Acts

In a previous post we looked at some ways in which the believers of the early church in the Book of Acts were devoted to prayer as one of their fundamental practices. Through prayer they commissioned workers to the mission field, whether deacons, elders, or missionaries. Through prayer they witnessed effectively to the grace and love our Jesus Christ, as we saw in the case of the martyr Stephen and the murderous Saul who witnessed both the unjust death and the enduring faith of Stephen. We were reminded how prayer must be employed as a weapon of spiritual warfare, to the end that God would grant us a bold and effective articulation and defense of the gospel as good ambassadors of Christ. In this post we wrap up our look at prayer in the Book of Acts with some final observations that we can put to practice in our own spiritual lives.

Devote Yourself to Praying With Other Believers

For starters, it is important that we take note that in the majority of cases where prayer is mentioned in Acts, it is in the context of corporate prayer. That is, prayer in the Book of Acts is frequently viewed as something done with other believers. Now don’t misunderstand, I do not say this as a way to undermine the importance of individual and personal prayer. Not at all. We see instances even in Acts where individuals are devoted to prayer outside of any obvious context of corporate worship. Here I am thinking of Acts 9:11 where the Lord instructs Ananias to minister to Saul of Tarsus, who was just confronted by the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, and who, the text says, “is praying and has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” We might also make mention here of Acts 10 and the story of Peter and Cornelius, two very different men about to meet up in a divine appointment, but who are both first meeting individually with God through prayer. So it is clear that individual prayer is honored and practiced in the Book of Acts, and thus we do not and should not diminish prayer in that sense. On the other hand, I also wish to emphasize the corporate aspect of prayer as practiced in the early church to underscore something that is often neglected in our spiritual lives: our interdependency with other members of the body of Christ and the reality that God often works through the body of Christ as a whole, not just one on one as individual believers. 

There are a number of cases where prayer is mentioned in the corporate sense. These instances, in fact, comprise the lion’s share of the citations of prayer in Acts. The first mention is in 1:24, a passage we looked at two weeks ago, in which the Eleven remaining apostles joined together to seek the Lord for a replacement for Judas. The next occurrence is toward the end of chapter four. After Peter and John were apprehended and later released for the “crime” of preaching in the name of Jesus, we read in 4:23-24 that “they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted up their voices together and prayed.” In chapter six, which we looked at last week, the twelve main spiritual leaders of the church gathered together and corporately commissioned the newly-ordained deacons to the work of taking care of the physical needs of the church. 

In one of the more authentic and humorous glimpses into human capriciousness, Acts 12 records a corporate gathering where those praying apparently did not believe they’re prayers were going to be heard! Here is what happened: after having James executed, Herod the king proceeded to arrest and imprison Peter. Upon hearing this, the believers bolted into action, and “earnest prayer for Peter was made to God by the church.” (12:5) Well, in an apparent case of our glorious God going beyond our modest expectations, the Lord heard the prayers of the gathered community of believers and miraculously delivered Peter from his prison cell. Peter, once he realized he was not dreaming, “went to the house of Mary…where many were gathered together and were praying.” It seems obvious enough that they had joined together to petition God for Peter’s release and safety. But when the servant girl reported to them that Peter was standing at the door, they exclaimed, “You are out of your mind.” (12:15) What a candid look at the variability of our faith!! One would think that the church was gathered at Mary’s house because they truly believed that God would actually hear them and answer on their behalf. Yet, when it became obvious that God did in fact hear them and answer their prayer for Peter’s deliverance, they stood there incredulous and amazed! 

Skipping over one of the passages we looked at last week in chapter 13 where Paul and Barnabas were commissioned to the mission field, we come next to Acts 20. Here we find one of the more emotional scenes in all the New Testament as Paul, knowing that personal endangerment  awaited him back in Jerusalem, exchanged tearful goodbyes with the believers at Ephesus as he made plans to head there anyway. After instructing the elders to keep careful watch for the flock, Paul “knelt down and prayed with them all.” (20:36) Here we see an instance not only where prayer is a church-wide event, but also the most appropriate way for believers to depart from one another while at the same time acknowledging that our deepest bond with one another is in the Lord. 

Time fails to mention all the cases, but suffice it to say that all in all, close to 60% of the mentions of prayer in Acts are instances of corporate prayer – the church gathering together and joining hearts before the throne of God. This brings to mind something that Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. In chapter one of Philippians we read, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

That word “partnership” is the word that we often translate “fellowship.” “Partnership,” however, seems to convey the meaning of the word quite well. Paul is commending the Philippians because they corporately participated in the advancement of the gospel. We see at least six ways that participation was lived out in the Philippian church. Their partnership together in the gospel involved defending the gospel, living worthy of the gospel, suffering for the gospel, laboring for the gospel, providing for the gospel, and rejoicing together in the fruit of the gospel. These are notable exhortations that should apply to every single local church even today. We should all be doing these things – participating together in these things.

On top of these, one practice that we could add to this list by way of our observations from the Book of Acts would be that we should be praying together for the advancement of the gospel. After all, the propagation of the gospel from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and the remote places of the earth is the very theme of the Book of Acts. We find this doctrinally in Jesus’ last recorded instructions to His disciples in chapter one of Acts. Then we witness it historically throughout the next 27 chapters. And we have seen some of the ways in which the gospel was thus spread – through men and women who were filled with the Spirit of God and who came together in the Lord petitioning Him that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven – through them.  

Much of the New Testament is written not to individuals alone, but to local assemblies of individual believers who are joined together by a common bond in Christ and united together in one purpose. We as the church have been given marching orders by our Commander. Each local church might have a unique personality, a particular emphasis, a distinctive mission. But every true church of Jesus Christ, at least from a biblical perspective, falls under the umbrella of one ultimate purpose: to live out our lives together – in the words of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians – to the praise of His glorious grace. One way that we do that is to share that glorious grace – that is, the gospel – with those around us who are in need of the grace of God in their lives. And one way that we come together to unite in and advance that purpose is corporate prayer. 

All of this can be summed up by two basic ideas. First, when we come together to unite our hearts in prayer, let us be ever mindful of the charge that has already been given to us concerning the advancement of the gospel, and that prayer is an indispensable means by which God both emboldens the one who proclaims the truth and opens the eyes of the blind to hear that truth. If we wish to be a church that wins the lost to Christ, then we must pray together towards that end. In other words, a top priority in our corporate prayer life, just as it was for the church in Acts, must be to see others come to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Second, as simple as it sounds, we must come together in the first place!  What do I mean by this? Well, this takes us back to the point we were making earlier: we are being fashioned together as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2:21-22, into a “whole structure, being joined together, and growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Now just to be clear, Scripture is very balanced on this point. In no way does Scripture minimize the spiritual life of the individual believer. Far from it! In fact, Jesus Himself commended personal, private prayer when He said, “when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6) The Christian faith, while extolling the virtue of the spiritual community, does not at the same time obliterate the value of personal devotion. It honors and commends both. For our purposes today, however, we want to emphasis the often overlooked biblical reality that we are called to regularly join together with like-minded believers, united in purpose and mission, to call upon the Lord as the body of Christ that He might do mighty things through us and in our midst. As we see throughout the Book of Acts, God delights in bringing us together that we may share in the life of the Spirit together. In other words, the Scripture exhorts us to be an active and contributing part of a local, bible believing church. I realize that may be difficult for many, whether owing to a physical liability, a job-related conflict, or other, more personal reasons. But as far as it depends upon you, I encourage you to find a church on a mission where believers are devoted to praying together for one another and for the advancement of the gospel. I truly believe that while God desires and indeed establishes a personal, intimate relationship with all of His children, He also seeks, as the Book of Acts attests, to relate to us together as the body of Christ. 

In this post we take a closer look at some of the specific instances in the Book of Acts where the early church engaged in prayer as the divinely-ordained means by which God accomplished His will in their very midst. For the early church, prayer was a way of life. Prayer was an act of devotion and discipline which preceded some of the most definable moments in the life of the infant new testament community. Let us consider a few of those instances this morning. 

Devote Yourself to Prayer as a Way of Life

In Acts 2:42-47 we read how the early church was committed to prayer as a practice as fundamental to their spiritual well-being as teaching, fellowship, and evangelism. The text says they “devoted” themselves to prayer – that is, they continued steadfastly and persisted in prayer. There we see how God was actively and intimately involved in the life of the church as the object of her praise and adoration. We also see the result of that divine involvement: “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The abundant life of the living God was infused into the heart of this early community of believers, and prayer was one of the ways that this life was both received and manifested. 

In an interesting contrast, whereas the early church was filled with the life and fellowship of the Spirit of God, their unbelieving antagonists among the rulers, scribes and priests, according to Acts 4:15, dealt with the growing problem posed by the evangelistic church by merely “conferring with one another,” apparently leaving God out of it. These unbelieving men could not confer with God in prayer, for indeed they were fighting against God by opposing His church. 

This indictment recalls a similar failure in the history of the Jewish nation, a failure to seek divine counsel in a time of need. When Joshua was leading the children of Israel to conquer and claim the land promised centuries earlier to Abraham, a local people known as the Gibeonites, aware that they could not defeat the Israelites in battle, chose a more cunning way to ensure their own survival. They deceived Joshua and his leading men by pretending to be sojourners from a distant country seeking to make a covenant with the Israelites and their God. The Israelites foolishly listened to the crafty sales pitch, but according to Joshua 9:14 “they did not ask counsel from the LORD.” Even though they had witnessed unimaginable God’s power and holiness since the days Moses first confronted Pharoah, they nevertheless suffered a momentary yet severe lapse in judgment that would cost them dearly for decades to come. The Gibeonites would become a snare to the Israelites, and the incident a tragic metaphor for our tendency to seek counsel amongst ourselves, but not of the Lord. 

A well-known proverb instructs us to “lean not upon our own understanding and to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways.” (3:5-6) This we must do, and this we cannot do apart from prayer. It seems that the early church lived out this exhortation. In stark contrast to their adversaries who had no one beyond human wisdom and power with whom to confer, the early church devoted themselves to prayer in all things, apparently not repeating the trespass of Joshua’s generation, to the end that God’s will was manifestly accomplished among them. 

Devote Yourself to Prayer That God May Accomplish His Will Through You

Second, we see in the book of Acts how the early church devoted themselves to prayer as a means of commissioning workers to their appointed ministry. In Acts 6, the Hellenist Jews levied a complaint against the Hebrews with regards to the disparate and prejudicial treatment of their widows. In response to the growing crisis, the twelve apostles gathered together all the disciples of the Lord and instructed them to select seven men “full of the Spirit and of wisdom” to be appointed to the duty of caring for the physical needs of the church. It is important to note the apostles’ underlying motive for choosing these first deacons. One of the twelve, most likely Peter, set forth the apostolic priorities: “We must devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The same is true today that was true 2000 years ago: prayer and preaching go hand in hand, and those disciplines should ever remain the main priorities of the local church’s spiritual leaders. 

So the twelve chose seven godly men to be deacons, one of whom was a man named Stephen, full of faith and the Spirit, a man we will hear more about in a moment. “These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.” (6:6) That is, they gathered together in prayer to commission the workers to this newly-sanctioned ministry. The fruit of this wise and prayerful commissioning is noteworthy: “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (6:7) The church grew in size and strength in large part because she prayed. 

Another commissioning service is found in Acts 13:1-3 where Luke marks that seminal moment in church history when the Holy Spirit spoke to the leaders of the church to “set apart Barnabas and Saul (Paul) for a particular and divinely ordained work. At this time in history, the Apostle Paul began to be distinguished as the leader of the early church. Luke records their obedience to the Holy Spirit: “Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” Once again, prayer was the means by which the church commissioned workers to the ministry of the gospel. Another similar occurrence is documented in Acts 14:23 when Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church, and committed them with prayer and fasting to the Lord in whom they had believed. 

So prayer is one of God’s chosen instruments for revealing and accomplishing His will. It is through prayer that God involves His people in His work. He doesn’t just do His will; He invites us to intimately take part in its very unfolding. By prayerfully commissioning new workers to the ministry of the gospel, we communicate to those workers the fundamental instrumentality of prayer as God’s chosen means. In the book of Acts, we see specific instances where deacons, missionaries, and elders were commissioned through prayer. But it doesn’t have to be restricted to just those particular ministries. Recently our church commissioned a young man as our youth minister. We presented him before the congregation, but more importantly, we presented him before the Lord and prayed that God would imbue him with wisdom, skill, and grace to be an effective Christian worker. Our prayer of commissioning was not a practice we invented, but one that was lived out by the earliest followers of the Lord to commend others to the mission field filled with the power and grace of God. Today as we pray, we can and should commend our husbands and wives and children and friends to their own individual mission field by committing them to the Lord in prayer. 

Devote Yourself to Prayer To Testify to the Grace of God

A third way that prayer was critical to the life of the church was as a means through which believers gave public testimony to the saving grace of God in Christ. We spoke earlier of Stephen, one of those men “full of the Spirit and wisdom” commissioned to help take care of the physical needs of the widows. But in addition to being a humble servant, Stephen was also a great preacher – and would become the church’s first martyr. Stephen’s Spirit-filled eloquence is witnessed in Acts 7 as he boldly preached Christ, the promised Messiah. His mostly unimpressed listeners were offended at his words and turned violent as Stephen’s message cut to the hearts of those who had rejected their Savior. Before long, the enraged mob was out of control, casting Stephen out of the city, stoning him to death. As they did so, a young man named Saul stood by in hearty approval of their harsh judgment on the young preacher. But just before Stephen breathed his last he uttered two brief prayers which, in hindsight, might be two of the most significant prayers ever uttered by a mere mortal. Stephen’s first prayer, offered in spite of the fact that he was dying for preaching in the name of Christ, revealed his enduring faith in Christ all the same: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (7:59) That simple prayer gave witness to the onlookers, including the murderous Saul, that Jesus the Son of God is the Glorious One in heaven who receives the spirits of His loved ones. 

The second prayer uttered by the dying Stephen cut even deeper as he selflessly testified to the love of Christ that filled his heart: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” (7:60) Luke records that those who witnessed the death of Stephen “laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.” Later we read that “Saul approved of Stephen’s execution.” The text does not say so directly, but it seems reasonable and fair to surmise that the manner in which Stephen prayed as he neared his painful death was a clear witness to Saul of the grace of God in Christ. In Stephen’s prayerful departure from this earth, the seeds for the most important conversion in the history of the church were sown that day in the heart of Saul, who towards the end of his life, having been divinely-renamed Paul, would testify to his young disciple Timothy that in his earlier years he had been “a blasphemer, persecutor, and violent aggressor.” “But,” he wrote, “I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” It is quite possible that the first time he ever personally witnessed that overflowing grace and love of Christ was the day he heard Stephen pray out loud for God to forgive those who carried out the crime against him, much as Christ Himself, while hanging on the cross, also forgave His executioners. I believe we are safe in saying that Stephen’s dying prayer was an effective witnessing tool that day before a watchful Saul. 

Consequently, we must view prayer as one of the fundamental “weapons” we have in the cosmic battle for the souls of men. The Apostle Paul exhorted the church at Ephesus to be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication…that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:18-20) Engaged in a spiritual war as we are, one of the many critical weapons of which we can and must avail ourselves is prayer itself. Specifically, Paul prayed for the ability to articulate and defend the gospel with boldness. Prayer is one means by which God opens the eyes of the blind – as He did with Saul. It is also a way that God sharpens the effectiveness of the evangelist. As Paul himself reminds us, no preacher can long be effective without the prayers of the church undergirding him.