Interceding For The Great Commission

The Need to Pray
One of the things that the Great Commission needs is Great Intercession. Through His Word, our Lord not only urges us to pray (i.e., Matthew 6:5-15; 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18) but there is repeated direction to pray for areas related to the Great Commission. As just one example, the letters of Paul are filled with requests for his ability to clearly and boldly proclaim the gospel (Ephesians 6:19-20; Colossians 4:4), opportunities to share the Lord’s truth (Colossians 4:3), and for those who labor alongside him (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5). In other words, most believers would agree that prayer is an essential aspect of the Christian life and necessary to the Great Commission.
It's no surprise then to learn that intercession for the Great Commission is a mark of the church. While writing to Timothy about the situation in Ephesus, Paul outlines the proper functions of the church (1 Timothy 3:15), and the very first aspect he mentions at the beginning of chapter 2 is prayer. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 reads:

‍
"First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity."

He goes on to explain that prayers of this type are good because the Lord is desirous of seeing people saved by the knowledge of the truth. This text provides a number of critical aspects of great intercession for the Great Commission.

It begins by showing us that we are to be all people praying for all people. Though he singles out those in authority, the Apostle Paul stipulates that we should pray for all people. There are no parameters given about who we should pray for. Whether they be Jew or Gentile, believer or unbeliever, and so on, they are deemed to be a worthy subjects of the prayers we place before the Lord. But notice who should be praying for all people: the church. The text does not speak of individual prayer only but of corporate prayer. These verses call upon the church to gather together in a time of intercession for the Great Commission.

The Need to Pray Corporately
Found in 1 Timothy 2:1-8 is an appeal for believers to labor in prayer on behalf of others. Though our inclination at reading such a passage is to chastise ourselves for not praying more sufficiently and more frequently, this is not a call for us to pray just as individual believers. This is Paul urging the church to come together and pray as the church. Noticing in verse 1 that the words for prayer (supplications, prayers, requests, and thanksgivings) are all in the plural form, commentators suggest this is not just about making multiple prayers from one person but is meant to indicate the function of multiple people praying, thus praying corporately (1). This is affirmed further by remembering the earlier point that the content of this first epistle to Timothy is to give instructions for how the church should conduct itself (1 Timothy 3:15). The content of this letter is the conduct of the corporate body of Christ.

There was a time when corporate prayer occupied a more proper place in many churches. It was not something confined to just Sunday mornings and just to the pastor’s opening and closing prayers during the service. In many cases, churches set aside specific days and/or times calling upon the church to gather to pray together. And then, in the last 20-25 years, people began to decide they did not have as much time available to them for corporate prayer. As fewer people showed up, more churches did away with this specially ordained time.

The Challenge to Pray Corporately
These thoughts lead me to the conclusion that without great intercession we have no great commission. I cannot help but ask,

“Are our great struggles in the Great Commission related to our struggle to pray corporately for the Great Commission?”

I have done no study to offer you research and support for the argument. However, if the Word of God ties intercession to our commission, then I can confidently say we would do well to do the same.

This becomes a great challenge for our churches, then. When prayer has been relegated to secondary importance and prayer meetings are canceled for lack of time, how do we revitalize the discipline of corporate prayer and specifically emphasize the need to pray for the Great Commission? There is much to say and some potential first steps, something I plan to discuss in the upcoming weeks. But I think it begins with the conviction that the Lord has called all people of the church to pray for all people who are not part of the church. We remember then the Great Commission requires great intercession.

(1) Most faithful commentaries will point out that this passage is about corporate prayer, but Robert Gromacki writes a more extended discussion on the topic in his commentary Stand True to the Charge: An Exposition of 1 Timothy.

‍