THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Gospel according to Luke
Message Four—The Man-Savior’s Teaching on Prayer
Scripture Reading: Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28-29; 11:1-13; 18:1-17, 25-27; 19:46; 22:31-32, 39-41
I. The Man-Savior was a man of prayer, who taught His disciples concerning prayer for the church as the Father’s house to be a house of prayer; when the disciples saw the Lord praying, they asked Him to teach them to pray—Luke 3:21-22; 5:16; 6:12; 9:16, 23-24, 28-29; 22:31-32, 39-41, 44; 23:34, 46-47; Psa. 102:7; 109:4; Luke 19:46; cf. 2:49; 11:1:
A. To pray is to realize that we are nothing and can do nothing; prayer is the real denial and repudiating of our self for the enjoyment of Christ as our jubilee—Col. 4:2; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:3; 4:6-7, 11-13.
B. Prayer means that we pray ourselves into God; to pray ourselves into God is to love Him by setting our entire being absolutely on Him according to Mary’s pattern of sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to His word—Luke 10:38-42.
C. If we pray according to the Lord’s instructions in Luke 11:2-4, the result will be that we pray ourselves into God—6:37; Matt. 6:12-15:
1. Often in our experience we are distracted from God; we do not stay in God—we do not remain in Him; this is why we need to pray ourselves into God.
2. Because we are easily distracted from God, we should spend time every morning with Him, praying ourselves into Him—Psa. 5:3; Isa. 50:4.
D. When we pray ourselves into God, we receive His riches (represented by the loaves, the fish, and the egg) into our being for our supply—Luke 11:5-13:
1. Loaves represent the riches of the land; fish, the riches of the sea; and eggs, the riches of something both in the air and on the earth; the Holy Spirit is the totality of these riches.
2. When we have prayed ourselves into God to remain in Him, we receive the Holy Spirit as our life supply (signified by the loaves, the fish, and the egg) so that we can feed ourselves and all those under our care—cf. 6:45.
E. When we pray ourselves into God and receive His rich supply, which is the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit as the reality of the unsearchable riches of Christ, we are filled and occupied with this supply so that there is no room in us for demons, evil spirits, or darkness—11:14.
F. Because we are filled with the riches of the divine supply, we become persons whose hearts are full of light, not having any dark part, and we can illumine others—vv. 33-36; Matt. 5:8.
G. This light then brings us into Christ as the One who has passed through death and entered into resurrection so that we may experience Him as the real Jonah and the real Solomon—Luke 11:29-32.
H. By praying ourselves into God to be filled with the riches of His supply, we experience the Man-Savior in His divine attributes and human virtues so that we may live a life that is the highest standard of morality in order to enjoy and proclaim Christ as the reality of the New Testament jubilee—Luke 4:18-22; 9:54-56; 19:10.
II. The Man-Savior teaches us in a parable about persistent prayer—18:1-8:
A. In this parable the righteous God is likened to an unrighteous judge, and the believers in Christ are likened to a widow—vv. 2-3, 6.
B. Although God does not seem to do anything on behalf of His persecuted people, we must learn to be a bothering widow, one who prays to God persistently—Luke 18:3-5; Isa. 62:6.
III. The Man-Savior’s story of the prayer of the Pharisee and the tax collector instructs us how to humble ourselves before God in prayer so that we may be justified by God and enter into the kingdom of God— vv. 9-17:
A. The Pharisee actually “prayed…to himself ” (v. 11), and in his prayer to himself he was accusing others and arrogantly boasting to God; such arrogant boasting is an utterly detestable sin (vv. 9-12).
B. The tax collector realized how his sinfulness offended God; hence, he asked God to be propitiated, to be appeased toward him by a propitiatory sacrifice for sins, that God might be merciful and gracious to him—vv. 13-14; Rom. 3:25:
1. To repent and confess our sins are to humble ourselves; we need to humble ourselves to such an extent that we consider ourselves nobody and nothing— Psa. 51; Gal. 6:3; cf. 1 Cor. 8:1-3.
2. After humbling ourselves, we need to become like a little child; a little child, not filled with and occupied by old concepts, can easily receive a new thought; hence, people need to be like little children and, with an unoccupied heart, receive the kingdom of God as a new thing—Luke 18:15-17; 10:21-22; Matt. 5:3.
C. By praying ourselves into God and humbling ourselves before God in prayer, we are empowered in Christ to repudiate ourselves, renounce all our material possessions, and follow the Man-Savior—Luke 18:18-30:
1. By our human life this is impossible, but in the New Testament age whenever we touch God and have fellowship with God, all our impossibilities become possibilities, and all our inabilities become abilities—vv. 25-27; Phil. 4:11-13; John 15:5.
2. By praying ourselves into God, we are empowered to overcome the stupefying effect of the self-indulgent living in this age, and we live in the reality of the economy of God to become rich toward God for the kingdom of God—Luke 12:13-21; 2 Cor. 6:10.
Ministry Excerpts:
TEACHING ABOUT PERSISTENT PRAYER
Luke 18:1-3 says, “And He told them a parable with the purpose that they ought always to pray and not lose heart, saying, There was a certain judge in a certain city who did not fear God and did not respect man. And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, Avenge me of my opponent.” The widow in verse 3 signifies the believers. In a sense, the believers in Christ are a widow in the present age because their Husband Christ (2 Cor. 11:2) is absent from them.
In verse 3 the widow asked the judge to avenge her of her opponent. The Greek word rendered “avenge” may also be translated “procure justice for.”
In this parable the Lord indicates that the believers in Christ have an opponent. This opponent is Satan, the Devil, concerning whom we need God’s avenging. We ought to pray persistently for this avenging (see Rev. 6:9-10) and not lose heart.
According to verse 4, the judge for a time would not avenge the widow of her opponent. Then he said within himself, “Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow causes me trouble, I will avenge her, lest by continually coming she wears me out” (vv. 4-5). Following this, the Lord went on to say, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says; and God, shall He not by all means carry out the avenging of His chosen ones, who cry to Him day and night; and yet He is longsuffering over them? I tell you that He will carry out their avenging quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (vv. 6-8). The Lord’s word in verse 8 indicates that God’s avenging of our enemy will be at the Savior’s coming back. Literally, the Greek words rendered “faith” mean “the faith.” This denotes the persistent faith for our persistent prayer, like that of the widow. Hence, the faith here is the subjective faith, not the objective faith. (Life-Study of the Gospel of Luke, msg. 40)
HUMBLING ONESELF
In 18:9-14 we see that in order to enter into the kingdom of God, we need to humble ourselves. In verse 14 the Lord says, “Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” We should not think that we are somebody. Instead, we should humble ourselves and regard ourselves as nobody and nothing.
THE PRAYER OF THE PHARISEE
In verses 10 through 14 the Lord tells a parable of two men who “went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector” (v. 10). The Lord often used tax collectors and Pharisees as examples. Verses 11 and 12 record the Pharisee’s prayer: “The Pharisee stood and prayed these things to himself: God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all, whatever I get.” The Pharisee’s word in verse 11, where he thanks God that he is not like the rest of men, does not sound like a prayer at all; instead, it sounds like an accusation of others. Likewise, his word in verse 12 about fasting and paying tithes does not sound like a prayer, but rather like an arrogant boast to God. Therefore, in his prayer the Pharisee was accusing others and boasting to God.
THE PRAYER OF THE TAX COLLECTOR
In verse 13 we see that the despised, accused, and condemned tax collector prayed in the way of humbling himself to the uttermost: “But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be propitiated to me, the sinner!” This word implies the need of a Redeemer and also the need of propitiation. The tax collector realized how his sinfulness offended God. Hence, he asked God to be propitiated, to be appeased toward him by a propitiation, so that God may be merciful and gracious to him.
Romans 3:25 says that God set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiation-cover through faith in His blood. The Greek word for propitiation is hilasterion, different from hilasmos in 1 John 2:2 and 4:10 and hilaskomai in Hebrews 2:17. Hilasmos is that which propitiates, that is, a propitiatory sacrifice. In 1 John 2:2 and 4:10 the Lord Jesus is the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins. The Lord offered Himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 9:28), not only for our redemption but also for God’s satisfaction. In Him as our Substitute, through His vicarious death, God is satisfied and appeased. Hence, He is the propitiation between God and us.
THE LORD JESUS MADE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS
Hilaskomai means to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying the other’s demand, that is, to propitiate. In Hebrews 2:17 the Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins to reconcile us to God by satisfying God’s righteous demands on us. The Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins to appease God’s righteousness, to reconcile us by satisfying the demand of God’s righteousness.
In Romans 3:25 hilasterion is the place of propitiation. So in Hebrews 9:5 this word is used for the lid of the ark within the Holy of Holies, and in Exodus 25:16-22 and Leviticus 16:12-16 the Septuagint also uses this word for the cover of the ark. The law of the Ten Commandments was in the ark, exposing and condemning by its righteous requirement the sin of the people who came to contact God. By the lid of the ark with the atoning blood sprinkled upon it on the day of atonement, the whole situation on the sinner’s side was fully covered. Therefore, it was upon this lid that God could meet with people who broke His righteous law without, governmentally, any contradiction to His righteousness, even under the observing of the cherubim that bore His glory overshadowing the lid of the ark. The propitiatory or expiatory sacrifice, which foreshadowed Christ, satisfied all the requirements of God’s righteousness and glory. This is what Romans 3:25 refers to. Thus, the word hilasterion is used to reveal that the Lord Jesus is the propitiation place, the propitiation-cover. As the propitiatory sacrifice, He has made full propitiation on the cross for our sins and has fully satisfied the requirements of God’s righteousness and glory.
It is significant, therefore, that the tax collector in Luke 18:13 said, “God, be propitiated to me, the sinner!” He realized that he had offended God and that he needed someone to be his offering of propitiation so that God would be appeased. This humble person realized that he was nothing but a sinner. Because he offered up a prayer that was based upon God’s propitiation, he “went down to his house justified” (v. 14). (Life-Study of the Gospel of Luke, msg. 41)