Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20090729.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Luke: Jesus, The Son Of Man For All Mankind
Part XL: Christ's Identity As God's Worldwide Savior By His Motivating Others To Pray
(Luke 11:5-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. If Jesus is our Heavenly Father's Son, the true Savior of the world, we should expect to see Him share with us highly motivating, moving insight into the Father's attitude toward us as we pray to Him.
    2. We are not disappointed in this regard, for Luke 11:5-13 offers us a deeply heartwarming, motivating bit of insight into our wonderful heavenly Father's enormous motivation in interacting with us in prayer!
  2. Christ's Identity As God's Worldwide Savior By His Motivating Others To Pray, Luke 11:5-13.
    1. After answering His disciples' request to have Jesus teach them to pray, and that by giving them His short, powerful, model prayer in Luke 11:1-4, Jesus sought to motivate His men to pray in Luke 11:5-13.
    2. That effort to motivate them gives us a heartwarming insight into God the Father's great interest in us when we pray, and it works to motivate us to pray to our marvelous Lord as a way of life (as follows):
      1. Jesus revealed that the Father avidly waits to hear every idea voiced by us as we pray, Luke 11:5-10:
        1. The illustration of a man beseeching his friend in the night (Luke 11:5-8) is given in contrast to the way God actually hears our prayers, G. Campbell Morgan, The Gospel Acc. To Luke, 1931, p. 143.
        2. Thus, opposite the man who doesn't want to be bothered, but at the repeat knocking of his friend, he will give the friend all he wants, our heavenly Father avidly awaits the prayers of His dear children!
        3. Thus, we should go ahead and ask, seek and knock in prayer to our very motivated Father, 11:9-10.
      2. Jesus revealed that our heavenly Father wants us to meet the many needs we have in our human weaknesses in our prayer life, that we should thus be highly motivated to pray unto Him, Luke 11:9-10:
        1. The charges for us to ask, seek and knock all relate to different needs God knows we have in a life of prayer: one must ask God for what he does not possess, seek for what is not apparent and knock that obstacles may be removed toward fulfillment, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 1971, p. 1048.
        2. Accordingly, Jesus revealed that God knows we as weak and limited mortals have (1) lacks that need to be filled in our experience, that (2) we are often confused or ignorant about the information we need to have and that (3) we often face obstacles in life toward practical fulfillment in living.
        3. Thus, He wants us to go ahead and ask for (1) what we don't have but need, and (2) to seek for what is not apparent to us but that we need to understand and (3) to knock for obstacles to be removed in our lives toward our fulfillment as we pray, Luke 11:9-11.
      3. Jesus revealed that the Father wants and plans to give us much better gifts than we can even request in prayer, so we should go ahead and ask Him for fulfillment to our needs, Luke 11:11-13:
        1. Jesus noted that no decent father would give his son a stone if he asked him for bread, or a serpent if he asked him for a fish or a scorpion if he asked him for an egg, Luke 11:11-12.
        2. Thus, if we who are sinners as parents know how to give good gifts to our children, we can be sure that our omniscient, righteous, good heavenly Father will give us good gifts as we pray, Luke 11:13.
        3. Specifically, Jesus mentioned the gift of the Holy Spirit, which Person of the Trinity was available as a temporary gift to Old Testament saints like His disciples before the cross, Judges 13:25; 16:20.
        4. Remarkably, God has given the Holy Spirit to all believers after the cross though they did not ask for Him, and that forever unconditionally, a marvelous gift, cf. Eph. 4:30; 1 Cor. 12:13; John 14:16. Thus, in this one instance alone, we see the Father went ahead to give us a gift on the Day of Pentecost that is beyond even the request Jesus Himself had specified at this time in His ministry!
Lesson: Jesus revealed that our Heavenly Father is avidly motivated to interact with us in all realms of our needs as we pray to Him, so we should pray in confident, joyful anticipation of His blessings.

Application: (1) Jesus revealed the Father to be a truly wonderful, wise, bountiful, highly motivated Person Who delights when His spiritual children pray to Him, indicating Jesus is truly the Father's Son and Savior of the world. (2) In view of Jesus' great insight into the Father's attitude toward us as we pray, may we ask, seek and knock in prayer for every need we face for His massive fulfillment!