The Lord's Prayer - Our Father in Heaven (Mar 1, 2020)

Matthew 6:5-13

Introduction to the Season of Lent: More than any other season on the church calendar, the season of Lent is focused on deepening our life of prayer. Though prayer can be difficult and mysterious for many reasons, we can be thankful that we have very clear teaching from Jesus on what we are to pray. He gave his disciples what we call the “Lord’s Prayer” as a pattern for prayer. There is great value in praying this prayer word-for-word from a genuine heart but it is clear that Jesus intended this prayer to be used as a pattern, or outline, for prayer. The Bible contains many prayers that don’t use the words of the Lord’s Prayer, but Jesus gave us this pattern for prayer to show us what a well-rounded relationship with God looks like and to keep us from neglecting important parts of our relationships with Him. It has been said that this pattern contains every prayer we could pray and every part of what it means to be a Christian.

This Lent we will be learning or re-learning the Lord’s Prayer together as we look at each part of the prayer and practice using it as a pattern for our prayers. Before giving us the six core petitions of prayer, the Lord’s prayer begins with an address. We often wonder, “What should I call God?” Jesus tells us: call him, “Our Father in heaven”. This shows us three things about prayer.

The Highest Purpose of Prayer - In telling us to call God, “Our Father”, Jesus teaches us that the highest purpose of prayer is communion with God as a Father; it is simply being with God as his child. Of all the titles or names for God Jesus could have chosen for the model prayer, he chose the most familial and personal one available – “Father”. Jesus is showing us the deeply personal nature of all prayer. Prayer is never transactional or impersonal. Its highest purpose is not anything we can get from God, not anything we can ask of God, not anything God might do in response to our prayer. The highest purpose of prayer is knowing, enjoying, talking and being with God as Father. If we get to this place in our prayer, in a sense, all our other prayers are already answered.

What does this mean? If God is your Father it means he will provide for all your needs, protect you from all ultimate harm, be present with you always and be pleased with you simply because you are his son or daughter. As a Heavenly Father, his almighty power is combined with his unconditional love. He sees and knows what you need, and is able to give you what is best for any situation. He is inclined to bless you before you ever open your mouth to ask for anything. All this makes prayer seem so unnecessary! But that’s the point. Jesus teaches us that prayer should begin with the recollection of our place as God’s sons and daughters. One day we will stop praying the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, but we will never for all eternity stop calling God, “Abba, Father.” This helps us remember that whatever we ask and however he answers, He is our Father who loves us and is for us with all the might and power of heaven.

The Privilege of Prayer - How can we experience and enjoy this kind of relationship with the God of the universe? We need to see that though there is a sense in which God is Father to all humanity universally, the intimate Father-child relationship described by Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer is not ours as a right. It is a privilege (the highest privilege!) reserved for all those who believe in Jesus, God’s only Son. Jesus is the only person who has the right to call God, “Abba Father”. If you look at how Jesus talked to and referred to God, he almost exclusively called God, “Father”. No one prior to Jesus had the audacity to talk to and about God like this!

In his prayers, Jesus showed us what we all have lost and how we can get it back. Of the many true and accurate titles he could have used for God, Jesus always called God “Father”. Except once. It was at his darkest moment on the cross when he bore the judgment for all our refusal of and running from the Father. He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He took our place outside the experience of the Father’s love and favor. Why? So we could take his place as children, as sons and daughters.

Here is the truth that can revitalize and transform our prayer life - though it is not our natural right to call God ‘Father’ simply by virtue of being human, if our faith is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, it is our privilege and our right to call God ‘Father’ as his children (John 1:12). The implications of this are truly profound – it means:

• Our most important prayer is already answered. We don’t ask God to be our Father. We assume he is our Father. Like a child has the right to assume, so we can assume God’s protection, provision, pleasure and presence are with us. All these are the rights of His children.

• All our other prayers will be answered. St. Augustine said we can presume God will give us what we ask since He’s already given us the greater gift of being his children. He said, “For what would He not now give to sons when they ask when he has already given this very thing - they might be sons/daughters?”! Romans 8:31 says it like this, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? In others words, all our prayers can be prayed with the (humble) presumption that God will give us what we ask for – or what we would ask for if we knew everything He did as our Heavenly father.

• We can still pray when it seems like God isn’t answering. Because Jesus was forsaken for us, we will never be. But sometimes it can feel like we are. In these times, we are told the Spirit of the Son has been given to us to cry out, “Abba Father!” (Gal. 4:6, Rom 8:15). When we doubt, when God feels distant, we are given one word to cry out: “Abba!” In this one word contains all the promises of God – if we are his children by faith in His Son, then He is listening and is present even when we hurt so bad that we can’t even pray.

These powerful privileges that are ours by faith are why Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones said that the essence of all true prayer is found in those two words. “If you can say from your heart, whatever your condition, “My Father”, in a sense your prayer is already answered.” May a renewed sense of the privilege of praying “Our Father” revive our hearts to run to our Father with boldness as we learn to pray the rest of the prayer Jesus taught us.

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. What is your experience with praying the Lord’s Prayer? Have you used it in your own prayer life? How so? What impact has it had on your prayers and relationship with God?

3. What are the different purposes of prayer? How might knowing that the highest purpose of prayer is being with God as his child affect your prayers? How might it motivate you to pray more? more boldly? more freely? more honestly?

4. Why do we need to see that prayer is unnecessary before we can really pray? Take your time to think about this one!

5. How does knowing that Jesus died to give us the right to pray like Him (and that God hears us just like He hears Him) give us boldness and encouragement in prayer?

6. Which of the 3 bullet points above might most energize your prayer life if you really believed it? How so?

PRAY | Using only the words, “Our Father in Heaven” take time for personal or group prayer. For the sake of this exercise, be disciplined to begin without asking God for anything. Instead, “recollect” your place as his son/daughter by thanking him and praising him for all that this means and how it is possible through the work of Christ. End by asking only that you and others might know with assurance that God is their Abba/Father and they are his child.

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Signs of Life - Church as Family (Feb 16, 2020)

Read 1 Timothy 3:14-16; 4:6; 5:1-2; 6:1-2

On only on a few occasions does a book of the Bible come right out and tell us its main theme plainly. When this happens, we have a clear answer as to why God inspired this book and why we have it today. Paul does this in 1 Timothy 3:15: “I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God.” In other words, everything Paul says in 1 Timothy is about how we are to live as a part of God’s family, the church. In this letter, which is all about restoring spiritual life and health to a church that had become unhealthy, Paul says that the big ideas we cannot miss are that life and health are found in 1) knowing that a healthy church is like a family (a household); and  2) knowing that a Christian can only be spiritually healthy in connection to - and as a part of - a household/family. There is no such thing as spiritual health in isolation or separation from this family.

1) What This Means

When Paul calls the church “household” here, he is using the language of family. Earlier in the chapter, he compares leadership in the church-as-a-household to leadership in a traditional family household (see 3:4, 5, 3:12). He uses the word “household” in Ephesians 2:18-22 to describe the corporate privileges Christians have of connection to one another and access to God as Father. In Galatians 6:10, he uses the word to emphasize the responsibility of Christians to meet one another’s practical needs, like a family would. After introducing the idea of church as household in chapter 3, Paul begins using his more common way of referring to the church as family – as “brothers and sisters”

• 4:6 – As you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of faith

• 5:1-2 – Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters with all purity

• 6:1-2 – Let those who have believing masters not be disrespectful to them because they are brothers, but serve them even better since those who benefit from their service are believers and dearly loved 

The teaching is clear – a church is a family. This idea is not unique to 1 Timothy or Paul. This idea comes from Jesus and is everywhere in the New Testament. In a radical and unambiguous way, Jesus defined his community of disciples as family (see Matthew 12:48 and 23:8-12). This clearly left an impression on his early followers. The word translated as “brothers and sisters” in the NT (“adelphoi”) is used 271 times in the NT to refer to the relationship of Christians to each other - to describe what a church is. For comparison: the church is described as a “body” 30 times (18 times in 1 Cor 12); as “saints” 30x, as a “fellowship” 12x and as the “church” 60x. The weight is staggering and the implication is clear - the primary way we are to think of and conduct ourselves as the church is as a household family.

2) How This Is Possible                                                            

Is it possible in our age of fragmentation, transience, loneliness and busyness to be a church like this? With our awareness of the realities of brokenness in our own families and the dysfunctions and failures of the church, is it even desirable? Paul’s words here help us answer these questions with a resounding, “Yes!”

The first thing we must keep in mind is that church is God’s idea. Church is not a man-made idea or human institution. It is “God’s household, the church of the living God.” If God is not real and living - forget church. If the authority of God is not recognized as a real and living authority by the leadership and the members of any church, church as family will inevitably break down into division, conflict and unhealth. But if the living God – the God who created all things, who rules over all things and who has all power to redeem all things - If He is present with and over this family, then church as family is possible. 

The second thing that makes church as family possible is that this family is built on and created by a mystery. It cannot be built on or created by human ideas or effort. Paul says the church is built on and holds out to the world a mystery (3:15, 16). The mystery Paul is talking about here doesn’t mean a paradox or a puzzle to figure out. Rather, mystery can be defined as something that human wisdom and thinking cannot and would not come up with. What is this mystery? It is the gospel. Verse 16 is the gospel in poetic and hymnic form. Great is the mystery of the gospel that creates this new family! This mystery is the only possible way a church could live like a family.

Hebrews 2:9-3:6 explains the work of Jesus in family/household terms. The mystery is that Jesus, our elder brother, brings many “sons and daughters to glory” by leaving his heavenly glory as the Eternal Son and becomes like us in “every way”, suffering in our place to create a new family and make it possible for us to get in. Here’s the key - If we know this is how we got into the family – it makes it possible for us to receive each other into family as we are and not as we think we should be.  No one is Jesus’ brother or sister by right, birth, status, performance or ability. So then who’s in? Anyone who comes through Him, our Elder Brother. When we show the acceptance, understanding, help, compassion and humility we have been shown by our Elder Brother – church as family is possible.

3) What This Looks Like

A church that lives like a gospel family is like a “foundation” and “a pillar” (3:15). What does this mean? Foundations hold things steady; pillars hold things up. The church is called to hold steady and firm to the truth of the gospel in a world of ever-changing ideas (foundation). The church is to hold out the truth for others to see (pillar). We can only do this together as a household/family. It cannot be done on our own. Individually we will inevitably drift, be shaken and be drawn away from the truth of the gospel. We will favor and create our own versions of the truth without the steadying effect of a church family. Individually we may be able to present to the world the content of the gospel (as faith to believe), but it is the conduct of the gospel, our life as a family, that draws others into a community that is only possible because of Jesus.

DIAGNOSE – How would much does your church feel like family? How deeply are you convinced that a Christian can only be spiritually healthy in connection to a church family?

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. In Bruce Malina’s book, Christian Origins and Cultural Anthropology, he describes what it meant for the church to be family in the collectivist culture of the ancient world. In our modern individualistic world, it is hard for us to grasp when it means for the church to be a family since we ourselves don’t define ourselves first in relationship to our families or any other group. Read the following two selections below (the second is a quote from Malina’s book) – which feels more comfortable? Uncomfortable? What would it look like to embrace church as family, as in the second quotation? What questions does this raise

   1. (Individualist) A person should perceive himself or herself to be an individual responsible to him/herself for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general... The individual person chooses a church and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with their personal norms and only if the action is in their best interest. The individual has priority over the church.

   2. (Collectivist) What this means is, first of all, that the person perceives himself or herself to be a member of a church and responsible to the church for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general... The individual person is embedded in the church and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with church norms and only if the action is in the church’s best interest. The church has priority over the individual member.

3. Given the description of church as family shared in the sermon, is it hard for you to believe that church as family like this is possible? Why? Is it hard for you to believe it is even desirable? Why? Do you have any stories/experiences that you can share that shows it is indeed possible and desirable?

4. What would it look like for a church to guard itself against losing sight of God’s presence and authority over its life as family?

5. To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer “He who loves his/her dream church more than his/her own church becomes the destroyer of their church.” How does the gospel make it possible for us to receive our real church family as it is and not to continually judge it for not being our ideal church? (see Heb. 2:9-3:6).

6. What step(s) can you take to make your current church be more like a family?

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Signs of Life - Training (Feb 9, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 4:7-16

The New Testament provides us with several images and pictures of the church. Each of these pictures gives us a different perspective on spiritual health. The church as household” (or family, see 1 Tim. 3:15) shows us that spiritual health can only be found in committed familial connection to other people. The church as a “hospital for sinners” (the implied picture from Paul’s self-description as the “worst of sinners” in 1:15) shows us that we are all infected and afflicted with the disease of sin far more than we’ll ever know. None of us will be fully healthy or holy in this life. The church as temple shows us that spiritual health is a by-product of a life of worship lived in the presence of God. In 1 Timothy 4:7, Paul gives us an image that doesn’t get as much attention: church as gym. He says, “train (in Greek – “gymnase”) yourself in godliness, for the training (in Greek – “gymnasia”) of the body has limited benefit but godliness is beneficial in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” This text leads theologian Kevin Vanhoozer to say, “The church is to be a gym for training in godliness”. The point Paul is making is clear – spiritual and physical health work in the same way – training is required.

1) The Requirement of Training

Though Paul is speaking directly to Timothy in this passage, Timothy’s life-in-training was to be an “example” for everyone (v12). The training required here is not just for pastors or “serious” Christians. Training is required for anyone to grow in godliness, which is the pastoral epistles’ way of saying “becoming more like Jesus”. Absence of training is a sure sign of spiritual unhealth and a possible sign of a missing spiritual life altogether. This is why Paul underscores the requirement of training by saying, “This saying (referring back to verses 7-8) is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance”. This is basic and core Christian teaching – training is required to become like Jesus. This is another way of saying that to be a Christian is to be a disciple of Jesus, and training is required for all disciples. As Jesus said, “a disciple when fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

1. How does the comparison of physical exercise/training and spiritual exercise/training help us understand what training in godliness is like? How does it help us understand the crucial difference between training and trying harder? (i.e. trying to run a marathon, play a sport or even master a musical instrument)

2. Have you ever tried “really hard” to be more patient, joyful, less anxious? What was the result? What would be different about committing to train in patience, joy and being less anxious?

3. Do you agree that our choice is not between training and not training but rather, what we are already training to do and/or become? As you look at your own habits and patterns, what would you say you are in training for?.

2) The Reason for Training

The first way we can miss what is being taught here is to mistake training for trying harder. The second way we can go wrong is if we train for the wrong reason. Both of these mistakes will leave us exhausted and less healthy; less alive, not more. So many Christians are exhausted and discouraged because they are training for the wrong reason. In v10 Paul reminds Timothy of the reason we train for godliness as Christians. He does not say “For this is the reason we labor and strive, because our hope is that if we train hard enough and become godly enough, and reach a certain level of training, then we can have hope that we will be saved and earn God’s favor on our lives.” No. He says, “Our hope is that we ARE saved by the living God by believing.” This is the reason why we labor and strive - because we have already received God’s grace and favor on our lives by faith in Jesus Christ.

From the outside, this training may look the same, but there is a world of difference at the motivational level. One is training for the hope of earning something from God (self-salvation), the other for the hope of enjoying more of the gift God has already given (salvation by grace).

We have the wrong view of grace if we think grace gives us a way out of training; if we think being saved by grace means effort, labor and striving are optional. If that’s what we believe, we don’t really know what grace actually is. This misunderstanding lies behind so much of the spiritual unhealth in the church today. What is the free and undeserved gift God gives us by faith? He gives us the life of Jesus Christ for the present and the life to come. The gift is the status of Jesus (righteous and beloved) and the life that comes from living in this status – in short, the gift is a Christ-like life. We really “get” grace when we realize the greatest gift we could ever be given is to be told that every disciple of Jesus “when fully trained will become like Jesus”. What could be better than this?

1. What are some signs that we might be training for the wrong reason? In your own words, describe the difference between the two reasons/motivations for training as described above.

2. How does the hope of salvation by grace give us motivation/reason to train, labor and strive for godliness?

3. How do the following quotes help establish the connection between grace and effort, laboring and striving for Christ-likeness?

   • Dallas Willard - “The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude. You have never seen people more active than those who have been set on fire by the grace of God. Paul, who perhaps understood grace better than any other mere human being, looked back at what had happened to him and said: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." (I Cor. 15:10) …The disciplines of the spiritual life are simply practices that prove to be effectual in enabling us to increase the grace of God in our lives…”

   • Dietrich Bonhoeffer – “We must attempt to recover a true understanding of the mutual relation between grace and discipleship… Happy are they who know that discipleship simply means the life that springs from grace, and that grace simply means discipleship. Happy are they who have become Christians in this sense of the word.”

3) A Regimen for Training

All this means that every disciple of Jesus needs a regimen for training in godliness. Training is not haphazard or accidental. It is intentional and focused. Historically, a regimen for training in godliness has been called a “rule of life”. It includes spiritual disciples like reading Scripture, meditation, prayer, silence, serving, celebration, fasting, sabbath and many more. Just as in physical training, no two regimens are exactly alike. Training changes according to our needs and season of life. In 4:11-16, Paul “coaches” Timothy by reminding him of three things that are a part of any effective regimen for training in godliness:

Practice (verse 15) – Instead of feeling easy and relaxed, spiritual growth and change will feel like practice. It’s important we see this as normal. We don’t change instantly. We will fail (often!). Growth comes from practice and immersion in the disciplines of grace.

Perseverance (verse 16) will be a part of every Christian’s training regimen. This means adversity, difficulty and hardship will be a part of our training in Christ-likeness. Hebrews 12:11-13 says, “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead”.

Pay Attention (verses 13, 16) – Any training for godliness must include training in paying attention to two things: 1) ourselves and 2) the gospel. We must develop an honest and accurate self-awareness (which builds humility) alongside a laser-focused attention to the gospel (which builds confidence). In an age of distraction, training to pay attention is never more necessary.

• Which of the three pieces of Paul’s “coaching” for training most encourages you? challenges you?

DIAGNOSE - How would you describe your current training regimen for following Jesus? What rhythms or exercises are training you in godliness and grace (Christ-likeness)? What do you think is most important for you right now: 1) getting clear on the difference between training and trying harder? 2) having the right reason for training? 3) developing a regimen for training?

Further Reading

1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer | The Cost of Discipleship, Especially Chapter 1, “Grace and Discipleship”
2. Dallas Willard, “Life to the Full”
3. James KA Smith, You are What You Love
4. Justin Whitmel Early, The Common Rule

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Signs of Life - Cultural Discernment (Feb 2, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 4:1-6

1 Timothy can be read as the guidance of an experienced physician of the soul (the Apostle Paul) diagnosing unhealth and identifying treatments to restore spiritual vitality and life to the church that Timothy pastored.  As such, the letter provides us with some of the most important metrics of spiritual health. The metrics we’ve covered so far - love, grace renewal and prayer - may come as no surprise to us, but what Paul prescribes in this particular text may be somewhat unexpected: discernment.  Broadly speaking, discernment is the ability to tell the difference between things. Here Paul offers guidance on what we could call “cultural discernment” – the ability to tell the difference between what is good in a culture and to be received with thanks from God, what is harmful and to be rejected, and what is broken in a culture and in need of redemption. Though this text doesn’t answer all our questions, it provides us with an important foundation of cultural discernment - Just as it is harmful for us to allow what God forbids, it is equally harmful and unhealthy to forbid what God has ordained for us to receive from Him with thanksgiving and joy. Christians are often known for focusing on the first part (the “thou shall not’s”) but here we see that Christians should be just as well known for the second part (the “thou shall’s”). What Paul says here shows us why.

1) The Importance of Discernment

In 4:1, Paul says God, by his Spirit, has explicitly spoken on the need for discernment. He says lack of discernment causes people to depart from the faith. For Paul, discernment is as important as it gets. The point he is making is that discernment is needed to tell the difference between real Christianity and distorted versions of Christianity.  In other words, when Christians don’t properly exercise discernment, it leaves them and others around them vulnerable to distorted versions of the Gospel. Lack of discernment leads some people to say, “The Gospel is too soft!” and they depart toward a more “serious”, demanding or legalistic version of the faith. At the same time (often as a counter-reaction) others say, “The Gospel is too restrictive” and depart for a more permissive faith (or leave the faith altogether).

Paul says that the activity of spirits and demons is lurking behind these distortions. Though it may be difficult for us to accept in a modern world, Paul unmasks the strategy of the spiritual forces of evil. Instead of a frontal attack on the claims of the Christian faith, evil distorts and twists the truth so as to make God out to be restrictive and stifling. This view of God causes people to fixate on what is forbidden and what is off-limits. This drives some people into a rules-based approach to faith. Others are driven away by this into no faith at all. This is the importance of discernment – it guards the Gospel and the character of God from distortion.

2) The Practice of Discernment

Paul provides us with a way forward by modeling proper discernment. He addresses two cultural issues – marriage and food. It’s an interesting pairing. What do these two things have in common? Why would people “forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods”? The answer is pleasure. Driven by a dualistic view of the world that separated the “spiritual” from the “physical”, these false teachers promoted a hyper-spiritual approach to culture -  “if it is pleasurable then it must be sin (or we should suspect it might be)”. This “ascetic” approach to the world is the force behind much of the religious response to culture. This response is often a knee-jerk reaction to a “hedonistic” approach to culture that says, “if it is pleasurable, it must be ok!”. Neither is authentic Christianity. Neither provides the way forward for proper discernment.

Paul shows us where biblical discernment begins (and where the false teachers went off course) in v4:  “Everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is (the condition) received with thanksgiving since (the assumption) it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer (that is – with discernment)”.

Paul begins with the doctrine of creation (Gen 1:31). This shows us how important it is for us to “use” the whole Gospel story of creation > fall > redemption > new creation when practicing cultural discernment. Focusing only on sin and the misuse of God’s good creation is a failure to use the whole “word of God” to discern how/what to receive with thanksgiving. Using the whole Bible (not just proof texts) along with prayer is how we develop the discernment required to know what we are to receive, reject or redeem in culture.

3) The Value of Discernment

Discernment guards the essence of the gospel. The teachers in Ephesus were trying to fix one distortion of the Gospel (hedonism/license) with another distortion (asceticism/legalism). This still happens all the time today! People and churches swing back and forth between the two. The driving force behind this is the issue of thanksgiving. Legalists demand things from God based on what they do or don’t do. Hedonists demand things from God based on their desires (“you created me this way and you made these things, so I deserve to enjoy this”). Christians receive everything from God that is not forbidden by the word of God and prayer. Christians thank God for what he gives and what he withholds. In the Gospel the truth about God is made clear. He is not a restrictive God who is withholding from us. He is an unfathomably generous God who will do whatever it takes to save us from the false pleasures of sin and lead us into true and lasting pleasure. Jesus suffered and died for us so that we would receive the gifts of redemption and the gifts of creation in their proper place. Receiving our redemption with thanksgiving frees us from earning it AND from taking it for granted. In gratitude, we try to discern what is pleasing to Him (Eph 5:10).

DIAGNOSE - Just as it is harmful for us to allow what God forbids, it is equally harmful and unhealthy to forbid what God has ordained for us to receive from Him with thanksgiving and joy. Where do you think you tend toward – allowing without discernment or forbidding without discernment?

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. How can a lack of discernment lead to a distortion of the Gospel? Have might lack of discernment lead people into legalism/ascetism or license/hedonism? Have you experienced this? How so?

3. Does it feel to you that Christianity teaches “if it is pleasurable the it must be sin or we should suspect it might be”? How might this passage correct this?

4. In Romans 1:21, Paul says the driving force behind sin is a refusal to glorify God and give him thanks. How does this play out in the story of the fall of humanity into sin in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3)? What distortion about God did Satan convince Adam and Eve was true?

5. Why is it important that we begin with creation (1 Timothy 4:6) in matters that require discernment?

6. What role should prayer play in discernment? In the sermon a simple test for discernment was offering - Can I thank God in prayer before and after I enjoy this? How might this be helpful?

7. In 1 Tim 4:6 Paul tells Timothy this truth will nourish his faith. How might our faith be malnourished when we forbid and/or abstain from things that God has created?

Practice Discernment – What is one cultural issue or question you have about whether it is right to receive as good and enjoy, reject as wrong or redeem? As a group, work through the question starting with the doctrine of creation and moving through the different chapters of the Gospel story (creation > fall > redemption > new creation) and any relevant passages of Scripture that come to mind.

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Signs of Life - Prayer (Jan 26, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 2:1-8

After opening his letter with a few urgent reminders to Timothy, in chapter 2 the apostle Paul begins giving direct instructions to Timothy for restoring health and life to the church at Ephesus. He begins these instructions by saying, “First of all”. Since there is no “second of all” in the letter, it’s clear what Paul means. He means first in priority or importance (not in sequence). Paul is assigning primary importance to prayer for spiritual health in the life of a person or a church. This probably comes as no surprise to us. We expect prayer to be high on the list of things that bring spiritual health. But, as we’ll see, what Paul is prescribing is not just prayer – he is prescribing corporate (with others), intercessory (on behalf of others), missional (for nonbelievers) prayer. This might seem like something reserved for only “advanced” Christians but Paul places it on the top of the list for all Christians. Why? A closer look at these instructions in context will show us how this kind of prayer fosters spiritual health.

1) Who We Pray With

Since this section begins an entire set of instructions on corporate worship, it’s clear Paul is describing corporate prayer and not private/personal prayer. The church Timothy pastored was weakened by conflict and was losing sight of their mission. They were dealing false teachers, dissention and disagreement. Paul prescribes praying together as a way to foster healing in relationships and to restore vision/unity as a church. In verse 2:8, Paul tells men in conflict to put down their anger and arguments and to take up praying together. How does this work? Praying with another person provides a window into their soul that you can’t get any other way. It shows us parts of a person we don’t see when we are at odds. Praying with others can also put our disagreements back into proper perspective as God and his mission are restored back to proper perspective.

2) Who We Pray For

Not only was this church dealing with arguments and division within, it was also developing an elitist-insider attitude toward those outside of the church. Paul is correcting that attitude in this passage as he uses the word “all/everyone” four different times. Praying for “all” (ie, “everyone without exception” or “all kinds of people”) turns us outward to the needs of our neighbors and those outside of the church. Just as this kind of prayer can heal relationships and restore unity, it can also keep a person and a church from become insular and ingrown.

3) What We Pray For

Paul instructs Christians to pray at “two levels” in this passage. We could call the first level that of “subordinate needs”. We pray for a tranquil and peaceful life for everyone. This means we pray for the “mundane” and practical needs of our neighbors such as health, order and prosperity (see Jeremiah 29:7). But there’s more going on than just praying for everyone to have a comfortable and easy life. There’s a second level at work. We pray for our leaders and authorities to reign with justice and wisdom in order that the ideal environment is established for Christians to live in all “godliness” and “dignity”. Godliness in 1 Timothy means an authentic and observable Christian life. Dignity means a life of respect or “gravitas”. In times of relative peace and order, Christians can devote themselves to displaying the gospel to their neighbors so that they might be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. This is the second level of prayer - “ultimate needs”. Everyone’s greatest need is to come to the truth of God’s saving work in Christ. Praying for both the subordinate and ultimate needs of others is an expression of love for the whole person and keeps us from over spiritualizing or under spiritualizing our relationships with those in our life who do not believe.

4) Why We Pray

Paul’s instructions here also help address questions every person or church encounters sooner or later. Why pray? Does anything really happen?

• Prayer moves God to action. God asks us to pray, petition and intercede for others because he hears these prayers and responds. There is mystery here, but the Bible is clear – God acts when his people ask (see John 14:14)

• Prayer moves us to mission. Paul grounds prayer like this in what God “wants” (v4). We can know all about God’s mission; we can have all kinds of plans to accomplish it; but only in prayer does our heart grow in wanting what God wants for us and others. Only when our heart is moved do we move outward in mission in any genuine and sustainable way

• Prayer makes it possible for us to rest in God’s sovereign will. Paul’s teaching here introduces a tension. If God wants all to be saved, then how come all aren’t saved? It’s a tension we aren’t meant to resolve but to rest in. On the one hand, God has made his will clear – he calls all to come to him for salvation (we can call this his “revealed will”). On the other hand, God hasn’t revealed his sovereign will. Our prayers need not get stuck in this tension. We can pray boldly and ask freely for anything God has revealed as his will for us and others AND we can rest fully knowing God that God’s plan will unfold according to his timing and character

5) Who We Pray To

Having looked at these 4 aspects of “corporate intercessory missional prayer” we might be able to see all the “health benefits” it offers Christians, churches and the world. But without this final aspect, our efforts to pray like this will fizzle out. This kind of prayer is animated and empowered by knowing who we pray to.  In verses 5-6, Paul gives the reason for this kind of prayer. The reason we pray like this is not what we get from this prayer - it’s the God we encounter in this kind of prayer.

Look at how Paul describes this God:  He is the one and only God – creator and ruler over all. He is the God who has made a way back to Him when there was no way - through a mediator. This mediator is the “man Christ Jesus” – someone who knows us from the inside. As a human being, he knows our needs from the inside. As God, he knows how to meet these needs better than we do. This mediator gave himself as our ransom. He took our sin, death and evil. He gave us his holiness, life and goodness! The Gospel is the reason for prayer because in the Gospel we see God answer a prayer that no one would dare ask. But it is the most important prayer of all; the prayer that unlocks all other prayer. Who would dare ask the Almighty God to come as our “go-between” by taking our sin, our judgment and giving us his holiness and righteousness? What sane person would ask the one true God over all things – “Give me your best and take my worst!”? Yet that is what God has done for us in Christ. When we believe the Gospel is true, we realize God has not held back his best. Having seen how he answered the most important prayer that we’d never pray, we can trust him to answer all the prayers we do pray for ourselves and others.

DIAGNOSE - What’s your honest reaction to the idea that corporate intercessory missional prayer is essential for spiritual life and health? Does it seem too uncomfortable? Too unreachable? Too unrealistic? OR is it currently an important part of your life? If so, how do you see God working through it to bring health to other parts of your life?

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions? Is it hard for you to pray with others? How can praying with someone strengthen your relationship with them? How can praying with other people put life (and disagreements) back into proper perspective?

2. Why do you think churches become insular and ingrown? Based on the passage and the summary describe how praying for others can turn a church outward.

3. Do you sometimes struggle with wondering what you are “allowed” to pray for or not? Or whether some prayers are more “spiritual” than others? How might the concept of the two levels of prayer help?

4. Of the 3 reasons given for why we pray, which do you feel like you currently most need to remember to encourage you in your prayers? Why?

5. How is the Gospel “the reason” for prayer? How does the Gospel show us the God who we pray to and how does this get to the root of so much of the doubts and unbelief we carry with us in prayer?

Organize a time to pray with others, for others. Begin this time of prayer by rehearsing and remembering the Gospel as the reason for prayer. Pray the Gospel into your hearts and then pray it out into the lives of others.

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