THE PRAYING CHURCH

Sermon of the Week #200535—September 9, 2005

          The book of Acts has twenty‑eight chapters and over one thousand verses. It is the only inspired of the Holy Spirit church history that was ever written. Luke informs us in the first chapter that what happened in the gospel story was what Jesus began both to do and to teach. What He began in the gospel story will be carried on in the book of Acts. The story of Jesus did not end when He disappeared in the clouds and left the disciples with the promise of coming again.    The saga of the Christ and the salvation He offers to mankind not only continues on in the book of Acts, but it continues on today in the lives of faithful Christians who continue to faithfully preach the story that Jesus began. Whatever He began we need to preach and promote today.

If there is any doctrine that He did not start, it should not be continued. It is evident from the first chapter of Acts that one of the reasons for the success of the first century church was the fact that it was a praying church. Prayer is mentioned twenty‑nine times in the twenty‑eight chapters of Acts. Actually the church began with a ten-day open‑end prayer meeting. Jesus told the Apostles not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which said, “He you heard from Me.”  When the angels informed the Apostles on the Mount of Olives that He would return in like manner as He went away they returned to Jerusalem to wait for the power and started to pray.

Jesus ascended to heaven on Thursday so they prayed the rest of that day and continued to pray all day Friday. The next day was Saturday. Maybe they thought this would be the day when the power would come since it was the Sabbath Day. The power did not come so they prayed on. Sunday came and they may have thought since He had made so many of His post resurrection appearances on Sunday this might be the day when the power would come. It did not come and so they prayed all day Monday, no power came and so they prayed all day Tuesday, again nothing happened so they prayed on. The next day was Wednesday and perhaps they thought this is the day of the official mid‑week prayer service surely He will send the power today, but nothing happened and they prayed on. Thursday came and undoubtedly they surmised that this was the first week anniversary of His departure to heaven so perhaps today the power will come. No word yet and they prayed on. Friday came and then Saturday the second Sabbath and still there was no evidence of the promised power. Then on the second Sunday after the Lord ascended it happened.

            The second Sunday was the Day of Pentecost and the baptism of the Holy Spirit fell upon the Apostles just as the Lord had promised. This was the birthday of the church that Jesus had promised to build when He told the Apostles that upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. The church was born after a ten‑day prayer meeting, but the praying did not stop. They prayed on through the book of Acts and here is a list of some of the power prayers they prayed. First notice what happened at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple when Peter and John went there to pray.

PRAYER AT THE BEAUTIFUL GATE

Peter and John went up to pray at the Temple at the hour of prayer at about three o'clock in the afternoon. They healed a forty-year old lame man who had been paralyzed from birth. Peter said, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  The man was healed immediately and entered into the Temple with Peter and John and a crowd gathered around Peter and John in amazement at what had been done at the hour of prayer.

If this man had been like many today he would have told the Apostles, “Mr. Peter and Mr. John, this is the first day I have ever walked in my forty years on the earth. If you will excuse me while you are going into the Temple to pray, I am going down to the stadium. I hear that the Jerusalem Jackals are going to play the Bethlehem Bulls today and I want to see the game.”

Mr. Peter and Mr. John would have said, “We understand but perhaps you can go in with us next week?”  The man would have said, “Sorry Mr. Peter and Mr. John, next week the Mesopotamian Mosquitoes are going to play the Philippians Fleas and I am just itching to see that game.”

But this man was not like us. He went in and stood with Mr. Peter and Mr. John while they preached the word and as a result the number of disciples grew to be about five thousand. When Christians learn to stand with the preaching of the word today we are going to see great increase in the spread of the gospel. The church then was great in prayer. Here is another example of their prayer life.

THE PRAYER FOR BOLDNESS

Peter and John were arrested for preaching the word and when they were released they returned to their own company and made a report as to what happened. The whole church with one accord prayed about the situation. They prayed, “0 Lord, grant unto thy servants that we may speak Thy word with boldness.”  If they had been like us they might have prayed, “0 Lord, help Mr. Peter and Mr. John to cool it and not be so out spoken.”  If there is anything the church needs today, it is boldness in proclaiming the truth of God's word. God answered their prayer and they spake the word of God with boldness.

So pray for boldness, but before you do, first consider the cost of such a prayer. In the next chapter every one of the Apostles was beaten. In the following chapter Stephen was stoned, and in the next chapter after that the whole church was scattered abroad. They prayed for boldness and they got it, but it came at a great price. Boldness if preached today also comes at a great price. Don't pray for it unless you are willing to pay that price because this is a real power prayer. Now here is another power prayer. They prayed for help in feeding the hungry.

FEEDING THE HUNGRY

And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying there arose a murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Is there any congregation anywhere at any times where there does not arise a murmuring? Here was a church that had twelve Apostles on the staff and they murmured against them. If the Apostles had been like us they would have responded to the murmuring like this. They would have reminded the church that when the Lord was here in the flesh He fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. When He did we Apostles were the servers. Peter was the Matre Dee.

“When we fed that huge crowd no one criticized us that day and you people don't think that we know how to feed a few dear old ladies meals on wheels.  We are going to resign and go somewhere else to establish the New Testament Church.”

Instead of this they said, “Look ye out from among you seven men of good report full of the Spirit and of wisdom that we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word.” This plan worked because the church grew exceedingly and a great number of priests were obedient to the faith.

The watershed of my ministry was years ago when I spoke before an audience of about a thousand young people at a Bible College. In that sermon I reminded them that sometimes a young man goes into the ministry and is so busy shuffling papers and running errands that he does not have time to prepare sermons. I told them that day; from now on I am not going to do anything but preach.  Like the Apostles I will give myself to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

We need to remember that the church did not begin on the Day of Pentecost with a gospel song service that featured quartets to draw the crowd with gospel entertainment. The church did not begin with a counseling session. The church began with preaching. Paul reminds us that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to the saved it is the power of God. Then again the same Apostles said, “We are fools for Christ's sake.”

I preached at a Bible College one time and just before I arose to speak they called on someone to pray and in his prayer he prayed, “0 Lord, we thank you that we have come here tonight to hear what this fool has to say.”  He was right on target. The church in the book of Acts prayed for others to be chosen to carry on the feeding of the poor widows so that the Apostles could carry on full time and all the time the message that the world regards as a bunch of foolishness. The crying need of the world today is for more fools to preach the gospel. Here is another power prayer—Peter praying on the roof.

PETER PRAYING ON THE ROOF

Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. Praying made him hungry and while they made ready he fell into a trance. A certain vessel like a great sheet held up by four corners descended out of heaven full of all kinds of four‑footed beast, creeping things and birds of the heaven. A voice came from heaven directing him to kill and eat. Peter told the Lord, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”  There are a lot of people who belong to the, "Not So" club. If anything in the word of God doesn't suit their fancy they say, “Not so, Lord.”

Peter could say that he had done a lot of terrible things. He could say I have cussed, swore, and cut peoples ears off, but there is one thing I have never done. I have never become so depraved and stooped so low as to eat a ham sandwich. Peter learned it was not a sin to eat a ham sandwich and he learned something else. He learned that he should not call any man common or unclean. He learned that the gospel was not just for Jews. When Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, the Apostles understood that to mean Jews only. The gospel is for everybody. We need to learn that also. Most of the preachers I know spend all their lives preaching to middle class white folk in suburbia. Preachers like to preach where there are rabbits, squirrels, grass, and good schools for the kids, but that leaves most of the human race out of the picture. I was in one country one time where people did not take a bath too often. The body odor was horrific. I preached anyway. I understood what the Lord meant when he said, “Call no man common or unclean.”  Here is another power prayer—Prayer for the folk in jail.

PRAYER FOR PEOPLE IN JAIL

Herod the king put forth his hand to afflict certain that were of the church. He killed James with the sword and when he saw that it pleased the Jews he proceeded to seize Peter also. Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer was made earnestly unto God for Peter. The GIJAPA reaches a great many people in various prisons around the country. Two chains to two soldiers, and a sixteen-soldier guard bound Peter. When the Devil gets hold of a preacher he intends to hold him and never turn him loose. Many a preacher has fallen into various sins and although many repent and live good lives, it seems that their ministry of preaching never reaches the level it was before. The Devil will see to that. God may forget and forgive, but the Devil never will. For better or worse he will see to it that people will always remember. Even now the Devil may be forging the chains of some preacher you know.

In this case the trouble for the church came from high places. King Herod himself. Many times our trouble can come from high places. Where did the ruling on legalized abortion come from? It came from high places. A place that is just as high as you can get. Where did the prayer amendment law come from? From the highest place you can imagine. We need to pray for those in high places. Your prayers may not do them any good but perhaps it will keep them from getting any worse than they already are. It is hard to think of a greater atrocity placed on America than the abortion laws, but if there is anything worse you can be sure our leaders will think of it. God have mercy on America. Pray, Pray, Pray.

SALVATION PRAYER

But at about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing Hymns unto God and suddenly there was a great earthquake. All the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed and the jailer being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors opened drew his sword and was about to kill himself. Paul shouted with a loud voice, “Do thyself no harm for we are all here.”  The jailer called for lights and brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved thou and thy house.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, don't leave the jailhouse too soon. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? The jailer did not know what to believe until he heard more of what it means to believe. Here is the rest of the story. Listen carefully. AND they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ AND thou shalt be saved, thou AND thy house. AND they spake the word of the Lord unto him with all that were in his house, AND he took them the same hour of the night, AND washed their stripes, AND was baptized, he AND all his straightway, AND he brought them up into his house AND set food before them, AND rejoiced greatly with all his house having believed in God.

Don't leave the jailhouse until you get the facts of the story. Believe is nothing unless you know what to believe. The jailer did not know what believe meant until Paul and Silas told him the story of Jesus. Believing then included repentance as evidenced in washing their stripes; it included baptism, the same hour of the night. The evidence that the jailer and his house received the Holy Spirit is in the fact that they rejoiced greatly with all his house. When Paul and Silas prayed in the jailhouse, now that was a power prayer. And now one more power prayer—the prayer to send out evangelists.

THE PRAYER FOR EVANGELISTS

Now there were that were there at Antioch in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnasbas, and Symeon that was called Niger, and Lucius, of Cyrene, and Manaen the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. They then when, when they had fasted and prayed laid their hands on them and sent them away.

The Holy Spirit is evidently a person. He speaks, He sends, He separates. This person, the Holy Spirit, is a great separator. He will separate you from drugs. He will separate you from nicotine. He will separate you from booze. If you should happen to be living with someone out of wedlock, the Holy Spirit will separate you or hook you up which ever is the most appropriate in the sight of the Lord. The Holy Spirit separated Barnabas and Saul from their work in a local church and sent them all over the world as evangelists. The Lord decides whomever He wants to preach. There may be many a preacher in the pulpit that was never separated to the work by the Holy Spirit. A preacher told me when I was a young man; “The Lord needs you.”  Several years later the church laid their hands on me and sent me away. While it is the Lord that sends out preachers, at the same time the call is involved with prayer of the church. Jesus said, “The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He send forth laborers into His harvest.”  If a church prays that prayer and a man is separated to the work of evangelist by the Holy Spirit and thereby thousands are led into the Kingdom of God; that for sure is a real power prayer. Listen to these words concerning that power prayer.

            Is there some desert Father or some pathless sea?

            Where Thou good God of angels wilt send me.

            Some oak to rend, some rock to break,

            Some handful of golden grain to take,

            And scatter far a field till it shall yield,

            A hundred fold of grain of gold,

            To be fed the waiting children of My God.

            Show me that desert Father or that sea,

            Is it thine enterprise, Great God send me.  (Author unknown to me.)