1 Timothy 2:2
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For Kings and all Authority
For Kings and all Authority
Last week we spoke of prayer life that scripture calls every believer to develop. We recognized that often our own selfish hearts keep us from this fervent prayer for the lost and that the solution to obtaining that which we could not create in our own hearts is obtained through asking God and allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to change us, giving us that fervent love for the lost so that we may be able to pray out of a deep desire for salvation on the behalf of those whom have not yet come to Christ.
We closed by reflecting on a quote from Charles Spurgeon, and I want to revisit that quote as we look at our passage tonight.
“ O, if you have the hearts of Christians, let them yearn toward your poor ignorant ungodly neighbors. Alas, there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell. Many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seize on them, and if they die unregenerate, they are lost forever. Have you hearts of rock that cannot pity men in such a case as this? If you believe not the Word of God and the danger of sinners, why are you Christians yourselves? If you do believe it, why do you not bestir yourself to the helping of others? Do you not care who is damned as long as you are saved? If so, you have sufficient cause to pity yourselves, for it is a frame of spirit utterly inconsistent with grace. Dost thou live close by them...or meet them in the streets...or labor with them...or travel with them...or sit and talk with them and say nothing to them of their souls or the life to come? If their houses were on fire, thou wouldst run and help them and wilt thou not help them when their souls are almost at the fire of hell?
Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon touches on the level of prayer that the Apostle Paul urges us to in verse 1 of chapter 2, and now moving to verse 2, after Paul’s introduction, urging timothy to this lifestyle of deep personal prayer for the lost, the type of prayer that yearns for their salvation, Paul continues to describe the scope of this prayer by firstly saying we ought to pray for all men, and then in verse two completing the scope of those who are to be the subject of our prayers.
As we exposit the text tonight, we ought to see 4 things:
After the introduction , where Paul urges timothy to this lifestyle of deep personal prayer for the lost, the type of prayer that yearns for their salvation, Paul continues to describe the scope of this prayer by firstly saying we ought to pray for all men, in verse two we
Firstly, that the scope is wide, concerning those who are to be the subject of our prayers
Secondly, that the refusal to pray for Authority is to stand in opposition to God, and the neglect to pray for Authority is deeming the commandment of God to pray as unworthy of your time and remembrance.
Thirdly, that this heart of prayer leads to a peaceful and quiet life. Or in other words, causes there to be an absence of internal (peaceful) and external (quiet) disturbances, especially through civil disobedience.
Lastly, that the result of this prayerful lifestyle is a call back to holy living and outward holy behaviour for the sanctification of the believer and witness to the unbeliever.
for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
1. From the end of verse one, to the first part of verse two, we see that the scope of prayer ranges from all men who do not know the Gospel of Christ, to all authority. The range is from the generic “mankind” to the specific individuals in authority. (So prayers would be lifted up in a more personal and individualistic way, rather than simply saying “Lord save all people and all authority, amen”)
Concerning authorities, so many powerful rulers are hostile to God, and this was certainly true of the authority in Paul's day. Nero was emperor during this letter to Timothy, he was known to be cruel, vicious, a blasphemer of God and a persecutor of the faith, and yet ,Paul undoubtedly had him in mind while giving this command. The prayer here commanded is, as we spoke of last week, one of a deep personal desire to see the lost come to the salvation of Christ Jesus. The prayer is that the authorities would repent of their sins and embrace the gospel. So we see that the scope of our prayers range from all men to the authorities over us.
So many powerful rulers are hostile to God, and this was certainly true of the authority in Paul's day. Nero was emperor during this letter to Timothy, he was known to be cruel, vicious, a blasphemer of God and a persecutor of the faith, and yet Paul undoubtedly had him in mind while giving this command. The prayer here commanded is, as we spoke of last week, one of a deep personal desire to see the lost come to the salvation of Christ Jesus. The prayer is that the authorities would repent of their sins and embrace the gospel.
Can you imagine praying as a 1st century christian for the guy that is burning your friends alive, throwing your family in the arena to be devoured by lions ,torturing your fellow believers for entertainment, destroying your homes out of spite and for personal delight of your destruction and yet this was the world Timothy lived in and the world in which Paul gives his commandment to pray for those in authority. Closer to our time, can you imagine being a Jew and praying for the salvation rather than the death or removal of Hitler? Still Closer still, can you imagine praying for a president that is vile, vulgar, a lover of money, outward prideful, and shows little restraint? How about a president that desires the death of innocent babies, and the demise of christian society and yet, we should pray for every authority, not because we love them, but because we love Christ and Christ love’s them. No man is beyond redemption, Neither David, nor Paul, nor Kim Jong un, nor president trump.
2. The scary reality is that when we set ourselves against authority, we are, in fact, opposing the sovereign God of the universe Himself. On one end, the lest we do, in not praying for authority, is we disregard the command of God to do so, on the worst end we defy God himself. God is the one who places all authority in power.
To oppose God is to set ourselves above God as a Judge of God, it is to see what God has commandment and like the serpent in the Garden, declare that it is not so, not the best, not the right thing. The serpent said to eve that “God knows that you will become like him in the day that you eat”, and subtlety he communicated that we could disregard God’s command in order than we may become God ourselves. This is Blasphemy of the highest order, to critique God’s command as though we know better and yet this is what we do when we refuse to pray for the authority God puts in place.
On the flip-side is when we just simply do not do it because we are not concerned, this isn’t necessarily an opposition to God, but it is certainly a statement of “ this thing God has said, isn’t that important to me”, we have to have a heart that as we think of our leaders from time to time we lift them up in prayer that God would save them, reveal truth to them, guide them, use them for His purpose, etc…
This was a hard thing to do for the first century church. When Paul gave Timothy this charge, it unquestionably covered those authorities who had evil in their hearts and their deeds done in malice, but today, we live in a part of the world were we have little to no persecution from leaders, it’s easy for one to dismiss this command and limit it to the leaders we like.
This is where many would ask, what about Hitler, What about Kim Jon un, What about Stalin, Napoleon, Ganges Khan, etc. Lets take a look at a few Scriptures.
“It is He who changes the times and the epochs;
He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men
And knowledge to men of understanding.
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,
for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
Roman
Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
romans 8:28
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
Rom
This is Jesus speaking, and submitting to this ruler because He knows the Plans of God through this horrible situation and while we may not know the purposes of God through wicked rulers, we do know that God is in control and that romans 8 is true when it says
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Therefore whoever, that is anyone at anytime, who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. This is a serious violation with serious consequences.
If this is true, how much of the Christian church has opposed God? Think of the last two elections, Obama and Trump. After each election was finished and the outcome made public, how much of the Christian church made comments like “He’s not my president, or I don’t support this president, or things like , “let’s pray him out”. Do you realize that there were even groups of believers prayer for atrocious things to happen like the death of a president!!
God decides who will be the rulers of this world and while we may not understand what God’s ultimate Purposes are, we aren’t meant to understand, God has chosen not to reveal His secret will to us, but He has instructed us. through our passage tonight to prayer for all authority. Again, the heart of this prayer is the heart that longs to see these evil, wicked authorities to be saved, repenting for their wickedness and coming to the knowledge of the saving Grace of Christ. Remember that no man deserves salvation for we have all fallen short of the Glory of God and to refuse prayer for someone we deem wicked, firstly Opposes God and secondly deems ourselves to be more righteous and somehow more deserving of the grace God extended to us than the evil ruler.
One more example and then we’ll move on to the next section.
Let’s recall the three Hebrew Children: King Nebuchadnezzar issued a degree that a golden image should be worshipped at a certain time, of course the 3 Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, declined to worship the King. And while this incident is not about praying for the King as much as it is faithfulness to God, it also shows the right response to wicked rulers. The Hebrews said “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” They didn’t attempt to flee the kings judgement, they disobeyed the command to worship the king, but then willing accepted the consequences, which leads us to our next point.
3. Once we see God’s desire and command for us to pray with a heart felt fervor for all men and for authority we next see that in our text the end result is so that we may live a peaceful and quiet life. Or in other words, the lifestyle of prayer is meant to cause an absence of internal (peaceful) and external (quiet) disturbances, especially from civil disobedience.
Imagine all of the riots that happened when trump was elected, it was disgraceful, childish, and for the many involved that made a claim to Christianity it was disobedient and in opposition to God. The same happened when Obama was elected, a huge part of the riots were by professing Christians who were do things like hanging and burning black dolls, detestable, and so is it any wonder that Obama was a hater of Christianity. Such behaviour can only stir up hatred and disdain for Christian in the eyes of civil authority. What they see is that there is a religious people claiming to be obstinate for the sake of their religion and this certainly does not produce a quiet life in society.
It’s hard for us to understand how this life of prayer can lead to this internal and external peacefulness, and while the outward circumstances seem tumultuous there is a peace that we can have through the Holy Spirit because to get to this type of prayer life, requires such a submission to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that as we submit we are transformed. I don’t mean some celestial experience, but we are meant to become more like Christ as we are renewed by the word of God and by obedience through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to:
Acts 8:54-60
This Peace we see in Stephen is evidence of what we see in our passage. Not only does this life produce an inward peace, but God, through His Holy Spirit uses this Godly life to accomplish His will in others, sometimes through conviction and other times through judgement of those persecuting the faithful.
In Japan during World War II, in a time where about 5% of the entire worlds’ population was massacred, there was a Japanese Officer named Sadaaki Konishi, he ran a concentration camp, holding predominately American soldiers. He was known for his violent torture tactics, one of the things he would do is starve his captives for weeks and them give them un-hulled rice. The hulls of rice are razor sharp, and because the captives for desperate for food, even without a method to shell the rice, they would attempt to eat it and basically it would slice their internal organs to shreds and kill them. There were other horrendous things he did to torture his captives such as this. Now in February of 1945, after he had tortured so many of the prisoners he decided to just kill all of the rest of the prisoners. What he didn’t know is that the US armed forces arrived on that very same day. The camp was over run by the US, the prisoners where set free, but Konishi escaped. He was declared a war criminal on the run. Some years later he was found in the Philippines, working as a gardener, he was captured, tried for war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging. Before he was hanged, he made the statement that he had come to Jesus and the reason was that he was deeply convicted by the prisoners that were christian.
Perhaps like Stephen, many of these men died well, with a peace and tranquility that can only come through a dedicated and prayerful life to christ. The point here is that this life of prayer and dedication to Christ has a noticeable and tangible impact inside of us and on those around us, even if we ourselves never see it.
It is interesting that the Greek words used here actually mean pious and seriousness, and so the verse would read like this in the original Greek. “For kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all piety and seriousness.
4. Lastly,
It is interesting that the Greek words used here actually mean pious and seriousness, and so the verse would read like this in the original Greek. “For kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all piety and seriousness.