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Praying for the Preacher

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Nicknamed the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon is frequently recognized as one of the greatest preachers in history. When asked about the secret to his successful ministry, Spurgeon responded that his people prayed for him. Spurgeon went so far as to call the prayer gathering of the Metropolitan Tabernacle the “power plant” or “boiler room” of his church. There was no doubting the connection between prayer and successful ministry in the mind of Charles Spurgeon.

One of the great needs of the modern church is men and women who fervently pray for the faithfulness of the church. The church’s faithfulness is most often seen in the content of the preaching that flows from its pulpit. Therefore, church members should spend time praying over the preaching of the Word. In the letter to the Colossian church, Paul instructs the believers there to be in prayer for him and those working alongside him as they preach the Word.

Colossians 4:2-4 (ESV) says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison – that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” These instructions on praying for preaching inform the way we pray for those preaching the Gospel today in a few specific ways:

1. We Pray for Open Doors for the Word

Paul tells the Colossian church to pray for the Lord to open a door for the Word. Naturally, this means we should pray for opportunities for the Gospel to be proclaimed. Furthermore, we should pray that the Lord would open hearts, minds, and ears to hear and understand the Gospel as it is preached. Just as God must open the door to preach, He must open the heart to hear the preaching.

Over the last year, the Lord has reminded me never to take a preaching opportunity for granted. Each door the Lord opens is part of God’s providential plan to carry the Gospel to the nations and redeem His people. Thus, we pray for preaching opportunities for faithful preachers not to build the preacher’s fame and platform or to stroke his sinful ego but that the kingdom of God may be built up through the clear preaching of the Gospel and the fruits of conversion. We pray this prayer not only for our own preacher at our local church but also for those preaching the Gospel on the mission field. We pray that God would give faithful Gospel witnesses the opportunity to speak and proclaim the Word of God into the lives of those around them.

2. We Pray for the Gospel to be Preached.

This seems like an elementary thing that should go without saying. And yet, it must be said. An unfortunate element of our sin nature is that there is no shortage of temptations for preachers to preach ineffective things such as self, opinion, works, prosperity, pragmatism, pleasure, or politics. Rather, we must pray for our preacher to stand firmly on the side of biblical faithfulness by God’s grace and proclaim the mystery of Christ, which is the Gospel.

We must pray that our preacher be a Gospel preacher determined to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:2) We pray that our pastors have the courage to preach the Gospel even when it may cost them prison and death as it did Paul. We pray that our pastor dares to preach the Gospel even when it is unpopular. We need the pure preaching of the Gospel, that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Rather than preaching the poverty of man’s wisdom or preaching for self-glorification, pray that the preacher will preach the riches of Christ and for the glory of God.

3. We Pray that the Gospel is Clear

Paul concludes his exhortation to prayer by asking the Colossians to pray that he would make the Gospel clear as he ought to speak. We should pray that every sermon is clear. In Nehemiah 8:8, we read, “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” This should be the goal of the faithful expositor: to give the sense of the Scriptures in a clear way so that the hearers understand the meaning of the text. The aim is not to impress academics, entertain audiences, or insult the ignorant. The aim is to clearly communicate the plain meaning of the text. Therefore, we should pray that the preacher would have clarity of mind and speech by God’s grace so that they may communicate clearly.

Naturally, there are innumerable things we should be praying over regarding our pastors. However, when it comes to their preaching, we must pray that the Lord opens the doors, the preaching is Gospel saturated, and the preaching is clear.

Shout On, Pray On, We’re Gaining Ground.

Within the world of church music lies a specific style known as Sacred Harp music. Sacred Harp music is a form of hymn-singing that is a capella and relies on shape notes. A few years ago, I fell in love with a Sacred Harp hymn known as Antioch 277. The chorus rings out: “Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”

“Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”

Antioch 277

On the surface, the idea of gaining ground seems foreign, if not wrong, to many Christians in the 21st century. After all, isn’t the culture and the world around us snowballing downhill, face-first into greater and greater depravity? Is not the moral compass of our current culture more confused than ever on things like the sanctity of life, sexual ethics, recreational drug use, and social justice? The clear manifestation of the sins of the world leaves many Christians wondering in what sense we are “gaining ground.”

Yet, Scripture is clear in telling us that we are gaining ground in undeniable ways. In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul writes to the Colossian church, rejoicing with thanksgiving that the Gospel had come to them “as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.” (Col. 1:6) Furthermore, Paul says that even amongst the Colossian church, he prays that the Gospel would bear the fruit of sanctification and increase the believers’ knowledge of God. At the very moment when Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the Gospel was gaining ground, he was imprisoned in Rome, the city of Colosse was in economic decline, and dangerous heresy was running amok. This setting hardly sounds like gaining ground. And yet, Paul tells us that even then, and even now, the Gospel is gaining ground.

This passage reveals two distinct ways that the Gospel is gaining ground. The first is the literal spread of the Gospel and more and more people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by the grace of God. Right now, throughout the world, the Gospel is going forward through the faithful and sacrificial work of Bible preaching missionaries and pastors. As R.A. Torrey notes, the verse is not talking about more Bibles being printed. Rather, Paul is saying that throughout the world, the truth of the Gospel is being believed by God’s grace and people are being “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred” into the Kingdom of God. (Col. 1:13)

It is so easy for us to get trapped in only thinking about our area, our political landscape, our country, and our view of the world, which can easily color our thinking about the advance of the Gospel in a negative way. Growing up in South Alabama, in the politically conservative Bible Belt, I was truly and sincerely shocked to find out that there were actually Christians in California when I got older. Much less in places like China, Syria, and Chile, and the Congo. Yet, throughout the world, whether I believed it or not, faithful brothers and sisters were preaching the Gospel and the Gospel was bearing fruit and increasing by the grace of God. We need to shift from a self-centric viewpoint that only sees what is right in front of us to a church-centric viewpoint that views the world through the lens of the church universal. In other words, we should not only think about the advance of the Gospel and the fruit of that advance in terms of our life, or even our local church, but we should see that what God is doing is bigger than just us. God is moving all over the world, calling His people to salvation, and sanctifying His people to greater holiness. So, when we are tempted to be discouraged that we may be in a drier season in terms of fruit in our personal life or in our local church’s ministry, we should remember that God is working all over the world. We should speak with our mission partners and hear their stories. We should remember that God is accomplishing His perfect plan, and that not even the gates of hell can prevail against His church.

How do we respond to this glorious truth? We shout on and we pray on. We rejoice in the work that God is doing. We rejoice in the work of faithful churches, missionaries, and missions sending agencies. We rejoice that God is not still, sleeping, or slumbering. We pray for the work to be done, that God would raise up faithful missionaries, break the hearts of the lost, and draw people unto Himself. Additionally, we pray that our own personal efforts in sharing the Gospel would be effective.

However, the passage has more to tell us. The second way that we are gaining ground is in terms of the sanctification of believers in Christ. If we are truly saved by the grace of God, we are being sanctified by the grace of God. In other words, all true believers are gaining ground in their pursuit of holiness by God’s grace. Paul clearly states that the Gospel has continued to bear fruit in the Colossian church from the moment they “heard and understood the grace of God in truth.” (Col. 1:6) Paul continues by praying for the Colossian church that they would be sanctified. In Colossians 1:9-12, Paul outlines key areas where he is praying for their sanctification. He prays that the church would bear fruit, increase in the knowledge of God, be strengthened for endurance and patience, and be thankful for the grace of God to them.

In the same way, we can rejoice that God is sanctifying us, as true believers, as well. Just as the Colossian believers were growing in grace from the moment they heard and believed the Gospel, so too are we who believe today. Therefore, each day, as we press on in the Christian life, we are gaining ground. As John Newton, the former slave ship captain and author of Amazing Grace, once wrote: “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

John Newton

Newton rejoiced that he was no longer the callous slave ship captain and rested in the amazing grace that saved such a wretch as him. Newton realized that though he still failed, he had gained ground by God’s grace. While our story is likely different from Newton’s, we too have gained ground from when we first believed. We are not where we want to be or where we will be when we enter eternity, but we are not where we were and that deserves rejoicing and prayer. Shout on. Rejoice in the work that God has done in your life. Pray on. Pray that God would draw you ever nearer to Him and that He would shape you into greater holiness.

These are two undeniable ways that Christians are gaining ground. God is adding to our number daily through the advance of the Gospel by His Grace. God is sanctifying us day by day by His Grace. In both cases, we can and must say, “Glory, Hallelujah!” I am not arguing for some pie in the sky optimism. But I am arguing for Gospel rejoicing over the fact that God’s Word is accomplishing its purpose, that dead hearts are raised to life by the grace of God, and that we are growing in grace. We must always keep perspective by seeing the big picture of God’s work throughout the world. So, shout on, pray on. We are gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah!