Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: Prayer as Hinged Between Ascension and Pentecost

Today’s sermon text is found in Acts 1:12-14 and our topic is prayer as hinged between ascension and Pentecost. Acts 1:12-14. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this text. We thank you for the wonderful stories we have here of the great climax of the gospel and the promise of power to disciple the nations. We thank you for the example to us as a church that’s set by this church as they meet without their savior and as they meet to pray. Bless us Lord God as we consider this. Transform us. Make us more a people of prayer. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

God’s people are praying people. Very simple. God’s people are praying people. We have here this transition between the ascension that we celebrated last Lord’s day and the day of Pentecost. And in between those two narrative events—the ascension being given at the end of Luke’s gospel and at the beginning of his, the same author’s book of the Acts of the Apostles—the ascension is the hinge between the gospel, the work of Jesus and the work of the church. But the hinge between the ascension and Pentecost is this description, this earliest description of the character and quality and the sort of church that is envisioned here that will convert the world. That’ll happen symbolically on Pentecost, and then throughout the Acts of the Apostles they will disciple the nations and that’s a process that continues to go on.

These are men that met together to conquer the world. They really did meet with the purpose of reconquering the world or conquering the world in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the way that’s accomplished is given to us here specifically in terms of prayer. And that’s why I’ve put this Lord’s Day service in between Pentecost and Ascension. A lot of people celebrate Ascension rather today and we did it last week. It’s actually a Thursday of course. Wouldn’t it be a great thing by the way if we somehow moved to have at least in our own community and then in a broader sense Ascension Day as a holiday? That would be quite a statement about the implications of the ascension for our culture. But in any event, so I felt free to do Ascension Day service before Ascension Day rather than after it. And then to be able to put this idea of prayer into the middle of that to show us this transition, the power of the ascension becoming the power of the church at Pentecost primarily through the vehicle of prayer.

This is the first glimpse of the church, her identity, her vocation and calling and her characteristics. And what we see here is she is a church that prays. You know, I noticed a lot of young people coming into church this morning. God has blessed us with young people and he has blessed us as well with a vision for the transformation of the world and in our particular little corner of that world the transformation of the cultural center of Portland. That’s a great vision for all of us to maintain. We are not about just saving souls. We’re about transforming the culture. We’re about converting men and nations to actually change them to do things to the glory of God. And that’s what this group has met together to do, right? They go to Jerusalem. They weren’t really from Jerusalem, most of them. But they’re there because that’s the center. That’s where Jesus told them to be.

The church has as its mission that particular perspective. When I first got serious about my walk with Christ in my adult life, I went to a small conservative Baptist church on the west side of Portland in Beaverton. That’s where my wife and I met, at the Spearses and other folks. And in my earliest days out here in Oregon, I did something that I didn’t understand at the time, but I look back on it with great fondness.

In a similar way, they had a smaller group, but a group of young men at their church then, and they were, you know, making plans. They were trying to help people coming in like myself, you know, new converts or at least newly walking with Christ out of the counterculture. And they were trying to impact that. And one thing that happened was four or five of us young guys decided to get together on Saturday night to pray for the church.

And the idea of Saturday night was first of all we all had it off of course. Secondly, we could pray specifically for the worship of the church knowing that worship somehow would drive everything else. And third, it would focus our activities in preparation for the Lord’s day in prayer for the Lord’s day and that God would empower the work that the church was called to do. But that was a wonderful thing.

And I would encourage some of you young people to consider the same kind of idea. If you go away from today’s sermon with nothing else, go away with the emphasis on prayer throughout the book of Acts. We want to be that kind of church transforming the city and having a downward impact itself. All that sort of stuff. And it happens as a result of prayer. Last year, you can look at my outline online from last year on Pentecost Sunday. And I talked about the same thing. But if you go through the book of Acts at all the critical junctures where things happen, you know, whether they’ve got to send out Paul and Barnabas, they’ve got Peter in jail and they want to get him out of jail, they’re adding elders to the church, they’re adding deacons to the church, Paul is praying for the last time meeting with the Ephesian elders. All these very important pivotal points in the work of the church in converting men and nations, discipling men and nations, they all have this punctuated emphasis upon prayer.

None of it happens, none of it happens without prayer. Now, I don’t know about you. I know about me and I know that my prayer life doesn’t reflect that reality. I know that I seek to do a lot of things in life and I take on a lot of missions and activities, but I also know that I don’t always mix them with sufficient prayer. I want my prayer life to be improved. I hope you do, too. I know God wants most of your prayer lives to be improved.

Now, you know, some of you may be praying regularly and in the proper way. That’s good. Don’t want to make you feel guilty for not doing more if you’re doing great already. But I think many, particularly men, have a hard time in this area. And I think that if you go back to last year’s outline from the day of Pentecost sermon that I gave and I’ve got to write on the sermon outline the actual text of all these verses from Acts that emphasize that the work of the church is the result of prayer.

It’s the result of prayer. These short set of verses here, these three verses remind us of the same thing here. They’re gathered together. They’ve got this great vocation to convert the nations beginning at Jerusalem. They’re going to get the Holy Spirit that’s been promised to them. And they pray is what they do.

Now, like the pastor. So like the disciple in Luke 3:21 we read of the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus and we all think about that we think about the fact that it was at his baptism right and the spirit descends like a dove and the voice of the father comes out saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased but probably not all of us remember this part of the verse 21 when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized and while he prayed the Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove.

He set the example for his disciples in terms of receiving empowerment for a task or mission. It’s preceded by prayer. And in the same way, the church here like its savior will pray and God will send the Holy Spirit upon them which is a spirit of empowerment. I want to look at seven or eight characteristics of this praying church that’s presented to us here in these three verses. So we’ll talk about seven or eight characteristics.

The first characteristic I want to mention is that this praying church is an obedient church. So we don’t want to make prayer some kind of substitute for lack of obedience. They are explicitly an obedient church. And we’re told that this isn’t bringing something to the text. I didn’t read the verses leading up to verse 12. But you know Jesus in verse 4 of Acts chapter 1 commands them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father.

They’re obedient to that command. And if you’re going to, you know, improve your prayer life, improve your obedience. Prayer isn’t to make up for a lack of obedience. Prayer issues forth from an obedient people. That’s what they’re going to do. So first of all, the first characteristic of the church at prayer here in Acts. The first thing we’re told about them is they did what Jesus said to do.

They went back and stayed at Jerusalem and they enter into Jerusalem and there they start to pray.

Secondly, they prayed without interruption. They, now this isn’t always possible, but what did they do? The text tells us that when they entered into Jerusalem, they went to some location, the upper room. What does it mean? I don’t know. We don’t know exactly where that room was. It has the definite article the upper room. It was somehow known to them. Maybe it’s where they were meeting before. Maybe it’s where the last supper was. We don’t know. Some people even think it isn’t an upper story room at all. It’s just a room, a house in the upper region of Jerusalem. We really don’t know. But what we do know is that they went to a particular place where they would not have a lot of interruptions going on. They were going to be focused in what they did there.

So their prayer resulted from their obedience and was tied to it. But secondly, their prayer went on in an uninterrupted fashion because they planned that way. They made provision for a period of prayer when they wouldn’t be interrupted. Okay? Quiet time. You know, your prayer closet, I guess, is what some people call this. Although with them, it’s a little bigger than a closet and has to accommodate, I don’t know, maybe upwards of 120 people.

Big closet, which says something, too, which we’ll get to in a couple of minutes. But they took time for prayer in an uninterrupted place. So these are commendations to us. Do you have a prayer time that’s a quiet time where you’re not going to be interrupted? That’s what they did. That’s how they were successful. We want to repeat their mission. I listened to an interview the other day with head of Intel and the way he made that company successful 15 years ago was to use the McDonald’s style of management where you take what works and you duplicate it exactly. And that’s what he did with Intel. He would exactly duplicate successful factories. Well, that’s sort of what we’re talking about doing here. Not exactly. Our task is a little different. But if we can duplicate the opening days of the church that was so successful in its mission, I believe we’ll then have a stronger leg up to transform Portland to plant churches throughout the region of our greater region of the city and then to influence the state as well.

The third thing they do is to persevere in prayer. It says that when they entered in, they continued in prayer. Verse 13, they went up to the temple they were staying. And then it lists the individuals. In verse 14, these all continued in prayer. And we’ll talk a little bit about the next word, one accord. But they continued. It just means they persevered. They kept at it. It wasn’t a one-time shot. We don’t pray once about something and then that’s it.

They’re persevering in prayer and as I’ll talk about in a couple of minutes for what God had already promised them. So God had promised them the coming of the spirit and power for evangelism. That didn’t create sluggishness in them. It created activity to pray and not just once. It meant they persevered in prayer. Don’t grow weary as we pray. You know, look for the answers to come in due time to persevere in prayer.

So we’re not those we’re not to be those. The example that are set by our fathers of the faith. Here are those that persevere. They keep praying about a matter. I haven’t got an answer. Keep praying. I still haven’t got an answer. Keep praying. Things seem to be getting worse. Pray. Are you obedient? Are you doing an undistracted way? Persevere in your prayers.

Third or fourth rather. So they are an obedient praying people. They’re uninterrupted in their formal prayer times here. They persevere in their prayer times. And then fourth and very importantly, they pray with one accord. They pray in unity together. They don’t pray in isolation. They’re not in their prayer closet. They’re with each other.

It’s interesting. You know, Jesus taught us to pray. I had a sermon on this a year or so ago. Well, the first thing he teaches us to pray is our father. He doesn’t say when you pray, say my father. Prayer is a corporate event. It is here. The model prayer is Jesus when he instructs us how to pray says it’s to be with us. It’s not my father give me this day my daily bread. Forgive my trespasses. No, our father give us this day our daily bread. Forgive our trespasses even as we forgive those that trespass against us. Deliver us from evil. You see? So this is very important.

Now there’s certainly nothing wrong with praying individually. That’s not the point. But if you got an option to pray individually or in a group, go for the group because that seems to be the model in terms of the scriptures. Okay? Yeah, we can find some examples where Jesus went off by himself to pray. You’re not him. We can find examples where other people go off to pray individually. Okay? But by far the examples given to us and right here as this little mini picture of the successful victorious church is laid out, we are told that they pray with unity.

They pray with each other. So they pray with one mind and with one heart. That’s what the word here means translated with one accord. Let me read a comment from a Greek resource Strong’s Lexicon or something. I’m not sure where I got this, but they said this that it’s a unique Greek word. It’s used 10 of its 12 New Testament occurrences in this book of Acts. So, it’s used 12 times this particular word, translated one accord and 10 of those 12 times is in Acts.

So do you see the importance in terms of the mission of the church its vocation and calling? You see it’s really stressed here as the church develops. It goes on to say this lexical information it says it helps us to understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. Homothumodon is a compound of two words meaning to rush along and in unison. To rush along in unison. And the author of this says the image is almost musical.

A number of notes are sounded which while different harmonies in pitch and tone as the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master. So the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church. So successful prayer is prayer with one accord. You know, when you pray in a group, it’s not good enough just to be part of that group. It’s to come to agreement in that prayer.

Right? What did Jesus say? When two of you agree on anything, it won’t be withheld from. He doesn’t promise that to one person. He promises that to two people and not two people praying together but being not united. When two people ask for anything in agreement with each other. Now, some people take this and they make kind of a formalistic, you know, I’ve been in prayer meetings frequently where people will say, well, I agree with so and so.

And you think, why are they saying that? Well, they’re saying that to invoke this promise of Jesus that if two or more agree, he’s going to answer it. And it isn’t a magical incantation, of course. But what it does, but so we don’t want to fall into that kind of use of the terminology, but we don’t want to miss the point. The point is that prayer is effective. Prayer is powerful. Prayer comes to its result when you’re praying with one accord with other people as a lifestyle.

You come together with unity. You have a single mind. You’ve got a thinking thing going on about an activity and you’re thinking about it the same way, but you also are single heart. You have a passion together for Portland, for instance. And so this idea of unity is absolutely essential as a characteristic of a praying church. And as I said, 10 of the 12 occurrences happen in the book of Acts. So, I thought we might want to look at a few of those.

So, open your scriptures up. Now, we just looked at Acts 1:14. They all continue with one accord in prayer. Look at chapter 2, verse one. Acts 2:1. We’ll look at a few of these places. This is the day of Pentecost. So in preparation for it in their prayers they have one accord. And then in verse two chapter 2 verse one and when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place.

So see it’s important the text tells us twice now that in their prayers and in the coming of the Holy Spirit the unity the one-mindedness and yet diversity as well the musical instruments playing in harmony are important for the task.

Acts 2:46. Look down at verse 46. And here we read that they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. So the one accord is further described as having singleness of heart and this relates to their temple observances, their formal worship at the temple but it also relates to their daily activities.

You know my wife gave me an interesting outline for this section in which this particular verse is found. So if you’re looking at Acts 2 verse 46, if you look a little bit at the context of this look for instance at verse 41 we read that those who were gladly received were baptized and that day about 3,000 were added to them.

And then down at 47 they’re praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. So what do we have? That’s an inclusio. That’s bookends. God is adding people to the church. He’s adding people to the church. And as we look at verse 42 then and compare it with verse 46, we see some commonality. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

And now look at the verse 46 which is its match. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. See, it’s a parallel text. Now, something’s changed in the text, and I’ll go back to that in a minute, but look at verse 43. As we move to the center of this little structure, these are all single verse units, so it’s very easy to follow.

You got 41 and 47 is the exterior boundaries. 42 and 46, 43 and 45. So 43 says, “Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.” So the apostles are doing miracles. They’re healing people miraculously. Ananias and Sapphira fall dead. That kind of stuff is going on through the apostles, right? And in the matching verse in 45, it says they sold their possessions and goods and delivered them among all as anyone had need.

So this is what the common people are doing, right? This isn’t the elders doing this. Verse 44, 43 says the elders are the ones doing these miracles and matching that the laity are the ones doing something miraculous. But not really a miracle. They’re not paying attention to their own particular physical needs. They’re looking out for one another. This oneness of mind and purpose, this desire to help each other in the body of Christ.

Remember, the setting is significant and different. It’s not like ours. There was great famine, a lot of people there. A big deal. I mean, there were particular reasons why they had to have this kind of lifestyle. And don’t get hung up in that. But what I want you to see is that there’s this connection that’s drawn up in this matching between the apostles and the laity. Okay? And that brings us to 44 at the center.

All who believed were together and had all things in common. So the unity is at the center of the thing. And what it does is it matches up the apostles doing their miraculous work with the miraculous things going on of God converting their pocketbooks as well as the people. And this and going back to the other two verses where our verse is found in the 42 and 46 42 has an emphasis I think on the apostles in formal worship they continued especially in the apostles doctrine and fellowship the breaking of bread and in prayers that’s a description of Lord’s day worship right the apostles doctrine fellowship at the agape the breaking of bread the Lord’s supper and prayer is the great context for the formal prayers of the church in worship.

And then moving to the outside of it in verse 46, they’re continuing with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness. So see in the special apostolic worship is described first and then the common affairs of the people of the church secondly. And so the emphasis in this particular place where we find this term that they’re of one accord is the unity between the leadership and the congregation and mirror not the same things going on.

The apostles are doing miracles. The laity are engaging in mercy acts using their actual money not miraculously. In a way it’s sort of miraculous. The apostles are leading in formal worship and the laity are doing are taking the implications of that worship house to house. So the unity that’s described here the one mind and one purpose the particular emphasis in this second occurrence of we’re looking at here is the unity of leaders and followers, the laity and those that lead the laity, the pastors of the church.

So, but an so it’s an interesting structure, but the point is again here the key to this wonderful we have a very short description in the verse we’re looking at today in verse 13, but we have a longer description in what we just looked at, right? We had two short ones. They’re you have one mind as are praying for Pentecost. They have one mind as they enter on the day of Pentecost. And now we have a little broader description of what the church is all about.

And the elements start to proliferate. And we’re told more specifically what it is both in terms of worship and in their common lives. And what do we find an emphasis? And again, we find an emphasis in their unity and they’re having one mind and one purpose. And in fact, that’s the very heart. If you looked at that little structure there, that was the heart of it. That they held things in common. They’re holding things in common refers I think not to physical properties as much as in general their unity that they had.

The apostles have this miracle thing. The laity has this helping each other thing and they’re holding all things in common. So there’s a sense in which the all things in common is this empowerment to be the people of God to be this missional victorious community. That’s what they’re having in common. But anyway point is once more stressed very highly this unity in Acts 2:46.

Now go down to chapter 4. Look at verse 24. Acts 4:24. I’ll turn to that reference. And the context for this is opposition to the church, right? Peter and John have been hauled before the city officials and you know, they’re told not to preach the gospel and they say, “Well, we’re going to preach it anyway.” And they’re released. And that’s the context for verse 24. And when they had heard that, they lifted up their voices to God with one accord and said, “Lord, thou art God which hath made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is.

So again, this unity of mind and purpose is described for us here and specifically it’s put in the context of prayer and the prayer is specifically for the vindication of the preaching of the gospel. Right? We’ll look at this a little bit later, a little fuller explanation of what they pray about here, but that’s what they’re praying about is the power to preach in spite of what the civil magistrates say.

And they’re exalting God that John and Peter were released and they’re asking him, you know, for that preaching to be effective to in spite of the opposition, they’re asking for vindication from the persecution of the civil arena. And that prayer is contingent upon it’s evidenced. It results from the unity that they have together, the one accordance.

Now look down at chapter 5:12. And again a description of the church. So we read about the hands of the apostles. Many signs and wonders were wrought among the people by those hands and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. So again there the emphasis in the progression of the gospel and the signs and wonders that will accomplish the apostles. This happens in the context of a unity with one accord.

Now, the next reference in Acts is to chapter 7:57. And this is actually not a good this isn’t describing the church. This is describing opposition to the church. They cry out with one loud voice. They stopped their ears and they ran upon him with one accord. So here the persecution of Christians is being described and the persecutors have the same kind of one accord. So the opponents of the gospel have a unity as well and we cannot really match them on the field in terms of what we do without a similar unity on our behalf.

Other references are in Acts 12:20 where they a group of people go to Herod to the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon and they go with one accord to make an appeal to him. And this is sort of you know again the unity of those outside of Christ. It still is there. Again in Acts 15:25 we read that it seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul.

So here we have the mission work of the church as it expands outward and the you the mission work is driven by prayer of course but it’s driven also by being of one accord. And so, probably enough. But the point is that over and over and over in the Acts of the Apostles, in the continuing act of Jesus Christ, in the second half of the church year, when the work of the church is emphasized as opposed to the work of the savior, that work is accomplished by prayer, but it’s by prayer that comes from a group of people who have one accord.

A singleness of mind, a singleness of purpose, not some fuzzy wuzzy you know, gee, aren’t we all let’s just all get along kind of thing. No, there the prayers that are offered by these people are specific and to the point and their unity is based upon that. So this is very important and this is something that only God can give us. In Romans 15:5, now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus.

So this is something that requires the grace of God that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have to have unity and let me just mention here specifically the way the text is structured there’s a unity of men and women right so it says it lists the apostles the 11 apostles then it says they were all united and then it lists Mary the mother of Jesus right in verse 14, these all continue with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

And we don’t know if that means his half-brothers or if it means the disciples generally, but women are mentioned. So at the very center is this description of unity. And the unity is one of apostles and disciples, but it’s one of men terms of leadership and women as well. So the church has to see that here in the various little tiny opening picture of what the church is all about. Women have a prominence in the ministry of the church.

They’re specifically denoted that the women are there. Mary is named this is a big deal. It’s interesting. I administered CRC ordination exam to the first written exam to Flynn A. this week and I had to review the questions of course before I gave it to him make sure everything was up and everything. And one of the questions on it was name the first two disciples that saw the empty tomb. So what’s the answer?

The first two disciples that saw the empty tomb. Well the right answer according to the exam was John and Peter. And if you’re a woman, you probably feel like what? Pastor Tuuri, you just told us Luke 24. It’s those women that get there first. They’re the ones who see inside. They’re the ones at the empty tomb. Yeah, that’s right. Right. But you know women not really disciples something else. Of course women are disciples.

And of course that question is I think it’s obvious. It should be rephrased. But this is the sort of thing and this text don’t want to skip over without noticing that specifically the mother of Jesus is named and other women. The same way in that first day of resurrection the new creation begins with women telling men what to believe and what to do. That’s what happens here as well. Women are important, critically important.

They’re listed with the disciples with the apostles, the 11 apostles around the center of it, which is this unity. So, the unity includes a unity of men and women and an equal standing for men and women in the context of the congregation of Jesus Christ. Okay.

So, unity being of one accord. This is important and this is what this church is described as is in its opening comment. So we’ve gotten four characteristics. Let’s move on to number five.

Number five, they maintain their individuality. So you know I preached about the unity. They’re all together with one accord, but you’ll notice that there’s specific named individuals. So again, the description of one accord being like a number of different musical instruments being played creating one generalized piece is a great illustration because in prayer, you still maintain your individuality.

These men are named. They’re named participants of the prayer meeting as is Mary. They still maintain their individuality. So, the prayer is characterized here by a unity but also a diversity, the maintenance of individuality in the context of prayer.

Six, they pray the promises. Now, we hear this all the time, but very specifically, I think it’s quite important to point out here They were promised power from on high. The promise they were promised the Holy Spirit would come. Jesus said it’s going to happen. Why? Why do I need to pray? The check’s in the mail. The mail’s coming. It’ll take a few days to get there. Why would I pray about that?

Well, because that’s what we do. We pray the promises of God. We pray for what God has promised us. Prayer promises, in other words, are not intended to make us sluggish. Promises are intended to make us active in praying to God for what we and if we did this more often, we’d probably notice a lot more answers to our prayers. If we pray just for what he promised us, then the answers are obvious. So they pray the promises.

What was the promise? Well, yeah, the promise was the coming of the Holy Spirit. But additionally, the text tells us very specifically just before he leaves them, they ask Jesus, “When will be the restoration of the kingdom, the restoration of Israel. And he says, “Well, you’re not supposed to know the times and seasons, but wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high, and then you’ll be my witnesses.” I don’t think he’s telling them, “No, no, no, no. That’s not what we’re doing here.” I think he’s telling them when it’s going to happen and the manner in which it’s going to happen.

What they’re waiting for in one sense is the restoration of Israel. True Israel. They’re waiting for the restoration of the kingdom, the true kingdom. They’re in occupied territory. The Jews are the tail and not the head. Rome’s in charge. And worse than that, evil men are in charge of the church, too. They want vindication. They want the world put to rights in their specific situation, not just in some general eschatological the world being put to rights kind of thing.

They want vindication in the present. They want the restoration of Israel, true Israel, right? They want vindication. Vindication is I think central to the prayers of the church. Oh, it was in the Old Testament, right? Psalm 43 says, “Vindicate me, oh God. Plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. You’re the God of my strength. Why am I cast off?” He says, “What’s why do I have these problems?”

Psalm 43 tells us that a proper prayer of the saints of Jesus himself is for vindication. Vindicate my cause. In fact, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascension is an absolute vindication. He had all these enemies and all these enemies had sealed up the tomb and Jesus was vindicated by his enemies being mocked and evidently losing the battle to keep Jesus in the grave. Jesus was vindicated. And the church in its praying, they’re praying the promises, but the promises have just been specifically told to them in reference to the restoration of the kingdom.

In the restoration of true Israel and that this true Israel will dominate the entire world. Will go over the whole world converting men and nations. That’s what they’re praying for. They’re praying for vindication. They’re gathered together in a city that hates them.

Old Testament, this happens again and again. Psalm 17, a prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord. Attend to my cry. Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips. Let my vindication come from your presence. Let your eyes look on the things that are upright. So David prays again for vindication in Psalm 17. This is what he wants. He says that you know great opponents have come against him. In verse 12 of Psalm 17 he says as a lion is eager to tear his prey and like a young lion lurking in secret places.

This is what the wicked are doing. And the psalmist says arise oh Lord confront him. Cast him down. Deliver my life from the wicked with your sword. Ultimately, that’s Jesus, right? Strong dogs of Bashan. And they’ve attempted to kill him, but he comes back from the dead. God vindicates the cause of Jesus Christ by openly triumphing over his enemies in the resurrection and ascension. But it doesn’t stop there.

Remember that Paul will use the same kind of terminology from Psalm 17. You know, be wary, be on your watch because the devil as a lion goes about seeking whom he may devour. And the devil is out there. Enemies are still out there. The church had enemies seeking to devour them. We know that most of these named individuals were martyred eventually. They wanted vindication from the current enemies of their day. Nothing wrong with that. They wanted vindication.

Vindication is an essential part of the prayers of the church. Psalm 35 referred to as a battlefield psalm. David says, “Plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me. Fight against those who fight against me.” So he’s saying, I want you. I’ve got enemies in the world right now. Now I know ultimately this talks about Jesus. But David had real enemies. We have real enemies. The church of Jesus Christ today has real enemies, right?

You know, I read this article on the season of service with Luis Palau organization, Kevin Palau, and the deal they worked out with the city was that if they’d give a hundred thousand bucks public schools and do this different service for Portland and there’d be these cooperative ideas. They actually gave it to the mayor, Sam Adams, in February. So, they got this thing going on, but part of the deal was that they could not explicitly evangelize. So, unlike past summers of service, it doesn’t conclude with an evangelistic campaign in the fall because the city didn’t want that.

That’s what’s going on. So, you know, if you give us your money, you we’re happy. If you give us your witness of the truth, of Jesus Christ and our conviction of our sin, we’re not so happy. The Christian witness is being attempted to be muted by the civil governors of our land. Of course, why wouldn’t they? They’re not Christians. They fight against the cause of Jesus Christ. We have real enemies. Babies are killed all over the place still in abortions. Public schools devour the children of Christians, right?

You know, this money that the Palau organization sent to the public schools 100,000 bucks. I’m thinking, you know, would they send money to Iran to build IEDs? Don’t they know that what the public schools are doing is essentially an attack on the image of Christ on the basis of knowledge? And now it’s become a very politicized left-wing attack, even godless, pro-homosexual, pro-socialism, pro-environmental attack. Why do we fund that?

Well, you see the difference is why do they fund it? Because like I said last week, their gig is saving souls. And you know, if a guy’s a homosexual or a socialist or whatever, well, maybe he’s even better in a better position to hear the gospel. It doesn’t make any difference. They’re not about transforming the culture. They’re about saving souls. They don’t care if the schools they support, I mean, generally speaking, I mean, evangelicals, why should they?

If their gig is saving souls and not transforming the culture, if they still believe you don’t polish brass on a sinking ship, then of course why they cannot understand our objections to funding the public school system because it really doesn’t get in the way of evangelism. At least they think that way. We think it would get in the way of evangelism, but more importantly, it gets in the way of the transformation of the culture.

We have real enemies in the world around us. Christians do. And we have to be thinking in terms of these similar sorts of prayers, vindication. We have a cesspool culture that comes out of Portland now. It is a cesspool culture and we don’t want to just be some kind of, you know, blessing upon a cesspool culture. We want to pray for vindication for the cause of righteousness, truth, justice in Portland.

We want justice. We want Portland put to rights. We want justice to be found in that city. We want righteousness to be found in that city. We want hope, holiness to be found in that city. We want liberty, including market transaction liberty, to be found in the city. We want vindication from all the forces of Satan that walk around as a roaring lion seeking to devour every one of those causes and anyone that will promote those causes in the name of Jesus Christ.

Vindication is central to their prayer. They didn’t just want the Holy Spirit come so they could have a nice religious experience and then save some people who would also have a nice religious experience. They were praying in terms of restoring the kingdom. And if that one hangs you up, they were praying in terms of the great commission that Jesus had given them to disciple the nations. That’s what they were praying for.

The little picture what remember we given a little tiny picture of the calling, the vocation of the church. And the church’s vocation is to put the world to rights in little ways and in big ways. And that prayer, the prayer of the church for the coming of the power of the Holy Spirit is not to bring us nice encouragement and comfort when things are going bad for us, to tickle us under our chin and say it’s all okay.

No, the Holy Spirit comes as a raging force to cause us cause these disciples to be successful in proclaiming the gospel. What did they do at that first Pentecost sermon? Have you read it? They got up and said, “Look, this wonderful man, this righteous man, Jesus Christ, you put to death. That’s what they proclaimed. Out of the chute, they sought the vindication from the enemies of Jesus Christ of those who believe in him and exalt him.

They brought people to their knees in repentance for that act of horror and that act of unrighteousness and wickedness. Okay, that should be our prayer. That should be our kind of public proclamation to the cities. We seek vindication. We seek justice. We seek the world put to rights. David said, “Fight my cause with me. Take hold of shield and buckler.” He tells God, “Now you get ready. Get your shield and buckler out, God, because you’re going to do my fighting for me.” That’s what he says in Psalm 35.

Stand up for my help. Draw out the spear and stop those who pursue me. This is what we pray for as Christians. We pray that God you are fighting for us, right? Both in terms of defense, shield and buckler, and in terms of offensive warfare, the spear that God has. We pray that they might indeed be the subjects of God’s judgments. Stop those who pursue me.

Say to my soul, I am your salvation. And then he goes on to say, let all those rise up against me, let them be like wind, chaff upon the wind, destroy them, chase them down after you’ve broken their ranks. When they run away, go chase after them and destroy them there. You know, this is what he says to do. And the very heart of this thing is when he says, “Say to my soul, I am your salvation.”

We pray for the vindication of God. And we pray that God would give us the assurance in time and space in activities that we observe with our eyes, okay? That God is our salvation, that he is the one who vindicates us from all wrong.

So the praying church is a church that prays in terms of vindication, vindication from the enemies of God.

One other matter of vindication, you know, when Solomon dedicated the temple, the house of prayer in the Old Testament, there’s a prayer of dedication that’s recorded for us with seven parts, by the way. And I think you can kind of match them up if you’re thinking to the seven days of creation. But the very first prayer that Solomon prayed for in his dedication of the temple was that it might be a place where causes are discerned where right and wrong is ferreted out. That was the first prayer. Be a discerner of causes like creation opens with light.

Solomon prayed that when they got to the temple and prayed in the temple that the end result would be we’d know who’s right and who’s wrong. And now he wasn’t talking about enemies of the church. He was talking about people within the church. We have our problems, right? We have difficulties with other Christians and people around us watch and they don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong or sometimes they guess at who’s right and who’s wrong and they get it wrong.

And we pray then our prayer of vindication that the church enters into here in preparation for the power of Pentecost. That prayer I think is proper in terms of vindicating our cause as well when we know we’re in the right about something but it seems like we’re not. I’ve gone through this a number of times in my ministry. The most noted time was, you know, it took 10 years or something before a group that had taken in an excommunicate of this church finally came to the realization when he did the same thing to them.

I don’t know how long it was, seven years, eight years, 10, I don’t know how long it was. It was a long time though, I’ll tell you that much. And then finally, the pastor comes and asks forgiveness because now the same thing’s happening to them. Vindication is what that was of me and this church. You know, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, in a way, it’s exactly what these psalms tell us to do. And it’s what Solomon says happens in the context of the temple. Prayer for discernment of causes.

It’s happened before. I know it’s hard. I know some of you are going I know some of you are going through situations now where you know you’re praying that people would finally find out what’s going on. You can’t tell them maybe because you don’t want to gossip and slander and do this that and the other thing. You don’t want to seem like you’re boosting, you know, blowing your own horn. You can’t talk to people about it, but you want vindication. You want somebody to hear and to realize, oh, so you’re right in what you were saying. Ah, I get it now. That is what one of the essential aspects of the prayers of the church are all about.

The prayer that happens in preparation for Pentecost is a prayer is praying the promises and the promises of God are that he brings vindication not just eternally at the end of things he brings vindication justification of who we are against our enemies in time and history to bear that’s a promise and God says pray that promise to me and then expect to see me answer it okay.

Seven, the praying church prays with devotions and requests. There’s two different words used here for the prayers of the saints in verse 14. They were all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. Prayer is a term that’s used to emphasize devotion. It’s a sacred term. It’s never almost there might be one occurrence where it isn’t used to pray to God, but that’s what it’s all about. And it refers to our devotion to God in prayer. You know, your walk, your commitment, your love for him, your devotion. That’s what prayer means generally here. Our conversing with God has devotion to it.

And then secondly, there are supplications. These are particular requests. They’re praying for vindication. They’re praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit. They’re praying that those wicked people that killed Jesus might be convicted and hopefully come to repentance or else God will destroy them. They’re praying for all. Those are supplications. They have needs. We have needs. But prayer is not limited to supplications.

And in fact, the most generalized term instead means devotion. How about you? You know what’s your devoutness? Your level of devoutness? Well, I will tell you that it seems to me that devotion is primarily found in the context of prayer. There are times in our lives when we feel very close to God and we praise his name and all that stuff. But I’m saying that if this term is one that really focuses our devotion, if you’re not a praying person, you’re probably a person whose life is not that devoted to God. Or put it other way around, you’re having trouble with your walk.

Why aren’t I more devoted? Why don’t I just sort of do like everybody else does in the culture. Maybe you’re not praying. Prayer is based upon and encourages and develops devotion to God, an understanding of his presence with us at all times.

So God’s people are a praying people, but they pray with devotion and not just with supplications.

And then finally, the eighth point and last they pray to the end that they might act. You know, it says they were continually in one accord. They’re persevering in prayer. But, you know, we’re also told at the end of Luke that they were continually in the temple. So, they weren’t continually in the upper house praying, right? It doesn’t mean that. It doesn’t mean it was a round-the-clock prayer meeting. People have these things. They’ll try to schedule the church where everybody’s praying round the clock in preparation for Pentecost because they think that’s what the disciples did. No, they didn’t. They went to the temple. It says they were doing that stuff.

And not only that, but immediately after this, prior to the day of Pentecost, they have a business meeting. They say, “Well, we need another disciple. We need another apostle rather. We got to fill the number for Judas Iscariot.” And so, they select that guy. They select him, of course, with prayer. But you see, they’re not just a praying people. They’re an acting people.

When we pray, we try to come to agreement with other people we’re praying about. Our prayers are informed by the basic idea that we’re seeking vindication of Christ’s cause in the context of the world and sometimes in terms of our own events. We’re looking for the manifestation of the kingdom of Christ to drive out every other manifestation. We’re doing all that stuff. We’re coming to agreement on those particular issues. We’re getting ready to actually work, but then we actually do work as well.

I don’t know how it happened. But, you know, one thing I think that’s helpful in prayer, particularly in groups that you’re praying with, have a notebook, write things down. You know, you’re not you don’t have to close your eyes when you pray. In fact, I think many times it’s more helpful to keep your eyes open because otherwise prayer becomes can kind of abstract. We’re praying about some kind of thing that isn’t really connected to here. But if you pray with your eyes open, you’re praying about this. You’re praying about people you see. You’re praying about things you’re involved in.

But in any event, don’t feel bad if you don’t do that. To occasionally open your eyes, God brings a thought to your mind. You write it down. They’re sitting around praying and I don’t know how it happened but maybe you know the spirit says okay look before I’m coming you got to pick out my replacement. I don’t know what it is but the point is they didn’t just pray they got up from prayer and acted out what they were responsible to do. They didn’t just pray they engaged in other things. They persevered in prayer. It doesn’t mean they prayed 100% of the time. It means they were continually praying. You don’t have to feel guilty if you’re not like them because you don’t pray 10 hours a day.

That’s not what it means. But if you’re not praying regularly, you’re not persevering in prayer. If you don’t have some times, regular times throughout the week where you’re gathering with someone else to pray, I think you’re missing the boat here. I think you’re missing the boat. Nothing happens. The world’s going to be conquered. Mission churches will be planted. Cultures will be transformed. All that will happen in relationship to the prayers of the church.

And if this church doesn’t engage in routine and regular group prayers seeking the victory of Jesus Christ made manifest in the world. You know, we’re not going to accomplish things as well. We’re not going to do it. God says prayer is what it’s about.

Now, you’re saying, “Well, I’m really a jerk. I haven’t prayed. I don’t pray. I don’t know what’s going on, but I just can’t find.” You’ve failed. I’ve failed. You’ve failed. Most of us fail in this area. But you know what? What that group of listed men who are the conquering army of the church gathered together to pray in the very beginning of the church to pray for victory and vindication. Those guys were ones whose lives were not characterized a few weeks earlier by unity and by courage. They were marked by division. They all left. When Jesus was crucified, they ran everyone their own way, right?

They were disunified. They were sinning. Prayer. A praying church is composed of people who are the particular objects of God’s grace. And understand that. And because of that, they feel confident in praying and expecting victory and answered prayer, not because of who they are, but because of what God has called them to be. I know you’ve messed up. I know most people in this church do not regularly pray with other people.

You just don’t do it. We should do it. We should have more encouragements, mechanisms, inducements to pray this way. Don’t feel guilty now though. Say, “Lord God, I see the importance of prayer. I see the significance of prayer. I see what prayer is about. This idea of vindication at least in part. Help me, Lord God, this week to find people to pray with in unison. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for the tremendous ability we have to speak with you and to increase our devotion, Lord God, and to bring our requests to you. Father, the enemy has had his way with us to a certain extent. We don’t pray as much as we should. And as much as we’ve talked about it for the last year or two, we still, Father, wish to pray more. Group prayers particularly, bring us together. Find us vehicles, Lord God. May men partner up with other men this week to say, “Let’s just get together and pray. If nothing else, let’s spend 15 minutes this morning praying together.

Bless us, Lord God, and may we be those people whose prayers are answered for the demonstration of your miracles, powers, and authority in the context of our world. Prepare us for the work that lies ahead of us by causing us to set aside time for prayer. In Jesus name we ask it.” Amen.