WEBVTT - #950 - Luke 18:1-17 - Prayer 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:08.039 Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine point fifty. Today, 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.280 The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Book 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:23.079 of Luke with chapter eighteen. Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast. 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:25.640 I'm your host, Chris Kristensen. We're going to talk a 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.880 little bit about prayer here in Luke eighteen, but first 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.839 a word from this sponsor. Luke eighteen starts with the 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:38.600 parable of the persistent Widow. Then Jesus told his disciples 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.120 a parable to show them that they should always pray 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.000 and not give up. He said, in a certain town, 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.400 there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.239 what people thought. And there was a widow in that 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.120 town who kept coming to him with a plea grant 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.160 me justice against my adversary. For some time he refused, 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.360 but finally he said to himself, even though I don't 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.360 fear God or care what people think, yet, because this 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.280 widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.960 justice so she won't eventually come and attack me. And 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.880 the Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says, 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.640 and will not God bring about justice for his chosen 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.920 ones who cry out to him day and night. Will 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.240 he keep putting them off. I tell you he will 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.080 see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.520 Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.560 So this is one of those interesting stories where Jesus 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:43.200 is using a unjust person to tell us something about God, 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.280 who is just. And so he is not saying God 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:51.560 is like this, but he is saying that if this 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:57.240 unjust judge who doesn't even care to do the right thing, 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:03.200 will do the right thing when he is bothered by 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:08.560 this widow, won't God, who does do the right things 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.639 look and see that his people will find justice. Now 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.320 that's the particular thing we need to look at here 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.400 is he's not saying here in this prayers that his 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.760 people will have that it's prayers for health, or prayers 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.840 for prosperity, or prayers for healing. He's specifically talking here 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.640 about prayers for justice, which is interesting and I don't 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:35.800 know that I ever noticed that detail when I was 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.799 reading through this story before. So he's definitely talking about prayer. 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.120 And I love the fact that Luke tells us right 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.440 up front, we were supposed to get out of the story, right. 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.280 Jesus tells us disciples are prayerble to make sure they 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.880 should always pray and not give up, but specifically from 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.960 the end, not give up on what, not give up 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:03.760 on getting justice. God cares about justice. The law in 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:09.000 the Old Testament for these judges like this person were 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.520 that a judge shouldn't be anything like this, that a 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.960 judge shouldn't be someone who doesn't care what people think, 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.799 who doesn't fear God. That the judges were intended to 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:24.000 bring justice because God cares about justice. And yet we 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.560 live in a world that is unjust. We live in 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.880 a world where if you are rich, you are more 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.760 likely to get a outcome in your favor. We live 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.160 in a world where where you're born makes a big difference. 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.240 That things are not even, things are not fair, and 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.680 things are not just. But it doesn't mean that we 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.400 are supposed to be happy with that or content with that. 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.760 But instead we are to cry out to Him day 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.680 and night, and will not God see that they get 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.760 justice and quickly? But then it ends in this rather 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:01.800 ominous way. However, when the son of Man comes, will 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.320 he find faith on the earth. I'm hoping the answer 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:09.560 to that question is yes. The parable of the Pharisee 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.160 and the tax collector to some who were confident of 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.680 their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. Jesus 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.040 told this parable. Two men went up to the temple 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.560 to pray, one a pharisee and the other a tax collector. 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.320 The pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.960 you that I am not like other people robbers, evildoers, adulterers, 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.600 or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:37.960 and give a tenth of all I get. But the 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.680 tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:45.000 look up to Heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.920 have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:53.400 this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.080 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:03.480 those who humble themselves will be exalted. So again, Luke 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.480 does us a great favor here and says at the beginning, 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.520 what we're supposed to get out of this parable or 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.600 why Jesus told it to some who are confident in 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.240 their own righteousness. Well, I'm hoping you're confident in your 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:21.279 own righteousness because it's justified. But to those who looked 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:25.360 down on everyone else. So at this point we're talking 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:29.560 about self righteousness. Jesus tells this parable. So he talks 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:34.279 about this pharisee who is confident, pharisee who is trying 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.800 to do the right thing, but is literally looking around 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.160 the temple and saying, boy, I'm glad I'm more righteous 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:48.600 than that guy. Wow, that's some hutzfa there. That is 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:52.159 some self righteousness when you're looking around and saying I'm 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:57.960 glad I'm better than that person. For one thing. Don't 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:04.600 be too sure, because this story, this pharisee who is 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:10.600 saying I'm not like other people. I'm not like robbers, evildoers, adulterers, 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:17.360 or this tax collector. When he leaves the temple, nothing 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.240 has changed. He hasn't got any better, and he is 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.799 not justified before God, is what Jesus tells us, because 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.599 he has no humility, He doesn't see all the things 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.000 that he may be doing wrong, and he doesn't look 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.000 at the tax collector with any sort of compassion or 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:40.240 empathy and say, you know, maybe Lord, you should help 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:45.159 this guy. He's just self righteous, not somebody I think 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.919 I want to hang out with here. But the tax collector, 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:49.960 on the other hand, the tax collector knows that he 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.120 has done wrong, he doesn't even look up to Heaven. 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.880 He's beating his breast and he's saying, God be merciful 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.480 to me, a sinner. And Jesus says, that's the guy 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:05.520 who go home justified before God. That guy who understands 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:07.719 that he is not worthy of the grace of God, 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:12.280 as we are all not worthy of the grace of God. 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.880 That's the one who goes home changed. That's the one 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:22.680 who goes home in good standing with God. And it 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:27.640 is interesting the number of times that Jesus is preaching 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:32.560 against those who are religious. And it is a warning 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:37.720 for those of us who are religious. Just because we 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.640 go went to Sunday school every Sunday, just because we 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.080 go to church every day, we shouldn't be so full 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.320 of ourselves to think that somehow we have earned the 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.800 grace of God. It is still grace and we have not. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.480 And then continuing on the little children and Jesus, people 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.240 were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.200 his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.559 rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.640 let the little children come to me, and do not 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:13.200 hinder them. For the Kingdom of God belongs to such 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.440 as these. Truly, I tell you, anyone who does not 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.320 receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:25.320 never enter it. It is interesting for us, this story 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.880 makes perfect sense, and it's definitely the Sunday School Jesus 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.000 that we think about. This Jesus we see pictured in 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.360 church here letting the little children come up and touch 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:40.080 him and he's blessing them. But it's quite different from 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.600 the time where children were not considered as important. For 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:49.280 one thing, they probably wouldn't last half the children were 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:51.760 going to die before they got to adulthood because of 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.920 childhood diseases and such in those days before vaccinations, before 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.600 we understood germ theory and all of those things that 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.720 led to to high infant mortality. But children were not 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.720 as important, and so the disciples just trying to shoe 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:14.920 away these in their minds less important people, and Jesus 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:21.360 will have none of it, because they are important to 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:25.840 God as we are all important to God. And with that, 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.440 we're going to end this episode of the Bible Study Podcast. 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.600 If you have any questions, send an email to Chris 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.960 two x at gmail dot com, or, better yet, leave 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.360 a comment on this episode at the Bible Study podcast 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:52.000 dot com and thanks so much for listening. I want 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:53.840 to take just a second to thank the team at 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.920 Life Audio for their partnership with us on this podcast. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.440 If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you'll find dozens 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.199 of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:08.000 shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.