Examples of New Testament Prayer — Romans 12

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. It's great to be back here. Last time I was here was up on the platform, was last November. I thought it was much more recent than that, but it's been a long time.

0:18 And, last time I spoke I was speaking on prayer in the New Testament church. And I'm going to continue that a little bit, going into some further detail after Acts. Last time I got through, I think most of the book of Acts, most of the references to prayer in the church and seeing how prayer was used and what we can learn from what we see in the book of Acts. I'm going to review a little bit today, I will try to keep that to under eight minutes, so we're going to fly through the book of Acts to give you a little bit of context, and then once we get it to Romans, it's more about examples of Paul's prayer, the things that Paul, how Paul was praying for the fellow believers and also his instructions on how we should pray. So before we go any further, let's commit our time to the Lord.

1:10 Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for this time that we have today. We thank you for blessing us with your word and, that by your word we know how we ought to live. We ask that you would bless this meeting, bless this time, pray that you would say the words that you want to say and that we would all have receptive hearts to hearing your word. And we ask your blessing now in Christ's name, Amen. Alright.

1:52 This word is found 10 times in the New Testament and six of those 10 times this word is used in reference to prayer specifically. So the dictionary, tells us that that word means to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing, to persevere and not to faint, to show oneself courageous for, to be in constant readiness for one, or to wait on constantly. And we can put this in a more cohesive manner in English by saying, it would be to be steadfastly attentive with constant readiness and unremitting care that one might persevere and show one's self courageous. So, last time I spoke I didn't have this and it was mentioned to me that perhaps I should leave this up there because it's kind of a mouthful. So you can contemplate on this as as we're going through here.

2:49 What I talked about last time, the the six of the 10 occurrences that we have, of this word that are used in reference to prayer. Nothing else in the New Testament is giving this degree of emphasis. Not giving of money, not hospitality, not exercising our gifts, not doctrine, not preaching, nothing is given this much emphasis. Six times this word is used with prayer in the New Testament. In all six of those occurrences, the Greek word is in the continuous action tense, emphasizing a continual responsibility to do it both corporately and individually.

3:27 Have some of the six references are referring specifically to corporate prayer, some of them are to individual prayer and some of them you can kind of apply it to both. Okay. Those six references, I went through three of them last time Acts one fourteen that's specifically corporate prayer but we also have Acts two forty two and Acts six:four. That's what we have in Acts and the one that I'm going to get through today are in Romans twelve twelve Ephesians six eighteen and Colossians four:two. My...

4:00 I... In my Bible I have a a Strong's dictionary and the dictionary of this word that I have in here is to be earnest toward a thing, to be, to persevere, to be constantly diligent, to attend assiduously all exercises or in the case of a person to adhere closely or to give oneself continually. Okay. So this is what I want you to think about as we're thinking about this even though the only three references I'm going to talk about that uses for it are in Romans, Ephesians and Colossians. I'm going to use I want you to think about this even in reference to the passages that don't specifically use that word.

5:18 As was mentioned during the breaking of bread, what brother Denzel was talking about is that we know and he gave us a bunch of these passages where Jesus is saying, you know, you know, Jesus was with them and and they really do know but it was still probably a little hard for them to take. And prayer was was the one thing that they did know that they needed to do. After that we see prayer used as the disciples were choosing a replacement for Judas and we can see that prayer was answered immediately. Moving on through Acts, in Acts chapter two, we have Pentecost. So, the prayer meeting, the context is a prayer meeting and it was the place for a reception of divine power.

6:07 During the Pentecost that was a very specific event but we can see that even today as a place... Prayer meeting as a place for the reception of divine power. At Pentecost we had all of these apostles who were nobodies in life who all of a sudden became somebody's with the gift of the Holy Spirit. All these illiterate men were suddenly literate and we had the gift of tongues going out which was a very important thing in the New Testament because in in spreading the gospel the gift of tongues was necessary so that apostles could go out and missionaries could go out and and spread the gospel to other countries who didn't speak Arabic. Moving on through Acts, we see in chapter four that the prayer meeting was the resource of the persecuted church.

7:02 In Acts four twenty nine we have a prayer where they express confidence in God's overruling power and then have, specific requests, of God to to bless them as they are trying to deal with persecution. So, they were trusting him to deal with their adversaries which were largely the unconverted Jews. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that once we get into Romans. They were asking God for boldness to declare the gospel not not safety. They were asking for boldness and stretching out their His hand to heal which was a confirmation of the Apostolic Ministry.

7:51 In chapter six, we see that in prayer was so important and this is one of the uses of this word, Prosecco Terro in chapter six verse four is that the apostles needed... They felt they needed so much time to devote to prayer that they had a meeting where they had to choose men to delegate responsibilities so that the apostles had more time just to pray together. That's how important it was. That they had to delegate other responsibilities. Moving on.

8:29 We have we have Paul's conversion And I talked kind of at length about this passage in chapter eight, nine last time and there's a lot we can get out of that in terms of prayer being made and prayers being answered. Prayer being the initial experience in salvation because that's the first thing Paul did after he met with Christ on the road. He prayed for three days. And there's a lot that we got out of that with obedience, prayers answered that involved waiting, isolation, fasting. Paul was blind for three days.

9:11 And so the the effectiveness of of losing sight of the world and having nothing else to do but pray and and the effectiveness that that had that that God sent Ananias to Paul. It wasn't a necessary thing. God could have accomplished what he needed to accomplish with Paul without Ananias but it's the it's the fact that God gives us the opportunity through prayer to help, not to help God but to work out his purposes because he doesn't need us. God could have fulfilled the great commission without our help but that we have the privilege to be involved in that way. We see in Acts 10 Cornelius' prayer.

9:52 These are instances of prayers that go up and then prayers that are answered. So we have Cornelius' prayers in chapter 10. Peter also in chapter 10, prayers were made, prayers were answered. In Chapter 12, we had the prayer meeting where the believers were together praying for Peter's release from prison. This was not a God, please help Peter.

10:20 This was the whole group got together and they were praying earnestly. This was fervent prayer. This was prayer where Peter was imprisoned and and they were beseeching God. This was a this was a really sincere prayer meeting and yes God could have delivered Peter from prison without the prayer meeting. He didn't need the believers to be praying but it was he gave them that opportunity to see that okay we come together and we are going to pray like this and God's going to answer it.

10:53 And God gets Peter out of prison and it was actually easier for Peter to get out of prison than it was for him to get back into that prayer meeting. If you look into chapter 12 a little bit because a girl answers the door and shuts it right back in his face. So it's it's it's a very interesting thing that that we are privileged to be involved to pray to sacrifice ourselves in prayer. And something I mentioned last time was does God feel that it's harder to get us to pray than it is for him to get the evangelists out of prison? Just a question to go out, know, is it only our trials and sufferings that get us to pray?

11:34 Or are we doing it all the time? Do we do it with this in mind? What is our attitude towards prayer? In Acts 13, fasting and prayer were involved in sending out of Paul and Barnabas. In Acts 16, prayers were answered by the release of Paul and the conversion of the jailer and his family.

12:02 I think we know that story pretty well. In Acts 20, we have prayers that are showing And in so have that pandemic. We people the some of the instances of we have of prayer and how it was used and how God answered it. Because every time there were prayers that went up, it was always answered. It was always answered.

12:34 And so prayer was in this atmosphere. Prayer was the atmosphere of the early church and the Christians prayed and God worked. They saw it and saw it and saw it and saw it every time and prayer expressed their complete dependence on God for for sustenance, for guidance, for worship, preservation under persecution and and for their service. So this was this was the the prevalent thing in the church. So with that in mind, that was what I covered last time.

13:51 They were always in his prayers and he appeals to God because only God could know how unceasing his prayers were. And and he's calling God as his witness here. Yes, I pray for you constantly all the time and I am praying for you guys. And it was not a reading down through a list. And I pray for the Romans and I pray for the Corinthians and I pray for the Thessalonians.

14:16 It was not a sort of liturgy by road. These these weren't a a list. These were eager, tireless, prayers, passionate prayers that showed how much he cared for them. And we have to think about what was what was in Rome and the conditions of the Christians in Rome and how you had the Christians in Rome dealt with some particular difficulties that that other Christians didn't. Obviously, a little a little later after this, we have Emperor Nero and all the persecution that was going on and the crucifying of Christians upside down and burning of Rome and all the kind of stuff.

15:02 That was a little bit later. But this is, you know, this is even in the precursor. The Christians in Rome had some real needs. And and Paul was very careful to pray for them very very regularly. And it shows his his passion for those who had been saved and and for the unsaved in Rome as well and and for the the fruit and maturity of those that had already been converted.

16:22 We don't know the right way. We don't know the most effective way. And we pray selfishly, ignorantly, narrowly. That's kind of our... That's kind of a default mode and it's...

16:37 And he's recognizing that but he gives us great comfort in the fact that the spirit... He says... He tells us that the spirit intercedes for us in groanings too deep for words. So when we're trying to pray and we botch it all up, he's saying that the spirit can interpret what we really mean and he... And the spirit intercedes for us.

17:04 And and it's saying here that the spirit is the one groaning although we groan sometimes too in prayer but the spirit is the one that's groaning and Paul's giving us this picture into spiritual realm. This unseen realm where you have the spirit doing things for us. Doing things because we aren't capable and we don't know how to do it ourselves. In verse 27 he says, He who searches the hearts, that's God searches the hearts of man knows what the mind of the spirit is and he, the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the of God. So we're also getting from this that that the spirit intercedes for us when we botch up our prayers but he interprets to the father what we really mean and prays according to the will of the father.

18:02 So the spirit always has our... Always has the will of god which is our best interest. The will of god is always our best interest and we could go off on a tangent with that. But the will of God is is always our best interest and the spirit knows that. And so, the spirit always has God's will in mind as as the spirit intercedes for us in our prayers.

18:25 And that's a really, it's a great comforting thought peering into that unseen knowing that there are spiritual forces working on our behalf when we fail in our prayers to to pray effectively, to pray as we ought. The next instance of prayer, just flip over a page to Romans 10 and we're looking again into the heart of Paul here and, Romans ten:one he says, Brethren my heart's desire and my prayer to God for salvation. Them being Israel. Paul was an Israelite and as a Jew he was we know he was incredibly zealous. He was a Pharisee so he was a member of the elite that knew everything about the law and knew everything about what they had to do to please God.

19:53 That's his heart's desire and his prayer to God is for Israel's redemption. And and he goes on in in all of chapter ten and eleven talking about Israel. They had they had great zeal in in verse two. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not in accordance to knowledge not in truth. They were so zealous and as Paul even was a Pharisee as well.

20:17 You know you have this zeal. I mean the Pharisees were devoting themselves to being perfect, to following the law perfectly, to do all this stuff. And so the zeal was there, they just didn't have the truth and so it gained them nothing and in Paul's most sincere desire was the salvation of Israel. Turn over a page to Romans 12 and this is the first time after Acts we see this Greek word, Romans 12 verse 12. I'm going to back up actually a little bit in verse 10, this chapter is talking about service.

21:28 I don't know if we any Greek scholars in here but pardon my American accent in the Greek. But, so devoted to prayer. So Paul is is giving us this this sort of this list of character traits, this this list of things that that we should be doing and and how the body should function. And being devoted to prayer is a very important aspect of it. He didn't use this word in reference to persevering in tribulation just back one phrase.

22:04 He didn't use this in in serving the Lord, he didn't use this in when he said devoted to one another in brotherly love, he didn't actually use this word. He only used this word and it's translated devoted in both verse 10 and in verse 12 but only in verse 12 does he use this word it has to do with prayer. This is what's important. And because it's when you're devoted to prayer in this way, that's when all sorts of things happen. That's when all the other sorts of things fall into place.

22:32 That's kind of what we can what we can get out of this. So the prayer should be regular, should be constant, it should be a habit. There's a quote that I came across when I was studying for this. I think this was actually, Bill MacDonald. Prayer brings power in our lives and peace to our hearts.

22:54 When we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, we come the closest to omnipotence that it is possible for mortal man to come. Say that one more time. Prayer brings power in our lives and peace to our hearts. When we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, we come the closest to omnipotence that it is possible for mortal man to come. Think about that.

23:18 And this context, like I said, is is generally referring to service and and the body and and how the believers function together and perhaps we can use this reference devoted to prayer as perhaps meaning devoted devoted in prayer for others. For others in the body. We can look in in John 13 and in first John four twenty talking about if we say we love God and don't love our brothers we're a liar and etcetera. So if we if we wanna look at this in context and say that we should be devoted to prayer for each other. And that's...

23:57 That it's that it's incredibly important that we pray for our fellow believers both in the local assembly and those outside our local assembly. It's incredibly important that we remember our brothers and sisters in prayer. Romans 15 in verse 30, starting in verse 30, there's a little passage here to the end of the chapter. This is a prayer of Paul and then there's a lot that we get out of this one. Starting in we'll start in verse 30.

24:34 Now, I urge you brethren by our lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to made our lives. Company. Now We the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So this prayer of Paul, he's making a request, a very urgent, eager and specific requests here.

25:47 The only way we're going to get through this is if we band together. That's that's the Greek word that's used here. And so he's he's appealing to them through their mutual union in the Lord Jesus Christ and their mutual love for God. He's appealing to them to pray with me, pray for me, strive together with me. He's saying we can't do this on our own.

26:15 I can't do it on my own. You can't do it on your own. Strive together with me. Persevere with me in your prayers to God. Now the specifics that he gets to in 3132.

26:32 He's praying first that the, that he may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea. So the Jews who were as Paul was, all of the religious zealots, the ones who were persecuting the church and and not a big fan of Paul's ministry. So he was praying for deliverance from them in an effort to further the gospel. And at the second half of 31 he's praying that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable the saints and if we look back in chapter 15 we see the service he's talking about is the gift from the Corinthians to the church in Jerusalem. Now this was a big problem because the saints in Jerusalem had monetary need.

27:26 And we have the recent converts in Corinth who were showing the grace of God by sending funds and Paul was taking these to Jerusalem. And the big problem is that you have the Jewish converts, Jewish believers who still had some prejudice against the Gentile believers. They're all believers at this point but it's one we're talking about the Corinthians and back then there was a phrase that if to be the Corinthian meant that you were pretty vile. I mean it it was sexual immorality, it was idolatry, it was a lot of disgusting things and so the the Corinthians had a lot going against them and and the Jewish Christians had a lot... There was a lot of hostility there and Paul was asking for prayer prayer because the Jewish saints needed a lot of grace to be able to accept those funds.

28:26 The Jewish saints needed those funds but, you know, seeing it as an act of charity from the Corinthians was a really tough thing. And so Paul's really praying that that his service when he when he delivers these funds that the Jewish saints can take it with grace and accept it. And actually I that's mentioned in Corinthians and if I have time to get through to Corinthians we'll talk about that a little bit more he talks about a little bit later. But he's asking for prayer for that and also that the visit to Rome might be joyful. He's asking that they pray that the conditions would be God's will.

29:06 He always in his prayers mentions mentions the will of god. Everything is always by the will of god and it's it's emphasizing Paul's submission and recognizing that his ministry, Paul's ministry was directed by god. It was directed through the holy spirit and at the beginning of Romans, Paul is talking about his desire to visit the Romans and he wants to get there but God has other plans for him. So he's he's praying that by the will of God that his visit to Rome would be joyful and that conditions would be under his will and at the end there that he would have a little bit of rest from his taxing ministry in the journey he had just been on. So that wraps up Romans.

29:46 If we turn over a few pages, the only instance of prayer we have in first Corinthians is in chapter 14 having to do with the discussion on tongues. And what we can take from this discussion, I don't have a whole lot to say about it because I don't need to go into tongues a whole lot. That's not what I'm trying to do today. But something Paul was getting at here in chapter 14 was that there were brothers with the gift of tongues, but not necessarily the gift of interpretation. Sometimes they could coexist, sometimes they didn't necessarily.

30:28 If you look at the context and Paul talking about different members of the body and different body members doing different things and everybody having a function, there certainly you can make a case that you had believers who were speaking in tongues but there wasn't anyone to interpret it. So this was edifying to no one. And so the context here is that Paul is praying that the spiritual gifts could be edifying to others and we don't have the gift of tongues anymore. It's not a necessary thing but there are other spiritual gifts that can or cannot be used in a way that are edifying to others. And so here's a point that we can make that we have spiritual gifts and we need to remember to pray that it be edifying to the other believers.

31:51 And and Paul was so happy to hear the report that he sent the second letter. So that's what this is about. And so we have three instances of Paul's prayer and we can see a little bit more into the heart and mind of Paul here in second Corinthians. In chapter one verse 11, it says, And He will yet deliver us, you also joining and helping us through your prayers that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many. So Paul is giving the Corinthians the benefit of the doubt that they were praying for him and he's...

32:40 The the the deliverance he's talking about is most likely has to do with the riot in Ephesus that happened and he's talking about deliverance from that. And there's some speculation as to whether the Corinthians were praying for him and holding him before the throne of grace at all because you had issues with legalists and people that were questioning Paul's apostolic authority at this time in in Corinth. So Paul's being generous and saying that he's giving credit to them for praying because he recognizes that his deliverance came through the prayers of many. And remember at at that time, we didn't have electronic communication so there weren't really that many people who knew about Paul's predicament in the first place. So that's why we can kind of assume and and that Paul's assuming that they're the ones that were praying for him among some others but that his deliverance came through their prayers.

33:43 In chapter nine and this is what I was talking about at the end of Romans. Chapter nine verse 14, I'll I'll actually start in 13 because of the proof given by this ministry, that's their gift to the saints in Jerusalem. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all while they also by prayer on your behalf yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. So when Paul was asking the Romans to pray that this gift would be met with grace in Jerusalem, here's the answer. So it was.

34:43 And now as a result of the Corinthians gift to the, to Jerusalem, we have these strong ties of affection. So now this kind of justified the Corinthians, in the eyes of those Jerusalem. This kind of made complete in in their minds that they really were believers, they really were saved and they were sending funds to help those in Jerusalem that needed them. And so Paul is saying that they also yearn for you because of the grace of God that is in you. And so there's so he's saying that there's prayer not devoted.

35:30 So now the saints in Jerusalem are remembering the Corinthians. They are to pray for the Corinthians now because the Corinthians have proven themselves worthy in in their eyes anyway and so now we've got this this bond and Paul is extremely happy about that. That's what that's what he wanted and and so here's an instance of of we see a prayer being answered, the prayer of Paul and the the prayer that he asked the Romans to make for these saints in Jerusalem and now things are all rosy. And and something else we can probably get from this exact thing is for us in a in a practical application is that it's important to pray for other believers even those who have been recently under prejudice. As we're talking about the importance of prayer for other believers, those in local assembly, those outside the local assembly, sometimes we have...

36:36 We can have new believers who we aren't sure if they actually have accepted Christ or not. You know, so we're... We are kind of feeling the way that the saints in Jerusalem felt. But it's it shows the importance that it is to remember to pray for them too and and to pray for them constantly. That it that it's still it's still important that we remember even those that we've had some negative thoughts about.

37:09 And whether whether that that prejudice is warranted or not. Often it's not warranted and so we're we're sinning in our prejudice but sometimes if we have good reason, even if we have good reason that we have to remember them before the throne of grace. Flipping over a page to second Corinthians 13, we see here at the end of letter in verse seven through nine. And this has to do with... This is kind of more referencing the first letter here.

37:44 He says, now we pray to God that you do no wrong, that we ourselves may appear approved, I'm sorry, that you do no wrong not that we ourselves may appear approved but that you may do what is right even though we should appear unapproved. For we can do nothing against the truth but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong. This we also pray for that you may be made that you may be made complete. For this reason I am writing these things while absent in order that when I in order that when present, I may not use severity in accordance with the authority which the lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.

38:29 Finally, brethren rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like minded, live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you. So here we see Paul is very eagerly praying for the restoration of Corinthian church. In the first letter, first letter is a very strong letter because the Corinthian believers had started getting a lot of things wrong. They were new believers. And so Paul's first letter was a very stern one.

38:58 And they had some issues with sinning believers in the assembly and Paul talks about expelling the immoral brother. But here he's he's he's kind of getting to the other side of that and that he's he's letting them know that he's praying for the restoration there. That he's praying for their holiness, the building of their faith and their So, because they... The reason he's writing this letter is because he heard a very good report regarding their response to his first letter. And so, in the interim, he's been away from them for probably about three years and it's very taxing for both parties.

39:43 And so he's really trying to show them how much... How important it is for their edification and that their restoration and that... Then that they would be made complete. Now he's... He says...

40:01 He's writing this while absent and that's a reference to his desire was was was there there being made complete, not his confirmation of his apostolic authority. Like I said before, there was some prejudice against Paul at this point among some of the believers in Corinth and people questioning his authority and had he gone there with a rod and asserted and his authority and then the Corinthians kind of changed then the credit, you know, Paul would have gained his good name back. And that, you know, people could see that, okay, Paul came and he disciplined the church and now they're okay. And so, okay, this is confirming Paul's leadership. And that wasn't Paul at all.

40:50 He wanted them to be made complete while he was absent. He wanted them to do it on their own. And that could have meant that that he looked worse by the legalists. His point was not... He he was never looking at himself.

41:08 He was never trying to make himself look better. He was never... If he be made weak in the eyes of others that was fine as long as they were made strong. That was what mattered. And he was he was giving this up.

41:26 He was saying, I want you guys to do this on your own while I'm absent. I mean, yes, I've been given the authority. I've been given authority from the Lord for building up, not for tearing down. So he didn't wanna do that either. And and so all of this focus is is that it's not after Paul's gain.

41:43 And if he lost credibility because they got back to the Lord and got back to doing doing no wrong as he says. Not doing wrong. He doesn't want them to do no wrong because he said so. He wants them to do no wrong because it's what's right. And that they know that it's right because he's taught them before and then he's got...

42:07 He's given them his first letter. And so he's shown them the right way. And he's not saying, don't do this because I said so, but this is the right way. And do this while I'm absent. And so he's eagerly praying for their completeness and that God's will would be worked out in them.

42:29 We're about out of time. We have the other two instances of this word and you can study it for yourself if you like. In Ephesians six eighteen, I will read this very quickly and I'm going to wrap up here. Ephesians six eighteen, With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view be on alert with all perseverance this word and petition for all the saints and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel And also in Colossians four:two. Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.

43:37 So I wanna close, with a couple of couple of quotes, one by JB Johnson. He says, a congregation without a prayer meeting is essentially defective in its organization and so must be its efficiency. A congregation without a prayer meeting is essentially defective in its organization and so must be limited limited in its efficiency. And another quote by George Mueller, he said, It is not enough to begin to pray nor to pray aright nor is it enough to continue for time to pray. Let's pray.

44:22 Heavenly father, we thank you for this time we've had to look into your word. We thank you for all the examples we have of prayer in the New Testament that you've given us and that you have shown us how we ought to pray. We thank you that the spirit still intercedes for us as we get it wrong but we ask that you would be with us and guide us in our prayer lives that we would have an ignited passion for prayer and a desire to prayer and a a desire to seek your will in all things. We ask that you bless us as we go today. In your son's name, amen.