A House of Prayer for all Nations -what this might mean for a local church

A House of Prayer for all Nations

What does it mean for a local church today to become a House of prayer for All Nations? Isaiah 56 holds the key to understanding how this phrase can be applied.

Isaiah 56:1-8 NLT

This is what the Lord says: “Be just and fair to all. Do what is right and good, for I am coming soon to rescue you and to display my righteousness among you. ² Blessed are all those who are careful to do this. Blessed are those who honour my Sabbath days of rest and keep themselves from doing wrong. ³ “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’ And don’t let the eunuchs say,‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’⁴ For this is what the Lord says: I will bless those eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days holy and who choose to do what pleases me and commit their lives to me.⁵ I will give them—within the walls of my house a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear! ⁶ “I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord, who serve him and love his name, who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who hold fast to my covenant.⁷ I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem    and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, (on my altar)    because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.⁸ For the Sovereign Lord, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel.”

The importance of the end of v 7 “My temple (house) will be called a house of prayer for all nations” is emphasised by the fact that Jesus quotes these very words as recorded in Mark and Luke’s gospel. But what might this verse mean for today for a church that feels called to be a House of prayer for all nations? What should a house of prayer for all nations look like?

There is a danger verses can come to mean whatever seems good in our own eyes but let us look at Isaiah 56 to see what this phrase first meant. It comes within a context. We see in this passage:

God has always been concerned for the outcasts, the outsiders, the oppressed minorities of this world.

a)     V1 be just and fair to all

b)  V3 the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord should be included as members of God’s people.

c)     V4 I will bless eunuchs with an eternal inheritance, eunuchs were marginalised in society and looked down on as they could not receive the blessing of ‘normal’ family life and the inheritance of children. An eternal inheritance from God really is full acceptance.

d)     V6 & 7 I will bless foreigners with joy in my house of prayer, this is surely a sign that they were totally accepted by God.

e)     V7 My temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

f)     V8 I will bring back the outcastes of Israel, ...I will bring others too besides my people Israel. Just in case you missed it in v1,3,6,7 the point is repeated in verse 8. God is particularly concerned about the those who are different.

God wants us to share his concern for the marginalised.

a)     He commands his people to: BE just and fair...DO what is right and good...Blessed are all those who are careful to do this. What? Giving justice to those whom society rejects.

But what does v7 means when it says “I will bring them (foreigners) to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations?

In the OT the temple and the tabernacle before it was thought of and named as the –place to meet God, in fact the before the temple the tabernacle was called the place of meeting! The physical temple in Jerusalem no longer exists. Jesus identified himself with the temple (John 2:19 Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”) Jesus did replace the temple, we don’t need buildings to meet with God. We can meet him anywhere. However this is not to say the church is irrelevant. Jesus is the head of the church. And we meet Jesus supremely with others within the Christian community. We don’t need a church building to meet God but it helps to have a Christian community to join.

God has promised to be with his people (the church) in a special way as it says in Matthew 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. His church worldwide is the place people can meet with God. We should not now think of a church building as being a house of prayer but more biblically of  a local community of believers being a ‘house’ of prayer. This means that having different local church groups representing different ethnicities in the same building is not what God is talking about in this passage. Theologically to call a church building the house of God or house of prayer is wrong. We as a community of God’s people are the house of God. Getting different nationalities into the same building but meeting separately is close to meaningless in itself. However if we as a group of believers want to be a ‘house of prayer’ for all nations we must incorporate ‘foreigners’ to use the language of Isaiah and outsiders into our community.

V7 a House of prayer...  The word prayer in the passage incorporates the whole of what we would understand as corporate worship not just the act of praying. It is not enough simply to intercede for the nations to qualify a Christian community as a House of Prayer for all nations. To truly be a house of prayer FOR the nations we must warmly embrace different ethnic groups as they join our community.

Isaiah 56  teaches that All are one, all are equal, all are welcome to be full, participating members of God’s people. The text in verse 7 talking about the house of prayer for ALL nations is the key to the whole passage.

BUT what might it mean if we really do welcome as equal partners those of different cultures?

Their preferred style of worship, their way of learning, their way or relating may be quite different from ours. Would we be willing to adapt and change the way we do things to accommodate Asians, Africans,  East Europeans or South Americans?  If we are not willing to change we are not treating others as equal. We are not truly respecting the other.

God has called us to share the blessings of being his people with others. Let us do so by truly loving our neighbours and integrating them in our community.  

Devoted to outward focused Prayer

Colossians 4:2-3  Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 

The apostle Paul prayed a great deal for Christians he had never met! He agonised over their welfare -do we care that much?

Since August my life has been heavily focused on my new job which started on the 1^st of September as minister of Open Door Baptist church, Harris Street, Peterborough. The church has about 30 members and has been without a minister for three years.  Like many new jobs during the first few months I have been very busy getting to grips with my new responsibilities. The primary focus initially was for my wife (associate pastor) and I to establish a rhythm of prayer at church. Tuesday to Friday for 30 minutes each morning we go to church to pray and have invited any church members who are free to join us. We have tried to make sure our prayers have an outward focus. Tuesday we pray for a country overseas –the part of Peterborough we live in is very multi cultural so we pray for different people groups who live in the local area. On Wednesday we normally prayer walk in the neighbourhood of the church, on Thursday we pray for other churches and Friday we pray for the needs of our own church. Many churches, no doubt spend more time in prayer but this is the start we feel is appropriate for us in addition to the regular weekly church prayer meeting.  Am I devoted to prayer? What does devotion look like? Devoted football fans give up a great deal of time and money to follow their team, little or nothing is more important than following their team.  Let us ask our Father to help us show our love for him by our prayer life.  

Called to live in Freedom

Galatians 5:13 (NLT)  For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

God’s design and purpose is for us to live in freedom. This means freedom from fear, worry and anxiety; freedom from compulsive and addictive behaviour. It means freedom from selfishness and false expectations either our own or those of others. It means living a life free of control –we choose not to be master of our own lives or allow anyone else such control. Instead we habitually choose to submit our will to God. We listen attentively to the voice of the Holy Spirit and choose to obey believing God wants us to fly.  This freedom is not about being subject to our feelings but about choosing to trust God and serve others in love.  Let us use our freedom to serve wholeheartedly.

Father help us to live in increasing degrees of freedom, serving others with joy.

Cheap Grace

Luke 19:22-23

“His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?

’Over the last few years I have become increasingly concerned that God is being presented, preached about and spoken of in evangelical churches in a way which gives a dangerously distorted view of who he really is. God’s wonderful love and forgiveness are rightly proclaimed but what about his holiness, his glory, his awesome power? There are other aspects of his character that many seem almost ashamed of such as his jealousy and his anger. If Jesus had presented God purely in terms of a loving and forgiving father then I believe we might be forgiven for believing God’s other attributes are of minor importance. But in Luke God is depicted as a ‘hard man’ who demands fruitfulness. He expects us to be productive rather than waste our lives. Jesus too demanded a lot from his disciples. He told one to give up his possessions, another not  to say goodbye to his family and all of us to take up our cross daily. In other words how we live and spend our time matters to God big time. Why? Because God has created us to be 'busy' about doing His work. In terms of mission those around us need to see the difference God makes to our lives.

Things Fall Apart

1 Corinthians 13:4 & 7 Love is patient, love is kind...It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  

The other day I got a desperate phone call from my wife who was lying in the road a mile from our house crying and in great pain. I could not understand much of what she said but I knew it was serious. She had had a bizarre bicycle accident –the handle bars had come off as she cycled! The resulting fall broke both her elbows. With very little use in her arms Carol has had to suffer the indignity of her husband cleaning her teeth, dressing and feeding her etc. as well as putting up with sleeping sitting up and bouts of severe pain. Why Lord did this happen? This did not seem like good timing as we are preparing to take a team back to West Africa this summer and have much to do. But we give thanks. It has been an opportunity to patiently serve my wife whole heartedly and has brought us closer despite the inevitable challenges. We have also very much appreciated the prayers and good wishes of many and some funny messages like the following:

I saw a circus act long ago in which the front wheel came off... and the frame - until the performer was riding a unicycle. Just as well you're doing everything for Carol just now, it allows you to keep an eye on her - I think she may have been planning to run away to join the circus! (or not?!)

The bike fell apart and Carol’s body has been battered but our lives are based on the unshakable  rock of the universe, the one who truly does love and protect us. The accident could have been far worse, no others were involved the bones will mend.  God is good.