Pray to the Mediator

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Immanuel – 9/14/25

          Last week we concluded chapter 1 with a sermon entitled, “The Good Warfare.” It was a call to soldier for Christ, to live with your eyes opened, to live in Christ’s victory and proclaim Christ’s victory. As Paul summoned Timothy, so I summoned you: Wage the good warfare!

In the intervening week, with the assassination of Charlie Kirk – a prominent, politically engaged, Christian – it might be tempting to see enemies across the political divide. But do not confuse your battle.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.                    -Ephesians 6:12

Demonic forces are at work in our world. They want to divide us. They want us to hate one another. They want us to see ourselves as superior. They want us to make enemies out of image-bearers. But our true enemies are the spiritual forces of evil arrayed against us. Shall we give them what they desire? Shall we consider others lesser than ourselves?

Never! We hold fast to gospel faith, living in the freedom of a good conscience, and we wage the good warfare. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18)!

Brothers and sisters, as this war wages around us, Paul urges us to fight from our knees. And he urges us to prayerfulness with extremely high theology!

Read vs 1

Pray!

Paul has given Timothy a charge, commissioning him to rescue and revive the church in Ephesus. It is a difficult charge: So difficult that Paul compares it to waging war – as we have already seen.

Our passage then opens with, First of all. In other words, the first order of business in this good warfare, is…whatever follows. And what follows is prayer. Paul lists four words for prayer: supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings.

Supplication means to earnestly ask for something. To bring your supplications to God is to ask him to meet your requests. As Jesus said,

“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”        -John 14:14

Supplication is when we ask Jesus for anything. He answers when we ask in his name; or ask according to his will.

Prayer is a general, catch-all word. Supplication, intercession, and thanksgiving are all forms of prayer.

[Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.                                                                              -Luke 18:1

Jesus wants his disciples to pray continually, in whatever form. Pray and do not lose heart.

Intercession is a form of supplication; but with intercession we pray on behalf of others, asking God to meet the needs of others. This is something Paul did constantly. In his second letter to Timothy, he writes,

I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.          -2 Timothy 1:3

Paul continually interceded, not just for Timothy, but for all the churches – as he writes in many of his epistles.

Then, of course, there is thanksgiving: expressing gratitude to God for all the things he has done, and for all the things he is.

[Give] thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.                                                          -Ephesians 5:20

Everything you are, everything you have, has come from the hand of God. He loves you and cares for you. The fact you draw breath in this very moment is because he sustains you. Does he not deserve all your thanksgiving? Is he not worthy of all our gratitude?

We fight the good fight by continually offering supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings unto God. Paul urges Timothy to pray for all people. And as we continue, you will see Paul’s indication is all peoples: “pray for all peoples.” Meaning, pray for the tribes, tongues, and nations around the earth.

The phrase “all people” has this universal, global, ageless, overtone. All people. With the word “all,” Paul will strike this drum four more times in our passage. That means he uses the word, in a universal sense, five times in seven verses. A key Bible study tactic is to look for repeated words and phrases, because those repetitions – like a trail of breadcrumbs – help us recognize the meaning of a passage.

We can see the word “all” is leading us to some expansive, universal, meaning. We see it continue in the very next verse.

Read vs 2

Kings and all who are in high positions. Paul is referring to government officials in all positions: from the city leaders in Ephesus to the emperor of Rome. And at the time Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, the emperor of Rome was Nero Cesaer: vain, perverse, violent, murderous, and persecutor of Christians. According to one commentator, the Imperial cult was the fastest growing religion in the first century. Meaning, Caesar was worshipped as a god. And in spite of all this, Paul urges Timothy to supplicate, pray, intercede, give thanks for them and on their behalf.

Paul’s command to pray is not limited to the Roman Empire. See that universal “all” again: all who are in high positions. Wherever there are Christians, in whatever age, they too are to pray for their civic leaders. Whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden, whether a right-wing nationalist or a left-wing communist; we are to supplicate, pray, intercede, give thanks to God for our president and civic leaders.

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.                                                           -Proverbs 21:1

But it is critical to see why Paul is urging Timothy to pray like: that we – meaning Christians – may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

We pray for all rulers, domestic and foreign, so peace abounds. We pray so people everywhere can lead a quiet life. Because when governments break down, or they adopt sinful practices and policies, chaos spreads in society. (Might we be seeing just that?) A peaceful society allows gospel influence to spread without hinderance. For as the gospel spreads, even greater peace abounds. This is why we lift supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for all civic leaders, and all peoples.

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”    -Jeremiah 29:7

Whether chaotic or peaceful, still we are to live in a godly and dignified way. Godly, meaning our whole life is to orient around God. Our feet follow him, our hands serve him, our mouths speak his name. Dignified means respectable, honorable, self-controlled. Live in such a way that people have nothing bad to say about you.

That you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

                                                                             -Philippians 2:15

Live in a godly and dignified way no matter the circumstances. Pray abundantly for all rulers and all people, that peace may abound.

The false teachers in Ephesus focused on speculations and genealogies and useless discussions. Their world was so small, insular, and reduced to the breadth of their own vanity. And with their legalism they wanted to control everyone they sucked into their little world.

Wielding polemic superiority, Paul blows up their kingdom of vanity. Pray for all people. Pray for all those in high positions. The call is universal. These prayers are without borders, stretching to the ends of the earth, passing through the ages.

Robert Yarbough writes, “Just as Paul was gripped by the world-embracing scope of Christ’s death, resurrection, reign, and return, Christians must see the embodiment of the gospel in our preaching and involvement in the world around us as a requirement of the Christian existence.”¹

Hear that again: gospel proclamation and involvement in the world around us is a requirement of Christian existence. The first way we involve ourselves in the world around us is through prayer.     

One more note about praying for all people and all rulers: If it’s not obvious, Paul is not urging Timothy to privately pray abundantly and globally (though that is important). He’s urging Timothy to lead the Ephesian church in such praying. This is how every gospel-oriented church should pray.

Here at Immanuel, we frequently pray like this. You often hear it during our Monthly Global Focus. When we have designated prayer nights – whether it related to kids going back to school or missions – we pray for governments, we pray for the nations, we pray for peace, we pray for gospel expansion.

So if we are serious about waging war against our spiritual foes, and Paul says we fight from our knees, why are prayer meetings so small? Why does apathy plague our prayer life? I am not exempt from this! If prayer is one of our primary weapons, then might our enemy use every tactic to turn us prayerless? Don’t let him lull you to sleep. We are at war, and we are called to be warriors of prayer.

This is good. For the good of all people and the glory of our King!

Read vs 3-4

God desires his church to pray – to pray for all people, to pray for all rulers – because he desires all people to be saved. “All people”: there’s that expansive, universal tone again.

Divine Reasons for Prayer

To be clear, Paul is not saying that God wants every individual human being to be saved. God may want that, but that’s not Paul’s primary meaning. Again, he is combatting heretical teachings that bind non-Jews to a form of Jewish legalism. Such teaching is heresy because God wants the nations to be saved, not just Jews; and so we pray for all peoples!

And how shall they be saved? What is the means God’s has appointed for their salvation? That they would come to the knowledge of the truth.

What is the truth? Jesus told us.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”                                                           -John 14:6

The truth? Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He became a man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, lived a perfect life, died in the place of sinners, rose from death to life, ascended to the right hand of the Father where he presently reigns with all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus is the truth!

The knowledge of the truth, knowledge about Jesus, is communicated through the gospel. For people to believe the truth, they first have to receive the truth. In other words, people need to hear about Jesus before they can believe in him. Who do you think is to tell them?

And when people hear, it is their responsibility to come; as in, come to the knowledge of the truth. Jesus continually invites people to come to him. Coming to Jesus means a person is taking action, they are choosing him, they are bringing their hearts to him, they are trusting him with their lives. And for their trust, Jesus will give them abundant and everlasting life!

God desires to save all people, meaning all people groups, and he will save them through the proclamation of the gospel!

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”                                                -Romans 10:12-13

God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Oh, should we not pray that they do! And when we do, God our Savior is well pleased!

Read vs 5-6

There is one God: holy, holy, holy! He dwells in unapproachable light, the essence of perfection, invisible, eternal, infinite. What human can possibly relate to him? How can we broken sinners be welcomed into his perfect and holy presence? How can we who are fallen and physical commune with the sublime and spiritual? How can the finite dwell with the infinite? Shall we ascend into the heavens and make ourselves become like God?

It would be more possible to discuss existentialism with a spider.

Despite this, and desiring to commune with sinners, God became a spider. With unfathomable humility, God became a man: the man Jesus Christ – as Paul says in verse 5.

When we hear Christ Jesus, it is almost like a first and last name. It sounds so normal, so rote. But that is not how it was in the beginning.

Christ is his exalted name. It signals he is the divine messenger, the anointed one, the one from heaven, the Savior and Redeemer of the nations.

Jesus is a name of humility: a man, raised in Nazareth, a poor carpenter, bound by all the frailties as the rest of us – he hungered, felt exhausted, he wept.

This God-man brought divinity to our dust. And when he ascended to the right hand of the Father, he lifted our dust to the divine. He is the one who stands between, the one mediator between God and men. And he has shown us the face of God!

And more. Verse 6: The God-man gave his live as a ransom for all. There’s that universal “all” again. Though he was a Jew, Jesus did not come only for the Jews. He gave his life to ransom many! In Jesus’ own words:

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”                                                              -Mark 10:45

For Jesus to ransom us means an exchange was made, a payment. He paid for us with his own blood. We were in darkness, and he paid to transfer us into his marvelous light. We were broken, and by his wounds we are healed. We were condemned to death, but by his death the charges against us were dropped. Jesus’ ransom payment makes us acceptable to a holy God, and not just acceptable, but dearly loved. The Father loves us as his own, righteous, children. Jesus paid it all! How precious the blood that ransomed us!

The fact that God became a man, and he laid down his life for us, is why Jesus is uniquely qualified to be the one Mediator between God and man.

And Paul says this testimony was given at the proper time. The testimony is the gospel. The gospel is news about a person, a person to which all the law and the prophets points (experts in the law should know that), a person who came at the exact right moment in history, a person who comes in eschatological fulfillment and brings the kingdom of heaven to earth. He is the God-man, Christ Jesus, the one Mediator between God and man.

And Paul employs these glorious truths because it is such good news for us, and it’s all about prayer! Because as Mediator, Jesus presents our prayers before the Ancient of Days. In Jesus we have 100% certainty that God hears our prayers.

But a mediator works in both directions. If we pray according to the will of God (like praying for all people), then Jesus promises God will answer our prayers. We already heard this promise today.

“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”        -John 14:14

God may not answer according to our timing or desires, but he will answer, and it will be good. And the God-man, our Mediator, guarantees it! The Prince of Peace has all authority in heaven and on earth, and by his mediation peace shall flood the earth!

In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

                                                                             -Psalm 72:7

Read vs 7

The heretical teachers in Ephesus, thinking themselves experts in the law, did not receive a divine appointment as did Paul. The God-man himself called Paul to be a herald of the gospel, primarily sent to teach the Gentiles. This is another clue that the universal “all” in these verses is not about individuals, it is about people groups.

At the fulness of time salvation streamed out towards the nations, that all people would know joy in God. For this, Paul was sent to preach, to teach, to find all those who might have faith in the truth.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. -Acts 13:48

What should we know?

God desires to save people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. God will accomplish this through the prayer and proclamation of the Church.

What should we believe?

Jesus ransomed you and mediates for you so you are able to pray and proclaim!

What should we do?

Pray peace for all people and all rulers. Proclaim good news about the Prince of Peace!

Come to prayer meetings. Pray like this in your small groups. Pray like this in private. And let’s pray more like this in our gatherings.

To start, everyone grab some people around you and pray peace for all people. Pray that all rulers would govern with order, justice, and peace. Pray for the nations. Pray for our nation. Lord knows we need it now.

¹Yarbrough, R. (2018). The Letters to Timothy and Titus. Pg 148. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.