Introduction
As you might know, the Book of Acts, immediately follows the Four Gospels in New Testament and it reveals to us the beginnings of the early church.
Jesus, during the week of His Crucifixion. went to the Temple, He cast out the money changers and said to all who were in listening distance, “My House shall be called a House of Prayer”.
The early church of Acts must have heard loud and clear the message of Jesus. I say that because in the Book of Acts , there are thirty one (31) times that we find people praying. And within those thirty-one times:
14 times it is an individual who is praying;
2 times two or more are praying in a small group but not in a church setting; and
15 times the church is praying together.
And what we can conclude is that the early church felt that there was power in the church people praying together that should not be neglected in favor of always having a single person praying for everyone. It seems to me looking at the numbers that they did both.
And that is what we are trying to do at Bala Chitto. I want to encourage you to go to each other and pray with one another and then Bro Greg or myself or someone else will close our prayer time with an individual pray. And if we can successfully do that, we are modeling our prayer life after the first century church.
And you may be asking yourself, why is that so important, Bro Dave? And that is what I want to try to answer for you today.
To answer that question, let’s look at our Scripture from Acts 4:23-31.
Scripture
Acts 4:23–31 (NKJV)
23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:
‘Why did the nations rage,
And the people plot vain things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’
27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. 29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
Point #1
If there is an excitement about what prayer can do in this church then when there is a need in your life, you are going to make sure that you are praying about it with your church family.
In the beginning of Acts Chapter 4, Peter and John have been arrested for preaching about Jesus. They were brought before the religious leaders who threaten them that they are no to speak the name of Jesus nor to teach any man about Jesus.
When they were released by the religious leaders, Peter and John did not run home and lock their doors to keep themselves safe from the religious leaders. What Peter and John did, they ran down to the church house, in other words they went to their own- those who had their back. Do you realize that you are the one who covers the back, you are the one who is the prayer warrior for everyone else in this church? We all have our own warrior team. You are my own warrior team. And I am part of your team. And I don’t know about you but I want a team that is hitting on all cylinders. Peter and John had such a team.
Look at verse 23. Acts 4:23 (NKJV)
23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
POINT #2
The Church of Acts went straight to God in pray.
As a church, Bala Chitto has work yet to do because if we were there that day, we would want to discuss about what happened to Peter and John. We might even want to gossip about what we thought the religious leaders were saying among themselves before they brought Peter and John in to meet with them. And only after we beat a death horse to death will someone say “ we ought to pray about it.”
Let me read you from Acts 4:24 (NKJV) how they did it.
24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,
The real work of a church is not discussing a problem; the real work of a church is not gossiping about a problem. The real work of a church is hitting our knees and praying about the problem.
Listen church, prayer is not something you do after you beat a discussion to death. Prayer was the first response of the church of Acts and prayer should be our first response.
Let me also tell you a church that uses prayer as a last resort will never be successful. There are churches that try everything else before they will try prayer. Those are not successful churches. A successful church knows that they have an offensive weapon in prayer, and they go right to using it. The Church of Acts knew it, and they were not afraid to use it. They did not feel uncomfortable using it.
POINT #3
The Church of Acts did not direct the prayer in a specific direction. What they asked for was God to take over the situation.
Acts 4:29 (NKJV)
29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,
When Peter and John met with the religious leaders, the religious leaders make threats against Peter and John if they spoke of or taught of Jesus Christ to any man. We are not told what the consequences were if the threats were not heeded. But in the back of their mind, they got to remember that threats against Jesus resulted in His Crucifixion.
But look the prayer was not to remove the threat but rather you Jesus take control of this situation and use it for your glory.
I am afraid today that when we pray that we pray to try to box God in to doing it our way. I can hear our prayer today, Lord removes those threats from my path. We would say nothing about you handling this matter as you see fit.
When we pray for one another we need to be carefully to give God the freedom to move in ways we have not even given thought to.
Point #4
We will know when our church is a House of Prayer because God’s hand print will be all over the things that we are doing.
Acts 4:31 (NKJV)
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
If you there that day in the assembly of believers and you are finishing up praying and the church house begins to shake, you know it is not an earthquake but rather God expressing His approval for how we gathered to pray and then how we left the door open for God to Work as He chose.
There is not a whole of shaking going on today in church houses because we don’t do corporate pray well and we generally don’t structure our prayer to give God the freedom to work in the situation as He chooses.
Conclusion
I need to know that my church is my prayer army.
