What Happens When We Pray
Revelation 8:1-5
When Georges Vanier became our first francophone Governor General in 1959 he made two requests. First, he asked that the signage outside of Rideau Hall be bi-lingual. And second, he asked that they build a prayer chapel inside the official residence. Vanier said that he prayed every day and wanted a special place set aside for this purpose.
What a difference 60 years makes! Today our Governor General mocks persons of faith. She ridicules the idea that a person might believe in God and at the same time embrace science.
Obvious, Georges Vanier believed that prayer was important. And I hope all of us will feel the same way when this service is over. I want to speak to you on What Happens When We Pray from Revelation 8. There are three things (at least) that happen when we prayer.
I. When we Pray we confront the anti-Christ
I am aware that the term anti-Christ is not found in the book of Revelation. I am also aware that some Christians have made the anti-Christ and all things prophetic a cottage industry. They get all bent out of shape trying to discover who the anti-Christ is.
In the first century it was the Roman Emperor, at the time of the Reformation the Protestants thought the pope was the anti-Christ and the pope was sure Martin Luther was the anti-Christ. In the Twentieth Century Hitler made it to the list as well as Stalin. I saw Henry Kissinger on TV last week – an old man bent with the years. I remember when he was supposed to be the anti-Christ.
It seems that you haven’t really made it politically if you don’t end up on somebody’s anti-Christ list. For all his charisma and selfies Justin Trudeau has not really been successful because as far as I know nobody has yet to claim he is the anti-Christ.
But John the Beloved talked about anti-Christ, not in the Revelation but certainly in his letters. He says in 1
John 2:18 that there are now many antichrists. He even defines what he means by antichrist: a person who denies that Jesus is the Christ. A person who deceives. A person who does not believe that God has entered history in the person of Jesus Christ.
John teaches that there are many antichrists. There have been antichrists in every generation. And every time we go to prayer we confront those spirits that are opposed to everything Jesus stands for.
Let me show you how this worked in the life of John. It says in Revelation 1 that John was in prayer, he was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day. John says: I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.
Why didn’t he say Sunday? Because the pagan world had assigned every day of the week to one of their evil gods. The first day of the week was for the sun god - Sunday. The second day of the week was for the moon god. Lunar Day or as we say in French Lundi. There is a false god behind every day of the week. An antichrist.
And the old man on Patmos would have none of that. He called Sunday the Lord’s Day. The Day of Resurrection. The Day of New Beginnings. John confronted the evil culture of his day. He would not allow the world to squeeze him into its mold. This is not about what we call the days of the week. This is about buying into the values of our culture that are contrary to all that our Lord taught and did.
When we pray we go upstream against everything our culture believes. When a Christian prays he or she is saying I believe in the supernatural. I believe in God. I believe in another world, another rule of law, another set of values than those broadcast by our culture.
When you pray you confront the spirit of darkness, the antichrist in our world.
II.When We Pray God Listens
You will notice at the start of Revelation 8 there is silence in heaven for about half an hour. Before this point in the book there has been a cacophony of praise. Day and night the living creatures never stop saying: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
And this goes on and on and on until suddenly chapter 8. And then, like the very end of Handle’s Hallelujah Chorus this break, this moment of pregnant silence before the final burst of glory.
God shuts down all sound so that He can listen to our prayers. Every groan, every whisper, every stammering attempt we make at prayer He hears. God listens. When we pray God really listens.
God focuses on you. As if you are the only one praying. I have no idea how the infinite God can focus on many all at once but He does.
Jean Vanier, the son of the late Governor General has devolved a network of homes around the world for people with disabilities. He has written a wonderful book on ‘Becoming Human’ in which he tells us how to love other people. And one of the five ways Vanier lists is listening to the other person. Really listen.
We say that God loves us. Do you know what that means? It means that he loves the sound of our voice he wants us to interrupt His day. He longs to listen to our cry. He focuses on us one by one. When we pray God listens. There is silence in heaven.
III. When We Pray Our Unremarkable Prayers God Does some Remarkable Things
You will notice in Revelation 8 that the prayers of God’s people as they come up to Heaven are mixed with incense. I had always misread that. I thought our prayers were the incense. No, our prayers are mixed with incense. That is a polite way of saying they are edited. They are purified.
Apparently, we don’t have to speak perfect English to speak to God. You don’t have to use the beautiful language of the prayer book. In fact, we don’t have to speak English at all. You don’t have to be smart to pray or well placed in the church to pray. More importantly, we don’t have to fully know the will of God to pray. Our prayers are often disjointed and confused. Sometimes our prayers are selfish. That all gets sorted out in heaven. Like baby talk gets sorted out by a loving mother so God sorts out of garbled prayers.
And then a wonderful thing happens. A holy angel of God mixes our prayer with the fire of God and hurls the prayer back to earth. And the Bible says there are peals of thunder, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. The late Eugene Peterson described this as ‘Reversed Thunder’.
When we pray the power of God is released on earth. The trumpets of God begin to blow. God’s people pray and suddenly there are seven angels with seven trumpets. And the rest of the book of Revelation is basically the blowing of these trumpets, putting down the powers of darkness and establishing the Kingdom of God on earth.
Revelation 8 is a turning point in this important book. Before chapter 8 there is unending praise to God; then there is silence in heaven. The people of God begin to pray, the trumpets of God begin to blow and the judgements of God begin to fall – the kingdom of God is ushered in upon the earth.
This happens because we pray. Be careful how you pray because when you pray the trumpet of God will blow. Every member of John’s church who had been schooled in the Old Testament would perk up when he talked about prayer and trumpets. They would remember the conquest of the Promised Land under Joshua when the only thing that stood in their way was the city of Jericho. But when the trumpet was blown the walls came down and the obstacle to the God’s promise was removed.
These same people who knew their Old Testament would also remember the Year of Jubilee when all debts were canceled, all in bondage were set free. And to introduce the Year of Jubilee the trumpet would sound.
There were a few of the older folk in John’s Church who could still remember the Temple worship in Jerusalem. They could remember how when the lamb was placed on the altar a trumpet would sound letting everyone know that God had forgiven the sins of the people.
And who in the early Christian Church had not heard Matthew 24 read by this time. The promise of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was clearly taught: He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call. Everyone knew the Second Coming of Christ would be preceded by the sound of a trumpet.
When we pray we call forth the trumpet of God. The impossible becomes possible; sins are forgiving; people are set free from their bondage and the kingdom of God comes to earth.
When we pray we are endowed with the dignity of making a difference for good in our world. Did you ever have one of those low moments when you wondered what difference you make. Even the cat seems to get along without you. What’s the point of your life? When you pray God takes your prayers and mixes them with his fire and shoots them back to earth to really changed things for the good. The Will of God on earth as it is in heaven. Our prayers make a difference.
Some of us feel useless at times. Age often robs us of purpose. What can I do? You can alter the flow of history. You can usher in the Kingdom of God. You can see people set free from all manner of bondage.
• When we pray we confront the antichrist.
• When we pray God really listens
• When we pray unremarkable prayers, God does some remarkable things on earth.
Oh God, thank you for this teaching from Revelation 8. Thank you for the gift of prayer. For the part we play in bringing in the Kingdom of God on earth through prayer. Thank you for listening to our prayers. Help us to confront the spirit of darkness all about us. And to know that when we pray good things really happen here on earth.
Let this be a day of when impossible things become possible; when people are set free from bondage; when sins are blotted out; and the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. I dare to ask this because of Jesus Christ your Son my Lord and Saviour. Amen.
