Striving in Prayer

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 15.  Romans chapter 15.  We’re going to read beginning in verse 14 of this chapter, but our focus will be on the prayer which comes at the end, verses 30 through 33.  Romans 15, beginning at verse 14, and then going through the end of the chapter, verse 33.

While you’re turning, very grateful for your warm welcome, grateful for the friendship of your pastor, and for this congregation, thank you for this opportunity.  What a privilege it is to be able to open God’s Word at the end of this Lord’s day.

Now I’ll read the text.  Romans 15 beginning at verse 14.  Remember as I read and as you follow along in your Bibles, this is the Word of God.  Romans 15.

“I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.  But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.  In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.  For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.””

“This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.  But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.  At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.  For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.  For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.  For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.  When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.  I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.”

“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.”

Let’s pray together. 

Our great God and heavenly Father, we give You thanks tonight for Your Word.  We are ones who are in need of this Word from You.  We confess freely we would be in the dark if You had not revealed Yourself to us in and through Your Word.  We thank You, Father, that You’ve not only given us Your Word, but it is a living Word, it is alive and active.  You call it the sword of Your Spirit.  So, Father, we would ask tonight that You might wield His sword in our midst, that You might work through Your Word by Your spirit, to convict us of sin and to train us in righteousness, and to thoroughly equip us for every good work, and in so doing, Father, we ask that You might see fit to glorify Your Son as we look to Your Word together.  We ask this in Your Son’s name.  Amen.   

As I mentioned, we’re going to be looking at these three verses at the end, beginning in verse 30 of this chapter.  There’s a lot of context and that’s why it was important for us to read most of the chapter.  We need to look at that context, the context in which Paul gives this brief instruction on prayer.  But before we reach that context, I think it might be important and helpful for us to take a broader look at the biblical context of this prayer.  If you started your Bible reading plan this year, perhaps some of you have started doing this in the new year, what you will find as you read through the Bible this year is that there are hundreds of prayers within the Bible.  In fact, some have said there are 650 recorded prayers in the Scriptures.  There are differences in the way people count these things, but around 650 prayers in the Bible that are recorded for us.

If you look at any major, godly character in the Scriptures, you might not find much information about these characters, but what you will invariably find is that they are recorded as praying.  So, if you come to Abraham there are whole swaths of his life, whole periods of time, that are not recorded for us but what is recorded over and over again is Abraham’s prayer, his life of prayer before God.  The same is true of Isaac and Jacob and Moses. 

Or you think of Daniel, that great prophet who served in the courts of these Gentile kings.  What does Daniel known for?  If you look at the book of Daniel, well, he’s known for his life of prayer, long, extended prayers that are recorded for us. 

Of course, this is accentuated when we come to the Gospels and we look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The usual times of prayer are almost taken for granted in the Gospels, are given as a kind of aside, but often in the Gospels what we will see recorded for us is Jesus going to a desolate place to pray, or Jesus awakening early to pray.  This is the pattern throughout the Scripture.  You can’t read very far in your Bible without coming across a character who is marked off by his prayers to God.

The Apostle Paul, of course, is no exception.  Now why is this? Well, it’s because if you live without prayer, Matthew Henry says, it is like you are living without God in the world.  So these characters who are recorded for us on the pages of Scripture are so often shown to be in communion with God, in prayer to God, because to be without prayer is to live as if there is no God in the world.

In fact, in the early Greco-Roman world, when the Church was growing in the book of Acts and following the book of Acts, what you find is frequently Romans who didn’t understand what Christians were, what Christians believe, would sometimes refer to them simply as “people who pray.”  That was what marked them off, was their life of prayer.

Yet what’s striking about this is when we look at our own lives, we see quite plainly that prayer is one of the more difficult things that we often do.  It’s one of the things that we have the most difficulty engaging in and being fervent in.  Of course, Jesus knew this, this is why the Lord Jesus in addition to His example of prayer often gives instructions about prayer, that we need to be fervent in prayer, that we need to not be discouraged in our prayer.  He knew there were all kinds of obstacles for us and we know those obstacles are there.

The writer of Hebrews tells us a great deal about prayer.  He says, and this a text about prayer that many of you surely know, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  But then the writer goes on to say this about that drawing near.  This is one of the prerequisites of prayer – whoever would draw near to God, he says, must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

So prayer is found throughout the Scriptures, it’s a vital part of what it means to live the Christian life, many difficulties because of the weakness of our flesh and a prerequisite of it, the writer of Hebrews says, is that we must believe that God exists and we must be coming to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ and that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him.

Well, the Apostle Paul surely knew all these things.  In fact, like so many characters in Scripture, we have many recorded prayers of the Apostle Paul.  This is just one of them.  This is just a short one and it’s a kind of guide for us today.  How is that we should pray for those who are engaged in ministry, because that’s the immediate context.  If you look earlier in chapter 15, and we just read beginning in verse 14, what we see is that Paul says quite clearly that he is satisfied with the Roman Christians, that he knows that they are competent in ministry, that they understand the gospel of grace, although the book of Romans is this magisterial, remarkable book about the truths of the Gospel. 

But Paul says in verse 14, I myself am satisfied about you that you yourselves are full of goodness and filled with all knowledge and you’re able to instruct one another.  Paul also states that his life is given over to service primarily to the Gentiles.  His life is devoted to serving the Gentiles with the Gospel, and he says that in these verses as well, in verses 16 through 18.

The way that has worked out in this moment in time is Paul has been entrusted with a gift to give to the Jerusalem church.  So even though his service is primarily to the Gentiles, he’s gone to this primarily Jewish congregation and he’s given the Jerusalem church this gift, but he hopes to go ultimately to Spain by way of Rome, and that sets the immediate context of these instructions.  As Paul says in verses 22 through 29, there is important work that still needs to be done.

So that brings us then to verse 30, to Paul’s instruction to these Roman Christians as to how they can join with him in prayer.  Look at verse 30.  Paul’s description of prayer.  He writes this: 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.

Now this is a significant description that Paul gives.  It teaches us a lot about the life of prayer, about the way in which the Apostle Paul viewed their prayers.  He uses this unusual word.  In fact, it’s a word that’s only found here in this verse in our New Testament, this word that’s translated with five words in the ESV, to strive together with me, Paul says.  Now why is that such a significant way of describing their prayers? Well, first of all, we see that it’s a realistic description.  Paul understands what you understand if you’ve ever given yourself to prayer, that it is often very difficult.  He calls it striving.  Prayer is hard work.  We know that it’s a great privilege, but we shouldn’t kind ourselves about the difficulties that accompany our attempts at prayer.

So Paul uses this term to remind us and to remind them that it is a kind of striving.  But actually, the word, and the reason why it’s such an unusual word, is because it’s a compound word that carries with it not just striving but striving along with him, striving together with him, contending in this case with the Apostle Paul.

This is striking because the Romans knew at this point all that Paul had been through.  Let me just remind you of some of the things we read about the Apostle Paul in terms of his strivings for the Gospel.  We know, for instance, that when Paul was in the city of Thessalonica, recorded for us in Acts 17, he spends a few weeks there, perhaps a few months there, it only records three Sabbath days but he was perhaps there longer.  You’ll remember that in Acts 17 when Paul was in Thessalonica he had to actually sneak out of the city in the middle of the night because they were coming to kill him.  His life was in danger.

Then you read a few more pages in your Bible and you reach Acts 19 and you reach the city of Philippi.  What happens there? Well, there’s this great upheaval.  Paul is actually put in prison.  The Lord rescues him from prison and the Lord uses that for the conversion of many within the city, but nonetheless there is great difficulty that attends Paul’s ministry.

Or remember what Paul says in 2 Corinthians about his over-arching scope of ministry.  Here’s what he says.  Now this includes a long period of time, but listen to these kinds of strivings that the Apostle Paul has endured.  He says:  “I have endured far greater labors, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, often near death.  Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one.  Three times I was beaten with rocks.  Once I was stoned.  Three times I was shipwrecked.  A night and a day I was adrift at sea.  On frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, and toil and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from these other things there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

Now, if you had a resume like that, if you had engaged in that kind of work, if the Lord had put you through those kinds of things, you might be tempted to say to people sitting here in Rome, “I’m striving and you’re sort of sitting on the sidelines.”  But that’s not what the Apostle Paul says.  The Apostle Paul in a sense brings them along with him.  You are striving along with me in your prayers.  As you pray, you are striving together with me in your prayers to God.

Now this is such a great encouragement to prayer.  You may be physically limited but you can strive in prayer.  You may have limited financial capacity, but you can strive in prayer.  You may feel when you look at yourself as if you have meager gifts and not many opportunities to use those gifts, but you can strive in prayer.  This is something that Paul commands them and commands us by extension in verse 30, this is something that anyone can do.  Any Christian, regardless of physical situation or ministerial gifts or capacity in other ways.

There are many different ministries that can be supported, that must scripturally be supported in just this way.  You may not preach but you can pray.  You can strive together with those who are preaching.  You may not be able to enter the prison and open your Bible for those who are there, but you can pray for those who do that.  You may not have children of your own or you may have children whose lives seem to be well-ordered, but you can pray for those whose children are struggling or astray.  You may not be able to go to a people group that’s never heard the name of Christ and doesn’t have a Bible in their own language, but you can strive together along with them in prayer.

These Roman Christians to whom Paul writes with their own problems and challenges and lives, were striving along with the Apostle Paul.  The same is true today when we join in praying for the work that God is doing. 

I would ask you what ministries do you support in prayer?  Are you working alongside of, striving together with, in prayer? What people in your life do you support in their Christian lives through your prayer?  They’re struggling, they’re going through difficulties, they’re succumbing to temptation.  Are you striving with them in prayer?  What families do you help through your prayers?  What lost neighbors are you laboring for, striving for, in your prayer?

There is a great encouragement to be gained simply from the way in which Paul introduces this command to pray.  Strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.            

Now what is the content of this particular prayer?  The content is really found in verses 31 and 32.  Paul mentions three specific things, three specific ways in which they need to strive together with him as he serves, serving with him in prayer.

The first is this, that he might be delivered from those who refuse to be persuaded.  Then he says that the service in Jerusalem, remember Paul right now is in Jerusalem, he’s bringing them a gift.  Although his primary work is to the Gentiles, he’s with the Jerusalem church giving them this gift.  That work that he’s doing in Jerusalem, that service that he’s offering to the Jerusalem church, he asks them to pray that it might be acceptable,

Then finally, connected with that as a kind of offshoot of this service in Jerusalem being acceptable, Paul then asks them to pray so that he might come to them, the Roman church, in joy and then be refreshed by them.

Let’s look at these in order because I think each of them teaches us something significant about prayer as we see this example here of prayer.

First is this.  That first request that Paul makes that he be delivered from those who refuse to be persuaded.  Now what’s striking if you know the actual history of what Paul goes through in Jerusalem is that actually what happens while he is in Jerusalem is that the Jewish people who are opposed, these very ones that he’s asking them to pray for, the unbelievers in Judea, as the ESV puts it, these very people actually end up trumping up charges against the Apostle Paul, getting him imprisoned, and then ultimately through various twists and turns, Paul’s imprisonment ends up being through the Roman government and ultimately to Rome.

But in a sense we also can see that Paul’s prayer and what he asks them to pray is answered in a powerful way by the Lord.  He doesn’t escape these Jewish people who are opposed to him.  However, what we learn is that the Jews actually intended to put him to death.  What happens there?  Well, actually, the Lord rescues him from this.  Then he ends up in Rome, although not in the way that he anticipated. 

You might remember earlier in the service we read from Acts 24 and in Acts 24 Paul gives this account.  The account really speaks directly to these requests that he wants the Romans to make.  He says this in Acts 24, I’ll remind you of it:  “So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.  Now after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings,” that’s what he’s describing here in Romans 15, “and while I was doing this they found me purified in the Temple without any crowd or tumult, but some Jews from Asia they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation should they have anything against me, made charges against me, and that’s why I’m here, that’s why I’m enmeshed in this legal battle.”

But you see, the thing is this, not only has Paul asked the Romans to pray for just this scenario, but in fact God answers this prayer because the desire of these Jewish people was to have him killed and he’s not put to death.  And also, if you read further in Acts chapter 24, what you find out is that Paul’s second request is fulfilled is well, because his offering is accepted by the Jerusalem church.

Now imagine if you heard that and you were in the Roman church.  Paul has said strive along with me in prayer in these specific ways, and then you get the word that in fact God has intervened, God has worked, God has answered the prayers that you’re asking.

Call upon Me, the Lord says, and I will answer.  Paul knows this and we see it.

Now I want you to see in verse 32 another aspect of the content of Paul’s prayer.  There were some specific requests that he wants them to make and the Lord graciously answers their prayer.  But in verse 32 there’s this little add-on at the end because Paul says I want to be rescued because by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.  This is a very striking request that Paul makes.

There’s a kind of half-truth that is often spoken of about prayer, that it doesn’t change God, people say, but it changes us.  So that’s sometimes what people say about prayer, “Well, it doesn’t change God, but it changes us.”  Now the reason that’s a kind of half-truth is because God is immutable, God does not change.  So it’s right for us to start by saying God is an unchanging God, God’s will, His decree, is unchanging.  But the Bible also tells us that God answers prayer and the Bible also tells us, and this is another reason why it’s a kind of half-truth, that there are times in which as people are praying, God does use their prayers to change them.  So while it’s not actually the case because it implies that God doesn’t answer prayer, there reality is this is a prayer that was intended to prepare them for a work that God was going to have them to do.

Here’s what I’m saying.  Paul knew that if he came to Rome one of the purposes of his visit was to be, as he says, refreshed by them.  In other words, for their prayers to be answered, they would be the ones refreshing Paul and helping Paul, probably by giving him some kind of financial support, that seems to be implied in this chapter.  As he continues his work in Spain, he’s hoping to have Rome as a kind of base of operations.  It’s a kind of missionary support letter sense to this chapter.

This reminds us of something valuable in prayer that Paul knew when he included this instruction.  Often as we pray we are convicted and compelled to help in tangible and specific ways.  That’s the force of verse 32, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.  You have experienced this, no doubt, in your prayers as you pray for various ministries, as you pray for those who are in need of help.  Very often God will work in your life to offer some kind of tangible help on their behalf.

In fact, usually to the extent that we are genuinely bringing our requests to God on behalf of someone, we will to the same extent be thinking of ways in which we ourselves can be used to help them.  Perhaps this is the reason why some are reluctant to pray, because you know that in praying for this neighbor, God may actually give you the opportunity to do that very thing that you’ve been praying for.  God may use you to help.  You see, this is what the Apostle Paul has in mind in verse 32.

Now it’s striking because when we reach the end of this prayer, there is a kind of urgency to it.  You understand the context, you understand the striving that Paul’s been enduring and they’re striving, contending along with him.  Then you understand the circumstances in Jerusalem and the danger of the circumstances in Jerusalem.  You see that in Paul’s appeal to them to pray for him.  Then there’s this note at the end that when he reaches them, perhaps they’re going to serve in this support role for his work in Spain.  There’s a kind of war-time feel to this prayer.

It’s interesting.  John Piper picks up on this when he talks about the missionary prayers of the Bible.  He has a little article called “Prayer – The Work of Missions” and it begins with this arresting sentence: “Life is war,” he says, and then he goes on to say, “but most people do not believe this in their heart.  Most people show by their priorities and their casual approach to spiritual things that they believe we are in peace time, not war time.”  He goes on to write this:  “So I do not tire of saying to our church the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that they try to turn a war time walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom.”

There is something to this, when we read this prayer.  Paul uses battle imagery.  He describes a very difficult situation and he talks to them about contending along with him.  There’s something martial about this prayer.

But having said that, note the way Paul ends the prayer, or ends this instruction about prayer in verse 33.  He ends it not on a martial note, not on a note of war time, but actually if you look at verse 33, on a note of peace.  We see Paul’s description of their prayer.  We see the content of their prayer.  But here we might say this is the hope of prayer – May the God of peace be with you all.

Now why would he end this way when the stakes were so high?  When they were, as it were, shoulder to shoulder with him as they prayed for him?  Why end with peace?

Well, first because the promise of peace is one of the primary promises in the Bible that attends to the work of prayer.  The psalmist says cast your burden on the Lord, He will sustain you, He won’t allow you to be shaken.

Remember how Peter puts it in 1 Peter 5?  Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

There’s this sense in which the work of prayer leads to the peace of God.  Isn’t that exactly what Paul says in Philippians 4?  Don’t be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul knows that this war time prayer is accompanied by the peace of God and the God of peace.

But there’s more to it than that.  It’s not simply that prayer is tied together with the promise of peace, although it is in the Scriptures.  But within the context of the book of Romans, within the context of this letter, God is already cited in this very chapter as the One who brings harmony and peace in the church.  We see that back in verse 5.  In verse 13 Paul brings his argument there to a conclusion by saying the God of hope brings peace.  This may be because in chapter 16, just after this, Paul says the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet.

Then if you’re thinking in terms of the book of Romans, you’ll remember, of course, those incomparable words from chapter 5.  If you’re not a Christian, these are words you need to reflect on carefully .  If you are a Christian, these are words that should be sweet to your ears: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I wonder, just parenthetically because the Apostle Paul mentions the peace of God here, if you know this peace for yourself.  Do you know the God of peace who’s revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ?  If you’re a Christian, do you know the peace that comes through striving and prayer, casting your burdens on the Lord, not seeking to carry your burdens as if there were no God in the world?

The Lord Jesus, who showed us so much in His example of prayer, in His teaching on prayer, said as you know more than anything else, “do not fear.”  He said, “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 troubled, neither let them be afraid.”  That’s a remarkable note for Paul to end on in this situation.

But as they contended with him in prayer, it was their great privilege, it’s our great privilege, to contend in prayer.  As they addressed the very specific needs that the Apostle Paul had, which God was pleased to answer, although in ways that were unexpected to them and to him.  In the midst of all of that, Paul says to them what he says to us as we consider the great work of prayer, “May the God of peace be with you all.  Amen.”

Let’s pray together.  Our Father, we give You thanks this evening for this text, for this example, yet another example you’ve given us of prayer.  Father, I pray that You might move in our hearts to cry out to You, to cast our anxiety upon You, to contend with others in prayer.  Father, as You work in us, may You also see fit to hear our prayers and to give us the peace that only You can provide.  We ask this in Your Son’s name. Amen.