The Priority of Corporate Prayer

Introduction

-Part of my aim tonight is to persuade you that the Wednesday night prayer meeting is not to be the worst attended service we have, but it ought to be one of the best attended services we have. Some people got mad when we started to have extra prayer time added in at the end. But that is what Prayer Meetings are supposed to be for: PRAYER.

-Another added on aim and prayer of mine is that you will determine to take one step forward in your participation and confidence in prayer, not just as an individual, but with other believers, gathered together with the purpose of seeing God's glory manifested.

-But I bring this issue of corporate prayer to you for several reasons:

1) Corporate prayer is a priority in a healthy church. If Boulevard is going to be healthy, corporate prayer has to be a part of it.

2) Praying together is a vital key to opening God's presence and work among His people in unique ways.

3) There is a tendency among believers, even among those who occupy leadership positions in the church, to think of prayer gatherings as the extra-curricular activity in the life of the church. People treat is as something that is good to have, but not important enough to join; something you briefly tack on to a meeting before you get down to the real business. There are a growing number of believers who view prayer meetings as optional or secondary.

-I want to convince you that God has sovereignly ordained the corporate praying of a church, such that His mighty workings increase exponentially and His purposes are accelerated when we pray together. Understand that this message is not given to minimize personal prayer. Instead, it is to show you that personal prayer alone will not result in the working of God to the degree needed for spiritual transformation in our lives, our church, our cities, and our nation.

-Using an outline by Lloyd Stilley I want to give you five proofs from the Word and world history that establish the desperate need for all who are believers to become a part of the prayer gatherings.

Acts 6:1–7 ESV

1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

I) Praying together was a priority for the apostles

-Last week we read Acts 4, and after they were released from the custody of the Sanhedrin, they went to the church body to tell them everything that went on, and what was the first thing they did together as a church body? THEY HAD A POTLUCK! NO! They prayed together.

-And now consider the passage that I just read. We all know that ministry is important. Being a blessing to others is a great way of showing the love of God. But the apostles said that it is not right for them to wait tables when there are two important ministries for church leaders: THE PREACHING OF GOD’S WORD and the DEDICATION OF THEMSELVES TO PRAYER.

-Some commentators believe that 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.

-And this seems to be within the context of the rest of the book. The example of the apostles in Acts point to the fact that they held praying together as a great priority in their lives and ministries. 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.

-So by testimony and by example, it is plain that the apostles placed a high premium 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. This is a great conviction to me as a leader. Prayer is as important as preaching.

-Secondly I want you to consider that:

II) Praying together was modeled and practiced by Christ

-The apostles learned their leadership patterns from the Master, Jesus Christ. Look through the Gospels for Jesus' teaching and practice of prayer, and you will identify about 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.

-Or even think about the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus is teaching His disciples to pray. It begins OUR FATHER, not MY FATHER.

-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.

III) Corporate Prayer is emphasized throughout the New Testament

-Even just considering that book of Acts, you notice that it records many mighty works of God for His church and through His church, and these mighty acts are clearly connected to unified, corporate prayer.

-I mean, think about the many works found in Acts:

~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).

~Paul and Silas were praying when God sent an earthquake that resulted in the conversion of the jailer and their release (Acts 16:25).

-Again, let me say that I am not disparaging personal, private prayer. Ananias was praying alone when God instructed him to go to Saul (Acts 9:10ff.). 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.). Nevertheless, the majority of God's recorded workings came when His people prayed together.

IV) Consider how God has worked through corporate prayer in the history of the church

-There are so many examples of how corporate prayer was the springboard for the sweeping movements of God. Let me mention a few. In 1857, America was riding the wave of a strong economy, and, as tends to be true in times of prosperity, showed a radical decrease of interest in the things of God. There was a layman named Jeremiah Lamphier whose concern led to a call for prayer. He tacked up notices in NYC calling for a weekly prayer meeting on Wednesdays from noon till one at a rented space on Fulton Street.

-The first prayer meeting was on September 23, 1857. Only six people came, and they didn't arrive until just before 12:30. The next week, the attendance jumped to 20. The numbers continued to climb week-by-week.

-Then, on October 10th, the Stock Market crashed and financial panic ensued. Trouble had its humbling affect and the hearts of many turned to spiritual matters. It wasn't long until somewhere between 10 and 50,000 businessmen were meeting every day in NYC to pray at noon. By week 15, the meetings moved from weekly to daily.

-In 1858, this prayer movement leaped to every major city in America. Some call this the Great Prayer Awakening, others consider it the Third Great Awakening. Estimates are that a million Americans out of a population of 30 million at that time were converted in less than two years. And it all started with prayer.

-Another story is told about how Rees Howells, a Welsh coal miner, journeyed to South Africa as a missionary in 1910 in response to an increasing burden from the Lord. Six weeks after arriving, he joined in a prayer meeting. Out of that came the sweeping work of the Holy Spirit in which they had two revival meetings a day for fifteen months and all day on Friday. Thousands were converted as a result.

-But after having considered Scripture and History, I want you to leave tonight knowing:

V) Corporate Prayer still leads to God working today

-I read this and it blew my mind. I have always thought that spiritual things and the spread of the gospel are slowing down, but according to statistics the gospel is actually sweeping the globe at a rate that is incredible. An IMB report says that statistically, most of the people who have ever been saved in history were saved during the 20th Century. A VP from the IMB suggested as high as 70 percent of the total number of people who have been saved throughout world history have come to Christ in the last hundred years.

-But get this: 70 percent of that number has been saved since 1945! And it is believed that 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!

-What does that look like? In Nepal, just 2000 Christians were known in 1990; ten years later that number had grown to half a million. Cambodia claimed only 600 believers in 1990; there is a reported 60,000 today. In Korea during the 20th Century, the country advanced from being 2 percent Christian to about 40 percent Christian today. East Africa is experiencing one of the greatest movements of God in history. In Uganda alone, HIV/AIDS once claimed the lives of one-third of the population. The World Health Organization predicted the complete collapse of the Ugandan economy by the year 2000.

-But revival has come to that country. With the salvation of many has come a transformation in morals, so that AIDS is down to 5 percent. So great is this revival that one church alone went from 7 in attendance to an average of 2000 in just two weeks! Currently, that same church as a membership of 22,000 and has planted 150 other churches.

-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 Eastern Africa, and you will find behind the scenes prayer meetings.

-And what is happening in the places of the world where the gospel is not advancing. There is not a great prayer movement.

Conclusion

-And I am going to end with that hanging over our heads, hopefully convicting us. The altar will be open for prayer.

-And I will be here, if you have never trusted in Jesus Christ by faith and repentance, tonight is the time to do so.