Why Do We Pray for Our President?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the podcast.

00:00:05.560 | Welcome to June, June 1st, a Thursday,

00:00:08.600 | our first Thursday episode in a long time,

00:00:11.380 | but now part of our new routine here on the podcast,

00:00:14.220 | at least for the season ahead.

00:00:16.180 | You can now expect ABJ episodes on Mondays

00:00:19.100 | and on Thursdays, two times a week.

00:00:21.440 | No more sermon clip Wednesdays.

00:00:23.860 | John Piper's sermons are now being curated

00:00:26.180 | in a new podcast from Desiring God

00:00:28.620 | called Light and Truth, Light and Truth.

00:00:31.740 | So if you want your five days a week

00:00:33.700 | fill of John Piper sermons, old sermons and new sermons,

00:00:36.340 | subscribe to our new podcast, Light and Truth.

00:00:39.820 | And I'm sure many of you already have.

00:00:42.580 | But on this Thursday episode,

00:00:44.100 | we're back in studio with Pastor John

00:00:45.820 | to field a question from Dustin in Indianapolis, Indiana.

00:00:49.260 | He writes this, "Pastor John, hello.

00:00:51.180 | "In light of 1 Timothy 2, verses one to four,

00:00:53.580 | "how are we to pray for unrighteous leaders?

00:00:57.540 | "How about presidents and other politicians?

00:01:00.660 | "How do you do it?

00:01:01.980 | "And what specifically do you pray for?"

00:01:05.220 | - Let's read the text that Dustin is referring to

00:01:09.060 | so that we can be specific.

00:01:12.060 | It's 1 Timothy 2, one to four, I'll read.

00:01:16.020 | First of all then, I urge that supplications,

00:01:19.060 | prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings

00:01:22.900 | be made for all people, for kings,

00:01:27.780 | and all who are in high positions

00:01:30.700 | that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life,

00:01:34.660 | godly and dignified in every way.

00:01:37.540 | This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God,

00:01:41.060 | our Savior, who desires all people to be saved

00:01:45.660 | and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

00:01:49.300 | So Paul is calling for Christians

00:01:51.860 | to pray for all people.

00:01:54.020 | We focus on the kings, but it says all people.

00:01:57.660 | I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions,

00:02:00.700 | thanksgivings be made for all people.

00:02:03.900 | And then the kings and all those in high positions

00:02:06.620 | are a subset of all people.

00:02:10.820 | They are mentioned explicitly, I think,

00:02:14.780 | because they are especially relevant

00:02:18.580 | for the purpose of the prayer mentioned in the next clause.

00:02:21.840 | Namely that we may lead a life that's peaceful

00:02:25.420 | and quiet, godly, dignified in every way.

00:02:29.700 | So I take the all people to mean

00:02:32.060 | that wherever we look in the world

00:02:35.060 | and see people who might in some way make decisions

00:02:38.100 | that have a bearing on the circumstances

00:02:40.700 | in which Christians live,

00:02:42.420 | we should give thanks,

00:02:44.820 | underline that, thanksgiving for all people,

00:02:47.700 | we should give thanks for whatever proper role they fill,

00:02:52.280 | and we should ask God to incline their thoughts

00:02:57.280 | and incline their wills toward those decisions

00:03:02.440 | which carve out a space of justice and peace and freedom

00:03:07.720 | that allow Christians and others to live out our faith

00:03:14.880 | without physical resistance and without tumults

00:03:19.880 | and lawlessness and mob rule and war.

00:03:24.940 | That would include using their civil powers

00:03:29.540 | to restrain different forms of injustices.

00:03:33.660 | So there are two levels at which we pray

00:03:38.660 | for people in high positions.

00:03:42.260 | One is that they be saved.

00:03:45.680 | And Paul said in Romans 10, one,

00:03:47.660 | "My heart's desire and prayer to God for them

00:03:51.740 | is that they may be saved."

00:03:53.780 | And he was referring to his Jewish kinsmen,

00:03:57.120 | whatever their rank,

00:03:59.960 | whether they're a high priest or a synagogue ruler

00:04:02.500 | or just an ordinary Jewish person,

00:04:04.680 | he's praying, "God, save my kinsmen."

00:04:08.700 | So that's what we do for all people

00:04:11.880 | who come into our mind, we ask God to save them,

00:04:16.280 | to show them the truth and beauty of Christ

00:04:20.480 | and to incline their hearts,

00:04:22.780 | to believe and embrace Christ as their savior

00:04:25.380 | and Lord and treasure.

00:04:27.540 | Our hope as we pray this is that they will then,

00:04:32.500 | if they have any kind of authority at all,

00:04:34.940 | they will then see more clearly

00:04:37.260 | which decisions they have to make

00:04:41.320 | are just and peaceable and freedom loving

00:04:44.680 | so that some measure of freedom and justice and peace

00:04:49.320 | can be established so we can go about our lives

00:04:51.700 | without tumult or attack.

00:04:55.280 | That's one level, salvation.

00:04:58.080 | The other level of prayer is for leaders,

00:05:02.160 | even if the first prayer is not answered right away,

00:05:06.800 | "God, you're sending me for their salvation,"

00:05:10.560 | even if that's not going to happen right away,

00:05:14.720 | we keep on praying for them.

00:05:17.120 | Paul does not say to pray only for Christian leaders

00:05:21.200 | or only that leaders become Christian.

00:05:23.680 | In fact, it seems to me that Paul assumes in this context

00:05:28.680 | that most of the leaders Timothy would be praying for

00:05:33.520 | are not Christians.

00:05:35.280 | They're mainly Roman officials at various levels,

00:05:37.800 | emperor, governors, military leaders, town justices,

00:05:41.720 | as well as some Jewish synagogue leaders and so on.

00:05:45.840 | They're virtually all unbelievers.

00:05:48.320 | That's what he's mainly referring to.

00:05:51.060 | And the way we pray for unbelievers

00:05:53.300 | besides praying for their conversion

00:05:55.360 | is at the second level I'm talking about,

00:05:57.960 | namely the level of providence.

00:06:00.960 | At least that's one way to describe it.

00:06:02.840 | We know from Scripture, Proverbs 21.1,

00:06:06.020 | "The king's heart is a stream of water

00:06:11.960 | in the hand of the Lord.

00:06:13.720 | He turns it wherever he will."

00:06:17.760 | Now that's true of all kings, rulers,

00:06:20.880 | whether they're godly or not.

00:06:23.520 | So we pray that God in his all-governing providence

00:06:29.960 | over unbelievers and believers will incline the thoughts

00:06:33.760 | and the wills of non-Christian rulers to make decisions,

00:06:38.760 | even within their limited framework of right and wrong,

00:06:42.840 | that are just and freedom-producing and peace-producing

00:06:49.160 | so that those things that would enable Christians

00:06:53.520 | to proceed with their ordinary lives would hold sway.

00:06:57.040 | And I think the way Paul calls for prayer for leaders

00:07:02.040 | contains a warning for us of how not to think

00:07:07.360 | about the role of rulers in relation to the Christian faith.

00:07:11.540 | In spite of what I said about praying for their conversion,

00:07:17.080 | which is what we do for all people,

00:07:20.240 | that's not what Paul focuses on in this text.

00:07:22.840 | Paul is writing in a situation in which civil authorities

00:07:26.960 | are virtually all non-Christian.

00:07:29.520 | They may be ignorant of the Christian faith,

00:07:32.040 | they may be neutral, they may be hostile.

00:07:34.980 | So Paul's foremost thought is not that these prayers

00:07:39.980 | are prayers for Christian advocacy.

00:07:44.000 | I think this is crucial.

00:07:46.560 | He's not telling us to pray that civil authorities

00:07:50.660 | would become a conscious weapon

00:07:55.380 | of explicitly Christian promotion of the faith.

00:07:58.780 | He's thinking about pagan rulers who remain pagan,

00:08:04.780 | but still are influenced by the providence of God

00:08:07.540 | to bring about in their limited, godless framework,

00:08:11.620 | some measure of justice and peace and freedom.

00:08:16.500 | Christians benefit from this, as others do,

00:08:20.660 | but this providence of God is not an example

00:08:25.460 | of Christians trying to turn state power

00:08:29.820 | into an explicit promoter of Christ's spiritual kingdom.

00:08:34.820 | Now, the reason I mention that warning

00:08:38.940 | is because Jesus said to Pilate at his trial,

00:08:43.940 | this is John 18, 36, "My kingdom is not of this world.

00:08:50.260 | "If my kingdom were of this world,

00:08:54.020 | "my servants would have been fighting

00:08:57.740 | "that I might not be delivered over to the Jews,

00:09:00.900 | "but my kingdom is not from the world."

00:09:05.580 | In other words, Jesus was eager that Christians

00:09:10.580 | not look to civil authorities for the establishment

00:09:14.380 | of his kingdom on earth.

00:09:16.220 | The way the state keeps the peace

00:09:20.100 | and the way Christ spreads his saving rule

00:09:23.860 | are radically different.

00:09:27.060 | So we don't pray that the state become an arm of the church.

00:09:32.060 | We don't pray as if the kingdom of God,

00:09:35.740 | the saving reign of Christ is of this world

00:09:40.740 | or that it would be advanced

00:09:43.360 | through an explicitly Christian use of the sword.

00:09:47.460 | Rather, we pray that God would have mercy on us

00:09:51.940 | and on the world whom he aims for us to evangelize

00:09:56.380 | in this text and would cause the hearts of presidents

00:10:01.100 | and governors and mayors and legislators

00:10:04.420 | to make decisions that bring about justice

00:10:07.900 | and peace and freedom so that we can go about our lives

00:10:12.400 | of worship and godliness and love and evangelism

00:10:17.400 | and world missions.

00:10:19.100 | - Amen.

00:10:19.940 | He has a good warning here about misreading this text

00:10:22.220 | as political advocacy.

00:10:24.100 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:10:25.700 | And thank you for joining us today.

00:10:27.380 | If you want to ask Pastor John,

00:10:29.780 | email us your question, go to askpastorjohn.com.

00:10:33.700 | That's our online home, and you can send us an email

00:10:36.180 | through that website, askpastorjohn.com.

00:10:40.740 | Next week, we have two questions about pastoring.

00:10:43.360 | Can single men pastor?

00:10:45.720 | That's on Monday.

00:10:46.560 | Can single men pastor?

00:10:49.080 | And then how much should pastors make?

00:10:51.600 | That's Thursday.

00:10:53.200 | I'm your host Tony Rehnke.

00:10:54.040 | Pastor John and I will see you next week.

00:10:55.840 | Have a great weekend.

00:10:56.880 | (upbeat music)

00:10:59.460 | (upbeat music)

00:11:02.040 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Why Do We Pray for Our President?

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