International Sunday School Lesson - Sunday School in 7minutes

Parables are great ways to learn more about the kingdom of God.  In this parable Jesus encourages believers to Approach God with boldness as the persistent.

During this time Hospitality is very important for long travel . So this parable starts from that cultural construct. A man has a traveler drop in on him late at night and he has no fresh bread to set before him. There are no all-night supermarkets or fast food restaurants.
Cultural hospitality for traveling friends demanded that the host provide something to eat. So the host goes over to his friend’s house at midnight. It’s dark , the door is bolted shut. But this is his friend, So he starts banging on the door. Inside, the family was sleeping together and the banging on the door was disturbing.
The groggy neighbor questions “Who is it? What do you want at this hour?” The “friend host” explains his need. The neighbor says, “Stop bothering me! The kids are asleep and you are disturbing the house.
But the “host friend” keeps on knocking and asking! Finally the neighbor gets up and provides bread.
The requesting host friend obtains his request because of his persistent and boldness.
the story shows us the necessity to boldly pray. The host friend had a need to provide for his traveling friend, and he did not have the resources to meet that need. His needs drove the host to act with persistent and boldness.

Jesus is encouraging us to
Pray
To Pray boldly
Often MC fail to pray because we assume our own sufficiency. But we are destitute of physical, mental, and spiritual resources unless God graciously provides them. Jesus wants us to have a submissive prayer practice
The need in this parable was for someone else. While we should go boldly to God to find help for our own needs. MC must remember that the main thrust of prayer is not just to meet our needs, but to further the Father’s kingdom.
This midnight request put a strain on the relationship between these two friends, but midnight requests do not strain our relationship with God. Jesus’ point is that we should be boldly persistent in bringing our requests to God at any hour and in any situation.
If a cranky friend responds to bold persistence requests how much more will your Friend in heaven respond!
Jesus applies the parable by telling the disciples to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking, with the promise that they will obtain their requests.
Obviously, God doesn’t always answer according to our timetable. He knows when our faith has been sufficiently tried and our vital submissions sincere. But the idea of persistence is reinforced here by the increasing intensity of the words “ask,” “seek,” and “knock.”
Then and now if we really want to know God, and walk with Him, we must persist in asking Him daily.

In this scripture Jesus tells MC to Approach God with trust as His child, knowing that if it is for your spiritual good, the Father will give it .
Jesus gives the illustration that if a son asks for a loaf of bread, the father won’t give him a stone ..
The illustration is effective because it is so ludicrous. No earthly father would be so cruel as to give his hungry child something harmful in place of the food. A snake with its silvery scales could be mistaken for a fish and a coiled up scorpion could look like a small egg to a child.
Even though we are evil by nature we would never treat our children in this manner.
Then Jesus drives home his point: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
Jesus instructs us to come as needy children and ask the Father to pour out His Spirit upon us.
Jesus’ specifying the Holy Spirit shows that He is not promising to meet our every whim for material things or for earthly benefits. But He is promising that if something is for our spiritual good and we come as trusting children and ask, the loving Father will give it to us. He may delay the blessing because He knows that I am not ready to receive it yet. He may know what I do not know, that my request is not for my ultimate good,
So verse 13 brings us back full circle to where Jesus’ instruction on prayer began, that we must come to know God as our heavenly Father.