23. The context is that the apostles have been commanded to stop preaching Christ. So they withdraw to pray for boldness. This is how they do so. Verse 23 of Acts 4. And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, why did the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word, by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Amen. Well, we're going to take a brief break from our series in Daniel over the next couple of weeks, and look together at some questions about prayer. Question one, why must we pray? We all know that we must pray, but do we stop to consider why? The first reason why we must pray is because Christ has commanded it. In Matthew chapter 6, and we are going to be looking at many different scriptures today, so keep busy with your Bibles. In Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5, Jesus says, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. Verse 6, he says, when you pray. Verse 7, he says, when you pray. Verse 8, he says, in this manner, therefore, pray. Jesus requires that his people should pray. In Luke chapter 11, he says this from verse 9. Luke 11, verse 9. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. And it will be opened to you for everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Clear command to pray there. And then in Luke 18, verse 1, he spoke a parable to them that men ought always to pray and not to lose heart. The Lord Jesus Christ requires that his people should pray. It is a clear and unmistakable command. And it is worth remembering that when all your desire to pray is gone. There will be times in your Christian life when the last thing you want to do, the last thing you feel like doing, or perhaps the last thing you feel able to do, is to pray. And it is at such times you need to hear the voice of Jesus commanding you to pray always. Perhaps we should say, especially when you least feel like it. It's a command. And we are under a lord and we are under a captain. And if he gives us a command, then it is our responsibility to obey. We must pray because Christ has commanded it. Secondly, we must pray because Christ has exampled it. When he became a man and dwelt upon the earth for those 33 years, he showed us what it meant to be a man. As we've seen in another study, he is the quintessential man. He is what it means to be a human being. And so when we want to know how to live a human life, we need to look at Jesus Christ. And it is most remarkable that his life was filled with prayer. Looking at Luke chapter 3 verse 21, we see that he began his public ministry with prayer. 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. He began his public ministry then, not by preaching, but by praying. Not by standing and declaring the word of God, but by standing and speaking with God. He began his public ministry in prayer. He prayed in solitude before the dawn. In Mark chapter 1 verse 31 we read, That's the wrong reference, Mark chapter one. Verse 35, yes. Mark 1.35, now in the morning, having arisen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed. So the Lord Jesus Christ found it necessary and important to rise up before the dawn in order to pray. There is our example. It is also noticeable that at the major turning points in his ministry, whenever he had either a particularly important thing to do, or a particularly significant revelation to make, he always prayed before he did so. In Luke chapter 6, he is about to choose the 12 apostles. And we read in verse 12, it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. And then when it was day, he called the disciples to himself and chose 12. So before he chooses the 12 who were to be most intimate with him, he spends all night in prayer. over the page in Luke chapter 9, the Lord Jesus is about to reveal to his apostles the most important revelation of all, that he is going to die, that he is going to suffer on that cross, and that he is going to rise again on the third day. That's the revelation that he gives in Luke 9 from verse 21. But what do we read he does before this great revelation verse 18 of Luke chapter 9? Well, as it happened, as he was alone, praying that his disciples joined him. Before he reveals to them the whole reason why he's come to this earth, he prays. This prayer was a constant part of his life. It was his native air. It was his vital breath. It was the essence of his spirituality. In Luke 5 verse 16 we read the simple statement. He himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. He often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. And, of course, before he reached the climax of his life and ministry, when he was to give himself upon that cross as the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of all of his people, we find him in the Garden of Gethsemane doing what? He's praying. He's upon his knees. He's pleading with the Father again and again and again. Oh, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will. But as you will. The very same time he commands his disciples to pray, but they are unable to pray. But Christ himself knows that he must pray. So this then is the second reason why you must pray as a Christian. It is because Jesus Christ has exampled such a life of prayer. A third reason why you must pray is because Christ continues to accomplish his work, even now in heaven, through prayer. Before he left his disciples, he prayed, and that prayer is recorded for us in John 17. But that prayer is not his final breath. No, we read repeatedly in the New Testament that He continues to pray for His people. Indeed, that is His work in heaven as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is interceding for His people. In Romans 8 verse 34 we read, Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen. who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. As he is seated on the throne at the right hand of God, Christ is interceding for his people. He is praying and accomplishing for his people all that is needful through prayer. In Hebrews 7, we read in verses 24 and 25, Because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood, therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. How is it that Christ is able to save? How is it that Christ is able to redeem and to deliver and to rescue his people? Through the work of intercession. That's what he says. Jesus is interceding. In 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1, John says, My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. The righteous. He is constantly advocating for us before the Father. Constantly interceding. Constantly bringing before the Father all of our needs and all that we require for our own perseverance in faith and final glorification. So if Jesus commands his people to pray, if Jesus models and examples that prayer in his own life upon the earth, and if Jesus himself continues in a life of ceaseless prayer on his throne in glory, then surely we must pray. and remember these things. As I've said, when you are tempted to lay aside praying or to leave praying to some other time, when you feel more inclined to praying, Christ has commanded it, Christ has exampled it. Christ continues to accomplish his work through prayer even now. You must pray. But that brings us to our second question regarding prayer. What is prayer? What is it? I commanded to engage in it, but what is it? Well, quite simply, prayer is communion with God. It is fellowshipping with God. That is, of course, what we were made for. He made us in his image, as we've seen in the book of Genesis, in order that he might commune with us. In Genesis 3, God comes to commune with Adam and Eve, to walk with them in the garden in the cool of the day, to fellowship with them. That's why he made them. That is what is different between man and all the rest of creation. Man is made for communion with God, for fellowship with God. And of course that is why we have been redeemed. We haven't been redeemed so that we can enjoy eternal heaven as though eternal heaven is a place of endless pleasure and endless delight and endless joy and endless glory. No, we have been redeemed so that we can enjoy the presence of Jesus. And that's what heaven is. It is to be before the face of God. It is to be in the presence of Jesus. It is to be gathered around his throne. It is to enjoy him. That is heaven. That is glory. That's what we've been redeemed for. To commune with God. And so we read in Ephesians 5. We could choose many passages, but here in Ephesians 5. Paul says that Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, so that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. The picture of the last day, the day of consummation, is the day when Jesus Christ is united with his bride. In what? In perfect holy communion. In never-ceasing, never-dying, never-ending, never-tainted fellowship. It's what God intended in the beginning. It is what God sent his son to accomplish. And that is why prayer was central to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because prayer in its essence isn't asking God for things, although that is involved in prayer. Prayer in its essence is communing with God. Cultivating a relationship with God. Expressing to God all our feelings and desires and longings. We might say really that this is the essence of Christianity, this is what it means to be a Christian. Paul expresses it beautifully in Romans 8 verse 15. You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. That's prayer, crying out to God, Abba Father, I am your child, you are my father. We are now in this beautiful relationship, this glorious communion, which is made possible in Christ. Or as we have it in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 6, because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba Father. That's what prayer is. The Westminster Larger Catechism, which was put together by a group of very godly men in the 17th century, question 178 is, what is prayer? Answer, prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God. It is a communing with God in that sense. It goes on, prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God in the name of Christ by the help of the spirit with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies. And that leads us really into the elements of prayer. As we ask what is prayer, we discover that there are four main elements in prayer. And these are helpfully put together by R.C. Sproul in an acrostic. Acts. A-C-T-S. Acts. Adoration. Confession. Thanksgiving. And supplication. Four elements in prayer. A for adoration. C for confession. T for thanksgiving. S for supplication. This is the heart of prayer. Not that all prayer contains all of these things. in this order and in perfect proportion, as though prayer was some kind of formula. No. But if you look at the life of prayer, if you look at an individual believer's prayer life or a church's life of prayer together, it will not lack any of these four things. And they will be there in prayer constantly and repeatedly. So for example, if you look at Psalm 51, you find that the elements of confession and supplication predominate there in that Psalm. As David cries out, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. David is pleading with God, that's supplication. pleading with God, supplicating God, asking God, begging God for mercy. And then he goes on to confess, verse 3 of Psalm 51, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned. So he confesses his sin and he supplicates God, he pleads with God for mercy and grace. And those two elements predominate in Psalm 51. The elements of adoration and thanksgiving are not predominant. But if you turn to Psalm 147, you find there that the elements of adoration and thanksgiving are predominant, and confession and supplication play a much secondary role. Psalm 147, praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite. He lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked down to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praises on the heart. to our God. So the psalmist here is majoring on adoration, adoring God for who he is, and thanksgiving. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. If we turn to the New Testament and a couple of examples there, the Lord's Prayer itself in Matthew 6 majors on three out of the four elements of prayer. Adoration, supplication, and confession. Our Father Matthew 6 verse 9, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So there is adoration, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Adoration of God. There is, of course, supplication. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Give us this day our daily bread. And there is confession, forgive us our debts as we forgive us our debtors. So there in the Lord's Prayer, Three elements predominate, but then if we turn to one more passage in the New Testament, Philippians chapter 4, where the apostle is giving instruction on prayer to the Philippian believers, he majors on thanksgiving and supplication here. Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So when you look at the prayers of scripture, you will find these four elements constantly coming back, constantly being repeated. And if you take the prayers of scripture as a whole, you'll find that you have these things in balance. There is adoration, there is confession, There is thanksgiving and there is supplication and it is useful when we come to pray to have these things in our mind as the elements of prayer, not as we've said and as we've seen that they all appear in every prayer in perfect proportion, but that in our prayer life as a whole, none of these will be missing. So, fundamentally, that answers our question, what is prayer? Let's finish with a third question. To whom do we pray? To whom do we pray? And the answer, of course, is to God alone. Westminster Catechism question 179 asks, are we to pray to God only? And the answer, great answer this. God only being able to search the hearts, hear the requests, pardon the sins, and fulfil the desires of all, and only to be believed in and worshipped with relation to worship, prayer, which is a special part thereof, is to be made by all to Him alone and to none. God is the only one who understands our hearts, we've got to pray to him. God is the only one who can hear our requests, we've got to pray to him. God is the only one who can pardon our sins, we've got to pray to him. God is the only one who can grant the longings of our heart, we must pray to him. God is the one we must believe in, so we must pray to him. God is the one we must worship, we must pray to him. God and God alone is the one to whom we must pray. And if we go back to question 178, remember what was said there. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, the Father, in the name of Christ, the Son, by the help of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. So when we say we are praying to God alone, we are saying we are praying to the God of the Scriptures alone. We are praying to the triune God alone. And if we are praying to any other God than the triune God of Scripture, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then we are not praying at all. That is why it is very important that we understand what a Muslim is doing when he prays. For he is not praying really at all. He is not praying to the true God and therefore it is not prayer in which he engages. It is idolatry. It is worship of a false God. One who is not God at all. Only the believer in the triune God of the scripture can pray. And that is an important thing to remember. Because only the believer is praying to the one true God. Again, it is interesting and important to note that prayer as patterned for us in the New Testament is invariably to the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit. And remember that. Invariably in the New Testament, prayer is to the Father, in the Son, By the Spirit. It is not primarily to the Son or to the Spirit. We do not find prayers in the New Testament that are directed primarily to God the Son or to God the Spirit. Primarily it is to the Father. He is the one to whom we predominantly speak. And we speak to him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we do so by the power, in the strength of the Holy Spirit. So that not only are we praying to the Triune God, but we are praying within the structure of the Trinity. And we understand what part, what particular special part, each member of the Trinity plays in the process of prayer. Let's look at some scriptures to demonstrate this. John 14 and following is the crucial section concerning praying to the Father in the name of the Son. John 14 verses 13 and 14 to begin with. John 14 13 whatever you ask in my name that I will do that the father may be glorified in the sun if you ask anything in my name I will do it. Turning over to John 15 verse 16. You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. And that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. John 16, 23 and 24. In that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, Whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full. So here Jesus emphasizes repeatedly three times over that the Christian is to pray to the Father in the name of the Son. And why? So that, John 14, 13, the Father may be glorified in the Son. The joy of the Father is that the Son is glorified. And the joy of the Son is that the Father is glorified in Him. And that is why we are to pray to the Father in the name of the Son. The role of the Holy Spirit then is to be our helper in prayer. And this is made clear by Paul in Romans chapter 8. Romans, I don't propose to expound these verses, simply to read them. Romans 8 26. Likewise the spirit also helps in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So clearly here it is the Holy Spirit who is helping Even to the extremity at points, evidently in the life of the believer, when the Holy Spirit prays. And we don't know how we ought to pray, but the Holy Spirit knows how we ought to pray. And he intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So we pray to the Father, we pray in the name of the Son, and it is the Holy Spirit who helps us in our praying. Now this is brought together in a number of prayers that we have recorded in Acts of the Apostles. I just want us to conclude by looking at the prayer we read at the beginning, Acts chapter 4. Here then is the gathered church in the days following the day of Pentecost praying together. And if ever we had a model for prayer, surely it is here before us. And I want you to notice how they pray to the Father, how they pray in the name and for the sake of God the Son. And how in the process of praying, the Holy Spirit fills them and strengthens them both for prayer and for preaching. Verse 24. Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, Why did the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word, by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. So here in this brief passage concerning that great prayer, the triune God is revealed, the Father, the one whom they are supplicating, the one to whom they plead. And they are doing so in the name of Jesus and for the sake of Jesus, verse 30. And it is the power of the Spirit that fills them, verse 31, as they engage in this prayer and then go out for the work of preaching. Somebody may then say, well, is it wrong to pray to Jesus? Or is it wrong to pray to the Holy Spirit? I don't see how it can be wrong to pray to any person of the Trinity. Because it is the triune God to whom we pray. But in a sense, that is the wrong question. The question we should ask is, what is the pattern of the New Testament? And how does the New Testament show us What the pattern of prayer is? And the answer is clear. Again and again and again. Pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Spirit. Prayer is communion with God. It is absolutely essential to the life of the Christian. Prayer brings us in to God. It brings us in to God, the Holy Trinity, to an experience of this triune, infinite being. We enter into God through the process of prayer. And that is why it is to the Father, in and through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. Amen. We'll pick up more questions regarding prayer next week, God willing.