How Should We Pray? And For How Long?

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Good morning. I'm Sebastian Juan. I am part of the Alameda Group.

A reading from the Gospel according to Luke.

Luke chapter 18 verse 1.

Luke 18:1

Then God told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

He said, In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.

And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea,

Grant me justice against my adversary.

For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself,

Even though I do not fear God or care what people think,

Yet because this widow keeps bothering me,

I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me.

And the Lord said,

Listen to what the injustice says.

And 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, however.

When the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on the earth.

To some who were confident of their very own righteousness and looked down on everyone else,

Jesus told this parable.

Two men went up to the temple to pray.

One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed,

God, I thank you that I am not like other people,

robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get,

but the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven,

but beat his breast and said,

God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I tell you that this man, rather than the other,

went home justified before God,

for all those who exalt himself will be humbled,

and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

This is the gospel of Christ.

Fantastic reading.

Thank you, Sebastian.

Good stuff, man.

Well, good morning.

We have been trying to,

over the course of the last few weeks,

we've just been looking at

the parables in the gospel of Luke

and seeking to just introduce you to Jesus,

introduce you to the basic teachings of Jesus

through those parables,

and today you get two parables for the price of one.

It's a good Sunday here at Christ Church.

You notice right away that the people in these parables

are engaged in a spiritual practice

that most people, whether they believe in God or not,

have done, and that is to pray.

And we're going to talk about this Pharisee

and tax collector that are praying in the temple first

and look at the surprising twist

and kind of unexpected punch of Jesus' story there.

And then we're going to talk about

this amazing, tenacious, feisty widow

whom Jesus holds up for us

as this beautiful example of faithful

and persevering prayer that refuses to give up.

So, as we dive in, just a quick reminder

of who the Pharisees and the tax collectors were.

You see there in verse 9, it says,

to some who were confident of their own righteousness

and looked down on everyone else,

Jesus told this parable,

two men went up to the temple to pray,

one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Now, who were the religious Pharisees

and the irreligious tax collectors?

The Pharisees, they were these admired

and respected leaders in their community.

They had a high view of God,

a high view of the authority of the scriptures.

They were scrupulous in obeying God's law.

They very often went beyond what God's law required.

And these folks were generous with their money.

They were charitable toward the poor and the needy.

And then what about these tax collectors?

These were not like our friendly IRS agents

who were gonna receive our taxes on April 15th.

And aren't we thankful for these government workers,

these IRS agents?

You gotta remember that in Israel,

the people of God, they had been conquered.

They were occupied by the Roman Empire.

And the empire was taking these enormous spoils of war

that they called taxes.

And they transferred them back to Rome.

And I'm so, so tempted this morning

to just spend a moment outlining for you

the difference between taxes and tariffs.

But that would be a massive distraction.

And so what I'm doing right now

is exercising incredible self-control

in resisting that temptation.

But basically, the Roman Empire,

they would hire these Jewish men

and they were to collect the taxes.

And they said, hey, if you want,

you can just charge as much as you like.

And you can line your own pockets with the money.

And so these guys were, they were loathed.

They were hated because they were enormously greedy.

They were the dishonest extortioners

that became fabulously wealthy

by betraying their fellow citizens

and collaborating with their imperialist enemies.

And so when Jesus begins this parable,

comparing the most religious people in that society

with the most irreligious and corrupt

and despised traitors,

all the people listening would have assumed

that the Pharisee would be the hero of the story

and the tax collector would be the villain.

So with that, I want to explore this

under three headings.

Surprise, surprise.

First of all, I want to talk about how not to pray.

Secondly, how to pray humbly.

And third, how to pray faithfully.

Okay?

So how not to pray, how to pray humbly,

how to pray faithfully.

So how not to pray, look at verse 11.

The Pharisee and the other tax collector,

the Pharisee stood by himself and he prayed,

God, I thank you that I'm not like other people,

robbers, evildoers, and adulterers,

or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.

Now what is right and good about that prayer

and what is wrong and bad about that prayer?

Well, what's right and good is that he starts with God.

God exists.

God is the source of all being and life.

God is worthy of prayer.

He's worthy of the people that he's made in his image

and given them the very breath of life.

He's worthy to hear from them,

God, I thank you.

Right?

He's worthy of our thanks and our praise.

And in many ways, this man who's praying,

he's a good man.

He's an exemplary man.

And he begins by speaking first about all the vices

from which he's abstained

that are outlined in the Ten Commandments.

So when you look at the Ten Commandments

in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5,

you go down that list.

Number eight on that list is robbery.

Right?

And that's just taking stuff that's not yours,

stuff that belongs to other people.

It's talking about cheating in business

and skimming off the top.

He says, I've managed to not do that.

And then he gets to number seven on that list, adultery,

which is having sex with a single person

that is someone's potential future spouse

or with a married person

who's someone's current present spouse.

And he says, I haven't done that either.

I've stuck close to the Ten Commandments.

I've tried to preserve and protect the lives,

the property, the businesses, the bodies,

the families, the relationships

of the people around me, including myself.

And then he begins to speak about

the pious practices in which he engages.

And the Torah talks about these things

in all sorts of places.

But for example, if you went to Leviticus 23,

it talks about fasting one day a year

on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement,

that you would just not eat

and you would observe that day of the atonement.

Or in Deuteronomy 14, it says that you would tithe

and you would give 10% of all the income

that you get on your crops and on your produce.

And so this guy, he conceives rightly

that a relationship with God

is absolutely all-encompassing.

If it doesn't touch your stomach,

if it doesn't touch your wallet,

it's really not much of a relationship.

And he's living according to God's standards

of righteousness.

In fact, he goes beyond what God requires.

Instead of fasting one time a year,

he says, I fast two times a week.

He says, instead of tithing only on my income,

I give 10% of all that I get.

Any of the stuff that I buy,

any of the gifts I receive, I tithe on that.

And it's hard to argue that society

would not be better off

if there were more people like this

who were honest in their business dealings,

who were faithful in their sexuality,

who were generous with their money, right?

And maybe you know some people like this.

They live a good life.

But what's wrong with this guy,

according to Jesus,

is that the spirit of his prayer

and the heart out of which that prayer is uttered

is all wrong, right?

Because after the opening word to God,

he doesn't refer to God again.

But he himself is never out of the picture, right?

He glances at God,

but he's really kind of fixated on himself.

He's a self-centered, not a God-centered person.

And he doesn't ask anything from God.

In fact, he doesn't even seem to need God at all.

Now, if he had said,

God, I thank you for protecting me

in such a way that my life hasn't become corrupt,

that you protected me from abject hunger,

in which I would have been tempted

to become a thief in order to feed my family.

Or God, I thank you that you protected me from poverty,

where I wouldn't even have any money

and wouldn't be in a position to give.

Thank you.

But he doesn't say that.

He seems to see his not succumbing

to stealing and sexual immorality

and greed and miserliness

and all these things as his own doing, right?

He gives no thanks for what God has done,

but rather he gives a list

of his own personal achievements.

Now, this guy would be an impeccable example

to imitate if humility before God

and compassion for our neighbors didn't matter.

But they do matter.

They matter supremely.

This guy is praying without a sense of his need.

He's praying without a sense of dependence

on the mercy of God.

In many ways, he's like that older son

that we met in Luke 15 last week.

Remember the parable of the prodigal sons?

That guy who was confident in his own righteousness.

He was self-righteous.

You see, when we fail to know our own hearts,

when we fail to realize our condition

before a holy God,

how easy it is like this guy

to begin to compare ourselves

with the people around us

to start to feel superior,

to start to look down on other people,

to hold them in contempt

and despise them

and begin to even pray.

If we don't say it out loud,

we at least think it in our heart,

God, I thank you that I'm not like these other people.

God, I thank you that you've made me better

than these people.

You see, his heart is full of praise and thanksgiving,

but his praise and his thanksgiving,

it's not for God.

It's for himself.

He is exalting someone,

but it's not God he's exalting.

He's praying to congratulate himself before God.

He's adoring himself,

worshiping himself.

Oh God,

you are so very fortunate

to have someone like me on your team.

And I can live honorably before you

quite apart from your mercy.

You know, as good as this guy seems on the outside,

on the inside,

he's actually suffering

from a horrible spiritual blindness

and self-righteousness.

And I don't know about you,

but when I read this story,

I find myself saying,

God, I thank you that I'm not like this Pharisee.

But you know,

the moment you say that,

you realize what's happened.

Right?

If you look down on this man,

Jesus has you in his trap,

and he's like,

ah, see?

You have in your heart

what he has in his heart.

There's this great verse

in the Old Testament.

It's 1 Samuel 16, 7.

It says this.

It says,

the Lord does not look

at the things people look at.

People look at the outward appearance,

but the Lord looks at the heart.

And what does Jesus teach

about what's actually inside

of the human heart?

He says elsewhere

in the Gospel of Mark,

he says this in Mark 7.

He says it's what comes out of a person,

that's the thing that defiles them.

It's from within,

out of a person's heart,

that evil thoughts come.

Jesus says it's sexual immorality,

it's theft,

it's murder,

it's adultery,

but it's also greed

and malice,

it's deceit,

it's lewdness,

it's envy,

it's slander,

it's arrogance,

it's folly.

Jesus says all these evils

come from inside,

and that's what defiles a person.

You see, on the outside,

we can be spiritually serious,

and we can be morally upright,

but on the inside,

we can have these evil thoughts

that are just pouring out of us

like a river in flood.

And we can be trusting in ourselves

like this man,

that we're good

and that we're righteous

when in fact,

we do not understand

our actual condition

before God.

This Pharisee,

he feels no need

to humble himself,

no need to talk about his sins,

no need to ask for mercy.

And so,

Jesus surprisingly says

that it's this religious man,

this one who has it all together

on the outside,

that he's actually the one

who goes home unjustified

before God.

He goes home unapproved

and unaccepted by God.

This paragon of virtue,

this pillar of the community,

he goes home,

Jesus says,

not in a right relationship

and a right standing

with God.

And that means

that he's in an extremely

dangerous position

because Jesus says

those who exalt themselves

before God today,

they're going to eventually

be humbled by God

on the day of judgment.

Many people,

Jesus says,

are going to be shocked

like this man

on that last day.

And so,

Jesus says,

I would rather get the shock

out of the way right now

than for you to be shocked then.

So,

how should we not pray?

Well,

definitely not,

God,

I thank you that I.

Right?

What we need

is a justified heart

and a regenerated heart

that says,

not God,

I thank you that I,

but God,

I thank you that you.

We need a heart

that enumerates

and gives thanks,

not for our own goodness

and our own righteousness,

but a heart that says,

God,

I thank you

that you are merciful.

Amen?

So,

that's how not to pray.

Okay?

But then Jesus wants us

to know not just

how not to pray,

he wants us to know

how to pray

and how to pray humbly,

how to pray humbly.

And so,

look at verse 13.

It says,

this tax collector,

he stood at a distance

and he would not even

look up to heaven

but beat his breast

and said,

God,

have mercy on me,

a sinner.

This despised traitor,

this irreligious

and completely unethical man,

he has a sense

of his own personal

unworthiness before God.

He knows that he,

he's not fit to stand

in that temple

and even to get

close to the Holy of Holies,

that place

where a holy God

dwells in the midst

of his people.

But rather,

he stands at a distance,

he barely comes

inside of the door

and he won't,

he won't turn his eyes

up toward God's throne

in heaven

but he just looks down

with a sense

of his own shame

and his own guilt

and condemnation.

And you know,

Jesus,

when he said,

he began the Sermon

on the Mount,

he said,

blessed are the poor

in spirit,

blessed are those

who are aware

of how spiritually

and morally bankrupt

they are before God,

that's this guy.

He comes to God

empty handed,

he says,

God,

I have nothing

to offer you

but my need.

All you need

is need,

right?

And you know,

how we pray

with our body

actually reveals

the state of our heart.

Right?

So whether we stand

like this guy

with our head

bowed down

and our hands

just battering

our polluted hearts

with a sense of grief

and sorrow

and contrition

or whether we sit

and we open our hands

empty in a posture

of need

and desperate dependence

or whether we get down

and on our knees

and we put our face

on the ground

and clasp our hands

in the posture

of a beggar,

our body language

is a form of prayer

and this guy

is communicating

both with his body

and with his lips

and he's not saying,

God,

I thank you

that I am awesome.

He's saying,

God,

I thank you

that you are merciful

and so he says,

God,

have mercy on me,

a sinner.

And what's incredible here

is that in the Greek

there's actually

a definite article there.

So he doesn't say,

God,

have mercy on me,

a sinner.

He actually says,

God,

have mercy on me,

the sinner.

Friends,

are we willing

to call ourselves

the sinner?

Are we willing

to say

that we know

that we have nothing

with which we can boast

before God?

This guy,

he's utterly lacking

in the externalism

that we find

in this Pharisee.

The Pharisee,

when he looks

at his life,

he looks at sins

as if it's some sort

of discrete individual action

that I either do

or I don't do

in the eyes

of other people

so that I can compare

myself with others

and I can know

how I'm doing

relative to your performance.

But this guy

doesn't talk like that at all.

He says,

God,

have mercy on me,

the sinner.

Not for this sin

or for that sin,

but for,

I'm just the sinner.

And I know that my spiritual

and my moral record

is absolutely saturated

with myself

and my sin.

And I know that

even my most righteous acts

are like filthy rags.

That even the best things

I've ever done,

they've actually been

tainted

with my own self-interest.

And so he says,

God,

have mercy on me,

the sinner.

And when he says,

have mercy,

that word actually means,

God,

be propitiated.

God,

let your wrath

be removed.

That's what that word

mercy means.

And here he is,

he's in the temple

and where he's praying,

it's not very far

from the Holy of Holies

and inside of the Holy of Holies

there's the Ark of the Covenant.

Right?

And inside the Ark of the Covenant

there's the Ten Commandments.

And he knows

that he cannot come near God

without being scrutinized

by the law of God.

But who could pass

the scrutiny of God's law

and be acceptable to God?

Right?

No one can claim

a righteousness of their own.

And so

he knows

that over that Ark

of the Covenant

there's this slab of gold

and it's called

the mercy seat.

Right?

And that's the very same word

that this tax collector uses,

the mercy seat.

God,

have mercy on me.

And on that mercy seat,

one time a year

on Yom Kippur,

on the Day of Atonement,

the high priest,

he would come in

and he would put

the blood

of a substitutionary sacrifice

who died

to pay the penalty

for the sins

of the people.

He would put that blood

on the mercy seat.

And when he would do that,

the scrutiny of God's law

would be satisfied

for another year.

Right?

The law's penalty

would be fulfilled

until the next

Yom Kippur.

And so why does Jesus

put this word

about the mercy seat

into the mouth

of this tax collector?

Because Jesus is describing

what he stepped out of eternity

and into time to do.

He's describing

why he came all the way

from heaven to earth

for us.

He's describing

what the Father sent him

to accomplish

on his cross.

Right?

That Jesus came

not to exalt himself

but he came

to humble himself

and he came

so that he might be

the sinner

in our place.

The only other place

where this exact word,

this exact mercy seat word

is used

in the New Testament

is in Hebrews chapter 2

Hebrews 2:17

verse 17

and it says this.

For this reason

he, Jesus,

had to be made

like them

fully human

in every way

in order that

he might become

a merciful

and faithful

high priest

in service to God

and that he might

make atonement,

that he might make mercy

for the sins

of the people.

This tax collector

is seeking

the merciful atonement

from God

that God sent

Jesus Christ

to provide

on his cross.

He seeks

God's mercy

in order that

he might have

his sins covered,

in order that

the divine wrath

and condemnation

and judgment

of God

might be removed

from him

and when we hear

Jesus as we approach

Palm Sunday

and Good Friday,

when we hear Jesus

crying out

from his cross,

my God,

my God,

why have you forsaken me?

It's because

he became

the sinner.

When we hear Jesus

crying out

on his cross,

Father,

forgive them

for they don't know

what they're doing.

He's pleading

for the mercy

of God

on our behalf.

And when at the end

Jesus cries out,

it is finished

what he's talking about,

the thing that he's

accomplished

for us

is the justification

of the ungodly.

What he's accomplished

for us

is the removal

of our guilt,

the removal

of our shame,

the removal

of our condemnation

and him having

robed us

in the very

righteousness

of Christ.

Jesus closes

this parable

in verse 14.

He says,

I tell you

that this man

rather than the other

went home justified

before God

for those who

exalt themselves

will be humbled

and those who

humble themselves

will be exalted.

What a surprise

and shocking ending.

Here is this

loathed

and hated

and despised

tax collector

whom God approves

and accepts.

Here is the bad man,

the irreligious man,

the unethical man,

the negative example,

the younger son

in Luke chapter 15

Luke 15 · chapter mention

and he's not just

forgiven

but he has a new

and a right

and a justified

standing before God,

a righteousness

that's been given

to him

by God's sheer grace

and on the basis

of faith.

And friends,

Jesus says

to those of us

who know ourselves

to be poor sinners

in need of mercy,

he says,

hey,

I have really good news

for you

that like this man,

however heavy

your debts are

that you owe God,

however poor

you are

in his sight

spiritually

and morally,

every debt

can be canceled,

all the ledgers

can be cleared,

you no longer

owe anything,

in fact,

I've come to make you

rich,

I've come to make you

spiritually rich

and morally rich

and relationally rich,

I've come to put

on you

my perfect righteousness

so that God,

when he relates to you,

he relates to you

as if you had never

sinned

or had never even

been the sinner.

It's as if you

had been as perfectly

obedient

as Christ was obedient

in your place

and all you need

to do

is accept

this gift

with a believing

heart.

So friends,

I ask you today,

are you confident?

Do you have

that confidence?

Not in your own

righteousness

that comes from

the inside,

but on that

declared righteousness,

that positional righteousness

that has come to you

from the outside

and has been given

to you on the basis

of God's mercy

and the righteousness

of Christ.

You see,

those like this tax collector

who humble themselves

under God's mercy today,

they will be justified,

they will be exalted

on the day of judgment

and Jesus even says,

you can go home today

just like that tax collector

went home that day,

justified before God.

All you need to say

is God,

have mercy on me.

God,

make atonement for me,

the sinner,

on the basis

of what Christ

has done for me.

So how not to pray,

God,

I thank you that I.

How to pray humbly,

God,

I thank you that you

are merciful.

And last but not least,

I want to talk about

just for a moment

how to pray faithfully.

I love this woman

that Jesus presents

before us

and many people

assume

assume

that the Bible

is this

patriarchal,

misogynistic book

and then they

open it.

Right?

And then they

begin to read

about Jesus

and then

they find Jesus

holding up women

in these stories

and in his band

of disciples

and in the early church,

women who are

these exemplars

of faith

for us to imitate.

He says,

if you want to know

the posture

and the attitude

of prayer,

look at this

despised tax collector

but if you want to know

how to keep praying,

if you want to know

how to never give up

praying,

look at this

oppressed widow

and he says,

it says in verse 1,

then Jesus told his

disciples a parable

to show them

that they should

always pray

and not give up.

And at the end

in verse 80

he says,

however,

when the Son of Man

comes,

will he find faith?

Will he find faith

like this woman

has faith

on the earth?

Most of us,

I think,

we know

what it's like

to pray,

Father,

may your kingdom come.

You know,

it's that simple prayer,

Jesus gave it to us

in Luke 11,

we've been talking

about it

through the whole

of the season of Lent.

Father,

may your kingdom come.

But,

a lot of us

when we don't get answers

to that prayer

that we're looking for,

when we

aren't really seeing

the kingdom of God

breaking through

into our lives

and the lives

of other people,

the life of this world

in the way that we want,

how easy it is

to lose heart,

how easy it is

to get discouraged,

how easy it is

to give up.

Is that just me?

So,

Jesus gives this,

the story of this woman

who has a feisty faith

and a tenacious hope

and this is so important

as we go to Palm Sunday,

Good Friday,

Easter season.

Jesus says this,

he says,

in a certain town

there was a judge

who neither feared God

nor cared what people thought

and there was a widow

in that town

who kept coming to him

with the plea,

grant me justice

against my adversary.

She represents

the vulnerable

and the oppressed people

that are all the way down

at the bottom

of that scale

of power and privilege

and she has an adversary

who's done her wrong,

likely cheated her financially

and what she needs

is a just judge

who can put the wrong right

and give her justice

but what she gets

is a judge

that's the complete opposite

of God, right?

He doesn't care about God,

he doesn't seem

to want to do right

by people.

You know,

I'm tempted to provide

more contemporary examples

of this judge

but I refrain.

But you know

this kind of person.

In verse four it says,

for some time he refused

but finally he said to himself,

even though I don't fear God

or care what people think,

yet because this widow

keeps bothering me,

I will see that she gets justice

so that she won't eventually

come and attack me.

This woman's amazing.

She refuses to lie down

as a helpless

and hopeless victim

but she keeps coming

to this corrupt judge

with her plea.

He leaves his house

in the morning,

she's there

when he gets there at work.

He takes a break for coffee

after his first case,

there's a note that says,

hey this woman

wants to see you.

He goes to lunch,

he gets back,

there's a voicemail

from this lady.

He retires to his chambers

at the end of a long day,

she's there banging

on the door

and Jesus says,

friends,

do you want to know

how to pray?

This powerless woman

is exercising immense power.

She keeps coming.

She's just relentlessly

bothering this judge.

She's persistently

wearing him out.

In fact,

in the Greek,

the judge says,

the only reason

I gave her what she wanted

is because I thought

she was going to give me

a black eye.

It's the language

of a boxing match

where this judge

is cornered

and he's being slugged

by the least powerful person

in that society

and Jesus says,

that is how

I want my disciples

to pray.

Not to establish

a righteousness

of our own,

but to express

the righteousness

that has been conferred

to us

by a most merciful God.

Jesus says,

you may not have

much power,

but any of us

can pray,

Father,

may your kingdom come.

And Jesus says,

if a rotten judge

like this

can be persuaded

by someone

who pesters him

day and night

until it happens,

and if a wicked man

can sometimes

do a good

and a right thing

even from bad motives,

then how much more

will God?

how much more

will God

do right

by those who pray

that his kingdom

of justice,

his kingdom

of righteousness

would come

in the midst

of all the injustices

in the kingdoms

of this world?

You know,

as Easter approaches,

we have many,

many opportunities

to pray.

We have a prayer meeting

this Wednesday.

We have a good

Friday prayer vigil.

We have all kind

of opportunities

to pray.

and I just leave you

with the question,

what if we prayed

more like this woman?

Like this tax collector,

certainly.

God have mercy

I'll be a sinner.

But also,

like this woman

where we don't stop.

Hebrews chapter 4

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

says this,

or Hebrews chapter 2,

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

17,

or sorry,

4, 16.

It says,

let us approach

God's throne of grace

with confidence

so that we may receive

mercy and find grace

to help us

in our time of need.

Friends,

we don't have a God

who's difficult.

We don't have a God

who's resistant.

We don't have a God

who needs us

to give him a black eye.

We have a good

and a loving father.

We have a just

and a righteous judge.

We have a wealthy

and a generous king.

And he is there

ready to respond eagerly

when his chosen people,

when his beloved people

cry out to him

day and night

for his kingdom

to come breaking through

into our lives,

for his rule

and his reign

to come breaking

into the lives of others,

for his justice

and his righteousness

to come down

on earth

as it is in heaven.

He's eager for us

to pray

with the kind of desperation

for God to do

what only he can do.

And he loves it

when we come to him

with an unwearied

perseverance

and a dogged expectation

that when we pray

for his kingdom

to come,

it will come.

And so friends,

will we cry out

to our father

day and night

until we see

his kingdom

breaking through

in this Easter season?

I hope that we will.

In the name of the Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit,

amen.