Praying for Kings

This evening in our series on our vision as a church: Godly Living, Church Growth and Changing Britain, we come to the first of three sermons on Changing Britain.

As a church we believe that we are to stand up for Christian values where we live and work, pray for leaders of Britain and for a widespread acceptance of the gospel as our passage this evening makes clear; and support those seeking to bring a Christian influence to bear in our culture by political means. The well-being of British society depends on the presence of a healthy Christian influence, as Jesus said when he spoke of Christians being salt and light in Matthew 5:13-16. If you’re from another country and are going back to your country then please insert the name of your country instead of Britain. For example, Changing China. There’s an outline of the sermon on the back of your service sheets and space to note down what God is particularly saying to you from his Word. Apparently we forget 95% of what we hear within 72 hours unless we write it down.


Introduction

Last Thursday, the British government published the ‘incitement to religious hatred’ bill. And while we don’t want to see people inciting hatred against others the bill makes it a criminal offence to insult other faiths, which is a phrase open to interpretation. It could lead to Christians being jailed for up to seven years for proclaiming the gospel, for preaching what we’re told in this passage in v5&6: that ‘there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men…’ That Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that no-one comes to the Father except through him. (John 14:6)

The authorities in an NHS Trust in Leicestershire were last week planning to ban Gideon Bibles from its hospital claiming that they can be offensive to those of other faiths and help to spread MRSA! Last week the authorities at a crematorium in Torquay banned the cross from the chapel, claiming that it could cause offence to other faiths and to those wanting non-religious funerals. When I returned from sabbatical last year the first thing I read in the local newspaper was Peter Arnold’s opening statement as the new Liberal Democrat leader of Newcastle City Council saying that there would not be a faith based City Academy in Newcastle. Two things are clear: Britain is becoming more and more pagan and leaders are in need of prayer.

So how are we to respond as a church? How can we play our part in changing Britain? How can we help to ensure that the Gospel can continue to be spread? How can we influence these national and local leaders? When Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, Nero was the Roman Emperor, whose cruelty and hostility to the Christian faith were well known. So what does Paul tell Timothy that the growing churches in Ephesus should be doing and so us today?

Well first, turn back with me to 1Timothy chapter 1 for a moment. Paul here first stresses the importance of right doctrine (eg v18&19). For if we lose that then how can we be involved in changing Britain? Paul also urges Timothy and the churches to fight the good fight and counter false teaching (v3-7) in the church. In v3 of chapter 1 Paul tells Timothy to ‘command the false teachers to stop teaching false doctrines’. How we need that commitment to fight the good fight of the faith and to drive away strange and erroneous doctrines in the wider church today if this nation is to be changed in the name of Christ. Tragically it’s often some of the bishops who vote for anti Christian legislation in the House of Lords.

But now let’s go back to chapter 2 and to something which we, as a church, are much weaker on generally and in terms of changing Britain, and that is prayer. Here in v1&2 Paul begins by stressing the importance of prayer in changing Britain, of praying in public worship for everyone but especially for kings and all those in authority, even for those who are persecuting Christians. I’ve already mentioned Nero but when Paul was writing there were no Christian rulers anywhere in the world. In the reading we had from Jeremiah 29:4-14 the Jews prayed for a pagan government and for Babylon’s peace and prosperity. So my first heading is:


1. The church is to pray for all people and in particular for kings and all those in authority (v1-2)

Look at v1&2. In public worship Paul urges:

“…first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority…”

The word translated first of all literally means ‘of first importance’. The intercessions or prayers in a church service are not just ‘add ons’, to compose at the last minute if we’re leading or to nod off during if we’re listening and participating, but are very important. “Apart from me you can do nothing”, says Jesus in John 15.

I once visited a church in Australia where half the congregation turned up at the start of the sermon having missed the prayers. But Paul says prayer is also of primary importance, not secondary. It is not just the sermon that is important. And the prayer time is not just a time to pray for our own needs as a church but a time to ask God for his will to be done in and through everyone and in particular in and through kings and all those in authority. All kinds of prayer, says Paul, should be made for all kinds of people, whether they are Christians or not and especially for the Queen, the Prime Minister, the national and local government and all in authority.

Ten years ago, when the Royal family were having their 'annus horribilis' as the Queen put it in 1995, I was in Australia visiting Phillip Jensen, a Christian leader in Sydney. He wondered whether Christians had really prayed for the Queen and her family and if we had how the situation might have been different for Charles and Diana.

As a congregation we are to bow down in humble and expectant faith before our sovereign Lord, praying for the evangelization of Britain and the world, for peace and justice in the world, for rulers and governments, for the leaders of the G8 that their response to the problems of extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa would be godly, for the Queen and leaders of this nation, for an increasingly pagan Britain to return to the Lord, for Newcastle City Council to allow a Christian City Academy to be established, and for the government to drop the incitement to religious hatred bill. This is vital in both our public prayers as a whole congregation and in our small group prayers. “You do not have because you do not ask God”, says James. Sometimes we can get discouraged when we see the way the country is going but Jesus tells us to pray and never give up in Luke 18. You know I sometimes wonder whether the comparatively slow progress towards peace and justice in the world, and towards world evangelization, is due more than anything else to the prayerlessness of the people of God. What might not happen if God's people throughout the world learned to wait upon him in believing, persevering prayer?

If you look at the history of revivals around the world – what happens first? - Christians meeting together to pray and often to fast. As the Lord God himself said in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15:

“If my people will humble themselves and pray, and search for me, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land. I will listen, wide awake, to every prayer made in this place.”

Prayer is vital for changing Britain and the world. It would be exciting to see intercessory prayer groups and prayer triplets starting up and getting together to pray for the church, the nation and the world. Will you consider being a part of that?

But why should the church pray for national leaders? Paul is quite specific in the second half of v2.

a) That we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness (v2)

You see the basic benefit of good government is peace – freedom from war and civil strife. Paul benefited from this in his ministry under the Roman Empire. When there was a disturbance against the church in Ephesus the city clerk succeeded in quelling it (Acts 19:23). In an ordered society the church is free to fulfil its God-given responsibilities without hindrance, namely godliness and holiness, in other words true Christianity. This could become harder in the UK if legislation such as the religious hatred bill becomes law. So we must pray for those in authority in this country, for their minds to be changed and the bill to be dropped.

However we still enjoy much freedom, for which we are to give thanks to God, compared with a country like Zimbabwe where the government is causing civil strife and where the church is not allowed to always operate freely. How we need to pray for Robert Mugabe to be changed or removed, for the restraint of evil and for justice. And how we need to make the most of the freedom we have here to grow and plant churches. So often we take it so much for granted which can make us complacent.

And let’s pray in faith. God does answer prayer. I don’t know if you’ve seen the film ‘Hotel Rwanda’ about the terrible genocide ten years ago in that land when one million people were slaughtered. The church struggled and most of the missionaries left. Now after much prayer for the leaders and a period of peace and rebuilding the Christian President of Rwanda recently signed a covenant to become the first Purpose Driven nation in the world, in other words it is a nation seeking to follow God’s purposes. The church is growing. Emmanuel Kolini, the Archbishop of Rwanda and a friend of David Holloway’s, is much involved and I met a number of the leaders at a recent conference and they are looking to the future with hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God! God answers prayer. He already has in Britain with regard to the proposal to ban Gideon Bibles from the University of Leicester NHS Trust and the banning of the cross at the crematorium. Both the Bibles and the cross will now stay. One daily newspaper is taking the credit but it was really the power of prayer! Secondly…

b) Peaceful conditions facilitate the spread of the gospel (v3-4)

This benefit of peace is implied in v3&4. “This is good”, Paul goes on (meaning prayer that those in authority will maintain peace), “and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved…” Certainly the pax romana (the peace of the Roman Empire) was a factor in the early spread of the gospel. So we are to pray for national leaders to preserve peace and all that goes with that such as preserving law and order without oppressing the population, to punish evil and promote good, as Paul puts it in Romans 13:4, so that true religion and morality can flourish and evangelism go forward without interruption. Here in Britain the danger is that the authorities are beginning to promote evil and punish good, certainly in the area of morality: with cloning happening right here in Newcastle, immoral sex education etc

So the church is to pray for the state, that its leaders may administer justice, promote good and pursue peace just as they should in their God given role. And in Britain the church must make the most of the opportunity of the peaceful conditions we still have to evangelise and to grow and plant churches. Why? Because…


2. God desires all people to be saved (v3-4)

You see the reason the church should pray for everyone (v1) is that this is the compass of God's desire.

The truth is that God loves the whole world (John 3:16), desires all people to be saved (v4), and so commands us to preach the gospel to all nations (v7) and to pray for their conversion (v1).

As a church we are to pray for the widespread acceptance of the gospel in this region. If we are to grow to 5000 and plant churches totalling 5000 people we need to pray. Humanly speaking it seems impossible, especially at a time when evangelism is not at all easy. But with God nothing is impossible as we’re beginning to learn as a church and as we see here God desires that vision to become a reality. It is his vision. We are to pray for everyone. God wants all people to be saved.

But some of you might be asking what about the doctrine of election? Is it not incompatible with Paul’s statement that God wants all people to be saved? Certainly Scripture teaches divine election in both the Old and the New Testaments. Yet, as John Stott says, ‘this truth must never be expressed in such a way as to deny the complementary truth that God wants all people to be saved.” Election is usually introduced in the Bible to humble us as it reminds us that the credit for our salvation belongs to God alone, to reassure us as it promises that God’s love will never let us go, and to stir us to mission. Election is never introduced to contradict the universal offer of the Gospel or to provide us with an excuse for opting out of world evangelisation. Yes the Bible makes it clear that not everyone will be saved and that God predestines but 2 Peter 3:9 backs up what Paul says here:

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise [regarding the second coming of Christ] but he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance”.

And in Ezekiel 18:32 God says:

“I take no pleasure in the death of anyone – repent and live!”

God wants all people to be saved. Now Paul does not say God wills all people to be saved but he does say God wants all people to be saved. The people we work with, study with, play sport with, travel with and those we live amongst. Are you praying for those people? Are you getting to know those people? Have you ever invited them to church or to Christianity Explored? Why has God put you with those people – to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them. You may be the only Christian they know.

God our Saviour wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. The truth being Jesus Christ – that he is the way, the truth and the life and the only way to the Father and to heaven. Without him we are lost and dead in our sins. 'For', v5, 'there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men'.


3. Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all people (v5-6)

Now please don’t misunderstand this has nothing to do with universalism – the wrong belief that all people will be saved whatever their belief – but with the universality of the gospel invitation.

You see the universality of the gospel invitation rests on the two truths that there is only one God and only one mediator. The reason God wants all people to be saved is that he is the one God, and there is no other. As he says in Isaiah 45:22:

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.”

And there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Therefore there is only one way of salvation - through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is unique - fully God and fully man and because he is both God and man he is able to mediate between us and God. Only he can reconcile us to the one God. He "gave himself as a ransom for all people". He died on the cross for you and for me. He gave himself means he sacrificed himself, offering himself deliberately and voluntarily as a sacrifice for sin.

A ransom was the price paid for the release of slaves or captives. We were in bondage to sin and judgement, unable to save ourselves, and the price paid so that we can be set free was the death of Christ in our place. Jesus gave himself, literally it reads, as a ‘substitute – ransom’ on behalf of all. God came to earth in the person of his Son Jesus to die instead of us (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is what is called the self-substitution of God. What does that mean?

A group of British prisoners of war during World War 2 were working on the Burma railway. At the end of each day the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it. He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No-one moved. "All die, all die!" he shrieked, aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the general clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently to attention. When they returned to camp the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing. That one man had gone forward as a substitute to save the others from, in this instance, the unjust wrath of a soldier.

In the same way Jesus came as our substitute. He endured crucifixion for us, so that we might not face the punishment we justly deserve for our rebellion against God. By his death on the cross Jesus paid the ransom price. And as a result if we trust Christ then we are set free from the power of sin - not that we won't sin again but that sin's hold over us is broken. God became man in the person of Jesus, taking our humanity to himself and then gave his life as a ransom, taking our sin and guilt upon himself, therefore he is the only mediator, the only ‘go between’ between man and God. And Jesus acts as our mediator or advocate today at the Father's right hand.

He, being God, man and a ransom is the only mediator through whom God saves. Are we trusting in him? Are we proclaiming him to everybody? This great good news must be made known to all. It must be heralded and taught throughout Britain and the world as v7 implies and which is my final and very brief point.


4. The church is to proclaim the gospel to all people (v7)

We give thanks as we’re told to do in v1 for the freedom we still have in Britain to spread the gospel. But may the freedoms we still have not make us complacent in our prayer for people and in our evangelism. Through church growth and church planting we are to take the Gospel to the whole of Tyneside and beyond. The task is urgent. Britain and Western Europe are in desperate need of the Gospel.

A number of years ago the President of the Atheist society in the UK said to a Christian friend: "If I believed what you believe, if I believed that Jesus can bring forgiveness, freedom from guilt, peace with God and eternal life through faith in him I would be willing to crawl over broken glass to tell others".