shamelessness of the friends begging, the sheer desperate boldness of his
begging would compel the friend to give what he needed.
iii.
The point being that if a
human can compel another human to give one way or another, our prayers to God
are even more effective, He will do it because He is our Father
e.
Getting what was asked for
i.
The man in the parable gets
what he asked for, Jesus says that we will get what we ask for, the children in
the comparison to earthly fathers get what they ask for, and Jesus again says
that God will give us what we ask for, especially/specifically the Holy Spirit!
f.
Holy Spirit
i.
This is a theme in
Luke-Acts
ii.
The similar passage in
Matthew 7 has “good gifts” instead of the Holy Spirit, so Luke is clearly want
to stress that God will give us the Holy Spirit if we ask Him
3.
Doctrines
a.
God is our Father in Heaven
b.
God is Good
c.
God wants to send the Holy
Spirit
d.
God wants our requests
e.
God answers prayer requests
f.
God will answer
g.
We should ask God for the
Holy Spirit
h.
The Holy Spirit is
especially what God wants to give us and will give us if we ask
i.
We should not be afraid to
ask, or feel rude or awkward while we are asking
j.
While all Christians have
the Holy Spirit, we can receive greater filling of the Holy Spirit in our
lives, that is we can have the Spirit work more powerfully and fully in us and
through us if we ask God to send us more of the Holy Spirit
k.
We really will get what we
ask for
Applications
1.
Pray for things you really
want
2.
Pray for things you should
really want too
3.
Pray for things you really
need. They can be practical physical things like food, clothes, a house,
schooling, money, a phone, a car, or whatever else you might actually need or
want. They can be spiritual needs too like not being put through a testing or
tempting circumstance, or like help understanding a passage in the Bible or
overcoming a sin or forgiveness of a sin or help forgiving other people or
strength to endure a difficult situation or to know God’s will or whatever else
you might need spiritually, emotionally, or intellectually!
4.
Expect God to answer
5.
Truth God to answer
6.
Ask God like He is Your
Heavenly Daddy, because He is
7.
Go ahead, risk being a bit
rude. The point of the story is that of course that the person will definitely
get an answer one way or another, that God will answer your prayers for sure.
God is not like the sleeping man who is reluctant, but we should be like the asker
who doesn’t let anything hold him back from asking, so ask even if it feels
awkward, or rude, or even like something you’re not sure you should ask for,
ask. God would rather have you ask and trust Him to answer than you to feel too
awkward to ask.
8.
God won’t give you
something bad in return for what you asked for. He doesn’t give you nasty
gifts. You don’t ask God for him to give you a good spouse one day and then
expect him to give you a horrible one? Or for him to help you get into a good
school and then expect to get into a horrible one. Don’t expect God to give you
a bad gift
9.
Ask for the Holy Spirit,
the main thing Jesus wants us to ask for is the Holy Spirit and the main thing
we should expect to get is the Holy Spirit!
No comments:
Post a Comment