7-27-2025

“PERSISTANT PRAYER GROUNED IN GRACE”

Text: Luke 11:1-13

Sunday July 27, 2025 – Pentecost 7

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our text for this Seventh Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel lesson form Luke 11 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that knowing your love for us by your sacrificial death on the cross, you graciously provide all that we need to support this body and life. Clothed in your grace and redeeming work, we pray confidently your will to be done.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

“Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” (v 1). Each rabbi had a particular way of petitioning God, and Jesus’ disciples are aware that John had taught his disciples how to petition. What’s become so familiar to us is actually remarkable: “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘When you pray, say: “Father” ’ ” (v 2).

It’s surprising to discover how seldom in the Old Testa­ment—the Bible Jesus and the disciples knew—God is called Father. It’s actually only about fifteen times. So how is it that maybe that many times a week—or at least a month—we call God “Father,” especially as we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven”? Well, it’s because of Jesus’ teaching in our text today . . . and because of who God is . . . and what Jesus has done.

Jesus Teaches Us—and Only Jesus Could Teach Us This—to Petition God as Father Because Our Father Is the Giver of All Good Things.

       I.   Jesus teaches us how to petition the Father (vv 1–4).

A.  Calling upon God as Father can only happen when the Father first bestows sonship.

1.   Jesus is able to address God as Father because of his eternal relationship as the Son.

2.   But by teaching the disciples to call God their Father, Jesus is placing them in that same relationship.

3.   Only Jesus can teach them and us to pray this way, because Jesus is the one who makes us, sinful, wayward children, God’s children again. We call God Father because Jesus has reconciled us to him by his death on the cross.

4. It makes sense that the Old Testament saints—even the prophets—would seldom call upon God as Father before the veil of separation was rent by Jesus’ death.

B.  But now, by his blood, Jesus does invite us to petition God as Father.

1.   We petition our Father first by who he is—his name—and what he does—reign as King.

2.   Next we petition for daily bread—both physical and eschatological. We enjoy table fellowship with God; Jesus’ disciples on earth are united with the Father in heaven!

3.   We petition our Father for forgiveness, the essential sustenance of spiritual life. It is only because of forgiveness—for the sake of the crucified Son—that fallen humans may call on God as Father.

4.   Finally, we petition our Father not to bring us into temptation—that is, that we not succumb to temptation.

       II.  Jesus illustrates that the Father will keep his name holy and give what the petitioner urgently asks (vv 5–8).

A.  The parable describes a situation the first-century audience would recognize as compelling.

1.   Rules of hospitality required the entire community to assist in entertaining a midnight guest. No one would refuse such a request.

2.   But even if someone wished to refuse, he would supply what was needed just to avoid shame.

B.  The Father is always honorable and generous.

1.   He does not need to be shamed in order to supply what we need.

2.   Because of who he is, the holy Father, for his name’s sake, will answer our prayer for bread, a symbol for all his gifts.

       III. Jesus encourages us to be persistent in our petitions because God is good and will give the Holy Spirit (vv 9–13).

A.  Keep asking! Keep seeking! Keep knocking!

1.   Why? Because God is not hard to rouse or reluctant to give. He is eager to give.

2.   Even human fathers, who are sinful, know how to give their children a fish or an egg. How much more will the heavenly Father, who is good, give to us!

B.  Especially will the Father give the Holy Spirit to his children who ask.

1.   Jesus’ teaching here is the first promise to the disciples that the Holy Spirit will be given to them.

2.   This grand promise—that the Father gives the Holy Spirit through Jesus—assures a gracious answer to every prayer.

Conclusion: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” “When you pray, say: ‘Father.’  ” “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”* Amen.

It was an unspeakable tragedY. Grief was overwhelming. Both pain and numbness. As the pastor tried to console the family, they were polite but couldn’t see the point. “Why should we pray, Pastor. Doesn’t God already know what we need? What we need is for all this to go away, and it will never go away. We just don’t see the point of praying.”

The pastor didn’t know how to respond at first. But as he prayed for this broken family, he remembered St. Paul’s words to the Romans: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26).

So he returned to the family and told them what St. Paul said, and that the prayer they should pray when they knew not what to pray or even how to pray was the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.

When our groanings are too deep for words, the Spirit of Jesus intercedes for us and puts in our mouths his words: “Our Father who art in heaven . . .” Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.