The book of Acts is essentially a description of the early church after the ascension of Jesus. As I write this, our church is approximately one quarter of the way through our sermon series on the book of Acts. So far, we have looked at how the church in Jerusalem was established, and next we will begin to look at the way persecution caused the church to expand out to the surrounding areas. While the book of Acts is not a how-to manual on starting a church, it does provide rich examples (both positive and negative) of early church life and practice. Studying the book of Acts can help us discover the kind of church that Jesus wants us to be.
As I have been reading the book of Acts, one thing that really stands out as a theme is prayer. God established his early church in Jerusalem through the faithful practice of prayer. Commentator Ajith Fernando notes, “fourteen of the first fifteen chapters of Acts (ch. 5 excepted) and many of the later chapters mention prayer; in Acts, as in Luke’s Gospel, prayer is a key theme.” It could be said that there are more references to prayer in the book of Acts than any other book of the Bible.
In the book of Acts we see the believers: praying before choosing leaders (Acts 1:24), praying for boldness after they’ve been persecuted (Acts 4:24-30), and praying for healing (Acts 9:40). We see men and women praying together (Acts 1:14) and leaders who pray regularly (Acts 3:1). In the story of Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10), we see people hearing directly from God through prayer. I could list many other examples, and I’m only focusing on the first 10 chapters here. The early church was established through devotion to prayer, which inevitably leads to the question:
Are we devoted to prayer?
God’s Power at Work
This is a convicting thought for me. I might say that I’m devoted to my calendar, I have a faithful practice of making to-do lists, I am constant in problem-solving, and I continue steadfastly in self-reliance. I’m not a natural prayer warrior, and if you are anything like me, then we are both going to have to fight for this. God is calling us to be devoted to the faithful practice of prayer. When I am tempted to think only of all the things I have to do in a day and how I will get it all done, I must remember to pray. I am fooled into thinking I am strong and capable of doing so much, when the truth is that my self-reliant failure to pray is actually a sign of sinful weakness. John Piper has said, “God acts when we pray and often does more in seconds than we could do in hours or weeks or sometimes years.” Think of the acts God accomplished through the Jerusalem church. Leaders were installed, people were healed, thousands came to faith in Jesus as the Messiah, and acts of service were accomplished—all through the prayers of the church.
Knowing Our Need
I think the early church in the book of Acts had a better sense of their need than we often do, and this is why it may have been easier for them to make prayer a priority. They were being persecuted, and their numbers were growing faster than they could keep up with. The extent of their need was clear, and they believed that God was able to supply those needs. Some of you have an inner sense of just how desperately helpless we humans are and how infinitely rich God is. If this is you, you may already find yourself more inclined toward prayer, and the modern church needs you! God does not need all our efforts to do things for him. He is glorified by our prayers which acknowledge that he and he alone can advance his kingdom and accomplish his purposes.
Prayer First
As a church, Sound City seeks to serve those in need and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus to a lost and hurting world, the very things we see the believers in the book of Acts doing. In our modern context, it can be easy to forget just how completely we rely on God to make these things happen. It is great news that the church is not dependent on us. It frees us to seek God in prayer and to serve the church faithfully without bearing the weight of responsibility for the outcome. Jesus says that he will build his church!
As we continue to walk verse-by-verse through the book of Acts, it is my hope that we will be able to borrow from the urgency of the early Jerusalem church, that their dependency would help us to be reminded of our dependency, and that through persistent prayer we would be able to impact our region.