FamilyLife Today®

Speaker 1

When you understand the bigger pyramid of prayer, so to speak. When he says no, it's because he knows better.

When he says, wait, he's wanting to develop our faith. When he says yes, he's wanting to respond to what our immediate needs are.

And he does all three of those. And to confine him to any one of those answers is to say, I know better than God knows as to what I need.

Speaker 2

Welcome to family life today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Ann Wilson.

Speaker 3

And I'm Dave Wilson. And you can find us@familylife today.com. this is Family life today. All right. Well, I'm excited.

Speaker 2

I'm so excited today.

Speaker 3

Yeah. We've got Dr. Mark Bailey from Dallas Theological Seminary. And Dr. Mark. I mean, you want us to call you Mark?

Speaker 1

Mark is great.

Speaker 3

Okay. You know one of your famous students, Mr. Jim Mitchell.

Speaker 2

Famous student.

Speaker 3

He says he's your most famous student. He's our producer. I hope our listeners and watchers know Jim's name. At least they haven't seen him on camera. We might have to try and get him on camera. But he compares you to the great Howard Hendricks.

Speaker 1

No, don't do that.

Speaker 2

No. He says he enjoyed you even more.

Speaker 1

Well, I would put that on radio.

Speaker 3

Well, it's on there now. And you're here because he would not let us come to Dallas without having you on. So we feel privileged. Seriously, we do.

Speaker 1

It's my privilege.

Speaker 3

We're having fun, but give us a little bit of history. I know you were the president at one time at Dallas seminary. Right. But what all have you done there?

Speaker 1

Well, I came in 1985 to be a professor, to get out of administration, and God had a sense of humor. And so when Chuck became president, he asked me to be the academic dean and then provost. When he stepped away, I didn't want it. I tried to run from it for a year, and then I became the president in 2001 and served for 19 years.

So in 2020, right in the middle of COVID, we passed the baton to my colleague, who I had had as a grader and who we worked up through the system. Mark Yarborough became the president by unanimous vote of the board, and he's doing a great job.

It's just fun to be involved. I serve as chancellor, which means I teach a little bit, write a little bit, and speak when they want me to, but I don't get involved in administration, which is wonderful.

Speaker 2

But probably your greatest claim to fame is how many years have you been married?

Speaker 1

53 to Barbie. Yeah.

Speaker 3

You married the original Barbie?

Speaker 1

No, you said not an IE Y. It's a Y.

Speaker 3

All right. And two kids.

Speaker 1

Two boys. Yeah, two boys. They're our best friends. One is an athletic director, coach, and Bible teacher at a Christian school in Fort Worth, and the other one is the choir and orchestra director at our church in Fort Worth where we attend.

And so we all go to the same church. When they come off the platform from music, we all sit in the same row, teenagers all the way down to age 6, and we have a blast.

Speaker 2

That's a compliment. When all of you are at the same church and you're sitting together, that really says something about you and Barbie.

Speaker 1

Well, we've invested in that. And we eat together at our expense every Sunday. We get that every Sunday when we're in town. And so we tell them we're spending their inheritance. We really are not. But we're having a blast.

And we drive home on Sunday afternoon. Seriously, every time. How blessed we are. And the kids love each other. The cousins want to know if the cousins are coming.

And cousins are best friends. And our daughters-in-law are best friends.

Speaker 3

Wow.

Speaker 2

So sweet.

Speaker 1

We're very, very blessed.

Speaker 3

Very well, we're going to have you teach a little bit today. This is Passion Week. You know as much about that as anybody before you teach a parable, because I know that's one of the areas of emphasis.

Right. You taught parables. Give us real quick, what's your hope and purpose when you teach the word of God?

Speaker 1

Well, I used to have a mission statement that was to help people love God through the sight of his Word. Paul's statement, this came out of a history and it ended up as a slogan at Dallas, which was not my choice.

But to teach truth and love comes out of 1 Timothy 1:5. The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

So the goal of instruction is never instruction. Instruction is always a means to a greater end, which is what Jesus said were the great commandments.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 1

You know, loving God and loving one another. So.

Speaker 2

Well, before you get into that, can I ask.

Speaker 3

Because you've got to get him teaching.

Speaker 2

I know, but you've taught the parables, you've taught Revelation, you've taught the Gospels. Like what's been your favorite?

Speaker 1

Whatever I'm teaching at the moment. Really? Yeah.

And being in the Bible department, we go from Genesis to Revelation. So if you get assigned a section, it could be Genesis to Judges, it can be, you know, the gospels. It can be post-exilic and gospels, whatever.

But we take what they give us and run with it. Mostly, they let us specialize.

Speaker 3

So now you were able to pick any parable you wanted. We said just pick one. Why this one?

Speaker 1

Actually, I got assigned these two.

Speaker 3

Oh, you did?

Speaker 1

I did.

Speaker 3

That's your famous student, Jim Mitchell.

Speaker 2

This must have been his favorite.

Speaker 1

Credit him or blame him? One of the two.

Speaker 3

Well, we should ask Jim why he picked this one. Well, jump in. Luke 11.

Speaker 1

You bet.

Speaker 3

What are we going to study?

Speaker 1

When I'm in Israel with a group of people on the boat, you know, in the Sea of Galilee, I love to set them up with. If you want to know the power of God, watch Jesus in the miracles. If you want to know the love of God, watch Jesus in his interpersonal relationships. If you want to know the will of God, pay attention to Jesus' discourses. But if you want to know the wisdom of God, watch Jesus in the parables.

Because the parables are wisdom literature. They're designed to invite you into a world of its own. A narrative, a fictitious narrative, a story that Jesus tells true to life, but designed to turn your world upside down and say, this is what you may think about what's going on in the world, but this is really what's going on in the world.

And so to be invited into the world of a parable, and often he surprises us, as he will in this parable, to see life from God's perspective. And so I love to see that scenario from the life of Christ. Parables have become one of my favorite genres.

Speaker 2

Those that are listening on YouTube or a podcast, they just paused it so they can write all of that down. Yeah, go back and listen to it all the W's. I know, I'm sitting here already crying like, this is why God's word is so great.

Speaker 1

It is.

Speaker 3

It's wonderful.

Speaker 2

It is.

Speaker 1

It's wonderful. Yeah.

Speaker 3

All right, jump us in.

Speaker 1

Well, the parable of the Friend at Midnight is the parable in Luke chapter 11. It is preceded and situated within the context of what is called the Lukan travelogue or the Lucan central section, which spans from Luke 9:51 through 19:27, as most scholars would agree. This section begins with the statement that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, knowing that the time for his departure and ascension had come. Therefore, when reading Luke 9 to 19, it is essential to consider the impending ascension. This portion of scripture is rich with discipleship material, as it prepares the disciples for Jesus' departure, especially since Israel has already rejected their Messiah. Notably, Luke 9 to 19 contains material that is largely unique to Luke.

Luke 11 fits within this framework. If we examine this passage, we notice that Luke records it using a significant inverted parallelism. This parable is parallel to the one found in chapter 18, where Jesus tells a parable to encourage them to always pray and not lose heart. While these are twin parables, they emphasize slightly different points. The parable of the Friend at Midnight follows the model prayer from Luke's perspective. The disciples, having observed Jesus pray and also having seen John pray, tenderly ask, "Lord, would you teach us to pray?" This request reflects their desire to learn from the models they have witnessed.

In response, Jesus provides them with the model prayer. He then introduces a question, which is framed negatively. To analyze a parable effectively, I like to consider several key elements: the setting, the problem or question being addressed, the narrative, the central truth, and the applications. Let me walk through these five steps quickly.

The setting, as previously mentioned, is situated within the broader context of Luke 9:51-19:27, while the immediate context follows the model prayer. This leads us to the parable of the Friend at Midnight. It is crucial to understand not only the literary context but also the cultural context, as this parable reflects the customs of its time. In the story, a friend arrives at midnight because he has a visitor, but he finds himself without bread to offer. Consequently, he goes to a neighbor's house and knocks on the door. The neighbor responds, saying, "I can't come. I'm in bed with my children, and the door is closed. I'm not coming."

As we read this, we encounter the rhetorical question posed in verse 5 of Luke 11: "Which of you, having a friend, will go to him at midnight and say 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?'" The neighbor answers from within, "Don't bother me. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything." This rhetorical question is designed to elicit a negative response, suggesting that this is not how one would typically behave. The implication is clear: you wouldn't act this way, would you?

Speaker 2

Especially in that culture in that time.

Speaker 1

Exactly. Because a couple of things there. Bread was a daily issue. You didn't store it. And you find that even in the prayer, "give us this day our daily bread." So bread was baked every day, and he's at midnight, so he has no bread left over. In that culture of the ancient era, hospitality was everything. To be caught off guard and not have provisions when somebody visited you would be a cultural shame. So he's desperate, and he goes to his friend's house and knocks.

Now, if it was a stranger, you would never say what this guy in the bed said. But if it's a friend, you would, you know, and he calls you up and says, "Hey, can you help me get out of here? I'm not coming tonight." The houses of those times had about two-thirds of a courtyard that was open. Then the back third of the house was on an elevated plain, and that's where they slept. They usually put a dad on one end, the mom on the other end, and all the kids in between.

I like the analogy. If you go camping and you've got a bunch of kids and you're in the tent, and at 2 in the morning, the little one says, "I need to go," what a hassle it is to get out of that tent without disturbing people. So I think you have a similar kind of situation here.

But Jesus asked the question, and the question is, is this the way it would work? In essence, the answer is no, this isn't the way it would normally work. Would you have a friend that would go, and would this happen? It expects a negative answer.

Speaker 2

And because the listeners are saying, no, we would never do that.

Speaker 1

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that's the question. The answer is given in verse eight.

I tell you, though, he will not get up and give him anything because he's a friend. In other words, friendship is not enough to get out of bed and give somebody three pieces of bread, especially when.

Speaker 3

They can call Doordash. I mean, come on.

Speaker 1

That's right. Yeah, but because of his. My translation has impudence. He will rise and give him whatever he needs.

Now, that's the setup. That's the question. Is this the way it would happen? And the answer is, I tell you no. This is why. In other words, would he give him bread because he's a friend? The answer is no, that's not.

But because of his impudence, that word is only found once in all the New Testament. And it's right here. A lot of ink has been spilled over it because of it, because it's normally a very negative term. It means shameless, shamelessness.

Speaker 2

And this is the only time it's ever used in.

Speaker 1

It's the only time it's used in the whole New Testament.

Speaker 2

I didn't know that.

Speaker 1

And every occurrence outside the New Testament, it's a bad thing. And it's because of his rudeness, his audacity. In other words, he wouldn't answer him because he's a friend, but because of his persistent audacity, he'll give up and give him what he needs.

And so that sets you then up for the narrative is that question, answer. And so it's an extended question. Then it finishes with that answer in eight. So then the question comes, what's the central analogy parables can teach in the shape of an H? This is to this, as this is to this, especially with reference to this.

Like the sower sowing seed in the soil is parallel to the Son of Man sowing, you know, his word of the kingdom. And receptivity determines productivity in that parable. So then comes the question, well, why does Jesus tell this weird story?

Speaker 3

Great question. Because I'm. I mean, you're confused at this point.

Speaker 1

And so the issue is, does it mean audacity, or is he meaning persistence? The scholars are divided. I don't think you have to make a case for one or the other. I think it is audacious persistence because of the context that follows. The context that follows is: ask, and you'll receive; seek, and you'll find; knock, and it'll be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who knocks. It's that section of assurance that when you pray, God will answer.

I don't think you have to make a decision, but what you do have in here is what follows. That's the invitation in verse 9 and 10. I tell you, ask, and it'll be given to you; seek, and you'll find; knock, and it'll be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it'll be opened. Then he asks a rhetorical question, which we call a light-heavy question: how much more? He says this: what father among you, if he asks his son for a fish, instead will give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? The answer is, nobody like that, right? No earthly father would treat his earthly kids that way.

Well, then look at verse 13. If you then, who are evil—God knows our basic nature, you know? In other words, you're human. You have an old nature. If you know as a person who struggles with having an old nature and being sinful how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Now, there are a couple of key things here. One is the rhetorical questions, but the other is the stated comparison. In literature, it's called a kalwah homer, a Hebrew term which means "how much more." So when you come back and ask the question, what's that central point of the analogy? He's setting you up. I think it could be stated like this: because God is a loving father and desires to meet the needs of his children, the believer may be confident and audaciously persistent in prayer, knowing that our Father will give us exactly what we need.

So, unlike a resistant neighbor who is bothered by persistent audacity, the Father welcomes audacious persistence. In fact, he commands it: ask, seek, knock, keep coming, keep coming, keep coming—all present tenses. He knows what our biggest need is. In the context prior to Pentecost, the biggest need they had was for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus is talking earlier in John's Gospel, or in John chapter seven, he says that the Spirit had not come, for Jesus was not yet glorified. The Spirit came and went on people, clothed them. David said, "Don't take your spirit from me." That's not a worry we as believers have to have in our day because the Spirit is permanently indwelling the believer, according to Romans 8.

So what's the biggest need of anybody? It is to have the presence and power of the Spirit of God controlling our lives. He walks you through this, and then some applications besides: come on, keep asking. I jotted down a couple that I think are helpful reminders. We can talk. Jesus shows that when it comes to our relationship with God, being audacious and unashamed is encouraged.

Now think about it: I'm a sinner asking a holy God to listen to me. How audacious could you get? How audacious to say, "God, would you do this for me?" And he says that he wants you to keep asking. Part of that persistence is that God tends to purify a request as we keep walking with him. So there's never an inconvenient time to approach God. Midnight's not a problem because, as the psalmist says, God never sleeps, nor does he slumber.

The gift of the Spirit is that act of a loving father who knows how much we need and knows exactly what we need at the right time. So, bottom line: while the midnight friend might have responded begrudgingly out of mere being bothered or being persistently bothered, our Heavenly Father—how much more will your heavenly Father—responds out of love and the desire to give the best gifts to his kids. That's the basic overview.

Speaker 2

I think it's so good. It's such a good reminder.

Speaker 3

I mean, there's two questions I have. One, I want to talk about being audacious. But before that, you know, what do you say to the skeptic?

Or the woman or the man or the boy or girl who says, "I have asked, I didn't receive, I have knocked, it didn't open, I have sought." You know, that always is going to come up. It seems like you could take that verse and say he's promising something, he's almost guaranteeing it.

And yet it isn't often happening. I'm in a marriage right now that's struggling, and I've been praying that God would save my marriage, and nothing's changing.

Speaker 1

Sure, sure.

Speaker 3

Obviously I should be audacious and keep going, but it doesn't feel like that door is ever going to get open.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 3

I'm guessing you've heard that a million times.

Speaker 1

We have. As a pastor, as a professor, as a father.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 1

And I think when you take any doctrine like prayer, it's like a triangle. There's some verses that are really tight at the top and that's. And if that's all you had, it would seem like it's absolute.

But there's other things that get added to that point. Whether it's marriage, that's for life. Well, are there any exceptions to that?

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 1

So the same type of a principle. So this is the simplest way to state it. Then there's some attending circumstances. So you have not because you ask not, or you ask to consume it upon your own lust, as James says. So I can disqualify my prayers by selfishness. I can think wrong about God. And there's passages that talk about if I fail to hear the word of God, even my prayer is an abomination to God. Proverbs 28:9. I have. There's some passages in the Bible I love, but I don't like because they're so convicting.

And so you have to understand that why would God delay his answers? Why would God say no in prayer? But this one, you asked the right question with the parallel. That's in Luke 18, which is the unjust judge and the widow woman who's constantly asking him for justice. And he goes, in essence, he says, he admits he's a bad judge. I don't care about God or about people. But because she's going to bother me to a point of, you know, I'm going to be worn out, I'll answer her.

Well, that's as I said. Parables teach in the shape of an H, but they also teach in the shape of an X. There's a crisscross of contrast. And that's what you have here. You have an earthly father in comparison to a heavenly father. Won't an earthly father do this? Yeah, but a heavenly father does it better. And so in that parable, the final question is real, convicting. When the Son of Man comes, will he find this kind of faith on the earth? What kind of faith? Persistent faith that keeps asking, audacious, waiting for God's justice.

So when you put both of those parables together, and they're together in the inverted parallelism of Luke 9:19, they both speak to prayer, but from a different angle. One is the need to be persistent until the Lord comes. I have a brother who was born with brain damage. We prayed for him all of his life. He's now with the Lord. Why would God not heal him? Was because of what God had planned for him, what God has planned for us. And what did he want us to know? Taking care of a special needs family member. My wife's father had Parkinson's for 17 years. We would have loved for God to heal him and prayed that way. God chose not to. But, boy, what he taught us in the meantime was phenomenal.

Speaker 2

So Mark, you're saying like I'm thinking of all the times I've gone before him, I've knocked on the door, I've sought him, and he didn't answer the way we wanted. Just like you're saying it wasn't what we had hoped.

But God taught you in which one of those circumstances? You said he didn't answer the prayer the way we necessarily wanted, but in the midst of it, he was with us.

Speaker 1

Yeah. And he's teaching us. He's refining us.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

He's testing our motives. He's teaching us. Romans 8:28. You know, do all things work together for good to those that love him? And all according to his purpose? Absolutely.

So when you understand the bigger pyramid of prayer, so to speak, when he says no, it's because he knows better. When he says, wait, he's wanting to develop our faith. When he says, yes, he's wanting to respond to what our immediate needs are.

And he does all three of those. To confine him to any one of those answers is to say, I know better than God knows as to what I need.

Speaker 3

Yeah. When you look at your, you know, you told us earlier, you sit in church with your sons and your grandkids.

Now, obviously you've lived somehow this out as a dad, as a husband. Can you talk about that a bit?

Like, what did that look like? Even modeling and teaching your boys these kind of principles.

Speaker 1

I would love to go back and do fatherhood all over again. I'd do it, I think, a whole lot better, really. I didn't want my boys, number one, to reject God because of me being in ministry. I never cared whether they would go into the ministry. They both ended up in the ministry, but I didn't care what they would do as long as they would follow God.

And so I wasn't a real legalist in seven minutes with God or ten minutes with God. I didn't do a great job at those early days with family devotions as a formal thing, but we were always talking about the Lord and always talking about what God, you know, is best and what is God's will. What's God's best? I did start with them intentionally taking them to breakfast once a week, doing what I called napkin theology, you know, or turning a placemat over and drawing on it and talking about some spiritual things. They look back on that as more formative than I thought it might be.

But I liken it to a relationship with my wife. I don't say, "Honey, I'm going to spend 10 minutes a day with you." I'm going to pursue her all the time. You know, if I'm on the road, I'm calling her. I don't care how much it costs. Back in those days when long distance was there, the relationship was worth it. So what I wanted to know is, are they pursuing God rather than spending 10 minutes with him? I want their whole life to pursue him.

And that's what we pray every night for them and for the grandkids, that God will capture their heart and that they'll follow hard after God. And so, by God's grace, now I'm praying with families. I have a list on my iPad, and we're praying because we have some very dear friends whose kids have gone off the rails, and they would love to see them come back, and we would, too.

So why God does what he does in some families and why kids do what they do in others is a bit of a mystery. But we're still praying for them to come back.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's pretty cool. Everything you just taught. Be audacious, be persistent. You're doing well.

Speaker 1

That's. That's the. That's the attempt. Yeah, that's our. That's our attempt.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's good work.

Speaker 1

And I owe more to God and my wife than I would ever take credit for.

Speaker 3

That's for sure. Me, too.

Speaker 2

And I think the thing that I would encourage listeners to is just to get in God's word. It's so rich as you're talking. I am. Like, it feels like Jesus. Like, I want to hear more. Tell me more. Tell me.

And I think the more we're in the Word, the more hungry we are for God's word. Just the persistence of prayer. I'm saying to our listeners, don't give up. Go to that door at midnight, go at 1am, go at 3am, go at 5pm all day.

Take those requests before God because he always hears, he's always listening. Yeah. Such a good reminder.

Speaker 1

And sometimes the answer comes years down the road.

Speaker 2

Yes. Yeah, I'm not that patient. I don't like to do that.

Speaker 1

But it's that stirring question, will he find this kind of faith when he comes? What kind of faith, if I can say it, that keeps that tough prayer request still on the list.

Speaker 2

That's good.

Speaker 1

Still on the list. Don't cross it out.

Speaker 2

That's good.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Well, tomorrow is Good Friday.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 3

And we just heard you teach Luke 11. How about John 11, Lazarus?

Speaker 1

Wonderful passage.

Speaker 3

We'll do that tomorrow.

Speaker 1

Look forward to it.

Speaker 2

We're Ann and Dave Wilson and this is Family Life Today. And you've been hearing an interview we had with Dr. Mark Bailey at the NRB conference.

Speaker 3

Yeah. We were on the road, as you could probably tell. And I hate to tell you, but we had Dr. Mark walk all the way up to the top of this hotel. Yeah, that was a long way. He was pretty exhausted, but, man, was he riveting.

Speaker 2

Yeah, wasn't he good? It made me want to take a class with him.

Speaker 3

I don't want to take a class. I'm done taking classes. But if I took one, I'd take it with him. Great stuff.

You know, tomorrow's Good Friday, so this is a really important week, and we just wanted to let you know something that you've probably heard us say before. We have a team of people that pray for you, and we want to pray for you.

If you have needs, we would love to lift up your name and your needs to our Father, and we'd love for you to reach out to us. Just go to familylife.com/prayforme, and you can put your prayer request there, and we'll pray for you.

Speaker 2

And I just want to remind you, it may feel like you're alone, but you are never alone.

And sometimes we just need somebody to pray for us. I know that we get these prayer requests. I go on a walk and I pray for you.

And we have a whole team. So send that request in. Go to familylife.com prayforme.

Speaker 3

Family life today is a donor supported production of Family Life, a crew ministry helping you pursue the relationships that matter most.