1 Timothy 2:1-8 Part 2

1 Timothy 2:1–8 ESV

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

Our text this morning begins a heading for Timothy from Paul as to what the conduct of a church should be .

And what does he begin with? Prayer. Would it suprise you to hear me say the most important thing we could do as a church is pray? The most effective thing we could offer to the Lord is not giving gifts to the poor, but rather praying? Paul makes this argument here. He urges the church to pray…

He begins by telling the chruch how to pray…But Before we get there we need to understand

Paul urges the church to pray for the salvation of people (v3-4)

We could go back and look at the Lord’s prayer, which we looked at nearly 2 years ago… All of that is good to pray for, but there is something altogether more important for the church to pray for.... Look at verse 3…

He tells us how to pray, and we will get there in just a moment, but the aim of Paul’s urging is specific.

1 Timothy 2:3–4 ESV

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The urging of praying, the target of supplications and prayers, and intercessions and thanksgivings is salvation. Now, this isn’t all we pray for, but when we as a church come together to pray, there should be a sense in which we are joining forces to plead with God for salvation of people.

We can preach to people right doctrine, and preach we will and must, but unless the Lord softens someone’s heart, they will never be saved by preaching alone. Paul makes the case here then that our prayers ansolutely play a part in the salvation of others.

Now, lets consider how we pray…

How To Pray For Someone’s salvation (v1a)

Paul tells timothy that he urges that prayer be a focus of the church. INdoing this he uses four different words to describe how the church is to pray.

1) Supplications: Some of your versions may say entreaties. The word comes from “to lack” or “to be in need”. They way you pray for people and there salvation is seeing their need of knowing God. Seeing they are without God due to a lack of care or concern, or you might see that they are mad at God, or even denying there to be a God altogether. Pray for their need.

2) Prayers: This is a general word for praying. And it really finds its meaning in connection. The only way that this word is used in the scriptures is in reference to God himself. Meaning, this is an act of worship. It is a conversation with God not out of obligation or in a dire situtation, but a part of your regular routine of loving God. Remember these people before God.

3) Intercessions: This word means, “to fall in with someone”. This word is used in Romans 8:26 and Hebrews 7:25 to describe Jesus’ relationship with us. He interceds for us. He identifies with our needs and becomes involved with our struggles because we are his. He cares for us so, that he has a keen on what we are struggling with, and he brings it before the father. So, we pray, we see the pain people are in because they are turned away from God and we struggle on their behalf adding our voice to the Lord’s ear.

4) Thanksgivings: generally this is our attitude. We talked about this the last time we were in 1 Timothy. We are grateful, and thanlful, that we have God. That he showed mercy to us! We should be thankful for God showing mercy to others, that others are saved, and have been shown the mercy of God.

Paul uses all of these words to describe the evangelistic ministry of the church. One way you can evangelize and care tfor the souls of other people is to plead their salvation before the God who saves…

Now, Who do we pray for?

Who to Pray For (v1b-2a)

Paul mentions two groups of people to pray for. First, he says all people. Easy enough, right? Anyone that does not have God, who is not saved, needs prayer. There is no class of people that deserve our prayers for salvation more than another. Specificallly my heart yearns for the dalit caste in India. They are a caste, or an aristocratic subgroup of people who are known as the untouchables in India. By the higher ups, or the government of India they inherit at birth a life that has already been predecided for them… these are people who have no worth in the eyes of the upper caste of India. They often live among the trash, and are poorer than you or I could ever imagine. All people, Paul says, are worth your prayers of salvation.

All people to kings and thos who are in high positions of authority. Those, like govenor Nero of Rome… Pray for him. He hated christians, yet Paul says, pray for him and those like him. Pray that they might be saved because if they are saved, then one they will know God (which we will come back to in just a moment), but two, we will be able to live a peaceful and quiet life.

This happened in history. In 303AD Diocletian was the emperor of Rome and carried out a horrible persecution of the Christians. He spilt the empire in doing this into an east and a west empire of Rome. In 311 AD Constantine, as a christian roe to power, reunited the empire, ended the persecution of the church, and made Christianity legal. There was a great time of peace under constantine for the church.

Believers are to be known for their quiet demeanor, not for making disturbances. John MacArthur says that unbelievers should see Christians as quiet, loyal, diligent, and virtuous people.

Christians are not free from problems, remember that we saw recently Christians aren’t supposed to submit to government that calls them to sin or to do something that is immoral toward God. Yet our desire is peace. If we suffer persecution let it be for our godliness, and for the name of Jesus that we are boldly proclaiming. Let it never be for our rebellious nature and our crude way of speaking and tearing down other people.

Now, we have noted at the begining, we are praying this way as a Church because God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth… But you see, Pual banks all of this on theology that you need to grasp. That you and I need never forget… Vers 5-6…

The urgency in prayer for salvation is the knowledge of the truth (v5-6)