Reading from Acts chapter 1 and verses 1 through 3. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen. to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Amen. Father, we thank you for your Word, and I pray that as I preach it, that I would be a faithful communicator of the things that you have laid upon my heart, and each one of us would be able to worship you the better, serve you the better as a result of having heard this Word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I had a premillennialist friend challenge me on my eschatology, and he said, OK, Phil, If the kingdom is here, how come there is so much evil in the world? And I immediately quoted from Psalm 110, which is the most frequently quoted New Testament quoted passage for the kingdom. And the father says in there to Jesus, rule in the midst of your enemies. So they're obviously enemies while Jesus is ruling. And then I immediately quoted from first Corinthians 15, where the whole purpose of his kingdom is to gradually be subduing all enemies under his feet. The last enemy being death, which is at his second coming. And so there is a progressive putting down of enemies. Enemies are going to be at the time of his kingdom. And The same kind of misunderstanding was present and probably held to by the majority of Jews at the time of Luke, because if you read some of the teachings of the rabbis at that time, they were teaching that when the Messiah came, that Roman rule would end and there would be pervasive immediate peace that would be brought everywhere. And in their mind, the fact that Jesus did not instantly set up a political kingdom and instantly establish shalom was proof positive that the kingdom had not yet come and that he was a fraud that needed to be put down and that Christians were dangerous insurgents who needed to be eliminated. And as these Christians were being persecuted and taken to court for trials, sometimes they were just outright killed without a court trial, but that was illegal. But when they were taken to court, Theophilus, with his influence, would submit the books of Luke and Acts as a defense that what the Christians are saying is true, that the kingdom has indeed come. When I preached on Luke, I proved that Theophilus was the former high priest who ruled over Israel. You've got to realize that the rulers of Israel back then were from the priesthood, the Sadducees, and they were appointed by the Romans. But he ruled from 37 to 41 AD, and like the Apostle Paul, he too had persecuted Christianity. And yet, in God's amazing grace, at some point prior to AD 57, he got converted and began to be a disciple. And this put Theophilus in a very precarious position because he was hated by the other leaders, but he still had a great deal of... And this is precisely why Luke wrote both Luke and the Book of Acts to Theophilus. Though he had been kicked out of the high priesthood by Rome, and it may have even been because the Sadducean family disowned him and had set him aside, they could not kick him out of influence. Josephus says that he continued to be a leader with great influence in Israel and even commanded an army all the way up to AD 66. We don't know if he got killed at that point, what happened to him. But two weeks ago, we saw that Luke and Acts were written to him for two reasons. The first reason was to further ground Theophilus in a biblical world and life view. And from the first verse of Luke through to the end of Acts, It is just jam-packed with world and life view issues that would have completely purged him of every bad theology that he had grown up with among the Sadducees. The second reason for these two books was that they could be introduced to Jewish courts as evidence on behalf of any individual Christian that was being prosecuted there, even though These commentators have gotten the audience wrong. They think it was a Gentile audience rather than this high priest. Several scholars have shown that the sophisticated Greek of Luke and Acts constitutes a legal defense of Christianity. And again, every verse of these two books would have formed a perfect, perfect defense of individual Christians being tried within a Jewish court. Both books presuppose a sophisticated Jewish legal audience. And when I get to heaven, one of the burning questions that I'm going to have is, how many judges and how many lawyers and how many perhaps jurors got converted because they were forced to read this evidence that was brought into court because if they're going to follow the law, which they didn't always do, but if they were going to follow the law, they had to read the defense that was given by the accused. And in this case, it would be the books of Luke and Acts. I mean, this is just a brilliant move. Well, you'd expect it to be brilliant. It's written by God, right? He's the one who gave this. Well, Acts begins by referring back to that previous book, the former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. So the former account is Luke, the Gospel of Luke. If that account was of what Jesus began both to do and to teach, then you would expect the book of Acts is what he continues to do and to teach through his apostles. As apostles, they represented Jesus. They were his mouthpiece. What they said, Jesus is considered to have said. What they did represented what Jesus did. They were his spokesmen. They were his mouthpieces. And the next two verses give the introduction to a book that is absolutely packed with carefully documented courtroom evidence that the kingdom had indeed come. Verse two says until the day in which he was taken up So his throne would be at the right hand of the father just as daniel had prophesied concerning the son of man Uh of daniel 7. This is a daring and in-your-face contradiction to The jewish rabbi's teaching that jesus. Well, the messiah was going to have an earthly political Kingdom a belief by the way that led to their disaster in just a few years There were these false messiahs that came up that they followed. The vast majority of Israel followed. There were some leaders who said, no, let's not do this. But the vast majority follow it. And even in 135 A.D., this is in the next century, they're still looking for a political messiah. And they follow Bar Kokhba. And it ends up absolutely disastrous where they are permanently destroyed. In a bit, Luke will make the connection with Daniel 7 by saying that Christ was caught up in the clouds of heaven. Here he's just introducing it. Verse 2 goes on to show that he left his kingdom representatives behind to follow his orders. They were apostles who spoke in his name, and everything they did represented what Jesus did. In the Hebrew concept, an apostle is a sheliach. He is a representative. So what they say the person who sends them says. So even though this is the acts of the apostles, it's really the acts of Jesus through the apostles. And as courtroom proof that this did indeed happen, he says in verse three, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So he's using courtroom language to demonstrate Jesus did indeed establish and he entrusted it to the hands of his apostles. Verses four through five connect Pentecost with John the Baptist's promise. John the Baptist was respected by many, many, many people in Israel. They considered him to be a prophet, and so there's a great apologetic purpose in introducing him here. Verse 4, And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And I will comment on that command to wait in a bit, but let me finish off on these initial ideas on the kingdom. Kingdom growth would begin in Jerusalem, but it could only come in power when the prophesied Holy Spirit was poured out. But in verse six, the question that would be on everyone's mind in the courtroom is worded by the apostles themselves. Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? It was a legitimate question because John the Baptist had been preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus himself had preached, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They're not false prophets. They were not wrong. Kingdom didn't get postponed for 2000 years. It was at hand and at hand mean it's about to happen. It's about here. And so they were expectant and rightly so. And Luke will go on to prove that just as the remnant in the Babylonian exile, remember when they got cast out of Israel with Daniel and Shadrach and all of those guys, that remnant constituted the true Israel. Now the remnant of Jews that formed the church constitute the new Israel in the first century to whom God would restore the kingdom. But a kingdom unlike that of the Jewish leaders, it will be a growing kingdom that the gospel of Luke is already anticipated and spoken about. Verse one points you back to Luke. If you're going to have a full picture, you've got to take Luke and Acts together. But one corrective Jesus gives is that kingdom victory will not happen overnight. It will take place over a long period of time. The restoration would happen, he says, over times and seasons. Okay, verses 7 through 8, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria until the end of the year. So this is not a kingdom that's going to be established overnight. It would be established over times and seasons and the word for times chronos refers to long periods and so you got several of these long periods and then the Seasons word is a word that many translate as epic making events Okay, so there are the transitional periods of epic making Events between those times and there are dozens of Old Testament Passages that they should have known about that indicated that the kingdom is going to grow just like Joshua took the conquest over quite a period of time Kingdom would not be established by armies or by politics. It would be established by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. I And then comes the narrative that would draw every Jewish reader's memory back to Daniel 7, the famous passage that predicted that the Messiah would ascend on the clouds, which he mentions here, on the clouds of heaven to his throne at the right hand of the Father in heaven. And during the period of the fourth empire, Rome. Let me read that background passage, and I think you'll see the connection. This is from Daniel 7, 13 through 14. I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man." And let me just pause there for a sec. Remember from our Luke gospel, we saw that the Son of Man is just pervasive. That's what Luke's favorite reference to Jesus is there, occurs 21 times. So he presents Jesus as the Son of Man, he says, Behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven, He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. Now Theophilus, a former high priest, would have immediately caught the implications of this. Jesus was ascending on the clouds to receive His promised kingdom at the right hand of the Father. But Theophilus would also catch the scary implications of Daniel 7 when it goes on in that chapter to say there's going to be persecution that's going on. At the same time that the kingdom is going to be growing like crazy in the first century, Daniel 7 predicts that it's going to be persecuted like crazy in the first century. In fact, it's going to be persecuted so severely that eventually the church will almost be extinguished just before the court of heaven is seated, and they bring judgment in favor of the saints and cause the kingdom to continue to grow through the rest of history. So this will help Theophilus to understand that the persecutions in the rest of this book were not unanticipated in connection with the kingdom. This is such an important apologetic point. for the Jews of that day. So after seeing Jesus ascend in a cloud to heaven, an angel says in verse 11, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus who was taken from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. And the rest of the book shows Jesus, who is the greater Joshua, same name, leading the conquest and advancing his kingdom from a few to an innumerable company. And I want you to just follow along with me on some of the numbers that you see in Acts, starting with Acts 1, verse 15. It speaks here of 120 in the upper room. So it's a pretty small number. The kingdom starts very, very small, but it's the absolute minimum number that was required to establish a new Israel. There had to be 120 men or leaders. There were women and children as well, but there had to be 10 leaders from each of the 12 tribes of Israel in order to legally be able to constitute a new Israel. Now look at chapter two, verse 41. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them." So, in one day, an additional 3,000 people were saved. But it's addition, not multiplication. Multiplication would require somebody who gets saved also evangelizing and saving other people. But at this point, you know, it's the mass evangelism. It's addition. Look at chapter 4, verse 4. However, many of those who heard the word believed and the number of the men came to be about 5,000. Now look at verse 32. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. So it has become a multitude. So even though it's addition only at this point, the church is growing like crazy. Once individuals are trained to do evangelism, it's going to start multiplying. But here it's just addition. Now look at chapter five, verse 14. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women." So it's gone from a multitude to multitudes, plural. Same chapter, verse 28, saying, did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. So it's gone from a multitude to filling Jerusalem. So far it's addition. In chapter 6, we begin to see multiplication because the leadership has been training the people. Now, in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, at verse 7, Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faiths." So it's gone from multiplying to multiplying greatly. And if you just trace this through, I've got another additional 21 references to no matter which region they go to, it starts being added, and then multiplying, and then multiplying greatly. Very, very encouraging references. And all of this was prophesied to happen when the kingdom began. Throughout the book, there are two things that go side by side, just as prophesied in the book of Daniel. Church growth, church persecution. Both are signs that the kingdom has come. In fact, Daniel would say, if there was no persecution, the kingdom has not come. It prophesied there had to be persecution at the beginning of the kingdom. Enemies and persecution is not a sign that the kingdom has not come. It is just a sign that there's still more enemies that need to be put under Christ's feet before his work is finished. And sprinkled throughout the book of Acts are the same warnings that we find in the book of Luke, that if Israel does not repent as a nation, it will be destroyed very soon. Anyway, the Book of Acts is divided up then into seven distinct parts with seven summary statements that show the geographical spread of the gospel from Temple all the way to Rome. Each section ends with a note of the victorious advance of the gospel. Now, according to Daniel, this had to happen prior to the great tribulation, prior to the time of the great falling away or the great apostasy of the church, which would happen in the last days of the old covenant. So those would be happening in the last days, just prior to the temple being destroyed and the priesthood and sacrifices and all of the old covenant ceremonies. And I'll cover the book using those seven sections, and we're going to be seeing that prayer is at the root of each one of these. Okay, enough by way of background. First, just as prophesied, the kingdom starts in the temple, which is God's throne room. That's a very logical place to start, God's throne room. In my sermon series in Acts 1, I demonstrated that the upper room where the spirit fell was a certain portion of the temple's outer court that could be rented out. It is represented in the top two pictures of your outline. And when they exited onto the roof, onto the platform up there, out of those upper rooms, when they preached, they could see everybody in the whole temple courtyard. Tens of thousands of people could be preached. There is no better place in all of Jerusalem to be able to preach to such massive crowds than from that temple. So it was a perfect spot for Pentecost. And of course, Ezekiel prophesied that the Spirit would be poured out in that temple. And in verses 12 through 26, a new Israel is formed, as I already mentioned. It required a minimum of 120 men to constitute a new Israel. Twelve of those men were apostles. Seventy were prophets that Jesus had earlier commissioned. And that too really parallels the setting up of the old Israel under Moses. The 12 princes, the 70 elders, the kingdom was being restored. to Israel, not the old Israel, but to the remnant of Israel. I'm not going to go into all of the details that we went through in my Acts series, and I'm not going to get into the parallels between the first Pentecost under Moses and this Pentecost, though I think Theophilus would have immediately picked up on those. Interestingly, Jewish proselytes from every nation under heaven were added to this Israel at this point. Now, that's not a new thing. In the Old Testament, even in Esther, many Gentiles became Jews, right? They got converted. And so you're not going to get the big circumcision controversy happening at this time, because these Gentiles, they'd already become Jews. They were circumcised. But now they're joining the New Testament church. Notice chapter two, verse four. So there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. So it's an incredible symbol of a worldwide kingdom. And the universal nature of this kingdom is not just symbolized by the new converts from every nation under heaven, But it's also symbolized by them speaking in tongues, which Isaiah and 1 Corinthians 14, 21 through 22 said was a sign of judgment upon Israel and a sign of God's reversal of judgment upon the nations. It's a reversal of the tower of Babel. Then Joel is quoted as both promising the Spirit to those who submit to Jesus and promising the destruction of Israel in verses 19-20 if they don't repent. So there's really a lot of kingdom themes that are packed together in this section. All through verses 22 through 39, sample Old Testament messianic prophecies are said to have been fulfilled in Jesus. And again, this would be very, very hard evidence for people in a Jewish courtroom to refute. They could just ignore it. And frequently they did ignore the evidence, right? Just get mad. But they could not refute it. And then verses 40 through 47 finish the first section by showing the success of Jesus's kingdom within the temple grounds. Now you might wonder how on earth were they able to even meet regularly in the temple. There were some Levites and apparently pretty prominent Levites who had been converted You can think of Barnabas and Mark and Luke himself was probably a Levite. And so somebody that was in prominent position had first dibs and he had reserved these rooms and rented them. And because they're rented, they couldn't be kicked out of them. There was a reason. Anyway, it says in verse 46, so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. Since this is where crowds came every single day It was the logical first step for the advancement of the gospel And if you look at verse 47, it gives the summary statement for the first section Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved So it's a marvelous picture of not only the establishment of the kingdom but of the growth of this kingdom and Now, what is the reason for the success? And it's simple. It was prayer. Earlier, I had read that Christ's command to wait in prayer until they were endued from on high by the Holy Spirit. The men, the women, the children, they were all gathered there in prayer. Their first duty was not to go. Now, the Great Commission is a command to go, right? But before they could go successfully, they had to be filled with the Spirit. Before they could be filled with the Spirit, they had to wait upon the Lord in prayer. If you are not waiting on the Lord in prayer, you might as well give up your ministry. There's no point in being involved in any ministry. Much of our zealous work is produced by efforts that come from our own right arm of flesh. It does not shake the world. All it does is it shakes us, it wears us out. And I speak from personal testimony because I have been guilty of going, being very busy without waiting many times, and what it amounts to is ministry in the flesh that does not accomplish anything. It's sad, but the scripture says that those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. We got to wait on the Lord before we can run. That's the whole point. Those like Phil Kaiser who can't waste time In prayer because we got to get something done. We got so much we got to do They just end up doing running on a rat cage. What do they call those squirrel? circle things going nowhere or treadmill going nowhere And it is such a sad testimony that so many christians nowadays Do not pray We do not wait upon the lord. We're too quick to run before we wait. J. Sidlow Baxter, in his commentary on Nehemiah, said, Speaking generally of today, there is a brilliant but frustrating overemphasis on the human, the energetic, in religious service. More than ever before, we wrestle with social problems in committees and conferences, but less than ever do we wrestle on our knees against evil spirit powers which lie behind the social evils of our day. Nearly everybody in committee has a fine program, but few indeed seem to have a real spiritual burden. The practical has overridden the spiritual, and when that happens, the practical becomes utterly impractical. The church in the 20th century is busy. There is no question about that. But the proof that our emphasis on the practical has become utterly impractical is with the results. Has the Church of America transformed America? No. Not a lick. In fact, it's the church that's been transformed by the world. We do not shake the world because we have not been shaken by the Holy Spirit ourselves. It is one of the hardest things in the world to do for prideful, self-sufficient people to pray. It's certainly been the hardest thing for me to do, and it does not speak well of me. Christ told them to wait, and I think the first lesson that we need to learn There are all kinds of people who want us to be involved in this and that and the other kind of thing, but we need to find out, first of all, is this what God wants us to do? And then to wait upon the Lord for His power to be able to achieve that. The greatest missionary movement in the entire world began with waiting on the Lord. And if you are distracted from prayer with all of the things that need to get done, then I would encourage you to check your spirit with the words that Christ gave in verse four. And he repeated them in Luke 24, 29. Wait, wait, wait on the Lord. Those are very, very important words. Now, in the next section, the kingdom advances all throughout Jerusalem. Now, persecution heats up. But so does missions, and so does prayer. And I want you to look at chapter 4, verse 31. It says, 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. When they had prayed, And I want you to notice that this is not the first time they were filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter 2, they're filled with the Holy Spirit. Now the same people that had been filled with the Holy Spirit are filled with the Holy Spirit again. In Ephesians it says we need to repeatedly be filled with the Holy Spirit. Every day we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. And how do we get filled with the Spirit? It's through prayer. The Spirit fell upon them when they had prayed. Evangelism is a critical task of the church. Obviously, we need to be involved in it. But effective evangelism flows from prayer. When they had prayed. Again, filling of the Holy Spirit is essential to the success of anything. But the Spirit of God fell upon all of them when all of them were praying. And many people have said that the only way we're going to shake the world is if the church is once again shaken by the Holy Spirit. I want to take a look at the prayer itself, because I think it's a very God-centered prayer, and I think we could be instructed by it. Chapter 4, verse 24. First words out of their mouth, whoever is leading this prayer, the whole congregation entering with their amen to it. But he says, Lord, you are God. Now I'm afraid that the church of today, even though theologically they know that the Lord is God, do not act as if the Lord is God. They act as if everything depends upon themselves. Okay, if we really believed the Lord was God, we would spend more time praying to him than trusting ourselves. But we would also stake our lives, and we'll take a look at how he continues. Lord, you are God, you who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them. To pray from a stance of victory, we've got to be convinced that the Lord God is not just the creator, but the sustainer of this whole world, and there is nothing not even the greatest enemies that are outside of God's control. If we really believed that, again, we would go to him rather than to ourselves first. But we would also stake our lives and our reputations on the truth of his word. They appeal to Psalm 2 and God's promise that Christ's resurrection meant that he inherited the kingdom. He was reigning in power even then. It may not have looked like it, But Psalm 2 actually prophesied the persecution. That's not outside of God's control. I mean, this is something that ought to encourage our hearts. Hallelujah. They prayed, 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. So they're not praying just for victory. They're praying from the victory that was anchored in God's nature, in his promises, in the resurrection and ascension of 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, get this, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Wow, God not only knew about this persecution, God ordained that this persecution had to happen in the initial stages of the kingdom. So the point is, they're not praying against some tragedy that has happened. They're not praying that God's going to somehow eek something good out of a cosmic mess. No, God's in control of even the persecution that happened. The one leading the prayer goes on in verse 29. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word. He's not denying the reality of evil and the persecution around them, but they're praying for boldness, which Christ purchased for them. Verse 30, by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. So all of these requests were based on the belief that Jesus already has the victory legally, and they're just about the task of plundering Satan's kingdom. So they're not praying from a sense of helplessness, but from a sense of confidence in his kingdom. So really, and I've preached on this so many times, but we do not need more resources. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says we've been blessed with every resource we need in heaven. Prayer is actually just taking from heaven what is already ours and bringing it into space-time history. I think we need to have more prayers from the vantage point of those who are seated in the heavenlies. More prayer that is based upon the eschatology of victory that the scripture lays forth. Now, another thing that I see is that sin must be dealt with if the church is to have power. Chapter 5 shows the pride and the lies of Ananias and Sapphira. And when sin grieves the spirit, then we lose his power. When that sin was dealt with, the power returned. And Chapter 5, you know, the rest of those verses indicate, again, the church is advancing like crazy. Now, of course, persecution also increases. Satan always desperately lashes out when his kingdom is being invaded. But I want you to look at chapter six and verses three through four. We've already seen that the church membership was given over to daily prayer. But I want you to notice that this was even more true of the leadership. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. I think if we saw the leadership of America's churches praying like the apostles prayed and praying like Christ prayed, there would be a huge difference in our churches. And if you are a leader or if you want to be a leader in this church, I would ask you, how much do you value prayer? And I think we can tell how much we value prayer by how much we actually pray. If you trace the prayer life of the apostles, elders, and Christ, and you compare it to the 21st century American leadership, I think you'll have the answer for why churches do not shake America. We are not shaken by the Holy Spirit. I will confess, I am not shaken by the Holy Spirit adequately. And one of the characteristics I think you should look for in any leader that you nominate to the offices is, are they people with a burden for prayer? Are they people who are driven by prayer? A praying leadership was a key reason for the early church's success in missions. If you take a look at verse 7 of chapter 6, it ends this section of the book with that summary statement. And the word of God spread, the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Luke ends every single section in the book with similar statements of Christ's victory. Now, chapter 6, verse 8, through chapter 9, verse 31 is the next section, shows the kingdom blossoming outside Jerusalem. It goes to Judea and Samaria in a very powerful way, and there are three reasons that it does so. First of all, they dealt with sin in chapter 6. In this case, it was the sin of prejudice. And second, there was a commitment to diaconal work of mercy ministries, and in third, prayer. We find Stephen in chapter 7, verse 60, he's got such a burden for those that are around him that even while they are stoning him and blood is coming out of his body, he is praying for his enemies. Nothing deviates a man of prayer from his prayer burden. That's why we call it a burden, because it's a supernaturally given urge you cannot get away from. When the Spirit of God is drawing us in prayer, it's not just prayer that's coming from our own flesh out of grit our teeth, you know, we gotta pray. No, this is a burden that the Holy Spirit gives to us then you cannot get away from it. The last verse of chapter 7 says, then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts is not just a book on missions. It is also a book that describes what kinds of things can flow from individuals and from churches when they are stirred up by the Holy Spirit to pray. And this is one of the things that I pray, may our church have this kind of a prayer burden. Chapter 8 shows remarkable miracles that flowed from prayer. Chapter 9 shows Ananias praying for Saul, whom he said you'll recognize as a man who himself is praying. Chapter 10 gives a remarkable story of Cornelius. Verse 2 says, he prayed to God always. What a remarkable testimony. He prayed to God always. Would that not be an incredible testimony to be given to each of us? We pray always. Peter is another figure. The story about him, he's caught up in prayer when God spoke to him. So here's the point. If we lose the prayer of these passages, we lose the missions of these passages. We lose the power of these passages. But what happens when you are successful in plundering satan's kingdom well he lashes back and again you see this constant pattern in the book theophilus needed to understand that the two things go hand in hand in the first stages of the kingdom and so we see persecution of the saints uh in in these verses we see the martyrdom of deacon stephen by the way his testimony in chapter seven i won't get into it but it is In terms of the legal defense in the Jewish court, this was a marvelous statement, where he gives a survey over the whole Old Testament, vindicating himself, and actually condemning the leadership of Israel. Now, obviously, they still kill him. Some people are not convinced by evidence. Their demonic rage is exposed. Saul, who later becomes Paul, was one of those who was involved in the stoning of Stephen. and his persecution in chapter 8 results in the church being scattered everywhere. I'm going to go ahead and read chapter 8 verses 1 through 8. Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time, a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes, with one accord, heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. Now that's not the normal word for preaching, which is what officers would do. This is the word euangelizo. It's the word for evangelizing. So I want you to notice in this passage that it's not just the pastors who evangelize. Actually, the pastors, the apostles remained in Jerusalem, but it's the rest of the saints who were scattered everywhere, went everywhere evangelizing with the word. How it could be literally translated every member should have a burden to share the gospel missions is in every member Ministry and the persecution that was designed to stamp out the kingdom fires When it stomped on the fires just scattered sparks everywhere and there were brush fires that made it impossible for Satan to control it just grew out of out of his control. Philip the deacon had by this time become an evangelist, and verses 5 and following describe his work. And I already read that. Philip was the first one to get the church to cross racial boundaries. Samaritans were a mixture of Jewish and Gentile religion. It was a kind of a syncretistic religion, but they were circumcised, so any Samaritans who became Christians The circumcision question controversy did not yet come up, but it opens up the door to Paul's conversion, which will occur in chapter nine, since Paul would be the greatest evangelist to the Gentiles out there. But all of this is crafted in a way to prove that Jesus is indeed fulfilling the son of man passage in Daniel. He is indeed inheriting the nations. The apostles were a little bit reluctant to reach the Gentiles, but Philip, like a green beret, is jumping into the toughest jobs. Of course, Saul's conversion has a huge apologetic purpose in this book as well, because, hey, if he could be converted, that has a huge impact. If Theophilus could be converted, that has a huge impact, right? Because he was the high priest. But Saul was one of the chiefest persecutors. He had been authorized by the high priest. I think this would have brought some painful memories back to Theophilus. But Paul had studied under the famous Gamaliel, and if he could be convinced of the truth of Christ's claims, I think it says a lot to a Jewish court. Now, he too is persecuted in chapter 9 as he takes the gospel to the Gentiles. But look at how the section ends, chapter 9, verse 31. Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. There's no stopping his kingdom. And if you read through those passages, you'll see prayer is at the foundation there as well. I won't read it for time's sake. One of the most radical changes that happened to the church occurs in chapter 10, when the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household are admitted to the church without getting circumcised. This is a first. A lot of people think, you know, the Samaritans was the first. No, this is the first time that an uncircumcised person is admitted to the church. Now, keep in mind that the early church saw itself as being the new Israel, the true Israel. So how could Gentiles join the church without becoming Jews, without getting circumcised? Though God settles this question in a sense in chapters 10–11 through Peter's vision, it is really not until chapter 15 that this huge issue of Jew and Gentile being in one body is finally settled. They had a hard time figuring out how Gentiles could possibly become a part of Israel without getting circumcised. This is the way it's always been before, right? Now, you've got to remember, it's not an ethnic issue. Being part of Israel, Esther says, many Gentiles became part of Israel. It's a religious concept, not an ethnic one. But it was like moving mountains to get the church to reach the Gentiles in Herod's kingdom and in Syria, which is the subject matter of chapter 9, verse 32 through chapter 12, verse 4. So to me, it's no wonder that this section is absolutely jam packed with signs and wonders to convince the people of the reality of God's mission to the Gentiles. God had to move heaven and earth to get the church to change and to convince them. And so this section is strewn with signs and wonders. I'm not going to go through those. I've listed those for you in your bulletin. But the church did change. Praise God, it changed. And it changed in part because they were given to prayer and prayer connected their heart with God's heart. Let me just give you some examples. Chapter 12 gives the story of Peter's imprisonment. Verse 5 says, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. As a result of those prayers, all of the power of Herod could not stand against them. Stone walls and metal chains could not keep him captive. But who offered up those prayers? It was just ordinary citizens like you at a prayer meeting. It mentions many had gathered together praying in verse 12. And in verse 17, they sent messengers to other homes, implying that there's prayer meetings going on in many other homes as well. And look for the far-reaching results of such prayer, verses 20 through 24. Now, Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. But they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus, the king's chamberlain, their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king's country. So on a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, The voice of the God and not of a man. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied. Now, that last verse summarizes the success of the gospel through the region of Herod's kingdom and Syria. So God knows how to take out the opposition. He knows how to advance the church. But the question is, will we humble ourselves by joining in prayer? I think the contrast between prideful Herod and the humble prayers of the church just by itself is a remarkable contrast, which we just don't have time to get into. So brothers and sisters, I'm going to remind you, we do have weekly opportunities for prayer, prayer meetings that few take advantage of. And I'll just say, hey, if those prayer meetings are not convenient for you, start your own prayer meeting. You can invite other people from the church into your own prayer meetings, but let's be men and women and children of prayer. Prayer is a key. And it's one lesson that just brought me to tears over and over this past week as I was reading through the book of Acts. We must be a praying people if we are to experience the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Now, the next section, chapter 12, verse 25 through 16, verse 5, advances the kingdom to Asia. Barnabas accompanied Paul on this journey through Cyprus, Pisidia, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and back to Jerusalem, where the whole church was threatened to divide over a very controversial issue. Now, God had already settled that controversy in chapters 10 through 11, but the Judaizers kept pressing, they've got to be circumcised, we're the Israel, you've got to be circumcised. And why would they do that? I would say that controversy makes no sense whatsoever unless the church is indeed the new Israel. It makes no sense whatsoever. God made baptism replace circumcision, but that baptism did indeed admit Gentiles into the church, into the Israel of God, or to use Romans 11, into the one olive tree. If the church is Israel, as it is, then these Judaizers insisted people had to get circumcised. This is the way it's always been. And Peter, James, and John, I won't go into how they did it, but they used the scriptures to prove otherwise. The church recognized that this would destroy God's worldwide purpose of the gospel. And so the Jerusalem decree settles the issue. And that decree is sent with Paul to the churches of Asia. That prayerfully entered decision resulted in God's blessing that stated in the final verse of that section, that's chapter 16, verse five. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. God brought them through a satanically inspired division that could have destroyed the church. How did they navigate those rough, tough waters? It was by prayer. Let me just back up a little bit. Chapter 13, verses 2 through 3. This deals with the sending out of missionaries to the Gentiles with fasting and prayer, but I want you to notice how verse 2 is worded. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted. Prayer is not just about petition. Prayer is about worship and adoration and glorying in God. It says they ministered to the Lord. Those are some of the most astounding words in my consciousness, because how can we minister to God? He needs nothing. He doesn't need our worship. And yet it says they ministered to the Lord. To me, this is so encouraging that God loves our worship. He loves us glorying and when he has our hearts and we have his heart, it is something that glorifies him and must encourage him. So our concerns, here's the point I want to make from that. When we pray, our concerns should not be so much about what we want, as what God wants for the advancement of His kingdom. And when we worship Him, when we glory in Him, we become so God-centered, we're consumed about His kingdom, and all of our prayer requests are kingdom-related. That's what makes them answerable in God's economy. But the second thing that they did was to fast. Notice that this is not fasting over persecution. This is simply fasting over the ordination and commissioning of elders. Why? Well, they took the task very, very seriously. And I would urge the church to take seriously our desire to train and raise up leaders to replace us. We're getting old. Well, maybe we're not old. We've got a few years to go. Gary pointed at me, he said, I'm old. We do need to raise up leaders. And so we need to pray. We need to bathe this process in prayer. If we're to be led by the Lord, we need to fast. And getting the wrong leadership can be disastrous to the church. One of the reasons for fasting. Verse three says, then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. Bathing that event in prayer ensured that the very next words were true. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit. So many people who enter into ministry or offices of the church are not sent by the Holy Spirit. Prayer and fasting would raise up leaders who were sent by the Holy Spirit. And by the way, this was the pattern throughout the scripture. I'll just give you one example I've got in my notes here. Chapter 14, verse 23 says, when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. So the fasting was connected with every ordination, every commission in every church. We don't seem to take it that seriously. Fasting is a component of prayer that is almost non-existent in many churches. If we would have the power of the early church, I think we might want to pay attention to how they prayed, and fasting was one of the components. The results of prayer in Asia are given in chapter 16, verse 5. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. Then the gospel advances to Europe in chapter 16, verse 6, through chapter 19, verse 20. There were enormous spiritual battles that were won in Europe, and the last verse summarizes the victory of Christ's kingdom by saying this, so the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. How did it prevail? Again, by prayer. That's how it prevailed. First place they went was where Lydia and a group of women were praying in Acts 16, 13. Very next confrontation with the demonic is in prayer. Chapter 16, verse 16, the earthquake that shook the jail and freed Paul and Silas was after a night of what? Praying, worship, singing psalms. And prayer can shake open doors today that are closed. But in chapter 19, verse 21, we come to the last section of the book. It says, when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. From that verse through to the end of the book, it's Romeward bound. Now, he probably didn't realize initially he was going to get to Rome by getting getting jailed in Jerusalem. But this is what prophet after prophet began telling him was going to happen. And he said, fine, I fully embrace it. Why? Because he wants Rome to be ground to powder as the image of Daniel chapter 2 talks about, right? That image represents the kingdoms of the world, and the stone that is cut without hands comes out of heaven, it crushes the feet, which represents Rome, grinds it to powder, grinds all of the other kingdoms to powder, and the wind eventually blows away the dust of that so that the only thing that remains upon planet Earth is the kingdom of Christ. which grows into a great mountain, fills the whole world. Okay, that's one of the Daniel images that stands behind the book of Acts. And Paul will begin that process by invading Rome with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, I don't have time to go over all of the accusations, the defenses that Paul makes, but let me tell you something. Anybody in a courtroom that's reading the defense of this Christian, and they're reading all of this back and forth, It's incredible defense of Christianity. Absolutely marvelous. It's packed with legal language. If I was ever to preach through the book of Acts again, oh, there's so many new insights that I've had that I completely was blind to when I was preaching. But that's the way it is. Our whole lives we keep growing in our understanding of Scripture. But anyway, I'm just going to end by pointing out the victories of the kingdom in these chapters that flowed from prayer. Not surprising, flowed from prayer. In chapter 20, Paul meets with the elders of the church from Ephesus, warns them of the false teachers that will savage the church, and gives them other important instructions. But note in chapter 20, verse 36, it says, when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them. Now, that's another aspect of prayer that we don't see very often, kneeling. But you see this posture of prayer throughout the book. I've skipped over many of them. Kneeling shows humility and submission before God. In chapter 21, verse 5, whole church kneels in public. It says, when we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way, and they all accompanied us with wives and children until we were out of the city, and we knelt down on the shore and prayed. Okay, they're not in the city itself, but there was no sense of shame of kneeling down in front of the other sailors and the dock hands and other ships that were present. Why do Christians, Muslims don't get embarrassed by kneeling in public. Why do Christians? Now, some of you do kneel during certain songs and during certain sections of songs. I think it's perfectly appropriate. And even though not mandated, something I would encourage. I would encourage us to think about how we make our bodies line up with where our spirits are at at any given moment. Don't worry about what other people think. Worry about what God thinks. And if the Spirit of God prompts you to kneel during a worship service, by all means do so. Luke 22, 41 shows that Jesus knelt. He knelt down and prayed. And I really, really, really think this is a posture of prayer that needs to be resurrected. Probably needs to be more kneeling in our family devotions and kneeling by our bedside for the last prayers of the day. But we've stated time for kneeling during confession. It can come at other times as well. I've really been convicted. We're going to reintroduce it, and we already have, into our family devotions. There are three more references to prayer in the next chapters. Those prayers took Paul through trials, dangerous voyages, attempted murders, shipwreck, being stranded on an island, and Paul's amazing last chapter of ministry in Rome. In terms of the central purpose of Acts being a defense of Christianity, again, verses 17 through 29, they're an incredible defense of the kingdom. And the last two verses of the book give the result, then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching, there it is again, preaching what? The kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. Again, we see that the Word of God cannot be bound. Christ's kingdom advances invincibly, and the book of Acts stands as a pattern for really what should happen through the rest of history. Now, I've highlighted prayer. There's other themes in this book I could have highlighted, but I've highlighted prayer because it's definitely not as popular as talking about other aspects of the advancement of the kingdom. Lloyd-Jones, Martin Lloyd-Jones once said, everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. But there is nothing that is more important than prayer. This Thursday morning, the men will be gathering at the office for coffee, donuts, and prayer. It won't be fasting and prayer this time. We may have some fastings and prayer. There's going to be rejoicing and prayer. We're going to be praying from the rejoicing of victory that there is nothing that Satan can throw at us that is any match for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we hope, if you're available, that you will come. A.C. Dixon, the pastor of Moody Church, once said, When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do. When we rely upon education, we get what education can do. When we rely upon eloquence, we get what eloquence can do, and so on. Nor am I disposed to undervalue any of these things in their proper place, but when we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do. And Acts is a book that shows what Christ can do through a praying church. He starts the book by telling them to wait in prayer. And they wait until they're endued from on high by the Holy Spirit. And they continue to wait upon God and rely upon Him throughout this book. May we be about the kingdom business that Acts talks about. Absolutely, yes. I'm all about being active. I'm too much about being active. We ought to be out there. We ought to be doing things. But let's accompany that with prayer. Amen? Father, help us to be a praying people. Forgive us when we have relied too much on ourselves. Forgive us, Father, when we have failed to be driven and burdened by prayer. But we realize even there, we can't have that burden unless you fall upon us. And so I pray, Father, stir us up to prayer. Stir us up to be a people characterized, like Cornelius was, as a man who always prayed. Father, we desire Your favor to rest upon us, but we recognize that the flesh produces flesh. It's only the Spirit that produces Spirit, and so we pray, fill us, fill us once again with Your Spirit, and enable us to walk in Your Spirit, to pray in Your Spirit, to sing in Your Spirit, to do everything we do in the power of Your Spirit, even as You took The very physical, tangible, administrative things that Joseph engaged in, and you prospered those things because you were with them. May you prosper. the jobs of the men and the washing of dishes and the cleaning and all of the things that we engage in because you are with us. Father, we desire your pleasure to rest upon us and we thank you that you indeed do elevate absolutely everything that we do in life way beyond prayer. You elevate everything in life as important in your kingdom. So we come to those things desiring that we would do them through Your power, to Your glory, with Your smile of approval upon us. In Jesus' name, amen.