Sunday School Lesson: Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The Lord's Prayer

This section on the Lord’s Prayer is only found in Luke. There is a similar passage in Matthew 6, but they are two different occasions. In Matthew, Jesus’ teaching on prayer was part of the Sermon on the Mount, but here it is an answer given in response to a request by a disciple to teach them to pray.

11:1Now Jesuswas praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

Clearly, Jesus had already taught them to pray during the Sermon on the Mount, but the disciples had watched and heard Jesus praying and felt the power of his prayers and desired to pray like him—from the heart.

We need to be taught how to pray. (Pajamas) John the Baptist is mentioned for the last time in Luke’s Gospel and he is remembered as a man who prayed and who taught his disciples to pray.

2And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.

This is a prayer that the people would worship and reverence God. Hallowed means holy, sacred, revered, consecrated or set apart for worship. Before we can truly pray, we must know who God is and reverence him as God and worship him, so that comes first.

Your kingdom come. (your will be done on earth as it is in heaven—NKJ)

Jesus had been teaching and preaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand! He was the King whose Kingdom was coming! This is a prayer for God’s will to be accomplished on the earth.

3Give us each day our daily bread,

We must recognize that EVERYTHING we have comes from God! In this way, we humble ourselves before God.

4and forgive us our sins,

In order for us to ask for forgiveness of sin, we must recognize that we are sinners. (read Luke 18 tax collector prayer)

for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

God wants us to forgive each other. Read Ephesians 4:32. This is God’s standard.

And lead us not into temptation.” (NKJ but deliver us from evil) James 1:13-15

The next parable is about prayer and only Luke records it. It teaches something different about prayer and is a parable of contrast. Verses 5-8 tell us the story:

5And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7and he will 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’? 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudencehe will rise and give him whatever he needs.

In those days, people often traveled at night to avoid the heat of the day. It was an important part of the hospitality of that culture that one should be prepared at all times to welcome guests. To have nothing to eat for guests would be a huge embarrassment. Why did the person finally give the friend the bread? What can we learn about prayer through this part of the parable?

9And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11What father among you, if his son asks fora fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If 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!”

Now Jesus does not compare the man in the first part of the parable with God, he contrasts the two, showing God’s loving kindness and faithfulness and mercy.

Compare: find what is the same

Contrast: Find what is different

Ask, seek, find. Read Matthew 7:7-11.

Does God ever sleep? Is there ever a time he won’t hear you and answer you? Read Isaiah 65:24. God will hear us and he will answer. His answer will be according to what he knows is best for us. God is compared to a father and then he is referred to as “the heavenly Father (capital F)

Did you notice that Jesus mentioned asking ‘your’ heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit? There is no evidence that any of the disciples asked for this. Jesus did give them the gift of the Holy Spirit before he went to the cross (John 20:22) and he sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2). Read 1 Corinthians 12:13 God has given the best possible gifts: He has given His Son as payment for our sins and He has given the Holy Spirit to indwell us!

Read: Matthew 12:22-37; Mark 3:19-30

14Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. 15But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” 16while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.

Vs.14-16 People marveled. They could not deny the miracles that were happening before their very eyes. Some marveled. Some credited the miracles to Beezebul’s power. (Beelzebul meant ‘prince of demons’ or ‘lord of heaven’ and was the name of a heathen God) And yet others sought a sign from heaven to prove whether the miracle was done by God or Satan.

17But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. 18And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Vs. 17-20 As always, Jesus knew their thoughts. Some were accusing Jesus of casting out demons using Satan’s power. That makes no sense and Jesus proves this.

Jesus was casting out demons ‘by the finger of God’ or in God’s power. (Ex 8:19—Pharoah, too, rejected God, having seen his power)

‘the kingdom of God has come among you’ This is the message that Christ and His disciples was bringing. Christ has been accused of doing his miracles by the power of Satan, but in truth, the King of Heaven was among them!

21When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. 23Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Satan is the strong man, but Jesus is stronger than Satan! He is able to overthrow him.

Vs. 23 There is no middle ground; either you are for Christ or you are against him—there is no neutrality.

Matthew 12:38-45

24“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

To demonstrate this principle, Jesus tells another parable in vs. 24-26. The demon goes out of the person, but he still talks of the person as ‘my house’ and he returns. The person may have been clean of the demon for a time, but he had not trusted Christ (no neutrality) therefore, the demon could come right back and things were even worse.

27As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

This woman was saying, “What an honor it was for your mother to have given you birth!” She was expressing her love and admiration for Jesus, but again, he brings it back to the need to truly trust in Christ! It is not enough to love or admire Him, we must believe and obey Him!

29When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

The crowds were increasing. Remember, some were seeking a sign. People who believe, believe; they do not need a sign. Jesus tells them that the only sign they will be given is the sign of Jonah (3 days in the belly of the whale, three days in the tomb—Christ’s resurrection is the sign that will be given!) The Queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s wisdom and wealth and came to find out the truth for herself. The men of Ninevah repented. All these examples are familiar to the hearers and are examples of lesser to greater. Jesus is greater than Jonah, greater than the Solomon. They were in the presence of the Greatest One and yet they did not seek Him as the Queen of Sheba or repent and believe like the men of Ninevah.

33“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

Jesus is the light of the world. The people did not need more light; they needed to embrace the light that had been given to them! Jesus preached publically to all. He did not hid His light!

To see an object, you must have two things, eyes and light (Mammoth Cave example) Light is of no use to a blind man, eyes are of no use without light. Even in the presence of Christ, some men still reject Him because of their blindness! That is true of all of us until the Spirit gives us ears to hear the Gospel and eyes to see the glory of the Gospel.

Now we switch scenes:

37While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.

This cleansing was for the purpose of removing any unknown defilement that may have occurred without a person’s knowledge. Nothing could defile the Holy Son of God, nor could anything occur to him without His knowledge. Jesus did not sin in this.

39And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

Jesus sees that though they are scrupulously clean on the outside but he knows the heart is full of sin. In verse 40, he is also revealing himself as the one who made them. True religion is not a matter of cleaning up the outside but it is a matter of a changed heart through faith in Jesus.

Jesus pronounces three woes. One woe is bad enough but three is a way of expressing the greatest woe (Holy, holy, holy, and Verily, verily—lends strength to the statement)

42“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

He is not telling them that their tithing was wrong, but that they had neglected justice and loving God. (Micah 6:8) He reveals them as hypocrites. There is nothing necessarily wrong in having the best seat or in the greetings, but they loved being exalted and seen as more important than others. He says they are like unmarked graves. Remember what we learned about the graves during that time. They were whitewashed. Do you remember why? By calling them white washed graves he is pointing up the fact that they are bad examples to others and leading others into error. They were adding to the Law and making it more difficult to follow and yet they were not following the spirit of the Law themselves.

45One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

Remember, the lawyers were experts in interpreting the Law. When he accuses the Pharisees, he accuses them as well. Jesus pronounces three woes on them, too:

46And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

In the first woe, he is calling them hypocrites, like the Pharisees, for adding to the burden of the Law and not following it themselves.

47Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

Again, he is reproving them as hypocrites. They were like those who killed the prophets and yet they pretend to admire them and even go so far as to build monuments to honor them. God had sent prophets and their fathers had killed them. The fathers had killed the prophets from Abel to Zechariah. They would be judged for this for they agreed with it.

52Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

The Scriptures are the key to knowledge and they had perverted the scriptures and did not believe it and by their actions had made it harder for the people to worship and serve God in truth.

53As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

He had rebuked them and they hated him for it. They increased in their opposition to Jesus.

*These lessons are written for use with elementary aged students. You can find lessons for previous chapters here . All scriptures are taken from the ESV.