Praying for All

Call to Worship

Who is like the Lord our God, Ps. 113 high above the heavens in glory? Blessed be the name of the Lord. Who raises the poor from the dust and lifts up the needy from the ashes? Blessed be the name of the Lord. Who makes light shine in darkness, gives joy in sorrow, and brings life out of death? Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Prayer of the Day

Almighty God, you created the heavens and the earth, and humankind in your image. Teach us to discern your hand in all your works and to serve you with reverence and thanksgiving; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Context

Paul is offering guidance to Timothy on leading the church in Ephesus.

Timothy was a protege and co-worker of Paul’s, whom Paul stationed at Ephesus to pastored the church there.

It was nowhere easy to be a Christian church.

Ephesus particularly dynamic setting. Some things we know that happened while Paul was in Ephesus from Acts 19.

Preached the gospel in the synagogue, but was stubbornly rejected. Leading to a schism in the congregation. Paul had to preach in a social hall which was owned by one of the members.

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,

(+) which prompted many citizens to abandon their traditional magical practices and to stage a public burning of their spell books.

(-) Probably to the dismay of their pagan family and friends who valued those books as family heirlooms.

Then one of the local silversmiths noticed that people were turning away from idolatry to Christ and that consequently the sales of silver idols were taking a hit. So he and others in the trade stirred up a riot that the city officials were barely able to quell it.

Overall picture: Ephesus was a volatile city and people were polarizing. Jews, Gentiles, Pagans, and Christians were pointing the finger at each other.

What should the stance of the Christian congregation be when the society around them is conflicted?

Paul offers this guidance to pastor Timothy:

Text

1 Timothy 2:1–7 “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all —this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Prayer for Illumination

God our Savior, as we hear your Word 1 Tim. 2 send your Holy Spirit to be our teacher of faith and truth and show us how we are called to live; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Introduction

Paul urges Timothy to cultivate an attitude of prayer.

He mentions four kinds of prayer: supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving. But his point is to offer all kinds of prayer.

And to offer all kinds of prayer for all people.

pray for “everyone”

for “kings and ALL who are in authority”

Pray for the low and the high.

Paul offers this guidance because there was likely a temptation in the congregation to not want to pray for the community around them — filled as it was with potential enemies and threats.

why should we pray for the Jews who kick us out of the synagogue?

why should we pray for the silversmiths who rioted against?

There was probably tendency to retreat into a self-focus. Praying only for the church.

Paul says, no. Don’t turn inward.

Pray for the community around you…

In fact, he says this is of first importance. (1 Timothy 2:1) — first of all, I urge prayer. He is suggesting that the first sign of giving up on the world around you is to stop praying for it. To counteract that drift, Paul writes, first of all, pray for the society around you.

I think it would be safe to say that like the Ephesians long ago, we live in confusing and polarized times right now.

We need to hear the call to prayer…not just for ourselves, not just for our church, not just for our ‘tribe’, but for everyone.

Paul gives us three solid reasons why.

Exegesis 1: the church is in the world

Paul writes to the Ephesians, let us pray for the society around us

1 Timothy 2:2 “..so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

Paul means that the church’s welfare is connected to the wellbeing of the community in which it is situated.

Pray that there would be peace and justice in the non-Christian community, so that we might go about our lives in quiet and peace and godliness and dignity in the Christian community.

Church is in the world. If the world is stressed and in upheaval, that is going to impact the church too. If the church desires peace and wellbeing, it should be praying peace for the larger society.

Praying for the larger society — even when it was hostile to God’s people — was also expressed in the OT. When God’s people were in exile in Babylon, the last thing they wanted to do was pray for the welfare of Babylon. But the prophet wrote:

Jeremiah 29:7 “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Paul knew this scripture, and is applying it to the Christians in Ephesus.

Paul says, pray for the society around you because your welfare and their welfare is connected.

Application 1 - Pray for All

I was scrolling the headlines earlier this week. Like you, here is something I disagree with….here is something that irritates me…here is something that I can’t tolerate…here is something I am going to shake my head at.

Shut off my phone. What a messed up world.

Leave it at that?

Paul says no: you should pray.

As a first order of business, you should pray.

Supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings for everyone: for the right, for the left, for this side and that side, for this perspective and that, for everyone in high positions and low.

Why? So that as the justice of society increases, God’s people can also live in godliness.

I used to live in another country we had a corner apartment on the third floor. Nice view. Some days were beautiful. Could go outside, mountains in the distance, playground for kids. Let the breeze blow through the house.

Other days were trash burning days. Locals burned all their refuse. Scheduled dumpster fires. Burn the eyes, assault the nose.

Not being a citizen of that country or town, there was nothing for me to do about it. Trash days: we had to close up the house and stay inside.

As a Christian there is always something we can do. We can pray.

We do not close up the windows and doors of our hearts, but open our hearts and pray.

When we scroll the headlines, that stinks, that stinks…we pray, we pray….Give us fresh air to breathe, O God.

Scroll, pray. Scroll, pray.

Exegesis 2: God’s mission is to the world.

God is pleased when a church prays for the world around it because God’s mission is exactly to bring the fresh air of salvation to the whole world.

1 Timothy 2:3–4 “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Again, Paul is drawing on a basic idea about God from the Scriptures. In Genesis it is clear that there is only one God, the creator of all that exists. God created humankind in his own image.

That image was distorted by sin, separated from God and more and more from each other until they did not even recognize each other as siblings.

But God promised that one day he would redeem all of humanity from sin and bring them back together.

Abraham — through you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)

Pauls says, this promise has finally come to pass.

1 Timothy 2:5–6 “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all —this was attested at the right time.”

Paul does not talk about Jew/Gentile. Those in the church/out of the church. He talks about God and humanity. There is one God and there is all of humankind. And the bridge between them is Christ Jesus.

Since there is only one mediator between God and humankind, the church should be praying for all people to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is no other bridge. No other atonement.

By praying for the whole world, the church shares in the love which prompted God to send his Son to the all people.

Application 2

Some of you may be wondering, What about God’s election. Don’t we Presbyterians believe that God sovereignly chooses who will saved? Doesn’t Paul teach that point in other letters?

Yes; to both of these questions. Yet we also affirm that while God knows his own, we can never assume that someone will not be saved…

Paul himself said, God had mercy on me though I was the chief of sinners!”

So, we cannot withhold our prayers from anyone, but must pray always and to the last minute, that every person will come to relationship with Christ, the one mediator between God and humankind.

Jesus was on the cross: Forgive they know not…and hearing this, one of the thieves crucified with him repented and obtained salvation at the last moment of his life.

So we pray for those who are not saved, who seem they cannot, will not eve believe.

When you pray for your unsaved friends —

For someone in the news —

For someone in the society —

Sharing in Christs prayer.

Exegesis 3

Paul back’s up this expansive call to prayer by pointing to his own ministry.

1 Timothy 2:7 “For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Interesting clause — I am telling the truth, not lying — sounds strange to us, but has the sense of saying, “no really, as amazing as it sounds this is the case.

Amazing on two fronts:

that I, a Jew and elite Pharisee, am now an messenger of the gospel.

that I work with Gentiles, not Jews!

Before meeting Christ, Paul was zealous for the ways of his ancestors. Gentiles had no place in that scheme. He did not pray for all. Praying for the Jews and leaving out Gentiles as impediments to be overcome.

But NOW after encountering Christ, he was sent to those he previously left out. To the Gentiles.

The Ephesian church themselves were the product of Paul’s prayer and ministry. The Ephesians church was likely a combined congregation of Jews and Gentiles, brought together by Paul’s message.

Paul saying: amazing, but true: God called me to reach out to the Gentiles, and you are proof that God is calling in everyone.

So, Paul is saying, you should pray for everyone, because you are part of the everyone that God is called together.

Application 3

Sometimes we take it for granted that we are in the church. But we should remember that each of us is here because other people have prayed for us to be here.

By parents, pastors, by elders, by members, who wanted you to grow in your faith.

They prayed for you when you were doubting, rebellious.

They prayed for you when you were that young generation that was “too far gone.”

Prayers of intercession. Pastoral prayer.

We are recipients of grace and we pay it forward.

We want to grow. First step is prayer. Who is God calling into our church? We should be praying for them!

Conclusion

Timothy’s church in a situation when they could be tempted to turn inward.

Instead Paul says, no turn outward in prayer.

We too can be tempted to deprive the world of our prayers. But instead we are called to pray.

Pray for everyone because their welfare and ours is connected.

Pray because God is on a mission to the whole world.

Pray because you we pay forward what we have received.

Call to Confession

If we say that we have not sinned we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us pray.

Prayer of Confession

Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, and direct what we shall be, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name.

Assurance of Pardon

Our loving God desires everyone to be saved 1 Tim. 2:4 and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Hear the good news! In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God.

Giving to God and Neighbor

Prayers of Intercession

Help us, O God of our salvation; Ps. 79:9 deliver us for the glory of your name. You are one, O God, 1 Tim. 2 and you have given us one mediator: Christ Jesus our Lord; it is in his name that we offer our prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, and supplication.

For the poor and needy in our land, Amos 8 and in every land, those who are trampled on by the rich, bought and sold for profit …. [silent prayer]

For families torn apart by violence, Ps. 79

lands laid waste by destruction,

and cities ruined by war …. [silent prayer]

For all those who are beset by illness or grief, Jer. 8–9 whose hearts are sick, whose joy is gone …. [silent prayer]

We pray these things through Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 2 who gave himself a ransom for all.

And taught us to pray, saying…