The Interceding Spirit

Welcome

Good morning everyone and welcome. Today we are going to be in Romans 8:18-27, if you have your Bibles you can go ahead and turn there. In my original sermon schedule for the year we were supposed to start the book of Colossians a few weeks ago, obviously that didn’t happen and we don’t have enough time to go through it before Advent. So at Coffee hour we were talking about prayer and we figured we might as well spend a few more weeks talking about prayer together! So, for the rest of November we are going to look at some other areas of prayer that we find in scripture and what they mean for us in our prayer lives. This morning we are going to be reading about how the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and prays for us when we don’t have the words to say.

Prayer

1. Present Suffering, Future Glory

Romans 8:18–21 NIV

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Chapter 8 of Romans begins with Paul talking about the hope that we have because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit breaks us free from the law of sin and death and instead allows us to live according to the Spirit and not to the flesh, not to the nature of our sin. So here in verse 18 then, we begin to see how Paul doesn’t minimize the suffering that we will still go through as Christians. This is another great reason I love scripture. Scripture does not present to us an unrealistic expectation of what life will look like as a follower of Jesus. Scripture doesn’t tell us that following Jesus means we won’t have suffering in our lives. It doesn’t mean we won’t experience pain. Instead, what Paul is telling us here in verse 18, is that as followers of Jesus we are able to look at suffering within our lives in a totally different way than the rest of the world. Paul is saying that whatever suffering we go through, it is nothing compared to what actually awaits us. This is quite the statement, especially coming from Paul. Paul went through all kinds of suffering in his life. If the boat he was travelling on wasn’t sinking, he wasn’t being stoned or robbed, then he was either being beaten or sitting in prison somewhere. Paul went through intense suffering in his life, and most of it that we read about is directly related to following Jesus. The other disciples can relate to this suffering as well as other believers who were killed and tortured because of their faith in Christ. Think of Paul’s suffering, and then imagine him saying, “This is nothing compared to what is waiting for me.”

There is some comfort and peace offered to us in these verses. Suffering is part of the human life. Every person in the room knows this and has first hand experience with it. There are times where we question God about our suffering, where we are upset by our suffering, where we don’t understand what God is doing. Those are all valid emotions to go through when faced with suffering and that is a whole topic in and of itself that could be covered. But Paul’s point is, no matter what suffering you go through, it isn’t even worth comparing the future glory that will be revealed to us. What is this glory? The glory that Paul mentions is compared to the weight and majesty of God’s presence in the OT. Paul describes this glory being given to the believer when we have been transformed into the image of Christ.

Then we get to verses 19-21. Creation is waiting for something. Creation has been waiting for the moment that the children of God would be revealed so that creation itself would be liberated. What is Paul talking about? He’s drawing us back to the Garden in Genesis.

Genesis 3:17 “17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.”

Just as we await the future hope that we have in Christ, creation itself is waiting for the freedom and glory that is being offered to followers of Jesus. In the next section, we see the first mention of something / someone groaning.

2. Creation's Cry and Our Hope

Romans 8:22–25 NIV

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Creation has not only been waiting, but it has been groaning for things to be made right. Paul gives us this illustration of a woman in childbirth groaning in pain. This groaning is waiting for something to happen. It’s pain because there is something good that is coming. The current state is not ideal for creation, it longs to be remade and display the full glory of God just as it did in the Garden.

Paul then says that not only is creation groaning, but we ourselves (Paul is specifically talking about followers of Jesus here) we are groaning as we await our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. This is what we are groaning for. As believers in Jesus, we are already God’s children, but we are not made complete at this moment. We will be made complete though when we are brought to new life in resurrected bodies through the power of Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:2 “2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,” We are waiting for the hope that has been promised to us. Eternity in God’s presence with new life in new bodies. This is what allows us to not grieve death as the rest of the world, but to celebrate, because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. In these renewed bodies there is not cancer, no illness, no injury. It means that even if we face incredible physical suffering in our life, we have the promise of this future hope.

How do we know this hope is real? How do we know we can depend on this hope while we suffer? Because God has given us his Spirit as the firstfruits. In our current day we would call the Spirit the down payment. If you have bought a house before you know that part of that process is a down payment. There’s even the idea of “earnest money.” Money that before you even get all the paperwork finished up, you give to the seller as a way of saying, “I really want this house, I will pay you this amount to essentially hold it. To know that I am serious about purchasing it.”

This is the Holy Spirit for us as believers. Christ has purchased us on the cross. He has called you his and bought the salvation that we need from our sins. He has promised us eternity with God the Father, to be in the presence of the Ancient of Days forever. And to demonstrate that, he puts this earnest money down in the form of the Holy Spirit. When we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead we are saved and are given this down payment of the Spirit.

Because of this down payment of the Spirit, we are able to look ahead to the future hope that awaits us. Not only are we able to wait for it, but we are able to wait patiently for it.

(If someone promised to take me somewhere, I know they are serious when the go ahead and book the hotel or get the tickets to whatever event we are going to, when I know that we have the things purchased that I know we will need, I don’t need to wonder if it is going to happen or not. The person has already bought everything, paid for the hotel and tickets, I know they are serious about taking me) Because of this I can wait patiently. I don’t have to keep asking, “Are we really going?” because I know we are, the room has been booked!

This is how we can wait for the future hope of resurrected bodies in the presence of God. God has already purchased us. He is serious about us. Now we just wait for that moment.

3. Spirit's Supportive Groans

Romans 8:26–27 NIV

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Now we finally get to how the Spirit helps us pray. So we are promised the Spirit as a down payment. How does that help us when we face suffering in our lives? Paul tells us, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. In our current life before our resurrected bodies, we are going to have times of weakness. Times when life is kind of kicking us around. When things are beyond hard. And Paul tells us, this Spirit which God has given to you, will help you in that weakness. When we are in those moments in life when it seems like all we can do is groan, when we can’t put words to our suffering, when we can’t even voice a prayer or know what to say, the Spirit helps us. The Spirit intercedes on our behalf and groans before God the Father for us. I say this quite a bit, but God is not a distant, uncaring God. God demonstrates his care and his love towards us by giving us his Spirit. By showing us that we are not alone, that we have an advocate who goes before the Father and prays for us. One author says describes the Holy Spirit helping us to pray in this way...

There have been times when my children were so desperately ill and the urgency so great that I could scarcely converse with God. At best I may have said a few words, “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” There have been times when something has been said to us that is so devastating and we are so hurt we cannot pray, “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” One day some of us will lie in hospitals with catheters and IVs, and we will not have the will to pray or even put two thoughts together, “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” The Holy Spirit expresses those things we feel but cannot articulate. The Holy Spirit says those things we want to say but cannot mouth.

This is the help the Sprit gives to us. The illustration that helps me with this is to imagine carrying the burdens that you have in life as this huge heavy log. (That is often what these burdens feel like) But to try to carry that log is impossible. We try to drag it with us through life and hope we can keep going. The Spirit though, comes alongside us and picks up the other side of the log. The Holy Spirit does not give armchair advice, the Holy Spirit rolls us his sleeves and helps us bear our weaknesses. This is the help that God gives to us through his Spirit. We have one person interceding on our behalf in Heaven, Jesus who intercedes for our sins, and one person interceding in our hearts, the Spirit.

Because of the greatness of the coming glory and because of our weakness, we groan. But we are not alone, for we are surrounded by the sympathetic groanings of creation and even of the Holy Spirit. And one day our groanings will be replaced by glory.

The best prayers have often more groans than words, and those words that it has are but a lean and shallow representation of the heart, life, and spirit of that prayer.

John Bunyan

Application

If you're struggling to find the right words to pray, set aside time each morning to simply sit in silence for 10-15 minutes, inviting the Holy Spirit to intercede on your behalf. Use this time to focus your thoughts on gratitude, confess any burdens, and allow the Spirit to guide your heart.