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Romans 15:30-33
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Romans 15:30-33. George Mueller was a great missionary. And the thing that’s probably most known about him is prayer. He lived a very sinful life until he was 20 years old, when he came to know Jesus, and then he went to school to become a missionary. After completing seminary, Mueller went before the London Missionary Society to see about becoming one of their missionaries, but he was turned down because he led such a sinful life prior to being born again.
So, Mueller said, “Lord, what do I do?” And George felt the Lord wanted him to pray. So, he prayed for an entire year. After the year ended, he prayed again and said, “Lord, what now?” And he felt as though God wanted him to go to Teignmouth, England. So, he took his savings and went to Teignmouth and went to the only church in the city – Ebenezer Chapel – and said, “I’d like to speak with the pastor.” They said, “Our pastor resigned last Sunday.” George Mueller said, “Well, I went to seminary to be a missionary and God called me to come to this city.” They said, “You’re hired.”
He becomes the pastor. Then they start orphanages. The entire time they’re covering everything with prayer. Interestingly, one of the things he stopped was the practice of buying seats in the church. That’s how the church was raising money. You paid a rent on your seat. He got rid of that and put the offering plates in the back of the church, because he didn’t want people giving out of compulsion but out of their own free will. By the late 1800’s, the amount of money given to missions by this little church in Devon County, England was $7.5M. They started more orphanages than any missionary organization before or since. And all of that came out of prayer.
When George Mueller got saved he had five friends that didn’t know Jesus. He prayed for them every day. Three of them got saved in the first decade of his ministry. The fourth friend got saved 25 years later. Mueller got saved at the age of 20 and began praying for these five friends. The last friend got saved when Mueller died at the age of 92, because he heard his friend praying for him. That means George Mueller strived in his prayers for this last friend for 72 years. And that’s what I want us to consider this morning – striving together in prayer.
Romans 15 concludes with Paul describing his missionary work among the Gentiles (vss. 14-21), and his plan to visit Rome after a detour to Jerusalem to take and offering to the Jews. And we pick up with verse 30:
30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Now, the fact that Paul asked the believers in Rome to pray for him was not unusual. He asked the church in Corinth to pray for him, “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” (2 Corinthians 1:11). He called upon the Ephesian and Colossian believers to pray for him, “To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel…” (Ephesians 6:18-19, Colossians 4:3). And twice, he asked the church in Thessalonica to pray for him and his friends.
So, why am I highlighting this? Because, sometimes we think that Paul was such an extraordinary, godly saint that he wouldn’t need folks to pray for him. Yet he didn’t see himself that way. He saw himself always standing in the need of prayer. You need prayer. I need prayer. We all need people who will pray for us whenever possible. Some of you may be wondering, “Why do we have prayer meetings? Why have prayer chains and prayer groups? If God is God, and it’s His power that makes a difference in answering prayer, why does it matter how many people ask Him?”
One answer is that the more people that are praying for a thing, the more thanks and honor God will get when He acts. We see this in 2 Corinthians 1:10–11, “And [God] will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many.”
The assumption behind the answer of this question is that the divine purpose of prayer is to magnify the greatness of God. Prayer exists for the glory of God. Jesus said in John 14:13, “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” The aim of prayer is that the Father be glorified through Jesus. So, the more people there are praying for something, and thus depending on God for mercy and power, the more people will give Him thanks and glorify Him when the answer comes. That bring us to the first point I want us to see this morning.
Pray Intentionally
Paul would never have requested prayers similar to how some people pray today: “Lord, please bless all the missionaries.” In verses 14-21 Paul has just finished offering a brief summary of his work. He’s taken the gospel to the Gentiles. The Gentiles congregations have recognized their spiritual indebtedness to their Jewish brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, who are struggling financially, and so they want to send them a financial contribution. Then, if all goes well, Paul plans to visit this congregation in Rome (hopefully gaining their financial support) and then on to Spain.
If someone were to listen in on your prayers over the last week, would they hear a zeal for God’s glory among all the nations? Would they hear concern for the more than two billion men, women, and children who are among groups still unreached by the gospel? Would they hear compassion for imprisoned and endangered brothers and sisters in persecuted countries?
Would they hear prayers for God’s mercy and justice amidst crises in Latin America or conflicts in the Middle East, or on behalf of the starving in sub-Saharan Africa, the trafficked in South Asia, and refugees forced from their homes around the world? Would they hear pleading for the health of the global church in places where it does exist and for missionaries who are planting the church where it does not exist?
If the answer to any (or all) of the above questions is “no,” I simply want to encourage you to incorporate praying for the world into your regular time alone with God. And I want to encourage you in this way because God has invited you to pray in this way. To be more accurate, He has commanded you to pray in this way. But as with His other commands, this is an invitation from God to participate with Him in what He’s doing in the world.
Just think about it. On your way to work, or on the way to a doctor’s appointment, or as you’re headed to the golf course for some fun among friends, we can pause and play a part in what God is doing in North Korea, or North Africa – among the unreached, among the persecuted, and among the suffering in places where we may never go and in the lives of people we may never meet (at least this side of heaven). And God has not only invited you and me to ask Him for requests around the world; He’s promised to answer our requests according to His word. That brings us to the second point, which is…
Pray Intensely
Paul asks them to “strive together” with him in prayer (v. 30). That word “strive” has, as its root, the Greek word agonidzo. It’s the word from which we get our word “agony.” Paul was asking the Roman Christians to agonize with him in prayer. True prayer is a spiritual battle ground. It’s an intense endeavor that requires real energy, fortitude, and perseverance. It’s not for the faint-hearted. Remember, prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit is prayer against the will of the Devil. Real, authentic, meaningful prayer will be resisted by the enemy. So, Paul calls on the Romans to strive together with him in prayer.
One of my favorite stories about this kind of “striving together” comes from the life of Dwight Moody (D.L. Moody). He was a fantastic 19th century preacher from Chicago. After one particularly exhausting period in his life, he journeyed to England for a little vacation, a little rest and relaxation, a little holiday (as they say on the other side of the pond). He didn’t intend on preaching, but he did accept an invitation to preach one Sunday morning and one Sunday evening.
In the morning service he didn’t feel any anointing at all, but in the evening service about 500 people indicated a desire to accept Jesus. Moody couldn’t figure it out. Having met with the pastor, they determined that indeed everyone was apparently serious and desired to be born again. So, Moody told the congregation that he’d be leaving in the morning for Ireland, but the pastor would meet with them. That next week, Moody received a telegram from the pastor asking him to come back. Apparently, the crowd on Monday had been even larger than the one on Sunday night. So, Moody returned to England.
That’s a pretty remarkable story by itself, but here’s what happened behind the scenes. There were two sisters who were members of that London church, one of whom was essentially a bedridden invalid. When her healthy sister returned from the morning service and reported to her that D.L. Moody (from America) had been preaching, her ill sister said that she would’ve fasted and prayed for him during the morning service. She told her sister to leave her along and not let anyone disturb her the rest of the day so that she could fast and pray for God’s anointing on Moody’s preaching at the evening service.
That’s striving together in prayer. Without question, prayer is the hardest work that I do in ministry. It’s harder than studying, preaching and counseling, primarily because I sense the most opposition in prayer. But it’s also the greatest and most rewarding work as well. There’s no doubt that there’s a direct correlation between the difficulty of prayer and its importance.
Besides praying intentionally and intensely, Paul asks the church in Rome to pray intelligently for him.
Pray Intelligently
There are three specific requests that Paul makes in verses 31-32.
First, he asks them to pray for his safety in Judea. If you go back to the later chapters of the Book of Acts, you’ll see that a prophet named Agabus actually predicted that Paul would be bound by his enemies. But because of the prayers of the church, he was spared. He was saved by the working of the will of secular authorities.
Verse 31 of Acts 21 says, “And while they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. And at once he took along some soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them.” So here we see an answer to prayer.
First, someone willed to run and tell the commander there was a riot. Second, the commander willed to take it seriously and came to see. Third, the rest of the verse says, “and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.” So, their evil will was restrained and they stopped short of killing Paul and the prayers of the Roman Christians 1,300 miles away were answered. God influenced the wills of someone to inform the commander, the will of the commander, and the will of the mob. And Paul was spared.
Second, he asked them to pray that his service to Jerusalem would be accepted by the saints. By that, what he means is pray that the Jewish believers in Jerusalem would actually receive the relief money that he was bringing them. Again, Acts 21:17-20 gives us the answer:
“And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And now the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. And after he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it they began glorifying God.”
So, we don’t read anything about the church rejecting Paul or his ministry. God had heard the striving of His people in Rome, and He had acted. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love and joy and that is what Paul met in the church of Jerusalem. God heard and answered with the love of the Spirit.
Third, Paul asks that they pray for his success in coming to Rome. Paul says he wants to arrive there “by the will of God.” Of course, Paul does arrive in Rome but it’s not under the conditions he would’ve chosen. Nevertheless, the prayer was indeed answered.
Don’t neglect the amazing influence you have in the world for good through prayer. By prayer God calls us to join Him in shaping history. By prayer we’re able to influence the wills of presidents and kings and senators and governors and mayors (1 Timothy 2:1–2). By prayer we’re able to influence the wills of professors and writers and entertainers and editors and pastors and elders and missionaries. By prayer we’re able to influence the wills of our friends and our enemies. We’re able to influence the wills of our children by prayer, and our husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and neighbors and colleagues and fellow students.
The amount of transforming good we can do by prayer is incalculable. Don’t neglect this great work God has put into your hands. Let’s use both our instruments to win people over to Christ. Let’s work to change people’s minds with truth and people’s wills with prayer.