Prayer in the early church. Section one, it was characteristic. I mean by this, as you go through the Acts of the Apostles, you see much prayer, repeated mentions of prayer. I think there are probably some twenty times in the Acts of the Apostles that you see people praying. It was characteristic of their lives. Now one, they understood their relationship with God. Of course, prayer indicates that we have an established relationship with God. A, with the Son, who was so recently among them. And in the first chapter of Acts, when the Apostle Peter stood up with the twelve or with the eleven because Judas was out. Judas had killed himself. And he said that from among us one must be chosen who has accompanied with us from the time that the Lord Jesus was among us and have been witnesses with us of the resurrection. So they were very conscious of the fact that the Lord Jesus had just left them and gone to the Father. And then B, they were very conscious of the Father to whom they had been attached. We saw in our study of John sixteen, twenty-three to thirty-three, that seven times the Lord Jesus at the close of the Paschal Discourse mentioned the Father. And because he was about to leave the disciples, he wanted them to be attached to the Father. He wanted to understand that from now on they would go to the Father directly in prayer and that they could pray in his name and so on. And finally they understood their relation to the comforter who had been sent to teach and to guide them and to indict their prayer. So they were very conscious of the Son and of the Father and of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And then second, they recognized their feebleness. I think this is very germane to the topic. The trouble with us is that we don't recognize our feebleness. In Luke twelve and verse thirty-two, the Lord Jesus had called them a little flock. He said, Fear not, little flock. It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And B, they were as lambs among wolves. In Luke ten and verse three, the Lord Jesus said, Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. And this was literally true. The whole setup politically and religiously was against Christianity. It was as good as your life to make a public profession of being a Christian in the first century. In fact, the word for martyr and the word for witness are exactly the same. To be a witness, meant that you expected to be a martyr. Tradition says that all of the apostles of the Lord met violent death except John and that he had gone through an awful lot. And see, they were called in Acts four and thirteen unlearned and ignorant men. And this is true. It wasn't that the Jewish scribes and Pharisees were just being insulting. It was absolutely true. These leaders of the early Christians, now it's true that later on Paul called men like, or the Lord called men like Paul, who were educated and cultured men. But remember that the disciples of the Lord, whom he later named apostles, were fishermen and tax collectors and all this sort of thing. Nobody that was anybody. This is what I object to in modern evangelical methods. They seem to feel that you have to get the key men of the community, you know, and that this will sort of attract all the rest of them, sweep them in because anybody who is anybody is a Christian, you know, this kind of, it's just garbage. Spiritual garbage, that's all it is. They recognize their peopleness. No wonder they were a praying people. Now the second section, meetings for prayer. There are twelve recorded in the Acts. Number one, twelve prayer, twelve prayer meetings recorded in Acts. A meeting of the Apostle, Acts six and four. we will give ourselves to the Word of God into prayer. And B, in homes. Acts twelve is an example of this. Mary's home, she was the mother of John Mark, usually called Mark, was a place where the Christians met to pray when Peter was in jail. James had just been killed and they were praying that Peter would be released. meeting of the women by the riverside acts sixteen thirteen a women's prayer meeting and then D Paul prayed in public I've given one example here when he's on board the ship and he called all of these nearly nearly three hundred people around him and then publicly prayed to God and then E a prayer on the seashore. In Acts twenty one and five, they all kneel down on the seashore and pray together before he left them. There's no wrong place to pray. And F, in Acts four, when they prayed it says, in the place. Now we don't know what kind of a place it was, but it says the place after they had prayed, the place was shaken. I don't know whether this was Solomon's porch, as he mentions earlier, where some of them had met, or whether it was a building or whether that they had rented. I'm sure one thing, they didn't build cathedrals in the first century, and they were not concerned about comfortable meeting places and all of that. They just met wherever they could. And then number two, smaller groups prayed together. One example of this is given in Acts thirteen, where there were six men, certain prophets and teachers, including Barnabas and Saul. And it says they fasted and prayed about the sending out, about the calling by the Holy Spirit. of Barnabas and Saul for a certain work. You might call us an elder's prayer meeting. And then number three, the preachers prayed with the converts. An example of this is in Acts fourteen. When they had ordained them elders in every city, they prayed with fasting and commended them to the Lord. I think this is a good habit for you to form when you lead people to Christ. Pray with them often. It's great training for them. Some of the best help that I got from older brethren when I was a young man. was the time when they got me down on my knee somewhere and we just had prayer together. Because you can't be an epithet when you're praying. It's pretty hard to do. You've got to be more or less genuine when you come into God's presence. And somehow or other it does you good to hear a man speaking to God. And I learned a great deal about fellowship with God when I heard godly older men praying. And I think it'll be a great help to you and a great help to converts that you lead to the Lord if you can pray together. Now the third section, the problems of prayer. One, a powerful and unfriendly government. This gave them something to pray about. You and I have grown up in a climate where we have the protection of the government and our prayer meetings are almost deserted. People have got to think of all kinds of things to keep a prayer meeting going. Well, here's a good cure for that. I'll tell you one thing, you don't have to urge people to come together to pray in these countries behind the curtains. They're glad to get together and pray. A man told me that after the devastating war in Korea, that he was over there and he saw hundreds of Christians met together in an old bombed-out basement with a gasoline lantern sitting on a barrel in the middle of that room. You call it a room. It's just a hole. No rough and in cold weather. And they met there in the morning before daylight. He couldn't even see who was there until it began to get light enough to see that the place was simply packed out with Christians. I'm sure that that same building before it had been bombed out was anything but full. I don't know what God's going to have to do to get our prayer meetings going, but I'll tell you one thing. There's something wrong when you have to stick it together with coffee and donut. Now, this powerful and unfriendly government, A, was religious, Acts four, one to seven, and civil, Acts twelve and one. In Acts four, it was the hierarchy of the Jews that was persecuting them, and in Acts twelve, it was Herod who had killed James and had put Peter in jail. So they had it from both sides. Now, number two, their leadership was removed. If there's anything that will attach you to God, it's to lose your leaning post. That's probably why God continually removes people on which we defend too much. A, James was killed, and B, Peter was imprisoned. They seem to be the strongest leadership there in that area in Jerusalem. And three, there was another problem about prayer. Problems weren't all on the outside. I'd like to suggest an internal problem. The problem of why one was delivered and another killed. Now, problems are good for us. When you're studying any discipline in school, they give you problems to solve. And this makes you think. And I think that if you're going to be a prayerful person, you ought to face up to the problems of prayer. And this is one of them. Now, why would God allow James to be killed and allow Peter to go free? And why would he allow Peter to go free one time and then allow him to be crucified, tradition says, head downward sometime later? Why would he allow Paul, if this happened, we don't know for sure, but we think that he was imprisoned twice? Why would he let him be released from prison the first time and then let him be beheaded the second time? These are things that we need to think about if we're going to pray. I think for one thing, it makes us realize our complete dependence upon God. God isn't arbitrary about these things, but God has his plans and purposes too. And we ought to be prayerful. We ought to take these things to him. We ought to be willing for whatever answers he sees fit to give it. And then for... the strange ways of answering prayers. A, they were threatened and let go, in the instance in Acts four. Now don't count on that, because in Acts seven, B, a good man was stoned to death, Stephen. Now these people have been praying. They prayed very earnestly in chapter four that God would give them boldness. And in chapter seven God did give a man boldness, one of their own number, probably one of the men that was at the prayer meeting. Because in chapter six they had chosen Stephen to be one of the first deacons. And now in chapter seven he's preaching and he gets sewn to death. Is this an ancient prayer or is it not? And then see, many were scattered abroad in Acts eight, one to four. Now why did God scatter them abroad? Well, personally, I think it's because he had said in chapter one of the Acts that they should preach the gospel in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and the other parts of the earth. And they were still in Jerusalem. So he sent a persecution, and they were all scattered abroad except the Apostles. Probably they were imprisoned. And those who were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. You have an answer to prayer? Sure it is. I warn you ahead of time when you pray, you're doing something very dangerous. You're turning on the power. You're calling on God to do something and to do it through you. And he may see fit to scatter you abroad. He may see fit to allow you to share your testimony with your blood. Well, indeed, pinger was released by an angel. Acts twelve. This was a very interesting story. Peter thought he was dreaming. And when he got to the house of Mary, they thought that they'd seen a ghost. So with all of their prayer, there didn't seem to be too much real confidence in God. And then E. Paul and Silas were released after an earthquake. Acts sixteen. Now the earthquake shook the doors open, but they didn't leave. They stayed and led the jailer to Christ. And then the next day the magistrates came and turned them loose. Now these are strange things about prayer and its answers. you should give it some thought. You studied through the Acts of the Apostles. You'll get this impression that God has his own way, his own plan and purpose. And when you pray, don't demand that God do it this way or that he always do this because he did it once. But find out what his plan is and fit into it. Now, number five, the unbelief of those who did pray. I've mentioned this already, that when Rhoda, this is another name for Rhodes, came to the door and saw Peter at the door, she didn't even open the door, but ran to tell him that he was there, and they said, no, it can't be. It must be his angel. I suppose they thought he'd already been killed, and... what I really thought, they didn't believe Peter was really freed. I think this was an encouragement to us. If you find your own faith following, remember that the early Christians had the same problem. All Christians have the same problem. We're not always confident when we pray, but keep praying anyway. Now, number six, There was the problem of imprisonment of the greatest of all the missionaries. In Acts chapter twenty-five, Paul was taken into custody. He was kept for two years in his own hired house. Probably there were two different imprisonments. Why should God allow the best missionary of the bunch? to be taken to prison. Well, number seven, this resulted in a greater ministry. Let me mention three things. There are others, but three things. A, he reached the Romans. I think when Paul wrote to the Philippians in chapter four, verse twenty-two, The saints salute thee, chiefly they of Caesar's household. I think he must have been exalted. I think he must have been thoroughly enjoyed writing down that sentence. He's bearded the lion right in his own den. Caesar took him into custody. And now he leads people to the Lord right there in Caesar's own household. Now household doesn't mean his family, but it means his family. his retinue, the soldiers that were there. You see, when they put the custom of the Romans was when they put Paul into prison, they handcuffed him. They chained him to two soldiers, one on each side. What do you think Paul talked about? I don't know they had eight-hour shifts or twelve-hour shifts or what, but you can be sure that those two fellows heard the gospel all the time they were chained to Paul. And it's bound to result in some being led to Christ. And this is what happened. The saints included those of Caesar's own retinue. And then B, writing epistles. What would you and I have done if Paul hadn't been locked up in jail long enough to write these wonderful letters? The prison epistles. We're thankful for all of the... scriptures, all of the New Testament, but some of the highest truths are given to us. Probably the twin feats of Revelation would be Ephesians and Colossians with a little valley of Philippians in between them. Up here in the mountains in Colorado, we have what's called the twin sisters. Well, the twin sisters of Scripture would undoubtedly be Ephesians and Colossians. and both of those were given to the Apostle Paul while he was in the prison. And then see, Paul's courage inspired others to preach boldly. In Philippians one, twelve to fourteen, he said, I want you to know that the things that are happened to me have turned out rather to the furtherance of the gospel. And the word furtherance means to cut a road, to cut a road. And that's what happened when Paul was put in prison. It resulted in a road being opened up for the preaching of the gospel. And then he said, because of my change, because of my bond, the brethren have waxed confident, and they are bold to speak the word. And then he went on to say, some indeed preachers of contention and supposed to add... affliction to my bonds, but he said, anyway, the gospel is being preached, and I rejoice in it. I'm glad to see it done. Now, I don't know how many people prayed that Paul would not get arrested. I'm sure many of them must have. And when Paul got arrested, were their prayers not answered? Of course not. No was an answer, the same as yes, you know. And this was a better answer than the one that they asked for. because by Paul being in prison, the results were much greater. Now let's talk a little bit in the fourth section about the results of prayer. And in order to do that, let's look at a sample prayer meeting in Acts chapter four. On the fourth chapter of the Acts, you have a situation like this. The Jews were trying their best to squelch these Christians. They were embarrassed by the fact that they were being accused, rightfully so, of crucifying their own Messiah. And so they arrested the Christians. And then they had to turn them loose because they couldn't find anything against them. And in verse twenty-three of Acts four, it says, being let go, they went to their own company and reported all the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, who has made heaven and earth and the sea and all it in the midst, who by the mouth of thy servant David has said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagined vain things? He's quoting the second Psalm. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. and of a truth against thy holy child, or rather thy holy servant, Jesus, who thou art anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined for it to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that we may keep out of jail? Oh, no. They never even thought about that, apparently. that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thy hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child or holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed the place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness, and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul, Neither said any of them that all of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common, and with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the Apostles' feet, and distribution was made them to every man according as he had need. than it mentions Joseph or Barnabas. Now let's think about this a little bit. One, it was a sample prayer meeting. Two, there were spiritual requests. And these spiritual requests were two. A, boldness to speak, and B, that God would work. I don't know what you'd pray about, but I'm ashamed to think what I would pray about under circumstances like this. But this is what they prayed about. Now, three, the results of their prayer. It says, when they had prayed, A, the place was shaken. Now that place was shaken physically, but I think it would be a fine thing if when we have a prayer meeting the place was shaken spiritually, don't you? And B, they were all, not just the apostles, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And C, they spoke the Word of God with boldness. And D, there was unity among them. There's nothing that'll draw the Christians together like persecution. The paltry little things that we fuss and quarrel about, which don't amount to a hill of beans, would be eliminated immediately under stress and persecution. And E, the Apostles, had great power in witnessing. Now, this is more than speaking the word of boldness. This means that the Spirit of God gave power, convicting power, so that there were souls saved. In fact, shortly after this, you read of five thousand being gathered together there in Jerusalem, instead of only three thousand as there was on the day of Pentecost. And F, there was great grace upon them all. Great grace, I assume, means that the Lord was working in their hearts, and the Spirit of God was making them what they ought to be toward one another, toward other men. And G, they were loving and liberal with their means. Now I've appended a note here that the communal sharing was voluntary and was done only in the Church of Jerusalem. Second Corinthians eight and nine, these two chapters give you directions for Christian giving, much more complete than this. But anyway, the result of this prayer meeting was that God not only got their hearts, but he got their pocketbook. It was a real prayer meeting.