Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

When we look at the world around us, we might easily lose hope that we’ll see a revival again. People seem to be moving further and further away from Christ and Christianity. According to Lifeway Research, only about 15% of Millennials in America, those born between 1980 and 2000, are Christian. That means that about 70 million out of the 80 million 12 to 32 year olds in America are lost. And it looks like things are getting worse rather than better. We might ask the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on Earth?”

Jesus asked this question at one point in His ministry, but He asked it in an entirely different way.

“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, “Give me justice against my adversary.” For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge 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?’ ” (Luke 18:1-8)

The first verse of this passage tells us exactly what we need to get out of this parable (v. 1). Pay attention to this summary! Don’t get sidetracked with details of the parable that don’t matter. Jesus never told us how this woman became a widow. Jesus never told us who her adversary was, and why she needed justice from him. Don’t get sidetracked with details of the parable that do matter. Jesus pointed out a contrast between an unrighteous Judge, and our Righteous God. This is an important observation. God doesn’t answer prayer reluctantly. God is eager to answer prayer! God is eager to relieve suffering and bring justice!

Yet the point of the parable is not any of those things! Luke told us what the point of the parable was in verse 1. You might say, “But Jesus didn’t say that. How can we know it was really what Jesus wanted us to get out of it?” It’s true because it’s God’s Word. Every word of Scripture has just as much weight as the words of Jesus Christ. So when it says that the point of the parable was that we always pray and not lose heart, then we ought always to pray and not lose heart!

With that in mind, let’s talk about this parable.

The parable Jesus told went basically like this. A widow went over and over again to a crooked judge and begged for justice. Although the crooked judge was crooked, he reasoned that this woman wouldn’t stop bothering him until he gave her justice. So the unrighteous judge decided to give the woman justice in the matter. Then Jesus contrasted this situation with our situation with God. God is not indifferent to our pains, but cares for us deeply! God is not reluctant to answer prayer, but is eager to do so! God will not delay in giving us justice, but will do so as quickly as possible! Because that’s who God is!

But then Jesus ends the lesson with an odd question (v. 8). “Jesus, what’s that have to do with anything?” “I thought you were talking about prayer!” “I thought you were talking about how we can trust God, and not lose heart, because He cares for us?” “What does Your return have to do with this, and is there any doubt that you’ll find faith on earth?”

Jesus wasn’t asking a theological question, but a question to pierce our hearts. Of course there will be believers living on the earth when He returns. He wasn’t wondering whether He would find faith, He was asking us to ask ourselves, “Do I have faith?” He was saying that our prayer life says a lot about our faith. He was saying that our prayer life says a lot about whether we truly trust God. Remember the point of Jesus telling this parable. That we would always pray. And that we would never lose heart.

So why did Jesus ask the question this way at the end of His explanation of the parable? Couldn’t He have just said, “So the point is, always pray, and never lose heart.” He could have, but that wouldn’t have had nearly the impact. We know we ought to pray. We know we ought to hope in God. But Jesus made it immensely more crucial to do these things. If we’re not praying, we’re showing that we don’t have faith. If we grow tired of praying and waiting on God, then our faith isn’t real.

Yet the goal of the parable is also not that we would feel guilt for not praying as we ought. The goal is simply to motivate us to pray! We have a loving Heavenly Father who longs for us to pray, and is eager to answer our prayers!