1 Timothy 2:1-7 Praying for all that all may hear

We are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek preaches from his series, Blueprints for a Healthy Church, following the plans of the book of 1 Timothy.

Let's listen in.

Church Announcements and Introduction

Well, good morning everybody and welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsek, I'm the lead pastor here and super excited about the app. And so I do encourage you to download that and utilize it. And that's going to be the primary way that we're going to continue moving forward, communicating with people.

And so there's still going to be a website. There's still going to be a worship folder, but that worship folder, you'll be noticing in the coming weeks is even going to get pared down to some degree. And so the fundamental thing for communication here is going to be through that app.

And so I encourage you as much as possible to take advantage of that. I'm really glad for those of you that are here checking things out for the first time. And some of you, maybe this is your second or third time.

I'm glad for that as well. And I'm really glad for all of you who call Recast Church your church home. I'm glad for you as well. I love you and it's just a privilege to be your pastor and to serve you in that way.

I know it can be a bit risky trying something new. So for those of you that are here for the first time, just make yourself a home. Hopefully, you find us to be a friendly place. You can get more coffee and juice and donuts back there.

And again, the restrooms are out the double doors down the hallway on the left-hand side if you need those at any time during this morning. But this morning, we're going to be moving along in the next passage of the book of 1 Timothy.

We've been kind of taking that book and we're going to be in that book for the majority of the summer, taking that section by section, kind of paragraph by paragraph and digging in and going through it.

The Gospel Foundation in 1 Timothy

We're in the second chapter. So it's worth a quick reminder of the things that Paul has already written before we get to the text that we're looking at this morning. It's good for us to remember that this is a letter that was written by the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to Timothy, who was his understudy and co-worker in the faith.

And Paul, who started the church in Ephesus, has encouraged Timothy to stay there and fix some things that were broken. There were false teachers that moved into that congregation after Paul left. And we know from the things that he tells Timothy to encourage the church or to correct the church, we know kind of by those corrections what were some of the problems there.

They were trying to drag the church back into the Old Testament law and really teaching that the Jewish law is the way to live the Christian life. Now one thing you need to understand is that in that context of that early church, the Christians, the people who were coming to faith in Christ, didn't quite know what to do with themselves.

They didn't know where they belonged. So there was a legitimate question among those first century Christians, am I just a Jew that's kind of a subset of the Jewish faith? Or is this a brand new thing that Jesus came to do?

So that's kind of what some of the questioning is going on here in the first century. And a lot of these letters are written to clarify that. And Paul is pulling no punches saying Christ came to do something global, not just among the Jews, but something among all peoples.

So the church there in Ephesus, because people were trying to make it just a Jewish thing, began to take on water and began to sink. And many began to assume that a person needed to be Jewish or at least act Jewish in order to be saved.

So Paul instructed Timothy to shut all of that down and further reminded him of the good news that all that we need is Jesus Christ who came to save sinners. We saw that last week. And we don't need laws and rules for our salvation.

We need an overflow of grace that comes from Jesus Christ that brings to us a pure heart that is washed clean of our sins. And that grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ also brings to us a good conscience that can be driven by the Holy Spirit that guides us rather than law.

The Holy Spirit driving a good conscience within us is how we live our life for God and that this life is lived in sincere faith that Jesus Christ died for us. So Paul concluded chapter one by explaining the way that he himself was a really bad guy and the gospel came and broke into his life.

He was in opposition to God and God met him and saved him. So now with the gospel as that foundation, that's really what the first chapter was about, now Paul moves into instructions. He kind of has made sure that the gospel is our foundation and now here in our text he begins with his first and primary instruction to the church and it's an interesting perspective.

He begins with prayers for all. The emphasis in this text is on all because the Ephesian church has begun to say that Jewishness is the only thing that matters. So this text is encouraging Timothy to remedy the problems with a strong emphasis that Jesus Christ is the only hope for all of humanity and that includes Gentiles which are non-Jews just like us.

So let me cut to the chase here. So as we read this text together you get the main thing that you're supposed to be looking for as we read it together. Paul is encouraging the church to pray for all people so that all people may hear the gospel.

The passage is not merely about prayer as I think we might be tempted to look at and.

See.

It's not merely about prayer but it's the way that prayer serves. The cause of the gospel is the point of this text. So if you're not already there turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 2. We're going to look at the first seven verses there 1 through 7.

1 Timothy 2, 1 through 7 and grab a device and navigate over to that and we'll follow.

Along.

But recast this is this we're reading a paragraph from a book that is revealed by the Holy Spirit. A book that wants to transform us the powerful word of God himself and again I say this every week but maybe one of the most powerful things that we can do together is hearing from God together.

Prayer for All People and Leaders

So 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 7. First of all then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way.

This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all which is the testimony given at the proper time.

For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle I am telling the truth I'm not lying a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Let's pray. Father I thank you so much for your word I thank you that we have the privilege of reading it together corporately.

I thank you that we live in a nation that still recognizes our freedom to gather in your name and to worship you. Father I do pray for our leadership. I pray for our governor. I pray for our local leaders here in our community.

I lift up our state leaders as well and our federal leaders. Father there's so much division in our world today there is so much brokenness and yet there is also so much to celebrate because we we gather together this morning in your name we are able right now to lead a quiet life a tranquil life we are able to practice godliness in our communities we are able to live a dignified life in our communities.

Help us to not lose sight of that but rather to give thanks and to continue to pray that that might continue moving forward because we recognize just by some shifts and some changes it does not take much for us to go the way of the rest of the world and the rest of the culture around us the the the global perspective that it's pretty recent that we have these freedoms and it's pretty local that we have these freedoms.

I lift up the believers right now in China that cannot meet openly like we meet this morning. I lift up believers in Indonesia who have to hide and have their churches burned. Father I lift up people in Africa who have to sit under false teaching because there are not seminaries and there are not places that are openly teaching the truth.

Father I thank you for this context. I thank you for this church. I thank you for the privilege that we live under. And I pray that you would bring the gospel to those in authority in Jesus name amen.

Okay so make sure that you keep your bibles open to first timothy chapter two and we're gonna just take this on and walk through it but anytime during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts.

You can take advantage of that back there but um what would be your advice. What would be the first advice that you would give to a church that's being torn apart by divisions. Imagine that you have to write this letter.

Imagine that you have to give advice to timothy. Timothy hang on. Stay in ephesus. The church is being torn apart the gospel is being watered down. What do you say to him first. What's your first command or instruction to him.

I'm not sure that we would give the exact same instruction that paul gives here which would betray a lack of faith and understanding in our hearts. Paul gives timothy a first instruction in this passage after he's given him the charge stay there.

Set it right. I want you to be the guy who fixes this church and he urges timothy to encourage the church to pray. To pray. How many of you just being honest would say i have adopted the very american mindset that if i can't fix it myself then maybe i'll pray like i think that's kind of our you know if all else fails then pray right.

Wrong. Paul says. First of all i urge you. It's a strong emotional appeal to a guy who's under him. He has every right and every authority to tell timothy what to do. And instead he urges him he's kind about it.

But it's just right up against command. Strong emotional appeal from paul to his understudy timothy. I urge you to get the church praying. And he uses four words to convey a comprehensive call to the church in ephesus uses four different words for prayer and to get them to pray for all people.

Now to clarify this strong urging only makes sense in light of some undercurrents in ephesus where they were not praying for all people. I don't believe. The problem in ephesus by the way was that they merely were refusing to talk to god.

I don't think that's the problem that needs correction there. Instead the indications from my study this week of this entire passage and looking and reading other commentaries that i helped identify what the problem was in ephesus this church had ceased to pray for all people.

They prayed for their favorites. They would pray for jewish friends. They would pray for those who would adopt a jewish lifestyle. But they would not pray for gentiles and other outsiders. And that's why the final phrase for all people in verse one is very important and it's there.

It isn't super helpful to make hard and fast distinctions. By the way for these four words for prayer there's a lot of overlap when you think about petitions intercessions thanksgiving all of those. There's overlap in these types and forms of prayer.

But i find it interesting. Don't you that we have so many words even in the english language for communication with the almighty. We have a lot of words for that a lot of ways of describing different kinds of conversations we can have with god.

Supplication. The word that you see there is a is a word that's kind of interesting and it requires a little bit of definition because it might even be something we're not comfortable doing with god. It's literally letting him know the needs.

It's not that he doesn't know them but it's identifying them and talking to him about them. So how many of you have ever just uh you've had a loved one in the hospital and you say if they're going to be healthy we need you to act.

If they're going to be healthy we need you to act. A diagnosis of stage 4 cancer. We need you god this individual needs you to act on their behalf. Or somebody who doesn't have the means to buy food for their family.

God. We need you to intervene. We need you to act in this circumstance. So an example of this supplication this first word that we see here in our text an example that would be god. I know that blank needs the money to feed their kids.

It's talking to him about the needs of other people. The word prayer there is it seems quite generic. But the thing that you need to understand about praying for others is it kind of gets into the devotional side of conversation with god.

The word that's used in greek there to pray for others in this way to pray for somebody would be god. I ask that you would give peace and draw near to so and so you're talking to god and saying would you.

Would you encompass them. Would you draw them in. Would you bring them into your heart. Would you show yourself to be strong on their behalf and draw near to them in this moment of their need. Intercession is a very specific greek word that was adopted by the church but it's it's got a secular application and it was brought into the church.

But it was it was used in courtrooms in in uh in royal courts and all kinds of places. And it's demonstrated to be used frequently in the greek language in many documents because we happen to have some of those documents that are preserved for us happen to be those higher end kind of conversations.

And those court type documents are we've got multitudes of them. And this is a a word that kind of something like this god. I know that you are over all leaders and so i pray for the salvation of or pray for you to meet the need of.

But on the basis of your authority on the basis of your high standing. Would you show up for this person in this time of need. Intercession always acknowledges the higher authority of god in the situation.

And in the request it is the lodging of a formal petition before the one who is over all things. How many of you know you don't go. You don't go higher. The buck stops there. So that's the idea behind intercession is going to the one who has the final call.

How many of you like to pray on that note. Like that's a good that's a good motivation right. You can't go any higher. You can't go anywhere else to get stuff done like you can when you go to god. And lastly thanksgiving is um the word thanksgiving that you see in the english standard version at least is pretty obvious but might look like this sample prayer.

God i'm thankful for governor whitmer in particular. She has not attempted to use her authority to shut down churches during this pandemic. That's a sincere prayer for me. I pray that in gratitude for our governor.

She has not shut down churches. And there are governors who have. Did you know that there are governors who have who are literally putting to the church. She's she's been wise to say hands off. I'm not touching the church.

Praise god for that. Like we can pray in thankfulness now. I know that there's a variety of opinions about whitmer here. We're not getting there. I'm not going there but i am thanking god for her on this front.

On this front sometimes you have to look for something to be thankful for. I'm thankful and i can pray that prayer with sincerity over our governor. Paul encourages prayers to be made for jews and gentiles rulers and subjects.

You see the introduction of leadership right. Don't you. In verse two he introduces kings and all who are on high authority. And that leads to paul's main point in the text. Paul knows that when we pray for those we are tempted to reject it changes us.

How many of you ever prayed for somebody you had animosity toward and you found your heart softening. Step one. When you find yourself frustrated or holding somebody uh to the fire begin praying for them.

If you have somebody who's wronged you or somebody who you have difficulty getting along with pray for them. Watch your heart change. But also the hopeful conclusion here. And it's kind of mercenary to some degree because paul gives a reason and a hope as a result of this prayer he has something he wants to see changed culturally because the church takes up this charge to pray for those in leadership over us.

Pray for all people. All types of people including our leaders. The hopeful conclusion of supplications prayers intercessions and thanksgiving made for those over us is that we would be able to lead a peaceful and quiet life able to apply our calling to live a life of godliness and dignity.

That's the reason he gives for offering these prayers. In other words he's actually shooting for some change. He believes that if the church rises up in prayer praying for the salvation of our leaders praying that they would lead in godliness praying that god by his spirit would grab a hold of their hearts.

How many of you know that's going to change the way we live. That's the power to change our culture. That has the power to transform rulings in the courts that has the power to transform the law of the land.

Does it not. But what are we more prone to do. We're more prone to take it on ourselves. Aren't we try to change the law ourself try to stick it to them and get them to change the law for us. And how often.

If we're honest how often are we moved first to go to the one who holds their hearts in his hand. Where do we go when we want to see social change. When we want to see political change. Where do we go.

Pray. Talk to the one who's in charge. What's happening here in this text by the way is not unique to the new testament. It actually has an ancient history. You can go back 500 years before paul penned these words.

And you would come to the prophet jeremiah. Jeremiah who told the exiles of israel. Israel sinned broke covenant with their god. He sent in babylon. They carted the jews away destroyed broke down the cities of jerusalem totally trashed and just broke down the temple carted all the gold away and took the people they didn't kill into exile.

And this is what jeremiah says writing to those exiles in babylon. He says this seek the welfare of the city where i have sent you into exile and pray to the lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will find your welfare.

What. Pray that babylon is successful. Well it's a bit of a self-serving prayer. Because he's saying if babylon if it goes bad for babylon you're going to go bad for you. Because guess where you're living.

If it goes bad for america it goes bad for you. Because guess where you're living. So pray. The answer isn't fix it. The answer is pray for the welfare of where god has planted you. How many of you know i want to see a raise of hands.

How many of you know that our daily lives are impacted directly by the policies attitudes and hearts of our leaders. Our daily lives are impacted by that. This is a this is a really good time to pause for a second and dive into what i think is here a very timely application.

Are we becoming a people who would try to affect change without going to the one who holds our leaders in his hands. We maybe find that we're guilty of filing petitions to the wrong place. Filing petitions to the wrong place.

We have an opportunity to skip a couple levels in our prayer. We can try to affect the change here locally. Or we can apply the change and go straight to our father in heaven. Now i'm not. I'm not at all saying that you can't be politically involved.

I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying don't be politically involved. If you're not prayerfully involved i am i'm literally calling you to cut it out. I'm calling you to stop quit it until you're praying.

And if you're praying then go for it. If you're praying for the heart change. If you're praying that god grabs the hearts of our leaders and you're on your knees weeping before him saying i'm broken. They're broken.

And god. Would you change our leadership from the heart. What we what we've been trying to do. I think for the last year in our politics in the division of our culture is going well if my leader was in then everything would go great if i could just have my leader.

The problem is every leader is a sinner. We just get a different brand of sin. Don't we. How about we say if god grabs the heart of our leader then we're gonna be okay. But anything shy of that it doesn't really matter.

Who's there. It's all going. It's all going south. If we have fallen broken sinful people that have no spirit of god alive in them pray for the spirit to grab the hearts and lives of our leaders our congress our state congress the governor our president our vice president.

Do you pray. Or do we just gripe complain or even even maybe in our greatest moments of nobility just try to make the change ourselves. God's an afterthought. But we can do it. We'll fix it. No we won't.

In this passage paul is radically speaking into our situation with a what i hope is a strong sense of clarity. First of all he says to timothy get the church praying. Pray for all including our leaders.

And i i want to point out it's there's no indication he does not say pray in precatory prayers over them. And precatory is a really nice highfalutin word. That means god smite them. There are prayers like that but that would be a little bit like uh taking the gun and going bang.

Shoot yourself in the foot. You you you shout down. Uh your leaders. How many of you know. Like i what did. What did paul just say. The direction of this nation is hinging upon our leadership. Pray that god would bless them would save them would draw them into his kingdom.

Not that they would be smitten. I mean i don't even know that. That's that doesn't spell good things for our nation. That doesn't give us a good context in which to live. Not in precatory prayers but praying for their needs which by the way what is the fundamental need of every human salvation.

Go ahead and start there. Pray that our leaders would come to meet jesus christ. Pray for them to experience god in his presence. The foremost thing that they need is a new heart through the cross of jesus christ.

Ask god to meet them. Pray for them to experience god in his presence and guidance. Intercede for them to the one who is over them. Our president is not the most powerful. God is god is. Go there. Instead make your formal petition known to the one who is above all.

And thank god for them. Yeah i said it's thank god for them. These instructions that paul writes are set in the backdrop of an emperor named nero. Nero was a pompous self-inflated arrogant evil promiscuous man.

His escapades i'm convinced his escapades in office would make bill clinton blush. And paul says offer. In that context paul says offer thanksgiving for those who are over. You find something to be thankful for.

Find something to be thankful for. But all this prayer serves a purpose. Look at the goal. What is the goal of. What is the goal of this prayer so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. Paul strikes a chord in my soul with what he drives for here.

What does the church truly need. What do we need recast from our government. What does this church need. Do we need tax deductions. Do we need write-offs. Do we need. What would we need church. We need freedom to lead a peaceful and quiet life so that we can practice the godliness and dignity to which we're called.

That's what we need. Why pray for all people. Well if we end at verse two we would be left with the impression that our comfort is the goal of our prayer. Pray for those in leadership so you can kick back and have a quiet and tranquil life.

Is that what it looks like. It kind of does. But that's not the end of the passage. It's not the end of the paragraph. Verses three and four clarify that even the peace and tranquility and the freedom that we have to lead a life of godliness and dignity according to our own consciences is even that serves a higher purpose.

A peaceful and tranquil cultural moment is pleasing and good in the sight of god our savior because he desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The whole purpose of a quiet peaceful context is so that the gospel can continue to reach out to all.

Not just merely reaching out to jews not just merely to people who are adopting a jewish lifestyle. Not just merely to people who are following the old testament law. But gentiles included. How many are glad that gentiles are included.

That's us all of us. I'm glad that gentiles are brought into the fold of the covenant of god. But a word about this tranquility and peace. For just a moment because i think it's the church has has gotten sidetracked a little bit on this.

We live in a cultural moment that has been seeking hype upon hype upon hype. Do you guys know what i'm talking about. Do you feel it that that even within the church popular bestsellers including include titles like this.

Here's some of the titles of recent and i say recent go back 10 years recent um best-selling titles you're going to recognize. Some of you have read these crazy love radical don't waste your life. Or uh restlessness.

The title of a book restless christian author. Restlessness you were made for something more is the subtitle of that book. Restlessness you were made for something more. There are various levels of good things in those books.

I never throw out the baby with the bathwater. How many of you read one of those books. I'm just curious. And it's a lot of a lot of you have read and there's really good things in all of those books.

There's things that are beneficial. My goal isn't to throw them under the bus and i would even commend a couple of them to you. But i'm identifying a trend that runs much darker than the titles of these books in the church.

It's the notion that every individual is called to exceptionalism. We are easily bored. We are easily discontent with quiet and peaceful lives. We are discontent with living daily routine lives of godliness and dignity.

We have a tendency to think that god only uses the extraordinary. You consider for just a moment the thoughts about the life of moses and consider what he was doing when he encountered god in the burning bush.

Tending sheep. One more day one more day. In 40 years of tending sheep and midian. How many of you think at least at some point in those 40 years his life felt a little routine. Do you think. Just maybe a little bit.

Do you think he ever once thought i'm tired of sheep. They smell. And here i am under the the cold dew in the morning tending sheep. He didn't know when his moment was coming just faithful in the ordinary mundane routine of tending sheep up on the hillside he sees the fire and encounters god.

God’s Saving Desire and the One Mediator

Verses four and five. Paul is not trying to set up some theological conundrum for us although many pages have been written and ink has been spilled over these two verses and particularly because of the words god desires all people to be saved and therefore some have concluded.

Therefore if god desires all to be saved then all will be saved. And they misapply it and they take it too far. And that flies in the face of the rest of the scripture which indicates that not all will be saved.

So let me try to help us understand what paul is saying in these two verses with an illustration. You have to understand what he's answering. What's the question. What's the problem. Imagine that someone comes to you and says lawyers can't get to heaven.

And further you shouldn't even bother wasting your breath praying for them. Well we might respond to them. God wants us to pray for all people. God wants all people to be saved. And jesus is the only way that people can be reconciled with god.

And by answering them that way you would not be saying that every single lawyer is going to be saved. You would be instead using the universal call of salvation and the very exclusive claim of jesus to disagree with your friend that a lawyer cannot be saved.

The desire of god is indeed that all people would be saved. But let me just uh this subject requires a little bit more than i have time to cover in a sermon. That's just the truth. So let me commend to you an excellent resource on what i consider to be a very tricky subject.

And it's a book that i highly recommend. I was able to read it just this week. It's by john piper. And it's entitled creatively creative title. Does god desire all to be saved. And uh it's. It's not a it's not on the it's not.

It doesn't put the cookies on the low shelf. You gotta reach for this one. Uh have any of you ever read a book by john piper. He doesn't have a tendency to kid glove the thing. But he talks it to death.

And eventually you'll be convinced. But um uh it's uh it's a higher level reading and at the same time it's a short read. 50 to 60 pages might take you a little while to plow through even that 50 to 60 pages it's a very intense subject.

Does god desire all to be saved. But here's the thing i commend it to you if you've ever been the type of person who's wondered about this subject like what is god's real heart for people. Couldn't he save.

If you've ever asked the question couldn't he save all. Then why doesn't he save all. And that's a really common question. This book will help you to sort that out. And i again i commend it to you. But all people including gentiles fall under the scope of the saving work of god.

Nothing in these two verses disagrees with the the reality expressed so clearly in scripture that only those who put their faith and trust in jesus will inherit eternal life. And that's the truth. But the very heart of god let me just explain it the best that i can.

The very heart of god is for mercy. The very heart of god is for grace. The very heart of god is for salvation extended to every tribe to every people and to every nation. And paul reminds timothy and us that there is only one mediator.

There's only one way for that to happen. There's only one mediator between god and mankind. He is the man christ jesus. And this is both exclusive and universal here at the same time exclusive. And that there's only one gateway to the almighty and it is through jesus christ.

But it is universal and that jesus is available to all. I like the way that walter liefeld says it in his commentary on this passage he says there are many ways to christ. Many ways to christ. There's as many ways to christ as there are people in this room.

Each one of us has a story to tell. Each one of us has a those of you that have put your faith and trust in christ. You got there in a different way than me. Mine was at awana on a on a wednesday night as an eight-year-old in the first baptist church in middleville michigan.

And i doubt that any of you have that same story. Just a little within a year of my father passing away i came to faith in christ in that context. So walter liefeld said there are many ways to christ.

But there is only one way to god and that is through christ. Many ways to christ. Only one way to god. And it's through christ. The word mediator highlights the broken relationship by the way between humanity as sinners and the almighty god as holy.

We're at war with one another. We are enemies with one another. We're born that way in opposition to god. And we need somebody. Yeah you don't need a mediator with somebody you get along with. Right. You don't.

You don't hire ohms buds men or a mediator to to navigate a friendly relationship. You need to hire a mediator when it's broken when it's busted when it's not working when you can't figure it out. That's us all of us from the most religious and self-righteous to the vilest of sinners has a broken relationship with god through sin.

We are born in rebellion against him. And jesus came to mediate a reconciliation between sinners and the holy god. And verse 6 declares what he did to mediate. I love verse 6. He gave himself as the ransom price for all gentiles included.

He is not a savior sent merely to the jews but to all people groups. Jesus was sent as the substitute for us. He died to take on himself the punishment that our sins deserved. He stood between us and god as our mediator and took the wrath of the father toward our sin so that we can be declared the righteousness of god.