Luke 10:38-11:13: “Martha & Mary / Jesus Teaches His Disciples
How To Pray And Encourages Them To Persist In Praying”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at the first 37 verses of chapter 10.
1.1.1. We saw that Jesus sent seventy of His disciples out on a mission’s trip
much similar to the previous one He sent out the twelve on.
1.1.2. A man came to Jesus asking Him what good thing that he might do to
inherit eternal life. Jesus ended up
telling the story about the Good Samaritan to this man.
1.2.
In this study, we are going
to look at verse 38 of chapter 10 through verse 13 of chapter 11.
1.2.1. The section of scripture that we will study today deals with the
importance of seeking the Lord and praying, and being persistent in our
praying. We will look at:
1.2.1.1. The story of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to Him while
her sister Martha is busy preparing a meal for Him.
1.2.1.2. Jesus teaching His disciples a model prayer after they come to Him
asking Him how they are supposed to pray.
1.2.1.3. Jesus using an illustration of a man going in the middle of the night
to a friend in order to borrow loaves of bread in order to demonstrate the
point that His disciples are to be persistent in their praying to the Lord
1.2.1.4. Jesus using the example of evil fathers to give good things to their
children in order to demonstrate to His disciples their Heavenly Father’s
desire to give good things to them when they pray.
2. VS 10:38-42 - “38 Now as they were traveling along,
He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39
She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet,
listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her
preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care
that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help
me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you
are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one
thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken
away from her.”” - Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha and
Mary sits at Jesus’ feet listening to him while Martha is busy preparing a meal
for Jesus
2.1.
We have seen in the book of
Luke that Jesus is now in the last two weeks of His life as He is headed with
His disciples from Galilee to
2.2.
Mary and Martha appear in
the gospels in a few places, and they also have a brother named Lazarus whom Jesus
raised from the dead, however only John includes the raising of Lazarus in his
gospel (see John chapter 11).
2.3.
In John 11:5 in the story of
Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead we are told specifically that Jesus loved
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Also, it is
important for us to realize that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus each represent
disciples who sought to do the very best for Jesus. They practiced hospitality and were a very
gracious and loving family.
2.4.
It is impossible as you read
the gospels not to see Jesus training and preparing His disciples concerning
the way that they were to live and view their lives which they are living for
Him. For instance, Jesus has recently
corrected His disciples for rejoicing too much because they had been used by
the Lord. He had also recently taught
them a parable of a Good Samaritan to illustrate to them what it means to love
your neighbor as you love yourself. Now
He begins to instruct them concerning prayer and seeking the Lord.
2.5.
This is really the story for
us as Jesus’ disciples about how wrong it is to get carried away with the wrong
things, of placing service of the Lord ahead of seeking Him, and of placing
works of righteousness ahead of worship.
The story demonstrates the importance of having proper balance in our
Christian walk between service and communion with the Lord.
2.6.
Warren Wiersbe has pointed
out that all three times that this Mary appears in the gospels that she is
found at the feet of Jesus:
2.6.1. Here in our text she is sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to Him.
2.6.2.
She falls at Jesus’ feet in
John 11:32 because her brother Lazarus has died.
2.6.3.
In John 12:3 this Mary
anointed Jesus’ feet with a very costly perfume of pure nard.
2.7.
We must not downgrade
Martha’s motive in this story as it is a very good thing to want to honor and
please Jesus. In fact, many look to
Martha in this story in wanting to prepare an excellent meal for Jesus as an
example of how we ought to give the Lord our very best whenever we serve Him. Martha’s problem in this story is not that
she wanted to serve Jesus, it was because of the fact that she placed her
service above her worship and devotion to Jesus. This is something that we must never do.
2.7.1. It is sad but while Martha in her life is seeking to always give Jesus
her very best in her service to Him by preparing Him a wonderful meal, most of
us who take the name of Christian are content to give Jesus the leftovers of
our life.
2.8.
It is interesting that this
story illustrates how we as people can become when we get out of balance and
try to serve the Lord ahead of worship and seeking Him. We can get frazzled, instead of having peace
we become consumed with worry, produce conflict and disharmony with others,
pray for the wrong things (just like Martha tries to get Jesus to make her
sister help her in her serving), and, we end up being admonished by the Lord
about our priorities.
2.8.1. Someone once told me that if you are truly serving the Lord in what you
do you’ll never get burned out however sometimes our motives for doing the
things that we do for the Lord can get mixed causing us to get burned out.
2.9.
We need to realize the fact
that the “Martha spirit” of placing service above seeking and worshipping the
Lord is very alive and active in the church at large today.
2.10.
In fairness to Martha,
Warren Wiersbe writes, “According to John 12:1-2, Martha must have learned
her lesson, for she prepared a feast for Jesus, the Twelve, and her brother and
sister---that’s fifteen people---and did not utter one word of
complaint! She had God’s peace in
her heart because she had learned to sit at the feet of Jesus.”
2.11.
Interestingly, Darrell Bock
cites this passage as well as Luke 12:13 and John 8:4 as demonstrating that in
the gospels we see a pattern with Jesus of not getting involved when people
asked Him to step in and settle a dispute they had with someone else:
2.11.1.
In Luke 12:13 someone wanted Jesus to tell his/ brother to divide the
family inheritance with him, “13 Someone in the crowd said to
Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.””
2.11.2.
In John 8:4 a group in cohorts with the Pharisees wanted Jesus to act
because a woman had been caught in the act of adultery, “4 they
said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.”
3. VS 11:1-4 - “1 It happened that while Jesus was
praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to
Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 And
He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your
kingdom come. 3 ‘Give us each day our daily bread. 4 ‘And
forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to
us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ”” - Jesus teaches His disciples a model prayer
3.1.
One of the things that we
have seen throughout our study of the book of Luke is the fact that Luke
constantly makes a point to show how that Jesus was praying:
3.1.1. At His baptism (Luke 3:21).
3.1.2. When the crowds increased (Luke 5:16).
3.1.3. Before He chose the twelve Jesus spent the entire night in prayer (Luke
6:12).
3.1.4. Before He asked the twelve who that they thought that He was (Luke
9:18-28).
3.1.5. At His transfiguration (Luke 9:29).
3.1.6. The night before His betrayal in the
3.2.
Here we see that as Jesus
was praying His disciples came to Him because they realized that Jesus’ prayer
life differed vastly from their own.
They probably did very little praying at this time in comparison to
Jesus. So, they came to Jesus in order
to ask Him how it is that they were to pray.
3.2.1. I do want to again make the point that if Jesus, the sinless and
eternal Son of God, saw His own need to pray continually and about every
decision that He made, then we lowly, imperfect, and sinful creatures must need
prayer in our lives at least as much as Jesus needed it.
3.3.
We think of John the Baptist
as being a great prophet, and in fact we have already seen that Jesus mentions
in the gospels that John the Baptist was the greatest of the Old Testament
prophets, however we see from these verses that Jesus’ disciples were impressed
with John’s prayer life, and it was John’s prayer life that also contributed to
them asking Jesus about how to pray.
3.4.
In chapter 6 of the gospel
of Matthew, Matthew includes a much more detailed account of this model prayer
taught by Jesus to His disciples.
However, none of the other gospels include this model prayer.
3.5.
In Matthew’s account of
Jesus teaching His disciples this model prayer we read that He first prefaced
the prayer by saying that they were not to pray using meaningless repetition,
but when they prayed they were to pray in this way. So, what Jesus is trying to bring out in this
model prayer is what should be the ingredients of our prayer as Jesus’
disciples, not so much a “canned” prayer that we should repeat
continually. However, the prayer itself
is given as a “communal” prayer that is voice in the third person, “Our
Father.” So, this fact must
indicate that it is OK to pray this prayer corporately, however our prayer life
must primarily be spent alone with Jesus, and, we must learn to have more depth
in our praying.
3.6.
From Jesus’ model prayer we
should make six points about how we as Jesus’ disciples ought to pray:
3.6.1. The “first” thing about
this prayer that strikes us is the fact that Jesus’ disciples are to address
God in prayer as “Father.”
3.6.1.1. This was a truly radical concept in Jesus’ day for prior to this Jews
never addressed the Lord as their “Father.” The New Testament brings us a new revelation
of a relationship that we as people have with God as our “Father”
through receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
3.6.1.2. In every respect we Christians can experience the Lord as a “father” in
our lives, and a father watches out for His children and protects them, a
father provides, a father guides, a father warns, a father comforts, and you
are always safe in your father’s house.
3.6.2. The “second” point of interest for us in this prayer is the fact
that the Lord is to always be approached immediately with a sense of His “holiness”
and this is expressed by the phrase, ‘hallowed be Your name.’
3.6.2.1. Strong’s Enhanced Greek Lexicon has the following entry for this Greek
word ‘hagiadzo’ translated ‘hallowed’ in these verses:
37 ἁγιάζω, ἀνασῴζω [hagiazo /hag·ee·ad·zo/] v. From 40; TDNT 1:111;
TDNTA 14; GK 39 and 420; 29 occurrences; AV translates as “sanctify” 26 times,
“hallow” twice, and “be holy” once. 1 to render or acknowledge,
or to be venerable or hallow. 2 to separate from profane
things and dedicate to God. 2a consecrate things to God. 2b dedicate people to God. 3 to purify. 3a to cleanse externally. 3b to purify by expiation:
free from the guilt of sin. 3c to purify internally by
renewing of the soul.
3.6.2.2. Yes, the Lord is revealed to be many things to His children in the
scriptures, including being even our “friend,” however there must also
always be an acknowledgment of the utter and distinguishing holiness of the
Lord. As one Pilgrim author once tried
to express this characteristic of the Lord, “There is something that is
terrible about everything that the Lord does.”
3.6.3. “Third,”
Jesus uses the phrase ‘Your
kingdom come’ to indicate that whenever we pray that we are really
not to try to convince the Lord to do our will on the earth but rather to request
the Lord to accomplish His will upon the earth.
3.6.3.1.1.
It is not when we pray that
the Lord is presently “reluctant” to answer our prayers and thus we must
convince Him to do so. Rather, whenever
we pray we are to realize His great desire to accomplish His perfect will in
the requests that we might bring to Him.
This is brought out more clearly in Matthew’s account of this teaching
found in Matt. 6:10, “10 ‘Your
kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” Wiersbe quotes Phillip Brooks as saying, “Prayer
is not God’s reluctance; it is laying
hold of his highest willingness.’
Thus, when we pray we should ask and trust the Lord not to do what we
wish but what He knows is best in our situation.
3.6.3.1.2.
It occurs to me that if we
in our praying are not always directing our prayers to the Lord to do according
to His will, that it must be because of the fact that either we do not trust
His answers or we do not want His will done.
3.6.4. “Fourth,” Jesus teaches His disciples that they are to always
being praying for their ‘daily bread.’
3.6.4.1. This term ‘bread’ most likely is a “catch-all” phrase that
refers to all of the necessities of life that we might be needing on a regular
basis. However, some have attempted to spiritualize
this phrase to refer to spiritual manna or sustenance that we as people might
need. I personally think that the phrase
may be broad enough to include daily necessities of life that are both physical
and spiritual.
3.6.5. “Fifth,” Jesus teaches His disciples to pray to the Lord to ‘forgive
us of our sins.’
3.6.5.1. The disciple of Jesus is a redeemed sinner, but because of the fact
that he still has a sin nature, there is still a tendency towards sinning. The Lord can give us victory in every
temptation and trial we may find ourselves in if we will but rely upon Him
completely in faith to do so. However,
the reality is that we as people do not always look to the Lord by faith for
that victory and so we sometimes sin and thus are in need of forgiveness on a
regular basis. Jesus indicates then that
it is expected that when we sin that we will ask the Lord to forgive us of our
sins.
3.6.5.2. There is a caveat in this particular aspect of this prayer. This is the fact that Jesus’ disciple must
also be willing to forgive those who have wronged him in various ways. In fact, Jesus was so strong about this point
that He taught that if we are unwilling to forgive others that the Lord will
not forgive us of our sins (see Matt. 6:15 in Matthew’s account of this story).
3.6.6. The “sixth” point we notice is the fact that the disciple is to
ask the Lord to ‘lead us not into temptation.’
3.6.6.1. Though temptation will happen in the life of a disciple this is also a
very dangerous thing to experience.
Temptations should be fled from when encountered because we as people
often fall into sin because of our temptations.
It is much better for us if instead of running into temptations, that
the Lord protects us from them.
Therefore, we need to regularly pray for the Lord to lead us not into temptations.
4. VS 11:5-10 - “5 Then He said to them, “Suppose
one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend,
lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a
journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and from inside he
answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my
children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8
“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because
he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as
much as he needs. 9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to
you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 “For
everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it
will be opened.” - Jesus uses an illustration of a man going in
the middle of the night to a friend in order to borrow loaves of bread in order
to demonstrate the point that His disciples are to be persistent in their
praying to the Lord
4.1.
Having taught His disciples
a model prayer to use that includes all of the ingredients of effective prayer,
Jesus now teaches His disciples a couple of illustrations to encourage them to
be persistent and persevering in their prayer.
4.2.
In the east it is a very
important custom for people to practice hospitality and meet the needs of
people, including even those in need whom you might not even know. I have read that supplies for bread were not
easy to come by in
4.3.
Many people have the idea
that God is inconvenienced by their prayers because after all the Lord always
has a lot of very important things to do, or because there are many much more
important needs to be met rather than their particular requests they might
make. However, Jesus is not inferring in
this story that the Lord Himself is inconvenienced by our prayers, as this
friend is inconvenienced by having to get up in the middle of the night and
give this man some loaves of bread. The
scriptures reveal to us on the contrary that it is the Lord’s desire and
intention for us to bring all of our requests to Him to be answered because He
lives to and longs to answer the petitions we as His children bring to
Him. Check out these promises from
scripture, for instance:
4.3.1. Isaiah 40:28-31, “28 Do
you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the
earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29
He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He
increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous
young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will
mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They
will walk and not become weary.”
4.3.2. Psalm 121:1-4, “1 I
will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? 2 My
help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to slip; He
who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps
4.3.3. 2 Chronicles 16:9, “9 “For
the eyes of the Lord move to and
fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is
completely His.””
4.3.4. Hebrews 7:25, “25 Therefore
He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since
He always lives to make intercession for them.”
4.4.
So, Jesus argument then is that if a man because of his friends
persistence in knocking on his door will eventually get up and give the man his
request, will not our heavenly Father answer us, the One who has infinite
resources, omnipotent ability, omniscient awareness, and a commitment and
desire to answer all of our requests prayed to Him according to His will? This is an argument from the lesser to the
greater. If a friend will do this for
you, will not the Lord do more so?
4.5.
Jesus admonishes us in three
different phrases, each of which are in the Greek present tense which indicates
“continuous action,” to persist and persevere in bringing our prayer
requests to the Lord for He will answer us:
4.5.1. ‘Ask, and it
will be given to you .’
( keep on asking )
4.5.2. ‘Seek, and you
will find.’ ( keep on seeking
)
4.5.3. ‘Knock, and it
will be opened to you.’
( keep on knocking )
5. VS 11:11-13 - “11 “Now suppose one of you fathers
is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish,
will he? 12 “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give
him a scorpion, will he? 13 “If you then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”” - Jesus uses the example of
evil fathers to give good things to their children in order to demonstrate to
His disciples their Heavenly Father’s desire to give good things to them
5.1.
In this second illustration
to encourage persistent and persevering prayer in His disciples, Jesus speaks
of an earthly father and how that even though he is a sinful human being that
when his son asks him for things such a ‘fish’ or an ‘egg,’ that
he will not instead give him horrible terrifying and evil things such as a ‘scorpion’
or a ‘rock,’ respectively. Jesus
actually makes the question personal though and asks them if they as parents
would do this with their son?
5.2.
Again, Jesus point is that if
they being imperfect earthly parents generally look out for the good of their
child, that certainly their perfect, righteous, holy heavenly Father who has
called them to be His sons and daughters, will always be looking to those
things that are best for them.
Therefore, as disciples we should always be encouraged to seek the Lord
in prayer for He will only do wonderful things in our lives and give us
wonderful gifts as a result. Again, the
argument is from the lesser to the greater.
If they do this will not their heavenly Father do even more for them?
5.3.
This is another
encouragement also that we should not try to demand of the Lord to do our will
on earth when we pray but rather trust Him to accomplish His will in heaven.
5.4.
Interestingly, Jesus tells
His disciples specifically that the Lord will give His children the Holy Spirit
when they ask Him for this. The Lord
loves to give spiritual gifts to His children and when it is our desire to
honor and worship the Lord in the using of our spiritual gifts, the Lord is
more than willing to accommodate us and give us those gifts that we ask
for. In fact, the Lord is more willing
to bless us as His children with good gifts than we are willing to ask for
them!
6. CONCLUSIONS:
6.1.
In our study, we have seen
the importance of seeking the Lord, praying to the Lord, and being persistent
in our praying.
6.2.
As we consider this study
and what we have discussed regarding Mary and Martha, lets first of all make
sure that we remember to never place service above seeking and worshipping the
Lord. Lets realize the importance of
sitting daily at the feet of Jesus and learning from Him
6.3.
Lets remember the
ingredients that make up effective praying:
6.3.1. God is our heavenly Father.
6.3.2. God is holy.
6.3.3. We are to pray for the Lord’s will in heaven to be done on earth.
6.3.4. We are to pray for our daily bread (essentials of life)
6.3.5. Ask for forgiveness as we need it and as we forgive others.
6.3.6. Ask that we not be led into temptation.
6.4.
Lets be encouraged to be
persistent and persevering in our praying by the story of the man who gets his
friend up in the middle of the night to borrow bread and his friend grants his
request because of his persistence in knocking, to be persistent and
persevering in our praying. Continue to
ask, seek, and knock for the Lord will answer our prayers. He loves and longs to answer our prayers as
His children.
6.5.
Lets recognize and remember
that God always desires that which is only the very best for us whenever we
come to Him in prayer. The Lord is able
and committed to answering our prayers, and He loves to give good gifts to His
children when we ask Him for these in prayer