Friend at Midnight - Luke 11:5-8

what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? 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?

This unit begins with Jesus teaching us to call God Father when we pray, and ends strongly on the same note, talking about approaching God as Father. The parable of the friend at midnight only serves to support this theme. The main point that I want to draw from this passage is this. In the context of prayer and making requests, our Heavenly Father is better than any human friend or human father because he always deals with us relationally. Again, our Heavenly Father is better than any human friend or human father because he always deals with us relationally. To say the same thing again, but from another angle, and it might highlight what I mean by relationally here, While mere duty will without doubt bring about the desired response from a friend or a father, when you ask, you will receive. God's response to our prayers 100% of the time goes beyond mere duty and is fueled by his affection for us as our father. As we will see, this should encourage us to pray boldly, confidently and joyfully. In the next few minutes, we will look first at the text and try to understand its flow of thought. Second, we will consider its main point. And then third, we will discuss some applications and finally conclude. In verses five to seven, Jesus poses a situation with a little bit of tension in it. And he asks us a question about that scene. One man has a traveling friend who comes to his house from a journey and arrives in the middle of the night. The man hosting the traveler is then expected to give his traveling friend some food, but he doesn't have any. So what does he do? He goes to the house of one of his friends in the middle of the night, knocks on the door, explains the situation, and asks for bread from his friend. Two types of outcomes are possible. Either that friend will give him the bread, or he won't. But listen to the wording and consider whether the possibility of him not giving his friend bread is a likely outcome. Jesus says, which of you has a friend who, if he went to him at midnight and said to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him, would then 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. Essentially, Jesus is saying, which of you has a friend who would do such a thing? No one, of course. We assume then that in such a situation, a friend would get up in the middle of the night and give you the bread that you asked for. In verse 8, Jesus presents us with the second and assumed outcome that the friend inside will in fact get up and give him as much bread as he needs. In so doing, there are two possible ways he can do this. Either he'll give cheerfully as a friend or begrudgingly out of mere duty. Jesus says, I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything because he's his friend, yet at least because of his nerve, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. Let's now consider the main point of the parable. You see, human beings are all riddled with mixed motives. It is the responsibility of this friend to get up and give his other friend bread. Similarly, it is a father's responsibility to give his son bread when he asks for it, usually. The reality is, though, that for us humans, in fulfilling our responsibilities, the degree of cheerfulness that we do it with waxes and wanes. Sometimes we may be a cheerful giver. Other times we may be just a giver. And yet other times we may be a somewhat cheerful giver. God, however, is better than any human being. He is consistent, dependable, and perfect. In verses 11 to 13, Jesus reasons that if a father knows how to give good gifts to his children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? The same reasoning applies here too. If you can have confidence that when you ask a friend for something you need, you will receive it, How much greater confidence should you have in coming to God for your needs? This is all well and good, but let's stop and think for a second about why we have this confidence. Is it just because God is God and he's better than us? So if humans can do it, God can do it better? Is that why? Or maybe it's because God is all powerful, and so sometimes us humans, we can't meet someone else's needs, but God can. Well, even if some of these things are true, the real life behind the confidence that we have in approaching God and knowing that he will answer is his perfect fatherly love. Yes, if humans can do it, then certainly God can do it better, but he does it better because he is the ideal, perfect father and we are his children. Well, how does our heavenly father love us, his children? Much could be said on this point, but I would like to bring to our attention one thing. God is our Father because Jesus died for us and we are united to Jesus. We are sons of God because we are united to the Son of God. John 17, 26 points out that God the Father loves us with the very same love with which he loves Jesus. There is not one kind of love that God has for the divine Son of God and another kind that he has for us. Instead, we are united to Christ and brought into the same loving relationship that he has with the Father. Suffice it to say that unlike human fathers or human friends, the Father's love for the Son is perfect and never waxes or wanes in its perfection. The confidence that the divine son of God can have in praying to his father is the same confidence that we can have too in praying to our father. Commenting on prayer in general, one theologian stated,

since Christ has died and God is our father, we can come to God believing that he is willing to give freely to meet all our needs.

This is what I believe is the foundation of all Christian prayer. So we turn now to application and the friend at midnight had confidence that his request would be heard and granted, but was unable to assume that his friend had a willing heart. We have greater confidence in coming to our heavenly father because we, because we know he never falters in his love for us. He never lapses into mere duty or cold, unengaged provision provision for his children. A few ways then to pray, or to not pray, in regards to just relating to our, because we are sons of God, there are a few ways that we can reconsider how to pray. One is that, We don't pray on the basis of a desire to build favor with God. We do not receive merit because we pray more. Instead, we pray seeking to relate to God, but as a father. Secondly, in order to pray relationally, we must banish all thought that our prayers, actually this is the same point that I just said, that our prayers merit any favor with God. And then in light of that, do not let sin keep you from prayer and coming to God. And some ways to pray, relational prayer reminds us of our relationship with God. When we pray to God as sons and daughters, we remind ourselves who we are in Christ. And so we can, yeah, so that pray also with God. with the promise from this text in mind. The promise stated is that, ask and you will receive. We know we, yeah, ask and you will receive. That comes in verse nine and in reflection on the parable. And then because God is our Father, he is eager to lavish gifts upon us. He is not unable, and I think he desires us to come boldly asking for our needs. So we needn't be We needn't just simply ask for a beggar's soup when we really can come to a God who can provide fully for our needs. To restate the main point, our Heavenly Father is better than any human friend or human father because He always deals with us relationally. That is, He is our Father and we are His children. So we are given a confidence to come to Him. So The Luke 11 ends, that section 1 to 13 ends with talking about how the human... If human fathers know how to give good gifts, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit? And a reflection here is just simply that it is the Holy Spirit who cries out in our hearts, Abba, Father. And that is the kind of prayer that we should desire. So let us never forget that we are sons of God in Christ, and let our prayer be colored by this relationship, and that is the encouragement. Let's pray. Father, we come to you. We just thank you that you have adopted us in Christ. We just thank you for the sweet love that you have for us. If it were not for your love for us, Lord, the the confidence that we could have to come to you would be, would not be the same. Lord, we just thank you for just, yeah, how we, yeah, we thank you, Lord, that we, that we, are not, we don't come to you on the basis of anything we have done, Lord, but that we come to you on the basis of your love. We thank you in your name we pray, amen.