REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Repeat the verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
INTRODUCTION
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8)
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Review of Last Week – The Logic Behind Prayer
2. Background for the Parable of the Persistent Widow
3. Keys to Victorious Prayer Based on the Parable
4. The Key to Understanding the Parable
5. The Proof of Faith
SOME KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL PRAYER
I. REVIEW OF LAST WEEK: LOGIC BEHIND PRAYER
1. We pray because Jesus Prayed: Jesus referred to God as Father 170 times in the NT. Some scholars suggest that Jesus invented private prayer. There was much prayer in the OT but most of it was formal. The Gospels record a dozen specific prayers of Jesus and several parables and teachings about prayer. We have five references of Jesus separating himself from His disciples for private prayer.
2. God is love and yearns for a relationship with mankind. Prayer is the vehicle he has provided to cultivate this relationship. God’s goal is to establish that intimacy, through the reconciliation purchased on the hard wood of the cross, through regeneration and adoption as his children and through prayer. Prayer is the medium for cultivating this relationship.
3. God chose a partnership to run the world and prayer is the means to give us a role in the partnership.
History is the story of God giving away power. God chose a style of governing the world that depends on human agency and choice. He chose the course in which His human partners can contribute the most. And, as Blaise Pascal said, “God instituted prayer in order to lend to his creatures the dignity of causality.” Prayer is one of the means God has given us to affect the governing of the world. Thus God has decided to work from inside his creation rather than acting on it from the outside.
Creation seems to be delegation through and through. He will do nothing simply of Himself which can be done by creatures. I suppose this is because He is a giver.” (Quoted by P. Yancy in Prayer, Page 144).
II. BACKGROUND FOR PARABLE OF PERSISTENT WIDOW
DESCRIPTION OF AN ORIENTAL COURT:
“On a slightly raised dais … sat the Kadi, or judge, half buried in cushions. Round him squatted various secretaries and other notables. The populace crowded into the rest of the hall, a dozen voices clamoring at once, each claiming that his cause should be the first heard. The more prudent litigants joined not the fray, but held whispered communications with the secretaries, passing bribes, euphemistically called fees, into the hands of one or another. When the greed of the underlings was satisfied, one of them would whisper to the Kadi, who would promptly call such and such a case. It seemed to be ordinarily taken for granted that judgment would go to the litigant who had bribed highest. But meantime a poor woman on the skirts of the crowd perpetually interrupted the proceedings with loud cries for justice. She was sternly bidden to be silent, and reproachfully told that she came there every day. “And so I will,” she cried out, “till the Kadi hears me.” At length, at the end of a suit, the judge impatiently demanded, “What does that woman want?” Her story was soon told. Her only son had been taken for a soldier, and she was alone, and could not till her piece of ground; yet the tax-gatherers had forced her to pay the impost, from which a lone widow could be exempt. The judge asked a few questions, and said, “Let her be exempt.” Thus her perseverance was rewarded. He she had money to fee a clerk, she might have been excused long before.” (A western traveler in nineteenth century Iraq, as cited by Kenneth Bailey – P. Yancey, Prayer, page. 147)
READING: Choose 4 individuals to take the parts of: Narrator, Jesus, Widow, Judge and have them read the parable.
QUESTION: What keys to prevailing prayer are evidenced in the parable of the widow and the unrighteous judge?
BACKGROUND OF THE PARABLE
The Widow: Normally in Palestine the widow had no legal right to inherit her husband’s estate. Widows had adversaries who could defraud them. They were weak and alone. They were not allowed to speak in their own defense. They were poor so had no money to bribe an assistant so that they could get access to the judge. Widows were the weakest and most helpless individuals in the community.
The Judge: The judge was one of the strongest members of society.
1. It is plain that he was unjust, e.g. he could be bribed. He didn’t care about justice.
2. He had no regard for man, that is he didn’t really care if a person suffered injustice or not. The suffering and hardships of others had no effect on him.
3. He did not fear God thus had no moral pressure to do what was right. He had no thought that some day he would answer to a righteous God.
4. He had one weakness – he was vain, he wanted to be well thought of in the community. He cared about himself. He said “she wearies me” – to beat black and blue, used of a boxer. She was giving him a black eye in the community. She was not attacking him physically but she was wearing him out.
III. KEYS TO THE VICTORIOUS PRAYER BASED ON THE PARABLE.
1. Her request was very specific: “Grant me justice against my adversary.” She knew exactly what she wanted.
2. She was totally helpless:
The Beatitudes start with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” The word for “poor” is the same as the word for “beggarly, reduced to begging, destitute.”
“Norwegian theologian Ole Hallesby settled on the single word helplessness as the best summary of the heart attitude that God accepts in prayer. “Only he who is helpless can truly pray.”
3. She was confident she was being heard
She came back again and again because she knew her voice could reach the judge, was rising above the crowd.
“… anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6).
“In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears” (Ps. 18:6).
4. She was confident she would prevail
If she did not have hope and was not sure she would prevail she would have stayed home. In fact staying home would have meant that she gave up hope.
5. She was desperate, passionate.
“The Lord takes our prayers not by number but by weight. When there is no life or fervency in it, it is a dead carcass of prayer.” Sometimes we pray because we ought and our heart is not in it. Let’s remind our heart and pray with fervency.
ILL: Fred Craddock, a retired teacher of preachers from West Tennessee: “I’ve met a desperate person since we’ve moved to the mountain. It is a woman. I had gone to the hospital in Fannin County to visit someone else. I didn’t know her, didn’t know I would encounter her, but when I went down the corridor, I saw her. Her head was against the door, and both fists were up beside her face, and she was banging on the door: “Let me in, let me in, let me in!” I couldn’t imagine someone locking her out of the room. I got there, and it was the chapel door.
I said, “Let me help you.” I tried to open the door, but the knob wouldn’t turn. It was locked. I stopped a worker, and I said, “The chapel is locked.”
She said, “We have to keep it locked. There were some kids in here some time ago, and they trashed the chapel. We had to get all new furniture and paint the room. We can’t afford to keep doing that, so we keep it locked.”
“Well, find someone with a key.”
She came back a little bit later with another woman, who opened the door for us, and this woman and I went in. I would say she was about forty. She had the look of desperation. I could tell that she hadn’t come to the hospital with any planning; she came urgently, she came running. The dress she had on was not typical public wear. She had no shoes, just scuffs. Her hair had not been combed, no makeup. She had the look of desperation. She had the voice of desperation. I can’t tell you if she was screaming or crying or moaning or what it was, but it was a desperate, strange sound. I heard some of her words. “I know he’s going to die, I know he’s going to die, I know he’s going to die.”
“Who?”
“My husband.”
“What’s the matter?”
“He’s had a heart attack.”
I said, “Can I get you some water?”
She said, “No.”
I told her who I was, and I said, “Can I pray with you?”
And she said, “Please.”
I started to pray for her and for her husband, and she interrupted me. She didn’t just interrupt me; she took over. She started praying herself and stopped my prayer. I think maybe I was too quiet or too slow or saying the wrong thing or something. Anyway, my prayer wasn’t getting there, and she knew it.
So she said, “Lord, this is not the time to take my husband. You know that better than I do, he’s not ready. Never prays, never goes to church or anything. He’s not ready, not a good time to take him. Don’t take him now. And what about me? If I have to raise these kids, what am I going to do? I don’t have any skills, can’t find any work. Quit school to marry him. If I’d have known you were going to take him, I’d have stayed in school.” She was really talking to God. “And what about the kids? They don’t mind me now with him around. If he’s gone, they’ll be wild as bucks. What about the kids? This is not the time to take my husband.” Whew.
I stayed as long as I felt useful I went back the next morning, and she had on a nice dress; she had on shoes; she had combed her hair. She looked fine. She was in the hallway outside intensive care. Before I could ask, she said, “He’s better.” She smiled and said, “I’m sorry about that crazy woman yesterday.”
I said, “Well, you weren’t crazy.”
She said, “I guess the Lord heard one of us.”
I said, “He heard you.”
6. She was persistent
This is one of the few parables that are interpreted for us. In Luke 18:1 we read, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” or “never lose heart, never become slothful, never grow weary.”
“Most of life, at least as I have experienced it, is characterized by waiting with questions rather than being bathed in answers. Why do you think the Scriptures are filled with images of waiting upon God? Why do you think the Scriptures so frequently ask God to explain God’s delay? How many times have you prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed some more for one of God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life only to hear God’s long silence? And this juncture, this experience of delay, represents the moment of spiritual crisis, of abundant opportunity. What will I do? How will I be in the face of the silence? What is my response to the delay of the promise? Is it to despair? Is it to reach for easy answers because I’d rather have an easy answer now than to wait patiently for the authentic one? Is it to abandon my hope and my confidence in God?” (Rev. Mark Sargent)
Our persistence in prayer demonstrates the depth of our burden – shows we are really concerned.
“The great fault of the children of God is, they do not continue in prayer; they do not go on praying; they do not persevere.” (George Mueller).
Ill. This story illustrates the value of persistence in prayer: Roger Simms, hitchhiking his way home, would never forget the date–May 7. His heavy suitcase made Roger tired. He was anxious to take off his army uniform once and for all. Flashing the hitchhiking sign to the oncoming car, he lost hope when he saw it was a black, sleek, new Cadillac. To his surprise the car stopped. The passenger door opened. He ran toward the car, tossed his suitcase in the back, and thanked the handsome, well-dressed man as he slid into the front seat.
“Going home for keeps?”
“Sure am,” Roger responded.
“Well, you’re in luck if you’re going to Chicago.”
“Not quite that far. Do you live in Chicago?”
“I have a business there. My name is Hanover.”
After talking about many things, Roger, a Christian, felt a compulsion to witness to this fifty-ish, apparently successful businessman about Christ. But he kept putting it off, till he realized he was just thirty minutes from his home. It was now or never. So, Roger cleared his throat, “Mr. Hanover, I would like to talk to you about something very important.” He then proceeded to explain the way of salvation, ultimately asking Mr. Hanover if he would like to receive Christ as his Savior. To Roger’s astonishment the Cadillac pulled over to the side of the road. Roger thought he was going to be ejected from the car. But the businessman bowed his head and received Christ, then thanked Roger. “This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”
Five years went by, Roger married, had a two-year-old boy, and a business of his own. Packing his suitcase for a business trip to Chicago, he found the small, white business card Hanover had given him five years before. In Chicago he looked up Hanover Enterprises. A receptionist told him it was impossible to see Mr. Hanover, but he could see Mrs. Hanover. A little confused as to what was going on, he was ushered into a lovely office and found himself facing a keen-eyed woman in her fifties. She extended her hand. “You knew my husband?”
Roger told how her husband had given him a ride when hitchhiking home after the war. “Can you tell me when that was?” “It was May 7, five years ago, the day I was discharged from the army.” “Anything special about that day?” Roger hesitated. Should he mention giving his witness? Since he had come so far, he might as well take the plunge. “Mrs. Hanover, I explained the gospel. He pulled over to the side of the road and wept against the steering wheel. He gave his life to Christ that day.” Explosive sobs shook her body. Getting a grip on herself, she sobbed, “I had prayed for my husband’s salvation for years. I believed God would save him.”
“And,” said Roger, “Where is your husband, Mrs. Hanover?”
“He’s dead,” she wept, struggling with words. “He was in a car crash after he let you out of the car. He never got home. You see–I thought God had not kept His promise.” Sobbing uncontrollably, she added, “I stopped living for God five years ago because I thought He had not kept His word!” [J. Kirk Johnston, Why Christians Sin, Discovery House, 1992, pp. 39-41. ww.christianglobe.com/illustrations/prayer])
IV. THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE PARABLE
“Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly” (Luke 18:7-8).
“His chosen ones” … not like this widow, the object of indifference and contempt but dear to him, the apple of His eye. (Zech. 2:8)
One writer goes so far as to state that the parable is really not about prayer or the widow or the unjust judge. Instead it is about the character of God.
It is true that everything in the parable hangs on God being different than the unjust judge. And it is clear from the Bible that our dear heavenly Father is just the opposite of this judge. He does “care about men,” we are “his chosen ones.”
The judge would not hear. God does hear!
“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24).
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3).
“This is the confidence that we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (I John 5:14)
ILL: A person I know works for the telephone company, in the area of customer complaints. She has a tough job because she must represent the demands of the company, and at the same time, she must try to be open and caring about customers.
She told me about a person who called her, complaining about some grave problem with her telephone service. My friend said, while this was a bad problem, it did not come under company guidelines. In other words, it was the customer’s problem, and not hers.
The customer, a widow, living alone by herself on a fixed income, persisted. My friend said, “During the conversation, she at last said something that really got through to me. She said, ‘I’ve always loved and respected the telephone company. Since I was a young child, coming home alone, my mother always told me, ‘If you have any problem, just call the telephone operator and she will help. I trust the phone company to do what is right.”
My friend said that a light went on in her brain and she realized that this was not merely a complaint about bad service. It was a discussion about the character of the company. Was this a company that cared, a company that valued its long-term relationship with a customer, a company that could be trusted? My friend reached out and solved the woman’s problem.
V. PRAYER IS THE PROOF OF FAITH
“However when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
QUESTION: Based on the parable, how do we know if a person has faith?
In the parable the proof of faith is prayer. Much prayer is a sign of much faith.
ILL: Cahya, when I shared this parable with him, said, “If that is the case the charismatics have lots of faith, because they pray a lot.” I agree that they do …. Sometimes misguided but over all they put other evangelicals to shame, at least in the matter of prayer.
If we lose heart and drift away from prayer that Christ will not find faith in us when He returns. Faith and prayer stand and fall together.
Prayer assumes that God is, that He hears, that He cares. Thus prayer is a sign of faith. So the sign of faith is prayer. The sign of strong faith is persevering prayer.
SO WHAT???
1. We pray because Jesus prayed; We pray because God wants to interact with us and prayer is the vehicle which he has given us to communicate with him; We pray because God chose a partnership to run the world and prayer is the means he gave us to play a role in the partnership.
2. We will be successful in prayer when we offer specific requests, really feel helpless, are really desperate, are confident we are being heard and will prevail.
3. Our great comfort is that God is not like the unrighteous judge. We are his chosen ones, his children. He is our dear heavenly Father. He does hear us when we cry to him.
4. We can check the strength of our faith in God but evaluating our prayer life. A life of prayer is proof of a living faith.
5. We need to learn to pray and persevere in prayer! There is more danger that God’s people will grow weary in prayer than that God will be unfaithful!!!!