Well, it really is great to be with you. Thank you for the warm welcome. And thank you very much for your prayers for us in Chester. We really do appreciate you praying for us.
We're looking at this passage that Paul read for us in Luke chapter 18. And do turn back there if you've got a Bible with you, Luke 18, and the Church Bibles, that's page 877.
I don't know whether you might follow professional boxing at all. It's an interesting time in professional boxing in the heavyweight division. There's the American fighter Deontay Wilder, who's got an incredible right hook, right punch.
There's Tyson Fury, who I'm sure you've heard of, even if you're not interested in boxing. And no matter what your assessment of him, everybody agrees he's an incredibly talented boxer.
And then you've got Anthony Joshua, who won gold at the Olympics in 2012 before he became professional. Everybody loves Anthony Joshua.
But a couple of years ago, he was fighting what everybody thought was going to be a fairly routine fight. There was no big hype before it. It wasn't a big box office fight.
He was fighting a Mexican boxer called Andy Ruiz Jr. And everybody thought Joshua would win. It wasn't really any question about it before the fight, but he went on to lose.
And with it, he lost his undefeated records. And it was interesting reading and listening to the pundits and the analysts as they wrote and spoke about the fight after it had happened and gave their reasons why Joshua might have lost this fight.
There were some people who were saying, well, something must have gone wrong in Joshua's camp in the week before the fight.
There were some reports that he'd been knocked out in training, so he wasn't really fit for the fight.
There were some people who had always doubted Joshua's boxing ability, and they were using the opportunity to say, we told you so.
Joshua really isn't that great of a boxer.
But there were some people who were analyzing the last round before the fight ended.
And they were watching Joshua.
And he wasn't knocked out.
The ref didn't have to step in and stop the fight.
He just walked back to his corner quietly, and his corner threw the towel in.
And people were analyzing this, and they were saying, it seems like Joshua just gave up.
He didn't have the stomach for it.
Well, we don't know for Joshua whether the issue really was that he gave up.
But we're looking at a parable this morning in Luke 18, in which giving up very much is the issue.
Luke tells us that in verse 1.
It says, and Jesus told them, that's the disciples, a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart, not give up.
And so here is a parable Jesus told for his disciples, not for the Pharisees, not for onlookers.
It's for the disciples, and its purpose is to encourage the disciples not to give up.
Luke tells us that explicitly in verse 1, but we also see it in the parable itself.
This parable, it's become known in the parable as the parable of the persistent widow.
Jesus describes in this parable a widow who does not give up in her petition for justice.
So here is a parable designed by Jesus to encourage Christians, his followers, not to give up.
Now, before we get into the detail of the text, it's worth, at this point, just pausing to acknowledge
that Jesus here knows that his followers will, at times, feel like quietly walking back to their corner
and throwing the towel in.
Why else would he carefully design a parable that would have the effect of encouraging his followers
not to give up?
In fact, the temptation to give up is acknowledged to be a very real temptation for Jesus' followers
all the way through the New Testament.
Twice in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says that because of the great hope that we have in the gospel
and because of the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.
Why would he write that unless there is a very real temptation, a very real danger that we might
lose heart?
Lose heart.
He writes, Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 13.
So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
Hebrews 12, 3 says,
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
And so again and again, the writers of the New Testament refuse to hide the fact that as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we will at times feel like losing heart.
Giving up.
Some of you don't need much convincing of that this morning.
You've been there.
You've wanted to give up.
You've weighed it all up.
You've wondered whether it's all worth it.
But here in this parable in Luke 18, as Jesus acknowledges this reality,
he doesn't respond in a number of ways that he might have responded in.
He doesn't respond, for instance, with a heavy hand.
He doesn't say to his disciples,
If you find yourselves at a time and you want to give up,
then you've failed me.
And I don't want to know about it.
He doesn't respond with indifference.
He doesn't shrug his shoulders and say something like,
If you feel like giving up, then what's it got to do with me?
I've done my part of the deal.
No.
He knows that his disciples are going to find themselves at times where they want to give up,
and it matters.
It matters so much to him
that he wants to equip his disciples with the resources to persevere
and to overcome the temptation to give up.
He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray
and not lose heart.
And so the main point of this parable, then, is to answer the question,
What will keep us from giving up?
But before it answers that question, it answers two other questions.
Firstly, what does it mean to give up?
And secondly, what might cause us to want to give up?
So first of all, what does it mean to give up?
Well, there are two things in the text that help us to answer this question.
The first is in the context of this parable.
Immediately before Jesus tells this parable to his disciples,
Luke gives us a record of something else Jesus told his disciples.
The subject there is Jesus' return.
And so look down at chapter 17, if you've got a Bible open, verse 22.
And he said to the disciples,
The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man,
and you will not see it.
And they will say to you,
Look there, or look here.
Do not go out or follow them.
For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
So Jesus is talking there about the day of the Son of Man.
The Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, he says.
And this day that he's referring to isn't the day of his crucifixion,
because he goes on to say,
But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
And when he says that, it's clear there that he's talking about his crucifixion.
And that is something which is going to happen before this day of the Son of Man that he's talking about.
And so the day that he's referring to is the day of his return.
The day we sometimes refer to as the second coming.
Which this world is still waiting for.
The rest of chapter 17 makes it clear that he's talking about his return.
And then in the last line of this parable that we read,
this passage in Luke 18 in verse 8,
He says,
However, when the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on earth?
As Jesus' followers, we live out our short lives
in between Jesus' two great comings.
On the one hand, his incarnation, his becoming man,
his death, his resurrection, his ascension.
On the other hand, his promised glorious return.
And so we live in light of his first coming
and we live in anticipation of his second coming.
And Jesus is acknowledging here that in between,
as we live out our lives,
there are going to be times where we want to give up.
And so we see how the context helps us to answer this question.
What does it mean to give up?
When Luke writes that Jesus told this parable
so that his disciples might not lose heart,
he's not referring to Jesus' disciples
losing heart in their efforts towards certain tasks
or certain endeavors.
He's not saying that Jesus told this parable
so that Christians might always keep their word
and follow through on their resolutions
and not lose heart with them.
As good a thing as that might be.
Now the context helps us to see
Jesus told this parable
so that his disciples might not lose heart
on a bigger scale.
So that they might not give up before Jesus returns.
So that they might not stop trusting in him.
So that when he returns,
he might find faith on earth.
That's the context.
The second thing that helps us understand
what it means to give up
is found in what Luke writes in verse 1.
Luke tells us that Jesus wanted his parable
to have this effect on his disciples,
that they ought always to pray
and not lose heart.
And do you see how closely there
losing heart is connected with prayer?
That's interesting.
And what Luke is doing here in his explanation,
what Jesus does in his parable,
which he implies in his parable,
is that prayer and not losing heart
go hand in hand.
They belong together.
Prayer and not giving up
are two sides of the same coin.
One can't exist without the other.
To pray is to not give up.
To give up
is to stop praying.
That means that according to the teaching of the Bible,
to give up as a Christian
is not firstly
to backslide into some huge moral failure.
To give up as a Christian
is not fundamentally
to stop attending church
and to start cutting out
all your Christian friends
from your life.
To give up as a Christian
is to stop praying.
He told them a parable
to the effect that they ought always to pray
and not lose heart.
Is that how you view
what it is to give up
as a Christian?
When you hear
of a professing Christian
making a mess of their life,
do you look
at their moral failures
and think to yourself,
well, it's clear
that that person
has given up on their faith.
And when a friend
who professes to be a Christian
starts to pull away from church
to cut out their Christian friends
from their life,
do you look at their withdrawal
and think to yourself,
well, it's clear
that that person
has given up on their faith.
Well, in a sense,
that might be true,
but what brought them
to that point,
what caused them
to walk away,
seemingly,
from the faith they professed,
one answer the Bible gives
is that they stopped praying.
And that's a sobering thought
for us, isn't it?
It causes us to reflect
on our own praying.
Have I stopped praying?
I mean, I pray
when I come
to the church service.
I pray
when I'm in a desperate situation.
Do I really pray?
And if we're going to know
whether we really pray,
then we need to know
how the Bible
defines real prayer.
And it's interesting,
we didn't read it,
but the very next parable
after the one
we're looking at today,
Luke records
Jesus' teaching
on prayer.
So we can read it
from verse 9.
He also told this parable
to some who trusted
in themselves,
that they were righteous
and treated others
with contempt.
Two men went up
to the temple
to pray,
one a Pharisee
and the other
a tax collector.
The Pharisee,
standing by himself,
prayed thus,
God, I thank you
that I'm not like other men,
extortioners,
unjust, adulterers,
or even like this,
tax collector.
I fast twice a week,
I give tithes
of all that I get,
but the tax collector,
standing far off,
would not even lift
his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast,
saying,
God, be merciful to me,
a sinner.
I tell you,
this man went down
to his house justified
rather than the other,
for everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles
himself will be exalted.
See, the prayer
that Jesus holds up there
as an example
of real prayer
is the prayer
of the tax collector.
God, have mercy on me,
a sinner.
And we can break it down
a little bit.
What do we find
in that prayer?
What we find in that prayer
is a simple expression
of total dependence
on God,
exalting God,
and humbling himself.
And that
is what prayer is.
A prayer is expressing
to God how totally
dependent we are
on him
with God
at the center
of our prayer.
God is the focus
of our prayer,
viewing ourselves
in light of who
he is.
We could say
so much more
about prayer,
but in one sense,
there's no need
to complicate prayer
any more than that.
when the disciples
asked Jesus
to teach them
to pray
in Luke 11,
we've prayed it
already in the service,
but when they asked him
to teach them
to pray,
Jesus didn't enroll them
on a 10-week course
in how to pray.
He simply
instructed them
and he gave them
the Lord's Prayer,
Father,
hallowed be your name,
and so on.
And that was it.
A simple expression
of our dependence
on God
with God
at the center,
viewing ourselves
in light of who
he is.
And so as we come
face to face
this morning
with this sobering
reality
that to stop praying
is to give up
as a Christian,
this is what we're
talking about
when we talk about
prayer.
Do you know,
I think sometimes
we're guilty
of defining real prayer
as something more
than this.
Real prayer,
we think,
is full of
passionate pleas
and heartfelt
cries.
Real prayer
lasts for a long
time.
It's full of
intense experience,
we think.
And perhaps
sometimes
prayer is like
that and that's
a great thing,
but it's not
to say
that simple
daily praying,
even for just
a few minutes,
isn't real
prayer.
God,
have mercy
on me
as sinner.
Father,
hallowed be
your name.
If you're here
this morning
and as you reflect
on this passage,
you wonder
whether you've
stopped praying
really recently,
then don't go
home this afternoon
resolved to get
up tomorrow morning
at 5am
and to spend
an intense hour
in prayer.
Go home this
afternoon resolved
to spend just a few
minutes,
just five minutes
in prayer,
simple prayer,
tomorrow morning,
expressing your
dependence on
God,
calling on
his mercy.
And do the
same tomorrow
evening and
tomorrow morning
and the following
evening.
Keep going,
keep praying,
keep humbly
calling on the
Lord.
So what does it
mean to give up,
to lose heart?
To give up
is to stop
praying before
Christ returns.
Secondly,
what might cause
us to want
to give up?
So stopping
praying and
giving up go
hand in hand,
but what might
cause us to
stop praying?
Well,
the answer
that this
parable gives
is a specific
one.
What causes
Jesus'
followers to
want to give
up is
experiencing a
lack of
justice in
their lives.
Justice is a
prominent theme
in this parable.
Jesus began
in verse 2.
In a certain
city there
was a
judge.
The role of
the judge is
to administer
justice.
In verse 3,
the plea of
the widow who
kept coming to
the judge is
give me
justice
against my
adversary.
When the
widow persists,
the judge says
in verse 5,
because this
widow keeps
bothering me,
I will give
her justice.
What might
have caused
this lady,
this widow,
to give
up?
Experiencing a
lack of
justice,
perhaps for
a long time.
Justice is
at the center
of this
parable.
And justice
is at the
center of
Jesus'
explanation of
the parable
in verses
7 and 8.
Jesus says,
and will
not God
give justice
to his
elect who
cry to
him day
and night?
Will he
delay long
over them?
I tell
you,
he will
give justice
to them
speedily.
Nevertheless,
when the
Son of
Man comes,
will he
find faith
on earth?
What might
cause God's
people to
want to
give up?
A lack
of
justice.
Experiencing
injustice.
Notice again
that Jesus is
assuming something
here.
In the same
way that he
assumed Jesus'
followers would
want to at
times give up,
he also assumes
that his followers
will suffer
injustice
before he
returns.
He doesn't
qualify what
he says in
verse 7 with
an if.
He doesn't
say,
and will
not God
bring about
justice for
his elect
if they
suffer injustice
before the
Son of
Man returns.
No,
he sees it
as a given
that his
followers will
suffer injustice
and that when
his followers
suffer injustice,
they might
well find
themselves wanting
to lose
heart and
give up.
Christians
suffer
injustice all
around the
world today,
don't they?
And some
of it can
feel quite
far removed
from us.
A friend
of mine was
telling me
that some
missionaries
were giving
an update
at a conference
he was at
recently.
These people
were missionaries
in India
to a particular
people group
and they
spoke of how
because of
their work
to this
people group
their wives
had been
abused
and they'd
been imprisoned
without
explanation.
It's
horrific
and it
can leave
us wondering
whether we
here in this
part of the
world suffer
at all for
the cause
of the
gospel.
But it
would be a
mistake for
us to think
that we
don't suffer
at all for
our faith.
There's the
Christian at
work who
because of
his faith
he works
with utter
integrity
and instead
of being
rewarded
he's denied
promotions and
he's stifled
in his
career.
There's the
Christian at
work who
feels unable
to express
her views
on certain
subjects
because of
how it would
ostracize her
from her
colleagues and
seemingly
inevitably have
a detrimental
effect on
her career
too.
There's the
Christian who
has been let
down and
messed around
in relationships
really through
no fault of
their own.
There's the
Christian who
experiences a
distance in
relationships with
family members
and friends
who they
were previously
closest to
because they
no longer
share their
faith.
Then there's
all the
injustices that
come with
life in a
fallen world.
An unbalanced
world in which
the scales are
broken.
Unbearably
ill health.
Inconsolable
loss.
Daily
frustrations
and struggles
that sometimes
mean we just
don't want to
get out of
bed in the
morning.
And all of
these injustices
bring with
them the
power to
cause us to
sigh.
I give up.
What will
those
need a