When We Pray

Acts 4:23–31 CSB

23 After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant: Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah. 27 “For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, 28 to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

When the HOLY SPIRIT fills God's people, incredible things happen.

In acts 4 the people prayed for the holy Spirit to come and he did, and some pretty incredible things happened.

Their prayer is our focus today, particularly how it is significant for us in this moment as we seek the same sort of move of the spirit in our midst.

To understand the significance of prayer for us. I want to answer 4 questions about this prayer as it was prayed not long after the beginning of the Church.

1) Who was praying?

Acts 4:23 CSB

23 After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

Peter and John had been arrested and confronted by the Sanhedrin for healing a man and then preaching the Gospel.

Right after they are released they went to “their own people”.

Some translations say “their friends”.

The same word is used in Acts 28 when Felix, the Roman governor of Judea, says that Paul’s “friends” should not be prevented from meeting his needs while imprisoned.

It is more than just “other church member”.

It is Peter and John’s fellow believers, their Church family.

Theses were Christians likely gathered together over a meal, waiting and praying for Peter and John.

We don’t know how many, but we know 3000 people had come to faith in Christ not long before and that daily more were being added to their number.

Though it likely isn’t all of them, it is likely a collection of leaders as well as new believers, blue collar workers and wealthier landowners, and a variety of others.

These were there brothers and sister in the faith.

Those they were united to through shared belief.

Who they were connected to through a shared purpose/mission.

And who they were committed to share the joys and burdens of life with.

But who were also ordinary believers, not super spiritual holy men, but people like you and me.

This is significant because we can't rule ourselves out from being filled by the spirit.

We can't disqualify ourselves from being used by God. We have to suit up, pray bold prayers, and make a move.

2) When did they pray?

There is one really clear and very pertinent circumstance effecting their prayer.

Peter and John had been arrested be the religious leaders just the day before.

They had healed a man who had been unable to walk from birth and then had openly preached to the people in Solomon’s colonnade.

Angering the religious leaders, Peter and John we arrested and then the next day were questioned and threatened by the Sanhedrin.

Though many had come to faith in Christ at this point, the Gospel message wasn’t well recieved by the people in charge in Jerusalem.

These Christians, meeting in house somewhere in Jerusalem, were facing a hard and painful road ahead if they chose to follow Jesus and be bold for Christ.

Just one chapter later, Peter and the other apostles were arrested again and put on trial.

Not long after, Stephen, one of the first deacons of the church was stoned to death after publicly preaching the Gospel.

Much was at stake for them being bold for Christ in their world.

Much the same for us.

Though we might not face the same trials, there is a risk in being bold for Christ in our world.

But there is a second reality to their situation that I think we can overlook, but is significant and relevant for us.

They were experiencing amazing growth and seeing people trust Christ in huge numbers.

3000 souls in the first church gathering and more being added every day and they were still praying.

We baptized 19 last year and yet we don't need to sit back and rest, but lean in and pray boldly.

We weren't even intentionally praying last year.

We honestly didn't believe God could do something like that after COVID.

But what if we pray?!?

Not that it is a magic bullet, but rather it is us joining the mission God is already working.

3) What did they pray for?

It might be more profound for us to consider what the DIDN’T pray for before we consider what they did pray for.

They didn’t pray for protection or deliverance, for good healthy or prosperity.

There was a threat to their freedom, a real threat to their lives.

But they didn’t ask God to deliver them from the threat, to give them a new mission.

No, they asked for boldness

And they asked for boldness because of the confident assurance they had in the God they were praying to.

John Piper points out that 5/7s of their prayer was telling God who He is.

Not that God needed to be told, but they needed to remind themselves and claim the Character of God in that moment.

They understood who God was as their master, their creator, their Savior, and the one who can and will do “whatever you hand and your will predestined to take place.”

They understood Him to be “Lord and Savior”, the only hope of a lost and dying world.

And with the confidence and strength they gained from those truths, they prayed for BOLDNESS to speak the Word.

Acts 4:29–30 CSB

29 And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

In the face of these threats, these believers asked for God to MAKE THEM BOLD and to use them to make the name of Christ known.

There are 24000 people in this county, many of which do not know Christ as Lord.

There are 2000 students in our middle and high schools, many of which do not know Christ.

There are thousands of kids in our elementary schools, many of which do not know Christ.

And we are smack-dab in the middle of all of them.

Will we pray for BOLDNESS?

4) What was the result of their prayers?

Acts 4:31 CSB

31 When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

Much like back in Acts 2 when the Spirit of the Lord came into the people like a rushing wind, God shook the very foundation of the place they were meeting.

I believe this was a real, physical event that happened, not just figurative words like we some times use.

I believe the the ground shook under the believers, showing them that God was hearing their prayers.

And foreshadowing what He was going to do with those present in that room.

The “filling of the Spirit” wasn’t a new filling, as if the Spirit had left them and was coming back.

It was a fresh movement of the Spirit on the people.

And that is what we are praying for.

The physical building was shook and the world they lived in was transformed.

Philip might have been in that room

Peter and John were.

James, who was one of the first martyrs of the church.

Barnabas who later mentors Paul.

Stephen, who within in weeks or even days will be stoned to death for preaching Jesus.

And loads of other no name people who God used to shake the world for himself.

It can happen here, it has before...

The Businessmen’s Revival

On September 23rd, 1857 at noon, Jeremiah Lanphier sat down to pray in the room he had reserved for a prayer meeting.

He had made up small invitation cards and passed them out to businessmen around his community in New York City.

Jeremiah had been hired by the Dutch Reformed church as a local missionary to help the church reach their neighborhood through visitation ministry.

He had been knocking on doors, meeting with individuals, and even trying to connect with businesses in order to reach people and get them to church, but he wasn’t having much impact.

His personal times of prayer had been helpful and strengthening, so Lanphier decided to invite others to join him for their lunch hour for prayer. As long or as short as they wanted.

So on September 23rd, at noon, Lanphier sat down in the 3rd floor room of the North Dutch Reformed Church to pray and was by himself until, finally, at 12:30, one man joined him to pray.

By the end of the hour, 6 others had joined Lanphier.

The following Wednesday, 20 men came to pray, and by mid-October they had outgrown the 3rd floor room.

After several weeks, the meetings moved from once a week to daily, and the numbers of attenders continued to grow.

They would gather at noon, begin with 3-5 verses of a hymn, an opening prayer and passage of Scripture, and then the floor was opened for prayer requests.

No more the 5 minutes per person, only 2 requests or exhortations should be made, and nothing controversial was to be discussed.

5 minutes before 1:00, a closing hymn was sung and a pastor would close with a benediction.

Other meetings, like the Fulton Street one, started popping up around the city and in other cities in New England.

By April 2nd, 1858 it is estimated that 10,000 people were praying daily at one of these meetings.

Before long, the revival started to reach the upper midwest, with more that 2000 meeting daily in the Metropolitan Theater in Chicago.

One story that stuck out to me: An older pastor got up to pray for the son of another clergyman. Unknown to him, his own son was sitting some distance behind him. The young man, knowing himself to be a sinner, was so impressed at hearing his father pray for another man’s son that he made himself known to the meeting and said he wanted to give his heart to God. He became a regular attender at the prayer meeting.

At the peak, it is said the 50,000 people a day were coming to faith in Christ.

Over the course of 2 years, it is estimated that 1 million people came to faith through the prayer meetings that started September 23rd, 1857.

That accounts for 1/3 of the total population of the United States at the time, and all in a 2 year period of time.

The Lord used 1 man’s commitment to pray to spark one of the greatest movements of the Gospel in history.

What could He do through a church like our committed to Pray.

It began with prayer, brothers and sisters. And that is what we are committing to these next 44ish days.

Next week we are having our first of 2 Prayer and Praise nights where we will pray for boldness and declare the power and glory of our good God.

But I want to challenge us today, right now, to pray...

Pray for BOLDNESS Pray for courage Pray for that person on your wrist Pray for all 50 people Pray for your brothers and sisters around you right now. Pray for some in this room who have not trusted Christ.

For you who have not yet trusted in Christ, pray to God to save you.

Romans 10:8–9 (CSB)

8 The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim:

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.