Ask Pastor Jake: What’s the big deal with corporate prayer?

Question:  Why is it necessary for multitudes of people to pray for the same thing? For instance, if someone is sick, why ask for prayer warriors, prayer chains, prayer lists, etc. Isn’t one prayer, prayed with faith, sufficient? Is God more likely to respond to clamoring hoards of people? Or does he say, “Darn, if only 13 more people had prayed for her I would have cured her?”

This is a great question, certainly one that most Christians wonder about at some point or another.  Prayer in general is a rather mysterious subject, provoking all sorts of curiosities and questions.  The dynamics of corporate prayer – praying with others – is one aspect of prayer that can be easily misunderstood.

In order to understand the importance of any prayer, we first have to come to terms with the basic purpose of prayer to begin with.  Before asking why we should enlist others to join us in prayer, we have to know why we pray at all.  The sentence in the question above betrays a common misunderstanding about prayer.  It reads, “Why is it necessary for multitudes of people to pray for the same thing?” I don’t like that word “necessary.”

The reality is that prayer is not necessary. God does not need our prayers.  Now, I know the person who submitted this question, and I don’t think she believes God needs our prayers, either.  But all of us – myself included – can slip into this subtle reversal of roles with God.  We can forget that God is God, and we are not.  God is not dependent upon humans for anything.  He has no need of anything we can provide (Ps. 50:12-15; 1 Chron. 29:14; Acts 17:24-25).  Despite what your grandma’s favorite coffee cup says, our prayers are not powerful.  Our prayers – in and of themselves – are impotent.  God is powerful.  Our prayers only have power if God chooses to use them.

There are plenty of time in the Bible when God accomplishes amazing things without the prayers of His people.  The Bible tells us that our prayers are not even necessary for ourselves! Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 6:8, that “your Father knows what you need before you ask.”  And yet Jesus taught his disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9).  So, why pray?  Rather than speculate within ourselves, I think the Bible gives us answers to this question.

First, our prayers glorify God. Jesus taught in John 14:13, “Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”  Rather than jump off the self-centered deep end by focusing on the phrase “whatever you ask” in this verse – dreaming of just how much we might be able to get from God based upon this promise – we should instead focus on the God-exalting phrase, “the Father may be glorified.”  That last portion of the verse, which clearly articulates a purpose, an end, an intended result of prayer, governs the first portion and what is included in the “whatever.”

Prayer is for the glory of God.  When we ask the Father for things, not in our own names (for they are powerless) but in the name of Christ our great High Priest (whose name is above all names), we give Him opportunity to show off His majesty and mercy.  We acknowledge that He is sovereign and in control.  No matter how He answers, by praying to God we show that we trust Him with the outcome of whatever we face.

Imagine someone coming up to you and asking, “Why do you pray?”  If you said, “I pray just because it makes me feel better,” or “I pray because I think my good thoughts make a difference in the universe,” God is not glorified.  And I don’t think most believers would answer in these ways first.  Instead, we say, “I am praying because I believe my God hears and is able to answer me.”  This is glorifying to God.  We are confessing our faith.  With this response we are witnessing to the world and giving honor to God.

Second, our prayers are for our joy. Jesus said in John 16:24, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”  Prayer – the practice of asking God in Jesus’ name – is a means by which we receive joy in Christ.  Because He is not physically with us today, the means by which we spend time with Jesus is through prayer.  When we ask for those things that align with the primary purpose of prayer – the glory of God – we then receive, that is, we see God glorified.  In this we find joy.  We find hope in the reminder that God is good.  We find peace in the reminder that God is sovereign.  We find comfort in the reminder that He hears us.  Hope, peace, comfort – these all add up to great joy in Christ.

Third, prayer can change our minds. Prayer does not change God’s mind.  God knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning.  No prayer makes him relent of his purpose.  Instead, God uses our prayers to shape and mold our minds and hearts.  Our prayers can align our wills with God’s.  As we take a burden or care to God in a spirit of trust and submission, we find that God works in us to become more like Jesus.

Those who say that prayer change’s God’s mind will often site the story of Hezekiah’s illness.  In this account in Isaiah 38, Hezekiah gets sick and is told that God says he is going to die.  The king weeps and prays, God hears, and his life is extended fifteen years.  But never does the Bible say that God changed his mind.  The king wrote in Isaiah 38:17, 19:

Behold, it was for my welfare
that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my life
from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
behind your back…

The living, the living, he thanks you,
as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children
your faithfulness.

God did not change His mind.  Instead, God used the threat of illness to bring glory to himself (see purpose one above) and to increase the king’s joy (see purpose two above).  It was Hezekiah’s mind, not God’s, that was changed through his prayer to God.

Fourth, God chooses to work through prayers. He can work any way He wants, but in His goodness, God has decided to listen to and respond to the prayers of His people.  Check out James 5:15-18:

¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. ¹⁷Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

Look in verse 15.  The prayer of faith saved because THE LORD raises him up.  God chooses to work through our prayers.  What keeps me alive, food or God’s will?  The answer is both!  God’s will keeps me alive, and food is one means He uses.  Similarly, prayer is one means that God uses to accomplish His will.  Elijah didn’t make it rain or not rain, God did.  But in His sovereign design, God purposed to use Elijah’s prayers.

More people means more glory, more joy, more change, more blessing. Now, back the the basics of the question.  Why corporate prayer?  Why pray together?  I didn’t forget that that was the question.  The reason why we pray together is the same reason we sing together in worship, listen to the Word preached together each Lord’s day.  When we join together as a people to sing, to worship, to submit to the Word, or to pray, it increases God’s glory and our joy.  It moves us not only individually, but as a people.

Paul asked for corporate prayers from the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 1:11, “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”  Notice how this verse so nicely takes each of the above points on prayer in general and expands them to a corporate application.  Paul asks for prayers for the following purposes:

• So that many will give thanks – that’s more glory to God.
• For the blessings granted [to] us – that’s more joy for God’s people.
• Verse 9 says of the situation being prayed about that it was “to make us rely not on ourselves but on God” - that’s a change in the people’s hearts.
• Through the prayers of many – that’s God’s choice to use the prayers of His people as a channel of blessing.

We join together in prayer as an act of worship and submission to God together, acknowledging with one another that He is Lord.  We ask others to pray with us so that we can share the joy of answered prayers and even the joy of trusting in a sovereign God when prayers seem unanswered.  We unite in our requests so that God will change us together to be more like His Son, Jesus Christ.  And we come together before Him, believing that in His goodness He may use our requests to accomplish His will.

Ask Pastor Jake: New Testament Quotations of the Old Testament

Someone took me up on the “Ask Pastor Jake” blog idea!

Question: Why is it that in New Testament passages, when they quote Old Testament passages, the quote isn’t always exactly the same?

Great question!  I can remember being confused by this myself.  The answer is two-fold.  First, the common written language of the people in the time Jesus lived and the Bible was written was Greek.  This is why the New Testament was written in Greek.  So the version of the Old Testament most frequently used by Jews and the first Christians during the time of the early church was the Septuagint.

The Septuagint (frequently abbreviated LXX) is a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek that was done between the third century BC and around 130 BC.  A team of seventy (or some say seventy-two) Jewish elders worked on the project – hence the use of the Roman numerals for seventy as its standard abbreviation.  The LXX is a great source for enhancing our understanding of the Bible because it gives us insight into how Jews around 200 BC understood the Hebrew scriptures.

Because the LXX was so frequently used during the time the Bible was written, many of the Old Testament quotations are taken from this Greek translation.  In our English Bibles, the Old Testament is typically translated from the Hebrew text.  This accounts for subtle and sometimes blatant differences between Old Testament verses in their original contexts and their quotations in the New Testament.

Here’s one example of a difference.  Mark 7:7 records Jesus quoting the prophet Isaiah to the Pharisees, saying, “…in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  This is a quotation of Isaiah 29:13, in which the Hebrew text says, “…and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…”  The difference in wording is clear, but the meaning is essentially the same.

We must remember as we read our English Bibles that when a New Testament author quotes from the Old Testament, he could very well be quoting a Hebrew verse that was translated into Greek that are reading after a translation to English.  This is not to say that we can’t trust our English Bibles due to translation issues; we can trust them.  This is merely something to keep in mind.

The second thing to consider in addition to the use of the LXX is how we (and the New Testament authors) use quotations.  We all do things frequently to quotations that are widely accepted.  We paraphrase, quote loosely, and even fuse quotations together.  For example, I may write:

In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders write that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are rights given to us by God.

Here I am paraphrasing rather than directly quoting:

…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

No one would accuse me of misquoting in my paraphrase.  A direct quotation was not my intent.  My intent was simply to convey the meaning of that passage from the Declaration of Independence.  I believe some New Testament “quotations” of the Old Testament are not meant to be direct quotations, but are paraphrases or fuses of Old Testament passages.

If this concerns you and challenges your understanding of the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, perhaps this will help.  On this issue, Calvin says a New Testament author’s quotation of the Old Testament does not guarantee the quote’s correctness.  However, Calvin points out that whenever there are problems with an Old Testament quotation in the New Testament, the point that the New Testament author is trying to make does not depend on the discrepancy in the quotation.  So, if Paul quotes from a Septuagint text that is not a very accurate rendering of the original Hebrew, though that quotation may be inaccurate, his argument is based on something in the quotation that is absolutely correct.

Certainly this causes us to realize the depth of the doctrine of the Bible’s inspiration.  God did not deliver His Word on golden plates buried for ages in the woods.  That would be super cheesy. No, He used real people – with faults and fallible minds and feelings and personalities – to give us His perfect, unchanging, everlasting Word.

Ask Pastor Jake

Okay, I thought I would try something new.  We’ll give this a shot and see how it goes.  I would like to blog more, but I find myself not putting a huge priority on it and finding other things to do.  But, one thing that I do quite a bit is answer people’s questions about the Bible, life, or whatever via email.  So, why not open that up for others to see and possibly benefit from, huh?

You can consider this an invitation.  Is there a Bible verse that has you confused?  Are you not sure of the right things to do in a situation?  Do you have trouble understanding a particular issue in Christian theology?  Send it my way (pastorjake@fbcmb.org), and I’ll do my best to answer it on the blog.

I love to answer questions.  It keeps me sharp, keeps me challenged, keeps me on my toes.  Sounds like fun, huh?

Obedience that is demanded!

Im so happy I think I could just blog I thought I would share something that we have been going over in sunday school in the youth department. As most of you who read the FBCMB blog faithfully know we have found a new curriculum for our students. It is from “Desiring God,” and it has proven to be worth every penny spent on it. Over the last couple of weeks we have been talking about obedience and the demands that…yes, I said demands, that Christ has given us to follow Him. An example that the curriculum uses is what goes on every day at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetary in Arlington, Virginia. The tomb is guarded 24-7, 365 days a year by soldiers of the 3rd U.S. infantry. In order to guard the tomb soldiers must meet certain expectations. Some of the requirements are as follows;

* You must have an exemplary military record.

*You must be between 5′10″ and 6′4″ with a proportionate build

*You must memorize verbatim a seven page history of Arlington National Cemetery and the location of 300 graves.

* The soldiers uniform must be immaculate and his shoes polished to gleaming.

The guard walks at a pace of 90 steps per minute. He marches 21 steps down the black mat behind the tomb and then turns and faces the tomb for 21 seconds. He then turns again to face down the mat, executes a “shoulder-arms” movement to change his gun to the opposite shoulder, pauses 21 seconds, and takes 21 steps back down the mat.

This is a very special and solemn way to honor all of the soldiers who were never found or identified after they died faithfully serving and fighting for our country. Ill bet that they have never had any soldier question any of the requirements to follow in submission to be allowed to be a part in something so special. Ill bet that when the soldiers are polishing their shoes in preparation to guard the tomb, the last thing on their mind is to complain and ask, “Why do I have to go to all of this trouble?” They just do what they are told.

Jesus didnt ask Zaccheus if he would mind coming down and him haw around to see if he might invite him over for a meal. 

He invited Himself.

He gave a command.  “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” Same thing happened with Matthew. Jesus didn’t ask , He just said  “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. Jesus told the rich young ruler, “one thing you still lack;sell all that you possess…and come, follow Me.” He didn’t follow Christ. One man asked to go bury his father and another asked if he could go back and say goodbye to his family. Jesus’ reply I’m sure shocked these men as it has people over two thousand years. I love what J.C. Ryle says in his commentary on Luke.

” We learn from this saying that it is impossible to serve Christ with a divided heart. He must have all our heart, or none. No doubt we are to honor father and mother and love all around us. But when love to Christ and love to relatives come in collision, Christ must have the preference.”

Jesus demands submission, obedience to His commands and full allegiance to His crown. No man made institution tolerates half hearted allegiance. Why do we categorize our Christian duties as things that we may do if we can get everything else done. We will go to church if… We will go on missions if…

Jesus demanded obedience then and still demands it now!

Sermon Upload

Don’t forget that if you miss on Sunday you can always download the sermon or listen to it on the sermon player at sermon.net/fbcmb.  You can also subscribe on iTunes by searching for “FBCMB” in the iTunes Store.

Here’s a wordle of Sunday’s sermon on Proverbs 9.

Midnight, Christians

“O Holy Night,” the much-loved Christmas carol, was originally a French poem titled “Midnight, Christians.”  it was composed by a wine merchant named Placide Cappeau at the request of his parish priest.

If you have ever wondered how people translate songs from one language to another and make them still rhyme, well, it is because they don’t do very literal translations.  I have, for your Christmas pleasure, a literal translation of the poem on which “O Holy Night” is based.

Midnight, Christians, it’s the solemn hour,
When God-man descended to us
To erase the stain of original sin
And to end the wrath of His Father.
The entire world thrills with hope
On this night that gives it a Savior.

People kneel down, wait for your deliverance.
Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer,
Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer!

The ardent light of our Faith,
Guides us all to the cradle of the infant,
As in ancient times a brilliant star
Conducted the Magi there from the orient.
The King of kings was born in a humble manger;
O mighty ones of today, proud of your grandeur,

It is to your pride that God preaches.
Bow your heads before the Redeemer!
Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

The Redeemer has overcome every obstacle:
The Earth is free, and Heaven is open.
He sees a brother where there was only a slave,
Love unites those that iron had chained.
Who will tell Him of our gratitude,
For all of us He is born, He suffers and dies.

People stand up! Sing of your deliverance,
Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer,
Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer!

Christmas Prayer

I love this Puritan Christmas prayer:

O source of all good,
What shall I render to you for the gift of gifts,
your own dear Son?

Herein is wonder of wonders:
he came below to raise me above,
was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love;
when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace,
to raise me to himself.

Herein is power;
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart,
he united them in indissoluble unity,
the uncreate and the created.

Herein is wisdom;
when I was undone,
with no will to return to him,
and no intellect to devise recovery,
he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,
as man to die my death,
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
to work out a perfect righteousness for me!

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
and enlarge my mind!

Let me hear good tidings of great joy,
and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father!

Place me with ox, donkey, camel, goat,
to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,
and in him account myself delivered from sin!

Let me with Simeon clasp the newborn child to my heart,
embrace him with undying faith,
exulting that he is mine and I am his!

In him you have given me so much that heaven can give no more.

Christmas Hymn: “In the Bleak Midwinter”

One of my favorite Christmas hymns that, sadly, we do not hear often is  “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti, and is truly beautiful.  Several artists have versions of this song available for download from iTunes or Amazon.

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him,

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When he comes to reign;

In the bleak midwinter

A stable place sufficed

The Lord God incarnate,

Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom Cherubim

Worship night and day

A breast full of milk

And a manger full of hay.

Enough for him, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

which adore.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But his mother only,

In her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

What can I give him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb,

If I were a wise man

I would do my part,

Yet what I can I give Him —

Give my heart.

Christmas Meditations

I have a collection of favorite writings – prose and poetry – on the subject of Christ’s birth.  I thought that between now and Christmas Day I would share some of these with you.  I pray they will touch you and move you as they have me.  The first is from the “Holy Sonnets” of John Donne.  I love Donne’s articulation of the mystery of the incarnation in this, the second of the Holy Sonnets.

“Annunciation”

Salvation to all that will is nigh,
That all, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful Virgin, yields himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though he there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet he ‘will wear
Taken from thence, flesh, which death’s force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in his mind, who is thy son, and brother,
Whom thou conceiv’st, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy maker’s maker, and they father’s mother,
Thou’ hast light in dark; and shutt’st in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.

One of the best sermons I’ve ever heard.

Check out this video of excepts from John Piper’s message at the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference:

John Piper – Recap from T4G 2008 from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

I remember sitting in that convention center with thousands of other men as Pastor John unpacked these passages from the book of Hebrews on radical sacrifice.  Everyone else in that huge room faded away, at times even Piper, and I knew God was speaking to me – building my faith, granting me repentance, quickening my spirit, pouring out his grace, rekindling my love, calling me to obedience, and enlightening my eyes to see more and more of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I can hardly wait to go back in April of 2010.

You can hear Piper’s whole 2008 T4G message here.  I highly recommend it.