Prayer

Acts 2:42

In our village there have been loads of new apartment blocks being built. And when the builders  first start work it seems like all they do, for weeks on end, is dig massive holes in the ground, and it seems like there’s nothing happening for days on end except digging. But then, almost overnight, the building starts shooting up. 

And you don’t need to be an architect or an engineer to know what all that digging was about, do you, because if you want a building to stand, it needs some serious foundations.

And being a Christian is no different. And when someone quits the faith, or runs off after some dodgy doctrine, or falls into some moral failure, and you think, ‘what happened there?’ Often times, not always, but often, what’s happened is a failure of the foundations. And so, alongside our series on the Life of David, we’ve been running a series on those things that need to be well laid in our lives if we’re to stand as Christians.

And back in October David kicked us off by looking at our goal - which is Christian maturity. Then in November Mike took us to the early church, and how they devoted themselves to the word of God. This morning, I want us to see something else they devoted themselves to.

Acts 2:42, ‘And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.’ 

And whilst it’s not next on that list, this morning we’re going to look at prayer.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the famous British preacher, once said that he had never written on the subject of prayer because he felt this sense of personal inadequacy in the area. And don’t you know what he feels like? And yet, it’s precisely because I reckon that all of us, including me, need to grow in prayer that I want us to begin 2019 by looking at it.

You see, if you read the book of Acts, this history of the early church, you’ll know that Luke’s not exaggerating when he says they devoted themselves to prayer. Because, what you discover is that, as a community, they prayed.

And that’s both challenging and encouraging. It’s challenging because there are so many other things that want you to devote your time to them, aren’t there? I mean, imagine Prayer is a friend, and Prayer comes and says to you, ‘hey, how about we hang out together?’ But, no sooner has friend Prayer asked for your time, than Work comes along and says - ‘ah, before you spend too much time with friend Prayer, there’s this project I need you to devote some attention to’. And then friend Exercise taps you on the shoulder - ‘er, if I’m not mistaken you’ve put on some weight over the holiday period, I think we need to spend some time together. And, sure, friend Work needs some time, but you need to watch your health, and friend Prayer can always wait, so spend some time with me.’ And friend Prayer is left standing looking like less like a friend and more like Billy No-mates.

So, their devotion to prayer’s a challenge because you have so little time. But so is the fact that you’re so competent. I mean if prayer’s about asking God to fix your problems, frankly, you don’t really need God’s help, do you? You’re bright, you’re able, and if prayer’s about God fixing stuff, then, frankly, you’d be quicker doing it yourself, wouldn’t you?

But what if prayer wasn’t just about problem solving?

What if prayer was about deepening your relationship with the One who knows you better than you know yourself. What if it was about you finding a joy deeper than you could ever put into words, and a peace that you couldn’t properly explain, regardless of your circumstances, in the presence of the God of the Universe who you call, ‘Father’? What if prayer was about you daily hearing him speaking to you through his word? What if prayer was about you growing in the fruit of the Spirit,  and the character of Jesus, and as a result your inner life being happier, and that happiness spilling over into the lives of those closest to you? What if prayer was about you becoming the man or woman God has created you to be and you living your life for his kingdom and his glory, rather than for pale imitations of that glory?

And as for problem solving, what if prayer gave you unique access to the one who loves you and has the power to bring your best about, and yet is willing to say ‘no’ when you need it?

Then, don’t we all want to grow in prayer? And if you’re not yet a Christian, but you find yourself praying at times, isn’t this the deeper, richer inner life you’re really looking for?

And yet, if the early church’s devotion to prayer is challenging, it’s also encouraging, because they were just ordinary people, and if they did this, so can we. 

So, while we can only begin to scratch the surface of this this morning, I want to start by asking the question: why? Why did they devote themselves to prayer?

Their Example, Our Example

Before Christmas, one of my girls and I went shopping together - and despite the fact that we both hate shopping, we had a great hour-and-a-half together. And you might hear that and think, ‘so what? You’re dad and daughter, of course you’ll enjoy spending time together.’ But on the other hand, and especially if you’re a Dad with daughters, you might think, ‘wow, you enjoyed time together, whilst shopping, that’s amazing!’

And when you look at the life of Jesus, and see how he prayed, you can think the same. On the one hand you can watch Jesus pray, and think, ‘so what? He’s the son of God, you’d expect him to pray to his Father.’ But on the other, ‘hang on a minute, the Son of God, who enjoyed a perfect, uninterrupted relationship with God his Father, with no sins to confess, and nothing to prove, prayed? And prayed for hours on end?’ 

Luke 3:21-22: ‘When Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him… and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”’ So… when Jesus was filled with the Spirit, and heard God speak words of love over him - what was he doing? He was praying. And repeatedly, we see him take himself off, alone, to pray. The crowds want to make him king - and instead, Matt 14:23, ‘he went up on the mountainside by himself to pray.’ And that would be like us taking ourselves away from the buzz of social media, where everyone says you’re wonderful, or from the applause of a work project going well, and He deliberately gets himself away from the clamour of fame and popularity, and prays. It’s as if he knows that he needs to hear the voice of his Father, and what his Father says about him, above the voice of the crowds.

And Mark - who’s writing from Peter’s memory - tells us how Jesus would get himself out of bed: Mark 1:35, ‘And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.’ Now, our choices always tell us what we most value, don’t they? And so when Peter watched Jesus head out the door, and choose being surrounded by his Father’s presence in prayer, rather than by his duvet, Peter understood what Jesus was valuing: that there was more gain on a hillside praying than staying in the comfort of bed.

And at key moments in his life you find Jesus praying. The night before he appoints the 12 disciples, what does he do? These are the guys he’s going to entrust his world-upending mission to, and he’s got to get this right, hasn’t he? So does he spend the night reading books on leadership? Or reach out to John the Baptist? ‘Hey John, who would you pick if you were in my shoes?’ Luke 6:12-13, ‘He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve.’ It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? We would think, he’s so close to God he’d only have to start praying and he’d have the answer in less than 5 minutes - but Jesus spends hours, alone, in the darkness, seeking his Father’s direction.

And if he was praying when the Spirit filled him and the Father spoke to him, guess what he was doing when he was transfigured? Luke 9:28-9: ‘He… went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.’ It’s as if it was when he was praying that the real Jesus shone through. And prayer has that power, doesn’t it? The power to reveal who we really are. Jesus prayed and was revealed as the glorious Son of God, you and I pray and we discover we’re broken and needy, and yet dearly loved.

But if he prayed before crucial decisions, and major life events, think how he prayed during suffering. He knows he is going to be handed over to death - so, he goes to the garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 26:36, ‘and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”’ And he prayed - ‘My Father….” And on the cross, as the weight of our sin falls upon him, he prays: ‘Father forgive them; My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ You know, one of the dangers of when life is not going the way we want is that we withdraw into ourselves and stop praying. But for Jesus, when the darkness came down, the disciples heard him praying, ‘Father…’  

When Naomi, our eldest, was about 4 she came into the bathroom one morning whilst I was shaving, pulled up a stool, smeared her face with shaving foam and tried to shave with a toothbrush. And one of the scary things about parenting is that your kids copy you. But that’s why these early Christians devoted themselves to prayer, isn’t it? They had seen Jesus do it.

So, how did they do it?

From Imitation to Practice

Look again at Acts 2:42, ‘they devoted themselves to… the prayers.’ And maybe Luke means they devoted themselves to prayer, generally. Except… the Temple where they were meeting had regular, set-times of prayer punctuating the working day. Which is why, hundreds of years before, when Daniel was in exile in Babylon, he would go to his house, Daniel 6:10, ‘where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed’ - to stay in sync with the Temple routine, even at the cost of his personal freedom and, potentially, his life.

On Su’s Christmas wish-list this year she wrote, ‘please repair the guttering on the garden shed, because rain’s getting in, and I asked for it to be done last year but, strangely, the guttering is still hanging off.’ And that’s despite me saying, on numerous occasions, ‘yes, of course I’ll mend it, darling.’ The problem is, there’s this subtle difference between saying I’ll do it, and actually doing it. And at the start of a new year we could say, ‘I’m going to devote myself to prayer’, but never get down to it. But by committing themselves to regular times of prayer - morning, noon and night - Daniel, and these guys, managed to make it a part of their daily routine. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve had the same experience. Hope that I’ll find time in the day to pray, and I never get to it; make time in the day, by setting the alarm earlier, or by taking a short break in the day and it happens. 

And yet, it was never just routine for them, was it? It wasn’t formulaic. Some of them had watched the Spirit come and fill Jesus at his baptism, as he was praying. And as they gave themselves to prayer, in the days leading up to the first Pentecost, prayer became the doorway to their own experience of the infilling of the Spirit: Acts 1:14, ‘All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer’. And when the Samaritans became Christians, it was by the apostles praying for them in Acts 8 that the Spirit came on them. So, far from prayer being staid, or formulaic, it became the means of them experiencing more of the Spirit’s power in their lives and the launchpad that sent them out into the world, empowered by the Spirit.

But they’d also seen Jesus praying before important decisions. So, before appointing a replacement for Judas, and as they appointed the seven deacons to serve, Luke tells us twice, ‘they prayed’ (1:24; 6:6). And at the church in Antioch, when they were led by the Spirit to set aside Barnabas and Paul as missionaries, they didn’t just go, ‘o well, the Spirit’s spoken, let’s just buy them their plane tickets and pack ’em off!’  Luke tells us instead that, ‘after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.’ (13:3)

And Peter had seen Jesus gloriously, physically changed whilst praying - so he understood that prayer was the means God uses to let his transforming power loose. So when he found himself beside the bedside of Tabitha, who had died, where’s he going to find the power to see life changing physical power in her life? Because he knows it’s not in himself. Instead, Luke tells us, Peter ‘knelt down and prayed… And she opened her eyes.’  (Acts 9:40). You see, he understood that prayer was about something much more powerful than me feeling better about myself. It was, and is, the channel for God’s transforming power to come and meet our needs.

But, just as with Jesus, it was also what carried them through the dark days. Only weeks after Christ’s crucifixion, Peter and John were threatened by the same council that had executed Jesus. And in response, they prayed. But it’s not so much that they prayed that’s extraordinary, but what they prayed. Because, it wasn’t for protection, or that God would crush their enemies, instead they pray, ‘Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal.’ (Acts 4:29-30). No self-pity, no plea for comfort. They had seen Jesus pray and then endure the cross, and they ask God for that same courage. So, when Peter was in prison, and under threat of death, the church prayed. When Paul and Silas were in prison in Philippi, they prayed. And in both situations, God opened prison doors and broke their chains - because prayer is our access to the One with the power to do just that.

 So, if Jesus prayed, and they prayed, how can we do the same?

Starting to Pray

When you organise your health insurance, the company always tries to entice you to buy a bit more cover, doesn’t it? Pay just a bit more and you can be covered for the ‘soaking in thermal baths and having snail slime rubbed on you alternative medicine’ extra . But prayer isn’t like that, is it? It’s not an add on to the Christian life that you and I can opt in or out of. It’s basic. We might even say its crucial to our survival - or at least to our health.

Listen to what CS Lewis wrote: ‘It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day.’ In other words, to really thrive as Christians, we need to be letting the life of God flow into our hearts, throughout the day, against the tide of all the other stuff.

Which is why the New Testament repeatedly encourages us, pray continually. 1 Thess 5:17-18, ‘Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.’ Often, we want to know, ‘what’s God’s will for my life? What I should be doing with my life?’ And Paul’s response is, you need to become a person of prayer - that’s what God wants for you.

And Jesus has made it possible for us to do just that. Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the garden, like you would with a friend. But as soon as they choose something other than God as the centre of their lives, that relationship began to die. And instead of walking and talking, God finds them hiding, and avoiding. And yet it was to restore that broken relationship that Jesus came. He came to make it possible for you, once again, throughout the day, to enjoy and experience the intimacy and the awe of God’s presence. As Hebrews says, because of Jesus we can ‘with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Heb 4:16). That through Jesus you and I can approach the throne of the universe. 

And what you discover is that the king sat upon the throne is your heavenly Father, who loves you. You see, Paul tells us that because of Jesus you’re a son or a daughter of God, and ‘God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba [daddy], Father.”’ (Gal 4:6). That the Holy Spirit who filled Jesus, and filled the first disciples, now fills you. And he’s the Spirit, not of hiding and avoiding, but adoption. That you can approach God with the same confidence Jesus did. Romans 8:15-16, ‘You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.’ In other words, the same Spirit who came on Christ at his baptism, when he heard God the Father say, ‘you are my beloved son’, now tells you, deep on the inside, ‘God loves you, you’re his child, you can come.’ And so prayer isn’t something else you’ve got to do, another discipline to burden you; prayer is the means for living life as you were always designed to live it, in intimate, awe-filled relationship with God your Father.

But how can you move from prayer being something you should do to something you want to do? From being a duty to a delight?

Look at 2 Corinthians 3: ‘We all… beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit’ (2 Cor 3:18). You see, as we allow God to speak to us through his word, and behold Christ and see him and savour him, we become more like him. And because he prayed, and in response to his speaking into our hearts, we’ll begin to find our voice in prayer. That as we begin to spend time in his presence, and cultivate his presence throughout the day, thanking him, worshipping him, bringing our requests to him, so our desire to pray will also grow.

And so, in closing, I want to make this really practical for anyone who feels stuck and just wants to make a start. The disciples watched Jesus pray, and they came to him and asked him, Lord, please, teach us to pray. And I suspect that many of us could echo their prayer. Lord, I know I should pray. More than that I want to pray, or at least I want to want to pray. I want the duty to become a delight. Lord, please teach me.’

And in response, Jesus taught them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. And there are multiple helps out there to aide us in praying, and some of them are great, like ACTS: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. And you use that as a framework for your prayers. And if that works for you, that’s wonderful. But using the Lord’s Prayer has probably been the single most helpful thing in my own praying, because it starts the engine of my heart and gets it turning. And that’s exactly why Jesus it taught it in the first place. And I take each sentence in turn, and pray it, but then expand on it. So, for example, 'Our Father in heaven’ becomes, ‘Our Father in heaven, thank you that you’re my father. That you’re Su’s and the girls’ and Lukas’ father. Thank you that you love me, thank you that though I am so unworthy you have adopted me as your son, thank you for your Son Jesus who makes all of this possible. And you’re in heaven, and I’m on earth. And so you see things from heaven that I can never see. So help me to trust you today that you will not let anything happen to me without a loving fatherly purpose.’

And then I make my way through the prayer, expanding each line more or less. And it keeps on bringing me back to God as my father, and that life is about him and knowing him and delighting in him and not me; and it brings me daily to confession of my sin and forgiveness of others, so I don’t fall in the pit of pride or of bitterness;  and it reminds me that he provides for my needs and not my greed and on and on.

And so, Jesus devoted himself to prayer; and these disciples saw it, and did the same. And Jesus has made it possible for us to do the same. So, let us draw near and daily experience the closeness to God they experienced. I doubt any of us will ever regret doing so.