Prayer for the Saints

Intro:

Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith February 11

A story is told of a special nurse who knew the importance of intercessory prayer. Because each day she used her hands as instruments of God’s love and mercy toward those in her care, she found it natural to use her hand as a scheme of prayer. Each finger represented someone she wanted to pray for. Her thumb was nearest to her and reminded her to pray for those who were closest and dearest. The index finger was used for pointing, so it stood for her instructors. The third finger was the tallest and stood for those in leadership. The fourth finger was the weakest, representing those in distress and pain. The little finger, which was the smallest and least important, reminded the nurse to pray for her own needs.

How do you pray for others? How do you lift up their needs?

Prayer is commanded and expected by the Lord Jesus in the lives of his people. He gives us a great example in the gospels of how to pray for ourselves, but in that prayer of Jesus, little is said of how to pray for others. Praying for others is often called intercessory prayer. You are interceding to God on behalf of another. I would suppose that for all of us, as we pray for others, our natural inclination is to pray for physical and spiritual needs for those in our lives.

For the physical, we pray for their health, their success, their family, their careers, their challenges and their joys. What about the spiritual needs of people lift up in prayer?

For the unbelievers in our lives, we should pray most fervently that the lost in our lives would have a repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater prayer that we could offer up on their behalf. For they could be hungry and want food, but their greatest need is salvation. They could be lonely and need companionship but their greatest need is a Savior. Remember, I am not talking about meeting physical needs. I am simply asking you how do you pray for others.

Now let me ask you: How do you pray for fellow believers in the church? There is so much to pray for, where do we begin? Again, we might be prone to automatically plead on their behalf for the physical because we might not know how to pray for the spiritual needs in their lives. So often, we don’t pray for the spiritual because no spiritual needs have been shared.

Let’s be honest…very few prayer requests from church sound like this…

“pray for my prayer life…it really is undisciplined lately. I am struggling to commune with the Lord because of distraction or worry. Pray for my temptations against the flesh that are all around me at work or online. Pray for my bitterness towards family, my boss, or my neighbors.

Let me begin today by challenging all of us to be truthful with our prayer needs that we share with our the church. Be truthfully transparent on the following basis:

all of the church is on a spiritual journey of ups and downs. We all battle sin and so none of us lack an understanding of the struggle.

all genuine believers in the church have the same hope in Christ and therefore can be a resources for one another as we struggle in our Christian lives.

Praying is something commanded to all believers and so to forsake prayers for one another is to live in disobedience. Your prayer life with the Lord may struggle because your prayers for others is missing.

1 Samuel 12:23–24 NASB95

23 “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. 24 “Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.

Now our sermon today is about praying for God’s people or intercessory prayer . We need to understand how as the church, we can rightly and effectively lift up our prayers in a helpful way for God’s people. Now there are many ways we as the church can pray for the physical needs of others, but we are going to focus in on how to rightly pray for the spiritual needs of brothers and sisters in the church.

Now Paul’s openings to his letters are very similar as we have witnessed in our studies in the letters of Paul. His greetings are similar, followed often by some doctrinal hymn of praise, (v 3-14) and usually it concludes with a prayer for the saints. Today, we are going to be look at Paul’s pray for the Ephesian church and how that prayer instructs us how to pray for the spiritual needs of God’s people.

To begin: Paul starts with one element of prayer

1. Be Thankful for the Community of God’s People

I am always so encouraged when you all voice your thankfulness for our church. Many of you have relayed messages to the elders of just how much this church means to your life. This is encouraging to us as leaders but it in turn leads us all to be thankful to God, for it is his church and his work that we are recognizing.

Paul encourages the Ephesians by stating that his thankfulness to God in his prayers them. in Eph 1:15-16

Ephesians 1:15–16 NASB95

15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;

Paul begins, “for this reason” which is a response to his hymn of praise of God’s sovereign work of salvation through Christ in their lives. He testified of what God has already supernaturally done in them and now Paul is praising God with thankfulness for them.

He is thankful for this church in two ways:

A. Their Public Faith in Christ

In our prayers, there should be no struggle for us to voice our thankfulness for the faith of others in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is stopping to acknowledge their faith and the demonstration of it. Paul is away from the Ephesians, in prison, and yet he rejoices because the gospel that he preached to them took root and it was bearing much fruit.

Paul had something similar to say to the Roman church:

Romans 1:8–10 NASB95

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.

There is a great cause of thankfulness in our hearts when we see the church love Christ in pure faith. When we see fear turn to faith, doubt turned to determination, lust for the world to love for God, this should lead to joy overflowing in the hearts of the saints.

Our gratitude for God is thankfulness for his powerful work to accomplish this work in fellow church family. We are not thanking God for men’s attempt at these things. We are thanking God for planting the seed of the gospel and bearing fruit in the lives of His church.

Now while Paul commends the public witness of faith in Christ in the Ephesian church, the apostle John, rebukes these believers for their lack of it. In other words, they started great but they were consistent in their faith in Christ. Look what John writes in Rev 2:2-5

Revelation 2:2–5 NASB95

2 ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 4 ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.

Church, this is a reminder that we can pray in thanksgiving for the faith of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul thanks God for their demonstration of faith in Christ. John commends them on their faith. But they are also rebuked because they “left their first love.” They have not abandoned their faith in Christ as apostates, but they neglected their love for Christ in being a public witness for him. It seems that John is referring to their zeal and passion for Christ in public was lost. They became inward focused and instead of both protecting the flock and proclaiming salvation in the great Shepherd.

As we pray, may we pray that our faith and obedience in Christ would be steadfast and publically observed for the world to see. May the Lord grant us and our church family a continual harvest of fruitfulness in Christ.

B. The Love for the Saints

Paul also mentions the love for the saints as his cause to be thankful. It has been said that this reflects the vertical love for God and the horizontal love for the church. Paul again is reflecting that such a radical transformation in the grace of Christ will bring about a love for one another. This is also communicated by the apostle John.

1 John 4:20–21 NASB95

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Paul is also thankful that the love and faith in Christ has bore a fruitfulness from the Ephesians believers of love for towards one another. Remember how vitally important this is in this culture of Jew and Gentile coming together, overcoming the cultural differences in Christ. They by God’s power were loving with unity in diversity.

Kids, you are growing up in a culture that says you have to hate those who are different than you. This is not the way followers of Jesus should act. Instead, we love people even if they are different from us. Loving them is showing kindness to them and loving them is also telling them the truth in all things. Don’t be tricked into believing that you can’t love people different from you. Also, don’t be tricked into thinking that loving someone means you don’t say truthful things that they need to hear.

For example, if you and your friends are playing, and he or she falls on a stick and they have a cut in their back that starts bleeding., it is loving for you to tell them the truth even if they cant see blood. The truth is they are in danger and you need to love them enough to be honest with them and get them help.

Church, loving those in the church also means that we love those that are hard to love. I am sometimes hard to love. I admit that! Love for the church is unconditional love…not OPTIMAL CONDITIONS love. A plane can only take off from the runway in certain weather conditions. Without those conditions, planes are grounded. The church should love one another when the least preferrable conditions exist with fellow believers. Matthew Henry writes,

“Those who love saints, as such, love all saints, however weak in grace, however mean in the world, how fretful and peevish whosoever, some of them may be. ”

Paul commends the church at Ephesus because they were loving those who looked different than them, grew up in different cultures, maybe even those they hated at one time. But the love of Christ compels them and us to look beyond difference and love one another.

2. Be Prayerful for their Greatest Spiritual Need

Ephesians 1:17–23 NASB95

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

What is the greatest spiritual need of every believer in Christ? increase your church attendance, gain deeper intimacy with church family, be more disciplined in your prayer life, being more bold with sharing the gospel?

Paul answers that question for us in his prayer for the Ephesians. in 17,

Ephesians 1:17–18 NASB95

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

In a parallel verse in Col 1:9, Paul writes

Colossians 1:9 NASB95

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

The greatest spiritual need that you and I have is to be filled with knowledge of His will or be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I think that Paul’s words guide us to the spiritual nourishment that we find in Christ. Therefore, friends, let us spend the remaining time that we have now and some next week, and look to Christ, our great Savior and Lord.

Now in my opinion, the church has not been extremely clear on the role of the Scriptures in regards to Christ. I think the message of some churches is read your bible for in it you find wisdom, you are guided along the path of life that leads to God. This is a good message but it is an incomplete message.

Let me explain why. When a person reads the bible without a focal point, he or she ends up walking through the forest without a map, compass or the sun to guide them in the proper direction. We place the proverbs over here, the books of the law over here, the doom and gloom prophets over there, then Jesus and the NT right before us. What this does to our understanding of the Bible is to see at individual puzzle pieces. Those pieces may have some visual picture on them that you recognize and can admire, but they don’t form the picture they were intended to make.

Paul tells us in Ephesians and Colossians that his greatest prayer for the church is that they would grow in their knowledge of Christ. Jesus is the focal point of all of the Scriptures and therefore out greatest need is to grow in reading the Scriptures and to see Jesus throughout the Scriptures. How else does the rest of the Bible make sense if not for this grand focal point of Christ.

Now look at Paul’s language in v 18. To have the eyes of your heart enlightened is for God to supernaturally awaken the Scriptures by divine inspiration to see Jesus as the center of the Scriptures. He bring light to darkness in the way that we all the sudden make the connections so that Joseph in Egypt, is more than a story of God using a rejected man to bring physical salvation from starvation through God’s hand of providence and power.

To be awakened to see Christ in all the Scriptures is to see that Joseph is a shadow or type of Christ. The food that Jospeh wisely stored away so the Egyptians and Israelites could survive the famine actually points to the way of salvation that we find in Christ. He too was a man rejected by his people and yet in God’s power, he brought about the true salvation that saved people from all nations through a spiritual provision.

This is illustrated perfectly in the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Those disciples of Jesus contained a lot of information from the OT scriptures and the current events surrounding the man Jesus. At the time, these disciples were unable to recognize that it was the resurrected Jesus who was walking with them. In that conversation, Luke tells us that

Luke 24:27 NASB95

27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Later than evening, there eyes were opened and they saw that this one enlightening their mind was actually their resurrected Lord. It was Jesus teaching that helped them see how all the writings of the Law, from Moses, and also the writings of the prophets spoke of and pointed to Christ.

This what Paul means in v 17-18

Ephesians 1:17–18 NASB95

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

We must grow in our understanding of Jesus and what Paul will give us are many different ways of how we might understand Jesus so that the church can grow. This will help us to know Him more and it will also help us to know to pray for our church family. We must pray that they also increase in their understanding of Christ, throughout all the Scriptures so that they too may walk in holiness and godliness in this world.

Let me conclude today with a warning. To ignore our need to grow in our knowledge of him is to ignore the dangers of evil around us. Paul told the corinthians

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 NASB95

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Now we understand this to refer to Satan’s work at blinding unbelievers from understanding the message of teh gospel preached to them. But notice what Paul warns Timothy regarding the church

2 Timothy 4:3–4 NASB95

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Who do you think wanders from the truth? Those in the church body. Those who did not treasure Christ, who did not seek to know him more, who were not pursuing spiritual growth in knowing Christ. Because of this they fell away and signifying that they never truly belonged to Christ.

Lords Supper