You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us.
It's my privilege this morning to introduce a friend and mentor to you, Stephen Estock.
After serving in the Air Force for a few years, which I know some of you appreciate in particular,
after serving there, he felt a call to vocational ministry and has been a pastor and a leader in our denomination.
He has served Southwood very well. Both of your current pastors interned for him.
I think what he said to me last night was that the three best interns he ever had have come to Southwood.
So, yeah, Jake Patton interned for him and then Chad, and I think that was the way he put it.
He loves Southwood that much.
I hope this is recorded for all of his other interns to hear.
He's also preached here before.
Stephen is currently serving as the director of the PCA's Committee for Discipleship Ministries,
which basically means that he is the absolute best guy in the whole denomination on Christian education and teaching.
So, I'm going to build him up really well for you.
It does mean that he's a gifted teacher and a great leader who shares and connects others to great resources for that.
And so, he has led and served and pastored many people, myself and Chad included.
We're really, really privileged to have him here with us this morning to open God's Word.
He's staying for lunch to teach us at the Telling God's Story lunch.
He and I will be talking with you together.
Please feel free to stay for that across the street at the lodge.
We're delighted to have Stephen Estock.
Thank you.
Thanks, man.
Thank you.
Now, I am disappointed in your introduction, though, Will.
You didn't call me super cute.
And I've got a tie and a suit on and everything.
But I do have a family that's super cute over there.
It is a pleasure to be with you.
A lot of times when I go around part of my position, I travel around the denomination.
I tell people, well, I'm Stephen Estock.
Well, who's he?
I'm with CDM, coordinator for CDM.
And then they say, what's that?
I say, well, maybe you knew us by our old name, Christian Education and Publications.
And still get the blank face.
So what I'd like to do is tell you a little bit about who we are, what we do.
Now, many churches, and I'm sure you're the same, you have a session that governs the church.
And then you have work that's done through different committees, right?
Right?
You can nod.
This is interactive time here.
You have different committees.
You have a missions committee.
You have a worship committee.
Different churches do that.
Well, what we have at the General Assembly level is we have a session, presbytery, General Assembly.
I work for the General Assembly on one of the committees.
Now, a lot of people have heard about Mission to the World, which is a committee of the General Assembly that helps local churches do international missions.
A number of people have heard of Mission to North America.
That's a committee that helps the local church plant churches and do mercy ministry.
And then many people have heard of Reform University Ministries or Reform University Fellowship.
They're a committee that comes alongside the local church to do campus ministry.
Who helps the local church do discipleship within its walls?
That's CDM.
So we help local churches in the area of children's ministry, youth ministry, men's ministry, women's ministry, older adult ministry, and leadership training.
And so that's what we do.
Now, we're not a large office.
We have less than ten people in our office.
But mainly what we try to do is go around to different churches and connect people to people and people to resources.
We were here, I think it was March a year ago, we were here for a children's conference and had a number of people from Providence Presbytery come join us here.
And we just began to share what's going on in children's ministry.
And that's much of what we will do.
In fact, I'll be in Cincinnati, Ohio next week doing something along those lines.
One of the things I also do is I go and meet with session members as we talk about churches that are going through transition.
I'm sure you know a little bit about that.
You're now in the process of finding a new pastor.
And so one of the things I want to look at today, our text is Acts chapter 4.
If you have your Bible, I invite you to turn in that to Acts chapter 4.
We'll be looking at 23 through 31.
This idea of what are we called to do as God's people, especially as we go through transition.
A number of years ago, I heard a podcast from a friend who is leading his church through transition.
In fact, this man was a fairly new pastor.
And so he was having a gathering and one of the people got up and they were saying,
Here's our new vision for our church and we want to be men and women of prayer.
And when I heard that, I thought, you know, that's an interesting statement.
In some ways, it's almost like a throwaway statement in contemporary Christianity of,
We want to be men and women of prayer.
Well, what does that say about them before?
Were they not men and women of prayer before?
Well, that's probably not the case.
They probably prayed before.
Or consider the Embers to a Flame ministry, which is in our denomination and helps churches go through a church transition, a church recovery.
One of their strategies is number five.
It's the ministry of prayer.
And the idea is that prayer usually exists in a church, but many times it becomes anemic.
And we need to realize that we can be perfunctory and rote when it comes to prayer.
And we need a vision.
I think that vision comes as we look at Acts chapter 4.
Remember, we're coming out of Easter.
And we're living in this reality.
What does it mean to be those who are sons and daughters of the resurrection?
Understand, this text in Acts chapter 4 probably occurred less than six months after the resurrection.
We don't know exactly when, but it was probably pretty soon where the events of crucifixion and the resurrection and Pentecost were still very fresh on the minds of people.
And what we have is Peter and John go to the temple and they heal a lame man and they were arrested, they were tried, they were released.
With this warning, don't talk about this Jesus anymore.
Don't talk about this resurrection.
But the disciples who had been so bold in proclaiming the truth, we now see their boldness continues.
But it's a boldness in prayer.
And their prayer is recorded.
And as we read through this, these words challenge and encourage us.
Follow along with me as I read Acts chapter 4, beginning in 23.
When they, of course speaking of Peter and John, were released,
they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them.
And when they heard it, they lifted up their voices together to God and said,
Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.
For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus,
whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
while you stretch out your hand to heal,
and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
And when they had prayed,
the place in which they were gathered together was shaken,
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Pray with me.
O Lord, now we pray that you will open our eyes,
that we may see the wonderful things you have for us in your word.
O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.
For, O Lord, you are our strength and our redeemer.
The grass withers and the flowers fade.
But your word, O Lord, stands forever.
Bless your word to our lives now, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
When God takes me home to heaven,
I'm looking forward to seeing a man I knew in our church in Montgomery.
His name is Orville Bach.
Orville was a tall man with huge hands and a deep voice.
It was one of those voices where you,
when you're trying to picture the voice of God on Mount Sinai,
it's, you know, you got James Earl Jones and Orville Bach, in my mind.
That's just the man he was.
And one thing about Orville is he was very active in prayer requests.
We would have an evening worship service and we'd always get together and sing some hymns
and then we'd have prayer requests.
And I could usually count on Orville to give some prayer requests.
Well, a number of years ago, Montgomery was going through a long drought
and Mr. Bach, in his deep voice, said,
we need to pray for rain, pastor.
And so that became part of the intercessory prayer for that evening.
And then we went from prayer to the sermon.
It was a sermon on Deuteronomy 12 and I was preaching that night.
And in Deuteronomy 12, God says to Israel,
Israel, obey.
You have seen the great works of the Lord, the sovereign Lord,
the sovereign Lord who's conquered your enemies
and given you a land of great blessing.
And in light of that, we're called to go out,
even in a world that opposes us,
knowing the greatness of the God we serve.
Well, sermon was finished.
We had the closing prayer.
And during the benediction,
you could hear rain falling outside.
Mr. Bach came up to me and said,
that's a pretty good prayer, pastor.
You ought to pray more often.
Well, I'll let you...
That is a red letter date in my prayer life and in my ministry
because here was this request
and the answer came so quickly.
And I remember my motions there.
It was like, I didn't say this out loud,
but I was feeling it.
God does answer prayer.
It's almost like this is the exception rather than the rule.
You ever do that?
I think most Christians do.
But you see, in the history of the church,
especially the early church that we have here in Acts,
we see a different era of bold prayer.
But one of the things we have to watch is
we can fall into this idea that,
oh man, we read these stories in Acts
and wasn't it great?
God was so powerful and so present there.
It was wonderful.
And we can begin to think that that was the God of back then.
He's not the God of right now.
That's not the case.
The God that was present that's recorded here
is the God that's here now.
And God is present with all of His power.
It's not like He had a lot of power then
and only a little power now.
But the idea is,
just as He's powerful there and He used prayer there,
He's powerful here and uses prayer here.
But we fail to see it.
And so what we need as we come to this text
is that God gives us insight into His purpose for prayer
and it challenges us.
It spurs us to pray more boldly
as we face a world that does oppose us,
as we face challenges,
transition in our lives,
in our businesses,
in our churches.
God is near to thwart His opponents,
to spread His Word
and to accomplish His plan.
Now the nearness of God,
understand,
is assumed throughout this text.
Earlier in chapter 4, verse 19,
the message that the apostles had spoken to the leaders,
the Jewish leaders said,
our ministry is in the sight of God.
It's not that God is up there and He doesn't care.
No, He's watching what we're doing.
In verse 29, it even says that
they're praying,
Lord, look upon the threats that are given against us.
The idea is that God is present
and God is concerned.
He really cares about what's happening.
And then, of course, you have verse 31
where the place was shaken.
And, of course, that harkens back to Acts chapter 2
when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost
and the whole building was shaken in the upper room.
And you have to understand that what was happening here in verse 31
is God was giving His people assurance.
Now, don't fall into the error of thinking,
well, because that building was shaken,
that means that God showed up.
No, it's better to understand
that in this case,
God, who was always present,
pulled aside the veil
and made that presence known in a special way.
Now, of course, the question that comes out of that
is, well, why doesn't He do that now?
And understand that God
could shake this building right now
if He so chooses.
But He's also given us Acts chapter 4
where He assured His people
that He was present,
that He is Emmanuel.
It's the same God.
The same purposes.
The same presence.
Now, how does this help us?
God is near. Why?
Well, He's near to thwart His opponents
and so we pray.
Look at verse 23.
The prayer flows out of this arrest
of Peter and John.
And if you go back earlier in the chapter,
it's very interesting.
It's almost like as if Luke is recording this.
Who's who of all the powerful people
that were existing in that time
and they were all against Peter and John.
And then you go to verse 25 and 26
and the prayer references Psalm 2.
Psalm 2.
The opponents gathering together
and setting themselves up against God.
And then you go to verse 27
where there's a reference to Christ's arrest
and His trial and His crucifixion.
And remember, these were probably events
that were still fresh on the people's minds.
And what the apostles are saying
through their prayer
is all of that,
that people were gathering against them,
people were gathering against Jesus,
it's all a manifestation of Psalm 2.
In verse 29,
they reference these leaders
told them to be quiet about Jesus.
And so, here we have it.
Luke is presenting to us
in the face of unified,
determined, powerful opposition.
What do God's people do?
They pray.
Verse 29 and 30,
they appeal for justice.
God, bring justice.
They appeal for God to continue His work.
And they realize that their prayers
are part of the battle.
Because the opposition is not against them,
the opposition is against God.
But what do we do
as we face a culture that opposes us?
What do we do?
We take it personally.
Oh, it's all against us.
And we cry,
victim, victim.
And we separate God out of the situation.
But we must see that all the opposition
is against God.
Now, sometimes,
because of the obnoxious behavior
of Christians,
sometimes the opposition
is against the obnoxious behavior.
We need to pray.
That's where we need to start.
Not too long after I came into
my current position of coordinator,
because your work for the General Assembly,
you know how sometimes pastors
can get those letters from church members
about how much you're doing wrong.
I get them from the whole denomination.
And there was a man who wrote
from Virginia.
I can't remember the name of the man
or his church.
He was a PCA member.
This letter was 14 pages long.
Full of fear
and condemnation.
I read it
and I could just hear his voice
in my ears.
He was talking about the culture
of the United States
and everything,
everything in the letter
dealt with U.S. politics.
And the message of the letter
was just basically,
wake up!
And so what he was doing,
he said,
I'm going to write to the leader,
one of the leaders of our denomination
and say,
wake up!
Speak out!
You know what was missing
throughout all 14 pages?
Never once
was there a call to prayer.
Never once
was there any hint
of bringing this
before the Lord.
Instead,
what it was
is a call
to militant action.
One of my favorite hymns
says,
it's not with swords
loud clashing,
nor roll of stirring drums,
but it's deeds
of love and mercy.
Finally,
the heavenly kingdom comes.
And that deeds
of love and mercy
begins with prayer.
I ask you,
what is your default position
in the face of opposition?
It's true,
God defeats His enemies
through the prayers
of His people.
This text calls us
to pray.
Humble words
of petition to God
more than harsh words
of rebuke.
to our opponents.
God is present.
But more for just
turning back the bad things,
He also promotes
the good things.
God is near
to spread His Word,
and so we pray.
Remember the cause
of the arrest.
Peter was preaching
about Jesus.
And note the desired goal
of the prayers.
Right there in verse 29,
they were to,
Lord,
do this so we will speak
the Word of God
with boldness.
And so it was the Holy Spirit.
They were asking
for Holy Spirit-inspired courage,
Holy Spirit-inspired clarity,
and the result of the prayers
there in verse 31,
they did continue
to speak with boldness.
And the ministry
that had begun
at Pentecost
was continued.
Brothers and sisters,
understand
that that was a chapter
in redemptive history.
But the redemptive story
continues,
and we are in a new chapter
of redemptive history,
but the story is the same.
Salvation is through
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we are to spread
that Word.
God spreading the message
of salvation
through Jesus Christ
and through the grace of God.
Not by doing good works
or doing good deeds.
It's through the grace of God
who changes our lives
and enables us to live
with redemptive purposes.
Matthew 28,
we are to go
and make disciples.
What happens to us?
We grow weary.
We grow distracted.
Sometimes we pray
from ministries,
but it's just so
the ministry program
will be effective.
God will bring the people
and God will bring the money
rather than
God spread your Word.
Spread the message
about Jesus.
I work in education.
Church education.
And we pray for sermons.
We pray for Sunday school lessons.
But do we expect change?
It's easy to complain
about the malaise
that happens
among Christians today.
Do we eagerly pray,
God, change hearts?
Change lives?
Brothers and sisters,
we must pray
for God to act
and for us to spread the Word.
I was humbled
a year or so ago.
So,
part of my position
is to work with our
women's ministry,
the PCA Women's Ministry.
It's led by a lady
named Karen Hodge.
And we have regional advisors
throughout the denomination
who gather together
on what we call
the women's ministry team.
And we were preparing
for a conference
that we have every year
in Atlanta.
And so,
what was happening,
I was,
because I was one of the speakers,
I was on this email chain
of speakers,
what are you talking about?
And they were going
back and forth
about here,
this prayer request
and this prayer request
and they were praying
for each other.
And all of this,
it's just email
after email
after email.
I'm praying for you,
I'm praying for this,
I'm praying for that,
please pray for this.
And,
you know,
I had this thought.
They pray about everything.
And I really,
I mean,
I seriously thought,
isn't this a little
over the top?
Now,
the theme
of the conference
that year
was leading
with truth.
serving the church
through the ministry
of the word,
building relationships
with one another.
And when I
reacquainted myself
with the theme,
and then I looked
at that email chain,
God used it
to convict me.
I'm a teaching elder
in the Presbyterian Church
in America.
I'm a minister.
I'm a teacher.
Yet,
I am so prone
to trust my skill
at being able
to convey the truth.
And I minimize
prayer for God
to spread the word.
I appreciated so much
even this morning.
Will leaned over
and said,
can I pray for you?
It's so necessary
because it's through prayer
that God
spreads the word.
It's prayer
more than skill
that softens
hard hearts
and reigns in
distracted minds.
I've talked to people,
well,
I can't share the gospel
because I just don't know
all,
I might not answer
all the questions
they have.
No,
you pray
and share the gospel
as best you know how
because it's not
your eloquence,
it's not your skill,
it is the Holy Spirit
that changes hearts.
And so you pray.
Because God
causes His word
to spread
through prayer.
He thwarts opponents,
He spreads the word.
And that's all part
of His third purpose.
You might call it
a greater purpose
or an overarching purpose
in that God is near
to accomplish His plan.
The theme of God's
faithful execution
of His covenant promises,
it's throughout
this whole text.
It's the backdrop
of the prayer,
in fact.
Verse 24,
it starts with covenant language
where they pray
as the sovereign Lord,
creator,
ruler,
all of that is covenant language
that the people of Israel
know about.
And then verses 27 and 28,
they're very open
and honest.
Even Christ's passion
fulfilled God's plan.
verse 29 and 30,
the presupposition
is that God's plan
would continue.
God is working out
this huge story
that salvation
will be made
through Jesus Christ
and the brokenness
of the fall
will be undone.
And God is doing
that work.
And His people pray
to that end.
And here's the great mystery
of the Christian life.
The sovereign Lord
accomplishes that plan
through the prayers
of His people.
I can't explain
how it works.
But God does it.
Your prayers are necessary.
Verse 29 and 30,
that prayer
was important
because that petition
that they lifted
thousands of years ago
was necessary.
for God
to work out
His plan.
And brothers and sisters,
our prayers
have the same effect
because it's not based,
well, I'm not an apostle,
so God doesn't listen.
No, He doesn't listen
to them
because they're apostles.
Why does He listen
to our prayers?
Because we are covered
in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ.
And so our prayers,
Revelation uses
the image
of our prayers
are like bowls
of incense
going up to the Father.
And our prayers
are imperfect.
But what does
Romans 8 say?
It's the Spirit
that takes our prayers.
I love the image
a pastor told me
years ago.
It's like God
takes this feeble prayer
that I lift up,
He wraps it in
the righteousness
of Christ
and says,
here Father,
answer for my sake.
prayer.
And so we pray.
The problem is
sometimes our practice
of prayer
doesn't reflect
our doctrine
of prayer.
We don't truly
embrace our doctrine
or we would pray.
We lose sight
of this fact
that we're participating
in this story
of redemption.
We are players.
We're not spectators.
Prayers offered
in a fallen world
join the stream
of petitions
offered by other saints,
the saints before us,
and even the prayers
of Christ Himself.
God
has not abandoned
His fallen creation.
He proved that
by giving us Christ.
And now He's near
to accomplish
that plan.
And so we pray.
John Calvin said this,
by means of our prayers,
God does
what He planned
all along to do.
And prayer
reorients
the believer
to what God
is doing.
over a year ago
I had a friend
who preached
in his congregation.
It was towards
the end of the year
and he was preaching
to get ready
for the new year.
And he preached
on revival.
He told the story
of a South Carolina
pastor
named
John Gerardot.
in 1857
this man
was a white pastor
in a black church
in Charleston,
South Carolina.
And they had reached
a point
in the life
of the church
where the congregation
had sort of plateaued
and there was
this lethargy
that was
sort of happening.
And so what they did,
the officers got together
with the pastor
and said,
Pastor,
you just got to preach.
You got to preach
and get us out of this.
Preach.
And Gerardot said this,
I don't want to preach
until God sends revival.
And until that happens,
we will pray.
And so they began
a series of prayer meetings
night after night.
Now one evening,
while he was leading
in prayer,
Gerardot said
he felt a sensation.
It was like a bolt
of electricity
hit his head
and went through his body.
And he was speechless
for a while.
And he was able
to talk again.
He says,
the Holy Spirit
has come.
We will begin
preaching tomorrow.
He sang a hymn,
gave the dismissal,
he walked down,
congregation stayed.
nobody left their seats.
So the people sat down,
pastor got up
and he prayed.
He preached.
He proclaimed the gospel.
And basically,
his message was very,
very simple.
Embrace the gospel.
Accept the gospel.
Accept what it means
to be saved
by Jesus Christ,
by his work alone.
And the reports are
the sanctuary
was filled
with the spirit
of humble repentance
and joy.
Some were confessing
their sins.
Others were just
elated at the forgiveness
they enjoyed
in Jesus Christ.
And the messages,
the meetings
night after night
for eight weeks,
large numbers
of whites and blacks
were converted.
Churches throughout
the city
were blessed.
Christ,
this was in 1857.
Four years later,
Charleston would begin
to experience
the horrors
of the Civil War.
But in that season,
God shook the hearts
of his people.
It all began
with prayer.
Brothers and sisters,
bold prayer
is our calling.
And I wish
I prayed more
than I do.
But let's see
what God does.
Let's pray.
It was true
for the disciples
in Jerusalem.
It's true
for us today.
God is powerfully
present
to thwart opponents,
to spread his word,
to accomplish his plan.
And because
he is working,
we must pray.
Join me now.
Almighty God,
sovereign creator,
ruler,
redeemer,
we praise you.
You are the God
who made us.
You are the God
who redeems us.
You loved us
even in our sin.
And you lift us
up and embrace us
through Jesus Christ,
cleansing us
of our sin.
And not only that,
Lord,
you fill us
with your Spirit
so that when we walk
out of this sanctuary,
we are not alone.
The power of Emmanuel
is with us.
Oh, Lord,
soften our hearts.
Move our hearts
to prayer.
Oh, Lord,
bring your blessing
on this congregation.
Bring your blessing
in our lives,
in our ministries,
in our relationships.
Bring healing.
Bring change.
Lord,
as we go now
to a time
of the sacrament,
it is another token,
a sign and seal
that you indeed
are with us.
You cleanse us.
You've redeemed us.
Oh, Lord,
bless us,
we pray,
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
For more information,
visit us online
at southwood.org.
Thank you.