A Role Model For Prayer

Prayer

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16

As I mentioned last week in class the plan this year is to place more emphasis on prayer. It is obvious writers of the New Testament felt that prayer was very important since in the NLT the base word “pray” is found 176 times.

So, pray first for ourselves, then our family, our friends, Our neighbors, our class, our church leaders, our church, other people, other churches, our community, our state and leaders, our country and leaders and then the world. And, as hard is as may be, our enemies. “Pray for those who persecute you!” Matt 5:44.

A few years ago we brought a cross to our room to bring and nail prayer requests to it. Then as often happens, the cross was moved to the back. Today, it is in the center of room and everything we need to “nail” our problems/burdens, concerns and prayers to the cross, is available. We will also extend this ministry to our “extended” internet WhoSoEvers. If they send us an email request of any type, it will be “nailed” to the cross. If requested, we will read in class but any others will be kept confidential. For an unspoken request we can just write that or just nail a blank request to the Cross. God doesn’t need to see or hear a prayer. He already knows.

Several Bible Scriptures that deal with burdens are:
• Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. Psalms 5:22
• Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28-30:
• Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:6

Now today’s lesson: A Role Model For Prayer

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile. When they arrived, they went to the upstairs room of the house where they were staying.

Here are the names of those who were present: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (the Zealot), and Judas (son of James). They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus. Acts 1:12-14

In his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Jim Cymbala reminds us that the church in the book of Acts was born out of a prayer meeting, and there are more than 30 references to prayer in Acts.1 If we as Christians are looking for a role model for prayer, there is no better example than the early followers of Jesus in the book of Acts. In Acts, we see four key features of the early church at prayer.

The Early Church Prayed Dependently (Acts 1:12-14)

Jesus told His disciples to go from Jerusalem to the remotest parts of the world as His witnesses. If twelve apostles and a hundred or so disciples are going to reach the world, they had better get busy. But Jesus he said to them before He ascended to Heaven: “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4-5

So the first thing they do when Jesus ascends back to heaven is lock themselves up in a room, shut themselves off from everything, and pray for ten days for the power of the Holy Spirit. They understood that they needed supernatural power for a superhuman work.

The most important lesson we can ever learn about prayer is that we are absolutely dependent on God. Jesus tells us in John 15:5b, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." The tricky part is that we can do lots of things on our own, but the impact and fruit of our work is "nothing" unless Jesus empowers us. Psalm 132:2 says: "We keep looking to the LORD our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master.” A slave is completely dependent on his master, and that's where we stand in our need for the Lord.

Once back “in the day” when we were racing, I was on the track for practice and, man, was the car running great. I then noticed I was being “black flagged”, which means come into the pit immediately. Not real happy, I pulled in and asked my crew what was the problem. It seems that I had left my helmet off. Just as a racer would never drive without a helmet, we as Christians shouldn't think of facing life or doing ministry without prayer underlying everything we do.

Jim Cymbala reminds us: "God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him. Our weakness, in fact, makes room for his power."

The Early Church Prayed Corporately (Together)

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.” Acts 2:42)

Some will say they don’t believe in prayer meetings because Jesus told His disciples that “when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private” (Matt 6:6). But as I have said many times in class we can’t just read part of the Bible. We need to read in all in context. In Acts 1, the disciples didn't go their own way and pray for the Holy Spirit to come down — "They all met together and were constantly united in prayer”. Acts 2 tells us that they met daily in their homes and were devoted to prayer. They gathered at the Temple (Acts 3:1) and later in the synagogues at the regular times of prayer, not just as a testimony to their Jewish neighbors but because they needed those times together for their own survival.

Often the concept of corporate prayer clashes with our independence and individualism. We're all a little like the guy who had to dress up a mannequin with a baseball cap so that he could drive in the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane during rush hour. We prefer to do things alone and by ourselves.

One pastor said that a man in the church shared that he would never forget watching his father and the other men in the church going out into the wheat fields together and praying for God to bring revival to their congregation. We don't have time for those kinds of experiences today and we're missing something when our busyness and isolation keeps from experiencing real community and fellowship in prayer.

The Early Church Prayed Powerfully (4:23-31; 16:25-26)

When the early church prayed, powerful things happened. Jesus told his disciples that their prayers could move mountains — we never see mountains moving in Acts but we do see a couple of buildings shaken on their foundations. In Acts 4, the disciples get their first real taste of persecution. When the authorities commanded them to stop preaching, the church started praying.

Verse 31 gives us a series of cause and effect statements about what happened when they prayed. They prayed and the building was shaken. They prayed and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were filled with the Spirit and they preached the gospel with even greater power. If we had a building move at one of our prayer meetings, we would either have a lot more or a lot less people at the next meeting. Incredibly, Acts 4 is not the only place in the book where prayer is more powerful than a building. Paul and Silas are having a midnight prayer meeting in the prison at Philippi that starts an earthquake that shook open the cell doors.(Acts 16:25-26).

There are more than a dozen times in Acts where it tells us that people were amazed, in awe, or in fear of what God was doing in and through his church. Outsiders were afraid of getting too close to the followers of the Way because they didn't know what God was going to do next. Outsiders today are more likely to yawn and stretch when they think of what goes on in the church. But, the power to leave even unbelievers amazed at what God is doing is still there — if we ask for it.

Mother Theresa was once crossing the border into Israel when a guard asked her if she was carrying any weapons. That was a pretty strange question for a nun wearing a habit, but she looked the guard in the eyes and defiantly said, "Yes, I have my prayer books." We want the power of God, but sometimes we forget where the power comes from. We think it comes from the pastor's preaching, from our strategies and purpose statements, or from our new buildings and facilities. We are deluded into thinking that we can change the culture if we elect the right people to political office. Those types of power are pretend power compared to what the followers of Jesus have in the book of Acts.

It is very serious when people with broken lives and hurting hearts come to churches that have turned away from their real source of power - prayer.

The Early Church Prayed Imperfectly (Acts 12:1-17)

This final point of the lesson may seem anti-climatic, but it may be the most important thing we talk about today. There is a great reminder in Acts 12 that God not only answers prayer — He answers imperfect prayers.

We tend to idealize the early church in Acts, but here's a well-kept secret: the first Christians were not perfect. They argued over whose widows got the better food service and whom to take or not take on their missions trips. They fell asleep in church windows and were distracted by the weighty issues of circumcision and kosher foods.

Their faith wasn't perfect, either. You have to admire that the disciples were committed enough to have an all-night prayer meeting for Peter's release from prison, but the reaction when their prayers are answered is priceless. Rhoda the slave girl reports that Peter is at the front door and their response is: "You've lost your mind!" They can't compute that God might have actually done the very thing they were asking for. They were devoted enough to pray all night but doubting enough to not believe that their prayers would really make any difference.

We pray that way all the time — believing one moment and doubting the next. Let me give you a challenge — if you only have enough faith to pray and there is nothing left over to believe that God will answer, then pray anyway and see if God does something to surprise you.

We don't need to time-travel back to the first-century to become the people that God wants us to be, but we do need to learn to pray like the early church prayed. When we follow their example in prayer, God will work powerfully — even when our prayers are less than perfect.