Part 2 - Praying in the Wait

Acts 1:12–14 ESV

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Christians Pray

“The life, power and glory of the church is prayer. The life of its members is dependent on prayer and the presence of God is secured and retained by prayer. The very place is made sacred by its ministry. Without it, the church is lifeless and powerless.”

E.M. Bounds

This is a powerful quote and I am in full agreement with it.

I truly believe that prayer can change lives, it change circumstances, and it can change the Church.

I’d go as far as to say, a prayer-less Christian is not a Christian at all.

It’s the one thing Jesus “taught” His disciples.

Throughout Bible, we find that prayer saves lives.

Additionally, prayer is truly a gift we can give to those we love. To pray for them is a respectable gift.

But listen, prayer is not exclusive to Christianity (e.g. Islam; it’s one of their 5 pillars — They pray 5x a day), but without prayer, Christianity will not (cannot) be sustained.

A recent Pew Research survey found that only about 45% of professing Christians pray daily while 65% say they pray weekly. And it’s unnerving to hear this. Furthermore 15% of Christians say they never pray while 17% say they pray irregularly.

Now compare that to Muslims who consider prayer to be one of their pillars of faith.

The same Pew Research showed that 70% of professing Muslims pray daily. Only 9% say weekly and 13% say they never pray.

I wonder why there’s such a discrepancy? I wonder why we lack such prayer? Less than half? Are we not teaching is well? Are we lazy? Why are we not praying?

I recall a season in my life when I didn’t pray. It’s interesting because I wholeheartedly believed in God, but I didn’t pray. I didn’t like praying — It’s hard to pinpoint to a reason, but I remember just how heavy I felt trying to pray (I just couldn’t get myself to pray… felt heaviness in my heart).

If you’re wondering how I got out of that slump, I can tell you, it was when I read this statement from Warren Wiersbe:

Prayer is not something that I do; prayer is something that I am.

Warren W. Wiersbe

This changed everything for me. This is when I realized not only the importance of prayer, but why I ought to pray — I learned it’s who I am. If I identify as a believer, a follower of Jesus, a Christian, then I (we) must pray.

Devoted to Prayer

In continuation from last week (Acts 1:1-11), we find the followers of Jesus, His (now) 11 disciples and some women gathered after having heard from Jesus the final time.

In His final words, Jesus promised them, before He ascended, that a Helper, the Holy Spirit and His power will be upon them.

And we learned that such power is available to us today. Granted we only scratched the surface of what that power is, but it’s available now.

And I’m not referring to spiritual gifts or antics (e.g. Speaking in tongues, holy laughter, etc) but the power of the Holy Spirit will be the very thing that’ll help us live radically and explosively.

So in obedience, these men and women gathered in the upper room and devoted themselves to prayer as they waited.

And that’s the lesson that we find in today’s passage — Learning to pray while waiting.

Well, if you recall, literally, three weeks ago, we talked about the difficulties of waiting:

Waiting is hard because of the doubts.

Waiting is hard because of the unknown.

Waiting is hard because of the knowing.

Waiting itself is difficult, but the challenge is "Can we pray while we’re waiting?”

Pray with Expectancy

Acts 1:12 ESV

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.

This verse seems harmless and appears to be just a filler, nothing worth highlighting, but beneath it is an uncovered profound message about prayer.

These men had just heard from Jesus that “not many days from now” the Holy Spirit will come and you will receive power. Therefore, they returned to Jerusalem with the expectation for that promise to be fulfilled.

Keep this in mind, they had no idea what this promise, what this power, or this Holy Spirit was going to look like. They had nothing to infer or go off of. It was strictly out of faith that they got together and waited.

All they knew was that something good awaited them.

So here’s the profound message of this verse — Knowing that a certain “good” event was going to occur did not keep them from praying.

It’s counter-cultural, is it not?

The knowing drove them to devote themselves to prayer. They prayed with expectancy.

I wonder if we would pray if we knew what would come about?

If we knew ahead of time we’d pass each exam and class, would the college students devote time and energy to pray?

If we knew ahead that a promotion was sure as the sun setting later at night, would we devote ourselves to prayer?

If we knew ahead that our marriage would be flawless, that our kids will grow to be successful and healthy, would we fast and pray for our family?

Prayer is Not a Lifeline

Remember Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Many Christians treat prayer like a lifeline. We pray if/only when we are in need for God to step in. If we can handle it, God’s not needed. If we have enough evidence or certainty of what is to come (the results), we don’t pray.

Take a moment now to think back on your prayers. Why did you pray?

Was it for a circumstance to change because we feared the outcome?

Did you ever pray knowing everything will be alright?

Listen, I wonder if anyone today prayed before coming to church. Do you come here with any expectations? You ought to!

You ought to expect an encounter/experience with God at church.

You ought to expect your relationship with the church community to deepen at church.

You ought to expect “good” things to happen while you’re here. You ought to expect “holy” things to happen. So, will you pray?

These men and women knowing that the Holy Spirit would come, it didn’t keep them from praying. It didn’t stop them. It motivated them. It inspired them. They came together and had church.

The Upper Room

Acts 1:13 ESV

13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.

First, I want to tell you about their choice of location: The Upper Room.

There’s been a romanticism with the Upper Room (churches, ministries, worship teams, and event gatherings have been named after it).

Reason: We will find out next week that it’s here where the Holy Spirit falls on 120 men and women. It’s in the upper room that people break out into tongues. It’s the inauguration of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Contextually speaking — The upper room was like a terrace. Meeting there kept from prying eyes from the streets.

For the wealthy, an upper room was their living room.

And sometimes, large upper rooms were rented out to be served for assembly, study, and prayer.

Now, this is extremely encouraging because it tells me a revival can break out in our homes!

Let us not underestimate the power of prayer on your couch. Don’t wait until you come to church, but start at home.

They Are Apostles

And notice who these people are — These are 11 out of 12 disciples who had hid and run away when Christ was on the cross.

These are undeserving men who denied and ran away from Christ when He died. These are the men who struggled to believe in the resurrected Jesus. These are the men whom Jesus repeatedly called, “You of little faith.”

And yet, these are the men whom Jesus sent out and have become apostles. They have become martyrs preaching the gospel to all nations. They are part of the reason why Christianity continues today.

So, let this encourage us all that it doesn’t matter where one prays — It doesn’t have to be at church, mountain top, or a holy temple.

Nor does it matter who it is that’s praying (now it’s important to whom we’re praying, but not who that’s praying) — These disciples/apostles are no different than us. And if they pray while waiting, we ought to pray in our waiting.

Those Who Pray Together Stay Together

Acts 1:14 ESV

14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

A classic bumper sticker that I often see in the South reads something like this, “A family that prays together stays together.”

In the waiting, these men and women prayed together. And like so, you and I are called to pray together.

True story — I know a pastor from San Francisco (no longer there) that often travelled here to East Coast as guest speaker for retreats. I befriended him and we’d often chat whenever he’d come and visit.

In one of his visitations, he told me how he almost couldn’t make it because he was captured in China while secretly evangelizing and sharing the gospel.

Someone had tipped off the officials and he and others were captured by the authorities. They were taken to a cell and everything that they possessed were taken away. Fortunately, for him, they didn’t search enough to find his phone in his pocket.

Inside the cell, he’d pull out his phone in hopes to contact home, but there was no cell service — He began to pray. And this is where it gets wild:

In one corner of the cell, a single bar would show.

Instead of contacting his wife, he went on Facebook and posted what was happening and said, “Pray for us.”

His post spread like wildfire within his group of friends, family, and church — Later on he learned that few people at his church read the message and called everyone to come and pray. He said 50-60 had dropped everything, came to church, and prayed for them.

Nervously, he waited — After matching the timeline of what occured in China and in San Francisco, at the time the church prayed, that’s when the guards came in and released them.

To this day, he has no idea why they were released.

Acts 12:5 ESV

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

Initially, it feels like a weird proposition to pray together, but there’s power behind it that we cannot begin to fathom. There’s something that happen when we join hands and pray in one accord.

Let us not underestimate Jesus’ promise in Matthew’s Gospel:

Matthew 18:20 ESV

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Praying in the Wait

Every Tuesday, myself and the pastors here all go to Queens for our weekly staff meeting. After long 2 hrs of giving and hearing reports of our respective ministries, time to time, we corporately pray together.

I’ve sat there many weeks feeling unmoved, unmotivated, uninspired. There were times when I sat there for 5 mins not saying or thinking a single word as everyone around me prayed — I just wanted the meeting to end.

PIF (Everyone), I know what it’s like to sit in your position. To be where you are. Unless, there’s a reason pray, a person on a pulpit telling you isn’t enough.

But if there’s anything you learned today, let it be that that praying is not something we do, but it’s who we are as believers.

We pray even if we know what is to come.

We pray no matter where we are.

And we pray together.

Just as Jesus woke up His few disciples falling asleep to wake up and pray, let us heed those words today and do the same.

Let’s become a praying Church.