Luke 10:38-11:13 "Seek and You Will Find" What does it mean to "seek" the Lord? When Jesus says seek, and you will find, what does he mean? Ask, and it will be given to you! The health and wealth gospel tells us to "name it and claim it" James warns us you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:3) What does it mean to "ask" to "seek" and to "knock"? In 2 Chronicles 15 we are told what it means to seek the LORD. The kingdom of Israel had divided just a generation before during the reign of Asa's grandfather, Rehoboam. The division of Israel was a sign of God's displeasure a sign of judgment upon the church. And so God sent word to King Asa through Azariah the son of Oded, who said to the king: If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. Azariah the prophet reminded King Asa that in the time of the judges, when Israel turned to the LORD, and sought him, he was found by them. (2 Chron 15:2) So Asa and all the people of Judah sought the LORD, and swore an oath to seek the LORD. And [we are told] all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around. (2 Chron 15:15) This gives us a little different perspective on what Jesus means by, "seek and you will find"! "Seek and you will find" is another way of saying, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [all the day-to-day matters of life] will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33) Because the real question is, what are you seeking? What are you looking for? Are you looking for peace? Are you overwhelmed by the demands on your life? Are you trying desperately to keep up with the rat-race, but you find yourself just looking for that little bit of peace and quiet just around the corner that never quite comes...? Or are you looking for respect? No one notices you. You want people to realize that you are important! But you're always overlooked no one pays attention to your contributions... Or are you looking for a little help? 1. Seeking One Thing (10:38-42) Martha was a good Jewish woman. She welcomed Jesus into her house and busily worked at getting ready for a big supper. Some of you ladies may recognize yourself in Martha! You like things to look nice and neat, and you want your guests to be comfortable and well-fed. And in Jewish culture the women were the ones who were to prepare everything, while the men sat and talked. But Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened to his teaching. Martha had no time for instruction, she had a house to get ready, and dinner to prepare the servants to organize, and she was distracted with much serving. She had no time for listening to Jesus! So she came to Jesus and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. Yes, this is saying that listening to Jesus is more important than all your household work. But it is saying more than that! Listen to Jesus: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. You must hear this in its cultural context! Women did not sit at the Rabbis feet and listen to their teaching. Women were supposed to be doing what Martha was doing! Jesus is saying that men and women alike are to be his disciples, learning from him and listening to him. Sisters, are you listening to Jesus? Are you devoted to that one thing? Or, are you anxious and troubled about many things? 2. Praying for One Thing (11:1-4) Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place . . . As we have seen, Luke frequently mentions how important prayer was to the ministry of Jesus. If our Lord needed to pray regularly in a quiet place, how much more is this needful for us! And when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples' Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer is considerably shorter than Matthew's. Matthew includes the Lord's Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, (towards the beginning of Jesus' ministry) while Luke puts it on the road to Jerusalem (towards the end of Jesus' ministry). You have to remember that the gospels are not biographies. And, for that matter, even biographies rarely tell the whole story in chronological order. There is frequently thematic ordering in biographies how much more should we expect thematic ordering in a gospel account, which is setting forth the "good news" of what Jesus has done. After all, according to John's gospel, Jesus went to Jerusalem numerous times during his ministry, so all of these episodes on the road to Jerusalem in Luke 9-19 may well be spread over several years of travels! Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer fits well into this context. Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. There is a single-minded focus on the coming of the kingdom. In 10:2 Jesus had said to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest, because the kingdom of God has come near (10:11). And when the kingdom of God comes, the result is either life and blessing, or else condemnation and death. Because the coming of the kingdom means the coming of the king the one who judges the living and the dead. Jesus says that the one thing that we are to pray for is the coming of the kingdom. The subsequent three petitions all follow from the coming of the kingdom. If the kingdom is coming, then give us each day our daily bread. The focus here is that we have enough bread for today. And notice that in all three petitions, the prayer is not just for me. It is for us. "Give us each day our daily bread." "Forgive us our sins" "Lead us not into temptation" This is the kingdom prayer of the church. And if the kingdom is coming, then forgive us our sins! Why do you pray for the forgiveness of sins? Because the kingdom is coming! The coming of the kingdom means the coming of the king. And when the king comes, he renders judgment. We pray for the forgiveness of sins because we recognize that if the King judged us as we deserved, he would find us guilty. And so we pray forgive us our sins. But notice the rest of that petition: for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Did you see how that works? Remember that this is the prayer of the Christian. It is not how to become a Christian. But the Christian says "God, please forgive me. I have forgiven those who sinned against me, but I recognize that I have sinned against you! But if you will not forgive others, then God will not forgive you. After all, just who do you think you are! You have sinned against God against your Creator! The one who made you for himself that you might be his! And he offers you forgiveness. Indeed, he sent his only Son to die for your sins, so that he could forgive you! And then you refuse to forgive one of your fellow creatures? I know that someone out there is thinking but Pastor, you don't know what that person did to me! Did they humiliate and abuse you? Jesus will say from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" Yes, it is hard to forgive. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that from our vantage point it is impossible to forgive. But with God all things are possible. And he calls you to do the impossible and forgive one another as God has forgiven you! Because only then can you pray, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And we pray this together every Lord's Day. We pray that God would forgive us both individually and collectively. Because we, as a church, have sinned against God. As a body we have failed to love him and love our neighbor. And so we also pray, lead us not into temptation. Have mercy on us, O Lord. Because we are frail. And too easily we fall into temptation. We need God's grace and mercy to deliver us in temptation's hour. 3. The Father's One Good Gift (11:5-13) Verses 5-13 then continue Jesus' teaching on prayer. Jesus urged Martha to seek the one thing the good portion his teaching! And now as he teaches his disciples to pray, he explains how to seek that one thing. And he starts off with an example: If your friend came at midnight and said "friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him" what would you say? 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. (In those days everyone slept in the same bed I've had that experience once or twice!) Jesus says that your friendship would not be what got you out of bed! It would be his impudence (or persistence, to put it nicely!). If the guy keeps banging on the door, I won't get any sleep. I'll give him the bread to shut him up! And, Jesus says, that is what is God is like! Hmmm. Jesus is saying that God will not give you what you ask for because you are his friend, but because you keep bothering him and won't give him any rest! It's not that God loves you it's that God is fed up with your banging on the door and so he'll give you what you want in order to make you go away! Well, it got your attention, didn't it?! And if Jesus stopped there, we should be somewhat troubled at this picture! But he doesn't stop. He says, 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. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. If you stop here, then you might think that Jesus is friendly to the "name it and claim it" approach to prayer. But what is the "it"? What will be given to you? What will you find? What will be opened? Because Jesus has just gotten finished telling the three who wanted to follow him, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. (9:58) He has just told the 72 carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals... (10:4) So it is highly unlikely that Jesus is now suddenly talking about gaining wealth and stuff! What is the "it"? In order to understand this passage (like the whole Bible) you have to read it in the light of the end. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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 is the "it" that will be given to those who ask? The Holy Spirit. What is the "it" that will be found by those who seek? The Holy Spirit. What is the "it" that will be opened to those who knock? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God's one good gift to the church. Because when you get the Holy Spirit, you get everything that belongs to Jesus. It is here that we see that the "one thing" that Mary chose is the same thing that we get. That one thing is Jesus. Another way of saying it is that the one thing is the kingdom of God. Or the one thing is the Holy Spirit. But Jesus, the kingdom, and the Holy Spirit are not three different things. Because the coming of the kingdom is the coming of the king! And the coming of King Jesus is the coming of the Spirit-anointed Messiah. Indeed, the coming of the king is the coming of the Spirit because the Spirit is the presence of King Jesus with his people! So now we can see that Jesus is not saying that God will answer prayers simply because we're annoying! Rather, Jesus is saying that if you do the right thing even though you are sinners, then how much more will God do the right thing! Are you a perfect parent? Do you have all the answers? But can you figure out the difference between an egg and a scorpion? And which one is better for your kid? If you can figure that out, in spite of the fact that you are a dunderhead, don't you think that God is able to do what is best for us? Conclusion: One Thing But this does not minimize Jesus' point about persistence. The heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. And his sense of timing is not like ours! We want everything yesterday tomorrow at the latest. But Jesus says, keep asking. You might say, but the Holy Spirit has already been given! Why should we pray for something that we already have?! A friend of mine once asked me "If God has forgiven all of our sins in Christ, why do we have a prayer of confession every week?" Why should we have to ask God to forgive our sins, when they are already forgiven in Christ? Why should we pray for something that we already have? Think about Paul's prayers for the church: he prays for the Ephesians that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him (1:17) and again, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being... (3:16) And for the Colossians he prays that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding... (1:9) The fact that the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the church upon you does not mean that you do not need God to give you his Spirit; any more than the fact that God has forgiven all your sins in Christ Jesus means that you don't need the forgiveness of your sins anymore! Marriage is a decent example: on your wedding day you promised to love your wife for the rest of your life so why bother telling her that you love her?! You've already said it! Yes, God has given you the Holy Spirit. You already have all that belongs to Jesus. But you still need all that belongs to Jesus! You still need your sins to be forgiven. You still need the gift of the Holy Spirit. The problem with the Pentecostal view is not that they believe in a second blessing. The problem is that they seem to think that a second blessing is all you can get! We need to be filled with God's Spirit every day! We need the gift of the Holy Spirit every hour! And so we need to be persistent in prayer seeking that one thing that God has promised to those who ask.