Wishaw UF #195

[Music] our Bible reading this morning from um Matthew chapter 21 I'm not going to be focusing on there's a number of passages I want us to look at this morning but this is a a base passage if you like uh for what we're going to be thinking about so Matthew chapter 21 I'm reading from verse 12 through to verse 16 this is God's word and Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons he said to them it is written my house shall be called a House of Prayer but you made it a den of robbers and the Blind and lame came to him in the temple and he healed them but when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple hosana to the son of David they were indignant and they said to him do you hear what these are saying and Jesus said to them yes have you never read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise amen thanks be to God for his word well this morning I want to take a a break from uh John's gospel and to have a thematic look at the subject of prayer but specifically with regard to the church at prayer we all appreciate the significance the importance the necessity for prayer as a church and as Christians uh not only in our personal worship but in terms of together as the church now in recent weeks we've been focused as a church on prayer uh for my wife Cindy and her ongoing uh and puzzling health issues so I felt led this morning too for us to look at the place of prayer as we do it as the church and what the scriptures has to say on about that I often wonder um what comes to people's minds when they think of the word church what does that trigger in their minds and perhaps what does it trigger in their minds but what do they think goes on in a church after all many people today especially the younger generation um would perhaps only ever enter a church building for a wedding or a funeral although they use of church buildings for such has lessened significantly in recent years I imagine many of the younger generation um have never been inside a church building perhaps maybe if they've gone a holiday they might have visited some a huge Cathedral and been impressed by what they saw inside and certainly you would be and that's part of the reason why they built those grand Cathedrals so that when people entered them there were not simply impressed by the grandness but that was to try and convey the grandness of God so it's simply a help an app pointer for the people there but what goes on in these Grand and not so Grand Church buildings historically Church buildings have been referred to by a number of different names uh Chapel Cathedral ABY Meeting Hall Tabernacle Kirk SC here uh Mission and the word would usually be dependent on the denomination that they represented but there was one name I think I might have told you this before but there was one name I came across for the first time when I in visiting Bel Rus quite a number of the smaller Baptist Churches had a sign on the outside and it said d m which means House of prayer and I thought that was great House of Prayer that's how they saw their church as a House of Prayer and Church of course is a confusing term because it has nothing to do with bricks and mortar in terms of building when Jesus said I will build my church he was not thinking of a building of bricks and mortar he was thinking specifically about his followers about people and building them up the Greek word for church in the New Testament is the word Ecclesia and that's gives us a English word ecclesiastical when it's talking about church related things but the word Ecclesia means called out ones it's referring to people who've been called out from the world to serve God when King Solomon built his magnificent Temple that's not it of course that's just a model um but when you built that in Jerusalem if you go to to First Kings in chapter 8 there's this amazing prayer of dedication it really is the most wonderful prayer if you take time to read that but he you see in that prayer that he's dedicating this Temple as a House of Prayer for all nations and this is reiterated by Isa mesiah when he utters the words of the Lord by saying for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations and so we find Jesus when it comes to the passage that we read in the second cleansing of the temple we we thought some time back of the first cleansing of the temple which is mentioned in John H in the beginning of John's gospel there but Jesus here is referring to the temple as a House of [Music] Prayer um Jesus entered the temple drove out all who sold and bought in the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons he said to them it is written and here he's quoting from the Isaiah it is written my house shall be called a House of Prayer but you made it a den of robs now the point that he was making was that the place for worship for God's people IE the temple had been turned into a place of abuse a place of offense a place of exploitation in total contrast to the purpose for which it had been built and we all know how Jesus placed much importance on the the place of prayer we read that um he would leave his disciples to go in the hillside to pray he would get up early in the morning to go and pray to find the quiet the quietness away from all the hustle and bustle that he was surrounded by all the time we've got that amazing prayer in John chapter 17 which is called the high Priestly prayer and then we've got his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus needed to pray he needed to pray he's God but he needed to pray to his father as the son of man plus he taught his disciples to pray how to pray in the Lord's Prayer of the disciples prayer which we prayed earlier on so with all of that in mind I want us to look briefly to three occasions that we find in the New Testament where we find the church at prayer and what that says to us today so we're going to think first of all about the upper room uh and this is in Acts chapter 1 now following the Ascension of Jesus uh 40 days after his resurrection the disciples returned to Jerusalem and they wait and they pray acts 1:12 when they then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called ol of it which is near Jerusalem a Sabbath day Journey away and when they had entered they went up to the upper room where they were staying Peter and John and James and Andrew Philip and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew James the son of of alfus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James this is the important verse that I'm drawing your attention to all these with one Accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the wom and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers now notice that all who were there the men and the women including Mary the mother of Jesus and Jesus brother they were devoting themselves to prayer now this was something that was a fundamental development in the beginnings of the New Testament Church because up to this point the Pharisees had been the ones who controlled the worship okay and Jesus had powerfully demolished them in the the the various Runnings that he had with them and the Christian faith the faith that was now beginning to develop here was to be one where all believers were to be recognized as one in Christ all believers and this is where we get the Christian doctrine of the priesthood of all believers as Paul says in Galatians 3:28 there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free there is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus that is people who are Christians of course you're all one in Christ Jesus we're all in the same level okay yes we have structures within the church and so on but in terms of our relation to God we're all one in Christ Jesus so why were why were they praying well the first thing is out of obedience Jesus had told them to do so if if you go back to acts chap 1 and verse 4 um and while they were and while staying with them he ordered Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said you heard from me for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now so Jesus had told them this was an act of obedience they were doing what Jesus had told them to do to go into wait to pray and in addition what Acts 1 and 14 demonstrates is the sense of unity the sense of them all being together with one Accord it says devoting themselves to prayer and when we out of obedience to our Savior join together in prayer after after the prayer is what what do we say we say amen and we should all be saying by the way not just let's let's make sure when we we come to the conclusion of the prayer we say Amen so that we show our one Accord in the prayer well Acts 2 shows the the power that was generated through the prayer in terms of the Holy Spirit came out of obedience they had gone to the place of prayer and they had prayed with one Accord they devoted them eles to it and then in Acts 2 God sends the Holy Spirit Well the second thing is that of uh devotion and commitment Jesus talked about going the extra mile and the Bible of course urges that sense of perseverance and endurance keeping on going as as the scripture says the one who endures to the end will be saved the Christian Life is not about some decision or whatever made at some point in history and that's it no it's about continuing all the way to the end of our life's journey and must we appreciate all her s all the Savior has done for us he did that so that we would be devoted that we would be committed followers that we would go all the way not just half the way or a bit of the way but all the way because Jesus went all the way for us and part of that all the way is the devotion and commitment to prayer and to prayer together as a church so whether in response to a WhatsApp request or attending the prayer meeting and uh on the first Sunday of the month or when we pray here in our worship service let's make sure we are doing so with that sense of devotion and commitment and when the one who is leading in prayer comes to the end we show as I said our one Accord by echoing what is not only said in our hearts but are echoing with our amen and amen so devotion and commitment and also strengthening of the fellowship because the effect of the The Filling of the Holy Spirit which happened in Acts chapter 2 in the day of Pentecost what that did was it cemented the people's fellowship with God they were part now of the family of God they were the Church of God and that in turn LED them to a commitment to one another look at Acts 2 and verse 42 and they devoted there's that word again devoted they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers the prayers and a view of what we're considering this morning notice it's corporate Devotion to all these things including prayer and quite simply as Christians and as the church we cannot exist we cannot survive with without prayer not only personally but corporately we need that we want to know where God is going to lead us and we certainly need that these days and we need to make sure we are spending more time as the church in prayer and I hope H to give some direction on that later not not today a later point because it's through our prayers and quite apart from the fact of God's answers to prayers it's through our prayers that we are strengthened we're encouraged if you've been in a prayer meeting um not simply the prayer meetings that we have on our Sunday before church but if you've been in a prayer meeting for any length of time uh there can be a real sense of encouragement as people utter their prayers and everybody's saying their amen and amen and how that builds the people up fills them with hope fills them with encouragement because they're coming together with one Accord before God so that he will bring his answers according to his will so 're going to think next about Peter in prison this is in Acts chap 12 and this is the occasion where um there's a time of persecution because what happened after um Pentecost was that the Jews began to persecute the Christians jur the Christians in general and in in Acts chapter 8 you've got the um the stoning of Steven to death and then in this chapter in chapter 12 you have got the death of James the brother of John James and John the two sons of zebede one of the disciples and we're told in this chapter in in uh the first first second verse that Herod gria who was the King of the the region he saw that this pleased the Jews that um James had been put to death so what does he do he orders the arrest of Peter and Peter of course was the chief spokesman at the time for the disciples so he puts Peter in prison with a view to having him put to death but because the Passover is just about to happen agria wants to make sure that he celebrates the Passover and then he can put To Death Peter so the first thing to notice uh the first thing to not is is there in verse five so Peter was kept in prison but Earnest prayer was H for him was made to God by the church Earnest prayer made to God by the church in other words whatever the circumstance is calling for prayer we must do so earnestly especially if the situation here is as it was was urgent Earnest prayer so that God really really believes that we really want an answer to our prayers and on this occasion significant events happened I'll just read the very vers 6 to 10 now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night Peter was sleeping Between Two Soldiers bound with two chains and centries before the door were guarding the prison and behold an angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light Shone in the cell he struck Peter on the side and woke him saying get up quickly and the chains fell off his hands and the angel said to him dress yourself yourself and put on on your sandles and he did so and he said to him wrap your cloak around you and follow me and he went out and followed him he did not know what was being done by the by the angel was real but thought he was seeing a vision when they had passed the first and second guard they came to the Iron Gate leading into the city it opened for them of its own accord and they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him so nothing short of a miraculous deliverance from prison as the angel comes and leads Peter out to the street and then he's there there on his own so what does he do Peter goes to the house where the church is praying the House of Prayer right and of course the servant girl goes to the door and she sees Peter there and she's so excited about she doesn't even open the door she runs and tells the rest of the the church who are praying and they think it's his Angel it's not that they didn't believe that their prayers would be answered they didn't they never entered their mind of the surprise that Peter should actually come today of course God's answers to our prayers are not always our answers or the things that we want we we expect but the reason for our prayers is that in the mystery of prayer and we need to understand that there's a mystery behind prayer because God is the god who can do whatever he wants he can do as he chooses as the scripture says so why do we need to pray because he could do anything he wanted the fact is that the scriptures clearly show that through the prayers of his people and and here we're thinking about the church at prayer then God brings about his will his purpose and that's the mystery of it all we can't really get a head in that but that's why God calls us to prayer because he wants us to pray he needs our prayers so that he can bring about his will and purpose now in Peter's case we're not told by the church the specifics of their prayer they might have prayed for Peter's safety for his release for God's will to be done but what the incident shows that God's answers are God's surprises and the fact is that God answered the church's prayer here in the most surprising way and the final passage to look at is another account in prison with Paul and Silas and this is in Acts chap 16 and verses um 16 through to 34 now this is a time when Paul and Silas were um on their way it says there in verse um verse 16 as we were going to the place of prayer okay and we're not told where the place of prayer was but if you read earlier on in the chapter you find Paul coming across a a woman called Lydia and she was at the place of prayer which was by the Riverside so there was an opener place of prayer or House of Prayer if you like and after the Lord opened Lydia's heart to believe all baptized her and they returned to her house so Perhaps Perhaps the place of prayer the House of Prayer was Lydia's in this case but in any case they didn't get there because uh when they were confronted by a fortune telling slave girl verse 16 as they were going to the place of prayer we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling so of course Paul and Silas were um confronted with the situation and what they did was they they commanded the spirit to come out of her and the spirit did come out for her and this created a problem for the slave girls owners because she brought them much revenue and now that this divination this um fortune telling aspect had been taken away from her this was a problem so the uh the owners of the slave girl draged Paul and Silas before the magistrates and they were both beaten and thrown into prison now here's the fascinating thing Paul and Silas had were told had been beaten with rods they were chained in Stalks at their feet and they were awaiting at the very least a trial and this is what we find them doing verse 25 most I'm sure you all know this passage about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to I choose I chose this passage because it's a simple example of the church at prayer and we're talking about just Paul and Silas Jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name there I am with him and here was the church at prayer and the House of Prayer was a prison and they had an audience the prisoners were listening to them it was an Evangelistic opportunity into the bargain the point is that the church whether two Christians or 2,000 Christians if they are in prayer together Jesus is with them right there and God will bring about his answer according to his will in Poland silas's case here God sent an earthquake and they were freed from their chains and here's the amazing thing they didn't Escape col sils didn't run out of the jail and they encouraged the rest of the prisoners to stay in the jail as well and what that did was when the Jailer came in thinking that it'd all be gone he was getting ready to kill himself because he knew you would be killed because because he hadn't kept the the prisoners but he realized they were still there and it led to not only the jailer's salvation but his whole household what an answer to prayer well these are just a few examples and there's others in the in the New Testament where the church lives up to its name as a House of Prayer you all be aware of the famous Victorian preacher Charles Spurgeon and he used to refer to the prayer meting he had a prayer meeting every Monday I think it was uh which was held in the basement of the church and he described that meeting as the PowerHouse of the church and what he would do he would take visitors down to the basement prayer room where people were praying and he would say to them here is the PowerHouse of the church I'm going on to say that if the engine room is out of action then the whole Mill will grind to a halt and simply to make the point that if we are not the church at prayer if we don't see ourselves or see our gathering together as a House of Prayer then we're never going to see the power of God we're never going to see things happen we're never going to see things change and we want things to change surely we must never underestimate the power God channels through the prayers of his people and even more so in the church whatever size is United together in a concept of prayer and furthermore if the church is united in regular prayer then the church will only grow together in faith and who knows what God's surprises might unfold let us pray Our God teach us to pray teach us to pray with committed and believing and devoted Hearts help us to understand how vital for your purposes our prayers are both individually and corporately as the church your church Lord surprise us as we ask this in jesus' name and for his sake amen and amen [Music]