Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

How is your evangelistic prayer life?

Let’s be honest, it is a challenge for some who believe in the Doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God in all things; including salvation, to be as evangelistically prayerful as they should.

But let me be clear of this very important statement; such is not a problem with the very clear teaching of the Scripture, but a problem in the heart of the believer.

I would suppose that the question that would then arise about all of this is:

Can we really pray for the salvation of sinners?

Since God is sovereign, is praying for the salvation of sinners even necessary or important.

On this point, the Baptist Confession says:

GOD hath1 Decreed in himself from all Eternity, by the most wise and holy Councel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to passe; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin,2 nor hath fellowship with any therin, nor is violence offered to the will of the Creature, nor yet is the liberty, or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather3 established, in which appears his wisdom in disposing all things, and power, and faithfulness4 in accomplishing his Decree.

The point that I want to focus on is the point of the “second causes”.

That basically means that God fulfills His purposes through means; that He ordained all things that come to pass and that He ordain HOW all of those things come to pass.

So to say, “if God Ordained all things, why pray” is to not understand that God ordained means as well.

Since God has ordained our prayers as the means that He uses to bring about the salvation of people, the we must be committed to doing it.

Moses, the representative for God spoke for the salvation of his people.

Now, here Samuel goes a step further than Moses went.

Moses prayed for the people, but Samuel said that it was a sin not to.

All throughout Scripture, it has been the practice of God’s people to pray evangelistically for others.

All the message is clear here.

From the heart of the Apostle, to the Pastor Timothy to the congregation.

And he breaks this passage up in sections that we want to notice: first, The Passion; second, The Pleasure; Third, The Person; and fourth, The Petition.

I.

The Passion (vs. 1)

I want you to notice something with me as we begin to explore this rich text.

We all understand that when the Holy Spirit inspired the NT in Greek, He did it without chapter divisions or verse divisions; that it was all one long string of text.

So what the Timothy would have read would have been what we know to be verse of chapter one and then what we know to be verse 1 of chapter 2, without the division.

I bring that up because that is vital to understand in interpreting Scripture.

So this would have been just one thought:

And the word “then” as it may appear in your English translation is the Greek word “οὖν” and is a conjunction that is also translated as “therefore”; either one would be a proper translation.

And both of these words would be to point back at something previously stated.

And after they read the portion about Hymenaeus and Alexander, they would then read, “Therefore”.

And what Paul is doing is that he is using the sins of Hymenaeus and Alexander as I spring board to encourage the Church to pray.

Paul says to Timothy, “I urge you”.

This Greek word is from the root word “καλεω” which means “to call”.

Here it is the Greek word “παρακαλέω” and it means “to encourage, to implore”.

Pau; says “I implore you, I encourage you to do certain things” that he will go to mention.

This is not seen, in the text as a command; it is not an imperative verb, it is an indicative verb.

The indicative mood in the Greek is the mood of reality.

It states the way things are, or should be; depending on context.

This would be the indicative mood of a wish or desire.

Paul says, “Timothy, I wish the Church would do this, I encourage the Church to do this”.

But Paul uses another word in the text that should lay some sense of importance at the door.

He uses the word “πρῶτος” or “first”.

Paul has now moved from directly dealing with areas in Timothy’s life that need encouraging, to now the Church.

This is where the real color of the book starts to show.

Pauls’ Passion was on two different levels

1. Prayer (vs.

1a)

The very first thing that the Apostle was to encourage the Church to do is pray.

I mean he is writing to a local Church Pastor and to the local Church and the very first thing that he tells them to do is pray.

And I think that it is very instructive to us that he uses the bridge word “therefore” to take us back to what has previously been stated.

As if to say, “Look at Hymenaeus and Alexander Church; the first thing you need to do is pray.

Then he goes on to describe four different type of prayers.

It is as if there are really two groups of prayers.

He has on group separated by a conjunction and then another group separated by a conjunction.

It is as if entreaties and prayers go together; although different sides of the same coin.

And it is as if petitions and thanksgiving go together; although different sides of the same coin.

A. Entreaties

This is the Greek word “δέησις” and the root of the word means “to lack,” “to be deprived,” or “to be without something.”

This kind of prayer arises from the sense of need.

Knowing what is lacking, we plead with God to supply it.

And, again, going back to Paul previous statement regarding Hymenaeus and Alexander, this would lead us to believer that the first point of importance for the Church are prayers that are evangelistic in nature.

Paul says to Timothy that I encourage you, see the need and ask God to meet it; that it the meaning of Entreaties.

As we look out on the masses of lost humanity, the enormity of the need should drive us to our knees in evangelistic prayer.

Charles Spurgeon said: “If you have no desire to see people saved, it is because you are not saved yourself.”

The seventeenth-century English Puritan Richard Baxter wrote:

Oh, if you have the hearts of Christians or of men in you, let them yearn towards your poor ignorant, ungodly neighbours.

Alas, there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell; many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seize on them, and if they die unregenerate, they are lost forever.

Have you hearts of rock, that cannot pity men in such a case as this?

If you believe not the Word of God, and the danger of sinners, why are you Christians yourselves?

If you do believe it, why do you not bestir yourself to the helping of others?

Do you not care who is damned, so you be saved?

If so, you have sufficient cause to pity yourselves, for it is a frame of spirit utterly inconsistent with grace.…

Dost thou live close by them, or meet them in the streets, or labour with them, or travel with them, or sit and talk with them, and say nothing to them of their souls, or the life to come?

If their houses were on fire, thou wouldst run and help them; and wilt thou not help them when their souls are almost at the fire of hell?

(Cited in I. D. E. Thomas, A Puritan Golden Treasury [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977], 92–93)

But not only Entreaties, but also:

B. Prayers

It is the word “προσευχή” and it is slightly different that entreaties.

Entreaties is a prayer that is an expression of need.

Again, in this context, we see the need for the lost to be saved and we entreat that way.

But the word “προσευχή” has an element of devotion.

It is a prayer that is addressed to God.

It; therefore, carries a unique element of worship and reverence.

Prayer for the lost is ultimately directed at God as an act of worship, because the salvation of sinners causes then to give glory to Him.

Paul reveals that all his efforts at reaching the ungodly were to spread saving grace to more and more people so they could give thanks to God, which would abound to His glory.

So Paul, the literary genius that he is, lumps these two Greek words together separated by the conjunction “and” and is saying, “ask for what you see as a need, so that it will bring glory to God.

Let me show you a verse that has, over the years, really, been taken out of context.

You have probably heard people say that the angles rejoice when one sinner repents and they use this verse as proof of that.

But is that really what the verse says?

It says that there is “joy in the presence of the Angels...”

Who is in the presence of the angels?

God…the Triune Godhead.

So, when one sinner repents, it brings the Godhead joy.

That is Paul’s point in our text.

Make your entreaties, the things that you see that are needs; and make you prayers, an act of worship that will bring glory to God.

In this context, see the need for the salvation of lost and pray for it; in order that God may be glorified.

And that is really how our prayers are suppose to work.

That is why the average Christian does not see more happen in their lives.

Someone says, “Well, we do not have because we do not ask.”

Well, I do not think that the average believer has any problem asking.