Martin Luther famously said the church is to be a mouth-house; he wanted his followers to know that Christianity is a vocal faith. Christians are—or at least are supposed to be—a mouthy people. Not mouthy in a sassy or smart-alleck sense, but mouthy in that our mouths are very important, and that the words that come out of them are in many ways essential to our identity as followers of Jesus Christ. The Bible shows God’s people not simply as people of action but as people of words—not merely as people who do certain things but as people who say certain things. David and Goliath is a great Old Testament story; but oh how much better the story is with words! Young David didn’t just walk out, sling a rock and kill Goliath; he said something to Goliath:
“You come to me with sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts…whom you have defied. Today He will deliver you into my hand; I will strike you down, cut off your head and give the bodies of the Philistines to the birds of the air and beasts of the field that all the earth my know there is a God in Israel and that He saves not with sword and spear!”
In the book of Daniel, three Jewish heroes of old, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, defy Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar by refusing to bow to his golden idol thus getting themselves thrown into a fiery furnace and ultimately delivered by God from the flames. What they do and don’t do is great, but what they say is what gives the story its power! “O Nebuchadnezzar, …our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand. But if not, be it known to you … we will not serve your gods or worship your golden image.”
That Jesus Christ, the centerpiece and focal point of the Christian life and faith, is called ‘the “Word” of God—the living “Word”—the “Word” made flesh who dwelt among us’ should signal to us loud and clear that words about this ‘Word’ are a big part of who we are. The great English preacher, Charles Spurgeon once said, “I’d rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” As God’s mouthy people it’s not just our words to the world in proclamation that make us who we are but, even more importantly, our words to God and His words to us in prayer. In this text I want to show you three outcomes of making (and keeping) prayer primary in the church.
Proclamation Remains Our Priority
God’s people have always been a people of proclamation because they have first been a people of prayer. David could denounce Goliath so bravely because he’d first devoted himself to God in prayer. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego could defy Nebuchadnezzar so boldly because they knew their God intimately in prayer. And here in the book of Acts the pattern continues. Upon the birth of the New Testament church at Pentecost and the days shortly thereafter, we see a ministry of gospel proclamation undergirded by prayer—a ministry of saying fueled and driven by a ministry of praying! This is a pattern we need to follow today. Church, we can’t ‘good deed’ people to salvation; good deeds don’t move people from death to life. We can’t do enough acts of kindness to see our friends and neighbors come to saving faith in Christ. Good deeds and acts of kindness are an important part of our witness and we need to do more of them; but they won’t contribute to a harvest of souls for the kingdom unless and until we open our mouths and tell people that Jesus is Lord and call them to repentance and faith. And if we’re going to open our mouths with the hope of salvation to the world, we have to make sure we’re opening our mouths to the God of salvation for help.
The apostles exemplify this. Look at v. 1: “In these days when the disciples were increasing in number…” Don’t you love that? Doesn’t it lift your soul reading the book of Acts and knowing that the same God who grew the church for His glory then can do it again? But here’s the thing: even amid the growth, Luke says, “a complaint…arose—a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.” It was a time of famine. The early church might’ve been thriving spiritually, but many of them were starving physically. Let’s get it out of our heads that to be God’s people in this world (whether individually or as a church) is to experience problem-free success. God reveals and builds His peoples’ character often through conflict and complaints. No matter how good things might be going, somebody’s not going to be happy—somebody’s going to feel left out or overlooked.
The apostles (who happened to be Hebrews) could’ve ignored the complaint of the Hellenistic believers, but they didn’t. God used the complaint to reveal their godly character. They not only had a message to proclaim but they were men who knew their Messiah by name. In Acts 1, after the risen Jesus goes up into heaven and before the Holy Spirit comes down at Pentecost—before there was any preaching—we find them apostles praying.
Prayer preceded proclamation in the early church because prayer preceded proclamation in the lives of her leaders—just as prayer had preceded proclamation in the life of her Lord. How did Jesus resist Satan’s temptations and declare his defeat in the wilderness? Because He’d spent 40 days and nights fasting and praying, that’s how! How could Jesus proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom day-in and day-out to hard-hearted Pharisees and hard-headed disciples? Because He often spent entire nights in prayer for heavenly help, that’s how! Proclamation was the priority because prayer was primary. Gospel proclamation will remain our church’s priority amid hostility and harassment from without and conflict and complaints from within when and only when—as with the leaders and the Lord of the early Church—prayer remains primary. Look at 4:31. Peter and John have been arrested, imprisoned, threatened and released. When they report back to the other believers a prayer meeting breaks out, and Luke says, “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Proclamation remains the priority when prayer is primary.
You don’t have to be an apostle or a pastor for this to be true of you. Just because your ministry of proclamation may not involve preaching at evangelistic crusades or Sunday sermons doesn’t mean you aren’t called to proclaim the good news. If you claim Jesus as Savior and have a functioning mouth, guess what, you’re on the roster—get in the game and name the Name! Just as much as Satan wants to stop the mouths of pastors and evangelists he wants to put the gag on each of you no matter how big or small your audience. And he’ll succeed in making proclamation something other than your priority in public when he can first distract you from making prayer primary in your private life.
Direction for Decisions more Clearly Discerned
We don’t know how much time passed between when the apostles got wind of the complaint and when they presented their solution to the problem—perhaps a few days, or only a few hours—but, whatever the time frame, given their pattern in the earlier chapters of Acts it’s hard to imagine them making such a decision without giving it some intense prayer. Here we can find a second principle: when prayer is primary not only does proclamation remain the priority but direction for important decisions is more clearly discerned.
Luke says in v. 2, “The twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.’” It may sound like the apostles are arrogantly saying they’re above meeting the everyday needs of people, but I assure you that’s not the case! If caring for the church’s widows wasn’t important to them they would’ve told the people to figure it out for themselves. But instead they emphasize the importance of meeting physical needs and elevate servanthood by instituting deacons, a new office of servant leaders recognized by the church for their godly character. Yet even though the apostles discerned God’s general direction for how best to meet the physical needs of those in the church, they didn’t make every decision. They put a great deal of trust in the discernment that God gives to all Christians through prayer and the Holy Spirit by asking the congregation to select and recommend deacons: “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.”
Hunger may not be a big need in our church currently, but there are other needs that deacons can meet on a day-to-day basis: logistical needs, financial and accounting needs, technical and administrative needs, and a general keeping track of the physical and emotional well-being of the church. Bridge has always had servants, but we’ve never instituted biblical deacons. Right now, given our size, we don’t need more than a couple of deacons, but giving you the opportunity to recognize and recommend men to serve in these capacities is one of my big goals this year. In v. 4 Peter gives the reason, “‘But we [i.e., the apostles, the original elders of the early church] will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And according to Luke, “what they said pleased the whole gathering…”
Some churches get upset when their earthly leaders don’t personally handle every detail of church life; these churches saddle their leaders with unreasonable expectations. Other churches get mad when their leaders become dictators and micro-managers who saddle themselves with unreasonable expectations by not trusting, equipping, and releasing the congregation to do the work of ministry. Both situations represent an unhealthy, unbiblical view of church leadership, whether on the part of the church or the leaders themselves. And this happens when either the church or the leaders lose sight of Jesus, the ultimate Head and Leader of the church. And we lose sight of our true Head and Leader when we lose touch with Him because prayer has ceased to be primary. The aim of every church should be Acts 6—leaders recognizing their limitations and rightly dividing ministry labor according to calling gifting, and a church pleased by and actively participating in the outworking of their leaders’ decisions. Both of these attitudes bear witness to the fact that Jesus is the real Head of a church. And when Jesus is seen as the Head of the church it’s a tell-tale indicator that a church is in touch with Jesus—that prayer is still primary in that church.
Message and Messengers Multiplied
When prayer is primary, proclamation is our priority. When prayer is primary, direction for decisions is clearly discerned. And finally, when prayer is primary the gospel message and messengers are multiplied. Luke says in vv. 5-7,
“…And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Permenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
A praying Lord set the example for the men who would become the church’s praying leaders. Those praying leaders set the tone for what became a praying church. One big gospel step those praying apostle-elders took was making sure the physical needs of the church’s most vulnerable members were being adequately met so that they could continue equipping and encouraging the whole church to multiply the gospel message and gospel messengers through their ministry of prayer and preaching.
If you’re in Christ today it’s because someone prayed for you and proclaimed the gospel to you—someone sought you as a gospel messenger and told you the gospel message. If that’s you, I’d like you to begin praying right now for anyone here who has never surrendered to Jesus through faith. And if you’re someone who’s never surrendered to Jesus, you’re being prayed for right now. Won’t you listen to the Holy Spirit? God the Son has come to earth and lived in a body just like yours. He’s faced every temptation you’ve faced, yet without sin, so that He could then go to the cross and offer Himself as a perfect and pure sacrifice in your place, for your sin taking God the Father’s wrath from you and offering God’s grace to you.
After the service today, if in your heart right now you’re saying, “God, I don’t want your wrath; I want your grace through Jesus,” I’d like to visit with you. That’s a direction and a decision that you have clearly discerned not through your own prayers, but through the prayers of others. To embrace that gospel message is to become a gospel messenger, and our church is here to help each other live as messengers of that message. And the most fundamental way we do that is by making and keeping prayer for each other primary. Perhaps none said it better than John Wesley: “Prayer is where the action is.” Wherever you are in your prayer life, let’s resolve together to get into the action, to pray with greater frequency and fervency, to truly be people of prayer!