Col No.35 The Call to Prayer

On several occasions during the day, the Muslim believer will bow his knee, and he will turn towards Mecca, and he will offer prayer to Allah. One of the most remarkable pictures I have seen is that of a vast mosque in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It's a magnificent structure in that third world country, and to the mosque there are several stories, several floors.

The space, well, it's huge for each story. And I am told, and have seen in the picture, how sometimes on holy days and on Fridays, thousands of men will pack that five-storied mosque, and they will spend a great deal of time in prayer to Allah. I am informed that sometimes in England, in our factories, permission is given for those from the Islamic community to leave off their work on their conveyor belt, and to kneel down in front of their colleagues, and offer prayer.

And in popular estimation, rightly or wrongly, the ministry of intercession, the ministry of prayer, is more associated with the religion of Islam than what it is of Christianity. And if that is right generalization, then it just goes to show how far away from the biblical norm we Christian people have managed to stray. Because essential to the teaching of both parts of the Bible, clearly called for in the New Testament, is a life of prayer.

The Lord Jesus illustrated this Himself personally. You find Him setting aside whole nights for this holy ministry. You find Him rising early in the morning before the sun has arisen, making His way into a solitary place, and there the Lord Jesus, who has all knowledge, who has great ability in communication, nonetheless finds it necessary to spend hours before the Father equipping Himself spiritually for the demands of that day.

And the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all with whom He converses are amazed, not only at the eloquence with which He speaks, but the authority which is bound up in that eloquence. Now, this is what I am arguing, that if Jesus Christ, the founder of our faith, the God-man, discovered the power of prayer and illustrated its vital necessity in His own life, how much more should you? How much more should I be men and women of prayer? Dr. Lloyd-Jones, in an epistle, or rather a commentary of his on the epistle to the Ephesians, says this, if theology is the study of the knowledge of God, then the more theology I have, the more prayer I will want. If to know God is life eternal, then I will want to constantly come before the living God and express my heart before Him in the holy ministry of intercession.

The clarion call to prayer. That's what I hear, the sound of the trumpet calling the troops to be on duty, to be alert. It comes so, it comes through so, so significantly.

In this second verse of Colossians 4, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Not that that is the only time you hear the trumpet sound in this area in Scripture. Jesus said that men ought always to pray and not to faint.

Paul, writing to the church at Rome in Romans chapter 12, enjoins them to pray fervently without ceasing. You discover exactly the same thing in 1 Thessalonians and towards the end of that great letter. You discover the same in 1 Timothy in chapter 2 and verse 1, where the young Christian there is enjoined to pray for those who have authority.

The clarion call to prayer. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Now I want to bring three particular words to this text to lever it open.

To show you its significance as we continue our studies consecutively through this epistle to the Colossians. My homiletics this morning for a change are very simple and easy to recollect. I want to talk to you about the context of this clarion call to prayer.

And then about the concept of prayer within this verse. And finally, the conflict that there is within this call to prayer. First of all, its context.

Those of you who've stayed the course in our studies, these systematic meditations from this epistle to the Colossians, know full well what has preceded this particular verse. According to some Bible commentators, when you come to the fourth chapter, then you are confronted with some miscellaneous injunctions which the Apostle tosses out almost at random as he concludes this letter. And I feel that that particular approach, that understanding to this second verse is not accurate at all.

When Paul makes this clarion call to prayer, continuing prayer and watching the same with thanksgiving, it's significant that he has just been talking about the Christian's lifestyle. In the 18th verse, for instance, he's spoken about the relationship between wife and husband and vice versa. In the 20th verse, he's talked about the responsibilities of Christian children to their parents.

In the 22nd verse, he makes reference to the relationship between the master and the slave, the employer and the employee. And when he comes down to the second verse of this fourth chapter, and he says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving, it's to those categories that he is applying his instruction. Let me take that again, just in case you have not followed me, and I'll approach it in a different fashion.

In the 17th verse and the 23rd verse of the previous chapter, what has Paul done? He has argued that everything in which I engage as a Christian is service to the living God. Whether I'm in the domestic scene at home, whether I'm in the business world in London, whether I'm a scholar at school, whatsoever I do, says Paul in verse 23, I am to do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. I have tried to show you, as stage by stage we've worked our way through these verses, how the apostle enlarges the priesthood.

He does not accept such concepts as the laity and the clergy. He says that a man, a woman, who has confessed Jesus as Savior, who set his or her affections on things above, is now living for Jesus on this earth. They become priests of the living God.

The role of their ministry may differentiate one to the other. There may be the difference between the housewife and the teacher, but nonetheless, in principle, every category in which a Christian finds himself is one in which service to the Lord God is to be offered. Now I want to be a good husband.

People here want to be good wives. We want to serve Jesus as children in school. We want to be faithful to the Lord Christ in the factory in which we find ourselves employed.

How am I to be successful? How am I going to offer what is pleasing to the Lord God? Where is the aid going to come from so that I may discharge my responsibilities and bring joy to the heart of Jesus? Well, you see, it's here where the ministry of prayer becomes so vital. And this clarion call to prayer is set in the context of the domestic scene in which I find myself. When Hannah wanted a little boy, after her womb had been barren for so long, she prayed.

And she took that little fellow on one occasion back to the sanctuary at Shiloh. She pointed out her infant to the priest Eli, and she said, For this child I prayed, and the Lord heard me. And there's enough evidence in the opening chapters of the book of Samuel to appreciate that Hannah constantly was in prayer for her offspring.

When Paul writes to Timothy in the reference I gave you a little while ago, he tells him to pray for those who are in authority. Christian people are to live lives in an atmosphere where prayer becomes a vital part of it. This is the context of the clarion call to prayer.

I've got a lovely tape by the Fisherfolk in which there's a song I'd like to teach you if I could sing and play the guitar, and as I can do neither, then you'll have to buy the tape if you want to learn it. And it goes on to say on this song that when one is washing the dishes, one can do it in honour of the Lord. When one is cleaning the car, one can do it in the honour of God.

When one is going to school, one can go there and work for the praise of God. Doing dishes, washing the car, at school, all these diverse situations and activities, you can be in prayer. Do you believe that? I believe it from the depths of my being, that prayer never was a posture of the body, kneeling down, or the evangelical crouch, as you're in the pew, as I invite you to join with me in corporate prayer to the Lord.

It's not a posture of the body, it's an attitude of the mind. It's a knowledge of the companionship of Jesus wherever I am, because the Lord God said through His Son, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Continue in prayer.

The context is the domestic scene. But not only the context is referred to here, as you study this verse carefully and deeply, but there's something about the concept of prayer that's taught very clearly. Now some of us have got gross misconceptions regarding this holy art.

Sometimes I'm more than disenchanted with the BBC's attempts at religious programs. Occasionally they come up trumps, and I'm very glad when they do. But one of the things that nauseates me is when I hear a man who's supposed to be an expounding scripture and he's probably never even referred to the Bible or only very loosely in passing, and then right at the end he says, and now a prayer.

And now a prayer. As though that's the sort of cosmetic little touch that you need to make this program creep under the category of a religious broadcast. Or perhaps the sort of jargon that refers to saying a prayer.

Just to keep God happy, we'll say a prayer. The concept, the teaching of prayer in the Bible is so contrary to this empty phraseology which often we hear employed. Continue in prayer.

This isn't just saying a prayer. It's not just offering a prayer. This is holy converse in which the Christian engages constantly before his Lord.

The injunction, it rings with vitality. The NIV says, devote yourself or something like that to prayer. The revised version gives, persevere in prayer.

When the apostle Paul is writing to the Ephesians, he uses language that is almost the same as that which he employs as he writes to the Colossians. The last chapter of Ephesians, that's the 6th and the 18th verse, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me. He doesn't say, dear Ephesians, say a prayer.

Offer a prayer. His language is more vital. His language is more intense.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. You've got a good example of the concept of prayer taught in this verse, which gives the clarion call to this ministry. Later on in the chapter, for in the 12th, if you will turn down to it, the 12th verse of Colossians 4, we read of one Epaphras.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in the will of God. Always laboring fervently for you in prayer. The word that is there used in the original could be translated, because it gives us the English equivalent, agonizes.

Epaphras agonizes fervently for you in prayer. It doesn't just offer a prayer. It doesn't just say a prayer.

He puts his soul into it. He puts his mind into it. And this is the concept of prayer, which our clarion call embraces.

This is the sort of prayer that we should be bringing before the Lord God constantly. Continue in prayer, with thanksgiving. That's another aspect of prayer, another concept of Scripture's teaching.

In the Hebrew language, their word prayer, or one of their words prayer, could equally be translated praise, a song of praise. And in one sense, if you're thinking of prayer just in terms of asking for things, then you've got the wrong concept. You've got the wrong teaching from Scripture.

Let's imagine prayer as a coin. One side of the coin says petition. The other side of the coin says praise.

And when the Bible enjoins us to continue in prayer, it's not only thinking in the area of asking for things, but rather praising God for what He has done. So again, when Paul is writing another letter to a church, similar to that one at Colossae, to the church where the Philippians meet, he has this to say in the sixth verse of the final chapter. Be careful for nothing.

But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. You get exactly the same thing in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 17. Pray without ceasing.

In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You see the concept of prayer? Not just saying a prayer, but involving your whole mind in that holy act. Not just asking for things, but thanking God for the blessings that you have already received.

I praise the Lord for the number of prayer sessions that we have here in this tabernacle. I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with the number. I'll always want them to be increased.

But I do praise God that many, many people feel it necessary to come together for one of our terms of prayer during the week. We had a great time yesterday morning, seven o'clock or thereabouts, in my vestry, filled with people, as we were bringing our hearts' petitions before the Lord. And as the prayer became intense, and as we were asking God for things, suddenly, somebody started to praise the Lord.

I think it was just a little scriptural refrain that they started to sing. And all of us were caught up in that offering of praise. And for three, four, perhaps seven minutes, there was nothing else but pure praise and worship that was brought before our Heavenly Father.

And then that was followed by more petitionary prayer. This is how I see prayer as taught in the Bible. This is the concept that is basic to this clarion call to prayer.

Petition and praise. This is the way that the Bible informs us we are to go about worshipping the living God. Well, have you followed me so far? I hope so.

I've tried to be quite simple. We're talking about the clarion call to prayer. I must preach.

I must preach strongly on this subject, because it's not right that Islam, should in the popular thinking, be the religion of intercession. Christianity has always taught the necessity for prayer. Continue, therefore, says the apostle.

And there he's duplicating the call of Jesus. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. And the context of those prayers is to be in the everyday situation where we find ourselves domestically, commercially engaged.

And, of course, when we come together as believers to offer prayer before the Lord, the context, the concept of prayer, not just saying a prayer, not just turning to a book, though I will not devalue written prayers, I'm very helped by the Book of Common Prayer. I'm very helped by the Valley of Vision, a book of Puritan prayers. But it's not just praying somebody else's prayer.

It's bringing to the Lord my own petition. And it's not just petitioning the Lord. It's bringing Him my praise, thanking Him for all His goodness is towards me.

That's the concept of prayer, to which this verse and other passages of Scripture allude. But finally, and quickly, what about the conflict of prayer? Because conflict there is. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving.

The conflict comes through better, perhaps, in the AV than what it does in the NIV. Here is the thought that prayer is not always an easy occupation. One talks about prayer coming naturally, and praise being the enthusiastic, continual response of the Christian to the living God.

But I would be a liar if I said from this pulpit that I always find it easy to pray. Does that astonish you? Do you think I should resign? Should I offer my notice to the elders because I have to be honest before you this morning? I don't always find it easy to pray. Sometimes the last thing I want to do in this world is pray.

Now why is that so? After all, I know something of the theology of prayer. I look back in my own life, and I can praise God for spectacular responses to prayer. But there are times in my life, more than I want to count, when prayer to me becomes the hardest thing.

Is there any reason? Is it simply because I am playing the part of a hypocrite? Or could it be that within this holy art of prayer such a power is released that as we approach it we are brought face to face with evil powers also? Andrew Murray, that great preacher from South Africa, makes reference to the fact that if prayer is such a mighty weapon, then the devil is going to prevent Christians as much as is possible from exercising that tool whereby the kingdom of God shall be expanded. And so the apostle here, you see, he speaks of this difficulty. He does it by implication.

He says, watch in the same. Continue in prayer. Devote yourself to prayer.

Watch in the same. Discipline yourself. That's the whole notion of watching in the same.

Realizing that the possibility is that in this ministry you're going to be defective. Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against spiritual wickednesses in high places. How does the kingdom of God expand? By eloquence? No.

By knowledge? No. It needs eloquence to a degree. It certainly needs knowledge.

But that's not the exclusive way in which the gospel message is to be transmitted. Jesus is the example par excellence, the greatest preacher that ever lived, but you find him in the early hours of the morning on his knees before a holy God. Why is his ministry so effective? Because this man walks before the Father in prayer.

And I believe that the human life, your life and mine, can pulsate with the very power of God. I believe with all my heart, my dear friend, that we can pull down the very strongholds of Satan. I believe that we can liberate the captive through the message of the evangel.

But we can only do that as we gain our power before the living God. And we gain that power in an attitude of prayer. And the reason why I find prayer so difficult is because I'm up against opposition.

The reason why I need to be told time and time again to watch my prayer life, to be careful, to be disciplined, is because the devil will come along and he will endeavor to deflect me into lesser pursuits of importance. When Peter is writing on this same theme in the letter that bears his name, he tells us to be sober and to watch unto prayer. And that's the very thing where Peter was defective in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Brother Ian read to us the passage from Mark's Gospel. There was Peter and the rest of the disciples, and they were asleep. But Peter had promised divine vigilance before the Son of God.

All men may forsake you, but I won't. Jesus of Nazareth, you can count on me. And he meant it.

What he didn't realize were the forces of opposition that were against him were so intense. They were so hostile. They were greater than his own ability to withstand them.

And Peter falls asleep. When he should be on his knees, he's on his back. When he should be praying, he's slumbering.

And so he says when he's writing later on from an honest heart, you Christian people who read this letter, be sober. Be watchful unto prayer. I was caught out.

I slipped into temptation. I denied the Christ of God because of my own carelessness in this ministry. Continue in prayer.

And watch in the same with thanksgiving. There's a conflict in prayer, my friend. I cannot promise you.

I wish I could. Certainly my experience would run against the grain if I did. That prayer will get easy in your life.

The longer I'm in the Christian ministry, the harder I find it at times to pray. When I get there, it's delightful. When I'm in the company of God's people, it's entrancing.

I honestly can think of nothing that satisfies me more, nothing that gives me greater pleasure. I mean this as God is my judge. Than being with His people in an attitude of praise and prayer.

But I very often find it hard to get to that prayer meeting. To get on my knees in my closet at home or in my office and to offer prayer. And I've got no logical explanation for the problem apart from the opposition that comes from the devil.

Hostile forces preventing me from having a holy intercourse with God by which the message which I endeavor to preach from this pulpit shall be baptized with the power of the Spirit and become as a cutting edge that causes men to respond to the power of the gospel. Here then, my time is through. Here I say is the clarion call to prayer.

It's context. Every domestic situation as you're at home from the house of God. And also when we come together in corporate prayer before the throne of grace.

The concept of prayer praising, interceding with the whole of our being, not patronizing God, saying a prayer offering a prayer praying, praising with enthusiasm, with agony if necessary. And the conflict. Yes, there'll be one.

That's why Paul says and Jesus said and Peter said watch your prayer ministry and ensure that you offer it in the name of the living God in a disciplined fashion. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. The concept, the context the concept the conflict.

May God have blessed this meditation to your hearts. Now Father God in the interim before we go through those gates help us to watch unto prayer for Jesus' sake. Amen.