As we know Paul is rapidly moving toward a trip to the dangerous city of Jerusalem. Here is the great apostle to the Gentiles, praying about, and asking others to pray about, some serious matters affecting the lives and souls of the saints of God. He is praying about the needs of one of the great churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he had the opportunity he might even have prayed for us. This evening let’s think about one of the several places where Paul asks for the prayers of others. If one of God’s spiritual giants requests prayer, it is well worthy of our consideration.
In these verses Paul pleads for prayer; he pleads for deliverance, and he pleads God’s sovereignty.
Have you ever thought about the ministry of comfort you might have with others for whom you pray? Yes, you are calling upon the omnipotence of God on their behalf. There is nothing greater than that. But you are also putting your arm around that person and giving them a simple, but sometimes, important, spiritual hug. How can we claim to love our family and not show them any affection? How can we claim to love other Christian people, and not pray for them? Paul says, “Come to my side, comfort me with your prayers for me.”
And then he adds “strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Before I did my homework, I was thinking that one point in this message would deal with the struggle of prayer – the striving and battle of prayer. But when looking up the word “strive” I found that it was actually married to the word “together.” And between the two, it was the “together” which is the more dominant thought. Prayer is not a fight to overcome the unwillingness of God in some matter. If it is a fight, prayer is only spiritual struggle against our own worldly & self-sufficient tendencies. And admittedly, on some days that may be a vary serious struggle indeed. But prayer is not a wrestling match with the Omnipotent. Despite the theme of so many books on the subject prayer is not an attempt to overcome God’s reluctance to do something. “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.”
Why is it necessary for Paul to plead with us to pray? Because very, very often “we know not what we should pray for as we ought” – Romans 8:26. If Paul doesn’t tell us that there is a burden on his heart, we, with all our own burdens, are not perceptive enough to see the needs of others. Despite all the scriptures revealing it and all preaching against it, we are selfish creatures. Unless we constantly work, and work, and work at self-sacrifice, we will always put our own ideas, concerns, problems and pains before others. It’s a part of the Adamic nature which needs to be mortified every day. And then there is the fact that most of us aren’t very predisposed to prayer anyway. I suppose that this is a part of our ego-centric selfishness. If I don’t need anything right now, there isn’t much need to pray right now. The problem is that actually we are in great need right now, but we’re too blind to realize it. And one of our needs is the “par-ak-al-eh-o” of the Lord and other believers.
We need to be reminded and exhorted to pray. We need the discipline of prayer. The servants of God, like the Apostle Paul need our prayers. In fact there is not a person on earth who doesn’t need the prayers of others, because we all need the blessing of the Lord.
His first request was that he be kept from the unbelievers of Judea. If we didn’t know any better we’d think that he was in Jerusalem or Caesarea with chains on his legs. But this book wasn’t written from Judah after he had been arrested entering the temple. This was before the weeping at Troas and meeting with the Ephesian elders at Miletus. This was before the prophesy of Agabus, and the vow of the Jerusalem Christians. Many scholars think that this was written from Corinth even before he gathered up those monies. Obviously, Paul already knew that he was walking into an hornet’s nest. All that he is asking is to be enabled to come to visit and minister to the church in Rome. As we look at Paul’s boldness in going to Jerusalem, despite the prophesies about his arrest there, we realize that he has no fear. “For God had not given (him) the spirit of fear but of love and of a sound mind.” He said, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Yet, rather than death, he was anxious to be delivered so that he could minister the gospel to those who were at Rome also.
So why was he so intent on going to Jerusalem in the first place? I’ve said it many times in the last couple of weeks, but let me rephrase it – He was going to Jerusalem on His majesties secret service. The eastern end of the Mediterranean had been in a severe drought for several years. Most of the Jewish saints were in great poverty, if not actually starving. Paul had been telling the Gentile Christians in Greece and Macedonia about this, and several of the churches had collected rather large love offerings for their Jewish brethren. So Paul and some church delegates were going to go to Jerusalem with a lot of gold and silver. But Paul was not exactly sure how this Gentile generosity was going to be received by those Jews who had grown up hating the Greeks and Romans. Paul was bridge-building and he wasn’t sure that there weren’t saboteurs waiting to blow it up this bridge before he got it finished. Pray for me “that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints.” He was asking for prayer to be delivered from the unbelievers and from the believers.
And third, please pray that “I may come unto you with joy by the will God, and may with you be refreshed.” In chapter one Paul had written: “God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.”
It was among Paul’s highest desires to travel to Rome in order to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And he asked the brethren to pray that he be enabled to do just that. That is tantamount exhorting you to earnestly pray for your pastor in his preaching of the Gospel. Think about this morning’s service: The message was slightly unusual in a couple of ways. It was really an opportunity to preach a message within a message. And that mini-sermon needs to be heard, but might not be preached for a long time. I felt the leadership of the Lord to develop that message. Then there is the fact that most of my messages are more didactic – instructive – than what is usually heard in the average church on any given Sunday morning. I know that it shouldn’t concern me, but I wonder about how visitors might respond. And what about next Sunday or this coming Wednesday? Will God’s people be pleading for the Lord’s blessing on the message, the people and the day? Are such things all just a matter of coincidence, or is the leadership of the Lord really necessary? Please pray that “I may come unto you with joy by the will God, and may with you be refreshed.”
Paul was asking for deliverance FROM some people and deliverance TO others.
The Bible says that “the Lord opened the heart of Lydia” to the gospel. The reason that He did that, was because Lydia was just like the rest of us – not seeking after God. But “the king’s heart is in hand of LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Jehoshaphat correctly said, “O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?” The Lord is sovereign over the unbelievers in Judea who might hinder the ministry of Paul. And the Lord is King over the hearts of the believers in Jerusalem whose pride might keep them from accepting the love gift of the Gentiles.
It is important that we know that the God to whom we pray can work every and all things according the fashion of His will. He can bring us safely on our journey and even use the belly of a whale to get it done. He can bring us to Rome even though Euroclydon is trying to sink our ship. We need the blessing of the Lord, and we need to pray for it. Not only for ourselves, but also for one another. We need the Lord’s blessing even for joy and refreshment.
“Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.