MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(In preparing this message as part of a sermon series on “Prayer” I have borrowed heavily, and adapted, from an outstanding sermon of the same title by Mike Hays of the Britton Christian Church in Okla. City, OK.)
TEXT: Acts 12:1-19
A. The popularity of the subject of prayer has skyrocketed in recent years. More &
more people are talking about praying. Newspaper articles, national magazines, & even some TV programs have featured discussions about the benefits of prayer.
ILL. One magazine article was titled, "Doctors Who Pray." In it several doctors published the results of their studies concerning the medical benefits of faith & prayer.
One of them, Dr. Matthews, wrote, "I can say, as a physician & scientist - not just as a Christian… - that, scientifically, prayer is good for you. The medical effects of faith on health are not a matter of faith, but of science." (Christianity Today, 1/6/1997)
I believe that. I do believe in the power of prayer - or rather, the power of God who hears & answers our prayers.
But there is something that concerns me. You see, whenever something has the potential of providing personal benefit, there will always be people who jump on the bandwagon & begin to appeal to our selfish instincts.
As a result, some people portray God as a celestial Santa Claus whose primary job is to hand out whatever we want when we want it. They tell us to "name it & claim it." This approach is often called a "health & wealth gospel," promising that if our faith is strong enough, God will give us what we want.
But I’m convinced that if we think of prayer as simply a means to get what we want, then we’re missing out on the true nature & purpose of prayer.
ILL. A number of years ago, (May 1, 1990), cable television giant Ted Turner was presented an award by the American Humanist Association, a group whose principles & teachings stand in direct opposition to Christianity.
At the banquet, he told the audience that he had been brought up as a Christian, that he had been "saved" 7 or 8 times as a child, & that once he had even considered becoming a missionary.
But then his sister became very sick &, despite his earnest prayers, she died. So he became disenchanted with Christianity. And, he went on to say, the more he strayed from his faith, "the better I felt."
That’s sad. Isn’t it? Here’s a man with tremendous ability who ended up abandoning his faith, at least partially because of his misunderstanding of the purpose of prayer.
You see, prayer is not something we do to make God obligated to us to intervene in accordance with our desires. But rather, it is an earnest effort on our part to bring our desires into accord with His divine will & plan for us.
Someone said, "The purpose of prayer is to draw us close to the heart of God so that our will, our deepest desires, will be those of God & not our own."
Isn’t that exactly the example Jesus gave us in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done"? (Luke 22:42)
B. Now, even as I’m concerned about the people who misunderstand the purpose of prayer, I’m also concerned about those of us who do understand, but who seem to pray with no expectation of God honoring our prayers or acting on our behalf.
It’s as if we’re engaging in an empty ritual, sometimes with zeal, but with no expectation that anything will happen in response to our prayers.
If so, we’re not the first to make that mistake. In Acts 12:1-19 we read about a group of Christians in the early Church who prayed fervently for the apostle Peter. Then when God acted to save Peter, they had a hard time believing that He had really answered their prayers. Listen to what happened. Acts 12:1-5 tells us,
“It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.
“He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.
“This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by 4 squads of 4 soldiers each.
“Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” (Acts 12:1-5)
King Herod was trying to win popularity with the Jews, so he arrested the apostle James & had him executed. That went over so well that he arrested the apostle Peter.
And to make sure that Peter did not escape, he was guarded by 16 soldiers, 4 squads whose watch rotated every 4 hours around the clock. At all times two guards were chained to Peter in his locked cell, & two others stood guard just outside his cell.
From all appearances it was a hopeless situation. The end was near for Peter & these 16 guards would assure that Herod’s bloodthirsty appetite would be satisfied.
I. PRAY EARNESTLY
Now, let’s switch scenes for a moment & move from the locked cell holding Peter to the house of John Mark’s mother where a group of Christians are praying for Peter.
If you remember, Vs. 5 says, "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him."
Now I want you to notice something. The Greek word that is translated "earnestly" is a medical term describing the stretching of a muscle to its limits. And it is exactly the same word used when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Luke writes, "And being in anguish, He (that’s Jesus) prayed more earnestly, & His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44).
You see, the Christians who were gathered in that house were not playing with prayer, they were praying! They were praying fervently, earnestly, on Peter’s behalf!
But from looking at the rest of the story, I’m convinced that those who were praying for Peter didn’t anticipate what actually happened. Let me show you what I mean as we continue on with vs’s 6-10.
“The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between 2 soldiers, bound with two chains, & sentries stood guard at the entrance.
“Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared & a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side & woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, & the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
“Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes & sandals.’ And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around you & follow me,’ the angel told him.
“Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.
“They passed the first & second guards & came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, & they went through it.
“When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.” (Acts 12:6-10)
It was not the skill or craftiness of Peter that got him out of jail - Peter was asleep when the angel came. It wasn’t the sympathy of the jailers that enabled Peter to escape - they would later lose their lives over it!
There is no explanation except for the power of God! It was the power of God that sent the angel & loosed the chains! It was the power of God that opened the iron gate! It was all accomplished by the power of God!
Once free Peter came to his senses & arrived at the same conclusion. Acts 12:11-16 tells us, “Then Peter came to himself & said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel & rescued me from Herod’s clutches & from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.’ It was the power of God!
“When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered & were praying.
“Peter knocked at the outer entrance, & a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it & exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’ ‘You’re out of your mind,’ they told her.
“When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, ‘It must be his angel.’ But Peter kept on knocking, & when they opened the door & saw him, they were astonished.”
When Peter arrived at Mary’s house they were still praying. They had been up all night long praying for Peter.
I don’t know what they were praying for. We are not told whether they were praying for Peter to be freed from prison, or for him to remain courageous & bold in His faith, or simply for Herod not to kill Peter, too.
However, I honestly don’t think they were praying for Peter’s release because they were taken completely by surprise when he showed up at the door. They just didn’t believe her when the girl said, "He’s here!" They weren’t expecting Peter to be at their door.
But he was! Someone has suggested that "God sometimes uses surprises to show us that He is still in charge."
God is able! So when you pray, pray with the expectation that God will answer your prayers according to His will.
II. SEEK TO DISCOVER & UNDERSTAND GOD’S WILL
Secondly, seek to discover & understand God’s will about your situation before you begin praying about it. Does God’s Word have anything to say that will shed light on it? Are you asking Him to bless something that is obviously not according to His Word?
ILL. Don’t be like the little boy who had been sent to his room because he had been bad. A while later he came out & said to his mother, "I’ve been thinking about what I did & I said a prayer."
"That’s fine," she said, "if you ask God He’ll help you to be good." "Oh, I didn’t ask Him to help me be good," replied the boy. "I asked Him to help you put up with me." (“Our Daily Bread” 6/15)
We can find a good example of what I am talking about from the life of Jesus. Jesus didn’t want to die the horrible death that was waiting for Him, but He desired God’s will for His life more than He desired His own comfort.
When difficult situations arise in our lives & we seek God’s help in prayer, we automatically conclude that it is God’s will for us to avoid pain & suffering or even death. We may very well conclude wrongly & miss God’s best for us in the situation.
There are times that we may not know what to pray. But when those times arise we need to go to God in prayer, tell Him that we don’t know what to pray, but we do desire His best for us, & then be comforted in the fact that God desires what is best for us, too.
ILL. In Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s, "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Ivan endures all the horrors of a Soviet prison camp.
One day he is praying when a fellow prisoner notices him & says with ridicule, "Prayers won’t help you get out of here." Opening his eyes, Ivan answers, "I do not pray to get out of prison, but to do the will of God." (“Our Daily Bread” 12-29-1993)
Isn’t that great! I’m not praying for a life of ease, but I am praying for the will of God to be done through my life. Once we come to know God’s desires, & how we can best be used by God, then we must pray with expectation.
III. BE PERSISTENT
Thirdly, be persistent! When we pray we need to say, "Lord I don’t know how, I don’t know who You will use to accomplish Your will, but I know that You will act, & I will wait with expectation for Your mighty hand to move! And I will keep on praying."
ILL. Howard Hendricks became a Christian as a young boy, & today is a well-known Christian teacher & writer in Dallas. His father, George, a career soldier, was not a Christian.
Many times throughout his life Howard tried to talk to him about his need for Jesus - but his father would just brush it off. "Son, don’t worry about me. I’ll work it out."
All Howard & his family could do was pray. And in some of his seminars he would tell the people about his dad, & ask them to pray for him, too.
For 42 years Howard prayed for his father - through years of military service overseas, & when he retired to his home in Arlington, VA.
Then one day a young preacher in Arlington, VA, Butch Hardman, was given a cassette tape made at one of Howard’s seminars.
In it Howard mentioned his father & his father’s need for Christ. Butch listened to the tape & something about it reminded him of his own father. Even though both Butch & Howard’s father lived in Arlington, they had never met, but Butch was so moved by George Hendricks’ need for Jesus that that he began praying for him too
Then one day Butch was driving down the street, & he saw a man standing on the corner who reminded him of Howard Hendricks. Could it possibly be Howard’s father? He backed up, got out, & went over to the man. "Are you by any chance Howard Hendricks’ father?"
It is easy to imagine the startled response. "Er-ah yeah - you a student of my son?" "No, I’m not, but his seminars have helped me. Got time for a cup of coffee?"
That encounter began a friendship, engineered, I believe, by the Spirit of God. Butch sensed Mr. Hendricks hesitancy when he first discovered that Butch was a preacher. So Butch didn’t try to invite him to attend his church. But he did invite him to stop by his office anytime for a cup of coffee & to talk.
Well, as an old soldier who had seen a lot of action, & now with plenty of time on his hands, Mr. Hendricks began to stop by regularly. Butch enjoyed their time together, patiently enduring the smoldering cigars & his endless cycle of war stories in the hope that there would be an opportunity for him to talk about Jesus, too.
Then Mr. Hendricks was diagnosed with throat cancer. And it wasn’t long until their visits had to be moved from Butch’s office to Mr. Hendricks’ home. And one day Butch said, "Mr. Hendricks, instead of my listening to your stories today, would you let me tell you a story?"
Well, Butch had earned that right & he began to tell the story of Nicodemus & Jesus as recorded by the Apostle John. And as their conversation drew to a close, Mr. Hendricks accepted Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior, & they made the arrangements for him to follow the example & command of Jesus in baptism.
Then suddenly Mr. Hendrick’s military training reasserted itself & he stood up, saluted, & with a big smile said, "Now I’m under a new Commander-in-Chief!"
Howard Hendricks says, "The last time I saw dad alive I could not believe he was the same man I had known. His frame was wasted, but his spirit was more alive than I had ever known."
Howard says, "In accordance with my father’s request, Butch conducted the military funeral in Arlington cemetery. And as the guns saluted their final farewell, I knew God had answered 42 years of prayer."
Forty-two years of prayer. Forty-two years of wondering. Forty-two years of asking. But after 42 years of prayer Howard Hendricks joined a long line of others who have been surprised by prayer, & by God’s answer to their prayers.
INVITATION
