Praying Like An Apostle

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:3-6 NASB)

In this passage, Paul encourages the Philippian church by revealing to them the content of his prayers. Paul is constantly thanking God for the Philippian church with joy and confidence in God’s Grace. Paul, in revealing the content of his prayers to the Philippians, wasn’t boasting, as we might think, but, as he writes in chapter 3, verse 17 of the same letter: Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us (NASB). So he’s giving them an example to follow. And we, too, should thank God constantly for our church with joy and confidence in His Grace.

Three Aspects of Paul’s Prayers for the Church:

I. The content of Paul’s prayers: Paul’s prayers had content– there were specific things that he wanted to say to God when He came before His throne in prayer. He hadn’t reached some super-spiritual state where he had a prayer language that not even he could understand; he didn’t have rigidly formal prayers, saying the same religious words over and over again to God; rather, Paul understood his prayers as communication with Almighty God.

A. Paul prayed in joyful thanksgiving. Paul’s prayers were not self-centered. Paul didn’t only come to God with his needs and wants. And if we are only motivated to prayer out of wanting God to give us things we desire, then how can we truly be called God’s friends? As Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest, “What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you” (June 3). It’s hard to think of sharing our secret joys with others in this cynical culture. Especially for men. It is often difficult for men in the Church to become accustomed to displaying brotherly affection for one another because we become anxious about appearing effeminate. But, in order to follow the Apostle’s example, we need to learn to encourage each other through sharing our joy, and, even more, we need to learn to speak of our joy to God in prayer. We need to learn to articulate our joys to Him and to offer thanksgiving to Him as the Giver of all good things (see James 1:17).

B. Paul prayed concerning the most important issue in the lives of those in the Church– their relationship to God through the Gospel. Paul focused on Gospel issues in His prayers. Looking through the rest of the letter to the Philippians, we see that those in the Philippian church were participating in the Gospel in 3 specific ways:

1. Evangelism

2. Joyful suffering for the Gospel

3. Providing for the material needs of Gospel ministers

So, in our prayers, we need to see how our congregation is related to the Gospel. Are we involved in the 3 areas listed above? If we are, then we need to give thanks to God, because He is using our congregation for His purposes. If we’re not participating in the Gospel in the 3 ways listed above, then we need to pray for God’s forgiveness and His Grace as we make the changes that are necessary.

II. The constancy of Paul’s prayers: Paul consistently turned his memories of the Philippian church into occasions for prayer. How many times do thoughts of our church congregation or of other Christians float through our heads to no benefit or purpose? What if we took all those thoughts and turned them to prayer? This is the example Paul seems to set in Philippians 1:3-6. We also see that Paul consistently focused on the joy the Philippian church brought him. Now, everything was not perfect in the Philippian church. As we read later, Paul wrote: I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord (Philippians 4:2 NASB). So we know of at least 2 individuals in particular who were struggling to live in harmony. But the problem attitudes of those in the Church wasn’t Paul’s focus when he prayed– his focus was on the joy that they brought him. In the same way, we don’t need to turn a blind eye to the problems in our congregation, but we have to focus on the joy that those in the Church bring to us and make that our focus, glorifying God through our thankfulness.

III. The confidence of Paul’s prayers: The word “confidence” quoted in the passage above is translated from the Greek word peitho, which literally means “persuaded to trust.” Paul had great reason to be persuaded to trust concerning God’s faithfulness to complete His work in the Philippian church. Paul had seen how God had founded His church in Philippi, he had seen God open the hearts of His chosen people in Philippi (see Acts 16:14-15), he had seen how God used extraordinary means– even supernatural means– like an earthquake to bring people to His Church there (see Acts 16:25-34). So Paul’s confidence in prayer was not dependent upon his ability as a missionary preacher, and it was not dependent on the Philippians’ faithfulness to his ministry, rather, his confidence was based on God’s work and on God’s purposes. And we can have this same confidence as we offer up joyful thanksgiving to God for our church, as we focus on the Gospel ministry of our congregation in our prayers, as we constantly submit our thoughts of our congregation to God as occasions for prayer– focusing on the joy our church brings– we can be confident that God’s work and God’s purposes will not be frustrated. As Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my Church.”

[For more thorough teaching on Philippians 1:3-6, you will be blessed to hear Dave Stephenson's sermon, Thankful for Others, on the Grace Bible Church website- I urge everyone reading this to listen to this sermon soon, as it will only be online for about a month.]

The Alcohol Post

Today, Timmy Brister of the Strange BaptistFire website posted an important article on the issue of the Southern Baptist Convention's recent resolution concerning the use, manufacture, sale, or distribution of alcohol. This resolution effectively prohibits anyone who does not practice total abstinence from alcohol from any leadership position in the SBC, even if they never get drunk. Timmy basically argues that this is a kind of false Shibboleth. I would like to call special attention to a few specific points Timmy makes in his article, which is titled, The Pseudo-Demarcation Line of Resolution No. 5 and the Shifting Sands of the SBC.

1. Concerning the sufficiency of Scripture: "Our conviction on the sufficiency of Scripture should cause us to rest in God’s complete revelation in the Word of God written and the Word of God Incarnate. Where Scriptures is silent, we must not speculate."
2. Concerning cooperation for the sake of the Gospel: "We are a convention being divided over such a pathetic issue as that of alcohol. We could learn some lessons from the T4G guys. Where they have learned to come together [despite denominational differences] for the sake of the gospel, we have learned to be divided for the sake of alcohol. There could not be a more stark contrast than this!"
3. Concerning life principles, with a specific application to the alcohol resolution: "There are three “all’s” which I try to think of regularly during my day. They are, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31), “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do ALL (everything) in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col. 3:17), and “I do ALL things for the sake of the gospel, that I may be a fellow partaker of it” (1 Cor. 9:23). The glory of God. The name of the Lord Jesus. The gospel of Jesus Christ. These three we should do in all things, including what we eat and drink. Do I believe someone can drink wine in moderation to the glory of God? Yes I do. Jesus did."

Joel Olsteen's strange science, strange theology

(Image from The Sacred Sandwich website.)

Recently, my uncle, Dr. Alan Branch, Vice President for Student Development at MidWestern Baptist Theological Seminary, has written an article on Joel Osteen titled, Joel Olsteen's strange science, strange theology. As an entirely unbiased critic (well, maybe not quite...) I can assure everyone that this article is well worth the read, showing another aspect of Osteen's doctrine which tends toward the errors of the "Prosperity Gospel." For some time now, Alan has been warning congregations that Osteen's theology consistently tends toward this false interpretation of the Gospel, promoting unbiblical teaching in at least two ways:

1. Advancing the idea that our words, in and of themselves, have supernatural power.
2. Overemphasizing financial prosperity.

As Osteen is such an influential public figure (leader of the congregation with the largest average weekly attendance in the U.S., author of the bestseller, Your Best Life Now), I encourage everyone reading this to please read the article linked above and drop a comment concerning your thoughts on what it says. (Please don't leave a comment if you don't bother to read the article.)

Response to a common objection

In this post-modern age, a confident declaration of the Truth is not widely admired. Often, when sharing the Gospel with unbelievers or when defending the doctrines of Scripture, well-meaning Christians are charged with mean-spiritedness and arrogance. It seems that everyone is very eager to share their own opinions, but if someone actually tries to deny the validity of another's position, they can only be doing so out of ill-intent. So we who believe that there is absolute truth and that this Truth can be certainly known must all be content with having our views constantly contradicted and we must pretend that we think we too are offering mere personal opinions.

I address this issue here due to a comment I received concerning a recent blogpost, which comment stated:

"That must be a comfort - knowing you're right while also knowing that so many others are wrong. An ego-boost!"

So, supposing that the conclusions reached at the end of the first paragraph of this post are unacceptable, how are we to respond to comments/accusations such as the one presented in the quote above? Having meditated on this and having emailed some friends concerning this subject, I would like to submit the following considerations:

We must respond in humility. A comment like the one above is really an accusation of pride and hard-heartedness. If we dismiss such accusations out-of-hand, then we may be turning our backs on a providential occasion for sanctification. None of us is so beyond selfishness that we can say, 'there is absolutely no chance that such an accusation could ever be true.' We must examine our own hearts in light of the Scripture and must seek accountability with other brothers and sisters in Christ who know us well to make sure that we are not, indeed, guilty of hard-hearted pride in some measure. Humility is to be the controlling characteristic of all our responses toward others as "God opposes the proud, but gives Grace to the humble" (James 4:6b). Based upon this principle, I would like to suggest the following 5 responses when confronted with a comment like the one quoted above:

1. We must respond with investigation. If we receive a comment such as the one above, and if there is any evidence appended to such a comment, then we must humbly look into the evidence. Whether the evidence is concerning our personal character or concerning our doctrinal positions, we must prayerfully consider the possibility that we do have some error in our thinking. “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” (Proverbs 18:17 ESV)
2. We must respond with compassion. It is NOT a comfort to the child of God AT ALL to know "that so many others are wrong." Rather, we realize that it is only by God's Grace through the power of the Holy Spirit that we have any measure of spiritual understanding, and it is our burden that others should come to a similar knowledge of the Truth. In this response, we follow the example of our Lord, of whom it was written, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34 ESV)
3. We must respond with Grace. Specifically, we should use comments or accusations such as the one quoted above as an opportunity to speak of God’s Grace. When we are trying to convince someone that they are in error based on the clear teaching of God’s Word, the Bible– and not merely depending on our own intelligence– we are NOT acting in arrogance, for we realize that outside of God’s Grace all of our thinking has become futile (see Romans 1:21). Outside of God’s Grace, no one seeks God (see Romans 3:11b). And so we are all in desperate need of a specific work of God in our hearts and minds if we are ever to understand any truth He has revealed and if we are ever to apply God’s truth by loving Him and loving others according to His plan. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (I Corinthians 4:7b)
4. We must respond with boldness. When we receive negative comments such as the one quoted above, one common reaction is to become less bold in our proclamation of the Truth. But if we are sure that we are speaking in accordance with the Bible, then we CANNOT afford to speak half-heartedly. God’s Truth must be proclaimed with steadfast conviction. In this, we follow the example set by the apostles in the book of Acts. It was when the religious leaders perceived the boldness of Peter and John that they recognized these men “had been with Jesus” (see Acts 4:13). The early Church in Jerusalem, therefore, prayed for boldness in their proclamation of God’s Word (see Acts 4:29), and God answered their prayer (see Acts 4:31). The book of Acts records this bold beginning of the apostolic ministry, and closes with the note about the Apostle Paul, that he continued “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:31)
5. We must respond with Truth. As stated at the beginning of the post, a confident declaration of Truth is not widely admired. Most people today either believe that there is no absolute truth, or if there is, that it cannot be certainly known. But we who have become God’s children by His Grace must hold to the Truth and must proclaim the Truth to this world full of error, recognizing that when we do, we are likely to receive comments such as the one that prompted this blogpost. And what is the Truth? The psalmist tells us in his song to God, “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever” (Psalm 119:160 ESV), and Jesus likewise reveals in His prayer to God, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17 ESV). God’s Word, the Holy Bible, is Truth and it is this Truth that we are bound to proclaim humbly with investigation, with compassion, with Grace, and with boldness.

[On a similar topic, see Dan Phillips' recent blogpost, "How to deal with posts you don't like (and the flip side)", which applies equally well to the comments following blogposts.]

I'm moving to Louisville, KY to begin classes at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on August 7th.