1 Thessalonians 5:25 - Final Things for Beloved People: Pray For Us

25Brothers, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27 I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Target Date: Sunday, 23 July 2023

Thoughts on the Passage:

25 – It would be natural to assume that it was the Thessalonians who were in need of the apostles’ prayers, not the other way around.

But the strength of the gospel is not, is never, in the man, but in God.

Thus, He must be sought by His faithful sons and daughters on behalf of each other.

Teachings:

The book of Acts records God’s mighty acting in sending an angel to release Peter from prison (Acts 12:2–9). Thomas Watson comments: “The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel.”

So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. – Acts 12:5

Gardiner Spring wrote A Plea to Pray for Pastors, in which he urged: O it is at a fearful expense that ministers are ever allowed to enter the pulpit without being preceded, accompanied, and followed by the earnest prayers of the churches. It is not a marvel that the pulpit is so powerless, and ministers so often disheartened when there are so few to hold up their hands. The consequence of neglecting this duty is seen and felt in the spiritual declension of the churches, and it will be seen and felt in the everlasting perdition of men; while the consequences of regarding it would be the ingathering of multitudes into the kingdom of God, and new glories to the Lamb that was slain!

Sermon Text:

Today we begin, if the Lord is willing, the last two studies in our consideration of the first epistle to the Thessalonian church.

Next week it is my intention to cover all the final matter of this passage, but this morning, I want to focus on verse 25 – Brothers, pray for us.

We hear the same plea from people all around us:

Those who are in trouble.

Those who have fears.

Missionaries at home or overseas.

Even your elders here who serve you.

If asked what we need most, if we think about it, prayer would top our list.

But we must not let the fact this is a familiar request take away from its importance.

Many are the people who, when someone asks them to pray for them, will nod in agreement but never lift a single word in prayer to God.

Almost like we think that simply AGREEING that someone needs prayer is the same as actually PRAYING for them.

Indeed, it is quite in vogue in many Christian circles to simply ask people to “agree in prayer” with them.

This comes from an entirely false interpretation of Matthew 18:19-20.

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

This is not, as some would have it, God’s “blank check of faith” – allowing you to simply “claim” the answer to your prayer that you desire.

Nothing of the sort.

These verses are not even in the context of prayer, per se, but in the middle of the discussion of how to bring a sinning brother back into fellowship with the church.

It is sandwiched right between the structured instructions for church discipline in verses 15-18,

And the instructions about how often we should forgive a sinning brother in verses 21ff.

Where in that context AT ALL is Jesus talking about general prayer?

Nowhere.

The instruction here is that we must conduct even our redemptive discipline by the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

And if we accept a brother’s expression and proof of repentance, God will not second-guess us because He is part of that process already.

That is why we must be careful when people say Scriptural-sounding things, particularly when they make a promise of God into something it is not.

At no point, so far as I am aware, does anyone in the entire Bible ask someone to “agree in prayer” with them.

Certainly, Paul and Silas do not do so in our verse today.

They simply ask Brothers, pray for us.

Think about what is being asked here: Brothers, pray for us.

These apostles, sent by the Holy Spirit and the church, are asking the young Christians in Thessalonica to pray for THEM?

Perhaps many believers would have replied like John did when Jesus came to him to be baptized:

I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me? – Matthew 3:14

We might easily understand if believers were a little confused, then or now.

Why did these great apostles need the prayers of these little saints?

We might think these apostles could move any obstacle through the force of their OWN prayers;

Why did they need anyone else’s?

For that matter, why would the great apostle Paul, time and again, ask the very same thing in almost EVERY letter he sent to a church?

What need did this faithful servant of God have that his own prayers could not supply?

And that brings us to the great truth of this simple request:

The “power” of a believer, no matter how faithful, does not lie within themselves.

No matter how strong we think a believer is in their faith, no matter how faithful or close to God we consider them to be,

The power is NOT theirs.

The power is always from God through His Holy Spirit.

We look at people, and we judge them, good or bad, based on the things we see them do and say.

We place some men or women on a pedestal, thinking they are more complete a believer than we are.

We look at other believers like the apostles and tell ourselves they are better Christians than we will ever be.

In two places, Acts 10:34 and Romans 2:11, we are told the same thing: God is not a respecter of persons.

He does not HAVE favorites.

Every believer, from apostle to baptismal candidate, plays by the same rules and abides in the same love from God.

We get impressed by the effects that people have.

The things they overcome.

The times when God has used them in a mighty way.

But EVERY ONE of these believers was just as much a servant of the Most High God as every single one of you believers hearing me today.

So it is not just the prayers of the “super-saints”, the teachers, or the “reputed pillars” that engage God;

It is the prayer of EACH AND EVERY one of His children that commands His attention.

That is why the apostles needed the prayers of the “ordinary” believers.

They knew, perhaps more than we do, that the power they needed to accomplish the task God had called them to would come only FROM God,

And would be supplied more abundantly through the prayers of the saints.

Paul’s prayers carried no more weight with God than YOURS.

Might he have resorted to prayer sooner than we might? Yes.

Might he have prayed with greater faith? Yes.

Might he have relied on prayer more than we do? Almost certainly.

But still he needed the prayers of the saints, the prayers of the church, in doing what God had called him to do.

The book of Acts gives us a perfect illustration of this.

In Acts 12, Peter had been thrown into prison for preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. And we are told:

So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. – Acts 12:5

The CHURCH was praying fervently for this man of God as he remained in his prison cell.

Perhaps you remember the story: An angel appeared to Peter and led him out of the prison and back to the church that was assembled even at that hour.

When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. – Acts 12:11-12

In commenting on this event, the great Puritan preacher Thomas Watson put it so well:

“The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel.”

Do you really think your prayers, particularly for others, do any good?

How much more serious would you be in your prayers if you understood the true power of YOUR prayers to God?

Yes, we believe in God’s divine sovereignty in all things.

What He chooses to accomplish, He will do.

But being a Calvinist (as some would call us) is never an excuse to be a fatalist.

To tell ourselves that God will accomplish His purposes, whether or not we pray about the situation, is worse than lazy – it is faithless.

To shrug our shoulders to the sin, the pain, the suffering, or the joys around us is nothing short of Christian malpractice.

To consider that our prayer is of little use before the throne of our great God is a false humility born from the lips of the Satan himself.

For example, some Christians live as if their political vote is more powerful than their prayer to God.

And that is dangerous.

Your vote is one of many, and only the side with the most votes wins;

Your prayer is the request of a beloved child to your loving Father.

Which do you think is more powerful?

You might be out-voted, but your prayer will NEVER be ignored.

I heard one preacher the other day mocking those who, in his words, would “simply pray”.

But the one who votes, acts, or protests who has not “simply prayed” will find he has no strength and no favor with God for all his efforts.

Listen to James as he tells us:

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. - James 5:16-18

James isn’t telling us this so we can go out and control the weather;

He is telling us this to try to make us understand that the faithful prayer of a believer is POWERFUL before God.

It isn’t about how powerful YOU are;

It is all about God’s power.

YOUR prayer is powerful because God is powerful.

And in His power, He has ordained that we should come to Him in faith and PRAY.

In His sovereignty, He acknowledges and honors our faithful prayers on all things according to His will.

Even as you come to that time of prayer each morning, know that the things you pray about are lovingly answered by God who knows the end from the beginning.

By God who loves those you pray for much more than you do.

By God who gives good things to His children.

By God who gives every good thing and every perfect gift.

You have the very ear of God, who will honor your requests in power.

I would like to conclude today on a personal note: pray for your elders and for your church.

Pray for those who teach and those who serve.

Pray that God will continue to bless us with godly men and women to join our spiritual family here.

Pray that God will lead us to the space we need to accommodate His blessings.

Yes, He knows we need these things, and PRAY anyway.

And pray for me as I prepare to teach each week, and for Aaron as he teaches.

Not just on Sunday or Wednesday as we are gathering, but all during the week.

Pray that God will be leading us and teaching us each day.

Pray that we will be led far away from temptation so that we will not bring dishonor upon the name of Christ.

Finally, I have known in may life many who said that they were bored in church, or with a sermon, or with a preacher or teacher.

But I have NEVER met anyone in that situation who has fervently prayed for those tasked by God to lead in those things.

It is easy to sit back and judge the quality of the teaching or the songs or the programs or the people;

It is another thing entirely to invest yourself by prayer in its success.

Are you watching our service today by streaming simply because going to church is boring to you?

The problem, I can assure you, is not the church – it is that you have not invested enough time praying for your church.

We can only be bored by the things we are disinterested in.

And you cannot be disinterested if you are fervently praying for them.

Almost 200 years ago, the Presbyterian pastor Gardiner Spring wrote:

O it is at a fearful expense that ministers are ever allowed to enter the pulpit without being preceded, accompanied, and followed by the earnest prayers of the churches. It is not a marvel that the pulpit is so powerless, and ministers so often disheartened when there are so few to hold up their hands. The consequence of neglecting this duty is seen and felt in the spiritual declension of the churches, and it will be seen and felt in the everlasting perdition of men; while the consequences of regarding it would be the ingathering of multitudes into the kingdom of God, and new glories to the Lamb that was slain!

Brothers and sisters, pray for us.