1 Timothy 2 : 1-3
The passage that we have read together this morning is headed up in the NIV Instructions for worship.
At first glance you may well think, hang on , this chapter say’s nothing about worship, we however need to ask our selves is this really true and that is what I pray that we can do this morning, it would be beneficial to split our time into two and firstly to look at:
1. The missing element of worship
It is interesting when you ask people what is worship, the usual answer that people would come up with will mention Hymns, Songs, music, style, freedom, restriction, musicians, moving, dull, dry, inspiring, incredible, to mention but a few yet rarely in my experience when you ask about worship will people mention the word prayer, yet here we meet Paul giving instructions to Timothy, a young pastor in a troubled church in the city of Ephesus and what does Paul major on, is it the Hymn book they are using, is it the style of music that they employ, is it the appointment of a worship leader. As important as all these issues mighty are, none of these are anywhere near to what Paul writes about.
Paul begins with the words “I urge then”, in the NKJ the word exhort is used instead of urge, both of which express an urgency, a need, an essential, also in the NKJ the word therefore is used instead of then, both terms suggest because of what has gone on before, [read from 1:18 – 2:1]
First of all, before you do anything else, this is the most important thing, Paul may not be saying that this is what you must do first, every time that you come together, though I am pleased to say this would be our normal practice, what he is saying is that prayer, whatever else is done, prayer must be given utmost priority. I don’t believe that it is coincidence that we are at this point in Timothy at the same time that we are looking as a church to develop our prayer lives.
We need to here to be careful that we do not just become mechanical in our prayers; we need to seek God and ask him to give us a spirit of prayer, so that prayer becomes real and as natural as talking to our earthly father.
Surely the question that we need to ask ourselves this morning is how much emphasis do we ourselves put on prayer, both individual and corporate. It is often as we come together to pray that we are drawn closer to God.
Listen to the words of Spurgeon ‘We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians’
As we have already said, we must guard against our prayers being mechanical and only praying because we feel we have to, they should be times of very real heart felt communion with God and surely that is why Paul is here urging Timothy and the Church at Ephesus to place such importance on this work of prayer.
Paul then goes on to mention 4 of the 7 terms used for prayer in the NT, Paul talks about requests or supplications as it is worded in the NKJ, these should never be selfish, and we should always be praying for the needs of our brothers first, yet when we do come with our own requests, what do we major on, may I suggest that we should major on our spiritual needs before our physical needs, even though these are essential it is amazing the way God provides before we even ask when we are walking aright with him.
Paul then goes on to say ‘Prayers, intercession and thanksgiving, what is the difference between these, prayer in the sense that it is used here, is a term relating to wonder and awesomeness, as
We approach a God who is infinitely holy.
There are always needs within our congregation, so we should pray that those needs would be met by our glorious God. We should pray for God’s witness through his people throughout the world. We need to pray that we will daily live our lives in way’s that are more honouring to him than they have been in the past, also we should uplift God’s justice in prayer and pray that it will always be done. The term prayer, is a general term covering the types of prayer mentioned above, next we come to intercession, this word is only used only 10 times in the whole of scripture, and conveys the idea of drawing close to God, it means ‘gaining entrance to the presence of a King in order to present a petition’.
Does our prayer life, both as individuals and as a church, have about it an awareness of drawing near to God, to a glorious and Holy God, so that we can confidently speak with him. I need to examine my self, we as a church need to examine ourselves, is it mine and our prayer lives that are holding back the work of the gospel here at Holmgate, do our missionaries feel bereft and lonely simply because we do not raise them before the throne of grace often enough.
John Newton, the ex slave trader wrote
Thou art coming to a King;
Large petitions with you bring;
For his grace and power are such;
None can ever ask to much!
Fourthly and finally Paul reminds us that all these prayers should be offered with thanksgiving.
How often do we spend time thanking God for all his blessing, I reckon too little.
If God did not give us the ability to breath we would die, yet how often do we thank Him for giving and maintaining our lives.
If he did not provide food and water and shelter for us then we would be in a desperate situation, yet how often do we thank Him.
If He had not provided a land where we live in relative peace, then our lives could well be in turmoil, but He has, yet how often do we thank Him.
Any here this morning who were alive during the Second World War, will only to easily recognise the sort of state that we could be in, yet do we thank God.
We should always thank God for answers to prayer, in order to encourage the youngsters on a Sunday night at YP, we are starting tonight a prayer diary where we can record the prayers and the answers.
Sometimes God answers instantly, sometimes it takes longer, sometimes the answer is no, yet all these are answers and we should thank God for them.
Paul said to the Philippians in Phil 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.
And this is a central part of our worship of God, yet so often is the Missing Element.
This brings us to our second point:
2 The make up of the element
We have already looked at
Requests
Prayers
Supplication
Thanksgiving
Surely you may now be asking yourself, these are the things that make up prayer.
In one sense they are, but in another sense, they are a bit like a tub of Quality Street or Roses, you or I could quite easily have a tub of Roses or Quality Street and keep them and eat them ourselves, that would bring pleasure to us but not to anyone else and if we are selfish in that way, in a similar way we can be selfish in prayer as we could easily bring:
Requests
Prayers
Intercession, and Thanksgiving, for our selves Paul though finishes verse one with the phrase for everyone and then in the first half of verse 2 he suggest just who some of the everyone’s might be.
What though was it that made Paul say these things, after all is it not common sense that we pray for others.
Well it would seem not, it was the practice of the Jews at the time, the leading religious group of the day to pray only for themselves, as Gentiles were excluded from covenant mercies and so beyond prayer, but Paul hammers the point home in verse 1 and verses 4 &5 where he speaks of all men, so that is our ‘Yardstick’ as it were, pray for all men and verse two places an identity on some of these men:
As Paul urges the church at Ephesus and us today to pray for Kings and all those in authority, this train of teaching and thought is to be found elsewhere in the scriptures,
Romans 13:1, for example, speaks of everyone submitting himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except what God has established.
It is all very well to submit to authorities, we can even grit our teeth and put up with thing that we don’t like, at least for some of the time it is quite another thing entirely to offer prayers, requests and intercession for everyone in authority, including kings and rulers, even if we did not vote for them, we should also be thankful in these circumstances.
That might seem easy, to be thankful for our Queen and our Prime minister, what though would be our reaction if our rulers were of the same calibre as Nero?
Nero was Emperor of Rome when Paul wrote these words.
Nero who supposedly fiddled or at least read poetry whilst Rome burned and then blamed it on the Christians, Nero who was so cruel that he murdered his own mother and then killed his wife Octavia, whilst living a life of debauchery, extravagance and tyranny. Perhaps though his worst moment, came when he kicked to death his wife Poppaea when she was pregnant.
Yet Paul said pray for him - and all like him.
Would we be able to do that, would we be able to pray for our worst enemies and any way, why should we!
Why, so that as the verse tells us, Verse 2b we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
Let’s get this right, we are to pray for these folk in authority over us, and because we do, we will live in peace and quiet, displaying godliness and holiness.
At first glance this sounds quite strange, yet let us look into it a bit further:
Have you ever tried being angry or upset with someone you have been praying for?
It is nigh on impossible to do that, the very fact that you have been praying for them, raises the stakes so to speak, suddenly they are a person, an individual, with senses and feelings, and you have presented them before God and prayed for them.
Paul here though also raises the issue that we should be living lives that are free from outward disturbance, this would seem to be the idea with the word peaceful being used, whilst the term quiet would seem to refer to our inner being.
In other words Paul desires that the church should be able to worship God without interference from outside, either state intervention or elements who set out to cause trouble, whilst at the same time we should be calm within our own spirit.
This is one of the reasons why Paul required the church in Corinth to ensure that everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way [ 1 Cor 14:40]
And so it should be in our lives both corporately as a church and as individuals, we must seek to make prayer the very main stay of our worship, for not only will it result in us living lives in godliness and holiness, but as we read in verse 3, it pleases God our saviour and surely this must be our main purpose in life, to please God and to bring glory and honour to his name.
May this be reflected in our prayer lives both as individuals and as a church.
