Constant Prayer
Notes
Transcript
30 minute sermon!
Bullet: Fervency in prayer is the call of every believer in every season...
For all of us
This is the way believers live - the way of the kingdom. v. 9-21 has echos of the Sermon on the Mount
Prayer is one of the trademarks of the early church. There are only a few trademarks - devotion to the apostles teaching, fellowship, eating together, and prayer. Whatever else we do, we must pray!
Prayer is in the context of community!
Prayer is not a bunch of empty words - in the context of helping saints with needs and hospitality, blessing enemies, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep.
We need to put our money where our mouth is - we ask God to help others, and we see where we might h
All these verbs are plural - this is the body of Christ doing this together...
v. 15 - Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep
1 Corinthians
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Chrysostom points out that it “requires more of a high Christian temper, to rejoice with them that do rejoice, than to weep with them that weep. For this nature itself fulfils perfectly: and there is none so hard-hearted as not to weep over him that is in calamity: but the other requires a very noble soul, so as not only to keep from envying, but even to feel pleasure with the person who is in esteem.”
(Could be why Paul puts rejoicing first!?)
Cranfield cites Origen, who points out that people sometimes rejoice and weep at the wrong things and suggests that we rejoice “in those experiences in which he is most truly himself
Think about how when you see someone post something difficult, you are quick to pray for them. When you see someone post something joyful, are you just as quick to rejoice with them!?
For all times
“devoted to” - NASB
“faithful in” - NIV
“persistent in” - HCSB
Hopeful and Joyful prayer - “rejoice in hope”
NICNT - Moo
The three admonitions in this verse are closely related in both style and content. For hope, endurance, and prayer are natural partners.
In , Paul moves from tribulation to hope to prayer...
Patient prayer - “be patient in tribulation” (The Message version hints at connecting hope and patience with prayer in this verse)
What about when we can’t muster what is needed for prayer? Remember ch. 8?
Flip back to 8:22; 26ff
All creation is groaning, because this world is not what it should be.
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness! All you have to do is groan. And even when you don’t, the HS has you.
We are prayer apprentices
The Spirit is our prayer warrior
Fasting?
For others
We need to put our money where our mouth is.
All these verbs are plural - this is the body of Christ doing this together...
pray without ceasing,
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
What are we devoted to?
technology, social media, our kids, our job, a hobby, etc...
Application
take out phones, make wallpaper ; “be constant in prayer”...
“prayer “- προσευχή
(most common word for prayer); ask, petition, calling on God (but this word specifically indicates the whole range of prayer…; prayer comprehensively); this word was rare in Secular Greek
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
(ESV): 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your most holy sanctuary.
Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
, ,
Pillar - Leon Morris
The early Christians often had little to be joyful about or to hope for in this world, but they rejoiced in the Lord always ()
Faithful is perhaps not forceful enough for the word Paul uses. “The strong word suggests not only the constancy with which they are to pray, but the effort that is needed to maintain a habit so much above nature” (Denney). We are left in no doubt but that persistent prayer is a necessary part of the Christian life.
(Could be why Paul puts rejoicing first!?)
Cranfield cites Origen, who points out that people sometimes rejoice and weep at the wrong things and suggests that we rejoice “in those experiences in which he is most truly himself
Pillar - Colin Kruse
The first positive exhortation is: but keep your spiritual fervor (lit. ‘be on the boil in spirit’).
But it is precisely this thing, which is altogether vital and necessary if he [the Christian] is to endure, which he is specially tempted whether through sloth or discouragement or self-confidence to give up: hence the special frequency with which the verb proskarterein [‘to persevere’] is used in the NT in connexion with prayer’.
Baker - Thomas Schreiner
Believers are to be filled with joy due to the hope that awaits them. Joy evaporates when hope vanishes, and thus the fires of joy can be stoked only by focusing on hope
It is instructive to note that words in the προσκαρτερεῖν (proskarterein, to devote) word group are often used for devotion to prayer (; ; ; ; ; cf. also ; ).
the injunction to devotion shows that prayer does not just happen naturally. Those who pray must consciously and deliberately set their minds and hearts to do so.
Rejoicing with those who are rejoicing and weeping with those who are weeping are concrete indications of love in the Christian church
NICNT - Moo
The three admonitions in this verse are closely related in both style and content. For hope, endurance, and prayer are natural partners.
NIC - John Murray
It is well to observe the interdependence of the virtues enjoined in this trilogy. How dismal would tribulation be without hope (cf. ) and how defeatist would we be in persecution without the resources of hope and patience conveyed to us through prayer.
Word - James Dunn
τῇ ἐλπίδι χαίροντες, “rejoicing in hope”; “let hope keep you joyful” (neb)
As in 8:26–27, prayer is the natural expression of the eschatological tension: only by maintaining a constant “open line” to God in the Spirit can the tension be experienced as a positive sign and recreative force.
Spurgeon
12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” Sympathize with mourners. Take a share of their burden. It is easier to weep with them who weep than it is to rejoice with them who rejoice. For this old flesh of ours begins to envy those who rejoice, whereas it does not so much object to sympathizing with those that sorrow. We should carry out both commands.