How to Pray for Ministers of God's Word
and Ensure the Advancement of God's Kingdom
. . .
Ephesians 6:19-20
And [pray] also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Message begins at approximately the 30 min mark.
Charles Spurgeon is regarded as the Prince of Preachers. Certainly he was the premier preacher of his day, and arguably one of the greatest of all time. He preached his first sermon when he was 16 years old. At 18 he took his first pastorate at a small Baptist church. At 20 he began preaching in London. Spurgeon would then go on to preach regularly before crowds of 5,000 or more people. He would be what we call in our day a mega church pastor.
But despite all the talent and God given giftedness he had for speaking, he did not credit his oratory ability to anything but the help of God through prayer. One time when he was asked what the secret to his great preaching was, he simply replied, “My people pray for me.”
Another time he was asked something similar. He then waved to the man to follow him. He led him down below the sanctuary to a room. In that room there were 300 people gathered for prayer. They were asking the Lord to bless the worship service and the ministry of the Word. Spurgeon said that this was the reason why the church flourished.
As we come to our passage today we understand once again that spiritual war is best fought on our knees. In our text for today we see that Paul was out there on the front lines of this war. He was an apostle and he was seeking to bring down the strongholds of Satan. And he asks that God would bless the ministry that he, as a minister of God, would conduct.
I do not doubt that the ideas that we have studied these last two weeks were on his mind. Paul had talked about the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We talked about how the Spirit works in and by the Word. We said that praying in the Spirit means that we pray the Word of God.
So now, Paul thinks to himself about how much he needs the Spirit to bless his ministry. As he seeks to propagate the word, he understands that God’s Spirit must come and work to make the ministry of the word prosper.
And as Paul requests prayer for himself, we find some practical guidance for our own prayers. We too must pray and some of our prayers must be devoted to the ministry. When Paul says, “Pray also for me,” we understand that this translates into how we must be praying for those teach and preach.
Or, if I can be so bold, I would say, “Pray also for me.” To be sure, there are a lot of ways you can pray for myself and for others who serve as God’s ministers. You can pray for our families and our relation to our families (to be good husbands and fathers). You can pray for all kinds of things. But one of the primary areas of concerted prayer ought to be fpr the work that we do: for the ministry of the gospel.
They say that behind every great man there is a great woman. We could likewise say that behind every great preacher there is a great congregation that knows the value of (and is not sparing in) their prayers for the ministry that he conducts.
And this verse provides you with some guidance on how you can pray for me. As you pray for me (and others who are in the ministry) you should pray, three things. First and foremost, you should pray that words would be divinely inserted into our mouths.
I. That words may be put in our mouths
Look at what Paul says in verse 18. He says, “pray also for me, that words may be given to me in [the] opening of my mouth.”
This is actually kind of a fun. Because Paul doesn’t just pray that God would give him the words he needs to speak. He doesn’t just want God to put the concept in his head. He asks that God would actually put the words in his mouth. Here is this opening, as he calls it. And he’s asking that God would stick the words right in there. So that when he speaks, it is nothing other than God’s word that comes out.
Now, to really understand this verse, you have to picture it. You have to think about what it is like when you go to the dentist. They put you in that chair and slide you back. Then, when you open your mouth, they start putting all kinds of stuff in there. They may stick some cotton balls in. They will put that sucker thing in there. They will have their tools that they start digging around with.
This is the kind of thing that you should have in your mind when it comes to what Paul is requesting. Every minister of the gospel has to open his mouth. But there’s no telling what will happen when he does. If God does not take the tweezers and insert the words He wants into the mouth of a minister, then we should recognize that nothing good will happen. Either he will be mute or he will utter things that have no real spiritual significance at all. At best he will loose a great opportunity to speak the truth of God, and at worst he will utter something completely blasphemous.
I find this extremely interesting from Paul’s point of view too. Again, it is not like Paul had not had plenty of experience. At this point in his life he had been preaching for over 30 years. And he is getting ready to go to trial in Rome. This is why he is requesting prayer. He wants to make a good testimony before Nero, of all people. And he wants to proclaim the gospel there in Caesar’s court.
And it’s not like he’s thinking, “Aw, this is going to be a snap. I’ve had a chance to stand before Herod and Festus and all kinds of religious and political figures. I have a fairly good idea of the arguments and what kind of case I need to make.”
Not at all. He is saying that he has every confidence in his ability to screw it up. He knows the depths of his own depravity. He knows that he could easily utter a man centered message. He could make it all about himself and his own freedom.
But what he wants at this moment is nothing less than to be able to say, “Thus says the Lord.” He wants to point everyone to Christ and make the truth be known. So he says, pray that the right words would be placed in my mouth.
And similarly, when it comes to this moment in our service. What will make it a worth while event? The only thing that will make this worth your time is if there has been a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. It’s only if God would take the words that he wants spoken and plant them right here in this opening.
And that really shows you how you need to be praying. I mean, you all know me pretty well. You’ve talked with me out there on the other side of this wall. You know it isn’t a pretty thing. It’s downright awkward at times. The few words I do have typically trip over my teeth.
Just this past week is a perfect example of this. A friend of mine is the leader of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. I had mentioned to him that it was pretty neat to see that they had Vivek Ramaswamy coming to speak. He then talked about that for a few moments and how it was a great opportunity for them as an organization. Then he said, “Why don’t you and your wife come? We always have some extra seats. You guys should come.”
I then proceeded to unload a whole garbled mess of incoherent syllable. I was trying to say, “Are you serious? Thank you so much. That would be amazing.” But it came out, “uh, erf, I, gaf, uh.” I think he thought I was trying to speak in Hindu in honor of Mr. Ramaswamy.
And I think I stand in good company. When God came to Moses and said, “I’m sending you to Pharaoh,” he responded by saying, “Lord, I’m not a man of great eloquence. I’m slow of speech. I don’t think I’m your guy.”
Paul might have been similar. He said that he could write well and he acknowledged the force of his letters, but when he is physically present he’s not a guy of great command.
And it really just goes to show that acting as a minister of God is not about one’s natural eloquence. It really has nothing to do with his ability to string together words. I know people who are on the opposite end of the spectrum. They have the gift of gab and they can speak like nobody’s business. Words are as easy to them as water running out of a facet. But I guarantee you this, that does not mean that they are going to be better communicators of God’s truth.
No one will say anything of spiritual value, if God does not take control of his tongue. In order to preach, the Lord must sovereignty set his words in the mouth of a minister.
And so, its always a good habit on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings, for you to take a few moments and ask the Lord to do this. And it is an even more needful if you do not find that the ministry is lacking. If you do not find Sundays to be all that spiritually edifying, it would probably be good to begin devoting a lot more time to this kind of thing.
You might say, “God, I don’t know that what is coming out of his mouth is all that useful. Would you please set your word upon his tongue?” Of course, we have to be very careful about having a critical spirit when it comes to the ministry of the word. But, if you do that consistently for a couple of months, you might be surprised at what happens. The Lord may very well answer your prayers.
So that is where you might begin. You pray that the Lord would fill his mouth.
But, as you pray for those of us who preach and teach, you should not only pray that words be put in his mouth, you should pray that courage would be put in his heart.
II. Pray that courage may be put in our hearts
Now, in these two verses, boldness is mentioned three times. In verse 19 he he uses the word boldly. And in verse 20 he says he uses the verbal form of that same word. He wants to be bold. And then he concludes with the words “As I ought to speak,” which is essentially saying the same thing. He ought to speak with boldness.
I actually almost came this morning with a different outline. I had thought of making my sermon go like this: A minister needs you to pray for three things: Point #1 he needs you to pray for boldness. Point #2, he needs you to pray that the Lord would make him bold. Point #3 - that he would speak boldly.
I think that that kind of outline would have gotten at the real intent of this passage. There can be no doubt that the real force of this passage is this concept of courage when it comes to preaching the gospel.
You have to understand that there are pressures that ministers face all the time. Pressures to temper what they say or to not say it at all. To make their messages more accommodating to the personalities in their congregations or to speak in such a way as to gain more prestige.
You can think of the Apostle Paul and the situation that he was facing. He is going before Nero, of all people. And you know that Nero is not the most stable man. He was an absolute lunatic and despot. He didn’t mind killing people. As a matter of fact, he murdered his own mother.
You can understand that Paul might have some reservation. He may be tempted to tone things down so as not to provoke any kind of backlash. The sinner in him may want to put his freedom over and above the gospel. He could easily make a case which might get him off the hook and not say much of anything about the gospel at all.
We shouldn’t be surprised that ministers can easily get in a lot of trouble. What they say can easily stir up a lot of backlash and have real repercussions for their livelihood.
This Thursday is the National Day of Prayer here in America. Each year we have a community prayer breakfast in honor of it. The speaker this year is a man from Canada. He is a pastor at a church who stood up against the heavy handed COVID restrictions that were being passed down on churches. He faced jail time for that. He was separated from his family and from his congregation. He lost his freedoms.
Thankfully he was released and things worked out in his favor. But you understand that things like that are not easy. You go up against a machine.
On the other hand, there are some ministers who are on the rise. They are getting contracts to write books and they are being invited to speak at different venues. And because they are getting some notice, they do not want to say or do anything that might put that notoriety in jeopardy. They may lose that contract or they may not get the following that they are currently generating if they speak out on certain issues.
There are other pastors who know that they cannot speak on certain topics because they don’t want to risk losing any members. Their congregation is already small, and, if you talk about this or that issue, then there may be a family or two that never return. That would be a huge hit to the budget and therefore to his salary.
I spoke with Israel Wayne when he came to Ashland a few weeks ago. He mentioned how there have been different times where he has been uninvited to different churches. One time he was scheduled to speak at a church, but there was a lady in the church who was a public school speaker. She looked up his name and saw that he stood for a Biblical form of education. And she had a real beef with that. She approached the minister of the church about it. And he ended up canceling. The clout she carried could have a devastating effect on the church’s weekly attendance; particularly its ability to stay afloat financially.
These are real problems. And you understand that the best of men are men at best. Ministers struggle with the fear of man. They want security. They want to be accepted. And those things can get in the way of the real work of the gospel.
That’s where you come in. A minister needs to be able to say that I can lose my job today. I could lose my life today. He needs to be able to hold these things very lightly, being willing to lose everything.
And that’s why guys like me need people like you to be praying. We need you to pray that God would give that spirit of boldness. That we would be courageous to speak what we need to speak and say what needs to be said. We need you to be praying that God would make us to trust in him above all things. To fear him with a godly fear.
There’s a third thing that we need to be praying though. We must ask that words would be put in our mouths, courage would be put in our hearts, and thirdly, that faith may be put in our audiences.
III. Pray that faith may be put in our audiences
Look at verse 19 again. Paul asks that words would be given to him in opening his mouth boldly “to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.”
Now, we can look at this from a variety of angles. First, let’s think about the word “proclaim.” The Greek word here is the word gnorizo, which really means “to make known.” It can mean to proclaim, that’s not altogether a bad way to put it. Because when you make something known, you are declaring it. You are proclaiming it and, as a result, making it known to people.
I just like the words “make known” because it not only has to do with those who make the proclamation, but it also has to do with those who hear it. It has to do with their comprehension. On the one hand it is made known by the one who speaks it. But on the opposite side it comes to be known in that the people who are being addressed hear it and are receptive to it.
This is reinforced when Paul says he is making known the “mystery of the gospel.” The word mystery means something that wasn’t known in the past, but is now being revealed. When you go into at gallery and there’s a new painting, they may have it under a sheet or behind a curtain. At some point the sheet is pulled away and it is revealed. It is no longer a mystery.
So Paul’s saying he’s pulling back the curtain on the gospel. Up until this point the Jews have not known that the gospel was all about Christ. They had known God to be a deliverer, but they didn’t quite understand how he was to be their deliverer. So now Paul is revealing this mystery.
But, then he goes on to say that he is an ambassador in chains. The problem, up to this point, is that there have been a lot of people who have not received his message. That’s why he is in chains. He’s in prison because people have resisted his message. Their hearts have been hard.
So, what is Paul trying to say? He’s making a point about our prayers. It is one thing for a minister to speak and to speak with boldness, but these in and of themselves do not mean anything if people are not believe. So we must pray that God would open these hearts. We must ask the Lord to create faith where there is no faith, so that they will receive the message.
This all is, again, a review of what Paul has been saying in this book. Flip back to Chapter 1. As you are flipping to chapter 1, let me remind you of what Paul says in chapter 2. He said there that it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. Where did our salvation come from? It came from the Lord. He gave us the faith to receive it. We were saved from our lack of faith. God saved us from that state of unbelief by imbuing us with faith.
Now, back in chapter 1 we see something similar. As a matter of fact, it is almost exactly the same as what we find in our passage this morning. Let’s start in verse 7. Paul says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.”
How did we come to gain forgiveness and redemption? It was because God proclaimed it. He made known the mystery of the gospel and caused us to embrace it.
Again, this just reinforces what kinds of prayers we need to offer. It is not enough to pray that words be given or courage rage like a wildfire. Those two things in and of themselves will not affect anything.
We must also pray that the hearts and minds of those who hear would be overcome. We must pray that the Lord would remove the heart of stone and give in its place a heart of flesh. We must pray that unbelief would be replaced with belief. That where there is no faith, there would be a miraculous insertion of a true and living faith.
Conclusion:
This is the very key to revival, mind you. I would dare say that we do not see revival in our day because we have not sought it. We have not done what we can to foster it.
Some would say that you can’t do anything to bring about a revival. They say that revivals are spontaneous works of God. But that’s not true. God uses means in bringing about revivals. That’s been the case all through history.
Jonathan Edwards wrote a book about this very thing. The title of that book was:
An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer For the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture-promises and Prophecies concerning the Last Time.
Books had very long titles during this time. It was later shortened to simply “A humble attempt.” But the title is telling. The revival of religion and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom on earth is due to what? Edwards called it the “Extraordinary Prayers” of God’s people.
This book went on to be read by people 40 years later. People began heeding its call to prayer. And God answered those prayers shortly thereafter. One might even say that this book and the groups that banded to pray because of it, was one of the primary things that led to the Second Great Awakening.
If we want to see the church built up and the kingdom of God expand, then we have to do what is within our power to push it forward. That may sound very human centered to a lot of people. It may sound like we need to manufacture things to keep the Spirit alive. But the fact of the matter is, the kingdom advances by means. God works in and through the ministry of the word.
And the the ministry of the word can come with great power and effectiveness, or it can be wax low and have very little influence. And I am not ashamed to say that it is very much dependent upon how much God’s people are in prayer. If we are not praying for men to be empowered to speak with divine might and if we are not praying that solid, biblical content be pouring forth from the pulpits of our churches, then we should not expect there to be a strong, growing body of believers in those churches. If we are not praying that God would save us from unbelief and be making people to hear and receive the proclamation of His word, should we really be surprised when we do not see people being converted and baptized within our churches?
We do not doubt that our God can do great things. We understand that the Spirit works in and through His word. We’ve seen that in this study. We know it to be true. And because we know that, we should be emboldened to ask that the ministry of the Word would become all that much more robust. The Lord works in and through our prayers too. He uses these prayers to bring forth his kingdom in this world. We have the glorious opportunity to be the tools of extending the Lord’s work.
So I encourage you once again to be people who are dedicated to prayer, praying in particular for me, and for the ongoing work of the ministry throughout the world.
But despite all the talent and God given giftedness he had for speaking, he did not credit his oratory ability to anything but the help of God through prayer. One time when he was asked what the secret to his great preaching was, he simply replied, “My people pray for me.”
Another time he was asked something similar. He then waved to the man to follow him. He led him down below the sanctuary to a room. In that room there were 300 people gathered for prayer. They were asking the Lord to bless the worship service and the ministry of the Word. Spurgeon said that this was the reason why the church flourished.
As we come to our passage today we understand once again that spiritual war is best fought on our knees. In our text for today we see that Paul was out there on the front lines of this war. He was an apostle and he was seeking to bring down the strongholds of Satan. And he asks that God would bless the ministry that he, as a minister of God, would conduct.
I do not doubt that the ideas that we have studied these last two weeks were on his mind. Paul had talked about the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We talked about how the Spirit works in and by the Word. We said that praying in the Spirit means that we pray the Word of God.
So now, Paul thinks to himself about how much he needs the Spirit to bless his ministry. As he seeks to propagate the word, he understands that God’s Spirit must come and work to make the ministry of the word prosper.
And as Paul requests prayer for himself, we find some practical guidance for our own prayers. We too must pray and some of our prayers must be devoted to the ministry. When Paul says, “Pray also for me,” we understand that this translates into how we must be praying for those teach and preach.
Or, if I can be so bold, I would say, “Pray also for me.” To be sure, there are a lot of ways you can pray for myself and for others who serve as God’s ministers. You can pray for our families and our relation to our families (to be good husbands and fathers). You can pray for all kinds of things. But one of the primary areas of concerted prayer ought to be fpr the work that we do: for the ministry of the gospel.
They say that behind every great man there is a great woman. We could likewise say that behind every great preacher there is a great congregation that knows the value of (and is not sparing in) their prayers for the ministry that he conducts.
And this verse provides you with some guidance on how you can pray for me. As you pray for me (and others who are in the ministry) you should pray, three things. First and foremost, you should pray that words would be divinely inserted into our mouths.
I. That words may be put in our mouths
Look at what Paul says in verse 18. He says, “pray also for me, that words may be given to me in [the] opening of my mouth.”
This is actually kind of a fun. Because Paul doesn’t just pray that God would give him the words he needs to speak. He doesn’t just want God to put the concept in his head. He asks that God would actually put the words in his mouth. Here is this opening, as he calls it. And he’s asking that God would stick the words right in there. So that when he speaks, it is nothing other than God’s word that comes out.
Now, to really understand this verse, you have to picture it. You have to think about what it is like when you go to the dentist. They put you in that chair and slide you back. Then, when you open your mouth, they start putting all kinds of stuff in there. They may stick some cotton balls in. They will put that sucker thing in there. They will have their tools that they start digging around with.
This is the kind of thing that you should have in your mind when it comes to what Paul is requesting. Every minister of the gospel has to open his mouth. But there’s no telling what will happen when he does. If God does not take the tweezers and insert the words He wants into the mouth of a minister, then we should recognize that nothing good will happen. Either he will be mute or he will utter things that have no real spiritual significance at all. At best he will loose a great opportunity to speak the truth of God, and at worst he will utter something completely blasphemous.
I find this extremely interesting from Paul’s point of view too. Again, it is not like Paul had not had plenty of experience. At this point in his life he had been preaching for over 30 years. And he is getting ready to go to trial in Rome. This is why he is requesting prayer. He wants to make a good testimony before Nero, of all people. And he wants to proclaim the gospel there in Caesar’s court.
And it’s not like he’s thinking, “Aw, this is going to be a snap. I’ve had a chance to stand before Herod and Festus and all kinds of religious and political figures. I have a fairly good idea of the arguments and what kind of case I need to make.”
Not at all. He is saying that he has every confidence in his ability to screw it up. He knows the depths of his own depravity. He knows that he could easily utter a man centered message. He could make it all about himself and his own freedom.
But what he wants at this moment is nothing less than to be able to say, “Thus says the Lord.” He wants to point everyone to Christ and make the truth be known. So he says, pray that the right words would be placed in my mouth.
And similarly, when it comes to this moment in our service. What will make it a worth while event? The only thing that will make this worth your time is if there has been a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. It’s only if God would take the words that he wants spoken and plant them right here in this opening.
And that really shows you how you need to be praying. I mean, you all know me pretty well. You’ve talked with me out there on the other side of this wall. You know it isn’t a pretty thing. It’s downright awkward at times. The few words I do have typically trip over my teeth.
Just this past week is a perfect example of this. A friend of mine is the leader of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. I had mentioned to him that it was pretty neat to see that they had Vivek Ramaswamy coming to speak. He then talked about that for a few moments and how it was a great opportunity for them as an organization. Then he said, “Why don’t you and your wife come? We always have some extra seats. You guys should come.”
I then proceeded to unload a whole garbled mess of incoherent syllable. I was trying to say, “Are you serious? Thank you so much. That would be amazing.” But it came out, “uh, erf, I, gaf, uh.” I think he thought I was trying to speak in Hindu in honor of Mr. Ramaswamy.
And I think I stand in good company. When God came to Moses and said, “I’m sending you to Pharaoh,” he responded by saying, “Lord, I’m not a man of great eloquence. I’m slow of speech. I don’t think I’m your guy.”
Paul might have been similar. He said that he could write well and he acknowledged the force of his letters, but when he is physically present he’s not a guy of great command.
And it really just goes to show that acting as a minister of God is not about one’s natural eloquence. It really has nothing to do with his ability to string together words. I know people who are on the opposite end of the spectrum. They have the gift of gab and they can speak like nobody’s business. Words are as easy to them as water running out of a facet. But I guarantee you this, that does not mean that they are going to be better communicators of God’s truth.
No one will say anything of spiritual value, if God does not take control of his tongue. In order to preach, the Lord must sovereignty set his words in the mouth of a minister.
And so, its always a good habit on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings, for you to take a few moments and ask the Lord to do this. And it is an even more needful if you do not find that the ministry is lacking. If you do not find Sundays to be all that spiritually edifying, it would probably be good to begin devoting a lot more time to this kind of thing.
You might say, “God, I don’t know that what is coming out of his mouth is all that useful. Would you please set your word upon his tongue?” Of course, we have to be very careful about having a critical spirit when it comes to the ministry of the word. But, if you do that consistently for a couple of months, you might be surprised at what happens. The Lord may very well answer your prayers.
So that is where you might begin. You pray that the Lord would fill his mouth.
But, as you pray for those of us who preach and teach, you should not only pray that words be put in his mouth, you should pray that courage would be put in his heart.
II. Pray that courage may be put in our hearts
Now, in these two verses, boldness is mentioned three times. In verse 19 he he uses the word boldly. And in verse 20 he says he uses the verbal form of that same word. He wants to be bold. And then he concludes with the words “As I ought to speak,” which is essentially saying the same thing. He ought to speak with boldness.
I actually almost came this morning with a different outline. I had thought of making my sermon go like this: A minister needs you to pray for three things: Point #1 he needs you to pray for boldness. Point #2, he needs you to pray that the Lord would make him bold. Point #3 - that he would speak boldly.
I think that that kind of outline would have gotten at the real intent of this passage. There can be no doubt that the real force of this passage is this concept of courage when it comes to preaching the gospel.
You have to understand that there are pressures that ministers face all the time. Pressures to temper what they say or to not say it at all. To make their messages more accommodating to the personalities in their congregations or to speak in such a way as to gain more prestige.
You can think of the Apostle Paul and the situation that he was facing. He is going before Nero, of all people. And you know that Nero is not the most stable man. He was an absolute lunatic and despot. He didn’t mind killing people. As a matter of fact, he murdered his own mother.
You can understand that Paul might have some reservation. He may be tempted to tone things down so as not to provoke any kind of backlash. The sinner in him may want to put his freedom over and above the gospel. He could easily make a case which might get him off the hook and not say much of anything about the gospel at all.
We shouldn’t be surprised that ministers can easily get in a lot of trouble. What they say can easily stir up a lot of backlash and have real repercussions for their livelihood.
This Thursday is the National Day of Prayer here in America. Each year we have a community prayer breakfast in honor of it. The speaker this year is a man from Canada. He is a pastor at a church who stood up against the heavy handed COVID restrictions that were being passed down on churches. He faced jail time for that. He was separated from his family and from his congregation. He lost his freedoms.
Thankfully he was released and things worked out in his favor. But you understand that things like that are not easy. You go up against a machine.
On the other hand, there are some ministers who are on the rise. They are getting contracts to write books and they are being invited to speak at different venues. And because they are getting some notice, they do not want to say or do anything that might put that notoriety in jeopardy. They may lose that contract or they may not get the following that they are currently generating if they speak out on certain issues.
There are other pastors who know that they cannot speak on certain topics because they don’t want to risk losing any members. Their congregation is already small, and, if you talk about this or that issue, then there may be a family or two that never return. That would be a huge hit to the budget and therefore to his salary.
I spoke with Israel Wayne when he came to Ashland a few weeks ago. He mentioned how there have been different times where he has been uninvited to different churches. One time he was scheduled to speak at a church, but there was a lady in the church who was a public school speaker. She looked up his name and saw that he stood for a Biblical form of education. And she had a real beef with that. She approached the minister of the church about it. And he ended up canceling. The clout she carried could have a devastating effect on the church’s weekly attendance; particularly its ability to stay afloat financially.
These are real problems. And you understand that the best of men are men at best. Ministers struggle with the fear of man. They want security. They want to be accepted. And those things can get in the way of the real work of the gospel.
That’s where you come in. A minister needs to be able to say that I can lose my job today. I could lose my life today. He needs to be able to hold these things very lightly, being willing to lose everything.
And that’s why guys like me need people like you to be praying. We need you to pray that God would give that spirit of boldness. That we would be courageous to speak what we need to speak and say what needs to be said. We need you to be praying that God would make us to trust in him above all things. To fear him with a godly fear.
There’s a third thing that we need to be praying though. We must ask that words would be put in our mouths, courage would be put in our hearts, and thirdly, that faith may be put in our audiences.
III. Pray that faith may be put in our audiences
Look at verse 19 again. Paul asks that words would be given to him in opening his mouth boldly “to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.”
Now, we can look at this from a variety of angles. First, let’s think about the word “proclaim.” The Greek word here is the word gnorizo, which really means “to make known.” It can mean to proclaim, that’s not altogether a bad way to put it. Because when you make something known, you are declaring it. You are proclaiming it and, as a result, making it known to people.
I just like the words “make known” because it not only has to do with those who make the proclamation, but it also has to do with those who hear it. It has to do with their comprehension. On the one hand it is made known by the one who speaks it. But on the opposite side it comes to be known in that the people who are being addressed hear it and are receptive to it.
This is reinforced when Paul says he is making known the “mystery of the gospel.” The word mystery means something that wasn’t known in the past, but is now being revealed. When you go into at gallery and there’s a new painting, they may have it under a sheet or behind a curtain. At some point the sheet is pulled away and it is revealed. It is no longer a mystery.
So Paul’s saying he’s pulling back the curtain on the gospel. Up until this point the Jews have not known that the gospel was all about Christ. They had known God to be a deliverer, but they didn’t quite understand how he was to be their deliverer. So now Paul is revealing this mystery.
But, then he goes on to say that he is an ambassador in chains. The problem, up to this point, is that there have been a lot of people who have not received his message. That’s why he is in chains. He’s in prison because people have resisted his message. Their hearts have been hard.
So, what is Paul trying to say? He’s making a point about our prayers. It is one thing for a minister to speak and to speak with boldness, but these in and of themselves do not mean anything if people are not believe. So we must pray that God would open these hearts. We must ask the Lord to create faith where there is no faith, so that they will receive the message.
This all is, again, a review of what Paul has been saying in this book. Flip back to Chapter 1. As you are flipping to chapter 1, let me remind you of what Paul says in chapter 2. He said there that it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. Where did our salvation come from? It came from the Lord. He gave us the faith to receive it. We were saved from our lack of faith. God saved us from that state of unbelief by imbuing us with faith.
Now, back in chapter 1 we see something similar. As a matter of fact, it is almost exactly the same as what we find in our passage this morning. Let’s start in verse 7. Paul says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.”
How did we come to gain forgiveness and redemption? It was because God proclaimed it. He made known the mystery of the gospel and caused us to embrace it.
Again, this just reinforces what kinds of prayers we need to offer. It is not enough to pray that words be given or courage rage like a wildfire. Those two things in and of themselves will not affect anything.
We must also pray that the hearts and minds of those who hear would be overcome. We must pray that the Lord would remove the heart of stone and give in its place a heart of flesh. We must pray that unbelief would be replaced with belief. That where there is no faith, there would be a miraculous insertion of a true and living faith.
Conclusion:
This is the very key to revival, mind you. I would dare say that we do not see revival in our day because we have not sought it. We have not done what we can to foster it.
Some would say that you can’t do anything to bring about a revival. They say that revivals are spontaneous works of God. But that’s not true. God uses means in bringing about revivals. That’s been the case all through history.
Jonathan Edwards wrote a book about this very thing. The title of that book was:
An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer For the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture-promises and Prophecies concerning the Last Time.
Books had very long titles during this time. It was later shortened to simply “A humble attempt.” But the title is telling. The revival of religion and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom on earth is due to what? Edwards called it the “Extraordinary Prayers” of God’s people.
This book went on to be read by people 40 years later. People began heeding its call to prayer. And God answered those prayers shortly thereafter. One might even say that this book and the groups that banded to pray because of it, was one of the primary things that led to the Second Great Awakening.
If we want to see the church built up and the kingdom of God expand, then we have to do what is within our power to push it forward. That may sound very human centered to a lot of people. It may sound like we need to manufacture things to keep the Spirit alive. But the fact of the matter is, the kingdom advances by means. God works in and through the ministry of the word.
And the the ministry of the word can come with great power and effectiveness, or it can be wax low and have very little influence. And I am not ashamed to say that it is very much dependent upon how much God’s people are in prayer. If we are not praying for men to be empowered to speak with divine might and if we are not praying that solid, biblical content be pouring forth from the pulpits of our churches, then we should not expect there to be a strong, growing body of believers in those churches. If we are not praying that God would save us from unbelief and be making people to hear and receive the proclamation of His word, should we really be surprised when we do not see people being converted and baptized within our churches?
We do not doubt that our God can do great things. We understand that the Spirit works in and through His word. We’ve seen that in this study. We know it to be true. And because we know that, we should be emboldened to ask that the ministry of the Word would become all that much more robust. The Lord works in and through our prayers too. He uses these prayers to bring forth his kingdom in this world. We have the glorious opportunity to be the tools of extending the Lord’s work.
So I encourage you once again to be people who are dedicated to prayer, praying in particular for me, and for the ongoing work of the ministry throughout the world.