April 15, 2018 AM The Place Of Prayer by Pastor Josh Sheldon

I'll turn please to the book of Romans We will this morning with God's blessing finish chapter 15 of that book

Beginning with verse 30 and going to the end of the chapter of verse 33 those four verses for our message this morning message about the place of prayer

Paul will solicit the prayers of the Romans He will tell them the goal of the prayer, and he will end in a doxology of prayer when we read these four verses and then with God's help we will

Dig into them unpack them Romans 15 verse 30

I Appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the

Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers To God on my behalf

That I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the

Saints So that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company

May the God of peace be with you all Amen So we are going to find here as we look at these

Final verses of this chapter as we're coming close to the end of this book of Romans Which we've been in for quite some time here

The place of prayer the primacy of prayer the power of prayer the need for God's people to pray and to pray constantly and pray with This agonizing intensity as we will see

The Apostle Paul is asking for exactly that people. He has not had a chance to visit

He seems as we will find out in the next chapter, and we'll discuss in more detail to have known many of them personally and Yet at a church that has never had him visit

He writes this confidently knowing that they will pray and this Apostle This church founding missionary

Apostle who gave his all for Christ in so many ways Needs this

He needed he needed to know that God's people were indeed praying for him

He sought the prayers of all the churches it was to him a Crucial leg of his work without which he was cast adrift not adrift from Christ But from the network of support intended by our

Lord as the means by which and through which he would accomplish his purposes And he does that by and through those who are prayed for These last four verses if these last four verses in this chapter mean anything

It is the necessity the primacy and the power of prayer His request that Rome join him in prayer is not an afterthought

It's not like okay. Well, I've given you these 11 chapters of doctrine theology. I've given you a few chapters of application

What did I forget? Oh, yeah, we're supposed to pray no Prayer is at the end of the letter and that exaggerates its importance that amplifies how crucial this was to him as It should be to us

Not an afterthought He's beseeching them some versions of our Bibles actually translated.

I beg you To be in prayer with me. I beg you

I beseech you I exhort you I need this Now the perfunctory is salute to some road procedure part and parcel of the

Apostle Paul's entire framework of what ministry is and How Christ through men with feet of clay like himself and like all of us how he accomplishes what he will

But that Christ should choose to work through men none of us could do anything and This Christ who is our

Lord he has ordained prayer as the means by which we lift to him what he already knows and The way we ask him to do that, which he has already decided all through prayer

You know Paul calls them brothers. I Beseech you I beg you my brothers

The appeal is made to fellow believers. It's made to those who are bound with him by a common faith

Today we hear so often in times of tragedy people say things like our thoughts or and prayers are with you or with them

And while we can thank people for their well wishes And if I were the victim of something that elicited those well wishes

I'd be grateful enough for it as would you be? but well wishes and thoughts and prayers

They amount to nothing more than good manners and convention It becomes something that is said and most especially

When we compare it to what a prayer is and what a prayer actually accomplishes and who hears our prayer

Do you wish me well wishes? Do you say my thoughts and prayers are with you when something goes wrong?

Thank you It's almost like I'm glad you're not against me But when a brother or sister says

I am praying to God in Jesus name for you Well, there's something bigger than a well wish or a thought when a brother or sister prays when

God the Father has before him a prayer that comes to him by the intercession of his

Holy Spirit When a prayer is groaned out by us and then transformed to the will of God by that spirit of God When the blood of Christ Jesus has by faith bathed the one who comes to the throne of grace the

God of the universe Hears such prayers as those Let us say thank you to our friends for their positive thoughts and what they call prayers

But let us go to those whose prayers go as memorials to God's very altar To receive prayers that are prayers indeed

The next phrase sets Christ and his Holy Spirit together as the basis of these prayers The Apostle Paul said pray for me by our

Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit They're not being coerced here as though he were saying something like by the authority granted me by Christ.

I command you to pray Rather it is as much for him as for them to remember that Christ Jesus is the reason

That prayers are heard in any case It's the Spirit of God who is the conduit by whom our prayers are brought before God and So by the

Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Spirit On that basis he asks for He beseeches he appeals he begs for these prayers

Now we need them both Jesus knows all things and he sits now at the

Father's right hand and he rules all things and working especially Through his lordship over his people, which is the church

So we need both these things that he says about Jesus Christ Our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the

Spirit he especially works through his lordship

He's Lord and Master, but remember he is in heaven and he's in bodily form He is there in the form which we will one day enjoy which you will one day enjoy

You will one day have if your faith is in Jesus Christ As 1st

Corinthians 15 makes so clear we will follow in a resurrection like his we will be like him But he's there now in that form in a bodily in a real and literal body

Jesus Must work through his spirit and spirit working through his people

We need both of these Jesus our Lord and the Holy Spirit for everything and we need both of these

Attributions that Paul gives them here our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the

Spirit Why do we need them both? because Lordship implies authority.

He is Lord and he is to be obeyed and Then the other thing that Paul says about the

Spirit the love of the Spirit The Spirit is the person of God who he who poured

God's love into our hearts. That's Romans chapter 5 verse 5 See we need both

We need to have the love of the Spirit and we need lordship and never one without the other

Love without Lord is just emotionalism without discipline Lordship without love becomes slavish submission

Neither of which is appropriate One without the other isn't

Christian both together bring balance and bring this proper proper basis for prayer Just what the

Apostle says here by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit Because we love

God we go to him because he answers our prayers because he hears our prayers because he knows what we need before We ask

Because he loves us that love of God poured into our hearts by the

Lord Jesus Christ because he commands us to pray Why so he can watch us bow down before him just because he told us to Well, we should

But because it's good for us Christ gives commands that are for our good

For the good of our souls the good of our spirit to grow more and more into his image To gain confidence in God as we go to him for things that are impossible for any but him to do and then when he does them as We are commanded to go to him and ask him to do

It's not our heart Expanded towards him is not our confidence in his

Word and the promises of God in his Word and the power of God in our lives increased

It's both The love of the Spirit and the Lordship of Christ we must have those together

Paul often sought the prayers of others to Be with him

In Colossians chapter 4 verse 3 at the same time pray also for us first the less

Thessalonians 5 25 brothers pray for us 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 11 you also must help us

By prayer more than pray Paul here in Romans is saying strive with me

Strive with me He will pray for himself And he's going to pray for himself confident that he's joined with those who read this letter first That word strive it comes from a word that means to agonize together

To suffer together really is what it means Prayer can be an agony and we do well not to expect our sessions with God to always be easy

We are together with those for whom we pray Together with those for whom we and with whom we're agonizing

We we say it so often. I wonder if we forget the depth of meaning behind it when we say something like Let us pray

Let's pray Why does the pastor stamp say let us pray? Let's put the emphasis where it should be let us

Pray Let us as a body together go before the God of the universe

Let us pray not the ordained man alone as though he were paid for this and so we ought to he ought to provide this

Service not me speaking at you as though my thoughts and prayers were somehow more acceptable to God than yours

We agonize before God together as one body in Christ Now one speaks at a time and usually that's me in this service, but only for the sake of clarity and order

Dear ones when you close your eyes and you bow with me if I thought you were just following some tradition and not actually praying

I'd be lost The Apostle Paul If he thought that this were just some rote exercise that he sent them to do

And they said, oh, yeah Paul, we'll pray for you as soon as I'm done with breakfast

Well on my break at work. I'll remember to send up a would we call it an arrow prayer Not there's anything wrong with those

Paul's not asking for something in your spare time Something when it's convenient.

He's saying with me together bound with me by the Spirit By one faith one baptism one

Lord Jesus Christ with me together agonize over this

And we agonize together we strive together We need to be together in this holy endeavor

Now we teach something Calvin says here By bidding them to assist in this contest he shows how the godly ought to pray for their brethren that they are to assume their person as Though they were placed in the same difficulties, and he also intimates the effect which they have

For he who commends his brother to the Lord by taking to himself a part of his distress do so far relieve him and Indeed if our strength is derived from prayer to God we can in no better way

Confirm our brethren than by praying to God for them. I think

Calvin gets the sense of this correctly This idea that when we pray when we agonize together when we weep together rejoice together back in Romans 12

What are we doing I think the modern way to say it is we're entering into their experience

We're one with them by Christ is what the Bible says that we together are a body so we are one together and we listen and we talk and we understand what the angst is that brought the prayer and why this person needs a hand on the shoulder

To say yes, brother. Yes sister. I am with you and What elicits the tears from back in Romans 12 the weeping or the expression of?

Rejoicing together Because that phone call you got from that doctor and heard that diagnosis for yourself or for your loved one

It's as if it came upon me Read first Corinthians 12 and see how intimately locked together the

Lord says we are So Paul's saying here And he's fully confident that that church that Roman Church some 2 ,000 years ago

Was praying for him like that Not just let us pray for Paul as he goes to Jerusalem and faces the dangers there let us agonize for Paul as though as it is really in fact we are going there with him and facing what he is facing and However, it comes out we will with him give all the glory to God Paul has two specific things on his heart here for this prayer

The first is that he may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and second at his service for Jerusalem The Saints in Jerusalem remember the poor

Saints we talked about them a few weeks ago That the gift that he brings to them would be acceptable

Now he wrote this letter while he was in Corinth When he left for Rome, he did it by way of Jerusalem as we said last week some 2 ,000 miles out of his way

Now if you go through his journey and follow it in the book of Acts You'll find that he stopped when he left

Corinth. He stopped in Ephesus to say farewell to the elders of the church there And here's something he told them in his farewell address

Says and now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit not knowing what will happen to me there

Except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that Imprisonment and afflictions await me

I think of how much his resolve was tested

When upon hearing this those Ephesian elders begged him not to go

They begged him not to go after Ephesus they stopped in Tyre and they found disciples and they stayed for seven days and through the

Spirit They're telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem The Ephesian elders had begged him they pleaded with and they wept over him don't go he goes stops in Tyre And they tell him

Paul don't go there Don't go there After that There's a man named

Agabus where they stopped they stopped in his house a man named Agabus the man had daughters who were prophetesses

He was known as a prophet and remember what he told Paul remember this incident there

He took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said thus says the Holy Spirit This is how the

Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles The author there

Luke in the book of Acts goes on He says when we heard this we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem Then Paul answered what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart?

For I have for I am ready not only to be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the

Lord Jesus Did you notice that he asked for prayer for deliverance from the unbelievers?

From the unbelievers even knowing by direct communication from the Spirit to himself and then by the

Spirit to others acknowledged to be speaking for the Spirit That it was

Christ's Stated intention that he would not be he says to the

Romans pray that be delivered from them all the while being told in a direct communication

Paul you will not be the Lord told him you will be delivered to them and And every place he stopped along the way all those ones

I cited say Paul don't go The Holy Spirit is telling us you will be delivered to them

In a very real way He is asking the church to agonize who to agonize with him in a prayer that is in direct contradiction contradiction to God's clearly stated will

Do we find this odd? Does it lessen his stature in our eyes a little bit like wait a second

Pastor, did you just point out to us that Paul's praying against God that God's saying you're gonna be delivered to he says, okay

If that's what God says, I better ask Rome to pray against that and as I be delivered from the exact opposite Does it shrink

Paul a little bit for us? It shouldn't a loved one dying of cancer might have no possible medical

Hope every sign points to God's will that their time here is soon to end

We pray to a God of all power and mercy who often overrules the natural law

What do we call that? Mercy of God The goodness of God the kindness that God through his son

Jesus Christ upon his people. Yes We call that a miracle We call that miracle when

God overrules the natural laws that he himself instated and Sometimes for his name's sake for the glory of his son

Jesus Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit sets them aside and Grants such healing and we pray we agonize have we not in this place done just that for others within our group not far outside this small circle and Has not our father answered as We've agonized said father your will seems to be that this one is going to die

And yet we pray against that and how many times has our father answered in ways that can only be attributed to Him and all those other things

I mentioned a moment ago his mercy his goodness his kindness and all that By and through his son

Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 12

If you look at that you'll find Peter on Herod's death row God's will is apparently he's going to be executed then he's going to die for his testimony of the

Lord Jesus Christ And so did Christ's glory it appears he's going to die soon James had just been executed when

Herod found out that that pleased the Jews he arrested Peter and Peter's in jail Death row and it's coming soon

What did the church pray? God deliver him they agonized for Peter and God sent an angel who delivered him back to the church

Paul had far stronger evidence of God's will than any I could ever convey He had confirmation by actual words of the

Holy Spirit that in store for him was not deliver not deliverance from the unbelievers, but to them and We know from the book of Acts, that's exactly what happened.

Well, there's another one who knowing God's will actually did pray otherwise and I mean none other than the

Lord Jesus Christ At Gethsemane he prayed for the cup which had been put in his hand and put there before the foundation of the world

He prayed for that to be taken away Even knowing That it was his father's will and how many times and got

John's gospel Did he say I came to do my father's will my food is to do the will of my father who is in heaven?

And he's the eternal Son of God He is God the Son That cup was placed before him in eternity past It never was not

God's will that the Son should drink that cup the cup of his wrath

And yet in Gethsemane Jesus says take this cup away And he prayed that so hard.

He prayed that so intensively his agonizing was so great that he sweated blood according to Luke's gospel

The cup was not taken away yet. Jesus in the fullness of his humanity Prayed as though it could have been you know, we don't know the will of God beyond the specifics of Scripture Where the

Bible is clear We must not pray against it, but for strength to live in it where God says for example

Do not be unequally yoked. We cannot pray to him to bless an unequally yoked Union Where God says he who will not work neither shall he eat

We dare not pray something like Lord fill my table while my perfectly working right hand remains idle we can't do that Paul's hope is not just to be free from harassment or imprisonment as He said he was ready to join

Jerusalem asking only that if he did it be for the sake of Christ in his gospel He repeats his desire to be able to come to Rome That's what he wanted to do to get there to that fellowship so that by God's mercy

He wrote I may by God's will excuse me by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company

You know, we don't really know if this ever happened He did get to Rome That Connolly read the end of the book of Acts and there he is in Rome in chains

Deliver it into the hands of unbelievers the Romans It's interesting that he asked to be safe from unbelievers generally and he didn't specify the

Jews Had he been given to them. He surely would have died right then immediately as It was he was given into the custody of the unbelieving

Romans His life was saved and he was soon on his way to Rome as a prisoner and Once there he had freedom to move about the city so that he might well have gotten to that church

But we can't be certain that he ever really did But there are a couple of very important words here or a few very important words that condition all this

By God's will if by God's will I Might come and see you

If we understand that God is sovereign and that God is good Then when our prayers are answered differently than we had hoped for or prayed we learn from that to pray all the harder

Not to give up to pray more to exert ourselves even more to the discipline of prayer to agonize until our prayers are

Soaked in blood as they rise up to the God the Father There are a few settled conclusions that will inspire more fervency and prayer

Than knowing that God's will is the final final arbiter of all things and that his will is always and only

Good. So Paul says by God's will that's the equivalent of as we say so often if he wills or God willing

Even when we pray for that which it seems and seems being the operative word here Seems when it seems that his will is other than our desire

We can save ourselves a lot of angst by saying by God's will and By that not saying well if it's

God's will then I won't pray I've agonized enough. No, that's not the lesson here by God's will meaning we pray all the more

We agonize until as it were we bleed as Jesus did which of course we cannot and we will not but I'm talking about that intensity of going before the

Lord by God's will Knowing that we pray to a God whose will has been set forever in the heavens

Knowing that we pray to a God who hears us and answers us knowing that as we pray in his will

That his will is only and always for our good and that good often being simply the glorification of his name the last part of Paul's request to the church there

He's really a spontaneous blessing an ejaculatory prayer We might say as he's asking them for prayer.

He's considering where he's going and he's giving them this request this

This begging them this appeal to pray the confidence he has that they will indeed do it.

He just burst force Burst the fourth with this made the God of peace be with you all.

Amen This is the third time in this one chapter where he has made some special attribution of God In verse 5 he calls him the

God of encouragement and endurance In verse 13 he is the God of hope and here in verse 33 of chapter 15

The God of peace may the God of peace be with you all. Amen The God we pray to is the

God of all of these things Encouraged me calls him the God of verse 5 the

God of endurance and encouragement Encouragement is from a word that's often translated as comfort in the original language.

It was the same word 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 Paul writes that God is the

God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation And we do no damage to that even in his meaning if we change that to Encouragement.

He's the God of all encouragement who encourages us in our tribulation We can even put in endurance the

God of all endurance who gives us endurance in our tribulation He's all of these and more

When we say that God is the God of and then we cite one of these We make a larger claim than we often think

He's not just a God who because of the way we wove him together makes us feel this way or that way

He is the one and only God from whom all blessings flow Exactly as our doxology that we sing at the end of the day says praise

God from whom all blessings flow the opening of Ephesians Blessed be the

God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

The Apostles on his way to Jerusalem Which he knew by the Holy Spirit's direct communication would bring him violence not peace

Yet he appeals to them to pray to the God of peace on his behalf Often we must pray that we have peace even when we there is none around to be seen

You think of Aaron's blessing the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace

You think of how Jesus spoke about this in John chapter 17 Peace I leave with you my peace

I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you Let not your hearts be trouble neither. Let them be afraid

In other words, let them be peaceful Because the God of peace is with you

The peace we have with God Romans chapter 5 verse 11 is an overarching peace that overrules anything

That the world can throw at us Do you remember the history and acts of what happened to Paul when he got there?

He went to the temple And he was fulfilling a vow and he paid for the other men who are fulfilling a vow and they're at the temple

They're doing what the law required and there he was attacked while he was minding his own business Which was fulfilling that vow in accordance with the law.

He was attacked there. The riot was so severe That the Roman Guard had to come in and intervene and they arrested him

Now what he was arrested for inciting a riot if it had been proven true. This was no miss it misdemeanor

This was a very serious Offense and it's such a serious thing to incite of a riot that even before they had determined if he had even done that They were going to flog him to get the truth out of him

He's going to be scourged Scourging be what the Lord Jesus Christ went through before his crucifixion and they stopped only when they learned that he was a

Roman citizen In all of this with all of this being anticipated and Having come true even but with that being in his immediate future according to this direct word from the

Holy Spirit to him He was peaceful and even if as he asks the church to pray for him to agonize with him to pray as though they

Were in his situation He's peaceful because he walks with the

God of peace Who gives his children as he says later to the to the Philippians the peace that surpasses all understanding?

At the end of this letter as this letter is coming to a close The Apostle who had faced down the beast said

Ephesus the Apostle who had cursed powerful sorcerers into blindness The Apostle Paul who stood before governors and jailers and torturers this

Apostle beseeches this Apostle begs for prayer Not a step forward unless he knows that his brothers and sisters are agonizing with him

Agonizing with him it's both it has to be both we pray for ourselves Then as our supplication rises up as a memorial before God is met with all the others

Combining into this sweet aroma before the throne of grace There's a reminder of what we said way back in chapter 8 and verse 26

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses for we do not for we do not know what to pray for as we ought

But the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches hearts knows

What is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God?

So Paul with the Saints prayed for deliverance and the Holy Spirit then groans these prayers these weak prayers

That were not what they ought to have been and he groans them He perfects them and he brings them to God the

Father in perfect accordance with God the Father's will Which God the

Spirit knows perfectly? What did what did the church pray?

And probably what we would have prayed if we had gotten a request like that and as we do pray when we get requests like That we have missionaries.

We support who work in some very dangerous and dark lands. I Support your servant and keep him safe if it be your will deliver him from them and to us so that we can see them again and As you watch over them in that dark in that dangerous land

Lord let your gospel go forth let this gospel of repentance for sin and forgiveness by God Because of faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ Go forth Even this day in this place let that gospel go forth from this pulpit

For anyone hearing us or anyone in this place this morning Listening, this is the gospel that Paul asks for prayers that he might expand wherever he goes

Everything he did was for this gospel this gospel. You need to hear that God is holy

That you are a sinner there's nothing you can do to bring yourself to God That you're lost

We're born in iniquity and sin. We're born dead in transgression and sin But only by God's mercy and only by what he has done in his son

Jesus Christ on the cross where he bore the wrath for your sins can you be saved and This by faith and by faith alone

You must repent you must repent and fall down before God and beg his forgiveness

By and through what he did for you in his son Jesus Christ If you will but believe this is the gospel.

This is the gospel, but you must leave this place believing and setting your eternal soul upon This is the gospel that if this day if this moment you should understand yourself a sinner and God are righteous and holy and good judge angriest sin every day

If you will leave here knowing That God has forgiven you by giving you the gift of faith, which he alone and only he can give

Then we've done something Something that only God can do we've proclaimed a good word

That has power only because of God working in it the gospel

That we proclaim and live in this place this day is the same as Paul was asking for here asking for that to be given a free reign and So the church there would pray as we would pray

Oh Lord guard keep him safe Do your will but let the word of the

Lord Jesus Christ go forth well, they prayed for him to be delivered from and The Holy Spirit who hears these prayers then groans them into the will of God which he knows because he knows the mind of God And so when it becomes grant him deliverance to Rome grant him deliverance to Rome in chains

Paul knows That he is following the will of God Even if the result turned out different than it was hoped not delivered from but delivered to Praying confidently in the will of God praying confident that the brothers and sisters of the church were agonizing with him

He could still speak of the God of peace and say may that God of peace be with you all They close with a final observation

Paul blesses them with this doxology before they pray Before they pray he was confident that they would

Otherwise he might have told the messenger something like this watch and see if they pray and tell me as soon as you can whether they did or didn't and then send me notice by the swiftest carrier so that In not more than nine or ten months.

I can bless them for having prayed I could say thank you for your prayers now that I know that you did them know he blesses them as he writes

Such as his confidence He knew that as soon as the issue is before them that they would pray that they would agonize with him

For God's will to be done through him Do we pray like this do we see how important prayer is

Do we see that it's not just an afterthought. It's not just something we do When the pastor or whatever preachers here says let us pray

In our Wednesday night prayers when our faithful deacon leads us. He says let us pray Do we drop our heads like robots who close our eyes because we're supposed to We should and that's only to remove distractions

My eyes are open I'm looking around if my eyes are closed I Concentrate, but we need to pray like this

We need to pray together We need to agonize as They did as Paul called them to do

Agonizing with our brethren near or far as though their conflicts were our own And it works the other way around too when we ask for prayer when

I or you are the one in need This confidence really helps us through How many times have you been able to get through your issue be it medical be a job be it relational

Whatever it is when you've asked for prayer, and you know you know That your brothers sisters are praying for you.

Not just an easy y 'all pray Yes, brother.

I will pray I will agonize with you asking questions Delving into your experience thinking of how many times

I've gone through the same sort of thing That kind of agonizing together, and how much confidence has that given us how much is that strengthened us

Strengthened me You to know I can keep going Because he she they are praying for me

And we ask for prayer when you and I are in need This is what gets us through It's as if the head was actually on our own shoulders

Receive the prayers in the same way well

Paul closes the letter this way and I hope if we look at these last four verses as this

Magisterial letter comes to a close That we will together Look at this and say well these four verses to close this thing out and after this he's going to simply live this long list