Our trek through the Gospel of Luke brings us today to the topic of prayer. I'm glad for the opportunity to preach on prayer on a Sunday morning. I've preached often here at Midway on prayer, but it has almost always been on Wednesday evenings during prayer meeting, which I suppose is appropriate. But all believers and the Lord Jesus Christ must pray. And so I'm glad that I have the opportunity this morning to talk about prayer with all of us, with the entire congregation. Prayer is central to the Christian experience. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, then you must know something about prayer. It's just impossible for it to be otherwise. And so this morning we focus on this most important spiritual discipline. Now, our text here in the first eight verses of Luke 18 emphasizes one of the secrets of effective prayer. Persevering, praying, and never giving up. But much like the elephant in the story, we are apt to embrace just one aspect of prayer rather than the whole. You know what story I'm talking about, right? Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. And one day, the other villagers came to them and said, there's an elephant in the village today. And they had no idea what an elephant was. They nevertheless decided, well, even though we can't see it, let's go and touch it. And all of them went and touched the elephant. And the first man said, hey, the elephant is like a pillar as he put his arms around the leg. And the other man said, oh, no, no, no. It's like a rope as he touched the tail. The third man said, no, it's like the thick branch of a tree as he touched the trunk of the elephant. The fourth man said, no, it's like a big hand fan as he touched the ear of the element. No, it's like a huge wall said the fifth man as he felt the broad side of the elephant. And finally, the sixth man said, no, it's like a solid pipe as he touched the tusk. And of course, the moral of the story is that all of them were right, but each of them only had part of the truth. And we're very apt to understand prayer in this way. There is more than one secret to effective prayer. There's persevering in prayer. There is prayer in Jesus' name. There is prayer in faith believing. There's praying according to God's will. There's praying with thanksgiving. There's the part of prayer that the Holy Spirit does within us. All of these principles need to be part of our practice of prayer. But this morning, our text here in Luke 18 focuses only on one aspect of effective prayer, on persevering in prayer. So we're going to be taking a deep dive into that one aspect of prayer. But I wanted to make certain here at the beginning of the sermon that you don't mistake what I'm saying this morning for the whole of prayer. There's much more to say if we're going to pray effectively. So read with me then the story here that Jesus tells in order to illustrate persevering prayer, this aspect of prayer beginning in verse one of Luke 18, Luke 18 and verse one. Then he, Jesus spoke a parable to them. that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him, saying, Get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" Have you ever had one time or another hidden a house key close to your front door? Don't raise your hand. We don't want people looking, you know. Perhaps for your children. when they came home after school, or just in case you lost your key, maybe you put it, you know, on the lintel above the door, or maybe you had a teeny tiny little nail, you know, behind a shutter, you know, maybe you had one of those fake rocks, you know, in your garden. Well, this parable is just like that. The key is right here by the front door. Luke summarizes the key point of this little story. At the front door, right here in the very first verse, men always ought to pray and not lose heart. We must be consistent and insistent and persistent in prayer and not give up. Now, the meaning of verse 1 is not that we are literally to pray all the time. Jesus is not recommending that we all become monks and nuns and spend every waking moment saying prayers. The idea is that when we pray for something, we are to pray again and again and again. For instance, when we take up praying for the salvation of our children, we are to pray again and again and again. It is to be consistent. And we are never to give up until we see a definite answer. The phrase at the end of verse one that's translated, not lose heart, is also translated, never give up. in many of the modern translations. When we pray for persecuted Christians in Muslim lands and in communist lands, let us pray persistently, day in, day out, week in, week out, and never give up praying until we see a definite answer. That's the principle here. And Jesus teaches us here to apply it to all of our praying. pray consistently, persistently, never give up. And then Jesus, as he often did, tells a brief story here to emphasize this truth, to carry it home to our hearts. Jesus introduces us to two memorable characters here. The first is the unrighteous judge. We're told that he did not care what God thinks. He did not care what men think. In fact, the phrase there at the end of verse two that's translated, nor regard men, conveys the idea that this judge could not be made to feel shame or embarrassment in front of men, no matter what he did, no matter how they reacted. I get the idea, I don't want to get into politics, but I get the idea that he was a little bit like Donald Trump. The phrase that's translated here, did not fear God nor regard men. In that day, it was used of someone who was extremely independent, who would not be pushed into anything. The fact that Jesus calls this judge unjust or unrighteous in verse 6 may indicate that he was the kind of judge who only cared about lining his own pockets. rather than dispensing justice. And when this widow walked into his court, I think you can picture, if you have any imagination, how he must have responded. There was no chance of her giving him much of a bribe, and I think he probably told the bailiff to immediately escort her out. And that brings us to the widow woman. Be honest with me. When you think of a widow woman, she has to be, number one, really old. She has to have white hair, right? And in my mind, she always has to be little. I don't know why. All widow women are little, old, gray. That's how I think of it. In that day, that was often not the case. Women, or perhaps I should say girls in that day, often married at the age of 13, 14, 15. And often their husbands died early of disease, famine, war. There were many young women like Ruth who were widowed early in life. So we don't really know if this widow was young or was old. What we do know is she was energetic. The phrase here in verse three translated, and she came to him, has the idea of repeated, persistent action. She came to him again and again and again. To put it the way we would today, she would not take no for an answer. The bailiff escorted her out of the door and she stayed by the door until the judge came out. The judge refused to be shamed by whatever went on in his courtroom. Well, this woman refused to be shamed by the judge's refusals. And she kept coming back and back and back. And just exactly what was her case? Jesus gives us very little detail here, just that she demanded justice, which means that from her perspective, she was asking for something that she had a right to, okay? Now, I think most of the Jews in that day would have put two and two together, and they would probably have inferred that this widow's case had something to do with her husband's estate. Now, you need to understand something. In that day, there was no such thing as community property. Joint ownership of nothing, ladies. A wife could not inherit directly her husband's property. Aren't you glad you live today? Number one, you don't have to get married when you're 13. and your husband's property can become yours. Now, she did have the right though to be supported from her husband's estate. And most probably this widow would have come because the executor of that state was not giving her the support to which she was entitled. When I read this story, when I read this story, I am always put in mind of the verse in, where is it? In Luke 20. where Jesus describes the scribes and says that they devoured widows' houses. What does that mean? Well, I think Jesus talked about the fact that because these guys were religious leaders, oftentimes they were made executors. And in that position, they would have the right to do exactly what this executor was doing, which was basically to somehow funnel the proceeds from the estate to themselves rather than using those proceeds to support the widow. So that was the situation that Jesus paints here. But even more memorable than the characters is the climax of the plot to this little story. Verse four tells us that for a period of time, the judge would not give this woman justice, and that's exactly what we would expect. There was nothing in it for him, but there came a point at which the judge changed his mind. And verses four and five give us a window into his thought processes. But afterward, he said to within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she weary me. Now the key word there in that sentence is translated weary in the New King James Version. It's an interesting word. In certain contexts in that day, it could mean to beat somebody up. It could mean to give them a black eye. And there are actually some who study this passage who believe that the word should be taken literally, that this woman was actually threatening physical violence. Now, if this story had been about 2018, I might could buy that. I mean, when I see some of these women on the UFC, you know, beating each other up, I could buy that. But in that day, that was not the kind of thing that happened. And so it's probable that Jesus intends this word metaphorically. The idea was that she, by her continual coming, was giving him a mental and emotional thrashing. And the verb is connected in the original language with another phrase that has the idea of wearing the judge out completely. I mean, if this judge had lived today in South Carolina, good old boy judge would have put it like this, she just wore me out. That's the idea. So that's the story. Then in verses 6 and 7, Jesus tells his disciples the point of the story. And the point of the story is that there is a direct comparison between the relationship of this widow to this judge and our relationship to our God. And the argument that Jesus uses here is an argument that was common to the rabbis in that day. It's an argument, a type of argument that the apostle Paul often used. It is an argument called from the lesser to the greater. And in this case, who would the lesser be? The lesser would be the widow and the unjust judge. Who would the greater be? The greater would be us and our relationship to God. And the argument takes the form of how much more. Will you repeat that with me? How much more? One more time. How much more? Third stanza. How much more? Okay. In a little while, I'm going to point to you and when I do, you're going to say, how much more? Okay. So this argument takes that form. How much more? And there's actually a threefold argument here. Okay. So first of all, This judge was unjust, unrighteous, uncompassionate, and yet this unrighteous, unjust judge was willing to give this widow woman justice when she came back to him again and again and again and would not give up. How much more will God then, who is righteous and compassionate, give us what we request of Him if we come back again and again and again and do not give up, okay? Do you see that? From the lesser to the greater, how much more? Then there's a second side to this argument. If the unrighteous judge gave justice to somebody that he had no relationship with, I mean, he didn't know her from Adam or Eve. She had no hold on him. If that unrighteous judge was willing to give justice to somebody that he didn't know, how much more will our God give us what we ask when we are His children, when we call Him Abba Father. And then there's a third side to this how much more argument that's not quite as apparent. The woman in this story did that which very few women in that day did. She ventured into the all-male enclave of the law court. Women just didn't do that. She had no male to be her advocate before that unjust judge. She had no way to afford an attorney to plead her case. And yet that unjust judge eventually gave her what she asked because she came again and again and again and would not give up. How much more will God give us what we ask when we come in Jesus' name? when we come through our mediator, the God, man, Christ, Jesus, when we depend upon our advocate to carry our requests to God the Father. So from at least three different perspectives, and you may be able to see others here that I don't, Jesus intends by this little story to just grab our hearts and to draw us to persevering, persistent prayer. To teach us that if we will pray and pray and pray and will not give up, that we will have answers from God. Now remember, this is just one of aspects of prayer. There are others. But Jesus does a wonderful job of bringing this home to our hearts by this little story. But we're not finished. It's easy to overlook another focus here in Jesus' story, and that's a focus on justice. The word is actually used three times in Jesus' story and the explanation. Unfortunately, our English translations mask this repetition. So let me give you the Gerard paraphrase here, okay? I'm gonna read the story again, beginning in verse two. There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, do justice for me before my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will do justice for her lest by her continual coming she wear me out completely. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, shall God not do justice for his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them. So in the second place, this story is about praying for God to do justice. We're encouraged here to pray for God to do justice for his people. In fact, I take this story almost to be an implicit promise that God will do justice for His people if we continue to cry out for Him to do justice. But, this story is set in a particular context. that gives us some clues about how we ought to apply this implicit promise about praying for justice. So before we talk about how we can apply what Jesus says here on a practical level, we wanna step back for a moment and try to get our bearings in the biblical context here, okay? Now, I would remind you that when the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write this gospel, He did not tell him that it would have 1,151 verses and 24 chapters. That's how many verses are in Luke, that's how many chapters are in Luke. The chapter divisions in our English Bible were the work of Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1200s AD. The verse divisions were added around 300 years later by a man named Robert Estienne. Now, I applaud these men for adding these divisions in our Bible. I use them literally every Sunday when I ask you to turn to the text for our sermon. Can you imagine what it would be like? Can you imagine what it would be like? If I were to ask you to turn to a text and those weren't there, it'd be very difficult, wouldn't it? Many of you use these chapter and verse divisions every day when you're reading through the Bible, day by day, when you're reading through the Bible in a year. Aren't these wonderful things? Aren't these wonderful things, everybody with me? Yes, I am thankful. that these men added these things to our Bibles. But having said that, I need to emphasize to you that the chapter and verse divisions in our Bible are not, I repeat, not, capital N-O-T, not inspired by the Holy Spirit. And sometimes the chapter divisions in particular make a passage more difficult to understand. And I believe that's the case here with the chapter division at the beginning of Luke 18. I believe, if I had been debating with Archbishop Langton, that it would have been better to put the first eight verses here in Luke 18 at the end of Luke 17. Now, what was the end of Luke 17 about? I know it's been two weeks since we talked about that. What's the end of Luke 17 about? It's about the second coming of Jesus Christ. And the context for this little story that Jesus told on prayer is the second coming. How do I know that? What comment did Jesus make at the end of this discussion in verse 8? Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? So this story is set in the context of the Second Coming and in the period immediately before the Second Coming. Because the end of Luke 17 is also about that period that we call the Tribulation or the Great Tribulation. So this story is set in a context of tribulation, in a context where God's people are under tremendous pressure and many are martyred. And so by telling this story in that greater context, Jesus particularly encourages us to be steadfast as we pray to God to do justice when God's people are facing persecution and tribulation. So that means in our day, I believe, in our culture, there are at least two obvious applications for the emphasis that we find here in Luke 18 verses 1 through 8. First of all, we can take encouragement from this parable when we pray for our government. Just as this widow woman We must come to our God again and again and again, asking Him to direct the hearts of our president and our congressmen and our judges to do justice for the people of God. Now, as I indicated this morning, as I prayed, as I opened the service, we have just seen an example of this kind of prayer. for the Supreme Court case involving the Masterpiece Cake Shop and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Christians have certain rights in this country. The First Amendment guarantees us the right to free speech. The First Amendment guarantees us the right to practice our religion freely. And so we have the opportunity to pray and ask God to cause these leaders to do justice for God's people. And in this case, God has answered our prayers. That case was decided in favor of that Christian baker, but it did not set a broad precedent. In that respect, it was disappointing. And it is probable that in the near future, the very near future, there will be another case before the Supreme Court pitting our freedom of religion against the rights of homosexuals. In fact, it could be decided as early as tomorrow. that the Supreme Court will hear the case of Baronelle Stutzman. Some of you are familiar with Baronelle Stutzman. She's a florist from the state of Washington who was sued, punished by the government. She basically lost her business because she declined to design a custom floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding, for a friend's same-sex wedding. And all, again, because of her faith. Now again, if the Supreme Court takes up that case, you and I need to be like the widow woman. We need to be bringing our cause before our God again and again and again and not giving up. And then in the second place, this parable gives us encouragement to continually pray for persecuted believers around the world. I read the following averages just this week. These are from Open Doors USA, a ministry on behalf of persecuted believers. I quote, every month, again, these are averages, every month, 255 Christians are killed, 104 abducted, 180 Christian women are raped, sexually assaulted or forced into marriage, 160 Christians detained or imprisoned without trial, and 66 churches are attacked. 255 killed, 104 abducted, 180 Christian women raped, sexually assaulted, forced into marriage, 160 detained or imprisoned without trial, 66 churches attacked. Some 215 million Christians worldwide face this kind of heavy persecution. That's 1 in 12 Christians. Now, it seems to me when Jesus told this story in this context, He was signaling to us that God has a particular willingness to hear the cries of His people for justice when His people are persecuted. And so I ask you, like the widow woman, are you consistently, persistently crying out for God to do justice for those that are persecuted in Muslim lands and in communist lands and even in Hindu lands? There are radical Hindus out there, folks, especially in India. This story gives us every reason to believe that God will hear our cries and answer us if We pray and we do not give up. But as we embrace this encouragement to pray for our government, to pray for those who are persecuted, there is a caveat at the end of verse 7. A proviso, a stipulation, a limitation. Jesus says, shall God not do justice for His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? Now that last phrase, though He bears long with them, is very difficult to understand. One of the commentaries that I've been reading and studying as I've been preaching through Luke listed a dozen different possible interpretations. I believe the best way to understand this final phrase is something like this, shall God not do justice for His own elect though He waits patiently to act for them? Though He waits patiently to act for them? And then Jesus turns around right at the beginning of verse 8 and He answers the question, I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. What? The end of verse 7 says that He waits patiently to act for them. Verse 8 says He will avenge them speedily. What is going on here? That sounds like a contradiction to me or at least a paradox. And I believe it is a reminder here. When Jesus states this paradox, it's a reminder that we view time differently than God does. And particularly when we are waiting on God to answer our prayers. It's a reminder that often our timetable is not God's timetable. God's people in every age have cried out to God, how long, oh God? How long before you act on our behalf? We find that cry in the Old Testament, we find that cry in the New Testament. Part of the reason that Jesus told this story Part of the reason that he directs us and encourages us by this story to keep on praying and keep on and keep on and not give up is because God works on his own timetable. Peter says, with the Lord one day is as a thousand years. Can you imagine praying for a request for 50 years? Consistently, insistently, persistently. George Mueller kept a diary of his prayer requests. He prayed for one person for their salvation for 60 years before God answered that prayer. That seems like a lifetime to us. but before an eternal God? That's just a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Do you understand? Part of the reason that we must pray and pray and pray and pray and never give up is because God's watch runs differently than ours. If something's worth praying for in the first place, then it's worth praying and never giving up. Well, we're not quite finished, because Jesus makes a final comment upon this story at the end of verse 8, and the comment seems to be beside the point but actually it's right on target. He says, nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? I believe that the reason that Jesus brings up faith here at the end of this story about prayer is that there is a direct connection between praying persistently and faith. We must persevere in prayer as a demonstration of our faith. I mean, think about this. When you pray and pray and pray and pray and refuse to give up, when there is absolutely no evidence that God has heard you, what greater demonstration of faith in God can there be? Now you can write it down. If we are prayerless, it's because we are faithless. The two are directly connected. You can't break that bond. You can't separate them. Prayer is one of the best thermometers of our spiritual temperature. Do you want to know if you're spiritually sick? Do you want to gauge the health of your faith? Then look to your prayer life. If your prayer life is faltering, if your prayer life is flagging, if you're shortening your prayers, if you're trimming the time you spend with Jesus Christ, that says something about the condition of your faith. You need personal revival. Now, here at the end of this story, Jesus makes this connection between prayer and faith very specific. He connects it to a very specific time and place. He asks if there will be any faith on earth at His second coming. In other words, He asks if He will find faith demonstrated by persevering prayer at His second coming. And I believe that that Jesus, in fact, has a very specific prayer request in mind in what He says here. Will there be faith as demonstrated by persevering prayer, by praying, thy kingdom come, at Jesus' return? Now, there would be good reason for Jesus to zero in on this. He taught us to pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. That's the first request that Jesus taught us to pray. Millions of believers billions of times have prayed, Thy kingdom come, and He still yet has not answered." Peter talks about this in 2 Peter chapter 3. He talks about the scoffers. scoffing that we would pray for Jesus to come. And for thousands and thousands of years, He's not come in answer to our prayer. But it gets worse. What's the context of Jesus' return? What's the context of everything that Jesus is saying here about prayer. It's a context of tribulation, persecution, pressure on God's people, martyrdom. I believe the closer we get to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the worse the persecution and tribulation is going to be. And so there's going to come a point when many Christians who have prayed for Christ to return, and by the way, when Christ returns, what will He do in terms of that tribulation? He will do justice. In the words of verse 11, He will avenge the elect. Wow, okay. We ought to be praying for Christ to return. We ought to be praying for that second coming. We ought to be praying for Christ to come and to vindicate his people. But the idea here, when Jesus says, will there be faith when I return, is that the pressure's going to get worse and worse and worse, and it's going to actually, I think, crush the faith of some. And ultimately, just before Jesus comes, what period is there? Just before Jesus' return is the tribulation period. In the last three and a half years is the great tribulation period. And God's people at that point are going to be decimated. And it's going to be a very difficult time. to continue to pray, O Lord, Thy kingdom come. Come, Lord Jesus. As I close, We have a saying, seeing is believing. I need to warn you, as common sense as that may sound, that saying is not found in the Bible. In fact, here's what's found in the Bible. In John 20 and verse 29, Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. By means of this little story, this little drama between this unjust judge and this widow woman, Jesus is encouraging us to continue to have faith-filled prayer. to continue to pray in faith even when we don't see anything from God. Jesus gives us every reason by means of this story that God will answer in His time if we do not give up. Now my question as we close this morning is, have you given up? Is your prayer life faltering? Here's what I'd like you to do, a little mental exercise. I want you to look back for the last two weeks. Out of those 14 days, how many of those 14 days did you engage in an intentional, concentrated period of prayer? No, you don't have to write it down. You don't have to tell anybody. God already knows. How many total minutes in the last 14 days have you spent in prayer? Have I spent in prayer? What does this little assessment of our prayer life. Tell us about the health of our faith. Do you need a revival of persevering prayer in your life? Do I need a revival of persevering prayer in my life? My bet is that for many of us, the answer is yes, if we're honest. If that's true, the first step to revival is always confession. We need to admit to God where we are spiritually. that we are prayerless and faithless and that we need His revival. We need Him to come in and do a work in our hearts. God gives grace to the humble. When we come to Him and humble ourselves before Him and tell Him that indeed, yes, I've not been praying like I ought to. Lord, come and fill me again and lead me to prayer by your powerful Holy Spirit, then that's the first step to revival. But I also think there is a very important secondary step. If you and I are in a certain situation where we're just not praying, then we probably need to figure out some other time in our schedule where we ought to try to put that intentional, concentrated time of prayer. Some of us, we say, yeah, I'm going to pray first thing. And first thing, we're about as sharp as a crayon that's been in the box for a long time, you know? It's just not when we ought to try it. We need to carve out some other time in our day. Again, it's just a matter of being honest. When do you really believe that you can focus on prayer and there can be an intentional, concentrated time of prayer in your life?