SERMON TITLE: Jesus Teaches About Prayer
SCRIPTURE: Luke 11:1-13, 18:1-8 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 8-23-26
Sermon Discussion Guide
Take notes here
As always, it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time or if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
We’re continuing our Gospel Project series this weekend. During the summer, we’re syncing our sermons with our Kidway ministry curriculum, called the Gospel Project. We thought this would be a good way for those of us without kids in our Kidway ministry to understand what the kids are being taught each week. And they happened to be in the gospels learning about Jesus this summer, which is a great place in the Bible for all of us adults to be — because — the whole Bible is ultimately about Jesus. So what better way to spend our summer than by getting to know him better?
And we’re going to be in the gospel of Luke today. And we’ve got two different passages to look at. We’ll be in chapter eleven — looking at verses one through thirteen — and in chapter eighteen — looking at verses one to eight. Again, that’s Luke chapters eleven and eighteen— beginning in verse one of both chapters.
We’ll begin in chapter eleven where we read…
Luke 11:1–13 ESV
1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John 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 forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” 5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
And now we’re in chapter eighteen where we read…
Luke 18:1–8 ESV
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus is going to teach us about prayer today. And he’s going to teach us what to pray, how to pray, and why we pray. What to pray. How to pray. And why we pray.
But before we get to what, how, and why we pray — I want us to think about prayer in Jesus’ life. When you think of Jesus’ life and ministry, what comes to your mind?
We think of these moments in Jesus’ life and ministry — and I don’t know about you — but then it’s like — “And somehow, in between all of that, he prayed.” Where all of the cool stuff — the miracles, and parables, and private conversations — occasionally calmed down enough so he could pray. To which one Bible commentator suggests we view Jesus’ life differently. “As a series of private prayer times, interspersed with the ordinary events of his daily ministry.”
Where we see prayer as Jesus’ main activity — and the miracles, parables, private conversations, and so on were temporary interruptions. And after a brief interruption, Jesus would resume praying.
In Luke’s gospel, there are nearly a dozen times recorded when Jesus prays. Given that there are only twenty-four chapters in the book — and the first two chapters of Luke contain the Christmas story, when Jesus is still a young child — all that to say, Luke records Jesus praying quite a bit in his gospel.
But it’s not just the amount of prayer that’s impressive; when Jesus prays should also stick out to us. Listen to what one author has noticed about Jesus and prayer in Luke’s gospel. The author writes…
“The first example [of Jesus praying] comes in connection with Jesus’ baptism, which marked his formal entrance into public ministry. Luke tells us that when Jesus “had been baptized and was praying,” the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and God the Son received the blessing of his Father (Luke 3:21–22). Luke also tells us that as his popularity began to grow, and great crowds gathered to hear him and be healed, Jesus “would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16). Luke tells us that when Jesus was about to choose his twelve disciples, “he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12)…After Jesus fed the five thousand, he was…in prayer once again (Luke 9:18)…Eight days later, Jesus went out to pray again, and this time he took three of his disciples with him. While they were saying their prayers…the disciples saw him transfigured in radiant splendor (Luke 9:28–29). Jesus prayed again — rejoicing in the Spirit and giving thanks to the Father — when the seventy-two came back from their first gospel mission (Luke 10:21–22). It seems that whenever anything of major importance happened in the life and ministry of Jesus, it was surrounded by prayer.”
Jesus prayed. And he prayed. And he prayed. And, today, he’s going to teach us to pray.
Beginning with what to pray. We’re in verse one of Luke chapter eleven. There we read…
Luke 11:1–4 ESV
1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John 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 forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
Now, after that lengthy overview about Jesus and prayer in Luke’s gospel, I hope verse one stuck out to you. Here it is again.
Luke 11:1 ESV
1 Now Jesus was praying…”
And I hope you’re like, “Well, of course Jesus was praying — that’s what he does.” And after this time of prayer, his disciples ask him to teach them to pray. And I’m sure — Christian or not — what comes next both sounds familiar and a bit off at the same time. That’s because this is Luke’s version of what’s known as the Lord’s prayer. The more familiar version of the Lord’s prayer is found in Matthew’s gospel, which says…
Matthew 6:9–13 ESV
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
The differences between Matthew and Luke’s versions may indicate that there were two different occasions when Jesus used a similar — but not identical — prayer to teach his disciples what to pray. Now, it shouldn’t surprise us if Jesus had to teach his disciples more than once on the topic of prayer. Meaning no disrespect to his disciples, but they do have a track record of not exactly understanding what Jesus had to say after one hearing.
So maybe it’s two separate occasions, or maybe Matthew and Luke are recording the same moment and simply wrote down slightly different versions of what Jesus said. Regardless, there’s enough overlap between the two gospels that we can understand what Jesus wants us to include in our prayers.
And notice what we’re to start with.
Luke 11:2 ESV
2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
What should be included in our prayers? Though we don’t want to make this formulaic, I think at the very least, we should include something about God’s name being revered — that we desire God’s name and who he is to be treated as holy. This prayer’s the opposite of taking God’s name in vain, which, when we do so, is to break one of the Ten Commandments. A commandment often broken — maybe the most often broken of God’s commandments when you think of the ways that Jesus and God’s name are used in foul ways by so many mouths — maybe even by mouths in this room.
We’re to pray that God and his name be set apart as holy — and — for his kingdom to come. A kingdom has a king who’s in authority — and the king reigns and rules. And God’s kingdom has a king — his name is Jesus. And when we pray for God’s kingdom to come, what we’re praying for is for Jesus’ reign and rule as King of kings to become more of a reality over all of God’s creation. Yes, this prayer will ultimately be fulfilled when Christ returns, but we’re to pray for more of God’s creation to come under Christ's reign and rule now. We’re to pray for more people to submit their lives to Christ now. For more of God’s people to submit more of their lives to Christ — for we’re still in a fight against our enemy and our sinful desires which lure us to rebel against Christ’s authority as our King.
“Hallowed be your name and may your kingdom come.”How might you add this to your prayers? Is this currently part of your prayer life? Or do you skip straight to the rest of what Jesus teaches us to pray for? And please know that I’m not saying that praying…
Luke 11:3–4 ESV
3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
I’m not saying that praying in this way is wrong — by no means! But what I’m saying is that many people pray as if Jesus never said the part about “hallowed be your name and may your kingdom come.” We go straight to our needs and the needs of others.
Things like this often make up the vast majority of what we pray. And I’m not even going to get into how we confuse our greeds with our actual needs. All I want us to do right now is to consider what may be lacking in our prayers. The part where Jesus teaches us to focus on God when we pray. Praying for his name to be kept holy. For his kingdom to come.
What would change in the way you pray if you spent some time, more time, or as much time praying about God’s name being kept holy and his kingdom to come as you did praying for the equivalent of daily bread, forgiveness, and fighting temptation? Things you should be praying for — just not the only things you should be praying for.
Now at this point, you may be wondering, “Well, what would some examples of ‘hallowed be your name’ and ‘your kingdom come’ prayers look like?”
Here are two examples from a book on worship that I have.
Biblically, it’d sound something like this.
Psalm 145 NLT
1 I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. 2 I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. 3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. 4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. 5 I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles. 6 Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness. 7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness. 8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 9 The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation. 10 All of your works will thank you, Lord, and your faithful followers will praise you. 11 They will speak of the glory of your kingdom; they will give examples of your power. 12 They will tell about your mighty deeds and about the majesty and glory of your reign. 13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule throughout all generations. The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does. 14 The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads. 15 The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it. 16 When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing. 17 The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. 18 The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. 20 The Lord protects all those who love him, but he destroys the wicked. 21 I will praise the Lord, and may everyone on earth bless his holy name forever and ever.
Sometimes the best way to pray is already written down for us in God’s Word.
Jesus taught his disciples — and us — what to pray.
And now we turn to how to pray — how to pray. We’re in verse five of Luke chapter eleven where we read…
Luke 11:5–13 ESV
5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
What I want us to notice here is that Jesus gives an illustration to teach his disciples how to pray. And in the illustration, we learn we’re to pray with a bold perseverance. We’re to pray with a bold perseverance.
I say bold because, in the illustration, the friend is quite bold in waking up his neighbor in order to feed his unexpected guest. Some may even call it rude, but the story’s meant to be absurd — I say this because of how Jesus begins. In fact, the next time you read the gospels, watch for when Jesus starts an illustration with words like “Which of you…” What follows is usually an unimaginable situation. It’s intentionally an exaggeration of a scenario that’s never gonna happen.
Think about the obvious answer to Jesus’s “which of you” question. Which of you is going to wake up your neighbor at midnight and say, “Hey, somebody unexpectedly showed up at my house, and I need to feed him. What do you have in your fridge?” I’ll tell you which of you’s doing that. None of you! Which is the same answer that everyone listening to Jesus was thinking. Waking up your neighbor like that would be absurd!
But this is the illustration Jesus uses to teach us how to pray.
Be the neighbor who won’t take no for an answer. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Meaning — keep praying, and God will answer your prayers.
“Now, wait a minute, Josh. I’ve been praying to God for — fill in the blank — for years. And no answer.” Some of you are thinking that right now. While others are thinking, “Josh, are you promoting some sort of health, wealth, name-it-and-claim-it prosperity theology?” Nope.
The reason I started with the what question — what we’re to pray for — is because the content of our prayer shows us what Jesus meant when he said, “Keep asking, seeking, and knocking, and it’ll be given to you.” For what are we to be praying for — praying boldly for — praying persistently for?
When this is what we’re boldly and persistently praying for — God will answer our prayers. The asking, seeking, and knocking isn’t a blanket guarantee that God will give us everything we pray for — remember the context. Jesus just told us what to pray for — then he tells us how to pray: with bold persistence.
When you think about your prayer life, how boldly and persistently are you praying for what Jesus has told you to be praying for?
Finally, why we pray. We’re in Luke chapter eighteen — beginning in verse one.
Luke 18:1–8 ESV
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Now the danger of this illustration is to think that Luke — or Jesus, since Luke’s written down Jesus’s words — the danger is to think that their goal is for us to think that God the Father is like this unjust judge. Jesus’ point is actually the opposite — similar to the illustrations he used in the last passage, when he said…
Luke 11:11–13 ESV
11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Jesus’ point isn’t to say that God the Father is just barely better than us or that he’s just slightly more kind than this unjust judge who basically gives in to the widow because she won’t stop bothering him. It’d be quite the statement for Jesus to compare his Heavenly Father to a judge who neither fears God nor respects man. My point is that Jesus doesn’t want us to think that his Father in Heaven is like the unjust judge — he wants us to think the exact opposite.
But look at what Jesus asks at the end: When he returns, will he find anyone who believes him? Or will we — because we get the what and the how wrong in our prayer life — will we also get the why wrong?
The reason why we pray is that we know we’re praying to a good, just, and merciful God. A loving God who’s full of compassion and kindness. A God who sees you, hears you, and knows you. A God who isn’t some distant deity, but is near. A God who is giving and generous. For, if you remember, the even better gift that your Father in Heaven has given you — the gift that’s better than fish and eggs and all the daily bread type requests we ask for — is the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. So we pray because we know our God is good.
Today, Jesus has been teaching us what to pray, how to pray, and why we pray. One final thought about prayer. Do you remember how Jesus taught us to refer to God when we pray? What word did he use? He told us to address God as Father.
When I’m in my office — and the door’s closed — it’s always interesting to observe how people knock on my door. First off, they’re probably overcoming quite the dilemma when they do — “His door is closed. Should I bother him? What if he’s busy? What if he’s in the middle of writing a sermon and I’m going to disrupt some super holy moment?” I don’t know what they’re thinking, but here’s what I know.
Often the knock is so timid it’s like, “Maybe he’ll hear this, but if he doesn’t I’ll just come back another time.” Sometimes they’ve even texted me to ask if they can stop by, and I say “yes.” Still, the knock is barely noticeable.
I’m not saying I like this; it’s just the reality of being a boss and sometimes needing to close my office door to get work done. I feel like I should also say to the staff that I don’t need you all to start walking by my office, loudly knock on the door, only to take off running — we’ve got some jokers that need to hear that. Joe Sherrieb and Adam Borsay, in particular.
But a few weeks ago, my daughter was here on a weekday practicing with the youth worship band. And I was in my office, working on a sermon, with my office door closed. Yet, because she’s my daughter — and because I’m her father — without even knowing what I was doing behind the closed door, she just opened the door — no knock — and said, “Hi, Dad.” Asked me about something of no eternal or, honestly, temporary importance. And then went on with her day. I told her I was going to tell this story in my sermon. And, when I did, she said, “Dad, I didn’t even think about knocking on your door.”
I know it’s not a perfect illustration, but can you see the difference between viewing God as a boss versus viewing him as a Father?
One last observation about prayer in Jesus’ life. Did you know that every time Jesus prayed to God, he called him Father with only one exception? The one exception is when he experienced the punishment for our sins on the cross. In that moment, Jesus prayed…
Matthew 27:46 ESV
46 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
For at that moment — and this was the only moment in his eternal life — but at that moment Jesus was separated from his Father as he endured the curse for our sin. Jesus — for all eternity — had only known his Father’s presence. He never knew any relationship other than opening his dad’s office door and going straight in without knocking. Yet — in becoming cursed for our sins — he experienced his Father’s absence.
But once the payment for our sins was complete, Jesus prayed one last time before breathing his last breath. And I hope his words will give you great hope and joy. For after enduring the punishment for our sins, Jesus prayed…
Luke 23:46 ESV
46 “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
And because of his sacrifice of love — because of his perfect obedience in your place — because his Father accepted his payment for your sins — his Father in Heaven is your Father in Heaven. The God to whom you pray. The God who hears and answers your prayers. So, like my daughter, go ahead and just open the door and say “Hi Dad” as you pray to him. Let’s pray.
Hi Dad, our prayer today is pretty simple. May your name be kept holy throughout all of your creation — especially in our lives and lips. May your kingdom come. Give us what we need and forgive us for our sins — especially when we confuse our greeds with our needs. Help us to forgive others as you’ve forgiven us. And lead us away from temptation. That’s all for now. Talk to you soon. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
As you go, may you remember what to pray, how to pray, and why we pray to our Father in Heaven. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
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