Luke 18:1-8

Well, it really is great to be with you. Thank you for the warm welcome. And thank you very much for your prayers for us in Chester. We really do appreciate you praying for us.

We're looking at this passage that Paul read for us in Luke chapter 18. And do turn back there if you've got a Bible with you, Luke 18, and the Church Bibles, that's page 877.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

I don't know whether you might follow professional boxing at all. It's an interesting time in professional boxing in the heavyweight division. There's the American fighter Deontay Wilder, who's got an incredible right hook, right punch.

There's Tyson Fury, who I'm sure you've heard of, even if you're not interested in boxing. And no matter what your assessment of him, everybody agrees he's an incredibly talented boxer.

And then you've got Anthony Joshua, who won gold at the Olympics in 2012 before he became professional. Everybody loves Anthony Joshua.

But a couple of years ago, he was fighting what everybody thought was going to be a fairly routine fight. There was no big hype before it. It wasn't a big box office fight.

He was fighting a Mexican boxer called Andy Ruiz Jr. And everybody thought Joshua would win. It wasn't really any question about it before the fight, but he went on to lose.

And with it, he lost his undefeated records. And it was interesting reading and listening to the pundits and the analysts as they wrote and spoke about the fight after it had happened and gave their reasons why Joshua might have lost this fight.

There were some people who were saying, well, something must have gone wrong in Joshua's camp in the week before the fight.

There were some reports that he'd been knocked out in training, so he wasn't really fit for the fight.

There were some people who had always doubted Joshua's boxing ability, and they were using the opportunity to say, we told you so.

Joshua really isn't that great of a boxer.

But there were some people who were analyzing the last round before the fight ended.

And they were watching Joshua.

And he wasn't knocked out.

The ref didn't have to step in and stop the fight.

He just walked back to his corner quietly, and his corner threw the towel in.

And people were analyzing this, and they were saying, it seems like Joshua just gave up.

He didn't have the stomach for it.

Well, we don't know for Joshua whether the issue really was that he gave up.

But we're looking at a parable this morning in Luke 18, in which giving up very much is the issue.

Luke tells us that in verse 1.

It says, and Jesus told them, that's the disciples, a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart, not give up.

And so here is a parable Jesus told for his disciples, not for the Pharisees, not for onlookers.

It's for the disciples, and its purpose is to encourage the disciples not to give up.

Luke tells us that explicitly in verse 1, but we also see it in the parable itself.

This parable, it's become known in the parable as the parable of the persistent widow.

Jesus describes in this parable a widow who does not give up in her petition for justice.

So here is a parable designed by Jesus to encourage Christians, his followers, not to give up.

Now, before we get into the detail of the text, it's worth, at this point, just pausing to acknowledge

that Jesus here knows that his followers will, at times, feel like quietly walking back to their corner

and throwing the towel in.

Why else would he carefully design a parable that would have the effect of encouraging his followers

not to give up?

In fact, the temptation to give up is acknowledged to be a very real temptation for Jesus' followers

all the way through the New Testament.

Twice in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says that because of the great hope that we have in the gospel

and because of the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

Why would he write that unless there is a very real temptation, a very real danger that we might

lose heart?

Lose heart.

He writes, Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 13.

So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

Hebrews 12, 3 says,

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

And so again and again, the writers of the New Testament refuse to hide the fact that as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ,

we will at times feel like losing heart.

Giving up.

Some of you don't need much convincing of that this morning.

You've been there.

You've wanted to give up.

You've weighed it all up.

You've wondered whether it's all worth it.

But here in this parable in Luke 18, as Jesus acknowledges this reality,

he doesn't respond in a number of ways that he might have responded in.

He doesn't respond, for instance, with a heavy hand.

He doesn't say to his disciples,

If you find yourselves at a time and you want to give up,

then you've failed me.

And I don't want to know about it.

He doesn't respond with indifference.

He doesn't shrug his shoulders and say something like,

If you feel like giving up, then what's it got to do with me?

I've done my part of the deal.

No.

He knows that his disciples are going to find themselves at times where they want to give up,

and it matters.

It matters so much to him

that he wants to equip his disciples with the resources to persevere

and to overcome the temptation to give up.

He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray

and not lose heart.

And so the main point of this parable, then, is to answer the question,

What will keep us from giving up?

But before it answers that question, it answers two other questions.

Firstly, what does it mean to give up?

And secondly, what might cause us to want to give up?

So first of all, what does it mean to give up?

Well, there are two things in the text that help us to answer this question.

The first is in the context of this parable.

Immediately before Jesus tells this parable to his disciples,

Luke gives us a record of something else Jesus told his disciples.

The subject there is Jesus' return.

And so look down at chapter 17, if you've got a Bible open, verse 22.

And he said to the disciples,

The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man,

and you will not see it.

And they will say to you,

Look there, or look here.

Do not go out or follow them.

For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other,

so will the Son of Man be in his day.

But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

So Jesus is talking there about the day of the Son of Man.

The Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, he says.

And this day that he's referring to isn't the day of his crucifixion,

because he goes on to say,

But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

And when he says that, it's clear there that he's talking about his crucifixion.

And that is something which is going to happen before this day of the Son of Man that he's talking about.

And so the day that he's referring to is the day of his return.

The day we sometimes refer to as the second coming.

Which this world is still waiting for.

The rest of chapter 17 makes it clear that he's talking about his return.

And then in the last line of this parable that we read,

this passage in Luke 18 in verse 8,

He says,

However, when the Son of Man comes,

will he find faith on earth?

As Jesus' followers, we live out our short lives

in between Jesus' two great comings.

On the one hand, his incarnation, his becoming man,

his death, his resurrection, his ascension.

On the other hand, his promised glorious return.

And so we live in light of his first coming

and we live in anticipation of his second coming.

And Jesus is acknowledging here that in between,

as we live out our lives,

there are going to be times where we want to give up.

And so we see how the context helps us to answer this question.

What does it mean to give up?

When Luke writes that Jesus told this parable

so that his disciples might not lose heart,

he's not referring to Jesus' disciples

losing heart in their efforts towards certain tasks

or certain endeavors.

He's not saying that Jesus told this parable

so that Christians might always keep their word

and follow through on their resolutions

and not lose heart with them.

As good a thing as that might be.

Now the context helps us to see

Jesus told this parable

so that his disciples might not lose heart

on a bigger scale.

So that they might not give up before Jesus returns.

So that they might not stop trusting in him.

So that when he returns,

he might find faith on earth.

That's the context.

The second thing that helps us understand

what it means to give up

is found in what Luke writes in verse 1.

Luke tells us that Jesus wanted his parable

to have this effect on his disciples,

that they ought always to pray

and not lose heart.

And do you see how closely there

losing heart is connected with prayer?

That's interesting.

And what Luke is doing here in his explanation,

what Jesus does in his parable,

which he implies in his parable,

is that prayer and not losing heart

go hand in hand.

They belong together.

Prayer and not giving up

are two sides of the same coin.

One can't exist without the other.

To pray is to not give up.

To give up

is to stop praying.

That means that according to the teaching of the Bible,

to give up as a Christian

is not firstly

to backslide into some huge moral failure.

To give up as a Christian

is not fundamentally

to stop attending church

and to start cutting out

all your Christian friends

from your life.

To give up as a Christian

is to stop praying.

He told them a parable

to the effect that they ought always to pray

and not lose heart.

Is that how you view

what it is to give up

as a Christian?

When you hear

of a professing Christian

making a mess of their life,

do you look

at their moral failures

and think to yourself,

well, it's clear

that that person

has given up on their faith.

And when a friend

who professes to be a Christian

starts to pull away from church

to cut out their Christian friends

from their life,

do you look at their withdrawal

and think to yourself,

well, it's clear

that that person

has given up on their faith.

Well, in a sense,

that might be true,

but what brought them

to that point,

what caused them

to walk away,

seemingly,

from the faith they professed,

one answer the Bible gives

is that they stopped praying.

And that's a sobering thought

for us, isn't it?

It causes us to reflect

on our own praying.

Have I stopped praying?

I mean, I pray

when I come

to the church service.

I pray

when I'm in a desperate situation.

Do I really pray?

And if we're going to know

whether we really pray,

then we need to know

how the Bible

defines real prayer.

And it's interesting,

we didn't read it,

but the very next parable

after the one

we're looking at today,

Luke records

Jesus' teaching

on prayer.

So we can read it

from verse 9.

He also told this parable

to some who trusted

in themselves,

that they were righteous

and treated others

with contempt.

Two men went up

to the temple

to pray,

one a Pharisee

and the other

a tax collector.

The Pharisee,

standing by himself,

prayed thus,

God, I thank you

that I'm not like other men,

extortioners,

unjust, adulterers,

or even like this,

tax collector.

I fast twice a week,

I give tithes

of all that I get,

but the tax collector,

standing far off,

would not even lift

his eyes to heaven,

but beat his breast,

saying,

God, be merciful to me,

a sinner.

I tell you,

this man went down

to his house justified

rather than the other,

for everyone who exalts

himself will be humbled,

but the one who humbles

himself will be exalted.

See, the prayer

that Jesus holds up there

as an example

of real prayer

is the prayer

of the tax collector.

God, have mercy on me,

a sinner.

And we can break it down

a little bit.

What do we find

in that prayer?

What we find in that prayer

is a simple expression

of total dependence

on God,

exalting God,

and humbling himself.

And that

is what prayer is.

A prayer is expressing

to God how totally

dependent we are

on him

with God

at the center

of our prayer.

God is the focus

of our prayer,

viewing ourselves

in light of who

he is.

We could say

so much more

about prayer,

but in one sense,

there's no need

to complicate prayer

any more than that.

when the disciples

asked Jesus

to teach them

to pray

in Luke 11,

we've prayed it

already in the service,

but when they asked him

to teach them

to pray,

Jesus didn't enroll them

on a 10-week course

in how to pray.

He simply

instructed them

and he gave them

the Lord's Prayer,

Father,

hallowed be your name,

and so on.

And that was it.

A simple expression

of our dependence

on God

with God

at the center,

viewing ourselves

in light of who

he is.

And so as we come

face to face

this morning

with this sobering

reality

that to stop praying

is to give up

as a Christian,

this is what we're

talking about

when we talk about

prayer.

Do you know,

I think sometimes

we're guilty

of defining real prayer

as something more

than this.

Real prayer,

we think,

is full of

passionate pleas

and heartfelt

cries.

Real prayer

lasts for a long

time.

It's full of

intense experience,

we think.

And perhaps

sometimes

prayer is like

that and that's

a great thing,

but it's not

to say

that simple

daily praying,

even for just

a few minutes,

isn't real

prayer.

God,

have mercy

on me

as sinner.

Father,

hallowed be

your name.

If you're here

this morning

and as you reflect

on this passage,

you wonder

whether you've

stopped praying

really recently,

then don't go

home this afternoon

resolved to get

up tomorrow morning

at 5am

and to spend

an intense hour

in prayer.

Go home this

afternoon resolved

to spend just a few

minutes,

just five minutes

in prayer,

simple prayer,

tomorrow morning,

expressing your

dependence on

God,

calling on

his mercy.

And do the

same tomorrow

evening and

tomorrow morning

and the following

evening.

Keep going,

keep praying,

keep humbly

calling on the

Lord.

So what does it

mean to give up,

to lose heart?

To give up

is to stop

praying before

Christ returns.

Secondly,

what might cause

us to want

to give up?

So stopping

praying and

giving up go

hand in hand,

but what might

cause us to

stop praying?

Well,

the answer

that this

parable gives

is a specific

one.

What causes

Jesus'

followers to

want to give

up is

experiencing a

lack of

justice in

their lives.

Justice is a

prominent theme

in this parable.

Jesus began

in verse 2.

In a certain

city there

was a

judge.

The role of

the judge is

to administer

justice.

In verse 3,

the plea of

the widow who

kept coming to

the judge is

give me

justice

against my

adversary.

When the

widow persists,

the judge says

in verse 5,

because this

widow keeps

bothering me,

I will give

her justice.

What might

have caused

this lady,

this widow,

to give

up?

Experiencing a

lack of

justice,

perhaps for

a long time.

Justice is

at the center

of this

parable.

And justice

is at the

center of

Jesus'

explanation of

the parable

in verses

7 and 8.

Jesus says,

and will

not God

give justice

to his

elect who

cry to

him day

and night?

Will he

delay long

over them?

I tell

you,

he will

give justice

to them

speedily.

Nevertheless,

when the

Son of

Man comes,

will he

find faith

on earth?

What might

cause God's

people to

want to

give up?

A lack

of

justice.

Experiencing

injustice.

Notice again

that Jesus is

assuming something

here.

In the same

way that he

assumed Jesus'

followers would

want to at

times give up,

he also assumes

that his followers

will suffer

injustice

before he

returns.

He doesn't

qualify what

he says in

verse 7 with

an if.

He doesn't

say,

and will

not God

bring about

justice for

his elect

if they

suffer injustice

before the

Son of

Man returns.

No,

he sees it

as a given

that his

followers will

suffer injustice

and that when

his followers

suffer injustice,

they might

well find

themselves wanting

to lose

heart and

give up.

Christians

suffer

injustice all

around the

world today,

don't they?

And some

of it can

feel quite

far removed

from us.

A friend

of mine was

telling me

that some

missionaries

were giving

an update

at a conference

he was at

recently.

These people

were missionaries

in India

to a particular

people group

and they

spoke of how

because of

their work

to this

people group

their wives

had been

abused

and they'd

been imprisoned

without

explanation.

It's

horrific

and it

can leave

us wondering

whether we

here in this

part of the

world suffer

at all for

the cause

of the

gospel.

But it

would be a

mistake for

us to think

that we

don't suffer

at all for

our faith.

There's the

Christian at

work who

because of

his faith

he works

with utter

integrity

and instead

of being

rewarded

he's denied

promotions and

he's stifled

in his

career.

There's the

Christian at

work who

feels unable

to express

her views

on certain

subjects

because of

how it would

ostracize her

from her

colleagues and

seemingly

inevitably have

a detrimental

effect on

her career

too.

There's the

Christian who

has been let

down and

messed around

in relationships

really through

no fault of

their own.

There's the

Christian who

experiences a

distance in

relationships with

family members

and friends

who they

were previously

closest to

because they

no longer

share their

faith.

Then there's

all the

injustices that

come with

life in a

fallen world.

An unbalanced

world in which

the scales are

broken.

Unbearably

ill health.

Inconsolable

loss.

Daily

frustrations

and struggles

that sometimes

mean we just

don't want to

get out of

bed in the

morning.

And all of

these injustices

bring with

them the

power to

cause us to

sigh.

I give up.

I give up.

What will

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