When We Pray – Why the Church Prays – Sermon – Pastor Dave Page

In Acts 6, the Church in Jerusalem faced one of its first dilemmas. Here’s how it happened:

In those days, as the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.

Verse 2: Then the Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom….”

Now you’ve likely heard that this meant that the apostles delegated ministry responsibilities to others so that they would be freed up to spend time in personal prayer and receive a fresh word from the Lord to preach to the people. But I don’t believe that is the only point of this passage.

The apostles are not referring to the need for personal, private prayer. Instead, they are talking about the ministry of mobilizing the people of God to pray together. They were marking out the two ministries they must especially do as church leaders. Let me show you something in this you may not have seen in this passage before.

The context of this passage revolves around ministries. Verse 1 points out a problem with ministries. In verse 2, the apostles discuss what ministries they must do and the ones they must not do. In verses 3-4, they instruct that seven men be identified from among the congregation to take on this ministry. This section of Scripture is focused on ministry to people, not on personal issues. – think corporate, the group, the church.

The emphasis on prayer in verse 4 points to something significant. Listen to the literal translation here: But we to the prayer and to the ministry of the word will steadfastly continue. That little word “the” that appears before prayer indicates that this doesn’t mean prayer in general. It highlights something specific and important. The syntax of the sentence creates the possibility that the ministry of prayer and the word are twin ideas.

The example of the apostles in Acts points to the priority praying together held for them. Every occurrence of prayer in Acts preceding Chapter 6 (1:14, 24; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31) pictures the apostles leading others in prayer. Not one reference points to their private prayer time; the focus is on God’s people praying together.

It should be very plain to see that the apostles placed a high level of importance on the people of God praying together. They considered guiding the corporate prayer life of the church just as critical a priority as the preaching/teaching of God’s Word.

Let me show you a second data point:

• Praying together was modeled and practiced by Jesus.

The apostles learned their leadership patterns from the Jesus Christ himself. Search through the Gospels for Jesus’ teaching and practice of prayer, and you will find 37 verses, sometimes repeated in more than one Gospel. Of those 37 instances in which Jesus refers to prayer, 33 of them were addressed to a plural rather than singular audience. In other words, Jesus’ instruction decisively leaned toward praying with others, not just praying in private.

Take, for example,

Matt. 7:7:

“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”

We read “you” in that verse and immediately think it’s singular, referring to an individual. In fact, it is a plural “you,” meaning Jesus is urging a gathering of believers to ask, seek, and knock.

In other passages, Jesus deliberately emphasized the significance of praying together. Listen to Matt. 18:19:

Again, I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.

Jesus could have said, “If anyone asks…;” instead, He deliberately chose to emphasize a group gathered for prayer. This focus of Jesus’ on more than one praying indicates that there is a design of God’s in such gatherings, through which He uniquely and powerfully works.

So the apostles made it a practice and a priority to teach about praying with fellow believers and to practice it because they had heard and seen Jesus emphasize the same thing.

The Book of Acts records the mighty works of God for and through His church in its early years, and clearly connects them to unified, corporate prayer.

The 120 were gathered in an upper room praying in one accord when Pentecost comes (Acts 1:13; 2:1).

The disciples prayed for wisdom in knowing who Judas’ replacement should be (Acts 1:24).

When Peter and John reported the Sanhedrin’s threats, those gathered cried out to God in one accord for boldness, and the place was shaken where they prayed (Acts 4:24, 31).

The church prayed over the seven men appointed to serve the widows (Acts 6:6).

After James was martyred and Peter imprisoned by Herod, but the church was fervently praying, and God miraculously delivered Peter from his cell (Acts 12:1-11).

While the prophets and teachers were praying and fasting, the Holy Spirit called Paul and Barnabas to go on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-2).

Again, let me say that I am not discouraging any of us from personal, private prayer.  Ananias was praying alone when God instructed him to go to Saul (Acts 9:10).  Peter was alone on the rooftop when he had his famous vision leading him to share the Gospel with a Gentile named Cornelius (Acts 10:9ff.).  

However, the scriptures would point out that the majority of God’s recorded workings came when His people prayed together.

There are so many examples of how corporate prayer was the springboard for the sweeping movements of God.

When people think of revival, they often think of nations such as England or the United States but there is a very strong legacy of prayer-based revival in Canada, founded in Jesus followers praying together….

A paper that I wrote in my seminary studies and for my ordination credentials focused on the pre- Confederation revival in Nova Scotia, known as The New Light Revival, involving Henry Alline. It spread throughout the Atlantic provinces and cities.

The New Light Revival paved the way for the founding of many early CBOQ churches and would be followed by many others in Canadian history. Another early revival occurred in 1857 when the Holiness minister, Phoebe Palmer, came to Hamilton, Ontario. The evangelistic meetings that she held there in October of that year had attendances that climbed to six thousand people. There were five-to-six hundred testimonies of conversion and these even included those of many civic leaders.

While revivals such as the New Light and the Hamilton Revival occurred before Confederation, other moves of God came after the nation of Canada was formed.

One well known revival happened in Saskatchewan, in 1948, a revival movement sprung up which became known as The Latter Rain Revival. It began suddenly in the Sharon Orphanage and other schools, including a Bible school in North Battleford. Teachers from the Bible school had come back from some remarkable meetings in Vancouver, B. C., in 1947. Deeply stirred, they led the students into praying, fasting and studying the Scriptures. Out of this revival many camp meetings and conventions sprung up and Latter Rain leaders held meetings across Canada and into America.

While the Latter Rain Revival had much impact in 1948, another Canadian revival would spring up in 1971 in Saskatoon. Here the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church (a church of 175 people) had experienced some frustration over failing to get his congregation involved in evangelism. He came to the conclusion that his congregation did not have a heart for evangelism and, from that time on, began to pray and seek God for revival. He also began emphasizing the importance of prayer and challenging his congregation to attend the Wednesday-night prayer meeting. The prayer meeting grew to fifty, then to a hundred, and then to 150 people. The church was really gaining a heart for prayer and even children had prayer meetings. The meetings became crowded out and use of a larger building was secured. This too was crowded out and an Alliance congregation cancelled their missionary conference to provide the use of their building for the revival. This 1000-person building was soon maxed out and the largest church building in the city, a 1600-seat United church building was rented. This too was packed with spiritually-hungry seekers and two evening meetings were scheduled to handle the crowds. Many souls were converted and there was seemingly no end to the testimonies of what God was doing. God was moving in unusual ways. There were at least two meetings where there was no preaching. The revival did not stay confined to Saskatoon but, instead, many teams, in fact, over two thousand, came out from the revival. These teams ministered throughout Canada and the United States as well as internationally.

From pre-Confederation revivals such as the New Light Revival and Phoebe Palmer’s meetings to post-Confederation revivals such as the Later Rain revivals, and Saskatoon Revival, God’s people gathered in what appeared to be a fresh way and men and women answered the call to salvation and healing and surged into a relationship with Jesus Christ. All of that began because God’s people consistently chose to meet together and pray.

So what about today???

Right now, the Gospel is sweeping the globe at a rate that is really quite unimaginable. Statisticians that look at this report that statistically, most of the people who have ever been saved in history were saved during the 20th Century. This data would suggest the as high as 70 percent of the total number of people who have been saved throughout world history have come to faith in Jesus Christ in the last hundred years.

But get this: 70 percent of that number has been saved since 1945! And here’s the data point that absolutely boggles my mind: 70 percent of those saved since 1945 were saved since 1990! That’s how fast the Gospel is storming our world. That means that at the turn of the 21st Century, possibly one-third of all Christians who have ever lived have been converted since 1990! Now to really grasp this, you have to not think about the western world….

In the context of majority world Christianity, moves of God tend to happen in places of poverty, persecution, upheaval, and desperation. They are mostly removed from news cameras (for a range of different reasons), and since they unfold outside the Western World, they tend to be off the map for the vast majority of Christians in the West.

What would revival look like deep in the rainforest where there is no internet, never mind 5G? Or in a remote valley amid mountains and deserts where the nearest city is three days’ ride? Or in the churning chaos of a slum with little infrastructure and an endless stream of migrants fleeing drought, flooding, or the latest militia group?

Here are the facts, seen over and over again….

When the body of Christ in a community – or across communities – rise early in the morning to pray together for hours,  stay up late into the night to worship together (and pray some more),  meet together in fellowship several times a week or even every day,  find the Word of God coming alive through powerful preaching and personal testimony,  reconcile to one another,  love their enemies,  welcome and offer assistance any in need,  experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, and see unbelievers drawn into their midst to encounter the living Christ – are we talking about revival then??

But here’s something to consider – What we hype up as this elusive, extraordinary state of ‘revival’ should arguably be more par for the course for God’s church. Maybe, what we call revival in the Church is actually the Church being what it is supposed to be in the first place – not something extraordinary but an ordinary experience of the church!

Perhaps these are truths that we who live north of the equator have lost.

Maybe we should be asking ourselves, why the places where revival seems to be happening with the greatest frequency are the places where believers have no choice but to have God breaking in. They are poor, powerless, sometimes literally under attack….and yet they gather to pray and fast, to worship, to hear God’s word, to confess and forgive, to share all they have and to be healed by God’s power precisely because they have nothing else they can do and nowhere else to turn.

Let me give you what I think is the most powerful example of this today

Iran

It has been widely publicized for well over a decade that the Christian church in Iran is growing faster than in most any other country.

Iran’s ruthless regime and harsh brand of Islam have brought about great disillusionment, especially among the younger generation. The body of Christ has suffered under intense persecution. Yet the unrest we see in Iran today is matched by the spiritual hunger of Iranians. Turmoil spreads, but the Church keeps growing!

The underground nature of the Church makes verification impossible, but it is very reasonable to estimate that there are more than a million believers in Jesus Christ in Iran.

And then there’s the entire continent of Africa.

The well-known Holy Ghost Service of the Redeemed Christian Church of God takes place outside of Lagos, Nigeria on the first Friday of every month, beginning at 7pm and lasting through the night. Attendance has been known to exceed one million people – the musicians and singers alone number in the thousands!

In almost every quarter of the globe, Christianity is advancing…except for four primary areas: North America, Japan, Australia, and Western Europe. Guess what one of the common denominators is everywhere Christianity marches forward? Christians spend time in prayer together. Track what God is doing in Korea, in China, in India, in South America, and you will find behind the scenes prayer meetings.

I know what you’re thinking. Our prayer meetings don’t seem to convey that sort of power. Some of you might even be thinking, do we even have a prayer meeting….Yes, we do…there are several opportunities for us to gather in prayer as a Church family. Over the next couple of weeks, we will share with you some intentional shifts in how we spend some of our time in prayer, corporately as the church. But as we progress in that direction, today, I would ask you to pray this with me now.