Sunday Message - Today Jesus 110

11/02/07
<Luke 18:1-8>

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

1
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: "In
a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that
town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
4
"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5yet
because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out
with her coming!' "
6
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen
ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice,
and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

PRAYERS THAT RECEIVE JUSTICE

• God has prepared great blessings for us today. These two weeks’ messages talk about prayers.
We must realise God’s perfect will from these two messages
• God has given us the greatest authority because we are the ones whom He loves most. Thus,
everything that we bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and everything we set free on earth will
be set free in Heaven
• The forces of darkness will be driven out when we receive peace after knowing God’s perfect will
• We must believe in the Truth given by God. The moment we believe, our prayers are answered
• We are already the most successful. There is no insufficiency in our Lord, Jesus Christ
• God’s Truth will be fulfilled as we confirm the Word of God
• We need to pray in order to see and hear the things that we have never seen or heard before
• We are already victorious when we have God’s covenant and truth
• Our Lord, Jesus Christ had already broken the head of Satan
• We will fall very quickly if we fail to see that we’d already received everything we need
• Miracles will take place only when we’d seen and accepted this truth
• We must expose Satan’s plot; otherwise, we will continue to lead a bounded and contradictory life
• No matter what problems we face, as long as we are able to see God in our hearts, we will not get
worried over anything at all. The most important thing for us to do is to pray

Read <Luke 18:1-8>

v1 We have already been set free from all problems, if we always have the desire to pray.
However, more often than not, we are dishearten even before we start praying
v2-3 The Lord used the contrast between a high-ranking Judge and a lowly-valued Widow in His
parable to tell us that He will definitely listen to our prayers

1. “Grant me justice against my adversary” <verse 3>

1) The widow pleaded to the Judge because she had an adversary. Likewise, when we pray to
God, there must be a character whom we want to defeat
• When we pray, do we have an adversary just like the widow?
• She went to the Judge because she knows her rights
• Our prayers are not beating the air
• <1Corinthians 9:26> “Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a
man beating the air.”
• Do we realise that we are always being deceived and attacked by our enemy? He uses
all sort of situations and scenarios to attack us
 • A lot of Believers do not pray against an adversary. Thus, Satan will not leave. They are
only praying against a specified situation, event or problem
• We know where our problems come from and know the one who attacks us. Therefore,
we should be able to counter-attack and break the head of the enemy
• We do not pray for the purpose to have a clearer conscience. Otherwise, we will not be
changed after we prayed
• We should be furious over the deception of our enemies
• <Revelations 12:1-12> The whole history of men talks about the tense relationship
between the dragon and God’s people. Therefore, even if we are not doing anything, we
will still feel troubled
• Satan attacks us day and night. He will definitely attack us because he knows very well
that his days are numbered
• <1 Peter 5:7-8> Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled
and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour.
• We should not read the Bible with our own perspective. If not, we will believe in
everything but the Bible
• <James 4:7> Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you
• We must combat the devil, Satan. How should we do it? We will need to be formatted
before we can oppose him. We must know the content for the opposition
• We need to have a systematic thinking process in order to combat Satan’s deception
• E.g. He always gives us hints, telling us that “we are finished”. When that happens, we
must know that we are God’s most beloved. We are the main characters of this era. God
has allowed our problems. Therefore, Satan is the one who is finished, not us.
• We can only use the truth of God to combat Satan’s deception
• If we do not know God’s word clearly, we will only have fearful thoughts when we have
some critical diseases
• We must restore the fact that God has chosen us out of His love. As such, our critical
diseases can be used by God to bless many other people. We will not be bound by the
diseases when we are able to add evidences onto this truth
• God will definitely allow a person who wish to save the world to face problems because
it’s only through problems that we are able to confirm God’s truth
• Our problem is that we do not do pray even though we know the truth. We will lose our
temper once we meet something bad because we do not pray
• Our enemy will definitely follow and attack us, unless we’d broke his head

2) The widow pleaded because she had faced some injustices

• The injustice done to that widow must be something great. Otherwise, she won’t be so
persistent in appealing to the unjust judge
• According to the Law, we are God’s children. Thus, we shouldn’t be worried or fearful at
all
• However, our enemies keep attacking us, just like how he attacked Job
• We should be very frustrated with our enemies since they have prevented us from using
the great fortune belonging to us
• We are kings yet we live like beggars. A person who has realised this will surely ask for
justice to be done. He will definitely pray everyday
• God says that we are the source of blessing for all nations. If that’s the case, why do we
fail everyday? Surely, justice needs to be done!
 • Our parents ought to be saved, yet because of the enemies’ deception and bondage, they
are not able to know God. Justice needs to be done!
• We are to be used by God. However, Satan deceives us everyday, making us fall with the
smallest problem that we face. We will want to pray and see justice be done if we realise
this truth
• Our prayers should coincide with God’s desire. Therefore, we ought to state our prayer
topics. Our prayer should be one that demands justice be done
• All these are the truth. However, a lot of Believers do not know about all these. Thus, they
cry over all the small problems in their lives

3) She wanted to have a fair and right judgement in accordance to the law
• For an insignificant widow to go to the unjust judge daily and ask for justice be done; she
must be very confident that anyone who hears her case will side with her
• Our prayers should not be limited to fighting against the adversary and justice be done.
We should pray with a fair, righteous, honest and cleansed life. The Bible tells us that
‘blessed are those with a clean heart’
• God will definitely listen to the prayers of those who are not accused <1John3:21-23>
“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from
him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his
command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he
commanded us.”
• God delights in us believing in the name of His son and to love one another
• How can we not be accused when we love the world, curse others and let our minds
wander daily?
• <Revelations 12:11> We need the blood of the lamb and the testimonies of the saints in
order to have victory against the devil
• Blood of the lamb = the death of Jesus Christ → the direction of our lives must be
changed to glorifying God, blessing people and building God’s kingdom
• Our prayers are not truthful if we continuously ask God to forgive us yet refuse to take the
path of Heaven
• Our prayers need to be done in the correct direction and purpose. It’s only when our
direction and purpose are correct, will we able to discover and submit to God’s perfect will
• We cannot stop following God. Otherwise, we become weak very easily. Therefore, God
asked us to present our offerings to Him twice daily. We can ask God to forgive us
regardless of who we had offended or hated
• We should ask God to forgive and cleanse us after we realise that we are not able to do
in accordance to His perfect will. We should not ask God for forgiveness out of obligation,
without the slightest desire to discover His perfect will

4) She prayed continually

• A person who has a reason for fighting a case and has the assurance that he is correct
will continually appealing to the judge (i.e. continually praying)
• pray continually <1Thessalonians 5:17> Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power
<Ephesians 6:10> Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful <Colossians
4:2>
• Why would we want to pray continually when we do not even detest our adversary?
• Who, then, will always want to fight the case, or always want to pray?
• Only those who have understood the spiritual reasons and mystery will do it. Otherwise,
we can live our lives as it is, with or without prayers
 • Therefore, a person who knows the reasons for praying will pray with substance and not
out of obligation. Neither will he pray only when he is faced witb some problems
• Believers ought to pray readily and defensively
• We cannot let go of our adversary for even a single day. We should claim our blessings
daily
• God will definitely listen to our prayers if we do it correctly in accordance to God’s desire

2. “Will not God bring about justice, … he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” <v7-8>
1) <Matthew 7:7; John 14:14, 16:24; James 4:2>
• God’s Word is God’s Word (i.e. it is the Truth, it has authority, etc). How do we feel after
reading God’s Word?
• We should be able to see what we will be receiving the next day, now.
• The door will only be opened for us after we have knocked on it
• Regardless of what we are doing, our hearts should be praying continually for blessing
one era
• A person whose whole desire is to live in God’s purpose will definitely be different

2) The reason for answers to come late

• After we’d prayed to God, we must know what God’s answers are
• The more important a prayer, the later will its answer come
• God wants us to wait so that we can bless more people and He wants to give us
something that is better and more important
• God heard Daniel when he prayed painstakingly for the Israelites who were captives in
Babylon. Thus, angels were sent to display themselves to Daniel. However, the holy
angels were blocked by the evil ones, till archangel Michael cleared the way
• We need to know that God wants us to go into Concentration Prayer while we wait for the
answer
• In <Mark 9>, it was recorded that there was a person being possessed by evil spirits,
which the Apostles could not free. The Lord taught them that those evil spirits could only
be driven out through fasting. The Lord wants us to have concentration prayer, as it will
bring forth explosive results
• Do not be dishearten when we pray for others
• We must know that God has already heard and answered us as we pray. Thus, we can be
joyful and give thanks even if the answers are not revealed to us as yet

3) The thing that is greater than answers

• What is more important than receiving answers?
• A lot of religious people will only ask their gods for blessings, wealth, health, wisdom, etc
• How long can we live on Earth even if we are very healthy? Can we guarantee that all our
days will be very smooth and comfortable if we possess great wisdom? In fact, people
tend to do more evil things when they become cleverer!
• God might want us to wait for a prolonged period of time after we’d prayed. However, we
can rejoice during this waiting period as we continue to walk with God, rely and have an
expectation on Him! Thus, this process of waiting is far more important than our problems
being resolved
• God will greatly use those who understand this truth
• We must be wise. We are not aiming to see the Red Sea being opened. Rather, we
should aim to get the heart of Moses
 • We pray to be like David. However, we are not aiming to be a King like David, but to have
his heart that really loves God
• God knows all our hearts and desire. Thus, the answers He gives us will correspond to
our desire

4) After receiving answers, we must acquire the “great and difficult things” that comes with
them
<Exodus 12-13→ Joshua 1-24; Acts 1:13-14→2:1-3>
• The things that happened after we’d received the answers are much more important
• Some Believers might start going after the worldly things after they’d received answers.
We must quickly leave those things that draw our hearts towards the carnal things when
we realise that our hearts are changed as a result of the answers we received
• God will bless a Believer who repents and turns to Him. God will remember the promise
that Believer had made with God
• After we’d received the answers, we must ask ourselves, “so what?”
• E.g. So what if we have a healthy body? So what after we’d receive great wealth? So
what if my child has recovered from his illness? So what, when the Apostles had received
filling of the Holy Spirit? They received strength and testify to the people throughout
Jerusalem after they’d received the filling of the Holy Spirit.
• We should ask God to heal us only after our hearts and minds had turned to God and we
stopped our complaints. Otherwise, we will still be receiving a lot of hurts after getting
healed

3. “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” <v8>
• Faith is the foundation for us to receive answers. Without faith, we will not get anything
• Faith tells us that we have a God, there are angels, Satan, adversary etc
• A person with faith knows that he should receive blessings from God. Thus, he dares to ask
God to bless him
• Only a person with faith will pray continually
1) Man cannot receive because he doesn’t believe in God’s Word
• <Luke 11:23; John 15:7>
• Everything in this whole universe is created solely by God’s Word
• We are the most blessed people if we are able to use God’s word to explain the things
and problems that occur in our lives
• God fulfils His things through His Word
• No matter if we are healthy or sick, have an increment or face retrenchment, we must see
that all these occurrences are the fulfilment of God’s Word

2) We are able to see and hear God’s perfect will as we believe in His Word
• <Matthew 5:8, 13:16; Luke 10:23; John 4:6, 7, 21, 26>
• God uses His word to display His perfect will
• We will not know God’s perfect will if we have never confirm it
• We need not prove if God’s Word is real. We just need to believe in it and confirm it
• God’s Word tells us that all men “were dead in our transgression and sins”. Thus, we
can tell the purpose and motive of a person from his action or speech. More often than
not, men always like to boast about themselves or want to gain some benefits
• It is possible for us to confirm that only the Gospel can set a person free but not religion.
Thus, a person who has confirmed this will not be afraid of any problem
 • A true Believer is one who has confirmed it before. He is able to see what others cannot
see because he does it with faith

3) Only a person who sees that God is leading him daily will pray continually
• <Matthew 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:15-51; 1Thesselonians 5:16-18; Acts 16:6-40, 26:20>
• Only a person who has confirmed before is able to see God’s leading daily and only those
who has seen God’s work before will have faith continually
• God’s fulfilment is real
• A lot of Believers believe that God will answer them. However, all of them explain God’s
answers differently
• A person with God’s Covenant will continue to be joyful even though he has met with a
problem. This is because he has a different perspective from others. He wants to walk to
path of David
• Paul’s principle is “everyone will know but none will understand”
• Men do not believe in spiritual things or God’s perfect will. Thus, a person will look for the
doctor once he is sick or try to find his own solution once he meets a problem
• We are able to boast our problems in the Lord

4) God is looking for people in this era; people who really want to believe in Him
<2Chronicles 16:9; 2Timonty 3:1-17>
• God is looking for people who really want to believe in Him. He is looking for “a few good
men"
• <2 Ch 16:9> For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen
those whose hearts are fully committed to him…
• <2Ti 3:1, 3:14> There will be terrible times in the last days… but as for you,
continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of

Sharing and Prayer Topics

1. The widow always goes to the judge and says “grant me justice against my adversary”. Do I have
any prayer topics that I will want to pray continually and earnestly? Are there any “adversary or
things that demand justice be done” in my prayers? Do I have the assurance that those prayers
will surely be answered? Where are the evidences?
2. The Lord says, “Will not God bring about justice, … he will see that they get justice, and quickly”.
Did I realize the important work God has fulfilled during the process of receiving answered
prayers? Ponder: After receiving answered prayers, how can I use that answer to glorify God?
3. The Lord also says, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Confirm:- are
my prayer contents, received answers built upon the strong foundation of faith? How did God fulfill
my prayers in the past? How did the content of my answered prayers affect my current prayer
topics? What is the relationship between my current prayer topic and the ministries that I will
serve in the future?