“A Praying Church”
Acts 4:23-31
May 17, 2009
Today I would like to share with you about what is probably the most important activity of each Christian and the church as whole, prayer. I know for a fact that some Christians only pray at meal times and it’s often a repetitive, shallow one. Maybe they more often when there are problems in one’s life. And how often does a whole church spend any significant time in prayer together?
I am going to use these verses in Acts 4 to share some insights from the Bible about prayer, especially as a body of believers. Just a little background here. We read from verses 16-22 that Peter and John were before the Sanhedrin council who were annoyed with what they were saying in public. They charged the disciples not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Of course we know that Peter and John told them they would continue because they were going to follow God over the religious leaders. The council was then afraid to pronounce any punishment because all the people were praising God for the healing Peter did earlier.
Peter and John went back to their friends knowing that the Sanhedrin would be wanting to punish them as soon as possible, so after the whole group heard this they immediately went to prayer. So we see:
I. The Priority and Purpose of Prayer (vv 23-24a)
This threat from the Sanhedrin is no laughing matter. Imprisonment and even death could be the sentence, so it was very severe. But they were not afraid to say boldly that they were going to follow God and not the council. The first thing they did though, was pray as a group, as a church. We see this time and again in the early church, that prayer should always be the first response when there is a need or a decision to be made.
So a logical question is, why did they do this before anything else? Well first of all, if they were going to get in trouble for God, they may as well ask him for protection, or at least power to continue. Secondly, it was what Jesus did and commanded. Thirdly, because they really believed that God was in charge of things and had the blueprint for how to live, so they sought his guidance before doing anything.
There may be more reasons, but as a church we need to be very conscious of at least these three, seeking his protection against the world and the devil, following Jesus, and acting only on his wisdom and instruction.
One just needs to ask, what would we do in the situation described here in Acts? I’ll tell you because we have done it, run and hide. If we rely on human power, wisdom, and emotion, the church becomes weak, but if God is in charge, it can only be strong.
We then go on to see the details of:
II. The Pattern in Prayer (vv 24b-30)
A. The Recognition of God’s Sovereign Power (vv 24b-28)
When we look at how they prayed or the pattern of their prayer, I find it interesting that they started by gaining perspective of who God is compared to the situation. If God is sovereign there’s no situation out of His hands, and by looking at things from His perspective we can have more confidence and see the situation more realistically.
Notice they don’t start by asking for something. The first thing they acknowledge in their prayer is that:
1. He is the Lord of Creation (v. 24b)
If you look at Isaiah 37 (Hezekiah’s prayer), Nehemiah 9:6-7, and Jeremiah 32:16 all these prayers begin with “Lord, maker of the heavens and the earth”.
They sought to remember and acknowledge who God is and what he has already done in the past. This gives us an expectation of what he is capable of and the confidence to surrender his creation, which includes ourselves, to Him. If he can create all that is, surely he can handle whatever we throw at him.
2. He is the Lord of Revelation (vv 25-26)
The disciples used Old Testament prophecy to remember that God has the plan already, it is just waiting to be revealed to us until the right time. We remember that nothing surprises God, that he has the reigns because He is the not only the creator, but the sustainer of all creation.
Though we don’t see it specifically here, part of this pattern of prayer is silent receptive prayer. If we are busy chatting to God in prayer, it’s difficult to hear God’s revelation which is ultimately why we are praying. Prayer is a conversation in which both parties speak to each other. In this way reading Scripture is a form of prayer.
Jesus went away to pray for hours and even days at a time, as I am sure many other disciples did, and the whole church for that matter, do you think that whole time they were doing all the talking? Try it, try praying for two hours straight and see if you can fill the entire air time. For that matter try talking to anyone where you are the only one talking for two hours, and take note of their response.
Sometimes we will hear nothing, because it’s not the time for God to reveal, even Jesus didn’t get full revelation right from the beginning. But he knew it wasn’t time yet, then God seemed to give the OK and that’s when he went into action, not when he wanted to necessarily, but when God through the Spirit led him.
3. He is also the Lord of Situation (vv 27-28)
No situation is ever out of God’s hands. We and all of creation are always in his hands, there’s no exception. Yet he has a permissive will, he wants us to follow his will, but he does not enforce it, and even when we go against his will, he is still in control, because he knows all the possibilities because of His omniscience.
I encourage you to practice something. Whenever there is a situation you are going into, even if it doesn’t seem that important, try invoking the Lord’s presence in a short silent prayer before you go into the situation. See what effect this has on the situation and your role in it. Many times just by being conscious of God you will perceive and act differently.
B. The Request for God’s Supernatural Provision (vv 29-30)
1. For Courage (v. 29)
They don’t whine and ask, “God why is this happening?” They understand that in all circumstances God’s will is being fulfilled. However they do ask for something, not to be released from the situation, but for courage and boldness to go through the situation. They trusted that God wanted them to continue speaking his word, they didn’t question it and wonder, well maybe God’s will is for us to take a break for a while until the dust settles. No.
Did you ever notice how we tend to do that sometimes? When the going gets tough, instead of forging forward with what is clearly God’s will, we stop and make it his will that we stop, because things are getting uncomfortable. “I guess it’s not God’s will at this time, because it just isn’t going smoothly, and we are running into too many problems.” There may be times when that is true, especially if we are pushing our agenda, but God’s will is God’s will, and if he reveals it to us, it is time to do it. And some things are always on the agenda, including speaking his word and sharing the gospel with unbelievers.
Of course when we decide to really follow God’s will there is going to be difficulty because neither the world, or the ruler of the world, Satan, wants us to. I’ve said before that if it’s too easy, it may not be God’s will. Do you think Satan is just going to sit back when we are really threatening his kingdom?
If we already know it’s God’s will because it is in His word, then we don’t need to ask if it is, we need to ask for the courage and desire to go forward with it. The disciples needed God’s strength, and so do we if we are to live the real Christian life.
They also asked:
2. For Confirmation (v. 30)
I sometimes wish we had more miracles going on from day to day. It seemed like the early disciples always had a healing or other miracle to build on when they were going to witness. Wouldn’t it be easier to do a little sermon on the street if we healed someone right there or made a rock give water or something. But this is not something that can be staged as some evangelists tend to do.
These guys expected it to happen, and I think it was because they knew that what they were doing required miracles. I’m pretty sure that if we put ourselves under persecution and really put our lives on the line for Christ, he would grant us some miracles too. We hear lots of stories of them happening in other parts of the world where brave souls are risking everything for the Gospel. They believed, even though their faith may have been smaller than a mustard seed, imagine what our’s would be compared to. That name of Jesus had power for them, it wasn’t just a routine way of ending a prayer.
III. The Provision Through Prayer (v. 31)
God answers prayers. Here he makes sure everyone knows it. The place where they were gathered was shaken. Important implication here, that this was not an earthquake but just the place they were in was shaken, and the shaking made them “unshaken” to continue speaking the word of God with boldness. Again, wouldn’t it be nice if God answered that way? I would certainly be bolder if after I prayed he shook my house.
Read Romans 8:26-27 … The Spirit knows God’s will. I love Henry Blackaby, if you ever want to hear about God working in the life of a church, read his stuff. Here’s what says about this… read from "Experiencing God"
But the real key here is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This really is a difficult concept. Should we feel something different when we are filled with the Holy Spirit? We are told that at the moment of our conversion we are “filled” with the Holy Spirit, yet in the New Testament we often hear that they were filled again with the Holy Spirit. Does that mean that you get filled, then it drains out, and you need to be filled again over and over?
What is prayer? Is it not fellowship with God? And if it is, isn’t it necessary for us to have the Holy Spirit within us to be able to speak with Him and understand Him? There seems to be a contradiction about the Holy Spirit being permanently in us, and this seemingly temporary filling that we see many times in the New Testament.
I was not going to rest this week until I had a satisfactory answer for myself and hopefully for you as well.
In John 4:23-24 Jesus says that there is coming a time when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. That God is Spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth. Truth in John’s Gospel is associated with Christ, and the word for spirit is pneuma which literally means wind or strong breath. That doesn’t help us too much does it, worship in Christ and breath?
God is breath, wind, that is His nature. OK so we have invisible, able to move wherever it pleases, powerful, life giving. Still not sure what this means in terms of being filled with wind, though many have said that I am. Filled with life, power, God’s nature. Ok that sounds pretty good. Jesus again in John 20:22 “breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit”. Did he actually blow his breath on them?
Acts 1:8 you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Paul asked some disciples at Ephesus, “did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” Clearly implying that we will know when we receive it. Throughout Acts the apostles give the Spirit by laying hands on people. They could see the Spirit falling upon people. Paul says the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in us.
Honestly this question tends to get avoided even by Bible scholars. What is it to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well my study has led me to this conclusion: that there is the indwelling or receiving of the Holy Spirit which is a one-time event at the moment of belief, where the entire Spirit of God is given to us and lives in us.
A couple verses can be used to confirm this. (Eph 1:13) “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit”. (2 Cor 1:22) “God set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come”. (John 14:16) “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor (the Holy Spirit) to be with you forever—
So we have the spirit dwelling in us all the time after we believe. Now the filling that we see so often in Acts and a few other places is an ongoing event. Not that we get more spirit, because the full spirit is in us already, but that the Spirit becomes active. This is the temporary experience of the full power of the Holy Spirit manifesting in us, and often outwardly. Because of our sinful nature the Holy Spirit though in us, is not always in control of us.
The Spirit can be grieved as in Ephesians 4:30, and it can be quenched as in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. In other words the Spirit’s activity in our hearts and lives is exactly like God’s activity in the world. It is always there but we can’t always see it working. We have the ability to stifle it, unless God decides differently.
Obedience to God is the mechanism for maintaining the “filling” or activity of the Spirit. This makes perfect sense doesn’t it? If the Holy Spirit is God’s nature in us, it will lead us to do what God would do. So when they say they were filled with the Holy Spirit, you could say that the writer was saying that they did what Jesus would do, whether it be preach boldly, perform a miracle, and so on.
Now the Bible says we have control over this. Ephesians 5:18 says “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit”. Clearly this is indicating a choice on our part, whether it means that we can invoke the Spirit, or that we can just get the non-spirit led things out of the way so the Spirit can have its way with us.
Sin or disobedience thwarts the filling of the Spirit, or the freedom of the spirit to work in and through us, so we must deal with sin quickly and fully to be spirit filled and spirit led. Someone compared it to a hot water tank where the indwelling of the spirit is the pilot light which is always going. It is when we use some water that the water starts filling the tank and the little pilot light becomes a whooshing flame. Not a perfect analogy but it gives us a bit of a picture.
Let me read a short story from Henry Blackaby, one of the most prolific church planters in Canadian history. (Ivah Bates)
I want to put out a challenge to us as a congregation today. There are many things to pray about, specific illnesses and such, and also the state of the Christian Church and the country, and our town. These are good to pray for, but we also need to be praying for vision and God’s will for us as individuals, and as an individual church. And we need to listen and be receptive to what he has to say to us.
As you may know we meet to pray here at the church every Wednesday night at 7:30. I know that some of you can’t make it very often if ever, and that the farming season is in full swing. But I would love to see as much of the congregation as possible come out for four straight Wednesdays starting on the 27th to pray out loud and/or silently, whatever, and just see what God has in store for us. I’ll remind us again next week.
Please don’t be intimidated by this. You need not say anything but your participation is crucial as part of the body. You may get the revelation we need most. If you can’t come, would you please commit to pray during that time wherever you may be? Jesus said that the temple is a house of prayer, do we want to be known as a praying church, a church that Jesus intended?
Four weeks, after that we may go back to the way it was, or you never know, perhaps God will do something and we will be praying as a full congregation every Wednesday night or something else.
I believe that God is going to speak to us, so I encourage you to pay attention and perhaps write down whatever you sense God may be saying to you in prayer over those four weeks. Perhaps we can then come together and see what common things God may be saying to us as a congregation.
Would you accept this invitation to give four Wednesday’s of your life to this and see what God will do? Will we expect Him to be seen and heard?
