INTERCESSORY PRAYER
INTRODUCTION: You may have heard this term before but were not sure what it meant. In the simplest of definitions it's praying for someone or on someone's behalf. When we intercede for someone we are advocating for them. Intercession happens in life. If someone we know is in trouble and we try to smooth things over with the one they're in trouble with we are interceding for them.
If someone we know doesn't have good standing with a person or group but we do, we intercede for them since the person or group would be more willing to listen to us than they would the person we're interceding for. This type of thing actually happened in the bible regarding Paul.
Paul had recently been converted but the memory of his former life of persecuting Christians was still very fresh. When he arrived in Jerusalem, Paul wanted to be accepted into the company of believers but they were skeptical, thinking he was there to arrest Christians. But Paul had an advocate in Barnabas. He interceded to the Apostles on Paul's behalf, vouching for his transformation. They listened to Barnabas because they knew his character and they considered him to be wise enough to determine if Paul was truly a changed man or not.
Therefore, the purpose for intercession is to cause favor to be shown to the party we're interceding for. Interceding shows that we care; not just about the person but also about establishing peace. Being a successful intercessor shows our character and good standing. When we are able to persuade someone because they trust our judgment we show ourselves to be respectable and honorable (like Jabez that we looked at last week).
Being an intercessor needs to be evident in our prayer life also. We should be interceding to God on behalf of others because there was someone who intercedes to God on our behalf. His name is Jesus
1) Jesus intercedes for us.
Under the old covenant, the advocate for the people was the priest. He interceded on behalf of himself and the people for their sins. And once a year the high priest was allowed into the innermost part of the temple, the Holy of Holies to meet with God and intercede.
But now, under the new covenant, we have a new advocate, Jesus. 1st Tim. 2:5 says that there is one mediator between us and God-Jesus. The prophecy of Isaiah 53:12 says that Jesus made intercession for the transgressors. We were separated from God because of our sin. And we could not take care of it ourselves-we needed Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross to pay our penalty he made a way for us to be reconciled to God. So when we accepted what Jesus did for us he advocated to the Father on our behalf and the Father accepted Jesus' intercession.
But it didn't stop there. Jesus continues to be our mediator; he continues to be our intercessor. In Romans 8:28, Paul encourages us by saying that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose which is to be conformed to the image of Jesus.
He continues his encouragement in vs. 31-34, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."
Did you catch the present tense of the word? Interceding, not interceded. Jesus continues to intercede for us. Paul goes on from there encouraging us to understand that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. It's such a comfort to know that no matter how bad life gets we still have Jesus interceding on our behalf. Whenever we sin Satan, the Accuser, tries to accuse and condemn us. But we are comforted to know that Jesus is overshadowing any accusation by his finished work on the cross that paid for what we did.
1st John 2:1-2, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
The goal is to not sin. But if we do, we're not doomed. God doesn't entertain Satan's finger pointing. I can see Satan before God when we sin saying, "Look at what he just did. He calls himself one of yours. What do you have to say for him now?" Jesus defends us by showing God his hands and feet saying, "my blood has covered him. He is clean." And try as he might, Satan has no answer for what Jesus has done to redeem us.
Not that this means we can do whatever we want and not have to pay any consequences for it but as far as being condemned, as far as wondering if God still loves us after what we've done we need not worry. We have our defense in Jesus. We have no defense before God. All we can do is point to Jesus. And Jesus intercedes on our behalf and the matter is settled.
We also have the Holy Spirit interceding for us. Earlier in Romans 8 Paul said this in vs. 26-27, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
When we're praying sometimes we don't know what to pray for or how to express ourselves. We don't have to worry about that. God knows our hearts and the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and turns our feelings and desires into words.
I also think this can apply when we don't know enough about a situation or a person we pray for but since we have a desire to advocate for the person we do the best we can and the Holy Spirit takes our passion and fills in the blanks.
It's reassuring and humbling to know we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit interceding for us. And our response to this should be gratitude and obedience. And another response we should have is to intercede for others.
2) Therefore, we intercede for others.
Jesus is our mediator between us and God. He is the one who enabled us to be acceptable before God. Because of our sin there was no way we could be acceptable before God. But when Jesus took our sins upon himself and paid our penalty, God forgave us and now we can go to him and pray to him and he hears us. So now we should be compelled to pay it forward by being an advocate for others. We pray for those who don't know Jesus that God would reach them. We pray for their hearts to be open to listening to God calling out to them to believe.
1st Tim. 2:1-6, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time."
Intercession made for everyone? What about the people I don't care for too much? Let's see what Jesus said about that. Luke 6:27-28, "But I tell you who hear me: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."
According to the Associated Press, in Sept. of 1994 Cindy Hartman of Conway Arkansas walked into her house to answer the phone and was confronted by a burglar. He ripped the phone cord out of the wall and ordered her into a closet. Hartman dropped to her knees and asked the burglar if she could pray for him. "I want you to know that God loves you and I forgive you."
The burglar apologized for what he had done. Then he yelled out the door to a woman in a truck, "We've got to unload all this stuff. A Christian family lives here; we can't do this to them." As Hartman remained on her knees the burglar returned what he had taken. Then, he took out his gun, unloaded the bullets and handed it to her. Then he walked out."
Obviously Cindy did not have a normal response to being burglarized. But that's just it. We are called to be different. In Matthew's version this is followed by Jesus saying, 'that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. If you love those who love you what reward will you get? Aren't the pagans doing that?'
By praying for our enemies we show ourselves to be children of God because we are being like Jesus who interceded for us, even though we were his enemies through sin. Therefore, in being like Jesus we are acting in accordance with our new nature when we intercede for our enemies. And by praying for those who mistreat us we are working in accordance with God who wants everyone to be saved. Do we want our enemies to be saved? Are we praying for that?
Paul mentions that intercession should be made for kings and people in authority. Paul wants us to be praying for our leaders. Do you pray for Trump? Do you pray for leaders of other countries like North Korea? Paul urged that intercession be made for all people. Do we pray for people of other religions to be saved? It's easy to intercede for those we care about but it's not easy to intercede for those we don't. But what makes it easier is when we remember that Jesus intercedes for us and that God's will is for everyone to know the truth and be born-again.
3) Intercessory prayer for the saints.
When Paul was describing the armor of God in Eph. 6, he finished with another weapon we have-prayer. Eph. 6:18, "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."
Prayer is part of our battle gear. Prayer is our communication link with God and we go to him to intercede for one another who are facing spiritual battles like we are. We don't just pray for our church we pray for Christians in other churches. We don't just pray for Christians in our area, we pray for those in other countries; especially those in hostile nations.
And we should tell people we're praying for them. Isn't it a great feeling to know that there are people praying for you? It's encouraging and inspiring when we realize that someone is praying for us to stay strong or praying for our protection. To know that when we face a situation we have the troops praying for us helps us to be confident in battle.
That's one of the reasons why the prayer ministry is important. Those in the prayer ministry are interceders. They are taking your requests and lifting them up to the throne of God. When we're dealing with something we need to ask others to pray for us. That's what Paul did.
In verse 19 he asked for the saints to pray for him, that the right words would be given to him so he would be able to fearlessly make the mystery of the gospel known. We should be praying for others and we should be asking others to pray for us. This is community; this is the brotherhood-saints praying for each other and caring about each others' spiritual growth and well-being.
We see Paul doing just that earlier in Ephesians. Eph. 1:17-19a, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."
Here we see some of the things we should be praying for each other. We pray for God to give fellow believers wisdom and insight. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ to know God more fully and deeply. We pray for fellow Christians to be convinced of their position in Christ and to be encouraged by what lies ahead when the war is over. We pray that they would understand the power that is at work within them so they would resist temptation and believe that they can do all things through Christ. This is what Paul prayed for the Ephesians and this is what we need to pray for our spiritual family around the world.
Later, we see Paul praying that they would be able to grasp the love that Christ has for them. Eph. 3:17b-19, "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Paul saw the value in being able to understand the love of Jesus. Paul said it surpassed knowledge-it is beyond our ability to completely make sense of, because it defies description. There's nothing else like it-it's beyond comparison. But we can grasp it-we can understand it enough to be convinced by it. We can contemplate it even though it is beyond measure. We can know how deep it is when we look at what God gave up for us-his son. We can know the love of Christ when we contemplate his sacrifice.
This is what we pray for each other to know because the more fully we can take it all in the fuller we become. The more we understand the value in Jesus being our intercessor the more we will be compelled to intercede for others. When we cherish the depth of Christ's love for us we will want everyone else to experience is as well.
Therefore we seek to share that love; we seek to live in that love. And one of the ways we do that is by getting outside of ourselves and one of the ways we do that is by praying for others-we pray for the saints to grow in their knowledge of Christ and we pray for the lost to come to know Christ's love. This is what intercessory prayer looks like.
When we pray, how much are we focused on ourselves? How much do we pray for others? While evaluating a recently published Gallup poll on prayer, prayer specialist T.W. Hunt noted, "The biggest single non-biblical aspect of American praying today is a lack of intercessory prayer."
He went on to say, "The majority of teachings in the bible are for intercession. The bible tells you to pray for other people, and this is where Americans fail dismally." Intercessory prayer is so important for us to develop because it's so easy to get caught up in a me-centered prayer life. Let's make sure we're focus on intercessory prayer.
