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!"
2. When we pray, God not only hears our words, but he also hears our hearts.
a. “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.” (1 Jn 5:14-15).
b. One of the great things about the story of Cornelius is that God heard his prayers even before he came to know Jesus.
c. God heard the sincerity of his prayers. God saw the sincerity in his actions. God knew that his heart was in the right place.
d. It’s a wonderful thing when someone begins in their life a search for truth and meaning that can only be connected to our maker.
e. I know in my own life that God saw the sincerity of my heart. He saw beyond the mistakes I was making and the wrong places I was looking.
f. He knew that what I was really looking for was him!
g. Even in our ignorance, God leads us in the right direction if our hearts are open to the Lord.
h. God continues to hear our hearts after we believe. He sees that we truly believe if we ask for what pleases God, he will answer our prayers.
i. Because God not only hears what we say, he hears what we believe.
Transition: In hearing our prayers, God…
II. He Calls Us to Action (5-8).
A. Send Some Men
1. One of the things that God does in answering our prayers is he requires action on our part, an act of faith.
2. In vv. 5-6, the angel tells Cornelius, “Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.”
a. The angel tells Cornelius, God is going to answer your prayers, but this is how those prayers get put into action.
b. As an act of faith, he tells him to send some men to Joppa to look for Peter.
c. He tells him to give his men instructions to look for Peter at the house of a tanner named Simon, who lives by the seashore.
d. Now, there is an interesting footnote here. It’s curious that Peter was staying with a tanner. Why?
1) Well, because the Jews considered someone who touched a dead animal to be unclean.
2) Therefore, it’s a stretch for a devout Jew, like Peter, to stay at the house of someone who touches dead bodies for a living.
3) So, not only was he preparing Cornelius to have his prayers answered, but he was also preparing Peter to have a hand in it.
e. He was going to teach Cornelius how to be saved, and he was also going to teach Peter about accepting people different from himself.
3. Now, talk about faith in action, look what happens next. In vv. 7-8 Luke tells us, “As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants. 8 He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.”
a. As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius jumped into action.
b. He immediately called two of his household servants and a devout soldier. He told them what had happened. He told them about the angel and what the angel told him to do.
c. Then he told them to be on their way to Joppa and find Simon Peter. This is what we call expectant faith!
d. We don’t pray and ask God for something and then not act like he’s not going to do it.
e. We act upon our request in faith. We get up and go to Joppa!
B. Abraham Obeyed
1. Illustration: When I was a kid, I used to watch this cartoon called Gulliver and the Lilliputians. One of the Lilliputians was named “Glum.” He had a tremendously negative attitude about everything. No matter what adventure they were on, he would always utter the same phrase, “We’re doomed! We’ll never make it!” There are too many Christians that are like Glum. They prayer, but they are more surprised when God answers they prayers than if he doesn’t.
2. We need to put legs on our prayers!
a. “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.” (Heb. 11:8-10).
b. Abraham put legs on God’s promises. God told him to leave his home, and so, he got up and left, even though he didn’t know where he was going!
c. He went and lived as a foreigner in tents, because he was looking forward to a city with eternal foundations.
d. He believed God, even though he couldn’t see it, touch it, feel it, or taste it!
e. When we pray, we need to believe that God is going to give us what we ask for.
f. When we pray, we need to thank him not only for hearing our prayers, but also for answering them!
g. If we don’t believe we are going to receive what we ask for, we are wasting our time and God’s.
h. We need to believe and receive!
Conclusion
1. In prayer…
a. God hears our hearts.
b. God calls us to action.
2. What’s the point preacher? When you pray, expect God to move, because he is a God who answers prayer!
