The Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, Ohio, reported in September, 1985 a celebration of a New Orleans municipal pool. The party around the pool was held to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at the New Orleans city pool. In honor of the occasion, 200 people gathered, including 100 certified lifeguards. As the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive Jerome Moody, 31, but it was too late. He had drowned surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season. (Times-Reporter, September 1985)
We who have the life giving message of New Life in Jesus are the Life Guards in this drowning world but, sometimes we’re so caught up in our party that we fail to throw out the lifeline to those we are called to serve. How can we do better? What is the key to doing a better job with the charge we have been given?
Prayer. Prayer is the key, the centerpiece to salvation. Here in our story today as the message of Salvation makes the first leap from the Jewish world to the Gentile World, as the evangelization of the World really begins in earnest, Prayer is center stage.
So as we continue our look at the patterns for prayer found in the book of Acts it’s appropriate that we stop here and look at prayer as it relates to salvation. In fact in this one story we see both sides of the coin: Prayer as it relates to those who are seeking salvation and to those called to share the good news of salvation. Id like to look first at how prayer is essential to those seeking the Lord.
I. Seek
And the first thing that Jumps out at me as I read this passage is that...
1. God Honors the prayer of the seeker
1-5 1At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" 4Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter."
God hears the prayer of the seeker. It’s not that God was particularly impressed with the quality of Cornelius’ righteous living--none of us earn salvation and our attempts are as "filthy rags" the Word reminds us. But God sees the attitude of the heart that motivates this attempt at righteousness. He sees that Cornelius genuinely wants to serve Him. God said through the prophet Jeremiah that "You will find me when You seek me with all of your heart."
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that "he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
More than that Jesus said to the woman at the well that the Father is seeking us.. For those who will worship in Spirit and in truth.
God Honors the prayers of the seeker. But seeking and trying to earn God’s favor is not enough. Which brings us to the second thing I’d like to point out about prayer as it relates to the seeker...
2. More than prayer and good works is required for salvation
The way that God rewards the seeker is by showing them the truth. In the same way that looking for aspirin won’t cure your headache, seeking God and doing good works won’t save you from sin and its penalty.
Once God brings you to the truth you need to trust in it to be saved. Perhaps there is someone here who has desperately been seeking God. You’ve been praying, looking for answers doing your best to live a life that is pleasing to God. God has rewarded your effort to seek Him by bringing you here this morning to hear the good news. Let me read it to you just as Cornelius heard it:
vv. 36-43 36You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
39"We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen....43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
The message is simple: Jesus came to Earth, though He was God he became a man and He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. If you believe that, if you trust in what he has done to pay for your sins you will receive His free gift of eternal life.
More that Prayer and Good works is required for salvation. If it were not so, the Bible reminds us, then Christ died for nothing.
Normally the flight from Nassau to Miami took Walter Wyatt, Jr., only sixty-five minutes. But on December 5, 1986, with only a compass and a handheld radio, Walter flew into skies blackened by storm clouds.
When his compass began to gyrate, Walter put out a mayday call, which brought a Coast Guard Falcon search plane to lead him to an emergency landing strip only six miles away. Suddenly Wyatt’s right engine coughed its last and died. The fuel tank had run dry. Around 8 p.m. Wyatt could do little more than glide the plane into the water.
Wyatt survived the crash, but his plane disappeared quickly, leaving him bobbing on the water in a leaky life vest. With blood on his forehead, Wyatt floated on his back.
Suddenly he felt a hard bump against his body. A shark had found him. He managed to stay afloat for the next ten hours. In the morning, Walter spotted a dorsal fin headed for him, & felt the hide of a shark brush against him. In a moment, two more bull sharks sliced through the water toward him. He kicked the sharks, and they veered away, but he was nearing exhaustion. Then he heard the sound of a distant aircraft. He waved his orange vest. The pilot radioed the Cape York, which was twelve minutes away: "Get moving, cutter! There’s a shark targeting this guy!" As the Cape York pulled alongside Wyatt, a Jacob’s ladder was dropped over the side. Wyatt climbed wearily out of the water and onto the ship, where he fell to his knees and kissed the deck. He’d been saved. He didn’t need encouragement or better techniques. Nothing less than outside intervention could have rescued him from sure death. How much we are like Walter Wyatt. (Peter Michelmore, Reader’s Digest, October, 1987)
By our own efforts we are lost in hostile waters. Nothing short of outside intervention can save us. The prayer that saves us is not the one based on what we can do for ourselves but the one that puts all hope in what Christ has done.
Next let’s look at the other side of the coin, how prayer prepares those who share the message.
II. Share
1. Helps us Hear from God
9-11 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw heaven opened..
Prayer positions us for what I call divine appointments. When we spend time with the Lord we become sensitive to His voice and in that state we can more easily recognize the opportunities he sends our way to share His good news.
Popular Christian Author and speaker Howard Hendricks relates how this pattern for Prayer played a key role in the salvation of his father. Hendricks writes, "Dad was a military man. He had seen action around the world. I and my family prayed for him, but at times I’m afraid my faith sputtered. His response was always the same: "Son, don’t worry about me. I’ll work it out with God."
God brought a man into my life, a man with a passion for men. His name was Butch Hardman. One day before Howard and Butch met Butch was given cassette tape by a friend. "Ever hear Hendricks? Here’s a tape you should listen to." On that tape Howard related his father’s spiritual need.
Butch listened and began to pray for this unknown man, George Hendricks. Some months later Butch attended a pastors’ conference in Philadelphia where Howard was the speaker. They shook hands afterwards. That was the only time their paths crossed before a remarkable incident in Arlington. Butch was driving the church bus down the street. He saw a man standing on the corner who reminded him uncannily of Howard Hendricks. Could it possibly be...? He backed up the bus, stopped, got off, and went over to the man. "Are you by any chance Howard Hendricks’ father?"
"Er-ah, yeah -- you a student of my son?" "No, I’m not, but he sure has helped me. Got time for a cup of coffee?"
That encounter began a friendship, skillfully engineered by the Spirit of God. For a long time Butch did not invite him to attend his church. He simply suggested that dad drop by the office for coffee. Patiently he endured his endless repertoire of war stories. Before long he also learned that dad had been diagnosed as having a terminal throat cancer. Months later Butch was at his bedside. "Mr. Hendricks, Instead of my listening to you tonight, would you let me tell you a story?" Butch had earned his hearing and he began simply to relate the interview of Jesus Christ with Nicodemus as recorded by the Apostle John. At the conclusion George Hendricks accepted Butch’s invitation to receive Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior. Then dad got up out of bed, stood, and saluted with a smile. "I’m under a new Commander-in-Chief!"
Just as spending time in prayer prepared Peter and Butch Hardiman for their divine appointments, Prayer prepares you and me to hear from the Lord. And finally prayer
2. Prepares us to Move out of our Comfort Zone
In verses 11-14 we read about Peter’s dream which prepared him for the Lord’s command:
15The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." 16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. 17While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. 18They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. 19While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three£ men are looking for you. 20So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
Time in Prayer prepared Peter to move out of his comfort zone into ministry
D.L. Moody shared a story about a young man who enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men, who passed the time playing cards and gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him. So it went on the next night and the next, and finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked what he should do.
"Well," said the chaplain, "you are not at home now, and the other men have just as much right to the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don’t provoke them." For weeks after the chaplain did not see the young man again, but one day he met him, and asked -- "By the way, did you take my advice?" "I did, for two or three nights." "How did it work?" "Well," said the young man, "I felt like a whipped hound and the third night I got out of bed, knelt down and prayed." "Well," asked the chaplain, "How did that work?" The young soldier answered: "We have a prayer meeting there now every night, and three have been converted, and we are praying for the rest."
Where is your comfort zone? Where is the field of ministry God is calling you to?
Perhaps you’ve come this morning in answer to your seeking prayers. This morning God has given you the reward of your prayers by allowing you to hear the gospel message. Will you pray the prayer of faith?
Perhaps you’ve come and you are among the 98% of Christians who has never shared your faith. This morning God is inviting you into a praying relationship with Him that will prepare you to move out of your comfort zone and into the ministry zone.
