Your Prayers Have Been Received Series

YOUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED

Text: Acts 10:1-8

Introduction

1. Illustration: One of my favorite parts of our worship service is the time of sharing our praises, when we testify about ways God has answered our prayers. The reasons I like this time in our worship service is because it reaffirms to us that our God answers prayers, and because it encourages us to believe we will receive what we ask for in prayer.

2. God’s Word tells us that if we ask anything in Jesus’ name we will receive, therefore, we should believe God will hears us and our prayers of faith.

3. Read Acts 10:1-8

Transition: The first thing we should know about prayer is…

I. He Hears Our Hearts (1-4).

A. Received By God

1. Luke begins this chapter by telling us about an unlikely character in the Acts story. He’s unlikely because he was a Roman officer, and more importantly a Gentile.

2. While the mission of the church was to take the gospel to the “ends of the earth,” they had been selective as to whom they went to. However, that was about to change. In v. 1 we read, “In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment.”

a. Caesarea was a very strategic and beautiful seaport on the Mediterranean Sea, about 22 miles north of Joppa.

b. It was the capital of the Roman province of Judea, and a showplace of the glory of Rome.

c. The Romans even built a spectacular temple to Caesar there. For all these reasons the Jews hated it.

d. Another reason they hated it was because it was ruled by a special regiment of the Roman army known as the “Italian Regiment.”

e. The captain of this regiment was a man named Cornelius.

3. In v. 2 Luke tells us a little more about Cornelius. Luke tells us, “He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God.”

a. First, he tells us Cornelius was a devout man.

b. Unlike other Romans, especially Roman soldiers, Cornelius was tired of the immorality and unethical behavior of Roman and Greek society.

c. He became a part of the synagogue there, attended services there along with his entire household.

d. Second, he was a God-fearing man. He came to believe in the one true God of Israel.

e. He, however, like many other God-fearing Gentiles, did not take the step of becoming a proselyte because it involved being circumcised.

f. Third, he was good guy. He gave a good amount of his money to those in need.

g. Most importantly, he prayed regularly to God. He was serious about his belief in the one true God. It wasn’t just a superficial belief.

4. God saw his sincerity and answered his prayers. In vv. 3-4 it says, “One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. “Cornelius!” the angel said. Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What is it, sir?” he asked the angel. And the angel replied, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering!”

a. Three o’clock in the afternoon was a regular hour of prayer at the synagogue, and as he was accustomed to doing, Cornelius was there praying.

b. While he was praying, an angel of God was coming toward him.

1) In the Bible, visions are a common way that God responded to people in prayer, and angels were often messengers who spoke to people for God.

2) As you might imagine, Cornelius was a little afraid at what he was seeing. I mean if an angel appeared to you, you would probably be a little freaked out too!

c. Now, keep in mind, Cornelius was a tough, hardened Roman army officer. Not much human really scared him, but what he was seeing wasn’t human, and he knew it.

d. But he had the spiritual sense to ask, “What is it sir?” Then the angel told him that God had heard his prayers and the good deeds he had done to the poor.

e. God was going to answer his prayers. You see, God not only heard his prayers, but he also heard Cornelius’s heart.

B. We Are Confident

1. QUOTE: (Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer). "The disciples had learned to understand something of the connection between Christ’s wondrous life in public and His secret life of prayer. They had been with Him and had seen Him pray. They had learned to believe in Him as a Master in the art of prayer. None could pray like Him. And so they went to Him with the request, "Lord, teach us to pray." Go, my brothers! Go to the Blessed Master and ask him to enroll your names in that school which He always keeps open for those who long to study the Divine art of prayer! Jesus has opened a school in which He trains those who especially desire to have power in prayer. Enter it with the petition, "Lord, this is just what we need to be taught! O, teach us to pray!"