Synergy in Prayer, Synergy in Leadership

This message explores how the early church in Acts modeled a powerful combination of unity in prayer and alignment in leadership following Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:9–14). Rather than acting independently, the disciples devoted themselves to consistent, unified prayer, trusting God’s promise that He responds to those who seek Him.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Steve Holt. I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast. Each week we go into God's Word. We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. We're back in the book of Acts. We've had a little set of Sundays where we had Easter. We had Good Friday. We had Easter. Then we had baptisms, and baptisms were crazy good last week with 51 people getting baptized. And it was really, really, really a joyful time. We loved doing it up here. And we um we learned a lot from that because we're seeing more and more people come to know Christ. And so, as I said then, I'll just say again, may it be that someday we would have the baptismal up here every week because of the work of the Spirit. So we're in the book of Acts, and what I want to do is I'm gonna close out the book of Acts, chapter one, and then we're gonna get into Pentecost next Sunday, which is super cool. Obviously, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the 120 in the upper room. And then the next week I'm gonna camp on the latter part of Acts chapter 2, which talks about what I'm gonna call the signs of the vintage church, the signs of the kingdom of God church. So it's gonna be next three weeks are gonna be really, really fun. And then we'll get into Acts chapter 3 on healing. So Acts is just fantastic. And I hope you're learning and growing and as excited about it as I am. So we're in verse 9. So if you have your Bibles, chapter 1, verse 9. If you didn't come with the Bible, they're in the slots in front of you. Um you can grab one, and if you're using your phone, um, that's great too. Now, when he had spoken these things, while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, he went up. Behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? What a comic question to ask. So the guy you've been with 24-7 for three and a half years is floating away. He's standing there on the Mount of Olives and he goes up. He's floating away. What are you supposed to look at? Okay? So you look at him and he's going into the clouds, and then two guys show up, obviously angels, and say, Why are you looking up into heaven? So unfair. But this same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. So in my Bible, I have underlined this same Jesus who was taken up from you in heaven will come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven, because this is the way we believe Christ is second coming. He's gonna come back to the Mount of Olives. So Jesus ascends. It's interesting how many angels are in Luke's account. So in the Gospel of Luke, lots of angels. Now, here in Acts, there's gonna be more angels. So obviously, Luke is into, in his in his account that he's given to Theophilus, lots of stuff on angels. And I hear it from time to time from people like, I'd love to see an angel. And I just want to say that this is an example where Luke writes to men, and how many times angels, unaware to us, have probably been around us and we didn't even know it. I mean, you just don't know. They make you look in a certain direction. They might have been someone who came to you on a highway somewhere when you had a flat tower. I mean, I don't know. I just I have so many stories, I don't even want to go because I got too much to cover today. But, you know, one of my favorites, and I'll just, real brief, was one time we were in the red light district. Liz and I, in the red light district of Malaga, Spain, lost because of it's a whole long story. But this person just came up, we interacted for 20 seconds, and this person told us where to go to find a hotel because we were we weren't supposed to be in Malaga, Spain at this particular place, but because of a strike that was happening when we were flying around the world, we were we ended up there, and we walk into this massive skyscraper on the uh Spanish Riviera. I mean, we're talking, you know, probably 600 to 1,000 rooms. They have one room. They have one room. He said, and the and the person was shocked, like, why are you here? There's no rooms anywhere on the Riviera here. How did you know to come here? You don't even have a room. And I said, never mind. And anyway, we got in our room. So I think it was probably an angel. So this angel, and it's always men. You'll always notice in the Bible, it's always men, it's not women. You know, we wish they looked like Monica, you know, and touched by an angel and had an Irish accent, but they don't. Okay. Now they might have an Irish accent, but it's it's as far as we know, it's men. But who am I to say that? I mean, it could be they, I'm just saying the Bible, it's men, could be women. That was a woman that spoke to me in Malaga, Spain. But I that was crazy. So I think it was probably an angel clothed as a woman, as it were, that spoke to me, but definitely did not have an Irish accent. So how many remember Touched by an Angel? Any of you guys remember that? Oh, yeah. We wasn't it Sundays? I just remember coming, and all the kids would get around Sunday, and you'd always cry. Always make you cry. Look at the reruns. You know, it's really good, I'm sure. Um so this passage is the seminal passage that comes from the Bible talking about how Jesus will come back in his second coming, that he's gonna come down to the Mount of Olives, but it's Zechariah 14, 14, that talks about that the feet of the Messiah will come down and it will split in two. So the Mount of Olives will split in two east to west, and be it there be a north side and a south side. And then the Spirit of God will make a valley through the Kidron Valley, which is the valley right outside the eastern gate in Jerusalem. And if you've ever been to Israel, you know that that's the one gate that's walled up. How do I say it? It's um the Ottoman chief of the in the in the 1500s that walled it up. Solomon walled that up because he didn't want the Messiah to come. Like a little walled-up gate's gonna keep the Messiah out. But anyway, that that it was all walled up. It's still walled up to this day. So our belief and our conviction is that when Christ comes back, he'll come back in bodily form, just like our passage is the same way that he came, he'll come down. The Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, and that there'll be this valley formed through the Kidron Valley, which is the valley you see right there in front of the Eastern Gate. And if you look at any pictures, you could look at them right now. If you put in Eastern Gate, you'll see all these gravestones in the Kidron Valley, which are bone boxes. So those are bone boxes. So that the belief in Judaism as well as in Islam is that when you die, as your flesh deteriorates on the body, sins go away. Then they would collect the bones and they would make an ossuary, they would make a bone box, and they bury them in the Kidron Valley so that they can welcome the coming Messiah. So you there's uh 150,000 bone boxes in the Kidron Valley. That's so you got Mount of Olives, Eastern Gate right here, and then this is the Kidron Valley that will all be paved through there by the Spirit of God moving in the second coming of Christ. Anyone excited about the second coming of Christ? May it be kind of exciting. Yeah. Verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet. So remember, Olivet is the Mount of Olives, as we're talking about, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath-day journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, and Andrew. Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. So obviously, Mary had gotten on board in the ministry of Jesus, that he truly was what the angel had told her, that he was the Savior of the world. And his brothers, his family, which did not believe it for a long time, had come on board by this point, probably because of the resurrection of Christ. So what we have here is a contingent, a group of people that were in the Jerusalem, we believe, kind of living in the Jerusalem area, that came together in those last 40 days of Jesus on the earth after post-resurrection, and now it's the ascension of Christ, that are following him, and they pray. Now Jesus said, wait. I find this quite interesting. So Jesus says, wait. So if you look at back at chapter 1, he said very clearly, 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. So he's telling them to wait, but he doesn't tell them anything else, as far as we know from Scripture, about what to do. But for them they began to pray. So they began to pray. And I find it fascinating. I think it's Luke 11 that says that Jesus was in prayer, and the disciples came to him and asked him to pray. So they asked him, How do we pray? So that's fascinating to me. So in healing, in signs and wonders, in casting out demons, all these things that Jesus did, they never asked him to teach them how to do that. But they asked him to teach them how to pray. And John had done the same thing. So the scripture says that the disciples of John asked John to pray. The disciples then go to Jesus, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples to pray. So learning to pray is not easy. We need guidance. We need a master to guide us in prayer. And I think scripture is the way to pray. I think always believe that. You know, like Monday at noon, Wednesday at noon, we have prayer. We call it noonday fire or noonday prayer. And we pray the scriptures. So if you don't know how to pray, the best place to learn how to pray is to pray the inerrant word because you know you're praying God's will if you're praying his word. Right? Have you ever struggled with that? Like when you're worried about something, you're struggling with something, and you get outside or you or you go into your study or wherever you pray and you don't know how to pray, and so you worry. Here's the Steve Holt way to pray. Worry a lot. Try to find solutions, then worry some more. And then somewhere along the line, you actually pray about it. Don't follow me. Okay. The way of Jesus is you don't know what to do, you're worried about stuff, go to God in prayer. Pray, pray, pray. I love this that I read a few days ago. It was in a calendar that Liz and I look at that has pithy things in it. And this is what it said. The bottom line is pray. If you're tired, sick, and emotionally overwhelmed, pray. If you lack direction, pray. If you doubt that makes any difference, pray. If the circumstances of your life are out of your control, pray. If you feel betrayed, pray. If everything is going well and you feel in complete control, pray. Whatever you do, pray. Because our natural response is worry. Our natural response is stress. Be anxious for nothing, Paul writes in Philippians, but in all things through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made unto God, and the God of peace that surpasses all understanding will guard, guard, garrison, is what it literally means. Garrison, like a military garrison, your heart and mine in Christ Jesus. So we like the last part that God will guard us with peace in our heart, but we have to fulfill the first part, which is number one, be anxious for nothing. Second part is, but through prayer with thanksgiving, we let our requests be made on unto God. That's really hard. So I think that's what they're doing. And obviously, Paul's not even in the picture yet. Paul's still saw. He's working probably with the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem to persecute this sect. And he's going to write some of the greatest stuff on prayer ever written in the history of humankind. And he's not even a believer yet, but they're actually doing it. I mean, they could have gone to Joppa and taken a vacation. It's been somewhat stressful. But he doesn't say take a vacation. He says wait, and then they surmise out of wait, pray. I sometimes wonder how many things in our life there could be breakthrough in that we struggle with year after year after year if we just take time to pray about it and invite the power of God upon that situation instead of saying I'm stressed out, you know, I need a break, whatever it is. And listen, you guys, I'm looking in the mirror. But these guys, for 10 days. So for 10 days, they're gonna seek God. They're gonna seek God in prayer. This church was started with 10 days of fasting and prayer. It was also set up by God for 40 days of prayer as a little church family. So we met at Every Home for Christ for probably the first 20 days, and then we had permission to go over to the chapel here through someone, through someone who's knew someone who knew someone that got us in here. We had no idea that this would eventually become the facility that we used. But at that time we were in there, and it was about, I don't know, 75 of us, 50 or 75 of us that were here. But we began in prayer. When we started Mountain Springs Church, we started with 10 days of fasting and prayer, and I think we had six couples. There were six couples in our house in Briargate, and we started the church that way. When we were in Okinawa, we had a 10-day period of fasting and prayer that we did. As I recall, and my memory is not as good as it used to be, but I think in Tokyo, when we started the campus ministry there, we did 10 days. I think that was prayer without fasting. We didn't know much about fasting back in those days. But these guys are praying. It doesn't say they're fasting, it just says they're seeking God in prayer, and it's one accord. So underline or circle that one accord in prayer and supplication. Wow. That's really a key word. So one accord in the Greek is homo thumodon. Homo means same or together in. Thumadon is passion. And I believe we have that for the PowerPoint so that everybody can see that. Thumadon is passion or vision or focus. It means, here's what it means: it means one heart and one mind. Same breath, same passion, same mind, same temperature, same intensity, same fervor. It's the idea of running together. Running together. I get around certain Christian circles and people will say, I know so and so, we've been running together a long time. Guys, you that are here, we've been running together maybe a few years, or maybe for some of you, it's it's in the last few months, but we're running together. God wants us to be of one accord. And I like the word synergy. That's why I said synergy in prayer, because synergy is the state in which the whole is more than the sum of the parts. The whole is more than some of the parts. An ox can pull about 1,500 pounds. One ox can pull about 1,500 pounds, but two oxen can pull 9,000 pounds. So one oxen can pull 1,500 pounds, but two oxen can pull 9,000 pounds because they're in one accord. They're in synergy together. It's interesting, in the Old Testament, the word for one accord actually means one yoke, not two. But yet it's two oxen or two cattle or two goats, whatever. But it's so they're so united, it's as if there's just one yoke. That's what marriage is supposed to be about. Now, if I asked for a show of hands, how many would say, my wife and I, or my husband and I, we're just in one accord, no hands are gonna go up. Okay. So, or maybe I say, how about the last 24 hours? Three hands will go up. Because it's so hard, right? It's such a battle, you know, one of the oxen's always a little ahead of the other and all that, but the goal should be one accord. And I'm gonna tell you a secret after being out of accord for a year, looking at 39 and three-quarters of our life, not the last few months, but the last few months have been good. Um, but that one period where it was really hard, prayer, praying together. So important to pray together. And so to pray together, it's so hard for men. I think it's easier for women, and you maybe in your case it's it's harder for the other. Somebody it's always hard. It's sort of like breaking the sound barrier. Remember how many times they tried to break the sound barrier in the 40s, the late 40s, they're trying to break the sound barrier, trying to break the sound barrier, and they can't, and we lost a lot of test pilots during that time. But then there was a point where Chuck Yeager broke through the sound barrier and it just changed everything. That's when the whole idea of a jet came about and all that. But anyway, they they broke the sound barrier, and I find that couples that pray together start moving toward one accord. It's never perfect. It's never perfect, but that gives you a it gives you a chance to find the synergy and the unity that enables you to do supernatural things that you could not do. You absolutely could not do without the synergy in prayer. It's the 1,500 pounds, 9,000 pounds that comes where we're synergized in prayer. So that's what's happening. I think that's why Jesus said wait, because they're not ready for what God's gonna do. They're not ready. They're not ready for a move of the Spirit because they're there are 120 individuals. 120 individuals that know each other somewhat, but something I believe happened in that 10 days that's called one accord. And you're gonna see it in chapter 2, verse 1. They were one accord. There's this unity that prepared them for the coming of the Holy Spirit in their lives. And so one accord is important. It's that unity that comes, I believe, through prayer. And they would have known Jeremiah 33.3. Write that down. Write down Jeremiah 33.3. They would have known the Old Testament. And Jeremiah 33.3, many of you know, some people call it God's direct line or God's phone number. Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not yet know. So that calling unto him. And I've loved, I've always loved Jeremiah 33.3 because it says, I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know. In other words, if I don't call out to him, then I remain ignorant of his will in certain areas of my life because he wants to show me, he wants to speak to me, but if I'm not going to ask for it, he's not gonna give it to me. And how many times have I, many times have I not called out to God and made huge mistakes because I believe God was waiting to share his heart, but because of my unwillingness to call out to him, I've missed what his will is. Jesus was the one who said, I say to you, ask. Ask, seek, knock. I'm ready to show you stuff that you don't know, but you got to keep asking, you got to keep seeking, and you got to keep knocking. So Jesus saying prayer here is key to these disciples. They choose to pray. Verse 15. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. Altogether, the number of names was about 120 and said. So, pretty fascinating here. Peter is still considered the leader, and he's the one who denied Christ. So he denied Christ. He turned his back on Christ during the trial of Christ. He's nowhere to be found when Jesus is being tried and then possibly even crucified. He might have even left the city. We don't know. But he's obviously in this period of time, he's been reinstated as a leader. He stands up. And men and women, when we make mistakes, there's always a second chance. Even in leadership, there's a second chance. You can rewrite your story. Your history does not define your destiny. Your history does not define your destiny. And I'd say to couples here, your spouse is going to let you down. Your spouse is going to mess up. I want to challenge you through counseling or whatever it is you need that somehow you come back together and start working out this history of trauma, this history of brokenness, and let God come in his power to create a new destiny. So Peter, I mean, I would not want to be Peter because for the next 2,000 years we're going to read about his cowardice. The guy's a coward. And yet, right here we see somewhere in that 10 days or the 40 days or whatever, Peter becomes the leader again and he's standing up. Now, does your Bible have parentheses? Does everybody see parentheses in this verse? Okay, you got a parenthetical statement. Look down at verses 18 and 19. That's all parenthetical. So what's going on here? Luke is giving commentary to what's happening. And he's helping those that are Jews to understand why these things are happening. So you're going to see a parenthetical statement in verse 15. You're going to see it in verses 18 and 19. And why does he do this? Because in verse 15, it's really important because he says 120. So in Jewish law, you needed 120 to be able to have a council where you could develop a new community. So you needed 120 to have a council of leadership to develop a new community. So as he's writing this, as I said to you before, we believe that it was kind of like a paper being written historically for the trial of Paul in Rome, but he's also writing to the Jews who are persecuting the new sect, which was called the way. So he's explaining from a Jewish perspective, even though we believe that Luke was a Gentile, he's trying to explain parenthetically this is why they did it, because they had 120 people, so they had quorum, as it were, to then start a new community. So it's kind of an apologetic right there. Verse 16. Men and brethren, this scripture had to be fulfilled. So now, so listen to what's happening here. So the first apologetic is you need 120. So he does that in verse 15. In verse 16, he's going to talk about prophecy, and that this is prophetic. Even what happened to Judas is found in the Old Testament prophetically. Men and brethren, this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. And then he quotes, he quotes from the Old Testament, for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry. So there's a quote there from the Old Testament. And so David, the greatest example of leadership, the greatest example really of a Messiah-like who's a man after God's own heart was David. So you're going to see all through Luke and Acts, quoting from the Psalms, quoting David. So he does it again. So he's saying that even with Judas, which would be probably one of the most shameful parts, it wasn't shameful enough that Jesus was crucified like a criminal on a cross. And so this is not, this is not a good start. This is not a good start for the way. This is not a good start for the 120. Oh, those guys that are up in that room over there, did you hear about that? Their leader. We crucified him, man. He was just a criminal. And then the guy who told us all about it, he went out into this field and committed suicide. So it's not a really great start or the way at this point. But what is happening here is that Luke is explaining it, that's the point. This is the fulfillment of Scripture. And you'll see that especially next week in Acts chapter 2 when he talks about the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. Now, anybody here ever had anybody betray you? Man, I've had so many betrayals in my life. If I could turn around, you see about 25, you know, knives in my back. Okay? And I'm a pastor, all right? So you if you do any kind of leadership, you're going to get betrayed. And even Jesus was betrayed. So you say, well, I don't know. I I should have done this right, I should have done that right. I can't believe that happened. Oh, that's what remember, Jesus had a betrayer. Jesus had a betrayer. You're going to go through betrayal, and if you haven't had one yet, you need to get out more often. Because they're going to come. Or you're not doing anything. So if you do something with your life, you actually take a stand on something, you actually have convictions about something, welcome to betrayal city, and you're the mayor. Okay? Because people are going to, and only if you're successful, if you're successful, have successful. Where there's money or people involved or success or land or any of that or bank accounts, there's people they're going to ride the wave, man. They're going to be right there with you, and then they're going to want to take it over. Hello? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Okay. I hope you don't have to experience this, but I'm telling you, it's reality. And so here's Judas at the Last Supper. Oh my goodness. Can you imagine? Last Supper. Messiah. Jesus. Never done anything sinful. I mean, you can look at my life, you can look at your life, and you can see all the things you messed up on. Jesus didn't mess up on anything. And he was betrayed. So the devil's always on the lookout for betrayal. And it doesn't mean you become like you have to always be looking over your shoulder or anything. I mean, you just got to move forward, expect it, and forgive. Forgive. Forgive. If you don't, you're going to become bitter. It's the bait of Satan. The bait of Satan is to get offended, hold on to your offense, and then what happens is you get offended and the offense becomes a bitter root and it starts to ruin you, and the other person's just skipping along, doing just fine. They don't care. But forgive. Forgive. And sometimes it means, you know, you got to get one-on-one and ask for forgiveness from your side, and you ask for forgiveness. But here's what's happening. He's just saying here that there's something more to Judas, and it's actually there in Scripture. So verse 18. Now he gives us parenthetically again. Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his entrels gushed out. That's really awesome. And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem, so that this field, in their own language, Akeldama is a field of blood. Now I could go through a whole history of what happened with the hanging and him falling and all of that, but I won't go into it. For it is written, so this is important, so this reason he's also doing the prophetic here. It is written in the book of Psalms, let his dwelling place be desolate, and let no one live in it, and let another take his office. So that's Psalm 69 and Psalm 109. Again, Luke is grounding this as being prophetic about the Messiah and the betrayal of Judas. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time, that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness of us of his resurrection. And then they proposed two men, Joseph called Barsabas, who is surnamed Justus and Matthias. So two things. If we were talking about Capital A Apostle, the Lambs 12, they needed two things. One was that this man had accompanied them in their ministry since the baptism of John. So we know about the Lambs 12. 12 are mentioned in Luke, but there were hundreds that followed, and so they're gonna get the first qualification to be an of the new capital A apostle, the Lamb's 12, was that they had traveled and been with Jesus since the beginning at the baptism, but then second, that they were a witness of his resurrection. So here's what's interesting, you guys, is how this changes. This changes later. Because Paul becomes an apostle, and yet he never walked with them since the baptism because he was actually against them. He was probably a part of the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. So this alters. But at this point, this is all they know to propose. And they have two men, Joseph called Bar Sabas, which we know very little about. Tradition has it that Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justice, at some point drank deadly poison and lived. That's all we know about him. And then Matthias, it is believed, became a missionary to Ethiopia. Became a missionary. Nothing else about him in the Bible, but tradition tells us he became a missionary to Ethiopia. And they prayed and said, You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, fell that he might go to his own place. And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. So you might ask, why casting lots? Remember, men and women, the Holy Spirit is not fallen. The Holy Spirit has not come yet. So they're using the old Jewish tradition, the religious tradition of casting lots. And it's kind of like have you ever done drawing uh drawing straws, or take the small one or the long one, or possibly maybe a black rock and a white rock, or small rock and a big rock, and putting it in a bag or in your hand and you shuffle it and you throw it down. The difference, though, was they believed, and it's all through scripture, that they believed God's will on a matter where it wasn't clear exactly what to do, they would cast lots, usually into the lap area. And so it could be that they said, Lord, both men are great. Barsabas is great, Matthias is great. We don't know. They both fulfill the conditions, but you show us what to do. And so they may have had a blackened rock and a and a regular rock, and they shook it in a back and then dropped it, and the one that came out was which they had designated a person, that's how they found out. So we don't do that today. We don't have to do that today because we have the Holy Spirit. So we let the Holy Spirit guide us in that. We don't do any meeny miny mo to decide elders. Okay? But that's what they're doing. They're just following what they know up to that point.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast. We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org. That's theroad.org.