Sermon: Praying for the World (6-17-2012)

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men....

Scripture Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1-7

I. Introduction: In this passage before us today, we have a call to prayer.
In the beginning, we are told to pray a specific prayer: For Kings. For Caesar.
That prayer is to have a particular result: So that God’s people can live quiet, peaceful lives pursuing godliness and reverence. So we can sit here safely, week after week.

Paul is writing this letter to Timothy somewhere in the vicinity of 62 A.D.
It will be the year 312 A.D. before Constantine the Emperor is converted to Christianity.

250 years between 2 events. On the one hand, Paul was not simply asking Timothy and the church in Ephesus to pray for the emperor to be saved.

This look at prayer reminds us of two things:
First, our prayers have the long term in mind: Thy Will Be Done. Our prayers have a 250 year plus range.
Second, we are the living answers to prayers reaching back 250 years. For Americans, that goes back roughly to the events known as the Great Awakening. A series of revivals that swept across the American colonies.  Great preaching and preachers: George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards. And great prayer.

Prayer is not subject to objective tests. Prayer is not subject to scientific study:
          Group A prayed 3 times a day.
          Group B prayed 10 times a day.
          Group C was given a placebo. Their "prayer" was actually, a Dr. Suess story.
          Group D did not pray at all.

And yet, prayer is a vital part of the Christian and the church’s life.
And are the results we see in life and history just coincidence?
In May 1989 at Leipzig, in the historic Nocolai Kirche (St. Nicholas Church) where the Reformation had been introduced 450 years earlier, a small group began to meet.
They were reading the Sermon on the Mount and praying for peace.
The group grew and had to move to larger and larger rooms.
They moved to the nave of the church, which filled up.
The Communist authorities got concerned. They began threatening attenders, jailing some, and blocking roads to the prayer meetings.
October 9, 1989, some 2000 crowded in to pray for peace, with another 10,000 outside.
Soon the Berlin Wall came down.

Right here in the central part of 1 Timothy is an exhortation to prayer. Largely a whole chapter devoted to prayer.
1 Timothy and 2^nd Timothy are teacher manuals, seminary guides, doctrinal handbooks.
Teach, instruct, train are recurring words and themes. Doctrine and specifically SOUND Doctrine is the motif of these letters.
“Timothy, here is how you are to get into the minds of your congregation.”

And yet, this is a book calling for prayer.
As we look at these verses today, we will be able to look at the immensity, the greatness, the vastness of what our prayers are to focus on, and then we will look at Paul’s personal explanation of how he…and by extension, each of us, then tackles the world.
II. The Universal Scope of Our Prayers1 Tim. 2:1-2
1. It is good for us to have the more local, individual prayers on our church prayer list. Jobs, marriages, babies, sicknesses, travel, and more are things to pray for.

2. Four words or phrases are used to expand upon what we more easily call prayer.
Supplications:
Prayers:
Intercessions:
Thanksgiving:

The Scriptures are a literary text. Rich in literary devices; not just barebones instruction.
Multiple words are used often for several reasons: 

     i. To show different aspects of a thing to be done. Housework: cleaning, cooking, ironing, dusting.
     ii. To show the richness or multi-layered nature of a thing: You are my mentor, friend, guide, brother.
     iii. Often it does both. Easy to see the difference between thanksgiving and supplication, but not so    easy see the difference between prayers and supplications. To focus on definitions would be misguided. Rather we are to be hit by the richness of the fourfold testimony.

3. We are to pray for all men. At least 4 times in this text this word ALL appears. All men is not the same as all who are in authority.
All does not always mean every.  Usually, it is better seen as all types. 

As you think through the 4 alls (all men; all who are in authority; and the all who God desires to be saved and the all for whom Christ was a ransom), pray on the larger side of this.

If you are hung up in a theological struggle between this passage and verses from John 10, read Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God if you wish. Do the study of issues relating to predestination and the free offer of the Gospel,

But for now, for all times, pray expansively.
Children are often at best theologians in the church: Pray for God to heal all the sick people in the world.

Philip Graham Ryken tells of his experiences some years ago at the Gilcomston South Church in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Every Saturday night—for 2 hours—the congregation gathered for prayer.
They had a large board listing the names and locations of ministers and missionaries sent out by the church.
They prayed their way around the city of Aberdeen.  They prayed for Scotland and the British Isles.
Someone would mention a continent and prayers would follow for the countries of that continent.
They prayed for the whole world.

Pray expansively: World, US, Texarkana. 

4. For kings and those in authority: Pagans, in their case. Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, Washington insiders, establishment figures, etc.

III. The Universal Reach of the Gospel
In the essay, “Epic as Cosmopoesis” by Louise Cowan, she talks about the characteristics of epic literature.
One of those characteristics of the great epics—like The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost—is the penetrating of the veil between gods and men, immortals and mortals.

Right here: Paul gives us the easy answer to the epic question: Where is the veil separated between God and man:
In Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ alone, in Jesus Christ only.

Prayer, Paul’s topic, becomes a focus on Jesus Christ.
Prayer focuses us on a Christ-centered life.
One Mediator between God and man: the Man Christ Jesus. The Man—Christ’s human nature. The Christ—the messiah, the one who is coming. Jesus—One who saves.

IV. The Specific Application
The universal prayer—All men, all the world
The universal answer—Jesus Christ
Specific application: Paul appointed to carry the truth to Gentiles.
GCC: appointed to proclaim the Gospel and minister in Texarkana.
Prayer focuses us on Christ. A focus on Christ sends us out to let people know.
V. How do we further apply all this?
1. Application for a sermon on prayer: Pray. Pray more. Pray better.
2. Attend at least one of our prayer times this week.
3. Go through the shelves at home and pull out that book on prayer that you read years ago or never read or read and did not apply.
4. Pray in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar setting. Embarrass yourself if necessary. Pray spontaneously.
5. Pray bigger, more Christ centered, evangelism centered, and specific.
The world, the message of Christ, those, like Paul, who carry the message of Christ.
　
　

Wage the Good Warfare

Wage a good warfare!

Scripture: 1 Tim. 1:18-20
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; [19] Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: [20] Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.


Introduction: When I was growing up, one of the most frightening ongoing news stories was the Vietnam War. For the first time in history, the evening news brought the war into our living rooms. And the war was confusing. My parents never understood what was going on. Neither did most Americans. I as a child certainly didn’t understand.
Among the points that was confusing was this shaded place on the mats of Vietnam. The country of Vietnam was divided into a north and a south. The country had a shape somewhat like a snake. Dividing the north and the south was an area known as the DMZ.
The de-militarized zone. A portion of land between north and south that was supposed to be free of military activity.
Like so much of that war, the DMZ didn’t make a lot of sense.

We will likewise make a big mistake if we think there are areas in this life that are the DMZ.
The Christian life, the spiritual life, is by definition a life of warfare. Repeatedly, in the Bible, descriptions and pictures and commands are loaded with military language.
It is not just God using metaphors or figurative language. The Christian life is a battle. It is not just like a battle. It is a battle.
There is a war going on and the battle is for the soul.
Let’s think again about the good warfare that Paul calls upon Timothy to wage.

II. Wrong Approaches to Good Warfare

A. Actual Wars in History waged under the banner of Christ that have brought reproach to the name of Christ.
The primary example is always the Crusades. Lots of misunderstandings and confusion over the wars for the Holy Land waged by European kings and popes during the Middle Ages.
Back and forth warfare between the Muslim east and the Christian west.
Yes, Europeans many times tried to conquer the Middle East in the name of Christ, doing things very unchristian.
4^th Crusade—a victory for the Europeans. They captured the Christian city of Constantinople. Senseless and wicked.
Many times the Muslim east tried to capture Europe.
Bad theology and wrongful use of the name of Christ.

B. Another wrong approach has been one close to the heart of Reformed Christians.
John Frame has spoken and written about what he calls ‘Machen’s Warrior Children.’
J. Gresham Machen waged the good warfare against real enemies of the faith: Men who denied the Bible, the Deity of Christ, the Resurrection of Christ, and other key doctrines.
He and his followers had a zeal with study for knowing exactly what the Bible teaches.
But all too often, Reformed Christians have fought against each other, viciously, over doctrinal differences. Great men of God whose books set side by side on my shelves could not get along together.
Frame talked about over 20 different conflicts between Reformed Christians.

C. Another wrongful approach is the one that says that Christians should not wage war against others FOR ANY REASON. Sad to say, many Christians have bought into the idea that we just get along, we just accept differences, we overlook doctrine.

III. The War to be Waged
A. There are at least 2 fronts on this war: There are the big picture theological battles for the truth and there is the personal battle.

B. In the history of the Church, there have been major conflicts where the essential truths of the Bible, the essence of the Gospel, were at stake.
1. The Nicene Creed, which we recited today, is an example. The big word for some of the early Church battles is Christology. It simply means, the study of Christ.  Who is Jesus Christ?The Nicene Creed was a defining statement of what the Church believed reflects Scripture.

2. The Reformation. This topic is dear to the heart of this church since we are by definition a Reformed Church.
The truth of the Gospel had gotten increasingly obscured during the Middle Ages. There were Christians in the Church, which meant the RC church, during the Middle Ages.  There were Christians in the RC church before and during the time of Martin Luther and John Calvin.The Gospel was there, but obscured, distorted, ignored.  People were converted before the Reformation not by the teachings of the Church, but in spite of the teachings of the Church.

3. The Battle for the Bible in the Twentieth Century.
This was J. Gresham Machen’s great battle at Princeton Theological Seminary.  Later, men like Harold Lindsell (The Battle for the Bible) and Francis Schaeffer carried on this war. You cannot understand the real culture war of modern times without understanding this. Machen’s book Christianity and Liberalism is still one of the defining books of sound, Biblical Christianity.

C. The Personal Warfare
These great world-changing battles for the faith are a big part of who we are. They give us the role call of the faith: Men who spent their lives for the sake of sound doctrine. But Waging the Good Warfare is not just about those great battles.
It is also about you.
What if the church holds to a right view of Christ, salvation, and the Bible, but you personally are a wreck?
If GCC holds to sound doctrine, thank God, but again, the question has to be faced, what about you?
There are no group rates or package deals for either getting into heaven or for living a faithful Christian life here on earth.

Yes, sometimes Christians have faced the Bible and faith too individualistically.
“Me and Jesus have a good thing going. Me and Jesus have it all worked out.”
Just you and your Bible and your own walk with Christ—yes American Christianity errs in that direction all too often.
But it is an error of emphasis, not an error of essence. 
You, personally, need to be waging the good warfare.
Traditionally, the talk has been about ‘Christian Disciplines’ or ‘Spiritual Disciplines.’
If the word Discipline is scary (and it derives from Disciple), then the next word is also scary—Daily.
Prayer, Bible Reading, Fellowship, Meditation, Giving, and Worship.
Setting aside specific times where you pray.
Purposefully reading Christian books, not just good books containing a Christian element, but specifically Christian books that challenge and change the way you live.
Reading the Bible—by a plan or pattern. Whether it is all the way through or repeated readings of a specific book.
Talking with a brother or sister in Christ about the Faith. Not just a safe conversation, but a sharing of the faith.
These are among the elements of Spiritual Disciplines.

These are not things of which you advertise, boast, post on your FB, etc.
If you are doing your Bible reading and prayers on the corner of AR Blvd. And Stateline where all Texarkana can see you, you have a problem.  You recognize the Pharisaical problem with all that.
When Jesus spoke of the spiritual disciplines in the Sermon on the Mount. Repeatedly, He said, “Your Father who sees….”
But I will tell you something else, and you know this from experience, the Christian who is doing all these spiritual exercises is not talking or boasting, but in time, it is like there is a flashing neon light around you.
Church members start knowing that when they are around you, they are going to hear exhortations, hear Scripture, be encouraged.
They will know that when they ask you to pray for them, you will—maybe right there on the spot.
Much more can be said on Spiritual Disciplines, let me sum that matter up with a few suggestions:

1. A couple of studies that women and girls can sign up for in the foyer.
2. Start or restart or improve what you are currently doing: Bible reading and prayer.
3. Turn something off, minimize some screen, slow down somewhere.
4. Find a book that slaps you in the face and read it slowly.
5. Do something small that makes a difference.

IV. What about Timothy?
A. At an early point in Timothy’s life and ministry, there was an ordination, a laying on of hands. There was a prophecy made regarding him. Prophecies are teachings from God. Sometimes about the future, sometimes just truths about God. Several references to this point are made, but Paul never tells us specifically what the prophecy was.

There is a warped old evangelistic saying, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
I don’t want to dwell on how it is misused, but rather, take note that there is a great element of truth in it.
The world affirms the truth of it in that popular movie, “It’s a wonderful life.” God saved you for a purpose. God placed you in a Christian church, or perhaps a Christian family, or a Christian school for a purpose.
You are probably not going to be a Martin Luther or Billy Graham, but you are not just a number or a statistic.
What has God purposed for you?
Paul is reminding Timothy of his ordination and the prophecies.  “Timothy, stay on mission.”
Timothy is battling the big picture, the big issues—the church, the faith. But repeatedly, Paul tells him to attend to his own personal warfare. And if Timothy needs reminders, encouragement, teaching, how much more the rest of us.

B. Conclusion:  There is no DMZ—no demilitarized zone. No place on earth or in your soul where the spiritual battle is not being wages. 

Wage the Good Warfare.

How We Often Feel

Where is The Safest Place on Earth?  The Church.

Taken from the book The Safest Place on Earth: Where People Connect and are Forever Changed by Larry Crabb:

You're tired. Life isn't turning out as you'd expected.  When you became a Christian, you packed your bags for Bermuda but your plane landed in Iceland. Without a coat, you need the warmth of community to survive.

You thought by now you'd be farther ahead spiritually, less tempted toward bad things..., more content in a church fellowship, better connected to family and friends. You expected, after all those years in church and mornings with your Bible, to struggle less with spiritual dryness, greed, lonliness, and anger; to be happier in career and ministry, more optimistic and relaxed.

After all, you've been at this thing called the Christian life for quite some time. Like Peter, you tell the Lord that you've been working hard all night and haven't caught a thing. 

And He says, "Let down the nets. Row back into deep water."

Reading this this morning, I had the thought:  He is describing me and many of us.  Has he been snooping around in my mind and heart?

I had to jump on to the end of the chapter:

It's time to build the church, a community of people who take refuge in God and encourage each other to never flee to another source of help, a community of folks who know the only way to live in this world is to focus on the spiritual life--our life with God and others.  It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Our impact on the world is at stake.

Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.  Like all too many celebrations and commemorations, this one has suffered from a lost focus.  The essence of Patrick was not Irish culture, not the color emerald, or drinking to excess.  Rather, we should remember that Patrick was an Englishman who set out to evangelize lost people.  In fact, he set out to evangelize the barbaric people who had once kidnapped and enslaved him.

Remember Patrick's Morning Prayer this day: http://grantian.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-patricks-morning-prayer.html.

And for a more detailed look at the life of Patrick, read the short biographical sketch written by the late Dr. Francis Nigel Lee:

Dr.  F. N. Lee

The Britannic Christian Padraig Converts Ireland, Going into All the World

By Rev. Professor-Emeritus Dr. Francis Nigel Lee

According to Britain's oldest Historian, the North-Brythonic Celtic Christian Gildas,¹ the Gospel arrived in Britain before 37 A.D. According to Eusebius, Maelgwyn, Isidore, Freculph, Nenni, Baronius, Cressy, Hearne, Rev. Dr. James Ussher, Rev. Dr. John Owen and Rev. Dr. H. Williams—there is some evidence that Joseph of Arimathea preached (and was also buried) in Somerset's Glastonbury.²

Also according to the American Rev. Dr. A. Cleveland Coxe in the Ante-Nicene Fathers,³ there is strong reason to conclude that the great Anti-Roman British General Caradog became a Christian—perhaps even while still in the West of Britain before his exile therefrom in 52 A.D. Too, from A.D. 75 onward, his relative the apparently-Christian Prince Merig is said to have ruled over the Britons from near my own birthplace Kendal in Cumbria's Westmorland.⁴

Read More....

Lenten Reflections--The Blood of Christ

Lenten Season Reflections

The New Testament uses the concept of Christ’s blood as a way of describing His sacrificial death and what it accomplished.  It makes several affirmations about Christ’s blood:

• Acts 20:28: God acquired the church through Christ’s blood.
• Romans 3:25:  God publicly set Christ forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood.
• Romans 5:9: Christians have been justified by Christ’s blood.
• Ephesians 1:7: Christians have redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of trespasses.
• Ephesians 2:12-13: Gentiles have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
• Colossians 1:20: God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself and make peace through the blood of Christ.
• Hebrews 9:12:  Christ entered the Most Holy place once for all through His own blood.
• Hebrews 9:14:  The blood of Christ cleanses our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.
• I Peter 1:2: God’s elect were chosen for sprinkling by the blood of Jesus Christ.
• I John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
• Revelation 1:5:  Christ loved us and freed us from our sins by His blood.
• Revelation 5:9-10: Christ purchased for God by His blood men from every tribe and language and people and nations, and made for God a kingdom and priests who will reign on earth.

[Adapted from A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith by Robert L. Reymond.]

Donate-A-Smile

Dr. Rick Skowronski

On Sunday, March 25, we will be hosting Dr. Rick Skowronski and his wife Joe'l.  Dr. Skowronski will be talking about the mission work of Donate-A-Smile.  http://www.donateasmile.org/about_us.php

This organization will be sending a medical missionary team to the Central African Republic in April.  Pray for this mission and for the fundraising efforts needed to make this possible.

Out to Pasture, Part 2

Currently, these are the places where I have been enjoying spiritual feasts:

Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ by John MacArthur highlights those many times that Scripture reminds us that we are SLAVES, not just servants or bond-servants, to Jesus Christ.  And, amazingly, that is our Freedom.  Prior to that, we were slaves to sin.

This book is also a powerful defense of the Doctrines of Grace, or what we often refer to as the Five Points of Calvinism.  This is not a TULIP exposition, but the doctrines of total inability and irresistable grace and perseverance of the saints are all ably supported.  What a great blend of theological and exegetical study with devotional encouragement. 

I do not recommend that you read this book:  I am planning on borrowing extensively from it for future sermons!

Still reading from Eugene Peterson's delightful and really soul-shaking Pastor: A Memoir.