The Fourfold Privilege of Prayer, Part 2 | How to Pray Well

Luke 11:1

Once again, let’s read from the text, and we’ll just abbreviate our reading this time, and go Luke 1:1-4, “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ And he said to them, ‘When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”’”

Remember what we read in Luke 10:39, a disciple named Mary, she sat at Jesus’ feet. She sat at his feet listening to his teaching. What does Jesus do? He commends her because “she’s chosen the good portion,” verse 42. Jesus’ teaching about the father in heaven, the good portion which will never be taken away from her and learning about the Father, Mary’s prayers are thereby educated, her communion is informed, her fellowship is enriched, her spirit is ministered to in the most profound way possible. Commun with the father in prayer is an abiding privilege. It’s a permanent, irrevocable gift. It will never be taken away. From the very deepest dungeon of the earth, at the farthest reaches of the earth, at the very lowest of places, prayer is able to immediately transport us into the very throne room of God in heaven. What a miracle!

Consider Jonah, he prayed from inside the belly of a great fish, evidently, a fish that dove to some great depths, deeper than as Jonah 2 says, deeper than the roots of the mountains. In the very pit, he said, “I called out to the Lord out of my distress.” What’s he doing? He’s praying. What would you do in the belly of a big fish, diving down into the depths of the ocean, deeper than the lowest mountains? Pray! No atheists in the belly of a fish. “I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, you heard my voice.”

Again, “While my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.” Incredible. From the depths, there, fleeing from the presence of the Lord, God grabbed him, threw him into the belly of a fish, threw him down to the depths of the sea. Immediately, he’s in the throne room of heaven, in the temple of the Lord. God heard his prayer, ministered to his soul, and delivered him, yeah, by spitting him up on shore, but delivered him, right?

Jesus teaches us, here, as his disciples, who the father his, what he’s like. Then he teaches us how to commune with him in prayer. As I. Howard Marshall puts it, “Jesus was initiating them into the same close relationship with the father that he enjoyed.” Isn’t that marvelous? We think about Christ, we read, study. This, this one that we are reading about, that we worship, that we pray to, he says, you know what? I want to give you the exact same access of relationship to the father that I have. Incredible. Such a deep, intimate privilege that Jesus enjoyed for himself and he’s pleased to bring us into the same communion.

Okay. That’s number one, okay?  In my introduction of four, right? But the next three are very short, okay? So rest assured. Second privilege: Prayer is a key to Christian fellowship. Prayer is a Key to Christian fellowship; it’s the practice of koinonia. Koinonia in the truest sense of the word koinonia, fellowship, partnership. Look again at Luke 11:1, “Now Jesus was praying at a certain place, and when he was finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.’” It’s interesting that Luke quoted the disciple as not just saying, “‘Lord, teach us to pray,’” which would’ve been sufficient in order to propel the narrative forward, but “‘Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.’”

Think about that, there is an us and there is a them. Lord, teach us as John taught them, two distinct groups, there, right? He’s made a distinction between two groups. He recognizes the need to learn the prayers of his own group, a new community of believers who are defined by their discipleship to Jesus Christ. Except for this verse, we have no record of John the Baptist teaching his disciples to pray, but it was, we have no doubt that this is true. He, it was very common for rabbis to teach their disciples certain prayers, certain patterns of prayer, certain emphases in their prayer life. John’s no different. As Jesus said, in fact Luke 11:28, “Among those born of women, none is greater than John.” The very greatest of Old Testament prophets, he taught his disciples to pray.

But still, John the Baptist, like any other rabbi, like any other human teacher, like any preacher/prophet, John was a sinner. He was just as equal in his need for salvation as everybody he taught, all of his fellow disciples. He’s on the same level. But Jesus, as this disciple recognizes, Jesus, he’s entirely different. This is someone who is utterly unique. “Jesus has no need,” Hebrews 7:27, “like others, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.” No one like him. John himself said in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must,” what? “Decrease,” right? John knows his purpose is fulfilled when he hands off his disciples to Jesus so that they would become the disciples of Jesus, the Christ of God, or as he testified, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” That’s why Luke 7:28, “The one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.” The very least of us disciples of Christ, we are privileged to belong to a new community of believers.

We have privileged access to God through a living hope by the atoning death of Christ, by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and to be taught by that one who is our atonement, how to come to God. So this unnamed disciple in Luke 11:1, when he made this distinction between John’s disciples and Jesus’ disciples, he really spoke better than he knew at the time. But he did know intuitively, he knew instinctively Jesus has something better to teach his disciples about prayer. Jesus has unfettered access to God in prayer. I watch him. I see how he prays. I want to know how to pray from that one.

When Jesus answered the man’s request, you’ll notice Jesus taught him to pray corporately. He taught him to pray as a member of the community. All the verb forms and pronouns in verses 2-4, they’re not singular; they’re plural. “Jesus said to them…” Yeah, he was asked a question by an individual disciple, but when he responded, he didn’t respond to him, he responded to them. Significant. It’s plural. Then he goes on, emphasizing the plural nature, corporate nature, community nature, of our prayer. He said, “When you” plural, “pray.” “You” plural, “say, Father, ‘Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.’” When we pray, we enter into prayer acknowledging our corporate body.

Christians are a new community of believers. They’re centered on God, defined by God, redeemed by God. Our individual identities are therefore eclipsed by the corporate identity of a people who worship the true and the living God. We’re those who know him intimately in union with Christ the Son, who knew God as father and as each of us as individuals, we no longer consider, even though we possess an individual identity, we no longer consider our individual identity as the most important factor of our identity. What matters now, to us, is the spiritual nature of this new community.

The entire group is sanctified, made holy, declared righteous in Christ. We share in the same experience of redemption. We’re forgiven by the same Savior. We partake of the same Holy Spirit. We’re brought into union and communion together with the same God. We all now have the same access, all of us, everyone of us. There are no second-class citizens. There are no stepchildren, so to speak, in the family of God. We all are one in him, same rights, same privileges, same access, and we all know him as father. Father.

The Lord’s Prayer brings each one of us into a shared experience of prayer. We enter into prayer in the name of that same father, the one who overcomes our individualism in the reality of who God is. As Frederick Godet puts it, “After having forgotten himself, having become lost, as it were, in God, the Christian comes back to himself, but as it is in God that he finds himself again, he does not find himself alone. He contemplates himself as a member of God’s family and says, We and not I.” End quote

So as we continue on in the Lord’s Prayer, we see that we don’t make our petitions about matters of human need, considering ourselves and ourselves alone. Notice in verse 3, it’s not Give me, but “Give us,” plural, “this day our,” plural, “daily bread.” And then again in verse 4, not just forgive me, but “forgive us,” plural, “our,” plural, sins “for we ourselves,” plural, “we” plural, “forgive everyone who is indebted to us,” plural. “Lead us” plural, “not into temptation.” What does that demonstrate? I care about you in prayer, and you care about me in prayer. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we’re not think and pray as a bunch of isolated individuals, simply after self, self, self, self, self. We’re to think and we’re to pray collectively, as family members, as brothers and sisters in arms, having mutual concern for one another.

Now I just want to tell you that never means you never pray for things that pertain to you, as an individual, of course, we do. But whenever we pray, even praying for our own concerns, we still pray for the concerns of others. When I’m in need and pray for my need, I’m conscious of the fact that, well, there may be others in need as well. I need to pray for them. When I rejoice in my salvation and in the forgiveness of my sins, I don’t just think of me in particular. I think of everybody, everybody in our church who has the same experience of gratitude and joy of a clear conscience before God. That’s what we practice in prayer.

This corporate mentality does, believe me, immense good for us, especially in a world that really is intent on indoctrinating us into the modern idolatry, which is the idolatry of the self, the celebration of individual autonomy, the shirking of community in every way, no obligation to anybody else in the false refuge of anonymity. What a curse given to the world, here. Anonymity is the, anonymous living here is totally destructive. What is meant to liberate the self is actually enslaving the self to personal lusts and personal cravings and animal instincts and all the rest. Those who see themselves as isolated individuals, as, as living by themselves, even within   the midst of a community, like a church, like our church, those who see themselves as isolated individuals anonymous autonomous beings, they think, they live, they pray, as if their actions had no consequence outside the self and that is a lie. Completely out of step with the life of a Christian.

We’re to see ourselves as belonging to a people, the people of God, as members of a family. We’re to think and pray, all about, all of our words and actions, in relation to our family identity. We never want to bring reproach upon the God who saved us, the God we worship. We never want to bring reproach to the family that we exist to honor. We want to honor and glorify our God, the one who identifies and defines our family identity.

We’re concerned, therefore, to pray for our brothers and sisters, to uphold them for their good along with our own good. We’re members of one another, and that is how we pray, as members of one another, that’s how Christ prays for us. It’s how he taught us to pray. That’s, that’s what prayer does, as we enter in and engage in and practice true Christian fellowship. That’s point two.

So prayer is the key to spiritual blessedness, point number one. We experience pure joy of access to the living God. Prayer is the express privilege, and I might add, the exclusive privilege of the Christian community. This community is defined it’s a community that’s defined by righteousness. Brings us into a third privilege, number three: Prayer is the key to righteous religion. Righteous religion. By praying, we engage in a habit of righteousness. That’s what Jesus was describing in Matthew 6, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men.” He includes prayer as an act of righteousness and it is that. Prayer becomes a means of living out, a means of perfecting the most fundamental commandments of true religion.

Remember the lawyer back in chapter 10, verse 27,  Remember how he, this lawyer summarized the law in two fundamental commands? Notice he said there in Luke 10:27, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And,” if we supply the verb, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That distills the essence of righteousness down to its bare bones. It’s two fundamental commands, love God, love your neighbor. With that in mind, notice how the fundamental nature of righteousness, loving God, loving neighbor, is reflected in the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer, first in verse 2: love for God. “Father, hallowed be your name. Your will be done.” I love you, God. I love your name; I love your will.

Number two: love for neighbor. We pray for our own needs, but as we said in the previous point, we don’t pray isolated from the rest of the community. We pray for everybody. What’s that if not love for neighbor? We see our own needs in conjunction with the needs of our fellow Christians. Loving neighbor then occupies the second place, “Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we,” ourselves, “forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Lead us not into temptation.” I’m concerned about your sanctification, your provision, your holiness. To pray this prayer according to the pattern that Jesus has given us is to practice the essence of righteousness. It’s prescribed in the law to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself.

We begin with worship, right? Our minds are set on the love of God as Jesus teaches us to exalt the holy name of God, to seek the fulfillment of his will, his purpose. In that frame of mind, we then turn, we pivot over to the love of our neighbor, fraternal spirit of love for our brothers and sisters. Again, Godet says, “The Lord’s Prayer is thus nothing else than the summary of the law put into practice. And this summary so realized in the secrecy of the heart will naturally pass thence into the entire life. It does so first and foremost through our prayer life.”

Drawing near to God in daily dependence and corporate concern, it cures us of all pride. It fosters attitudes of humility, meekness, brotherly love, affection, concern. It’s a very different spirit, by the way, than that which animates that loveless lawyer in Luke 10, who tested Jesus, who cared nothing more than to justify himself. Or the spirit that animates the characters we’re going to meet in the rest of Luke chapter 11, like the “children of the evil generation,” led along by the Pharisees and the lawyers.

Look at the end of chapter, chapter 11, verses 53-54. Luke there records how, “They began to press Jesus hard and to provoke him, to speak about many things, lying in wait for him,” why?  “To catch him in something he might say.” They have no love for God; they have no love for their neighbor. Like many in our own day, the ungodly have no interest in loving God, no interest in loving their neighbor. They just care about the self. They’re in bondage. But as the people of God in Christian community, it’s concerns of righteousness that animate us, fill us with life and joy, cause to rejoice, cause us to give thanks. We’re truly interested in loving God, truly interested in loving our neighbor and we do that in and through prayer.

So prayer is the key, number one, to enjoying spiritual blessedness; number two, to practicing Christian fellowship; three, to perfecting righteous religion. Fourth privilege, just briefly, number four: prayer is the key to spiritual confidence. Prayer is the key to spiritual confidence, Again, look at Luke 11:2-4. Notice the concision, there, of those verses, the simplicity of that, the clarity of this prayer. He says to this inquiring disciple, “When you pray, say…” He doesn’t tell him to quote Psalm 119, all 176 verses. He doesn’t say that. He says, “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 ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Lead us not into temptation.”

I mean, we’re struck by the simplicity of that form, aren’t we? I can tell you now, I can hand a five-year-old in this church, any five-year-old, I can hand them a key and point to the door, and he’ll know how to use it and like any five-year-old, he will. This prayer is simple enough, here, for any child to memorize, any child to repeat. Just 38 words in the Greek text, 36 words, even shorter, in the ESV, English translation. To put that into perspective, that is the length of the medium sized tweet, just a Twitter® post.

But listen, the substance is no Twitter post, is it? The substance, here, is weighty. It’s a prayer that’s profound enough to get beneath every possible issue of life, to enable us to pray about every possible matter that we’ll face. It’s thus completely comprehensive. It’s all-encompassing. It’s an all-sufficient pattern of prayer. And when we heed what Jesus has told us, here, following this simple pattern of prayer, we’re encouraged in our praying. We are able to pray well. Just do this, “When you pray,” Okay, whenever I pray, got that. “say” I know how to say, “this.” There’s the words! Done. You can pray well and when you pray and you pray well, according to this pattern, it increases our spiritual confidence in obeying Christ.

Anybody go through baptism? If you’ve been baptized, you know what? You’ve pleased Christ. Isn’t that cool? That’s what I tell everybody who’s getting baptized, I tell them, you know, when they’re, when they’re a little bit nervous, butterflies are in their stomach. I say, you know what? This is, this is one time that you know for certain that when you’re in the waters of baptism and I dunk you, fret not, you’re pleasing Christ. You’re not going to screw it up. If anybody screws it up, it’ll be me dropping you! But I’ll quickly recover, pick you up, off and running. In baptism, you please Christ. You pray this prayer, you know what? You’re doing it, you’re pleasing Christ. You’re obeying him. When we pray like Jesus’ teaching us, and we pray it habitually, you know what happens? We build a habit, now, of obedience. And when we build this habit of obedience, you know what it does? It instills confidence; it strengthens our obeying. It increases spiritual confidence in us.

Beloved, you want to build an easy habit in your life? You know, I’m such an undisciplined person. I can’t do anything right. I never do anything well. You know what you can do? Pray that. Do it one time. Just today, do it one time. Tomorrow, wake up, find some time in your day, pray that. That’s two days in a row. Third day in a row, you get up, you know what to do. When you pray, say, “Father, hallowed be…” You go on. Now that’s three days in a row! And you know what happens after a while? That habit starts to catch. It’s going to increase your spiritual confidence.

That’s why we say this prayer that Jesus teaches it is like a key. It is! It’s so simple to use, and at the same time it’s so immediately effective to accomplish the task for which it was designed, for which it was given. That’s how Jesus teaches the children of God to pray without any ostentation, without any pretension. But in simplicity of speech, with sincerity of heart, with great joy and anticipation in what we’ll experience, we’ll turn the key of prayer and access God. Any child can turn a key, open a door, fact that this pattern of prayer is so simple. Beloved, that should encourage us to make use of it.

Because the key provides privileged access because on the other side of the door, as we’ve said, we experience spiritual blessedness, and it’s a blessedness of the nature that’s enjoyed by Jesus Christ himself, whenever he could. We get to do it whenever we want, as well. We practice Christian fellowship, sharing in the lives of the elect saints of God. What a privilege! We practice righteous religion, loving God, loving others. We practice that in prayer. What a privilege! And as we do that, we grow in spiritual confidence. We exercise our blessed right as born-again children of God. Isn’t that a joy? Can’t wait to get started, can you?

Father, thank you so much for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to teach us to pray such a simple prayer. Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. Father, if there’s anybody here, who’s never practiced that habit, please teach them. Please help them to grow in this habit, to build spiritual confidence and enjoy this corporate fellowship, this community, practicing righteousness together, which produces in us spiritual blessedness, a blessedness that’s shared by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.