WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.640 Acts chapter 4 verse 23 to 31. 00:00:05.259 --> 00:00:11.779 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:15.919 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. 00:00:16.580 --> 00:00:21.400 Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:25.740 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our Father David. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.280 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:36.320 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:45.840 Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:51.060 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:56.780 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 00:00:56.780 --> 00:01:03.500 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:12.819 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:13.700 Amen. 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:41.719 Well, I know that interesting sermons don't normally start with a list, but I am going to start with a list this morning. 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:54.379 Because in her book, Praying Together, Megan Hill lists the number of different times in the book of Acts that you find the church praying together in corporate or public prayer. 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:58.039 And I want to start with that list, not because I want to bore you. 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:00.400 I don't seem to have to work hard to do that. 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:01.739 The boredom is just accidental. 00:02:01.739 --> 00:02:11.460 Rather, what I want to do is to start with a list because I want you to feel and me to feel the weight of this topic of corporate prayer in the life of the church in the book of Acts. 00:02:11.519 --> 00:02:19.240 I want you to notice that in the book of Acts, you cannot avoid the fact that the church are always praying together. 00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:23.840 So let me just read these out and hopefully we'll click along and you can see them. 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:27.240 The idea of the list on the screen is not that you're going to be able to read it because it's going to be too small. 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:30.219 But just again, you get this sense of the weight of it. 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:35.600 So the believers pray together about Judas's replacement in Acts chapter 1 verse 24. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:40.439 After Pentecost, the believers pray together as a mark of their new spiritual life. 00:02:40.540 --> 00:02:42.080 Acts chapter 2 verse 24. 00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:46.379 They pray together at shared meals in Acts 2 verse 46. 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:49.960 They pray together at set times in the temple in Acts 3. 00:02:50.620 --> 00:02:55.719 They pray, as we've just read together, for boldness when threatened with persecution in Acts 4 verse 23. 00:02:55.719 --> 00:03:02.319 Prayer is a particular priority for the apostles as they lead the church in Acts 6 verse 4. 00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:07.520 They pray together for the blessing of the Holy Spirit in Samaria in Acts 8 verse 15. 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:13.379 They pray in the middle of the night together for Peter when he was put in prison in Acts 12 verse 5. 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:20.020 They pray together as a church in Antioch and send out Barnabas and Saul in Acts 13 verse 1 to 3. 00:03:20.020 --> 00:03:25.760 They pray together when appointing elders for the church, committing them to the Lord in Acts 14 verse 23. 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:30.400 They pray together when sending Paul and Silas in Acts 15 verse 40. 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:37.360 On the Sabbath by the river in Philippi, they pray with the devout women in Acts 16 verse 13. 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:39.879 And again in Acts 16 verse 16. 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:44.079 And then in the prison at midnight, they're praying together in Acts 16 verse 25. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:50.780 They hold a prayer gathering with the Ephesian elders as Paul says goodbye to them in Acts 20 verse 36. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:59.879 They pray together as whole families, we're told, on the beach in Tyre as Paul sets sail for Jerusalem in Acts 21 verse 5. 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:05.939 They pray with thanksgiving for the food on board the ship in Acts 27 verse 35. 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:12.699 There's prayer for the sick father of Pubilus on the island of Malta in Acts 28 verse 8. 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:17.819 And there's corporate prayer with the brothers in Rome who come to meet Paul in Acts 28 verse 15. 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:22.920 Now, I don't suppose you kept up with that list, but I just hope you feel the weight of it. 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:27.939 But with everything going on in the early church, with all the persecution that they faced, 00:04:28.020 --> 00:04:33.199 all the wild living and the pagan culture, still the instinctive response of the church, 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:37.360 right from the very beginning, in all circumstances, was to pray. 00:04:38.379 --> 00:04:45.660 And notice, not to pray on their own, in their homes, in private, but to pray together. 00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:50.740 It's no surprise then when you get to the New Testament letters as you follow on from the book of Acts, 00:04:50.740 --> 00:04:55.160 you hear things like this, be constant in prayer, Romans 12 verse 12. 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:58.519 Continue steadfastly in prayer, Colossians 4 verse 2. 00:04:58.860 --> 00:05:02.220 Brothers and sisters, pray for us, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 25. 00:05:02.660 --> 00:05:05.000 Or this in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 11. 00:05:05.500 --> 00:05:07.439 Help us by your prayers, says Paul. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:16.180 Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many. 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:20.100 You see, it doesn't matter where the church is. 00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:22.280 It doesn't matter who the church is made up of. 00:05:22.340 --> 00:05:25.900 It doesn't matter whether the church is particularly rich or particularly poor. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.120 It doesn't matter whether it's mostly men or mostly women. 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:32.860 It doesn't matter whether it's orphans or widows or new converts or old saints, 00:05:32.960 --> 00:05:35.200 whether they are mature believers or new Christians. 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:38.200 Christians in the New Testament pray. 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:41.779 And it doesn't seem so much that they have to pray. 00:05:42.659 --> 00:05:45.479 It's not that this is a new duty that they're given as Christians, right? 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:46.000 You're a Christian. 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:46.740 You must pray. 00:05:46.819 --> 00:05:47.500 It's not that. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.719 Rather, they rejoice that they get to pray. 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:52.539 That seems to be the sense of it. 00:05:52.540 --> 00:05:59.620 Having come to understand this gospel of grace, that God alone has saved them through Christ's work and not theirs, 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.860 and that they've been brought into this relationship with the God who made them, 00:06:04.400 --> 00:06:08.260 that relationship is lived out in prayer. 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:11.200 Corporate and private prayer. 00:06:11.580 --> 00:06:13.879 You could put it like this in three words, okay? 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:16.480 Living churches pray. 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:18.720 Living churches pray. 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:25.040 Not living churches should pray, as if this is mostly a command that we need to obey. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:30.020 Let me say to you this morning, if you're feeling guilty at your lack of prayer 00:06:30.020 --> 00:06:34.880 and hoping that that feeling of guilt will motivate you to pray, you will be very disappointed. 00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:37.080 Guilt is a poor motivation to pray. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:37.820 It won't. 00:06:38.180 --> 00:06:40.520 Rather, this is living churches pray. 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:42.440 It's a description of what will happen. 00:06:43.380 --> 00:06:45.560 Their corporate prayer is an expression of their life. 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:49.160 And just like we saw, you can't actually hold your breath for very long. 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:55.540 So, likewise, a church should not be able to not pray for very long, because it's breathing for us. 00:06:56.780 --> 00:07:01.920 So, for us this morning, I'm not so much giving instructions here on what we should do, 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:07.680 but rather trying to describe to you what I hope will happen as God is at work in our church life together. 00:07:08.420 --> 00:07:11.060 If our church is going to be strengthened and refreshed, 00:07:11.060 --> 00:07:15.459 I think we will see it first in how we pray and that we pray together. 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:20.740 Now, when your friends ask you, or maybe that family member who's moved away from London says, 00:07:20.819 --> 00:07:22.759 oh, how are things at West Kilburn Baptist Church? 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:24.800 Is church getting on okay? 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:25.600 How is it doing? 00:07:25.699 --> 00:07:27.660 How's that new pastor doing? 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:33.160 I hope that you'll be able to answer, instead of talking about me, which would be a dry and dull thing to do, 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:34.199 to say something like this. 00:07:34.519 --> 00:07:35.840 You should be at the prayer meetings. 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:38.500 You should hear us pray together. 00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:43.500 God is at work in our church family, and you can see it in the prayer meeting, 00:07:43.579 --> 00:07:45.939 because living churches pray. 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:47.160 Living churches pray. 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:52.000 Now, in a way, that is all I've got to say to you this morning. 00:07:52.339 --> 00:07:53.459 Living churches, that's it. 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:54.439 Living churches pray. 00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:55.800 That's all I've got to say to you this morning. 00:07:55.860 --> 00:07:58.079 If you get that, you've done it, right? 00:07:58.399 --> 00:07:59.680 You can scroll your phone. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:00.319 That's it. 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:01.139 You have my permission. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:06.819 But I also do want to show you five marks of a praying church from the passage that we just read. 00:08:06.819 --> 00:08:10.180 So if you have a little bit more attention, then look back at that passage, 00:08:10.259 --> 00:08:15.159 and let's work through it together and see these five things that a praying church are marked by. 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:19.040 So let's notice this first, that they pray together. 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:20.300 They pray together. 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:26.759 If you look down at verse 23, you find that Peter and John have just returned from a trial before the Sanhedrin. 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:34.139 The Sanhedrin are the group, if you remember, who only a short while previously had handed Jesus over to be crucified. 00:08:35.299 --> 00:08:42.360 And Luke tells us that Peter and John have returned, look down at verse 23, returned back to their own people. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:43.159 Do you notice that? 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:44.019 Their own people. 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:48.500 Now, interestingly, in the Greek, that's a phrase that is normally reserved for someone's family. 00:08:48.500 --> 00:09:01.820 But here it's in reference to the church, the family of faith, which I think is more than a little hint that the Bible thinks that what God is doing in Christ is more significant even than what's happening in our blood relationships. 00:09:03.559 --> 00:09:11.200 Anyway, they report back to their own people that they've been instructed by the chief priests not to speak about Jesus anymore. 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:19.379 And it's as in verse 24, the church hears that news from Peter and John, their instinctive responses to what? 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:20.180 Well, how's it put? 00:09:20.700 --> 00:09:24.240 Raise their voices together in prayer. 00:09:25.259 --> 00:09:30.980 Now, I don't think as we read it, we're to understand that everyone all of a sudden was praying at the same time, 00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:34.980 or even necessarily that every individual in the church said their own prayer. 00:09:35.300 --> 00:09:39.140 Rather, it seems that a few people are praying and we'll see what they pray in a moment. 00:09:39.139 --> 00:09:44.220 But it's as they pray, the church agrees together with what they are praying, 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:49.740 and that therefore it's best described as the church raising their voices together in prayer. 00:09:51.179 --> 00:09:57.419 Now, there's lots more to say here, but notice just that their response is not to each return home and pray on their own. 00:09:59.179 --> 00:10:02.799 Nor was it that they each prayed silently in their own hearts in a corner. 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:08.960 Rather, their response is to pray together, to join their voices as one. 00:10:10.120 --> 00:10:13.100 Let me say, I think this is the unique thing about Christian prayer. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:20.039 Christian prayer is not interested so much in the quantity of words that we use. 00:10:20.819 --> 00:10:27.319 We can think that, can't we, that God is moved by the sheer number of people praying at the same time about the same thing, 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:32.720 as if getting as many people to pray on their own wherever they are is the sort of high point of Christian prayer. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:35.399 But it doesn't seem to be that in the book of Acts. 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:43.500 Christian prayer in the book of Acts seems to be a reflection of the work that God is doing in people to bring them together to God. 00:10:44.060 --> 00:10:47.800 It's their togetherness, which is a reflection of what God has done for them in the gospel. 00:10:48.279 --> 00:10:52.460 He has made them a family of faith, their own people. 00:10:52.460 --> 00:10:57.540 When we gather to pray, we come to our own people to come before God, who is our God, together. 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:02.740 If you're a Christian this morning, it's true that God loves you. 00:11:03.560 --> 00:11:09.600 He loves you in such a way that in the person of Jesus Christ, he has paid for your sin, 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:15.300 washed you of your guilt and brought you into his family, the family of faith. 00:11:15.299 --> 00:11:22.039 And praying together is a reflection of the fact that what Jesus has done for you is not just about you as an individual, 00:11:22.459 --> 00:11:24.519 but is about adopting you into his family. 00:11:26.079 --> 00:11:28.740 And so we pray together as a reflection of that. 00:11:30.379 --> 00:11:31.759 So let me say this. 00:11:32.319 --> 00:11:34.339 You cannot do that on your own at home. 00:11:34.699 --> 00:11:35.219 You cannot. 00:11:35.220 --> 00:11:47.920 You can't pray on your own at home or worship at home in front of your own television in a way that expresses rightly what God is doing in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11:49.060 --> 00:11:59.279 The togetherness that God is building through Christ is reflected in us coming together to pray to the God who has brought us into the family of faith. 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:00.940 So they pray together. 00:12:00.940 --> 00:12:06.460 Secondly, they pray together, trusting God's sovereignty, trusting God's sovereignty. 00:12:06.880 --> 00:12:08.480 This is all the way through the passage. 00:12:08.640 --> 00:12:09.260 Look down at it. 00:12:09.620 --> 00:12:13.220 Sovereign Lord is how they start their prayer, verse 24. 00:12:14.160 --> 00:12:20.580 Then in verse 27 to 28, they have possibly one of the most remarkable statements of God's sovereignty. 00:12:21.560 --> 00:12:23.160 This is 27 to 28. 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:23.660 Look down. 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:24.880 Let me read it to you again. 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:35.980 Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 00:12:36.980 --> 00:12:42.740 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 00:12:44.419 --> 00:12:45.820 Now, this is incredible. 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:54.299 Jesus' death on the cross was what we're told, the desire of Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel. 00:12:55.460 --> 00:13:00.720 It was their intention to conspire against Jesus and put him to death on the cross. 00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:02.580 Now, just think about that for a moment. 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:05.919 What is the most wicked thing that humanity could do? 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:14.899 Surely the cold-blooded killing of the Son of God is right at the very top of the list of the wicked things that humanity could do. 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:19.000 Turning on our maker to such an extent that we want to kill him. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.240 And that's exactly what happened. 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:24.759 It's exactly what they wanted to do, what they conspired to do. 00:13:25.019 --> 00:13:32.940 But even as they do it, verse 28, they do what God's power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 00:13:32.940 --> 00:13:37.480 Now, again, there's loads that we could say about that, but just notice this. 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:43.100 The church are absolutely convinced that God is in charge of even the most terrible things in the world. 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:49.899 And that they're not coming to him in prayer to sort of bend God's will or point out to God, 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:54.800 hey God, I don't know whether you've noticed that these terrible things are happening in the world. 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:56.500 They're not coming like that, are they? 00:13:56.500 --> 00:14:01.559 Instead, they're coming to him knowing that God has a plan that he's decided beforehand, 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:08.700 a plan that encompasses even the wicked intentions of humanity played out in the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:13.360 But also then played out in this new instruction from the chief priest not to speak of him again. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:16.919 Now, obviously, there's mystery here, isn't there? 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:18.039 But these are the facts. 00:14:18.899 --> 00:14:24.080 The higher our view of God and his sovereignty, the more likely we are to pray. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:28.580 The higher our view of God's power and sovereignty, the more likely we are to pray. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:29.000 Why? 00:14:29.680 --> 00:14:33.560 Well, because Christian prayer is not about trying to bend God's will to mine, 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:36.660 but about me expressing my trust in him. 00:14:38.680 --> 00:14:43.879 And then remarkably, as we do that, we find that one of the causes God uses in the world, 00:14:43.980 --> 00:14:47.379 one of the means he uses for accomplishing his plans are what? 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:49.300 The prayers of his people. 00:14:50.780 --> 00:14:51.879 How does that work, right? 00:14:51.879 --> 00:15:02.740 How does the free prayers of God's people achieve God's sovereign plans that he's decided beforehand? 00:15:03.659 --> 00:15:13.100 So that at times, God can be described as relenting or even changing his mind in response to the free prayers of his people. 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:14.019 How does all that work? 00:15:14.059 --> 00:15:15.399 How does all of that fit together? 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:18.779 I have absolutely no idea. 00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:20.559 Because we're not told. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:22.859 But it does. 00:15:23.339 --> 00:15:24.259 It does work. 00:15:24.379 --> 00:15:24.819 Absolutely. 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:31.379 So for us as a church, we must accept that individually and corporately as a church, 00:15:31.379 --> 00:15:33.619 we are exactly where God wants us to be. 00:15:34.259 --> 00:15:36.000 Even all the difficult bits of that. 00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:38.619 Even the failing health. 00:15:39.319 --> 00:15:40.579 Even the trouble in the family. 00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:45.899 Even the fact that as a church, we have more money going out than coming in every month. 00:15:45.899 --> 00:15:51.600 Even the fact that our building could do with some attention because that door doesn't actually latch and stay closed. 00:15:53.019 --> 00:15:54.379 Clifford will find out in a moment. 00:15:54.379 --> 00:16:02.200 What about the fact that brain counsel have been a bit difficult about us purchasing the freehold of the building? 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:09.740 What about the fact that the mosque next door seems to do a better job of growing flowers than we do of growing weeds outside of our church building? 00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:13.720 You know, all of that is in God's sovereign plan and purpose. 00:16:14.139 --> 00:16:15.399 So what do we do? 00:16:15.820 --> 00:16:17.680 Knowing that that's in God's sovereign plan and purpose. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:21.799 What if we fold our arms and say, well, you know, over to you then, God, do what you like? 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:23.539 Of course we don't. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:25.840 Not if we're spiritually alive. 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:28.220 If we're spiritually alive, we pray. 00:16:28.680 --> 00:16:29.220 We pray. 00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:30.759 That's what we do. 00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:38.379 Because we know that the sovereign God invites us together as his children to come to him in prayer and present our needs and our concerns to him. 00:16:38.759 --> 00:16:41.539 And if you and I are tempted to think, you know, what's the point in praying? 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:42.919 God's going to do what God's going to do. 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:43.639 What's the point? 00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:48.200 Well, then I need to rebuke that thought because it's a lie of the devil. 00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:53.179 Because the truth is God's going to do what God's going to do, but he's going to do it as we pray. 00:16:54.519 --> 00:16:55.340 So we pray. 00:16:57.299 --> 00:16:58.000 Third thing. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:16:59.700 They listen to God's word. 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:00.580 They listen to God's word. 00:17:00.580 --> 00:17:05.240 If you look down at verse 25, you'll see this church has an extraordinary view of the scriptures. 00:17:06.120 --> 00:17:13.759 Just before quoting from Psalm 2, they conclude that this is both what David spoke, but also what the Holy Spirit said. 00:17:14.500 --> 00:17:20.340 So the scriptures are both God speaking, but through human authors. 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:25.160 David speaks and the Holy Spirit speaks at the same time. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:29.940 But then notice that they also think that Psalm 2 is about Jesus. 00:17:30.579 --> 00:17:42.679 So they are saying that what David wrote thousands of years before is about the nations raging and plotting in vain against the anointed one of God is what has been happening in their immediate history. 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:52.560 As the people of Jerusalem, as the people of Israel, as the people of Israel crucified, as the people of Israel crucified, the Lord Jesus Christ, they are the nations raging and plotting in vain. 00:17:54.140 --> 00:17:58.960 And so the human divine words about Jesus form the bedrock of their prayers. 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:05.740 Even as they speak God's words back to him in prayer, showing God that they now understand that these words are about Jesus. 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:12.539 Now, I suppose there might be lots of reasons a church doesn't pray together as it might. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:17.200 But there really is only one way to motivate prayer, and that's to listen. 00:18:17.700 --> 00:18:20.839 To listen to God's words and see that they're about Jesus. 00:18:21.660 --> 00:18:23.900 In other words, prayer starts with listening. 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:27.559 Not silent listening to a voice in your head. 00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:31.900 That's a risky business because all sorts of things can be said in your mind. 00:18:31.900 --> 00:18:39.200 Rather, we listen as we listen to what God is saying in his word and knowing that what he's saying in his word is about Jesus. 00:18:40.580 --> 00:18:45.820 We don't live in a world where we're looking for God. 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:50.840 We're not searching and looking for a God who's kind of playing hide and seek with us, 00:18:50.860 --> 00:18:54.060 just wondering whether we might turn over the right rock and find him. 00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:55.259 No, not at all. 00:18:55.780 --> 00:18:58.140 We live in a world where God has spoken. 00:18:59.320 --> 00:19:00.620 He has revealed himself. 00:19:00.619 --> 00:19:03.579 There is news in our world from God. 00:19:04.219 --> 00:19:05.979 And he hasn't just said it once. 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:09.099 He's said it for thousands of years in the scriptures. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:15.139 As generation on generation look forward to the coming Messiah, the anointed king. 00:19:15.719 --> 00:19:19.219 A message which is now finally completed by the apostles in the New Testament, 00:19:19.339 --> 00:19:24.439 as they tell of the fulfillment of those prophecies in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:31.000 A message which now rings out in our world and calls out to us this morning to turn from our sin, 00:19:31.580 --> 00:19:37.080 from our selfish, self-interested desire, which wants to live in this world as if God has not spoken, 00:19:37.980 --> 00:19:40.180 as if we can decide our own future. 00:19:40.180 --> 00:19:48.660 It calls out to us to trust in Christ, to join to his family of faith and to be seen in local churches like ours. 00:19:49.460 --> 00:19:52.880 Let me say this this morning gently, but clearly if I can. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:20:00.020 If you've never listened to that message, you have no right to pray. 00:20:01.620 --> 00:20:05.940 If you've not trusted Christ like that, you have no right to pray. 00:20:06.280 --> 00:20:08.580 And certainly no expectation that God should listen. 00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:09.400 Why? 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:11.259 Well, think about it. 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:18.880 This is the great God, the sovereign king of kings, the creator of heaven and earth, 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:23.420 the one who lives outside of time and space yet holds all things in his hands. 00:20:23.800 --> 00:20:33.460 And the idea that we can rush into the presence of God and shout our mouths off before first listening to what he has to say is arrogance itself. 00:20:34.620 --> 00:20:36.720 We wouldn't do that with anybody else. 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:44.500 And when we do listen, what we hear is that the place of prayer, the location of prayer is not a building. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:45.259 It's not a city. 00:20:45.380 --> 00:20:46.299 It's not a time of day. 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:47.420 It's not a posture. 00:20:47.579 --> 00:20:48.900 It's not a set of special words. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:53.339 The place of prayer is the message of the Bible centered on the work of Jesus Christ. 00:20:55.799 --> 00:20:57.039 That's where we come to pray. 00:20:57.700 --> 00:21:00.660 We listen to what the father says about the son through the spirit. 00:21:01.259 --> 00:21:05.140 And if we don't start there, we have no reason to expect anything but a wall of silence. 00:21:05.140 --> 00:21:14.100 And if you are a Christian this morning, if you have listened and trusted in that message of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:21:14.280 --> 00:21:20.060 then let me say to you and me this morning that prayer for us is motivated by exactly the same thing, 00:21:20.140 --> 00:21:22.420 by listening to the same message. 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:31.460 It says you and I turn to God's word, not mostly in a self-interested way, looking for self-help or looking even for specific guidance, 00:21:31.460 --> 00:21:34.120 as if this book was mostly about you and me. 00:21:35.380 --> 00:21:41.460 It's rather as we listen to God's word and realize it's about the Lord Jesus Christ that we come and pray. 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:46.259 As we hear him, we then speak to him. 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:48.779 Okay, so they listen to God's word. 00:21:49.100 --> 00:21:50.940 Fourthly, they ask for courage. 00:21:51.259 --> 00:21:52.420 They ask God for courage. 00:21:52.880 --> 00:22:00.840 I think the big surprise in Acts chapter 4 is that the church don't pray for the persecution of the religious authorities to go away. 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:02.799 I think that's what I would do. 00:22:02.980 --> 00:22:03.799 Is it what you would do? 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:06.799 I think that would be the most natural thing to expect them to do. 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:09.819 You know, oh Lord, please make these guys change their mind. 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:13.119 Please overturn the ban on preaching Jesus. 00:22:13.299 --> 00:22:14.460 Please, please stop it. 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:15.180 But they don't. 00:22:15.779 --> 00:22:19.659 Instead, they ask God for courage and boldness in speaking and testifying. 00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:20.659 Look down at verse 29. 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:27.839 Now, Lord, consider their threats, they're saying, and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 00:22:28.299 --> 00:22:33.559 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:35.000 It's amazing. 00:22:36.019 --> 00:22:41.099 As they come to pray, they recognize their big need is not for things to go well. 00:22:41.339 --> 00:22:42.000 God has a plan. 00:22:42.099 --> 00:22:42.919 They can trust God. 00:22:43.339 --> 00:22:45.559 Their big need is for them to keep going. 00:22:46.599 --> 00:22:48.240 Oh, how I need that. 00:22:49.059 --> 00:22:50.220 How true is that? 00:22:50.859 --> 00:22:57.799 And then they long for God to accompany their bold speaking with the signs that are given to the apostolic church for the confirmation of the gospel as it's being established. 00:22:57.799 --> 00:23:05.159 Now, I assume here that there's an emphasis on the leaders of the church speaking the truth with boldness. 00:23:05.259 --> 00:23:08.359 They are the ones under threat, aren't they, from the Jewish leaders. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:14.099 It's worth noting that even the apostles need God's help to speak bravely. 00:23:14.099 --> 00:23:16.699 Doesn't that bring comfort to you? 00:23:17.480 --> 00:23:18.539 I know I need that. 00:23:18.639 --> 00:23:20.819 And I assume that the apostles just didn't need that. 00:23:20.859 --> 00:23:21.959 They could maybe just get on with it. 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:23.740 But they need this boldness, don't they? 00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:31.039 But also, I think, as you read the book of Acts, you realize it's not just the leaders who need boldness to speak about Jesus or courage. 00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:35.460 In fact, in Acts chapter 8, it seems that the persecution scatters everyone but the apostles. 00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:41.099 And it's the regular members of the church who are speaking about Jesus in the places that God puts them. 00:23:42.380 --> 00:23:44.480 So you and I all need courage. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.880 Again, it's not hard, is it, for us to think about how that works for us as a church? 00:23:48.880 --> 00:24:04.100 I honestly think it probably takes more boldness for you to share the gospel at work under threat of being misunderstood or misrepresented than it does to stand and preach on a street corner to people that you're never going to see again. 00:24:05.280 --> 00:24:13.220 I think it probably takes more courage to share the gospel with an unbelieving husband or wife than it does to preach to a stadium of non-Christians. 00:24:13.220 --> 00:24:21.880 So when we come together as a church, as we come together trusting in God's sovereignty, listening to his words centered on the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:27.600 we come together and we pray for courage that God might make us speak of him. 00:24:28.779 --> 00:24:36.779 That God, in the places that he has put us, the people on our block or on our street or in our school or in our families, 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:43.539 that we might speak clearly and faithfully about the Lord Jesus Christ without fear or with real courage. 00:24:44.180 --> 00:24:48.039 Now, the evidence of Acts chapter 4 is that's a prayer that God loves to answer. 00:24:48.740 --> 00:24:52.740 Because at the end of verse 31, you see the people doing exactly what they prayed to be able to do. 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:56.299 Filled with the Spirit, they speak boldly. 00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:01.759 Finally then, the praying church here are seeking God's glory. 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:06.359 I think this is really the theme of the whole prayer, isn't it? 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:09.579 The sovereign creator, the God of all things is at the beginning, 00:25:10.119 --> 00:25:13.859 with a plan fulfilled in Christ, crucified in the middle of the prayer. 00:25:14.279 --> 00:25:16.579 The God who they want to speak about at the end, 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:19.700 whose power they want to see displayed in signs and wonders. 00:25:20.039 --> 00:25:22.700 And it's God who shakes the face for his glory, isn't it? 00:25:22.700 --> 00:25:23.440 In verse 31. 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.859 So let me just point out the absolutely obvious here, 00:25:27.859 --> 00:25:31.359 that as a church praying together, trusting in God's sovereignty, 00:25:31.579 --> 00:25:34.179 listening to his word, asking for courage, 00:25:34.679 --> 00:25:40.119 they are more concerned for God's glory than their own comfort. 00:25:41.059 --> 00:25:41.299 Yeah? 00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:42.679 You notice that, don't you? 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:46.559 It's not wrong to pray for comfort and healing, is it? 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:50.059 In fact, they assume that God will work in that way to point to his glory in verse 30. 00:25:50.719 --> 00:25:54.539 It's not wrong to pray for relief in circumstances that are difficult. 00:25:54.659 --> 00:25:56.459 We wouldn't be human if we didn't want that. 00:25:56.460 --> 00:26:00.940 Even Jesus in the garden prays like that in his full humanity. 00:26:01.480 --> 00:26:06.980 But the point is that prayer does not exist as the means to provide for my comfort, 00:26:07.360 --> 00:26:10.140 but as the means for me to call for God's glory. 00:26:12.420 --> 00:26:16.519 Prayer does not exist as the means to provide for my comfort, 00:26:16.660 --> 00:26:18.640 but as the means for me to call for God's glory. 00:26:19.180 --> 00:26:22.880 Knowing that as we do, it's when God looks great, 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:25.960 when God is glorified, that you and I are safe. 00:26:26.460 --> 00:26:29.660 You're at rest and comfortable in all the right ways. 00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:33.700 You see, a church that's not bothered with God's glory will not pray. 00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:39.240 The church that longs for the honour of the Lord and for the accomplishment of his plans, 00:26:39.420 --> 00:26:40.759 that church will pray. 00:26:42.840 --> 00:26:46.440 Our Father in heaven, glorified be your name. 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:50.319 Your glorious kingdom come, your glorious will be done. 00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:50.639 Why? 00:26:51.779 --> 00:26:54.839 Well, because living churches pray. 00:26:55.339 --> 00:26:56.359 Living churches pray. 00:26:56.819 --> 00:26:57.639 They pray together. 00:26:58.279 --> 00:26:59.599 They trust in God's sovereignty. 00:26:59.859 --> 00:27:01.039 They listen to God's word. 00:27:01.139 --> 00:27:02.259 They ask for courage. 00:27:02.639 --> 00:27:03.960 And they look for God's glory. 00:27:05.659 --> 00:27:06.599 Let's pray together. 00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:08.879 Let's just have a moment of quiet. 00:27:08.980 --> 00:27:11.379 You can think and ponder on what we've looked at. 00:27:11.380 --> 00:27:14.860 And then we'll say the words of the Lord's Prayer together, which will come up on the screen. 00:27:26.540 --> 00:27:28.280 Let's pray together in the words of the Lord's Prayer. 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:31.860 Follow along from the screen because you might have a different version in your head. 00:27:31.859 --> 00:27:36.399 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 00:27:37.099 --> 00:27:42.259 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 00:27:43.099 --> 00:27:45.379 Give us today our daily bread. 00:27:46.099 --> 00:27:50.419 Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. 00:27:51.139 --> 00:27:55.219 Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 00:27:55.220 --> 00:28:01.059 For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. 00:28:01.740 --> 00:28:02.140 Amen.