WEBVTT 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:27.359 On New Year's Eve, eighteen sixty two, Tremont Temple was filled to a capacity of two thousand people gathered there in Boston waiting for a proclamation. 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.159 Presiding the gathering was William Cooper Nill. 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:35.280 Frederick Douglass was on the platform. 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:53.359 Ten weeks earlier, September 22nd, President Lincoln had declared that if the Confederate states had not returned to the Union by January 1st, 1863, that every enslaved person within those states would be declared free. 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.240 The promise, ten weeks earlier, had been announced. 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:04.400 The promise was dated for January 1st, 1863. 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:07.519 But it hadn't happened yet. 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:15.439 And so people waited for ten long weeks until December 31st. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:19.519 And people gathered in Tremont Temple on that evening. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:28.239 Evening came, speeches were made, prayers were offered. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:37.280 Messengers were stationed just outside uh the signal house in order to run news back to the church. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.280 They still waited. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:41.599 Felt like agony. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:48.079 Frederick Douglass said they felt like they were looking into the deep sky, waiting for some signal. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:52.079 That they were waiting for a dawn that had not yet broken. 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:59.840 That they were yearning and longing for the answer of agonizing prayers over the centuries. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:04.480 They couldn't do anything but wait. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:09.039 They couldn't hurry along the news across the wires. 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:12.159 They couldn't push the pen of the president. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:20.639 They couldn't even produce what could be perhaps the freedom of some three and a half million enslaved people. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.360 All they could do was wait. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:28.400 That's a kind of waiting that does something to us. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:30.560 We're not very practiced at it. 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:35.919 We're not even good at the ordinary kind of waiting, you know, waiting for the light to change, right? 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:41.599 You know, waiting for the line to go down so you could be the first one there. 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:45.599 I mean, we have a hard enough time with those kinds of waitings. 00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:54.319 But there's a certain kind of waiting that calls for something out of us that's far, far deeper than just waiting for that red light to turn green. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:58.800 Sometimes we're waiting for test results. 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:05.039 Sometimes we're waiting for some good news about a loved one that's in some far-off place. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:14.560 Can only imagine what it must have been like for those during times of war longing for news from their loved ones who can't be reached. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:18.400 It's difficult, that kind of waiting. 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:21.599 It's hard, it's agonizing. 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:25.520 What do you do with your hands when you wait like that? 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:30.560 What do you what do you bring your mind to attention to when you're waiting like that? 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:33.599 You can't hurry anything along. 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:36.319 You can't produce the results you're waiting for. 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.879 You just have to wait. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:47.439 And that kind of waiting calls not for our some simple distraction like we might do while we're waiting for light to change. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:55.919 It calls for a yearning and an attention and a pressing in, like no other kind of waiting. 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:01.840 Well, the disciples are in that sort of waiting here in Acts chapter 1. 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:07.759 Some amazing things have just happened over the past month and a half or so. 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:24.560 They've seen Jesus Christ crucified, buried, risen, spending 40 days with them, and they've just watched Jesus ascended, taken up into the heavenlies, and two angels telling them that he's going to come back. 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:30.079 But before Jesus left, he left them with a command. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:44.079 He left them with a command and a promise that something was about to happen, that the Father's gift was coming, that the Spirit was going to be coming, and that when that did, everything was going to change. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.240 But they had to wait. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:48.480 It hadn't happened yet. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:58.240 And so the question that I want us to look at this morning is we look at verses 12 to 14, is that question that's pressing upon the disciples here? 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:01.600 And that also presses in on our hearts. 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:06.399 And it is this what do you do in between? 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:09.600 What do you do in those waiting moments? 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:17.680 The disciples had been given the statement, and yet they had to wait for the fulfillment. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:27.839 What do we do during those times in which the ticking clock of waiting begins until the time we find the answer? 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:35.439 Well, I think something is told about us in that intervening period. 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:40.240 And we're going to see something about these disciples in this intervening period. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:45.600 It tells us what they thought about the one who had told them to wait. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:06:00.000 And so as we look at this passage of scripture, just three verses, I want us to see these waiting disciples as they put themselves in a posture before the promise that hasn't arrived yet. 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:16.079 And I'd like for us to consider this well, because I think in these little elements that we're going to see in this narrative are some principles for us about how to posture ourselves in our seasons of waiting as we long for the coming day. 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:19.360 Because what God has promised to us, He will give. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:27.120 And Luke is very precise about this. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:30.160 I mean, just think about this for a second, these details. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:34.319 The Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's journey from the city. 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:38.000 These details and are important. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:47.920 They're not just giving us texture in the text, they're documenting things about real people in real time, doing real things. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:55.839 There on that hill, coming down and coming up a short one into the city itself. 00:07:56.160 --> 00:08:02.079 These real people are coming back to Jerusalem just as they were told. 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:05.199 They're being obedient. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:11.519 Jesus didn't give them a suggestion, he gave them a command. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:14.079 Go back to Jerusalem. 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:19.120 Don't leave it until the Father's promise comes. 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:22.639 And so they waited. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:24.480 They waited. 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:30.240 Now, they, when they saw Jesus leave, had some decisions to make. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:46.960 They could have stayed on the Mount of Olives, they could have gone back to Jerusalem as they were told, or they could have done as they did, as Peter did, particularly after the crucifixion and the burial of Christ. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.720 Let's go pick up our fishing nets and let's just go back to our job. 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:53.039 They didn't do that. 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:57.600 The choice they made, they went back to the city. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:00.559 Now I know that sounds small and the distance is small. 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:02.559 It's only about three-quarters of a mile. 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:04.559 That's not very far away. 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:12.639 But I want us to see this: that the promise of Pentecost is not falling on people who are just doing whatever they want. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:24.879 It's not falling on people who are scattered throughout Galilee going about their business, taking back up the tack, the money-changing table, or taking back up the boats and the fish, fishing nets. 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:28.720 These people are positioned in obedience. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:41.440 Now let's be quick to say that they are not hastening the spirits coming by their obedience, but their obedience is positioning themselves for what's about to come. 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:47.679 And notice this: the one who had commanded them is no longer visible. 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:52.799 Jesus has gone up into heaven and he is not around them anymore. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:58.960 He's not looking over their shoulder to see what their decision is about what they're about to do. 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:03.200 They're left alone on Mount Olive. 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:06.080 What are we going to do now? 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:11.200 And they decide, let's do what Jesus told us to do. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:24.159 Because they believe that the one that told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait is the very same one who rose from the dead on the third day. 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:37.519 And believing that he could rise from the dead, that they could obey what he said to do, because he knew that they had a Lord who was Lord over life and death. 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:39.600 And so they followed him. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:11:03.440 So this, I think, is one of the things that we can understand from this as we wait, to position ourselves in a place of obedience, of looking at the things the Lord has called us to do and trusting him for the time frame of his answers, and obeying him in the meantime while we wait. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:16.480 And so I pray that whatever situation you might be in, and I know many of your situations, the difficulties that lay upon your heart, and the agonizing circumstances that you're in. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:31.039 And there is always a time of waiting and longing and hoping and wrestling with those things which are in front of you that you can't force, you can't make happen, you can't turn to a better side. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:33.840 Let me encourage you with this. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:37.440 Continue to wait in a posture of obedience. 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:40.720 Continue to wait in a posture of trust. 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:53.200 The Lord who's put you into this compressed season of waiting is the same one who resides over all of your life and all life. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:56.159 He is the God who rose from the dead. 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:00.399 And so we as a church also wait, don't we? 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:05.600 We wait for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.039 We call it a blessed hope. 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:18.639 We long for the day, just as Peter said in 2 Peter chapter 3, we wait for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:22.480 We yearn in this world. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:32.720 We long in the middle of our days for a better day, for a future in which all the troubles of this life are not going to be. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:44.240 When all the sin and its effects and all the tragedy that comes into human existence are finally wiped off of this earth and a new one is made. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:46.799 We wait. 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:50.000 But what are we supposed to do while we wait? 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:52.879 What God told us to do. 00:12:53.200 --> 00:13:15.440 Continue in his word, continue to come to his table, continue to gather in prayer, continue to share the gospel with others, continue to encourage, to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, to continue to teach our children the things of God so that they might grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ Himself. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:17.919 We continue to obey. 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:30.879 These things will not generate the Lord's coming or an answer to his prayers, but the Christ who ascended into heaven has called us to do what the church needs to do. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:35.679 And so we don't withdraw and retreat as some do. 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:37.600 Oh, this world is so bad. 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:46.639 Let's just sort of gather up into our castle and get up into our safe places and just agonize over how bad the world is. 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:50.720 And we'll just wring our hands and say, Oh, Lord, please come. 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:52.080 It's terrible out there. 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:54.320 Guess who got elected president? 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:59.279 He's like, What are you doing? 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:01.200 Obey me. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:04.639 Do what the church should be doing. 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:09.360 This is a season of obedience. 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:11.360 But I want us to move on. 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:13.679 Verses 13 and 14. 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:25.200 They're not only gathered in a posture of obedience, but they're gathered as a community that only the resurrection could build. 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:27.360 Look at verses 13 and 14. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.600 And again, Luke is laying down quite a few details here. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:50.559 When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James. 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:58.080 They were all continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:00.080 That's a lot of detail, right? 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:03.519 Here we have eleven names. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:05.759 You might have counted them. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.159 That's twelve minus one. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:10.480 I know. 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:13.200 You like amazing insight, Pastor. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:16.399 Who's missing? 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:18.240 Judas is missing. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:20.240 But look at verse 14. 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:21.840 Who else is added? 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:29.039 Mary, the women, and his brothers. 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:35.039 Now, why is Luke bothering to name these guys? 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:40.080 Well, partly because the whole group are real people. 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:49.759 They're identifiable people by name, people that soon were going to be seen going into all the world and witnessing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:57.600 But this list is doing something more than just giving us historical happenings. 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:03.919 It's showing us all the various people that are in that room together. 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:08.080 And I want you to think about these particular people. 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:10.480 We'll begin with the 11. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:11.600 Peter. 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:23.200 That he's there. 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:25.840 What about Thomas? 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:32.000 Even after the resurrection, where others had came and spoke with eyewitness testimony that they had seen the Lord. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:33.600 He's like, not me. 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:40.960 Until I can touch and put my fingers in the wounds, I'm not going to believe. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:46.000 The rest of them? 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:53.039 Soon as Gethsemane was over, they're gone. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:57.360 These are the men in this room. 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:01.679 But here's another detail. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:04.720 Jesus brothers. 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:15.039 Every mention of Jesus brothers in the gospels shows them as people who don't believe. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:23.759 John 7 5 says very plainly, his brothers did not believe in him. 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:26.480 You catch that? 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:31.119 They thought Jesus had lost his mind. 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:35.200 They weren't in the inner circle. 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:37.119 They weren't at the Last Supper. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:40.480 They weren't waiting at the foot of the cross. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:47.759 They were watching everything that Jesus did from a posture of distance that was skeptical and unmoved. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:51.039 Why are they here? 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:56.880 Why are the brothers of Jesus here? 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:02.240 There's only one thing that made the difference. 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:04.400 And you know what that difference is? 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:06.160 The resurrection. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:08.559 That's what made the difference. 00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:12.960 Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:24.480 I passed unto you that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:34.000 The gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, foretold in the Old Testament prophets, now realized in Jesus Christ. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:37.920 And it says, He appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve. 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:46.559 Now listen, then he appeared to over 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:52.400 Then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles. 00:18:55.599 --> 00:19:04.559 James, the oldest brother after Jesus, who did not believe. 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:06.079 James. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:12.480 James, who is, as we read in Acts chapter 12, is now the one. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:16.079 Peter says, report these things to James. 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:20.000 This is the leader of the church in Jerusalem. 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:25.759 This is the author of the book that we read after Hebrews. 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:39.920 This is the man who was eventually martyred, thrown off of the temple wall, and lived, and then was stoned to death by those to kill him. 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:43.039 This is James. 00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:51.519 The last person you would expect to find in this room is him and his brothers. 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:02.720 Unless the resurrection. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:24.720 Until Jesus showed up in his presence, resurrected. 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:27.039 And now he's here. 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:32.559 This room is not a room of faithful people. 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:42.799 This is not a room of people who have always been believing, who are always doing those things that they should have been doing. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:46.799 These are people that are changed people. 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:49.440 This is why they're in the room together. 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:55.359 Not because of how good they are, because the resurrection of Jesus Christ has done something to them. 00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:57.200 That's why. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:04.319 Not the upper room where they are or were, but this room. 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:22.880 There's some of us in this room who are here, and if we were to ask some of our friends about us, they would say that something absolutely miraculous must have happened to us in order to get us into a room like this. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:24.559 Right? 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:27.440 I can testify to that. 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:34.880 I was just sharing with one of the lovely ladies who comes to our church just a few days ago. 00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:40.559 That when I went to church for the first time, I had an ounce of hash in my pockets. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:44.079 And that was just my private stash. 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:53.680 I was in Florida in December last year with two of my old Air Force buddies. 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:55.599 And boy, did they have stories. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:58.960 And Royal's six feet away, and I'm just hoping they don't bring them all up. 00:22:06.319 --> 00:22:13.359 Some of you were the doubting sibling, the James who refused to believe. 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:20.079 Until God, the resurrected Christ, met you. 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:25.279 Some of you came into this room skeptical. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.200 Fearful, uncertain. 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:34.000 But you're not skeptical, fearful, or uncertain now. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:36.079 What's happened to you? 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:38.400 You're a changed person. 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:40.160 That's what's happened. 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:51.200 The same Jesus who appeared to James and changed him completely is not done appearing to people in his grace. 00:22:52.799 --> 00:23:05.039 Awakening them to their sin, transforming their lives, bringing them into a gathering of people that they would never have ever been numbered among before. 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:07.200 He's still doing that. 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:23.119 And while we wait, we position ourselves not only in obedience, but we position ourselves among the gathered people of God and we wait and we sing and we praise together. 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:31.039 Because we are a people of everlasting hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:47.599 One last thing I want us to see here is they positioned themselves in prayer, not only obedience, but not only gathered people in the hope of the resurrection, but also in prayer. 00:23:48.480 --> 00:24:01.839 They returned to Jerusalem, and in verse 14 it says they were all continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:05.839 Notice that word that Luke reaches for: united. 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:07.839 United. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:12.319 Not just in the same room, united. 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:17.920 He uses this word over and over again in the book of Acts. 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:19.759 We'll see it several times. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:23.519 This is not just people occupying the same space. 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:28.799 These are people that are postured and bent toward the same thing. 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:33.200 They're praying together, united in prayer. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:36.640 And notice how the verb tense gives it. 00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:40.480 They are continually united. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:44.240 Continually united in prayer. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:49.279 This is not just an afternoon prayer meeting one time. 00:24:50.960 --> 00:25:01.839 This is the same word that Paul uses in the next chapter, which we'll read, where it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayer. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:07.279 These people were not just together, they were united together in prayer. 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:18.400 This was a sustained posture that they had, an orientation to the God who wouldn't stop doing great and wonderful things. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:31.519 This is perhaps a little different than what many prayer meetings are like in churches, where prayer is just perfunctory, dry and stale, occasional. 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:39.359 What Luke is describing here is a defining activity of the people as they wait. 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:48.400 Yes, they're obedient, they go back to Jerusalem, and yes, they're gathered, but they are united continually in prayer. 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:52.079 As they're waiting, prayer is the key thing that they're doing. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:26:00.880 We'll see more of what they do here soon, but they're united in prayer together, without ceasing, with one mind. 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:03.839 Why prayer? 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:13.759 Because they're bringing themselves before the God of heaven to do things that they could not do themselves. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:31.920 They couldn't produce Pentecost, they couldn't make that happen, they couldn't call down the spirit, they couldn't, by any effort or creativity, bring about what only the risen Christ could do. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:35.519 What could they do? 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:40.799 Put themselves in a posture of dependence and pray. 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:43.759 And so they prayed. 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:50.000 They prayed together and they prayed persistently together with one voice. 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:53.599 This is not a new thing. 00:26:54.559 --> 00:27:05.119 Evan Roberts, at the start of the 1904 Welsh Revival, kept saying this one thing: bend the church and God will save the world. 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:06.720 What was he saying? 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:17.599 If there's going to be any increase in our area for gospel advance, it has to come through prayer. 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:23.839 William Carey, expect great things from God. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:26.880 Attempt great things for God. 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:31.359 What is the expect great things from God but prayer? 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:33.359 It's prayer. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:49.279 Martin Lloyd Jones, watching the church trade committee meeting or prayer meetings for committee meetings, said the call of the church is not so much to organize as it is to agonize. 00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:54.559 We're not a people who collect our heads together. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:56.799 Oh, what a sight that would be. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:01.680 We are people who call to the very mind of God Himself. 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:15.599 And so here the disciples are not generating Pentecost by the sheer determination and intensity of their prayers, as if their prayers were somehow the lever release for what God was about to do. 00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:20.240 No, God was going to do it, and they wait in prayer. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:31.039 Prayer is the express posture of a people that know God and only God can do what's about to happen. 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:35.440 So this is the third way that they posture themselves. 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:44.000 They obey, they gather as a people of resurrection hope, and they pray. 00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:52.079 Now I want to take a moment here, just sort of as an aside, because I think this is a good place to do this and to stop. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:55.279 And for us to have a bit of a family moment. 00:28:56.160 --> 00:29:00.880 And some of you have been at this church long enough to know what I'm about to say. 00:29:01.119 --> 00:29:06.000 And others of you perhaps have not heard the story and need to hear it. 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:11.680 But as we sit with this text, I think this is a good moment for us to talk about this. 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:23.519 Fourteen years ago, before Micah came, and 13 and a half years ago before I did, this church was in a difficult situation. 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:27.519 It was extremely difficult. 00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:34.559 The church was, as Kevin Cooney put it, to me more than a few times. 00:29:35.279 --> 00:29:43.200 He said to me, he said, when we went off to every tribe and to begin our training, we didn't know if we'd have a church to go back home to. 00:30:01.839 --> 00:30:03.920 Because they couldn't make it better. 00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:07.119 They had tried, and it only got worse. 00:30:09.279 --> 00:30:10.559 They prayed. 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:12.400 They prayed. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:20.799 And they knew that if the Lord didn't act, this place would not be here anymore. 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:39.440 And I want to tell you, for those of you who've been here for just a little bit of time, everything you see right now, and everything you experience right now, there's an invisible foundation underneath it. 00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:48.799 And it is a people postured in dependent prayer and a God who graciously acts. 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:55.759 But it's not just a 14-year-old story. 00:30:56.079 --> 00:30:59.759 There's something happening here, and I want you to see it. 00:31:00.319 --> 00:31:06.319 When I first came here, we would have our prayer meetings in the back, and we'd set up one table, sometimes two tables. 00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:11.839 There would be anywhere from seven to a dozen people gathered in prayer on a Wednesday night. 00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:15.599 And it just seemed like for a long time it wouldn't get any more. 00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:22.000 You come on a Wednesday night now, there are tables set up, and the table is full. 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:26.720 There are chairs wrapped around the back of the wall, and most times those are full. 00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:36.160 And there are even times when people are sitting out in the in the entryway with the doors wide open because there's no room for them to get in. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:39.599 People in prayer. 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:43.519 Elder council meetings. 00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:47.119 We spend a lot of time in prayer. 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:50.000 A lot of time in prayer. 00:31:50.720 --> 00:31:52.240 The missions team. 00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:53.440 You know what they do? 00:31:53.599 --> 00:32:00.000 They don't spend time strategizing about missions so much as they spend time praying for missionaries. 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:18.000 We've started a congregational prayer meeting right after the first Sunday of each month, in which we go downstairs for a little time with the elders and break up into little rooms and we pray for our missionaries. 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:20.319 And many of you are showing up to that. 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:25.359 And then to say nothing of what these pews are. 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:41.599 How many times I've walked in here and seen people in small little groups praying, or talking to someone up here and another person up here, and then finally leaving and seeing little pockets of people gathered together and praying together. 00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:49.359 Or watching the door open there on the side and people coming out, wiping tears off of their face because they've been praying together. 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:55.680 This is what Luke is describing here. 00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:20.000 A people who are weak, frail, they're not impressive, but they're doing what the Lord told them to do, and they're gathering together, as only the resurrection could do, and they're praying because they're asking God, the only one who can do what needs to happen, to do those things. 00:33:21.519 --> 00:33:26.480 And so this is not a coincidence, what you see here. 00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:39.200 This is definitely not about the abilities and the organizational expertise or the whimsical, wonderful, attractive personality I have. 00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:41.039 Just ask Royal. 00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:42.799 I bore her to tears. 00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:08.000 And the only thing that He's calling us to do is to be His people, to obey His word, and to pray for Him to work. 00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:19.280 So if you've been here as one of the ones that have been here before Mike and I arrived, and you know you knew what I was about to talk about. 00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:20.639 Keep doing it. 00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:22.159 Keep praying. 00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:29.679 And if you're one of the newer ones who's come in since then, don't witness this from the outside or just alongside of it. 00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:30.800 Join in. 00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:33.760 Be a part of the prayers that we have. 00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:35.920 Come alongside people. 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:42.800 Be one of those who are continually united in prayer, just as it says here. 00:34:44.719 --> 00:34:47.199 And just one last thing I want to say. 00:34:48.800 --> 00:34:56.079 If you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, let me just bring these people back out one more time. 00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:02.480 They are asking God to do something they can't do. 00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:07.199 They're waiting for something that only God can accomplish. 00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:14.079 They know that they can't bring anything about from their own power. 00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:16.239 But God can. 00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:20.800 And so they position themselves in this kind of dependent prayer. 00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:24.159 Salvation is exactly like that. 00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:38.239 You can't make yourself a believer by the intensity of your prayers, or by the focus of turning your life over, or even by showing up here. 00:35:39.039 --> 00:35:44.000 You can't make yourself a new creation in Christ. 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:47.920 Only God does that. 00:35:49.519 --> 00:36:05.360 But here's what I want to say to you: this salvation is given by the crucified, buried, and risen Christ to all those who come to Him with empty hands, who say, I have no hope of saving myself. 00:36:05.679 --> 00:36:09.280 My only rescue is you and you alone, Christ. 00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:10.719 Save me. 00:36:11.119 --> 00:36:12.800 Save me from myself. 00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:19.519 Deliver me, Lord. 00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:22.159 I trust you to save me. 00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:24.719 Because only He can. 00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:27.840 You can't do it yourself. 00:36:31.679 --> 00:36:42.480 And if you're here this morning and you feel the conviction of sin upon your heart, you feel the Lord drawing you to yourself, don't resist him. 00:36:44.320 --> 00:36:49.519 Because he is a God who will do things in your life you can't even begin to imagine. 00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:58.960 You will find yourself filled with a hope that nothing in this world can ever, ever, ever come even close to. 00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:06.400 You can find yourself with a joy in the middle of troubles that would break anybody. 00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:09.440 And you could say, I trust him. 00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:18.800 And you can find yourself in the middle of a tempest and a storm of life and say, My soul's at peace. 00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:25.920 You can kiss loved ones goodbye as you lower them in the grave. 00:37:27.199 --> 00:37:29.599 And you can say, See you later. 00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:34.880 Only God can do that. 00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:37.360 You can't make that happen. 00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:40.480 And I urge you, go to Christ. 00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:42.320 Call out to him. 00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:44.719 Believe on him. 00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:47.599 He receives all who do. 00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:50.000 Let's pray. 00:37:54.800 --> 00:38:06.239 Father, as we've sat with this short and often overlooked passage of scripture, we thank you for the lessons that are learned in it. 00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:17.920 Father, calling us to simple obedience, you, the resurrected Christ, have given us things that we are to be about. 00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:26.079 While we wait for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:38:27.039 --> 00:38:40.000 May we be a church, Father, who are active in our obedience, pursuing those things that are right and pleasing in your sight, being fruitful in every good work. 00:38:41.840 --> 00:38:55.280 We pray, Father, that you would watch over those whose personal lives are filled with the gnawing, difficult season of waiting. 00:38:55.840 --> 00:39:06.880 That you would strengthen their hearts and secure them in hope, the same kind of hope that the resurrection has brought us all, and the reason why we gathered today. 00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:28.639 And Father, we pray that you would continue to impress upon us just how wondrous and great you are as a generous and giving God, and that we are not here to devise or to scheme, but to pray and to seek you, to do things that only you can do. 00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:44.000 And Father, we pray for those in this room or those who will hear this message at some point in time who don't know Christ, that you and your mercy might draw them and awaken them to a new life in Jesus. 00:39:44.400 --> 00:39:50.800 And may this be the day in which they say, This is my emancipation day. 00:39:51.119 --> 00:39:53.360 This is my day of freedom. 00:39:53.679 --> 00:39:58.639 This is the day when I've been, the chains have been broken from my soul. 00:39:59.599 --> 00:40:01.920 And Father, we ask this in Christ's name. 00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:02.880 Amen.