'Persistent Prayer' SERMON NOTES

INTRODUCTION:
Augustine and Monica. She prayed for her violent abusive and adulterous husband’s conversion for 30 years. He eventually converted and died shortly thereafter. She prayed for her son for 17 years. When Augustine left North Africa to go to Italy, she followed him to Rome and then to Milan. Augustine was baptized by Ambrose at Milan during Eastertide, A.D. 387. A short time later his mother, Monica, died at Ostia, Italy on the journey back to Africa native of North Africa, Monica (AD 333-387).

“And now thou didst “stretch forth thy hand from above” and didst draw up my soul out of that profound darkness [of Manicheism] because my mother, thy faithful one, wept to thee on my behalf more than mothers are accustomed to weep for the bodily deaths of their children. For by the light of the faith and spirit which she received from thee, she saw that I was dead. And thou didst hear her, O Lord, thou didst hear her and despised not her tears when, pouring down, they watered the earth under her eyes in every place where she prayed. Thou didst truly hear her." -Augustine, Confessions

"...she wept and mourned and saw in her agony the inheritance of Eve--seeking in sorrow what she had brought forth in sorrow. And yet, after accusing me of perfidy and cruelty, she still continued her intercessions for me to thee." -Augustine, Confessions 

 

LUKE 18:1-8
Background: The topic of Luke 17:22-37 is God’s justice and vindication. Luke 11:5–13 are SIMILAR: the Syro-Phoenician woman, Jacob wrestling, etc. Wicked judge is contra Exodus 23:6–9.

I.                    THE OUGHT OF PRAYER

1. Disciples Ought To Always Pray (18:1)

Veit Dietrich, Luther’s friend – reported he prayed 3 hrs a day: “I cannot sufficiently admire the singular steadfastness, the happy attitude, the faith and hope of this man in serious times” (Kosten notes he averaged 2 hrs a day). Jesus spent time praying: 3:21; 6:12; 9:28

2. Disciples Ought To Not Lose Heart (18:1)

We must discipline ourselves to persist in prayer even if “we must repeat the same supplications not twice or three times only, but as often as we need, a hundred and a thousand times” – John Calvin

See Romans 15:30 and Colossians 4:1

3. Disciples Ought To Cry To God Day And Night (18:7)

“Prayer is the cry for the kingdom. It is the request that the future reign of God break into the situations we face at the present.” –Stanley J. Grenz Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom

"For thy hands, O my God, in the hidden design of thy providence did not desert my soul; and out of the blood of my mother’s heart, through the tears that she poured out by day and by night, there was a sacrifice offered to thee for me, and by marvelous ways thou didst deal with me." -Augustine, Confessions

“fountain of my mother’s eyes, from which she had daily watered the ground for me as she prayed to thee,” -Augustine, Confessions

II.                  THE OBJECT OF PRAYER

1. The God Who Elects (18:7)

Disavows all self-sufficiency and personal merit or trust. Eklekton- chosen.

“…my conversion when God turned me to that faith which I was laying waste with a very wretched and wild verbal assault, do you not remember how the narration shows that I was given as a gift to the faithful and daily tears of my mother, who had been promised that I should not perish? I certainly declared there that God by his grace turns men’s wills to the true faith when they are not only averse to it, but actually adverse.” - Augustine, De Dono Perseverantiae, XX, 53 (A.D. 428)

2. The God Who Hears (18:7)

-deeper intimacy with God

“We do not persist in prayer because God does not listen but just because he does–Philip Ryken

-God is just (Genesis 18:25), God is loving (1 John 4:10), God is wise (his timing, 2 Peter 3:9-10)

3. The God Who Returns (18:8)

See Luke 17:22  Speedily in v.8 could be more like unexpectedly.

III.                THE OPPOSITION TO PRAYER

1. Lack of Justice (18:3)

-this judge is unjust and temporal (a judge of this age only). see Revelation 6:10 – persecuted church.

2. Lack of Response (18:4)

We pray for the sick but they are not healed.
We pray for God to provide but yet we still lack.
We pray for someone’s salvation but they still won’t turn to the Lord.
We pray for a spouse but yet we are still alone.
We may ask: what’s the point? Is God listening?

-Instills patience and helps us ask are we serious about this? Is it a serious need?
-more gratitude when the answer comes

“Persistence often does provide a time of waiting during which we can evaluate our motives and obtain the counsel of others. But we persist in prayer primarily as an expression of our complete dependency on God for all aspects of our existence. … Persistence flows from the certainty of our creaturely helplessness and the logical conviction that God alone can help.” – W. Bingham Hunter, The God Who Hears.

3. Lack of Faith (18:8)

Augustine said, “when faith fails, prayer dies”.

To pray is “the hardest work of all … since he who prays must wage a mighty warfare against the doubt and murmuring excited by the faintheartedness … we feel within us” – Martin Luther

“Prayer rightly begun springs from faith, and faith, from hearing God’s Word” - Inst 3.20.27 Calvin

CONCLUSION: The Connection Between Prayer and Revival

NYC Fulton Street Church 1857. Jeremiah Lanphier no one arrived for the first half hour on Sep. 23, 1857. Then 6. Then 20, then 30. By Nov. 5, 1857 the New York Observer took note! (200). Then 10,000 daily praying (Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh, major cities in Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Chicago, Virginia, Georgia, Tennese, Texas) Colleges all over, including Berkeley, CA).  Penitent owners made Saloons and gambling halls available for the prayer meetings. In Philly, one of the leaders was Tyng, who died. George Duffield (Temple Pres Church) delivered a poetic tribute at the funeral based on Tyng’s dying words –  became the YMCA’s motto – “stand up for Jesus”.

Results? Denominational unity, lots of books sold (Spurgeon) and many conversions due to increased prayer for conversions, more evangelism and increased missions. Some linked it to abolition. Between 1856-1859 protestant denominations added 474,000 members. US pop at time was 30 million. 2 Irish Presbyterian pastors visited in 1858 and then in Ireland in 1859 saw 100,000 converts. 

DL Moody, facing death in 1899 said “I would like before I go hence, to see the whole Church of Christ quickened as it was in 1857, and a wave going from Maine to California that will sweep thousands into the kingdom of God”. Harvard historian Perry Miller called it the event of the century, and J. Edwin Orr used this as the title of his book.