Purposeful Prayer

INTRODUCTION:

Context:

This evening we are moving into the second chapter of Paul’s letter to Timothy. Paul has urged Timothy to deal with the false teachers affecting the church in Ephesus for the sake of the Gospel. Paul has even called about a couple of the false teachers by names, most likely leaders in the church who had been exerting significant influence as they undermined the gospel message.

Beginning in chapter 2, Paul is going to begin addressing several specific subjects, but these are all connected to the issues of the first chapter. What he says beginning in chapter 2 is a direct consequence of the problems mentioned in chapter 1.

Preview:

So where does Paul begin? Surprisingly, he does not begin with fine points of doctrine. Rather, he begins addressing matters of worship, practices that affect the public gathering of the church. If the church is not doing the right things when it gathers for worship, then it will not be long before it will lose its ministry focus.

Illustration

Church history is filled with examples of this truth. It is easy for a church to lose its ministry focus as it takes on functions that God has not given the church to do. I know from the personal testimonies of many of you that you have been involved in churches that have sadly experienced this. There are a lot of good things that we should be concerned about as Christians; we should be concerned about our families, our jobs, our country, even our hobbies. But as a church…when we gather corporately…the list of things that we should be concerned with according to Scripture are greatly reduced. We are to worship God together, edify one another with the Word of God, fellowship together in celebration of our shared union with Christ, and evangelize by sharing the gospel of Christ with those who need to hear it. Those four items encapsulate everything that God has given the church to do…we are to keep our ministry focus.

In our verses this evening, Paul specifically deals with one element of corporate worship—praying. Prayers are a core element of worship, a component that must be a regular part of our gatherings. But, as we will see tonight, even under the umbrella of prayers—communicating with our holy God through the righteousness of our Savior—there should be a primary concern to them; our prayers should be purposeful prayers. This evening we are going to see the primary concern that should be present in our purposeful prayers. The main idea that Paul communicates in this set of verses is that Our primary concern, even in prayer, should be the salvation of others. Even in prayer, the gospel should be central. And even in prayer, we risk distorting our ministry focus when the gospel is not central. Our primary concern, even in prayer, should be the salvation of others.

In order to demonstrate that this is the case, Paul develops an argument that builds through three stages: he looks at the scope of public prayers, the immediate goal for public prayers, and the ultimate goal for public prayers. We will follow these three stages this evening in this sermon.

Transition from introduction to body:

Let’s read what Paul wrote to Timothy in the first 7 verses of chapter 2…<read 1 Tim 2:1–7>.

Our primary concern, even in prayer, should be the salvation of others.

The first stage of Paul’s argument expresses…

BODY:

I. The scope of public prayers—all people

We see the scope of public prayers in verse 1. Paul uses 4 different terms for prayer in this verse, but it really is not a useful exercise to try to distinguish them from one another. The first three terms all describe asking God for things while the last one is thanking God for what He has provided. All Paul is doing is describing various aspects that will appear in every public prayer—entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings. His focus really is on who is the object for these prayers—all people.

All people. The scope of public prayers is to be all people. “First of all, then, I urge that…prayers…be made on behalf of all men.” Remember, I said that this is the first of several subjects that Paul will address. His concern is that prayers are made for all people. In fact, the simple fact that he uses plurals for each of his prayer words—entreaties…plural, prayers…plural, and so forth—these plurals suggest that there should be more than one expression of prayer when the church gathers and that a number of people should be involved in these expressions. Offering prayers for all people should be a matter of urgency to the church.

In fact, we should note from the beginning of verse 2 that all people is to include civil leaders—“kings and all who are in authority.” Paul singles out rulers as one group who should receive mention in the prayers of the church as part of the “all men.” Just to be clear, the word “kings” is a broad term used for the highest ruler, it could refer to the Roman emperor or to a ruler over a region, such as King Herod. Those in authority refers to those under the highest ruler. Really, all he is saying is that the church is to pray specifically for the civil rulers.

Illustration

Now, I would think that this should be a bit convicting to us here at FBCSH. Paul is saying that all the civil rulers over us—our president and other federal leaders, our governor and other state leaders, our mayor and other city leaders—these should receive our entreaties as well as our thanksgiving. My experience over the years has been that how we pray for our civil leaders is rather dependent upon how they align with our own personal political affiliations. If the leader lines up with us politically, then we entreat God to bless that person and thank God for that person. If the leader does not, our petitions run more along that lines of asking God to remove the person and thanking God for the person has not been as successful as he or she would have wished to be in enacting political goals. It is rare that I hear a prayer genuinely thanking God for placing a person of a different political persuasion into office over us or asking God to bless that person’s efforts. Yet, that is what Paul seems to be telling Timothy that the church is to pray for…and less we think that Ephesus just so happened to have great godly rulers, we need to understand history this time—the emperor claimed to be a god and the many local rulers were persecuting Christians because they would not worship the emperor.

Transition:

So how do we entreat God and thank Him for people who are ungodly? Well, we need to consider…

II. The immediate goal for public prayers—a quiet life

Paul deals with what should be the immediate goal of the church’s prayers in the end of verse 2…see the “so that” there? The immediate goal is a quiet life. Paul says that they are to pray “so that we may lead a tranquil and quite life in all godliness and dignity.”

Transition:

This is only the immediate goal, not the ultimate goal of their prayers, but it is worth noticing two components of the quiet life that we are to pray for. First of all, it is to be a quiet life…

A. As experienced

The reason we are to pray for them is so that the will create an environment in which we can worship God peacefully. Tranquil means to undisturbed or untroubled by interference. Quiet has a similar meaning, being free from disturbances and uproar. We are to want to experience tranquility and quiet in our worship.

Application

Think about it. Our concern is for an environment in which can worship without disturbances and trouble. We are not to prioritize an environment in which our jobs are secure and our 401K’s are flourishing. We are to prioritize the ability to worship in peace. When I listen to our prayers, I fear that we may have these prioritize flipped at time with much more concern for our physical circumstances than our spiritual one.

Transition:

We want a quiet life as experienced…so we are to pray for such. And second, we want a quiet life…

B. As demonstrated

“In all godliness and dignity.” “Godliness” refers to our conduct as measured by God, conduct that is approved by God. “Dignity” refers to our conduct as measured by others, conduct that entitles us to respect from other people.

Application

Again, think about it. Our prayers should be that we can display through our outward lives, our actions, the things that God approves us. We should also pray that these same things will find approval from men. And we should pray that we can do this as part of our corporate worship.

Illustration

Let’s put this into a real life example. We should pray that we will continue to boldly affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman only. Furthermore, we should pray that we will be bold enough to continue affirming that sexual activity of any kind outside of marriage is immoral and thus wrong. We know that such affirmation is approved by God since it is repeating what God has said in His word. But we should be praying that we will continue to do so. Furthermore, we should pray that people will accept such an affirmation as respectable, thus granting us liberty to openly state such in our worship. The ability to do such is largely dependent on our rulers, so we should be praying for them to allow such. At the same time, we are to continue demonstrated through our behavior that our worship is in the realm of godliness and dignity.

Illustration

One of the books we read in our Christian classics reading group…shoot, it is probably two years ago already now…was by a man by the name of Tertullian. He wrote in the late 3rd century/early 4th century when the Roman government was persecuting Christians. The book we read was addressed to the Roman emperor. Tertullian asked why the emperor would possibly persecute the very people who were constantly praying for his success and living moral lives that strengthened the Empire.

Oh, that we could ask our president, governor, and mayor that same question because our lives were consistent in these things.

Transition:

The immediate goal that Paul gives for public prayers is a quiet life, a quiet life both as experienced and as demonstrated by the Christians in Ephesus. We should have the same immediate goal in our prayers. But that immediate goal must support…

III. The ultimate goal for public prayers--salvation

A quiet life is only a goal because it creates an environment in which the ultimate goal may be pursued and accomplished. What should be the ultimate goal for public prayers be? Salvation.

Transition:

Remember, Paul entered this first topic because the gospel was threatened. The gospel is God’s chosen means through which He provides salvation. Paul spends final part, actually the bulk of this paragraph, demonstrating from three angles why salvation should be the ultimate goal for public prayers. First, because salvation is…

A. God’s desire

Verses 3 and 4 make it clear that a godly and dignified life are good and acceptable before God because God desires all men to be saved. We are to pray for the quiet, tranquil life that we demonstrate with our godly lifestyle because such is used by God to draw people to the truth of the Gospel.

Illustration

I know I have said this before, but it certainly bears repeating in our current political climate. A lot of us get worked up over a lot of social and political things. I know that because I see your posts on social media stating your position on these things. The question that each one of us needs to be asking before we post anything is posting this going to aid in God’s ultimate goal of drawing people to the truth of His Gospel? If what we are posting will be needlessly divisive, then it will not aid the ultimate goal. If what we are posting can be misunderstood because it is summarized in a pithy tweet or a FaceBook comment, then it will not aid the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is salvation.

Notice, Paul says that God desires “all men to be saved.” We need to read this phrase in harmony with the rest of Paul’s writings that clearly demonstrates that not every person will be saved. We cannot think that the lack of salvation and the judgment that God will bring upon the unsaved in any way frustrates God’s desire. No, the point that Paul is making here in the context can be understood as all kinds of people will be saved.

Application

This includes civil authorities. There is always a chance that we might not want to pray for the salvation of those who make our lives hard, especially those who might persecute us under the authority of the government. But God desires that rulers and civil leaders will find salvation.

This also includes Gentiles as well as Jews…that seems to have been an issue in the church in Ephesus. We naturally struggle with looking at people who are not like us as being less acceptable to God. If they have different skin color, different cultural habits, different religious backgrounds; then we are less likely to include them in our prayers for salvation. But God desires that men and women from every tribe and tongue and people and nation be saved. Thus, our prayers should include a concern that all people

Transition:

The ultimate goal is salvation. That is God’s desire. That is also, second,…

B. Christ’s purpose

Because all humanity was universally sinful, mankind could not approach God directly; they needed a mediator. But God only allows one Mediator, the Son of God who became man Himself, He is the only Mediator. In fact, He became man so that He could become the sole Mediator between God and mankind.

And how did Jesus become that Mediator? By giving His life as “a ransom for all.” The form of the word that Paul uses for “ransom” emphasizes the idea of substitution. Jesus became a ransom for men and women by becoming their substitute—dying in their place. This is the core of the gospel message—the cross work of Christ.

Application

But why does Paul mention these particular things here? How should these truths affect our prayers? Well, think about it; when we pray we are approaching God through the Mediator—we pray to God and are accepted into the presence of God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Since we are praying by His mediation, ought we not pray for what drove Him to become our Mediator in the first place? Our salvation and the salvation of others. If salvation was the ultimate goal of Christ’s giving of Himself, then it should be the ultimate goal of our prayers.

I do want to clarify one thing quickly to make sure we don’t inadvertently drift into heresy looking at these verses in isolation. When we read that Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all, we cannot take that to mean that because Jesus died, all people are automatically saved. Even in verse 10 of chapter 4 in this letter, Paul clarifies that such is not the case when he writes of “the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” Salvation requires a response of faith, and acceptance of the gospel before a person is saved. Paul is not negating that truth with his statement in verse 6 in our passage. His point is that there is no element of humanity lying outside the ability of Christ’s saving work. Any person can believe in the gospel message—the work of Jesus Christ—and be saved. In fact, if you have not believed in Jesus, I would encourage you to contact me through my email so that I can explain fully how you can experience salvation. Salvation was Christ’s purpose in being a mediator and providing Himself as a ransom.

Transition:

Salvation was Christ’s purpose which means that it should be the ultimate goal of our prayers. Christ is the second angle from which we can see that salvation is the ultimate goal of public prayer. The third angle to look at is…

C. Our ministry

Paul concludes the paragraph by pointing to his own ministry again; he has been appointed to preach or proclaim the gospel truth. It is the reason that he is an apostle appointed to teach this truth to the Gentiles. He even emphasizes with the phrase “I am telling the truth.” It is not that he was being untruthful before; rather this is an idiom used to emphasize what comes next, must like we use the word “honestly” to add emphasis to our statements even when everything we have been saying before had is true.

Notice, though, how Paul ties his ministry to the work of Christ. At the end of verse 6 it was “the testimony—in other words, the gospel message about Christ’s saving work—given at the proper time.”

Illustration

We have probably all experienced the situation where we know about something but cannot tell others about it until a certain time arrives. Say there is a surprise party planned for a good friend. We know about the party. In fact, we have tasked with getting our friend to the place where the party is going to occur at the appointed time. We know about it, but we certainly cannot tell our friend about it…that would ruin the surprise. We have to wait until the right moment when we walk in the door and all the people jump out of hiding yelling, “Surprise!” After that moment, we can tell our friend all about it. We can tell them how many times we almost let the secret slip. We can tell them about the challenges we had to get them to come with us to the appointed place. We can tell them about the stunned look on their face. Now is the appointed time to communicate all about the surprise party.

The gospel was similar. It wasn’t until Jesus died, rose again, commissioned His disciples, and sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that the time to communicate the saving message of the gospel arrived. This message couldn’t be given before that time had arrived because it was still incomplete. But Paul is writing after that moment in history. The time had arrived and now he had the job of communicating that saving message. And that responsibility drove his public prayers because it is what drove his life.

Application

Of course, the reason that I listed this a “our ministry” is because Paul’s responsibility to share the gospel has been handed down generation by generation through the church until it now rests with us. The proper time for the gospel message is the entire NT church age—the time that began at Pentecost and continues until the Lord returns. We are living in that time; we carry this ministry for our generation.

Because this is the case, there are a couple of questions that we ought to ask ourselves this evening. One, does our ministry drive our lives. Seriously, ask yourself, is your life driving by the salvation of others? How would you answer that question? What can you point to as evidence of that question? How many gospel conversations have you had with people in the past week or even the past quarter?

Two, does our ministry of salvation drive our public prayers. Remember, I mentioned that the plurals in verse 1 indicate that a number of the people in the congregation were to be involved in the public prayers of the church. Are you involved? Many of you do not even show up for the public prayer times of our church—Wednesday nights when we have prayer meeting. It is impossible to be involved when you are not there. I’m going to put it out there as directly as I can; if the public prayer of the church is not a part of your life, then you are helping our ministry lose its focus.

But we need to look deeper than whether or not we are attending times of public prayer; we also need to look at our prayers. Is the focus of our prayers the salvation of others? I would have to say that the answer is no. We spend more time sharing concerns and praying for physical and temporal needs each week—people who are sick, people who need jobs, and so forth—than we spend praying for people who need salvation. This is the simple fact. I think we need to recognize from Paul’s letter that it is too our shame that this is so. It demonstrates that our ministry is out of focus. Our primary concern, even in prayer, should be the salvation of others.

Transition from body to conclusion:

Salvation of others is to be the ultimate goal of our ministry. Our primary concern, even in prayer, should be the salvation of others.

CONCLUSION

Our primary concern, even in prayer, should be the salvation of others.

My goal this evening is certainly not to shame us or berate us for our failures. It is, though, my desire that we will openly recognize where we are falling short of the ultimate goal individually and corporately. Our public prayers reveal that shortfall. At the same time, our public prayers provide an opportunity for us to begin correcting our ministry focus. We need to be about the Gospel—individually and corporately. We need to be seeking the salvation of all people. We need to be praying for the salvation of all people as well. Let’s honestly evaluate ourselves, see what corrections we need to make to bring this first area of ministry back into focus, and then make those changes. Our primary concern, even in prayer, should be the salvation of others.