Romans 1.9-10-Paul Prayed for the Roman Believers and That He Might Visit Them
Sunday May 27, 2007
Romans: Romans 1:9-10-Paul Prayed for the Roman Believers and That He Might Visit Them
Lesson # 15
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:8.
On Thursday evening we studied Romans 1:8, in which Paul states to the believers in Rome that he thanks the Father for them in prayer because of their faith, which was well-know throughout the Rome Empire.
This morning we will study Romans 1:9-10 and read where Paul prayed for the believers in Rome and that he might be able to visit them in the future.
Romans 1:8, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.”
Romans 1:9-10, “For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.”
“For” is the emphatic use of the post-positive conjunction gar (gavr), and thus should be translated, “in fact” and is used to advance Paul’s statement in verse 8 by emphasizing that he makes it a habit to pray for the believers in Rome and also prays that he might be able to visit them at some point in the future.
“God” is a reference to God the Father since He is the recipient of all prayer.
Since Paul had never personally met these believers in Rome he calls God the Father who knows the true motives of an individual to be his witness that he habitually prayed for them so as to refute any who might call into question his motivation and concern for them.
The omission of the definite article before the noun martus, “witness” brings out its qualitative aspect, emphasizing the character of God the Father in that He is no ordinary witness, but is in fact, the omniscient and omnipresent God Himself.
The word “spirit” does “not” refer to the Holy Spirit but rather to Paul’s human spirit, which is confirmed by the use of the possessive genitive form of the personal pronoun ego, which means, “my.”
The noun pneuma is a dative instrumental of means and with the preposition en indicates that “the means by which” the apostle Paul served God the Father was his human spirit.
Like all believers, the apostle Paul received a human spirit and eternal life at the moment of salvation through regeneration, thus making him “trichotomous” in the sense that he has a body, soul and human spirit.
“Regeneration” is a ministry performed by the Holy Spirit on behalf of a person the moment they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior where He creates a human spirit for the person so that they might receive the imputation of eternal life.
Titus 3:5, “He (God the Holy Spirit) saved us, not on the basis of deeds (human works) which we have done in (human power) righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
This act of regeneration makes the believer a new spiritual species, which is the nature of Christ that can never sin and that is described in Scripture by many phrases such as the “new self, new man, newness of life, new creation.”
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new spiritual species; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
The Holy Spirit testifies with our human spirit that we are children of God.
Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.”
The human spirit is the receptacle for eternal life and together they give the believer the capacity to metabolize and apply spiritual phenomena communicated by the Holy Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God and to pray according to the will of God and to worship and serve God.
Philippians 4:23, “May the grace which originates from the Lord Jesus Christ be communicated to your human spirit. Amen.”
Romans 1:9-10, “For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.”
“Unceasingly” is the adverb adialeiptos (a)dialeivptw$) (ad-ee-a-lipe-toce), which refers to the manner in which Paul prayed for the believers in Rome indicating that he prayed for them on a “habitual” basis.
The word denotes “perseverance,” which is steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, and a state and suggests activity maintained in spite of difficulties, steadfast and long continued application.
The Scriptures teach that an effective and productive prayer life demands perseverance (Matt. 7:7-8; 26:39-44; Luke 11:9-10; 18:1-8; 21:36; Rom. 12:12; 15:30; Acts 1:14; 6:4; 12:5; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; 1 Tim. 5:5; 2 Tim. 1:3; Col. 1:9; 4:2, 12).
Prayer is an opportunity to engage the Father in conversation, which means talking to Him and listening to Him.
It is also one of the means that God has given the believer in order that he might enjoy and experience fellowship and intimacy with Him.
Prayer is an expression of the believer’s worship toward God, as well as an expression of his confidence and total dependence upon the character and integrity of his heavenly Father to meet both the spiritual and temporal needs of himself and others.
Every church age believer is commanded in Scripture to pray.
1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Make it your habit to pray.”
There are five essential elements to prayer.
Confession: 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Thanksgiving: Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.”
Worship: Psalm 18:3, “I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”
Intercession: Ephesians 6:18, “By means of every kind of specific detailed reverential prayer request, all of you make it your habit to pray at each and every opportunity while in fellowship with the Spirit. Now, for this very purpose, all of you make it your habit to stay alert (in prayer) with every kind of persistent specific detailed request with regards to each and every one of the saints.”
Petition: Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Prayer is asking for what God wants and must be according to His will in order to be effective and productive for God.
Luke 22:41-42, “And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’”
Answered prayer demands faith on the part of the believer (Mt. 17:20; Jam. 5:15).
James 1:5-6, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.”
The Scriptures do not command a set time for prayer or length, but rather the believer is to pray day and night, nor does the Scripture command that a certain posture accompany prayer since it is the attitude of the heart, which is important to God, thus it can be accomplished sitting, standing or kneeling down.
The believer is to not only pray as an individual but also a part of a corporate unit in the local assembly as an expression of unity (Acts 12:12; 16:25; 20:36).
Prayer solves problems (Kgs. 17:1; cf. 18:36-46; Acts 12:1-17; Phlp. 4:6).
The statement “I make mention of you” indicates that Paul prayed in generalities for the believers in Rome since he did not know their specific set of circumstances or needs.
Prayer can be specific or general.
A “specific” prayer is when we pray and know the specific needs (illnesses, personal problems, adverse situations, etc.) of those people we are personally involved with and know face to face.
A “general” prayer is when we pray not knowing the specific needs of those people that we are interceding for and do not know personally or face to face and in turn we simply pray for their spiritual growth and protection from the enemy.
Philippians 1:9-11, “Now, this I make it a habit to pray that your divine-love might continue to flourish yet more and more by means of a total discerning experiential knowledge so that all of you might continue to choose the essentials in order that all of you might be sincere and without offense for the day of Christ by all of you being filled with the fruit produced by righteousness, which is by means of the nature of Jesus who is the Christ for the ultimate purpose of glorifying and praising God.”
Ephesians 1:18-20, “I make it a habit to pray that the eyes of our heart would receive enlightenment for the purpose of knowing for certain what is the confidence of His calling and what are the glorious riches, which is His inheritance distributed among the saints. And what is the surpassing greatness of His divine omnipotence directed towards all of us who are believers. This is in accordance with the operative power, namely, the possession of power to overcome (the sin nature, the devil and his cosmic system) originating from His manifested power (through the resurrection and session of Christ), which He (the Father) exercised through the Person of Christ by raising Him (Christ) out from among the dead and by seating Him (Christ) at His right hand in the heavenlies.”
Ephesians 3:14-21, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.”
Colossians 1:9-12, “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”
Prayer does not have to be specific in order to be effective because sometimes the particular need for the moment is not known (Rom. 1:9; 1 Thess. 1:2).
When praying for others, the believer-priest should always pray for spiritual growth whether he knows the specific needs of those he is interceding for or not.
Romans 1:9-10, “For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.”
“Always” is the adverb of time pantote (pavntote), which refers again to Paul’s perseverance in prayer.
“Prayers” is the noun proseuche (proseuxhv) (pro-yoo-khay), which literally means a “face to face audience with God the Father” and refers to the general concept of prayer that is directed toward God the Father without reference to the content of the prayer, which will be indicated by the context.
Proseuche speaks of prayer in the general sense of speaking face to face or in the presence of the Father to worship and adore Him.
Worshipping God is the act of paying honor and reverence to God and flows from love and where there is little love, there is little worship and is the loving ascription of praise to God for what He is, both in Himself and in His ways and is the bowing of the soul and spirit in deep humility and reverence before Him.
The basic meaning of the word views the prayer of the believer from the standpoint of speaking face to face with the Father in worship and dependence, thus acknowledging Him as all-sufficient in Himself and the believer as insufficient in himself.
Prayer is the means by which the believer can approach the Father face-to-face in dependence of His sufficiency and submitting to His will.
Therefore, the noun proseuche denotes entering into the presence of the Father in order to worship and adore Him for who and what He is and what He has provided through His Son Jesus Christ.
When the believer offers up praise, thanksgiving, petitions, and intercessions to the Father he is demonstrating his total and absolute dependence upon Him to meet his every need, whether spiritual or temporal, thus he is worshipping Him.
Philippians 4:6, “At this very moment, all of you stop continuing to be anxious about absolutely anything, but rather, concerning anything at all by means of reverential prayer in the presence of the Father and by means of petition accompanied by the giving of thanks, let your specific detailed requests be repeatedly made known in the presence of the Father.”
“Making request” is the verb deomai (devomai) (deh-om-ahee), which refers to the action of making a specific detailed request of the Father in prayer for another and thus denotes the concept of “intercessory” prayer.
The verb deomai is requesting of God for what is lacking in the believer’s life and refers to requesting from Him that He meet one’s own or another’s particular personal needs whether temporal or spiritual, which is in accordance with the will of the Father.
While proseuche emphasizes the worshipful attitude of the believer who depends upon God to meet his needs through prayer, deomai stresses the believer acting based upon that attitude of dependence upon God.
“Intercessory prayer” refers to praying for both the temporal and spiritual needs of both believers and unbelievers (Luke 23:34; Eph. 1:16-23; 3:14-19; 6:18; 1 Tim. 2:1-4) and is an expression of the love of God.
If we love our neighbor, we will pray for our neighbor.
Mark 12:31, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
If we obey the Lord’s command to love one another as He has loved us, we will pray for our fellow believer.
John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The Lord Jesus Christ expressed His love for those who mocked, scourged, vilified and crucified Him by interceding for them before the Father (Lk. 23:33-34).
Luke 23:33-34, “When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.”
In context, the expression “the will of God” is a reference to the “geographical” will of God meaning the geographical location where God wants Paul to be.
Therefore, Paul’s statement “if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you” means that if it is according to the geographical will of God for Paul to be in Rome, then God will open the doors for him to be there.
Whenever Paul intercedes in prayer for the believers in Rome, he always made the specific request of the Father that he might visit them.