Sermon Tone Analysis

What is the primary task of the Church?

What’s first?

What should take precedence over everything else in the life of the Church?

Our answer had better be worship.

Our responsibility is to worship; worship is our primary task.

As John Stott puts it: “The church is essentially a worshipping, praying community.

It is often said that the church’s priority task is evangelism, but this is really not so.

Worship takes precedence over evangelism, partly because love for God is the first commandment and love for neighbor the second.

[Worship takes precedence over evangelism], partly because long after the church’s evangelistic task has been completed, God’s people will continue to worship Him eternally.

[Worship takes precedence over evangelism], partly because evangelism is itself an aspect of worship, a ‘priestly duty’ where converts ‘become an offering acceptable to God’ (Romans 15:16).”

Worship takes precedence.

Our church mission statement is simple: We exist to worship, proclaim, and serve.

Those three words are important, each a large part of what, I believe, we’re meant to be about.

But there’s a reason ‘worship’ is first.

Worship is and must be first in what we do and in who we are.

We must be marked by worship.

What we do as a church (which is where Paul’s letter to Timothy turns now)—what we do as a church must give priority to worship.

After urging Timothy to counter false teaching in chapter 1, Paul writes to Timothy about the public worship of the church (all of chapter 2).

Paul likes to urge Timothy.

Maybe that’s what it takes.

Maybe Timothy is so timid that he needs a kick in the seat of the pants to get going, to do what needs to be done.

I’m just thinking out loud here; it could be that Paul merely wants to highlight the importance of what he’s writing.

He urged Timothy to stay there in Ephesus to combat theological error.

And now Paul urges Timothy to give priority to public worship.

The emphasis here in chapter 2 on the priority of worship has particular importance for us who are called ‘evangelical’ people.

If we fail to take public worship seriously, if we treat this time flippantly, if we meet this moment with casual commitment, we are less than the fully Biblical Christians we claim to be.

If worship is low on our list of priorities, then our time of corporate gathered worship will be disorganized and thoughtless, dull or repetitive, unreflective and even disrespectful.

When’s the last time we thought about what we do here as we gather for worship?

The order of things, the goings-on of Sunday morning?

Why do we do what we do?

What is indispensible and what could we do away with?

Must we have a, b, c, d, and e every week?

And must a, b, c, d, and e be in the same order each week?

We really should give serious thought to our public worship.

Again, we’re not holding on to the past way of doing things and the only way to do things, nor are we jumping into the future in some lame attempt to be trendy.

We are striving to be faithful to God and to His Word in this moment.

In 1 Timothy 2, Paul alludes to two main parts of the local church’s worship; these two parts divide the chapter in half.

Paul considers the scope of our worship first and then considers the conduct of our worship.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to 1 Timothy 2. If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

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As I read, I tried to vocally highlight an important theme throughout these 7 verses.

You likely picked up on it without my attempt to help.

What sticks out in this paragraph is the scope of the church’s responsibility; God’s plan and our duty concern everybody.

Four times, the same truth is highlighted:

Prayers are to be offered for everyone (v. 1)

God desires everyone to be saved (v.

4)

Jesus died for everyone (v. 6)

We must proclaim the gospel to everyone (v.

7)

There’s no doubt in my mind or in anyone else’s that this repetition is deliberate, inspired and deliberate.

These four truths belong together in Paul’s mind.

Because God’s desire and Christ’s death concern everyone, the church’s prayer and proclamation must concern everyone, too.

The Church—local and global—is responsible to worship the Triune God.

The beginning of doing this means:

WE PRAY FOR EVERYONE

Paul mentions four (4) different kinds of worship in verse 1: petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving.

These are almost synonymous; they can’t be neatly distinguished from one another.

What we know is that each of these words concerns prayer: making request for specific needs, bring those in view before God, appealing boldly on their behalf, and thankfulness for them.

Paul uses four different words, but to one end—that these prayers would be made for everyone.

For everyone—this is a less-than-subtle rebuke to tribalism or nationalism or racism or supremacist thought of any kind.

If our church’s prayers focus only on our church or on those closest to us and most like us and not those far away from here and separated from us by any number of factors, we’re missing something.

For everyone...

In particular, Paul directs the churches to pray for kings and all those in authority.

This was a remarkable instruction since, at that time, no Christian ruler existed anywhere in the world.

When Paul tells Timothy and the churches to pray for kings, the reigning emperor was Nero.

Nero! Nero hated Christians, met them with cruelty and hostility and systemic persecution; he’d nail them to crosses or light them on fire for funsies, sometimes burning Christians for streetlights or to light up his gardens.

Paul says, “Pray for kings and all those in authority.”

It’s clear, the early Christians are instructed to pray—for all people—even for Nero.

“Pray for these pagan leaders.

Pray for the king you suffer under.

Pray for the leader you don’t agree with.

Pray for the ruler you don’t approve of.”

This is a startling command, a jarring order, especially in the hyper-politicized climate of today.

2020 is upon us and all I can manage is an “ugh” in light of the upcoming election season.

However, if you are a Christian living in the good ol’ U.S. of A. you must pray for the President, regardless of what you think of him or his policies.

Some of you are nodding your heads, but I have to wonder if I was preaching this sermon 4 years ago if it would have been as easy for your head to move in that direction.

Did you pray for the previous president or the one before that or the fella before him?

Is your praying for our next president contingent upon what political party he or she belongs to?

We can’t pick and choose when to obey the Lord’s command; we can’t take it when we like it and ignore it when we don’t.

We are not a partisan people; we’re a praying people.

For all people—for kings and all those in authority...

We are called to pray for all those in authority.

So we pray for President Trump, just as we were meant to pray for presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, Roosevelt, Hoover, etc.

We need to pray for our president, our vice president, our governor, our congressmen, our representatives, our mayor, our city council, all our government officials—no matter who they are and no matter what you think about them personally.

We do this so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

We pray for kings and all those in authority so that they would preserve peace.

As they preserve peace, we’ll be granted religious freedom to exercise our faith, freedom to evangelize, spreading the gospel without interruption.

Our hope is in Christ, that He would grant us peace in whatever land we live.

Our prayer is for our leaders, that they might administer justice and pursue peace.

We pray for everyone:

BECAUSE OF GOD’S DESIRE FOR EVERYONE

The reason the Church should reach out and embrace all people in its prayers is that it’s reflective of God’s desire.

Of course, we know that prayer must be directed to the God who hears and answers and is powerful to act.

We can’t pray to the piano and expect anything to happen.

We pray to God for others and we pray for everyone—all people, from all backgrounds and socio-economic strata—we pray for everyone, motivated by God’s passion for everyone.

We read in verse 3 that our praying is good and pleases God our Savior.

Our concern is not only to please Him but to find our motivation tied to His heart.

When you begin to pray for all kinds of people in the world to be saved—Jews and Gentiles, friends and enemies, Republicans and Democrats, reached and unreached people groups— when you pray for everyone your heart is coming in line with the heart of God Himself, for God Himself desires their salvation.

We need to be clear about what this does and doesn’t mean.

This doesn’t mean that all will be saved.

We are not universalists.