Title: A Kingdom Without Borders

Text: I Timothy 2:1-7

FCF: We often struggle praying for people who we don’t like or who are enemies of God.

Prop: Because God’s Kingdom knows no boundaries, we must pray for all kinds of people.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to I Timothy chapter 2. Last week we finished Paul’s more personal opening remarks to Timothy. He entrusted a charge to Timothy. A charge to pastor well. A charge to squash false teaching and instead to preach the mercy and grace of the gospel of God, which uses the law to reveal the sinfulness of sinners and to show how Christ came to save sinners. So where does Paul go now?

There is a noticeable shift in audience. No longer is Paul addressing only Timothy. It is clear that this letter was intended to be read and even preached to the church there in Ephesus. Where even last week we had to gain a holistic bible perspective to apply the text to every believer, today, we begin a section of the letter that is easily applied right on the surface for every believer.

I am in I Timothy chapter 2 starting in verse 1. I am reading from the NET which begins on page 1337 in your pew bible. Please follow along in whichever version you prefer.

Transition:

This passage has a lot of moving pieces. As with all of interpretation, we must remember that context is King. The context in this section of scripture, in this book, in the New Testament, and finally in the whole of scripture. All that should govern our interpretation. With that, there is a mighty message here for us. Let’s look.

I.) God is delighted by and welcoming of prayers for all kinds of people, so we must pray for all kinds of people. (1-3)

a. [Slide 2] 1 – First of all, then, I urge that

i. And we’ll stop right there.

ii. Timothy has a job to do. And the priority of that job is to make much of the gospel of Jesus Christ and put down all the rest.

iii. Nothing else profits men except for the grace, faith and love of Christ.

iv. Christ came to save sinners.

v. In every Pauline letter, he begins with doctrine, theology, and teaching and then concludes with practical application. This letter is no different.

vi. So now, Paul turns to apply this gospel message. That Christ came to save sinners.

vii. How does the gospel impact, form, and order the church there in Ephesus?

viii. How does the gospel that Christ came to save sinners affect how this church is organized and how they live?

ix. Before we get to Paul’s urge though…

b. [Slide 3] [on behalf of all people]

i. Although this does not occur until later in the verse, I need to make a quick comment on this first.

ii. This will help guide our understanding of the urge Paul has for us here.

iii. We must color our understanding of each of these next 4 words in reference to the fact that they are to be made for all men.

iv. So what is Paul urging us to do on behalf of all people? I urge that…

c. [Slide 4] Requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered

i. The similarities between these words vastly outweigh their differences.

ii. Indeed, consulting the rest of the New Testament and even the Old Testament, we come to understand that these words are used almost interchangeably with subtle difference between them.

iii. We’ll comment on their similarity further in a moment, but let’s understand their differences.

iv. Requests or Supplication = prayer offered for a need present. We must pray for the needs of all people.

v. Prayer = much more general word, offered to deity always and in the NT always to God. We must talk to God for all people.

vi. Intercession = To meet with someone. Specifically, to address them or ask them for something. We must meet with God on behalf of all people. Begging for His mercy and grace for them.

vii. Thanksgiving = A posture of gratitude necessary for those blessed by God’s grace. We must take the posture of gratitude to God for His work of grace and mercy for all people.

viii. The first 3 of these are virtually identical and when combined with the last in this one-after-another expression we have to wonder exactly why Paul said it this way.

ix. This repetition of synonyms is actually a common way of expressing the idea of “every kind.”

x. Paul says something similar when he says there is neither Jew, nor Greek, nor slave nor free, nor male nor female. The expression is to say – there is no longer several kinds – there is one kind. Or – all kinds being included.

xi. And so, if we really wanted to catch what Paul is saying here, he says to offer all kinds of prayer. Every kind of prayer you can think of should be offered…

d. [Slide 5] On behalf of all people

i. This is as good a time as any to admit that this text will be challenging for us. The challenge no doubt will not come from some theological point that is difficult to understand but rather picking up on the subtlety of polemic.

ii. What is a polemic? A polemic is a work that is primarily written to combat a wrong thinking or belief.

iii. What is Paul correcting? Paul is correcting the false teachers who were mythicizing certain genealogical lines and bringing added spiritual clout to certain people over others. Probably Jews over Gentiles. Reading between the lines from chapter 1 – we see there is a distinct Jewish flavor to these folks, who wish to make some people appear better, or more worthy than others.

iv. This precipitated Paul’s discussion of the real use of the law, which was to reveal the sinfulness of sinners. Revealing that there are none better than another because all are guilty under the law.

v. Now, is that the only use of the law? No. But Paul is being polemic. He is exaggerating to hammer home his point.

vi. To further address this issue, Paul is broaching the matter of prayer. He begins by exhaustively mentioning every kind of prayer category there is and then says to pray for all men. And since it is all kinds of prayer, and given the soteriological context here, that includes the prayer for God to save someone.

vii. So what does Paul mean by “all men” or “all people.”

viii. It sounds like he means every single human ever. But even if that is what he said – there is reason to not take that at face value. Why? Because again – this is a polemic. He is attacking elitism. Therefore, there is already reason to doubt that all men means all mankind.

ix. Besides – what a crushing weight to place on this congregation to pray for every single person. They cannot possibly hope to do that unless they pray a very general prayer.

x. I would like to suggest to you that when Paul says that they should pray for all men, what he really means is to pray for all kinds of men. Every race, every creed, in position of authority, poor, wealthy, weak, voiceless, Jew or Gentile, Man or woman.

xi. Thus, you have Paul urging the Ephesian church to pray every kind of prayer for every kind of person. Don’t keep from praying any kind of prayer for any kind of person you meet or know.

xii. Now why am I interpreting this in this way? I’m glad you asked