Please join me in prayer in my fight

[Romans 15:30-33]

Why do you pray? Are you not crying out to God because you are in a situation where you have no choice but to pray to God? As I meditate on the words of Psalms 116:1-12, I am taught that we, too, must dedicate ourselves to prayer, just as the psalmist decided, “I will call on Him as long as I live” (v. 2b). Now is the time for us to pray. It is time for all of us to gather together and cry out to God. And what we must keep in mind is that prayer is a battle. Prayer is fighting our own old habits and fighting the old sinful instincts within us. Also, prayer is fighting the sinful world, fighting those who oppose the gospel, and further fighting Satan. The community of the church is a gathering of militant Christians who take the victorious Jesus as their captain and wage spiritual warfare. In other words, you and I are Christians fighting in spiritual warfare with the assurance of victory. Therefore, we are fighting a spiritual war against ourselves, sin, the world, death, and Satan today. As militant soldiers of the cross fighting this spiritual war, what we need is the full armor of God (Eph. 6:11, 13). And among the full armor of God, what we want to focus on today is intercessory prayer. Regarding this intercessory prayer, Paul says in Ephesians 6:18-19: “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. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.” Our church must pray to God for each other's brothers and sisters, and also intercede for pastors and church leaders.

In today's text, Romans 15:30, we can see that Paul continues to write letters to the saints in Rome, exhorting them like this: “I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” What Paul is admonishing the saints in Rome here is to pray together in his fight. Of course, in the Korean Bible, it says, ‘Join me in your prayers and pray to God for me,’ but in the original Greek Bible, the first word in this sentence is “συναγωνίσασθαί.” This word is a compound word and its literal meaning is “Along with” (together) + “Agonize” (to agonize, struggle). This means ‘fighting together’ or ‘struggle together’ rather than simply interceding for a struggling brother or sister. The word was originally used by wrestlers or boxers to fight each other in athletic competitions, especially gymnastics (MacArthur). Therefore, the reason Paul used this word when admonishing the Roman church saints was that he wanted them to help him and fight his battle with great effort (Freiberg). Now, Paul is going to go to Jerusalem to serve the Jerusalem church saints (vv. 25, 31) with the relief money that his gentile brothers, the Macedonians and Achaeans, gathered with joy (v. 26). Here, in order to understand Paul's exhortation in more detail, we must ask two questions: (1) What does "my service" that Paul is referring to in verse 31? (2) Why did Paul ask the saints in Rome to join him in prayer in his fight? First, “my service” that Paul is talking about refers to “the service of the saints” in verse 25. To explain more specifically, Paul now goes to Jerusalem with the relief offerings collected by the Gentile believers (Acts 11:28-30) and delivers them to the poor among the Jewish believers of the Jerusalem church (v. 26), who were suffering greatly from the famine (Acts 11:28-30), so that he could serve the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. This is “my service” or “serving the saints” that Paul is talking about. To answer the second question, ‘Why did Paul ask the saints in Rome to pray with him in his fight?’, we need to know what Paul’s conflict was in wanting to go to Jerusalem to serve the Jewish saints. Look at Acts 20:22-23: “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.” Paul's conflict was in serving the Jewish saints in Jerusalem. Paul's opponents, who did not obey the gospel, would bind and persecute Paul as soon as he arrived in Jerusalem. And I think he didn't fight with himself to handle the mission given to him even in this situation. Paul, who did not regard his life as precious in order to finish his course and the mission he received from the Lord Jesus, that is, to testify to the gospel of God's grace (Acts 20:24), I think he was more concern about whether or not to fulfill the mission given by the Lord than whether or not to lose one's life through tribulation and persecution. Then, what was the prayer topic that Paul asked the saints in Rome to join him in his fight in prayer? There were two prayer topics:

The first prayer topic was God's deliverance.

Look at Romans 15:31a – “Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea ….” Why did Paul ask the saints of the Roman church to pray together in his fight so that when he goes up to Jerusalem, there he will be delivered from the hands of his enemies who disobey the gospel of Jesus Christ? The reason was because he desperately wanted to complete the mission given to him by the Lord (MacArthur). God heard and answered this prayer of Paul and the Roman church saints, and when Paul arrived in Jerusalem, God delivered Paul's life from the hands of the Jews from Asia who disobeyed the gospel. Although they saw Paul and stirred up the crowd (v. 27), stirred up a commotion, seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple (v. 30), and eventually had the commander of the Roman army seize Paul, bind him with two chains, and put him in prison (vv. 31-33, 23:11) (MacArthur), God forbade them to touch Paul's life.

The second prayer topic was that the Jewish saints in Jerusalem receive Paul's service.

Look at Romans 15:31b – “… and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there.” Now Paul wanted to take the relief offerings he had collected from the Gentiles and deliver them to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. The prayer he asked the saints in Rome was not only to pray for the Jewish saints in Jerusalem to receive economic help, the gift of love from the Gentile saints to their Jewish brothers, but also to ask the saints in Rome to pray together. We may think that Paul asked the Roman saints to join him in prayer while worrying about this, but from Paul's point of view at that time, he could not help but pray in agony. The reason was because there was tension in the relationship between Jews and Gentiles at that time. Just as the tension between the Jewish and Gentile believers in the Church of Rome prevented them from having one mind in the Lord, such tension existed between Jewish and Gentile believers at the time of Paul. Therefore, Paul could not help but worry. He prayed that the Jewish brothers would receive the relief offerings with a happy heart, as the Gentile believers made almsgiving offerings for the Jewish brothers with a willing heart. Therefore, Paul wanted them to realize and know that they are one brother and one community in Christ. What is the ultimate purpose of these two prayer topics of Paul? Look at verse 32: “so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.” The purpose of Paul's two prayer requests to the saints in Rome was to go to the Roman saints with joy and take a rest to recharge with them after his service work in Jerusalem was safely finished. Here, the recharging rest that Paul was talking about was that Paul imparted some spiritual gift to the Roman saints to persevere, so that they could gain comfort because of their faith (1:11-12). That is why Paul, writing this epistle to the Romans to the saints in Rome, said in the first half of 1:10-11: “in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong.” This true recharging rest is to be comforted by each other's faith through meeting each other in the Lord. When we do so, truly “the God of peace” (15:33) gives us the peace of the soul that the world cannot give. For this, Paul wrote a letter to the Roman saints and asked them to pray for him in his fight for Jerusalem.

What will you do? Wouldn't you like to join each other in prayer in each of our spiritual battles? I want you to join me in prayer in my fight. My struggle (concern) is for all members of our victory community to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and live with the assurance of salvation. Also, all of our hearts are to become militant Christians who fight and win with confidence in the spiritual war against ourselves, sin, the world, death, and Satan. I hope and pray that all church members will be established as the glorious church, the holy bride of Jesus, the bridegroom, with the confidence of God's guidance, so that when Jesus returns, we can all enter that heaven and live forever with the Lord. Until then, at this time when there are many grains to harvest but not enough workers to harvest, I hope and pray that all members of Victory Presbyterian Church will be raised up as workers with a Christ-centered vision and participate in building the church, which is the body of the Lord, so that we can be used to expand the kingdom of God.