Don't Give Up: The Power of Persistent Prayer (Luke 18)

But it's great to be in God's house today. And as you know, we're in the Gospel

of Luke. And today we're in chapter 18.

Thank you, Brother Ronnie. That was a lengthy passage. And I appreciate you

reading it for us because we need that context.

And I encourage those of you that might be listening by podcast today that you'll

read Luke chapter 18, 1 through 34, and then pick back up with us.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

But chapter 18 here in Luke actually contains six separate units,

if you will. and each really introduced by Luke here with some sort of statement of context or purpose.

And every section, I want you to know, both stands on its own as a rich teaching,

and also I can say it echoes the themes and the ideas that we've already seen in chapter 17.

So we're going to open up today talking about this powerless widow, a powerless widow.

And we've seen that discerning the main point in this passage of Jesus's parables

and in the weeks in the past can sometimes require a lot of careful work.

But chapter 18, verse 1 is actually an interpreter's dream come true.

I mean, it's amazing. Though the details of the so-called parable of the persistent

widow, I would say, can be challenging. We're not left to guess in this passage,

church, actually what effect Jesus wished to have on his disciples.

They should always pray and not give up. That was the effect he wanted.

Always pray, don't give up.

And the story here is sketched out for us in vague terms.

For example, we're introduced, as Brother Ronnie read earlier,

to an unnamed judge and an unnamed widow who live, you guessed it,

in an unnamed town, right, in verses 2 and 3.

And the widow actually has an adversary against whom she needs justice.

But we're not told the nature of her trouble, but the judge has little incentive

here in this town to actually assist the widow in this matter at all.

For it says in scripture there, he neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

And so for some time, it says in verse four, he refused. He refused to help her.

And at last he is persuaded to get justice for her, not for reasons of,

you know, his sheer nobility or anything like that, but because, you know why?

Verse 5, you heard it, because he has been worn down and frightened by her persistence.

She wouldn't give up, church. She kept on.

And if we're surprised by the judge's cynicism here and his selfishness here in this passage,

then you guessed it, we must be shocked when Jesus here, the Lord himself,

actually in verse six, look at it, he instructs his followers to listen to the judge.

Didn't we just see that it was an unjust judge? I mean, like what in the world

do we have to listen to him for? Jesus has a point though.

What possible lesson could we be meant to learn from this man?

Jesus here, actually, if you look in the text, he argues from the lesser to the greater.

And if we see in this first point, if this lazy and indifferent judge can be

prevailed upon by persistent petition from this widow, how much more, Eastwood,

will God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him,

it says in verse 7, day and night.

How many of you believe in prayer?

How many of you believe there's power in prayer? Prayer is our secret weapon.

You know, as we come before God Almighty, even in the church,

and we're praying in God's will, and specifically, and we're praying for his will to be done.

Here, the point is that God is much better than the unjust judge, obviously.

And so if the judge in this story here actually secures justice for the widow,

we can be certain that the heavenly father will make sure that those who cry out to him get justice.

And quickly, by the way, it says in verse eight, you know, theologian Snodgrass

actually points that out.

He says this, he says, the parable here presupposes that people praying are

in a much more advantageous relation to a righteous God who loves and hears

his elect than the widow is to the unrighteous and uncaring judge.

See, we have a heavenly father who does love us and care about us and is righteous

and holy and executes justice, right?

And so Luke's placement of this parable here, it allows it, y'all,

to serve as a bridge between the teachings of chapter 17 and all that follows here in chapter 18.

In fact, in context, I don't know if you realize this,

but it's not about persistence in prayer

generally though that's a good

thing and i believe probably a secondary implication

of the text but for jesus here you

know what he concludes the lesson here with a

question about his return did you see it in the passage listen

to what he says will the son of man find faith when he comes in verse 8 luke's

comment all the way back in verse one is specifically referring here to prayer

yes but it's regarding what the return of jesus.

Readers here have been warned about the danger of going about daily life,

if you remember, unaware of Christ's imminent return.

Y'all, Jesus is coming back. And as we see in this next point,

instead, disciples here should long to see that day, it says in verse 22,

and so persist in steadfast prayer for what?

For Jesus's return and all the justice he'll bring for his people.

Now, I want you to think about this. How many of you, of us,

all of us, have prayed this week for Jesus to come back, for his return,

for him to come quickly and execute justice, make everything right in this world?

It's a great question because this is truly the focal point of this particular parable.

And then we come to a proud Pharisee and a humble trader.

Yep, Pharisee and tax collector, right? And some of us are getting on that,

hey, April 15th is coming, right? The tax man cometh.

But just like the previous parable, the parable about the two men in the temple,

think about it, here setting the scene, hinges on prayer, doesn't it?

Prayer again. We're introduced here in this passage to two characters who actually

occupied opposite ends, if you will, of the social spectrum, right?

You have a Pharisee and you have a tax collector, we see in verse 10.

And the Pharisee was widely respected for their piety, y'all,

for the devotion to the Torah and this particular man's religious rigor, if you will. Right.

I mean, it's described in verse 12, and we have no reason to doubt the truthfulness of that.

It exceeded that which God required of his people in the law of Moses.

But tax collectors...

In Judea, on the other hand, were widely despised as what? Traitors,

thieves, and oppressors of their own people.

I thought I'd get an amen there on the tax collectors. But anyway,

when these two men ascend to the temple mount in order to what? To pray.

The basis on which they approach God is as starkly different as their social status.

And let's look at this. As we see in this first point, the Pharisee,

what does he do? He thanks God that what?

That he's better than the other people, especially the tax collector, says in verse 11.

And he points to his resume, y'all, of righteous deeds that he's performed in verse 12.

I mean, this guy thinks he is it, right? He is it. He's keeping the law.

And he thanks to God that he is better than everyone else. And the task collector,

however, approaches prayer radically different, as we see in this next point, with a posture of what?

You probably guessed it, humility, humility.

In fact, it says in the passage here, church, that he stood at a distance.

He refused, in other words, even to look into heaven.

And what did he do? He beat his breast while crying out to God,

what? Be merciful to me, a sinner.

Be merciful to me, a sinner. And, you know, many commentators have pointed out

that this man's plea for mercy here in this passage should be understood as

linked to the temple and its system of sacrifices for forgiveness.

In other words, he's asking for God's mercy.

Don't miss this, Eastwood, on the basis, not of his own goodness,

for he has very little, but on God's commitment to be merciful to sinners through

the sacrifices taking place in the temple.

And this will be particularly significant, y'all, in light of when we get to

verses 31 through 34 here today.

This parable, in other words, is meant to answer this question.

Who is really righteous in God's sight?

Who's really righteous in God's sight? Who's truly, Eastwood, part of his kingdom?

The parable is told to some, it says here, who were confident of their own righteousness

and looked down on everyone else.

What's that called? We talked a little bit about this Wednesday night,

self-righteousness, right?

While we may not feel that this describes our attitude towards God today,

the assumption, I think, of most religious people today is that on some level, don't miss this,

God's ultimate approval of us is based

on our personal obedience and good deeds as much

as you hear the opposite if you're in a bible believing church if you actually

told this story all today to a muslim or a buddhist friend of yours without

the context of verse 9 and 14 it's very likely that they will assume that the

pharisee is the hero of the story.

The one who goes home justified before God.

After all, why would they think that? He's doing all the right things,

doing all the right stuff.

He's checking all the boxes off.

That's why so many religious people are intolerantly proud and judgmental,

because their scheme, whether they realize it or not,

of justification by good works means that what really counts in this world is

how hard you work and how well you perform.

Even Christians, y'all, are not immune to the Pharisee's mindset.

They're not immune to it.

Because whenever we create our own extra biblical rules, if you will,

and we judge other Christians who don't follow them, we're acting like a Pharisee.

And as we see in this next slide, when we feel that God does not love us because

we have sinned or failed, we have adopted the Pharisee's approach.

Whenever we are proud of our own goodness

we're acting just like a pharisee you see

it easily slips in and y'all really

there's only two religions in the world did you know that only two one is the

religion of do what does that spell do do do do do do do and then there's the

true religion, the gospel,

you know what it is? It's D-O-N-E. What does it spell?

Done. D-O-N-E. Jesus said it is finished. It is finished.

So are we going through life thinking that our relationship to God is based

on the do's, that somehow because we obey everything and we think,

hey, when we have a good week, God somehow is putting a star on our board, right?

And if we've had a bad week and

we've fallen into sin. Maybe we had a bad attitude. We needed to repent.

Somehow God just ain't looking bright on our life anymore. That shows we do

not understand the gospel, church.

It's not about what you do. It's about it's done in Jesus on the cross. It is finished.

He's taken all the punishment, all the payment for our sin.

You don't perform to get into heaven.

Your life is transformed by the power of the gospel. You have the Holy Spirit inside of you.

Christ in me, the hope of glory that empowers you to live a life that is pleasing to the Father.

And the tendency, though, to works righteousness is so deeply ingrained in every

one of us, in our entire culture.

And as a result, it's hard to overstate how shocking and revolutionary Jesus'

conclusion is here, as we see in this next slide.

Because what is that conclusion? The justified one is the sinner who approaches

God on the basis of his mercy rather than the good man who approaches God on

the basis of his own merit.

You see, the Bible says, and I know you know this, that all of our righteousness is as what?

Filthy rags, putrid rags. Jesus here is destroying this fundamental principle

of pretty much every religion. Like I told you, there's only two.

Really, when you boil it down, you've got the do's, all the religions of do, do, do, do, do.

And then you've got the gospel done.

The pride, the self-exaltation here that would dare to hold up your own goodness

as reason for God's love. Can you see it?

Will lead to terrible humbling, by the way. Look at verse 14.

What does it say? Those who humble themselves will what?

Be exalted. Do you see the tithes collector? He's humbling himself,

begging for God's mercy.

He's not exalting himself. And if you do, scripture tells us you will be humbled.

God will humble you under his mighty hand. We miss the gospel when we think we perform to attain it.

And then we see something really kind of interesting in this passage.

We see people actually bringing babies to Jesus.

Can you imagine it? I mean, this next episode, if you will, in this set here

in the passage, It carries on the theme of humility, though,

and loneliness from the previous parable, by the way.

And let me show you, modern Western societies actually tend to idolize or to

idealize, I should say, childhood as a theme of innocence, right, of trustworthiness.

But this particular sensibility was really unknown in Jesus' day. Let me explain.

Speaking of these verses, theologian Edwards writes this, and I thought it was

interesting. I want to share it with you, it's short.

He says, one will search ancient literature in vain for sympathy towards the

young, comparable to that shown them by Jesus.

So, yeah, children were right next to, hold your seats, to the tax collectors in terms of, listen.

People with whom an important rabbi like Jesus, they thought here,

would never think to concern himself.

But if you look at the tense of the verb there in Luke 18, verse 15,

Luke 18:15

you know what it indicates?

It indicates that this behavior of people bringing their babies to Jesus,

it was a recurring event for people to bring their babies to Jesus.

Jesus loved the children, y'all. The people's intention was that Jesus should

place his hands on the babies, right?

Maybe to bless them, to communicate a sense of personal care.

And if you remember, the disciples actually rebuked the people,

maybe out of a well-intentioned desire to protect Jesus' time or something, maybe his prestige.

But Jesus, what did he do? He actually sees the opportunity as an object lesson.

The little children should not be hindered from coming to him.

What does he say in verse 16? Look at it.

For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Do you see it?

As we see in this first point on this slide not only

are children legitimate candidates to come to jesus and thus possess the kingdom

of god right but in fact don't miss this lesson y'all verse 17 no one can enter

the kingdom unless they do so like a little child do you see it verse 17.

I got to say this, the danger here is

that we interpret Jesus' words too romantically. What do I mean by that?

He's not saying here that children are so innocent and lovely that they're worthy

of the kingdom of God. That's not what he's saying.

Or have some maybe have misunderstood or have understood the passage to say

that they should be baptized. That's not what he's saying.

Quite the opposite, y'all. as we see this next point, the quality,

here's the point, the quality that children possess is an abundance in their

unworthiness, like a little child.

Like the tax collector, all the way back in verses 9 through 14,

you know what is about kids?

They have no resume or spiritual accomplishment to tempt them to works righteousness,

like we talked about, that marked the Pharisees.

So he's saying to them, excuse me, and to us, that we come into the kingdom like a little child,

like the tax collector did, unworthy, no accomplishments, no resume to offer,

like a child, humbly, at the master's feet.

One of the surprises, I think, of the kingdom of God is that it's those kinds

of people, Eastwood, and only those kinds of people, by the way,

who enter the kingdom of God.

And then we have the rich and the righteous ruler, or the rich young ruler,

but you'll see why I said in righteous ruler.

You know, if the children here in this passage remind us of the tax collector's

unworthiness, the ruler here, and y'all probably heard this parable a lot,

of verses 18 through 25, reminds us of the Pharisee in the temple. You see it?

He has a lot going for him, right?

Spiritually speaking. I mean, he was wealthy, you see, in verse 23,

which would have enabled him to give alms generously, we see back in verse 12.

He also would have been interpreted as a sign of God's favor because the disciples,

you know, it says, hence the disciples' accomplishment we talked about there in verse 26, I believe.

He was also the keeper of the law, he said, from his youth.

A claim that Jesus, by the way, in the passage, he doesn't bother to refute that.

But despite those reasons to feel good about his spiritual state, what does he do?

He still comes to Jesus with some question about what? What does he say in verse 18?

What else he must do? Do you see it? What else he must do to inherit eternal life?

It looks like he's a member of the Do tribe. Do, do, do, right?

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

That's what my friends say. This is like a golden evangelistic opportunity.

I mean, how many people do you have coming up to you saying,

what must I do to be saved? Right?

I mean, but notice here that a works righteousness approach always leads to

anxiety. Do you see it there?

Fearing, what did I do? Did I do something not right? Maybe God's not looking kindly on me anymore.

For we'll never know whether we've done enough when we have that kind of mentality

like the Pharisee here and this rich young ruler, whether we've done enough

to please God in an ultimate way. We'll always be do it.

Do, do, do, right? And so, in fact, y'all, both Roman Catholics,

and Muslims agree in their view that it is the highest presupposition to imagine

that we can know for certain that we have eternal life. Did you know that?

But you know what scripture says? These things were written that you may know

that you have eternal life.

If it's true, Eastwood, that our good works are part of what merits God's favor,

then they're absolutely correct.

But thanks be to God, I want you to know today, Eastwood, that is the exact

opposite of the good news of the kingdom.

Though Jesus here, he does not directly challenge, like I said,

the man's claim to have kept the law since he was a boy.

He does two things, I think, that undermine this man's efforts to earn eternal

life by his own righteous deeds.

Look at it. First in verse 19, as we see this first point, he has pointed out

that no one is good but who? Who?

God. God alone is good. And though Jesus here deflects the man's flattery by

questioning him, like why he

calls him good, his point isn't to deny his divinity or his sinlessness.

But instead, Jesus's goal here in this passage is to focus the man on the goodness of who?

God, a holiness and perfection that this rich young ruler here could never hope

to attain, y'all by his own personal obedience or righteousness.

He's saying God alone is good.

And I think a lot of times today in our world, we get that confused today because

what we think is good is I'm better than Johnny next door, right?

We try to compare ourselves to other people. We think we're better than other

people, just like the Pharisee sometimes.

But the truth is, he's pointing out here, when you compare yourself to a perfect,

holy God is the only one who is good.

And that word good in scripture means to be morally pure, right,

without sin. Totally perfect.

None of us are. And then the second way, as we see in this next point,

that Jesus undermines the man's confidence here in his own goodness is to call

him, you see it in the passage,

to radical self-sacrifice that the gospel of the kingdom demands.

In fact, in this man's case, what was it? Jesus required him to sell what?

All of his possessions were.

And what? To give to the poor and then follow him, follow Jesus.

Now, I want to say this quickly. We should not understand this.

This is not universal instruction to all followers of Christ.

Because in the next chapter we're going to study, Zacchaeus is called to only

sell half of his possessions in response to Jesus' call.

Instead here, don't miss this church, Jesus, the master surgeon,

if you will, is making a laser-focused application.

He looks into the heart of this particular man, right, who loved what? His money very much.

Others are required to renounce other things. It might be prestige.

It might be comfort or family.

But all, don't miss this, all must want the kingdom to the point that they would

lose everything in order to have it.

In other words, it's so precious that we would lose it all. were willing to give it all up.

And that's why it's hard, by the way, for the rich to enter the kingdom of God,

because the more possessions that we have, the greater, if you will,

their gravitational pull on our hearts.

For the wealthy, the narrow door of Luke chapter 13, verse 24,

Luke 13:24

that we saw in the past has now been reduced to the width.

If we see in verse 25, instead of a narrow door. What is it now? The eye of the needle.

That's a major reduction, right? Wow.

So here's an important question, Eastwood. How can we be saved?

How can we be saved? This entire section of Luke's gospel is focused on correcting

our understanding of the notion that we can be good enough to earn eternal life with God, right?

But the disciples' question here in verse 26, it's a good one.

If being one of the holy people doesn't make one a citizen of the kingdom,

who exactly can be saved?

How do an unrighteous tax collector, Eastwood, an unimpressive,

unworthy child, and a helpless widow wind up as justified recipients of God's

mercy? How does that happen?

You know what the answer is? Look at verse 27.

The answer is it's impossible unless God does it.

Come on. It's impossible unless God does it.

Don't forget this. The answer to the puzzle of this chapter here in verses 31

through 33, Jesus will fulfill everything that is written by the prophets about

the Son of Man, it says in verse 31.

Particularly, y'all, with respect to his suffering, his death, his resurrection.

That's how people Eastwood, with no righteousness of their own, can be saved.

As we see in this next point, not through their good works, but by virtue of

Jesus' death, what? In their place.

My brother in Christ said the gospel in four words, Jesus in my place. Can you say it with me?

Jesus in my place. Let's say it again. Jesus in my place. That's the gospel.

On the cross, Eastwood, he took the guilt and the shame and the weakness of

his people so that when they cry out to God for mercy, like the tax collector, guess what?

They receive forgiveness and righteousness as a free gift.

Not based on their performance, not because they have nothing to offer God.

None of us are good. No, not even one.

None of it. It's all filthy rags. Even your best day, my best day,

apart from the righteousness of Christ is like filthy putrid rags.

You'll never see someone enter to heaven saying, Lord, I got there because,

look, I mowed lawns for all these old ladies and didn't charge them a dime.

Yeah, we should do that. Yeah, that's great things to do as Christians,

but no, you don't earn your way to heaven.

God, the reason you should let me in is because I gave all my money to the poor.

I gave this much money to the church.

The reason you should let me in is because I cared about people. I tried to do good.

No, we've missed the point of the gospel.

The only reason acceptable is I'm unworthy, and it's only because of the righteousness

of Christ that's been given to me as a free gift.

And when God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of Christ.

And when he looks at the cross, he sees you as Christ took your penalty upon

himself, and he died in your place.

The disciples here, they did not understand what Jesus was talking about.

It tells us that plainly in verse 34.

But they did have the self-renouncing faith that the ruler lacked.

He was promised treasure in heaven. Did you see that in verse 22?

But you know what? Even though he was promised treasure in heaven,

if he sold everything he had, did he do it? Did he do it?

He would not part Eastwood with the treasures of the earth in order to gain the kingdom of God.

He wouldn't do it. But the disciples and all who share their faith and the promises

of Almighty God are promised, your promise today, if you're in Christ,

that you will gain far more, presumably spiritual blessings in this life,

as well as the eternal life that the rich ruler here so desperately seemed to desire,

though not as much as he wanted his money.

Not as much as he wanted his money life y'all is to be found and coming to jesus

you know how we come to him with empty hands.

Empty hands. Not in walking away from him like this rich young ruler did.

He went away sorrowful and grasping onto the things of this world.

Because I want y'all to know as we close today, the things of this world will not save you.

The promise that Jesus makes in verses 29 and 30, I think it's a surprising

conclusion to this whole conversation.

We might expect here that the Lord himself would offer his followers a choice

between a good life now, the life that the ruler wanted so badly that he wouldn't

part with his wealth to get it and a good life in eternity.

But in fact, if you look at the passage, following Jesus will mean sacrifice

and difficulty in this life.

But Jesus says this, he says that not only will the one who makes sacrifices

for the kingdom of God receive a reward in eternity, but that he or she will

also, look at this in verse 30,

receive many times as much, when?

In this life, in this age. Come on!

The Christian life is often difficult, but the gifts that we experience in the

present, think about it, freedom from slavery to sin, hallelujah,

membership in the family of God,

fellowship with the people of God far outweigh the benefits enjoyed by those

who cling to their possessions and their rebellion against God.

And as we see in this final slide, that leaving all we have to follow the one

who gives us everything offers more blessing,

not only in the next life, y'all, but also in this one, in this one, in this age today.