I’m grateful for the opportunity to join this series on prayer, the prayers of Paul. I’m grateful for the chance to preach this passage that I have loved a great deal for many years. I’ve probably taught every one of your Sunday School classes this passage, so forgive me if something sounds a bit familiar. Alright? I said that, I owned that, so don’t judge me, please. A great passage to think about the role and the work of prayer in the people of God. Before we look at it, let’s pray.
Father, how we thank You that You would hear our prayers. And so we utter this prayer now that You would feed our souls on Your Word, that You would speak Your truth into our hearts. It’s the Good Shepherd that we long to hear from. The Shepherd who speaks and we know His voice. The Shepherd who calls us and we follow. Indeed tonight give us hearing ears and willing hearts; hearts that are good soil to receive the Word implanted, to leave here to produce in the days ahead thirty, sixty, a hundred fold. That would be our prayer. Hear us, our Father, in Jesus’ name.
And all God’s people said, “Amen.”
Let’s begin here reading with Romans chapter 15 verse 30. We’ll fill in some of the context here in a moment. Paul says 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, 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.”
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
What if Paul had never decided to visit Rome? Have you thought about that? What if that just wasn’t on his map, on his radar? He thought he’d go to Spain or some other place that God laid on his heart and never intended to visit Rome – well we wouldn’t have this great letter most likely! And think of all these things that Paul has laid out to introduce himself and his ministry and his message to this church in Rome that he was going to visit and be with for a while. He didn’t know them and they didn’t know him. He had friends there, as we see in chapter 16, but he didn’t know the character of that church by personal investigation, by personal experience. And they didn’t know him except by reputation. So Paul takes time to pen this letter in reducing himself, describing his ministry, detailing his message so that they know what he is preaching and teaching about justification by faith and the righteousness of God that comes through faith. They know what he is teaching about the role of the law. They know about Christ, the second Adam. They know about the adoption of God, the law of love, as well as the love of God, and lots of other things that he includes in this letter, this long letter to the church at Rome. He gives them and he gives us theological formulations that have shaped the church, under the Spirit’s inspiration has shaped the message of the church, our understanding of the Gospel and our understanding of how to preach the Gospel in the years since he wrote it. God had a plan for planting that idea in Paul’s mind because it gave us, under the Spirit’s inspiration, a document that has shaped so much, much, much of our theology, has given us the theology of the church.
Well then that brings us to this immediate context that Paul turns from such lofty subjects in verse 14 of chapter 15 and begins to talk to them about his desire to visit Spain. “I’ve done all I can around here,” is basically what he is saying. I have preached the Gospel everywhere from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. Illyricum, if you’re looking at a map of the Mediterranean, Illyricum would be that territory that is the backside of the boot across the Adriatic from Italy. Countries that we think of now or we know now that are part of Illyricum would be Albania, would be Kosovo, would be Bosnia-Herzegovina, would be Serbia, Croatia. That’s where Paul has preached; all the way around to there. And he’s saying, “I want to go where Christ hasn’t been named.” And that’s where this notion of going to Spain – “I want to visit with you,” is what he said. “I want to come to you. When I finish this job in Jerusalem, this task that I feel compelled by the Spirit to do,” he says in Acts chapter 20 – “I feel compelled by the Spirit to make this offering on behalf of the Gentile churches or the mixed churches to the saints in Jerusalem and Judea, then I want to come to you. I want to be refreshed by you. I want to refresh you and I want you to send me to Spain.” So he tells them that after this long letter of explanation and introduction.
And then he makes an urgent appeal. I want us to think about three things. I want us to think about Paul’s appeal. I want us to think about the specific requests that he makes of them in the context of that appeal. And then I want us to think about God’s left-handed answers because there are some left-handed answers here. God’s left-handed answers.
Paul’s Appeal
Well let’s talk first of all about his appeal. He says, “I appeal to you.” That’s not a casual dropping of an idea. There’s urgency behind that language. The Greek word that we translate “appeal” is “parakaleo,” which is “to call near,” or “to call alongside; to implore; to plead.” Paul uses that same phrase nineteen times across the corpus of his letters. He’s not tossing out a casual prayer request. He feels pressed and he wants them to share this burden with him.
Before we go any further down that road though, let’s pay attention to what he bases his appeal on. Why is he bringing them into this? What justifies, other than the milk of human kindness, what justifies his bringing them into this? Well it’s a lot more than that. He says, “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s magisterial language. Christ in His fullness. Christ in His completion of His work. Christ in His glory. “Our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit.” Paul is tying his request to their mutual union in Christ, their fellowship together in Christ, their joining together in Christ, their brotherhood, their love in the Spirit. I’m going to use a strong word here – their love in the Spirit and their brotherhood with him obligates – ooh, ooh! That’s a scary word! – obligates the Romans to share his burden. What does he say in chapter 12 of this letter? He’s talking about the church – “though many are one body in Christ, and individually are members one of another.” He’s pulling them into his struggle, for good reason, because they are together in Christ. And being together in Christ means that they share; in this case, they’re sharing trouble.
We do that, in a sense, and I hope our recent turn to praying for believers in the most dangerous places in the world to identify as a follower of Christ, I hope that’s gaining some traction in our hearts. I hope that’s something we’re doing at home. I hope that’s something we’re doing when we listen to the news. I hope that’s something we’re doing as we go about our business during the day and think about some other believer in some other part of the world that’s paying a dear price at that moment. We are identifying with them. We are bearing their burden. That’s what Paul is calling for here – “Help me! Help me! I appeal to you by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the love of the Spirit.” I think it’s behind why we pray for the church in Ukraine. Right now as bombs are falling and missiles are shooting, we’re praying for people who are desperately in need – for the church, for the people, for the people of God. Why? Not because we’re nice people; because we are connected to the body of Christ. We are members individually of one another. They need us. We need them. We need them. We need to pray for them. Paul is expressing what is, I think, an arcane idea to most of us and little thought of, but for Paul it’s a compelling notion that the church of Rome, at Rome, is connected to him by their mutual connection to Jesus and that his appeal can draw them into action on his behalf. Let me say that again. His appeal can draw them into action on his behalf.
You might know that we’ve got an intercessors’ prayer ministry here. If you want to know more about it, call me. I’ll tell you about it. I’ll tell you when we meet and I’ll tell you how to get the emails that are generated every week. But that’s the whole point – that we are being called into action on behalf of someone else, some other ministry, some other family, some other individual, somebody right here local, somebody on the other side of the world. And we have a role to play. We have a role to play for their good and for their benefit. We have a role to play in what they’re going through, what they’re hoping to accomplish for the kingdom. We have a role to play. Paul is saying, “I need you,” to the church at Rome. “I need you.”
What’s he calling for from them? Well we read it just a moment ago. “I appeal to you to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.” He’s assuming that they’re praying for him, which is something to note there. He’s assuming that they are praying for him. I hope everybody that assumes that we’re praying for them is happy in that assumption and exactly correct. He assumes that they are praying for him. “Strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, 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.” We’ll take that apart, but he’s asking them to labor with him. He’s asking them to strain with him in prayer. The word “strive” actually comes from the gymnasium where the athletes strain their muscles and stretch every nerve to win the prize. That’s what he’s asking for. He’s calling on the Roman church to stretch every muscle, to engage every strength, to strive with him, to struggle with him for the good of the churches in Jerusalem and Judea. That’s what this is all about – the good of the churches in Jerusalem and Judea, and secondarily the good for the church overall. I love the NIV translation. “Join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.”
What’s Paul saying? Paul’s saying our prayers matter. They’re not just so much fluff. They’re not just tossed around, words on the wind, words that bounce off the ceiling. Maybe sometimes we feel like they do. Maybe sometimes they do because we’re out of step with God. We’re embracing sin; we need to be embracing Him. So yes, our prayers can bounce off the ceiling those times. He gets our attention by that sense of separation from Him. But our prayers matter. They matter in times of crisis. They matter across miles and continents. They matter against intractable barriers of heart and mind. They matter against the deepest evil because they call the God of glory into action and He bends the galaxies to His will. He does all that He intends. That’s why Paul is appealing to them – “Call the God of glory into action for the good of the church, for the good of the churches in Jerusalem and Judea, for the good of the churches in the far flung western part of the empire” – or at least the west of Jerusalem where the churches are mixed and Jews and Gentiles don’t know what to make of each other, but they are connected together in Christ. That’s Paul’s great goal – to enforce, to foster the bond that he sees exists in the economy of God between Jew and Gentile. Christ being the union point. Christ being the glue. Christ being the bond. There’s no more Jew. There’s no more Gentile. There’s no more barbarian or slave or free or Roman or Scythian. We’re all one new man in Christ.
That’s where the Gospel is going in Paul’s opinion, in Paul’s understanding of what God is doing. And that’s what he’s pressing the church toward. That’s why this mission of mercy, of bringing funding, relief funding to the churches at Jerusalem and Judea is so important because he is recognizing, “This is good.” This creates and nurtures that bond that the Gospel has created between Jew and Gentile, slave and free. He’s saying our prayers matter. Don’t discount them. Ken Fairly pushed us on that a couple of Sunday mornings ago. Don’t dismiss them. Don’t think of them as something to do when you can’t do anything else. They’re the heart. They’re the soul. They’re the work. Our prayers are the work. Everything else flows from there. Everything else flows from there. Our prayers are the work.
Paul’s Requests
Well let’s talk for a minute about Paul’s particular request. There are four particular requests here. We’ll spend a little bit of time on all of them; not a great deal of time on any of them. But there are particular requests here. His first request making this appeal is, “Pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea.” Well Paul was certainly, as we read Acts, as we read Paul’s letters, we recognize he is regarded by the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem and elsewhere as a traitor to the faith because of his conversion to faith in Jesus of Nazareth. He was trying to stamp out that sect in Acts chapter 9, in Acts chapter 8. Then he became the preacher of the sect he had pledged himself to stamp out. “What happened?” the Jewish authorities were wondering. “What happened to our most prolific persecutor?” His presence in Jerusalem would excite the enemies of the Gospel, there’d be plots and attempts against his life or even attempts against his life in Greece. As he’s preparing to sail to Syria, he discovers a plot and he had to turn around and walk back through Macedonia to get to Troas. Even in his attempt to get to Jerusalem, he is discovering plots against his life.
This is no preaching tour to Judea. This is a mission of mercy, and as I mentioned a second ago, a mission of solidarity. These Gentile converts to the Way have sent their substance, their money. Paul has spent years collecting this offering to aid and support the impoverished Jewish believers, their spiritual forebears. How did the Gentiles get the Gospel? They got the Gospel through the Jews, and so Paul, as I mentioned, is trying to foster and nourish that spiritual connection between these two groups, these two peoples who are poles apart. He is seeking margin from God. He is seeking margin from God to be able to give his attention to that important work. Let’s not lose sight of this fact. Paul told the Ephesian elders as he is making this journey to Jerusalem, “In every city the Spirit testifies to me that bondage and imprisonment and sufferings await me.” Paul knew by the revelation of God that he was likely going to be handed over to his enemies. He knew by the direct revelation of God that he would be handed over to his enemies who would hand him over to the Gentiles. That’s what the prophet Agabus told him in Caesarea.
So why is he praying and why is he asking these people to pray? I think David gives us some insight. David, suffering under the judgment of God, knowing from the prophet Nathan that the child he conceived in adultery with Bathsheba would die, David spent his days lying before the Lord face down, fasting in prayer, not eating, not drinking, and fasting in prayer. The child died. He went, he got up, cleaned himself, went to worship and came back and sat down at table. And his attendants – “What are you doing? We thought you’d be crazy, out of your mind with grief after all these days of imploring God to spare this child’s life.” “While the child was still alive,” he said, “I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live.’” Paul is undertaking this journey, and undertaking this journey in much prayer, knowing that what he’s hearing from the prophet, from the message, the messages that come from the church is that imprisonment awaits him. But he has called for prayer before he left; he’s appealing for mercy. He’s appealing for the margin of God’s mercy. David’s appealing, under the direct revelation of God, he’s appealing for God’s mercy. “Who knows whether God may be gracious to me and let the child live.”
Sometimes we feel like we face inevitables, don’t we? Sometimes we feel like we face things that cannot be changed. Sometimes we feel like we face things that we just, we don’t even know how to endure, they’re just coming at us like a freight train. How do we, what do we do? I love the line that we sang in our hymn a while ago – “What truth can calm the troubled soul? God is good. God is good.” Paul is trading on that mercy, that goodness. David is appealing to that grace and that goodness. Paul understands what’s facing him unless God is willing to forestall it to give him a margin, to give him a margin to be able to give his attention to the important work that he feels compelled by the Spirit to do.
Well there’s something else that he requests – “that my service for Jerusalem might be acceptable to the saints.” What’s not acceptable? Paul is bringing bags of money from the Gentiles. Who doesn’t like bags of money from the Gentiles that’s going to filter through the apostles and the deacons to the suffering believers in Jerusalem and Judea? Who can have a problem with that? Well you can’t read Acts very long without recognizing that God gave Paul a controversial ministry – the apostle, Paul the apostle to the Gentiles. And most Jews, especially Jewish believers in Jesus in Judea, in Jerusalem, they haven’t changed their minds that the Gentiles were to be looked down upon and be avoided. Paul’s ministry, as he describes it in Ephesians 2, verses 13 to 15, isn’t one that the Jews of Palestine valued very much, including believing Jews. Listen to how Paul describes his ministry. “Now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off,” the Gentiles, “have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He Himself is our peace who made us both one,” that is, Jew and Gentile, “both one, has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that He might create in Himself one new man in place of two and so making peace might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”
But the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea, they like that; they like that dividing wall. That kept the Gentiles in their place. They didn’t want to do away with that dividing wall. Outside of Judea, even as close as Antioch and Syria, 250 miles to the north, Jews and Gentiles were worshiping together, they were eating together, they were enjoying table fellowship together, they were sharing the Lord’s Supper together, they were building on their union in Christ. Paul is fostering that union as he’s collecting this offering throughout the mixed churches of the Roman world, especially among the churches of Macedonia – that is Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and Achaia, that’s principally Corinth. Now he’s asking his brothers in Rome to join him in prayer to God that God would incline the saints in Judea to receive with favor and gratitude the offerings from the mixed churches to the west.
He makes another request – “so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy.” Joy at the answer of much prayer. Joy at the completion of an arduous task for the good of the churches. Joy, as he says in verse 29, “in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.” This is going to be so good to have this done and to see this received and to see this good work accomplished. “And I’m going to come to you in joy and share so much joy with you at what I’ve seen and what God has done in such amazing ways.”
And then finally he asks, “to be refreshed in your company.” The Greek word for “refreshed” is literally, “to be exempt.” We all like the sound of being exempt. We like to be exempt from things. Is Paul going to Rome for a vacation? No, he’s not going for a vacation, but it will be a time of refreshing, a great task is done, a great work is done. It will be a time of refreshing and renewing fellowship with the believers at Rome before the trial and the danger and the loneliness of beginning a new work in Spain. He’s got a greater challenge in front of him. In a sense, this time in Rome would be an exemption, a time to prepare, a time to soak up fellowship and joy and love together before days of trial and pain and challenge begin again. That’s what Paul is asking for. He’s sitting in Corinth writing this letter, appealing to this body of believers. And he soon will begin his journey there and find he had much reason to pray as he found more and more message of trial and hardship awaiting him in Jerusalem.
God’s Left-handed Answers
Well let’s think about, now that we know the requests – What are God’s left-handed answers? As we read the book of Acts, we recognize that Paul’s arrival in Rome isn’t the straightforward event that he was looking at and thinking of as he wrote the words to Romans chapter 15. The Jews in Jerusalem, as Paul goes to make this offering to the church, the Jews at Jerusalem create a riot at the temple when rumor tells them that Paul has brought a Gentile from Ephesus into the temple proper. Paul was in danger of being killed in that riot when a detachment of Roman soldiers interrupted the melee and took him into custody. As far as the record of the book of Acts, that was the last time the Jews had their hands on Paul. That’s an important thing to recognize. Paul has asked to be delivered from the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem in that melee in which he was certain to be killed. When those Roman soldiers took custody of him, that was it in terms of Jewish power over Paul. It did not exist again in the record of the book of Acts. From that time on, Paul, praying for the deliverance from unbelieving Jews in Judea, was in Roman hands. And in Roman hands, believe it or not, he was safe. He was delivered from the unbelieving Jews in Judea, not like he wanted to be, but he never saw them again in a threatening sense.
We don’t know how the saints in Jerusalem regarded that gift. Luke passes over any reference to that gift and its reception following the riot at the temple. I guess riots have a way of discombobulating record-keepers like Luke. It may have been four years or longer, but Paul did arrive at Rome. After two years’ imprisonment in Caesarea under the Roman governor, Felix, as Felix transitioned out, another governor transitions in. Paul was held over for the new governor as a way of just kind of keeping general peace with the Jewish leadership community. Festus, the new governor, appeared willing to strike a deal with the Jews regarding Paul’s case. So Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen, appeals his case to Caesar. That required a trip to Rome under guard, involved a monstrous hurricane and three months on the island of Malta waiting for the return of fair weather. Eventually, they came to Rome. I want to read to you how Luke records their arrival at Rome in Acts chapter 28. Luke says this:
“After three months we set sail on a ship that wintered” – this is beginning with verse 11 – “that wintered in the island,” that is of Malta, “a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods as a figurehead. Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days. Then we made the circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli. There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days.” Paul’s soldier, commander who was guarding him, was very lenient. He allowed him to stay with fellow believers when they were in place. So he stayed with them off the ship for seven days. “And we found brothers and were invited to stay with them. And so we came to Rome. The brothers there,” the brothers in Rome, “when they heard about us, came as far as the Forum of Appius” – 40 miles from Rome – “and Three Taverns” – 30 miles from Rome. “On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage. And Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier that guarded him.”
These believers traveled 40 miles. Now 40 miles is really not much, believe it or not, in a walking culture. But they left a job, they left other responsibilities, they lost wages to go and meet Paul and rejoice with him and bring him into Rome almost as a hero, though he was in chains. And Paul thanked God and took courage. He was received with joy and their reception gave him joy and he was refreshed, even though imprisoned, he was refreshed by their love for him – the very thing he asked for. He thanked God. He took courage. God answered his prayer. God answered his prayer. In no way, in no way that he hoped or thought or imagined or wished or desired, but God answered his prayer, gave him what he longed for.
Let me close with this. D.A. Carson uses this anonymous poem in his book on Paul’s prayers. Nobody knows who wrote this:
“He asked for strength that he might achieve. He was made weak that he might obey. He asked for health that he might do greater things. He was given infirmity that he might do better things. He asked for riches that he might be happy. He was given poverty that he might be wise. He asked for power that he might have the praise of men. He was given weakness that he might feel the need of God. He asked for all things that he might enjoy life. He was given life that he might enjoy all things. He received nothing that he asked for but all that he hoped for. God answered his prayers.”
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, thank You that You answer our prayers. Thank You that You give us what You want us to have. Thank You that You give us strength when the answers are strange and hard and not what we longed for. You give us grace when the answers are long in coming and we find that the prize, the great prize, is not the thing we wanted You to do but You Yourself. O, our Father, You’re so good. You’re so good to us. We love You. We rejoice in You. We rejoice in Your love for us. We thank You especially for our Savior who shed His blood that we might be Your sons and daughters and His brothers and sisters. We thank You, our Father. Receive our praise and receive our thanks and go with us now, Father. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.