Prayers for Desperate Times—The Early Church’s Prayer”

Acts 4:23-31 February 22, 2009

SI: When do you pray the most?

When things are going well, or when times are desperate?

And when do you pray with deepest feeling and greatest sense of urgency?

It’s when you are in a crisis.

It’s when the things that seem solid are shaken.

And you know that unless God steps in, there is no hope.

Peter and John had been arrested by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council.

The Sanhedrin was angry that they had been preaching about Jesus.

Saying he had risen from the dead and that he was the Messiah.

They knew this would undermine their authority so they threatened Peter and John.

Warned them not to preach any more about Jesus.

Then they let them go.

Peter and John went to where the believers were gathered, told them

what had happened, how they had been threatened.

These Christians understood that this was not an empty threat.

This was the opening shot by the Sanhedrin to destroy the church.

So they prayed. Let’s look at their prayer.

INTRO: I’ve told you before the story of Dr. Robert Rayburn’s experience

as an army chaplain during the Korean War. He volunteered at the last minute

to go with a company of paratroopers behind enemy lines when their regular

chaplain was unable to go on the mission.

Dr. Rayburn had never jumped out of an airplane and on the way to the drop zone

he started looking at the grim faces of the men on board and he became terrified.

He started shaking and trembling and he realized that he could not go ahead

with the jump and that he was going to leave these men without a chaplain.

So he prayed. And as he prayed the words of the 23^rd Psalm came to him:

“I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”

He was struck by the thought that Jesus was with him in that airplane,

and would be with him when he jumped.

That filled him with such relief that he put his head down and went to sleep.

He slept so soundly, that he had to be shaken awake when it was time to jump.

He was afraid of his circumstances. He prayed.

And the Lord didn’t change his circumstances, he changed him.

Instead of being afraid, he was courageous.

Instead of being worried he was calm.

For weeks after that, soldiers would ask to him:

Chaplain Rayburn, how could you sleep on the way to that jump?

And he said: “I had a chance to tell them about a Savior whose presence is so real, and whose

promises are so sure that He can give perfect peace in the worst kind of circumstances.”

One thing that has surprised me about the prayers we’ve studied over the past

weeks is how prayer changes us.

When I planned this sermon series and picked these nine different stories

and made some preliminary notes, I missed this. But it’s huge.

Think of the believers we’ve studied who were

changed by prayer—Jacob, Elijah, Hannah, Hezekiah.

They were fearful, despondent, grieving, and angry over circumstances—

and they prayed and they were changed.

And the change in them happened even before God dealt with the situation.

Now we come to the final prayer—this awesome prayer of the early church—

and here is this theme spelled out so clearly.

Boldness. That’s what they prayed for more than anything else.

Change us, Lord. Make us even more courageous and faithful.

They prayed for that even more than they prayed for him to change the situation.

And he answered them and they were changed.

How do you pray in desperate times?

How do you pray when things are shaken?

How do you pray when your life becomes unraveled and uncertain?

You need to pray in such a way that you will be changed.

This story shows us what that prayer should look like.

Three points stand out.

In order to be changed by prayer you must

1. Affirm great things about God.

2. Ask great things of God.

3. Expect great things from God.

Let’s look at each and apply them to ourselves.

MP#1 In order to be changed by prayer—

you must affirm great things about God.

When these believers heard from Peter and John, they began to pray.

But they didn’t start by saying: Lord, gimme, gimmie, gimmie!

They affirmed great things about God.

First, they affirmed his sovereignty over all thing.

They called him “Sovereign Lord.”

This is a very unusual title for God, used only twice in the New Testament.

But it’s used a number of times in the Greek version of the Old Testament,

especially in the book of Daniel.

Even if you’ve never had Greek, you would be able to figure out this word.

It’s δέσποτα. Where we get the English word, despot.

Despot is a negative word in English. It’s a cruel dictator.

But in Greek it was a neutral word that meant sovereign lord or king.

What is interesting is that these believers intentionally chose this unusual

way of addressing God. They reached back into the Old Testament,

back into Daniel, and chose a title for God that spoke of his absolute control.

And then they addressed him Creator:

You made all things—heaven and earth and seas and all that is in them.

So they began their prayer by affirming that God made everything

and he rules over everything. Nothing is outside of his hand.

But these believers didn’t stop with God’s sovereignty over all things.

They zeroed in on his sovereignty over one thing—

the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

They said Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Romans and the Jews conspired

against Jesus and crucified him. But in crucifying Jesus they were doing

what your sovereign will had decided beforehand should happen.

They were fulfilling your predestined plan for our salvation.

And they quoted Psalm 2 in their prayer.

Because Psalm 2 was a prophecy that men and authorities would rise up

against Christ but he would be victorious.

This prophecy shows that God was not surprised by the crucifixion.

He planned it for his glory and our good.

This is huge. And if you don’t get anything else from this sermon, take this home.

If God was sovereign over the crucifixion of his Son,

if those who crucified Jesus in hatred, fulfilled the secret plan of God,

then you can have utter confidence that your suffering has meaning too.

Whatever you are going through—

Whether it is caused by the sins of other people against you,

or whether it is caused by your own sinful choices,

or if it’s caused life in a fallen world—

It is also part of your Sovereign Lord’s predestined plan

for his glory and your good.

And if you ever doubt that, you can look at the cross.

In the cross you see the cruelty and sinfulness of mankind at its worst—

and yet before it and underneath it and overseeing it is the Sovereign Lord,

who planned it and used it to bring salvation to the world.

Here’s the practical application:

When you pray in desperate times, don’t start by saying gimme, gimme, gimme!

Don’t start by telling God your problems and how worried or desperate you are.

If you start your prayer that way, will probably be just as worried

and upset as you were before you started praying.

Instead, start by affirming great things about the Lord.

You can use words of this prayer.

Or you could use the prayer of Hezekiah in Isaiah 37, studied a few weeks ago.

Or Nehemiah’s prayer. Or Jehoshaphat’s.

They all understood this spiritual truth.

They were facing huge problems but they began by affirming great things

about God and that changed them.

The old Scottish pastor Alexander Whyte said this about prayer:

“First of all, think magnificently of God. Magnify His providence; adore His power . . . Consider the heavens, the work of his fingers . . . consider Jesus Christ, the express image of His person . . . consider a past eternity and a coming eternity and the revelation of that which is made to us in the Word of God and in the hearts of his people . . . Once you begin to think aright of Him who is the Hearer of prayer and Who waits, in all His magnificence to be gracious to you—I absolutely defy you to live any longer the life you now live”

If you affirm great things about God in prayer, you will be changed.

MP#2 In order to be changed by prayer—

you must ask great things of God.

We’ve seen over and over in these Bible stories about prayer,

that when believers ask God for great things, they are changed—

they become more calm and confident and content.

What great things should we ask the Lord for?

Anything that brings him glory and advances his kingdom.

Before we look at this prayer,

let me remind you some prayers we’ve already studied.

What did Hannah ask God for? She asked him for a son. She was barren.

But why did she ask for a son? Not just to fill her emotional needs.

She wanted to spread God’s word in Israel.

She wanted a son so he could serve as a priest in a time of spiritual decay.

And do you remember how Hannah was changed after she asked this great

thing of God? She got up and ate and was no longer downcast.

This great thing she asked for lifted her spirits.

What great thing did Hezekiah ask for?

For Jerusalem to be delivered from the Assyrian army.

But why did Hezekiah ask for this? Not just to save his throne.

King Sennacherib had sent a threatening letter, mocking Israel’s faith in the Lord.

Hezekiah wanted the Israel’s faith to be vindicated and the Lord to be honored.

And do you remember how Hezekiah was changed after he asked this great

thing of God? He had gone into the Temple greatly troubled, Sennacherib’s

letter in his hand. He left the Temple in confidence

Now, what did these believers in ask for?

Asked for boldness. Asked for faithful courage.

That they would stand for Jesus no matter what happened.

They also asked God to consider the threats of the Sanhedrin.

But they did not tell God what to do about the situation, left it in his hands.

What happened when they asked the Lord for this great thing?

They were changed. They became even more confident and faithful.

Some of you know the story of major league pitcher Dave Dravecky.

Dravecky is a believer, very outspoken about his faith in Christ.

Back in the 80s he was diagnosed with cancer in his pitching arm.

He had to leave for treatment and then he made a highly publicized

return to the pitching mound and pitched some good games.

But his career ended when his bone snapped during a pitch—

later his arm was amputated.

He wrote a book about his experience called: When You Can’t Come Back.

He said this about prayer:

“In America, Christians pray for the burden of suffering to be lifted from their backs.

In the rest of the world, Christians pray for stronger backs so they can bear suffering.”

I don’t know if I agree with him that American Christians tend to pray

more this way than other Christians around world, but his point is well-made.

It’s a great thing to ask the Lord to be able to stand in his strength.

When ask for great things, you are changed.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t ask God for the little things you want.

If you want to ask God to help you find a parking place,

or ask him to help your child play a good ball game or to heal your cat, that’s ok!

He’s your heavenly Father. Father’s like to hear those things.

Don’t overanalyze your daily prayers.

That’s not what this story is about

and that’s not what this study on prayer is about.

We’re talking about prayers in desperate times.

How should you pray in the really big crises of life?

How should you pray when the foundations are being shaken?

Those are the times you really need to say:

I’m going to ask God for something great.

If you do, you will be changed.

Matthew Henry had this to say about the believer’s prayer, it’s a good summary:

“In threatening times, our care should not be so much that troubles may be prevented as that we may be enabled to go on with cheerfulness and resolution in our work and duty, whatever troubles we may meet with.”

Ask God for great things. Ask for grace to stand for him in desperate times.

MP#3 In order to be changed by prayer—

you must expect great things from God.

When I was in seminary in St. Louis,

we were at a Bible study in someone’s basement living room.

The Bible study was over and we had just bowed our heads to pray.

And in that quiet moment, there was a small earthquake.

And all of our eyes popped open, we looked at each other and said:

Did you feel that?!

You might not know it but St. Louis is just north of a fault line

called the New Madrid fault. So tremors in eastern MO aren’t uncommon.

What was the shaking that these believers in Acts experienced when they prayed?

Was it an earthquake? Was it thunder?

No, it was something much stronger—

it was a manifestation of the presence of God.

This happens a number of times in the Bible.

God comes down and shakes things to make his presence known

and to lead his people into new pathways of service and devotion.

Mt. Sinai shook when the Lord came down to meet with Moses and Israel.

It made such an impression that Israelites talked about it for generations.

Mt. Horeb shook when the Lord came down encourage Elijah.

And Elijah left the mountain with a renewed sense of calling.

The earth shook when Jonathan defeated the Philistines,

and ushered in a new day for Israel .

The earth shook when Paul and Silas in jail,

and it led to salvation of Philippian jailer.

And when the Lord came down and shook the house where these believers were

praying, it made them incredibly bold and ushered in a new season of fruitfulness.

Just take a concordance some time and look up the words shake, shook, shaken—

and you will see that they refer over and over to the presence of the Lord.

And the shaking sometimes serves two purposes:

It confounds God’s enemies.

Because the things they trust in, the things of this world that look so solid,

are shown to be shaky. And that fills them with despair.

But it fills God’s people with awe and renewed devotion.

Because the things that seemed so big and troubling,

shrink to practically nothing in the presence of the Lord.

This is the great thing should expect from God when you pray in desperate times.

Expect him to show up and shake things.

And in doing that he will give you such a big view of his power and love

that the other powers that intimidate you and the other loves that woo you

will shrink to practically nothing.

How does the Lord shake things today? He doesn’t do it with physical shaking,

like he did for Moses and Elijah and the Apostles.

Those were special miracles for special times in redemptive history.

So how does he do it? Look at the next sentence.

“And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.”

The Lord shakes things by his Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit comes and gives you a special vision of God’s power and love

to meet the challenge of the desperate time you find yourself in.

That’s what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

As a born again believer you have all the Holy Spirit all the time.

He’s a person, not a force. You can’t have part of a person.

But you can have a deeper intimacy with a person.

You can have a person draw close to you in times of trouble.

And that’s what you must expect and anticipate when you pray in desperate times—

for God come down and make himself known by filling you with the Holy Spirit.

Paul in Ephesians: “Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Why do you get drunk with wine?

Or whatever you drug of choice may be—work, TV, shopping, fantasy?

Because the troubles of life are overwhelming you, getting drunk helps you tune

those troubles out, it limits you vision so troubles don’t intrude for a time.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn’t limit your vision—lifts you vision.

It lifts into fellowship with the Lord so look down on problems and see that

they are tiny compared to the greatness of our God who shakes all things.

Why did Dr. Rayburn go from trembling fear to peaceful rest in that airplane?

Because he prayed and was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Saw that even the worst thing, death in battle, really a little thing with the Lord.

When you pray in desperate times, expect great things from God.

Expect to be filled with Holy Spirit.

That filling may come through words of Christian friend to encourage you.

Or through the words of your spouse.

Be open to those words. Don’t tune them out.

You could quench the Holy Spirit.

May come through a song or sermon.

Be open to that too.

Or, like story I told at the beginning, may come by a thought impressed

on your mind by the Holy Spirit—a truth of Scripture, assurance of God’s love.

Cherish those things. Allow them to sink in.

Those are great things from God. Greatest gift is his Holy Spirit.

And what will happen? You will be changed.

If it’s boldness you need, you’ll become more bold.

If it’s humility you need, you’ll become more humble.

And you will go from strength to strength—and the Lord will be glorified.