One of the best ways our weekly gatherings for worship help us is by teaching us and reminding us of our corporate spirituality. And we really do need to be reminded of this. We’re so in tune with our individual spirituality that we’re prone to forget our corporate spirituality.
We think first and most about what we need, what we struggle with, and where we want to grow, that we forget to think about what the church needs, what the church struggles with, where the church needs to grow. And therefore we tend to fill our prayers so full of our own needs and desires that we forget that we’re part of a larger body and should be praying for its needs as well.
You see, it’s in our corporate gatherings and liturgy that we’re confronted with the fact that Christ didn’t come to save a conglomeration of individuals–Christ didn’t come to save just you. You are not “the church.” The church of Jesus Christ doesn’t begin and end with you. Instead, Christ came to save a body of many members. You are a part of that body, a member of the whole. And it’s by gathering together as a church each week that we’re lovingly reminded that we’re part of a people, part of a body, joined together by Christ the Head.
And in all the things we do together as a church (sing, study, fellowship, sit under the preaching and teaching ministry of the Word), it’s in our praying together as a church that we best learn and most invest in our corporate spirituality. Because when we pray together, we’re mindful of those things that affect us as a church, of those things that we need as a church, of those concerns that we have as a church, of those blessings that we desire as a church. When we pray together as a church we’re taking our eyes off our own individual problems and needs and looking through the eyes of the church as a whole.
The point is this: God designed corporate prayer to teach us self-denial, to help us become others-focused, and to nurture and cultivate a zeal for Christ’s church. He designed it to teach us to pray for the church’s corporate needs, for the glory of God in the church, and for the growth of the church as a church.
Just notice the two things for which Paul asked prayer in vv. 3-4. He didn’t ask them to pray for him as an individual or to pray for his personal freedom. He asked them to pray for an open door for the ministry of the gospel and for an open mouth to preach it as he should. He was teaching them to pray corporately, to pray as a church for the needs of the church. He was teaching them to pray as one instead of as individuals.
It’s the same lesson Jesus taught us in Matthew 6. When the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, rather than give them a personal prayer, He gave them a corporate prayer. Christ taught us the Lord’s Prayer in order to teach us that we’re never to forget that we’re not saved as individuals, but as members of His body. He was teaching us that for all our personal needs and for all the aspects of our personal walk with Christ, we are never not a part of the church He came to save.
This passage, then, is a call to live out our corporate spirituality, to live together as a church and, in particular, to pray together as a church. I therefore challenge you to join yourself to your church’s prayer meeting, to take your stand on the field on battle when your church gathers to pray as a church. Your voice is needed there because you’re a part of the body and the body works best when it’s whole. And you also need the body because Christ didn’t come to save just you. He came to save you and join you to those around you. The benefit is mutual because the body is one.
This is an excerpt from yesterday’s sermon. If you would like to listen to the sermon please visit our sermon archive. If you would like to watch the sermon please visit our livestream site. May God bless you by your church and may He bless your church by you.
