Rule #5 Pray for All Kinds of People (1 Timothy 2:1-7)

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We are going to continue our study this morning in 1 Timothy, and we're moving into chapter two this morning, 1

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Timothy chapter two, and we're looking at house rule number five, pray for all kinds of people.

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Before we look at these first seven verses, let's, as is our habit, commit our time to our

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Lord and ask his blessing on our study this morning. Our Father, thank you so much that we can gather here in the name of our great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, and fellowship with one another, worship you, sing your praises, and hear from your word.

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We now pray, Father, that you would be our teacher this morning, that you would guide us and help us. We are needy people, we need the ministry of your spirit, each one of us, and so we just commit our time to you and ask that you would be glorified in it, and we just thank you in Christ's mighty name, amen.

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Well, in our study of 1 Timothy so far, we've seen that Timothy is going to have a formidable task ministering in Ephesus.

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He has to deal with false teachers and with their false teaching, their perversion of the word of God.

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It won't be easy for Timothy to confront them, to correct them, in part because he is a younger, less experienced pastor than the

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Apostle Paul, and we may even have some evidence that he struggled with the necessary courage and internal fortitude to stay at the task, and as a younger man, he would also have to pay special attention to his own spiritual life, his purity, and then even to his physical health.

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It's such a formidable task to carry out Paul's charge to minister in Ephesus, and Paul knows it, that Paul calls this ministry warfare.

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We saw that last time, and he ends chapter one with the encouragement to Timothy to wage or war the good warfare.

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So as we arrive at chapter two, it only makes sense that Paul would encourage Timothy to make prayer a priority in his ministry.

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So in this first couple of verses here, we're gonna look at verse one and then the first half of verse two.

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We see Paul here giving Timothy, again, it's a charge, and urging him and encouraging him to make prayer a priority.

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He says this, 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.

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First thing we see here, and it's the first thing on Paul's list, that we pray first of all, and some of the older English translations, the word urge comes at the beginning of the sentence.

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Maybe you have a King James or even an ASV, and that is an accurate representation of the word order there.

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The first thing in the sentence is I urge. Paul does that because he's stressing the urgency of this by putting it in that first part of the sentence.

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And then, first of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.

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The first priority for Timothy in his ministry and the first priority in any ministry should be prayer.

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So pray first of all. And then pray all kinds of prayers. He lists several, what really are almost synonyms with prayers that are used throughout scripture.

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The first one here, he says pray first of all and pray all kinds of prayers in these terms, supplications.

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Supplications, these are requests. It's a direct request made to God to intercede in some way for his people.

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The root of the word means to lack something or to be without something. So if we're urged to pray with supplications, it's because we need something from God.

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In other words, we have a need, and we're gonna present that need before God knowing that he is able to meet that need, and that has to be part of our prayers.

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And then the word prayers. It's just a general term for prayer, but unlike the word for supplication, it is used in scripture only in reference to God.

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So it has built into it the meaning of reverence toward God in praying, and often these two words, as you probably well know, appear together in scripture.

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For example, Acts 114, people meeting in the upper room all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.

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Paul, to the Ephesians in Ephesians 6, 18, that very practical section about the armor of God that we saw last time, he said praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.

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New American Standard says all prayer and requests in the spirit.

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So again, supplications or requests, prayer, a general term. And then again,

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Paul to the Philippian Christians, be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto

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God. Intercessions there, that third one, a formal petition made to one of a higher rank.

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The verb form is used in Romans 8 to speak of the Holy Spirit. And again, in Hebrews 7, 25, that great verse that we've seen so many times, of Jesus Christ making intercessions for the saints in his high priestly work there.

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It includes a deep compassion and an intercession for our needs.

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And then of course, with thanksgivings. This is so fundamental to prayer. We saw

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Paul thanking God earlier on in chapter one when he said in verse 12 of chapter one, I thank him who has given me strength.

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And then that great doxology in verse 17, to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, and so on.

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He's thanking God for his spiritual blessings. And this is a fundamental part of our prayer life.

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He says in everything, this is 1 Thessalonians 5 .18, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

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And then we see prayer for all kinds of people. All people.

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Now as you probably know, this little phrase all here is somewhat of a theological battleground historically.

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The word is a theological battleground. If you kept it in its sentence and then kept the sentence in the context, it would not be a theological battleground because it's really plain what's going on in the context here.

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Some from the Armenian branch of theology would look at these references here and speak about Jesus dying for the sins of all people because they see the all there.

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And when you hear them talk about this, they often stress the word all. And in other contexts, maybe every or even world.

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And they'll read into that the desire of God to atone for the sins of all people without exception in the world.

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And yet the way Paul is using it here, it's not all without exception, but all without distinction as we're going to see.

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Our evangelistic prayer should be for all kinds of people. And we see this in verse two.

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For kings and all who are in high positions. By that use of the plural there, kings, he's creating a category.

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So it's all categories of people. And even the plural, who are in high positions.

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Again, that is a category of people. So he's talking about all people and he defines it in verse two as kings and all who are in high positions.

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In other words, we are to pray for all people, not without exception, but all without distinction.

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It was very common in that day for them to make distinctions about who they prayed for, especially the

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Jews. And so we're going to see that this is

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Paul countering that concept by talking about praying for all people.

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We're going to see why when we look at the purpose of prayer. Rick, we should.

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Yeah. Well, what we pray for the kings and those in rulers, we're going to see what we are to pray for and we're going to see why, because he's going to talk about the purpose of prayer.

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Peter. Oh, the question or the comment was, isn't this how we are supposed to pray in our day for those in leadership, even political leadership?

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Did I get that right? And how we should pray. Yeah. And some of you might be saying, well,

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I do pray for those in political leadership. We won't take a poll about what you pray, okay?

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We're going to see here how important it is and under the purpose of prayer.

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And so what we see, first of all, in the purpose of prayer, pray because it advances

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God's purposes. This is Paul's whole strategic purpose in urging him to pray for the leaders here.

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And it says, for kings and all who are in high positions, that, and this is a purpose statement, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

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These four words here, peaceful and quiet. Peaceful, a life that is free from external turmoil or without hindrance, okay?

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Kind of file that little phrase away, without hindrance, because we're going to see it a little later on. If we can lead, as Christians, a life that is peaceful and without hindrance, we can produce the other two things in our lives, right?

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That would be godly or godliness and a dignified life in every way.

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This word godly speaks of the godliness that comes through personal faith in Jesus Christ.

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This work of godliness, he works in his followers. So Paul's point is, if you pray for those in leadership, pray for kings, pray for whoever the political leaders are, pray for their salvation, of course, but also pray for a peaceful life so that we can further the gospel of Jesus Christ and further godliness in our lives.

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It is so fundamental and basic to what Paul's talking about, and he has a real history that is really underlying this, and we're just gonna do a real quick survey of the book of Acts.

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The book of Acts, of course, along with Luke, and Luke wrote them both, both these deal with the movement of the gospel from Jew to Gentile, the furtherance of the gospel from Jew to Gentile.

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This is a massive issue in the New Testament. This was a massive issue for the church, which was primarily

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Jewish, right, in its origins, to get over because the animosity between Jew and Gentile was very deep -seated, and it was still there at the founding of the church on the day of Pentecost.

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Well, let's look at Acts chapter nine real quick, and we're just gonna do a real quick kind of a survey through the book of Acts, and we'll just see how

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Paul, because this is his own experience in dealing with secular governments and government officials, and so several years later, when he is writing

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Timothy, who's going to be ministering in Ephesus, he wants to encourage him to pray so that he can have this same concept of being in the stream of God's will and purposes for his life and for the advancement of the church, but as you know, in Acts chapter nine, this is the salvation of Saul of Tarsus.

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Saul, it says in verse one, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the

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Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

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Paul was really a nasty piece of work, okay? He was going after Christians.

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He was a principal involved, too, in the death of Stephen, as you remember, and so he's going to Damascus to arrest

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Christians, haul them back down to Jerusalem, put them on trial, preside over their public execution like he did with Stephen, but what happens?

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He gets saved, and when he is saved, then, he is ministered to by Ananias, a disciple at Damascus, and then down in verse 15, we have this testimony that really outlines what

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Paul's ministry is going to be. The Lord said to him, go, go to Paul, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, an instrument,

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God's gonna use him, to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, okay?

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And see the word order there? Word order's important. Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.

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Paul would go to the synagogues, of course, where the Jews were, but his primary ministry is to be the apostle to the

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Gentiles. So there, Paul is saved. He's given his commission by Christ to go to the

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Gentiles, and this, of course, is in fulfillment of Acts 1 .8, where the risen

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Christ is meeting with his disciples, and after 40 days of being with them and teaching them about the kingdom, they ask him the logical question.

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Is it now you will restore the kingdom to Israel? And he says, you are gonna go to Jerusalem, you will be empowered, and you will be my witnesses.

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Where? Jerusalem, and then Judea, Samaria, and the outermost parts of the earth.

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There's the movement of the gospel from Jew to Gentile that Christ is commissioning them to do, and also us.

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This is in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. This goes clear back to Genesis chapter 12, the

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Abrahamic covenant that promised the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob land, seed, and blessing, and that blessing is a blessing to all the nations.

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Through you, he said, all the nations of the earth will be blessed, and Paul here is simply part of the fulfillment of this great covenant that is still being fulfilled to this day.

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But back in Acts, as you know, the gospel moves out to Gentiles from Acts nine and following.

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We have that event with Peter going to Cornelius, who was a Gentile, he was a

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God -fearer, but we have that event where the gospel clearly and obviously moves from the

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Jews to the Gentiles. Just like Jesus said it would in Acts 1 .8. But look at chapter 21.

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Paul then works his way back to Jerusalem, back to Jerusalem, with the evidence and with the testimony that God is saving

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Gentiles. We know we had the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15, where they had to really deal with this question, the leadership, and the conclusion was the

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Gentiles are being saved, just like everybody else. We do not have to require them to become

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Jews, to move through Judaism in order to be saved, to keep the law of Moses and the right of circumcision and so on.

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And so really, they had already made that decision, but the Jewish population wasn't buying it.

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Any thought that God would deal with the Gentiles was absolutely abhorrent to them.

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And we're gonna see this in chapter 21. And in chapter 21, verse 21, the

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Apostle Paul is accused of apostasy. One of the two uses of the word apostasy is a noun in the

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New Testament. One of them is 2 Thessalonians 2, you're probably familiar with it. The apostasy is going to come.

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The second one is an accusation against the Apostle Paul for leading the

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Jews to rebel or apostatize against God and against Moses. And they do that in verse 21.

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And then Paul in Jerusalem is arrested in the temple. And Jews from Asia, this is verse 27.

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When the seven days were almost completed, seven days for this ritual he was going through, the

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Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel, help.

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This is the man who was teaching everyone, everywhere against the people and the law and this place.

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Moreover, he even brought Greeks or Gentiles into the temple and has defiled this holy place.

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For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

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Then all the city was stirred up and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple.

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And at once the gates were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all

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Jerusalem was in confusion. The tribune would have been the Roman commander of the cohort. Cohort would be about 450

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Roman soldiers, something like a battalion sized. And this tribune is the head of that.

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He gets his troops there because they think it's an insurrection of some kind. He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.

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And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.

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He inquired who he was and what he had done. Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.

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And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. Paul was in serious jeopardy of being killed by this mob.

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What or who saved him? The Gentiles, the

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Roman government saved him, okay? There's once. They take him into protective custody.

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And they're gonna try to find out what's going on. Verse 35 says, when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd.

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For the mob of the people followed, crying out, away with him. In other words, kill him and kill him. And he's brought into the barracks and he says to the tribune, may

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I say something to you? And he said, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4 ,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness?

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So they're really concerned about an insurrection against Rome here, but Paul was not part of that. Paul replied, I'm a

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Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.

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And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. So the crowd, the mob is still there.

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And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language saying, brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.

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And when they heard that he was addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet.

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And then he gives his testimony about being a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, who was the premier teacher of the day.

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According to the strict manner of the law of our fathers. In other words, he was a Pharisee.

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And so he goes on to give his testimony about when he was saved, right? He comes all the way back down, back down to verse 21, and they're listening.

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They're quiet and they're listening. And he even talks about when he took part in the stoning of Stephen down in verse 20.

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Then he gets to verse 21, and watch what happens when these people hear that the Messiah he serves had commissioned him to go to the

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Gentiles. He talks about this vision that he had from Christ. And he said to me, go for I will send you far away to the

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Gentiles. Next verse, up to this word, they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

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And as they were shouting and throwing out their cloaks and flinging dust in the air, the tribune ordered them to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging to find out why they were shouting against him like this.

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The Romans would get people to confess by flogging them.

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Flogging, they would take a cat o' nine tails, and usually the thongs were embedded with some kind of sharp objects like shards of metal or sharp bones.

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And they would stretch that person over around an immovable object or stretch them out on the floor, which is what they were gonna do with Paul, and they would just lash you until you confess.

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They would do this to crucifixion victims too. Our Lord had that treatment. Oftentimes that person would die, a loss of blood or shock.

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It often was not survivable because it was so brutal, and it did so much damage to their body. The Jews had what they called rods or laying on of rods, and it was prescribed by law in the

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Old Testament that the person could only be struck 40 times.

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Now, by the time of the first century, the Jews had this religious system that supposedly was there to protect the law, so they took one away and made it 39, thinking that they were going to protect the law from being violated when they're beating the living daylights out of some poor pilgrim and all of the blood and the gore and the screaming and the yelling.

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You don't want anybody to lose track and go 41 when you're beating up some poor guy, so they reduced it to 39.

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As Paul mentions, I think it's 2 Corinthians. He had that treatment five times, but it was limited by their own law.

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The Romans had no such restrictions. They would just do whatever they had to do with this beating.

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This is what's about to happen to Paul in verse 25. But when they stretched him out for the whips, so they would put thongs around his legs and his arms and stretch him out,

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Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?

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When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, what are you about to do?

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For this man is a Roman citizen. So the tribune came and said to him, tell me, are you a

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Roman citizen? And he said, yes. The tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum.

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Paul said, but I'm a citizen by birth. So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid.

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If they got caught punishing a Roman citizen without due process under Roman law, they were in a world of hurt, and they all knew it.

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He says, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. They couldn't even bind them without due process.

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So, second time, what saved Paul from being scourged by the

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Romans? The Roman government. The government which had laws that forbade the scourging of a

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Roman citizen without due process. Two times now, Paul has been saved, and his ministry continues because of the government that was in power at the time.

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And if we go on to verse 14 and 15 of chapter 22, well, we've already done that.

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He was not flogged, he was not killed, because of Roman law. Chapter 23, it says, he comes before the council now.

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The Romans are gonna, he's still in protective custody, he's gonna bring him before the council and see what they say, see what these charges are.

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The next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him, that is the tribune did, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought down Paul and set him before them.

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The Romans still have him in protective custody, but he's gonna let the Jews testify as to what is the problem with this man.

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Goes down through chapter 23, all the way down to verse nine, and they're arguing back and forth, they can't really nail anything, pin anything on him, because he didn't do anything wrong.

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Verse nine, then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply.

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We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him? And they're arguing amongst themselves.

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Verse 10, when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.

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What saved Paul from being torn apart by the Jewish leadership? The Roman government that was in power at the time.

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Verse 11 is very important in chapter 23. The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.

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From Jerusalem to Rome, movement of the gospel from Jews to Gentile, by whose word?

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Christ himself. Paul knows he's going to Rome. So Paul knows he's going to Rome by the testimony of the

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Lord personally to him. Down in verse 23, verses 12 through 22, there's still this plot by the

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Jews. They bound themselves with an oath, neither to eat or drink till they had killed Paul.

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They want him dead. But he's in protective custody. In fact, the tribune, when he learned about this plot, down in verse 22, he told the man that told him, tell no one that you have informed me of these things.

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Then he called two of the centurions. Now, a centurion would be a commander of about 100 men. He said, get ready, 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.

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He's going to get Paul out of town. He's going to send him up the chain of command. Look how many people he's going to use to do that.

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Then he called, oh, and then verse 24, also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely, don't miss it, to Felix the governor.

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And this is what gets me. He wrote a letter to this effect. Now, the tribune, you know what happened with the arrest of Paul when he found out he was a

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Roman citizen and didn't flog him. Here's the letter this guy wrote. He wrote, Claudius Lysias, that's his name, to his excellency, the governor

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Felix. Greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when

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I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a

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Roman citizen. Whoa, hold on here, time out, flag on the play.

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Is that what happened? Well, you thought that politicians spun the truth. That's nothing new.

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This has been going on for 2 ,000 years. That's what he wrote.

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Didn't say anything about getting ready to, we were gonna flog him half to death. No, he doesn't, but that's okay.

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They send Paul then on up the chain of command. And he then appears before Felix at Caesarea.

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And then he appears later on in front of Festus. And then during that particular encounter, in chapter 25, he again gives his testimony.

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But in verse nine, it says, but Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, so there's a lot of political stuff going on here, said to Paul, do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?

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But Paul said, remember what Christ had told him. I am standing before Caesar's tribunal where I ought to be tried.

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To the Jews, I have done no wrong, as you yourselves very well know. If then

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I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death.

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But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them,

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I appeal to Caesar. As a Roman citizen, Paul had the right to appeal his case all the way to Rome, to Caesar, right?

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He's taking advantage of his Roman citizenship. The very next verse, then

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Festus, when he had conferred with his counsel, answered, to Caesar you have applied, to Caesar you shall go.

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He's still then in protective custody of the Romans. And then he appears before Agrippa.

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He appears before Agrippa and tells his conversion story, how

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God called him to proclaim light to both our people, the Jews, and to the

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Gentiles. He's going to be the apostle to the Gentiles. He explains that to Agrippa.

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And at the end of chapter 26, verse 32, Agrippa, and Festus was there too, said to Festus, this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.

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What would have happened to him if he had been set free? Jews would have killed him, and that would have ended his ministry, right?

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But he appealed to Caesar. They have to send him to Caesar. In chapter 27, we have, of course, the account of Paul going to Rome on the grain ship.

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The apostle Paul was saved from being killed by the Jewish mob by the

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Roman government. He was saved from being flogged to death by the rules of the

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Roman government. He then appealed his case to Caesar, and he gets an all -expense -paid trip to Rome by the

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Romans on a Roman grain ship. So that's the background behind Paul telling

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Timothy, pray for all people, or all kinds of 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.

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And that's exactly what happened. Paul went to Rome, and listen to the very last couple of verses in Acts, Acts chapter 28.

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He's in Rome. Some Jewish people come to him, and he's explaining to them his ministry.

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It says he's trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. They had sort of a mixed response.

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Many of them just rejected it. Verse 28 of chapter 28, Paul says, therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the

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Gentiles. They will listen. He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him.

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He's under house arrest, but he still is able to have visitors. He's ministering to people and welcoming them all.

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And what is he doing? Verse 31, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the

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Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

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Remember that? That's why Paul says pray so that we can minister without hindrance.

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So for two years, Paul's in, that's his first Roman imprisonment. For two years, he's there, but he's able to minister, he's able to talk to people, and he did some pretty good work in that imprisonment, right?

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He wrote his letter to the Ephesians. He wrote to the Colossians. He wrote Philemon. He also wrote

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Philippians. And at the very end of Philippians, where he is, you know, the time where he stops the doctrinal and practical stuff, and then the people that are with him wanna be a part of the greeting, he says, you know, the greeting part where people, some of them are name by names,

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Paul says at the very end of Philippians, all the saints in Rome greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

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That's pretty amazing. This is why Paul makes prayer a priority, pray because it advances

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God's purposes, and pray also because it pleases

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God. It pleases God. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our

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Savior, who desires all people to be saved. This is one that is commonly pulled out of its context.

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He's already defined what he means by all people, all kinds of people to be saved. And to come to the knowledge of the truth, for there is one

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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.

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There's not one God for the Jews and one God for the Gentiles. There's only one God, and he's the

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God of both. The early church was in great peril of their winding up being two churches, a

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Jewish church and a Gentile church. And they had to come to the conclusion that the church is made up of both

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Jews and non -Jews in one body, the body of Christ. Of course, Paul's the theologian of that as he wrote the

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Ephesians. You can read there about that. He's developing that and what

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Christ actually did through the cross to unite Jew and Gentile in one body.

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So the purpose of prayer, pray because it advances God's purposes, pray because it pleases

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God, pray because it is God's will, okay? Those are pretty good motivations.

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But the whole thing about praying for those in government, those in authority, puts you and it puts me right in the stream of God's purposes for his church, okay?

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So I hope that puts maybe a little new perspective on praying for people in power and people in authority for you.

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Do you have any questions about that before we move to point three? Now you have to pray in a different way for those people that you've been praying for, right?

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But it really is part of God's purposes for the advancement of his church and the advancement of the gospel as we saw.

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Certainly was for Paul in his life. We think of the Romans and the persecution and the

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Gentile persecution and all that and that's true. You never wanna discount the evil, but you also never discount the absolute sovereignty of God in working at his will through even unsaved people.

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Well, that brings us to Roman numeral three on your outline, the apostolic mission of prayer.

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And here Paul really comes back around full circle to talk about his own ministry. When you see

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Paul talking about his own ministry in scripture, in the context, he's going to be talking about the

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Gentile mission and very commonly he'll use terminology, all people, all men, everyone, that kind of thing.

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Even in Colossians, like Colossians 128, commonly used by churches to be kind of a theme verse, that we may present every man.

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Well, they wanna present to the public that they are, we want all people to come to Christ and we do.

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But if you look in the context of that, of Colossians 128, Paul's talking about his ministry to the

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Gentiles. And so when he says every man, all people, he's specifically talking about the movement of the gospel from Jew to Gentile.

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And this is why, he says for this, verse seven, for this, what he has just said, for the movement of the gospel, for the proclamation of the gospel to all the nations,

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I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth,

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I am not lying. Why would he say that? Why would he say that? Why would you preface a statement, which is going to follow by saying,

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I'm not lying, I am telling the absolute truth? Well, obviously, it's gonna be really hard for some people to believe that the gospel is moving from Jews to Gentiles.

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That's why he says it. You could see the animosity toward Gentile blessing.

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Go back and read in Luke, Jesus' own account where, the account of him preaching in his hometown, in Nazareth, he picks out two events in the life of the nation of Israel.

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One is Elijah, who, during a time of great famine, went not to the people in Israel, who were starving to death, went outside the nation of Israel to a

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Gentile woman, right, and blessed her. And then Elisha, the second example, there was a pandemic of leprosy, and not one

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Israelite was healed because Elijah went outside to Naaman. Naaman was a

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Gentile terrorist. That guy was leading raiding parties against Israel. And Jesus picked those two things to preach on in the synagogue of Nazareth, and what did they do?

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They tried to kill him. Why, because he was indicating God's sympathy for the

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Gentiles, okay? That's just another example. This is all through Luke -Acts.

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In fact, it's all through the New Testament. Paul says, for this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle,

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I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

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We are to pray as a priority, make it a priority to pray. Pray for all kinds of people.

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Pray all kinds of prayer for those people. Pray for their salvation. The main purpose Paul has in mind is so that the church can function without limitations to the best of its ability, and so that the gospel can be free to spread to all the nations in fulfillment of Genesis 12 and the

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Abrahamic covenant, which is quoted right there at the bottom. In you, God said, in you or through you,

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Abraham, and he's talking about Abraham, his descendants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

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And you see this all through scripture, clear in the New Testament. You see the New Testament apostles quoting that very phrase in support of their ministry and what

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God is doing in their time, and he's still doing it now. So there's the priority of prayer, the purpose of prayer, and Paul's apostolic mission, and the apostolic mission is also our mission.

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We should pray for those in leadership. Pray for their salvation. Pray for God to bless them.

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But the primary purpose, according to this chapter, is that the church could function and carry out

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God's mission in the world. Do you have any questions? Rick.

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Jonah. Yeah. The Gentile city said he hated them because he was a

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Jew and they hated the Jews. Yep. God said go to them. Yeah, and God made sure that he did that.

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Underlying this whole deal and underlying the entire book of Acts, of course, when we saw it, is the absolute sovereignty of God working to carry out his plan.

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Paul appealed his case to Rome because Jesus said, you're going to Rome, and he had the legal right to do that as a

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Roman citizen. That's just amazing. And they took him to Rome. There he went. Any other questions you might have or comments?

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Next week, I'll be doing a poll and finding out what you actually did pray for the politicians that are in power. No, no, no, no, no.

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We're not gonna do that. I'll leave that between you and the Lord, okay? Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank you for your word, how it brings clarity to us, and sometimes

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Father also points out these many areas where we have weaknesses, perhaps corrects some of the spiritual blind spots that we all have.

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I know that it does this in my own life. But we thank you that you're gracious and you're kind and you have shown us what your purposes are and your plan and you also provide all the necessary resources for us to accomplish your will in our generation.

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Help us to be obedient servants. Help us to be doers of your word and not merely hearers and help us also then to praise you in Jesus' name, amen.