Intercessory Prayer

intercessory prayer is rebelling against the status quo of this life. It is a persistent rebellion, a continual acknowledgement that this world in all of its fallenness, sin, injustice, pain, anxiety, and evil represents an abnormal life situation. Intercessory prayer is therefore the expression of hope that life can be otherwise than it is presently experienced by us and in fact that it ought to be differently experienced than we currently know. Intercessory prayer stems from a biblical worldview that knows that God is actively engaged in his world and nodulating his kingdom rule to pray therefore is to act in the belief that God has invited us to come before his throne with intercessions with petitions with requests hopes aspirations and desires. It is to pour out our hearts in anguish over life as we know it and to desperately plead our cause to the Father that he would bring about those promised changes indicated in his word. Prayer you see assumes that this is a fallen world and expresses our longings to dwell in a place where grace reigns and not sin. Intercessory prayer asserts that God's name is too lightly hallowed in his world, that his kingdom has not yet fully come, that his will is not perfectly obeyed and that he is not in any wise worship as he ought to be by all of his creation and by all men and women and all nations. Intercessory prayer then is an opportunity to look at the world through God's eyes and to see the vast disparity between this age and the age to come. It is to be convinced that God is now and will ultimately inaugurate and fulfill the full coming of his kingdom. It is to confess that as badly as we want things to change in this earth, we who are fallen creatures have no power to bring about to implement or to institute those changes which our hearts so desperately yearn for. Until and unless God through his spirit makes those changes and fulfills his promises then nothing will change. And so when a Christian prays to God in effect he or she is saying this over here is the kingdom of God. This is the place where God reigns and rules by his sovereignty. These are the values of the kingdom. These are the truths of the kingdom. These are the beliefs of the kingdom and this is the manner in which I ought to live my life. But the tension in the believer is this contrast of saying but I don't live fully over there. That is not yet fully present. I on the other hand live over here. This is the world in which I live. This is my world now. This is the church experience that I have now. This is who I am now. This is who my family is. This is who my friends are. Here my life is circumscribed by sin. Here it is denominated by failure, by fear, by anxiety, and faithlessness. And so there is this inherent tension that each one of us as believers must face. We live over here. It is not co-equal with the fullness of the kingdom and the tension that exists between those two experiences is what calls us to fall on our knees and come before God engaging desperately in intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is saying, oh God, would you make the two come together? Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Take away this awful tension of living in this world, desperately wishing that the kingdom was fully present. And so prayer is that deep-seated desire to see thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Entered into with a holy boldness. Intercessory prayer is the desire to see God glorified on earth. It is the desire to see his name established. His church prospering and his people wonderfully changed into the likeness of Christ. Intercessory prayer is nothing more than telling God what he already knows and what he is already committed to institute on behalf of his people. Intercessory prayer is our way of getting our hearts to beat in rhythm and sink with his heart. And it is our way to think his thoughts after him. Intercessory prayer therefore is contending for the causes of God on earth. Now one of the most stirring examples of intercessory prayer that I have encountered is a prayer recorded by Martin Luther on that night before he was to appear at the Diet of Worms. There he was called upon to stand before kings and princes. The assembled weight of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. There to be put on trial for the things that he was teaching and writing concerning the gospel. Martin Luther on that night before he appeared before those assembled magistrates and princes and kings, nobles from all the earth gathered together to hear him present his cases to why the gospel was true and their doctrine was wrong. Oh Martin Luther felt that tension and he went before God and he prayed this intercessory prayer. Oh God Almighty God ever lasting. How dreadful is the world. Behold how its mouth opens to swallow me up and how small is my faith in thee. Oh the weakness of the flesh and the power of Satan. If I am to depend upon any strength of this world, it is all over. The nail is struck. Sentence is gone forth. Oh God, oh God, oh, bow my God. Help me against all the wisdom of this world. Do this, I beseech thee. Thou shud's do this by thy own mighty power. For God the work is not mine but thine. I have no business here. I have nothing to contend for with these great men of the world. I would gladly pass my days in happiness and peace. But the cause is mine and it was just and ever lasting. Oh Lord help me. Oh faithful and unchangeable God. Help me. Here is a man for hours struggling on his knees, waiting in this small cell for the opportunity to present the cause of Christ to a very eager and watching world knowing that his very life hung in the balance knowing as he says I have no power. I can't change a thing. My arm is too short to save. Acknowledging that he has no business being there other than that he has been commissioned and sent there by God to prosecute the causes of righteousness on earth knowing who he is before a holy God. Martin Luther falls on his face and in this beautiful and even more extended prayer than I have read indicates by his intercession that he is pleading at the very portals of heaven that God would act. Jesus Christ is called the great intercessor who as the book of Hebrews chapter 7 tells us ever live it to make intercession because of his exaltation to the right hand of the Father. Jesus now is in what is called session with God Almighty. He is there before the right hand of God there interceding for us and for his causes on earth. He remains our high priest forever interceding before the Father pleading the causes of the kingdom and before Jesus left in order to give us a model prayer of intercession. He prayed aloud that prayer recorded in John 17 that we might know Jesus in his earthly ministry as the great intercessor and be able in some way to approach that unfathomable concept of Jesus Christ standing before the Father there pleading our cause his cause and the kingdom's cause to the Father. Now while Jesus is the great intercessor he is not the only intercessor. Every believer has been commissioned likewise to plead the causes of the kingdom to rebel against the status quo of this present evil age by imploring God to bear his strong right arm. We must all approach that same heavenly throne with a holy boldness asking great things of a great God. Jesus is the great intercessor but we also have been commissioned to intercede likewise. While Jesus is the high priest he is not the only priest. We too have been made priests as well. In fact as Peter tells us in his epistle we are a royal priesthood quoting scriptures from the Old Testament. We also may and must bring before the Father the concerns of the kingdom. We must minister on behalf of him in this world and so being co-lavers with Christ we pray along with his prayers. He is our intercessor and we are an intercessor. He is the great high priest but we are also priests in the kingdom. We must never confuse ourselves with his exalted role but nonetheless we may not either excuse ourselves from praying in the manner that Jesus himself taught us to pray. As we come to our text this morning we see that the Apostle Paul championed for accessory prayer. Paul did not accept the status quo of this fallen world where you see Paul had met Christ on the road to Damascus. He had seen the glories of the coming kingdom. He had had revealed intimately to him mysteries of this universe that you and I will not know this side of heaven. The Apostle Paul was wonderfully caught up into heaven and knew what that coming kingdom would look like in its fullness and as the Apostle Paul continued to labor and minister among his people on earth it was his delight always to be found interceding on their behalf. Paul knew that God is not one his people to live spiritually frugal lives and thus it was his regular custom to ask great things of a great God. Turn with me again to Colossians 1 verse 9 like for us to move through this passage taking a look at that which Paul has prayed for for us. Notice as he begins in verse 9 he says since the day that we have heard of it what is the it of which he has heard. He has heard of the Colossians repentance. He has heard of their coming to faith. He knows the belief that God has brought to this group of people and he says knowing what God has done for you in terms of calling forth faith. We do not cease to pray for you since the day we heard that good news. My friends one of the characteristics of intercessory prayer is that it is a repeated prayer. It is the kind of prayer that is prayed before God time and time and time again. Not because the first prayer was insufficient. Not because the first time you voiced that petition before God it was automatically inadequate or lacking in faith. No intercessory prayer continually holds up before God those things that cause our hearts to beat most quickly. It holds before those things that makes God's heart move and stirred to act on earth. And so Paul says ever since we've heard of this we have not ceased to pray for you rather than confess your sins I'll only confess mine. I know how many times someone has said to me Bob tomorrow such and such is going to happen. Will you pray for me? Will you keep in mind this or that situation over the next number of weeks until God resolves this problem on experiencing. And I know how many times I have committed myself to pray and in two minutes for gotten that prayer request entirely. You see I'm not a man who could ever say in verse 9 that I have not ceased to pray for you about all these things that burden your hearts because I know how often I have failed to pray even the first time when a person says something to me about would you pray on this or that we have. When we read these scriptures and we find about the nature of intercessory prayer very frequently the first thing that happens is the spirit brings a sense of conviction that we have not been faithful as the Apostle Paul was faithful and certainly not faithful as the Lord Jesus Christ who ever led it to make intercession for us. This entire section this prayer might well be summarized in this way. The Apostle Paul is asking for these things on behalf of his people. He says I want for you to experience the knowledge of the will of God. I want you to be strengthened by his power in order that you might walk worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this prayer in the five verses contained here is a rather complex prayer it is complicated and it is a very spiritually mature prayer and so in order for us to get a good handle on this prayer that Paul prayed repeatedly before God on behalf of the Colossians. Let me say again that the summary of this prayer as we look at it verses 9 through 14 is that the people might experience the knowledge of God's will coupled with the power of his strength in order that they might walk worthy of the Lord. And so in verse 9 Paul tells us not only how constantly he has prayed but also that his first desire for them is that they be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. It is vain to try and serve a God without knowing who that God is and what he desires of his people. So the Apostle Paul tells us that one of the first things that he aspires for us is that we might know the will of God. In verse 10 he goes on to say that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. You know it's possible to get all aides and still flunk life possible to get all aides and still flunk life. The Apostle Paul is keenly aware that knowledge alone is insufficient to have us live and to behave and to walk in a manner worthy of God. And so what he's doing now is saying that in order for us to experience not only the knowledge but the walk we need other aspects supplied by God. Now a person may quite easily be a master of theology and not live in a manner that is worthy before the Lord. A person might have all the biblical knowledge so as to be a pastor and teacher and yet failed in his life's responsibilities to walk in a manner worthy before God. And so to walk worthy is to experience a transformation not just of the mind but also of the heart and also of behavior. What I think the Apostle Paul is indicating here is that the harvest of wisdom and knowledge is the practical living of a life pleasing to Jesus. And so we must ask ourselves the question who is sufficient for these things? Who among us would claim that we have the knowledge sufficient to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ? We're insufficient. But in verse 11 the Apostle goes on and begins to tell us that we have this however supplied. That is that we will be strengthened with all power. Now to experience this power is what some have said is the scenic one known of the Christian life. That is without this power being supplied by Christ. In order to know his will and to walk in his ways we simply are not believers. Not to be strengthened by his power in order to walk in that way is not to have a regenerate heart. Not to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Not to be strengthened according to all might. This power is part and parcel of what the Holy Spirit invests in each and every believer. Not to have this power for daily living is to not have Christ in your heart. And this is not just any power or strength that is supplied to us. Paul goes on to say that this is a glorious power. It's an absolutely marvelous strength that is given to us. We know that it is the very strength that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. That is the nature of the power supplied to us, the very power that raised Christ from the grave. The verb form used by the Apostle Paul in this text is a continuous form. It is a present reality and it is something that will always be supplied to us. It is not a one-time gift or investment from which we draw, but rather this power is always made available to us continually so. There is never a shortage, there is only a failure of accessing it on our part. There's also something that Paul says here that is very good news for us. He said this power is given in accordance with the strength of the Spirit. Now this phrase in accordance should give each one of us much hope. We were to use an economic or financial illustration here it may serve our purposes. When we think of Bill Gates, we think of perhaps the wealthiest man alive on the face of the earth. If Bill Gates were to give to us from his resources, we might expect a dollar or five dollars or a thousand dollars. We might even expect a million dollars. But that is if he gave from his resources. However, if Bill Gates were to make a gift in accordance with his resources, we might extend anything up to and including the full billions of dollars that he possesses. You see, when the Bible tells us that God gives the Holy Spirit and that strength to us in accordance with the power of God, that's not from his power. That's not a meager portion allocated to believers. That is that he is standing ready to give in accordance with all of his spiritual power and reserve that is continuously given for us. This should give us the hope and expectation that God is prepared to deliver to us that same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Now we have to ask, for what purpose is this given? The Apostle Paul goes on to say, if we're going to walk in a man or worthy of Christ, here then are two things that he is particularly looking for as character traits. He says so as to attain patience. The word here does not mean a quiet acceptance of life circumstances. It does not mean the ability to bear all things but also in bearing them actually to turn these things into glory. It is a conquering patience and ability to deal triumphantly with anything that life can hand us. It speaks of the dogged persistence of a long-distance runner and athlete who runs the entire course of the race overcoming the obstacles, breaking through the finish line, attaining the prize of the winner. It also says the weird to be long-suffering. Again, this word is usually used in reference to our relationship with people. It is the quality of heart and character that enables a person to bear with unpleasantness, to bear with sin and frustration and injustice without being driven to bitterness or to despair. It suggests that another person's unloveliness is not going to prevent our love being expressed to that individual. His quality actually is best exemplified in the life of the Lord Jesus who on that day when he was crucified, who was reviled and mocked, did not retaliate to those who so unjustly and cruelly put him to death. But rather, it is that long-suffering quality of relationships where Jesus from the cross actually prayed to the Father that God would forgive them for they know not what they do. So the prayer request of Paul is that knowing God's will and being strengthened by His might, each believer might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. That is, maintaining the patience, which no circumstance can defeat as well as the long-suffering that no person can defeat. And all this, he says, at the end of that verse, is to be qualified by the spiritual character of joy. Paul closes this prayer in verses 12 through 14 by telling us that we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, and he goes on in a manner giving thanksgiving to God for how he has given us redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Friends, as we try and think about intercessory prayer, what might we conclude? We conclude that the Bible tells us that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. The Bible tells us that Paul prayed without ceasing also as an intercessor. Our hearts and consciences tell us that we are sadly negligent. Offering meager and half-hearted prayers mixed with faith and unbelief. We have not laid siege against this fallen world on behalf of the kingdom of God in any fashion resembling our calling as royal priests. You know, on several occasions, the disciples, in trying to deal with this world, having lost patience and long-suffering over the circumstances and the people with whom they had to deal, decided that the tension between the kingdom of God and this world was simply too great, and so they turned and they wanted Jesus to call down fire. Oh, they were an intercessor all right. They interceded that God would call down fire and just eliminate the tension completely. Destroy this within people. We're prepared to kick the dust off our sandals and move on. They were rebuked for that manner of intercession. That is not the matter in which we lay siege against this fallen world. Our intercession is that the kingdom of God might come, not fire. Our intercession is that grace and holiness and love and peace, the mercy of God would fall on this people, not fire from heaven consuming them in an awful and terrible judgment. I know how prone I am to want to intercede and call down fire, just eliminate the tension between this world and the coming kingdom and have it over with. God has not called us to that end or purpose, he has called us to intercede on behalf of his holy causes in this world. And I would encourage us individually and as a people to look to this prayer, this is a model prayer of intercession even as Christ's own high priestly prayer in John 17 is a model of it. Come before God, acknowledge the weaknesses that we must inevitably have in consistent and long-suffering intercessory prayer and ask God that He would so soften our hearts that as we lay siege against this fallen world on behalf of Christ, that the thing that we would love most to fall from heaven is His love and His mercy that people might live in this fashion and therefore walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. I would have only thought that we pray that this would be so. Change our hearts and minds. Cause us to be unlike the disciples at that moment and rather fill us we pray with the love that you have for your world and your people. So God, would you make us to be long-suffering and patient in intercessory prayer? Change us, we pray. We desire it earnestly and this great thing, we boldly ask of a great God through Christ our Lord.