Call to Prayer 4

Ro. 15:30-33 “I have one request, dear friends: Pray for me. Pray strenuously with and for me—to God the Father, through the power of our Lord Jesus, through the love of the Spirit—that I will be delivered from the lions’ den of unbelievers in Judea. Pray also that my relief offering to the Jerusalem believers will be accepted in the spirit in which it is given. Then, God willing, I’ll be on my way to you with a light and eager heart, looking forward to being refreshed by your company. God’s peace be with all of you.” (The Message)

The kind of prayer I want to talk to you about today is INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

Intercessory prayer is when we stand in the gap for a person or many people to be delivered from trouble or danger.

The word intercession means, “to go and meet one person on behalf of someone else, to intervene for them.”

So intercessory prayer is simply the act of praying on behalf of others.

When a person gets into legal trouble they hire a lawyer who goes before the judge on their behalf to petition him for mercy, or intervention, or protection. That’s intercession!

In prayer the intercessor goes before God on behalf of another to petition Him for mercy, intervention, protection, salvation, provision, or something else needed in that person’s life.

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In our text, the Apostle Paul is asking the Roman Christians to literally enter into his spiritual battles with him through intercessory prayer:

“Pray strenuously with and for me—to God the Father, through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the love of the Spirit—that I will be delivered from the lions’ den of unbelievers in Judea.”

Notice how Paul says the best prayers are prayed: “Pray through the power Jesus gives you,” and “let your motivation be love—the love of the Spirit!”

So the best prayers are Spirit empowered and motivated by the Spirit’s love toward those you’re praying for.

Richard Foster in his book entitled “Prayer” says this about intercessory prayer:

“Intercession is a way of loving others. When we move from petition to intercession we are shifting our center of gravity from our own needs to the needs and concerns of others.”

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Now, Paul was approaching a great battle when he asked for prayer.

He was returning to Judea where he knew the unbelieving Jews had it in for him.

In the Book of Acts he tells the Ephesians elders:

“I only know that in every city (in Judea) the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.”—Acts 20:23 NIV

And it happened just as the Spirit had shown him...Once he arrived, Jewish men who hated him began to spread lies about him...The result was:

“Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him...”—Acts 21:31 ESV

But while all this was happening to Paul, a faithful band of Roman intercessors were lifting him up before God and he was delivered, as he later said “from the mouth of the lion.”

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So we see that Intercessory prayer brings protection when Satan is attacking those we love, or those for whom God has given us a burden.

FACT: The kingdom of God is a kingdom marked by intercession!

The Bible says that the Spirit of God makes intercession for every born again believer: “Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Ro. 8:27 NKJV).

The Bible also says that Jesus makes unceasing intercession for His children: “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Ro. 8:34 NKJV).

You know, we tend to view intercessors as sort of the “elite guard” of pray-ers, the top shelf, those rare kind of pray-ers that are beyond the rest of us, but the Bible calls ALL Christians to intercede:

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,” (1 Tim. 2:1 NKJV)

We’re all called to join with the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus in praying for others and not just over our own needs.

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Let’s look at two examples of intercession in the Bible, one from the OT and one from the NT:

First, one of the greatest examples of intercession in the OT is when Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Bible says that a “great outcry” had reached into heaven over the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We don’t know who the cry came from—human beings or angels themselves—only that it reached God with such urgency that three supernatural beings were sent to Abraham’s tent.

We know two of them were angels and One of them was likely a Christophany because the third one is called “The Lord.”

After spending some time with Abraham and Sarah, they turned toward Sodom and said to Abraham, “I will go down now and see whether they have done according to the outcry against it that has come to Me” (Gen 18:21 NKJV).

The Bible says that when he heard this, Abraham “stood before the Lord” and “Abraham came near” (18:22-23).

Now, behind Abraham was Sodom, in front of him was the Lord, and he stood between the two and began to intercede on behalf of any righteous people that might be living in Sodom.

He begins with “Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” (Vs.23)

God replied saying He would spare the entire city for the sake of 50 righteous.

Abraham keeps interceding, dropping the number from 50 to ultimately 10. God said he would not destroy it for the sake of 10.

Of course, we know that there weren’t even 10.

But as judgment was moments away, the angels tell Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his wife and two daughters, “Hurry, escape...For I cannot do anything until you’re out of here!”

Such was the power of Abraham’s intercession, God literally could not send judgment until the people Abraham had interceded for were out of there!

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Then in the NT we come to Jesus’ intercession for Simon Peter...

Luke records that right after Jesus inaugurated the first Lord’s Supper, Jesus wheels around, looks straight at Peter, and tells him something out of the blue:

“And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Lk 22:31).

Jesus, being God in the flesh, suddenly became aware of something Satan was up to.

As Satan once went to God about Job and asked permission to test Job’s faith, he has now done the same thing with Peter.

Peter didn’t know it...The other disciples didn’t know it...But Jesus knew it!

Peter was about to undergo a trial where the devil was out to destroy his faith and sabotage his calling.

It says that once Jesus was made aware of this satanic assignment on Peter, He interceded for him:

“But I have prayed (interceded) for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (22:32 NKJV).

This is a perfect picture of intercession...Jesus literally stood in the gap between God and Simon Peter and prayed that his faith would survive the attack, and that he would emerge from his trial stronger than ever!

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Peter, of course, thought all this was absurd, saying “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death” (vs. 33).

But Jesus knew him better than he knew himself and said, “the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me” (Vs. 34).

Within a few short hours, Peter denied the Lord three times, the rooster crowed, and “Peter went out and wept bitterly” (22:62).

His faith fell into a crisis mode—Condemnation swept over him, self doubt, humiliation, shame, embarrassment...

But while Satan was pummeling the future preacher of Pentecost, the intercession of Jesus was holding him up!

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We know that Peter was restored by Jesus Himself and became the preacher that delivered the first gospel message of the NT...

And just as Jesus had prayed, Simon became Peter the rock who strengthened the brethren!

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Abraham’s intercession saved Lot from destruction.

Jesus’ intercession kept Peter’s faith from shipwrecking.

Likewise, your intercession over that loved one is more powerful than you know!

LET’S PRAY

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