Text: Acts 4:23-31, Title: God-Approved Prayer, Date/Place: NRBC, 8/19/07, AM
A. Opening illustration: 9 out of 10 American say they pray, 8 out of 10 say they pray regularly, 6 out of 10 say they pray daily, even 2/3 of unchurched people say that they pray…
B. Background to passage: After the healing of the lame man at the gate called beautiful, after the sermon in the temple colonnade that brought hundreds to a God-glorified Christ, after a night in prison and much threatening never to speak or teach in the name of Jesus again, and after their bold proclamation that there is no other way to heaven but Jesus and that they can’t help but speak in the name, the authorities released Peter and John because of the people and not being able to find a way to punish them. And so what we have here is the gut reaction of the early church to its first round of persecution. And even though it was physically an easy round, the stakes were high and the battle lines had been drawn. This is the longest prayer in Acts.
C. Main thought: And so in our text today, we will get the next installment in the account which centers around the reaction of the early church to these things: they turn to God in prayer!
A. Reason for prayer (v. 23-24)
1. I don’t know what your first experience with persecution was, but this was theirs. They spent the night in prison for preaching Christ and were warned that the punishment would be worse if they did not cease immediately. So the bible says they came back to “their own.” This word meant an intimate group of people that were committed to Christ and committed to them. There was a small group of their close friends in the church that they came back to and reported all that had been said and done in the proceedings. Luke then tells us that their initial reaction was to pray, corporately. They raised their voices in a chorus of supplication toward God. And not just random prayer, but unified, focused, powerful prayer. They didn’t wait on prayer meeting; they stopped what they were doing and prayed. This indicates that this was their custom, their regular practice, and their first thought.
2. Phil 1:27, Acts 1:14,
3. Illustration: “I don’t have to outrun a grizzly. I just have to outrun you!” “one of the hardest things to break into in this world is a close-knit small Baptist church,” “it is impossible to imagine the members of the church of Jerusalem not gathers together to pray…congregational prayerlessness ought to be just as unimaginable for us in our own churches.” “…well the only thing that we can do is pray…”
4. In our day of cell phones, emails, and instant messages, and huge technological advances in communication we are no closer to each other. In the church should exist close relationships based on Christ and salvation. Would you say that there are people within this body or your that you are committed to on a Christian level? We also must guard against those relationships and groups being so tight that there is no room for new believers. We must always be open to discipling, encouraging, sharing our lives with new people that come to Christ or come to our church. As a side note, the closer the fellowship between to individuals or within a church, the stronger, more focused, and more effectual their prayer will be when they agree and pray together. How long sometimes do we wait to pray? How many times do we say we’ll pray, then don’t? How long does it take for us to get around to praying? Or to soliciting others that are committed to you and to Christ to petition God together? Do we even see a need for it?
B. Reminder in prayer (v. 24-28)
1. Jesus in his model prayer said “hallowed be Thy Name.” This is the beginning of the content of the early church prayer, which Luke probably intends to be a model. They spend four verses reminding themselves and proclaiming to God who He is. They spent twice as much time exalting as they did asking. In their current situation they took great confidence in the Sovereignty of God. They addressed as “Sovereign Lord,” an unusual title for God only used about six times meaning Absolute Master. They took comfort in God’s power and right to rule as Creator, in His sovereignty to prophesy and foreordain not only the events of Christ’s life and death, but their own. They quoted David about how that God knew and foreordained that the nations would rage against Christ. But, they knew that if God was in control, obedience even if it resulted in death was going to honor Him. And they acknowledged the perspective that the rage of the nations and of the Jews was not directed against them personally, but against God and His Christ.
2. Dan 9:4, 1 Kings 8:23-24, Neh 1:5, Jer 32:17-19,
3. Illustration: “Prayer is the converse of the soul with God. Therein we manifest or express to Him our reverence, and love for His divine perfection, our gratitude for all His mercies, our penitence for our sins, our hope in His forgiving love, our submission to His authority, our confidence in His care, our desires for His favor, and for the providential and spiritual blessings needed for ourselves and others.” - Charles Hodge, tell them about memorizing Amos 4:13,
4. Do we spend much time in our prayer “hallowing God’s name?” The early parts of our prayer should contain reminders to ourselves, and accolades to God’s glory in the form of declaring who He really is. God delights in being known as He really is. This is the ground of our prayer life as a whole—the character, actions, and glory of God. This is a time to pray the scripture that you have memorized about the character of God. Especially in times of suffering, drown yourself in meditation and prayer upon the absolute sovereignty of God. This will help keep your mind renewed and your perspective proper. In times of persecution, remember that their real beef is with God and His Christ, you are only the messenger and intermediate target. Don’t get mad, get glad! Glad that you are worthy to be assaulted for Christ.
C. Requests in prayer (v. 29-30)
1. The early church did have some requests. The only time they mention their situation is to say that God prophesied it, now God please take note of it. And this only to demonstrate what is as stake—the honor of Christ and the mission to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. The early church’s focus was the mission, and that is what the authorities were trying to thwart. But notice what is absent—a plea for deliverance, or easing of the persecution. They didn’t ask God to remove the persecution, give them favor in the rulers eyes, or anything like that. They asked for boldness, courage, strength to press right on through the trial and not fail Jesus. The last thing they requested was healings, signs, and wonders. Now as Baptists we just pass right over that part. But you must realize their concern was not for big ministries on TV, but for the evangelization of the lost.
2. Argumentation
3. Illustration: “Contrary to much emphasis today in the evangelical church, true prayer, like true worship, centers on God’s glory, not man’s needs.” –John MacArthur, “True prayer focuses on Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will.” --John MacArthur, Luther said, “We cannot help being exposed to assaults, but we pray that we may not fall and perish under them.” The underground church leader who chastised the American pastor for praying for deliverance instead of strength.” The story of the gunman who separated the sheep from the goats in the underground church, then had worship,
4. Ever notice that in much of our praying, we are praying about things that don’t make a lot of difference for the kingdom. We should be concerning about the glory of Christ (His reputation, His fame, His will, etc) and about the mission of the kingdom: to proclaim that glory to the ends of the earth. Do you prayer requests relate to those things? None of us are immune to fear, and we should be about the business of praying that we would stay faithful if the authorities threaten us, jail us, beat us, kill us. We might face those options one day, and most of us don’t have the backbone to remain obedience in the face of trials. We are always asking God to bail us out, make us comfortable. Why don’t we pray for more bridges to collapse, more planes to crash, more gunman to come in shooting up the church? Don’t pass out, but this goes to demonstrate that we are totally consumed with self-comfort and ease, instead of the glory of God. And pray that God will empower His true servants to stand up are boldly proclaim the glories of an all-sufficient God, a Savior of which to run. And at the same time pray that He purge His church from the phonies, cowards, and nominal believers, fair-weather, worldly, petty, superficial believers that have created a weak and anemic church in America! It is OK to pray for signs and wonders. God may not answer, depending on our need, but what if God did bless our church with a number of healings from various diseases and ailments.
D. Results of prayer (v. 31)
1. Finally we see the results. God who knew the needs in the early church, moved in a visible and powerful way at the requests of a blood-bought, Christ-honoring, God-centered people. The shaking of the building would have been an obvious sign of God’s presence. He is saying, “I am with you right now and I hear your cry, understand your fears, but my presence conquers all!” The next thing that happened is these believers were filled with the Spirit. They were ALL empowered and encouraged; to purposes of the filling of the Spirit in believers’ lives. Note the parallels between this and Pentecost. And then finally they went out and did what they had requested—spoke the word boldly. They didn’t just sit around and enjoy the filling of the Spirit, they went out and got to it. And this is what always happened when people were filled with the Spirit.
2. Ex 19:18, Isa 6:4,
3. Illustration: When the blacksmith strikes his hammer repeatedly on the anvil it is said that the same anvil will wear out many hammers. Those who strike Christians are creating boldness in the body of Christ. When Christians are persecuted there is more courage. Tell about the workers at Youth for Christ in Shri Lanka who were beaten and hospitalized after their host was killed during a weekend of ministry, and the head of the organization took one other man and the new van to go get them out, Luther’s conversation with the papal envoy and their threat of what was coming to him and the fact that all his supporters would desert him. Then they asked where he would be then. And he replied, “Then, as now, in the hands of God” One writer said, “we have the courage to be obedient even unto death, for we know that obedience leading to death will be used as a stepping stone for victory by God.”
4. God doesn’t have to shake the building for us to know and trust that he is there. We know that based on His inerrant word. BUT, what if we did see some visible manifestation of God when we prayed. What if at 6 AM Mon-Thurs as we prayed one morning, or Wed after during a prayer walk, a pillar of fire or of a cloud showed up. However we walk by faith, not by sight, or sound, therefore we should carry on as if there was a fire in the room. I beg of you to heed the word of the Apostle and keep on being filled with the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit, sow to the Spirit, and be led by the Spirit, all the while praying for a special season of mercy and grace and an extra measure of the Spirit weighing heavily upon our congregation. When your purposes line up with God’s purposes, you can bet He will answer prayer in a mighty way! He will fill, empower, encourage, and bring about the ends for which He sees fit—the proclamation of the excellencies of His Son and the salvation provided. So speak the word with boldness, leave tracts, tell you friends about Christ even if it gets you killed!
A. Closing illustration: Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray—to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight—all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ‘concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice. - Robert E. Lee
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
