Title: LEARNING TO PRAY

Focus: Learning to pray as Christ would have us pray calls for spiritual commitment and practice to seek the Lord each day.

Function: To encourage the people to assume the posture of a student keen on learning to pray as Christ teaches us in the Scriptures.

Text: Luke 11:1-12

Does a soldier engaged on the battlefield with bullets flying all around him need a lesson in prayer?

A while ago, a mine tunnel collapsed in Chile. For more than 16 days, 33 miners were feared dead. Earlier this week, however they were discovered to be alive, 1000 feet below the ground, trapped in a narrow cave where they found some emergency food and drink. Now they are waiting. The entire nation of Chile is rooting for them.

These 33 trapped miners, however, were told that it may take two months before they can be rescued from their enclave and brought above ground. Do you think that these miners need a lesson in prayer?

Your bills are running up, your savings are running out,—do you need a lesson in prayer? Your daughter is in trouble, your family is falling apart, your job is disappearing—do you need a lesson in prayer?

Your parents taught you evening prayers, your teachers taught you day prayers, your church taught you Sunday prayers—do you need a lesson in prayer?

Do pastors and evangelists, and do you dyed-in-the-wool, mature Reformed Christians who know the Catechism and the Scriptures by heart—do we need to learn to pray? The answer to all these questions is “Yes. We need to learn to pray!”

In the next twelve weeks or so, the Scriptures will force us to focus on the labor of prayer. School is starting very soon—the school of prayer, I mean. Today the Lord Jesus “primes our pump” and shows us the way of prayer. Through reflection on his teaching in the Scriptures and through faithful practice of prayer, we will grow as Christians in the labor of prayer.

We begin today, however, by assuming the posture of a student keen on learning to pray. Such a posture is necessary, for learning to pray as Christ would have us pray calls for spiritual commitment and practice to seek the Lord each day. Are we willing to humble ourselves in the days to come and say: “Lord Jesus, teach me to pray”?

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The gospel reading opens with a window on the Lord Jesus at prayer. Jesus prayed. This is an astonishing picture by itself. Think about it: the eternal Son of God in the flesh—fully divine, fully human—is praying in a certain place. If Jesus felt a need to pray and actually engaged in prayer to the Lord, our God, how much more should we! Jesus prays!

The passage about Jesus at prayer unfolds as one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. In verse 1, we note the request. And in subsequent verses, we discover Jesus’ response. He begins by laying out the territory of prayer: “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” (In the month of September and October we’ll unpack the Lord’s Prayer and the terrain of prayer, which we must learn to cover)

The rest of the gospel reading seems a bit disjointed. In verses 5-8 the Lord Jesus tells a cryptic story about praying for others. His point seems to be that in prayer we must be persistent and bold as we pray for others. Jesus calls for perseverance and a bold posture when we storm the heavens with intercessory prayers.

Then, in verses 9-10 Jesus reveals the progression we experience when we learn to pray: “Keep on asking—Keep on seeking—Keep on knocking” for everyone (not just righteous saints who know God through faith, but also faltering sinners who seek to know God through faith) will receive, will find, will gain access to the heart of God.

The passage closes with a gem. Listen: “Which of you, fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Here the Lord Jesus gives us a pearl—a beautiful insight that should move us to learn to pray as Christ would have us.

This morning the sacrament of baptism was administered to Makena and Naomi. God signed and sealed his promises to these two precious children. Those promises are all bundled up in the person and work of Jesus, and they are unlocked and realized through faith, and especially through the workings of the Holy Spirit. In baptism God grants us the Holy Spirit and joins us to the Body of Christ, the church.

Now let me ask you: As Pastor Todd and Jenni raise their children and train them to be followers of Christ Jesus all throughout their lives, what shall these parents pray for? What do we pray for and live for and work so hard for as we seek to raise the next generation?

Is it for happiness? Is it for health? Is it for wisdom and smarts and savvies to go through life? Is it for material success and prosperity?

When we are honest we must admit that we pray for good gifts, so that our children may prosper and find happiness. Is that wrong? Not necessarily. Let’s face it, the Lord Jesus reminds us that healthy parents do not wish bad things for their children. We do not seek “snake bites” and “scorpion stings” for them.

But Jesus holds before us the “mother” of all good gifts—the Holy Spirit. I think that the 19^th century South American pastor, Andrew Murray, is correct when he says that the chief and best of all good gifts is the Holy Spirit, or rather, that in the gift of the Holy Spirit all other gifts are comprised or included. Our heavenly Father delights in granting us the greatest of his gift—the Holy Spirit.

Why? God is what he is through his Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is the very life of God. When the Lord Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, the voice of our heavenly Father revealed Jesus as his glorious Son, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus. And through and in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus carried out his mission here on earth.

Think! God delights in giving us his Holy Spirit. It is through him and in his strength that we can live our lives to the glory of God. Yes, it’s true: we may ask God for a good job in troubled times; we may ask him for health in the midst of sickness; we may ask him for direction as we try to figure out what to do with our lives. And we should ask him for these good gifts.

But what is needed most is the abiding presence and strength of God that comes to us in the Holy Spirit, who brings to bear and unfolds in our lives the fullness of God and the promises of God. When the storms of life overwhelm us, we need God’s breath, his wind, his Holy Spirit—to stay put, to stay calm, to stay strong and steadfast in faith and trust that God is true to his promises, and that God responds to our prayers.

You may be a wealthy financier, but you are poor without the gift of God’s Spirit and his fullness in your life. You may be healthy as a horse, but you are only limping through life without God’s Holy Spirit. We may be sprite and bright and have a happy-go-lucky spirit, but without the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have nothing to hold on to, nothing to draw strength from, nothing to look forward to other than eternal misery. For it is the Holy Spirit who leads us to eternal life, who transforms us in the likeness of Jesus Christ, and who evokes within us a deep desire to live for God.

So as you consider that precious gem—the Holy Spirit—as the chief gift of God to us, remember: learning to pray as Christ would have us pray calls for spiritual commitment and practice to seek the Lord. And be sure to ask for the Holy Spirit—first and foremost—each day.

Here is what Scripture calls us to do: Ask the Lord and say, “Lord, teach us, teach me, to pray.” The disciples of Jesus grew up with a book of prayers—the Psalms. They knew the hours of prayer: morning, noon, and evening. They were familiar with the prayer models taught by many a rabbi in their days. Yet, they saw Jesus pray and they said, “Teach us to pray.”

Today, the Lord calls us to admit to ourselves and to one another, and especially to him who is eager to give us the Holy Spirit in all his fullness, that we are all mere beginners—whipper-snapper students who need go to Jesus’ school of prayer—all throughout our lives.

From one life-long beginner and learner to another, let’s say it together: “Lord, teach me to pray!”