Devoted to Prayer

Acts 1:12-26 On the night that Jesus was betrayed, after he and the disciples left the upper room, they journeyed to the Garden of Gethsemane.  It was there that Jesus fell to his knees in prayer, asking for his Father’s help in the hours to come and inviting his disciples to pray with him.  But in his hour of need, prayer was the very thing the disciples could not do. 

How different is that scene from the picture of the disciples that we find in our text today.  Less than six weeks after they failed so miserably to be men of prayer, the Bible says that they were devoted to prayer.  What accounts for this dramatic change in their prayer life in just a few short weeks?  The resurrection and ascension of Jesus made the difference! 

Now please understand, during his earthly ministry Jesus taught his disciples how to pray.  He promised that God would hear them when they prayed in his name.  But still they struggled to be men of prayer.  It was only after the resurrection and ascension that they become devoted to prayer.  So why is that?  It’s because…

After the resurrection they knew that Jesus was powerful beyond anything they had seen before!  They could be confident that he was more than capable of meeting their needs. 

They knew that they had an advocate in heaven who had forgiven them, a great high priest at the right hand of God who would intercede on their behalf. 

And they knew that the One who kept his promise to go to the cross and die and rise again would keep all of his promises to help and care for his people. 

As we consider the prayer life of these early Christians may we come to know the same—that our resurrected and ascended Savior is powerful and forgiving and faithful--and like the early church, become people devoted to prayer!  The Bible says that the disciples:

returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying…devoting themselves to prayer.

            With the ascension of Jesus, the disciples knew that they had a powerful advocate in the highest heavenly places and this confidence made them devoted to prayer. 

So it is for us.  Our prayers are not offered up to some impersonal force of the universe, who rules the world and our lives with cold, uncaring calculation.  Neither are our prayers offered up to some really nice guy who cares about us but lacks the power to help.

Instead, our prayers are offered up to the throne of God’s grace where Jesus stands at the Father’s right hand, lifting up his sacrifice for our sins and interceding for us. 

The same Jesus who calmed the seas and healed the sick and cared for the outcast and fed the hungry, that is who hears our prayers—that man of compassion and mercy and power who cares for us-- and changes things for us-- and meets our needs!

The resurrection and ascension of Jesus is what changed the disciples into men of prayer because they knew that Jesus had opened the way for them to come into the presence of God by forgiving them of their sins.  So it is for us. 

There is no more sin barrier that keeps us away from God because Jesus has dealt with that once and for all at the cross.  How important this forgiveness is to our life of prayer!

When we are living in some sin, when there is something that is not right in our life with our heavenly Father--and it cannot help but impact our prayer life.  We wonder to ourselves, “Why would God listen to me when I am disobeying him?”

But look at who it was that was devoted to prayer:  disciples who had denied Jesus- and friends who abandoned him- and his own brothers who had never believed in him.  And yet they were devoted to prayer because they knew that Jesus had forgiven them and made things right between them and God.  So it is for us.

Every sin that stands between us and God has been removed.  We are God’s children.  And Jesus stands ready to hear and answer us when we pray because he wants good things for us and will be faithful to his promises just as he has always been.  The Bible says that: 

Peter stood up and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David” and then Peter went on to tell the story of Judas, a story that had been prophesied in the Bible hundreds of years before it took place. 

It was a terrible story, a heartbreaking story, but it was not a surprising story to the disciples because God had told them about it in his Word and as these events unfolded they knew that the voice of God in his Word was real and living.

It’s important that we get this dynamic right when it comes to our life of prayer.

Prayer is an act of worship where we talk to God with our thoughts and words-- and the other half of that divine dialogue is God speaking to us in his Word. 

The early church was absolutely confident that God spoke through his Word because they saw it come to pass and this confidence made them people devoted to prayer.

Not only did they trust that God was listening-- and Jesus was interceding--they knew that they would get an answer because the Holy Spirit was speaking to them from the pages of Holy Scripture as they heard it preached and read in church. 

We all know how frustrating it is when we talk and talk and the person we talk to never responds.  Sometimes it seems that way with our life of prayer.  But the fault lies with us not with God.  Our prayer life is not what it should be because our connection to God’s Word is not what it should be. 

We expect some answer written in the sky or revealed in our heart when God has promised to speak to us in his Word.  The early Christians knew that the Holy Spirit was speaking to them through the Scriptures and that encouraged them to keep on talking to God in prayer. 

So it is for us if we will only listen to God’s Word as it is preached and read in church and read it for ourselves at home and then be prepared to do what God says. 

The Bible says that when Peter finished speaking to the followers of Jesus he told them that one of them would have to take Judas’ apostolic office and become a witness to the resurrection of Jesus in their mission to make Jesus known throughout the world.

Peter and the disciples and Jesus’ brothers and mother could devote themselves to prayer because they were willing to accept God’s answers to their prayers and do God’s will as they found it revealed in his Word. 

Oftentimes our prayer life is not what it should be—not because we doubt that God is listening—not because he will not answer—but because we know he is listening and we know that he will answer and we know what that answer will be and so it is better to not pray at all! 

We don’t pray about the bitterness in our hearts because we know God’s answer is to forgive.  We don’t pray about our finances because we know God wants us to put him first.  We don’t pray about our besetting sins because we have no intention of being done with them. 

Peter and the disciples knew that they had to fill Judas’ spot—they knew that they needed to get started on their mission to make Jesus known.  And what they needed from God—what they asked for- were only the gifts they needed to do what God commanded. 

Imagine if we had that attitude, how it would change our life of prayer—to go from begging God to do some miracle-- to asking him for only what we needed to do his will in every part of our lives—yielding ourselves to his wisdom and direction to accomplish it. 

That’s what the disciples did.  They put forward two men who could fill Judas’ spot and bear witness to Jesus and then the Bible says that: 

They prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry…and they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

            This was the first decision that the apostles faced after the ascension of the Lord.  It was critical to get it right.  The man chosen would be counted with the apostles and charged with their mission to tell the world about Jesus.  There were several possible choices but they commended it to God in prayer and trusted that God would answer—and he did! 

Now, we have to be careful to not make too much of the casting of lots.  This was an Old Testament practice never repeated again in the history of the apostolic church. 

What does endure for our instruction is the confident prayer of the disciples:  that God knew their need and would listen to their prayer and meet that need and they in turn would accept his will.  That example informs and shapes our own life of prayer.  And so then…

We are devoted to prayer because Jesus, our Lord and Savior, hears us and has the power to answer for our good.  We are devoted to prayer because there is no sin that keeps us from coming to God in our need.  We are devoted to prayer because we are willing to accept God’s answers no matter what they might be.

There was nothing particularly heroic or extraordinary in the disciples’ life of prayer.  The most important decision of the day was commended to the Lord in just a few words. 

The power to their prayer life was a resurrected and ascended Savior who promised to hear them and answer them just as he promises the same to us.  May we too be disciples who are devoted to prayer!  Amen.