Sermon – 1 Timothy 2:1-7 – Pray for Everyone

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – 1 Timothy 2:1-7 – Pray for Everyone

September 22, 2013

This morning I am beginning a sermon series drawn from the pastoral epistles. These are personal letters written by the Apostle Paul to a couple of young pastors serving churches, Titus and Timothy. Specifically we will be looking at the two letters to Timothy as he pastors a troubled church and needs some encouragement. These letters provide for us an important window into the practices of the early church. And Paul's advice to Timothy will help us today. We will get to all of this, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Timothy was the product of a mixed marriage. His father was a Greek. His mother was Jewish. They lived in the city of Lystra. Paul visited Lystra early in his career as an evangelist. It was in Lystra that Paul healed a man with bad feet, lame from birth. This so impressed the people of Lystra that a huge crowd developed that thought Paul must be the god Zeus, and they wanted to sacrifice to him. But Paul told them that it was God, not himself, that did the healing. Timothy's mother and grandmother came to faith in Jesus Christ and a church was born. Presumable Timothy was in the youth group of the new church in Lystra.

A few years later Paul returned to Lystra and visited the church he had started. Timothy was now a young adult. Paul saw how faithful he was and invited him to come as a disciple on Paul's journey starting new churches. Timothy was involved in Paul's ministries in Thessalonica and Corinth. Timothy went with Paul to Jerusalem with a special offering. Later Timothy was with Paul in Rome during Paul's house arrest and helped Paul send letters to the Philippians, the Colossians, and a personal letter to Philemon.

We don't know for certain what happened to Paul and Timothy after Paul's house arrest in Rome. But we can deduce from the letters to Timothy that Paul was released and continued his travels leaving Timothy behind in Ephesus. The letters we have were written by Paul, again under arrest in Rome, to Timothy, now a young pastor serving the church in Ephesus. Timothy needs direction and encouragement, and so do we.

1 Timothy 2:1-7 ^NIV 1 Timothy 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³ This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all men-- the testimony given in its proper time. ⁷ And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle-- I am telling the truth, I am not lying-- and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.

Paul has instructed Timothy to focus his ministry on prayer. Prayer is possible only because of the extreem good fortune we have in being able to come into the presence of God. This is not something that we should take for granted. There is nothing necessary about coming into God's presence. Rather it is a gift. God allows us to come into his presence. And this is really good news.

In the ancient world you might need for the king to do something for you. For example you might want the king to lower your taxes or settle a dispute. So you would ask for an audience with the king to explain to him what you need and ask for his help. But you would only gain an audience with the king if the king so chose. And the king wasn't about to have an audience with just anyone. So if you found yourself with the opportunity to address the king to ask him to intercede on your behalf then you would be very happy.

So too with God. When we need God to intercede on our behalf we go to him in prayer and wonder if he is listening. God only listens to us if he choose to. And we find in this letter from Paul that God chooses just that. God wants to listen to our prayers because this is part of his plan for bringing salvation to the whole world. So every time we pray, God listens to us and uses our prayers to transform a fallen world. We have the extreme good fortune of coming into the presence of God every time we engage in prayer.

But there is more to this. We know from scripture that Satan, the accuser, also has God's ear. And Satan is telling God all that we have done wrong. Satan is using our sin against us. So, we need a mediator, an attorney, on our side who will defend us against Satan's accusations. Who might this mediator be? According to Paul our mediator is none other than Jesus Christ. And so we find ourselves with the extreme good fortune of not only being able to come into God's presence. But we also have the extreme good fortune of having a mediator there when we arrive. This is what makes prayer possible. We have both access to God and the ability to communicate to him our joys and our concerns.

In ancient times, if you had the extreme good fortune of being granted an audience with the king, and if you had someone who supported you who was near the king, then you would enter into the king's presence and pray that he would intercede on your behalf. You would pray to the king. But Paul wants Timothy and church at Ephesus to pray not to the king, but to pray for the king. Our prayers must always be directed to God, but we must pray for everyone including the king.

This is especially important today when it seems that so many people are angry at the government. We may disagree with what the government is doing. We want our government to nurture a society of godliness and peace. When it fails to do this we have the God given right to change the government. But we also have the responsibility to pray for the government to God through Jesus Christ.

This is the proper role of the church in America today. The church should not be endorsing candidates or a political party. Rather we should be praying for all of our leaders that they will be filled with wisdom from the Holy Spirit which will guide them as they lead us in God's ways. So we should select leaders who know God through prayer, worship and Bible study and have developed the spiritual maturity to lead us.

The reason God allows us to come into his presence with our prayers is so that through our prayers the whole world will come to the knowledge of God and experience salvation in Jesus Christ. Sadly, not everyone will know God and be saved. We don't really know who is saved and who is not. Our job is to pray for everyone hoping that all will saved. So it is most important that we pray for those who do not come to church. By not coming to church they miss out on the extreme good fortune we have in coming into the presence of God with a mediator at our side every Sunday morning. And since they are not here to pray for themselves it is imperative that we pray for them.

And here we are in worship on the Lord's Day. We have come into God's presence. Jesus Christ is with us. We have the opportunity to ask God to intercede on our behalf. We are ready to offer up prayers for everyone. Let us pray.

 Father in heaven, we pray that you will listen to us as we express our joys and concerns. We pray for those who are not in worship today that they will experience your Spirit. We pray for the leaders of our church and of the nation that they will lead in ways of godliness and peace. This we pray in the name of our mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.