Latest / The Bible Study Podcast / #950 - Luke 18:1-17 - Prayer

Transcript

#950 - Luke 18:1-17 - Prayer · The Bible Study Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine point fifty. Today,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Book
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of Luke with chapter eighteen. Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Chris Kristensen. We're going to talk a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: little bit about prayer here in Luke eighteen, but first
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a word from this sponsor. Luke eighteen starts with the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: parable of the persistent Widow. Then Jesus told his disciples
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a parable to show them that they should always pray
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and not give up. He said, in a certain town,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: what people thought. And there was a widow in that
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: town who kept coming to him with a plea grant
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: me justice against my adversary. For some time he refused,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: but finally he said to himself, even though I don't
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: fear God or care what people think, yet, because this
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: justice so she won't eventually come and attack me. And
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and will not God bring about justice for his chosen
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: ones who cry out to him day and night. Will
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: he keep putting them off. I tell you he will
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So this is one of those interesting stories where Jesus
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: is using a unjust person to tell us something about God,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: who is just. And so he is not saying God
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: is like this, but he is saying that if this
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: unjust judge who doesn't even care to do the right thing,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: will do the right thing when he is bothered by
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: this widow, won't God, who does do the right things
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: look and see that his people will find justice. Now
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that's the particular thing we need to look at here
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: is he's not saying here in this prayers that his
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: people will have that it's prayers for health, or prayers
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: for prosperity, or prayers for healing. He's specifically talking here
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: about prayers for justice, which is interesting and I don't
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: know that I ever noticed that detail when I was
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: reading through this story before. So he's definitely talking about prayer.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And I love the fact that Luke tells us right
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: up front, we were supposed to get out of the story, right.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Jesus tells us disciples are prayerble to make sure they
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: should always pray and not give up, but specifically from
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the end, not give up on what, not give up
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: on getting justice. God cares about justice. The law in
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the Old Testament for these judges like this person were
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: that a judge shouldn't be anything like this, that a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: judge shouldn't be someone who doesn't care what people think,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: who doesn't fear God. That the judges were intended to
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: bring justice because God cares about justice. And yet we
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: live in a world that is unjust. We live in
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: a world where if you are rich, you are more
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: likely to get a outcome in your favor. We live
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: in a world where where you're born makes a big difference.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: That things are not even, things are not fair, and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: things are not just. But it doesn't mean that we
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: are supposed to be happy with that or content with that.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: But instead we are to cry out to Him day
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and night, and will not God see that they get
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: justice and quickly? But then it ends in this rather
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: ominous way. However, when the son of Man comes, will
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: he find faith on the earth. I'm hoping the answer
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to that question is yes. The parable of the Pharisee
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and the tax collector to some who were confident of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. Jesus
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: told this parable. Two men went up to the temple
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to pray, one a pharisee and the other a tax collector.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: The pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you that I am not like other people robbers, evildoers, adulterers,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and give a tenth of all I get. But the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: look up to Heaven, but beat his breast and said, God,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: those who humble themselves will be exalted. So again, Luke
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: does us a great favor here and says at the beginning,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: what we're supposed to get out of this parable or
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: why Jesus told it to some who are confident in
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: their own righteousness. Well, I'm hoping you're confident in your
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: own righteousness because it's justified. But to those who looked
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: down on everyone else. So at this point we're talking
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: about self righteousness. Jesus tells this parable. So he talks
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: about this pharisee who is confident, pharisee who is trying
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to do the right thing, but is literally looking around
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the temple and saying, boy, I'm glad I'm more righteous
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: than that guy. Wow, that's some hutzfa there. That is
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: some self righteousness when you're looking around and saying I'm
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: glad I'm better than that person. For one thing. Don't
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: be too sure, because this story, this pharisee who is
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: saying I'm not like other people. I'm not like robbers, evildoers, adulterers,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: or this tax collector. When he leaves the temple, nothing
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: has changed. He hasn't got any better, and he is
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: not justified before God, is what Jesus tells us, because
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: he has no humility, He doesn't see all the things
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: that he may be doing wrong, and he doesn't look
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: at the tax collector with any sort of compassion or
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: empathy and say, you know, maybe Lord, you should help
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: this guy. He's just self righteous, not somebody I think
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I want to hang out with here. But the tax collector,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, the tax collector knows that he
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: has done wrong, he doesn't even look up to Heaven.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: He's beating his breast and he's saying, God be merciful
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: to me, a sinner. And Jesus says, that's the guy
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: who go home justified before God. That guy who understands
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: that he is not worthy of the grace of God,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: as we are all not worthy of the grace of God.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: That's the one who goes home changed. That's the one
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: who goes home in good standing with God. And it
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: is interesting the number of times that Jesus is preaching
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: against those who are religious. And it is a warning
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: for those of us who are religious. Just because we
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: go went to Sunday school every Sunday, just because we
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: go to church every day, we shouldn't be so full
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: of ourselves to think that somehow we have earned the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: grace of God. It is still grace and we have not.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And then continuing on the little children and Jesus, people
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: let the little children come to me, and do not
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: hinder them. For the Kingdom of God belongs to such
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: as these. Truly, I tell you, anyone who does not
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: never enter it. It is interesting for us, this story
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: makes perfect sense, and it's definitely the Sunday School Jesus
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: that we think about. This Jesus we see pictured in
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: church here letting the little children come up and touch
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: him and he's blessing them. But it's quite different from
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the time where children were not considered as important. For
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: one thing, they probably wouldn't last half the children were
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: going to die before they got to adulthood because of
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: childhood diseases and such in those days before vaccinations, before
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: we understood germ theory and all of those things that
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: led to to high infant mortality. But children were not
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: as important, and so the disciples just trying to shoe
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: away these in their minds less important people, and Jesus
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: will have none of it, because they are important to
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: God as we are all important to God. And with that,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: we're going to end this episode of the Bible Study Podcast.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: If you have any questions, send an email to Chris
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: two x at gmail dot com, or, better yet, leave
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: a comment on this episode at the Bible Study podcast
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: dot com and thanks so much for listening. I want
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to take just a second to thank the team at
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Life Audio for their partnership with us on this podcast.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you'll find dozens
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.